WHERE:Vallo City: Chakrabarti Clinic WHEN:June 29th, 2021 WHAT:Ravi goes to pick up his stuff from the Clinic and runs into Wen Qing there. WARNINGS:None STATUS:Complete
The Chakrabarti Clinic had been started by Ravi last year, after the second time he had been brought to Vallo. It had been a pet project he had been working on the first time he had been there, but funding and permit approvals from the city and the DOA had taken some time to gather and push through. Thankfully, Caroline Forbes and private donors had done a fantastic job of making the Clinic happen after he got his second chance in Vallo.
And then he had been ripped away again and brought to another world, where they had been experimented on and fucked with in a variety of ways. That had been fun for exactly none seconds, before Ravi had been climbing the walls to get back to Vallo or even to his own home reality. He had gotten his wish, of course, in the most convoluted way. Because he had been brought back to Vallo a third time, but had immediately been slingshotted into the past with a vaguely familiar stranger who he teamed up with to survive a three day trek through unfamiliar woods full of monsters and other creatures. On top of having new memories from home, where he had married Peyton and had become the head of the CDC.
In short, everything had been fucked and he had nearly cried when he had his first chance to sleep in a real bed again.
After resettling though, he had found himself back in the Clinic, going through the storage rooms to pick up his old personal effects. He hadn’t been lying to Dr. Thompkins when he had said he had no intention of stepping on anyone's toes and trying to take over everything again. He had filled a need in the community when it had only been him and Dan. Now, there were other doctors around - gosh, he was going to start getting weepy over Kate becoming a trauma surgeon again - he was freed up to do whatever he wanted.
And what exactly was that? He wasn’t sure yet. But getting his belongings would be a good start. He’d, of course, stay on in an on call capacity, but he didn’t need an office there. Maybe the DOA could use a science researcher? Research and development had always been his passion, which is why he had veered toward the CDC originally.
So caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t hear someone knock lightly on the open door at first. But a politely cleared throat definitely got him perking up and he looked over his shoulder to see a young woman he hadn’t met yet. “Oh! Sorry. I was just picking up some things from when I used to work here. I should be out of here in a moment,” he said, apologetically, as he picked up a box labeled ‘R. Chakrabarti.’
The young woman in question had a stillness about her that some found offputting, some found soothing. Her eyebrows raised as she took in what was obviously some form of leaving, but Wen Qing was too polite to comment on it - yet. “Dr. Chakrabarti,” she said, because that much was obvious from the box he was carrying. She’d heard stories of his hair too, and how voluminous it was - those appeared to be true, at least.
“I don’t believe we have met. I’m Wen Qing,” she said with a bow, knowing it to be out of place here and not particularly caring. “I’m one of the physicians; specializing in magical injuries and acupuncture.” She got to work looking for the extra non-latex bandages; they were out of that variety up front and plenty of people had allergies. “I arrived in December, so not long after your departure, I believe. I didn’t start working here until January.”
It was more than she gave most people, but she was nothing if not cooly professional in this role. It was when things got personal or she had to babble her way through parties that Wen Qing actually floundered.
Responding in kind, Ravi inclined his head just so in his own version of a bow. If he actually tried bowing, his stupidly tall self would manage to make it look ungraceful and the woman in front of him seemed like she didn’t tolerate those that came off foolish. “Lovely to meet you, Wen Qing. I’m glad to see the Clinic has grown since I was here last year. Dan and Dr. Thompkins did a great job with this place because we definitely didn’t have any experts in acupuncture before and the magical healers on payroll were all on-call.”
It was a lot better to have someone more full time and present there, for those emergencies that were a little more dire. Ravi was a firm believer in science, sure, but magic was just another form of it and if someone was bleeding out? He rather they could stop that right away. The lives of their patients always came first, no matter the method.
Lifting the box in his arms to draw attention to it. “I was actually just getting some of my personal belongings that got left behind the last time I was sent back. Clear out and give you lot a little more space. I’m stepping into a more advisory on-call roll, unless there’s an emergency. Then I’ll be here full time.”
“There are always emergencies,” Wen Qing said dryly, because if it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Still, she wondered what other place the doctor might be headed. She had been brought up with healing as her concentration; it had never occurred to her to look elsewhere to be useful, to seek employment.
“Where are you going?” she asked, and if it was rude, well, she had been accused of being that, too. There was always a revolving door of employees at the Clinic due to Vallo’s interference. The doctor’s assurance that he’d be available should something awful happen was good, but still - she was curious. He was young, she observed. Maybe medicine wasn’t his passion.
