Eclipse

Tomas wasn't having the greatest of days, not that he'd had many good days lately, it was often very frustrating being him. In some ways he was used to it, the fatigue, muscle spasms, stiffness and weakness, pain, depression and anxiety, it all just depended on how hard the symptoms hit. Some days he might be graced with only one or two of the symptoms and other days it felt like he was being hit by everything at once.

Today was definitely a cane day the spasms and pain simply too much to walk unaided. He slowly made his way across the cafeteria and to the food line. He hesitated before getting in line though, although the cane was helping him to walk, he realised the muscle spasms might make him spill his food everywhere, despite how hungry he was, he just wasn't sure how to get around that.

He sighed and moved out of line and off to the side. He was trying to decide what he was going to do, he could just go to the marketplace and order something there where the food would be brought to him, but then he was out of money which meant his only option was the food provided by the university itself. Maybe if he just went and rested in his room he'd feel better in a few hours, but that was just so frustrating. For the moment, he just stood there, off to the side of the line trying to decide what to do.

One of her favorites teachers, Monsieur Rodrerick taught Rosalie an invaluable asset as a doctor, the clinical eye as he called it, the ability to catch on something without the patient mentioning it.

Rosalie’s clinical eye told her that there was something wrong with the boy that had stepped out of the line, the way that he walked, there was a pain but clearly also a slight malfunction. Pained gait was more coordinated, there was a spasmodic element in the way he walked.

The doctor rarely finished her plate, she thought that the servings of the university were too large for one person, or at the least someone with a small appetite; so she approached with the tray and smiled sweetly and shyly at him “Hey I have never seen you in the cafeteria before, do you want to join me?” she technically was not a teacher but not an student anymore since she had passed her grades, she belonged to the research members, although she had been offered to give some spare classes too.

“I work in the university, so we can even go to the research lounger, it’s quieter and the seats are more comfortable” offered gently the doctor

At first Tomas wasn't sure what he wanted to say to Rosalie, he definitely appreciated the offer but he was also still a bit embarrassed about his current condition. It was frustrating when his condition kept him from being able to do the simplest of tasks, made him feel like he was losing his independence and that really got to him. He shrugged and smiled a bit sheepishly.

It's just, the pain and muscle spasms are a bit bad today. I'm not sure if I can carry my tray without spilling it all over the place. He paused, wondering if he should explain his entire condition or just leave it at that, most people's eyes glazed over if he explained the whole thing, but he felt like some context might be helpful, of course he didn't know yet he was talking to a doctor. I have a uh, condition, it just makes things hard on me at times. He did like the idea of sitting in a more comfortable room than the hard chairs of the cafeteria.

“I see” said Rosalie gently “I realized by the way you walked that there was something hurting” said the blonde with a kind smile “Not because it’s super obvious or anything; I am a doctor, I am trained to notice these things”

Rosalie pointed at the end of the hall “The lounge is quite close, just by the end of the hall, why don’t you go there and relax while I bring you the food? I will even invite you to hot chocolate, teacher privileges” said Rosie as she chuckled. She would not force the kid to go there, but the offer was genuine.

"Plus if you want, and I am not trying to pressure here, you can talk me about your problem and we can see if I can adjust your medication or help in anyways. What are you even taking for the spasm? There are some new treatments for spams that a peer is developing that works in a local way"

There was a moment where Tomas felt self-conscious about his condition, the way Rosalie had begun speaking about noticing how he'd been acting, but then when he found out that she was a doctor, well that changed things. He'd expect a doctor to notice subtle things about a person's health, after all it is what they trained for. He knew enough about medical degrees to know they weren't easy, it would have taken a lot of work to get through her schooling. He nodded slowly.

That would, it would actually be amazingly helpful, thank you. He knew where the lounge was, but he'd never stepped foot into it, but then he wasn't a teacher or teacher's aide so why would he. Her offer to talk about his problem was, well he wasn't really sure. He didn't really talk about it much, and with new friends he tried to avoid the topic until absolutely necessary because he hated feeling like he was being treated like an invalid. Though it had been over five years since he'd actually seen anyone about it, outside of mages and apothecaries, but they were only treating the symptoms. He smiled and nodded.

