It's been a long and crazy day (Loren&Lucas)

[Lucas Gorecki]

There was a spider, a wolf spider, scrambling along the walls and ducking into every little nook and cranny he could get into. Hide hide hide. Walls with eyes bearing down on the sands of scattered thoughts and pebbled confusion and pressing down, always pressing down. Down down down until all that there is left is a spider-y coin with eight twitchy limbs.

The spider moved with a purpose that belied the chaos all the sensory input set of. Rumbly tumbly inside, skitter-de-skatter outside. He needed a place. Quiet. Safe. Dark. Place to go back to the other skin with the other limbs.

Oh! Right there!

The wolf spider slid across the floor, under a dark little line and squeezed his way into another space. Place. Worlds of difference but big enough. He'd learned. Places had to be big if he was going to peel of one skin and replace it with another.

There was something else in the room. Big and breathing and not good. Not good at all. The wolf spider fled under a chair and from there to a far corner of the room. He had to change back now or he'd forget again and forgetting was bad. The longer he forgot, the harder it was to remember.

Shifting back was never silent for Lucas, bones growing and merging eight limbs back to four, shaping organs and increasing size. Never, ever silent. Always with a groaning, keening and whimpering that, he'd been told, sounded like it came from a nightmare.

[Loren Belgrave]

Loren dragged a hand over his face and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. It'd been a long day. Usually, he was quite happy to see the patients referred to him and puzzle out what their issues were, but today he'd been unlucky enough to find himself with a handful who were already absolutely sure of their diagnosis and made getting the details he actually needed a little difficult.

Google was the devil. Oh, sometimes it was nice having informed patients. These sorts actually knew what details to give him to make his job easier. But the ones who insisted that they had some rare disorder or another and demanded he transfer them to a specialist drove him up the wall. He just wanted these people to shut up and let him do his job. But of course, work demanded he remain professional and calm, even when he felt like giving them a verbal dressing-down.

To be honest, he was beginning to itch for work as a hospitalist again. The shifts were crazy, but he didn't mind losing himself in his work. No one talked back to him at least, or demanded to see an expert. It was a thrill to figure things out on a time crunch, where he had to be efficient but as detailed as possible to ensure the proper diagnosis.

And then there was all the hubbub about a shifter on the loose in the hospital. Some arachnid shifter; there were notifications floating around, advising staff and patients not to kill any spiders if they should happen across one, just in case it turned out to be the missing patient.

God, he was ready to go home and put on some music and just relax. He'd order some takeout. Maybe curry. Curry sounded good. Shaking his head, he stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. He had one arm through the first sleeve when suddenly, a man shifted into being in the corner of his office.

Loren froze, eyes swiveling over to the very dirty, very disoriented, very naked man.

... well, he'd just found the missing arachnid. And from the sound of it, he was in very poor condition. He'd heard about how shifting was painful for some, but the noises he was making were quite distressing.

Loren approached him hesitantly, careful to maintain some distance between them. He didn't know how stable this man was psychologically. Going off his sickly, grungy appearance, it didn't seem like he'd been participating in normal life for a while. It was quite possible he was homeless. Which only raised the probability that he might have some sort of mental issue.

... This was not his area of expertise. Why did this have to happen to him? Why when he was about to go home?

"Sir... are you alright? Are you injured? Can you understand me?"

He spoke to the shifter in a calm voice that belied how he actually felt inside. Level. He had to remain level. He was still a doctor, still a professional, and this was a patient that needed help.

[Lucas Gorecki]

The shift was awkward, no finesse or grace to the whole process. It was a rush job, and that was being generous. The jump from arachnid to human was so big that it hurt like white lot lightning dipped in icy water over a very sharp razor blade. At least, it felt that way to Lucas. Sort of. There weren't really words to match to the experience.

His head snapped up, wide, wild eyes staring at Loren or through him or at every separate little hair on his head. He held his left arm awkwardly, pressed close against his chest. He'd been brought in, days before, after ambling into a car and the people had wanted to check him over just to be on the safe side and at least set his arm.

He'd panicked before that happened and, well, the rest was history. No one had got around to setting his arm, though.

"What?" he asked, voice hoarse and flinched. "No. No. Stop. There are teeth in the corners with glass spittle flying and-" and it hurt. It was always at its worst just after shifting when his senses were still overloading and not coping with what they'd received.

[Loren Belgrave]

'There are teeth in the corners with glass spittle flying and-'

... and oh yes, he was so out of his depth with this man. Worlds out of his depth. He wasn't trained for this. He wasn't trained to deal with hysterical patients. He was trained to diagnose sickness and disorders, and that was it. No special classes in how to deal with people that had just shifted- though no one had classes in that. Loren was pretty much on his own here, relying on intuition and luck just like everyone else in every medical establishment everywhere.

