kore_logs | A toast to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch [OPEN]

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A toast to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch [OPEN]

WHO Mina and OPEN
WHAT Dealing with massive amounts of owwie
WHERE The pharmacy/clinic
WHEN Evening, Day 13
NOTES Multiple threads and threadjacking welcome and encouraged
WARNINGS Blood and medical stuff, most likely

Mina rarely indulged in sloth. Despite all appearances, it was her least favorite of the Seven Deadly. But after the whole disaster with the box, she gave herself an entire day and night just to stay in bed. She didn't rest. Not much. For the most part, she lay there stewing in her own juices. But at least her body had a chance to recover.

Slightly.

The problem with a limited blood supply was that she had to ration how much blood she used to heal her wounds. And so it was practicality, not the Masquerade, that left her to wake up still lacerated and bruised the next night.

Feeling sulky and bitter, she dragged herself out of bed. She didn't bother pulling on her suit, as she had absolutely no intention of speaking with anyone. Instead, she pulled on an oversized, button-down shirt she'd found in the closet of the master bedroom. Slipping into a pair of boots, she made her way out the door, crossing the sleepy, little village. She didn't particularly care about the wolves. At this point, she was just as likely to eat them as ignore them. But none gave her much bother as she made her way into the clinic.

It was beneath her dignity. Far beneath her dignity. But once inside, she peeled off her shirt. Dressed only in her unmentionables and her boots, she sat down on a cot that she had set up against the far wall, taking out a suture set. Gritting her teeth, she started to stitch up the slashes along her arm.

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Teeth or not, Mina looked exactly the same to Castiel. She fascinated him. She was quite different from the vampires he'd experienced before and he found that that was certainly a good thing. She didn't remind him of Benny at all, despite any superficial similarities.

"You mean a werewolf? Am I a werewolf?" His surprised look was replaced by a smile. "Something like that."

He'd learned not to lie to the people who mattered. Dean. Others couldn't always be trusted. Until he knew more, this was as fine as anything else.

Mina waved her good hand dismissively. "Don't mind Saint Castiel over there," she said, trying to sound as flippant as possible. "And I trust, based on your reaction, we won't have to go through the whole rigamarole of me assuring you repeatedly that I mean you no harm."

Thank the gods for that.

She held out her bad arm, nodding to the sutures again. "If you would, dear? I'm feeling quite exposed at the moment."

And Bruce, little ol' human Bruce who is 0% strange, turns his attention back to Mina's arm like nothing really happened. It does cross his mind to be concerned that some day he might be mistaken for a meal ticket, and what would that even mean? That's a scary thought, honestly. But Mina hasn't looked like she was looking for the best chance to make him into her next Happy Meal. The reassurance is nice to hear, all the same.

"This will probably still hurt, I'm assuming," he warns her before he gets started. He's lost in concentration as he works, and he glances up at Castiel when he gets a second.

"So do you guys have a clubhouse you hang out in and complain about humans?"

Castiel did look surprised at that question. It took him a moment to recover.

"Actually, I prefer humans to my own kind most of the time." He smiled. Humans and sometimes vampires and demons, apparently.

Not only did he prefer humans to other angels, but he was unsure if there was an angel left he could face without shame. Even Gabriel left him with a feeling of guilt and he hadn't directly caused him any harm. Humans, at least, could look at him and have no idea what he'd done. Gabriel knew at least some of it and could likely figure out a good deal more.

Mina winced as the needle slid through her skin. It could have been worse. For the most part, the pain was a matter of indignity. She hated not being able to heal herself. But blood was scarce and she had to ration whatever she could squeeze out of Pendragon

"Why would I complain about humans?" she asked, gritting her teeth. "I used to be one. And I'm responsible for keeping them alive. I am a doctor, you know."

In case it wasn't clear for the sheer number of times she referred to her own title.

Abruptly, she reached out to grab Bruce's shoulder, squeezing it slightly as she braced herself. "Damn it," she hissed. "I'd use a local if it worked on me."

"Just seemed like a thing you might do." His voice is on neutral, having fully shifted into Doctor Mode, which means exuding even more calm than usual. He stills when she touches his shoulder, and he pushes aside his surprise over being touched to focus on concern for her. Taking in the signs of her pain, he frowns.

"Does anything work on you? How can I help?"

Castiel watched Bruce give her stitches with fascination. "You're taking this surprisingly well. Dean shot and stabbed me the first time we met." And Dean had been used to non-humans existing. Of course, he'd hunted them. Perhaps it was easier to believe non-humans wouldn't harm anyone when a person wasn't raised to destroy them from such a young age.

