Shameless IC permissions post plugging

[caduceusoncall]

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!]

Comments

[caduceusoncall]

[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.

[dubiouslychthonic]

[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.

[caduceusoncall]

[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.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

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.

[caduceusoncall]

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.

[dubiouslychthonic]

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.

[caduceusoncall]

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.

[dubiouslychthonic]

"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.

[caduceusoncall]

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?

[dubiouslychthonic]

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.

[caduceusoncall]

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.