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Seryn is carrying a bucket of water, or rather trying to. The size of the bucket being rather large, and the size of the woman rather small, more water ends up on her then in the bucket. This wouldn’t be too big a frustration if the one healthy horse of the bunch didn’t want to get playful. As Seryn carries this bucket, the horse grabs Seryn’s long braid and tugs…..hard. “Ach, ye big lummox! Ye let go of that right quick or I will show you what I will do with this bucket and ye arn’t gunna like it none.” She is about to move one hand to shake a tiny fist at the beast but catches herself in time, ending up with yet more water on her, already not so dry, person.
A short, shaggy-haired man makes his way through the entrance to the farm, looking down at his PDA as he approaches. A couple of glances up confirm that he’s in the right place, finally, and so he pauses to wipe sweat of his brown. “Phew. Didn’t think that’d be quite such a walk.” he murmurs.
Horse still firmly in command of the captured braid, Seryn sets the bucket down and tugs with her hand seemingly muttering something in Gaelic, whatever it is does not seem overly flattering to the horse. After a battle of wills, teeth, and hair, the horse relents and drinks out of the bucket. With a sigh and a toss of her hands, Seryn climbs over the fence in irritation and begins stomps a few feet from the paddock before catching sight of Dement, “Ello there,” greets her wet self, “Can I help ye?”
“Uhm.” Dement manages, looking Seryn up and down with an impish expression before he glances back at his PDA to collect his thoughts. “I’m uh- Dement Voleraan -theconsultant.” He offers a hand without looking up.
Seryn takes the hand readily enough, after wiping it on whatever portion of her clothing seems the most dry and least horsey. “Consultant eh? My name is Seryn Kelly, and typically found in a lab and not a pasture. What are ye here to consult about if I may ask?”
“I’m a biologist…” Dement offers after a moment, “…among other things… My ship’s AI picked up that you were having an issue that required another pair of eyes and I… Heh… I didn’t really think about this, I guess it’s kind of silly just turning up.”
Seryn gives the hand a shake and nods, “Nah, we are in the same field then or one of. These are the patents, I come out here ta keep em fed and watered and that is about all I can do unfortunately.” She points back in the direction of town, “The new hospital has a research lab I was told I can use, but to be honest this is one hell of a big task, no one has ever made a treatment for this sickness and I dunno that I can do it alone.”
“Well, where there is testing to be done.” Dement offers, a little stoically, and he glances up at her again, “I am your man.” Nod nod nod!
Seryn smiles brightly, “Wonderful!” she enthuses and skips back over to the paddock, “African horse sickness, I think that was the name of it, we were able to research it a bit ye see.” She then points to the sick horses, “Warts under the tail, difficulty breathin’ and a general lack of health are the symptoms. They have been workin’ ta keep em healthy with forced air and a lot of round the clock care. I dunno how much longer they can last though. There are pregnant ones as well, which is concerning.”
“How long have they been infected… and were you able to confirm that at the local laboratory?” Dement asks, putting his PDA away in a back pocket as he follows at a slower pace, still a little out of breath from his walk.
“Oh a few weeks ago now, since we found out about the sickness and no. The local lab was only just finished, the hospital itself only just constructed. In fact it hasna even been finished completely yet, though the lab was made available to us as of yesterday, we will wanna get a few samples to verify of course.” Seryn points to the one horse who isn’t sick, “She arrived as the worst o’ the lot but somehow the vet team was able to help her out and she seems to have fought it off, I think we should take a sample from her as well, maybe create a vaccine from her blood.”
“Hmm.” Dement frowns as he arrives at the fence, brain tick-tocking away as he considers something, “I remember reading about AHS in university, ja. It disappeared before the turn of the second millennium, but I seem to remember it being considered extremely dangerous… Where are the horses from?”
Seryn is standing near the fence with Dement, bringing him up to speed on the horsies, “It disappeared cause they just killed off all the horses who had it. No cure was ever found. The horses rifted in and were found by a group of hunters and saved from some tentacle monster or some such that was in the bog. Beyond that, I dunna know.”
Sadie hops the fence as she strides over to the dark grey dappled mare. She kneels by the horses head and pets her mane. “How are you today, girl? How’s the baby?” She smiles and pats the horses stomach lightly. Looking up, she smiles at Seryn and Dement, who are near the fence. “How are they doing today? Any better?”
