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(no subject)

Who: Tekhetsio
Broadcast: Network | Open
Action: SS Pathstone
When: November 15

[he doesn't turn the video feed on because he looks like shit. he can't even keep his mask properly in place, so the rest of the Fleet does not need to see him looking so inhuman and a little cadaverous. the fact that he can't even hide from his crew is bad enough.]

...This is getting absurd.

[his voice is sharp and quite stressed. he has completely run out of patience.]

Has no one come up with an answer for this thing yet? Honestly? ...Isn't anyone the least bit concerned with how... ugh...

[and his voice then trails off as he backs a step away from the receiver.

the entire fleet is then treated to the distinct sound of sickened retching... followed by a few clatters... and something small, wet, and heavy hitting the floor.

anyone aboard the SS Pathstone and happening by the network station that Tek is using will have it a little worse, however. he has puked up a little bit of a mess--mostly consisting of oily black liquid, a couple of half-digested coins... and a shiny red gem.

oops.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[just watching her with one lazy, unblinking eye until she's settled. then he rouses enough to sit up, dragging himself into a slightly more presentable state. he's in his usual set of fine clothes from home, but they're definitely on the rumpled and unloved side now. it's terrible. at least he's managing to keep up his mask, but... it's a tenuous hold.]

Do we need to go somewhere else? The other rooms are somewhat occupied.

[there's a demon in his bed and the lab is full of potatoes.]

Not at all, but I wondered if you'd be more comfortable somewhere else. [A laughable idea, she can imagine he's not comfortable at all, but ah. Little things. She shuffles closer anyway, and flips open her case. First thing that happens are gloves, snapped quickly over her wrists. Risking contact between his body fluids and her skin doesn't seem like a good idea. Titan blood is very hot; she has no idea what his will be like.

She highballed and came with four vials, visible nestled in padding.]

[yeah he's eyeing those vials, and nods to them while she's setting up]

You throw those out the minute that you're done with your tests, understand?

And no one else gets to play with it or sample it in the meantime.

It's between us! [she's definitely not throwing out those vials if she can help it - at least one will be hers!] Take it easy.

Is there a draw site you'd prefer? I'm leaning towards an arm myself. Would you like right or left?

I don't care.

[he's never had his blood drawn in a proper way, so he's got no basis for comparison. he starts rolling up both sleeves in the meantime regardless.]

What are you going to do with this, anyway? ...Do you really think you can come up with a way to fix this?

Let's do the arm of your non-dominant hand, then.

[Assuming he even has a dominant hand, but hey, she figures he'll tell her if he doesn't. In the meantime she pulls out a tourniquet.]

Anyway, I'm a researcher by trade and the augment has added a lot to my expertise, to be honest. Since you mention it, I'm going to collect as many samples as possible, from humans too, and see if I can notice any commonalities in those who are ill. Pathogens and whatnot. Once we find something like that, we can try working up a vaccine. That kind of thing has been done before, so the principle seems more or less the same to me.

The first thing I'll do now is tourniquet you. Then dilate the vein, disinfect the site, and do the stick.

[he'll lazily offer his left, then]

And you think that will work on creatures that have absolutely no history of being affected by medicine whatsoever?

Well, you're being affected by whatever this is, aren't you? If it doesn't work, and you're still showing symptoms, I'll try for another method. Assuming you're willing to put up with that.

[And he caved in and called her, so whoever he'd need to heal him poking at him a little more might be worth it, right? It looks that way to her.

Anyway, she snaps the tourniquet around his arm snugly, then lightly takes him by the wrist.]

Arm straight out, like so. Make your hand a fist, but don't clench or move it.

[his skin is far cooler than a human's should be. more like a reptile without a stone to bask on than a mammal.

and until that tourniquet is on and doing its job, she might not be able to feel a pulse at all. even when it's detectable, it's weak and more sluggish than a human would be able to tolerate without serious complications]

...And you're doing this because of sheer, burning curiosity, or out of the kindness of your heart?

Well... there's no reason for you to suffer on if there's something that can be done. The same goes for the rest of the people here. [But she laughs.] But you wouldn't believe it was pure altruism, would you? Is your body temperature always this chilly?

[As she talks to him she starts lightly tracing the veins where they're visible. Hmm, maybe it'll take longer than she knows it would for a human, since his pulse is dragging like that...]

I've met very few people this excitable over mere altruism. You've got no one to blame but yourself for that one.

...And no, it's not. I had a fever this morning.

