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Post by Dana Scully on Dec 1, 2012 0:31:08 GMT -5
Dirty. Dank. Pretty smelly.
This was definitely not a 21st century hospital. Dana Scully could hear the cries of her patients as she made her way around the building, in and out of rooms, talking to people. She was not a physician in her real life, but she still had more medical training than most did out here, which meant her skills were valued highly. And she had to do something to keep her mind off this madness.
Of all the places in all the world to stumble into... this had to be one of their most notable ones. It started out like any other routine case - on the road, investigating something weird that Mulder obviously thought had strange connections or origins. Out to disprove it, or prove it, as always.
And then they hit here. Aledon, she had heard it being called. Lord, what a mess. She swore she had seen magic being used, but of course, that must have been a trick of the light... or she had hurt her head or something. It couldn't have been real. She shook her head. She needed modern day painkillers or something. Anything. It was giving her the worst headache ever.
And she was pretty sure she was beginning to suffer from caffeine withdrawal. Coffee was not easy to find here at all, and she had gone almost a week without a single cup of Joe. Maybe it was that that was giving her hallucinations. She hadn't realised that she was such an addict.
Scully sighed and pushed her fingertips against her forehead. Nothing here was sanitary. It made her sad to think that many of her current patients would die from disease, just because there was no such thing as local anaesthetic or antibiotics to counteract anything that might crawl into their blood.
She paused by the big exit doors. She needed to see Mulder. Since coming here, he was even more of an anchor than usual for her. They were in a strange place; her cellphone had no signal, so she couldn't even call her mom. He was the only thing she knew was completely real - though she would be loathe to express it.
He probably knew anyway. |
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 1, 2012 11:21:42 GMT -5
Mulder was still not sure how they ended up in this time period… Scully and him had been going back and fourth on the subject for a week or so now. After a day or two of being here, they choice to just go with the flow of things. Blending into the time period and make the best of things until they were able to go back home. When it came down to the list of reason behind this happening, Mulder was still leaning towards a parallel world and they had slipped through the crack…
It was very strange, the lack of technology had to be bugging Scully as much as it was bugging him. He wouldn’t take having a fridge or microwave…things like that for granted for a long while. Let alone good pair tennis shoes. He had gone the way of wearing what they wore here. A white tunic like shirt with laces around the V-neck of the shirt, a pair simple pants and boots. One thing at least the fabrics used to make the clothing wasn’t none of the man made ones like the clothes he was wearing when he found himself in this place. Those he kept under the bed back in the place he and Scully were sharing.
For once, there was no major government cover-ups, no shadow group within the government… no Cancerman, there was just the King and Queen. Sure there had to be people within their subjects that were out to get them to over take this land but for once, it really wasn’t something he had to deal with. He was just a simple guard assigned at the hospital to make sure nothing bad happened to those who worked there or were being treated.
Mulder wondered how Scully was dealing with all this… all the pre-21st century methods and things like magic being used. The belief that evil spirits were making people sick instead of sound medical reasoning… The one thing that he found himself missing the most and going through withdraws was coffee and sunflower seeds, also what he would give for a good pizza.
He walked through the door carrying a try of two rather large turkey legs, some potatoes and veggies… There were two rolls also with some cheese. He had a bottle of water with him also. He sat the tray down on a table not far from where Scully was and glanced over at here. ”Come take a break from that worrying and eat. Been told the Inn serves some pretty mean food.” He offered a smile, hoping that a good hot meal would take her mind of things.
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Post by Dana Scully on Dec 1, 2012 15:35:14 GMT -5
A rare smile lit up Scully's face when she saw Mulder and his metal tray. He might not be wearing the nice suits she was used to, but there was something about these older clothes that did something to him. Made him look a little roguish. It did her no end of good to know that he had been assigned as a hospital guard, so he was always close at hand if she needed to bounce ideas off him.
