CoR Into the Wolf Den

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"Well, not exactly," Jesse explained. "Lunentia is a degenerative and fatal brain disease seen in werewolves whose immune system starts attacking their brain. It is believed to be caused by a pre-existing human element that is incompatible with lycanthropy. Possibly a rare auto-immune disease, or an abnormal chromosome mutation."

Jesse offered an uncertain shrug.

"Cases are so rare though, that there simply aren't enough medical records available to facilitate any real research into it. And there's not exactly a big push for funding werewolf medical studies."

He smiled again then.

"Don't worry though, I used to think the same too," he assured Ethan.
 
Huh.

Ethan had never heard that before.

He had a feeling he was going to be experiencing a lot of that. Of course, maybe it was all a lie. It was certain that they were lying to him about something, he just hadn't figured out what it was, yet.

I used to think the same too, Jesse had said. Ethan didn't know what to make of that, either. He supposed the best thing to do was keep him talking - keep anyone talking. The more information, the easier it was to spot the lie.

Also, the more talking, the less he had to be in here alone with his own thoughts.

"...When'd that change?"
 
"A few years back," Jesse answered. "Do you remember that incident at the hospital out in Luskonis, by the University?"

It had been all over the news for months. A werewolf had attacked and killed five people in the hospital, and injured three others.

"He was a gunshot victim. We didn't know he was suffering from Lunentia," Jesse explained. "He shifted while we where trying to help him. It's why the policy of moving anyone with lycanthropy through the medical system as fast as possible has gained so much traction in recent times."

"A single Lunentia case in how many years, against the thousands of victims of human violence that fill the hospitals every year? But now you're lucky to get some antibiotics before they're shoving you out the door."
 
"I... think I heard about that. Yeah." Of course he'd heard of it. The news still brought up that nightmare whenever the werewolves started trying to push in on people's spaces, reminding them of what had happened. Ethan wondered if they'd do the same with the park - that bothered him, for some reason. He didn't want that - not for Aidan.

Jesse's story was... sad, kind of. We were trying to help him. Ethan wondered if Jesse had gotten the same coaching about werewolves and safety, if he'd just been caught unawares. The same could have happened to anyone. Jesse seemed... decent.

Ethan hated that he thought that, but he supposed if Jesse had been human first, maybe that was why. Maybe he'd managed to hang on to some of that, somehow. Ethan had been trying not to think too much about the future. He'd been trying not to think about what he was going to be.

He hadn't gotten to the point of thinking about who.

"How come you're helping them? After what happened to you - why?"
 
"Because they aren't that man from the hospital, and they helped me through it and gave me a way to keep helping people," Jesse answered with a gesture at the med center. "Do you think any hospital would ever hire me? I got fired the moment they got wind that I had contracted lycanthropy in the attack. They determined I was a 'threat to the health and safety of our patients'," he explained. He carefully punctuated his words into an emotionless assessment. "They didn't even give me the news in person."

"Besides, it's a two way street. I'm here helping you instead of holding you responsible for all the crimes that humans have committed. I think contracting lycanthropy gave me a healthy perspective. I was able to see things from both sides. Werewolves are just humans who carry a symbiotic virus. The only thing the virus cares about is surviving and replicating. Humanity on the other hand has a long history of violence towards one another. Lycanthropy doesn't make them do that. It also doesn't cure them of it."
 
Ethan wasn't sure he was in agreement with lycanthropy not causing people to be violent. From everything he'd heard, that wasn't the case at all - and Jesse had a lot of reasons to cover it up, didn't he?

Still, Ethan didn't really want to argue about it. Maybe he just didn't want to argue about it with Jesse. He was at least going to let the comment about getting fired for being a danger slide, possibly because he had a feeling he was going to get that same text or email any day now. Isn't he, though?

Of course he was. Just like Ethan was about to be. He just had to try to point that danger in the right direction.

"Whether or not it makes them do that, it makes them more dangerous when they do," he said quietly. "Same with a gun." If the werewolf at the park had just been some random guy, maybe Ethan could have stopped him, could have done something - he could have at least stepped in before it got that bad. Being a lycan, though? There hadn't been any way to defend against that. People were dead before there had been time to react, and reacting hadn't done much good, either.

He prodded at his shoulder, mostly to remind himself that it still hurt, in some sort of masochistic way. Everything else hurt, didn't it? It was probably best to remember why. He needed to remember who the monsters were.

That way he could still recognize himself, when he was the one in the mirror.
 
"That it does," Jesse said.

One point of common agreement the pair had finally come to.

"Let's get those bandages changed out. And if it's alright with you, I would like to draw some blood. It will help me monitor the progression of the infection and the viral load. Then you can get some rest."
 
"Oh... yeah." Maybe it was that there hadn't been an argument to hang onto. Maybe it was just that Jesse sounded pretty much like any other sensible medical professional that Ethan had ever interacted with. Maybe it was just that those last words: get some rest made him realize how exhausted he was and how everything absolutely still hurt and was probably going to be that way for a while. Maybe he just didn't have it in him to argue.

Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe it did. Ethan didn't exactly have a lot of answers right now. He didn't exactly feel safe here, but he had a feeling he wasn't going to feel safe anywhere, and at least here was somewhere he'd never been before. The places he knew just had too many memories. There was probably something to be said that the idea of facing the werewolves seemed easier than the idea of facing the memories, but he didn't know if he wanted to contemplate it right now.

Right now, maybe it was enough to get the bandages swapped out by someone who knew what they were doing rather than try to do it himself, and lay down for a while and get some desperately needed sleep, and hope that if he woke up, it would have all been a dream.

And if he couldn't dare to hope for that, he could at least hope that sleep would pull him under for long enough that he didn't have to think about any of it, just for a little while.
 
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