[closed] February Catch All

[nastyboy]

Who: Team Femblemtroika (Grant, Chip, Dimitri, Sylvain, Claude, Felix, Dedue, Ashe) with occasional Guest Stars Jinx, Razor, Karako, and others
When: All of February
Where: Mostly Ecruteak, and the roads surrounding it, probably
What: Watch this polycule take over all of Johto!

Comments

[vrdantwind]

Any idea what it is? How are you feeling? Are there any medicines we could get you?

[Claude, like Felix, doesn't take sickness lightly. And unlike Dimitri, who spent most of the past five years having a breakdown and not really managing his army personally, Claude has been in command of a lot of people grouped together fairly closely. Those aren't situations that lead to someone taking any outbreak of illness lightly.

The fact that Grant is his boyfriend just makes him more nervous. Still, him firing off rapid-fire questions honestly wouldn't be unusual for Claude no matter what mood he was in.]

[woofdad]

[Yeah, that's no surprise - and, of course, Grant considers it pretty charming.]

I think it's a flu, which isn't a huge deal where I'm from or i think here; almost forgot it might be for you guys until i think i accidentally freaked felix out mentionoing it.

I feel kinda like garbage but I'll live, and i asked Dimitri to pick up some stuff for the coughing and fever since he and Ashe are going shopping

[vrdantwind]

Yeah, that would freak Felix out without that context. The flu can be pretty deadly back home, even with treatment, and it can spread uncomfortably well. I'm honestly kind of nervous if that's what you have, even within the context of this world having made a lot of advancements that apparently make it less alarming...

Is there anything I can do for you? Is there a way I can come be with you and not get sick myself? I don't know what kind of advancements there are for that, if any...do we still need to keep our distance?

[woofdad]

Oh yeah I get that - I should be alright though, I've had the flu plenty of times and it's never killed me before

Well it takes a couple of weeks for getting vaccinated to be effective, so at this point I'd say keepin gsome distance would be a good idea, yeah; there are masks that can keep it from spreading too, and wearing gloves and washing your hands a lot also helps so you're not transferring germs to your face

[vrdantwind]

My incredible deductive skills told me you haven't yet died from anything, Grant, including any flus you might have had.

Vaccinated? Germs? Do I need a dictionary, or are you up to explaining?

[woofdad]

Good job your'e a true genius

Oh right yeah so, a lot of diseases includeing the flu are caused by little tiny living organisms, called germs. tehcnically they're either viruses or bacteria, bacteria are jsut a specific category of tiny little living things, viruses are

Actually there's some debate about whetrhere viruses are alive? But we're gonna assume they are for now, and the flu's caused by a virus

So anywy most germs actually won't hurt yo uat all, but some will; when those ones get into our bodies, there are tiny little pieces of OUR bodies that make up the immune system, which tries to kill the germs so they can't hurt us. A lot of symptoms when you get sick are actually taht immune repsonse, like my fever is bcause humans can survive higher temperatures than germs so my body's tyring to cook the germs to death

The problem is if your body hasn't encounered a specific kind of germ before ithas more trouble fighting it - like if you wre fighting someone with a weapon you weren't familar with i guess? And the flu virus changes really really fast so eaach year there are different kinds of it that your body has to get used to all over again

Which is where vaccines come in. a vaccine is kind of like a sample of dead or really weakened germs that are put into your body so your immune system knwos what those look like, and can fight them better; a lot of the time if you get a vaccine and then you're infected with that specifc kind of flu you won't get sick at all becauseyour body knows how to kill ti right away, but een if youdo get sick it probbly won't last as long or be as bad. Dimitri asked if it was kind of like pracicing fighting wit ha training dummy and i think that's pretty clsoe?

So it takes a bit for the vaccine to work since you're body's gotta practice with it and learn to fight the thing, and als o people often get a minor version ofthe symptoms because, again, that's the immune resposne going off, but it generally only lasts a day or two

[vrdantwind]

You're spelling a lot of words wrong. Is that because you're sick? It's making me kind of worried. I don't know if it's your head or your fingers not working correctly, but either way...