She moved over to join him at the table. Unlike his loose fitting garments, she dressed herself in a pair of leggings and a light green tunic shirt that was tied at the waist. Not that anyone would really know that unless they saw her dress; she was forced to wear something not dissimilar to a priest's cassock to keep herself relatively clean of the blood and muck that came with the job. She already hated the dark green robe.
Perhaps having what looked like a priest at hand was comforting to these people. She had yet to find out what their religion was, but she doubted it was Christianity or Catholicism. They still seemed more likely to blame their diseases on devils. She had only been working at the hospital a few days, but she had argued with a few of the other physicians already, who believed in cures that just wouldn't work. Not that they would know that for another six hundred years or so.
Placing her hands on the table, she sat opposite her partner. Her sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, and she leaned on her arms. Eyes flickered around the room, taking in the appearance of the others. There were a couple more guards, but mostly commoners. Maybe those visiting sick relatives.
"Might be easy for you to stop worrying, Mulder, but I'm beyond stressed," she told him, eyeing the meat a little disparagingly. Who knew what they used to sanitise their food here?
She put her head into her hands, sighing rather heavily. Closed her eyes.
"Sorry. I don't mean to be snappy. It just feels like I'm going insane here," she murmured apologetically. |
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 4, 2012 12:13:41 GMT -5
Mulder resigned to the fact they were not getting out this place anytime soon. When he wasn’t working here at the hospital or spending time with Scully, he was out trying to gather more information on what exactly happened. From what he could tell the numbers of those who didn’t seem to quite fit in this time were growing…maybe one of them could shed some light on what happened. At the moment, he was glad to have caught Scully during a calm moment so he could get her to enjoy a meal… or at least try to. He knew how hard of this was on her and how much stress it was causing. Mulder was doing his best to try and get her to relax a bit, not to stress over so much stuff.
When it came down to it, Mulder was rather fascinated by all of this from the magic to the darker side of things. The dark nature was something he was always drawn to, the dark sider of the human race…it was interesting to him. His green eyes watched as Scully sat down, now he just hope she would eat something. It hadn’t gotten to the point where he felt the need to tie her down and force her to eat something, which he didn’t quite want to do.
Mulder watched her for a moment, listening as she talked and he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.
”Look Scully we are going to be in this place for god knows how long, so we need to make the best of it. Stop worrying so much… Sure things will work out. As for the people here, use your knowledge and find away to help them. Even if it means using some kind of magical potion from the local witch or wizard… The human race finds away to survive, we are proof that.”
He hoped those words would bring her some piece of mind. He wasn’t really sure what else he could do to help her settle into this land… but he needed to find a way before the stress became too much for her to handle.
”It’s alright, I feel the same way Scully. Going through sunflower withdraw.”
He smirked, trying to lighten the mood in the room. Mulder reached down and took a piece of meat off the leg on his plate off food, eating it that piece before eating another one. It wasn’t half bad, kind of tasted like a roasted turkey leg.
”Should try this, taste like turkey. Just think of eating a foreign meal from China or somewhere.”
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Post by Dana Scully on Dec 4, 2012 13:44:49 GMT -5
Scully tilted her head back and grinned toothily at the sunflower withdrawal. She was actually quite happy, for once, that he was telling her to just chill out. She needed the direction, or she feared she would actually go mad with the newness of everything. Of course, she had read fairytales as a little kid, but she was pretty sure she might have seen a talking cat the other day. Possibly buying fish from a vendor.
"Ugh. I think my body's telling me I need coffee. I haven't gone cold turkey on caffeine since... well, before med school!" she laughed. It made her feel better. She had spent long hours at John Hopkins working on dissertations all day and all night, driven only by Starbucks and energy bars. It hadn't helped that she was going through a dieting phase at the time, so she wasn't eating properly either.
She eyed the meat carefully. God knew what it even was. It looked like bird, but how was she to be sure?
Reaching out, Scully stole what looked like a chunk of carrot off Mulder's plate and slipped it into her mouth. Surprisingly, it was quite juicy and easily tasted as good as the food they had in the real world.
