Visiting Post

[makesthings]

He sleeps for a long time but Sameth does wake up and simply lays there, everything hurts so he decides to not move.

Sabriel woke up too and is around and about but if anyone wishes to talk to Sam, he's not going anywhere for a while.

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[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

Malcolm is making a pass through the infirmary tonight, checking on patients and making sure everything is going all right.

Sameth is a new face, so he pauses a little longer, and gives him a reassuring smile while he looks for his chart.

Which doesn't seem to be there for some reason. Hmm.

[makesthings]

Sameth's awake at the moment and looks up at Malcolm,

"Hello."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"How're you doing?"


Always a question worth asking in the infirmary.

Malcolm is doing a fairly decent job of hunting around for the chart without making it incredibly obvious. But he can't quite disguise that something isn't going the way he expected.

[makesthings]

"Better, just been resting. I'll be out of your way soon. Are you looking for something?"

Sameth watches him since this man seems to know his way around the infirmary.

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"Uh--."

Dammit. Caught.

"--I was looking for a chart. Most patients in here have one."

"Were you never checked in?"

[makesthings]

"I think Mogget just left me here and then Mother found me and healed me."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

Malcolm smirks. "All paths lead to the infirmary. Even the odd ones."

"So how are you feeling now?"

[makesthings]

"Better. I mean everything hurts but I don't feel like I'm drowning in poison anymore and my wrist's doing a lot better."

He still looks far too pale and is moving gingerly.

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

Malcolm walks over to the side of the bed and gestures to his wrist.

"Mind if I take a look?"

[makesthings]

Sameth shows the wrist that was broken but both of his wrists have not terribly old burns that look like handprints.

Its not easy to tell his wrist was broken other than all the bruising around it and he's moving it carefully,

"Of course."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

Malcolm manages to be both firm, yet gentle. His hands are a doctor's hands, and it takes almost no time for him to tell Sameth will be just fine once that bruising clears up.

"Looks like you've had some adventures."

[makesthings]

"My family has a lot of enemies."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"I'm guessing they know how to give as much as they get?"

[makesthings]

"We try to. Sorry, I'm Sameth, um Prince of the Old Kingdom."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"Malcolm Crowe. Physician and psychiatrist from Earth, 1999."

[makesthings]

"Its good to meet you. I hope I'm not taking up a bed that I shouldn't."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"I'm happy to say we have plenty of room just now."

"We like to keep it that way as much as we can."

[makesthings]

"That's good. I just hate causing trouble. This is the second time I've been stuck in a hospital bed in about three weeks."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"Well, you bounce back quick. That counts for something."

[makesthings]

"The Charter's good for healing and you have to be kind of hardy in my family."

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"Heh. I think you have to be kind of hardy just to be around this place too."

[makesthings]

"I'm learning that. Have you spent all of your afterlife here like Teja?"

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"Not quite. I spent my first year back on Earth. A ghost."

[makesthings]

"We don't really have ghosts in the Old Kingdom. What does that mean?"

[spooky-shrink.livejournal.com]

"...Huh," Malcolm replies, momentarily surprised. He doesn't usually have to explain what a ghost is.

"What does a ghost mean?" he asks himself thoughtfully.

"It's a state of Earthly existence after the moment of death. Many people on my planet don't believe they actually exist, although it's debatable that a majority actually do believe in them, at least to some extent. They typically aren't detectable through conventional means, which is part of the problem. Most adults can't tell they are even there except through certain tell-tale, but scientifically inconclusive, means: an unusual drop in temperature or maybe an object moving from one place to another."

"So becoming a ghost was very disorienting for me. Being a doctor--a man of science--when I was alive, I never considered the possibility that I might become a ghost. Actually, I spent several months in complete denial that I was, which caused me a lot of problems...."

"Anyway, you find yourself still on Earth, still in the part of the world you lived in during life, or maybe stuck in the place where you died an unexpected death. And you're insubstantial. You've left your physical body behind and are continuing your existence only as a spirit. Some young people and some animals can tell you're there--the most sensitive ones can even see you--but you're invisible to most others, and you can't interact with the physical world very well."

"It really takes some getting used to," Malcolm adds with the tone of a person who apparently didn't find that part very pleasant.