Utrecht Visscher - 001

[frontier_doktor]

Public | Audio

[His message is quick, because he's nervous and new. Visscher came back for the project to rebuild, just in case more of the same misfortunes happened. He doesn't know if it's a good idea or not, but he might as well reintroduce myself.]

Most of the people I knew when I was first around seemed to have departed.

But I am Utrecht Visscher. I am a qualified physician in my universe, and a general practitioner by interstellar standards.

It's a pleasure and I will do my best to assist.

Comments

[frontier_doktor]

That and places that are in need of regular medical care. From what I saw of the medicine shortages, I thought my services could be of use.

[impossibilities]

Oh... that does not bother me. [She tilts her head slightly, pausing, and then added,] Speaking to new acquaintances is a skill like any other that takes practice and sometimes advice. I used to be very good with words.

[domesheriff]

[she makes a face, nodding] You're not wrong there. [hopeful, she adds:] Were you able to bring anything with you? I mean, not that having another doctor here isn't help enough, but it sounds like they are really short on medicine.

[frontier_doktor]

Not much, no. I am going to have to rely on my ability to use plants for it. It may seem like nonsense but I do genuinely only use the ones proven to work. And even they might not be much.

[folkscallmewander]

[Wander was busy petting the giant grub's side at the moment, but he's now distracted by Visscher's entrance.]

You're here! [He leaves it's side and walks up to the doctor with his arms outstretched.] This here is Wriggles, ain't he beautiful?

[Said grub moves its head up and down a few times.]

[truth_is_the_enemy]

I do, but in the way that one misses an old beloved home town after they've been away for twenty years: through the golden haze of nostalgia and with the knowledge that if you went back, even if nothing there had changed at all, it wouldn't really be as you remembered it anyway.

But things were easier then. Civilization kept people safe, at least in my part of the world. No one had to be afraid of raiders or razor rain or hellbugs.

[frontier_doktor]

According to my parents, civilization wasn't very safe. They suffered greatly for the schisms in Europe. You must have lived on a better part of Earth.

[frontier_doktor]

[Not really, but you know what?]

Many beautiful things come out of grubs. I bet Wriggles will be even more impressive later.

[truth_is_the_enemy]

Britain was very safe before the Pale Wars. Oh, there was the occasional murder here and there, like in any society, but even that was uncommon. People mostly couldn't even own firearms and even the police walked around with just a stick for a weapon. People were a little bit afraid of terrorist attacks, but they rarely amounted to much from what I remember.

The last time there had been any really major number of civilian deaths on the island was probably...[He pauses and puffs out a breath as he does the calculation]...eighty years before the Pale War, the blitz during the Second World War. That's four generations of peace and relative safety.

[frontier_doktor]

My parents came from cold war Earth. The atmosphere was so tense and intolerable they chose to follow an alien into the future rather than remain there.

You were blessed with a very good location.

[truth_is_the_enemy]

[He takes many seconds to respond, distracted by flashes of memory. It had been good. Until it very much wasn't. When he replies, his tone is a bit lower, a bit more closed off.]

It was very good for a while.

[frontier_doktor]

When I was young my colony suffered a disaster. My parents were killed and I was separated from my sister.

[truth_is_the_enemy]

How old were you? What happened? An attack?

I'm sorry, you don't need to talk about it if you don't want to.

[frontier_doktor]

Just misfortune.

[He isn't honest there, but it seems wiser than admitting the truth. This man seems very bent against aliens, and in a mixed community such as this that might not bode well. He doesn't want to encourage it.]

I was ten. I was taken in by a disaster relief medical team and have been dedicated to the medical practice since.

[truth_is_the_enemy]

[He nods, although it can't be seen over the audio line.]

I was rescued by the Earth Military Alliance when I was fifteen, then joined up with them as soon as I was old enough.

[folkscallmewander]

[He gives Visscher a glance at that comment, but doesn't look bothered at all by it.]

Oh, he's gonna be! He's been doin' real nice at practice.

[frontier_doktor]

Did you lose your parents as well?

[frontier_doktor]

[He is trying. His reasons, he knows, are probably unfair on part of the grub and Wander certainly has confidence.]

Is he steady under the saddle? It sounds as though he is already doing much better than some of the others.

[frontier_doktor]

Well, that's certainly good to hear.

[His is a bit of a life-time condition. He's 37, and never shaken it. He'll never do a video post because of it.]

[impossibilities]

[She hesitates a little more.]

I could coach you in the matter of words, if you would like.

[frontier_doktor]

No, that's fine. It's better if I show caution with some of my clients. I don't discriminate but sometimes that leads to people that take disrespect too easily.

[impossibilities]

Ah, that is all right. I was just thinking it would be nice to have someone to speak to over breakfast.

[frontier_doktor]

I could talk to you then. I have no problem with that.

[impossibilities]

Thank you. Perhaps I could cook a dish from my homeland?

[Hint; don't let her cook.]

[truth_is_the_enemy]

Not then. I was away at school in Devon and my parents were in London. They died a few years later in a bombing, but I was an adult by then. Not that I didn't grieve, but not as bad as losing one's parents as a child.