markofthebrave | BACKDATED to July 3rd [ Action, Voice ] .049

[Today, Katara sleeps in far later than her custom - in fact, she won't wake up until around one. No one in the house particularly wants her up, and when she does wake she feels as if a platypus bear has been playing kickball with her head. Everything is stuffed in cotton. And then some remaining memories of the past few days filter in through the pain, and suddenly Katara doesn't want to wake up.

She rolls over and finds her journal, blinking the lights from her eyes.]

Did you ever wake up feeling like you owed half the village an apology?

[She shuts the book, having overestimated her ability to do and be... anything. Everything hurts right now, and it's only several hours later when she'll get up out of the bed and make responses to anyone who may have responded back to her post.

If anyone in the house feels like ministering to a girl with a hell of of an experimental hangover, she'll be in her room and then in the kitchen, holding her head in her hands as she drinks water. It doesn't seem that Nala works for hangovers, and her concentration is way too shot to try to fix her own headache.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yup.

[And she sits. Headaches make her very helpful. Also, she dislikes having to go to the doctor. /sob]

[Yikes. All of the above, huh? Chopper trots over and opens his medical bag, drawing a stethoscope out and clambering onto the bed. He fits the earpieces into place, then places the diaphragm onto her back.] Slow, deep breaths, please.

[He pauses a bit, then speaks up again.]If you don't mind telling me, could you explain your post-kidnapping effects? Is there anything in particular that you think may have triggered these symptoms?

[Slow, deep breaths it is, Doctor.

And then she sighs.]

From what I remember, they changed my personality. A lot of people told me my eyes were changing color too, in really weird ways.

[Hmm...lungs sound okay. Chopper moves around and places the diaphragm over her chest this time, brows furrowing as he alternates listening to her heartbeat and her words.]

So the effects were based mostly on cranial functions...[With nausea. A migraine, maybe? Chopper hums and pulls the stethoscope off of his head, trading it for a fundoscope.] Okay. Your heartbeat is a little elevated, but that's not much of a surprise. Have you been experiencing any hot flashes, neck stiffness, or visual abnormalities like seeing spots or shapes?

[She shakes her head a little.]

No, nothing like that.

[None? Huh. Chopper trots over to the lamp in the room and switches it off, dimming the room a bit so that only light from the windows are filtering through. He turns back to Katara while holding up the fundoscope.] I'll have to shine this into your eyes to check them, so please bear with me for a bit. I think I'm starting to get an idea of what's happening.

[Oh good. Light.

Well, that hurts, but she bears it as best she can.]

[...he'd suspected as much. Chopper turns the light off and places the tool back into his bag, then hops down to snap the bag shut.]

Eye color is determined mostly by the cellular density of the iris' stroma and the types of a pigment called melanin that are present. Your eyes are blue, which makes the melanin count low; in order to change them, you were probably given a drug that encourages melanogenesis - the production of melanin - and cellular reproduction within the eyes. If your iris color was changing often, there's a chance that your body is now reacting to the loss of energy it needed to keep up with the production values enforced by the drug.

You're probably dehydrated, so make sure to drink a lot of water, and don't eat solids unless you're sure you can keep them down. Stay in dark, quiet places for a while and be sure to let me know if your eyes change again; there's a chance that the drug is still lingering in your system, and if it is, I'll need to develop a countermeasure. [He's long found out that his skill set isn't quite enough to trace most Malnosso drugs.]

I can provide you with some painkillers and antacids...but this is a problem your body will probably be able to fix by itself, if you take good care of it.

Oh. [She absorbs that and then nods.

It's a little less scary to think about these problems coming from drugs than whatever else they did to her.

...but only a little less scary. She takes a breath.]

Okay, Chopper. I'll do that. Thanks a lot for taking a look.

Sure thing. [Chopper trots over to the desk, retrieves two bottles of painkillers and antacids from a drawer, and returns to Katara's side to offer them up to her.] Remember, don't push yourself if you're feeling sick. Do you need any help getting back?

I'll be fine, as soon as the headache goes away.

BACKDATED to July 3rd [ Action, Voice ] .049

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