fandomhigh | Library; Wednesday [ 11/14 ]

There was a pox upon the house of Fandom; a pox, a plague, an epidemic. Nurse's onset abates, noses run. Clearly, the source of it was something viral, and the toes on Adah's good foot curled, her fingers tingled, with the chance to find out something more. Bad enough she couldn't haunt the corners of the makeshift hospital in the town hall, gathering qualitative research from the ~~victims~~ afflicted while visions of petri dishes and a chance to get near a microscope danced in her head...may her left side be stricken as useless as her right should she allow herself to be constricted behind a desk when there was research to be done. A curse upon her, a pox, a plague, an epidemic. But not until she found something out first.

There was a sign on the desk, instructing anyone that truly needed assistance with anything to interrupt her at a station set up for researching, with the threat of awful, terrible things that would put the virus' work to shame if the interruption was deemed unworthy. It was getting books, people. How hard could it be? And hell hath no fury like an obsessive virologist scorned.

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As soon as River entered the library a wave of thoughts of a medical nature struck her. She wasn't surprised, really, and slowly walked over to the table with the books, and the library aide studying them.

The headache wasn't getting any better, and neither was the cough, but River knew she had a good immune system and that this was just her body fighting off the attack that left others in the clinic. ~~Mwhaa~~. She had heard the principal's announcement, but really, going to the town hall seemed unnecessary as they had enough patients to deal with anyway. And visiting the library, or more specifically the library aide, seemed a lot more important, even if she wasn't feeling too well.

She had brought a paper bag with a few mustard and cinnamon cookies, and she placed it on the table in front of Adah, before slumping down into a chair, turning her head away and coughing into her arm.

Adah barely blinked up from her notebook, where she was scribbling down a series of notes, backwards because she could process them better, quicker that way when River joined her among the books. Good. River could help, and Adah wouldn't even have to waste time or energy in talking. Beyond that thought, Adah had barely seemed even minutely distracted from her work, her head filled to the brim with comparative analysis and equations of incubation periods until, finally, River turned her head and coughed into her arm, which brought Adah's eyes up, blinking, then staring, as the tornado of ideas reluctantly slowed.

And then picked back up again a second later. Adah tucked her pen under her fingers to allow her to push forward, toward River, a small stack of books, several pages marked with yellow tags of Post-Its, like flags, like tongues, like oddly shaped petals. Those were the ones still worthy of being considered, those marked. River seemed to have caught a little of it; she should look at the unmarked ones for signs of anything she was experiencing to ensure that Adah hadn't ruled them out erroneously. Adah was feeling fine, so judging symptoms properly from just her observations was problematic, but if River was feeling them, she could spot them more easily.

River managed a smile, before another attack of coughing hit her. She pulled the books that Adah pushed towards her even closer, for while she hadn't planned on doing research, she wouldn't refuse to help, especially not when Adah was the one asking. She pushed the bag of cookies closer to Adah, although she was aware that they were probably a lot less tempting than viral epidmeic diseases.

Opening the book on the top of the pile at a marked page, River noticed the letters almost seemed to swim around on the page. Of course, that was her own mind, not the book, but it was oddly amusing, as if the book was reluctant to be read. "Not quite tame, this one," she said, then blinked, trying to focus and bring the words back in line.

"No," Adah said, looking up again and blinking at River with a frown. "It isn't. If she sounded mad or upset, it was at herself, for only realizing a moment later that she shouldn't have asked for River's help. She didn't hesitate to reach out and start pulling the book back. There was still too much unknown, including incubation and contagious periods, and, for all they knew, that brief moment of River having the book could have just lead to the infection of anyone else who looked at it. She really should have thought about that first, but she was blinded by--

No. There were no excuses. River shouldn't be here, and that was that.

River blinked, surprised by this sudden change, and the surprise set off another fit of coughing. When it at passed, she mumbled: "Good immune system. Won't get badly sick. I can still help." She reached out to towards the book, wanting it back.

"Good enough to get sick," Adah pointed out, pulling the book even closer if she had to. "And your immune system might be strong, River, but others might not be. And a library could be a potentially active breeding ground for pathogens if it's an airborne disease."

Adah rarely spoke aloud, especially not with River, so this was serious. And of course she was right, but that didn't stop River from feeling rejected. It showed on her face as her hands withdrew from the book. She pulled her hair away from her face before succumbing to another fit of coughing, this one a lot worse than the previous ones.

"I'm serious, River," Adah said again, eyes turning back to her work when she realized that the other girl had not moved but was sending her reactions of dejection as if Adah was doing this to intentionally make River go away, which she didn't feel was very fair and she wasn't going to allow herself to be distracted by, but she did let out a slight sigh.

There was, after all, a way that River could help if she really wanted to, that wouldn't put new strands of infection into motion. Hopefully. If she really wanted to be of an assistance, then River can go down to the makeshift hospital and be Adah's eyes and ears where Adah couldn't be right now. Qualitative data, on the physical progress, effects, and change of those already sick. She could talk to the ~~victims~~ afflicted and get information on how it might be work. Question about when they started feeling sick, how quickly it took effect, the sort of information that was faulty, but valuable, necessary but not previously recorded.

Not very fair, no, and River, who didn't share Adah's rejection of guilt in any form, did feel a little guilty. But the suggestion offered was a good one, and River smiled again, rising from her chair. "Don't have to ask, can just listen and listen and listen." She began to spin around, arms outstretched.

Then she fell over, ending up on the floor.

Adah blinked, one part concerned, but another, probably stronger part a little annoyed that River didn't seem to quite grasp a single concept like limitations.

"....River?"

Perhaps that was because limitations in that sense wasn't something that River often experienced, unlike Adah, who lived with it every day. River sat up, blinking and looking a little confused, then unsteadily pushed herself to her feet. "Will go now," she announced.

Library; Wednesday [ 11/14 ]

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