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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 21:33:42 GMT -6
"Ahahah... I'll take those off for you. Must itch against all that loose fur." Locus asks me to lean forward some and I do. He's carefully unwrapping the cloth wraps and finally sets a pile of clean looking wrappings on the covers. "Tilt your head upwards... good..., now down, sideways to my right, roll slowly down to the left... good." My chin scrapes the skin of right where the wraps were and finally look up when told to. He holds up a small hand mirror so I can see myself. Its a thick ring of furless skin around my neck, about as thick around as my forearm. and more is gone off the back of my scruff. A ropy looking set of gashes are visible on my skin, held shut with something glinting. "Lazy Lucifer never attacks the throat, most of the damage done is on your back, your neck and your shoulders from behind." He glances down at the sleeping lump of panilla at my side. +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 21:38:08 GMT -6
"But your reaction to his poison is probably the most sensitive I've seen in any of my patients." Locus says, as he picks up a thing to look into my ears. "Tell me, do you have any relations who are sickly on a regular basis?" My father, I write on my chalkboard. He was very sick when I was a cub, but recovered. I remember him having colds a lot..., why was he asking this? "You likely have inherited his weak immune system, Kristofer." Locus tells me, eye to eye. I swallow, eyes wide. It hurts and my paw goes to my throat with a wince. "Say aaah, please." Aaaah? all animals know this to be opening your mouth, but for what reason besides to look inside (or if you are a lion tamer in books, stick your head inside), who knows. The little light he looked in my ears with he peers down my mouth. Agh?!
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 21:49:57 GMT -6
I can hear him making a noise that doesn't sound so good while looking down my throat. Pressing something down on my tongue to see further. It makes me want to gag. aaaahgggh... Finally, he lets me close my mouth, and it makes me cough, my paw still at my throat. "When someone vomits a lot, the stomach acid can erode at the lining of the throat. Swallowing, coughing, even sometimes breathing through your mouth hurts, right?" Nod. "Thankfully the mouth and throat are quick healing parts of the body. Give yourself a week, and don't eat anything acidic or end up making yourself vomit more, and you'll be fine." What made my skin burn so badly?, I write on my chalkboard after rubbing out the other words. It just dawns on me, he reads animal script? "Its the poison that the cat coats his claws in. One scratch can down a full grown PHIL, if he can penetrate the armor. Uh... its an armored bear."
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 22:13:42 GMT -6
"I wasn't sure if it was an immunity problem or an allergy to shellfish, so I took the liberty of doing an allergy panel on you while you were sleeping. Some shellfish produce a neurotoxin, a poison that affects nerves and muscles, and paralyzes you from the inside out." I didn't...know that. "Its typically if you are fishing in a polluted area, and not so common here in Pethia; because I don't know what happens to our trash." He puts the items aside, folding his fingers together. The undersides of his hands are just as colorful as the upper side. "Point is, you are far as I can tell, not allergic to shellfish. The common ones humanoids are allergic to are dairy, grain, soy, fish, shellfish, eggs, tree nuts and peanuts, in terms of food. All those came negative." I didn't realize how tense I had gotten until I relaxed at that news. That's good, I'd never eaten anything that initially made me sick. But...?, I write on the chalkboard, because he looks like he's got more to say.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 22:26:26 GMT -6
