[Log]

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Mining Settlement, Haven
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Josephine experiences a serious bonding moment with Saienne as they struggle through the snow with the crate. Jo isn't really made for this kind of hardlabor, but what she lacks in strength and endurance, she makes up in sheerdetermination, following the lot of them to the rather sad looking miningcamp.


The Commons building was fairly run down but probably more 'well kept' then the rest of the buildings. It served as a sort of catch all building, from community kitchen to a larger 'infirmary' for the sick. there were a good few people inside here, most of them recovering from the illness. Towards the back of the room there was a kitchen, it was a tad on the run down side. Though, as it has been said, it's not because of lack of effort on their part. The kitchen is in relatively good order, just has fallen out of use. When the most of them subside themselves on protein stuffs.

Lucinda has left the trolley outside, deciding its better not to let the wheels drag muck and whatnot into the 'safe house' as it were. Her eyes take a moment to adjust to the change in lighting, taking the opportunity to lower her hood and unzip the heavy coat to expose her throat. Should someone announce who they are and what their purpose is? Lu apparently doesn't take time for such politicing, the cross on her bag is introduction enough. She's heading to a man nearby who is nearly doubled over in a fit of coughing. Time to go to work.

Josephine takes on the very important duty of announcing their presence and their purpose, doing so in a confident but genuinely friendly way that the poor, desperate people of this small settlement react to with profound gratitude. They welcome the visitors with open arms, helping the doctor to set up whatever she needs and providing open access to their little kitchen as they await a real home-cooked meal with looks of longing and anticipation. After their presence is well known, Josephine wastes no time getting set-up in the kitchen, unloading crates and pretending not to notice that various people keep stealing from the plate of cookies. She even has this uncanny way of learning and remembering just about everyone's names as she is introduced to them.

"We bring damn fine food." Announces Kael in a bit of a jovial voice as he knocks his boots off on the door frame lightly so as not to track in too much snow. He starts making his way back towards the kitchen, crate in hands. His mouth pulls into a bit of a smile behind the mask as he walks along behind Josephine.

The Man that Lucinda starts approaching waves at her with his free hand not held up to his mouth, as if to tell her to go away. He just then finishes his bout of coughing, saying to her, "Nono.. 'm alright I'll see Doc Conner 'n tha mornin', miss." His head shakes from side to side as his breath comes out a bit wheezy.

Saienne hauls in the crate she and Josephine were carrying from the shuttle and deposits it close to the kitchen, dusting the snow off onto the floor where it quickly melts. "An' damn fine ain't no exaggeration, nieither."

The town folk already seem to be picking up a little in spirits at the mention of good food, not to mention actually seeing it. The cookies do start disappearing and it's not long before word seems to have spread and more people start showing up to see if the rumors were true. Many of them walk in looking hopeful to down right tearful at the mention of someone here to help. Not to mention that as far as everyone heard, what started out as 'good people' turned into 'friends' then 'relatives' so more then a few people were curious who these 'relative' were not to mention who they were related to.

Lucinda gives the man a friendly enough smile, as best as can be managed when she has a mask over her face. "We're friends of the good Doctor, and I'd hoped you might consider me the same. I'm a physician as well, and thought I'd help out while I could....might nasty cough you have there, but I think I could help relieve that?" She strips off her gloves, anything to give her a more undaunting appearance.

Saienne, now that the hauling is done, is pretty much redundant... until one of the men in the Commons points out a bit of the roof in the corner of the building that has crumpled and fallen in under the weight of the snow. A tarpaulin has been slung from the beams to stop the worst of the weather, but icy air still blasts through the small hole. "Well now," says Saienne, rubbing her gloved hands together - not entirely in glee, but in something approaching it, "Somethin' I can do without thinkin' too hard." She turns around to the man who showed her the hole. "You folks got some tools an' some boards? It ain't goin' to be no professional job, like, but I'll see what I can do..."

Kael Bowen drops off the crate next to Sai and almost immediately starts rooting through the kitchen, looking to find bowls, utensils, all the like that would be needed for soup and food. He starts to pull them down, sorting through them and at the same time trying to get the people to start forming some sort of reasonable order, "c'mon, c'mon, start a line, let's get it against the wall, make sure everyone can get inside... don't rush! There's enough for everyone.." mutters a bit more quietly, "Or there better be.."

The man lets out a long sigh which results in further hacking into a closed fist. After another long bit of racking coughs he nods a little and then manages to get out, "Alright.. but I aint payin' for anythin'."

