holding down the fort (tag Senar!)

[tuathade]

Ralvyn was hiding.

Well. Not technically hiding. Lanakirene divided her time between the prison infirmary and the office by the river where she treated dragons. At the moment, she was off dealing with some squad dragon or another... So Ral was holding down the fort in her infirmary office at the moment. But the door was closed, and Ralvyn had buried himself in paperwork with the singleminded focus of a boy attempting to forget where he was.

It would not, however, prevent anyone - guard or prisoner alike - from knocking on the door. Or just opening it. It wasn't locked or anything, and he was technically open for business.

It was just that... well, he was fine with the infirmary part of the prison now. It was only the detox area that upset him. So far, he'd only been asked to assist with a Duster in withdrawal once, and it had upset him so badly that he'd practically bolted for the doors. He just couldn't deal with it. Which was humiliating - he was a healer, shardit, he should be able to separate his personal feelings from his patients. But...

Ral shuddered, and pushed the feelings out of his mind. One step at a time. For now, absorbed in organizing the records and with a nice solid door between himself and the prison, he could almost think of himself as being back at the Healer Hall.

[firebird]

Senar paused outside of the infirmary's door, nervously wondering whether it would be best to just walk in. He was fairly sure this was the right place, but still... Wait, did the healer even know he was coming? Though the Warden had said he would make the arrangements, that didn't mean that they had been made just yet. And it would be a waste if the healer wasn't ready for him, right?

You're getting cold feet. Stop trying to make excuses to leave and just open the door. And don't clam up when you see him, either. Words are your friends. Senar paced nervously for a few seconds, then softly knocked on the door before opening it.

"Um... healer?" he asked, glancing up at the man with pinkish eyes as he shut the door behind him. "I'm Senar. The Warden may have told you I was coming?" Did you seriously just make that a question? Bad boy! "I'm, um, supposed to get a checkup for my condition. See if there may be something weird I don't know about yet..." His voice trailed off as he shuffled his feet and looked down, one hand gripping the sleeve of his jumpsuit.

[tuathade]

Ralvyn glanced up at the sound of hesitant knocking. As he did so, the door swung open, and in stepped a young man in the typical prison jumpsuit. A patient? The pale boy didn’t look injured… A checkup for his condition. Right. That was obvious enough, at least. Pale skin, pale hair, pinkish eyes. Someone had mentioned that there was a young man with albinism – but wasn’t he one of the weyrlings? Senar was wearing the normal prison uniform, not the one reserved for the weyrlings. Ral must have been mistaken.

For a moment, just on instinct Ral glanced left and right, as if expecting a more senior healer to appear from nowhere to sort this out. He hadn’t heard anything from the Warden directly, but that wasn’t surprising. There were a lot of healers at the Weyr, and he and Lanakirene more often dealt with dragon patients, not human.

Still, he was plenty qualified to deal with a simple checkup... he hoped. Ral couldn’t prescribe anything or make any promises of special treatment – not without approval – but he could do that much. The teenaged apprentice nodded briskly, standing up and and stepping around the desk to offer a hand to Senar. “Senior Apprentice Ralvyn,” he introduced himself. “Just Ral is fine, though.” It was weird to be addressed with the title of healer from someone who looked the same age that he was. Ralvyn was used to being surrounded by teachers and those who otherwise outranked him.

Pulling up two chairs, one for himself and one for Senar (might as well have them both comfortable!) he tried to recall what he’d read about albinism. Rare condition. Didn’t come up much in everyday practice. Should be straightforward enough, though. “Well, to start with, do you have any specific questions or concerns?”

[firebird]

After taking the offered hand (rather limply), Senar wordlessly nodded and sat down in the offered chair, rubbing his hands nervously. This man was a healer. He was safe. Healers don't hurt people.

That wasn't to mean he wasn't still nervous. Senar tended to be nervous around any stranger, whether they were supposed to be helping him or not. "Um... I don't know a lot about my condition. I don't know what I should be concerned about. What I do know is that my eyes are pretty bad because of it, and I sunburn easily. It also hurts when I'm in bright light. But that's all I know. I just want to know what else may come up." he explained as he stared at the ground.

[tuathade]

Ralvyn sat down in the other chair, listening thoughtfully to Senar's explanation. "Well, I've never treated anyone with your condition before," he admitted. "But from what I've read, it sounds like you have it about right. Sun sensitivity and vision problems are the two main symptoms. If you're otherwise healthy, no reason to suspect anything else is wrong." The young man seemed nervous, for some reason. Generally shy of healers, or hiding something?

"Southern will be rough on you, I'm afraid," he added with a faint apologetic shrug. "Winter isn't so bad, but spring and fall are bright enough, and summer I'd suggest you stay indoors as much as possible." Even Ral himself, naturally fair-skinned and of Northern blood, had burned in the autumn sun when he first arrived. A smattering of freckles stood out on his nose and cheekbones, fading now but visible. "I'm sure that exceptions can be made for medical reasons... That's Warden's jurisdiction, of course, so I can't make promises. But if needed, I'm sure that any healer here would vouch for you."

[firebird]

No one else with his condition had been treated? He really was a freak... Senar looked down at the floor, a downcast expression on his face. "There's never a reason to not suspect something's wrong, right? I mean, how many people are like me? There could be so many things going wrong unseen..."

Well, Senar had figured that a place with such bright sunlight would be troublesome. It wasn't like he liked going outside in the first place. But what if he had to for some reason? Dark clothes would overheat too quickly... "Is there a way to shield myself from the sun? Other than by keeping every inch of skin covered? The Warden already said he's talk to someone about making a veil..."

[tuathade]

"Ah - actually, there's at least two others with your condition at Warden's that I know of. Possibly more. I just meant that I hadn't treated any personally, sorry." Ralvyn offered a weak, apologetic smile and a little half-shrug. "I'm actually a dragonhealer, so the patients I'm used to treating generally have complaints more along the lines of sprained wings. I just help out here because the infirmary's always short-handed."

Leaning back, Ral snagged a writing implement and scrap of hide off the desk, jotting down a few quick notes to himself. "Still, none of the records I've ever read have linked albinism to other diseases, except sun-sickness from overexposure." He paused, thoughtful, considering the options. For a patient who wasn't a prisoner, he'd consider talking to a glasscrafter, seeing if some kind of tinted spectacles could be arranged to help with the sight problem. Not really an option handing anything breakable and potentially sharp to a Warden's resident, though.

"A veil should help. So would a wide-brimmed hat of some kind, if you can get one. And it's possible that the weavers would have some kind of lighter cloth on hand - sisal or light cotton or something would cover up bare skin without being excessively hot, for the summertime, and if it was dyed the right shade it's not like you'd be out of uniform... Ah, sorry, I'm rambling. Like I said, I can't make promises without Warden's approval, but..." Another little shrug. All that he had to offer was his opinion as an apprentice Healer.