An Unexpected Meeting Between Three Medical Minds (Private w/ Ricard and Thomas)

"Syne Academy is a very beautiful and interesting place." Anastasia thought quietly to herself as she entered the Courtyard of the Academy. It was a Tuesday morning and the weather was perfect. The temperature was perfect and a rather cool breeze was blowing all across the island of Bellmuse. It was perfect weather for Anastasia to spend outside. Being outside and away from the Caduceus Trauma Center was a pretty good change of pace despite the fact that she really enjoyed her job.

After spending some time looking for a shady spot, Anastasia found a bench which was located in the center of the Courtyard. It was shaded by a large Oak tree. After looking at the area around the bench, Anastasia smiled at the fact that she had found a good spot to sit down. She had some things to do that was work-related.

After sitting down on the bench, Anastasia placed her messenger bag on the bench before taking out her laptop and a couple of large files. As she did this, a very serious expression appeared on her face as she booted on her laptop and logged into Syne Academy's vast information network. As she was doing this, Anastasia began reading the files that Caduceus Trauma Center received from the rest of the Caduceus organization.

These reports detailed a string of cases involving a rather strange disease that had appeared all around the world. These cases were extremely baffling as the patients died suddenly despite being healthy. In addition to this, the cause of these deaths were "Inconclusive". However, there were reports of rather unusual injuries in the patients' bodies ranging from lacerations to tumors. Due to the nature of the disease, Caduceus had put out a directive to everyone in the organization to begin a full scale investigation into the matter.

"Hmm..... I hope that there is something to go on in the academy's extensive Medical Database." Anastasia thought quietly to herself. Luckily, the academy had access to a large medical database which rivaled the one that the Caduceus Trauma Center possessed. After reading all the reports, Anastasia was determined to get to the bottom of this new disease. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure that nobody dies from this unknown disease.

While the rest of the world seemed peaceful and happy at the moment, this was not the case for Tom. A few minutes ago, he had just finished writing letters to each of his three daughters and another one for his father, and just a few seconds ago, the pages were blown out of his hands and began to fly away from him. Thomas, deeming this as an emergency, burst into a sprint, catching paper after paper out of the air and scooping the ones that fell off of the ground in quick fluid movements. There was no way he was going to let a small accident keep him from making his family happy.

He ran across the courtyard, snatching up more and more papers, almost regretting how much he wrote. The adrenaline was getting to him. He had felt a rush like this before, when he thought his kids were in danger from an allergy. His movements sped up and much more vigorous, each step making him move faster and faster. Finally, there was one paper left, floating slowly towards the ground next to a big oak tree. Refusing to let it hit the dirt, Thomas quickly hurled his "cleaver" at the page, pinning it to the tree with a loud 'thud.'

"Yes!" Thomas shouted before beginning to catch his breath. His happiness, however, didn't last. After a moment of thought, Tom's excitement turned to dread as he realized that he just sent his cleaver straight through the last page of a letter to his eldest daughter. "Wait! No! Why did I do that?!" Thomas put his hands on his head for just a second or two before he walked over to the poor, torn and impaled page. While he was walking, he realized that there was another thing he had to worry about. Sitting on a bench near the tree was another person, a person that Tom just launched a large blade past. "Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry, I just... I didn't want to uh... Sorry..." Tom just experienced three pretty terrible moments within a few minutes, and his day didn't seem like it was going to get better.

Dawn had cracked over Bellmuse that Tuesday morning, the streets just now waking to pedestrian traffic and the setting of shops; and, in a small clinic just by the airship bay, a nurse turns the doorknob to see it was unlocked. A scream. Terrible and long winded. Authorities were sectioning off the area not too long after, careful not to get anywhere near what remained of the rotting corpse in the operating room; thorax and abdomen cut wide open, intestines flung about and other organs in tatters.

Across the street, away from prying eyes, Zaffre grows back to normal size, arms covered in blood and fecal material as he struggled to breathe again. No good. Not even on autopsy. Findings are diffuse, not specific to any one disease. Usual suspects are out. No signs of cyanosis or physical injuries. Patient was nonicteric, and was well built with no classic signs of metabolic derangement or nutritional imbalance. Something new? Hope not. Needs research. With a frustrated sigh, he resigned himself to his task, Zaffre removed his surgical gown and mask, tossing them into a nearby dumpster before removing his gloves, stuffing them in a drainage pipe the next street over.

