The Perk - Tuesday

[spectre_alenko]

The morning after the night before, as t'were, Kaidan went to the Perk. He had a small daypack with him, carrying a post-it covered children's book, a pad of paper, and some writing instruments. It also contained a pair of padded gloves and a mouthguard. His hands were bruised across the back, knuckles scraped, and the nails were painted bright pink with purple glitter, though several of them were badly chipped. One side of his jaw looked a little darker than the other, but it was hard to tell under the perma-5 o'clock shadow, especially when he'd skipped depilating his face that morning.

A quiet, polite order saw him with an entire teapot of tea and a steaming mug. He tipped the baristas and set up camp at one of the tables. Pulling out the notepad, he began writing words and phrases in a language that was definitely not English. Occasionally, Kaidan would reference the children's book for a moment before continuing.

[OOC: Perk is open, no OCD.]

Comments

[sharp_man]

Hannibal might have plenty of coffee and tea at home, but what they made here was acceptable, and after speaking with Sparkle and hearing about the Great Tea Controversy, he thought he might as well give the place his patronage, even if he would be drinking coffee.

So, he was ordering an espresso macchiato and looking around, then taking in the bruised man with a little more interest.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan glanced up as a customer walked past. Well. Those cheekbones were memorable. "Hannibal," he greeted, "I haven't seen you since I was, gosh, sixteen. Good to see you again, man."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal smirked. He hadn't, as a teen, made quite as much habit of memorizing faces, but there were few enough newer people on the island that he hazarded a guess. "Kaidan, was it? Mr. Alenko?"

He held out a hand to shake. "I mostly go by Dr. Lecter these days."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan shook the hand, and shook his head, "Mr. Alenko is my dad. Kaidan is fine. So you did become a doctor. Belated congratulations, Dr. Lecter." He offered a lopsided smile, "I'm still figuring out who, of all I met that weekend, were actual kids."

[sharp_man]

"I can see where that would be difficult, yes," Hannibal said.

He picked up his drink, nodded a pleasant thanks to the barista, and gestured at the seat next to Kaidan. "May I? Apart from that weekend, how is the island treating you?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan gestured at a chair, "Please do. From what I hear, that jinx wasn't even a really unpleasant one." He thought about Alec, "For most people, anyway. Me, certainly." Sixteen had been fine. Seventeen? Seventeen is when things started to go to hell. "So far, I guess the island's treating me fine. Migraines are getting worse, but that's probably just stress."

It didn't occur to him that the last sentence gave a whole new meaning to the one before it.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow. "Do you often have migraines?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Yes," Kaidan said, grimacing a little and sipping his tea, "Side effect of brain surgery. They come and go, but it's worse when I stress myself out."

They were seizure-level debilitating, but he didn't want to sound more of a whiner than he already did.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow. "Brain surgery? Successful in whatever it did, I hope."

[spectre_alenko]

"I am considered a success, yes," Kaidan said dryly, "I survived it, and my only side effect are headaches. I'm a lot better off than the others of my generation."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal frowned faintly. "Some widespread birth defect or imbalance?" he guessed.

[spectre_alenko]

"Widespread? No," Kaidan seemed a little surprised by the question for a second, "Birth damage, yes. My mother was exposed to a rare element while pregnant. Exposure has a high incidence of fetal death, and the ones that survive have teratogenic birth damage. I'm one of the lucky ones. None of my defects are visible."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal nodded, incredibly curious but willing to prod slowly. "So, in order to counteract them, you've had surgery, but it's nevertheless left you with migraines?"

[spectre_alenko]

"The surgery wasn't to counteract the defect," Kaidan sipped his tea and tried to wash the taste out of his mouth, "There is no way to counteract it. The L2 implant is to help focus the effects. It works, but the side effects can be pretty awful. Newer chips have fewer negatives, but they're also less powerful." He lifted a shoulder in a shrug, "Like I said, I'm one of the lucky ones. I just wish the painkillers you can buy here worked better, sometimes."

[sharp_man]

"You're telepathic?" Hannibal guessed. That was his experience of people with brain 'effects', after all.

[spectre_alenko]

"No," Kaidan shook his head firmly, "That's not an ability humans have where I'm from." Even the Asari weren't telepathic. "It's more like.. telekinetic, but not even really that."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal nodded. "And your implant helps to focus that, but at the expense of headaches. Would more powerful medicines also blunt your control?"

[spectre_alenko]

"No, not pain medication," Kaidan shook his head, "but getting them requires a clinic visit, which requires a bunch of questions I really just don't want to deal with. Doctors here get all sorts of excited about the implant."

Yes, Kaidan, and you're talking to a doctor, who's asking you about it. Dolt.

[sharp_man]

And Hannibal was in fact amused by that.

"Well," he said, "as I am a doctor and you've already told me about it, perhaps I might help?"

[spectre_alenko]

"I thought you were going to be a surgeon?" Kaidan asked, a little surprised, "Did you wind up a GP?" A hand scrubbed across his face, "It's stupid. Sumatriptan's not even addictive."

[sharp_man]

"I was a surgeon for some years," Hannibal said. "More recently, I have become a psychiatrist. So, I am quite sufficiently qualified to prescribe medications for the brain. Sumatriptan is what you're used to?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Triptans are effective," Kaidan shrugged, "They hit the correct nerve channels. The other things I'm used to don't exist here."

Psychiatrist. Interesting.

[sharp_man]

"We do have access to any number of universes from here," Hannibal pointed out. "What are you used to?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan rattled off a list of names because the game doesn't specify and then smiled wryly, "Plus a weird herbal concoction my doctor came up with. The taste is terrible, but it works. I don't know what's in it, she won't tell me."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal chuckled. "Well, I will see what I can find, but until then, I'm happy to write you a prescription for Sumatriptan. If you have a pharmacy you prefer, I can wire one there; otherwise, if you come by my office, I can write you one on paper."

[spectre_alenko]

"Could you? That would be great," Kaidan said, almost pathetically, "I've just been using the drugstore here on the island, so if they could fill it, that would be perfect. Thank you. That will possibly keep me functional."

[sharp_man]

"Not at all," Hannibal said. He took out his phone. "The oral version, I'm assuming, and not injections? Twenty-five milligrams to start, until you verify that the Sumatriptan we have here is the same as you're used to." He opened the proper app and typed as he spoke. "Should you need an increased dosage, you may take two at once, although if you find yourself doing that often, please let me know."