Still, in his experience, most humans met them with disbelief, fear or morbid curiosity.

She sighed softly, still clinging to Bruce's shoulder. "Medications don't work on Kindred unless they're in the system of someone we're feeding off of," she muttered. "And anyway, under normal circumstances, I could just bloody well heal myself. But there isn't enough blood here for me to waste it on three minor lacerations."

Mina paused, glancing up to meet Bruce's eyes a moment. "Contrary to popular fiction," she said, "Kindred don't run around chewing off of everyone they see. It's not practical and it's not very nice."

And she threw a bemused look to Castiel. "And unlike your friend Dean, I don't fancy shooting and stabbing people either." She felt morally superior, in that particular moment, to the idiot hunter boat boy. Even if she did admire the way he'd swooped in to rescue his friend.

Hunted them?

That makes Bruce more nervous than Mina, and he tries not to show it; thankfully, he stitches require his attention, and that uncomfortable twitch of his shoulders could just be that he's getting a little stiff from bending over.

"Yeah, I mean, if she was going to eat me, I think she would've done it before she introduced herself. I just came from a place where there were aliens riding tanks that looked like space whales attacking New York. This Kindred thing seems like small potatoes in comparison."

Though if there is someone who can drink blood, maybe he should start putting out the Keep Out sign now. It's a risk, he knows, but he already told that annoying French girl this, so he might as well keep it up.

"Anyway, if she tried to snack on me, she'd be in worse shape than me." He glances up at her. "I have a blood disease. Sort of a long story involving bad decision science. So if you feel some hunger pains coming on now, go for our friend the wolfman over here."

Castiel shrugged. He hadn't thought to offer, but then he wouldn't have offered to the last vampire he knew. "You're welcome to. I can afford more blood loss than most of the people here."

He tilted his head to the side. "The analogous creatures from my world are less civil than Mina is, though." He thought of Benny, of course, who was still more civilized than most, but no more palatable to Castiel. He trusted Mina, though, at least more than he trusted most of the other people he'd met here. He trusted her enough to tell her what he is when he's kept a tight lip on that subject with most others.

"I'm not sure what saint's blood would do to a near lifelong pagan," Mina quipped. The idea of an angel's blood seemed dangerous, but then again, Mina had recently sampled a self-proclaimed god. "But Castiel is correct," she continued. "I am quite civil. I'm positively charming company, I assure you."

She flashed Bruce a bit of a smile. It was forced and pained, but no matter.

In a bit more somber of a tone, she added, "Thank you. Both of you."

And after a pause. "What sort of blood disease, dear?"

"A weird one. Always wear your safety goggles and science responsibly, kids, especially around radiation." He'll see if be can get away with that. If he's pressed he might try to go with cell mutation, a strange form of cancer, but that's if he thinks he can get her (and Castiel, but the doctor especially) to buy it. In the meantime, it's deflection time.

"You're a saint? For real, or is she just kidding around?"

He returns his focus to Mina's arm, even though he wishes he could see Castiel's face. At least this is nearly finished.

Castiel was pretty unimpressed with that line of questioning. Given all the awful things he'd done, it was laughable.

"I used to be religious. She thinks it's funny." He was neither amused nor annoyed. It was just like Dean's jokes. He simply didn't understand why it was funny.

"I don't know what my blood would do, but I would guess nothing. My body is fairly unremarkable."

Well, at least Castiel was playing along with Mina's attempts at deflection. Bruce's however, were utterly transparent. And despite coming from a world where everyone was lying to everyone, it bothered Mina a bit.

A lot, really. But for the time being, she'd respect his wishes. Trust had to be earned, after all. And apparently, though he had earned hers, she had not yet earned his.

No matter. She was fantastic. She'd get there eventually.

"I'm fairly certain you aren't equipped to deal with some of the side-effects of a vampire bite, darling," she told Castiel. And to her fellow scientist she added, "It releases certain endorphins. Actually a rather fascinating phenomenon I've never been able to thoroughly study."

Trust is a big part of it, and it takes Bruce a long time to build up enough that he even notices. He's been living off the grid, half-involving himself in the human race, shutting himself out from other people, that he still only feels half-here sometimes. It's a strange feeling, like he's a stowaway rat, and people pay attention to him, but he isn't really included, he isn't really the same.

And even when he does build up trust, then it's about risk. Should he risk even the chance that this person he actually managed to trust might leave him? Does he really want to change how they see him? Because it will change; fundamentally, it has to, and Bruce likes the way people look at him like he's nothing to worry about.

