Find Someone to Carry You.

[glacius]

Who: Glacius (glacius), Carlisle (tongueamok), Emily (unfollowing), and Kate (dedikated)
What: After his double ruined two of his gills with a dirty, thorny vine, infection begins to set in the Glacius' respiratory tract. His friends do whatever it takes to make sure he can bounce back from it, doing everything from general check-ups to combining efforts to providing him with some much-needed Healing Ice.
Where: Outside Glacius and Carlisle's apartment, the Clinic
When: Backdated to the very beginning of February.
Warnings: Gore, mentions of nasty sickly symptoms.

Not far from Guard HQ - CLOSED to Carlisle and Emily

Stay where you are, and do not die.

The first part of that demand was easily enough accomplished. The respiratory infection that had been festering in his ruined gills and lower airways had been sapping steadily at his strength all week, and now, Glacius wasn't sure if he could get up and walk more than a few steps without pitching over again. It was the second part that was beginning to feel more and more like it was going to be a challenge now, and if the ice alien wasn't feeling so foggy-headed and feverish, he might be more alarmed. In fact, without the voice of his friends over the communicator to tie him to reality, it was very hard not to begin drifting off again. He tries his best to ground himself with breathing exercises, but of course that doesn't work very well when your own respiratory system is slowly and painfully giving out on you... he tries to count the seconds, but he's tired, so tired, and his mind can't keep that up as everything starts to dim again.

In the end the sickly alien decides to try for thoughts that come more naturally, letting his mind drift over fond memories of his homeworld, and with his friends here in this cave. It means that he's skirting the edge of that thick, heavy shroud of unconsciousness more closely now, but at least he's not expending so much precious energy consistently wrestling his mind back into the present. He thinks of Rey, whose calm determination mirrored his own, who helped him stay grounded when things were difficult. He thought of Kate and her undying loyalty, of all the burdens of his that she listened to and empathized with. He thought of Carlisle and Emily--all of the kind words and gestures, all of the unrelenting faith in his character and goodness that they'd had. They--they still thought he was worthy of the sash. Without full lucidity he feels closer to the memories somehow, could swear he can hear their voices--

And then he realizes that he can and he is--they're calling out to him over the sound of heavy, approaching footfalls. The dark shroud that has crept in from the edges of his vision and blotted out the world begins to thin, now, and Glacius struggles to lift his head from the ground, wheezing stubbornly as he tries to catch his breath. He can't call back to them, in fact his trembling limbs look like they can barely keep his upper body off the ground, but he's trying his best to let them know that he's here, and whatever it is they have planned for him should probably be done fast.

The Clinic- CLOSED to Kate

Carlisle and Emily's efforts had worked flawlessly, their last-ditch efforts to provide Glacius with Healing Ice having restored the ice alien to perfect health... but that was exactly it. That was the last chance that they had of warding off the respiratory infection that had nearly claimed him, and Glacius knew that he could not always rely on such things--not only because snow in this place was of the highest rarity and he wouldn't trust the gods to cough up more whenever he needed it, but because he didn't want his friends expending so much of themselves. He needed to be more careful.

He needed to establish better preventative measures to hopefully himself from ever coming that close again in the first place.

He knows that Kate is up as early as early can be--her patterns mimic his own, in that way-- and a least they seem to be in the "quiet aftermath" period that tends to follow after the wretched games of the gods. It's not likely the clinic will be busy today, especially not at an hour that most humans would consider "ungodly", so he should be able to keep this visit solely between the two of them. And so as the artificial lighting is just beginning to illuminate the dreary subterranean city, giving the impression of a warm and peaceful morning, she'll find she has a certain otherworldly visitor at the clinic door, trying to find some space in her schedule before the other inhabitants of the city stop by and happen to catch a glimpse of him.

Except this time he's not here just as a visitor, or as a guard making sure everything is in order--no, he's here as a patient.

Comments

[tongueamok]

"Glacius!"

That is indeed Carlisle's voice Glacius hears as the clergyman tears across the street to kneel by his side, his eyes and voice fraught with worry, his hands shaking as he holds them above his alien friend, afraid that any amount of contact will make things worse. Despite that the run over took the wind out of him, he takes off at a mile a minute, trying to piece together some semblance of a plan.

