(no subject)

[espigeonage]

Julien had been feeling unwell for a couple of days. He'd spent all of yesterday in, doing nothing much but sleep and eat, feeling hungry almost constantly. Putting away the detritus left behind by that seemed unusually difficult. He had to leave some wrappers where they lay, and couldn't focus to cook, and that thing kept happening, where it was like he couldn't remember how to move his face, and somehow his resting expression was a Mona Lisa look.

He'd wanted to think he was just sick. It didn't happen much at all, his body wasn't used to it. But on some level, he knew. It was in the occasional paralysis of his face, and the thick warm feeling in his sternum, and the way both his hips clicked when he stood up.

So in a way it wasn't a surprise when he woke and that feeling was pressing out, hot and throbbing and painful, getting worse as he pressed his wing against his chest. It was a surprise when he tried to get up, and fell. He'd wanted, when he thought about this day coming, to do it alone, but he couldn't manage to heat water or pick athelas. It hurt. Eventually he couldn't take it. He had to call for help.

Comments

[elfstoned]

By the time Julien speaks, Aaron has moved his hand. He is examining Julien's arm, checking for veins, and realizing that even if he finds one, it'll be difficult to tell if it's a vein or an artery. His circulatory system is just displaced enough to be worrying.

"I am," he says, and his voice sounds a little distracted -- understandably so, since he's shifting the feathers on Julien's shoulder to get an idea of if he'll be able to inject into the deltoid. He believes he can, and Julien will feel something cold and sharp-smelling smeared onto his skin. Skin that feels foreign, un-human, strange. As the alcohol dries, the gloves snap on, and Aaron prepares the syringe, clicking onto it a new, inch-and-a-half long needle that would give a child nightmares. Two fingers keep the feathers apart and the skin taut, and a moment later, with a "Hold still, now," the needle sinks into skin and muscle. It's sharp, very much so -- it won't hurt, not more than a light sting. A moment later, the needle is out again and a clean gauze is pressed to Julien's skin, and the needle disappears into a sharps container.

It'll take time for the drug to take effect. An IV injection would have been quicker, but the buprenex's effects will last longer this way.