Zaffre took the airship back to Syne not long after, content to let someone with an actual degree take a crack at his unsolved case. Wandering around the school, he continued to pit ideas against each other in his mind. "Where to now? I doubt if the school library of all places has the resources I'd need. Can't exactly do any lab work either, though. No samples to work with. No idea which sample to even take." At that moment, a heavy thud from the courtyard caught his attention. Thomas?With no specific leads to follow up on, he decided to cool off for a while and approach it again later with a clear mind. As he approached, he noticed another person sitting nearby dressed much like a doctor herself, Thomas apologizing profusely.

"Thomas. What's going on here?

"Hmm.... Both Syne Academy's Medical Database and the Caduceus Trauma Center Database contained no cases of anything matching this disease. This is quite alarming. Anastasia thought quietly to herself as she looked over from her laptop and towards the various medical reports/files which she had sitting next to her. Anastasia has spent most of her time scouring through both databases for information on diseases that might be a possible match for this mysterious disease. However, Anastasia was having no luck with this endeavor as both databases contained no information that would help her get closer to identifying this mysterious disease.

"My search has been fruitless so far. However, there is still a database that I can make use of. I hope that this database contains any information that would help me identify this mysterious disease." Anastasia thought determinedly as she minimized the two internet browsers which she used to search through the Syne Academy Medical Database and the Caduceus Trauma Center Database. Soon after, she then scrolled her mouse over the Caduceus Global Medical Database icon and clicked it. Soon after, a separate browser appeared and Anastasia typed in her credentials. As a Trauma Surgeon at the Caduceus Trauma Center, Anastasia had access to the Caduceus Global Medical Database which contained all the medical case data, medical research data, pharmaceutical data, and clinical trial data that Caduceus had compiled. With this, Anastasia hoped that she could find any information that would help her identify the mysterious disease.  

Anastasia had been so engrossed and focused in her work that she didn't noticed that a man was apologizing to her. In response to this, a somewhat confused expression appeared on her face. Anastasia was not expecting for someone to apologize to her for no reason. Soon after, a teenaged boy walked up to the man who was apologizing to her. This teenaged boy ask the slightly older man what had just happened. Anastasia watched the two for a bit before speaking.

"Good Morning." Anastasia greeted in a rather friendly fashion as she smiled sightly at the old man and the teenaged boy.

After apologizing in the best way that he was capable of at that moment, Thomas wasn't expecting the response he received, nor was he expecting to see a familiar face just moments later.  "You aren't... Uh, okay! Good. Great!"  Thomas grabbed the cleaver by it's handle and pulled it out of the tree, observing the damage on the page that he recklessly harmed.  Yep.  Ruined.  Thomas sighed, realizing he was going to have to write this whole page over again when he had the chance.  Afterwards, Thomas turned his head to Zaffre, almost forgetting that he just asked him a question.  "I just - I had these letters and a breeze blew them away and I ended up... throwing a cleaver at a person.  I really didn't expect all of this to happen."

Thomas turned his face to the ground in defeat, realizing that no matter how he said it, most of this was probably his fault.  Although, it didn't seem like the woman he threw his weapon at was alarmed in any way, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty about his actions.  What if his aim was off?  What if he send a heavy metal blade into somebody else's face?  He shuddered at the thought, making a note to not do that again.  He weakly waved his weapon at Zaffre.  "Good to see you again.  How are things?"

"Good morning, miss.". He spoke purely out of reflex, a well-practiced and almost normal looking smile plastered on his face, head tilted just slightly out of axis. Returning to a more relaxed stance, he briefly surveyed the area, confirming Tom's story with a slight nod to himself. Thomas. Medical. Might be able to shed some light on the case? Plausible. Can't reveal direct involvement, though. Weave into conversation.

"I'm alright, little sleepy though. Friend of mine, nurse, chatted me up all night about a case he was working on. There were tumorous growths, lacerations, but no discernible cause of death. We went back and forth on it, but I couldn't think of anything..." Zaffre went on detailing pertinent case details to Thomas, summarily going over everything he'd gathered and detailing his failed differential diagnoses. All the while, Zaffre was focused as a pin, forgetting the world around him and almost forgetting that he was talking to Tom in the first place. It wasn’t until he’d completely exhausted his findings that he returned to reality, taking a few more moments to remember what he was doing there.

"Oh, anyway, I think I was heading to the library or somewhere to do some research on it...though, I'm not even sure what I'm dealing with so I wouldn't really know where to start. Do you happen to have any experience with something like this?