"You're- you're going to be fine. I can't- can't heal you, or maybe I could, but I'll make things worse if I risk it. Gills are too delicate, and with the burning that comes from my aural channels, probably a bad idea, given the way you're breathing and the coughing and you should have had that checked out. Right. Forget I mentioned it. Something else, then. We'll, ah. We'll get you off the ground and you'll be fine once we figure out what it is that we'll do when we do what do we do what do we do what do we do?!"

That last question is aimed squarely at Emily, who Carlisle turns to, his expression reflecting the desperation in his tone.

[unfollowing]

Emily has been through this sort of thing before, to a degree: Ashley covered in blood, Chris at her side, both distraught and weeping and at a loss for what to do. She'd felt her own fear and then taken charge, because she'd been the one furthest from the trauma and the only one thinking clearly.

It's much the same now. Yes, the state of Glacius's voice had shocked her and started the adrenaline pumping. She'd kept pace with Carlisle until he'd broken ahead and run to Glacius's side in a gesture that reminds her of how she acted when she saw Matt walk around the city, injured and lost, on the day he'd arrived. It sends a stab of sadness through her chest, but she marshals herself together. Now's not the time to miss Matt. Now's the time to get Glacius home and healed up.

This is a lot to take in, but she can do this. Glacius is sick, and Carlisle is distraught. She's the one who has to get them all together.

With a deep breath, she stands straight, like she's doing a presentation for class or a mock interview for an internship. "We have to get Glacius back to the apartment. To the snow. Glacius, there's real, clean snow outside your apartment door, but we can't carry you there. Can you stand? Can you walk if we support you?"

[glacius]

All Glacius can hear is rapid footfalls preceded by a panicked shout, and then when he looks up Carlisle is right at his side--nearly touching, but not quite. At this point the trembling, exhausted alien would appreciate the support, but he settles for propping himself up on his elbows for the time being as his friend--and partner, now--barrages anything within earshot with panicked questions. Despite everything the ice alien manages to feel a pang of shame for causing one of the people he cares about most such worry and fright, and he attempts to tilt himself so that he can reach up, trying his best to place a calming hand on the clergyman's knee, as he has done in the past.

As he struggles to move, at least one of the other people that he cares about deeply is managing to keep her head. Emily's voice is a clear note that punches through Carlisle's panicked rambling, helps to snatch up his attention and gives him something to focus on--which he does very intently. "Support," he croaks, coughing brokenly, focusing on getting out of here first and foremost before questioning the other part of what she's said. He doesn't seem sure if he's heard her right; confusion paints his tightly-knit features. "Sss-snow..? How..? Can't be..."

[tongueamok]

Hesitating for half a second, Carlisle gingerly places his hand atop Glacius' as the alien reaches for him, doing his best to offer comfort without doing any more damage to his suffering friend. His panic fails to formulate a viable plan; thankfully, Emily is there to be the voice of reason against the storm of worry.

"Stop talking," he utters to Glacius, his hand tightening for a moment before he tries to slide himself under one of Glacius' shoulders. His body, still stiff itself from magical exhaustion, fights against him, but desperation wins out as he tries to help Glacius rise to his feet.

[unfollowing]

"Yes, snow. Just lean on us, okay?" Emily mirrors Carlisle's actions, ignoring the way her body feels after using so much magic. She's been through worse before. If she could survive being chased by a wendigo through scary, rickety, freezing mines after falling from a goddamn collapsed radio tower, she can help her friend after glyphcrafting a little.

She shoots Carlisle a quick glance, and nods. "Let's go. One step at a time, okay?"

[glacius]

If Carlisle's body is feeling uncooperative, then Glacius' might as well be a dead weight... but feeling his two friends slip up underneath his arms, doing everything they can to support him as they always have--quite literally this time--is enough to galvanize him. While at this point, with all this unexplained talk of snow, he's not entirely convinced that this isn't some extremely elaborate and realistic hallucination that his drifting mind has manage to cook up, once again letting him hear what he wants to hear... the alternative is to let it continue to drift, and he's not sure he can afford to pass out completely. This at least gives him a goal to focus on... and when it comes right down to it, according to Carlisle and Emily, he's never disappointed them, and he sure as hell does not want to start now.

