OOM: Sick Goth, bored now

[ostro_goth]

It has not been a week yet, since Teja took ill; and Guppy had said to stay in his room for a week, lest he 'infect the universe', so Teja does that. But his fever and the hallucinations have receded somewhat, and he merely coughs and blows his nose much, now, and listlessly sprawls on his rug, too listless to read, even though he has books -- a surfeit of luxuries, like a modern man has, Teja chides himself, but that does not incite him to read any clever books about the end of the Roman empire, either.

So last night, he ventured out to find something else to read, and happened upon the Swan King, who was drinking by himself at the bar and assured him that shape-shifters didn't get sick, not in his world. When Teja told him what he was looking for, Donovan had said that many people liked to watch sentimental movies while they were recovering from something, in his experience. That most of his experience was about women, Donovan didn't say.

So, Teja asked the bar for sentimental movies and something to watch them with, and he got a stack of cases that contained disks much like his music CDs, and a player much like his CD player, also, but with a screen like a omputer attached to it. Teja took it all back to his room, but felt tired, and went to sleep.

This morning, however, he is awake again, sprawled on his rug, and instead of chiding himself for indolence, Teja is watching a movie, about the dramatic wreck of some huge, great ship, with thousands of people on it that are, to judge from the beginning of the tale, all going to drown. If any one comes to Teja's room, the rats will open the door, and Teja will look up from the little device which is playing quite lively music at the moment.

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy sits down on the rug next to him.

"Flu is contagious usually for five to seven days after the onset of symptoms, and one day before. If you're feeling well, and you're more than five days, you're probably okay to go downstairs. There's people I haven't managed to isolate going around being far more infectious than you."

He rubs his forehead. "Yes, I discovered that this is a strain that the infirmary database has never come across, but that it is definitely in the influenza family. Nothing on how to treat it though yet, sorry. It was worth a shot."

[ostro_goth]

"So I may go down again tomorrow," Teja says. "Today, I would stay up here, and be lazy."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Good plan." Guppy says. "I recognise the film, always makes Frogspawn cry. And yet she watches it again anyway."

[ostro_goth]

"It is a very sad movie," Teja says, "with those poor people all being drowned, and dying by the hundreds. It has not made me cry yet; but that is, most likely, because I am no woman."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Oh I don't know, I think it's healthy for a man to cry if he needs to." Guppy says, quietly.

"Mind me beeping in your ear while you watch that?"

[ostro_goth]

"You may beep," Teja says. "As I am warned, I shall not flinch."

Pause.

"And I do weep at times; but for my own personal reasons, and those that I loved, and miss."

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy takes Teja's temperature.

"Nearly back to normal." he says, looking at it. Then he nods.

"Like I said, good, healthy to let it all out."

[ostro_goth]

"Not always," Teja says. "Often, there is no time to grieve; or one would not show weakness before others."

[guppy_sandhu]

"True, but that still doesn't make it healthy." Guppy says.

[ostro_goth]

"You know me," Teja says. "And you know what my values are, and how I was raised, and how I lived. Of course there was no choice -- healthy or no, my duty came first, and all those men I could not let down."

[guppy_sandhu]

Small smile.

"You've mellowed a bit since we met."

[ostro_goth]

"Somewhat," Teja admits. "But my principles are still the same; the details may have changed."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Don't worry, it was a compliment. Not accusing you of having gone soft."

[ostro_goth]

"Some would, and rightly so -- by their standards, that I once shared," Teja says.

[guppy_sandhu]

"It's your business, nobody else's."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed," Teja says. "I know that now; or I would not find myself able to openly love a man."