OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

[promnibusanctis]

Who: Dr. Helen Magnus and [You]
When:  Day 92
Where: Roaming around, a little lost 
What: Arrival, getting her bearings, etc. etc.

Adventure was something Helen Magnus never shied from and exploring the vastness of the underground Sanctuary, far beyond those walls was something she couldn't deny herself.  So it was that she found herself here, under contract to the Ringmaster with her eyes wide with wonder at it all.  The lights and colours, the excitement, the darker elements shining through here and there.  It was as familiar as it was alien and she drank it in with an eagerness she had long felt lacking.  It stirred her as she moved through tents, passed people much like her who had joined perhaps years before her.  A bright flash of a tail there, wings, glowing skin, all of these people becoming Abnormals or were in the beginning.  The sheer fascination would have been enough, really.

 

"Excuse me?" she asked, reaching out to catch the attention of one of the people she had fallen into step with, "I seem to have found myself a bit lost.  I was looking for the medical tent and I seem to have completely gotten myself turned around.  If you could point me in the right direction, I'd be most grateful."

Comments

[promnibusanctis]

"For all their squishiness," Helen says with a soft laugh, "Humans, in general, are a particularly resilient species. Idiocy aside. In any case, I imagine I can handle that. I've had a great many years of practice - with medicine and idiocy."

[periphrasing]

Peridot blinks at her, and then snickers delightedly. Helen's joke landed pretty well, it would seem. Maybe... a little too well, even? The gem is kind of laughing harder than the comment really warrants.

"That is priceless," she laughs, one hand on her face. "I'm going to have to steal that one... except I'll have to replace 'medicine' with a skill that's more peri-propriate. Anyway, yes, you should do just fine here," she adds, basically as an afterthought.

[promnibusanctis]

One sentient creature's sense of humour is, Helen surmises, different than another's. She smiles at Peridot's antics and shakes her head a little in amusement. Helen does suppose there are many levels in which her statement is amusing as much as it's inherently true.

"Thank goodness," she murmurs, "I might be out of a job before I started if that wasn't the case. I assume the Ringmaster generally slots arrivals where their skills are most appropriate."

[periphrasing]

She clears her throat, composing herself and chasing off the last of her giggles. “That is a correct assumption, yes. Though I have seen individuals be reassigned based on demand and urgency pursuant to the carnival’s needs.”

[promnibusanctis]

"Ah, that's really quite good to know, thank you," Helen says, nodding. "Have you been here long? I've met a few people who seem to have been here long enough to have developed a few interesting additions to their biology or appearance."

[periphrasing]

“I’ve been here for over one and a half Earth years,” Peridot informs her proudly. “So yeah, I’ve gained quite a few extras by this point. The claws, the ears, this tail… I’ll admit, it was sort of unsettling at first, but now? I kind of almost like them. They’re useful to have.”

[promnibusanctis]

"I'm pleased to see you're adjusting well to it. A year and a half is a great deal of time and long enough to find your way with your extras. I can imagine it would have been incredibly unsettling at first. And I can also imagine my own will be just as strange," Helen said, trying to wrap her head around it all.

"Was there any physical discomfort or did your additions simply appear?" For Science, Peridot, really. She seems like a scientific mind, after all.

[periphrasing]

As prone to occasional tone-deafness as Peridot is, she automatically just assumes Helen is using her job as a cover to look for some kind of reassurance that the process isn't painful. "Mine just appeared," she says, shrugging. "But I'm also not human, so. Who knows. It might be different for you fleshier types."

[promnibusanctis]

"Hm, I'll have to ask around then," Helen said thoughtfully. "Pain and discomfort can be different from species to species, after all."

[periphrasing]

"Lucky you, there's certainly no shortage of subjects to study here," Peridot says helpfully.

[promnibusanctis]

"So it seems," Helen says with a laugh. "Everyone, including myself."