11968/What'cha got cookin'

What'cha got cookin'
Date of Scene:	10 August 2020
Location:	Kitchen - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Mr. McCoy and Shannon discuss the idea of writing on the medical needs of mutants for journals, and possibly publishing a textbook on the subject.
Cast of Characters:	Nightingale, Beast

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Nightingale has posed:
     The past few days had been eerily quiet in the kitchen, devoid of winged presence. But sooner or later, the pendulum must always swing the other way, and this morning found Shannon perched on a stool at the counter, with a rather hefty tome in front of her, and an equally hefty plate of cut vegetables and hummus. She's in her bright blue leggings, long white Tweety Bird hippie t-shirt, and barefoot, swinging her legs back and forth as she reads. It looks more as if the book would be suited to a senior, or even college student--or for weightlifting, if one were inclined to such things.

Beast has posed:
It's snack time for Hank McCoy, the fuzzy blue guy needing to take a break from his latest project. As he enters the kitchen he spots Shannon there and lifts a hand to wave at her, "Good afternoon, Shannon. How have you been? I haven't seen you for some time." He heads towards one of the fridges to get himself a cold seltzer and cracks it open to have a gulp.

Nightingale has posed:
     It seems student and teacher share at least one taste, as a can of seltzer is next to Shannon as well. She glances up and can't help a smile, lofting one slightly ragged wing to wave at the fuzzy blue guy. "Heya, Mr. McCoy. Yah, had a lot on my mind, lots to think about," she says, with a little shrug. "Sorry I raided your library again, but something Jeremy said got me to thinking, too. Did my message about that reach you?"

Beast has posed:
"Which message?" Hank asks curiously as he moves to take a seat on a stool next to Shannon's. "You're welcome to visit my library whenever you'd like to, you know that, right?" Then he asks, "You doing okay?"

Nightingale has posed:
     "The message about a project idea I wanted to run by you," Shannon replies. As to his other question, she purses her lips, and lets out a bit of a sigh. "Incident at the Met, the one my arm had to be patched up from. My folks got wind about it and mom was pretty upset. Gonna emphasize she is /not/ mad at the school, but mad at me for taking a risk that might not have been necessary. My folks of all people know how my gift works, and that I can't always stand aside. It... just got me to thinking. A lot. And some of it kind of dovetails with the project idea."

     Moving her plate over between them, the winged teen smiles a bit, nodding towards the pile of plant-based goodies. "Jeremy and I got to talking last week about that kind of thing, and something that came up was that there just isn't a lot of medical material written that's intended for mutants. That's going to leave doctors and hospitals in general without information they'd need to treat a mutant patient properly, which leaves folks like us a whole lot less likely to seek treatment when it's needed. And that puts folks like me, who can heal, in a rough position, if it turns out the /only/ thing we can do is use our gifts."

     The young woman drums her fingers on the pages of the book, beating a lively triplet rhythm. "So is writing up something like that something we can do here? I mean, if anywhere is suited for a project like that, it'd be here, and it just might help The Dream along while we're at it."

Beast has posed:
Grabbing some veggies and hummus, Hank snacks quietly while his young friend gives him the rundown on what's happening. "I'm sorry you got in trouble, but you're old enough now to make decisions on your own as long as you're willing to deal with the consequences."

"The idea of writing for medical professionals treating mutants is a great one. A lot of it has to do with being willing to improvise on the fly. It's why I try to get the medical records of all the students here so that I can properly treat anyone with physical differences." He'll nod his head, "It's definitely something to work on. We can write a few articles for medical journals, perhaps even a textbook on the subject as well."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon nods, dipping a celery stick into the hummus and munching on it quietly for a few moments. "That's kind of the thought I had too. But there's the other side to consider, and I'm not sure if we should loop Miss Grey in on it or no." She pauses and chuckles softly. "'course, if I have to ask that, the answer is probably 'yes'. See, articles and textbooks usually wind up gaining some publicity, and that's not something we need traced back here, as good as it would be to write those things up."

Beast has posed:
"I publish things all the time, I just don't make any mention of the school or anything like that," Hank explains between bites. "I imagine I'd do the same thing, but add you as a co-writer and just list you as a student of mine. I usually just mention I've got six PhDs in the biography section."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon nods, munching away on her celery, the soft thumping of her heels on the legs of the stool the only sound coming from her for a few moments. "Makes sense. Okay, so where do we even start with something like this? What do both of us need to do to get the ball rolling?" It seems with a project to focus on, something more in her wheelhouse and something that might actually do some good out there, her spirits seem to be lifting somewhat.

Beast has posed:
"Well, we start with discussing common physiological differences between humans and mutants," Hank explains. "Not that there's anything really common out there, but mutations such as fur or wings may occur more often than others." He looks towards the young woman and nods faintly. "We should probably try to figure out the physical mutations of known mutants and catalog them so we've got numbers and percentages to work with. Then we can work on considerations for treating people with the more common physical mutations."

Nightingale has posed:
     The winged teen smiles, and nods. "There's healing factors to consider, too. That may make giving medicines more difficult, if it's just going to run through someone faster. And then there's people similar to Alexis. If she'd have gone to get a job somewhere else, it could have been really difficult for her, because a lot of times they require blood samples. And her mutation makes that really difficult, because it's hard to get a needle into her. So for someone with that, treatment could be really difficult."

     Oh, yes. The project was off and running!