Sure, that'd be fine! With that, he headed off to the lounge to sit comfortably and wait for Rosalie.

Rosalie appeared a bit later balancing a tray full of food while carrying on her shoulder a bag with fruits and a couple of sweets that the cook had given her today. She placed carefully everything on the table and afterwards sat down happy to leave behind the overwhelmingly full cafeteria

“So I realized that I have not introduced myself previously” said the blonde with a friendly smile “My name is Rosalie Rutherford, and as I said I work here in the university” she said before starting to eat from her own salad “I think that I have seen you around in the university right? But not in the science area, I think that it was in the other building, I go there from time to time to take a look at the painting expositions or the concerts, the arts part of the university is really a lovely place to spend an afternoon, specially considering that it’s rare for me to have a free one” admitted Rosie with a shy smile. Between her research and her work she barely had time to met her family or friends, she traveled way less back to Ferelden than when she was a student.

Tomas smiled appreciatively when Rosalie arrived with the food, he sat up and inched a bit towards the table sitting across from him. It had been so nice sitting in the soft quietness of the staff lounge, a real break from the usual. He took a few bites of food as Rosalie introduced herself, and nodded as she talked about the Arts and Humanities building.

It's nice to meet you, I'm Tomas. Yea, I'm doing a Creative Writing major with a minor in history. Though it's going to take forever cause I can't take a full class load every semester, not when I don't know what way my health is going to tip. I mean it's usually manageable, I have potions I take that treat the symptoms, but so far no one's come up with anything that treats the actual disease. Truth be told Tomas had never spoken to a doctor about his condition, only mages specialising in healing, at least as far as he could remember.

“That sounds like such a lovely degree!” said Rosalie with a warm smile. Despite of being a science woman she genuinely thought that arts made the world a place a bit better and was happy about people pursuing those degrees in order to keep art alive.

Rosalie nodded as she took a couple of bites “That sounds quite stressful, managing a health problem and studying, your resilience is quite admirable Thomas.” Said Rosie before picking a bit of her salad “Would you consider too intrusive if I asked you what is your disease? You don’t have to answer, it’s merely to see if I can help you in any way” offered the blonde gently. If Thomas preferred to keep that information to himself she would completely understand it.

Tomas smiled as she spoke to him and complimented him on his choice of degrees, it wasn't exactly a degree his father would have liked to see him take, but then again were it not for the MS Tomas would have been groomed to be heir of the Third Talon. He nodded as she commented about it being stressful, managing his health problem and studying at the same time, though he refused to let anything get in the way of his studies, even if he couldn't take a full class load at a time meaning it would take twice as long for him to actually obtain the degree. He shrugged slightly as she asked more about his condition.

The mages called it MS or Multiple Sclerosis. My symptoms range from fatigue, muscle spasms, stiffness and weakness, pain, depression and anxiety. I guess mood swings as well though I don't know if that's a direct symptom or just a result of having to deal with all the symptoms. He said with another shrug.

“Oh MS!” Said Rosalie as she listened to him speak “I have to admit that I am not an expert, we did have lessons about it in the fifth year but most of the treatment were oriented towards treating symptoms than the disease which is not bad per se but in my opinion is not enough of an approach” said Rosalie kindly as she looked at the young man.

“I do recall some interesting notes about the possible origin of the problem, it’s about part of the body composition attacking itself, which was a theory from a Neurologist in Tevinter” said Rosalies as she frowned, trying to remember her notes.

She gasped, what if?...

“Could you give me two hours Thomas? If I am onto something as I think I am, I will make it worth” said Rosalie clearly excited.

