The rose I sickened with a scarlet fever [Open]

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima and ?
WHAT: A catchall open post for phases two and three of the flu modplot
WHEN: Wintermarch 25 to Guardian 6ish
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Discussion of blood in a medical context in Anders' thread; otherwise general "affected by blood plague" heads-up unless otherwise noted.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

"So their blood is still fine?"

That may be the best news they've had so far. It's not them, it's the lyrium in their blood being taken out. How or why Rifters have lyrium in their blood is a mystery still, but they've got something now.

"And the lyrium is being destroyed. So the Templars are genuinely having withdrawls because they're not getting its full effects." Like putting in only part of an elfroot leaf rather than the five a potion calls for. "We have to stop whatever is warping the lyrium. ...And by extension, perhaps, warping magic considering the effects healing has."

[youwonscience]

"I mean, the blood is fine in the sense that the actual blood cells don't seem damaged, yeah, though my understanding is that having lyrium in your blood when you haven't taken any lyrium is still concerning..." She trails off. "What the hell is that, though?" she asks, mainly rhetorically.

"Come here, come look at this." She doubts he'll be able to shed any real light on what she's seeing, but at least having a second person describe it might help her confirm what she thinks she's observed.

[justice_is_blond]

"Um," he says even before he's in position. If she doesn't know, he's really unlikely to know, but Anders shifts over and leans in to look anyway. There's the blood again, there's the mangled lyrium cells along with a few whole ones, and there's something new.

"Um," he says again, and then it moves. It goes up to one of the lyrium cells, and his eyebrows climb. "It's... Maker, is it attacking? Some sort of... shark in the blood, swimming along and eating the lyrium? Cosima?"

Anders straightens back up, looking at her. "Does that, does your world have that?"

[youwonscience]

"Yes and no. Cells or small multi-cellular creatures that attack other cells? Yeah, that's the reason for a lot of diseases. But that particular creature, no. I've never seen anything like that before. And it seems to be eating the lyrium, and since my world doesn't have lyrium, it couldn't have adapted in my world."

She has a thought, and reaches for paper and ink. "I don't know... it's like it's infecting the lyrium. But that's... you can't infect an element or a mineral." She jots something down aand then moves back to the microscope. "The, um. I'll call them lyriophages for now, I guess. Whatever they're doing to the lyrium could be having effects on the host's bloodstream that explains some or all of the symptoms. But I don't know how the lyrium got in the Rifters in the first place."

[justice_is_blond]

"Lyro... forgive me, but I'm tired and blood sharks seems far more amusing than it has any right to seem so I think I'm going to keep calling them that." He appreciates her science and knowledge immensely, but he's had exhaustion giggles threaten him a couple of times during this and he wants to tell Nate about blood sharks while laughing himself to sleep tonight.

"More seriously... I don't know. Could you have gotten it by being exposed to the Fade? When you crossed through it? Or... Um." There's a knock at the door, and Nari's there.

"I've still no idea about how you have lyrium in your veins," he says after, "but let's look at this as we ponder?"