“Yeah,” he replies, “Pharmacotherapy might not have been an answer back then, but we have almost two millenia of experience to help us now. Speeder, you been listening to this?” The question seems to have been phrased to the air next to him.
Seryn looks to Sadie and nods a greeting, “No better and no worse today Miss Sadie.” Tilting a head in the other woman’s direction Seryn introduces, “That is the local vet and I figure we can definitely use her skill ta help with this little problem and who in heaven’s blue balls are ye talkin’ to?”
A blue holographic sphere appears in the expanse of air that Dement was talking to, and on it there is a simple smiley face. “Yes, Dee, because you told me to.” the face swivels around the sphere and looks between Seryn and Sadie, “Hello beautiful… AND BEAUTIFUL… AND… Dee, is that a horse?”
Seryn and Dement are near the fence where a bunch of sick horses are found and one healthy one, Sadie is currently patting the healthy one.
“Yes. It is a horse. Can we focus?” Dement murmurs in reply. He looks across to Seryn with a tired expression, “Meet my lab assistant.” Deadpan.
Along the path and getting ever nearer, comes the pleasant and rich baritone of a singing German. It is, as Fritz is often fond of, an opera song he’s belting out.
Sadie smiles as she pets the mare, nodding to Seryn “I do hope we can save them. Poor babies.” she sighs, then nods to Dement, “Howdy there!”
Seryn eyes the sphere with a bit of surprise but shrugs, “Pleasure ta meet ye Deadpan,” To Sadie she says, “No change that I can see Miss Sadie but I fear tisn’t my field.” The singing causes her to pause in curiosity and look in that direction, “What’s this then?”
“I’ve never seen a horse up close before.” Speeder replies, “Oh god. Dee, they’re weird looking. Actually.” the orb floats towards Seryn as she greets him, “They’re all weird looking. Do you think she caught the virus?”
“Oh god, Speeder, shut up!” Dement replies with embarrassed urgency, “She looks perfectly goo-” and he stops himself, turning to view the source of the singing. “Alle Jubeljahre! FRITZ!” he bounces up and down and waves.
The singing stops, and Fritz looks over to the bouncy, waving Dement with a light smile upon his face, hand raised to wave in return, “Guten abend, mein lieber freund!” He calls in return, pace quickening and carrying him to the Waldheimer’s side quickly enough, “It has been some time, Dement. I.. uh…” He pauses a moment, slight flush of red colouring over his nose and cheeks as he leans closer to Dee, lowering his voice a notch, “I still have ihre sparkling spandex outfit.”
Sadie continues to pet the dark mare she is sitting by, watching everyone.
Seryn blinks at Speeder, “Ahem,” Then leans back from the overly enthused Dement, when Fritz arrives and she hears his admission her eyes shoot back to the heavens, “Aye an what next?” she asks them, not seeming to expect an answer, instead she turns to Fritz and sticks out a hand, “I am Seryn Kelly, scientist and researcher and sometimes horse waterer,” Notable due to the copious amount of water on her clothing and a very large bucket in the paddock.
Dement goes bright red when his little outfit is mentioned, “Heh. Heh.” he manages, “That was… it was my birthday.” he offers sideways at Seryn, “I bumped into Fritz while I was having a drink in Aureus, he joined in, and then… Man, I don’t even remember…”
“THAT’S WHAT HARD DRIVES ARE FOR.” Speeder chimes in an elevated tone, and before Dement can say no there is video of an incredibly drunk pair of Waldheimer’s dancing as they attempt to moves across the docking hub in Eiru. It zooms in Dement, or more specifically, on the single most colourful and overly sequinned spandex costume ever conceived. And then he falls over. For posterity, Speeder keeps it on repeat.
Fritz is half-reaching towards Seryn to take her hand when he freezes and his face flushes just as bright as Dement’s, pale eyes widening just a bit, “Speeder! Hoaer auf! Das ist privat!” He glances down to Dement, murmuring something too quiet to be heard before looking away again.
Sadie smiles as she stands up, giggling at the video quietly. “That was quite entertaining, y’all!” She giggles.