"Judging by the half of the registry papers Raven said were in your possession, you lived in the woodlands previously?" I nod affirmatively. "So fish and shellfish wouldn't have been an easy item to get hold of, for ocean variety." Right., I write. "I thought about that, so there's a smaller, secondary panel, for common types of toxin people and... uh, mammalians, thats what Pethia people call animal folk, can get exposed to." Locus sits back on his sitting thing, I'm not sure if its a chair or a stool from this angle. I can't see a backing. "You may have an allergy to poisons." he finally says. "Since you had such a strong reaction to the Triad's choice of poison, I wasn't comfortable on testing another with you unaware of what were were trying to find out." He picks up a small container and it contains two items. A stem with 3 green leaves, dark and shiny, and a vial with a needle next to it, impaled in fabric so it didn't escape.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 22, 2020 22:31:28 GMT -6
That's poison plant, I've seen it before., I write, pointing at the plant. Its less pointy then what I remember seeing in the woods though. "I figured you may have encountered something similar. This is called poison ivy; a plant that grows periodically around the outskirts and the surrounding wilderness. For most humanoids, its a skin irritant. However, if my theory is right, your reaction may be a lot stronger. However, it has to be against skin, not fur. I have an antidote handy right here, and Raven is near, he has more if you need it. Are you alright with trying this trial?" Its unnerving, him asking me to be willingly rubbed with poison plant. "poison by blood, poison by skin, and we'll have our answer." Just dont' get it on Mira., I wrote, pointing at the panilla. "No no, not going to touch her. She woke up once when I was doing the first panel; scared the hellion out of me with her screaming." +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 4:59:45 GMT -6
"Should get around to training her how to be quiet, if you want my opinion." Raven grumbled as he ambled through the room, picking up random objects and tossing them into a bag. There was no... no order to how he was picking up items, just looking and placing them in willy nilly. But what does a bird statue, some shattered rocks, several glass eyes and a picture frame have to do with anything? "Noisy beast, panilla." "Everything is noisy to you, birdman." Locus pointed out as he helps me turn over and lie on my stomach. Handing me the little mirror so I could see over my shoulder. If it wasn't already for the thick ring around my neck of furless skin, I'd be more uncomfortable of the human hand sized squares shaved out of the thickest fur on my body. Of more held shut gashes on my shoulders and neck. He wasn't joking, the mad cat played dirty and came from behind.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:06:54 GMT -6
"Look at it this way, when your winter coat grows in, Uh, you get winter coat right?" I can't tell if he can see me nodding into my pillow. Which is so super soft, burring my face into it is heavenly. "When your winter coat grows in, it won't be overly thick on the back of the neck. A lot of mammals I treat who have thick fur have it grow thickest around the neck or the belly." Locus points out. That doesn't especially make me feel better, because I'll be wearing a scarf until it grows back again. "Ok Kristofer, I'm going to administer the the poison ivy now. If you feel anything off, figure out how to tell me." Yes because I'm so going to be able to make noises like this. I form my paw into an 'ok' hand sign. Its a bit weird, as my fingers don't curl that way typically.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:14:51 GMT -6
I can feel him rubbing the leaf into the blank spot on my shoulder. Almost immediately, I want to make him stop, because it ITCHES. I try to reach around to scratch it, oh it needs to be scratched. Right now, so badly. And its not just on the place where he rubbed it, EVEYRTHING ITCHES. A pained whine escapes me as I try to reach for someplace, somwhere to scratch. The impulse of scratching is so bad that Locus stops rubbing the leaf into me and takes hold of my reaching paws. "Raven, give him the antidote!" I can hear the man call out. Something's flapping around outside my line of sight, because its all pillow. Something jabs into my neck and hurts. A few minutes pass of fighting the man, trying to free myself. Even thoughts of biting him to escape and fall over itching myself all over crosses my mind. And Mira wakes up to top it off. WHEEK?! WHEEK WHEEK WHEEK!
