[When he starts to feel a creeping fullness in his lungs, when he starts to grow more and more exhausted, when he starts to develop a crackling cough he knows what it is. It makes sense. His tools spontaneously stopped working, even despite being completely intact and looking physically unbroken. There's something messing with technology here, and if it's messing with more simplistic technology like his tools then surely it's messing with the various medical nanites Rommie usually keeps his system pumped with. Ever since he'd become part of the crew of the Andromeda, barring the radiation thing and the Magog larvae thing, his health has been the best it's been in, oh, his entire life. Gone were the weird rashes and little skin infections, gone were the low-key coughs from infections that lasted weeks. Only the odd catastrophic event has affected it.]
[This is a whole system crash and he gets sick almost immediately. It's no surprise everything would hit him this badly when the group is probably crawling with a whole cross-contaminated stew of microbes from multiple worlds. It's like being in a multi-dimensional spaceport and he doesn't have so much as a zinc supplement.]
[So he gets sick and he quietly hides it because he doesn't want to be a burden. It grates on his pride and makes him worried he'll wind up even more on the outs with the group. Instead he quietly asks one of the healers to help him out with his chest cold.]
[Not Trance. She's (rightfully) Disappointed in him and he still feels equal parts annoyed back and guilty. So he goes to one of the others.]
[It's not enough, though. The cough abates for a little while and then comes right back with a vengeance and he realizes not only did it not get stopped, it probably is even worse, the equivalent of not getting a full round of antibiotics. Just his luck, winding up with some kind of resistant other-dimensional superbug.]
[He debates bringing it to someone else's attention but then things get pretty heavy, they're probably getting chased, they start picking up the pace. They meet the Elf babe and he's so breathless he can't even hit on her. Holding the coughs in to hide being sick and to not make too much noise, while trying to run, has taken its toll. His lungs burn and feel too full, like there's not enough room for air, his breathing is shallow. Now he can't hide the lack of oxygen he's getting; as they rush along, his skin suddenly grows ten times paler, dripping with sweat.]
[By the time they reach Rivendell, he's wobbling without realizing he is, and too disoriented to realize how disoriented he is. He barely tracks what the Elves are saying, and just starts trying to take the stairs along with everyone else through sheer force of momentum. There aren't many of them but by the time he reaches the first little balcony, blackness starts creeping in on the edges of his vision. He takes a wobbly few steps forward, making it so he at least won't fall down the steps. Then his legs buckle and he collapses, pitching backward without a word.]
[One of the Elves is close, and with supernatural reflexes she reaches out to catch him and lower him to the ground, calling out to Elrond, "My lord! I fear this one is injured or ill."]
[Harper tries to hit on her almost reflexively.]
Heeey, beautiful, wanna be the photon to my photosystem so -
[He doesn't get to finish before he breaks off into uncontrollable coughing and can't hold it in anymore. The Elf turns him on his side in something resembling a recovery position so it's easier for him to cough and breathe. What comes out is somehow very green and very rusty colored at the same time which is probably bad.]
cw: slight coughing tmi
[This is a whole system crash and he gets sick almost immediately. It's no surprise everything would hit him this badly when the group is probably crawling with a whole cross-contaminated stew of microbes from multiple worlds. It's like being in a multi-dimensional spaceport and he doesn't have so much as a zinc supplement.]
[So he gets sick and he quietly hides it because he doesn't want to be a burden. It grates on his pride and makes him worried he'll wind up even more on the outs with the group. Instead he quietly asks one of the healers to help him out with his chest cold.]
[Not Trance. She's (rightfully) Disappointed in him and he still feels equal parts annoyed back and guilty. So he goes to one of the others.]
[It's not enough, though. The cough abates for a little while and then comes right back with a vengeance and he realizes not only did it not get stopped, it probably is even worse, the equivalent of not getting a full round of antibiotics. Just his luck, winding up with some kind of resistant other-dimensional superbug.]
[He debates bringing it to someone else's attention but then things get pretty heavy, they're probably getting chased, they start picking up the pace. They meet the Elf babe and he's so breathless he can't even hit on her. Holding the coughs in to hide being sick and to not make too much noise, while trying to run, has taken its toll. His lungs burn and feel too full, like there's not enough room for air, his breathing is shallow. Now he can't hide the lack of oxygen he's getting; as they rush along, his skin suddenly grows ten times paler, dripping with sweat.]
[By the time they reach Rivendell, he's wobbling without realizing he is, and too disoriented to realize how disoriented he is. He barely tracks what the Elves are saying, and just starts trying to take the stairs along with everyone else through sheer force of momentum. There aren't many of them but by the time he reaches the first little balcony, blackness starts creeping in on the edges of his vision. He takes a wobbly few steps forward, making it so he at least won't fall down the steps. Then his legs buckle and he collapses, pitching backward without a word.]
[One of the Elves is close, and with supernatural reflexes she reaches out to catch him and lower him to the ground, calling out to Elrond, "My lord! I fear this one is injured or ill."]
[Harper tries to hit on her almost reflexively.]
Heeey, beautiful, wanna be the photon to my photosystem so -
[He doesn't get to finish before he breaks off into uncontrollable coughing and can't hold it in anymore. The Elf turns him on his side in something resembling a recovery position so it's easier for him to cough and breathe. What comes out is somehow very green and very rusty colored at the same time which is probably bad.]