A few of the men around start looking about, one of them ducking into a back room before showing back up, holding a tool kit in one hand, it's a bit old fashioned, but it has your usual tools. A saw, hand powered drill, couple screw drivers, hammer, nails, that sort of thing. One of the ladies near by nods a little towards Saienne and comments, "I heard 'at they got sum down t'werds the pad. They j'st finished cuttin' dem earlier."

Lucinda guides the man to take a seat on one of the makeshift cots, taking one knee infront of him. "No need for payment, unless you think I deserve a kiss on the cheek when we're done." She digs in her bag briefly, producing a stethoscope. No amount of technology can replace the good ole stuff. She pops the ear pieces where they belong and coaxes the man to let her have a listen at his lungs.

Kael Bowen manages to get the group of people waiting for the food into sort of a semblance of order as Josephine got the soup back up to a nice warm temperature. Not long there after, Kael works on slicing up the bread quickly into slices to go with the soup, and then, the 'havoc' began. People started to slowly filter through the line, warm soup into bowls, a couple pieces of bread, and so on.

The man through another fit of more shallow coughs moves with Lucinda towards one of the cots and lays down into it instead of sitting. He commends back towards her, "Well... I'll see when I git better." He tries to manage a smile as he continues his wheezy breathing. Lucinda an hear that it's coming from his lungs not his throat, a sure sign of pneumonia.

The line started moving in a sort of shuffle step, each person managing to get a bowl of soup and a couple pieces of bread before they tried to find a place to sit down and relax. A few people went for the cots but were immediately shoo'ed off by other people. The constant drip in one corner from the slightly leaking roof persists, Sai presumably having left to try and get some of those wood planks that were talked about.

Lucinda lowers the stethoscope from her ears, snapping the ends around her neck. "You, my friend, have Streptococcus pneumoniae, or more commonly called pneumonia. As daunting as that sounds, its completely cureable and you'll be feeling a thousand times better just by tomorrow if you allow me to administer some antibiotics, you get lots of rest and lots of fluids. Sound good?"

Kael starts taking on a more of a somber look as he continues passing out the food, nodding a little and seeming to be trying very hard to simply concentrate at the task at hand and nothing more. His eyes stay locked on the food, and the bowl, nothing else. Every so often he mumbles a, "Your welcome, but it's Jose's soup." to the 'thanks' and 'thank yous' that are said.

The man nods a little, precariously almost as he looks over to her, letting out another bit of a congested sigh, "A'right, a'right, miss. Gimme these antimahoosits." His mouth pulls into a bit of a grimace as he manages to stifle another round of coughs just barely. His hands grip the side of the cot tightly as he does, relaxing his grip as the muffled coughing dies down.

Saienne, in the mean time, has followed the woman's directions and poked her way back down to the pad to search out the wood. When she ambles back, her furry hat brushed delicately with snow, it is with a few freshly cut planks balanced somewhat precariously on the trolley. "Knew there was a good reason Josephine brung this along," she says cheerfully. She pulls back the tarpaulin to scrutinise the hole, and then looks back down at the wood. "Well, they ain't been seasoned yet, but mayhap they'll close the hole up long enough to get the roof fixed good an' proper." She looks across to Lucinda, who is engaged with a patient, and to Kael and Josephine, who are being kept busy at the soup line, and she smiles a beatific - if entirely crooked - smile.

Lucinda is already pulling out her auto-injector and loading it, going for the fast if somewhat intrusive way to administer the drugs, but its better than trying to get a coughing man to take pills. She's engrossed in her work and doesn't spare a glance towards the others of her crew, "Alright handsome, you're going to feel a small pinch.." But before he can react, she's already pressing the nozzle to his jugular and dispatching the medicine with a small hitssssss of compressed air. If she gives patients time to react, they just might, and then people end up a bit more hurt than necessary.

Kael Bowen lets out a long sigh against the mask and looks damn near solemn as he continues to pass out the food. He looks up towards the people for a moment and attempts to shake the feeling off but he just can't seem to bring it to fruition. He shakes his head a bit and then frowns a little under the mask, nodding a little to the people that pass by and continuing to hand them their bread.

The man looks towards Lucinda, hearing that there might be a small pinch followed by the small pinch and looks a little stunned, "Hey.. hey that aint fair." His hand reaches up towards his neck, trying stifle a cough again but isn't so successful this time. His attempt to comfort his throat instead turns into covering his mouth.

