spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 11, 2019 19:00:49 GMT -6
Hearing Skyler’s shaking voice delivering such a vivid description triggered something in Lexa’s gray head. A moment started to form in the fog of her older, cloudier mind.
It used to be so much easier to do this. C’mon brain! THINK! She chided herself.
Suddenly, Her thin, gray eyebrows shot up.
”Wait a minute. Six months ago? That’s about when I started my residency at the hospital. And there was that day where we had that influx of elderly patients— lots of broken bones, lost teeth, a few concussions even some extreme onset dementia— we thought there must have been a mass breakout at a nursing home or something.”
Lexa leaned back, adjusting herself in the stiff folding chair with a loud chorus of “POPs!” from her spine. She grimaced, embarrassed.
”Of course, that was a lifetime ago for me...”
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spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 11, 2019 21:39:27 GMT -6
Clara claps enthusiastically, a tear pooling in her eye. "You're a very brave YOUNG woman Skyler. Thank you for sharing your story. "Who would like to share next?" She asks wiping the tear away. Clara eyed the group eagerly, eyes fluttering with nervous energy. Lexa surveyed the rest of the withered women.
“I mean, if no one else wants to, I can go next I guess…?” She takes a deep breath, rubbing her crinkled hands together. This was the whole point, right? To start coping with the loss of her youth?
“I’m a 4th year med student, 1st year resident. I do my shifts at Central Hospital. We all see a lot of weird stuff in this city— like a LOT lot. But that kinda comes with the territory.” Lexa looks to Skyler sympathetically.
“Well, no one was ready for this super bug that hit our ward three months ago. Some nurses nicknamed it 'Senioritis' which would’ve been hilarious if it wasn’t so horrific. Attacks your DNA as it replicates, damaging the strands and creating bad copies at a crazy rate. Aging in the fast lane.” Lexa sipped her coffee. “It manifests in the respiratory system. Imagine, you feel a tickle in the back of your throat, then— ACHOO!— crows feet— ACHOO!— sagging breasts— ACHOO!— arthritis. Then— WHAM!- nothing. You’re in remission.”
She runs a hand through her coarse, silver hair. “The funny thing is, I began that week studying Geriatrics but by the end, people kept confusing me for one.”
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Post by tej2506 on Jan 12, 2019 3:07:00 GMT -6
Kayla nods in sympathy at the other women's stories as they tell them, a sad look upon her face. "Well, I suppose it's time to tell mine." she says, grunting slightly as she sits up in her chair. "Well it pretty much just started on a normal Monday, same as any other. I was recovering from a bit of a hangover from the night before, I used to be a real party girl back then. Not so much anymore." She smiles sadly at this. "Well, I worked at a nursing home, right? So I was just going through the Dementia ward, when I began to feel some slight...changes. I couldn't pinpoint when the transformation started, but when I stopped for a second, the changes just continued. I just ran over to the bathroom, while the pain, and the sagging, and the looseness of my skin only increased. By the time I got there, I must have been in my early 60s." she pauses at this for a moment. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I stared at it for a few seconds, seeing that I was aging what looked to be a year every second until I broke out from my shock, and ran out screaming."
Kayla lowers her head, and takes a shuddering, deep breath. "The last thing I remember, is falling to the ground, passing out. And then waking up...in one of those beds, feeling aches and pains all over, my body barely 100lb, my breasts sagging down to my stomach. Just like any other burdensome old woman" A tear falls from her eye. "I tried to tell them what happened, I tried. But they didn't believe me. They put me into the dementia ward...for nearly a month, treated like any other decrepit, senile old woman until they finally humoured me, and let me prove it. That was five months ago, I still live in that home to this day." She wipes away the tear from beneath her glasses.
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spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 12, 2019 13:02:47 GMT -6
Lexa blinks away the mist in her eyes. Kayla's tale hit her in a place that she'd been trying to claw out of for the past few months. "I'm sorry. That...that sounds like a horrific thing to go through on your own." She turns to the other old ladies hunched around the circle. "But that's the worst thing about this, right? The helplessness. Feeling your youth, your energy, you- the best years of your life- getting sucked right out of you like some sort of straw and no matter how hard you struggle and try to hold them all in they just...they're....gone"
She turns back to Kayla. "Are you the only one in the nursing home with your...uh... condition? There must have been more victims? Other staff maybe?"
