voice | un: karma

[torpour]

My name is Nehan-- I'm researching how medicine works here, and how to merge it with the methods I'm used to. If my research goes well, for instance, I will be able to act as a doctor and pharmacist, among other roles found here.

To that end, I'm requesting samples of blood from fellow Sleepers. I understand it can be quite personal, so whoever does not want to do that need not respond. Those who do, so I can perform the phlebotomy myself, and can privately send you my address, and answer questions you may have.

Whoever wants to help but doesn't want a needle in their arm, I still have a job for you, if anyone is interested.

[very straight to the point, almost unwelcomingly so. but at least people know what they're getting into if they decide to deal with him?]

Comments

[torpour]

Mm. I do have a question about that.

For instance... does your magic stain your blood? [or is nehan the outlier in that regard?]

[getsmy]

Stain? I'm not certain what you mean by that, elaborate.

[he's still relatively new to this place, he's not sure how magic stains blood, seems like the other way around would be the case]

[torpour]

[nehan sends a picture-- it's of a small bottle of paleblood, beautiful in the moonlight, sitting on a windowsill. however, instead of a regular milky appearance as with paleblood in general, this sample seems to have a stain.

like a drop of yellow ink has been added into it, swirling around.]

That's a sample of my blood, affected by my elemental affinity.

[getsmy]

A golden hue to it? Mine might be similar, I yet still have my Blessing of Light from my homeland.

[but he's not certain, he's not paid attention to the color of his own blood when it's been spilled so far. The concern at the time had been spilling blood at all.]

If you want a sample of my blood to test, I could meet you in person. I don't much care for... this instrument. [handy though it may be, Ives is not technologically proficient in the slightest. As evidenced by dropping the thing in the first place!]

[torpour]

All right.

Give me a moment, I'm writing up the address to send to you. But if you want a headstart, I live in Willful Machine.

[getsmy]

I'll head your way.

[simple enough! Nehan will need to end this call because Ives doesn't know how. He just shuffles the phone into his pant pocket still on the line, the shuffling of fabric and fur clear.

He does understand that there is a fast travel system through the lanterns, so finding one to take him to that area is somehow less difficult for him than hanging up. He'll check it again once around that spot, searching up the address. He's prompt, shouldn't get lost because he's absolutely fine with asking for directions.]

[torpour]

[nehan does notice that the call is still active and he's just... well fine, he'll do it himself. nehan turns it off in favor of concentrating on typing with the one hand he can use, and sending the address off to the other man's personal inbox.

nehan might not have said as much, but it is his private residence and not a clinic, part of a row of terraced housing further into the streets and away from the canals. and thus the lamp. but he'll be waiting on the front steps, sitting on a small chair with his feet propped up on a footstool, crutch in his hands.]

[getsmy]

[Ives is a seven foot tall faun, Nehan will see him approaching as early as it is possible to.

A personally residence doesn't strike Ives as anything odd, plenty of doctors back home run their trade from homes. Also, the man is a Sleeper, of which he's not yet met any extremely established within the city just yet. He walks with a confident stride up to the man out front, assessing it must be him. The Giant offers a handshake, if taken it is perhaps oddly dainty given Ives has an extremely tense posture otherwise]

Doctor Nehan, I presume? I am Ives.

[torpour]

[well. he doesn't know what he was expecting, but not someone this large. perhaps, with the bleating, someone more... goat-like? but certainly not a man who seemed like the draphs from home, only... furrier.

well then.

nehan pushes himself up off of his chair, but with his short height, he cant even come close to the man's shoulder. and, leaning on his crutch the way he is, he looks much smaller. but fortunately, nehan is used to looking up at people.]

That's me, yes. If you want to be more formal for business purposes, my professional name would be Karma.

[getsmy]

[Taking in Nehan's appearance, Ives immediately clocks him as a Rahuth, a certain kind of animal person from his own world. Human face and size, with animal ears... what else could he be?

Whatever he calls his kind, Nehan gets to be right at titty level, but then most people are. Ives isn't a man who finds shirts very easily, he hates stuffing down his fur mantles beneath fabric, so uncomfortable...]

Doctor Karma if that's most respectful towards you. Again, at your discretion. [he'll generally address people how they like, unless he straight up doesn't have respect for them]

[torpour]

As long as you don't come to my practice with abusive language and still expect to be treated, I don't care what sort of terms you use.

[with his right hand, the arm which his crutch is strapped onto, he opens the door to his mouth, and waves the man inside.]

Watch your head.

[getsmy]

I would not do that, Doctor.

[He sounds like he means it, his tone her certainly serious. A beat later]

... though I shall apologize for being crass over the instrument.

[Was that what Nehan was referring to? He's not a coy man, but he can try to speak around such things if they bother others. Not everybody is so casual about sex, even in his nonsense sex fantasy world where most people are profoundly casual, it's only polite to be mindful.

Especially when he doesn't yet know Nehan from a hole in the ground.

Ives ducks in through the door, his horns nearly catching the frame. He needs to get used to everything being more standard human sizes. He eyes the room quickly, largely to make sure there's no hanging lamps he could likewise get caught on if he was careless.]

[torpour]

What, the word dick? [nehan has to snort indelicately.] I've heard worse, that's completely fine, and not what I meant in the slightest.

