tampered | complete

complete

When; backdated to Apr. 30(?)
Rating; PG? iunno~ :/
Characters; Allison Cameron [

as_damaged], Ishaiah [

priorcommitment]
Summary; we now interrupt your regularly scheduled Black Ick investigation for a little face~confusion awkwardness.
Log;

Alien plagues she could deal with. That fact surprised her, a little; but really, it wasn't so different from her job at home. More a matter of treatment than diagnosis, maybe-- trying to translate the disease into comprehensible terms, in order to understand how they could cure it. It was almost comforting, the familiarity of it. Tests to run, questions to answer.
Cameron didn't mind the more mundane cases she tended to deal with here to pass the time; she'd never minded clinic duty, deriving some satisfaction from interacting with patients, making their lives better on a small scale. But she did enjoy working for Dr. House, along with all the attendant duties and criminal activities. Breaking into houses and taking long shots. Doing whatever it took. It was generally unethical and frequently unpleasant, and she missed it, a little.
She was nearly ready to get started-- taking no chances with contamination, Cameron had suited up, and made sure everyone in the building knew not to barge in. The sample of infected tissue with its unnatural discharge awaited.

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To some, the sudden change in Ishiah's attitude might have seemed odd. Someone so unwilling to appeal to House's wants and desires at first, now literally delivering medicines and food wherever directed. If there was one thing which was certain, it was that Ishiah did not have a problem with taking orders--but under his own terms, of course, only whenever there was a rhyme and reason to be following without argument. He'd seen many an outbreak in his lifetime, from the Black Plague to the smallpox which spread over the Aztecs like wildfire. And if this incident wasn't contained quickly, even Ishiah wouldn't be able to protect those in the City whose futures actually mattered to him. Robin Goodfellow, Niko Leandros, and even Caliban.

And as gratitude to those who were putting themselves in danger for the sake of the greater good, Ishiah was willing to take a few minutes of his time to deliver some food as well. House had requested pizza, but he imagined that some of the other doctors--those who were less hypocritical, perhaps--would prefer food that was a little healthier.

So he has a few things in tow--salads, hoagies, burgers and pizza for the junk food inclined--when he steps into the Hospital, wings disappearing in a moment as he heads towards the testing facilities, knocking when he arrives.

For a moment she's annoyed that someone has disregarded her warnings; as though this wasn't a serious situation. Cameron turns to get the door, remembering just as she opens it that there's no reason to be angry, that someone was supposed to stop by to drop off some supplies. Someone theoretically immune-- and thus, not subject to the quarantine.

Of course, she didn't know who this immune courier was.

She opens the door and stops short, belatedly trying not to let her shock show on her face. It isn't Chase, she knows it isn't-- can't be-- but it's jarring, anyway, seeing his face.

"Hello..."

There's a strange mix of emotions that Ishiah can detect on Cameron's face--for this must be Cameron, the one who House was speaking to, and the one who is ultimately bothered by Ishiah's presence. Or, perhaps more accurately, his appearance. He raises his hands, silently, plastic bags filled with food, and it looks like she could use a break anyway, all things considered. On a bad day, Ishiah's good at reading people, but it's usually only after he gets to know them for a while, so the response that Cameron gets is a tilt of his head, almost bird-like in movement, and a puzzled look.

"Hello, Cameron," he nods, solemnly. "I've brought food for you and everybody else working on this case."

He looks into the room, unsure if she'll step to the side and let him in.

"You must be Ishiah." She smiles. It's a professional sort of smile; tight and polite, a little bit guarded. "Thank you... ah, you can put it over here." Cameron does step back to let him pass, gesturing at a table.

He doesn't move like Chase, or sound like him, really, which makes it easier to deal with. The resemblance is unsettling, though. With Peter Pevensie, she'd been cursed herself, and therefore not aware of the strangeness of the situation-- not until after, at which point she didn't have to see the resemblance.

"That would be me, yes," Ishiah nods. "And I imagine that you're Cameron."

His footsteps are light--the kind that tend to make people from his world wonder if those wings are always at work, but in all honesty, it's simply that he treads carefully. Placing the food where instructed, Ishiah's eyes glance quickly around the entire room, and at once he feels more at ease, because everything appears to be very human, from the technology to the methodology, and with the exception of the Leandros brothers--one of whom isn't human, anyway--Ishiah's never felt very threatened by the species.

He turns back to face the doctor. "Your boss has mentioned before that you might be somewhat uncomfortable around me. I'm sure there's a reason for that, one which I can work with in order to make this more comfortable for you."

She nods silently in affirmation, and watches him cross the room, trailing along after a moment. Given the nature of the City, and Ishaiah's certainty that he'll be immune to the geostigma disease, she's inferred that he probably isn't entirely human. Whether that makes his face any more or less strange, she hasn't decided.

Cameron colors slightly at the reference to House's inference. She's not certain whether he's trying to make things more difficult for his own amusement, or if he's using it to gauge her reaction, to feel out the details of her relationship with the absent Chase. As far as she can tell, House doesn't entirely know, for once; he doesn't seem to be from quite the same moment in their timeline, and she's been relishing that fleeting sense of privacy.

