Aiden took her excuse about her hands easily enough. He had no reason to doubt it and no reason to look into it. He just nodded and moved onto her subject about werewolves.
The comment about teens fighting over girls went right over his head. Aiden had, blissfully, missed most of the twilight genre.
"You will get people who were in fights in here fairly often," he conceded, oblivious to the joke. He nodded to her assessment of the dilemmas of werewolves. "I'm about to tell you makes this job interesting and next to impossible at the same time: every single person we treat is different. And I don't mean that in the 'everyone is unique and special' kind of way. I mean that literally. So...werewolves. Should be easy enough, right?"
Aiden took the clipboard from her and flipped to the end, going to a blank paper. He wrote Werewolves on it.
"Let's summarize what we know about werewolves, just off the top of our head....full moon, turn into wolf, allergic to silver...all that good stuff?" he jotted this down while walking, then handed her the clipboard and pen while they stopped at a nurse's station.
"Here's where the problems come in. Werewolves should be easy. But does our patient use magic to transform, or is it a physical shift? Can our patient control the shift? Does out patient keep wolf-like senses while in human form? Is our patient allergic to silver? Does the moon play a role, or is it a curse, genetic, magic spell?" Aiden rattled these off fast, just assuming she was writing them all down. "Is our patient susceptible to canine diseases and parasites that humans are not normally, even while in human form? So fleas? Canine influenza? Will our patient heal rapidly? Will magic work as a treatment, or will the magic interfere with whatever natural powers our patient has?"
He considered her other comments, about the students being scary and then him killing her, and Aiden gave her a withering look. If only she knew.
"I find it helpful to remember that most of these students can kill you and I fairly easily. It doesn't help to show that fear, not when we're supposed to be the ones reassuring them that we have answers, but hold onto that caution. It can help keep you alive," Aiden said.
And then he frowned.
"Listen," he stopped walking to stress this part. "Working at the infirmary is generally a safe job. Most of what we're going to get here is minor colds and illnesses, power-related injuries, and general, easily-treated problems. The worse things get sent up to the hospital. The school wouldn't have you do this if it wasn't an environment conductive for learning."
He nodded to her gloved hands and his own gloved hands. He said, "But just like we take precautions to stop the spread of disease, it helps to take precautions to avoid any kind of magical related incidents. We're human. Our bodies break easier than, say, a dragon. It's easy to forget that in a place like this."
Her list of questions came off fast and Aiden took a minute to process them all. Her questions seemed to please him, because again some of that tension crept out of his jaw. It showed that she was taking this seriously. He could appreciate that.
At least until she mentioned Mr. Cabyll-Ushtey. He gave her another withering look. His lips straightened out into a thin line.
All things considered, Aiden wasn't that much older than her but right now he felt like he was at least a hundred and she was a giddy, bubbling puppy hopped up on caffeine.
That reminded Aiden that he'd left his shitty coffee in the office. The straight line of his mouth became even more dour.
He ticked his hand off in the order of her questions
"Responsibilities will include general patient care during your assigned hours. They'll likely increase as you put the time in. Particular skills will depend on what you want to do when you're finished here--you tell me what you want to learn. For literature, I'd honestly recommend picking up a book on magical creatures. Carol Ross's Giants, Monster, and Dragons is a good place to start. It can give you ideas of what questions to ask to ask your non-human patients. For the first week or two, you'll assist me with my patients, and then you'll move onto having your own caseload. It's usually small here, but it's impossible to know who is going to come through the door until they do."
Aiden took a deep breath and then tried to address the rest.
"Generally, we treat patients in human forms, but there are exceptions. If a patient has a hard time maintaining a human shape, we could ask if they'd be interested in a power-neutralizing bracelet. They're more common up at the Behavioral Corrections Facility, but treating a 6"3 human is easier than treating a 633" tall dragon."
Apparently, Aiden had dragons on the brain.
"I'm sure there are specialists for cyborgs, but you might have a better opportunity checking in at the hospital for more information on that area. Fae and demons are both fairly common, helps to remember things like iron and holy water. There are so many varieties between the two. Don't be afraid to ask them questions about allergies."
As for Mr. Cabyll-Ushtey, Aiden just shook his head.
"Mr. Cabyll-Ushtey is, unfortunately, one of our regulars. Given that he is a water horse, I anticipate most of his past lovers are likely dead, and I am blissfully alive."
The first patient they'd be seeing today was a werewolf.
Naturally.
"Are you ready?" he asked her.
ooc: omg i wrote you a novel i'm so sorry
