...Okay, apparently she in fact cannot debrief with Wen Qing because they have another patient. 

Game face on. "Hi!" Marian says brightly. "I'm Marian, the school nurse. What's going on?" 

"I'm bad at paying attention to details and focusing on my work. And I'm very disorganized. And I don't like doing tasks that require mental effort. And I lose things. And I blurt out answers and interrupt people and fidget and I feel very restless all the time. It feels like I'm driven by a motor." He says this with tremendous sincerity.

Oh noooooooooooo the tiny child is adorable. And also has no business being in the magic death school, due to being a tiny child and adorable. 

...and is clearly reciting a script he has memorized in order to get diagnosed with ADHD and be prescribed stimulants. Marian has taken pharmacology. And, more to the point, she's hung out with judgy doctors. And has herself been a college student who was friends with other college students. 

Is she - actually going to try to gatekeeping ADHD drugs here? In the horrible death school? It's not like the FDA - well, the Canadian equivalent of it anyway, she can literally never remember what it's called - is going to be tracking her overprescription of controlled substances and giving her an unpleasant phone call. 

"...Right," she says, also with as much sincerity as she can muster. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is this - causing you distress or difficulties in class or in your social life?" 

"Oh, yes, ma'am. I have a lot of difficulties in school."

"And that's - pretty bad here, right? Because your homework will try to eat you if you fall behind?" 

Marian glances at Wen Qing in hopes of picking up some sort of cue to tell her if she's on the right track here. 

"Terrible," he says. "Very bad. I'm so scared of being eaten by a homework."

"I think it violates the ethics for me to have an opinion because he's my enclavemate."

This is way too high-stakes for Marian's first time attempting to responsibly prescribe Adderall (or...fuck...she definitely knows there are other ADHD meds and that different people have different side effects and benefits but she's blanking on the name– oh, Ritalin is another one, but shit there are like five others she's pretty sure exist -). 

"That makes sense," she says to Wen Qing, in her best reassuring tone of voice.

And she turns back to the newcomer. "It sounds like you would medically benefit from trying some drugs that are known to help with, uh, brain problems that make it difficult to focus in school. And, uh, maybe I should also do the other screening, in case it's relevant...?" 

She scrambles for her copy of the Beck depression inventory again. Since this kid speaks English, she doesn't need Wen Qing to translate. 

Oh, shit, this wasn't on his list.

Uh, so probably if he gives a lot of 4s she's going to give him some kind of medications he doesn't want, but if he gives a lot of 0s then she's going to think he's okay and not give him any medicine. He eventually decides on mostly 1s with a sprinkling of 2s and 0s. 

....Marian is concerned but she's not exactly sure where to point her concern? On the one hand, the numbers she's adding up aren't great? On the other hand, this tiny child is TOTALLY trying to guess the right answers that will game the system and get him ADHD drugs? On the mutant third hand, he a) probably really needs those to not die, and b) has like a thousand excellent reasons to be actually depressed? 

She ends up just adding the total score in silence. "- We'll go over this clinical tool later," she tells Wen Qing. "Don't let me forget." 

And - shit damn it she's terrible she cannot at ALL remember the adorable tiny child's name. 

"Um, h...ey?" She tries to very obviously make eye contact with him. "I'm going to ask the void for some drugs that might help you with school, okay? And...I think you should try that first, but I want to talk to you again in a couple of days? Let's say, uh, Monday. There are a bunch of different drugs that can help with this problem, and different people do better on different ones, and they could also have a lot of side effects -" 

Fuck what are the side effects of amphetamines she KNOWS THIS - 

"...You should be extra careful to eat enough and drink enough water?" she says. "These drugs can make it easy to forget to do that." 

And she's going to go ask the void for more drugs, now that she's probably checked off enough of the requirements for proving they're medically indicated. (It's like the world's worst video game....)

"It also causes sleep disturbances, irritability, and high blood pressure, and while risk of addiction is low with oral use it increases if smoked, injected, or inhaled!" chirps the tiny child. 

Marian isn't sure that she's EVER had such an intense feeling of 'adorable!' and 'concern!' mixed together at the same time. 

"...Exactly," she manages. "Just - be careful and come back sooner if you're having bad side effects, all right? And, uh, you shouldn't take it now it's too late in the day and it'll keep you up all night. Try tomorrow morning." 

"I also need nicotine gum!" he says. "Because I used to smoke."

"You did what."

"I used to smoke! Horrible habit! Three packs a day!"

- wow that is definitely a family sort of interaction and Marian is missing all the context. Ah well. She can sync up with Wen Qing afterward, and it's not like nicotine gum is especially dangerous. 

(...Plausibly this kid is a drug dealer? Then again, just yesterday Marian was encouraging Wendy to be a drug dealer of Adderall and antipsychotics. She's in a different world, here. And - it makes a difference, right? That the kid is asking for substances that will plausibly be valuable to other kids because they help you stay alive and not get eaten by homework assignments? One of Marian's colleagues lent her nicotine gum once during an especially brutal night shift, and Marian's main recollection is that it was the nastiest thing she had ever put in her mouth but it did, in fact, give her a desperately-needed half hour of ability to think.) 

"Sure," she says. "I'll ask the void for that too." 

The void apparently does not have nicotine gum! Instead it gives her a box of 20mg nicotine patches, and some sort of weird sleek black cartridge of 'Nicotine Mouth Spray 1mg per spray'. Which at least has instructions written on the back of it. 

"This is what I got," Marian says, holding it out. "Uh, should I go through the written instructions on the packages with you?" Obviously she should, if she's trying to be responsible here, but also she super desperately wants a break. 

"Yes please! I want to make very sure I'm using it right!"

Then Marian will very conscientiously pull out the instructions packet from the box of nicotine patches and read everything to him, and likewise with the weird spray-cartridge thingy. Apparently patches are supposed to be very good for quitting smoking because they give you a slow constant dose of nicotine rather than the fast spike from smoking. The cartridge is meant to be sprayed under your tongue and should give a very fast effect; it only has 150 doses in it, though. 

"Thank you! I will absolutely use this to treat my inability to concentrate and my smoking!"

He's so earnest and sweet and almost certainly lying most of the time! ...Why does she find that adorable. She's a terrible person. 

Marian wishes him the best of luck and, once she's answered all his questions, ushers him out with a week's worth of Ritalin and the nicotine stuff. 

She sighs and flops down onto one of the cots. "....Wen Qing, I am almost sure he's selling those, and the worst part is that I'm not sure I care." 

It... probably isn't an ethical violation if Marian asked her?

"He's absolutely selling them. He has a store in his room and he's planning to make the alcohol. --Lan Xichen would crack down on him if he sold the things that hurt people, it's not good for Shanghai's image for us to sell the bad product."

And there's another knock on the door.

"- Yeah. That's why I don't really mind. I - the students here need every edge to survive. It's...probably actually not great for brain development, but, like, apparently only a quarter of people here even graduate? So, I don't know. I think that changes the cost-benefit analysis kind of a lot." 

She's so tired. She's not qualified for this and she's been running on adrenaline and bravado all day and she's so tired. 

....aaaaughhhhhh damn it fuck shit– she's good she's chill she can handle this. 

Marian goes to open the door. "Yeah? What is it?"