[ 75th consult | voice / action ]

[dr_conscience]

[Wilson's going about his business as usual today, because honestly this sort of day just doesn't faze him anymore. Aspects of it can be irritating, disconcerting, or even dangerous, but not nearly any more so than most other curses. So he's stopped at an admittedly crowded cafe near the hospital after leaving, coffee and a sandwich before him while he looks over a patient file. After making a few notes, he puts the file down to make the following audio post to the network - ]

I learned, several of... these back [ - because the populace doesn't really have a concise term for them - ], that there isn't really much point in trying to avoid the masses. Besides, if you do that, you're likely to have missed out on an opportunity to speak to people you would have been happy to see - faces from home, those who have left the City, even those who only visit on these days but do so with enough regularity to have developed personal connections.

So, as a curse, this isn't inherently good or bad. It has the potential to be either - or both, but it's the people who come, the interactions we have, that make it what it is. In a way, that makes it not entirely unlike any other day - there are just a lot more faces than usual.

[And out. He's going to finish his sandwich now, thanks.]



[ooc: COME AND GET HIM. Open to either Network or Action; hit him up at the cafe or after he leaves. I only ask for no doubles of House cast without permission annnnd that is all. He's from late season 3 but can forget whatever he needs to and has already been spoiled on his own future a bit XD]

Comments

[video]

[scamminbuffers]

Hey there doc.

[video]

[dr_conscience]

Di Di - always nice to see a familiar face. How have you been?

[video]

[scamminbuffers]

Thanks! I've been really good actually. I'm a freshman at Vanderbilt University.

[video]

[dr_conscience]

Really? That's great. Have you declared a major yet?

[hallucinamber]

There are two ways those who work with the dying come to look at the world.

[The voice comes from behind him before an arm reaches over and sets a coffee cup down on the opposite side of the small table. Of course there's only one seat - a rowdy group have requisitioned all the spares to accommodate their own reunion at another table and Amber stops momentarily to lay a hand on one of their shoulders and whisper a quick word before coming to stand where the absent seat ought to be, looking down at Wilson.]

Only one of them is to see each new day as full of potential. I'm still not certain you realise how rare that is.

[And she smiles. And a second later one of the group behind offers her a chair with a quiet, 'sorry, ma'am, we'll do that'. And other chairs are being returned to their rightful places all over the coffee shop as grateful people go to fill in the spaces, and the once noisy group trash the remains of food long since finished as they file out to happily crowd the (much more appropriate) space taken up by benches outside.

And she sits.]

[dr_conscience]

[Instinctively, his head lifts slightly at the familiar voice - the one that he knows isn't supposed to be familiar, not yet, but has become the one he often hopes to hear the most on days like these. He barely has time to try to steal a glance of her over his shoulder before she reaches her arm over.

His gaze follows her as she steps around to the unoccupied side of the table, a soft smile gradually forming as she does so.]

I'd like to think it isn't quite so rare.

[And his smile spreads, warming and touching his eyes as it does.]

I always find myself hoping you'll show up, on these days.

[hallucinamber]

Of course you do. Experience knocks down most people's faith in the end but yours has foundations Tokyo could be proud of. Just as well since you like to insist on staying best friends with Godzilla.

[This doesn't seem like a criticism, although it is her own way of calling him naive. Just so long as he doesn't ever change. She lifts her coffee cup with both palms curved around the bowl and tests the heat, looking at him across the rim.]

You know, it's never so much showing up, as just showing.

[dr_conscience]

Godzilla actually gets to be the hero in some of those films.

[Bizarre pop culture knowledge aside, it's clear that he understands her meaning. His coffee's a bit less than half empty now; he lifts it in a hand, glancing down at the level for a moment before his gaze returns to her.]

You do always seem to know everything that's happened...

[whatmendaredo]

'Tis true many faces have appeared here--
And yet not so many as first appears,
For the same appearance multiplies here.

[dr_conscience]

[What is it with his clones and poetry, anyway?]

... that, it certainly does.

[Please tell him the army is not invading again.]

Even moreso on days like this - though, of course, a face alone does not an individual make.

action; | i hope this is okay!

[symbiont]

[ and he'll see, standing to his right just as he finishes said sandwich, a slender blonde woman with blue eyes and... spots. yep. spots. almost leopard print, lining either side of her body; starting at her forehead and disappearing beneath the collar of her shirt, reappearing on her legs from under her skirt all the way down to the tops of her feet, nestled snuggly in a pair of flats.

she smiles brightly at him. ] I seem to be a bit lost. There's a university, but it's not the one I was at an hour ago.

action; | it most certainly is okay

[dr_conscience]

[Spots. Despite all the time he's been in the City, with all the non-humans he's met while here, that's certainly something new. He returns the smile, a little touch of sympathetic understanding to it.]

No, I would imagine it's not.

[Might as well go straight for the truth. At least his tone suggests that he fully expects to be dismissed as crazy.]

You're in the City - it's... an alternate dimension that pulls people in from other realities.

action; | :D

[symbiont]

[ new in ways you're not even aware of, wilson. like how a gymnast with zero scientific education beyond the basics understands the theory of alternate universes thanks to the knowledge and memories of a previous host. ]

So, there's a fissure somewhere, with a leak from other universes?

voice;

[buzzkills]

Sounds like you're used to this.

[ WILSON WHAT'S HAPPENING. ]

voice;

[dr_conscience]

Foreman?

[IT IS A LONG STORY... and if you don't recall passing through before, you're probably going to think he's crazy.]

Well... that would be because I am.

voice;

[buzzkills]

You mind giving me the shorthand explanation of where the hell I am?

video;

[oceantrauma]

These.

So this mass influx of people is typical? I just thought they were new arrivals. But you make it sound like this is different.

video;

[dr_conscience]

It's... actually something of a regular event. They tend to pop up every few months and last for a couple of days. When it ends, those who arrived during the event leave.

video;

[oceantrauma]

So...if I saw anyone I know, then I should be prepare for them to leave at the end.

[He's almost glad he didn't see anyone from home, in that case.]

Isn't it hard to let them go? Especially when it may have been a while since you've last seen someone from home, or someone you know?

[anunluckypenny]

So hiding is probably the wrong way to deal with this, huh...

[dr_conscience]

[Loaded question, really. Penny's recently arrived enough, and still recovering from so much, that he thinks it may not be entirely inadvisable for her to sit this one out. Certainly if there are people from home, given her last post...]

Well... I think that depends on what you want to do. If you're not up for seeing people - especially large numbers of people - then you can certainly try to sit this one out. You may not be able to avoid everyone, but... I can certainly understand how it could be a bit overwhelming.

[anunluckypenny]

Were you overwhelmed the first time this happened? It's pretty surreal. And I haven't exactly avoided the person I'd like to avoid most, but he lives here. I wish I'd've known that before I called him a jerkface.

[Voice;]

[red_on_rice]

James? That must be you.

[There's more than one person with the right voice, but so far only one that sounds like him.]

[Voice;]

[dr_conscience]

Stacy?

[Sure, people from home have popped up before... but this one is a first.]

... I suppose that probably answers your question.

[Voice;]

[red_on_rice]

Oh, thank God. Finally, someone remotely sane.