It's Block Party time! June 7th to June 10th!

[rapturescreed]

Who: Siren's Port and You!
When: June 7th to June 10th
Where: The block outside the Newcomer Community Center
Summary: It's a Block Party!
Warnings: Possible language, nothing worse then that.

The block outside the Newcomer Community Center had been bustling ever since the block party had been announced little less then a week ago. There had been much to get done, and there was little time to waste. With the cure being distributed, the NPP's stance on everything was very clear: they would find some way to put a smile back on the peoples faces. There were stalls set up next to each other, one or two each for a different company, business, or an individual who set out to be enterprising and had wares to show. Many booths were selling different foods or drinks, while others had games for people to play. Some stalls were handing out fliers, trying to promote their business. Each stall had a sign hanging from if that proclaimed what they were, and what they were selling. There was a large stage in front of the center that was for entertainment; they had all kinds of shows for the people to watch and listen to as they milled about.

Most games didn't cost much, or they were free, as long as the person understood that a small donation would be appreciated. All proceeds from the block party were going to help those who had been affected the worst by this plague; some were still in the hospital with crippling medical bills, and the NPP was determined to help those less fortunate. Security was milling about, just as a standard precaution against stealing, or some kind of protest, and each protester was given something to eat, drink, and an invitation to join in the festivities.

The block party would be happening from Thursday, June 7th, to Sunday, June 10th. It would open at 11:00 am, and close around 5:00 pm. This was to ensure that everyone has plenty of time to get their stall up and more then enough time to take the stall down before sirens. Nothing would be left outside in the darkness, but also give enough time to let people have fun. Especially those who wanted to dunk the NPP members in a big tub of water.



OOC: Everyone can make their own thread! If you are a company or a person who has rented a stall, you can make your own thread, and it will be linked on the main post. Entertainment will be taking place throughout the day, and anyone who signed up can make their own thread or comment around. All games can make their own thread as well. Alcohol is allowed for anyone of the legal drinking age (which is 17, for those unaware!), and security will make sure nothing gets out of hand. There will be protesters on the edge of the block on Friday, but there will be no violence tolerated.

All threads will be linked on the main post for easier navigation. This post will serve for the entirety of the block party, which is from Thursday to Sunday. If you want, you can put the date in the subject line, otherwise it is up to you and your threadmates to decide when things take place. All stalls are set up for everyday of the block party. Don't forget to tag yourself in.

Have a good time!

Entertainment Stage | NPP Dunk Tank | NCC Face Painting | The House's Food | Ellen's Liquor | Clinic Quiz Game |
Ball and Bucket Game | Violet Systems Skee Ball | SP Library Stall | Security | Xino E. Mao Whack a Dusk | Struggle Arena |
Iroh's Food Stall | Mugshots' Beer Pong | Duel Monsters Card Game | Larry's Art/Food Stall |
Funtom Toys and Sweets | Finny Fun Fish Booth | S.S. Kahve Coffee Stall | Lion's Gate Food Stall

Comments

[gaveherwings]

[All in the days work- at least they could say it wasn't all for naught now, placing a new healer in the clinic.

He nods and reaches into his sidebag for the blue binder aforementioned over the network, containing Skye's Medical Center's guidelines for treating basic mutation-related injuries.]

A resume, yes, let's see it then!

[Placing more newcomers in health care is always enthusiastic business, perhaps now more than even, given the recently resolved crisis, and many burnt out workers wanting time off.]

This is Dr. Tenma, by the way. [He indicates the man beside him.] He's also a clinic volunteer, as well as a surgeon at Siren's General, downtown.

[electricitytrick]

[Anders proudly presents a slightly battered piece of paper. It's readable, mostly because he took the time to slow down, but his handwriting leaves a little to be desired and the content of the resume itself... Well, he tried his best with the template, but it still reads like the work of someone entirely unfamiliar with the concept of resumes in general.

He nods at the introduction, grinning easily.]

We've met already. He was the one to tell me about you, in fact. Since I mentioned being trained as a healer, he said I might be able to help out.

[The following smile is a touch nervous, though.]

You do have use for mages trained in healing, don't you?

[gaveherwings]

[Neat handwriting is the sign of a doctor with an ego or too much time on his hands, and he's been working among chickenscratch charts for two years now. But while Daedalus can roughly cipher most of the resume-

....this is why newcomers are so difficult to hire at face value, isn't it?

Well, it will need to be typed. That's fixable. The clinic in Kirkwall could use a bit more elaboration, education might raise a few eyebrows. Still, Healers generally had less formal training in magical holistics- that was not entirely uncommon to a place like Siren's Port.]

