[OFFICE] Nurse Cricket's Office - Dice Mechanics pg 20

[demon_pachabel]

"You're going to need to put perspective on 'terrible'." the ghost sighed, amusing herself with the wrapping of one of her trademark centipedes around one hand. "The only real thing I can't reassemble is a completely obliterated body. Even limbs aren't out of my reach."

The woman then looked to the plague doctor, seeming to ponder about the forms she had read through in the previous classes she'd dabbled in. Hmmm...

"I imagine that would be a fascinating thing to try and teach to someone some day. It requires a large amount of FEAR to manage however." the woman feigned a sort of 'poker face' at that thought. Oh yes, she remembered those first attempts... and having it passed on to her herself.

"FEAR can be more powerful of a glue than stitches are when it comes to holding things together."

Ginko contented himself with rubbing his head against the plague doctor, obviously keen on his new friend, though the Scareon never would have left the infirmary. It knew better.  

[Sosiqui]

Malodore inclined its head in Cricket's direction. "I hope that someday I can reach such a level," it said, with barely-suppressed eagerness in its tone. What it really wanted to say was something along the lines of 'oh, please, pick me pick me pick me!' but... that was undignified and unprofessional.

"I attempted to help my fellow students in Christmas Town," it added, drawing on its one recent bit of 'professional' experience. "The infirmary was a complete shambles. Re-assembling a patchwork with sutures alone..." It shook its head.

It also kept skritching Ginko, absently.  

[demon_pachabel]

"A patchwork is a creation outside of my own abilities. That requires, to some extent, building from scratch. I am capable of only fixing what has already been made...however, fixing any sort of patchwork is tricky in and of itself. They require a little FEAR and a lot of stitching, unfortunately." Cricket seemed to be interested in this line of conversation, however (which was unusual, given her normal standards involved harassing the school secretary to get out of her 'impassive' grounds); "Did you find the exercise with the fabric I gave to help at all?" she inquired.

Obviously, she'd expected it to have SOME sort of practical know-how... though with further thought, she seemed to think of something more..interesting to ask about;

"Do you have any requests for what I should look into for my next lesson, based on what you would have found practical while you were out playing in the snow?"

Clearly she needed to teach the kids -something- to keep herself from being burdened with them upon their return again.

It hadn't been fun after the last trip.

"Though if you want to see anything interesting around here, after big events such as the field trip is the best time to visit. I always get a handful of students needing to get patched up somehow."

Ginko's ears stood alert as the two spoke back and forth to each other, seeming to be entirely interested in the conversation... or at least the verbal hockey... and the scritches. Oh the scritches. The Scareon made quite the plethora of happy noises for that effort alone.  

[Sosiqui]

"Si, it was a useful exercise! It is too easy to forget that flesh is not cloth - the behavior can be very different indeed. When I was stitching up Christof, I... uh..." It realized, belatedly, that maybe countermanding the school's official infirmary - and then bragging about it - might not be a splendid idea.

"He was in a pile of limbs," the plague doctor added, a little defensively. "I couldn't just leave him in that state. But, ah... it was... a lot of stitching, yes."  

[demon_pachabel]

"The point of that exercise wasn't to teach one how to sew things, but to make sure they know the directionality of what it is they're working with. It's the same when applying FEAR or even the more simple things, like a Band-aid."

As though to prove a point, the nurse reached over to her desk to fuss through her drawers for something, ultimately grabbing a pencil before she settled back into her seat.

"While my own ectoplasm won't be the best comparison for the more fleshy forms of monsters and undeads, it should get the point across." she said, and though to make a point, she jabbed the end of the pencil into the base of her wrist, pulling it upwards towards her elbow... and while it split the ectoplasm, it seemed to cause the ghost little to no pain to do it... even if all sorts of weird things seemed inclined to try and climb out.

"You stitch in this direction." she said, possibly redundant, but pulling the head of one of the centipedes that lived in her arms out, the creature gnashing it's teeth unhappily before it fastened onto her wrist, seeming to regurgitate a very..off-colored mess onto the seperated ectoplasm.

"You also make sure to apply any bandage to go into the same direction, they hold more firmly when you do it that way. My FEAR Insects do something similar as well when they repair."

with that, the Nurse held her arm out, inviting the Plague doctor to watch what FEARhealing looked like... at least in a minor scale.  

[Sosiqui]

"Yes, indeed! I... oh..." Malodore's enthusiastic agreement trailed off as the insect went to work, and it watched it with single-minded fascination. "How splendid," it said, after a moment, its tone clearly awed. "I have not seen much true FEAR-healing, Infermiera Cricket. Have your insects always been able to do this?"

It was, truth be told, a little envious - not only were the creepy-crawlies good for scaring, they were good for healing too! It was a perfect storm of everything required to be a good FEAR-doctor.  

