Examination

Stomach filled for now, Alice heads to the campus medical facility… which, because the college actually teaches a lot of medicine, is functionally a small hospital. There's several students waiting in a line, which she joins. A man in green scrubs hands her a clipboard, pen, and paper as she joins the line, and she fills it out: Basically information, legal name, birthdate, primary care physician, details of suspected contact, and such. Alice fills it out mostly honestly, skipping mention of the continuing ability to reshape flesh as the line moves along, a nurse calling out, “Next!” periodically as people leave the examination room.

The line moves quickly enough, more students joining at the back as they all into the examination room one at a time, and by the time Alice's turn rolls around, she's finished with the forms.

The attendant calls, “Next,” and Alice walks into the examination room… which is a plain old examination room. There's a man with a white lab coat and a stethoscope sitting in a chair by a computer, the examination bed, two free chairs, a sink, and cabinets full of disposable medical supplies.

“Papers, please,” the balding man sighs as Alice hands over the clipboard. “Let's see what cold you're blaming on…” he pauses and raises an eyebrow, looking Alice over, “...you certainly don't look like an ‘Adam’.”

“Yeah… call me Alice,” the woman begins, “this is kind of a dream come true, as noted I'm on Hormone Replacement Therapy. All I really need is help with my ID.”

“I see,” he pauses, looking at the papers again, reading them in their entirety, “Hmm. Well, we should start with the basics…” the man goes through harvesting her height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and such. He looks in her ears and nose, listens to her breathing (lingering on her chest a little longer than is strictly professional), and so on. As he gets the data, he enters it into the computer, one item at a time.

When he's done, “Well… your height has dropped by about six inches, but you've only lost about two pounds since your last checkup….”

“I didn't get the full meal plan,” Alice shrugs, “I've been living off of noodle bowls for two of my three meals a day… and I wanted to lose some weight.”

“Yes…” the man considers his words, “...but you lost six inches of height. That's bone, muscle, fat, and other tissues that aren't there anymore. It can't all have gone to your chest and rear. By all rights based on how you look, you should be a good twenty or thirty pounds lighter than you were… but rather than being the hundred or so pounds that you look, you're basically still a hundred thirty.”

‘No very small or very large forms, then…’ the woman thinks. “I see. Well… can you help with my ID?”

“Yes…” the man smiles as he writes a few things down in very neat handwriting, “...give this to the nurse, and follow her. She'll take care of you.”

Alice reads the note: It has her full legal name, and some Latin (“Origo Minor, ad studium collige”) and an illegible signature.

“Thank you,” Alice smiles, panicking inside as she walks calmly out the door, outwardly calmly folding the note and decidedly NOT handing it to the nurse as she leaves.

Alice heads to the restroom in another building, trying not to outwardly panic, ‘my Latin isn't great, but neither is yours,’ she thinks, ‘Minor Origin, collect for study - no thank you, I won't be a lab rat, especially for a doctor that doesn't have doctor's handwriting and never actually introduced himself.’

Locking herself in one of the women's stalls, she allows herself a few minutes to hyperventilate, then composes herself and thinks, ‘Okay, so… it's all a setup. And they know I was affected. So… I need to be less me.’

Alice focuses for a bit, running her hands over her face, hair, eyes, and skin, changing herself to look like a Chinese woman… and taking the time to reinforce her body while she's at it: Increased muscle density, a greater red blood cell count, more veins, arteries, and capillaries through her muscles for better endurance, a higher calcium content in her bones, carbon nanotube fibers running through her skin, retractable claws with venom sacs containing sedatives in her fingers, and so on… cheating her way to an Olympic athlete body with a few bonuses.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, she considers, ‘Okay, body handled, but clothes are a problem… ah, I know….”

Steeling herself, she walks to the student commons building, pretending everything is fine and it's just another school day, and goes to the office, “Hi, I lost a few items, mind if I check the lost and found bin?”

“Oh, no problem,” the desk clerk grins, “This way….”