makesthings | Visiting Post

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Visiting Post

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

"So how are you feeling now?"

"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.

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

"Mind if I take a look?"

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."

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."

"My family has a lot of enemies."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

Edited 2009-09-10 04:01 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

Edited 2009-09-10 04:25 (UTC)

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

"...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.

"So you don't need to take anything from the Living, you're just trapped? Was it because you weren't sent properly through the Gates of Death?"

Malcolm takes a moment to choose his words.

"'Weren't sent properly....' In a way, yes. I couldn't let go. I couldn't let myself Pass On. Not until I'd found a way to help just one more person."

"Looking back on it, I was trying to find a way to forgive myself for losing one of my patients. I couldn't have helped him back then--not without knowing something I couldn't have--but I didn't realize that until I was close to helping someone else anyway."

"Not long after I did, I was finally able to Move On."

"Except, uh," Malcolm smirks. "The Landlord had other ideas."

"Do you want to Move On?"

This one doesn't take any thought.

"No."

"I like it here. And I've made a place for myself. It's home."

"Oh."

That wasn't what Sameth expected him to say.

That moves Malcolm to smile quietly, though he's not exactly sure why.

"Get some rest. We'll talk again."

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makesthings - 2009-09-17 03:39 (UTC) - Expand

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