That surprised a little laugh out of Ravi. “You’re not wrong about that. These places do tend to have an unexpectedness to them. So much that you start to expect the day’s going to end in injuries.” Three different worlds other than his own and it always seemed to be the case. “Doesn’t help that more than half the Outlander population are heroes in their own worlds.” He didn’t know the numbers and ratios on that information, but he would soon, once he started with the DOA.
“I’m hoping to work for the DOA under their science division. I worked in research and development before I moved over to the medical side of my abilities. I was hoping to get back into that, now that I don’t have to worry about the Clinic,” Ravi explained, knowing that the big worry of ‘Who is going to heal everyone’ was mostly answered these days. He would always come running when things started to happen, but the day to day? He was glad to be out of it, honestly. Especially after being stuck in Derleth and being one of two doctors there.
Wen Qing gave a slow nod. The science division. It wasn’t something she knew much of, but then, her cultivation had always been more concerned with spiritual magic than the why behind things. She thought she might have enjoyed the why, once, but studying science had never been an option for her, and she did like the Clinic. There was little she felt as if she needed to atone for - but it felt good, regardless, to be useful.
“With as many worlds as are represented here, there should be enough science to satisfy even the most chronic of insomniacs.” She said it lightly, but she had a hunch, looking at him, that he well-represented that particular demographic.
Ravi narrowed his eyes at her in slight bemusement. “Are you a telepath as well? Or just very intuitive?” This was probably a magic thing, which wouldn’t surprise him. Bonnie was like that too, sometimes. But she had hit the nail on its head. A good night’s sleep was very hard to come by for him, these days. There were too many things he had lived through, had lost, for him to have any measure of peace.
At best, he was able to tire himself out so much that he slept through the night.
Wen Qing gave him a decisive shake of her head. “You seem the type.” Took one to know one, after all, but she was a private person and she wasn’t quite comfortable with commiserating with a relative stranger. That careful paranoia that had plagued her at home kept her cautious here even months later.
Still, she managed what might have been a smile; a knowing look to her eyes. “Many of those who take their work very seriously struggle with maintaining a regular sleeping schedule. It doesn’t take telepathy to know that. “Have you tried to take anything for it?”
The type, huh? Ravi supposed doctors and scientists did tend toward more irregular hours than most, so he didn’t press her further on that. He wasn’t surprised about her having follow up questions though. Any half decent healer type would.
“I’ve tried some over the counter things. CBD gummies work some of the time. But sometimes I can’t get my brain to turn off. I think my brain’s still recovering from the hammering the last world put it through,” Ravi explained. “Time ran differently. The days seemed...longer. We existed in a void universe. All very strange.” Not to mention the mental anguish he had been put through there.
Wen Qing was no stranger to saying one silly little shallow thing and meaning a whole trench of other things, and she picked up on some intimation in his voice that pointed to this. Her eyebrows rose - not enough to be outwardly nosy; she was a gentlewoman, after all - and she considered the ramifications of having visited multiple universes.
“I admit to being grateful for Vallo,” she said after a moment. “It is only my second universe, after all, but a great deal kinder than the one back home. What do you think of it?”
“It’s...something?” Ravi didn’t have unkind things to say about Vallo, but he had probably been his most settled and happiest back in Tumbleweed. “I have some friends here and the random monster attacks are enough to keep people busy, but I have to admit that I’m feeling a bit listless around here. The Clinic is well in hand and doesn’t require my oversight anymore, which had taken up the majority of my time before. And the sex ed class I taught was taken over by someone else, so that’s out as well.” Major, Clive, and Liv weren’t here, Eliot didn’t know who he was, and Bonnie had the twins to focus on these days so day drinking with her was out most of the time. Honestly, it was probably his coffee dates with Dan that was saving his sanity.
“But that’s more a reflection on me and my inability to move on from old things. I’m hoping working with the DOA will help, if they’ll have me.”
“I’ll give you the sex ed class back, if you want it,” Wen Qing said dryly, having gone through three months of it and was incredibly tired of dreadful teenagers and their jokes. “But don’t think of it as moving on. I’m certain that the next time we have need of you, you’ll come to help. You’re just expanding your interests - not relinquishing them.”
She wasn’t certain why she was trying to make him feel better. Perhaps it was just her instinct to do so, perhaps it was due to her practical nature. Wen Qing wouldn’t deny anyone the need to change if they needed change, though. She’d been trapped too often herself.
Ravi laughed. “No, no. I’m really good with not having to deal with the banana jokes anymore. That is all yours, though I might ask to join you sometime? Had a Pride themed lesson I never got to do last year that might be appropriate for this coming Pride weekend.”
Inclining his head again, he said, “I do appreciate the offer and your words. Thinking of it as a way to expand my interests certainly helps. I hope we do get the chance to work together though.”