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

[unsheathedfromreality]

[He nods once to that.] Not all of what I say must be kept secret, if you wish to share or use it. That which does, I will say, and it does not bother me that you put it to paper so long as you keep it safe.

[It occurs that if he becomes a repeat patient that will spare him having to share his secrets more widely.

He makes a note to ask about that after.]

Your questions?

[torpour]

Your name, age-- [a pause, before he reminds himself of circumstances and moves to elaborate.] Age when you died, and how long you've been undead.

And if healing potions still work for you.

For safety reasons, I wont attempt any medical-related experimentation with your blood outside of the one I'm planning. [which negates quite a lot of the standard questions nehan has, and the undead part just... removed a good number of them as well.]

[unsheathedfromreality]

I would ask you use an alias for me.

Six-hundred fifty, give or take a decade. [They did keep accurate records; it's a Long Story why he has that much error on his age.] I have been undead for the better part of four years.

Yes, though they may not work very well in many cases. It varies by ingredient.

Can you share what it is you are planning? [A pause.] This is curiosity, not a prelude for an objection.

[torpour]

A personal file for you, if you come back here for treatment. There are specific things I need to know about my patients, just in case their bodies don't react well to the potions I give, or they need specific treatment that I need to learn.

[his methods are just brusque, because he's used to dealing with bratty adults, and then children.]

[unsheathedfromreality]

Mmm. [He lapses silent to consider that for a solid quarter-minute.]

How are you at suturing? I presume you are not a necromancer.

[torpour]

I use light magic, not dark. [and that's his answer about his elemental affinity, as well.]

And I know how to suture. I reserve it for people who either do not want potions, or shouldn't take them.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Oh well that explains everything.

...Actually, it doesn't, but that's entirely a deficiency of Illarion's metaphysical framework when it came to magic. He frowns faintly.]

"Light" is not an element I am familiar with. [And elemental magic, period, is something he's...vague on.] But I presume it makes you inclined to life, over death?

What goes into these potions?

[torpour]

[nehan shrugs, he could say that-- it's not as if nehan knows the philosophies behind the elements, when he's just a man who plays with plants.]

Flora and fauna-- more the former than the latter. But the exact ratios and ingredients depend on whether or not I'm brewing it as a healing potion, or a stimulant. [and he gives a partial list of them. caffeine, ginseng, tea extracts, fruit extracts, so on and so forth.]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Illarion listens to the whole list attentively.] Some of these would be poisonous to me, if I still lived. And--

[He pauses, holding up a finger as he works through this thought.] --my blood is still alive, even if I am not. I do not know what this means for a potion. Something like what you describe would heal me a little, back home, but have no stimulant effect.

[Now?? No idea.]

[torpour]

Tell me.

What are poisonous, and what are you allergic to?

[unsheathedfromreality]

My kind tolerate less caffeine than humans or orcs. Avocado. Any fungus, [and he goes on to list several other substances that are poisonous to birds.

Finally,] And grapes are not poison, but they burn us as peppers do humans.

[torpour]

Hm. I'll have to find alternatives for you, then. Or learn healing magic, myself.

[because nehan is not the type to say "no, i cant help you", when he still has so many avenues available to him. and not when he's presented with such a puzzle he's never come across before. this is an opportunity to challenge himself, and learn more rather than grow stagnant in his field, and by the skies, he will take it.]

cw: cannibalism + suicide mentions, okay illarion

[unsheathedfromreality]

You would do this? [He's not incredulous as much as pleasantly surprised.]

I would welcome the attempt, and be in your debt. The alternatives, if I cannot find a necromancer--I do not like them. [Frank cannibalism or repeated suicide, if he were injured enough. Fun!]

If this requires experimentation, I am your subject.

[torpour]

[nehan nods, acknowledging the need for him. he's not about to back down from this challenge, when it will make him truly work for something. but first...]

Not today-- some other day. There's a lot of preparations to be done on my end before I start working on healing magic.

[unsheathedfromreality]

Understandably. [He falls silent briefly, considering. They seem to have reached the end of their questioning, and he should not stay in a living place past his utility.]

Have you any other u--any other questions for me, now?

[torpour]

Nothing for now, unless you have something you want or think you need to share.

[and then he waits, leaving the other man with his cue.]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[He is silent and still as he gives that full consideration. If he's trusting this man with his--health, as it were, there are facets of his nature he needs to share. And the time to do it would not be during an emergency.

But it does mean divulging certain secrets.]

You have noticed I am blind. [And if not, now he knew.] And--this next I tell you is something to be kept to yourself.

This that you see, [he taps his chest for emphasis,] is not all of me. Much of what I am resides outside the world, and it is not--stable, since my death and return. This instability might kill me a second time, if I am not very careful. It has already cost me my sight.

Unfortunately, [and here his voice turns rueful,] seeing the whole of me can cause madness. This much, [he suddenly has talons on his hands,] is safe. [The talons vanish.] More is a risk, especially if you meet my eyes.

[torpour]

[is he akin to an otherworlder, nehan has to wonder-- then again, he's never heard of stories of people going mad when they simply look at otherworlders, just with repeated interaction. who knows.

still, he nods.]

I understand.

And you should know I have nothing to do with that knowledge but keep it-- I'm a doctor, your doctor now. So your secrets are safe with me.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[That's something common between worlds--that commitment to confidentiality in medicine--and Illarion is visibly heartened to hear it.]

I thank you for that, and once more for--hm--expanding your practice to include me. [As the incense is long burned out, and that was really the last thing he needed to say, he'll move to empty and gather up the burner. While doing so:]

Are there any supplies you are in need of, presently? [He might as well make himself useful right away.]

[torpour]

At the moment? Everything, for instance. [he did ask, and nehan did respond-- bluntly at that.] What is a pharmacist without materials?

I live far away from Lumenwood but I'm not willing to go there every day for fresh ingredients, hence why I've asked for help. But you don't have to if you have other business.

[unsheathedfromreality]

I have other business, but I do not sleep, and I am often enough in Lumenwood to trade blood and incense. Ache, as well, for ingredients. [He finishes wiping ash out of the burner bowl and stows it in his bag, followed by the folded tripod.]

I do not know I can be reliable as every day, but every three will not tax my schedule. Do you have lists of what you need?

[torpour]

A shame. [that's what he says instead. he does want items early in the morning, and a person who doesn't sleep would be an ideal courier... but once every three days? no, that wont do.

he's not jumping into this sort of arrangement when he knows he can find a better one, he just needs to find the right person.

then he shakes his head.]

I need goods delivered every day to ensure their freshness. I cant use you as a courier.

[unsheathedfromreality]

Ah, pity. [But if schedules don't work, they don't work.

He shoulders his bag.] Should my circumstances change before you do find a permanent courier, I will inform you.

[But it's unlikely he'd be having less disruptive Hunter work in the near future.] Your supply of nonperishables is sound? If so, I will leave you with an open-ended debt.

[torpour]

I'm fine. [nehan waves his hand despite the man being blind, an action more out of habit than anything.]

Come, I'll walk you to the door, then you can go to work, and think about how you can pay me back.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[He can't help it--a smirk tugs up one corner of his mouth at that dismissal, even as he makes to fall in beside the erune.

There's certainly one thing he can immediately think of but no sane living creature would want it.]

Very well.