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Post by chronoeclipse on Jan 12, 2019 13:15:09 GMT -6
Clara comes over to hug Skyler and Kayla. "You poor thing. You have no idea how it happened to you? You don't even know if it was magic or like an age Ray? That's awful!" She says and looks over cautiously at Lexa "Errr... You're not contagious right? How many of your coworkers were infected?" She asks inching away from the middle aged med student.
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Post by tej2506 on Jan 12, 2019 13:37:47 GMT -6
Lexa blinks away the mist in her eyes. Kayla's tale hit her in a place that she'd been trying to claw out of for the past few months. "I'm sorry. That...that sounds like a horrific thing to go through on your own." She turns to the other old ladies hunched around the circle. "But that's the worst thing about this, right? The helplessness. Feeling your youth, your energy, you- the best years of your life- getting sucked right out of you like some sort of straw and no matter how hard you struggle and try to hold them all in they just...they're....gone"
She turns back to Kayla. "Are you the only one in the nursing home with your...uh... condition? There must have been more victims? Other staff maybe?" Kayla takes a moment to compose herself before speaking "Yeah, it was quite horrific." she says, trying to pretend that retelling her story hasn't effected her.
"I don't know, there might have been others. Could have been that they were mentally aged, so they don't even know...or can't communicate it. Could be that there was some kind of rare genetic trigger. I'd try to find out...but I don't know how I could really."
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spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 12, 2019 13:40:33 GMT -6
Clara comes over to hug Skyler and Kayla. "You poor thing. You have no idea how it happened to you? You don't even know if it was magic or like an age Ray? That's awful!" She says and looks over cautiously at Lexa "Errr... You're not contagious right? How many of your coworkers were infected?" She asks inching away from the middle aged med student. Lexa bites her lip, creating a new set of lines on her face as she runs the numbers. "I think the final count of infections was 2 patients, 3 doctors, 4 nurses, and one very unlucky med student looking for extra credit. Wonder who that was?"
She shrugs back at Clara. "As for being contagious, I dunno. Probably not? Why? Is someone worried about suddenly waking up to find themselves in their..." she gasps for dramatic effect "...late thirties?"
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Post by tej2506 on Jan 12, 2019 13:40:35 GMT -6
Clara comes over to hug Skyler and Kayla. "You poor thing. You have no idea how it happened to you? You don't even know if it was magic or like an age Ray? That's awful!" She says and looks over cautiously at Lexa "Errr... You're not contagious right? How many of your coworkers were infected?" She asks inching away from the middle aged med student. Kayla flinches away from Clara as she moves over to hug her, having not been hugged for nearly half a year. "No, I really don't. As I said, I am trying to find out."
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Post by tej2506 on Jan 12, 2019 13:45:31 GMT -6
Kayla cackles quietly at Lexa's sarcasm. "She has a point, you're really making a mountain from a molehill here Clara."
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Post by MeanMark on Jan 12, 2019 14:59:29 GMT -6
Skyler begrudgingly accepts the hug.
“So, are you gonna explain your ‘predicament’?” She said sarcastically.
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Post by tej2506 on Jan 12, 2019 15:08:50 GMT -6
"Yeah Clara, what awful circumstance made you become oh so old and decrepit?" Kayla adds sarcastically, glaring accusingly at Clara while her back is turned, having only just broken away from hugging Skyler.
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spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 12, 2019 18:04:28 GMT -6
Lexa frowns to herself as Clara envelopes the squirming Skyler in a hug, suddenly realizing inwardly: Crap, they're all calling her 'Clara', not 'Sara'. She remembers how she had to pretty much guess at the group leader's fuzzy name tag and chides herself. Dumb old eyes being all...old... Ugh!
While the others continue (and aren't looking), she bends over and starts going through her sling bag.
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Post by chronoeclipse on Jan 12, 2019 18:09:13 GMT -6
Clara takes a deep breath. Not really picking up on the sarcasm of the other women. "Well, I suppose it is time to share my tragic tale. It was the day of my 28th birthday. I'm 28 by the way... or... I SHOULD be..." She explains sadly, tapping on the '28' on her name tag.
