phantasmalrift | Shameless IC permissions post plugging

Shameless IC permissions post plugging

Who: Mercy (

caduceusoncall) and OPEN!
What: Practice! Meet the doctor, if you haven't!
When: IC dates May 1st-3rd
Where: Medical Bay
Warnings: Medical talk may come up!

i. May 1st-3rd; practice makes perfect

[The good doctor is less absorbed by books and more focused on patients these days. She's put out the call for others to show up so that she can practice her new skill, as well as update Strange's charts. It makes her a little nervous, still. What if it doesn't work on someone? What if she discovers some anomaly she's not prepared for? What if nobody shows up anyway?]

[Angela puts those thoughts aside as she hears someone enter.]

Greetings. Here for a scan, or is something else troubling you?

[ooc: this is the ic post for mercy's scan permission post, so that we can have an interaction over the scan if you want! feel free to handwave the whole experience by just filling out the form, but if you'd like to talk to mercy or if something unusual would happen during the scan, feel free to respond here! please go here and fill out the form there! if anything abnormal would come up now that wouldn't come up normally, specify that in your reply to this post!]

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Evening, Angela.

[Jetshard shows up maybe twenty minutes earlier than she typically arrives to take over for the night, coffee cup in hand.]

Ah, good evening, Jetshard. Thank you for coming in earlier than usual.

[She smiles warmly. It's been a while since she had an actual, like. Colleague. She worked with others all the time back home, but there's a difference between working with someone and working alongside someone.]

[Basically she appreciates your existence, Jetshard.]

It's no problem. [A grin in return, and one that's comfortable enough that she's not making any particular effort to downplay the way that her teeth, while modest for a troll, are still noticeably more fang-like than a human's. It is nice to have someone else around who actually has training, and not just rely on whoever she can grab with steady hands and a strong stomach in an emergency.]

How much troll physio rundown do you want before you start? If it matters, I'm fairly certain that I'm within usual perimeters for an adult of my color, with the exception of one chronic but asymptomatic infection.

Honestly, I wouldn't know what questions to ask. I suppose what matters most in relation to the scan would be what your vital signs actually are - if your heart or breathing mechanisms are different from a human's or non-critical to your species, things of that nature. Perhaps elaborate on the significance of "color", but that is more due to my own curiosity than relevance to this particular visit.

[In other words: What should she be looking for in there?]

And if there's anything else you feel is pertinent to know, I would be interested to hear it.

Well, in broad strokes... [The explanation isn't as in-depth as it could be, but it's still enough technobabble that's only very vaguely touched on in canon that it's probably best to handwave it. The word "pseudochordate" is used at some point, and on several occasions she uses a term that's almost cartoonish in its juxtiposition of complexity and informality before catching herself and correcting to something that translates much more smoothly to human medical terminology. Generally, though, while many of the anatomical structures seem to have as much in common with insectoid anatomy as mammalian, most of it's not a great deal different in function from human anatomy.]

... as for color - there's a number of points of intraspecies variation that are directly linked to hemochromatic pigmentation. Which is something of a misnomer, the pigment is most concentrated in the blood, but it's present in most bodily fluids to some degree, and starts saturating the irises of our eyes as we approach physical maturity. [In demonstration, she takes off her glasses, meeting Angela's eyes directly and unfiltered for the first time - deep jade green against golden sclarae, the color matching the scattering of green freckles across Jetshard's cheekbones.] The color-linked traits include lifespan and susceptibility to psychic influence, among others, which unfortunately has lead to the adoption of the hemospectrum as a social caste system in addition to a biological one. Jade's distinctive enough that I've made it a habit for most of my adult life to obfuscate my exact hue and let people assume I'm one of the more common colors to either side.

[Angela listens intently the entire time, nodding where appropriate and committing everything to memory. It's a bit complicated, sure, but it all makes scientific sense. And that means she can understand and master it - she wouldn't want to have to perform surgery on a troll, though. It would be a messy affair, to say the least.]

