driftfleet | (no subject)

[Well now, this catches his attention. How can it not? He's covered in them, though most of them are hidden from sight at any given time. Not that he cares.]

You could call me a doctor here of sorts, and I am good with scars. I've removed a few in my own time, but it's a tricky process. Could be made easier. Would you be willing to help me with the equipment needed for it?

[He won't be seeing any of Vash's in this video, however, he might notice that Vash is covered from the neck down in a large red coat and black gloves on his hands.] Really? You have? [He had asked, but he had not been expecting a positive response.] How does that work? What sort of equipment would you need?

[He has noticed that, and he can't help but wonder at it.]

That all depends on the scar. I can take a look for you and let you know what I think. Might be more accurate. Or would you prefer to discuss that here?

[Show his scars over the network? No, he's not sure he's ready to go that far.]

We could meet somewhere in person. That might be better.

[He didn't think so, and he won't push for it.]

Very well. You just name the time and the place and I'll be there. We could even do this now, if you want.

Shall I meet you on the Iskaulit then? I could head over now.

If that works for you. I can be there in a minute. Would you like to meet in the cafeteria?

[Sounds like that place could be busy.] How about in front of the lecture all? Discovery One? [That place should be pretty empty should he need to take his shirt off.

[He isn't familiar with it on that ship, but he assumes a similar layout between the lot of them.] Fair enough. I'll be there shortly. Long hair and all and a book to boot. You know what those are, I hope.

[And shortly, he will be. As in within the next few minutes, or as long as it takes for him to teleport to the ship and wander to the right place. He'll seat himself with a book and quietly wait for his potential patient to arrive.]

I'll be hard to miss. Spiky blond hair and big red coat. [And yet people had so much trouble with this back home.] I'll see you soon.

[Vash has to fly a shuttle over so he'll take a bit longer. A friendly smile on his face; he waves when he spots the other man.] Hey there! I'm Vash!

[He's hard to miss himself, but he'll keep in mind what he's told to put to a blur of an image once he's called out to, and he'll take that to mean the man has found him. He'll still close his book and lift his head to look at the man calling to him once they're face to face.]

Why, hello. Nice to meet you at last, Vash. My name's Undertaker, but don't let that or the scars scare you off. [Because it won't be hard to see the on crossing his face, or his neck, or if Vash is looking close enough, his finger.] You're the one asking about scar removal, eh?

Edited 2019-04-14 03:52 (UTC)

[Vash offers his hand for shaking.] Yeah, that would be me, but I have to admit between the name and seeing those scars isn't exactly filling me with confidence.

[He giggles and will accept the hand offered for a greeting.]

No, of course not. What person in their right mind would? But, rest assured, these were all done up in a day and age when I was in a bad mind and really rather needed a change in things and the technology wasn't readily available to make it all go away even if I wanted them to. Now that the past is past, what am I to work with here?

[He's still not sure he's entirely convinced, but he still would like his body fixed so Vash keeps on going.]

I have a lot of scars, but my biggest concern is I have some metal plates that were added to cover up missing skin the doctors on my world could not replace. Is that something you can help with?

[Oh, if only his world's true Ciel was here to demonstrate. But he isn't, and he can understand the man's hesitation. He would be too.]

It depends on how much skin. If it's bad enough, I might be able to shrink the scar gradually with a few surgeries over time. Skin is a tricky organ, but it's quite resilient. Would you mind showing me what we're working with?

Yeah. Sure. [He knew this would be coming up sooner or later, but it didn't mean he was trilled about it.

Vash reaches up and starts to unbutton his jacket. Having planned on this he had left his armor he usually wore under it off. So once the jacket is off the scars on his chest can be seen. Including the metal grate over his left breast.] Not much of a looker I'm afraid. [He tries for a small joke.] And be honest if you can't do anything about it.

Edited 2019-04-16 00:59 (UTC)

[Even without getting closer to really see what's there, he can tell it's bad. But the smile never falters, and really he's quite impressed as he leans in to examine the man.]

You've got quite a work here, haven't you? It's even worse than mine. Let's see here.

[He tilts his head this way and that, walking a full circle around Vash as he does.] Honesty won't be the problem. If nothing else, you'll find you can trust me to be that. What I will tell you is this isn't going to be easy, but I'm sure you already knew that.

[Once he's done, he stops to examine the grate again. This poor man. The things he has had to learn to tolerate. He leans back at last, ready with his assessment.] What I've worked with before have been smaller. You see my face and my neck, you know my meaning. The idea would be the same here, but with extensive marring like that, it'll take quite a long time to get you back closer to normal, and it won't be perfect. I'll need to double check on my facilities, but I don't believe I have what I'd need here to do it all. [Here, he chuckles and shakes his head, the irony not lost on him of this situation.] Bloody well had it back in London in my day and age even, but here? Ah...

So it really depends on you, my patient. I have no proof of what I've been able to show for but for the word of one Earl Ciel Phantomhive aboard the fleet with us, that and my own, but take that for what you will. What will you trust me with here in this place?

