audio ↪ un: 012601

[craters]

We've all had some time to settle in. Hopefully everyone's holding up all right!

For those of you I haven't spoken with, my name's Sakura. I'm both a doctor and healer and I have a little ad hoc clinic down by the docks. （ a helpful location ping follows this. ） If you ever find yourself needing medical care, please reach out and let me know. There's at least one other person here with medical experience that I know of as well, but I'll let them speak up if they want to make themselves known — and I'm happy to collaborate with anyone else, none of us can be everywhere at once.

（ paging terraria, party of bird. ）

As for my reason for addressing you all... I'm looking to keep blood on hand for medical emergencies, transfusions and any surgeries that may be necessary. If anyone is willing to come down to the clinic and give a donation, it'd be very appreciated. I promise it only hurts a little! And you'll even get a candy afterwards! While supplies last.

Those with O-negative and O-positive types would be ideal. If you don't happen to know what your blood-type is, I can run a test for you.

Thanks everyone!

（ she's almost finished, and it seems like that might have been the last thing... but a few minutes later, she clicks the feed on again: ）

I'm still looking for information on anyone who's undergone the soulbond as well. Purely for research purposes. You can reply anonymously if you'd like, or privately if that's easier. I promise anything you say will be kept confidential.

Comments

[craters]

（ she is Taking Notes. ）

I understand.

I'll have to run some tests and do an analysis on your blood, and I may need organ tissue samples as well depending on what those blood tests reveal. Do you know of any measures that were taken by the medics in your homeland to stave off the progression? It's okay if you don't know the specifics, but it would save me time if I knew a general direction to look into.

[prozaic]

Regular medication, but I haven't the faintest what goes into it. Something for pain relief for more serious cases, to be sure.

Please wear protective gear and burn the sample and your equipment when you're done. I am not infectious as I currently am, but I do not want to take chances.

[craters]

Of course. I'll take all precautions against infectious disease. I promise, you don't need to worry about me — but I appreciate your caution just the same.

When is convenient for you?

[prozaic]

Any time, Doctor. I'm unemployed.
It's also just as well that you mentioned the docks, for it's one of my favourite haunts.

[craters]

Well, if you want to 'haunt' on by tomorrow, I'll have a clean-room set up for you? Say, around 0900?

[prozaic]

For that joke? Certainly.

[craters]

I'll see you then!


（ ooc; we can thread or handwave at your discretion! i'm easy either way c: ）

uwu

[prozaic]

[the clinic is not that difficult to spot, when shalem comes to the docks so often and knows how to navigate the area. for the first time in a long time, he visits the docks without a fishing rod and his tackle box in hand. just himself.

he did have to leave his shield at his room though, just to not intimidate the good doctor. it's good for warding off the cool winds, but shalem has opted to wear layers today. he's a poor little snake-man, he needs warmth more than most people.

when he reaches the clinic, he knocks before letting himself in.]

Hello, I'm here for an appointment. [while he prefers speaking softly, he raises it now, just to be heard.]

[craters]

（ she's on a rare break, sitting down shuffling through some paperwork, fingers digging in against the knobby bones of her vertebrae in an attempt at relieving muscle tension. she's already setting the paperwork aside when he enters, and when he announces himself, she stands up and turns to face him with a ready smile. ）

Hi! Sorry, I realize I never got your name. Sometimes I think I left my manners in my world.

[prozaic]

Ah... no, some of the fault lies with me for not giving it. [his tail unwraps from his leg, where he kept it so it wouldn't drag on the ground. but this place is clean, and so he feels more comfortable letting it loose.]

My name is Shalem. I hope you've prepared quite well.

[craters]

（ the sight of that tail makes her hesitate — probably not for the reason he would expect. she doesn't, by and large, find non-humans to be strange. there are plenty of people in her world who don't look human at all even if they are. no, it's because snakes have a very... particular association for her, and by no means a pleasant one.

none of which is his fault, of course. so — ）

Well, it's nice to meet you in person. Thank you for coming. Let me know if these preparations are enough? I work with contagions quite frequently at home, but I'm a little short on resources...

