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[thewarningafter]

@beyonce

You've reached Dr. Stephen Strange. Leave a message and my secretary will get back to you.

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@beyonce | video | private

[thewarningafter]

[Normally Stephen prefers audio, but he remembers how insistent Kid had been on video when they last spoke and Kid already sounds like he's halfway ready to hang up before he even gets to his request. Stephen appears onscreen looking about as ragged as he ever does these days, but he offers a brief little smile.]

Not at all. It's what I'm here for.

[He has to be here for something.]

[equal_shots]

[Kid hesitates, starting at the screen uncertainty before finally:] I have MN poisoning and I do not know what to do anymore.

[He says this quickly, as if saying it any slower means he might not say it at all. Immediately after blurting his statement, he's interrupted by the violent cough that many in Norfinbury know him by; he wipes blood from his mouth before speaking again.]

I have taken the medicine Dr. Watson prescribed and he would like for me to have a blood transfusion, but I do not want to bother him. No medication has worked particularly well, and the transfusions I would prefer go to others first... [He pauses for air, breathing hard.] But it gets harder to travel, and I barely made it indoors before lockdown today as the dizziness was so severe.

[Kid shifts so his gaze isn't directed at the doctor, unwilling to catch his gaze.] I do not know what to do anymore, but I am afraid that things will only continue to worsen--directly or indirectly.

[thewarningafter]

Kid...you're not going to be bothering him if you go for the transfusion.

[He says that with the confidence of a man who certainly knows how he would feel about it if he were the doctor to whom people could go for that kind of help.]

It's what's been shown to work. Don't play this self sacrifice game, you need it and it's available to you.

[equal_shots]

[Kid hesitates, then mumbles:] Professor Stein removed his eye as well, and it is only because I was there that he allowed his guard to be down. Because Stein usually behaved, if I was with him. [As he talks, the words come faster, a bit more nervous and panicked.] But that time he did not and--and then look what happened. Professor Stein listens to my father and one day he is to listen to me, however...

[In short, Kid's self-imposed decision to "not bother" Watson is a lot more complicated than it seems. He rubs his remaining eye, shivering.]

There is no donor, regardless. There has not been one since we first discussed it. And in the interim, I...I do not know what to do.

[thewarningafter]

You're not responsible for what Stein does.

[Stephen deliberately refrains from using any title for the man. As for as Stephen's concerned he's not a professor, and he's definitely not a doctor.]

Have you checked in with Dr. Watson recently? And where are you now?