Marian sets down the pile of random supplies she was sorting and blinks at the new kid. 

"- Oh, o...kay? I, uh, don't have either of those in stock. I can try asking the void wall but it might give me something related-but-different." 

That was not in his script! That was not any of the reasons he thought she might turn him down!

"How different? Is it safe to find out?"

"Uh, if it gives me something I know I can tell you if it's got different side effect profiles? Like, I think it's probably safe to switch to, I don't know, testosterone gel or patches or whatever else it comes in. ...And, sorry, I don't actually remember off the top of my head what Depo has in it? Is it progesterone-only birth control?" 

She is piecing together that this kid is...probably trans? Which, wow, that seems really rough in the magic death school. She is not going to comment or acknowledge it in any way, though, it just sounds like a way to make him self-conscious.

The nurse asking him about a drug was also not in his hypothesis space.

He drops the reverse-customer-service act entirely out of sheer confusion. "Yeah, I think so? I think it's the one that stops periods and lasts for months."

"Right - I just can't remember if it's got estrogen in it. The void might try to give me regular birth control pills or something, if that's easier, and some of them are different hormones and then the side effects are different and stuff. I can try to at least ask for long-lasting birth control if you'd prefer that?" 

"Might as well? Why would that be easier for the void, anyway, how's it decide that kind of thing?"

"I don't really know! But it seems like it's got limited selection. Once it just gave me, like, what must've been someone's weekly pill organizer, with a sticky note on it!" 

"Well, I don't want to steal anyone's pill organizer, but anyone who has one is probably away from here and capable of replacing it."

"...Yeah. I, uh - just got here? So I don't really know how it works - or how most things here work, sorry. I wondered if it maybe just...ends up having all the meds that anyone misplaced or lost track of? Which would make sense of why it's never nicely packaged unopened bottles of exactly the drug I asked for." 

She smiles at the creepy void wall, though, and sort of pats it. "It's trying its best, though." 

"Yeah! It means well." Wait, he has no evidence for that. "Probably. I hope."

“Do you happen to know your, uh, dose and frequency, for the T?”

What's the best way to not say that he's fourteen and his parents insist he'll grow out of it, while also being at least sort of honest about strategic considerations...

"It's not a great idea to take things that cause weight gain right before induction because there's a weight limit for you and your luggage combined. I'm not on it now but I think it was supposed to be... uh, fifty to a hundred milligrams weekly? I think. But I think it varies depending on what kind you can get and I didn't manage to memorize an entire flowchart about that." Entirely because he didn't know to try, but he is not saying that.

…Damn it, the kid has no idea, does he. Not surprising or his fault or anything, just… Shitcrapyikes because neither does Marian and she is maybe going to DIE of EMBARRASSMENT even before any mals get her. Why didn’t she think to memorize HRT prescribing flowcharts, she’s so unprepared for this job… 

“Okay. I, uh, think I need to know what I’m doing if I’m going to be managing your meds and, uh, setting you up to do it yourself once I…” Handwave. Saying ‘once I die’ out loud feels too much like it might give the stupid magic death school ideas.

She walks back to the void wall and puts her hand on it. “Hey. I know you’ve been trying really hard to help me and help these kids, but this is an extra-special request, okay? It’s very important and I’ll be so grateful to you. Can you please find me an, uh, pharmacology reference book or prescriber’s guide for, uh, hormone replacement for teenagers,” is that even a category or specialization, it SHOULD be but various bits of the medical system hate trans people, “uh and also testosterone, ideally injectable, and also a dose of the Depo Provera shot or some other kind of long lasting birth control, pretty pretty please…?”

She waits.

Oh, no need to set him up to do it himself, he'll be dead first.

It's cute how she talks to the void. And concerning how doomed she is. Really he should be figuring out how to keep her alive and make friends with her, but it's not obvious yet how to do that...

After fifteen seconds or so, the void wall spits out a slightly crumpled hand-stapled printout of some sort of document. One that's been extensively highlighter'd, and also written on in the margins, and additionally looks like it's spent months in someone's backpack alongside leaking lunchboxes and not-quite-empty drink cans; the miscellaneous stains are extensive. 

Marian catches it. Stares at the first page - 

- and then lights up! 

"Oh wow! It looks like, uh, UCSF... I think that's a hospital in San Francisco? Probably? ...anyway I think they have an entire specialist clinic for trans people! Cool!" 

....And then she turns crimson and stares at the floor because maybe that was an INCREDIBLY AWKWARD thing to say to this kid's face.... 

"I will be sure to remember that next time I'm in San Francisco," he says dryly.

Oh noooooooo yep that was the most awkward! 

"........Looks like some med student lost their orientation docs." 

(Marian says this so sheepishly.)

"- Uh, anyway - yeah I got a bunch of things to read - sorry the void hasn't given me any actual drugs yet but maybe it's thinking....." 

"Well, I guess it's better to have information and no drugs than drugs and no information. Are you okay?"

