Recharge and Mary's Appointment

The doctor chuckles, “Clean up here and deposit the check, please… and follow up with the bank in a few days to make sure it clears. Oh yes, and when Ms. Evans makes it back, please point her to the guest wardrobe and let her know all will be in order shortly after the check clears.”

Nancy rolls her eyes, already picking up the paperwork, “Like, I've totally done this a zillion times before, boss. I got it covered, duh.”

Dr. Bimbo just smiles, and elects not to remind Nancy about the state of her clothing, choosing instead to just let the nurse leave her nursing sacks out. It'd be unprofessional to comment… not that she'd be even slightly upset or embarrassed by the looks: All those actively under the doctor's power crave that kind of attention… even the doctor, although he stifles such impulses ruthlessly.

Nancy speaks up, “Oh, and like, the next client is a ‘charity case’... she can't like, afford to transition normally… and didn't, like, figure herself out until she was an adult, so duh, it's like extra expensive for her, and like lots more limited.”

“I'll go top up,” the doctor nods. “Please take care of the paperwork, then put her in one of the examination rooms when she arrives… one of the other nurses if you're still working here when she shows, obviously. Make sure to run the full background check with fingerprints… I'd rather not have a repeat of the millstone mile killer incident on my conscience.”

“Like, sure thing boss,” she shudders, doing delightful things to her still-exposed chest, “none of us want to help a mass murderer escape the law again, duh.”

The doctor nods as he leaves the office, heading out and around to the back, where he has what looks like a woefully neglected Olympic-sized swimming pool set up, running very green water through a skimmer that obviously doesn't have a filter… of course, in this case it's not neglect: Doctor Benjamin Maddox Beaux keeps it full of algae to feed his power. He is fundamentally doing something very simple: Shuffling life **** around. When he gives it, it heals the subject of almost any ailment… lost limbs, disease, old age, poison, mind control, genetic disorders… even the recently deceased can be brought back. The power is imprinted with a very specific template, but ultimately the doctor is simply giving life energy… but he doesn't generate much himself: In order to give, he must first take. Worse, doing so is an all-or-nothing proposition: His ‘donors’ have a one hundred percent fatality rate. The doctor is not a traditional vampire… but there are certainly some similarities.

Fortunately, his power isn't picky, and so Dr. Beaux can be ethical about it. Animals, plants, bacteria, mold, even sufficiently complex robots and some magical constructs have harvestable life ****. It saves the doctor a small chunk of change sterilizing things around the office (he just has his power devour the life of any microbes, after which it's just a matter of cleaning up the now inert dirt). But microscopic life doesn't have much life ****, so he tops off in other ways: A large swimming pool that he keeps in controlled disorder. Some contacts in the logging industry that keep him apprised of when and where they're going to cut down trees… and when he's ‘hungry’ enough to actually pay for his meals, a rancher that is willing to sell him cattle and burn the bodies when he's done.

For now, though, topping off merely requires the swimming pool. One glance at the green water, a flash of darkness covers half of it, and that half of the pool is white when the darkness clears a heartbeat later, the covered algae having dropped dead. The skimmer will mix it so it's all the same color of green again soon enough. With sunlight and the dead bodies of their fellows for materials, the surviving algae will replenish the rest in short order. The trees he ‘eats’ die too, but it doesn't affect the quality of the wood, so the logging company turns a blind eye (it helps that the CEO really enjoys the longevity treatments for his wife). The rancher is paid well… but the meat tastes rotten after the doctor is done; even the pigs, crows, and rats stay away from the drained meat, so the rancher has to simply burn or bury the corpses.

The doctor shakes his head as he turns away from the pool. Simply letting his reserves run dry isn't a good option: His powers reflexively heal him. Staying topped up is a matter of safety. With deep reserves, getting in a car crash or getting shot is simply a setback: Find some safe targets to ‘eat,’ and all is well. But if his reserves are zero, his powers will still act to heal him… draining the nearest sources of life energy in a sphere exactly big enough to cover the cost of self-repair… which means with a reserve of zero, stubbing his toe in the mall is going to kill whoever happens to be closest. For obvious reasons, that's not acceptable… so the good doctor keeps enough power in reserve at all times to raise a few fresh corpses. Now, curing the old CEO didn't burn anywhere near that much power… but when you're a walking bomb, it's better to play it safe… hence, topping off.

The immediate task complete, the good doctor returns to his practice, passing a young man in a dress with a cheap wig and bunched paper falsies, filling out some paperwork in the lobby.

The young man pauses as the doctor walks past, “Why is there a fingerprinting and background check authorization in here?”

The patient is asking himself more than anyone else, but the nurse (not Nancy, this one is Betty… but they can be a little tricky to tell apart as the pink power produces a measure of sameness) answers anyway with a smile, “Well, like, we're going to change your face… like a lot… when Dr. Beaux totally makes you a girl. And like five years ago…”

The doctor doesn't stay and listen to the conversation - he already knows it, it made the news, it's not classified; it's fine if the lady-to-be hears it. The police were starting to circulate sketches of a murderer… so the idiot put on a little makeup and came here with a pretty decent fake ID and a forged letter of reference from a local psychologist saying she'd gone through the various hoops already. One application of pink power later and the police were looking for someone who no longer matched their sketch. They DID eventually catch her… after another dozen died… and the good doctor was cleared of wrongdoing (the paperwork looked in order, and he had records of that)... but since then they've added a few extra hurdles: Fingerprints, background checks, sending the patient's picture to the police… at least they take those requests very seriously now.

The old man was different - he didn't want to he a woman, he simply wanted to live - and the nurses will go through the associated hoops… mostly retroactively, but he was obviously in dire straits very close to ****, and that does justify skipping some steps. And even if he was running from the law… they're going to have an updated photograph this time.

In the meanwhile, the good doctor reviews his next patient's file… it will just be the initial interview, of course… looks pretty straightforward, he's done hundreds of these. As long as everything checks out, Mary should have her first period in a month or so… assuming she has enough self control to grab some rubbers… but about fifty percent of the pink power patients don't get their first period until about nine or ten months after the treatment… they come out very fertile and very eager… and they always have perfectly healthy blonde-haired daughters if they conceive in that first month. Leftover energy, the doctor supposes.

The doctor himself, on the other hand, is effectively sterile. It's not that he can't conceive (there have been a few occasions in the past where he gave in to his power for a time, or was physically overpowered and - for one reason or another - chose not to use the weapon he carries everywhere to terminate his assailant), it's that his power doesn't treat the growing baby as a part of himself, so if the doctor ends up taking any life **** at all after conception, the baby is eaten before his chosen target, and he immediately miscarries… which suits Benjamin just fine, as he's ‘eating’ regularly, and miscarrying a couple of cells is no big deal.

The story of how he discovered it works that way is for another time.

Regardless, from the paperwork so far, the only reason Mary can't transition is money - which isn't really a problem for the good doctor, as Mary is in on referral from an actual friend. The doctor knows he can't hook everyone up: People still gotta eat, so if everyone lives forever, nobody can have kids… and that's a basic drive for many, especially after an application of his power. The doctor would also wreck the environment trying to sustain everyone, as every age refresh costs a certain amount of life ****, which has to come from somewhere. Small scale, though? It's fine. A dozen immortals - or even a thousand immortals - don't have those issues.

The doctor does the interview, and everything goes largely as expected… Benjamin Maddox Beaux gives the woman-to-be a note to have one of the nurses reschedule for two weeks out to give the paperwork time to return, and lets Mary go.

As he finishes up his portion of the paperwork, Nancy knocks, “Hey boss, you totally have like, a call…”