The First Day On the Job
This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays. ~Douglas Adams
On his first day at his new work assignment in the infirmary, Gabrion meets Madilla and gets the grand tour. She is, as everyone has said, nice. This puts Gabrion in a slightly better mood, enough so for him to brag about his brother and threaten to run off and be a trader.
OOC Date: October 18, 2009
IC Date: Day 21, Month 13, Turn 20
Who: Madilla, Gabrion
Where: Infirmary
It's bright and early, right on shift-change in the infirmary, those rostered on to overnight duties departing to make way for those taking the morning shift. Madilla's predictably early, already glancing through the charts at the front desk, making notes here and there as she keeps an eye on the doorway for any early morning patients, though for the moment, things are relatively quiet. Turning her head, the apprentice asks something of one of her Journeyman companions, and the two have a quiet conversation, the elder leaning in to read something off of the chart in question.
Gabrion schleps in from the lower caverns. If you spot him a minute or two, he's on time, though he looks about as enthusiastic to be here as a dung-shoveler on his first day of work. He's wearing what looks like the tunic of a healer apprentice, with the rank badge removed. Once inside, he moves out of the doorway, looks around, and shoves his hands into his pockets, trying to decide whether to approach the conversing healers, or just stand there until he grows roots.
Madilla's the healer who notices Gabrion first, eyes lifting to consider him for a moment as she rests a hand upon her companion's hand-- the other healer lets her gaze follow the apprentice's, and they both stand there for a moment. It's Madilla, though, again, who makes the first move, crossing around the side of the desk so that she can approach, a tentative - but warm - smile on her face. "You must be our new aide," she concludes, in a friendly enough tone. "I'm Madilla."
"I'm - yeah," Gabe says awkwardly. A smile appears on his face in answer to Madilla's, but it's fleeting. "Gabrion. Is my name. But uh, people call me Gabe. It's nice to meet you. Everyone says you're nice," he says, and grins briefly.
"Gabrion." Beat. "Gabe." The other healer waits a moment longer, watching, then turns away to head back to whatever she was doing; evidently, she trusts Madilla enough to be left alone with this. The Senior Apprentice positively beams at the boy, saying, "I hope I can live up to that kind of reputation. It's a pleasure to meet you. Do you know your way around the infirmary, or should we start with a tour?" And then, after a moment more, in a lower voice, "We're very glad to have you, you know. Truly."
Gabrion lowers his eyes to the floor. "Yeah. Thanks. Well. I'm not an apprentice anymore, I failed my first aid practical, so..." Maybe the conclusion to that sentence is supposed to be obvious; he doesn't voice it. "I kind of - I mean I've been in here before, but it's been a while, so a tour maybe isn't a bad idea."
Madilla's expression fills with sympathy, though by the way she nods, she knew this already. "Lots of people fail things," she tells him, seriously. "Maybe you could have passed it second time around, and maybe not, but none of that means you aren't suited to this kind of work. So: we're delighted to have you. And grateful; we need the extra hands, to be honest." She tips her head towards the rest of the infirmary, beckoning Gabrion onwards. "The front desk, obviously, is right here. Busy spot, at least-- later in the day it usually is. And the waiting area, obviously."
Gabrion gets a stubborn look, like he's heard that before, about passing on a second try. But he nods and manages to be reasonably polite about attending to the tour. "Nobody here to be seen yet, I guess," he says, noting the empty waiting area.
If Madilla notices that look, she doesn't remark on it: she just looks kind of sad, and has to swallow before she says anything else. "Right. It's still pretty early: we stagger our shifts so that we aren't changing the guard right when it gets busy, if you see what I mean? Give it half an hour, and we'll have plenty going on." She leads him on, towards the rest of the infirmary, indicating with her hands the examination cubicles, as well as those intended for longer term patients. "It's not as big as what you'd be used to, at the Hall, but still... we see a lot of patients every day."
Gabrion nods again. "Makes sense," he says. "Is it usually more sick people, or injuries? Or pretty much a mix?" He peeks into the place where the long term patients are housed, trying to see if there's anyone there.