（ she gestures towards the back of the tent, where she's set up a clean room for examination and analysis. she's purloined some plastic, several layers of it, each layer sealed from the next, and has set up a ventilation and filtration system on loan from another business in the main 'room' of it. some precautions simply couldn't be taken, but she'll be careful enough. she's already pulling her hair back so she can slip on a mask and a hood over it. ）

You said it was originally from airborne particulate, correct?

[prozaic]

[it's not unusual for people to give a double-take when identifying him by his tail, especially back home. he doesn't think any more of the doctor's response, and is fine with getting to business.]

It could have been airborne from dust flaking off of the mineral deposits, or it could have been the energy emitted by the rocks themselves. Both are the most common ways to contract the illness, and require close contact with them, even if you don't realize they're around. [aside from... two other methods that are pretty tragic.

shalem got off easily, but that doesn't mean he can be complacent, especially as the only infected here. he has a responsibility now.

he peeks over sakura's shoulder to the room, and winces-- he asked her to burn whatever she used for him, and... well, burning plastic is going to be a nightmare, isn't it?]

Like I said, I'm not infectious, but things could be different here. The disease is... it's still being researched.

[as he speaks, he tugs his first layer off, a sweater he found, and adjusts the rings and earrings that have gotten jostled as he did so.]

[craters]

（ she gets suited right up, down to little paper booties. just in case! ）

Well, I'll contribute to that research as much as I can. And I appreciate you letting me know about it. I'm immune to most diseases anyway — just to put your mind at ease — but if it does turn out that Stygia has affected it somehow, I'd prefer to avoid contact transfer if at all possible.

（ she does give the tail a sideways glance. ）

Do you have any metabolic or heat-related concerns before we get started? I'd like you to be as comfortable as possible.

（ she may not be the local snake expect (thanks, sasuke) but she's done some research here and there. ）

[prozaic]

My body temperature is slightly lower than most people. Rarely close to thirty-seven, but never below thirty. [centigrade, he means.]

I notice the cold more readily, but it will not bother me so much. ... Unless it's the weather. [he'll have to make that distinction, he's just so used to the medics at home knowing because they deal with people from different races all the time.

then he takes off his shirt, an automatic action from the countless times he's been in the medical ward. shalem looks pale and delicate, but he has muscles and scars underneath his layers, and a smattering of scales on his lower back that lead to his tail.]

Do you have any other questions about Oripathy? Because I have questions about your immunity. [why would he not be intrigued?]

gently godmodes... lmk if this works!

[craters]

Nothing pressing at the moment. You can ask me questions afterwards, how about that?

（ she ushers him into the little clean room, and we are Handwaving the Examination Part because otherwise it would be so boringly medicinal...

etc etc, samples taken, blood drawn, questions asked, everything neatly stored in vacuum-sealed containers with all due precautions taken with respect to the disease, and once they are finished and everything is Over, she's moved them to her little office — quite literally a hole in the wall joint that's been punched (literally) into the abandoned building beside her little canvas-walled clinic.

(if a building falls on her, she'll be fine. if a building falls on her patients, less so.)

she's doing some work to fill out his patient chart — she hadn't started in the clean-room just in case there was any transfer, so the details are being filled in by a rather frighteningly accurate memory. as she works, writing in incredibly neat hiragana — ）

So you wanted to know about my immunity, right?

all good!

