i wasnt sure if i wanted to put this here bc im lazy but its been poisoning my brain for the last 24 hours so here we go @ejunkiet im tagging you bc you asked about the long essay im sorry if you didn't mean it literally

ok tldr: dump should have an empowered equivalent to the CDC to monitor and prevent disease spread in empowered humans specifically shifters. shifters should probably also practice some tick safety. how is this something we havent gotten a lecture from david or damien about???

so i posted this on tiktok and it started as a joke but i ended up taking it way to seriously lol the original question was: are shifters affected by lyme disease/ticks in their nonshifted form if they are exposed in their shifted form? psa ive been told lyme disease and ticks are generally not a huge worry in California (where dahlia is set) but we're continuing with this nonetheless. also dont get me started on the redacted medical care conversation this prompted i had with a friend on discord ill be here all day

so if a shifter is bitten by a tick while on their romps in the woods and infected with lyme how does that work? especially if they are a non wolf shifter (which im pretty sure have been confirmed?? idk) bc they have higher exposure rates to ticks (mice, voles, shrews, etc) like i know they are biologically human but when shifted they are essentially the animal they shift into right? when shifted they cant talk, dont have opposable thumbs, etc. morphologically they are the animal they shift into. so while humans cant get lyme from the infected animal if they literally are that animal would they get it? my guess is yes. mostly bc at the end of the day they are human and we know that magic can't fix everything (ex: david's parents, bright and fred, etc) im guessing something like a chronic illness cant be wiped away with magic plus magic doesn't like boost their immune system or anything.

so a possible solution would be tick collars! maybe not specifically collars since i think only ash would be down to wear one but tick prevention somehow? like a similar concept in jewelry maybe? clothing? clothing would be cool since we know (at least for the shaw pack) they can shift with their clothes on bc of the games.

this also brought up the possibility of other zoonotic and interspecies diseases. how would rabies affect mammalian shifters? could shifters contract giardia from consuming contaminated water while shifted and how would that affect their nonshifted form? what if a deer shifter (if they canonically exist) came in contact with chronic wasting disease (you might have heard this called zombie deer disease)? while we arent sure it affects humans it should certainly affect their shifted form right? could a bat shifter contract white nose syndrome? that is decimating bat populations across the us so how would it affect shifters.

if an illness affects them how are they managed? how are they monitored so there isn't an outbreak within packs/clans/etc? there's gotta be some form of a CDC type organization. one that at the very least gives out some kind of illness prevention right? pre exposure rabies vaccinations, tick collars, medical attention for those exposed to whatever they come across. if college is free in the redactedverse there's gotta be some good as medical care and prevention too right?

this also brought me down the path of how does in injury in their shifted form translate into their nonshifted form? most animals have a similar enough lay out but nothing exactly the same. wolves are not built the same as humans. our skeletons dont match up exactly neither does the musculature. its gotta be a general thing right? it cant be hyper specific to the literal place of injury. wolves have more teeth than people, right? if it was hyperspecific an a shifter injured a tooth that doesn't exist on the human body what happens? they luck out? or it is price is right rules (whatever is closest)? just like injured foot in shifted form means injured foot in nonshifted form. how does one seek medical care for that? especially if its an injury a human couldn't sustain just bc we dont move like certain animals do. this brings back the empowered cdc/dr organization

im also not an expert on any of these things. i have a broad wildlife degree so we briefly covered a ton of stuff. we didn't have an in-depth epidemiology or anatomy class so if anything is wayyyy off please lmk!! also i dont ever expect answers to these questions. it was just a fun little thought that i hyperfocused on.