Doctor doctor, gimme the news

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

After the meeting, and after some bickering with the Emergency Medical Hologram, down at the bottom of the Hub, Brainy is arranging the MedBay to his liking and familiarizing himself with the medical equipment and its functions.

Right now, for instance, as anyone walks in the door, he's wearing some sort of scanning goggles and a rather sinister-looking surgical glove with micro-scalpels, little lasers and surgical saws on the fingertips.

This makes him look like a green-faced Freddy Krueger with mad scientist goggles. For anyone that walks in like he instructed him to at the meeting, this is the first thing they see.

"Hmmmm."

Comments

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk finds himself hoping that he doesn't require major surgery in the uncertain future. The glove looked like something that would be used in torture or in rituals he'd rather not think about.

But there's not getting round the fact that Sparhawk is curious about Brainiac. Yes, he's trying not to stare, but there is one question sitting on the tip of his tongue.

"Pardon the question, neighbour, but can I ask if you've always been green?"

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"My entire species has verdant skin pigmentation."

All of them are funny-looking, yes. Though the implants on his face are particular to him.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

It was the overabundance of green that really had Sparhawks attention. Little things like implants were slightly below his radar.

"Ah," is the simple reply. "I would ask why, but I doubt that I'd understand the answer."

At least that he can admit that he's stupid, right?

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"It's not horribly complicated," says Brainy, as he continues to work on his overview of the technology there. (He's good at multi-tasking). "You do have variation in skin tone on the world where you're from, correct? Such as individuals with darker skintone?"

Even if they were from pretty far off.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Considering that Sparhawk figured that Brainaic would have some esoteric explanation, to be asked such a simple thing slightly threw him.

"The Atans have a more golden tone to their skin," and Sparhawk looked at his own hand critically. "I just never thought to meet someone who was green. I meant no offense, neighbour."

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"I would imagine these golden skinned individuals are from lands that have more sun, yes? Which means their skin doesn't sunburn easily. Over many generations, people change, to better suit where they're living. Things like sunlight and available food sources cause their bodies to adapt to where they live, cause them to produce children with beneficial traits," Brainy explains. "The people that survive best to produce offspring are ones that have the best adaptations to their environment, and thus those children have those traits passed down to them."

He goes on. "The world I came from is very different from yours. Green skin was an adaptation, something that allowed us to survive a very, very long time ago. Our planet was once rather lush--and it let my ancestors blend in with the plant life to hide from predators. As we advanced as a civilization and those predators were destroyed, the green coloration merely...endured with us through the millenia."

Evolution in a nutshell.

"Had I come from a world more like yours, I--and all my ancestors--might've looked more like you."

A pause.

"That is to say: I'm not offended. I know it must be rather unusual. I would be thrown myself at seeing individuals like yourself if my world didn't have such extensive contact with other species."

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

And that all made perfect sense to Sparhawk.

"Thank you, neighbour," is his answer,a thoughtful expression set on his face. Evolution isn't something that's really thought highly of in his church, but it does explain a few things. If he's related to a Troll, then people can be green.

Thoughtful changes to rueful. "Just when I thought my life would be settling down again, I get brought here and discover there's more to the world than I thought. I had a hard enough time when Aphrael borrowed a ship from one of them. Does it get any easier?"

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he says, after some thought. "You grow used to variation and constant change. It has it's challenges, but what is life other than new sets of challenges that must be met?"

He looks through some of the other medical equipment.

"The results of those challenges matter less than how you meet them."

It's a very unscientific way to think--a very Legion way to think.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"I could do with a few less challenges in my life," Sparhawk grumbles quietly to himself. Perhaps once he's done whatever he has to do on this ship, the universe will let him alone. At least for a few years.

"That's where faith comes in," he notes, louder now. "God will see you right, seems to be one of the major teachings of all the faiths. At least, the ones that I'm familiar with."

This sort of philosophy isn't something that Sparhawk thinks about much. He's presented with a challenge, and he solves it, using what he has to. To him, as a knight of the church, its the results that are important. This rebellion put down, that king secured on his throne, that priest escorted. Challenges of the mind are harder for him, but at least he has good friends to help with that.