How tiny are these germs, anyway?

Also, your body trying to cook a disease to death is both horrifying and kind of fascinating...and that's really not going to hurt you? Isn't it important to get your fever to go down? But the way you describe it, it almost sounds like that's sabotaging the, uh, cooking efforts.

1/2

[woofdad]

[This response takes a bit longer. Probably because he's trying to fix his typos.]

Oh, yeah. I don't mean to worry you - I think it's kind of head and fingers? I'm sort of tired and it's tougher to type accurately, but I'm ok. Doesn't mean I'm dying or anything, you know

They are very very very tiny, you can't see them without special tools.

Uuuh it kind of depends; sometimes it's recommended to let it runs its course, or even try to keep it high to "sweat it out" and kill the disease faster, but if you let it get TOO high it can be dangerous for the person too.



Oh shit hang on I need to tell Dimitri something

2/2

[woofdad]

Ok sorry about that I had to ask him to pick up something else from the store, the fever thing reminded me.

[vrdantwind]

Oh? What was it?

And you can misspell things, it's not like it's a big deal; it just makes me worry about the flu getting to you, because I know you usually don't.

[woofdad]

A thermometer; it's a tool that displays temperature as a number so we can tell exactly how hot I am.

But I don't want to worry you! So I can watch my spelling.

[vrdantwind]

Well, I don't want you to have to make extra effort while you're sick just to comfort me, as far as that goes. I should be looking after you, not the other way around. So don't push yourself, okay?

Also, I doubt there are any numbers high enough to measure such things.

[woofdad]

well maybe if I try to comfor t you and you're not as worried you'll be able to help better

[The fact that he's not editing himself anymore might be a good sign that he knows that's nonsense.]

No if it's higher than the thermometer can measure that means either the thermomenter's broken or I'm dead

[vrdantwind]

Grant, nothing is limiting my ability to help you except perhaps not knowing what'd be best. That or our other boyfriends preempting me.

That said, I refuse to believe there's any measuring tool devised by man that could determine how hot you are without exploding.

[Grant's sick. If he needs Claude to be more blatantly obvious, Claude can accommodate.]

[woofdad]

Uuuugh I guess
Honestly though you're helping just by talkin to me

Oh
OOOH OK, yes, i get it now, hilarious



Ah shit i said the hot thing when i was explaining thermometeres to Dimitri too i don't think he noticed though. Probably for the best

[vrdantwind]

Hey, I was being silly but you know I do mean that, right? That almost sounded like a sarcastic response.

[woofdad]

Oh

No i mean I juast meant that it was funny



Though I guess maybe I thoguth of it as funny in a different way from how you meant

[vrdantwind]

I guess the only way to tell would be for you to tell me what way you thought it was funny, right?

[woofdad]

[Well, he can't say he didn't bring this on himself. But he can also guess it probably won't go over well.]



It's funny because I'm not all that attractive ?

[vrdantwind]

Grant. :| You're incredibly handsome. Even when you're sick. And you're not allowed to say cruel things like that about my boyfriend.

1/2

[woofdad]

techncially I've known this particular boyfrined longer

Been putting up with this guy for 33 whoel years

2/2

[woofdad]

ok sorry that was dumb I shouldn't ahve said that

[vrdantwind]

There are two phrases that sum up this phenomenon, Grant: "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and "familiarity breeds contempt".

Maybe new eyes see clearer.

[Claude briefly considers adding "maybe two eyes see clearer" before promptly dismissing it. Witty, but uncharitable.]

[woofdad]

aaagh I guess?

I feel like I only look worse next to y ou guys and its not even your fault

[vrdantwind]

Grant, don't make me get Dimitri in here.

[When it comes to telling someone their good points until their personal defense mechanisms simply shut down, Dimitri is the biggest gun someone can whip out.]