ph_logs | [Open] All the Leaves are Brown

Who: Sally Boyle and you!
What: Arrival, opening up shop, a few odds and ends.
When: From now until it is no longer useful!
Where: Jack's Marina and around town.
Warning(s): Illicit substances, references to the death of a child, possibly more. Will update as needed!

-I've Been for a Walk-

To Yorick's credit, he did his best to lead Sally through the motions of getting settled in Pumpkin Hollow. He was kind and patient and a silly old thing. And yes, the town is cursed, room at the inn, work options, food vouchers, blah blah, that's all well and good but the whole time Sally had only one thing on her mind.

Where is Gwen?

The very minute that Yorick and Mayor Poe turn her loose again, she forgoes the tavern entirely and makes a beeline straight for the beach. Huddled in the sand, she sits and watches the docks with her rail-thin legs hugged tightly to her chest, hoping to see the ferryman return with her infant daughter.

Part of her hopes he doesn't. Because that would mean...

But if she isn't here, then what happened to her? If Sally didn't survive the crash, where does that leave Gwen? At least if she was here, they wouldn't have to be apart. Sally could find a way back... for both of them. Or maybe make a new life for the pair of them here. But what if little Gwen didn't get that chance?

It will be a while before the ferryman returns, but he will bring Guinevere Boyle with him. However, Sally doesn't know that. So she will wait here on the beach even as night falls.

-He Knows I'm Gonna Stay-

It takes a few days, but once Gwen arrives and Sally signs up for work as a physician, the pair are finally settled in. (Sally makes it clear to Mayor Poe that her expertise is in pharmaceuticals and she is, first and foremost, a chemist, but that she's got a lot of experience with first aid as well.) It's a small place, but it's theirs. A small drugstore and simple clinic with a small apartment on the upper floor. It has a study, but Sally converts it to a nursery.

Thus, the Blackberry Apothecary is born.

Basic clinic services and injury treatment is available here, along with all manner of helpful medicines made from local herbs.

And maybe some more interesting things if you ask the right questions. She does, after all, remember the recipe for Joy.

-California Dreamin'-

With Gwen strapped to her chest and a bag slung over her back, Sally ventures out into the woodlands to collect necessary herbs and flowers for her apothecary before the chill kills them off. Sage and rosemary, ginseng and yarrow, foxglove and poppy. If anyone approaches her while she's out foraging, she'll spit out a customary Wellington Wells greeting like a reflex.

"Lovely day for it!"

-Wildcard-
Always open to ideas!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay yeah she's definitely some kind of fantasy character. Wild. This place is wild.

Definitely still better than Wellington Wells, though.

"No worries! Why don't you come on back into the exam room? You don't need the whole town knowing the particulars, ey?"

"Fair enough." River does not make the kind of joke she would with Erik, with regard to touching her arms accidentally burning the place down -

Actually shit that should probably get brought up. River follows Sally into the exam room and hops up onto the table. "Hey uh, you're gonna find some scarring on my arms -" she pushes a sleeve up, to reveal the smoldering sigils. "- which is there on purpose. It's fine, but don't uh, mess with them."

Well that's weird. But Sally gives a thumbs up and a quick nod. "Right-o. Thanks for the heads-up."

She closes the door behind them. "So! For testing--- blood sample, urine sample, and a mouth swab. If you feel you're genuinely at risk of something or experiencing symptoms, I can do a visual check and a genital swab, but if this is just a safety check then that's probably not necessary today." Sally's never been a gynecologist, but she's been to one enough times in her life to combine context clues with her own medical knowledge. It'll be enough to take care of the people here until someone more qualified can take over, at least. "As for preventative contraceptives... I'm still working on methods for hormone control using what's available, but I do have cervical cap designs in the works."

"...So of those words I understood the ideas behind the samples and the swab. Let's uh. Let's back this up a little - how does your medicine work?"

