Open Mic Night [Health Community Forum]

D r. Q u e s t H e r t z

"Okay, so I’m gonna lay some ground rules out here.”

It took as many months to gather the chuckleheads of district six together as this that I wondered if it was ever going to happen at all, but, lucky for me, people did seem to care about the well being of our citizens after that whole little plague thing sort of started running rampant. It’s a dingy little grey room in a concrete building on the edge of the hospital district, just the sort of place that years ago probably got blown to bits just to get slapped with more concrete and put back together. I doubt anyone noticed the difference, but then, living in six was a bit like that. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

“We’re here because Parson – Mayor Cham – wants us to come up with a better way for laying out how we do things in our profession. Because as we all know, it uhhh, ain’t going so hot right now. Whether it’s the test subjects people seem to have fun with or that we still are piling up bodies from the Rose Plague… we want to gather your best ideas.” I looked out from my perch at the head table, microphone rattling, to catch the eyes of the people that had been invited. A microphone sat in the center of the room for whoever wanted to make a public comment. We’d take our notes and the good ideas would get back to the mayor, but mostly I’d be here to nod my head and make sure every felt ‘heard’.

“And ehhhh,” I put a couple of fingers to my left temple and rubbed away the stress headache forming, “This should go without saying but please, if you’re gonna take to the mic with any whackdoodle nonsese, so help me ripred, I’m going to show you why I came back from the dead, okay?”

For a second, I wondered how I’d gone from hurling empty bottles at peacekeepers to turning the gears of local government, and my hand itched for a cigarette.

But then Parson had been so damn earnest in that way you look at him and his stupid mustache and think, well he’s not entirely full of shit. He wanted to make some sort of difference, and well – I’d wondered what else there was to do, too.

I’d ticked off each thing I set my mind to and turned around and fifteen years had come and gone. And I could’ve just run my bar, could’ve not started a brewery, could’ve not gotten my degree, opened a practice, stuck my nose in helping victors and hard luck kids alike. Could’ve come up short and just lived in that shitty little apartment with my brother… could’ve been like my parents, itching at the bad around the edges to stay excited.

And before you go thinking all my roughhewn edges got sanded down by bullshit, I’d still punch Enzo in his face if I got the chance. Hell, I’d let ex-mayor Bloom know she could get fucked if she hadn’t run out of town. The more things change, the more the stay the same, right?

But working on yourself to be a better version of who you are doesn’t mean you have to get rid of the things you liked about yourself.

And maybe that’s the same with fixing this district, too.

“All right, don’t waste my time. Someone take the mic. You, what’ve you got?”

[Please feel free to have your character suggest things they may want to see for the healthcare system in district six! Quest will respond to each idea no matter how wild. The weirder and more ridiculous, the better!]