Not Alright (PK/PMW, Open on Request)

[gantzgun74]

"Given the weird crap I heard, I'm not sure I blame him." Erin floated in through the door, stretching as she did... After taking that second to do so, she landed on the floor, Ninja tabi meeting carpet. "So how exactly did this get started anyway? Did you guys notice any sort of weird behavior BEFORE he started sprouting extra legs? We may as well start thinking about HOW this happened."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Well, in terms of behavior, he hasn't shown anything abnormal," Jen responded. "Yesterday we didn't even have much of an impression that he was down with anything but a serious cold. Just a fever, congestion, upset stomach... then he wakes up this morning and boom."

"There's nothing wrong with his legs, by the by," Patrick offered. "At least nothing that I'm aware of..."

"Hmm..." Alphys mulled this over for a bit. So his symptoms had been relatively benign up until this morning's spontaneous development? Curious. There had to be more to it than that, though. "Perhaps we should... get Evan's account. We can talk while I'm examining him."

"Yeah, the sooner the better..." Jen agreed as she led Alphys down the hall, along with anyone else who wanted to come. Upon reaching Evan's room, she gave the cracked door a quick knock and pushed it open all the way. "Hey, Ev? Doctor's here."

They found Evan buried beneath his covers from the neck down, right in the middle of blowing his nose. He promptly discarded the snotty tissue and scratched his cheek, cringing from the touch of his course, patchy beard and the sickly pus that had started to leak from his welts and drip down his face. He then gazed up at his guests, looking absolutely miserable both physically and emotionally. "Heyyy..."

"G-Good morning, Evan..." Alphys murmured with an awkward smile and a wave. "Um... relatively speaking."

She stepped into the room, setting her bag down by the foot of the bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Bluh... I wanna die."

Alphys pursed her lips. Somehow she knew that would be his answer.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift was sitting on the other side of the bed, leaning against the mattress with her chin in her hand and her ears folded back. Her expression was recognizably one of worry and sadness, but with a noticeable trace of her characteristic passion underneath. She was more than ready to get to the bottom of this and end Evan's suffering.

"Hey, Alphys." She sat up slightly, giving Evan and Alphys space. "We really appreciate you coming in..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Oh, no worries. Whatever helps." Alphys nodded to Swift, then pulled out a pen and pad before turning back to Evan. "Now then... shall we get started?"

Evan cleared his throat once and offered her a weak nod. He took a moment to gather his nerves; the attention given to his new appendages was beyond uncomfortable, but that was the entire reason Alphys was there. As such, with a deep breath, Evan sat up, threw the covers off and spread out his six arms for her to see in full.

"Oh... goodness..." Alphys was taken aback, but certainly not scared. She knew plenty of people with multiple limbs, with Muffet being a prime example, so it was nothing new to the monster scientist, but seeing it on a human was definitely cause for concern.

Slowly and gently, doing her best to ensure Evan was at least relatively comfortable, Alphys took the hand of the lower arm closest to her. "So... these new arms are fully developed? Motor function, somatosensory system and all?"

"Yeah..." Evan wheezed, lightly squeezing Alphys's hand to prove the point.

"And these... literally grew overnight?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting..." Alphys promptly released Evan's hand and started writing something down on her notepad.

While she took her notes, Evan further elaborated, "I... I was having pain in my hips pretty much all day yesterday. AHEM... Early warning, I guess. A-And my facial hair has been growing out overnight too. I even shaved it off entirely last night, tough as it was for my razor to cut..."

"I see." Alphys paused in her writing to place a hand on one of Evan's arms, gently stroking the hair covering it with her thumb. Intrigued, she grabbed a magnifying glass out of her bag to get a closer look at the bristles. "Yes, this... certainly bears more of a resemblance to... the setae of invertebrates than it does human hair... at least at a cursory glance."

"Invertebrates??" Evan sunk slightly in his bed. "So this is some kind of spider disease?!"

Alphys looked up at Evan with a great deal of sympathy. "W-Well, I... wouldn't jump to that conclusion just yet, but I... don't think I would rule it out either."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift grimaced, looking between Evan and Alphys. She placed a hand on Evan's shoulder, trying her best to console him, all the while asking the scientist, "So this is... completely new territory for you? Like... you've never seen anything like this happen to a human before?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Honestly... I can't say I've witnessed anything this drastic on a monster before, let alone a human..." Alphys answered honestly as she put her magnifying glass away and slipped on a pair of gloves. "At least, not on account of contracting an illness."

Following a hard gulp on Evan's part, Alphys proceeded to press her thumbs along his cheeks to feel his sinuses, earning a slight cringe in return. "So your initial symptoms resembled those of a common cold, yes?"