"I can use some equipment I have in the back of my shop to test the samples for signs of disease or infection. I don't know how advanced chemistry is where you're from or if microscopes existed, but that's how I do it. As for medicine, under normal circumstances I would be able to create ingestible medicine that would control menstrual hormones so that you would cease ovulating as long as you took the pills daily, as well as emergency pills that would effectively trigger an immediate period so that an egg fertilized by mistake would get flushed out before it got any further than that. It's not pleasant but it works in a pinch."

Sally begins preparing the sample containers as she speaks.

"But my resources here are limited until I get some better lab equipment, so I'm trying to figure out a recipe that does roughly the same thing with local ingredients. For the time being, I have a rudimentary but fairy effective little insertable made of sea sponge and plant fiber that can just block any unwanted visitors from the cervix. Feels weird going in but give it a minute and you'll stop feeling it."

Yes, that is how they made birth control back in the old days. A dense sea sponge in a net made of soft plant fiber, with a string like a tampon. And Sally has tried it so that she can speak from experience. Not with a partner yet, but the books she read seemed to vouch for the man's experience as well.

Maybe she ought to hire that man up the road to give it a test run. For science, of course.

There's a nod of dawning comprehension. The emergency pills are mostly familiar - River's used to a liquid that's rather less convenient - and the rest tracks pretty well. "Nice to know a healer's a healer even across worlds. Sounds convenient, and I'll be grateful. Though now I face the trial of pivoting to small talk."

"Ah, the beast that is awkward conversational segues." Sally laughs, empathetic and easy-going. "I'll spare you the drudgery in favor of something even more awkward."

She places a small glass jar into River's hand. There's no plastic sample cups in this place, but glass sanitizes well, so jars it is. "The restroom's on the left there. When you come back, we'll do blood work and maybe we'll have even thought of something interesting to chat about."

"I'll admit, I'm stumped on the small talk. You got an idea?"

Sally chuckles. "When in doubt, there's always the weather," she says as she hands over a swab for River to give a saliva sample. "But seeing as I'm new here, I'd be interested to hear more about the town, if you have any tips or tricks for newcomers!"

"Aside from using the community board, not to state the obvious?" River taps her chin. Then she snaps her fingers. "Yeah, actually. Do yourself a favor and drop by the farms, meet the folks that make most of your food. They're gonna be your clients for the same reason they're mine - our industries meet at pain points. Tools wear out, they come to me. Someone gets cut up by a hoe or plow...they come to you. The river's fucking haunted, try not to use the bridge if you can avoid it..."

The elf pauses thoughtfully. "...And the people here are nice, if you can just meet 'em halfway."

Sally nods, listening with interest and committing River's advice to memory. "You know, I already met a few of the farmers! Eddie found me on the docks and I ran into Arthur while gathering herbs. I think there's just one more, right?" She's yet to run into Milo. "Good to know about the bridge."

"Yeah, it's a nasty surprise. I dunno how we're gonna dig monsters that just reincarnate out of their favored dens, but...that's a later problem." River thinks. "...You been by the temple?"

"I haven't! I've never been the praying sort." There weren't really any churches anymore in Wellington Wells, come to think of it. Aside from the ones out in the Garden District, but those were largely destroyed in the bombings or serving as homes for Downers, anymore. "I've seen the outside, though, it's beautiful."

River makes a friendly sort of 'tch' sound. "You're a guest in this world; you should at least stop in and greet your hosts, shouldn't you? It might be a bit weird to profess to become a worshiper, sure, but if I dropped by your house and started living in your walls you might be a little put out, yeah?"

"Hey, I didn't necessarily ask to be here. I was asked to come. I assume I spoke to whatever host there is when I got the offer." She shrugs awkwardly. To be honest, religion is a little uncomfortable for her, what with her somewhat checkered past, but River doesn't need to know that.

Sally collects her samples and sets them aside for processing. "I have everything I need for now. The results take a little while to get without my usual equipment. Want to stop in tomorrow to get them?"

"Done deal. See ya then."

[Open] All the Leaves are Brown

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One Medical Montage Later

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Wrap?