rainbowlounge | The Hospital

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roleplay: open

The Hospital

The hospital is sterile and sprawling, its hallways and patient rooms painted a glaring white. The floor is made of something hard and shining, and the lights are that peculiar kind of flourescent that makes everyone look ill.

The first floor consists of the lobby (painted a sickly green), an emergency room, and several surgery suites, all stocked with cutting-edge, even futuristic, technology and supplies. There is a cafeteria, though the buffet line is empty; the only consumables seem to be stocked in a line of vending machines along one wall. There are no stairs, only elevators, to the upper floors, which all consist of patient rooms: made beds, glazed windows, dying flowers, and the hard plastic orange chairs that are a constant in hospitals.

The whole building smells like antiseptic and death.

((Please mark your healthcare professionals as such, and enjoy!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's not my hospital, sorry," Ahava replied, following him into the room because she was enough of a doctor to not be interested in letting him disobey. "I'm not even attached to a hospital. I run my own practice."

"Oh, so this isn't your hospital either, then?" Conall eased himself down onto the bed, which was, in fact, less comfortable than the one at his hospital, because the blankets were scratchy and it smelled way too strongly of antiseptic.

He missed Yan's wintersweet flowers already.

"You wouldn't happen to know if there was a mix-up, or something? Because I was going down the hall, back to my own room, and wound up here instead."

Either that or the doctor had given him some amazing meds that gave him really, really vivid dreams. He hoped that wasn't the case, because it would suck to wake up and find that Yan had never given him her number, much less agreed to go out with him.

"It's some kind of portal in space," Ahava said, because she'd discovered that it was better to be blunt. "We're somewhere else. Maybe even somewhen else." She shrugged. "I wouldn't know how, though. I'm a doctor, not a philosopher."

A portal in space.

A portal in space.

A portal in space.

Conall looked at the doctor. And then at the IV in his arm.

It probably was the drugs. He'd wait until she was gone to rip the needle out and see if that did anything, possible withdrawal be damned.

"Do...do we ever go back to where we were?" he asked. If she wasn't a philosopher, at least he might get an answer he could understand.

He sounded scared. Ahava revised her approach.

"Absolutely," she said, in her best soothing-psychiatrist tones. "Usually less than five minutes has passed where we came from. It's a strange little interlude in your everyday life, that's all."

A strange little interlude. Conall stared at the IV in his arm. That wasn't too comforting, but it was better than being stuck here with wilted lilies and a blanket that smelled funny, in a gown that showed your ass off to everyone.

"...so we'll go back to where we came from, soon enough?" he asked. "How much time passes here before we go back?"

Ahava shrugged, and sat down in the visitor's chair. "An hour or two? Not very long. It's not like the fairytales where you go to the faeries for a night and come back to find a hundred years has passed. We spend an hour here then go home." A smile quirked at her mouth, and she added, "Richer for the experience, one hopes."

"Okay. Okay, I think I can deal with a couple of hours." Maybe the IV could wait.

"Although, I have to say, it would really suck if I came back and found everything was a hundred years later, okay, because I just asked someone out on a date and I don't want to go back to find that a) she's already married with grandkids or b) she's dead. That would be terrible."

Conall lay back on the covers, panting. That had taken a lot of energy out of him, but for some reason he felt better.

"Oh, really?" Ahava asked, grinning in spite of herself. The guy was probably pretty close to her own age but she couldn't help but think of him as a kid, all big eyes and enthusiasm. "Got a hot date, then? What's she like?"

"She--she's amazing," Conall blurted. "She's a detective on the local police force, and if it wasn't for her I'd be six feet under right now from this stab wound. I thought she was kind of mean, at first, but it turns out...well, it turns out she's really nice inside. She came to see me in the hospital, and it wasn't to talk about any business or anything like that. It was just to see if I was okay."

He glanced wistfully at the dead lilies. "She brought flowers, too. From her mom's garden, she said."

The kid had it bad. Ahava let her smile widen-- he was just so adorable! "I bet she likes you," she said. "That's what it usually means when nice girls bring you flowers. Especially from her mom's garden."

"Well," Conall said, a little sheepishly, "I hope she does, at any rate. You know, that's how I got myself in this mess in the first place. She gave me the flowers, and I was an idiot and didn't even ask her out then and there. I wound up chasing her down the hall just to see if she'd have dinner with me."

He leaned in a little closer to the doctor. "You know, I said I was taking her out as a thank you for saving my life, but I really wouldn't mind if something came out of this."

Oh, boy. Ahava pressed the bridge of her nose with one finger for a moment, and then asked, "Would you like a little advice about girls? This would be in my purely nonprofessional capacity as a girl."

"Well...yeah, I guess," Conall replied. "I really like her, so any advice would be appreciated."

"If you want her to go out with you as a thing, don't tell her it's just to say thank you," Ahava said, patiently. "Tell her you want to go out with her to go out with her. Girls appreciate honesty, and also, we like it when people think we're awesome."

"Oh," Conall said. "Yeah, I did say she was cute, but...hmm. Do you think it's too late, now? Or could I tell her when I come back?"

"You can tell her when you get back. You can even tell her on the date if you want, because she probably likes you back so she won't feel tricked or anything." Ahava shrugged. "Just be sure to take no for an answer. Although from what you said that won't be a problem."

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks," Conall said. "Sorry for unloading this on you, it's just--it's just been a while since I've dated anyone, and I really want this to work out. As in 'I'd sacrifice goats' want."

Ahava laughed. "Oh, don't worry. I have six younger siblings. Romantic woes is the least of their problems." Then she sobered- it was not the least of Duncan's problems. "It's actually kind of nice. To have someone asking about something good. No goats required though, kiddo."

"Really?" Conall didn't know if it was the conversation at hand or, again, the IV drugs kicking in at long last, but he was feeling less jumpy. "What's going on over at your end? That is, if you don't mind talking about it," he added hastily.

She made a little face and shifted in the chair. "My best friend's going through a divorce right now. It's no fault, they grew apart, but it's still really rough on everybody, and their daughter's only seven, she doesn't really understand."

"Aw, that sucks," said Conall. "I'm sorry. My dad died when I was little, and I still remember how bad it was for Mom and me."

"Yeah, it's gonna be hard on the poor kid." Ahava sighed. "It's kinda rough on Duncan-- that's my friend, it's rough on him too. His parents and mine and basically everyone we've ever seen married has this long and stupidly happy marriage. He feels like he's letting everybody down. Especially Safiya. Even though he's really just doing the best thing for everybody involved."

"It will be, I'm not gonna lie," said Conall, "but I think she'll be okay in the long run. I had a friend whose parents divorced, and he was really angry about it at first, but the last time I talked about it with him he said it was better that way."

"I really hope so," Ahava said. "She's my goddaughter. Was there anything..." She hesitated a minute, then laughed a little, not amused. "I'm a psychiatrist and I don't know what to say to her. Was there anything you said to your friend that helped, maybe?"

The Hospital

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