Teddy, recent orphan*, works through new powers, a new school, and grief.
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Good!

Teddy carefully checks her gumline for diamonds (hasn't happened yet, but she has stress dreams about it!) before heading out. Do her teeth look pearlescent? Hmm. No, just Exemplar white. Perks of being a mutant. She used to have fillings, too, but the doctors took those out when all of this stuff started. Wouldn't need them anymore.

Teddy stares just a little bit more intensely at herself in the mirror.

Her fillings were supposed to be gone. She remembers the dental visit, dimly, from after her dad died and everything. She remembers looking at the enamel that grew back where it was supposed to. So why were all three fillings back in her jaw, now? And why were they gold?

Teddy wanders out of the bathroom, back towards her room. This cannot be happening again.

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Parvati looks up when she gets back to the room. "Hey Teddy - is everything okay?"

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Teddy chuckles. "Yeah! Yeah. It's kind of nothing?" Her tone is wry.

Because it would be weird to complain about her teeth turning gold to someone who had to grow in wings, right?

"I just noticed in the bathroom that, uh, some dental work they got rid of for me when I Exemplared seems to have... come back..."

Teddy sits on her bed, in what she hopes is a casual-looking way. "Did not know that fillings could do that." She's cracking her knuckles.

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"That's freaky," Parvati says, her brow furrowing. "I'm new to this whole thing too, but I really didn't think that was part of being an Exemplar. I never had fillings..."

She Googles something. "Fillings coming out, fillings coming out, fillings coming out... I'm not seeing anything about fillings coming back in. Do you want to go to the medical center?"

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Parvati's support is hugely calming. Teddy's actually sitting casually now, instead of just making a devoted show of it.

"Yeesh," she replies, one hand rubbing the back of her head. "Thank you. It's a little late, though. I'll go first thing in the morning? I don't actually have any reason to believe this just happened, I haven't checking for this specifically."

Teddy wonders if this is a body image template thing. "I wonder if this is a Body Image Template thing?"

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"It... could be... did you feel particularly strongly about your fillings?"

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"I should make it clear that I'm basically just repeating phrases I read in a pamphlet." Teddy didn't feel all that strongly about her armpit hair, either, but that certainly stopped growing in. Which is convenient, but doesn't help her working definition.

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"Yeah, same here. Oof. Well, we can get you to the nurse's office in the morning and they'll... presumably not give you a band-aid and tell you to take a nap, but I don't know what hypercompetent mutant nurses do. Right now, I think I'm gonna take my inaugural shower."

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Teddy weighs the options as far as warning her about the other bird girl. Eh. Parvati almost definitely doesn't have the same hangups Teddy would have in her shoes. "Just think really hard about not drowning and you'll do fine." She watches like a haw... like a. Hmm. She watches closely to see if Parvati has shower sandals. If she doesn't, she will be getting some in a gift basket. Teddy is going to win at being a good roommate.

Teddy has really gotten back in the saddle by now. What's one more weird bodily quirk? Ha. She's basically been doing this since puberty dropped. Bring it on, hypercompetent mutant nurses.

She takes off her blue silk headband and puts it right back on, this time covering her hair. There. Ready for bed. Hopefully when she wakes up in the morning her hair won't be, God, made out of silver or something. That's all Teddy needs.

Sleep will commence when Parvati is no longer bathing.

 

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Parvati returns about fifteen minutes later, hair towel-turbaned, with the slightly dazed look of someone who has just taken a shower at Whateley Academy for the first time, and starts getting ready for bed.

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Ah, memories. Teddy recalls when she took her first shower here. Less than a week ago. Good times.

Sleep happens. Teddy has the recurring dream about diamonds in her teeth. Unsurprising. A man is yelling at her, one of her innumerable old coaches. He's muffled, like his voice can't get past his mouth, or Teddy's mouth, or something. Her subconcious mind shoulders all of this imagery so that she barely remembers it in the morning, the dregs of anxiety easily explained by what's actually happening.

Teddy rises at around 5:30 and scrupulously cleans her teeth, since she's expecting an audience. She dons dressier-than-center gym clothes and waits for Parvati so that they can adjourn to the hypercompetent mutant nurse.

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Parvati wakes up later - not that much later, but later - but gets ready quickly. Then she cheerfully follows Teddy to the Doyle Medical Complex, checking out the campus along the way. It's not a particularly long walk, and when they get there there's a bored-looking receptionist who's clearly been on the night shift. "There a problem?" she asks, looking up from her desk computer.