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:36:21 GMT -6
Finally, the impulse to itch starts to subside. Shivers coarse through me though, and I can still feel the bare area (out of my scratching range) itch and burn. Shoving myself away from the pillow, sitting back on my knees with my hands planted on the pillow. Breathing a bit hard from the intensity of the impulse to itch. "Damn, that's one fast reaction. Allergic to skin applied irritants and poisons." Locus responds. Carefully, mindful of my face, he takes my paw and an arm around my back and helps me sit up on the edge of the bed. "Easy now." There's tearing noises as he opens up what looks like a small paper package and pulls out a small cloth, smaller then a Mouse-sized kerchief, and starts to rub it onto my shoulder's bare spot. Its cold and makes my skin prickle, and makes me hiss, but that irritates my throat. Mira's climbing over my legs and barking at Locus, her patchy fur prickling a bit.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:41:23 GMT -6
Her rudimentary leash drags across as well, and to avoid her getting loose, I grab hold of it, and hold her back gently. She struggles a bit against it, but looks back at me. I just shake my head no, glowering at the dual colored human man as he works. Mira's barks become more chirrups then anything else as she wiggles into sitting between my legs and watching the human work. She doesn't like his smell, it seems. Nor do I, its a thicker smell of something herbal and smoky. Almost like Uncle's pipe. "Okay, all clean." Locus sits back and discards the cloth and the paper scraps into a small pile on the bed. "I would not get into any piles of poison ivy if I were you. Strongest reaction I've seen to skin irritants in years." That... doesn't make me feel much better, I write, reaching for my chalkboard. +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:46:43 GMT -6
"What Raven put in your neck is an animalfolk variant of an epi-pen. It lessens and stops an allergic reaction." The man holds up what looks like an ordinary pen to my eyes, except the cap is a screw on. He removes it with quick twists and shows me that its a pokey item. That if you press on the back end of the pen, a tiny needle springs up. "As a doctor, I believe having a handful of these on hand here in the city would be really good for you, just in case. They do have a rather fast expiration date, so mind that." How... do you read the date on that, I don't read human-script., I write for him. "Right right, I forget all the foreigner folk who come through, and a lot of them don't speak Common, thats the human-talk and human-script here in Pethia. Uh.., like this. Let me borrow that board real quick."
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 5:51:57 GMT -6
He writes out the day and time of year in animal script, fluently I have to say. It's surprising. Humans don't typically speak our language. Then, he writes it again, in human-script. Common-script, I mean. I'll have to get used to that. "This is the day" he points at the first set of what appear to be loopy scripts, "the month, or time of year", at the second part, "and the actual year. Humans like knowing the year. for some reasons." the last part has what appear to be four loopy scratches. "Together, this makes up the date. Today, actually. So the day of...Raven, what moonphase was it recently?" Locus calls out suddenly, back over his shoulder. "Moon phase? third quarter! Learn to read a starmap, you-" I don't understand his last words on that. Locus just chuckles and shrugs it off. "Day of third quarter moon, in the season of autumn." he points out the proper term of day and month to our day and season.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 6:07:09 GMT -6
A human who can read and speak animal-language. You're really smart for a human., I write. He glances at my board, and laughs. Its a big bellied laugh, for such a slim looking human. "Surprises a lot of people still, people and animals alike." Locus finally manages to speak after a good hearty laugh. "I've been good with languages since I was a kid, and traveled a lot. I hit up places that knew all sorts of language, and picked it up pretty fluently in a month or so. Knowing how to talk to, and write for your patients who arent' Common-speaking or writing is a handy skill to have as a doctor. "But yes, I have heard and learned your language; By our Pethia standard, its called Laiyan, fae language. By your written dialect, you're a western wood dweller, or further out. Am I correct?" A pause... then I finally nod. "Thought so. Laiyan is a rather far reaching language, but changes slightly, depending on the cardinal direction."
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 23, 2020 6:12:35 GMT -6
"Lucky for you, our city bookshop does stock books in Laiyan for learning other languages, like Common. I highly recommend picking up a few. It'll make interacting with the masses here in Pethia a lot easier on you in the long run. You can't look at someone's face and say "that guy speaks my language" after all." Locus chuckles at that. You should be a translator as well as a doctor., I write out. He laughs again, but shakes his head no? I'm confused. "Believe me, I'm better off out of the spotlight of trying to translate for everyone." he gestures at his dual toned skin. "I'm so deeply freckled that most humans think I'm a halfblood, or suffering from a skin illness." Freckles?, I write. "Uh... these." He gestures at the multitude of dark spots that stipple into a different shade of skin color all over him, visibly. "You stand out from your fellow foxes, right? All this colorful fur?"
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