Tomas ate as Rosalie spoke, he tried to follow everything she was saying, she was certainly invested in the topic. He didn't usually talk about his condition much, sure with Imogen and his siblings, but that was usually the extent of it. It felt kind of good to be talking about it with someone else, especially someone so eager to listen. When she said something about the body attacking itself, he raised an eyebrow, that definitely didn't sound good, though it was how he felt a lot of times, like his body was attacking him, so somehow it made sense to him.

He raised an eyebrow when she mentioned giving him two hours and that it could be worth his time.

Could I hang out in here, it's so quiet, feels nice to be able to eat in peace and at my own pace. He didn't have a class until later that afternoon, so it should give her plenty of time to do whatever it was she'd suddenly thought of.

“Eat and nap after if I am not back! Hopefully I will be back soon-ish!” said Rosalie as she left the room.

More than two, it was like four hours, but as Rosalie had predicted she was going to make it worth his time. She returned covered in dust from crawling on the floor trying to fetch books in areas that could use a good dusting, but she was so excited that she didn’t mind it at all!

“Thomas!!! It is what I predicted!” said Imogen dropping the heaviest book between them. “It’s the body attacking the body, but the mechanism is similar to the way that apparently the taint affects tainted people! Like in a less deadly and lethal way like if it was taint it would have killed you already but you know, metaphors” said turning pages before pointing to a paragraph “Your problem was described as “i asthéneia tou chamailéonta” said Rosalie, likely butchering the Tevene pronunciation, very long long ago.

The chameleonic disease, so to speak; because of how versatile the symptoms could be” said her pointing to a book which had next to the paragraph and Orlesian description “The way the disease works is poorly described but more recent research” she said putting another book opened on top of the previous one “says that a part of the body attacks anothers which is why the symptoms are so variated, if we identify with magic a bit the parts I could try to make something that counters it the way I am doing it with another current research!” said Rosalie clearly excited. MS was understudied because people had given up on curing it, but she was not the kind of doctor that gave up.

Tomas did his best to listen and soak up every word that Rosalie was uttering, but he'd taken a nap and was now in a rather groggy state. Not to mention the fact that she was using medical words and rambling quite a bit. What he did instantly gather from the conversation was that Rosalie was insanely excited about the prospects of helping his MS, which was really all he needed to know since the medical bits mostly went over his head. He did kind of get the idea that his body was attacking itself, and felt like it figured, with his luck of course his body was attacking itself. What he didn't like was hearing that it was similar to the taint, but apparently for all its similarities it also wasn't the taint as the taint would have killed him sooner.

Wait, so you have an idea how you can actually help me?! In a way that would do more than just treat the symptoms?! He asked, and then added, I mean, I followed some of what you just said, but I'm not gonna lie, some of it went right over my head. He was kind of excited by Rosalie's excitement though, if she could actually do something for him, more than the mages had been able to do so far, that would be freaking amazing.

Rosalie chuckled “Don’t worry dear, that’s my defect as a doctor, I speak at times in ways that other doctors understand but my patients get lost; my duty is not only to share information but also to make it clear for my patients” she said sweetly “But yes, basically I can’t cure damage done so far, but I can avoid further damage being done if that makes sense?” she said as she rested her chin against her hand “And maybe some residual fatigue would linger, but it would be like a minimun if compared with what you feel in the worse flares” said Rosalie

“Of course research is not a lineal path, and to reach the end there are middle steps but I would be willing to try if you are up to it” the doctor offered; she couldn’t promise a miracle, but she could promise to do her best.

Tomas was loving everything that Rosalie was saying. He was in awe that she even had a suggestion of a viable treatment plan for him, that there even could be a treatment plan. Even if he didn't understand everything she'd said, he'd understood enough to be both in awe and happy about it all. 

Am I up to it? Fuck yea, I'm up to it. Even if the chances were slim, I'd be up for it. Any hope at all, I'll have to tell my family. They are always worried about me, about my condition. They'll be so happy about something like this. You may need to actually talk to my father, though. I don't know if I'd be able to explain it well and well, he'd want to know as many details as possible. He was sure that Jorah would go anywhere he needed in order to speak with Rosalie, but he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for the moment.