savetheearth | I. ✵ Video

Entry tags:

I. ✵ Video

[The video turns on from Eliot's tablet which is propped up against the book he is holding. The gentle sound of running water can be heard and a small glimpse of the lake may be seen. It's a peaceful place, calming.

Eliot himself is composed as always though his gaze is focused more out towards the water, watching the ripples on the surface before glancing back at the screen.]

I have been remiss in investigating this, network it seems. So I bid you all hello then, I look forward to what there is to discover here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Percell! Wow. Didn't expect you here, sir. Suil [greetings! in Elvish] by the way! Gotta say it's been nice seeing so many new adult types.

[...Julien's twenty-four, but he's good at seeming younger.]

Forgive me for not using video, I'm a little distinct and I don't like having my face out everywhere.

Ah Julien, hello!

It's quite alright. I trust you have been doing well? I haven't had a chance to come down to the Clinic recently.

Oh, I'm fine. [like he'd say anything else.] Kind of stressed, but that comes with the territory, y'know? We've been doing decent. It's been pretty uneventful since the, uh, things that happened in December. [except for when Aaron went off-network and Julien wept in public, but only other clinic people saw that.] Funding's up! We're liquid enough that I'm an actual employee these days!

Really? That is wonderful news. [And he really is proud of Aaron and it can be heard in his tone of voice.] Congratulations, I am sure you all worked very hard for it.

Oh, did we ever. If there's one good thing that's happened here it's not having the LSR always on a knife's edge - I mean, my job's never been to balance the books, but you pick some things up, you know?

[a throat-clearing noise]

-anyway, if it's gone odd since the spring, or... Aaron hasn't always been acting like you'd expect, that's why. We've been in it to our ears since it started, or just about.

I do. Aaron has been struggling with some of the funding for awhile now.

[Eliot makes a thoughtful noise, he's concerned about Aaron as well but his godson has been busy lately they haven't talked in a bit.]

How is that? Is he alright?

Yeah. [Julien knows about the pot-dealing Aaron resorted to for funding now and then, but he doesn't spread secrets. and man talking about this is always kind of hard.]

Well - he's all right. I've been... I know he's more lonely than he lets on, so I'm making sure to spend time with him. Trying to remind him that someone cares. [an inhumanly deep sigh.] We went through some nasty stuff together and I thought he was more open, it seemed like - well, but he still kept things from me.

Anyway. He went off-network, so he's basically who he was before any of this started.

I appreciate all you have told me, Julien. I am sure he knows how much you are concerned for his well-being. He can be...particular sometimes about who he lets in at times.

Sure. He did something really stupid keeping things quiet, but... I miss him.

[okay. okay, enough about that.]

For some reason his athelas is still around and works - not as well as when he applied it, I don't know what that's about, but it's useful. I have a plant growing at home. Really I kind of have to wonder if there are like side effects to using it a lot? But we've got healer types around, I guess, and I can hope they'd help if I got addicted or it started destroying my kidneys or something.

It's a plant which is still strange to me. If there are unintended negative side effects, please let me know so we can get you treated right away.

Hah... I expect I'll be the first to know. I keep making tea out of it. [Julien's medicating general intense negative emotions with the stuff.]

But my body's pretty distinctly not human these days - Aaron's up to date, Solus could figure things out, but I think any other doctor would have trouble telling what's gone wrong from what's me. If you really wanted you could check out my baseline sometime.

[Teasing now] Might be kind of weird. My doctor's godfather, what does that make us.

If you come by when I'm free, I'm sure I could. It would be interesting to see what kind of an effect the plant is having on your body.

[A soft chuckle could be heard, Eliot is amused.] I am sure it makes is something, at the very least.

We... really probably should do that. I'm not exaggerating, my body's gone pretty thoroughly strange. My normal temp's 107, for example. When are you free, sir?

Something that needs a made-up label. Godpatient? Metadoc? I'll think on this.

How does sometime next week work for you?

Depends on which time! There's some flex in my schedule, I can make room. How's next Tuesday... mmm, morning or afternoon? After dark's not much good for me, I have trouble when the sun's down.

Tuesday morning would work, I'll write you into my schedule now.

Sweet. When and where exactly - aaaand it's better if no one sees me bare-armed, it's kind of fading but uh... well.

At the hospital, my office is on the second floor, just follow the signs.

[That Tuesday, Eliot had originally had the morning clear but since Julien had expressed an interest in an exam, he didn't mind giving it up. His kids always joked that he worked too much and perhaps it was true but he knew he couldn't give it up.

As he waited he prepared what he would need for the exam, ready for Julien to arrive.]

