Archive of Our Own ^beta

Yumemi:

And this is the materials safety sheet.

If you're working with something, and you have a spill, or it shatters, or whatever, first thing, you step away from it and you pick up the safety sheet from here by the door. That'll tell you the first steps for dealing with it.

Rikako:

And if I don't know what I'm working with?

Yumemi:

Then you shouldn't be working with it!

Rikako:

How am I supposed to discover new things if I can't work with things I haven't seen before? Isn't that the point?

Yumemi:

Well, around here, we've already discovered everything. Supposedly.

[Silence for approx. 15 seconds]

Rikako:

Hmm.

Yumemi:

That's why—

Rikako:

This sheet's rather thorough. Do you really have all of these materials in the lab?

Yumemi:

It has every hazardous material the lab's licensed for. I don't have, or plan to have, most of them, but I could, so I need to have a plan for handling them.

Rikako:

Fascinating.

Yumemi:

It is?

Rikako:

Yes! And that term you used earlier, "safety culture". Just the idea that there's a culture of safety. There's not really such a thing, with magic.

Yumemi:

There isn't?

Actually, thinking back, that tracks.

Rikako:

There's rules of thumb and common wisdom, of course. Never summon anything you can't take in a fight, for example.

Yumemi:

…Makes sense.

[Pause]

Yumemi:

Why are you smiling at me like that?

Rikako:

No reason.

Anyway, any good magician always has an escape plan, of course—

Yumemi:

[Clears throat]

Rikako:

—but safety isn't really the foremost thing on anyone's mind when dealing with magic.

Yumemi:

[Coughs]

Rikako:

I'm surprised this is on paper. Everything else you have here is those liquid screens, or holograms.

Yumemi:

Part of safety. Electronics and holograms can lose power. Paper can't.

Rikako:

Huh.

Yumemi:

All the emergency tools are designed that way, to work even if everything else doesn't. Take those emergency exit signs I showed you.

Rikako:

You said they glow in the dark. They've got to use some kind of power for that, so… batteries?

Yumemi:

That'd still require a bunch of electronics, and batteries can run out. They have a tiny amount of tritium in them, and then a paint that glows under the radiation from the tritium. No moving parts, only physical processes that just work… What's wrong?

Rikako:

Nothing. It's just charming how into it you get when you're explaining the science, even though you're more interested in magic.

Yumemi:

[Clears throat] Well, this is what I know. Anyway! Unless you physically destroy the lights, they'll keep glowing for decades no matter what.

Rikako:

How likely can it be for a battery to run out before you no longer need the light?

Yumemi:

Well, that's the philosophy. If it's possible, it's going to happen somewhere, eventually. So you need to avoid it or plan for it.

Rikako:

I see.

Hmm. You've really thought of everything, haven't you?

Yumemi:

That's the idea. You plan for everything you can think of, and then you have a plan for what to do when something you didn't plan for happens.

Rikako:

And what kinds of things haven't you planned for?

Yumemi:

Well, I don't work with anything biological, so for biohazards there's just a general— [high-pitched exclamation]

Rikako:

How about this?

Yumemi:

[Nervous laughter] That's not an emergency! C'mon, don't mess around in the lab.

Rikako:

No? Your ears are strawberry red all of a sudden, though. Didn't you say that's a warning color?

Yumemi:

[Unintelligible]

Rikako:

Aw, don't look away. Let me see your face!

Yumemi:

A-anyway, a hug isn't an emergency! It's, uh, it's not even a bad thing!

Rikako:

Why so flustered, then?

Yumemi:

I just wasn't expecting it right now!

Rikako:

Not the peck on the cheek either, hm? Well, here's something about magic, since you taught me so much today.

It's all about the X-factor. And I don't like that.

Yumemi:

Why not?

Rikako:

Because to be any good at it, you have to embrace that there's just some things you don't get. And when something happens, you ride the wave or you drown. I like your approach better.

Yumemi:

I guess that sounds exciting to me.

Rikako:

Because you're used to stability, I bet. Well, we'd better make some plans for the unpredicted then, yes?

Yumemi:

I—

Rikako:

For example: Let's say I let go and you turn around. But then I push you back against the wall, like this, and now our faces are almost touching. And your entire face is red for emergency.

Yumemi:

S-so's yours.

Rikako:

Right. So how do we develop a plan for this emergency? What's your method?

Yumemi:

Well—Well, I guess we have to walk through the scenario. In—In detail. Figure out what happens and how we react.

Rikako:

Makes sense. And then?

Yumemi:

Then… we put it into practice. And exercise.

Rikako:

Best get started right away, then?

Yumemi:

Ye— [muffled]