[the erune moves further into the house-- the ceiling is higher than the doorway at least, but it does indeed have hanging lamps. he turns towards a little sideroom that was once the kitchen, but was changed to be a sterile room for more delicate medical work.]

To that end... Well I suppose I can accept a sexual favor for a vial of healing potion or stimulant. But I have to warn you, my body sustained an injury a while ago, and I haven't yet seen how it's affected my sexual functions. [if nehan turns out to be impotent... they do have to figure something else out.

and he's still entirely business-like about this, like they're not discussing fucking.]

[getsmy]

[This is a common sort of transaction in Ives' homeland, there's really no baggage around sex work. Offering to do violence on someone's behalf is more taboo, offering pleasure or distraction is far less complicated.

Ives is mindful to not get caught on any lamps, following along]

I take no offense if an exchange need be something else. [Nehan could just straight up not find him attractive enough, after all. Nothing he can really do about that]

Chiefly, you wanted to see if my blood had some coloration to it, correct? It will be easy to compare to yours, as I am likewise a Paleblood.

[torpour]

[nehan waves him towards the window nearest to the sink, where the moonlight is peeking in through the blinds. then nehan pulls those blinds up to let more of the night sky in, optimal conditions for drawing paleblood.]

Yes. But first I should ask about it-- for instance, if you have any elemental affinities.

[as he speaks, he pulls on a face mask and sterile gloves, and brings out many tools from the cupboards. a syringe, a small bottle, cotton swabs, tongs, alcohol.]

[getsmy]

[Ives is well composed around such instruments, more curious than anything. Not like he has sleeves to roll out of the way, so provided Nehan wants to take blood from his arm there's no issue. He'll offer either side if instructed to.]

I am blessed by the Dragon of Light and control his magic. My magic has a taste like bitter tea with vanilla.

[He's used to magic being categorized by flavor more so than by color]

[torpour]

I'm also aligned with light. [and it would have been a dead giveaway if anyone from his world saw the color shot into his blood. but he's glad it's just light, otherwise, if he still worked with dark and the rest of the elements, nehan's blood would be an actual rainbow.]

But the color?

[getsmy]

Of light? It may well be any color... [Ives may very well have a rainbow hue to his blood, if it is "stained".

More likely though, it won't have a color denotation, but will have the smell he described.]

[torpour]

I see. [well, it was worth a shot, but then again, he shouldn't expect other worlds to follow the same rules that his own has. he only needs to look at diluc as an example of that.

given the immense height difference between them, nehan decides to clamber onto the counter underneath the window, huffing and puffing until he seats himself comfortably on it.

then he holds out his hands, beckoning.]

Give me your arm-- whichever one you're more comfortable with getting pierced.

[getsmy]

Wh- Hey- [Ives fusses a bit as the man strains to climb up onto the counter. He doesn't want to grab at him, but like-]

I, I could have just knelt down... [he sighs, obliging the order once Nehan is settled into place. He'll put forward his right arm since that's his non-dominant side. His skin is spattered with freckles and moles, but they're easy to avoid when he turns the arms to the underside, where they're largely around his wrist.

Beyond that, he's got well defined muscles and large veins, it shouldn't be difficult to find one to tap. He's not squeamish, no flinching from him]

[torpour]

[after making sure the arm is well underneath the moonlight, nehan swabs the crook of the man's elbow with cotton and alcohol to clean it.]

It's fine, I'm used to adjusting to the size of my patients. [though luckily, lately, it's just been children, and they're all small, whatever their race is.] And you wouldn't be the first one at this height.

[or overall build, really. nehan is just calm and comfortable, used to chatting as he preps the man's arm.]

[getsmy]

I have come across a few tall or taller than I am. Less common here than my own world. I still have growing to do this life.

[Myddvai Giant's continue to get taller well into their early thirties, Ives only being twenty this time around. People don't seem able to clock his age as well here as they can back home, but then Giant's are one of the most common kind of people there.]

No others of Myddvai, though. You look rather like a Rahuth to me, though you'd have a different scent if that was so.

[torpour]

As long as I don't reek. [a small joke, as he strips the syringe of its packaging, depresses the plunger to squeeze out all the air, and sticks the needle into the man's elbow.

always best to use a conversation when sticking someone with a sharp, pointy little thing so they offer the least resistance.]

[getsmy]

[Ives' eyes narrow when he's poked, more curious that alarmed, watching the needle. That's as close to a flinch as he'll do, he's stock still otherwise. Perhaps too tense, but he's looked like that even while walking up the street. He just holds his posture incredibly tight at all times.]

Hmm, no. The city smells so much of iron and blood that I can rarely pick up anything else.

[as Nehan draws his blood, there's no real visual difference from what Paleblood should look like traditionally. It already has a faint sheer in the moonlight, a soft rainbow edge at times. No tinting of gold as Nehan's sample has, when compared]

[torpour]

That's why I live here, rather than closer to the lamp. The smell alone might be enough for corruption. [because the smell is so strong, even nehan's iron-tight discipline wont help him not react to it. the stench of the waters sting his nose so much that he worries about nosebleeds whenever he visits that part of the district.

when he removes the syringe and caps it off, he presses a clean cotton bud to the puncture and tapes it there.]

You can remove this after an hour, make sure to dispose of it properly to avoid contamination.

[then he checks the status of the syringe, and is pleased to see that it's not red-- he harvested it properly, and now it's the signature milky color of paleblood.]