Ghoul Blood Thoughts: Dew edition?

Okay this is like a special edition ghoul blood thoughts. A hypothetical of the hypothetical.

So I have said in previous ghoul blood thoughts that I feel like Dew's elemental transition would work sort of like a bone marrow transplant (BMT) and had more thoughts last week about that. ( for reference in case anyone is interested: main blood thoughts tag | overview post about element/blood type and Dew BMT thought)

Here is a bunch of rambling stuff below the cut about Dew's element change acting like a BMT and one of two potential situations that could come from that (might write the other option later if anybody is interested). 

Warning that I obviously will be talking about blood (in a kinda clinical way but still), but also putting Dew through mental turmoil about flipping elements. 

So a lot of the time with BMT patients there will be a time period where they will look like one type in the rbc portion and a different type in the plasma portion. Eventually though they will fully convert to the donor type and might even permanently change to that type (full engraftment of the donor), sometimes though they will start to revert back to their original type. A similar thing could happen with the procedure to flip Dew’s element. 

What if Dew sat there in various inbetween stages for years. He is predominantly a fire ghoul, but the water is still there somewhere. If you looked at his blood, his rbcs would match that of a fire ghoul and his plasma that of a water ghoul. What if someday his element starts to revert. 

It starts slow, barely noticeable honestly. The water never really went away anyways, but he starts to notice it a bit more. Sure his control of his fire magic has been slipping a little recently, but the tour cycles can be long and arduous, he is probably just tired. 

It doesn’t really flag as anything being wrong until after the last night of the tour. As they all are heading home, completely spent he feels one of his long since sealed over gills start to open back up. He manages to keep his chill for the rest of the trip til they get back, convincing himself he was just imagining things and that maybe his body was just finally reaching a proper equilibrium between his two types. 

Once everyone is settled though, he grabs Aether and the two of them end up spending an intense 48 hours in the infirmary. Tests are run and the overall consensus is that his body decided to suddenly revert elements. 

This ends up throwing Dew into a whole spiral because while yes there is a sweet nostalgic aspect to getting back the element he grew up with, that's not really him anymore. He has adjusted to being a fire ghoul. It's something he knows and now loves. 

After much discussion he is faced with a decision: accept the change, or redo the procedure and hope it sticks this time. The ghoulish doctors insist that it likely should stick and that what is happening is rare, but Dew still needs time to consider it. 

Option 1, be a water ghoul again: He sort of misses his water nature sometimes. He knows it never truly went away but he still feels its absence. He also considers how much fun it would be for both him and Rain to be the same element. They are already so close, but that elemental compatibility might bring them closer. There's a risk to this though, what if the clergy decides that they don’t need a failed fire ghoul as their lead guitarist for the Ghost project? He might get demoted to a general abbey ghoul or even worse, sent back down to the pit. How would Rain feel knowing that he let this happen and didn’t try anything? He knows a part of him is still upset about his former packmates leaving, would any of the ghouls ever truly forgive him?

Option 2, redo the procedure: He has grown to love the fire inside of him more and more everyday. It is now just as much a part of him as his original element. To give it up would feel like giving up a part of himself, to turn his back on everything that has happened since the elemental swap. He remembers how it magically drained Ifrit so much that he had to go back down to the pit to recharge his element essentially. It would feel wrong to waste the gift given to him by the fire ghoul. The entire process was so terrifying though, does he really want to go through with it again? Who would be the elemental donor now, the only ghouls with elemental manifestations strong enough would be Swiss or Sunny. Dew knows that both ghouls have other elements to lean on, and would still happily help them even if they didn’t, but he still feels conflicted. 

After several weeks of thought involving both silent contemplation and talking it over with the rest of the pack (well mostly Aether and Mountain to be honest), he finally decides to go through with the ceremony again. It seems the least disruptive and Sunny is more than happy to offer up her fire to help him out.