So they'll feel the struggling ice alien shake against them, a powerful tremor moving his whole body, and a seething, bubbling hiss spatters from his gills as he tries to force himself to move. One leg comes up underneath him, pushing him up onto one knee... he groans and then gets the other into position, beginning to rise shakily. Glacius is trying to keep as much weight off of his friends as possible, but but's burning energy that he doesn't honestly have at this point... he stoops heavily and stumbles, but tries to doggedly keep at it.

[tongueamok]

Though he lets out a groan from the weight on his back and shoulders, Carlisle gives his companions a tentative smile as they start moving, one step at a time. "Good. Okay. Moving now. Just left foot, then right foot, and we're practically there."

They aren't, of course, but they're two steps closer, and Carlisle will take what he can get in terms of determination at the moment.

"You'll be- be so excited to see it, Glacius. The snow. Emily- she did most of the work, but you'll be able to mend yourself from any wound or infection, right? That is what you said, so you've got to make it until then. Don't want the snow to go to waste."

[unfollowing]

Carlisle is lucky there are more pressing matters to attend to than his subtle self-deprecation, because otherwise, she'd call him on it. As it stands, she tries for a few seconds to come up with a way to do it regardless, but nothing comes to mind.

"We're two stubborn overachievers who want to make sure you're okay. It's a dangerous mix." Though really, for all that she'd been upset by the sight of Glacius looking so hurt, Carlisle reacted far worse. It doesn't seem like how a clergyman would react, especially not one who can heal others.

They're lucky, her two friends, that she's more worried with keeping them moving forwards than thinkong more about her suspicions regarding the two of them.

"Come on, we're closer now." It's not a lie, okay. "You're doing really well, Glacius."

[glacius]

Closer--that's a good way of putting it. Realistic, without placing focus on the distance they have yet to travel, but instead the progress that they've made. Glacius huffs painfully and nods, appreciating the encouragement as he focuses on putting one leaden limb in front of the other, over and over again. Occassionally his toes scrape in the dirt as he lacks even the strength to lift his leg fully, but with their help he's managing.

Unfortunately, all of this exertion means that the alien is breathing very heavily, which is aggravating his airways and ruined gills. Glacius feels one heavy pant suddenly catch in his throat, and then before he can suppress it he's coughing horribly, hard enough to dislodge something deeper down. His eyes widen and his body tenses, and amidst each horrible hacking sound he tries to force out words: "--L-look away or--put me d-down or..."

Though neither of them are likely to stop supporting him in the midst of a respiratory attack--and the alien realizes this belatedly even as he starts to feel something coming up-- there's cause for his sudden trepidation. After a few more agonized coughs there's a very wet spattering sound as a bloody film is ejected from his injured gills, enough to spray across his friend's clothes given how close they are--which he's clearly horrified to note after the fit passes.

[tongueamok]

As he's spattered again with some horrible, internal substance from Glacius, one might think that Carlisle would handle it better. After all, the third time is the charm, isn't it?

Apparently not, as he immediately freezes, his mind thrown back to an instant where Glacius was impaled before him by his double, a single thought resonating in him: this is his fault.

And that thought quickly transforms into a runaway train of them: Glacius is dying and it's his fault again. He should have insisted Glacius get that cough checked out or find a way to manage his injured gills; he should have healed him despite any discomfort on Glacius' end, because if he'd been healed, then he wouldn't be suffering now, so why didn't he just heal him the moment he had even a scrap of energy to spare on such an endeavor did he not care about his friend no wait they're partners now and that makes it even worse because he finally had some kind of an exciting and new connection to explore with another being who knows exactly what he is and isn't afraid of him or disgusted or thinks he's some kind of a blight on the world and now said being is going to die and he'll be alone and that is a dreadful feeling in the highest—

Carlisle forces himself to stop in the only way he knows how; Emily and Glacius may feel his influence upon them, urging them along in spite of any reason they may find to hesitate: "Keep moving!"

As for Carlisle himself, he does, putting one foot in front of the other once more.

[unfollowing]

It's certainly a shock to see just how sick Glacius is, to realize how much pain he must be in. Emily has never seen this before, so yes there's some shock there, and she has to fight the instinct to pull away and wipe the bloody phlegm equivalent off her clothes for fear of catching whatever this is.

