The Wolf Soul – Part Twelve
Story by Gruffy on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
The Wolf Soul – Part Twelve
*
After a long pause, continuing this commission for :iconaaron-blackpaw: with some rather...curious themes in this one, I must say! Hope to see all the old regulars back for this one :)
*
Brandon Collier finished the cup of water that had been handed over to him and then crumbled the plastic vessel into smithereens in his hand. He sat on the edge of the chair with his back hunched and his head held down.
He felt sick.
“Is there anything else I could give to you?” the sonorant voice of Doctor Cornelius Ambergris questioned the man. “I could...prescribe something - “
Brandon let out a huff.
“Do you fucking imagine that I would ever dare to put anything into my mouth that's come from your paw now, Doctor?” he hissed to the huge lion-man on the other side of the room.
The rumpled cat appeared sufficiently embarrassed by the statement to not to question its validity.
“As I said before, others are investigating every facet of this incident and we shall do our utmost to - “
Brandon shook his head with such finality that the lion did not dare to continue on that venue of conversation.
“My colleague, Doctor Whitman Rimbaud could discuss the challenges faced by transgenemorphs...”
“I don't want to hear a single fucking word about challenges!” Brandon yelled. “I just want to know what happened!”
“Our entire staff is working on it, Mister Collier,” Doctor Ambergris rumbled. “And before we find the exact answer, what we can do is to control the situation - “
“Does this feel like it's under control?” Brandon moaned. “What's happening out there in that room?”
“If you would agree to talk to Doctor Rimbaud, he would explain to you about the euphoric state caused by the neurotransmitter abundance in patient Laurie's brain,” Ambergris said.
Brandon snorted.
“You're saying that Andy is high?” he stated.
“In a sense,” the lion said.
“Does that mean that he...” Brandon felt horror at what he was about to say, “that he doesn't even understand what's going on with him?”
“It is somewhat hard to determine patient Laurie's psychological condition due to the difficulties in communication.”
“He was talking!” Brandon yelled. “He was saying how it's good to be walking again and how he's...how he's...”
He swallowed. Despite the earlier drink, his throat felt dry.
“Changed?” Brandon huffed.
“It always comes as a great shock for the patient, even when the end result is...just what was expected,” Doctor Ambergris said. “This is not an unusual state to be in, I assure you.”
“Nothing here is usual!” Brandon complained. “This is all messed up! He's a -”
He didn't even have words for it.
“Something unexpected has happened, yes,” Doctor Ambergris said, “but we must remember that there are things we do know, and those are...encouraging things, Mister Collier! There are no neither clinical manifestations nor histological or genetic signs of the Bychowski-Laplace-Tanaka Syndrome, and physically patient Laurie is doing considerably well. Thriving, really!”
”Physically!” Brandon snapped. ”How can you say that when he's...he's...”
Doctor Ambergris pursed his lips.
Brandon sighed.
”I just don't even know...”
”This would be a very traumatic event for the family, even if there were no complications,” Doctor Ambergis said. ”I do know that both of you received counselling before the procedure, but obviously nothing like this could ever be prepared for.”
”Because that would be admitting that something can go wrong!” Brandon complained.
Doctor Ambergris let out a weighty breath.
”This is without precedent, I assure you.”
Brandon buried his face in his palms.
”If I feel like this...I can't even imagine how Andy must be feeling right now...” he huffed, ”and you go on saying again that the mess in his brain is making the thing not hit home yet...you know what I mean with this.”
Doctor Ambergris nodded, even if his guest couldn't see his affirmation at the moment.
”Yes, I do,” he said. ”Once the initial neurotransmitter storm is over, a considerable number of patients experience body dysphoria, even under the...optimal circumstances.”
”What if he'll be devastated?” Brandon muttered. ”What if he doesn't want to live like that?”
”We will do everything within our power to ease the psychological strain,” Doctor Ambergris said.
The man hung his head.
”We'd talked about it... you know...”
”Excuse me?”
”That when the disease would start him losing his lungs, we'd see about it and...maybe travel to Oregon,” Brandon hissed.
Doctor Ambergris' ears flapped down in dismay.
”Self destructive impulses while facing a terminal illness are quite common,” the lion said. ”I have faced them many times in my work in this discipline. Many of our patients are desperately ill, after all. Patient Laurie was hardly the most serious cause I have seen so far.”
”He's never been like that!” Brandon yelped. ”Not...not besides the times when he talked about what might happen if the disease progressed to the point when he could no longer breathe. He didn't want to choke to death. It scared him! It scared him more than dying itself!”
”Patient Laurie is not ill,” Doctor Ambergris sounded adamant. ”From the viewpoint of pure internal medicine, he is disease free.”
Brandon sneered at the lion. Whatever intimidation he had felt in regards to the huge fanger had been replaced by his own cold anger.
”You can't be claiming that your treatment of him was a success!”
”From the purely medical viewpoint, it was,” Doctor Ambergris repeated again. ”The disease is gone.”
”Replaced with a whole bunch of NEW problems!” Brandon raised his voice again.
The lion's ears dropped. By now Brandon could tell that it was a rather typical fanger reaction to loud noises.
He would have to get used to it, he thought, darkly.
*
Thank you for reading!