"Oh yeah?" He finishes up and reaches for the gauze. "If this guy can heal that much that quickly, it's hard to say. There's some room for research here on species types, huh? Is vampirism a side effect of a bite too?"

Castiel gave Bruce an amused look. Did he think that Castiel was bitten by a werewolf? Maybe he saw Castiel running with the wolves outside, rather than killing them in impressive numbers.

He tilted his head to the side. "You're more than welcome to experiment on me." Obviously, he had no idea what he was offering, but he saw no harm in it. Mina was his friend, right? She wouldn't hurt him and he wasn't even sure how much she could.

"It's more complicated than that," Mina told Bruce. "Assuming I'm still entitled to doctor/patient confidentiality, I would be happy to give you my medical history." Her eyes darted quickly to Castiel before turning back to Bruce. "Some other time, at any rate. I don't want to overwhelm you with information after dropping this little bomb on you."

She wiggled the fingers of her hand a little, testing Bruce's stitches. Not bad. Not as good as hers of course, but then, no one was as good as her. Light glistened off of the jewels in her rings like twinkling stars, reflecting on the walls and the floor and Castiel's face.

Saint Castiel. Somehow, it had a certain ring to it. And that he was so willing to offer up blood--regardless of what angel blood might actually do to a Kindred--was a piece of information she would have to file away.

Along with Bruce's 'condition.' Whatever that was.

"I daresay the time for recreational experimentation has passed," she murmured. "There's so much work we're going to need to put into this, if we're here for the long haul. Crossmatching blood types, setting up intensive care, long-term disability. To say nothing of making whatever equipment we can't find." She gave Bruce a playful grin. "I do hope you're up to the challenge, darling."

"Well, naturally." He's a big believer in confidentiality and protecting people from what others might think of their... difference. Obviously. He doesn't see a reason to expose anyone unless they're a risk, and even then he'd think twice about it and then only take it to a handful of people he felt like he could trust.

He smirks up at her as he finishes up bandaging her arm.

"I think I can handle it. It'd be easier if I had better equipment, but I'm no stranger to working with scraps."

"I don't have have a lot of medical knowledge, but I can heal some things." Not as many as he'd like. This place had a strange sway on his powers and he was still somewhat drained from his time in Purgatory. "I'd like to help where I can."

Honestly, he didn't know very much about blood types or surgery, but he could heal minor things for the humans, at least, and perhaps he could help them assemble equipment or move things.

"Every little bit helps," Mina murmured. "I used to be a field medic, you know. Meatball surgery. I've done operations without ether, patient screaming the entire time." She gave Bruce a meaningful look. "Not something I would ever recommend, if you can help it."

The screams were terrible and Mina, with the fortitude of stone, still heard them sometimes, if she happened to let her guard down for a moment or two.

Which was probably why she rarely lowered her hackles.

He shakes his head and backs up, giving Mina a grim look. "Yeah, I've been places where supplies are low to nonexistent. I haven't seen anything quite that bad, but... Children. That never really gets easier." He's also not very good at complications with pregnancy, or breaking the news that someone's mother died, but he'd rather not get into that one.

"Anyway -- I think the point is that we'd be glad for whatever help you can offer, Castiel." He tries to brighten his smile.

Castiel nodded thoughtfully. "I'll do what I can."

He did't believe there were any children here, at least not by the generally-accepted definition. There were a lot of humans, though. There were people like Bruce who could be easily hurt. Castiel didn't want to see anyone hurt if he could help it, but his priority was to his friends. Dean always came first, of course, but Sam and his siblings and now Mina and Donna. He would defend them however he had to.

"We all will," Mina agreed, with a surprising amount of sincerity, given how frivolous she generally liked to come off.

She examined the bandages on her arm. Bruce, she decided, was a wonderful doctor. Would make a lousy sailor. But they all appeared to be dry-docked for awhile.

Mina smiled and all traces of seriousness dissolved. "Well. You gentlemen should probably sleep. The great work begins tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow."

"Right." He rubs his hands together and then pockets his reading glasses. "Glad to be of help." Considering he was of such little help in preventing them from being hurt. He's especially glad he got a chance to make that up to Mina by helping her patch herself up.

"See you around. Especially since you're not dead anymore." He nods at both of them and makes his way for the door.

Castiel didn't sleep. He almost made a point of that before realizing that he was being dismissed. He could learn. Sometimes.

"Goodnight, Mina." He disappeared.

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A toast to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch [OPEN]

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Oh, shit, I didn't know it was my turn. Sorry!

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