I see. I am sorry to hear that such a caste system developed in your world - especially one based off of something so far beyond your control. It seems you've handled yourself well enough, though.

[She smiles.]

Thank you for taking the time to explain all of this to me. I believe I have enough of an understanding to tell whether or not the scan is accurate about the state of your health. Unless you have anything else to add, we can begin when you are ready.

[Well, for that matter, Jetshard's not exactly planning on getting into such a state that she needs surgical intervention that she's not able to at least direct.]

I think that's covering most of it. Go ahead when you're ready.

[Mercy nods curtly, steadying herself and placing her hand about an inch over Jetshard's shoulder. She won't feel a thing, save for a bit of heat coming from Angela's palm, and the scan only takes a few seconds.]

[Rather than getting specific numbers from the scan, Mercy's limited understanding of troll biology delivers back the word "normal" several times, with a brief jolt of understanding that there is an underlying infection of some sort that isn't progressing or actively impairing function in any way. Magic is weird like that.]

Interesting. Everything does seem to be in order, though there's a dormant abnormality I'm unfamiliar with in your central nervous system and bloodstream. It doesn't seem to be actually affecting you in any way, however. Do you know if you are a carrier for any sort of illness or infection from your homeworld?

[Her primary concern, of course, is that it could be malign and spreadable. She has nothing similar to compare it to and judge the risk factors accordingly.]

Right. That. [She'd known it was likely to come up, and it's not as if this is the first time that she's told someone around here about it; Strange knows, and after the last mission, so does Izunia. Still.] It's the presymptomatic stage of acquired obligate hemophagy. As long as I'm careful about my health it should stay asymptomatic and noninfectious indefinitely, although I don't believe the virus would be able to jump the species barrier in any case. It's not seen in even closely related non-troll species.

So long as you are sure it is not contagious, then I am satisfied to call you in perfect health. Admittedly I am not surprised, you are a medical professional, after all. We do tend to be in good shape on the regular.

I'm more concerned about the what it'd do to my nutritional requirements if it were to progress, but Strange thinks that if worse came to worse they'd be able to use agricultural 3D printers to produce troll blood. And I've been asymptomatic for almost twenty sweeps at this point and I'm confident of my ability to continue to maintain my current status.

Excellent. I trust your judgement, then.

[Then, as an afterthought:]

In fiction on my homeworld, we have a similar phenomenon called "vampirism". The concept is effectively the same, with some artistic license and poetic flair added throughout the ages, as authors are inclined to do. For example, I doubt you could be classified as "undead", nor would religious artifacts send you hissing into the night.

Ah, but that is me searching for common ground. Your condition is based in reality, while vampires are purely fictional.

"Vampirism" is the archaic term. [The word she uses isn't the same word as Angela used, of course, but the Alternian term translates nearly enough.] It's not true undeath, but one of the possible triggers for the disease progressing entails extensive enough injury and enough of a shock to the system that most rainbow drinkers relate the experience to death anyway.

[She smiles wryly.] I have no more adverse reaction to religious artifacts than any basically secular troll does, though.

Let us hope that no such situation arises.

[Angela folds her hands together and smiles. She will always worry about the health and safety of her friends and colleagues, of course, but she suspects Jetshard takes good enough care of herself to avoid taking such massive damage as a rule.]

I don't want to hold you up too long. Thank you so much again for coming and for offering such a thorough explanation for me. Do you have any questions or concerns before we part ways?

It's no bother, it was interesting. And may I say, congratulations on picking up an ability that actually lends itself to practice. [Jetshard sighs.] Strange tells me I picked up something in the last dungeon, but it's a kind of medical stasis effect and I haven't been able to figure out if it has any application in the absence of an actual medical crisis.

Thank you. Medical stasis does sound extremely useful, I must say. I hope you only have to use it sparingly. Do you know if it is a time- or space-based stasis or tied directly to medical situations? Because you might be able to draw it out on, for example, moving liquid or other things that can be observed as stopping or slowing.

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