This is a good start.

[He nods fairly, looking the mage up and down]

I think references would do you nicely, if you have anyone from home who might vouch for your services.

In the meantime, we can put you on at the clinic- though the closest person we have with background... outside of traditional medicine, closer to a mage, is Healer Unohana, as I've said. She'll probably make better assessment of your techniques than I can?

[He gives a bit of a helpless shrug, looking between the handwritten resume and Tenma with a questioning look 'I still don't know how to go about hiring healers for medical fairly, do you?']

...I'm sorry, it's...just, honestly I really don't know much about magical means of healing, to know where to begin in authorizing its practice.

[electricitytrick]

References?

[Anders looks more than a little uncertain at the request. What had seemed like a straight-forward idea - finding work at a hospital or clinic since he was a healer - seems to be turning into something needlessly complicated.]

I suppose... Fenris says he knows me, but he's not really very mage-friendly if you catch my meaning. And Zevran and I only met here.

[His shoulders droop visibly.]

So you're saying that I can't help? All because you don't have magic where you're from?

[gaveherwings]

I don't- is he a skeptic?

[Daedalus wears the tedious smile of awkward unfamiliarity-]

It isn't that I doubt your skills as a healers, I...am simply uncertain where your methods fall within scientific medical procedure? I would be more than happy for you to assist us at the clinic, but I'd like to be able to keep our records in proper order, in case of liability...

So we can do our work collaboratively?

It's no fault of your own that I don't know much about incorporating magic, but I'd like us to help patients without anything becoming lost in translation.

[electricitytrick]

More like he seems to think we're dangerous and should be locked up.

[Anders sighs, then frowns a bit at the other man's comment about magic and this science... thing...]

It just seems rather needlessly complicated to me. Magic heals wounds better than any sort of cutting or leeching does. It'd make more sense to me if people had to explain why they had to cut into someone when they could have just gotten a healer in.

[gaveherwings]

Ah. [No, that would probably make for a very poor reference, then.

Daedalus sighs- he's been made to sit through this kind of powers-sensitivity training, but it doesn't necessarily make communication any more comfortable.

It isn't that he distrusts magic, but it's a tricky thing to quantify and put on paperwork. The idea of doing things differently is a hurdle, and the young doctor seems...timidly polite in his approach.]

Well, I can assure you that leeching is not common practice in this day and age- and at Siren's Port, healing magic does not rule you out.

Non-invasive, powered healing procedures are used commonly at Skye, but they've been using those techniques hand-in-hand with traditional practice for years now. But our clinic's only been open for one, and most of our volunteers have a background in medical training.

I myself still being trained in-residency, for how to use powers in procedure, just as Dr. Tenma's developing contact anesthetics, but it's something we generally don't fall back on here.

Also- [And he casts a wary sidelong glance down the block, lowering his voice and leaning in slightly.] ...there was an incident, last fall, when another patient of mine offered to use healing powers on someone in intensive care, under my supervision. I agreed to let him try... had no idea about things like rates of energy drain, I thought it was going well, until his vitals suddenly plummeted- It was a close call. I should have trusted my better instincts with things I know little about.

At the hospital, I'm no longer allowed to authorize third party 'healers' in conjunction with my attending practice.

So I'm going to be honest with you. I have personal reservations about the safety of mixing magic and medicine techniques without full disclosure.

[electricitytrick]

So you're saying that you won't use something that could save someone's life easily and cleanly because what, you don't understand it properly and it might be dangerous?

[Anders shakes his head.] I know the risks of my magic better than anyone else in this city, I'd wager. I know what I can and can't do, and the Wardens never questioned me.

I'm not going to ignore people who need help just because it could be dangerous or whatever it is you're saying. I want to help, and if that means I have to start my own clinic in some run-down little place, then fine. Actually working with my skills without needing to hide and maybe even getting to earn coin for a change would have been nice, but I've lived with what little I can scrape together before. Doing it again won't kill me.

[gaveherwings]

I don't want to risk unforeseen complications, mixing traditional medical practice with methods I myself know very little about.

It's not that I'm questioning your skills, I....just would rather not do harm in getting our wires crossed?

I'd be willing to learn, though. It would require closer attention, on my part. But since Siren's Port relies on magic and alternatives frequently, it really couldn't hurt to gain some familiarity.

[electricitytrick]

[Anders sighs.] I suppose I haven't much of a choice, have I? It isn't as though there are any 'magic-only' places of healing around here, by the sound of it. I'll have to do things your way.

Which I suppose means getting these reference things, doesn't it? I can try talking to Fenris, see what he says, but Zevran doesn't really know my healing abilities very well.

