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WomanWizard

Member

Registered: 2018-05-11

Posts: 212

I was Doctor Clyde

I was born in the wilderness. My mother raised me next to a grove of wild berry bushes. I was naked and cold, and she had to feed me a lot, but when I was old enough I asked her about home. She told me it was south west, so I grabbed a berry and ran.

Boy was home south west! I ran and ran, having to stop a few times to pick some more berries. I started to see signs of civilization as I got older: a hitching post with a shovel here, snares and rabbit furs there. Eventually I noticed that all the trees had been cut down, so I knew I was close. When I spotted my first farm, I was ecstatic. People! I'd been running for years, but here they were, finally!

I was so happy to find the city and other people that I began to run around. Where was the food? Where was the smith? I didn't make it far before I came across an interesting building. Inside were sterile pads, water, antivenom... and a sign by the door that said medic.

Sweet, I thought. A city with an actual doctor. This is a nice place!

I turned around to look at the berry fields next to the medic hut, when suddenly I heard a rather unfortunate noise. When I turned back to look at the hut, the medic had died. Male or female I don't know, because I had only seconds to look at them. In my fleeting memory I think I saw long hair: a woman. But not old enough to have died of old age. Starvation it seemed.

Already I was diagnosing, and I was only a child.

The previous medic was named Berry. I ran into the hut, crying. No! The medic died! Others came in and mourned. We took the medic's stuff, but there was a knife in her (or his) apron and as a child I could not remove it. Somebody else did it for me, and took the red cross apron as well.

They left, but I stayed. Someone needed to stay in the hut in case of stabbings, or maulings, or snake bites. Who would tend to the poor children? I put on a blank apron, and stuffed a needle with a ball of thread in the pocket. I was the new medic, I declared to the few around to witness me.

Life went on.

My first few years as a medic were boring. Few people dropped by. There was still food in the hut, which I ate along with the berries from the field, and berries in a bowl to keep things diverse. Eventually the food was running low, and while I still had the berry fields, I figured it would be a good idea to find some pie, since I was old enough to eat it without it being a waste.

I didn't want to wander far, however, just in case someone needed me. Luckily, there was pie just to the south. People kept dying of old age nearby, which meant backpacks with pies in them lying all over the place.

An old man ran into the hut. He wanted to know how to heal, and said he would get someone to stab him. I watched him run around with a knife, trying to get someone to go for it, even going to far as to ask me. I said no. If I stabbed him I would not be able to heal him.

Eventually someone took the knife and stabbed him. The man ran into the hut with wounds. I had a sterile pad at the ready, but someone was standing too close. Then the man died, only seconds after being stabbed. I had no time! I tried, really! My first patient, and either I was too slow, or he starved to death before succumbing to his wounds.

Never again, I vowed.

I started standing at the door. "I am Doctor Clyde," I would say, so that the people knew they had someone to heal them if they were hurt. "The Doctor is in."

I saw some regulars. There was Zeus, who brought me thread and made sterile pads so I wouldn't have to leave the hut. He was working on a road, but he stopped to help the doctor anyway. He was a good man.

There was Amanda. A quiet child, but she clearly wanted to help. She brought me a firebrand when I asked for fire, although Zeus was already making the sterile pads for me. I still appreciated it.

Then there was Edward. He brought me pies. He worked hard and made sure the city was fed. I fear I may have been a bit of a jerk to Edward, and I am sorry. He saw that I was doing nothing, and maybe felt bad that I had no patients. So he went out and stabbed a child.

Now, I under no circumstances condone stabbing children, but at least he made sure the child was nearby. Eventually she came running to the medic and I slapped a sterile pad on her and stitched up the wounds. Edward, however, was starving. He couldn't put down the knife. He had just stabbed someone! He asked me to feed him, but I wanted him to know that I did not want him to stab anyone. I was going to feed him, but unfortunately my little lecture was somewhat too long. He starved before I could shove any pie in his face.

