what a garden to be made ( OPEN )

[ethnobotany]

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: Hospital, outside House #15
WHEN: Second week of May
OPEN TO: Anyone, with one closed for Wanda
WARNINGS: Nothing for now, will update if necessary
STATUS: OPEN

---

HOUSE #15

It was a strange box she'd found that morning. What was even more strange was what she had found inside the box. A bunch of seeds of all sizes and shapes stared up at her, glinting in the little bit of light filtering through. What startled her more than those were the gardening tools resting above the seeds. It was like someone knew she liked gardening, knew she would want to help out and wanted a garden of her own. Was this something those Observers she had heard so much about liked to do?

Pulling out the tools, she set them aside and began to sort through the seeds. There were so many, she barely even knew where to start. Two of most things, except one willow and four aloe. The willow made sense, though she hoped it was the seed for a smaller willow tree. The aloe plant also made sense. The more aloe they had, the better off everyone would be. Some of these would have to wait for a greenhouse or something of the sort. Otherwise, the climate here would kill them. But some she could go ahead and plant.

So for the rest of the week, she could be found outside when she wasn't on a shift at the hospital. With tools in hand, she's either working on getting some of the seeds into the ground or trying to remember how Annie and Finnick were doing their fence so she can make her own. The last thing she wants is to have her new garden get eaten or run over when it finally starts to grow. She makes a point of looking for anyone who might want to help on either one of these endeavors.


HOSPITAL

Her colleagues at the hospital are all very important here. Beverly doesn't know what each of them knows about herbal remedies, but she sees no reason not to offer what she does know to them. The more of a supply of those remedies they have and the more people who know what they are and how to use them, the better. So at some point during the day, she finds each of them, walking up to ask a few simple questions.

"I've just received a bunch of seeds for herbs and plants we can use for medicine and poultices when they finally grow. How much do you know about medicinal herbs?"


WANDA

Wanda is one of the people Beverly wants most to work on her garden with. Unfortunately, not knowing Wanda's schedule means she isn't familiar with the proper times and places to try to catch her. So Beverly sorts out a handful of the ones she wants to plant now, setting them aside so she can plant them with Wanda at a later date. It isn't until the end of the week that she finally happens to make it into the Inn at the right time to find Wanda. Making her way over, again being careful not to sneak up on her, she offers a small but very warm smile.

"I remember you being interested in gardening," she comments easily. "I've just discovered a whole bunch of seeds that I'd like to plant. If you're interested, maybe you could help me."

Comments

[ethnobotany]

If he decides to start staying up all night and trying to subsist on whatever energy drink substitute they can find here, she might have to have words with him. Worried words.

"Neither would I usually," she admits with a slight shrug. "But usually I would have a lot more equipment than I do here. Nana passed me all the knowledge she learned when I was very young and I don't see a reason not to use it and pass it on as well. We can use everything we can get here."

She huffs out a laugh. "I doubt it would be much better than this."

[zomboligist]

"My Nana just gave me biscuits and told me to go play elsewhere," Ravi shares, because that hadn't been the most loving of relationships, but he did love biscuits, so he tolerated that. "You seem to have all sorts of fancy equipment," he says enviously. "I mean, the Seattle morgue wasn't awful, but it didn't have regenerators, which I'm still presuming regenerate parts of the body?"

"Could it replace a limb?" he asks, even though he'd tried to stay away from this topic, here he is, pulled back in.

[ethnobotany]

She hesitates visibly at the questions, sighing more to herself than anything else. Well, there's nothing for it now. It's not like they're likely to ever find one here, given the state of everything else, and she's done a decent enough job of upholding the Prime Directive, should it even apply at all. There's still the argument that it doesn't and that has her carefully picking out how much to answer his questions with.

"No, it can't replace limbs. We aren't quite that good." Cybernetics could, but that's another thing entirely and she's not about to go into it. Even though she definitely could. "But... a dermal regenerator regenerates skin. Like a skin graft in some ways, patching up a wound and encouraging new skin to grow organically. You'd never know the difference once it was through. An osteo-regenerator regenerates bone. If someone came in with a broken leg or arm, we could heal it in about five minutes with an osteo-regenerator."

See also: things they really could have used during that weird midnight attack sequence not long ago.

[zomboligist]

Well, that's just a shame. When Ravi thinks about the future, he wants to believe that all the impossible things they can't do now might be a possibility, but he supposes that he can't go wildly crazy, not really. "Where does the skin come from?" he asks, because that seems to be the one thing that sticks in his mind, even as she explains. "Does it just have a lot of skin in a compartment somewhere? What if it's the wrong colour?" he jokes.

"Actually, come to think of it, if you've got all that, what's med school like?" he wonders. "Do you have less to do because machines do it now? Is it more technology than medicine, when it comes to learning?"

