video / un: DocHolliday

[ihavecharacter]

[At first it's just an eyebrow with some muttering about stupid contraptions.] How does this thing work?

[He pulls it closer, but there's an eye now. You wanted to see an eye, right?] And just how are you supposed to tell if it is working?

[He sighs before holding it a little farther away.] Well, I do not know if it is working. This thing is unusual at best. I suppose I might as well make an introduction. Hello. [He goes to tip the hat that is not there before making an annoyed expression and moving on.] My name is John Henry, but you may call me Doc. If anyone is better with these things, I believe I may be in need of some instruction.

Unless I am talking to myself. [This is said softer and meant to be mostly to himself.] Perhaps I ought to stop this before I make even more of a fool of myself.

Comments

text; un: 004

[fourmeansdeath]

Coming through loud and clear, Doc. You a medical doctor, or is it just a nickname?

Speaking for myself, talking into this thing never stops feeling like yelling into the void, but to each their own.

[ihavecharacter]

My original profession was a dentist, but it has been some time since I have worked in dentistry. Though, I am sure the usual problems are still the same.

The typing does wear on you, but perhaps I will have a better feeling for it with time.

txt -> video

[fourmeansdeath]

Hey, it takes all sorts. Though god willing, we'll be out of here before someone needs you to take up the profession again.

Honestly? I can't say I care for it either. One second.

[ After some futzing, a 30something man with premature grey hair flickers onto the screen. ]

Morning, Doc. If you have any questions about tech, I can try and answer. They didn't have half this stuff when I was a kid, so I know something about having to adapt.

[ihavecharacter]

[Doc was going to answer the questions, but was told to hang on, so the sight of the man on the phone gives him pause.]

Mornin’. I do not recall them having too much by way of technology. Even electricity was not common.

[fourmeansdeath]

Jeez, you're from really far back, aren't you? At least where-- or "when" I came from, landlines and electric lights were normal. [ Not that everyone could, you know, afford electric lights. But they were there! ] I'd say you're picking things up pretty darn fast.

First things first: What year are you hailing from? I take it you're American, from the accent.

[ihavecharacter]

[This earns him a slight shrug in response.] Yes. Normally I am not so obvious about it, but it is far easier, I believe, to get used to things with people who understand my complications.

Before the well, it was 1887. November. I have been in more modern times, but we have been a might busy of late.

[fourmeansdeath]

Isn't that the truth. [ He shakes his head ruefully. ] You've got me beat by almost a century, then. I'm from 1960. They tell me I missed the moon landing by a hair.

The "well"? [ A raised eyebrow. From the phrasing, Albert kinda half-assumes the man just stumbled in his speech. ] Welcome to the new millennium, Doc, they've got air conditioning and indoor plumbing and telephones that kids use for sending cat photos.

Not that there's any cats to be found, at the moment.

[ihavecharacter]

The moon landed? [There is a look of confusion about that. Waverly had not mentioned that the moon landed anywhere before.]

Ah. Yes. There was a well in Purgatory. I spent some time at the bottom of it. [Some time being 130 years and 3 months. Which is a very long time.] Photos of cats? That is unusual. But I suppose that does explain some things. I can withstand the heat. It has been some time since I've been in some of the hotter places, but Purgatory was just in the middle of winter, so that is a change.

I did notice that.

[fourmeansdeath]

Hah, no, the moon hasn't gone anywhere. There was, oh, an international race to build a rocket to get a man up there and back again. You Americans won that race, I hear. Well done, you.

[ Put like that, it all sounds so sporting! ]

[ aaaand he misses the rest of that about the weather because that explanation explained nothing much at all. ]

When you say "at the bottom of a well"... you're not a ghost, are you?

[ihavecharacter]

That must have been when I was in the well. What is a rocket?

[There was a pause at that question.]

Sometimes I might prefer to be a ghost, but no. I made a deal with the wrong person.