There are a few people-- one man with a broken leg, one woman who is obviously suffering from some kind of illness-- but most of the cubicles are empty, for the moment. "Small injuries, more than big ones, and mostly, just minor illnesses. But a good mix, yes." Madilla smiles at Gabrion, adding, "We make a habit of getting people to come in for checkups, too, when we can manage it. Better to keep an eye on things."
Gabrion nods his head. "Yes," he says with a serious expression. "That's very important. Some people just won't - it's silly of them, but you can't sit on them and make them, or anything." Catching sight of a series of supply-filled shelves, he wanders over to look at the labels on the jars.
"Exactly," agrees Madilla, altering her path so that she can follow Gabrion towards the supply shelves. "Too many people are afraid of healers... we try and stop that, but, of course, it's difficult." Beat. "Did you get to do much pharmacy work, while you were at the hall? Making medicines? It's one of my favourite things. Making something useful out of things that, on their own, don't do nearly as much."
"Yes, some," Gabe answers. "That one I passed. Just the written exam. The practical would have been next term." He grimaces; being an ex-healer is clearly not a comfortable thing for him to think about. "Not that it's very hard. Just get the right amount of whatever the ingredients are, and mix it in."
Madilla gives Gabrion a long, thoughtful glance, and finally, just before she speaks again, she nods. "Not /so/ hard, in some cases, but precision is enormously important. You can help me with it, if you like, sometimes. I can always use an extra hand." She indicates, then, the offices, off to one side, naming each in turn: weyrhealer's, mindhealers, general offices, and then, "And that last side room is where we do the medicine mixing."
"Oh, really? That would be nice." Gabrion actually brightens up a touch at the offer. "I was pretty good at making different kinds of teas. For cough, or nausea." He takes note of all the offices and the mixing room, and nods his head, filing the information away. "Great. Thanks for the tour. What, uh... what do you want me to be doing?"
Madilla's smile brightens correspondingly. "Good," she tells him, earnestly. "I'll be glad for the help, and there's no reason why we can't have you using some of your previous training." After pointing out the last of the rooms off the main cavern, she hesitates, answering his question in an even, if slow, kind of tone. "Well. It depends, I suppose. Some cleaning duties, probably, but we'll also probably get you on the front desk, sometimes, and keeping supplies in order... Things like that?" It becomes a question at the end, kind of a 'will that be okay?'
Gabrion wrinkles his nose about the cleaning duties. But then, bedpans aren't anyone's favorite, are they? He nods his head. "Okay," he says. "Yeah, uh... sounds fine." He shifts from one foot to the other, and jiggles his leg a little like a kid who has to go to the bathroom.
"I promise it won't /all/ be boring," says Madilla, hastily. "Really. We'll get you doing as many of the more interesting things as we can, all right?" Lips pursing, she gives him an appraising glance, then, and then adds, "Are you-- all right?" The jiggling.
Gabrion stops jiggling. "Yeah," he says. "Uh, thanks - that's nice of you. I guess those people were right." The people who said she was nice. He grins, and this time it doesn't disappear right away.
Madilla's brows furrow, as though she's not entirely sure what he's referring to, about people being right-- but it doesn't stop her from smiling again. "Good," she says, more firmly. "Come on, we'll hang out at the desk for a while. Are you enjoying being back at the Weyr? I think people said you grew up here?"
Gabrion makes his way back toward the front with Madilla, moving at an easy pace. "Yep, I did. My parents are riders. My - my older brother's a healer, actually, a journeyman. He has a riding posting, he visits the little holds that are part of High Reaches Hold." A wistful expression appears briefly on Gabrion's face, but he banishes it. "It's nice. Being back. The Hall was just... I don't know. Too weird, too... different. Here, nobody cares if you're, you know. Different." We'll go with that, but he's probably referring to the fact that the way he speaks and carries himself would cause most people to conclude he's gay.
Madilla leans her forearms along the top of the counter as she listens to Gabrion, her head tilted just so; an obvious 'I'm listening' kind of pose. "That'd be an interesting posting," she says, brightly, though her eyes track the wistfulness. "He must see all kinds of things. The Hall /is/ strange. I came from a tiny little hold in the middle of nowhere... I got teased a lot." She draws her lips in, hesitates, and then adds, "But I came here about a turn and a half after I apprenticed, so it worked out. It's a shame you couldn't have done something similar."
