fandom_clinic | FTEC - Saturday evening [14.06]

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"You look a bit antsy there," Adah observed as she went about leaving during the changing of the guards, her head tilted slightly as she staved off her exit for a few lingering moments. Not that she couldn't say she blamed the lump. Her own consideration on how the hell she'd escape an explosion with her limp wasn't very uplifting, after all. And while there were at least a handful of chivalrous men with nice arms and broad chests on the island, lightning rarely struck twice. She just had a pretty good feeling she was keeping it relatively well hidden; there was something all too poetic about dying on your birthday, after all.

"Wary," he replied, giving her a quick smile. "I'd hate to have to leave everything behind if the volcano lets go."

"Can't blame you there," Adah gave a light smile back. "Much worse to leave everything behind than just somethings. Still, as far as great waves of quickly gushing things to kill and burn and bury us alive go, it could be worse than lava. A lot worse..."

Igor leaned back a little in the chair, shifting sideways to accommodate his hunch. "Worse?" he asked, obviously curious.

Adah gave a jerking nod of her head. "Worse," she agreed, and didn't say anything more at first, as she wondered whether or not she'd wanted to elaborate any more on that. Even just thinking about it seemed to send a bit of another jerk through her, starting in her head and working its way down her limp and useless right side.

"Lava," she decided to say, "isn't alive, at least."

When you could take apart a human body and put it back together, you noticed things, even little things. Igor elected not to ask, despite the curiosity. "That is very true," he agreed. "And it would be quick, though very wasteful." He made a tsking noise. "You can get no use out of parts that have been dipped in lava."

Adah, rather regretting that she'd let herself go that direction in the first place, very easily moved away from alternate things that could kill you in covering you to focus on the more direct threat at hand. "Useless for doctors, perhaps," she said with a much brighter smile, "but not for archaeologists. For all we know, Fandom awaits becoming the next Pompeii and there will be so much of this ash before the explosion that our bodies are left but hardened covered plasters of ourself for discovery hundreds of years later."

He brightened slightly. "I hadn't thought of that. It would be better to salvage parts useful now, but at least it won't be a complete waste." Igor tapped his many fingers on the desk, thoughtfully. "An Igor always escapes before the flaming torches. It's a bit unorthodox, but it wouldn't necessarily have to be a single escape," he offered. Adah, he couldn't help but think, would fit in well amongst the Igors.

"Now that'd be an interesting sight," Adah commented, her own smirk a little wry. "Although flaming torches and flaming molten rock are a bit further removed. It's easier to avoid torches because the torches have to be moved by people, and people tend to be far less efficient than Nature."

"Flaming torches, lava, an Igor always has a way out. The offer is there." He grinned. "Anything is more efficient than a mob," he agreed. "And most things are smarter."

"I was reading up on a theory," Adah added lightly, still not sure how to consider the offer. Of course, in the midsts of the trouble, she knew she's appreciate it. As it stood, part of her wondered if a life that depended entirely on the assistance of a second party to survive was really worth it. Maybe Orleanna had been onto something on that night of the ants. "On how the human brain has possibly evolved too large, and that's the problem. Get that many overly large brains together and they're bound to mess up. It certainly speaks a lot for my half-brain. I'm not sure how that goes for hand-me-down brains, though."

"I always thought it was more a case of the brain shutting down completely in the presence of its fellows. I know a brain that's too big will effect balance, but you can fix that by adding another limb or two. Do you actually have only half of a brain?" he asked, leaning forward and studying her head with interest.

Adah really couldn't help grinning at the comment on extra appendages, wondering if she could ever bear to part with her own useless ones for the benefit of anything, since it wasn't like she was really using them too terribly much, and then she lightly shook her head. "Only half of an active brain," she specified. "The whole thing is there, but only the right side really works properly. The right side of my body is effected by this, in case you haven't noticed. Hemiplegia. Hemi being half, plegia, paralysis."

"Fascinating." Igor studied her intently. "I wasn't certain if the reduced movement was chosen," he waved a hand at his hump as an example of what he meant, "or not. Is it permanent? The only paralysis I've ever dealt with was the result of a careless moment with a very large rock. We had to replace his entire spine and both legs. Couldn't get a match on the legs, though. One was shorter, and female."

"That's quite a rock," Adah said with admiration; it couldn't entirely be determined whether it was for the rock or for the replacements it inspired. "And, really, considering that, when I was born, they not only said I'd never walk or talk but that I'd be dead within a few years because of it, I'd say I'm doing better than anticipated, but, most likely, it's quite permanent. I can't say I mind too much, most of the time. I am used to it. Situations like impending volcanic activity, however, does get me a little wistful for something a bit more functional. A bit."

Igor made a noise that was quite eloquently contemptuous of Adah's early diagnosticians. "They obviously weren't very skilled, since you're walking and talking, along thinking better than most," he said. "Which means you can find a way to compensate. I could give you more effective limbs, any Igor could, but," he shrugged, "then you'd be someone different. I'm not sure it would be worth the trade."

"If they hadn't made the diagnosis," Adah said, shaking her head lightly, "it probably would have been true. I'm pretty sure that I'm here today purely to spite them and prove them wrong. And, yes, I have to admit, the idea of being someone else doesn't exactly settle as enough for fully functional limbs. I'm already a twin, so I'm already sharing my genes with someone; I don't know how I'd feel about sharing appendages."

She smiled again, still light and rueful. "There's a good chance, actually, that my being a twin is the reason why I'm a hemiplegic. Leah didn't like to share much, inside the womb or out."

Igor was nodding, and looking pleased. "You used your mind to compensate," he said. "It really is the only part of the body that's not replaceable. Everything else is just parts."

"Not replaceable yet," Adah pointed out with a small smile. "Isn't something like brain swapping what you were working on?"

He waved a hand in the air. "A swapped mind is still the same mind, it just has a different, hmm, frame. That's why it's not replaceable. Change the mind, change the person." He grinned again. "The machine's coming along nicely. Another week or so and we'll be ready to test it. Dog into rabbit, rabbit into dog."

"Good." Adah's grin grew a little sharp on one side. "That might be just enough time for Pride to start coming near me again. He's avoiding me after my last attempts at anything. He's a smart rabbit, smarter than most people I know. I think he'll make an excellent specimen for this sort of test."

"Excellent," he said, rubbing his hands together. "I made Scraps myself, so he's quite used to being experimented on. It will be interesting to see how he does in a rabbit's body."

"And vice versa; I haven't had a dog, really, since I was a little girl, and that didn't last long. Pets had a habit of not lasting long with my family."

"Did they get lost?" he asked. "It's an Igor tradition to make pets from a young age -- practice on creatures before you get to people. The swimming bat was a disaster," he added. "I forgot the gills."

"Well, most of them, actually," Adah said with a light smile, "fell prey to the dangers of the jungle before long. The dog, however, just seemed to want to do nothing more than escape the imbecilic fury of my father."

"Ah." Igor considered her for a moment. "Well, we can't choose our parents but, dog or human, we can choose to leave them behind."

"That's a rather poetic and applicable way to put it, Igor," Adah said, a complimenting tone in her drawl. Considering that she still didn't know whether or not Nathan Price was even alive was a pretty good indication that, yes, he had truly been left behind.

He smiled slowly, showing a great many teeth. "An Igor aims for practical; poetry is an unlooked for bonus."

.

Mmm, coffee.

FTEC - Saturday evening [14.06]

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Exam room one

OOC