"Hmm.... The teenager's description of the case and the symptoms the patient had sounds suspiciously similar to the cases that has been reported to Caduceus." Anastasia thought calmly to herself. Due to her location, Anastasia couldn't help but overhear the conversation between Thomas and the teenager. The teenager's description of the symptoms were almost identical to the symptoms of the mysterious disease she was investigating. Anastasia then looked down at one of the reports before speaking. She then asked the teenager one question that would prove or disprove her suspicions depending on the answers she received.

"Excuse me. Were there any signs of a severe autoimmune response or extremely high level of antihistamines within the patient's body?" Anastasia asked the teenager in a rather calm yet serious fashion. Anastasia had asked him this question because the common thread among all the patients was that their bodies had a massive autoimmune response which led to a lot of antihistamines to build up in the patient's body. The surprising thing about this was that the antihistamines were synthesized within the patient's body.

Anastasia had asked the teenager this specific question in order to confirm that the mysterious disease was the culprit. If Anastasia was able to confirm that the patient died of this mysterious disease, it would be the very first case of the disease on Bellmuse Island. As she waited for his answer, she opened a browser and logged into the Caduceus Trauma Center Employee Network. Soon after, Anastasia was at the "Report Case" section of the website. This "Report Case" section of the website was the section of the website where Anastasia and her fellow doctors of the Caduceus Trauma Center could report any cases of the mysterious disease to both Caduceus Trauma Center and Caduceus International. Anastasia felt that she should report this immediately after confirming her suspicions.

Thomas's head perked up, having noticed that nobody really seemed to mind what he had just done, even with the potential danger.  He wasn't upset about this, however, and happily accepted the new subject.  Maybe not too happily, as it did involve death, but happy enough.  He watched in confusion as the two spoke to each other, unsure of exactly what to make of the situation, since he wasn't really an expert on the more complicated medical procedures and whatnot.  "Antihis... uh...  I don't know much about whatever it is that you two are talking about, but I assume it's not exactly fun, is it?"

Tom shuddered momentarily.  He didn't want to imagine the pain of the deceased before he passed.  Lacerations? Tumors? Antihispookalists?  "So, it's definitely a disease, right?  That's not my specialty..."  Tom was trained more in taking care of bodily harm rather than infections, diseases, or disorders.  The most he could really do is stitch somebody up or cauterize a wound to keep somebody breathing until a professional arrives.  He shook his head and looked to the ground before a quick realization came to mind.  "Wait, Zaffre, are you a doctor or do you just hang out with nurses?"

Her words rang with specificity, yet contrast, piquing Zaffre’s curiosity, making him suspect that she knew exactly what he was talking about. For a moment, Zaffre stood there, eyes fixed slightly off from Anastasia's eyes as he puzzled things over in his head, mind running with possibilities. Autoimmune? Uncommon, but depending on target cell population, could explain the lacerations. Would need lab work to confirm. Antihistamines...decrease vascular permeability. Antithetical to autoimmune. Drug induced carcinogenesis? Induced neoplastic growth, target for autoimmune attack? No enlarged lymph nodes sighted. Direct invasive? Tumors too spread out. Hematogenous route? Too far ahead. Indeterminable without specimen for testing. Haven't spoken yet. Maintain cover. Shifting around his pocket, he maintained eye contact with her forehead as he spoke.

"Considering the symptoms, it certainly lines up with the case; and the tumors were certainly no exudates. However, my friend...had her shift changed before she could see the actual lab results...so I can't say for certain; I do, however have some photos saved on my scroll, if you care to look. “ Scroll in hand, he cycles through his folders before coming to a small selection of his autopsy photos before holding it before Anastasia. “Sounds to me like you’ve got some idea of what it is already, though. Care to share?”

As Tom spoke, Zaffre was almost dumbfounded, though it barely registered on his face as more than a slight raise of his brow. He had unconsciously assumed from their previous conversation that Tom was well-read in the medical sciences, the physiology and anatomy if not the biochemistry of everything. It can't be helped, I suppose. So long as he keeps up in class, it should be fine. Not as if its unheard of for one to enter medicine without lengthy advanced readings.

"Well, I can't rule out a disease...but there could've been some bizarre environmental factor as well. Doctor? I'm flattered, but no, I just read textbooks and stuff. Also, I don't generally spend much time with nurses, but I do meet them fairly regularly when I do volunteer work at clinics."