Saienne pulls out the hammer and a tin of nails. Popping the lid, she looks in and selects a few that have survived without rust. "Fine an' dandy," she says, with satisfaction. "Just like my grandaddy's." She casts around for something to stand on, settling on one of the crates they carried from the shuttle. The snow, drifting slow and gentle and soft, starts to fall through the open hole.

Lucinda runs a soothing hand over the man's weatherbeaten forehead, waiting for the coughing to subside. She's not very mindful of the fact that she's kneeling in a puddle on the floor, but her attention is on her patient. "Fair or no, I'll be comin' back to collect my kiss. Rest for now, and I'll have someone bring you over a bit of water. Drink it all." Her eyes crinkle up, belaying her smile that she cracks underneath her surgical mask. She straightens then, looking for the next patient her gaze sweeping across Handy-woman Sai and Soup-kitchen Kael and Jo.

The place was getting a tad crowded by this point at time. Kael and Josephine were in the kitchen, Jose was workin' up a storm heating up soup and in general trying to keep everyone happy while Kael was working on dishing up the soup and cutting up the bread when they started to run low. Lucinda is in the area that's been somewhat cornered off as a make shift infirmary, a few people have taken seats on the cots that have been set up, but otherwise it's a relatively calm area. There's a line of people shuffling along through the food, taking their bowl of soup and bread before moving on to sit either in the common room or standing outside. Sai was moving towards the roof to fix the pool of accruing water from the leaking roof.

However Matty's gotten here, she's gotten here. Maybe she's been here all the time, just scouting around the outskirts of the place? No one knows. In any case, now she comes trudging into the settlement, rather more heavily dressed than usual even if she is a Saint Albans native. A thick down jacket over several layers of woolen underclothes, a thick knitted hat, a large scarf wrapped around her neck and lower face and a pair of thick gloves. Even her legs look thicker somehow and the boot she wears seem to be a few sizes larger than usual. On her back is a small backpack and tucked under her arm is a rifle, loaded and ready to fire.

The hole in the roof is not a complicated one - no unusual angles or rotten bits to negotiate - it's just that part of the building's gable end has crumbled along with the bit of roof that's fallen in. Sai stands on the crate, peering up into the darkness, and turns around to the man who fetched her the toolbox. "You ain't got a ladder lurkin' around an' all? Elsewise I'll have to perch up on these crates an' get you to keep 'em steady."

+taskroll repair: personal equipment at 25

Lucinda finds herself approached by a Mother and son, the latter of which seems to be clutching one arm to his chest. She speaks quietly with the pair, ascertaining that the boy has constant pain in his wrist and can no longer use that hand. Again the doctor ushers the pair to a cot, the little boy choosing to sit in his mother's lap as Lu tries to engage the boy in idle chatter while she checks the swelling.

Josephine's own smile might be hidden by her surgical mask, but everyone who passes by the little kitchen can see the warm sparkle in her eyes as she makes small talk with everyone and brings a smile as many people as she can. "Nothing like good warm soup in your stomach," she's saying, winking to a young girl. "My foot, I've never seen a moustache quite so grand!" she informs a middle-aged man. All the while, she's dishing out soup and giving out all the food they have to give as fairly as she can manage it.

Kael Bowen shakes his head a little from side to side and a smile even pulls at his mouth again as he looks over the people he's serving up with soup. There's not too many left now, but there's enough. He goes back to cutting the bread again, slicing it into nice thick slices as usual before going back to passing them out to the people going by. He starts nodding a bit more frequently and tells every thank you, "Not my cooking, thank the cook, she's a helluva fine one." His eyes flick over to Lu for a moment before returning to work.

The man lays back on the cot and after a bit he manages to get a cup of water, slowly drinking it. He still continues letting out a cough every so often, but the water seems to be helping a little to at least quell it. The boy whimpers a little as she takes it, his face turning into a little wince as he pokes at the mild swelling. He doesn't seem too much for talking and just mumbles, "I was just outside playin'... honest.. I din't do nothin' wrong."

Josephine's eyes light up, predictably, as Matty approaches. Her puffy coat which is really Aradia's is hanging on a hook nearby, because she got so warm working in the kitchen. "Fine, just fine. A hot meal does a world of good for folks, as I always say. And there are some mighty nice people around here. Andy over there reckons he can name over two hundred species of animals from Earth-that-Was, and I'd be half tempted to hear the whole list if I had any chance of knowing whether he was making it all up or what." She grins to a man, who is presumably Andy. "You doing okay, Matty? Not too cold? Happy?"

