"Fair enough. Are there things about this country that it's occurred to you I should know?"

Eeeeeeeeep surprise pop quiz that's not fair Marian is a grown adult and can handle this. What would someone from a fantasy universe find surprising about the United States? 

"It's really big - I don't know what the usual population of a country is in your world, but there are like three hundred million people in America - seven billion in the world in total. There's - probably a lot more bureaucracy and different parts of the government than you're used to, because it's so big? The leader of the country is elected by a vote and so are a lot of other people in the government, but then there are also all these departments in charge of different things, like national security or healthcare - there's a government department that does stuff related to infectious disease safety for the whole country, and I wouldn't be that surprised if the hospital already contacted them about your infection last night, since we hadn't seen it before. Uh. The government is officially not religious and it's illegal to discriminate based on someone's religion, but most people in the country are Christian and there's definitely weird politics around that and I think it'll affect how people react to you once they believe you're really from another world, I just...don't know how...

- I'm not sure how long it'll take before anyone in authority believes it. There are a lot of organizations that write news articles about things that sound crazy and usually they aren't real." 

Marian is personally hoping it takes a while hopefully long enough that she can quietly back away from the situation before important people show up she shouldn't do that if she can still be helpful, this is really important, but she wants to so badly. Why. - because US bureaucracy paying attention to her personally has never been a good experience and what if they demand to see her immigration paperwork and it turns out her visa is somehow not in order and she gets banned from the country forever or something. 

"- I have bad experiences with the government bureaucracy in America. Mostly about letting me be in the country to work. They're really strict about border control and especially who can have a job here - ugh it's just occurred to me that I think we can't legally pay you - I don't know if you being here would be an immigration problem, that would be really stupid, but I'm - not actually sure I trust the government to respond in a way that isn't really stupid. It feels - hard to predict." 

"A lot of governments are hard to predict, unfortunately." Not everywhere can be Lastwall. It's interesting that they make elections work on such a massive scale, though, or really that they make having a country that big work at all.

"Is there something I was supposed to do when I arrived in the country that I didn't do because I was unconscious? Should I go do it as soon as I'm done healing people for today? If you teach me nonmagical medicine instead of paying me, would that be legal?"

Wow, Marian has no idea! Is there a protocol for this situation - Samora arrived without crossing any borders, which would be hard to do without magic, but it's not like she snuck in illegally, it wasn't her fault or intention. She wonders what happens if someone, say, comes in by air but doesn't actually go through Customs because they have a medical emergency on the plane and have to be rushed directly to a hospital, that might be the most closely analogous situation that, like, happens with any regularity... 

"I should ask? Normally people would arrive via a border and there would be a process. We should try to figure it out today, probably, but I don't think you'll be - more in trouble if you wait until later today..." 

"That makes sense. Are we close enough to a border crossing that I could get there in a day or two? Oh, but I'd have to explain why I was coming from this direction and they might not believe me, hmm. Maybe I could cross into the next country and then I'd be in that one legally? All of that can wait until you have answers to the plane case." Also if she understands what 'plane' means correctly from context then planes are very cool.

That sounds so complicated and exhausting. "We're not actually, uh, very close to a border to the nearest other country, and you can't fly without identification documents, I think there's got to be a better way? ...But yeah, I'll try to find out more." 

Also it looks like the remaining ICU patients plus hallwayful of ER patients are now arranged to everyone's satisfaction and ready for healing? 

That at least is doable from right here. Heal!

And now the hubbub of patient conversation is a LOT louder. 

...The guy who was previously talking to the journalist is possibly going to, uh, slip out and go see if she's still around. This SHOULD be in the news, right? Also he's never been interviewed for a news article before and it's pretty cool to be one of the first people healed by a faith healer with actual miraculous powers. 

The 5C charge nurse did take a video on her phone - it's fine either way as long as she doesn't do anything with it, right - and is now trying to pin down Dr Harrison or failing that at least one of the residents to figure out if there's a HIPAA-compliant way to show it to her boyfriend, who does after all also work here.

(She absolutely wasn't the only one videoing it, and may be the most conscientious about checking the legalities of sending it to everyone she knows.) 

Aaaaaand Marian is going to go, uh, ask around for advice from Americans on a) whether Samora is likely to get in trouble for her immigration status and what she should do, and b) how exactly they think (the relevant parts of) the US government are going to respond once it gets out more broadly that this is for real.