[ethnobotany]

She raises an eyebrow. "Where does skin come from when a wound heals?" she points out. "It regenerates from the person's existing DNA and makes sure everything holds together when it does."

As for med school, she hesitates a bit. It's not that any of his questions are very accurate, but more that she has to figure out how much to say. "Would you let a machine choose medicines for you? Or decide how closed a wound is? Or try surgery?"

There would be some irony in that if she considered Data to be a machine. She doesn't, though; As far as she is concerned, he is a person with a different background.

"We have to learn how to use the technology and medicine we have, the same as anyone else."

[zomboligist]

Okay, so Ravi supposes that what she's saying makes sense, but it doesn't have the same flash and glamour as what he'd been imagining. If he's honest, he's just a teensy, tiny bit disappointed that the skin isn't from various sources and could potentially be different colours. Ah well, there goes another odd vision of the future.

"I might let a machine attempt surgery, provided that it did all the stuff I didn't want to," he says. "That's what I have an assistant for," he adds brightly. "Sadly, she's also off solving crimes, making me do all the actual work." She's got a point about the technology though, but it would be so cool to have it. "

"What was your favourite, then?" Ravi prods. "Which piece of technology?"

[ethnobotany]

Beverly's eyebrows arch. "What do you like to do, then? What wouldn't you have a machine do?" It's starting to sound like Ravi doesn't like the dirty work. Which she can understand, but all the same, as a doctor or a nurse a person has to get used to it. Future timeline or not.

"I don't know that I could choose a favorite," she admits. Partly because she can't explain them all to him without really risking the Prime Directive. "Everything has its use and without it, life is a lot more complicated."

[zomboligist]

"I like the feeling of sewing up the body," he admits, because as much as he might give the menial tasks to Liv, there's something about doing the final stitches of the Y incision. "You have to remember, I'm a medical examiner," he clarifies. "My patients are very dead by the time they hit my table. Before that, I was more in the research department," he says, which means that he hadn't really done much in the way of live work.

"Once I got past med school, I didn't worry about all that business, not until I had a project that required me to do things like draw blood and stay up all night fuelled by energy drinks again." Helpful, really, that the case had involved energy drinks and he had good reason to keep buying them.

[ethnobotany]

The words sewing up the body make her actively shudder. It's not enough to really upset her balance or hand motions or anything like that, but it does travel down her spine visibly. That part she could do without, though she knows well that if they have to do any kind of surgery here it'll involve actual sewing. Good thing she does like sewing in general. Just not when it involves a person.

"What I wouldn't do for a laser scalpel," she says fervently, throwing the Prime Directive more or less fully out the window as far as medical equipment goes. "All of these ancient and invasive techniques. No offense, but I know several people who would call that sickening."

Not to mention barbaric, but she has enough tact not to say that.

"Let's hope you don't turn to energy drinks here or I'll start forcing you to sleep," she warns teasingly.

[zomboligist]

What Ravi wouldn't give for a laser scalpel. His eyes widen a little and he tries not to act like a child on Christmas morning, but here he is, thinking of all the massively cool things that he could do with a laser scalpel, if someone was good enough to give him one. "I don't honestly think that I have enough to stay awake for here, unless we get a sudden spate of injuries," he says, reaching somewhere to knock on wood because if that happens, he's not going to be happy about it.

He'll just be upset that something so awful is keeping him awake and working around the clock, especially with no energy drinks or coffee here to speak of.

[ethnobotany]

"I hope not on both counts," Beverly says rather fervently. She would prefer not to have a spat of severe injury cases coming in for them to deal with. Ravi staying awake all night for them is also not really an option. Beverly isn't one to let that sort of thing fly. They'll take shifts if they have to. They're no good for anyone if they're exhausted. That goes for all of the medical staff.

"If it does happen, we're doing shifts. I don't want any of us getting too exhausted to do our jobs." She's had that happen before. It never ends well.

[zomboligist]

"There's enough of us, now, to actually be on top of it," he admits, which is the one silver lining in that thread. Ravi hates this in between of wanting to be useful, but not wanting it to be injuries that cause that use. It's why he's been leaning so hard into the scientific analysis of this place, but that's just a never-ending pile of frustration in itself.

"So, what else can you teach me about herbs?" he prompts. "Is there one to help with the lack of coffee? Because I very well may kiss whatever that herb is."

[ethnobotany]

Everything is frustrating here in its own way. That's partly why she's decided to try starting this garden. At least then they'll have some kind of control. But he does have a point about the staff. It's not as large a staff as she's used to, but it's better than a staff of one.

"Unfortunately not," she says with a warm laugh. "There are some that will help you sleep, though. But..." With a smile, she continues onward, explaining what she knows of all of the herbs she's familiar with can do.