But Carlisle's influence soothes her, keeps her focused, helps her pull her strength together to move as fast as Glacius will allow.

[glacius]

When Glacis feels Carlisle freeze up underneath him and turn to look at him with that frightened expression, he knows the horror painting his features is justified--and he has precisely one moment to feel a jarring pang of shame for causing his friend such worry and disgust before Carlisle's influence begins to creep over him. Just like the first time he'd been commanded, he's too badly injured and worn down to rally his will against his partner's cursed gift... not that it's been a bad thing in either scenario. The first time it had happened he'd been told to stop, which had kept him from coughing or writing and worsening his injuries on the thorns in his gills... now he's told the opposite, to keep moving, which keeps him from crumpling in on himself as his symtpoms begin to take their toll.

The ice alien growls, blood bubbling frothily out of his gills, and moves with more intention this time-- his feet plant themselves more solidly against the ground and a little bit more of his weight leaves their shoulders. There will be a price to pay for pushing himself like this when he has nothing left, but the Healing Ice awaiting him--if his friends can manage to help him utilize it effectively, and he has no reason to doubt them--should help to negate that.

[tongueamok]

It's as much of a bane as it is a boon that Emily and Glacius are both affected by his command: though they move a little faster toward their destination, he knows Glacius is pushing himself toward a brink he shouldn't approach. He did so himself trying to heal him before, after all.

But there's no taking it back now. He utters a quiet series of apologies as they keep going, the Spire appearing in the distance.

[dedikated]

The last event, game, whatever the fuck the gods wanted to call it? That hurt, badly. Faith's death, the evils wrought by her own double and that of her best friend, all of it added to a list of things already solidly being ignored, buried deep under layers of busywork and crumbling walls.

People might get past those walls, into her heart, but letting the things it feels out? That's something Kate hasn't managed yet, preferring to deal with it by drinking. And drinking some more.

But, for nothing but fortune's sake, perhaps, she's not hungover this morning, up before sunrise, though more tired than usual. The drinking habits, the need to be plied unconscious by alcohol, they're as much to do with the nightmares of what happened, the coldness that seeped through her double and then herself, after Faith's death; hell, Faith's death itself, the sight of her supposedly near-invincible friend lying, lifeless, just hammering home the thing that stabs her heart so often:

Everyone you love will leave you. You won't be able to protect them, you never have been.

She's at the clinic at this time because she's been falling asleep there more often than not, whether due to too much alcohol, or simply because it's easier to sleep there than in the increasingly empty, oversized house that she and Faith share. So, when Glacius approaches, she's stifling a yawn and trying to twist all her hair into a bun on the top of her head.

"Gl-" Fuck, nah, that yawn's happening, bro. "Glacius? Can I help?"

[glacius]

Though Glacius is unaware of the exact details of what Kate had gone through at the hands of those insidious doubles, it's not hard to tell that she's not as... together as he's come to expect of her when she opens the door. For one thing, she's not as alert and she seems to lack that sharpness in her eyes that suggests a sort of vigor beating underneath her collected exterior, but instead is yawning as she comes to the door... and the expression that she wears, the bags beginning to darken under her eyes, only adds to the alien's concern. It's not hard at all to conflate all of the signs with the god-concocted torments they'd just been through; after all the sleep he'd lost looking out for his injured and exhausted roommate, he'd probably be looking like a fresh piece of hell himself if he hadn't had Healing Ice to wipe away the last of his injuries and rejuvenate his spirit.

Glacius frowns. No matter how hard he tries to look out for everyone, there's just no way one being can feasibly keep up with it all every time something in this cave goes wrong--or is orchestrated against them. He'd come to the clinic attempting to get some help, but now he's thinking he should shelf that for the time being in order to catch up with one of his closest friends. She deserves better than the hardship she has clearly endured.

"Yes, actually--but first.... are you alright?" The ice alien asks as he steps inside, casting a look around the clinic. Save for the two of them, it's empty--for the time being. Good. "I mean... no, wrong question, as I can already tell the answer to that one. Is there anything that I can do for you? Recent events have kept us apart, and... it does not become me to be kept apart from one of my most loyal allies and friends. I would like to make up for that lapse now, if I can."