And then the child he stabbed starved in my hut, trying to grab one of my pies.

It was a sad time. But at least people knew I was there now. Mothers stopped by the hut to show their children where the doctor was. Many babies were being born nearby, and when there were a bunch of them outside the door I said, loud enough for all of them to hear, "Who wants to apprentice so they can take over when I am old?"

I was not going to let the same thing happen that happened to Berry. Die without anyone to take over? No thanks.

The mothers cared for their children, and continued to return and show them the hut. Eventually a child showed up. He had no name, but he had spirit. I asked him if he wanted to be the next doctor and he said yes.

I taught the young man everything I knew. He had a general idea before he showed up, but it didn't hurt to give him as many details as I could. How to make sterile pads, for example. We had many, and I'd only used one, but you never knew when someone would go on a murder spree. I had seen a child running around with a bow earlier.

Amanda dropped by. She was getting old, but not terribly wrinkly yet. She was saying her goodbyes. Amanda was a good woman, and when she died I was sad. She was my first cousin, and the unnamed kid was my first cousin once removed. "She your mom?" I asked.

"Yup," he said.

I was getting old. Time to retire. By that point I had been given the red cross apron that was still in town. I took it off and passed it to the new doc. Gave him my knife and prayed he wasn't secretly a murderer. His sister, Queen, was staring out at the withering berry fields. "Oof," she said. I agreed.

I spent the rest of my life tending to the berry fields. But I didn't have long left. It would have been nice to explore the town a little more, but my little corner was more than enough. There were good people there, and good memories. Even if some of them were a little bloody.

I hope that future doctors have as boring a stay as I did. Means the people are safe, and as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters.

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JackTreehorn

Member

Registered: 2018-04-18

Posts: 177

Re: I was Doctor Clyde

Nice story. I made the medic sign for the city. I thought that city had died out, glad to see some new residents. Let's keep this city going!

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Eve Audette

WomanWizard

Member

Registered: 2018-05-11

Posts: 212

Re: I was Doctor Clyde

This life was interesting for me. Made me realize just how important specialized work is. Too many times I've needed something and had to go to the bottom of the chain myself to get the recipe started. Farming milkweed. Then, by the time I come back to harvest and make the thing I needed, someone else has already harvested it.

We had dedicated jobs here. I was a medic, and people brought me food, and supplies, so that I was always on hand if I was needed. They knew where to find me. I don't know if other areas had dedicated jobs, but having someone pumping out carrots, and pumping out milkweed, and pumping out wool and poop... it allows people to have what they need for the jobs that are higher up on the food chain. It's important, and having the workers dedicated to specific tasks like farming, cooking, crafting, healing, it not only mimics life, it's beneficial to our in game societies.

Thank you for making the sign. I think it very much contributed to people's understanding of the medic profession, and hopefully kept it going after my death. I know it did for me.

Jk Howling

Member

From: Washington State

Registered: 2018-06-16

Posts: 468

Re: I was Doctor Clyde

Oh, I think I know the town you're talking about! I vividly remember the layout, with the 3x3 medic field and a sign locked to the corner. The berry field was literally a tile left of the entrance.

Digging through my recent lineages, I was David Power not that long ago. I very much remember the medic hut.

But I mostly remember it for the experiments they ran there. The "doctors" kept grabbing children and stabbing/shooting them, then trying to stitch them up. The first three died, until I stepped in from tending the berries to explain they were missing the step of pulling out the arrowhead.

They finally successfully healed a child [and dubbed me head doctor for a short time] before I went back to the fields.

Nice to hear the town's still going, I was only generation 3 but it was massive already.

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-Has ascended to better games-

Lomice

Member

Registered: 2018-06-04

Posts: 7

Re: I was Doctor Clyde

I love when someone takes the time to let us know what they went trough, it really takes you there.

Also, I agree, if everyone had a task instead of running around everywhere the cities would probably collapse less often

Last edited by Lomice (2018-06-30 04:25:56)