"Yeah. His specialty is first aid and emergency care, so he has a really fast runner, and sometimes he even gets to ride on a dragon if there's a bad emergency. Last turn he helped a guy who had a tree he was cutting fall on him and broke his leg in like three places. There was bone sticking out and everything! They said if Seldon hadn't set his leg so well for the trip back up the mountain, he probably would have died." Gabrion is not above boasting about the accomplishments of his brother, even if he is not himself so accomplished. "How long were you at the hall?" he asks Madilla.
Madilla doesn't seem to be visibly concerned by the gore involved in Gabrion's story, though her lips draw together slightly at the obvious enjoyment her companion gets out of it. "Sounds like he's very good at what he does, then," is her conclusion, made with a slender smile. "I arrived when I was thirteen, and was sent here when I was not quite fifteen," she tells him. "I've been here three and a half turns."
"Oh," Gabrion says, "you weren't at the hall as long as me, then." He shakes his head and scrunches up his nose. "Maybe it would have been different if I'd gotten posted out. But, I'm not going back." Another nose-scrunch, and he adds, "Seldon is really good. So first aid was like the worst practical I could have failed, everyone was all like, 'But your brother is so talented, I just don't understand it!'" He does a startlingly accurate imitation of the voice and posture of one of the more cantankerous masters at the Hall.
"That must have been hard," Madilla agrees, sympathetically. "I am sorry. I really am. I wish..." She breaks off, managing in the end, only to look awkward. "Well. It is what it is, I suppose. What do you think you'll do, longer term? Any plans?"
"I... don't know." Gabrion looks a little lost at the very idea of trying to figure that out. "I mean, I guess, stay here. I don't really have anywhere else to go. And my family's here, mostly." He chews on his lip thoughtfully. "We have some trader relatives. So I guess I could run off and be a trader, if I had to." He smirks.
"A trader! That'd be a big change, wouldn't it?" Madilla seems interested, perhaps even outright enthusiastic, at this idea. "You'd get to see the world. Though... I suppose living in a weyr, that's easier, anyway." That's about the point at which the first of the patients start filtering through the door; there's not a lot of time for talking after that, except in snatches, but at least for that first morning, there isn't /too/ much cleaning.
On his first day at his new work assignment in the infirmary, Gabrion meets Madilla and gets the grand tour. She is, as everyone has said, nice. This puts Gabrion in a slightly better mood, enough so for him to brag about his brother and threaten to run off and be a trader.
OOC Date: October 18, 2009
IC Date: Day 21, Month 13, Turn 20
Who: Madilla, Gabrion
Where: Infirmary
It's bright and early, right on shift-change in the infirmary, those rostered on to overnight duties departing to make way for those taking the morning shift. Madilla's predictably early, already glancing through the charts at the front desk, making notes here and there as she keeps an eye on the doorway for any early morning patients, though for the moment, things are relatively quiet. Turning her head, the apprentice asks something of one of her Journeyman companions, and the two have a quiet conversation, the elder leaning in to read something off of the chart in question.
Gabrion schleps in from the lower caverns. If you spot him a minute or two, he's on time, though he looks about as enthusiastic to be here as a dung-shoveler on his first day of work. He's wearing what looks like the tunic of a healer apprentice, with the rank badge removed. Once inside, he moves out of the doorway, looks around, and shoves his hands into his pockets, trying to decide whether to approach the conversing healers, or just stand there until he grows roots.
Madilla's the healer who notices Gabrion first, eyes lifting to consider him for a moment as she rests a hand upon her companion's hand-- the other healer lets her gaze follow the apprentice's, and they both stand there for a moment. It's Madilla, though, again, who makes the first move, crossing around the side of the desk so that she can approach, a tentative - but warm - smile on her face. "You must be our new aide," she concludes, in a friendly enough tone. "I'm Madilla."
"I'm - yeah," Gabe says awkwardly. A smile appears on his face in answer to Madilla's, but it's fleeting. "Gabrion. Is my name. But uh, people call me Gabe. It's nice to meet you. Everyone says you're nice," he says, and grins briefly.