[dedikated]

They all have to deal with these things, but Kate can't help but think she should be able to stop every terrible thing that's happened to people, even if it's not feasible. Because those people deserve more. Faith deserved more. She didn't deserve to die, to have to live with the guilt of the actions of her double, of the parts of her she's always kept under control. They exist, but dammit, she always made the choice to not fall into them.

She doesn't deserve to feel bad about their existence. Unlike Kate, she didn't fall into that trap, where those terrible parts of her are one weight too many away from coming out without remorse or care.

Finishing up with her hair - it's not as perfect as usual, but it'll do for now - Kate stretches her arms above her head. The clothes she's in are clearly crumpled, more than enough of a sign that she's just passed out here and woken up.

"I'm-" She catches herself, because fine is a lie. It's a lie she doesn't want to tell any more, even if she'd rather do her job than talk too much, after the combination of too much alcohol and chats with Carlisle, going through everything again will be awkward and painful. "Fell asleep in th' office. Not the best idea." Which is true, you can't really get a proper night's sleep on a chair and slumped over a desk.

"What can I do for you?"

[glacius]

Glacius hmms quietly. "Apparently. I cannot help but wonder why you did not want to return to your residence... but if you do not want to talk to me about... whatever you want through, I understand. I do not want to pry, or dig into painful wounds. I simply want you to know that I am here, and I want to support you."

In any case, her question brings the other reason for his visit to the front of his mind, and the alien fights down a wave of uncertainty. Technically, this goes against some of his people's cultural tenets... but the alternative is waiting for a repeat of his respiratory infection or something even worse, and he can't afford to be getting badly sick in a place where so many other horrible things are waiting to be dropped on their heads at literally any moment. Glacius' gills flutter, and he forces himself to have out with it.

"I fell gravely ill recently," the ice alien starts, moving further into the clinic towards one of the examination tables. "My friends were able to pull me back from its clutches by arranging Healing Ice for me, but... I put them through such worry and grief, and they had to involve Hope in order to get the amount of snow necessary for the process. I... I am not supposed to let anyone study me, pass on any information about my species' unique biology, but I do not want to have to rely on the gods in such a manner again, and I cannot afford to take such risks with my health in such a dangerous city..."

He trails off, then looks to Kate plaintively. Despite bringing himself here for this particular purpose, he's not able to make the request outright... but she should know what she's getting at, and moreover, what an unprecedented display of trust it is, given how closely Glacius guards his people's secrets.

[dedikated]

There's a moment of silence as Glacius explains what he needs, where she takes the moment to mull it over, to let her brain fill in the gaps. They're not too difficult to drag the underlying request from, to find the will you among the explanation. Kate doesn't question, doesn't pepper this moment with are you sure or hesitation, only the slight widening of her eyes provides any sort of indication to how much this means. Their trust has been a long standing thing, something that makes all the horrors of this place lessen just enough to be bearable, but there's the trust they've cultivated as friends and warriors, as people who've fought together, and this-

The one that says that he trusts her to heal as much as destroy, even though there's no more secrets in that area and she's not hiding the fear that's controlled so much of her life. This means something more, something uplifting that's needed in the wake of everything which has been designed to create doubt, to hang it heavy over her head.

"We can talk about it later," she finally says, speaking of her own worries, finding supplies and paper and pen for any notes she needs to take. "Don't- Don't want it getting in th' way of work." Because her own problems aren't something that can be solved as easily as a check-up can be done.

"So, tell me about your biology." And it's back to business for now as she puts on a stethoscope, hovering it lightly over his chest, not pressing it onto the flesh just yet. It's strange, after all this time it's nearly foreign, to be working on something as mundane as a check-up, even one that's to do with actual biology rather than powers.

It feels like a breather, almost, a breath of fresh air between the chaos of events and the injuries that rain down from them.

[glacius]

"No one else can know about this," Glacius prefaces immediately, "And I don't want any other clinic staff having access to these notes, even if it's just biological baselines that you're taking down. Wherever the most secure spot to keep them is, please stow them there, even if it is not on these premises. The only time you are to share what information you learn throughout this process is if it is a matter of my life or death, do you understand? I am entrusting this... no, I am entrusting myself to you, Kate." And he knows she won't let him down. It has been proven time and time again.