Kael Bowen gives a small wave towards Matty with his left hand as his right holds out another couple pieces of bread to the next person in line, "Hey Matty. Good ta see ya 'n' I'm glad to hear that we're free 'n' clear for the moment. Soup?" He asks, jerking a thumb towards the indicated pot, "We got some bread to go with it. /BOTH/ made my Jose." He wiggles his eyebrows a little at that notion as if that just made it at least five times more enticing.

Tasha adjusts her surgical mask carefully as she approaches the dilapidated mining camp's town hall. Nodding politely to any of the settlers who catch her eye, she slips into the town hall quietly as she looks for familiar faces.

Cold? Matty? Not a chance. Well, the bits of her face that has been exposed to the cold during her walk might look a bit reddish and now that she's inside, she's starting to flush quite a bit. "Nah, never too cold," Matty says and gives Josephine a wink, then shrugs out of her jacket, moving the rifle from one hand to the other as she slips an arm out of its sleeve. She looks over at Kael and lifts a brow, then grins under her mask as she looks over at Josephine. "Well, I never say no to food made by Jose."

"Hey lady!" Calls a bit of a higher pitched and younger voice. There a couple of eyes that poke from around the counter that is attached to a head with blonde hair, a little girl is addressing Jose, smiling widely. "C'n I have some more 'f that soup. It's Really good!" She stands a bit more out from the counter, her dress is a little on the dirty and plain side but she's cute as a button with a smudge of dirt along one cheek.

Lucinda smoothes a hand over the boy's mussed hair. "Of course you didn't sweetie. You're just too good at playing!" She reassures, then turns towards the mother. "I think he fractured it, but we'll splint it up good and tight. I'll show you how to wrap it so you can pack snow on it later to decrease the swelling."

Josephine clonks Kael over the head with an oven mitt, lectures, sternly. "This food's for the folks who live here and no one else. Nobody's taking off their mask to eat anything, you hear?" To Matty, she assures, "I put aside a few rolls for you folks, never fear. They're still on Grace..you can fetch them whenever you like. Preferably before they go stale." Without even blinking, she cleans the smudge of dirt from the girl's cheek with her dish towel. "Growing girls need lots of soup," she agrees, refilling her bowl with a modest second helping of lentils. "There you go. Eat slowly now," she recommends, trying her best to make sure there's enough food for everyone who needs it. At least for today.

The mother gives a little nod, smiling a bit on the worried side as he looks down at her boy, "Wel... how long do I need ta keep him inside an' 'way from playin' with ta others?" Her mouth pulls up a bit more as she runs a hand thoughtfully through the boy's hair, trying to part it and turn it into a bit more decent look.

The boy huffs a bit and swats a bit at his mom's hand with his uninjured hand, "But MoOOoooom... I wanna go play with 'em t'morrow. we're g'nna go play hide an' seek 'n' Tag too!"

Saienne is engaged pretty exclusively with the task of fixing the hole in the roof - so much so that she barely notices the expansion in their numbers with the addition of Tasha and Matty. "Oil," she says to herself, "Would be perfect. Keep the rain out of the wood for a little while more at least." When the ladder arrives, she props it against the wall and shakes it to test its stability. Hooking the hammer into one of her coat pockets and tipping the nails into another, she climbs upwards steadily, one of the boards tucked under her arm - swinging a little wildly, truth be told.

Tasha starts to go help Saienne and the miner with the roof of the hall, but is stopped by a young man in his mid teens. "Whoa...that's some fine tie qi (ironware) you're holdin', miss." he says, pointing to Tasha's omnipresent Colt. "Can I see?" he asks excitedly.

Lucinda starts gingerly wrapping the boy's wrist, "I'll tell you what. We'll rig you up a nice fancy sling, alright? Then you can pretend its your new cybornetic arm that's malfunctioning. And if your mom sees fit, hide and seek is safe. But I'd stay clear or anything that involves running. Or jumping. Or tumbling down the sides of mountains and such."

Matty's eyes look hurt as she's denied soup by the cook herself. "But Jose.. I just spent a good couple of hours out there in the freezin' cold," she says as if that's been some horrible experience. A lie obviously. She shakes her head and goes to hang up her coat on a peg next to Josephine, then checks the rifle, taking out the ammunition before hanging that up also. She takes off her knit hat and stuffs it in a pocket along with her gloves and goes to join Josephine. "Anything I can do to help?"