[Julien had visited hospitals before, rarely, almost always for friends. He seemed at ease here, but he always seemed at ease. At the appropriate time he came silently to the door and knocked. Shave-and-a-haircut, two-bits! Of course he was smiling when it opened.]

Hey, doc. Glad you could make time for me!

[He was short but compact, fairly broad-shouldered. There was an almost metallic brightness to his eyes that hadn't been there in the spring, but given that he'd dyed his downy hair blue and didn't always wear glasses anymore, people readily accepted that he had custom contacts. Under his customary buttoned shirt was a tightly-clinging turtleneck. Even with it, he radiates heat from his head and hands.]

Of course, anytime, Julien.

[Eliot gives him a smile, gesturing for him to take a seat on the exam table.]

I'm going to start with taking some basic vitals- your temperature, pulse, blood pressure. I can also run a basic blood panel and see if anything else shows up. Is that alright?

[Julien hops up, oddly graceful, and starts unbuttoning his sleeves.]

The rest sounds fine, but I'm not sure about the blood panel. Would you analyze itself or send it to someone?

[He meets Eliot's eyes and deliberately blinks just his inner eyelids. They shuttle rapidly across his eyes, mostly transparent, and retract again.]

You know about how a gang went and attacked the LSR, right? I got shot and I lost a huge amount of blood, but I didn't pass out or anything. We found out I have weird giant red blood cells with nuclei.

[In an exam it can be determined almost instantly that Julien is very not human now. His skin is very thin and soft and hot. There's a hinge in his sternum that flexes with each too-deep breath. His heart is oversized, sluggish, and doesn't quite keep to a human rhythm.]

It would be sent to the hospital lab, yes.

[He's been a doctor for a long time now and as he takes a temperature reading, it's very puzzling. He writes down everything though, taking notes of what he observes.

The pulse is concerning as well but there is only so much he can do in this office.]

How long has your temperature been elevated? Have you tried bringing it down with anything such as ibuprofen?

[Julien shakes his head.]

Then I can't agree to that. Percell - doc - I have to be careful with all of this. If it gets sent off, they will find out my blood's not human, and like as not they'll want to know where it's from. If you could found a lab that looks at nonhuman [animal] blood they'd want to know what it's from, and anyway I had a human transfusion, so it's all mixed up.

[Completely unafraid of Eliot, Julien takes his wrist in a dry, hot hand for a moment, trying to impress the seriousness of this on him.]

That was a pulse from around when I got shot - that was in the second week of December. If it was an actual fever, I'd have started getting brain damage long ago. But I've been to two different magic healers, and this is normal, now. My body changed. This is my baseline. If you tried to medicate or cut me to be closer to human-normal, it would hurt me, doc.

[He lets go.] I also don't sweat and there's a gland on my back. This is what I meant - it's hard for people to tell if I'm healthy or not. For now, I am. [He weighs seventy-odd pounds, less than half what he should, and the inside of his mouth is fucked up, but he won't volunteer those.]

[Eliot doesn't pull away, his eyes never once leaving Julien's. There is no flinching, even if this is a case like nothing else he's ever seen.

But ever since December, nothing seems to be as it should.]

I have no intention of hurting you, Julien. I only want to understand what is happening, that is all.

[And that is the truth, his only goal is a better understanding so he could be in a better position to help if necessary.]

May I see the gland?

You, I know I'm safe with. But I don't want any of this getting out, even if I'm rendered anonymous. We're all in danger, but this is particularly bad.

[For another moment Julien stares, and then his pupils expand and contract, and he blinks human-style, and nods.]

It's kind of embarrassing. You can touch it, but you might want gloves or tweezers. And be gentle, it's tender.

[He sighs and hops off the examination table. Julien tucks up the hem of his shirt and peels up the layer beneath that, loosens his belt, pulls his waistline down a little, and then reaches behind himself and pulls a band-aid off of his lower back. There's a neat square of gauze in it, bearing a less neat blotch of oil that's clear to human eyes.

Only then does he turn around and bend over, propping his upper body on the table, so a structure the size of a chickpea is visible, slightly beneath the level of his navel. Above where a tail might be. Tiny beads of oil collect near the tip, particularly if it's touched. The skin around it is slightly swollen, but it matches in color and seems to belong there. With it uncovered his smell is stronger now and distinctly inhuman - something like yeast, egg yolk, wool, heat, sweetness, vaguely like fresh maple-bread.]

I have to change the gauze a couple times a day or it'll soak through and that's a pain getting out of clothes.

I. ✵ Video

[Voice]

[Voice]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[Action]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)