[video]

[greyaria]

[Emily isn't wearing the ugly blue jumpsuit. She is instead wearing ugly blue scrubs, and judging by the background, she's in the Infirmary. And she's smiling. Emily is always. Smiling.]

Is there anyone out there with an injury or chronic medical condition that was untreatable in your home universe? I have robotics lab and medical access now. Come on by and we'll see about sorting that out! Or just come by for a checkup! I don't discriminate!

[She should probably set expectations properly, huh? Her good cheer goes from disconcerting to almost normal as she adds her caveat.]

The equipment is, hmm, vintage and I don't promise I can fix everything, especially if your biochemistry is out there compared to humans, but it seems like I'm from the future [she makes wiggly finger gestures, which are apparently supposed to signal...something] relative to quite a few of you, so that's an extra few centuries of medical knowledge. Might as well put it to good use!

Comments

[video]

[aleifr]

[Aleifr's response boils down to one word:]

Biochemistry?

[greyaria]

The things that make up your body that are too small to see, and how all the little itty bitty pieces talk to each other!

[For once, she's not being condescending, that's just how she talks when she doesn't have to be precise for science reasons.]

[aleifr]

"The little things that make up my body."

[He's no less confused.]

[greyaria]

Your body is made up of components much too small to see with the naked eye. If you want to come down to the lab, we can swab some skin cells from your cheek and look at them in the microscope! It'll be like grade school science class!

[She is unaware he's unfamiliar with the concept of a magnifying lens.]

[aleifr]

[His brow furrows at the latest barrage of unfamiliar terms, but he nods.]

Fine. I'm curious.

[greyaria]

Great! I'll get the slide prepped!

[Whatever he's picturing is almost certainly not what she means.]

video -> action

[aleifr]

[He doesn't know what he should be picturing. He thought a slide was something you do or something you could slide off of. He's never heard someone use that word to refer to something you could hold in your hand, and he's not sure what that has to do with "swabbing" his cheek -- whatever it is that meant.

[Nonetheless, he's curious enough to go through with it, and within a few minutes there's a scowling giant walking into the infirmary.

[He looks ... confused at what all the equipment does, at the very least. He hadn't been sure what to expect, but this looks nothing like the hut of any gothi he's ever met. He's not sure if that's reassuring or not.]

[greyaria]

[Don't worry, Emily knows all the proper rituals.

Despite her griping, the Infirmary is science-fictional by early 21st century standards, and quite possibly incomprehensible by Fenrisian ones.

The beds are currently occupied solely by one disgruntled-looking woman with her leg immobilized by some piece of equipment as she pokes at her handheld in a desultory fashion and whatever game she's playing beeps, boops, and occasionally makes one of those descending "you died!" tones.

If you don't want to be stuck in bed, don't break your leg!]

Aleifr! [Her pronunciation is a reasonable imitation of the proper one.] C'mon in!

[Emily sticks her head out of a side door. She waves and then beckons him over.]

[aleifr]

[Aleifr turns in the direction of Grey's voice, giving her a quick nod of acknowledgement, throwing one more brief glance towards the woman in the cast, and walking towards the side-room.]

Doctor.

[The word's still a bit strange on his tongue. Not nearly as impressive as her actually pronouncing his name properly.]

[greyaria]

[She speaks a lot of languages, including one not intended for the human vocal system.

The side room seems to be devoted to looking at tiny things, with several standard binocular microscopes and something that looks like it might the vacuum chamber for a sophisticated (or primitive, depending on your point of view) electron microscope, along with a bench for prepping samples. That has a long-handled cotton swab in its sterile paper wrapping, a bottle with an eyedropper in it, and a microscope slide resting on a bit of gauze.]

So this is your first biology lesson? Exciting!

[aleifr]

Never even heard the word before today.

[His eyes sweep across the assortment of instruments laid out on the table. He looks ... perplexed as his eyes turn to Grey.]

How does it work?

[greyaria]

Biology is the study of living things, and biochemistry is--well, we'll get to that. We were going to look at your epithelial cells, right?

[She doesn't wait for an answer, just turns to the bench and starts unwrapping the cotton swab.]

The microscopes over there [she nods at them] magnify whatever they're looking at, so you can see teeny, tiny things like cells. They're sort of like bricks that make up a house, except they make a life form.

[aleifr]

... I see.

[No he doesn't. Just about the only thing he understood was the analogy about bricks.]

[greyaria]

Open up!

[She's offering him the cotton swab.]

Rub it on the inside of your cheek and it will pick up some skin cells.

[aleifr]

[... Let him see if he's understanding this correctly.]

You want me to put that in my mouth?

[greyaria]

Don't worry! It's sterile!

[Do it for Science, Aleifr.]

[aleifr]

[... he doesn't know what the hell that means either, woman.

[But fine ... he'll reach out and accept the swab, examining it for a moment and briefly glancing at Grey in an effort to see if she's fucking with him ... but no. She doesn't strike him as that sort.

[So he'll open his mouth and gently rub the cotton head around on the inside of his cheek before offering it back to her.]

[greyaria]

Great!

[Emily takes the newly-moistened cotton swab over to the slide, rubs it against the surface, and adds a drop of methylene blue and a slide cover, grumbling to herself about antiques.

She clips the slide into one of the microscopes and turns it on. Bending down to the eyepieces, she adjusts the focus in and out, moves the slide slightly, and repeats.]

Okay, there we go! Have a look!

[Emily steps aside and gestures for Aleifr to have his turn looking at blue-dyed skin cells.]

If it's a bit blurry, this knob adjusts the focus.

[aleifr]

[Aleifr watches her do her business with a quiet curiosity, wondering at the purpose of it until she signals for him to inspect the strange little device on the desk.

[The desk clearly wasn't made with someone his size in mind. He has to just about double himself over to peer through the eyepiece, and when he does ...

[Well, he has a hard time parsing out just what exactly it is he's looking at.

[After a moment or two, he looks up from the microscope:]

Those were in my mouth?

[He looks concerned.]

[greyaria]

They are your mouth! Your body is made up of a whole lot of tiny cells like these.

[More or less. She's not getting into different cell types right now. Or how bones and teeth work.]

Don't worry, skin cells shed all the time, and they replace themselves quickly.

[aleifr]

[Aleifr looks at her like she's just sprouted a second head.]

Those squirming, little blue things are my mouth?

[She's fucking insane, or she knows the world better than any gothi he's ever met, and he's not sure which.]

[greyaria]

[She's smiling. It's both, Aleifr!]

Yep! Tiny little building blocks! They're not blue in your mouth, though. I used a dye to make them show up better. You wouldn't want to put them back in your mouth at this point. Methylene blue is super toxic!

[aleifr]

[He'll probably figure that out sooner or later. For now, he's going to turn back and peer through the lens of the microscope again - staring at the little, blue blobs as though somehow another look will suddenly make this make sense to him.]

What the fuck ...?