[his veins are actually fairly easy to see, especially with him beginning to lose some of the finer details of his mask--the lines of his blood vessels are a little blacker than blue or red, so they stand out against skin so pale. everything about him that should have that warm color from red blood just doesn't look quite right as he stops caring so much about covering his true appearance.

and he somehow maintains a decent blood pressure without his heart having to do much work, so his veins plump up just like they should after a few moments]

Can you blame me? Of course I'm interested in what you are. I'm a scientist, after all. [She grins for a second, eyes fervently bright, then concentrates on what she's doing. An alcohol swab to wipe down the site, noting the black tracework with interest. So fascinating. Then she waits for it to dry, blowing lightly after a moment to speed it up.]

Anyway. Do you usually get sick? If you're suddenly sick, and everyone else is getting sick, then if I find the same thing in you that everyone else has... I would think a treatment that worked on others would have a reasonable shot at working on you.

[normally, human curiosity is something he quietly loves. it's one of his favorite things about the little mortals. he sympathizes with it, being a terribly curious creature himself...

...but this is the one sort of instance where he does not like seeing it. so, he frowns at that look.]

I literally cannot get sick in any normal sense. It's impossible. The only things that have ever done this to me have been magical in nature.

Either you're having a new experience, or someone with a magical expertise will have to take over, in that case. [She gauges that's dry enough...]

All right, I'm prepping the needle. [Just like that the ravenous expression is shuffled away again. She has Her Things that she'll go on and on about, but the job takes precedence. She's checked the needles already, and now she smoothly threads the needle into the holder, slips the first tube on, takes hold of Tek's arm to stretch the skin on her stick site tight, and slips the needle in. Badabing, badaboom.]

[and she'll have a vial filling with nice... hideously black blood.

as it coats and fills the vial, the underlying color if it was diluted might be something like muddy purple. but it's so inky and poisoned-looking, it really bears very little resemblance to typical blood at all.

and by his bored expression, it must look exactly like it's supposed to. he rubs his face with his free hand and then rests in it, propped up and watching with growing weariness.]

Ooooh...

[SO FASCINATING. But she refrains from further comment, staring with wide eyes until it stops spurting in. Absentmindedly she reaches up and unsnaps the tourniquet with a simple firm pull. Then onwards to the next tube, one clipped out, the other swiftly clipped on.]

[he appreciates the silence, so he likewise keeps his comments to himself.

face still propped in his hand, he just... waits.

he closes his eyes and takes the minute to rest, since this is already the most he's been up and active in days. hopefully he won't doze off and slip off his hand, jostling the whole operation.

and in the meantime, his mask just fails. whatever. he can't care right now.

his skin grays out to a wrong, warmthless color. bone ridges wrinkle up the bridge of his nose and around his eyes. the whole bit.]

[Ohhh she inhales so deep. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. If only he'd let her touch it. Her hands are busy or she probably wouldn't be able to stop herself. Either way she leans in, expression not so avidly curious but more like - admiring. That's ten thousand times more interesting and attractive to her than some fake pretty-boy face.

Her attention is not completely on the job now but she still has it together enough to slip one tube out, the next in. Teeeek you daaaaaarliiiiiiiiiing...]

[it's probably the overt hovering that finally prompts him to surface from his near-dozing and open his eyes.

--eyes which are now glowing a little more than they had been with his mask up, of course. you're welcome, Hange.

...and her being so close gets a surprised blink, followed by him refocusing enough for a glare.]

[Okay okay... she'll lean back a little bit... but she follows it up breathlessly:]

That's so... attractive...

[...whoa now. okay.

he straightens up, leaning away. eyes are narrowed like he can't decide if he's weirded out, or... suspecting that she's making fun of him.]

...What is?

[Not making fun. She looks... even more avid... than usual... the whites all around her eyes are visible.]

Do you have an alternate form? You're a shapeshifter? You can control your facial structure? I see why you'd want to look the other way to pass as human... but this is much better. ♥

[he grimaces, which turns out to be a nice sharptoothed snarl-face that goes well with how the bone ridges have deformed things. she's lucky he's so critically low on energy right now. he's still very much trying to be patient and behave himself.

his voice is still low and calm, but the warning growl-tone is right under it.]

...Do you remember what I said about pretending to not be so excited?

Because--where I'm from--that sort of eagerness means very bad things, and you're very much reminding me of them right now.

[Okay... okay... okay. Obligingly she sits back and gets a grip on her face. Still smiling, but a little bit less like she's like to bite into him like he was a peach right now. It's pretty visible the little shake she's giving herself, though she's still looking at him with bright interest.

And she finally switches out the other vial.]

No, that's very lovely... really.

Thank you.

[he really does just need to be placated sometimes. even though he logically knows that she's just calming herself down on the outside and it really hasn't changed her level of rabid interest at all, the effort matters. it satisfies him enough, regardless of the fact that the change in her face doesn't actually mean anything.]

...And yes, I'm a shapeshifter. It's one of the reasons that I doubt your medicine will be able to do much for me.