"Gabrion." Beat. "Gabe." The other healer waits a moment longer, watching, then turns away to head back to whatever she was doing; evidently, she trusts Madilla enough to be left alone with this. The Senior Apprentice positively beams at the boy, saying, "I hope I can live up to that kind of reputation. It's a pleasure to meet you. Do you know your way around the infirmary, or should we start with a tour?" And then, after a moment more, in a lower voice, "We're very glad to have you, you know. Truly."
Gabrion lowers his eyes to the floor. "Yeah. Thanks. Well. I'm not an apprentice anymore, I failed my first aid practical, so..." Maybe the conclusion to that sentence is supposed to be obvious; he doesn't voice it. "I kind of - I mean I've been in here before, but it's been a while, so a tour maybe isn't a bad idea."
Madilla's expression fills with sympathy, though by the way she nods, she knew this already. "Lots of people fail things," she tells him, seriously. "Maybe you could have passed it second time around, and maybe not, but none of that means you aren't suited to this kind of work. So: we're delighted to have you. And grateful; we need the extra hands, to be honest." She tips her head towards the rest of the infirmary, beckoning Gabrion onwards. "The front desk, obviously, is right here. Busy spot, at least-- later in the day it usually is. And the waiting area, obviously."
Gabrion gets a stubborn look, like he's heard that before, about passing on a second try. But he nods and manages to be reasonably polite about attending to the tour. "Nobody here to be seen yet, I guess," he says, noting the empty waiting area.
If Madilla notices that look, she doesn't remark on it: she just looks kind of sad, and has to swallow before she says anything else. "Right. It's still pretty early: we stagger our shifts so that we aren't changing the guard right when it gets busy, if you see what I mean? Give it half an hour, and we'll have plenty going on." She leads him on, towards the rest of the infirmary, indicating with her hands the examination cubicles, as well as those intended for longer term patients. "It's not as big as what you'd be used to, at the Hall, but still... we see a lot of patients every day."
Gabrion nods again. "Makes sense," he says. "Is it usually more sick people, or injuries? Or pretty much a mix?" He peeks into the place where the long term patients are housed, trying to see if there's anyone there.
There are a few people-- one man with a broken leg, one woman who is obviously suffering from some kind of illness-- but most of the cubicles are empty, for the moment. "Small injuries, more than big ones, and mostly, just minor illnesses. But a good mix, yes." Madilla smiles at Gabrion, adding, "We make a habit of getting people to come in for checkups, too, when we can manage it. Better to keep an eye on things."
Gabrion nods his head. "Yes," he says with a serious expression. "That's very important. Some people just won't - it's silly of them, but you can't sit on them and make them, or anything." Catching sight of a series of supply-filled shelves, he wanders over to look at the labels on the jars.
"Exactly," agrees Madilla, altering her path so that she can follow Gabrion towards the supply shelves. "Too many people are afraid of healers... we try and stop that, but, of course, it's difficult." Beat. "Did you get to do much pharmacy work, while you were at the hall? Making medicines? It's one of my favourite things. Making something useful out of things that, on their own, don't do nearly as much."
"Yes, some," Gabe answers. "That one I passed. Just the written exam. The practical would have been next term." He grimaces; being an ex-healer is clearly not a comfortable thing for him to think about. "Not that it's very hard. Just get the right amount of whatever the ingredients are, and mix it in."
Madilla gives Gabrion a long, thoughtful glance, and finally, just before she speaks again, she nods. "Not /so/ hard, in some cases, but precision is enormously important. You can help me with it, if you like, sometimes. I can always use an extra hand." She indicates, then, the offices, off to one side, naming each in turn: weyrhealer's, mindhealers, general offices, and then, "And that last side room is where we do the medicine mixing."
"Oh, really? That would be nice." Gabrion actually brightens up a touch at the offer. "I was pretty good at making different kinds of teas. For cough, or nausea." He takes note of all the offices and the mixing room, and nods his head, filing the information away. "Great. Thanks for the tour. What, uh... what do you want me to be doing?"
Madilla's smile brightens correspondingly. "Good," she tells him, earnestly. "I'll be glad for the help, and there's no reason why we can't have you using some of your previous training." After pointing out the last of the rooms off the main cavern, she hesitates, answering his question in an even, if slow, kind of tone. "Well. It depends, I suppose. Some cleaning duties, probably, but we'll also probably get you on the front desk, sometimes, and keeping supplies in order... Things like that?" It becomes a question at the end, kind of a 'will that be okay?'