Ok. First step. Relax. He couldn't help this man relax unless he was totally in control of himself. Loren inhaled, then let out the breath he'd taken, trying to ignore the way his elevated pulse did funny things to his nerves.

Right.

Probability that the shifter had some sort of psychiatric issue? Practically confirmed, though the hallucinations could be a temporary side effect of shifting. Sensory overload of some type? He'd read some shifters had issues with that kind of thing. Maybe this man suffered from that? Damn it, he didn't have a medical history to work with. Perhaps he could get that information from him once he managed to calm him down.

He was favoring his left arm, holding it close to his body. Injured. Loren couldn't really get a good look at it from where he stood, but there was something wrong with it. What had the man been brought in for? Probably an accident of some kind. An ER case was likely.

... Enough dwelling on the details, Loren. Now really wasn't the time for it, though it was calming to him.

"Sir, your name. Can you tell me your name? You're safe. You're just hallucinating. There aren't really teeth in the corners or whatever it is you're seeing. Try to calm down. There is nothing in here that is going to hurt you."

.... god, was any of that even close to what he was supposed to be saying? He didn't know. He was sure he was probably botching it, but he hoped that by staying still and acting non threatening and speaking to him in a soothing tone, he was at least ameliorating the man's panic somewhat.

[Lucas Gorecki]

"Hop over the skipping stones, doctor man, you ain't fooling me," Lucas mumbled, folding his hands over his ears, closing his eyes and he shook his head. "With your sandpaper skin and barbed wire touches. Not fooling me. Fooled me before. Buncha white coats clambering all over each other. Pull your punches, bear your teeth, why don't ya." His muttering was half turned inward, down and inside, volume lowering as he rocked.

Goosebumps rose up across his skin, the hairs in his neck standing up straight and he could feel them move. Every. Single. One.

"Done with this. God, so done with this. Fish out all the nerves with hooks and needles, please. Greedy little suckers, snagging up little bubbles of me and everything." He shook his head and looked up with bloodshot eyes.

"Make it stop," he said. "I'm tired. Make it stop. It's everywhere. Swallowing up the dark shadows, scaring the monsters but it's just as bad as the monsters. Just make it go away. I want to breathe without feeling it." He shuddered, rubbing a shoulder on accident against the wall and he flinched away with a yelp. At least he wasn't shifting back. Look on the bright side and what not.

[Loren Belgrave]

.... yeah, this was getting him nowhere. The man just kept babbling, clearly suffering from some major delusions. Loren ended up crouching a few feet away from him while he listened to him mutter and watched him rock. The shifter didn't seem like was going to go off on him and attack.

But... there was one curiously consistent thread in his ramblings. Sand paper skin. Barbed wire touches. He'd chalked them up to the man's paranoia and fear of coming to harm at first. But then he mentioned nerves and how they consumed him, and that was when he started paying attention and actively trying to puzzle out what he was saying. Maybe it wasn't all nonsense?

'Just make it go away. I want to breathe without feeling it'

Without feeling what? Perhaps his original theory that he might experience sensory overload was correct? Maybe he could get him to-

The shifter's shoulder brushed against the wall, and he yelped and jerked away. Loren startled as well, adrenaline spiking a little. He exhaled shakily when he realized that was it. Really, he should be calling for assistance instead of trying to handle this by himself, but he had the feeling that it would only frighten the man and make it impossible to get through to him. He'd already dealt with a mob of doctors earlier and had taken away some pretty negative imagery from the experience.

Wait... the shifter had brushed against the wall and found it painful? Oh, that was interesting. Yes, that was definitely interesting. Actually, he might be able to do something with that tidbit, but first he had to make sure. No sense in making a diagnosis without confirming the symptoms.

"Hey. I won't touch you. No sandpaper touches from me. It hurts, right? Your skin is really sensitive, and you can feel too much. It's overwhelming. Even really gentle contact hurts, and clothes are uncomfortable or painful. Am I right?"

He sat down cross legged, since his legs were starting to get tired crouching.

"I might be able to help you. But I really need you to calm down and answer my questions as best as you can."

Because he was pretty sure he was getting a grasp on what the problem was now.

[Lucas Gorecki]

Lucas looked at the doctor, all suspicion and not buying the promise. Doctors always touched. Always. It was what they did. Part of the job description. Signed, sealed and delivered with all the poison of a pretty little bouquet of oleander flowers. "Fool's gold in bottles, wrapped tight so you don't notice what's going on. It's a party, ain't it? Little puzzles to solve before they unravel all together."

