Martha's 3rd - Video/Action - Day 98

[notrosesshadow]

[To anyone who has been to the clinic when it was still there, that's where you'll see Martha when the video opens up.]

In an attempt to be of some use around here, I'm opening up the clinic again. I have my credentials from Royal Hope Hospital in London circa 2008. I also have experience treating non-humans thanks to some travel in both time and space. Most recently, I have gained experience as a field medic.

For anyone who has been seeing Dr. Barrett as your physician while here on this island, you may keep seeing her. But more doctors are always helpful.

If you have any questions or would like to sit for a physical, you may talk to me here or come visit the clinic. If not, that's perfectly fine too.

[Of course, baseline physicals would be much better, but she's not going to push anyone. Martha wants to be trusted above anything else.]

Comments

[bluesrat]

I've run out before... [He shakes his head and sighs, because he knows just quitting completely is long past due.]

You know, when I was a kid, doctors used to recommend some cigarettes when you had a cough... If you're willing, I guess it might be a good idea. I haven't seen a doctor in a long time. [He's apologetic and sheepish about that.]

[notrosesshadow]

[She laughs.]

Doctors tried very hard, but they just didn't have the technology to know the things we do now. Cigarettes don't show their damage until much later in life. And of course, the old ones people rolled themselves were... well, they had less additives then.

Well, let's do height and weight first.

[She walks over to a scale. Good thing these have stayed pretty much the same for a long time.]

[bluesrat]

I've... noticed a lot of people here seem to be from a later time... [He's not sure how he feels about that, still.]

Should I take my shoes off? [The soles are worn down so far it probably doesn't matter, anyway.]

I'll leave his height and weight up to you.

[notrosesshadow]

[Martha glances down at his shoes and shakes her head.]

Any difference in weight or height with them on will be negligible.

[She waits for him to step on before fiddling with the scale.]

When are you from, Rat?

[bluesrat]

[Getting an accurate read on his height may be tricky, as he comes in around six-foot-eight, or 2.032 meters. At 182 pounds, he's definitely on the skinny side for his doorframe-ducking height.]

It was nineteen-forty-nine, where I came from... I guess I have met a couple of guys from an earlier date, but everyone else here seems to be either ahead of me, or from some alternate dimension...

[notrosesshadow]

[He is tall. Martha looks at him apologetically as she grabs a chair to stand on. 5'2" is just too short to deal with someone that tall. The weight is a bit worrying, but then he does smoke, and there does seem to be a lack of food here. So she's not going to worry about that too much other than to notate it.]

I've never been to 1949. What's it like?

[She leads him back to the chair he'd been sitting in and looks around for a thermometer and blood pressure cuff.]

[bluesrat]

[He makes an effort to stand up straight for it, too, which just shows that he tends to slouch the rest of the time.]

As compared to...? [He gives a weak smile.] It's... well, the war's over and the memory's fading, so I guess that's a good thing. Truman's still president. I dunno, I'm not as up on current affairs as I used to be...

[Watching her pick up the blood pressure cuff, he shrugs out of his jacket and rolls up a sleeve obligingly- and then stops and stares. His arm is bruised all over, like somebody with crushing strength gripped and held it a while, a few different times. Those were not there before.]

[notrosesshadow]

I dunno. The history books all talk of big events. They never mention the normal person. What's it like to actually live then?

[Martha's in the process of pulling apart the velcro when Rat rolls up his sleeve. Her eyes widen in surprise at the bruises that he hadn't mentioned. She's about to chide him even when she sees the look on his face. He doesn't look like he knows what happened either.]

How did these happen?

[She has to ask anyway.]

[bluesrat]

I... don't know.

[Suddenly his mouth seems to have gone dry, and his voice comes out in a raspy whisper. No wonder he was feeling sore all over, and like he'd been run over by a truck. Without trying to come up with any further answer, he pushes up his other sleeve to check the other arm. It's similarly beat up, which is more or less what he expected now, but the shock is clear in his face. He didn't have these bruises before he woke up in the alley, missing time.]

[notrosesshadow]

[Martha stays calm. Keeps evaluating.]

