✚ 001. [voice]

[puppydoctor]

[It would be really, really nice to just go one day without a reminder that none of this is normal. Like a patient noticing the glowing tattoo and looking uncomfortable. Or having a full-blown panic attack on the way to work, just because a bus passed him by.

Or a bedpan filling itself up with hot coffee on his last day of work as a nurse.]

It turns out "infinite coffee" is somehow the actual most annoying superpower ever.

[There's a shuffle and the sound of water running. He's attempting to get the worst of the coffee off of the stain, while the scalded skin underneath quickly heals itself. Another reminder.]

What's the policy on disappearing into anonymity here? 'Cause I just wanted to rest in peace, not live out a comic book. I don't even want Heaven after all this, Purgatory would be fine. I was a good Catholic kid.

[Until he stopped believing in God, committed adultery, and got divorced.]

I lived - live - to help people. I joined the army back home to help people, and that's all I want to do here, with my afterlife. But I'm tired. Death is tiring, and I just want to be Mr. Nobody who goes to work and comes home from work and gets a couple of drinks with his friends. I don't want to be a hero to anybody's world.

... But if I'm going to be, I need to know what the hell you tell yourself to keep going. I don't have anywhere to get back to. This is my only world now, and I don't know if that makes me part of it, or if I'll be an outsider forever, but I need to hear it. I know I'm not the only undead guy walking around without a purpose.

Comments

[rathercommon]

Oh, that depends. Tell me more about surgery. You're a doctor, then?

[puppydoctor]

Uh, yeah. I mean, I've been working as a nurse here, but I have my MD. I was in a surgical residency back home, before.

[His meaning is plainly implied.]

[rathercommon]

Oh, well - that's loads better. Way more useful than what I was going to suggest. I have about a dozen different things I could recruit you for, with those sorts of qualifications.

[puppydoctor]

And what are those?

[Suddenly he's feeling a little bit nervous. "Recruit" sounds kind of intense.]

[rathercommon]

Well, have you heard of Lucy Pevensie's clinic?

[puppydoctor]

Oh, yeah! She asked me to work there.

[rathercommon]

Oh, brilliant. And you agreed, yeah?

[puppydoctor]

Yep, if she'll have me.

[rathercommon]

Brilliant. You'll be treating the locals, yeah? Not just imPorts.

[puppydoctor]

Yeah, as far as I know. Most of my typical patients here have been locals, but I like that. It's normal.

[rathercommon]

[ A nod - she's clearly pleased by that. ]

Good. We have a tendency, here, to band together, but that leaves people who haven't got our privilege bereft of care. Of help. When they need it more than we do, most of the time. So it'd be really good if you looked out for them.

[puppydoctor]

That's why I'm doing it. So many people treat this world like some kind of prison, but it's still a world, and its full of people who are just trying to live in spite of all our craziness.

[rathercommon]

[ Eagerly: ]

Yeah. Exactly. People act like it's the locals keeping us here, or like they're not people worthy of their consideration...They mustn't think that way. Especially since we've got - unimaginable powers, that we can use to help them. Really help them. We can make this world so much better - better than when we came into it.

[puppydoctor]

[He smiles.]

That's what I want to do. I mean, I'm just one guy with a scalpel, but that's what I feel like I'm here for. If you can only make a difference one person at a time, then that's what you do, and you just keep on doing it.

[rathercommon]

[ Her smile is very warm, very charmed, very happy. ]

I didn't introduce myself. I'm Kitty.

[puppydoctor]

George O'Malley. It's nice to meet you.