Kael Bowen laughs and swats at the mitt he's been hit with, "Right, right.. Sorry, I always forget 'bout that sorta ya know, the whole mask thing." He smiles a bit lopsidedly under the mask to Matty and gives a bit of a shrug, "So how's Sujiko doing? Haven't seen him in a couple days." His eyes glance down towards the small girl before returning to Matty.

The small girl gives a wide grin and lets out a giggle as Josephine cleans her face. She watches her intently as the bowl is taken from her and oddly enough, the grin seems to double in size as it's returned to her, full of soup no less! She takes it greedily and nods, "'Kay, Thanks! It's good soup!" She moves off, heading towards what looks like her family.

The man nods and then points at the hole, "Yer gonna fix that one? Might nice of ya Miss! Thank ya." He grabs onto the base of the ladder, helping hold it steady for her as he heads up towards the roof.

Josephine waves to Tasha from across the way, before turning a sympathetic smile (one might suppose, what with the mask and all) back to Matty. But her tone of voice is a quiet one as she speaks: "We're running out of clean bowls if you wouldn't mind rinsing a few? Not that there's all that much soup left at this point. These people probably haven't had a decent meal in..I dunno..weeks.. And I don't know when they will again if we can't get them some more foodstuffs."

The mother gives a bit of a chuckle down towards her son, shaking her head a little before looking up to Lucinda, nodding, "Alright. I'll be sure ta keep 'im from leapin' off any buildin's." She looks down towards her boy again, ruffling his hair a little before looking back up to Lucinda, "Thank you, miss."

"But moooom. You can't play tag without _runnin'_." The boy responds, a bit exasperated and then lets out another huffing sight that's cut a little short by a whimper from bumping his arm. He looks back down at it then back up to Lucinda with a grimace pulling at his tiny mouth, "Don't want no slings... 'm not a robot."

Saienne glances back down at the man - and then back up at the hole. "That's the one I was plannin' on fixin'," she says slowly. "Why? You got others pourin' snow in an' all? That ain't no good." She frowns, the crowsfeet around her eyes wrinkling deeply. "Well, we'll get this one weather proof first an' then take a look at anythin' else." She props the plank up on the flat of the wall and looks back down as the man grabs the ladder, and tips two fingers to her forehead in a salute. "Thank you," she says to him.

Tasha returns Jose's wave, doing her best to steadfastly ignore the kid's increasingly excited commentary. "Mie nar zhi huan, nan hai zi. (nothing but trouble there, boy)." she growls to him at length, causing his face to fall. "And a fine example you're settin' by brignin' it here." an older woman in a slightly stained and threadbare winter dress informs her hotly. "But _mom_...she's a _spacer!_" the boy protests.

Matty nods to Josephine and gives a look around the room, drawing in a deep breath through the paper of her mask. "Yeah. Doing dishes is something I'm pretty good at," she says and shakes her head a little, continuing in a lower voice. "We've got some foodstuffs on the Chaos Theory. Not enough to feed all that many people for too long, but.. Well, more than we need anyway, I reckon. I'll have a talk with Suj about donating it..." She lifts a shoulder at Kael and there's a worried look in her eyes, but she doesn't say anything outloud about it. "Oh, he's Sujiko. Totally wrapped up in that singularity thing, y'know?"


Lucinda purses her lips at that. "No, you're clearly too smart to be a robot." She concedes. "But this way you won't knock into as many things with a clunky ol' cast. Alright?" She digs out a small foil packet of pills that she hands over to the mother. "For pain. But make sure he has protein or something to eat with them. One half of a pill, twice a day. There's a little line down the center so you know where to cut it...If you hurry there's still soup."

"That would really be wonderful, Matty, if you could talk to him about that," Josephine says, with enthusiasm, stacking up used bowls and pouring a whole new line of cups of pure, clean water for the people to drink. "And, if you're really direly opposed to touching dirty dishes, then there are plenty of leaky roofs and runny noses and people who could just use someone to talk to.. I dunno.. whatever you feel like you want to do, I guess. Just..stay around a bit, if you will. I'm fond of your company. Hey Kael? KAEL? Are there any more rolls left? This bag is empty.. Could you check that one crate by your foot?"