His hands fluttered up in vain with his words and then dropped down to the floor. His shoulders stiffened at the contact with the floor, drew up high and then relaxed with visible effort.

"You're good at puzzles. Figured out the corner pieces, didn't you? But there are so, so many more pieces eaten by the dogs." Oh, he understood what was said. Others had said it before. Ways to fix the spider so he could make sense of his legs and the things in his head for which he had no words and no way to figure out what it meant.

He shook his head. "It's everything. Everything raining down like frozen needles glowing white hot in the ashes. Spiders don't think like you. Don't feel like you. Don't see like you."

[Loren Belgrave]

"Yeah. I solve puzzles. That's my job. I'm not a regular doctor. I don't treat people; I figure out what's ailing them so I can get them the treatment they need. I won't touch you, promise. I don't need to."

With this man, he didn't have to. All he had to do was observe, and he could see quite plainly that the barest of contact was still enough to agitate him. The last thing he wanted to do was rile him up again.

Fatalism was settling in. The shifter seemed weary. His words were as enigmatic as ever, and it was a challenge just to try and decipher it all, to pluck meaning from madness. But Loren was determined. It was a little exciting. So much of this was beyond him, but he'd be damned if he didn't at least give this his best effort.

"But you know, there's only so much I can do with limited information. I need those puzzle pieces you still have. The ones you haven't offered up. Can't help the ones the dogs have eaten, but you can still help me understand you. You're still holding onto a few I need."

It was all too easy to fall into the shifter's almost lyrical cadence. Loren had to stop himself before he started talking in riddles too. This wasn't a game. This was a person's life.

"So. Spiders don't think or feel or see like humans? Yeah. That's true. But you're not just a spider. You're human too. So why don't I tell you my take on this so far, and you can fill in the blank spaces or let me know if I'm completely off the mark?

I think you have a combination of something called allodynia and a dysfunction in sensory integration, or DSI. Allodynia is when something that wouldn't ordinarily cause pain does, like pressure from clothing or a light touch. Allodynia happens when your central nervous system becomes sensitized, usually because of nerve damage or trauma.

DSI is when your brain can't process all the sensory information it's getting from its environment. People with DSI are hypersensitive, so they end up overwhelmed because their brain doesn't filter out things that people usually ignore, like how clothes feel against your skin."

He paused to let the man absorb this information, hoping he was actually absorbing this information and not just mentally shutting down on him. But it was a lot of information, and the guy wasn't exactly psychologically sound... Well, no helping that.

"In your case, the trigger for both would be Versi. But these are also real disorders humans have, so if any of that sounds fairly accurate, there are things you can try."

[Lucas Gorecki]

"Pretty words for bringing down a person's world." He pulled a face and rubbed just below his eyes. He whined and mewled, quietly and inside of his mouth, at the chafing between skin and finger tips, but he couldn't stop. Not right away. His face had begun to feel weird again.

It had been doing that for a few days now. Well, a few days before the whole 'get run over by a car and dragged to a hospital without so much as a by your leave' adventure.

"Tinkering doctor has a point, though. Just need the points dotting the I's and more to dash your t's, but you're getting there. Slow and stea-"

There was a... shift. A moment of pain as the final changes took place. A wordless gasp escaped Lucas. Pressure in his face, as if trying to open eyes glued by sleep. And suddenly... Things made more and less sense. Additional input from eyes that hadn't been there before, still adjusting to the light upon them, lessening from the first two, not that this improved anything.

A second pair of eyes, smaller than the standard pair of eyes that humans come with, and just below his regular eyes, blinked.

[Loren Belgrave]

He was doing something strange again, rubbing at his face and making quiet, pained sounds. Loren watched him, feeling helpless, until the shifter spoke up again. The doctor perked up a little. Good words. Encouraging words. He was starting to get through to him-

And then his patient gasped.

Loren stared.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He had never heard of this happening. The changes weren't supposed to be this dramatic. People did not suddenly sprout extra pairs of eyes.

.... oh god oh god this wasn't his field of expertise. But it wasn't anyone's field of expertise. Hahaha... this was too surreal.

"Ah..."

But... as much as it unsettled him and upset whatever calm he'd managed to accrue, his curiosity was sparked. Versi did continue to progress beyond the initial changes. He had living proof of that right here. The question was, how long and to what extent?

"To... state the obvious, you appear to have gained some... extra eyes. Please... try not to panic?"

The last thing he needed was for the man to panic, shift back into a spider, and disappear again.