"Yeah... Still feeling them," Evan answered, evident in his scratchy, stuffy voice.

Alphys nodded and placed a hand on Evan's forehead, anxiously gritting her teeth. "Well, your body is certainly working to fight... whatever this is. Oh- Ohhhhh..." When she pulled her hand away, she couldn't help but wince at the sight of the pus on her glove from rubbing up against the bumps on Evan's head. "H-Have to look into that..."

While Alphys replaced her gloves, Evan gingerly touched one of the welts, whining from the sensation. They were starting to feel less like bruises and more like leaking cysts. When he looked down again, Alphys was leaning close to his face with a tongue depressor in one hand and a pen light in the other. "Open, please..."

Evan complied and opened his mouth as wide as he could. In turn, Alphys held his tongue down and took a good look at his throat. "Mm-hmm... I see your point. Aside from... well, the obvious, I can't find anything too out of the ordinary. Except..." She pulled her hands away and shot him a nervous frown. "Your... u-upper canines seem to have grown out slightly."

"WHAT?!" Evan slapped a hand over his mouth and quickly ran his tongue along his teeth. He hadn't noticed it at first and even now it was relatively minor, but sure enough, his fangs did feel longer. Sharper, even. Not enough to crowd his mouth or puncture his tongue, but enough to make him worry about what would happen to his other- "PLTH-!!!"

With a slight spit, Evan pulled his hand away, staring down in disbelief at the incisor in his palm.

...........................

"Swift, I'm gonna throw up. Gonna throw up, SERIOUSLY GONNA THROW UP...!!!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"AHH-! CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP...!" Swift anxiously scrambled up to the bed, grabbed the waste basket on the floor and shoved it into Evan's lap. Then she immediately averted her gaze, not wanting to see whatever suffering was to come.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCHHHHHHH...!!!"

With two hands gripping the rim and two hands hugging it to his chest, Evan promptly shoved his head into the waste basket and vomited up a storm. It took a moment, but eventually his heaving ceased, leaving him merely coughing in sickly, uncomfortable hacks, his forehead leaning against the bin as his body briefly went limp. After a minute or so, Evan finally sat back up, panting shakily, bile dripping from his lips, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Throughout the ordeal, Alphys had remained quiet, giving Evan ample space. When she was certain that he had been completely relieved, she knelt by the bed again and meekly asked, "F... Feeling better?"

"Nooooo..." Evan moaned, swiping a handful of tissues and wiping off every inch of his face.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Once Evan had relaxed slightly, Swift slowly approached, set the waste basket aside and gave him a gentle pat on the back. She wasn't even sure what to say to him at that point. Given the circumstances, offering him solace felt like such a daunting task.

Instead, with her arm still around Evan, Swift turned to Alphys and said, "Whatever's going on... I think it's pretty clear that it's progressing rapidly. I-I'm sorry, but... is there any way we can forgo the standard checkup routine and get down to the nitty-gritty here?"

[gantzgun74]

"Ummm....."

Erin appeared from the doorway, phasing through the wall. It was clear she had seen and heard the whole thing. "Nitty Gritty? Exactly what do you think Alphys can actually DO here? If this was a head cold that'd be one thing... Maybe some magical disease that monsters could potentially have, then sure... Evan is LITERALLY transforming into a freak of nature." Alphys groans at the frankness while Swift glares. "Look, I'm sorry, but this CLEARLY isn't a sickness. THAT PARTICULAR SHIP SAILED earlier this morning, and we were just kidding ourselves into thinking it's still in the harbor."

"Well do you have any ideas?"

..................

.................................

..............................................

..... Erin sighed. "Look, I know you won't like this, I KNOW YOU WON'T. But at this point, we only have one other option; Rainflower." CUE OUTRAGE. "SAY WHAT YOU WANT, but they STILL gave my bro the cure to aflutterflyism. And besides, look at what we're dealing with here. This has WEIRDNESS written all over it. If ANYONE would know what's wrong with you, it would be that nutcase."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan groaned and leaned against Swift, shuddering, head hung low, simply wanting comfort through familiarity. He really... REALLY didn't want to resort to going to Rainflower, not because he didn't believe they could help (if anything, the chances of that being the case were extremely plausible), but because there was always some sort of catch with Rainflower. He didn't want to risk being transformed from one freak of nature into another. Simply pondering that... simply hearing Erin describe him as such... it made him gag slightly. As did the realization that he had lost a few more teeth in the midst of his upchucking.

Alphys sighed and rooted through her bag. She had heard about this aflutterfly epidemic, but her knowledge of it was minimal, as was that of the fairy who had indirectly started and ended the phenomenon. She was certain of one thing, though: someone with the capability to create a transformative, butterfly-borne pathogen like that surely had to have some idea of how to approach this disease. Still...