Gabrion wrinkles his nose about the cleaning duties. But then, bedpans aren't anyone's favorite, are they? He nods his head. "Okay," he says. "Yeah, uh... sounds fine." He shifts from one foot to the other, and jiggles his leg a little like a kid who has to go to the bathroom.
"I promise it won't /all/ be boring," says Madilla, hastily. "Really. We'll get you doing as many of the more interesting things as we can, all right?" Lips pursing, she gives him an appraising glance, then, and then adds, "Are you-- all right?" The jiggling.
Gabrion stops jiggling. "Yeah," he says. "Uh, thanks - that's nice of you. I guess those people were right." The people who said she was nice. He grins, and this time it doesn't disappear right away.
Madilla's brows furrow, as though she's not entirely sure what he's referring to, about people being right-- but it doesn't stop her from smiling again. "Good," she says, more firmly. "Come on, we'll hang out at the desk for a while. Are you enjoying being back at the Weyr? I think people said you grew up here?"
Gabrion makes his way back toward the front with Madilla, moving at an easy pace. "Yep, I did. My parents are riders. My - my older brother's a healer, actually, a journeyman. He has a riding posting, he visits the little holds that are part of High Reaches Hold." A wistful expression appears briefly on Gabrion's face, but he banishes it. "It's nice. Being back. The Hall was just... I don't know. Too weird, too... different. Here, nobody cares if you're, you know. Different." We'll go with that, but he's probably referring to the fact that the way he speaks and carries himself would cause most people to conclude he's gay.
Madilla leans her forearms along the top of the counter as she listens to Gabrion, her head tilted just so; an obvious 'I'm listening' kind of pose. "That'd be an interesting posting," she says, brightly, though her eyes track the wistfulness. "He must see all kinds of things. The Hall /is/ strange. I came from a tiny little hold in the middle of nowhere... I got teased a lot." She draws her lips in, hesitates, and then adds, "But I came here about a turn and a half after I apprenticed, so it worked out. It's a shame you couldn't have done something similar."
"Yeah. His specialty is first aid and emergency care, so he has a really fast runner, and sometimes he even gets to ride on a dragon if there's a bad emergency. Last turn he helped a guy who had a tree he was cutting fall on him and broke his leg in like three places. There was bone sticking out and everything! They said if Seldon hadn't set his leg so well for the trip back up the mountain, he probably would have died." Gabrion is not above boasting about the accomplishments of his brother, even if he is not himself so accomplished. "How long were you at the hall?" he asks Madilla.
Madilla doesn't seem to be visibly concerned by the gore involved in Gabrion's story, though her lips draw together slightly at the obvious enjoyment her companion gets out of it. "Sounds like he's very good at what he does, then," is her conclusion, made with a slender smile. "I arrived when I was thirteen, and was sent here when I was not quite fifteen," she tells him. "I've been here three and a half turns."
"Oh," Gabrion says, "you weren't at the hall as long as me, then." He shakes his head and scrunches up his nose. "Maybe it would have been different if I'd gotten posted out. But, I'm not going back." Another nose-scrunch, and he adds, "Seldon is really good. So first aid was like the worst practical I could have failed, everyone was all like, 'But your brother is so talented, I just don't understand it!'" He does a startlingly accurate imitation of the voice and posture of one of the more cantankerous masters at the Hall.
"That must have been hard," Madilla agrees, sympathetically. "I am sorry. I really am. I wish..." She breaks off, managing in the end, only to look awkward. "Well. It is what it is, I suppose. What do you think you'll do, longer term? Any plans?"
"I... don't know." Gabrion looks a little lost at the very idea of trying to figure that out. "I mean, I guess, stay here. I don't really have anywhere else to go. And my family's here, mostly." He chews on his lip thoughtfully. "We have some trader relatives. So I guess I could run off and be a trader, if I had to." He smirks.
"A trader! That'd be a big change, wouldn't it?" Madilla seems interested, perhaps even outright enthusiastic, at this idea. "You'd get to see the world. Though... I suppose living in a weyr, that's easier, anyway." That's about the point at which the first of the patients start filtering through the door; there's not a lot of time for talking after that, except in snatches, but at least for that first morning, there isn't /too/ much cleaning.