savetheearth | (no subject)

Who: Elian, Chris, Aaron, (possibly other clinic people?)
What: Chris remembered an ancient evil! And mentioned it to her uncle. Who also remembered it. And then passed out! YAY??? WAIT NO.
Where: The clinic

She wouldn't cry. Her heart would break before she'd cry. Madness creeped at the edges of things and she tried not to think on how completely fucked up her life had become.

Her great uncle was the only family member she had in this mess, and while she wasn't sure she wanted him involved, on the other side she absolutely didn't want to lose him. It had to have been an Echo, and she hoped that it wasn't a heart attack, or a stroke. At his age...

No, just drive the damn car and pray to the gods she didn't believe in that he'd be okay.

Deep breaths.

I won't cry. That's bullshit. Crying is bullshit.

Okay, clinic. Now to help her uncle into the damn place. She hadn't realized how heavy a full grown unconscious man could be, even one as old as her great uncle. And then... inside.

"Someone!? Somebody help... Mr. Strider? Mr. Solus? My uncle's had... I don't fucking know, something's gone wrong!"

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For better or worse, Elian was just starting to come around by the time she was starting to bring him in. On one hand, this did mean that he was instinctively trying to get his feet under him.

On the other, disorientation was the least of what he was feeling. Nausea as high on the list as well. Needless to say, he wasn't doing very well, and was very more interested in finding the closest wall and trying to lean against it.

"Nngh..."

Aaron was the first to hear, and so he was the one to come to Elian's side, taking one of Elian's arms and slinging it across his shoulder, motioning for Chris to take the other one.

"Come on, let's get him to the back." He nodded at the door he came through -- it opened onto a hallway, and a door to an examining room was ajar already. "Chris, what happened?"

"I don't know! We had... we were just trying to have dinner, and he noticed my robot arms and that triggered an echo for him, and then he mentioned giant planet sized dudes and that triggered one for me, and then I said the name of the guy I got in my memory which was Unicron and..."

She puts her free hand to her face.

"I just, I think it's an Echo but I'm afraid that something worse happened, he's old and I just..."

Dimply aware at the other man helping him, Elian was just really getting a foot down before Christobel spoke. On the name 'Unicron', his footing slipped, and he hissed out a low, sharp breath.

"Do not say that name!"

Considering, that for him, that was a harsh response - it may have been a clue. Though as well as harsh, it took some of what strength he'd recovered; though embarrassed by his weakness, Elian had little choice but to let himself be all but carried towards the examining room.

Towards the examining room, and up onto the table. "Can you sit up?" Aaron asked, keeping a steadying hand on Elian's shoulder.

"Okay, okay, got it, don't say the name of the big planet-sized douchecanoe, okay, fine," she said, sighing. "At least you're talking? I guess?"

Not without help. At least Elian isn't the sort to deny help if he's aware he needs it; he ends up hunched over, hands in his lap, briefly raising his head to give Christobel a look.

No. Don't say the name of the big planet-sized douchecanoe that provokes a worse reaction than if he'd walked in on a splatter movie festival.

"I just need a few minutes," he answers to Aaron, sounding more...tired than anything as he looks down at his imperceptibly trembling hands. "I'm sorry about all of this."

Aaron quickly and quietly takes Elian's vitals, writing them down on a sheet of paper on the counter. He looks into Elian's eyes, tests reflexes, asks Elian to hold his arms out at equal heights -- good.

"He's right," Aaron says to Christobel. "Medically, there's little wrong with him. As far as I can tell, he's just had a shock. Excuse me a moment."

But, just in case...

Aaron walks out of the room for a moment, leaving Chirstobel and Elian time to talk. He'll be back in a minute or two.

She waits till Aaron is gone, but...

"Look, don't be sorry, this... it's my fault. I opened my big stupid mouth again..."

It's clear that at this point, Elian feels a bit embarrassed; he's aware of his own discomfort around certain things, and though he goes out of his way to avoid that which disturbs him, the fact nonetheless that he's given Christobel such a shock...

Exhaling heavily once Aaron walks away, he rubs the bridge of his nose as Chris speaks. "You didn't know," he murmurs, "But I will thank you to not mention anything of the like around me in the future."

That sheer abhorrence...he shudders involuntarily, grimacing. In all his years...he's never experienced, nor 'remembered' as the case may be, anything so awful.

It was a minute or two before Aaron came back into the room, holding a steaming hot mug of -- well, something that smelled wonderful. It would be a minty smell, if it had more flavor, but instead it really just smells clean, fresh, and a little sweet.

"I don't have much of this," Aaron explains, "but it's proven useful when pulses have effects I've never seen before. Drink it; you'll feel better."

He hands the mug, carefully, to Elian.

"I'll remember, I promise," she says. If it ever, ever comes up again, Elian's going to have to mention it first.

She watches Aaron come back with the tea, and... man, she didn't even like tea, but that smelled amazing.

"What is that? Is it from... y'know? Elsewhere?"

Elian nods solemnly at Christobel. Good. There's nothing more to say, and he remains quiet, rubbing his face just a bit more. It's the most violent reaction he's had towards something in decades, and that alone disturbs him.

The scent, however, draws his attention back to there here and now. He's always liked tea; never preferred it over coffee or vice versa, but he's no stranger to the drink. "Oh?" he says, slowly accepting the mug. "I don't believe I'm familiar with this flavor..."

Or taste.

He blinks, surprise clearly replacing his features. Oh. Whatever it is, it's certainly cleansing.

"You wouldn't be," Aaron says to Elian. "It is from elsewhere -- athelas, it's called. Its effects -- well, it has some healing properties, and the smell of it in hot water seems to be a universal antidepressant. It was the first thing I received from the pulses, actually -- it was only about two months ago that I remembered exactly what it was and how to use it. Along with a lot of other herbal medicine," he goes on, with a wry note in his voice. "I'd have dismissed it all as holistic nonsense six months ago."

"Well, a lot of modern medicine is based on plants, right? Like... asprin came from willow bark originally, right? I mean I usually dismiss shit like fish oil and fuck anyone who believes in homeopathy, but if the stuff works..."

She paused. "Man I don't know too much about biology, but I had a friend in college who was real into herbal medicine shit. Emerson student, in the Animation school, originally from LA... real wacko. Anyway he wouldn't shut up about Saint John's Wort as a cure for depression. Makes me wonder if it's related? Maybe you could cross-breed it or clone it..."

There. Science. Now she's distracted and not thinking about horrible things, so that's better.

"Athelas," repeats Elian, furrowing his brow. "How interesting. Well, I can assure you both that herbal remedies aren't nearly as useless as some think they are." See; Cannabis. "At least, not all of them. And this," he adds, raising the mug a bit, "is further proof."

It's clear that it's already had an effect on his spirits. He wasn't smiling, before.