Buffy: Natural Fear
Natural Fear
Prompt: Buffy:The Vampire Slayer, Xander, the chalkboard always looked blurry.
It was never something he really thought about, how good or bad his eyesight really was. The chalkboard always looked blurry when he was in school, sure, but he learned early that it was just a matter of concentration and the availability of pills against headaches. Needless to say he didn't have enough incentive to concentrate enough in school for that. It wasn't as if it stopped him from helping with the slaying and headaches were expected after a patrol with all these vampires and demons knocking him around.
Then he lost his eye.
Sure, his depth perception was shot but it wasn't as much of a problem as anybody would think. The first time Xander Harris really got the idea that something wasn't right with his eye was in his function in the IWC, a job that required him to read a lot. Then came the panic. He only had one eye, what if some demonic thing had cursed or infected him with something? Or a tumor or even a glaucoma. Xander was pretty sure that one of his grandparents had gone blind because of glaucoma. If it was something natural that was even worse then a personal supernatural attack!
He was an adult and the Director (North America) for the International Watchers Council. He would do this the adult way and go to a doctor, to clear up any possibility for sneaky biology and family diseases messing with him before he brought out his big gun to check the rest. He didn't want to panic Willow if he didn't have to.
#+#
The optometrist made a few notes. "All right, I have found the problem. I already have your dioptric data, you just need to chose the glasses you want."
This didn't sound good at all. It was something biological! He hadn't really believed that, just gone so he could say that it could be excluded. Visions of himself taken out of the action by something as simple as his own human body was a nightmare. He could still work from his office. Even if he needed time to learn braille, there were extra functions Willow could install on his PC for him, programs that allowed him to dictate his texts and read them out loud. It would take a few changes but his work was important and he could still do most of it. He could do this, he was Xander Harris, one of the original Scoobies!
Perhaps They could get a dog for him, one of those trained to help handicapped people? He always liked dogs...
"Did you listen to me?"
Xander came back to reality and focused back on the optometrist before him. "What?"
A big smile. "I said you are a little bit hyperopic. It's not really bad, but you probably have to concentrate more to read and get headaches. That you lost your eye put a further strain on the one you still have. You just need glasses or contacts with a light prescription."
Silence. "That's all?"
"That's all."
Xander was so relieved that it was something so harmless. And he had thought it was something bad. "One last question, do you have monocles?
Prompt: Buffy:The Vampire Slayer, Xander, the chalkboard always looked blurry.
It was never something he really thought about, how good or bad his eyesight really was. The chalkboard always looked blurry when he was in school, sure, but he learned early that it was just a matter of concentration and the availability of pills against headaches. Needless to say he didn't have enough incentive to concentrate enough in school for that. It wasn't as if it stopped him from helping with the slaying and headaches were expected after a patrol with all these vampires and demons knocking him around.
Then he lost his eye.
Sure, his depth perception was shot but it wasn't as much of a problem as anybody would think. The first time Xander Harris really got the idea that something wasn't right with his eye was in his function in the IWC, a job that required him to read a lot. Then came the panic. He only had one eye, what if some demonic thing had cursed or infected him with something? Or a tumor or even a glaucoma. Xander was pretty sure that one of his grandparents had gone blind because of glaucoma. If it was something natural that was even worse then a personal supernatural attack!
He was an adult and the Director (North America) for the International Watchers Council. He would do this the adult way and go to a doctor, to clear up any possibility for sneaky biology and family diseases messing with him before he brought out his big gun to check the rest. He didn't want to panic Willow if he didn't have to.
#+#
The optometrist made a few notes. "All right, I have found the problem. I already have your dioptric data, you just need to chose the glasses you want."
This didn't sound good at all. It was something biological! He hadn't really believed that, just gone so he could say that it could be excluded. Visions of himself taken out of the action by something as simple as his own human body was a nightmare. He could still work from his office. Even if he needed time to learn braille, there were extra functions Willow could install on his PC for him, programs that allowed him to dictate his texts and read them out loud. It would take a few changes but his work was important and he could still do most of it. He could do this, he was Xander Harris, one of the original Scoobies!
Perhaps They could get a dog for him, one of those trained to help handicapped people? He always liked dogs...
"Did you listen to me?"
Xander came back to reality and focused back on the optometrist before him. "What?"
A big smile. "I said you are a little bit hyperopic. It's not really bad, but you probably have to concentrate more to read and get headaches. That you lost your eye put a further strain on the one you still have. You just need glasses or contacts with a light prescription."
Silence. "That's all?"
"That's all."
Xander was so relieved that it was something so harmless. And he had thought it was something bad. "One last question, do you have monocles?