Fandom High Dormitories

"Good afternoon," Dolf said, waving at those gathered. He was doing a fair lot better at the 'not blushing' bit this week, and he was happy about it. "Some of us aren't here today because there was a problem. Don't worry, though." The two people standing here would most likely be worrying enough. "I'm sure they will be okay. Uh. Last week was a complicated one. Everyone felt a little weird, right? Today we'll talk about that, and about not worrying much. Sometimes things just happen, and we deal with them depending on what happens."


He glanced in Tara's direction. Somehow, he felt less nervous when he wasn't being the newest one out of four people. "Tara knows a few things about that, I think."


She did? Er. Of course she did. It was just that she was always a little surprised to realize it was her turn to talk, and part of her brain was taken up worrying about Kennedy. Which made what she was about to say distinctly hypocritical.

"What you need to remember," Tara said, "wh-when all your friends have gone off to save the world again, is that it's probably safe - -at least for them. I've seen a lot of people go and do really brave, really scary things, and they all came back in one piece. Spending all your time obsessing and texting every 10 minutes to check in is not going to help them." A slight smile. "Even when it's really, really tempting."

"We have to just go about our lives, and do what we normally do. Like -- going to this meeting, or going to classes. And maybe planning for a nice surprise when they get back."


"To take care of them," Dolf added. "And remember our aid lessons if they are sick, though we'll hope not." He smiled briefly, mostly for his own sake. "Sometimes, all we can do is wait and prepare. And work on ourselves, to make sure we can still help if something else happens. Would you be ready to go into trouble and help if asked? How would you travel there? What people would you take?" ... Going slightly off the point of the meeting there, Dolf.

He took a deep breath. "Today we should share stories of problems we got out of safely, and home to our friends and family," which wasn't a bad topic for him at all, "And talk about what to do when we have to wait. I will start with the first part."

There was an adult man standing near the reserve leaders that afternoon. John Watson was keeping to himself, for the time being - he'd been invited here by Raven, but he had no intention of interrupting the children. Instead, it was Dolf who started to speak at first, a smile on his face like he hadn't just spent two days running around looking like a girl. "Hi," he said, "We have talked about being hurt before, but it is also a good idea to pay attention to what to do if others are, and you can help. We have a doctor here who will be telling you all some things about first aid. Bandaging and so. I know some of you have magic to heal people. You can talk about that too."

He was nodding, maybe subconsciously, at his fellow reserve leaders on that score. They knew more about that.

"As with everything, magical and regular healing require a balance," Karla said with a nod. "Regular healing isn't instantaneous and requires supplies that you may or may not have on hand: bandages, splints, silk and needles, stuff like that. Magical Healing, however, may also require supplies--which may be harder or more esoteric, depending on the magic user--and usually takes a heavy toll in energy from the caster, the patient, or both. Debating which is more appropriate to the occasion is important, even if you are a magical Healer."

"It might be a good idea for those of us who can heal magically to note our limitations," Raven said. "If there are any types of injuries you cannot heal or have difficulty with, or how much of your strength or resources are consumed. Perhaps there are ways we can teach one another. I would certainly be interested in such an exchange of ideas." Though her own gifts were without limit. Well, almost.

John had watched and listened until it sounded like they were through. Then he coughed. "My name is Doctor John Watson," he began, "I'm a clinic worker. I'm here today to demonstrate some first aid." Pause. "Non-magical first aid. Bandaging, the use of anti-septics, a few basic steps, mouth-to--" Wait. Teenagers. "Nevermind that." He coughed. Again. "You'll be practicing on each other, I've brought some supplies," he gestured at the table, where there were bandages and iodine and other such things. A few basics up front: the point is to preserve the wounded person's life until professional help can arrive at the scene. Don't move the wounded too much. Ensure that they can breathe, and if possible, that they are in the recovery position."

