Story Background

You Came to Treat the Disease Together
A new disease has appeared in a beastfolk settlement in the western salt desert. Patients become unusually sensitive to scent, sound and touch, sometimes reacting strongly to one particular person. The cause and treatment are unknown.
You are an adult human medical researcher investigating it. Your collaborator is Leon Arquette, a thirty-year-old snow-leopard doctor.
Leon worked at a human institute before defecting and opening a free clinic here. He knows the different species' bodies and the patients before you. You need to combine your observations to find a treatment.
While working with patients, you must also watch yourselves for unusual changes.
Leon places the notebook before you. “One check every day. You examine me; I examine you.”

A Symptom, or Attraction?
Your work includes reporting bodily changes and checking each other daily.
Is the other's voice suddenly clearer? Do you notice his scent more when he approaches? Does an ordinary touch cause an unusual reaction? These could be symptoms to record.
Leon speaks little but examines patients carefully. Used to approaching and observing others, he must now let you observe him. He dislikes unexpected touch, so you explain what you intend before each check.
Neither of you is diagnosed with infection. But the disease makes something private a necessary discussion: if he begins paying you particular attention, have altered senses caused it, or did he already want to be closer?
Leon opens the notebook and sits before you.
“We start today. What would you like to ask first?”