[prozaic]

[shalem goes through the motions with the ease of someone who has done this song and dance before-- almost every new medic rhodes island got tended to do the same, and thus he got used to it. the only difference is that they had his files on hand and just needed to make sure they were still accurate. here, however? shalem improvised.

age? twenty-eight, the same age he put down on his soulidarity app, not his real age but close enough.

allergies? none.

tongue? forked.

sexual activity? none since arriving in this world. (he can't bring himself to say "dead" when they still act as if they're alive.)

other illnesses to be concerned about? no.

hotel? trivago

he wasn't even surprised at his x-rays and the way his organs look blurry, the way there are dark spots in some areas. oripathy, he simply said, that's what it looks like in scans. eventually there won't be anything to see in a scan. (is it him, or are the black spots larger than his last x-ray...)

his little show of ease towards this routine is interrupted when he looks at the hole in the wall (he's seen enough combat to know what a hole punched through concrete looks like, thank you) and at her writing, even if he tries not to actually look. he can't read it, he never learned the language even if he's sure it's something similar to either yan, lungmen, or higashi.]

I do. I need to know-- what are you immune to? How did you cultivate such a robust immune system? [and is there any hope for other people to have the same?]

'trivago' made me choke thank u

[craters]

Well... that's a little bit complicated to explain, and a lot of it involves medical mumbo-jumbo I won't bore you with.

（ she hadn't been quite truthful about it to begin with, mostly wanting to set his mind at ease. it isn't as though she's immune the way sasuke is when it comes to things like poison, but as far as diseases go... there's very little she wouldn't be able to heal herself, the legacy of the byakugou and the hundred healings technique at her beck and call.

she'll pay for it when (if) she gets old enough. the cellular mitosis ages her, even in the few times she's needed to use it she's aware of the changes it's made to her body. but it's a small price to pay for what she can do. ）

But the way my healing works... I can rely on something called 'adaptive immunity', so please forgive me if it seemed I was implying innate immunity. I'm used to speaking in shorthand, not many people take a more granular interest.

（ a thoughtful tap of her pen to her chin as she thinks. ）

Essentially, I can isolate and remove any diseased cells in my own body and encourage replication of healthy cells instead. As a healer, the body you're most familiar with is your own, you know?

just doing my duty 😌

[prozaic]

I understand what both are, yes. Such was part of the research of the medics that I've worked with. [he listens, even if they think he doesn't. people talk, shalem keeps a pointy ear out.]

But the adaptive immunity I'm more familiar with tends to come from medication, vaccinations, and surviving the specific disease such that it will no longer affect you... You seem to be describing something far more advanced than that.

[as if she was controlling her body the way a captain would control their unit.]

[craters]

（ hey, at least those pointy ears are being put to good use! ）

I am. It's not something to use carelessly, however, and it's not a common skill in my world. Does that answer your question?

（ that's said cheerfully enough. ）

[prozaic]

It does. [it does make him worried though. and for good reason.]

I'm assuming it's not easily taught or learned, then, given the immense benefits and... equivalent drawbacks. [whatever those are. but he can imagine, can't he?]

[craters]

（ drawbacks, hm? ）

I don't believe I could teach it to anyone here, if that's what you're wondering.

（ not entirely true. both naruto and sasuke could at the very least work towards it — but the lack of chakra in the rest of the populace is an insurmountable barricade. ）

[prozaic]

[shalem's shoulders fall-- he was thinking of asking her if he could learn, she was right about that.

oh well. he'll just continue to "live" with this, then.]

I had expected something along those lines... So it's back to the regular state of affairs for me.

[craters]

（ her expression softens, and after a moment she reaches up and sets a hand on his shoulder, fingers curving in just a little. ）

Hey. You aren't alone, okay? I'm going to do everything I can.

（ she's not about to give him false hope, or proclaim she can find a cure when she truly only knows a little about what she's up against. but she is at least going to try. ）

[prozaic]

It's all right, doctor. [shalem smiles, but it's lopsided. tired.]

I will survive here as I lived in my world, and see what I can do should the inevitable end come for me once again.

[he says that with such a sure tone. namely because he does know what he used to do, and what needs to be done.]

[craters]

Do you think that was what resulted in your death in your world?

（ there's no point in being delicate about it, and it's likely important to know for future treatment here. ）