"My BFFs were going to take me out like for drinks and dancing that night - you know try to distract me from the fact that I was one year closer to the big 3 - 0! I was feeling really down about the whole thing and so my parents had given me a new credit card to do some retail therapy. I bought these super cute shoes and a new skirt and top for my birthday celebration... and like maybe a dozen other new pieces for my wardrobe. Wait let me see if I have a picture of the skirt on my phone..." She says as she fumbled through her phone and finds a picture and holds it up to the women who mostly have to squint and strain to see the image.
"Its super cute right? Anyway I was beginning to feel better about my birthday and how oooooold I was getting when I was exiting the boutique to my car. I look around and there are just like grey-hairs everywhere! And they are all dress SUPER inappropriately. Like grannies with midrif baring tops and old guys in baggy jeans and basket ball jerseys. And they are all just hobbling around wailing looking super confused. I thought maybe there was a Barry Manilow concert or maybe a store was offering some crazy senior discount but then this incredibly shriveled woman grasped my arm and begged me to help her. She look like over 100 but she cried and told me she was only 16 years old. I recognized her clothing, she was the bubbly blonde teenager that had been trying on prom dresses with her mom in the store when I first went in. Who knows where her mom went. I realized that everyone around me had somehow been rapidly aged!" She said beginning to sound choked up with emotion.
"I found out later that an asshole construction crew nearby had uncovered some curse amulet of time and luckily one of them had the good sense to destroy it right as it turned them all into a pile of bones and dust or else we would have all suffered the same fate. But at the time I had no idea if I was safe. Now that I was outside I was succumbing to whatever dark magic had turned this trendy young area into a retirement community! I could feel myself growing older and older!... well not really FEEL but I knew in my heart of hearts that I was aging. I pushed the girl away as quick as I could and jumped in my car to drive the hell away from there! I immediately went to the hospital and had them take as many tests as my parents could afford and... and..." She began sobbing.
"And they said that I was healthy... FOR A WOMAN OF 32!!!" She began bawling into her hands for several moments then composed herself. "
The doctors said I was 'lucky' that I came out of the store at the end of the amulets effects.... can you believe that? He said I was LUCKY!? I wouldn't call suddenly being a 30-something woman with a 28 year old boyfriend and having to kiss my social media presence goodbye 'lucky'!" She cried again.
"I mean LOOK AT ME!" She wailed.
"HOW WILL I EVER BE NORMAL!? I have a grey hair!!!" She exclaimed and then sniffled for a few moments in silence looking at the floor.
"And... I just think one of the most tragic parts of it all is... and I haven't even told anyone this yet but... I never even got to wear that skirt. It doesn't fit my old sagging ass." She said in a sad whisper.
"Thank you all for hearing my story and being so supportive! I'm really glad we are all able to come together and be there for one another after what we've all been through." She said sitting back down and wiping the tears from her make-up smeared eyes.
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Post by MeanMark on Jan 12, 2019 18:56:59 GMT -6
Skyler stares blankly at the speech she just witnessed.
“Okay, so...I know what you EXPERIENCED was haunting but...look at you compared to us!” Skyler exclaims, reference the other old bitties in the bunch. “We were aged well beyond our youth and you’re complaining about being FOUR years older?!”
Skyler quickly composed herself to catch her breath.
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spyguy
Elder Member
Posts: 380
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Post by spyguy on Jan 12, 2019 19:18:11 GMT -6
Lexa had managed to find the pair of hot pink reading glasses her mother had sent her last week (You need em' more than me, hun. I just got the LASIK!) hiding in her bag and was in the process of sliding them up the bridge of her nose in the hopes of sneaking a peek at the other seniors' name tags when Clara finally melted down.
Now Lexa sat there, slack jawed, uncertain of what to say. She glanced over as Skyler shakily caught her breath, the elder's swollen knuckles turning white as she clenched them. She looked back to Clara, still holding her phone with the photo of the skirt.
"Ah. I finally see what you mean," she started, trying to fill the vacuum. "That skirt definitely would not have done that ass of yours any favors. A true loss for us all..."
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