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Nenet eyes Zev dubiously as he crashes on the couch, her head shaking subtly. Well - that was fine. He could rest for now.
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Letting him keep his eyes closed, Nenet moves through the apartment to gather supplies; she pauses awkwardly at the spare bedroom, looking inside out of habit before reality catches up with her.
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She presses her eyes closed for a moment before going into the closet and digging out a microscope. With that retrieved, and several small bug out bags containing a variety of supplies, Nenet sits on the couch long enough to collect her samples.
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"Don't choke," she informs her husband as she pries open his mouth without warning and swabs the inside of his mouth to collect cells. Setting the swab aside in a holder, she wordlessly wraps his arm with a tourniquet and collects a vial of blood while she's at it.
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"I'll wake you when I need you again," Nenet assures her husband as Luna hops onto the couch to flop into his legs.

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The look Nenet spares Zev for his quip is withering.

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"Kick him while he sleeps," Nenet directs Luna in a low voice as she draws away. Smears are made and slides fixed as Nenet works at her kitchen table of all places.

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She isn't sure what she expects to find - if anything visible - but immediately she does. Staring down the barrel of her microscope at his oral epithelium cells first reveals nothing of true interest. When she switches to the blood smears, however, she stares blankly at the slate of black that greets her - it's difficult to tell what exactly has happened to her sample, but all of the smear slides appear as dark and crystalline as the last.

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Frowning now, her mind racing, she draws up another slide of blood - this time fresh and without heat fixing - and hopes it isn't too far out that the sample is merely clotted.

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What greets her is nothing she could have imagined.

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There, before her eyes, she watches as a few blood cells shift between a normal red blood cell and something more crystalline, until it slowly crystallises over. Sitting for a time with her thoughts, she finally stands and moves to shake Zev by the shoulder, asking him as she startles him from his slumber, "Does Rocket have an electron microscope?"

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Nenet's gaze immediately meets Zev as he graps her wrist and leans forwards; her gaze is hard, imperious, in place of fear at his reaction. Her hand flexes away the pain when he releases her.
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"I'm really not sure," she admits after a moment's consideration. "Your blood cells shift - I don't really have a better term for it - like your skin can with those crystals. Which is..." Allowing her voice to trail off, she muses, "I think I might be able to see more with an electron microscope. I have a theory but it might be difficult to prove."
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She hums thoughtfully. "The best explanation is Necrozma has infected you, for lack of a better term. If your red blood cells are altered then your marrow is altered and your DNA ultimately."
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"That has some interesting implications." The way she says 'interesting' implies the word is doing more than its fair share of heavy lifting.

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Nenet's fingertips caress Zev's wrist as he massages her wrist - a silent acceptance - and the pair move forwards.
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"Oh," she murmurs, her expression thoughtful, "I don't think you're human anymore. I'm not sure that's up for debate. You've mutated. The real question is how much and whether you can revert, I would imagine."
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She trails off, humming softly as her hands fold together and the taps one finger idly.
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"Think of Necrozma like a bacteria." Nenet turns the intensity of her focus upon Zev as she speaks again. "There's something called a prophage - back when cells were first developing, some host bacteria acquired a prophage and integrated itself. The short of it is that in the presence of a prophage in the host bacteria can cause it to become more potent-"
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"Diphtheria," she says all of a sudden, switching tactics. "It's a toxin produced in its original bacterial form when exposed to a certain phage. The resulted toxin makes those infected sick with diphtheria."
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"I think you host Necrozma in a more literal sense than anyone else could compare with their Avatarship. Necrozma has integrated itself into you. You're you yes, but you're also something else."
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"Who knows if you could be contagious."

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"All mammals sleep and eat," Nenet answers with a shrug. "'Human functions' isn't relevant to the conversation. It's more like you're a new variant of the baseline." With a snort, she tacks on, "Congratulations on becoming Hoenn's regional form of a human."
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She watches Zev for a moment, his hand moving to idly scratch Luna as he lost himself in thought. She doubted he was actively concerned about the new possibilities - neither was Nenet truth be told.
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Reaching out, she lightly takes Zev's hand into her own and gives a gentle squeeze, drawing his attention back to her. "We'll figure you out together," she says lowly, without fear or worry. Zev was still alive and still himself; he was still someone she loved.
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"There may be even more to you than we know of." Nenet smiles, her eyes holding at once a deep affection and even deeper curiosity.

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