Clinic Mingle/Welcome Back Kate!

[pellameno]

Who: clinic staff, visitors, and guests
What: a mingle!
Where: at the clinic!
When: July 12th
Warnings: maybe some medical/injury chatter? please mark your threads!

It's come to Pell's attention that not everyone at the clinic knows one another, what with the staff building back up, so he wanted to do this anyway... and Kate is back, which makes this seem like the perfect time to host a little get together. So on the 11th, once all the new arrivals are all healed up from their stings and scrapes and things at the clinic are quiet again, staff and regular friends of the clinic get a simple text invitation.

Come meet your fellow clinic staff and our helpers as we celebrate the return of its champion, Kate Galloway.

5pm tomorrow night

And sure enough, the evening of the 12th, it's party time. The door's been propped open invitingly and there's soft music playing off a cell phone. One of the exam tables has been very thoroughly cleaned and set with a tablecloth, and there are beverages and snacks courtesy of Pell and Hannibal. (The food is not people don't worry.)

(( This post is open to all clinic staff, visitors, and guests, or even just anyone who might wander by and be like 'wow what's going on in there'? New helpers always welcome. Come mingle. :3 ))

Comments

Lance | OTA

[lifetothefullest]

[On one hand, this is a nice opportunity to get to know everyone. It's been a little weird not knowing all his coworkers, especially since this place is a lot smaller than the Hoover building, and they're working a lot more closely. They really should all be familiar with each other, and this is a good occasion for not only just meeting each other but getting a sense of what some of these people are like through observation.

On the other hand, Lance is much better with smaller groups, and he also has a lot on his mind at the moment. So he's not immediately sociable, and can be found lurking around the edges of the main room and drinking for the early part of the party.

Around the middle of the evening he's a little more outgoing, thanks to two or three drinks, and seeks out people he doesn't; he's definitely not drunk, just a little more calm, so his voice is even and friendly.]

Hello. We haven't met yet.

[And later on, as things are winding down, he's retreated entirely to his unofficial office toward the back of the Clinic, and can be found there by anyone else trying to escape the party without actually leaving just yet.]

[dedikated]

Kate.

( She's had a couple of drinks as well, and the night's progressing nicely. It's good to see the people here again, but also to see them when everyone's fully relaxed, rather than dealing with the weight of everything Hadriel throws at people and the fact that they're always woefully, woefully undersupplied. )

Guess we just missed each other last time I were here.

( Though sometimes this place can be so hectic that even she missed out on meeting new staff for a while. Some comedy where one person slides into a room just as the other walks out of it. )

[lifetothefullest]

[Ah, so this is Kate; he'd suspected from observing so far, but good to know for sure.]

I think so; I believe we were both here for a short time, but I wasn't particularly involved with anything for the first few weeks.

[For good reason, but still.]

It's nice to meet you. Other people here think very highly of you.

[dedikated]

( It took her some time to get involved with the clinic too. Mostly because she spent the first month stubbornly trying to find a way out and failing. Eventually, she found her way here, back into work she'd only really started back home.

If nothing else, Hadriel knows how to give a girl a challenge. But Kate clears her throat, looks away for a moment, as she's told people think highly of her. It was just work, just a way to keep her mind occupied, rather than going stir crazy in this underground hellhole where things kept reminding her of everything she wanted to leave behind.

She could always do better. Could always be better. She isn't a natural for this kind of work, just someone who needed to do something. )

- You too. What's your name?

[lifetothefullest]

Lance.

[He goes with the casual introduction instead of his full title and name, mostly because he's following Kate's example.]

I'm a psychologist.

[Hence why he's here.]

[dedikated]

( That. Is the kind of word that makes Kate stiffen, just a little. She's happier than she's been in a long time, in a better place than she has been for years, but shrinks talk about feelings and she's never been good at that. But, even so- )

Can't be easy here.

( This place needs shrinks, with the shit the gods pull, and the general madness that accompanies a place where death isn't permanent. That can fuck a person up. )

[lifetothefullest]

It's definitely a challenge.

[He didn't miss the reaction, so he offers his own response in a dryly joking way to hopefully put her more at ease.]

There's also been something of a learning curve, considering how many people here come from worlds with magic or monsters or whatever else.

[dedikated]

Think your world doesn't have them?

( She's just saying. Humans are well aware of the existence of Superhumans and Creatures back home, but their spheres are so often separate that Kate doesn't know a single human outside of the ones manning the tills at supermarkets and in her apartment building. No one she'd consider a friend. There's probably humans who find superhumans so obscure and out of their sphere of existence that they may as well be fictional to them.

So. It could always be that in some other world, the magic is so well hidden that humans know nothing. )

[lifetothefullest]

At this point, your guess is probably as good as mine.

[Being here, and hearing all of the stories from other people about their worlds having those sorts of things--especially when they're hidden from the general populace--that he's started to get suspicious. There were already some stories and individuals from home that raised questions here and there, and now he really wonders; not only that, but that there's potential is... Hopeful, maybe, or comforting. Both, perhaps.]