[Vash stands and tries to not feel uncomfortable with the examination. He fails miserably, but at least he keeps it from showing up in his face. Just the occasional shifting of his weight from one foot to the next.

Hearing this won't be easy and the result wouldn't be perfect goes a long way towards making Vash feel more comfortable with the whole thing. It made it seem more realistic and less fantastical.] I'm not really looking for perfect. Mostly I just want to get rid of the metal if possible. I'm okay with looking like swiss cheese so long as I could get rid of this thing. [He gently knocks his fist in the grate.] And these. [He gestures towards the other bolts jutting from his hip.]

Oh? Well in that case, you're going to make this a bit easier than I thought.

[He leans in again to get a better look at the offending metal one more time, falling silent as he does.] That'd be a matter of pulling the metal free and irritating the skin so it will heal back properly once it's sewn together, if it was shallow enough. But we won't be so hasty. [He lifts a finger to point at the metal without touching it. It isn't a matter of disgust on his end, no, but he knows Vash isn't liking this exam. He doesn't want to chase the man off.] How deep do these go, and how necessary have they been to you is what I'd like to know. There are organs here, bone and all quite critical to your living situation. It won't do for me to ruin that while we're trying to pretty you up again.

[For a moment Vash chews on the inside of his lip. He hated to talk about himself.] Honestly? I don't remember it all. I was caught in a blast and woke up with this in my chest. I went to a second doctor later and he said some of my bone had healed around it so he was too nervous to try and remove it. Not with the the technology he had at the time.

I'm actually not human. [It still felt so odd to say so easily out loud, but he had made a promised to stop hiding so much.] So I heal faster than most.

Interesting. [Very interesting, indeed. How he'd love to swap stories, but this presents a whole new problem.] So we have more than the scars in common, eh? Ah, well, that's not too unusual here, though it might not help much with what we're dealing with. If you heal quickly, it just reduces the time we'd need to wait until the next round of surgery.

[He crosses an arm over his chest and rubs a finger over his chin, reconsidering the man before him.] Bone isn't quite the same as skin, I'm sure you know. I'll have to know just how it's all intertwined in there regardless, in your chest in particular. Problem is, I don't have the means to take x-rays here, if you can believe that. Not on the Goldstone anyway. You wouldn't happen to know if any of the ships in the fleet do, would you?

Edited 2019-04-18 00:08 (UTC)

Oh yeah? [For a moment Vash thinks about asking what he is if not human, but then decides against it. That was his information to share. Much like how he himself rarely told people that he was an Independent Plant. It just led to too many follow up questions that he sometimes couldn't answer even if he wanted to.]

Not that I'm aware of. Who knows; maybe the next planet will have something. I did have a feeling this would be a long shot kind of question. I must admit I'm surprised to have gotten this far. [He's really not disappointed in the slightest.]

Mmhm. Hard to claim humanity anymore when you've lived a good six hundred years or so longer than most of them ever will. [He could just outright tell the man what he is. It's been fun enough seeing people's reactions to it and he thinks he'll continue under the right circumstances, but would it be too much? He'll wait for now.]

[And sigh at that response.] I thought as much. Shame we can get from one planet to the next, but to be able to see if a person has a broken bone or a bullet lodged in them? I suppose I could do a little exploratory surgery, just to get an idea of how deep it runs, but there'd be no point to putting you through the extra round of it. The less we have to do this, the better. [He gestures to the bolts in Vash's hip.] And that there I imagine is wedged into bone itself. Wouldn't be any knowing how deep it goes without seeing the other side of your hip. [A shake of the head.] Not worth it. It'd cause too much disruption for not much more than a peek, even if you do heal fast.

[He takes a moment to consider that.] Speaking of, how fast do you heal? For something like this to have happened after an explosion... Did you come to and it was already done, or is there down time for you?

Six hundred? [He tries to picture it. He's pretty sure a bounty hunter will get lucky rather than hitting six hundred, but it was still a possible future for him. He's not sure how he feels about that.] I've only been around for a little over a century. It's... hard sometimes. [He hated watching his friends grow old and die with nothing he could do to stop the aging process.]

And I don't heal amazingly fast. Noticeably faster that most doctors would comment by how surprised they were with how fast I was recovering, but not fast enough that they got suspicious of me being anything but human. Well, so long as I didn't stick around long enough to get multiple injuries.

[He nods his head.] I remember the explosion and blacking out. When I woke up it was a couple days later and this? [He knocks on the grate.] Was already in place.

[He tilts his head, putting a finger against his cheek this time.] Oh, there's fun in it. It's the hard parts that make it not worth it for a while. Even half a century is hard on folks like us. Makes us hold on all the harder, but we can trade stories about that all day long, I'm sure.

[He gestures to the bare chest in front of him.] So then not too bad. If it gets to it, I won't be cutting into you only to have you heal right off. Does that wiggle at all if you try to move it, that part in your ribs? [He won't touch unless given permission, but he's curious to know if any of that is stuck in Vash's bone. The bolts, he's sure of, but not the grate.]