The real world.
That was one way to look at it. That this world was fake - a dream, a subconscious projection, a hallucination or a hologram - and that they were merely trapped in it by some antagonist they had yet to meet. It was certainly viable. It had happened before.
"Doesn't taste so bad," she smiled, keeping the more surreal thoughts to herself.
Oh, screw it. She was suddenly starving. She took the other 'turkey' leg and peeled a strip of meat off the bone. It was soft in texture, and when it touched her tongue, she recognised the slightly milky, meaty taste as turkey instantly.
"Mmm. Good."
She placed the leg back on the tray. It was Mulder's food after all, and his job was a lot more physically demanding than hers.
"I'm just concerned about getting back. Well, that's my main thing. I mean, I worry about the wellbeing of my patients here as well. If this is anything like pre-colonial times, most of them will die from bacterial infections, no matter what I try," she stated in a matter-of-fact way. It did upset her - she had made an effort to not be involved with the young children or maternity areas, because she wasn't sure if she could handle infant mortality just yet. |
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 13, 2012 14:21:29 GMT -5
“You know for once Scully, there is none of that everyday rush. The modern world is a fast food world but this… this is calmer and has a more peacefulness to it. There is none of that hidden agenda stuff, no government covering up the truth. None of those diseases of the modern world… all that here is a simple life and once we get adjusted we can enjoy it better. Take what you know, Scully and apply it the best you can here.” Mulder explained to her, hoping she would see why he was so calm about this and telling her to chill for once. There was a sense of freedom here for him; there wasn’t the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore.
Sure he missed his work, the x-files but here…here he could just be himself. It was all still very strange to him but who would feel strange meeting the real life Snow White or all those other characters that used to be fairy tales. It made him wonder if in some world, that his life was just a fairy tale to someone. ”Do you think that we are fairy tales to someone? He asked out of the blue and completely off topic but his thoughts had been traveling there and he wanted to know what Scully thought.
Scully admitting needed coffee and hadn’t had gone cold turkey in a while, he smirked and glanced over at her. ”Coffee didn’t appear out of the blue. It’s been around since these times. It was not as popular in these times. I am sure we can find you some coffee. I could use a cup myself. How about after your shift, we hit the local market?” Mulder could not remember when the last time he had gone this long without coffee but he wasn’t much of a coffee drink…well not at as much as Scully.
His hazel eyes watch Scully as she carefully eyed the meat like it was going to jump off the plate and kill her. Then inside of the meat she took a carrot and he chuckled a little. ”Its not going to kill you. No it doesn’t taste all that bad. It’s rather good, simple and tasty. I think her name is Granny… but she knows how to cook rather well.” Mulder was glad when she finally broke down and took the other turkey leg and ate from it. He loved how the meat was still moist and juicy also the softness of the meat. Showing that someone took there time with cooking. He gave a nod of his head as Scully said it was good.
Mulder pushed the plate towards here, there was too much there for him to eat. After all he got extra just in case he could get Scully to eat something. ”More than enough for both of us. Eat up.” He used one of the forks to grab some of the potato chunks from the plate and eat them. They were tender with a hint of salt and some seasoning, he could place them and then there was all the goodness of butter. He chewed his food, listening to how things were pre-colonial times. He wasn’t into history all that much nor knew much about medicine… that was her area. ”Why don’t you talk to the Court Physician… Heard he has all kinds of potions and treatments. Maybe he will be willing to teach you some of his skills. Heard he has a good record with keeping some of the worse case patients alive.”
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Post by Dana Scully on Dec 21, 2012 12:25:50 GMT -5
A delicate eyebrow raised, Scully listened to her partner intently. She really appreciated what he was doing for her. She knew that she hadn't been the easiest person to live with since they had found themselves here. She needed other ways to fill her time up - maybe she should get a horse or something. She had ridden a few times as a teenager when her father was on call in Florida. It might be fun to explore the countryside on horseback.