But I definitely didn't receive any training for dealing with any of it, if so.

[dedikated]

( She exhales, as if huffing with amusement at the idea. There are plenty of professionals back home who deal with powers and their unique differences but- )

Or how to help people who've come back from the dead. ... Bunch of other things, too. I'm guessing.

[lifetothefullest]

That's... Definitely something.

[He can actually handle the death thing well enough, because the effects are--as far as he can tell, anyway--comparable to other situations he knows how to deal with, but she's right in that there are plenty of other oddities. Psychic abilities? Immortals? People being turned in vampires? What's he supposed to do with any of that?

But he's working on it, at least.]

I would say that at least it gives me something to do, but I'm not actually pleased that so many people here have such serious issues.

[The opposite, actually; he's really concerned about a good portion of the populace.]

[dedikated]

( Yeah. That statement is enough to wipe the traces of amusement from Kate's face. Hadriel's track record with the people it brings in and the things the gods do in the name of energy - all things she could have, did, leave behind, entirely forgotten through whatever magic the Door holds. )

Tryin' to keep people healthy's not easy here.

( Because the people have so much baggage, because Hadriel doesn't let you breathe, because there's fuck all supplies or experienced professionals. Because people leave all the time. )

[lifetothefullest]

Yeah.

[It's hard to say anything that wouldn't be an understatement; this place is a mess, and that's even with only one very serious event occurring so far while Lance has been here. That one alone was enough to give people issues for years, let alone any others they've experienced before and then all the problems they had before even coming to Hadriel.]

But it's incredible what people have set up and managed to do here all the same.

[Like making the Clinic to begin with.]

[hasadoctorsnote]

[Lurking is something Nico's also good at, especially since he can pull the shadows around him to make him even more camouflage into the corners. He doesn't touch anything alcoholic and he's not the most sociable person by any means, so he mostly just sticks to the corners and walls, watching people milling about. He's fine with talking should anyone come up to him though, so when Lance does, he answers back casually.]

Hey. I'm one of the new arrivals so probably not. I'm Nico.

[lifetothefullest]

[That name is immediately familiar, and Lance is a little surprised.]

You know Will, don't you?

[He's pretty sure Will said Nico was his boyfriend, actually, but Lance isn't sure if Nico wants that to be known so he doesn't mention it just yet.]

[hasadoctorsnote]

[Nico didn't know Will had talked about him to other people before but he's not too surprised to hear it. It still makes him feel inwardly pleased and good though, that Will's been here for some time and didn't forget about him.]

Yeah. He's... [He hesitates for a moment.] We're... together. [That's good enough of an explanation, right?]

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance nods, offering a hopefully reassuring smile.]

He mentioned that. It's nice to meet you, Nico; my name is Lance.

[hasadoctorsnote]

Nice to meet you too. [He'll hold out a hand to shake.] So what do you do here?

[lifetothefullest]

[He returns the handshake as he answers.]

I'm a psychologist, although I also help with some more minor injuries. Have you joined as a part of the staff, or are you here because of Will, or...?

[hasadoctorsnote]

Both. I helped him out in the infirmary back at the place we lived so... I'll probably do the same here. [Since he can't really go to the Underworld and help his father out like he occasionally does at home, might as well so he has something to do when he's not killing monsters. He's better at taking out monsters than he is at playing doctor's assistant, in his opinion, but... you have to rest at some point.]

[lifetothefullest]

We can definitely use the help. As far as I understand there's hardly ever enough staff to handle when there's an emergency.

[And new arrivals day this month had also been quite a thing.]

[hasadoctorsnote]

How often is there an emergency...? [So he knows how often to expect craziness going on.] And what kinds of things do you deal with here when there is one?

[lifetothefullest]

It varies, from what I've heard; sometime there are a bunch of problems in a row, sometimes there's pretty much nothing for awhile.

[It's been more the latter case since Lance has been here, which he appreciates, except for the Ghosts event.]

There's a history written up that gives some details; I haven't really experienced any of the more physically dangerous things, or at least not any that we could help with at the Clinic. Aside from when everyone arrived this month, anyway.

[hasadoctorsnote]

[Nico nods as he listens.] Have you been here for awhile...? [He asks it because he wonders what's the longest time someone's been here for.]

Right. The bees. [Nico grimaces remembering them - he got stung by some and it wasn't fun at all. Thankfully he had Will to help him out.] Those aren't common around here, are they? [He sure hopes not.]

[lifetothefullest]

Just over three months. It feels like a lot longer, though.

[It's been a hard three months, and the first two especially dragged out. He shakes his head at the last question.]

No, this was the first time I've seen them specifically, but it is normal for monsters to arrive with the people each month. There were harpies last month, and I believe manticores the month before.

[And, in a stroke of uncharacteristic luck, there had been no monsters the month Lance arrived; as far as he's aware that's the only time that's ever happened.]