Xaviers!

Tereza waits patiently outside Doctor McCoy's infirmary office, picking at her fingernails idly. Her outward demeanor is much calmer than she feels inside, her natural tendency to expect the worst eating her up.

After getting off a phone call, Doctor McCoy steps out into the hallway.

"I'm sorry for making you wait, Miss Rozanov. Do you want to come in and have a seat?"

"No problem," Tereza says, "I just get a little antsy sometimes now." She moves into the room and takes a seat.

"I'm afraid that's unsurprising, given how these tests have been going. I just got the latest set of results."

"Oh?" She doesn't quite manage to keep the uncertainty out of her voice. She goes back to picking at her nails.

"Your chemical makeup has been steadily changing, Miss Rozanov. Not in any fashion that's harming you certainly, but the differences are stark. In some cases it's within human norms, albeit for populations operating under vastly different circumstances and diet than your average college student. Many of these changes are in keeping with what we know happens to the human body when it goes into a sort of survival mode in situations where food is uncertain and prolonged physical stressors are present. Given that your food intake hasn't decreased, and indeed is higher than normal, we suspect this may be linked to the accelerated healing you've been exhibiting."

"Layered on top of that are the nonhuman additions, which we discussed at your last round of testing. They've become more pronounced since then, and we can spot markers for them in your neuroreceptors, hormones, and I'm afraid you've even started producing new pheromones."

"In human terms, you are much more geared to maximize resources. Your digestion is more efficient, and I believe the increased hair and nail growth is evidence of your body shunting excess protein. The way you're wired now is very much towards resource acquisition and threat mitigation. In a baseline human that might lean towards hoarding behavior, and retreat to safe spaces. However with the canine additions to your makeup, the result is a bit more... aggressive."

"Even territorial at times," Tereza adds, frowning. "So I'm... what? Mutating all over again?"

"I honestly don't mean to make this sound more dire than it really is. Everyone has involuntary reactions, ways in which their physical and chemical makeup influences how they respond to certain stimuli. You don't necessarily have more or worse ones, simply differently prioritized ones."

"And yes, I suppose on some level you are. It's a bit more subtle than most power emergences, your... monthly visitor aside, but it does show all the hallmarks of your body trying to find a new equilibrium."

"Sam says there's some stuff in my brain, the wolf and... well 'me' for lack of a better term and they're trying to come to some sort of understanding. I suppose brain might mirror body or vice versa."

"I'm inclined to say the former, though admittedly the realm of the mind is more my associates' specialty than my own."

"There's a tendency to anthropomorphize these things as a means of understanding them. I can't say it's a negative coping method, and it's certainly similar to the techniques many of our feral shifters work with."

"So I'm going canine and super survivalist... I suppose having to eat more is a small price to pay..."

"And I want to stress that just because I named one coping method doesn't mean it's the only one."

"With some, it helps to compartmentalize things into a person and an animal, though that doesn't have to mean the two are adversarial to each other. The contextualization tends to be best when one wants to have... shall we say, the ability to fit in better with 'polite' society. That is to say there is a time for remembering to keep your pinky out and which fork to use, and a time to let loose."

"in other cases it can be healthier to acknowledge the new impulses as expressions of yourself. This tends to be more effective with those who have permanent physical mutations, myself included. As my own mutation progressed, I couldn't really 'get away' from it the way a shifter can. It's perhaps a more difficult path, but I like to think I turned out alright," he says with a bit of a lopsided grin.

"I will say that I sympathize with you developing this later in life. It was the case with my progression as well, and I've found that a great many mutants tend to entwine their thoughts about mutation with their thoughts of puberty, as close together as they often arrive."

"So imagine our embarrassment when we go through a second one," he chuckles.

"So this is just an expression of what was going to happen anyways and doesn't have anything to do with our 'guest'?"

"I hesitate to state that definitively, but I can assure you we've used everything at our disposal to isolate Miss Schwarz. Whatever is happening here, it's working with what's present within you."

"So there's no concern about me being infectious?"

"I still can't find a known pathogen in your blood or saliva, and the fluids we tested from when you were shifted weren't appreciably different."

"I realize that puts us in rather murky territory."

"So if I am, it's not something you've seen before. Isolde made certain claims about her nature as you know."

"Oh I'm quite aware, but the claims she made aren't exactly all that quantifiable."

"Which as you're aware is part of the Headmistress' misgivings on said claims."

"About all I can say is that it's statistically unlikely that she can only do this to people with latent canine mutations. The sheer variety of them would mean they express differently, instead of universally producing... the 'W' word."

"So she forced her mutation onto me? She claimed some sort of dwarf made her into what she is. Which seems unlikely, but that's what she said."

"A... dwarf, you say?" He quirks a blue-furred brow.

"Said he gave her an envelope or something like that the night before she was going to be burned as a witch... if you buy her "much older than she looks" story."

"I suppose it's a variant on the 'dark man' archetype inherent to witch tales. That is to say, the 'devil.'"

"It sounded a little preposterous to me too. I mean, Werewolf I can kind of see, it at least fits the folklore, but dwarves with envelopes is a bit much."

"There's a few beings who exist that I sadly have no rational explanation for. Would that I did, as the Nobel committee would start returning my calls," he chuckles.

"I'm sure you know plenty they should stand up and take notice of. So should I treat this as if it is the 'w' word," she says, rolling her eyes, "or should I be looking at it differently?"

"Officially, I can't tell you to treat this as something that nebulous."

"Unofficially, I'm afraid there are certain things I just can't explain about this. The infection vector, the cyclical nature, they just don't hold up under what I can observe."

"So I should treat it carefully, full stop, and probably not bite anyone."

"We don't really recommend any students biting each other," he chuckles.

Tereza chuckles, "I know, but I'm thinking about if I'm shifted on a mission."

"You may be getting ahead of yourself there, but if you develop that degree of control while shifted, I'd consider that a significant victory."

"Gotta have some goals," Tereza says with a shrug, "especially about the things important to me."

"I suppose so. I wish I could tell you we were making progress trying to cure this, but we've only more questions."

"I've lived with other things, I can handle this if there is no cure," she says, "At least that's what I keep telling myself."

"I don't mean to be discouraging, though. If you notice anything odd or just need to talk, my door is always open to you."

Tereza stands and nods, "Thanks, Doctor McCoy. If you need to do any more tests, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to cooperate."

"I've no intention of making you a pincushion unless it's absolutely necessary, but I'll keep you in the loop," he nods.

Meanwhile, Sam waits patiently on a bench in the hallway, occasionally looking to the office door.

Tereza nods to him and steps out into the hallway, closing the door behind her and letting out a sigh.

"...any good news?" Sam asks quietly.

"If you consider a lot of 'well, it looks like a mutation expression, but there's a lot of unknowns' as good news, then yes, but those unknowns are pretty huge," Tereza says, moving to lean against one of the walls, the wind finally leaving her sails.