...and by 'ask around' she means she's going to ask Fraser first, because she at least knows for sure that she won't have to fill him in on any other parts of the story first and she feels really tired of doing that. 

Fraser gives her the most exhausted look. "Man, I have no idea. Wouldn't you know more about the immigration shit, you've actually had to deal with it and everything? ...I'm too tired for this, let's go ask around." 

And he forges toward Pod Three, which is still where a significant fraction of the nurses on the unit are. "Hey! We're trying to figure out if we should, like, call someone from the government? What do yall think?" 

"You want to get the government involved? Are you nuts?" says Catherine. "They'll arrest her for not filling her red tape out in triplicate, maybe the rest of us too. Better not let them decide that Something Must Be Done until we've all lawyered up hit the gym and deleted Facebook."

Marian had also absolutely not been thinking they should actively call anyone! What the fuck! 

(Fraser would mostly just really like this to stop being his problem and become someone else’s.)

Ugh. 

"Do you really think they would arrest her?" Marian says. "Over paperwork? I - that seems like not taking seriously how important this is -" 

Though on reflection she feels like it might also be bad - for Samora, that is - if they did take seriously how important this is... 

"Anyway, it's probably going to be in the news soon, so - I don't know how long it'll take before someone does take it seriously? I guess maybe a while, if it sounds super fake." 

"It does sound fake, but I've seen a lot of cameras out today. It could depend on who sees what, how skeptical they are, and how slow of a news day it is. --Also part of my worry is that she doesn't speak English and looks kinda middle eastern, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with, but some people are a-holes, you know?" 

Ugh, seriously?? ...yeah, no, Marian can believe that. She starts to have the thought 'man America sucks' but that's a bit unfair, Canadians can be weird about that too. 

It still feels stupid. Surely there's a way to be - less stupid - about something this big and important? ...Except that Marian does find herself predicting that it's at least pretty likely the US government will react in an awkward terrible way to this news, whether they believe the world-changing magic or not. 

"...I should probably go, uh, let her know." 

And she's going to head back to Samora. 

"Uh. I tried to get advice and - at least one of the other staff thinks the government might actually arrest you - and maybe all of us - for not having done the right paperwork. I - don't know how likely that actually is - but I think maybe it's a good idea to contact your party now? I think we don't urgently need you for anything, it's going to take a while to figure out who else you can heal." 

"Oh dear. I'm happy to do any paperwork that would make things better--either with your help or with Comprehend Languages--but if this is a good time to Sending my party I'll definitely go do that."

She finds a quiet corner out of the way to park in and Sendings Marshall: Somehow on another planet! No local magic, few churches, amazing inventions, can return (several days' work) or study gamechanging medicine then return. Sitrep you/Tris?

No more dead than yesterday. Third pegasus (1), twelfth fox (2). ...rather hope that made sense(3), Tris is making a face. BE CAREFUL MEDICINE IS DANGEROUS. 

(1) a code indicating the third entry on the first page of the standard booklet everyone at Lastwall military and church schools is expected to memorize (the creatures are mnemonics), which reads "situation normal (subtype: ongoing problem which has not changed since your last contact)" 
(2) likewise (1), but this one says "your report is higher priority than your previous work (subtype: can be tried only once, not time-sensitive; return for reinforcement if you are not very sure you won't die)" 
(3) Samora had no reason whatsoever to expect that Marshall would know any of these codes and evidently neither did Marshall, who sounds quite surprised.

She transcribes the answer as it comes in, takes a minute to dig up her memories of large-group ops class, then blinks at it a few times.

Ooooookay, Marshall spent enough time around Lastwallers or someone with similar doctrine to learn Sending shorthand before he died and just remembered it now, that's pretty cool. She wishes he had saved a few words to tell her what kind of danger he was worried about, but needing to compose return Sendings on the fly is always bloody difficult. Probably he just means the thing where sometimes sewing someone up and stabbing them repeatedly with a needle are unfortunately similar, which, yeah. It's nice of him to worry about her and she'll be on the lookout for similar issues.

While she's sitting here, she should take a minute to think about the situation with the local laws.

In most situations, the Lawful thing to do is to obey the laws of whatever country you're in, but that isn't the inherent meaning of Law. It's about factors like not making people regret letting you into their country, making it clear whether you're dealing with a government as a potential ally or as an enemy, giving people the sense of security that comes when the laws of the land are consistently followed, and so on.