And besides, all her complaining seemed only to be upsetting Mulder. There was a certain liberty to him she had noticed here, like the weight of the world had been removed off his shoulders. He was Atlas, holding up his beliefs in spite of the government pushing down on him - and here, he didn't have that anymore. There was no Cigarette Smoking Man to contend with, nobody he had to answer to aside from the head of the town guard.
She hadn't even considered the idea that hey might be fairytales to someone. Theoretically, he might be correct, but then that brought up the concept of reality itself - what was real, and why was that so and not something else? The elusive truth that had driven them for years would be impossible to find if there wasn't any truth in themselves.
Yet, with all these fairytale people wandering around, it was hard not to maybe wonder if anybody was real at all. These 'others' most likely thought themselves to be real as much as herself and Mulder.
"You know, maybe we should see if we can hunt down some coffee after I'm done here. I get off in about three hours, give or take fifteen," she agreed to his suggestion.
It was closer to two and a half hours, but she had an eighteen year old up on the second floor with an infected dog bite. Scully had done all she could, but it was touch and go, and she really needed to see how the girl pulled through. To be there for her.
"And yeah, I've heard good things about the court doctor. He's supposed to be some sort of miracle worker," she nodded. She didn't know the physician's name, but if he worked on the nobility, he was probably worth talking to.
"Anyway, Mulder, enough about me. What've you done today? Caught any rogues?" she asked with a smile. She liked that his role in law enforcement was just as valued here as it had been at home. Where she had reverted to what she had initially planned to do after school, he had slipped right back into his old shoes. She had considered it too, and if the hospital got even more upsetting, she might have to apply.
The best thing about being a pathologist was that your patients were already dead. No screaming, no slow decay into the dark - just a silent cadaver, ready to reveal its secrets. |
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Post by Fox Mulder on Jan 14, 2013 12:09:47 GMT -5
With Mulder, anything and everything was possible. It was just a matter of time and finding the truth behind it. Over the years, he had shown Scully many things that science could not explain or had been able to explain yet. And here they were once again apart of all that. In a land where people that were once apart of childhood stories appeared to be real and they had no reason why they were here other than that they were.
They had ruled out all possible of what happened to them before over the long nights. And with each passing day, Mulder found himself wanting to stay here and looking for a way home less and less. It was the burden that he didn’t miss. Back home, he really had nothing outside of his job and Scully. The truth about his sister found, his mother and father gone. So maybe this was best for him but he wasn’t sure about Scully, she seemed rather burdened here and he wasn’t sure how to make it all better for her.
Maybe if he could find some coffee, which would be a start and then maybe get her into, see the count physician for them to work together and make a better health care system here. He would look into that before the end of his shift. After all he heard that the physician was a rather friendly fellow and very caring. ”That sounds like a plan Scully. I can meet you back here after your shift and we can start the new x-file case of the missing coffee.” He joked with her, he had an idea, which trader was selling it or he could always talk with that Mr. Gold about it.
”I heard he knows of the old ways and doesn’t refuse to shun those but also uses that knowledge with this current age. And he has spent years studying and researching the field. I’ll see if I can arrange something for you.” He could only hope that the two could come together and work some magical stuff to help the people of this world. With the old man’s knowledge of the herbs and plants here and Scully’s modern knowledge.
When Scully asked about his day, a slight shrug of his shoulder. ”Not much, just the usually. Heard we got a few more people confused about how they got here, just like us. No rogues or criminals yet today but hard to figure out what the rest of the day will hold.” Mulder was glad he was able to get some kind of rule in Law Enforcement here; it was all he really knew aside from Scully. Of course he couldn’t help but to find himself wanting to learn about the mystical and mythical side of this world. Things that were not possible in their world could happen and were in this world.
After standing up, Mulder gave Scully’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before heading out to finish off his shift and then go to see the court physician before meeting Scully back here. ”Finish your meal and I’ll see you in a few hours. I have to get back to my shift before something happens.”
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