"Always make sure a wound is clean, by use of, say, ethanol or an equal antiseptic." He then picked up a bandage and motioned for Dolf to come closer. "There's a particular technique to bandaging a wound. You don't want to cut off the flow of blood by packing the layers too close..." He proceeded to go through all the steps of bandaging a pretend wound on Dolf's arm. The boy held still and attempted to smile through the enforced standing-upright, though his arm was quickly starting to protest.

Though it was done, after a few minutes. Dolf's smile became real then-- "It might also be important to know how to make a sling for a broken arm..." --and promptly fell again. Sigh.

Tara couldn't heal magically, so she'd been quiet (and, all right, a bit jealous) as Raven and Karla spoke, but she watched the demonstrations with clear interest. She'd taken a first aid class, but refreshing her skills was always a good idea. "For our activity today," she said, once Dr. Watson seemed to be done torturing Dolf, "we're going to pair up and practice bandaging each other. There are supplies over on that table, and, uh ... please give it a try. This could all be really important someday."

She just hoped that day wasn't soon.

"Hi," Dolf started, waving at everyone before any of his fellow leaders had a chance to really get a word in. (It wasn't that he was trying to be first, but he'd gotten the hang of it a little, last week, and-- well, it was just easy by now, to take point when he could.) "So today we want to talk about being sick. Other people being sick, and being sick ourselves. It can happen that sometimes someone just gets sick and passes it on to everyone else, and then people start dying. Sometimes at the worst possible moments. We have to be prepared, if it happens, to do the necessary things."

He looked pretty serious about the whole thing, too. He still remembered the outbreak at the children's camp, over two months ago. "If a sickness is contagious, then we need to seperate the sick," he continued, "Find a comfortable camping place. Don't deal with them without putting something over your mouth. Burn their things if they die or go away so the sickness doesn't jump to anyone else. Wash a lot." He took a deep breath. "Of course every sickness is its own thing. Sometimes people are very warm, burning. They need to be cooled, until it stops. With water. Good food and water for everybody anyway. Sometimes people cough, then you really have to make sure you have something for your mouth. They can have problems walking, or their tongues can turn strange colours, or they'll get spots-- different sicknesses, some dangerous, some not."

"It used to be different, and maybe it's different for some of you, still. This time is very clean, so sickness that used to kill doesn't, anymore. We learned to separate people and look after them. That's what we are trying to teach you now. To recognise sickness, and to take care of it." Which was about where he'd realised he'd just set in and started talking, so he fell silent and looked to the other leaders.

Karla was happy to pick up where Dolf had left off. "Keeping everything as sterile as we can is key," she added. "Anything that has come in touch with infected fluids or tissues needs to be burned, bleached, or boiled before it is used again. If we're not yet sure what is causing the illness, boiling water for a goodly amount of time before drinking it is important: there are many diseases that travel in water. Fevers can kill if they get high enough, so watching someone's temperature might mean the difference between life and death. You don't need to be a doctor or a Healer to help combat sickness. You just need to be careful and smart."


"You should also," Tara added, "make sure sick people are eating and drinking, if they can keep anything down at all. Toast is good, and tea or ginger ale. Orange juice. Chicken soup. Bananas. There's a reason they call it comfort food, right? If you have access to any drugs, you could give them some penicillin if it's the right kind of infection, or Tylenol to bring a fever down. Just be careful 'cause it won't work on everything, and some people will be allergic to it. "

Which reminded her of another point. "Remember not everyone in Fandom has a totally human biology, so don't do anything if you aren't sure it's safe."


"And keeping the spirits up of someone who is ill is very important as well," Raven said. "They may be upset or frightened, and they will need someone to talk to or just a hand to hold. Tending to their emotional needs can be as critical as their physical ones."

Dolf had been nodding along with all of that. Once silence fell, he started to speak again. "Today we'll work on recognising signs and dealing with them," he said, earnestly. "We have a list of possible symptoms. Find a friend, and one of you will pretend to have symptoms, and the other should deal with it. And you can add new symptoms, if you can think of others."