[Text]

[defibrillating]

Yo! I'm Zian, the new School Nurse, here to fix all your boo-boos and your sniffles. I just arrived Friday night and I'm still a bit turned around, but I know where the infirmary is so I'm at least easy to find!

I've been leaving some fliers for flu shots all over the school, but so far only a few people have signed up. I don't blame you, it kind of sucks to get a shot, but it would suck even more to get sick.

...seriously, I have like ten more boxes of sweet bribes for everyone, come get tortured and leave with a chocolate-dipped marshmallow ghost. (Don't tell your dentist.)

Comments

[defibrillating]

Oh, no! That would be totally appropriate. Might even not poke that person if it's stated in their medical file that they don't need one. Then all they'd get is a chocolate ghost for good measure!

[theveilisin]

Bastion, that's a blessed relief. I've never been all that fond of needles, to tell you the truth. It seems like a fairly silly thing to say considering I once was run through with an actual sword and it didn't worry me much, but needles still really creep me out. Maybe it's their somewhat insectoid appearance, because I have always objected rather strongly to mosquitoes as well.

[Luvander: Managing to suffer from verbal incontinence even in text form.]

[defibrillating]

Hey I totally get that! Not that fond of mosquitoes either (it's more the buzzing sound for me, though), and I guess the needles can be similar if you think of it that way. =P

...wait, backspace. You got run though by a sword? Dude, are you okay? Well, of course you're okay since you're writing to me but WOW.

[Hello Luvander, Zian is your new bff when it comes to babbling.]

[theveilisin]

My friends used to tell me I had no business finding mosquitoes uncomfortable when the bites didn't actually last on me, which I call extremely uncharitable. I thought the whole point of phobias was that they're unreasonable.

Well, it stung a bit for half an hour or so, and it definitely did something of a number on my liver, but I got over it pretty quickly. Very clean cut, and of course a sword is so much easier to find and remove than a bullet. Those little bastards get just about anywhere and I really do mean it.

[Babble buddy! I'd say it comes with the healing factor if Wolverine and Laura weren't such obvious contradictions to this theory.]

[defibrillating]

[Sadly Zian cannot heal himself, so he's just babbling because he's a giant dork.]

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly the point of phobias. Logically we know there's no real reason to be scared, but it still really sucks.

Shit, I don't think I've heard of someone around here that could survive something like that, it's awesome! I really need to finish reading through the medical charts... people in this school have the coolest powers.

..and yeah, those buggers can get into the weirdest places! Had a patient with a bullet that traveled through a large vein in the chest and eventually got lodged in his foot!

[theveilisin]

[Spoilers: Luvander is also just a giant dork, he just likes coming up with elaborate excuses.]

Precisely. One of my friends had a phobia for sharks in a completely landlocked country, and still that was more reasonable? I think not.

And I imagine I don't have the most impressive healing factor around here - I strive to be very modest about this sort of thing [Lies.] and I do try to keep myself updated. But since I can heal others as well, I suppose it balances out.

Oh and trust me, you have never quite known surprise until you blow your nose and get a bullet for your troubles. [This conversation is already out of control, send help.]

[defibrillating]

[Giant dork squad to be, right here.]

You can heal other people as well? Man, you should come here and be my intern or something. Together we can keep everyone alive and well!

Oh my god are you serious? That is so cool. At least you get enough iron in your diet? ;P

[Jesus Zian you're 21, not 15.]

[theveilisin]

[They need a secret handshake.]

I did suggest that I be allowed to help out, but there's that teensy little problem of me kind of having to move injuries and diseases onto my own body before healing them, you see? It doesn't bother me much, taking on someone else's twisted ankle when I'll only have to put up with it for a minute at most, but the people in charge here didn't seem to think it was appropriate, can you imagine that?

[This might because Luvander is 15, and it's generally frowned upon to make teenagers actively harm themselves, even if they have a healing factor and it's for a good cause.]

Mind, now I'm frightfully interested to know what would happen if I took on someone's injuries while at the same time being healed by someone else. Would it be accurate to call that healerception?

[defibrillating]

[Zian has hands big enough to fondle someone's head, that might have to do.]