Another man, one that looked to be healthy at one point, starts his way up to the soup line, he seemed to have been lagging behind by quite a bit. He lets out a bit of a cough as he makes his way up to the counter. He takes one of the bowls, his hand shakes a little and he brings up his other to help steady the bowl. His face is quite pale and he otherwise seems to have nervous twitches in his face. After a few more steps he drops the bowl, with a bit of a crash it hits the ground.

The man nods up to Sai and nods, "That's some mighty fine think there. Thank yas again." His mouth pulls up into a little smile before his gaze is drawn elsewhere, towards the man who just dropped his bowl, muttering, "Damn it George... just let go already..." His mouth pulled down in a deep frown.

The Mother nods and takes the pills, smiling a little and whispers, "Thank you.. I'll be sure to do that.. how long till he should be better? Few weeks? A couple months?" She shakes her head a little from side to side, seeming a little unsure.

"S'right.. Too smart 'n' strong ta be one. 'n' okay.." He responds, though he seems to sound some how as if he's lost in the end. He frowns a little up to his mom, obviously not liking the amount of times that are being specified.

Kael Bowen shakes his head and bends down, starting to go through the crate, "Uhhhhh.. yeah! Yeah, we got more Rolls." He pulls out a couple bags and then his left hand reaches back to the inside of the jacket as the bowl gives him a bit of a start. His hand pulls free though and he stands back up, a couple bags of rolls in hand.

Lucinda is confident that she set the boy's wrist correctly, and says "Four weeks." As she stands, ruffling the boys hair that his mother so carefully tried to part. "Be good." She adds, but her attention is drawn, a bit startled to the man who dropped the bowl and then to the man who tells this 'George' fellow to let go. She heads in that direction with crisp steps.

Saienne's work is not perfect - she's no expert at joinery, certainly - but neither is it shoddy. For an amateur job, it is straight and neat and starts the job of sealing up the hole. She holds the hammer at its natural balance point, letting the weight of the head fall onto the nail in an almost languid manner. The sharp sound of metal on metal rings through the hall as she tacks the first board to the first beam. As she starts to step back down the ladder to get the second board, another miner turns up with the tin of oil and a ragged brush. "Ah, marvellous," says Saienne as she picks up a screwdriver to pry the tin's lid off. "This'll make the wood last longer, I reckon." The sound of George dropping his bowl causes Sai turns around again. She turns her attention back to the miner nearest her. "Let go? What's he supposed to be lettin' go of? We ain't got too many more bowls."

Lucinda 's attention taken away from the make shift infirmary, her eyes travel across the town hall. Something registers in the back of her mind and her gaze shifts towards the open kitchen and Matty poised over the sink. Setting her fingers to her lips, she gives a shrill whistle. "MATTY!" She can't close the distance physically fast enough, so yelling will have to suffice. "GLOVES!"

Josephine tsks softly as she wipes her hands on her towel and goes over to the man who dropped his bowl, moving easily between the kitchen and the main room. "It's just a bowl. Don't anyone worry about it a moment longer," she says, patting the man's reassuringly. She is just picking up said bowl from the ground, before she hears Lu shouting and suddenly all the colour drains from /her/ face and she's back in the kitchen again in a half second or less. "Matty!"

Matty jumps at the sound of a whistle and then her name being called. A bowl clatters to the bottom of the sink, followed by the sound of breaking ceremics. "What?" she says and comes to the door with a frown on her forehead, water dripping from her hands. "Gloves? What for? I ain't afraid of gettin' my hands dirty.." She looks from Lucinda to Josephine and back over her shoulder at the sink where the water is still running to fill it. Then she looks at her wet hands and back toward the doctor. "Something wrong with the water?"

The little boy lets out a long sigh and fidgets a little, finally the mom coaxes him out of her lap and onto the cot before heading off towards the soup line to see about getting a bowl for her son. She frowns quite a bit at the commotion of the man and then the shouting.

The man by the name of George starts to push himself up onto his hands and knees before his right arm gives out again. He's laying in the growing puddle of soup, his limbs starting to grow very shaky as he starts to curl up into more of a fetal position.

"Nothin'..." The guy responds looking away from George and back up towards Sai, "We've... j'st had a lot 'f problems lately an' that's all.." He goes back to making sure the ladder stays steady and in place, every so often glancing back up towards Sai to see how it's all progressing.