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"I've got low-level GSD and some fillings I had removed a while back seem to be. Well, growing back." Teddy does not follow her brain-prompt that's telling her to go 'Ah' at the receptionist. That would be silly. "This is my roommate, who's here supporting me morally." She gestures to encompass Parvati. "I'm worried my teeth are going to turn gold or something and we thought I should ask someone."

Teddy rests her hand on her Sword, which is also here to support her morally.

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The receptionist's eyes flick to the sword, but she's clearly seen weirder stress responses. "That's the right choice pretty much every time. I'll tell Doctor Tenent that you're here, just have a seat, okay?"

She taps away at her keyboard.

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Teddy takes a seat. She was hoping to be given some paperwork to do, but Whateley's weirdly invasive records system probably made that a dim chance. Oh well.

"Thanks for coming with, Parvati. You can be like my lawyer or something."

Now that's a fantasy. Every lawyer Teddy's met recently, and there were a lot of them these past few months, was very particular in describing who they worked for. It basically worked out to 'we can't tell you, but we're obliged to say that it's not you.' She had had an advocate, but he was drunker and Frencher than, say, Parvati is. Which is a comfort right now.

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"Hey, I've got cell service, it's no great sacrifice," Parvati says airily.

In a minute or so a woman in a doctor's coat with lightly greying blonde hair down to her waist comes out of her office and says "Ms. Terentin? I'm Dr. Tenent. Do you want to step into my office? Your roommate can come in with you if you want."

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ooooh hippy hair

"The more the merrier." Teddy pushes herself to her feet. "If she didn't just come here to use your very nice chairs."

Teddy engages in the weird process that is navigating through the back rooms of a doctor's office, and does it flawlessly, heading straight for the office in question. One could surmise that she studied a map of this place before she got here. Or just spotted the name on the door, somehow.

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Dr. Tenent follows her in, followed by Parvati. "So, Emily tells me your fillings are growing back? Can I take a look?"

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"Absolutely." Teddy yawns her mouth open as appropriate. Exactingly cleaned teeth lie in wait, and the ridges of three of her molars gleam gold. They're very shiny, but otherwise normal-looking for fillings.

Teddy closes her mouth for a second. "Also, and I can't be definite about this, but I'm pretty sure these were silver-colored before I had them taken out." Mouth open again. She could do this all day.

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Dr. Tenent nods. "Yeah, gold fillings aren't super common anymore, I bet you're right. Hmm. I... this doesn't seem like a BIT issue, because those are usually pretty naturalistic. I'd call it MATD, but you're not a Manifestor. It's possible that you've got an undiagnosed power, I guess... does it hurt at all?"

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Teddy has enough powers, she thinks.

"No, it doesn't hurt." Teddy seems surprised by the question. "It's more like..." Teddy holds up her hands. "I've got diamonds growing under these very nice nail sheaths, which are a very stylish and recent solution to a problem that's been bugging me for months. I'm just assuming this is more of that. Like, maybe my teeth turn all-gold, or I start Midas Touching everything I eat until I starve to death or something." She hopes that's a joke that she just made. Being housed in Whitman makes her doubt it.

"It just all seems kind of arbitrary. More than the mutant thing was arbitrary, anyway. Argh." Ah, the fake-comedy-groan-covering-up-a-real-one. Classic.

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"Oh, dear. Well, I doubt you're going to get the Midas Touch, but if your teeth turn to gold... it'd be unpleasant, I think is the way I'd describe it. Do you mind if I cast a detection spell on you, to see if you're, say, cursed, rather than going through a normal mutation?"

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Magic magic magic magic. I knew I should have picked magic class over psychic class stupid robot registrar–

"Yeah, that's fine. Sounds useful."

 

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Dr. Tenent's hair starts moving, and separates into individual locks with glowing ends. They weave through the air as the doctor incants something in Latin.

She blinks. "There's... something in your bag... and... I think you're, um, possessed. -Benignly. -I think."

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Oh, well that's good.

"Possessed by whom? Like a ghost?" Teddy picks up her messenger bag from its place in the corner and puts it on a convenient medical exam table, keeping one eye on Dr. Tenant's hair.

There are a lot of somethings in Teddy's bag, as it turns out. A flashlight, a swiss army knife, a mini-sized blue sports drink, a bag of almonds, hand chalk, a whetstone, some sanitary pads, a length of thin rope, notebooks, her copy of Genji, and a little package of bubble wrap. That last one thunks when Teddy puts it down on the exam table, gingerly though she does it.

(Also present: receipts, stale gum, several garden-variety painkillers sans packaging, and a dead spider. Teddy ultimately decides to present the spider like she meant for it to be there.)

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