Oh man, yeah... I can get why they don't want you do use that power too often. Pretty sure it's not a good thing to make kids hurt themselves! (You're a student, right?) Still, it sounds like a really awesome thing. Maybe when you're an X-Man!

Dude healerception would be kinda cool, but my powers kinda hurt so it would be double the pain for you. Not going there.

[theveilisin]

It's more accurate to say I just became a student, seeing as how I've never been one before, but at age fifteen I suppose I do still qualify as a kid, yes. Mind you, I have no particular wish to become any kind of fighter in the future, the X-men included. Perhaps I'll angle for your job instead, so I would watch out if I were you.

Is that so? Hurt to heal. A harsh cure for the student body - and indeed for the students' bodies. [Someone call the Pun Police.] Still, I have always held that brief pain is better than lasting injury, regardless of who feels the pain.

[defibrillating]

Oh no, better polish my CV in the future then! Wouldn't want to be replaced by the younger generation! Being all ancient and stuff.

...it's good that you don't want to be a fighter. We can be heroes in other ways.

XD that's a good one! Most of the time it's just like a static shock for small things... maybe like a taser if you break a bone or something. Not sure why, it seems a bit redundant but hey, it works. Rather be zapped than bleeding, IMO.

[theveilisin]

I've seen people die like heroes. I feel the somewhat obvious problem with that sort of thing always is that heroes or not, they stay dead regardless. Not even people like us can change that.

[It sure is easier for him to express anything even close to feelings in text than in words. He has already pressed 'send' before he realizes that this is somewhat risky. Probably good to be more careful from this point.]

And, well, it makes as much sense as me having to take someone else's wound, I guess? There's probably a deep philosophical lesson about maintaining equilibrium, and how there must be a price to pay for every good thing, something like that, hidden in there. Personally I try never to touch philosophy, though. It's not good for my digestion.

[defibrillating]

[The kids in this place has really gone through a lot, and it still made the young medic's heart ache to hear things like this... that they'd been around people who died.

That their view of the world had changed to something other than bright and hopeful.

Zian sighs, looking at the screen before replying.]

I hear it can give you indigestion!

What's your name?

[theveilisin]

[Luvander still has no way of telling exactly how alarming his must be to anyone with a normal concept of reality. He can only compare himself to some of his comrades - Rook, Ghislain, Jeannot, Al Atan, Anastasia - and assume that all things considered, his life hasn't been that bad.]

Exactly. And obviously I don't touch religion for similar reasons, although I'm fairly certain the effect is more the opposite.

I'm Luvander. I don't actually remember my last name, but I was kindly allowed to choose one for myself. Therefore, I'm written as Páwa, after an old nickname of mine.

[defibrillating]

Luvander Páwa, eh? That's a really nice name. Unusual, too! Where are you from? Does it mean anything specific?

I'm from Russia. Moved here when I was ten.

[theveilisin]

[And this is the sort of traps small talk can drop you in, of course. For all that he's prone to hyperbole and occasional obfuscating, Luvander is not much of a liar, not even in text. But... well, is there really any harm in it?]

It's Volstovic. It's a small country squeezed between Ukraine, Hungary and Romania, though our language has more in common with our Polish and Slovakian neighbors. Most people haven't heard of it, but if you're from Russia then I suppose that ups the chances.

It means peacock, and was originally an indicator that I'm somewhat of a show-off.

[defibrillating]

Oh, right! Pavlín. Pretty similar!

...unfortunately I can't say I've heard of it, which makes me feel kinda bad. I'll blame it on being home-schooled and my mom failing me in geography twice. Harsh woman.

[Only harm it does is to Zian's academic pride... which is, unless you count medicine, kind of lacking.]

[theveilisin]

Would you look at that. And our neighboring countries like to claim that our language is completely incomprehensible! They're obviously not trying hard enough.

[Or it's the wealth of more Middle Eastern words mixed into Volstovic that does it, who knows?]

And I wouldn't worry too much - like I said, it's not a big country. [And it's been in lockdown for more than a decade - though he's heard a few things about the civil war on the radio.] And considering how I couldn't name more than five American states if I tried, I am in no position to judge.

[defibrillating]

Slavic languages unite!

Hey it's worse when it's right underneath your own country rather than way overseas. Still, it's pretty cool to hear of all these small countries, like Latveria and Genosha.