Kael Bowen stands up and looks towards the man on the ground then back towards Matty after the shouting of it all. His expression could only be described as 'confusion'. He tilts his head a little and looks towards Matty again. He starts saying, "What? What's all this about? Matty looks quite fine 'n' all?" He looks between all of them.

The man by the name of George starts to lower himself down as if to collect the dish pieces but instead, crumples over onto the floor. He starts to push himself up onto his hands and knees before his right arm gives out again. He's laying in the growing puddle of soup, his limbs starting to grow very shaky as he starts to curl up into more of a fetal position.

The rest of the repair job goes fairly smoothly - a few crooked nails and overlapping sections of board - but nothing too terminal. The smell of the oil is strong in the area closest to the wall, and will be for some time yet. Saienne places the hammer, remaining nails and the screwdriver carefully back in the toolbox and picks up the oil and the ragged brush. "Reckon I'll head outside and slap a coat on while I can..." she says to the miners... Lucinda's shout, followed by Josephine's hurried return to the kitchen, gives her pause, however, and she takes one step towards the kitchen to investigate. The miner's voice turns her around again, though, and she nods at him: "Ain't that the honest truth."

Lucinda's wide stride draws her quickly across the floor and around the makeshift dinner line towards the sink. All the while, she's snapping on a fresh pair of latex gloves over fingers that were previously bare. "Kael! Get that man to a bed..." She obviously means poor George, but family has to come first. And Matty's a friend of the family, and thusly family so it counts. Another pack of medicine is produced from her bag, this time its a box with Alliance markings and warnings stamped all over its surface. She attempts to press it into Josephine's hands, confident the woman can tend to Matty and she can swing back out to the quickly deterioating George. "Have her take one of these, Jo." She quickly instructs. "If any mercury soaked into her skin, this will clear it from her system..but exposure was minimal."

The man holding the ladder nods as she comes back down and gives her a wide smile, "Thanks again, miss. Any help we can get is appreciated out here, 'specially by relatives 'f someone who lives here." He takes the ladder and starts after her, following her outside.

Kael Bowen quickly moves around the side of the counter and works on picking up the man. It takes him a bit as the guy is shaking pretty good. He nearly tumbles free of his grip from the spasms, but after a few seconds he manages to hoist the man enough to be able to carry him. His feet moving quickly over towards the bed, calling over towards Lu, "Alright Lu.. He'll be waitin' for ya." He manages quite well to carry the man over to the cot and set him in one.

Josephine's hands are trembling as she takes the box from Lucinda. "Thanks, Doc," she says weakly. Then she takes one of the cups of bottled water she had recently poured and dumps it over Matty's hands over the sink, to wash away the water that's still on her skin. "I'm so sorry, Matty.." she is murmuring, sounding very upset as she gives Matty a clean dishtowel to dry off her hands. "I'm sorry.. I didn't think.. I'm so sorry..." She keeps repeating that over and over again, which is unlike the usually calm and level-headed Jo.

Matty frowns at Lucinda, looks at the packet of medicine, then toward Josephine, giving a shake of her head. "Mercury? Christ, Lu, I'm from Saint Albans, I probably got more heavy metals in my system than anyone here," she says, but still takes the dishtowel from Josephine to wipe off her hands, after having allowed her to wash them off with bottled water. She's no expert on how mercury in particular is absorbed by the body, but she's not taking any chances. "How sick is this stuff gonna make me?" she asks Lucinda before the doctor tries to disappear, pointing to the meds she's given Josephine. "I can't afford t' be under the weather right now." She shakes her head at Josephine and smiles beneath the surgical mask, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. "Don't worry 'bout it, Jose. Probably no harm done at all. I only had my hands in that water for a few seconds. Don't think that long enough for anything to happen."

"Ain't no bother," says Saienne politely to the miner. She regards the patched up hall, all clustered with working folk and their kin. "Reminds me of home, a little," she says, "Although with more snow." She perceives that the crisis in the kitchen is being deftly handled by both Lucinda and Josephine, and so steps neatly towards the door to oil the newly nailed boards from the outside. "Family -" she begins, looking around at the assembled crew "- is family, ain't it so? Warts an' all."

Lucinda's eyes crinkle again with a smile directed at Matty, but her hand rests on Josephine's shoulder for a moment as she seems more worse for the wear than the possibly poisoned woman. "Everything's shiny, Josephine. Matty'd be worse off if she licked an old rusty pipe." Meaning that its not even likely that Matty would be laid up at all. And with that, she's off to see to poor old George.