"It's all right-- really. He's exaggerating." There's a flatness to her tone that speaks of mild annoyance at House's interference. "It's a little shocking, I'll admit-- but I can deal with it." In fact she's determined to, to prove herself.

"There are a lot of things which one can do, if pressed, but few that one has to deal with, if one fully examines a situation," Ishiah notes, pulling two seats out, and offering Cameron one of them. His gaze is, for lack of a better term, piercing, taking note of all the cues which could either express that Cameron is altogether a nervous person--doubtful, given her profession--or suggest that there are things she's trying to hide.

"Does House really exaggerate often?" Ishiah continues to press, tilting his head at the woman. "It seems to me that he isn't the type to do so without a reason. If he wants answers, for instance. I'm supposing it has something to do with the Australian who shares my face."

Cameron takes the seat, watching him as intently as he's watching her. "It has to do with Dr. Chase, yes. And you're right, at least in this case-- I think he's just trying to satisfy his curiosity."

Now that the initial shock is past, the differences are as obvious as the similarities; in tone, in attitude. "I'm sorry that you've gotten caught up in it." That's the uncanny part, really; the near-familiarity of the setting and situation, paired with the stranger wearing Chase's face.

"There is no need to apologize," Ishiah replies curtly, breaking eye contact for a moment to consider. What kind of relation might it be that Doctor Chase has to Doctor Cameron, such that a man like House would be so piqued? And then it hits him, because Robin would be the same way--voyeuristic. "I am not inconvenienced by Doctor House's behavior."

He slips his hands into his pockets, the air around him almost thrumming a bit. "And I am not Doctor Chase, so you need not worry. Worry more if he arrives in the City, although given that I don't have his accent, perhaps we'll still be easy to distinguish."

His head turns to look back at her work. "I'm sure that you have work to return to. How is the research coming along?"

"It would make no difference to me if he showed up," she answers, a little too quickly; Cameron is getting tired of having to defend herself, distance herself. Chase isn't here and she's just met Ishaiah-- and here she is, denying there's anything between them.

She takes a breath, takes advantage of the change in subject. "It's... strange. It doesn't behave quite like anything we're familiar with in our world... in some ways it's like a cancer, in other ways, more like a virus... I think Dr. Wilson was going to irradiate a sample, see if the foreign cells can be killed that way. Or weakened, at least."

"Perhaps not to you, but it would to Doctor House, who might then aggravate you by association," Ishiah points out, although soon after, the subject is dropped. He's gotten as much information from Cameron's behavior as he ever will, and if there's one thing that doesn't bother Ishiah, it's the tendency of humans to get romantically involved, to propagate. Most monsters lament the overpopulation of the human race--Ishiah knows that it's part of a trend, a system, one which was not entirely unprecedented.

He looks to the fluorescent lights in the room, crossing his legs. "Science is safer than magic. Yet, the world that this disease comes from clearly employs the use of magic, and frequently. I wonder."

Deliberately, he pauses. "You're doing a good job."

She softens a little. "Thank you." Acknowledgment is always nice, after all.

"There's a team of magic-users on the case as well, working parallel to our research... We'll compare notes, I guess, and see what we can learn from one another." She doesn't sound thrilled about the prospect; Cameron finds the idea of magic a little hard to swallow. But she's trying to be optimistic... even if a large part of her hopes they'll find a scientific cure. "It's unconventional, but... what isn't, here."

"This place isn't as unconventional as you may think," Ishiah mutters, quietly, slightly distracted once again, thoughts of forces that are greater than the earth that he knows, than even the City at its best. Maybe there's no explanation for the events that occur here, no clear cure for the diseases, but there are still a lot of things at work, he knows that much.

The peri stands, then, nodding curtly to himself, before looking Cameron in the eye again.

"I shouldn't disturb you any further."

She arches a brow at that statement, not quite certain how to respond. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective; of the standards of reality one's accustomed to. The City seems stranger to her every day.

Cameron stands when he does, somewhat surprised by his abruptness. "It's all right... but I probably should get back to work. Thank you for bringing food." She smiles again, more genuine than before.

Years upon years of staying with the nonhuman crowd have, admittedly, sometimes left Ishiah forgetting what it's like to simply converse with another person without worrying too much about self-preservation, or the next disaster that was bound to happen, these days likely with the Auphe. So there's a rare smile that he gives Cameron, prior to leaving, and it's genuine, although slight. It's clear enough after having spent a fair amount of time in Manhattan that the barest of smiles are often appreciated by the majority.

"There is no need to thank me, but it was a pleasure to meet you, Cameron," he nods, before stepping out of the room, wings slowly coming into view.

"A pleasure," she agrees, watching him go... trailing off into wide-eyed shock as he sprouts wings. There's a difference between intellectually accepting that someone is not human, and seeing the evidence thereof.

She shakes her surprise off as best she can; after all, there's work to be done. Alien plagues to cure.

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gsfdg that icon o_o

/trolls again with it?