Owls, and a brief monologue

[igotahamster.livejournal.com]

Mei mei:

We haven't had dinner in ages. Come to my office for a meal? You can explain to me how I've been an idiot -- I think I've put my foot in it twice.

Simon.



Kaylee:

You're likely busy with studies, but I'd like to see you sometime soon. I miss you, you know, And I hope you're not avoiding me for some reason. Let me know if I've done something wrong.

Yours,

Simon.



Chance:

I saw you last week walking on the grounds but didn't want to disturb you -- you looked quite engrossed in your conversation and the person you were having it with. I haven't had a philosophical conversation in nearly a week -- and I do have some medication suggestions if you're willing to listen. Owl or stop by, you know my door is open...

Simon



Stephen:

I should like to consult with you as a colleague again, if you have the time. Two most interesting cases and the potential for unusual treatment have come up.

Case one involves an individual with an autonomic process that can be harmful to others in the vicinity. We're looking to manage that process and potentially make it voluntary rather than autonomic. Second-best would be to suppress it with medication or treatment.

Case two involves an individual who is in an altered state of living -- specifically ambulatory and sentient though her actual flesh is dead. She has a number of wounds that will, as a result, not heal, and I'm wondering if I can at the very least transfigure the skin very delicately so they're closed, if not find a way to repair the damage.

I know my initial intention with the office away from that woman the infirmary was to treat River, but I sincerely doubt anyone in the infirmary would care to manage this sort of treatment when there are more life-threatening cases at large, and both individuals deserve some treatment option.

Sincerely,
Dr. Simon Tam

PS - recieved some pictures from our duel. Next time, we use swords. Somehow, I expect it'll turn out less phaellic. Burned the pictures -- did you recieve any?


There. All sent, all done.

He sat back, and he waited.

And waited.

Responses from Stephen and even River, while nice, were expected.

Responses from Kaylee and Chance...

God, Kaylee, he hadn't heard from her in ages. He found himself unable to focus, puttering around his office, staring at the fire or out the window. He missed her, he genuinely did, and it seemed like it had been so very long... he scowled at his reflection in the glass of the window and pulled away. He'd owled her before to no avail... and now this. Silence. He sighed -- he'd tried! And River'd yell at him...

Better to think of other things. Like Chance. Like it or not, patient or not, she was a friend. First one he'd really made here. Sure, Mal was a good guy, and his various colleagues were, well, collegial. He'd even mentally come to a sort of a head with Stephen -- mostly when he burned the pictures he'd recieved.

But Chance, she was the one he missed. The way she could turn an off-hand comment into a whole conversation, her expression when she'd really driven something home, the way she was always thinking, always pushing, always questioning. It was admirable.

No, more than admirable. Impressive. Welcome. Familiar. He smiled as he sank down into the chair she had taken over, running his hands along the arms of it. Truth be told, he missed her more than Kaylee. Hell, he dreamed of her more than Kaylee, and...

... wait. What?

He sat bolt upright and puzzled through that. He missed her more than Kaylee. And it was Chance he'd been dreaming about so inappropriately, Chance who'd taken to the uniform and blown him away, and...

... oh. Oh.

Comments

return owl, heavily warded

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Simon:

Certainly I have no objection to such consultation, and welcome the opportunity to learn from these cases as well. As to your view of the Hospital Wing, I confess its institutional preoccupation with house-elf physiology baffles me at times, though perhaps that is adopted by necessity, the students being by and large a young and healthy bunch; Mistress Nutter's students might well profit from the opportunity to work with actual humans, or quasi-humans. However it is the patient's choice which physician he will employ. I have told you before that I have had occasion to treat patients who are reluctant to consult the Hospital Wing. I will not pass any judgement in this matter.

Of course I must inquire of you for more detail of both your cases. Upon the first case I cannot yet comment, without more knowledge of the patient's condition. Upon the second condition I have something of a preliminary thought: If your patient's tissue no longer lives -- if the patient herself no longer lives -- perhaps we ought not to think of it as tissue per se, so much as an inert though organic material. As such, perhaps we ought to think more of the sorts of charms which transfigure inert objects than of the potions which are normally employed for medical applications.

I should also inquire as to the progress of the case upon which you consulted me last. Should the prescription then agreed upon not have proven efficacious, I may have other suggestions.

I had no idea you possessed any sort of facility with a sword. Swordplay at Hogwarts is used for sport alone, the deadlier arts having no real point here. Should a future disagreement between us require we resort to the field of honor, we shall have to hash out this problem. I hope it will not come to that.

I have indeed received the charming mementos of the duel. While incineration is a tempting prospect, I should like to determine who took the pictures and who sent them, which means keeping them for certain tests.

- Stephen.

Re: return owl, heavily warded

[igotahamster.livejournal.com]

Stephen:

It isn't the students in the infirmary who concern me; I'd gladly take on help if my patients agree. It's the potential for oversight at a level I'm not comfortable with, by a woman who for all intents and purposes has never been qualified by an exam board, as far as I can tell.

The first case is that of an apparent psychic vampire; he does not require any particular ingestion to survive, and indeed eats food and drinks water like any man. But he has extraordinary powers, and those are powered by him draining a 'life force' from humans.

The condition being treated is this: as a result, he has an extraordinary power of attraction. I have enclosed a clinical journal he kept at my behest; you see how the nature and number of these encounters are absolutely extraordinary. This attraction is out of his control, and this is what we are hoping to manage.

My only concern with transfiguring organic materials would be the potential for rot -- I am certain that could also be managed through magical as well as mundane means. A graft is something easily done to living tissue in my time. I'm sure the techniques we employ could be adapted to magical uses quite easily.

No progress has been made on that case as yet. I will let you know when I work out why.

I am functional if not adept with sword in hand; fencing is required learning for a particular class on my home world, and my Father always insisted I go above and beyond the required.

If you do manage to work out who took the photographs, let me know. I'd like to have a discussion with them.

Simon.

(no reply, monologue ftw)

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Chance reads the message, rubs her forehead, and quickly crumples the parchment into a ball so she won't re-read it. Until now, she hasn't stopped to think her abrupt silence and absence could construe neglect. Of course, it is. Not much to be done about that. She feels badly about it all the same.

She won't reply, or go anywhere near his office. Avoidance is safe, even if uncomfortable. Still, the remorse stays with her, and that's what's at the forefront of her mind when she happens upon the secrets board some time later.