Those caveats being laid out, the ice alien eyes the stethoscope. He's almost not sure what it's for, it's so primitive compared to the technology that his people use... but given that she's hovering the circular resonator near his chest, he can only assume she's trying to listen to his hearbeat. Glacius obliges, allowing the thick layer of ice that encases him to retract; the alien's more traditional organic (and vulnerable) underbody is revealed, his muscles and tendons standing out against taught, pale skin. Having that protective layer stripped even locally hurts, exposing him to the air that's too warm for his species, but he can put up with it for the time being.

"Well," he begins, his gills fluttering again--Kate can probably tell by now that it's a nervous tic, much like a human wetting their lips, "The first thing you'll probably notice with that device of yours is that I have a binary vascular system. Two hearts. It pumps our blood rapidly and a lot of force, which helps prevent too much freezing build-up in veins or arteries, and provides plenty of oxygen to our bodies even during great physical exertion. It's part of the reason we're so naturally hardy... though, the second heart is not an entirely redundant organ. We can technically exist with only one, though it puts a lot of stress on the remaining organ to the point that life expectancy is shortened, and other complications can arise..."

He stops there for now, going quiet so that Kate can listen to the vigorous staccato rhythm.

[dedikated]

It takes little time for the idea to cement itself in her head. She can't do it now, but if she can get her hands on a safe - on something that's indestructible and inaccessible to anyone but herself - Kate can take care of those notes and place them somewhere safe. A deal with the gods, maybe. They don't need to know why, and she has other things - that elephant plush, for one - which she doesn't want to see destroyed in whatever games they play.

"Got it." It's unlikely she'd have done so anyway, but the request just hammers home that this is something to be left to herself, to be protected. Kept safe. And yes, the tools are likely nothing compared to what his people have, but that's what Hadriel provides. It's all she knows to use, even back home, although there are certainly superhumans who could do all of this without aids, she's not among those gifted few. Her powers don't allow such things, only responding to people's abilities, to that which is beyond the kind of biology that's required here.

So instead of something quick, this will be longer, more questions than immediate answers. Kate listens for a moment, slips the stethoscope over one shoulder with a nod and begins scribbling on paper - notes of what he's said about his hearts, notes of what she heard rattling in his chest, wondering all the while if dual hearts is something her kind were meant to have but never did. "And your lungs?" Her eyes flick to his gills for a moment, twirling the pen between her fingers idly as she does.

oh yea major headcanon alert in all of this lol

[glacius]

It's strange, having her hand against the bare skin of his chest--in the past he would have only been bared like this because someone had managed to physically break through his natural armor, and feeling any contact against his exposed underbody would have meant that a flood of pain was coming his way. Just a handful of months and things have changed so much; now he's doing it by choice, submitting himself to a routine medical examination at the hands of a member of the species that had been directly responsible for so much of his suffering. Him of the past would be utterly baffled and probably even a little bit put off... but the Glacius sitting before Kate knows he made the right choice, and even if it's taking him a little bit to adjust to this completely routine manner of contact, he's not worried that she'll do anything wrong.

So he allows the examination to continue, answering her questions when she asks them. "Ah yes, lungs. I do possess them--but they are simpler in structure than your human lungs. Though they can aid in respiration, they are meant mostly to store and provide air to my various vocal chords, allowing me to speak and produce the more unique sounds of my people's language. It is my gills that are mostly responsible for oxygenating my blood, but that can only happen if the organs are moist--that is why our operculum are kept in a gelatinous state even though it creates a point of vulnerability in our bodies."

Glacius hesitates again, then forces down another wave of misgivings and actually tilts his head up, flaring all of his gills open at once, revealing the alien respiratory organs housed with in--they are a deep indigo sort of hue, comprised of countless tiny filaments. This is an unprecedented gesture, and Kate can probably tell--not only because he's openly exposing what he just said is the most vulnerable point of his anatomy to her, but because he's putting it up for open examination. That says a whole lot about how much he trusts her--not to hurt him, or the rest of his species with this chance.

kanyeshrug. KI will just have to provide deets if they don't want headcanon.