".....I mean, no, not really? I - uh - earlier today I was a normal person living a normal life being an ICU nurse at a shitty understaffed hospital in Canada–" ....ok she is NOT going to feel bad about how she said all those unflattering adjectives without even thinking about it, "– and now....I got teleport-kidnapped to this school and apparently magic exists and it's trying to kill me? And I - didn't even get an orientation packet here since the last nurse died a month in–" 

Stop.

Breathe. 

"....I - I'm sorry - that was really rude, you're not - I'm here to help you and all the other students here and you don't have to listen to my stupid complaints sorry -" 

"Well, there's no one else to listen to them and I guess never having anyone to complain to is okay if it's only going to be a month but actually I don't think that makes it better."

This is, of course, inevitably, the point at which the void finally manages to spit out a pile of random assorted drugs at Marian. 

"- Eeek!" Marian dives to catch them. "....Oh. Huh. I - seem to have some testosterone....gel? And also literally one patch? And a vial of powder which I'm guessing is meant to be an IM injection, but, uh, I should...probably read that booklet....?" 

And the void SUPER didn't give her syringes or needles or saline to mix the powder. At least she has SOME of those items in her stash, not yet traded away for her continued survival. 

........wow she really wants to burst into tears and curl up on the floor but she cannot do that at all. 

"Awesome. Do you want, like, a hug first?"

".........yeah." 

Deep breath. 

"If that's, not, uh, weird?" 

Hug! He'll hold on until she seems to want to pull away.

"Well, I think getting kidnapped to a magic wizard school that needs a human nurse despite not needing human teachers or cooks or anything is weird whether you get a hug about it or not."

“- Oh, wow, I hadn’t even thought about whether it was weird that I’m, like, apparently the only mundane grownup kidnapped to work here? I wonder why the school decided on doing that for a nurse but no one else." 

"I think some of the kids are related to the people who run this place and maybe they'd know. But I have no idea why most of the things here are the way they are."

"Mmm." 

Marian takes a deep breath and tells herself very firmly that she has to FOCUS now. 

"...Uh, right. I'm going to read the booklet and, uh, try to - figure out what the equivalent doses are for all these different kinds, and...I guess you might just have to, like, rotate through them, sorry -" 

"If it's going to take a long time to figure that out maybe I should come back after dinner - or maybe I should take the patch now, since it's not like the dose for that is going to be five nineteenths of it or something."

"...Yeah, you might as well. And - oh! It gave me exactly one Nuva ring, too! That's, uh, a hormonal birth control method - it's not as good as Depo, it's only for one month, and uh, it goes in...." 

Talking to a trans boy about his vagina is, it turns out, more social awkwardness than Marian has EVER had to deal with before. 

"....here," she finishes, with an extremely awkward gesture at the relevant area on herself. "Like, all the way in. Um." Her face is burning right now. 

"Oh, uh... does that come with a guide, by any chance."

"It's.....got some really short instructions on the package? It probably came with a guide in the original packaging but the void super did not give me the original packaging, I guess no one lost it that way which kinda makes sense. ....Want me to ask for a guide too?" 

"I'd appreciate it if it's convenient."

Marian walks back over to the void wall. "Hey, school? I really really appreciate everything you just gave me, thank you, it was great! But, uh, is there any way I could get a written instructions guide for using a nuva ring, too?" 

The void, after a few seconds, helpfully provides a pile of loose papers, apparently still fresh and crisp from someone's laser printer, which immediately slip past Marian's hands and cascade in all directions toward the floor. 

Marian scrambles after them. 

"- Sorry! I think it got all out of order but it looks like a bunch of info for patients on the nuva ring?" She holds out the rescued bundle. 

"Thank you! This is great! You should let me know if there's anything you want me to keep an eye out for while I'm out - have you got food, have you got a place to sleep, have you got something to do besides your job...?"

"I mean, there's food in the cafeteria, it's just apparently poisonous sometimes even when it's not secretly magic death monsters pretending to be food? People brought me a dinner tray, though, that was really nice. There's a bedroom here, I guess for me, it's over there? ...I don't really have anything to do except my job, which - isn't very complicated until someone actually gets hurt?" 

"I will see if I can figure out a way to bring you a chess set or something, not that I'm optimistic about finding one."

"- Aww, I'd appreciate that a lot! Or, you know, even just a book to read or something. That's not about medicine. I do like medical stuff but I don't want to just read it all the time, you know? And I'm not sure the void will really give me other things, though - I guess I haven't actually tried asking it for novels or anything." 

"I'll see if I can lend you one of my textbooks, once I have them? Or... something. Do you speak anything besides English?"

"French. And I can sort of read Spanish, it's similar-ish to French, I just totally can't understand it spoken out loud." 

"Oh, score, I want to practice French at some point. And I speak Spanish."

"Ooh! Languages are really important here, right? Because you can learn spells in them? I'd totally be down to trade tutoring you in French for....uh, lots of things, I guess, probably what I need most is - friendly relationships with the kids here? Especially the older kids who can help keep me alive if they think I'm useful enough." 

"I'll see what I can do. Eventually I'll be one of the older kids but if you live that long you'll have to have worked something else out by then."

"Yeah. I hope so. Anyway....thanks. And - good luck, I guess?" 

"Yeah. You too!"