milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

It is a familiar scene. The young curly-haired doctor in a booth near the infirmary with two large piles of paper and empty coffee cups.

Guppy has been there for hours. Gradually the paper is moving from the left pile to the right. He looks tired, and to be frank, bored rigid.

He could use a break around now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tristran sees Guppy sitting with what look to be a gigantic stack of papers--important documents, perhaps.

He realizes he hasn't seen the man in a while, not since he'd first arrived at the bar, and that had been ages ago. He awkwardly approaches his table, hoping he isn't disturbing the doctor.

"Hullo," he greets, "remember me?"

Guppy glances up and smiles tiredly.

"Yes, hello Tristran."

Guppy, unlike his mun, is good at names.

"How are you? Settling in okay?"

Tristran nods. "I like it here," he says simply, pleasantly. "Far nicer than the desert."

His eyes quickly glance at the empty coffee cups, but he isn't sure what coffee is or what it does anyway. "And how are you faring?" he asks, noticing that Guppy certainly looks as though he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks.

He hasn't. Months really to be precise.

"You were in the desert? I forgot that."

He sips the newest coffee cup, rubbing his forehead. "I'm okay thanks. Busy back home, and I'm very behind on the paperwork."

Tristran nods again. Ah, the desert. Aimless wandering around for days, searching for a fallen star that may not even be there anymore. He isn't going to give up, though.

But that isn't important right now. "I don't suppose you can get anyone to help you with your papers, can you?" he asks. Tristran would help, if he could.

Guppy shakes his head.

"Unfortunately no. It's all stuff I have to know and remember, and make decisions on. But thank you for the suggestion."

"You must be an important man, to have all these documents be read and made decisions upon by you." Tristran wonders if Guppy might be a king of sorts in his world.

He has no idea about modern times.

Guppy laughs a little.

"Ha! Not particularly. Although the higher ranking doctors get more and more paperwork to do. I just don't do it often enough and end up with it building up."

He rubs his forehead again, as if that will somehow miraculoulsly remove the splitting headache.

Suddenly it dawns on him. "Oh, you're a doctor!" he exclaims. "That's a most noble profession," he says. "In Wall, doctors aren't very common."

Guppy grins wearily at him.

"Sorry, did I not mention that? I must have been here too long, automatically assuming most people know. And thank you, that is kind."

He sips his coffee. "Who heals your sick in Wall?"

[ooc: Mun needs to bail for sleep, sorry. Slowtime?]

Tristran shrugs slightly. "Well, we have one doctor," he answers, "and he takes care of the sick. He has an apprentice as well, but it seems that our system is not as complicated as yours."

[ooc: slowtime is grand. :D]

Guppy is by this point imagining some kind of Australian desert flying doctor scheme.

"Well it's gradually evolved over the years. ~~In series 1~~ Twenty years ago there were only two doctors working in my department, now there are four, soon to be five I believe. As for apprenticeships, it's fairly similar just we have more than two levels."

"That sounds interesting," Tristran remarks. Unfortunately, that is about all Tristran knows about the doctor in Wall and the study of human-medicine.

Truthfully, the boy has never taken an interest in the study of healing beyond tending to simple scrapes and cuts. But animals, on the other hand? He wishes he could learn more about tending to animals' health.

"The job? Oh it is, very varied. I just wish that we were able to spend more time on each patient rather than rushing them through."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only