[dedikated]

Change is a constant here. A way of life. Whether that's the new people that arrive, or the people that leave, the things that happen and who you become. All of it is designed to change you, to force about things that you don't expect. How easy it is to begin to take this place for granted, to accept it as your life even if you desire nothing more than to leave, to see the sky once again. She's gotten too used to what's here, even when the Gods bring about their strangeness, try to rustle up their emotions - it's just part of life, something to be expected in the same way rain might be back home.

Kate never thought she'd be part-running a clinic with so little in the way of actual technology or real organisation (where everyone's, more or less, on a casual schedule, can you really have organisation the way it was taught to her?), nor that she'd be using the little she knows about check-ups, as opposed to emergency first aid or power problems, for an alien being. Someone, had the world done something different had they met back home when The Agency was still active, she would have likely treated in the same way that Ultratech did. An abomination. Someone to hurt, rather than help. It's those thoughts that strike her when she gently prods at the exposed flesh, applies pressure with a methodical precision that's easier to get right after being taught what's enough to cause pain.

"Operculum?" Her eyes are bright, and it takes little more than a second for her to shake her head at the question she makes - once he flares his gills, she thinks she gets it. What that word means. It's nothing in the human or superhuman biology, and she knows little about anything beyond that. With little more fuss, she begins noting things down, scribbling in spiky handwriting. "That means the infection was in your gills, aye?" That is, after all, the main reason he came here. She thinks she's getting the right answer, but...

Well. This is all new. Another change.

I guess so!!

[glacius]

"Oh, ah--the gelatinous covering over my gills," Glacius clarifies, when he realizes he's fallen on unfamiliar terminology. "I cannot say for sure where exactly it resided, given that for all my capabilities, I cannot look inside myself. But it felt like the infection spread deeper into my respiratory system, blocking my lower airways in addition to my gills. Either way, there was significant mucus buildup, often with blood in it as persistent coughing agitated said airways. As the infection progressed, overheating from fever and asphyxiation became very real risks."

He shudders a little as he remembers how miserable he had felt as his condition worsened... and even harder was the knowledge that he was powerless to fight it off, as he might have been able to with an outside force. Coming to Kate at least helps him feel like he's taking action against it in some way, and there's more they can do in that regard beyond just taking down vitals.

"While true treatment options are limited without access to Healing Ice or any of my people's medicine... we should still discuss ways to attempt to slow or fight such infections, yes?"

[dedikated]

More notes to make. It's true, their attempts at healing anything remain limited - physical injuries are simple enough, with bandages and scraped together resources, healers and first aid knowledge, but illness is another beast, one that requires different sorts of treatments.

"Aye," she agrees. It's been a non-issue so far, but clearly this is more than enough of a sign that Kate's been taking that for granted. Like the rest of this place, their health is unpredictable, and clearly certain things can still infect people. And in a locked down area such as this...

It'll be a pain if it spreads. "Know a few remedies from back home that help with things like this. Prob'ly find some substitutes in th' orchard." She steps back, pulls a chair over to sit down opposite him, tapping her pen against the notebook. "There any natural remedies your people use?" Most of the ones she does know are teas, various heat-based or steam-based aids that Kate doesn't know whether to recommend readily with his biology.

[glacius]

They've both been taking it for granted--of course Glacius had considered many times the risk he'd been at for illness, given that he was separated from his people's doctors and medicine... he'd just never been forced to do anything about it. He'd just crossed his fingers and hoped that if he did get sick, he'd be able to fight it off with proper nourishment and lots of rest, but that was taking a huge chance. It had not paid off, so now, he's finally admitted to himself that he needs to take proper precautions. It helps to have a person that he knows he can trust with this information.

So he continues providing it. "Plenty," Glacius replies, pushing air through his nostrils in a brief snort, "The problem is that they are not available to me here. The most powerful remedy is a phenomenon known as Healing Ice--it is abundtantly available on the homeworld, of course, but I have seen not a single flake of snow that has fallen naturally in this cave. For Healing Ice to be effective, the snow must be freshly-fallen and completely undisturbed... and there must be enough of it to completely envelop my entire body. If this conditions are met, Healing Ice can mend any injury and expel any sickness."

It was how he managed to recover from his near-death experience; thank the Makers Emily had enough concern and foresight to immediately reach out to the gods when he first informed her of his injury. Had the snow not been provided for him so quickly--and had she and Carlisle not supplemented it with their own magically-generated snow-- things might not have turned out so well.