[demon_pachabel]

"'Always been able to do this'. What they do, yes. They eat and regurgitate FEAR. My FEAR to be exact." the nurse answered calmly. "However, it hasn't always been as helpful as it is now." she finished, waiting for the centipede to finish it's task before it burrowed back into the ectoplasm that made the ghost's shape and went off about some other task.

"That's the danger of FEAR healing; I can also poison people if I don't take care with just how much FEAR is fed. That's what I did when I was a student. I poisoned my class mates."

And melted them into a puddle in their dorm rooms, but that was a slightly different topic that she would reminisce about later with Red.

"So while Battling is not my biggest thing.." ha, Cricket would likely kick a** in a fight if she had to, "learning what Red has to teach about FEAR is fundamental to being able to use it to heal."  

[Sosiqui]

Malodore wondered briefly if learning from Lunch Lady Ginger was as useful... but decided not to bring that up. What was done was done! Still, it filed that as Useful Information. Along with the concept of poisoning-via-FEAR... "Too much of anything is a bad thing - that old adage?" It nodded. That made sense.

"So... it is a combination of using FEAR and using mundane skills, yes? And knowing when to use FEAR and when to not...?" it hazarded. It had scooted over to Cricket's desk now, though it still had one hand absently skritching Ginko's head.  

[demon_pachabel]

Cricket seemed to eye the fact that the demonstration had practically invited the student over to her desk, but left it at that. She had put on a bit of a show with doing such a thing and thus, in a way, had asked for it.

"That's correct. More often than not, you'll be using mundane skills on things you're capable of fixing with FEAR anyways. Such as the patch-up I just did. It was nowhere near extreme enough to require FEARhealing. However, it's rare to get a case that requires it as well. If you used it for everything, you would be asking to spoil people into thinking that their wellbeing didn't matter."

The woman massaged her forehead, as though this had been a case she was very familiar with. How often had she pretty much told someone to 'suck it up' and 'deal with it'? Quite a bit. Cricket was quite frugal with her 'serious' care.

"It's determining which will take more energy; Fixing it the normal way, or recovering your FEAR post-healing."  

[Sosiqui]

Malodore nodded eagerly. "So the early classes focus on such 'mundane' skills, si? Otherwise one might think FEAR-healing is a simple fix and not learn the basics. Sloppy technique." That made much more sense - while it had initially been a little let-down by the first Emergency Aid course, laying a solid foundation across the board definitely seemed like the best idea.  

[demon_pachabel]

"Those who do not do the work, do not deserve to learn what it is I will be teaching in the long run. I do not imagine I will be seeing many second years. I hardly do."

Part of that may have been the fact she was a b***h to anybody who did not do well to respect the bugs.. or what it was she was doing. She'd been quite irate when the fight had broken out in her class, after all.

"It also gives time for Red to get further basics into our students...though I have been hearing of others who are working on similar matters. Either way, I cannot teach one to FEARheal who cannot apply FEAR to begin with."

Ginko sprung from his shoulder-perch suddenly, taking off across the room to crawl underneath a cot where another Scareon sat, peering out curiously at the visitor, but staying put.

...
.....

Cricket had more than one pet.  

[Sosiqui]

"You will see me, I assure you - practicing medicine is my life's ambition," Malodore said quickly, nodding in earnestness. "Both to scare and to assist my fellow beings here in Halloween Town... it is a great work. The greatest work."

If plague doctors could sparkle, Malodore would be sparkling right now. It was, however, slightly distracted as the scareon sprung away, and it automatically followed the creature's trajectory to... oh!

... cute! ...

... but... but medicine! The plague doctor stayed put, re-focusing on Cricket, though its gaze strayed back to the Scareons every so often.  

[demon_pachabel]

Cricket seemed to recognize that there was a distraction to be had, sighing as she draped her free arm over the side of her seat so her fingers lingered near the floor, clicking her tongue.

"Kurogi. Come here."

The Prism Scareon stared at Malodore paranoidly, managing to take a few steps out from her hiding place before she bustled back under the cot, ears drooping. Cricket sighed.

"She's not as sociable as Ginko is, it would take some prolonged time here to get much interaction with her." the woman said with a light shrug, before changing the topic once again, not really grinning at the sparkling-statement from the Plague Doctor, but there was an obvious approval gained from the ghost;

Malodore would have to hold onto that, as not many would be getting it.

"I will make note to expect you, then. I'm sure sooner or later a second pair of hands around here wouldn't be...too unfortunate." Then again, Cricket would have preferred if people just stayed in one piece to begin with... but she never got her wishes. Alas.  

[Sosiqui]

"I would be delighted to learn from and assist you," Malodore said, bowing (or as much as one could bow while sitting down, at any rate). This had been the best idea! The finest idea in history, perhaps! "Will, ah, will you be having another course very soon?" it added, hopefully.  

[demon_pachabel]

"Soon? Perhaps."

Cricket didn't truly have any plans in mind for another course, but perhaps it would do some good to hold a course again. If she could even think on what she could force into the mind of most students at the school.

"It really depends on what it is that I can make your classmates learn; you yourself are already very eager."