"Well... e-even if I can't find a cure in the near future, I'll be damned if I don't at least try to determine WHAT we're dealing with here," Alphys insisted, sitting up and pulling a clean syringe out of its packaging. "For all this trouble... I want to know that I can be useful. So... d-does it matter to you which arm I take blood from?"

Evan took a deep breath and lay down flat on the bed. "Nah... Any is okay."

Alphys nodded and started dabbing a spot on one of his lower arms clean. In the meantime, she asked, "So tell me... do you have any idea how exactly this might've come about?"

"Well..." Evan sniffled and looked up at Swift. "We were... hiking through the rainforest and I... tripped and fell in a bog. At first I just thought I was sick from walking around cold and wet for the rest of the day, but-" He flinched slightly when he felt the needle slide into his arm.

"But now it's more likely that you picked something up," Alphys finished, slowly drawing Evan's blood. "I... suppose that would make sense. P-Perhaps it would be prudent to inspect the bog you were in. If this is some sort of magical disease, it would help to know its origin and how we can prevent others from contracting it."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh..." Swift rolled her head back and scowled at the ceiling, keeping still otherwise for the sake of supporting Evan. Then she righted herself and frowned at Erin. "Can we save a trip to the off-the-Walgreen's for like... Plan X? I'm not risking letting that maniac make things worse until I'm certain there's no other way to fix this!"

While Alphys took the sample she needed for a blood test, Swift relaxed slightly and nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, that... might be a good idea. The last thing this island needs is another epidemic." She flattened her ears a little. "D-Don't be too hard on yourself, okay, Doc? You coming in, checking on Evan, offering your advice... we appreciate that much, we really do."

[gantzgun74]

Erin had been fully aware of the groups reservations when she had shot up the suggestion, she really had been. After all, even Alex had noted that while he got the cure for Rainflower, the rainbow loving lunatic did not make the experience an ENTIRELY pleasant one. Along with flying up the man's sinuses, they had also laughed outright at the lunacy the Aflutterflies were causing just outside of her attention. She had at least MENTIONED that she hadn't known about the possibility that things would get even further out of control then they normally would, but she still didn't seem to mind too much.

Still what other choice did they appear to have?

Well at least Alphys shot up a helpful solution, she'd examine the bog that Evan fell into, maybe hopefully find some clues there.

..... Hmm, there had to be something she could do as well... If that bog had always been there, maybe there was some kind of account of it? As fun as it was, she didn't want her sole means of help to be limited to carting people around via her void portals. She knew her methods of quick travel were appreciated, but she was still a game player as well, an active person who wanted to do more.

.......

"There.... MIGHT be some kind of book I could look into at the Void City Library." That got her some attention. "The Jungle's been there for years after all... SOMEONE must've found it and recorded it by NOW."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Th-Thank you, Swift. I'm... happy to be of service," Alphys murmured shyly before looking up at Erin out of her peripheral. "That does sound like a very real possibility, Erin. Good thinking."

Slowly, Alphys removed the needle from Evan's arm, then quickly packed away the syringe full of blood. "In the meantime, I should return to the lab and run some tests. Study whatever foreign pathogens I can find in this."

Evan rubbed his lower arm and started up at the women surrounding him. "A-And what should I do?"

"For now, the best advice I can offer is rest," Alphys sighed as she covered the puncture on Evan's arm with cotton and a bandage. "I-I'd like to believe that less stress will slow down the transformation process."

Evan nodded. "Any... Any guess as to... AHEM... how bad this could potentially get?"

Alphys frowned, momentarily fretting over how to respond. She had to be honest, but she didn't want to worry him. "I... I don't want to assume the worst... b-but realistically speaking, seeing as how we don't know what this is yet, there's really no way of knowing..." Seeing the panic in Evan's eyes, Alphys hastily rebounded with, "A-Although, I... I doubt that a complete metamorphosis from one species to another is... likely."

Yeah, a complete metamorphosis from human to spider. Likelihood aside, the sheer possibility of it happening at all shook Evan to his core. This could NOT be happening.

"I... I promise to get back to you as soon as I possibly can," Alphys stated, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "We'll fix this. Somehow." She then nodded to Erin, signaling that she was ready to go.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Evan..." Swift ran her fingers through Evan's hair, staring down at him sadly. "Just... try to get some rest, okay? We'll figure this out."

After a while of gazing down at the pitiful, disfigured display, Swift rested her head on the pillow next to Evan's and looked up at Erin and Alphys. They were doing so much to help Evan, yet there Swift was with no idea what to do herself. It was taking everything in her power to fight back the tears. "Thanks, guys..."