[gaveherwings]

There are...holistic centers, which are probably based in alternative, magical, or faith-based healing? I work on the medical side of health care, so I don't quite have the contacts to point you in that direction- if you'd even be interested in 'magic-only' specialization?

Otherwise, we'll...simply have to adapt to working magical healing practice into our medical records- to make sure we're on the same page. Dr. Helen Magnus might be able to help, she does research in that vein? Treats supernatural beings.

[electricitytrick]

Faith-based? What, pray to the Maker enough and maybe he'll save you? [Anders' lip curled at that idea.] I'd rather not, thanks.

[Well, as near as he could understand, his options were to either try and do things the way this doctor thought they should be done - which felt a lot like how his past had been already, bending over backwards to fit whatever rules the templars thought he should - or see about starting out on his own - something he certainly wasn't so comfortable with in a city he barely knew. Well, at least he'd never expected life to suddenly turn easy for him in this place. The Maker certainly wouldn't allow that to ever happen.]

All right, I suppose the only thing either of us can really promise is to just see how things go, yes? Should I see about meeting with this Dr. Magnus?

[And if things didn't turn out, Anders supposed he could always leave. Being on the run often had taught him a bit about how to get by on his own, after all.]

[gaveherwings]

Magic can be a- ['Spiritual Healing' process, a matter of 'potions' and home remedies, some strange homebrew of energy transference, something akin to his own developing power...

Supernatural medicine could be faith based or will based or slightly scientifically based, but it certainly wasn't medicine as he'd been trained in, and so Dr. Yumeno seemed slightly out of step, compromising just what to call this 'healing' which had every potential to outstrip his own career and raison d'etre, given the opportunity.]

...Well nevermind. I can't presume to tell you how it works, now can I?

Yes- I'll give you her contact information, perhaps she can help guide us both through your orientation.

[He wasn't about to include 'specializes in abnormals' in Helen's favor, because Anders would probably not greet that sort of distinction with much favor at all.] Which... we'll start promptly then, as soon as we wrap this outreach weekend?

[electricitytrick]

Not unless you have a desire to be proven wrong, I imagine. [Anders said it with a laugh, though it was likely true. If the younger man didn't have any experience with magic, then he'd at best only know the basics of the Fade and such, and considering how different things were just between others with magic from different worlds... No, he couldn't see him having much of an understanding of the finer points of mages and magic, really, just as Anders himself likely didn't know much of the treatments Daedalus used for certain things.

So he nodded in answer to the offer of getting him to meet Helen.]

Hopefully we can work this out soon, then?

[gaveherwings]

Yes. [There's another uncomfortable pause- efforting to be diplomatic.]

I expect that perhaps those who come from place more....familiar with magic might like having that option open, at the clinic?

[electricitytrick]

Do you mean if it were up to me, would I prefer a healer instead of someone coming at me with a knife and whatever they thought might manage to fix what was wrong?

[He just sort of looks at Daedalus.]

Seems like a bit of a daft question if you ask me.

[gaveherwings]

Things must be very different, where you're from. We're not all surgeons either, frankly.

[electricitytrick]

So it's not like that with you, then? Do you have some other way of, say, healing a broken bone?

[He's genuinely curious; splinting was good if that's all that could be done for the injured person, but a healer could mend the bone in minutes. There wasn't really much contest if people were asked which they preferred.]

[gaveherwings]

Surgical or Conservative treatment may be used- typically we use X-ray to determine if there is a fracture, then immobilize. Osteostimulation can help accelerate the process, there are also powers and other techniques that stimulate or accelerate the speed of natural cell growth, which can be incorporated. That's what I'm still training for specializations in now.

What's extremely important is that we have full knowledge of body systems, and how they interact. In the wrong hands, or used carelessly without proper focus, for instance, my abilities could create cancerous cell clusters.

[electricitytrick]

[Anders blinks a bit.] I'm afraid that some of that doesn't really mean that much to me, but I suppose if you didn't have magic, you'd have to come up with some way of looking at things.

But I do know how the body works. Not much point in teaching someone to heal if they don't know what to do if magic isn't effective, and the tower was pretty good at getting us to learn things like that.

[gaveherwings]

Good. We'll have to get you on the same page for how to keep everyone's medical records in order then, mostly.

[electricitytrick]

Medical records? [He sighs at that idea. This is starting to sound familiar...] Let me guess, more paperwork?

[gaveherwings]

Always. Good communication is essential.

[electricitytrick]

Whatever happened to just asking people things?

[gaveherwings]

Well there need to be records.