Hazel: I’ve never actually played Mass Theft Portal, just looked at fic and walkthroughs . . .
Hyacinth: Well, this is your lucky day! Vine and Angelica are great at playing it. They’re a joy to watch.
Angelica: Hmph.
Vine: I can’t do it next week, though. Doctor thing.
Hazel: Oh? What kind?
Vine: Being a self-made man takes work, yo.
I get an appointment every two months, and they scan me for everything, and if my cholesterol or whatever is out-of-balance then they reprogram my hormone crystal! I mean, it hasn’t happened yet, but if it did, they would.
Hazel: Yeah . . . doctors are a lot of hassle.
I have magic-resistant inflammation, so they keep it under control with immunosuppressants, and I have to get checked for infections every month. More often if I have symptoms of something. They check my eyes, too, because those could be taking damage without even noticing.
Hyacinth: Wow . . . that’s intense. You want some lassi? I’m gonna get some — I can twist it open and everything for you.
Hazel: Sure!
[hmm hm hmm]
[SPLOOSH]
Angelica: SEE? Did you see how Hazel immediately had to one-up Vine’s thing? She’s so rude!
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…well, I suspect a lot of fans are about to discover an interesting addition to the word filter.
“My attempt to empathize with your situation wound up sounding like it was me trying to make the conversation about me, a novel”
This is why I stay quiet so often in RL conversations. other people keep talking over me, and I don’t want to dominate the conversation, so I just wait for a gap… and then one never develops.
as for Hazel’s situation, it’s the unfortunate case of wanting to prove your bona fides by giving details… but the details are one-upping. ( I have to see a doctor twice as often as you! and I an immunocompromised, and my eyes are damaged. )
Also, I’m guessing Angelica is looking for reasons to confirm her original assessment of Hazel… or she’s being Jealous. ( These are MY friends you can’t have them!)
So basically typical teens.
I find it tends to work better to downplay ones issue when being sympathetic.
“Yeah, I have an allergy that makes me need to go to the doctor’s a bit more often than I’d like.”
versus
“I’m allergic to magic, of all things, so of course magic can’t fix that. I need to go on immunosuppressants which means I could get all kinds of rare infections which make me need monthly doctor visits to check if I’ve gotten any. If I don’t use the immunosuppressants, I start swelling up all over and get really bad headaches. Before long, I’ll get a rash all over, and if I let it too long, I get explosive bloody diarrhea every day.”
(with inspiration from AwakenWithJP’s helpful guide on becoming gluten intolerant.)
Personally, I find the middle ground that Hazel took to be reasonable, but a lot of people don’t, so I try to go with the under-sharing approach. Of course, this can prompt people who have no idea what you’re going through to claim that you have no idea what they’re going through. But even if you have the exact same condition, they’re at least partially right, because your situations aren’t exactly the same. That doesn’t mean you can’t sympathize. It just means that there’s some stuff that they have to go through that you don’t, and some stuff you have to go through that they don’t.
I would agree on the looking for reasons to confirm her original assessment.
I still acutely remember the time I was trying to express sympathy for someone whose cat had just died but instead I ended up recounting the time when TWO of my cats died right after one another. I felt so bad afterward when I realized how insensitive that was.
I didn’t see Hazel as running over the conversation at all. They were both sharing in about the same level of detail and she didn’t try to state a direct equivalence. It sounded like two people talking shop.
I suspect I will have zero patience for Angelica in this plot thread.
I don’t know whether it’s a good or bad feeling, knowing that my arthritis might not be treatable even with magical medicine…
I do appreciate that she’s on some of the same medications as me though.
Ah, the quandary of fantasy disability representation in a nutshell.
Given the way magic in this universe works, any real-world condition that involves pain or physical injury is going to be highly treatable — either it can be healed (like most burns) or managed very effectively (like with Birch’s excellent prosthetic). Unless you’re unlucky enough to have a magic-related complication (like with Thorn’s burns). Hazel just got unlucky.
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