Seryn tries her hardest not to laugh, she really does. Instead she fights off a smile and says to Dement, “The colors go lovely with your hair.”
Dement falls quiet in embarrassed outrage, staring at the holographic display of drunken foolishness. When Seryn mentions his hair, he shakes his head, “Can… Can we please get on with the /science/?! Speeder, da spielen Sie mit dem Feuer!”
The hologram seems to take that remotely seriously, the feed is cut off and instead of the usual smiley face it displays a waiting animation.
“Be a good boy, Speeder, ja? I vill come give you more microchips if you are.” Fritz promises, laying a tentative but supportive hand upon Dement’s shoulder. He clears his throat and looks to Seryn, “I am Reichsgraf Fritz Von Wulfenbach, Frau.”
Sadie smiles and looks around as she moves closer to the group. “I’m Sadie, it’s nice to meet all of y’all.”
Seryn gives them all a bright smile, “And I am very pleased ta meet ye both. I would love ta see these beauties healed. Mister Reichsgraf, ye wouldn’t happen ta do science or medicine would ye?”
Dement looks across to Fritz. Evidently, if they covered it during his drunken birthday night it was lost in a sea of vodka.
“Oh. Ja, I am zie medical scientist.” Fritz confirms, reaching up to readjust his glasses, “Research, treatment, experimentation und so on und so forth.” He nods to Sadie.
Sadie smiles, “I’m hoping we can keep trying to heal these beautiful horses..” She frowns as she looks over to the sick horses.
Seryn nods at Fritz, “Ah wonderful, then we can perhaps do some good for these horses,” she nods at Sadie, “We will need ta take samples from some of the sick ones and the healthy one. That way perhaps we can actually figure out a cure for these poor creatures.”
“Well need swabs on the infected tissue, likely the warts and saliva, if any of them are displaying signs of conjunctivitis can we have them marked out?” Dement pulls back into a more serious tone and he leans forward on the fence, “Blood samples from each horse is likely a good idea, Franz, are you familiar with serological testing?” He looks back to the doctor.
“Ja, ja, Dement. Very familiar. I have spent mein entire life doing vork like zhis.” Fritz confirms, giving the little Waldheimer a gentle smile. He too leans forward on the fence, hand raising to keep his glasses from falling off his nose.
[Skill System] Maina tests her Science + Biology at a modifier of 0. The result is 8.
Sadie smiles as she nods to the group and goes back to sit with the horses.
Seryn nods as well, “Alright then, shall we begin?” and climbs over the fence, “Perhaps you should do this Miss Sadie, as you are our vet.”
“And I didn’t bring rubber gloves.” Dement intones.
“Ja, I have no gloves eizher.” Fritz agrees.
Sadie smiles and nods, “Sure, I can do it.”
[Skill System] Sadie tests her Husbandry + Veterinarian at a modifier of 0. The result is 15.
Seryn clears her throat, “As I didna expect ta be doin’ much beyond waterin and feedin the critters, no gloves here.”
“Thank you ever so much,” Dement offers, and he turns back to Seryn with a smile, “I shall have to fly the Teamhair down here. I wonder if they have airspace restrictions…”
“Shall I arrange to stay here for a vhile zhen?” Fritz inquires to the group in general, then looks down to Dement, “If I may, mein leiben freund, if I am to stay vill you perhaps take me back to Comorro to fetch a few zhings?”
Sadie smiles as she begins to look into the dark mare’s eyes, nose, and mouth.
“Once the Hospital is complete there is a staff housing facility that ye should be able ta use.” Seryn notes, “Though I am told that it is only the lab that is available for now.”
“You know, I have a skeleton lab on my ship.” Dement suggests, “And floor space, although I’m not sure how hygienic that would be…”
“I can take you back,” the little man offers, “Of course.”
“Danke, Dement.” Fritz replies, smiling still as he looks up and around for Speeder, “Und perhaps I vill give Speeder his treats on zie vay, ja?”
Sadie smiles as she listens to everyone speak, continuing to work on the horse she is sitting next to.
Seryn clears her throat and nods, “Aye probably not particularly hygenic.”
“That sounds like a plan. Goodbye, miss Seryn, miss Sadie.” Dement replies with a nod, leading the good doctor back towards the township.