A Supermagnet, A Doctor, and A Twin Walk Into A Bar

[iamnotpolaris]

Milliways. Oh, bless.
Dr. Xavier could have finished her shift, made it home, and buried her head in a pillow if she had to. But this is much easier.
"Hi, Bar, can I have a stimulant that won't interfere with my judgement or dexterity or anything like that?"

Comments

[roc_on]

"...Why would the doctors care? I mean, it wouldn't actually work with metalbending, getting that kind of precision is excruciatingly hard and requires physical precision too because all bending is controlled by moving the body, but if it did work I don't imagine anyone would mind a metalbender doctor doing it..."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Because mutants are relatively new, and they don't have the visceral assurance I do that yes, I am actually better with magnetism than with my hands. Hands have been tested and retested over millenia and are by default more trusted than the new thing. Not that they haven't seen enough evidence to rationally convince them no, it's fine, but doing things by hand when I can helps soothe their primitive hindbrains."

[roc_on]

"All right. And of course you'd have to whenever you were using things that didn't have any metal, like gauze or what have you. Unless you wanted to pick up the gauze with some metal, but I assume at some degree of remove not having tactile feedback is more of a problem than the precise control is an advantage."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Yeah, of course. But bandaging someone has a much lower risk of accidentally hurting someone if your finger slips than delicate surgery."

[roc_on]

"This is true. I don't actually know anything about medicine per se apart from water healing and the according hanging around hospitals."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Medicine's not for everyone. Honestly, I mostly became a doctor because I'm not squeamish, I have an advantage, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, so why not something helpful and prestigious? But I like it. I'm very glad I chose to do this."

[roc_on]

"I might have become a doctor if I were just an airbender - there aren't that many careers besides, say, dancing, where it's a measurable advantage, and it'd be a bit laughable for me to be a dancer when I need to bend just to walk. It gave me some trouble when I was learning to firebend, too - fire is more sensitive to nearby breezes than water or earth are."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Some kind of condition, or...? Sorry, it's none of my business. My father was injured during the thwarting of Shaw, and he couldn't walk until sufficient medical technology had been acquired from Milliways, so it--catches my attention, I suppose."

[roc_on]

"I have a neurological balance problem, and I think it's actually worse because I'm used to bending and haven't practiced walking without it. I didn't take longer to walk than a regular kid, I just fell over a lot - babies can actually use airbending but not purposefully; I didn't figure out how to stay upright until I was about four. And now if I go to the spirit world where there is no actual air I can't even take as many steps as I could when I was three."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Thaaat sounds like it must suck. Can you bring objects into the spirit world, maybe you could have a spirit-world-going-into place with a wheelchair or something."

[roc_on]

"The spirit world is not wheelchair accessible. And the extent to which one can bring objects is - ambiguous. When I go, I perceive myself to be wearing clothes, but I also perceive myself to be breathing the air that there isn't unless I pay close attention. Anything more complicated than a wheelchair has a decent chance of just not functioning in spirit form. So I bring someone along and they help me, but I don't have to go very often."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That works too. Who is it, or is it not usually the same person?"

[roc_on]

"I brought my boyfriend by accident the first time; he was around to watch my body while my spirit went gallivanting off and I mistakenly pulled him in. I went on a sort of educational trip and brought a nun last year. Who I'd bring on a future visit would depend on what I was doing."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Accidentally pulled him in? He turned out alright, I hope."

[roc_on]

"Oh, yes, he was fine, he carried me around and then he realigned with his body and we were out. It was sort of nerve-wracking at the time but turned out all right."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I'm glad."

[roc_on]

"Me too. I'm not sure what would have happened if it had turned out he was stuck there."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Legal awkwardness and a shift in focus of Avatar-related effort to getting him unstuck, would be my best guess."

[roc_on]

"I mean, I guess I would have had to learn to make a portal or something. Those are a thing."

[iamnotpolaris]

shrug. "I wouldn't know." Nom nom last bites of pretzel.

[roc_on]

"What is that thing you've been eating? Is it just weirdly shaped bread?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Weirdly shaped and cooked differently. It's called a pretzel."

[roc_on]

"Huh. Otherworldly food."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Apparently. Why, what kinds of food does your world have?"

[roc_on]

"I mean, we have bread, just not shaped like that. Apples? Sea prunes? Bean curd? Noodles? I'm a vegetarian most of the time, um - chickenlizard?"