How about your torso? Can you take your shirt off?

[She wanted to see how far these bruises ran, make sure nothing was worse than just surface bruising.]

[bluesrat]

[He's too distracted by this new development to be embarrassed, peeling off a few layers of shirts as quickly as stiff and sore muscles will allow. Underneath he's too skinny, kind of dirty, and of course badly bruised. There don't seem to be any other sort of injuries, though. Nothing's broken, and if he had internal injuries he'd have had some sign hours ago. He's simply banged up.]

I... didn't have these... Nothing happened-!!

[notrosesshadow]

[Martha gives him a sympathetic smile as she lifts one of his arms up by the wrist. She lightly runs a finger over his skin to feel if it's an odd rash or something. But no, it does seem to be bruising. She exerts light pressure up by his bicep.]

How much does it hurt on a scale of one to ten.

[bluesrat]

Ow... [It's a natural reaction, before she's even asked the question, but he doesn't flinch away.]

I... don't know. It hurts like a bad bruise. Two or three? I... felt stiff and sore all over, achy, I thought maybe I'd had the flu or pneumonia or something, with a fever. Ever since I woke up in the alley I've had that... feeling you get, after you wake up from being sick with a high fever, almost like you've lost...

time.

[He scrubs his face with one hand, letting her play around with his other arm still. Having lost a chunk of time is exactly what Balthazar described of being abducted. At least Rat is over his initial panic quickly.]

[notrosesshadow]

Almost all those symptoms correspond to time travel without a capsule. Dizziness, achy, nausea. But the bruises. That just doesn't fit.

It almost seems as though you were protecting your head while someone beat you, but it seems you'd remember that. Or maybe you fell? But you don't seem to have any head trauma to suggest amnesia.

[Martha lets him have his arm as she goes searching through her medicines again. She parcels out four naproxen sodiums as well and hands them to him.]

Take one once a day. It will help with the soreness. I suspect the bruising will go down in the next few days.

[bluesrat]

[The same symptoms could probably apply to other diagnosis, too. His idea of a flu wouldn't be so far out of the realm of possibility, again, if it weren't for the bruises.]

The last thing I remember was just going to sleep, and then I woke up in the same place...

[He sighs, and accepts the pills.] Thanks. I'll definitely let you know if it doesn't.

[notrosesshadow]

[She writes a few more notes and then her gaze falls on the blood pressure cuff.]

Right... blood pressure. And pulse.

[She attaches the cuff around his upper arm and starts pumping it.]

Hm... a little high, but that's likely from the discovery of earlier. Pulse is normal. Open your mouth please.

[bluesrat]

[He looks sheepish for that, but it probably is the various forms of stress. Rat is ordinarily a very calm individual, but recent events have left him feeling much higher strung than usual. He opens his mouth obligingly, and wishes he'd brushed his teeth before he came, but he is more or less a normal, if slightly run-down man in his late forties. He's not sick, though, nor has he been recently, so that blows his flu theory out of the water.]

[notrosesshadow]

Well, from what I can see here, you are healthy. Minus the bruising. No swelling, heart rate is normal, temperature normal. The only reason I can imagine you feeling the way you do is time travel without a capsule. The bruising is new. I'm sorry I don't have a better diagnosis for you.

[bluesrat]

[He rubs his face, feeling a little shaky, but forcing himself to keep calm.] I've only ever traveled through time the long and one-directional way, as far as I'm aware. Bruises heal, though. Thanks... I guess I'll be okay. That's what's important, right?

[His smile is just a little unsteady.]

[notrosesshadow]

[She puts a hand on his shoulder and looks into his eyes. Martha hopes it'll keep him focused... calm him down a bit.]

That's what's important. Go get some rest. Take the medicine I gave you, and let me know if anything else develops.

[bluesrat]

Yes ma'am. [He smiles weakly in return, meeting her gaze levelly, although there's still worry in the blue eyes. Rat isn't used to having anyone to lean on for reassurance, and he's pretty good at keeping it together, but the extra help is definitely appreciated. He pulls his shirt back on, though, and he'll take his medicine and go crash on the couch for a while.]