So, what kind of interactions does Samora want to have with this country's government and people, as the only representative of Iomedae on the planet?

She doesn't want to declare their law her enemy like the church's spies in Cheliax*. These people have been nothing but helpful so far, and the government hasn't actually done anything but be the subject of plausible suspicion. She also doesn't want to get arrested, either for having accidentally traveled between planets or for healing people, and she definitely doesn't want to get the hospital staff who have done so much good for her and others arrested.

Samora goes to find Marian again, and asks, "Would you and the other hospital workers be safest if I turned myself in to your government, if I left the hospital today and the planet within a week, or if I did some third thing?"

* Samora has never had the kind of security clearance that would result in anyone breathing a whisper of an implication that the church has spies in Cheliax in her hearing, but, come on.

...Wow, uh, Marian is really not sure and doesn't feel particularly qualified to make this decision?

(She does increasingly feel like it's going to make her life incredibly complicated if word gets out and is taken seriously and the authorities do show up, especially if it involves immigration or medical regulatory bodies, but she's not sure whether that's best described by her and the other staff being in danger. Also it could well end up being spectacularly awkward if Samora leaves and then various authorities show up and possibly conclude that the entire staff of the trauma ICU decided to perpetrate a bizarre elaborate hoax?

...and all of that seems way less important than the ramifications of healing magic existing in another world that runs on D&D rules? Honestly, even if she did expect to be in actual danger, that still seems less important?) 

"I don't know. I think probably you turning yourself in to the government wouldn't make things less complicated for me or the other staff? ...I'm going to ask them." 

What do Catherine or the others think of Samora's proposals? 

Catherine thinks Samora would be safest going back to her home planet "unless it really sucks or something". Someone rather unseriously suggests that she should "get a mask and become, like, a superhero, but for healing instead of vigilante shit". Someone thinks it might be legal for her to be here as long as she doesn't work for pay and the hospital doesn't bill anyone for her services specifically, and suggests that they could figure something out where the patients pay less than they otherwise would, the hospital makes more profit than they otherwise would, the nurses get paid more than they otherwise would, Samora is technically a volunteer, and everyone on the unit chips in to buy her "presents"/let her crash in their spare bedrooms/etc. He says his own apartment is available if she doesn't mind the cat but also that this is a complicated plan and if she wants to go home instead of trying it that's fair.

...Marian will translate this mostly verbatim for Samora, though she's going to add her own commentary - to both Samora in Celestial and the other staff in English - that, uh, she feels pretty mixed about the last plan? It does feel less like...giving up on even trying to make use of Samora's powers...doesn't feel like it would be stable indefinitely even if it works – sure, maybe it's legal (though she's not actually sure of that, it's definitely very trying-to-find-loopholes), but it would eventually attract a huge amount of attention and laws can be changed. Also, like, there are pharma companies and stuff that she trusts less than the government to follow laws, and they might try to kidnap Samora?

Also it does still feel like it's giving up a lot? There's no reason Renown Hospital in Reno is the place in the world that needs Samora the most? 

"I don't think it makes sense for me to stay here for longer than it takes to learn how to reproduce some of your technology unless I can also make progress on founding a church of Iomedae, and maybe some other Good churches. I'm just one person; if I can make it possible for others to become priests as well there could be three of me in every one of your cities. And if new churches and new priests will cause more problems than they solve by disrupting your ambiguous divine magic situation, I shouldn't do it."

Arghhh.

"Yeah, that makes sense. I - don't know if it would cause more problems than it would solve? It would solve so many problems, so that implies it would be worth it even if it caused kind of a lot of problems, but - it might cause the sort of problems where it's hard for it to actually work? Like, if new priests also get in trouble for using their powers."

She makes a face. "This is really frustrating because - I don't think any of us actually know, uh, either exactly how the laws would apply here or how likely it is someone - either the government or someone else - would decide to ignore the laws. And I don't know how to find out quickly in a way that's definitely, uh, safe." 

She stops. 

"- Would you be able to get back to Earth, do you think? If you went back before anything can go wrong, and - does the spell for communicating work to send to non-magic people, so you could find out in a week or two how things played out here and whether it seems like a good plan that would work to try to found a church of Iomedae here...?"