[OPEN] looking for lost items + using one's own body for science

[sailingfor]

Who: Thorns + you
What: One netbook post about finding things, one science log that's a bad idea
When: In the Grove, sometime in April
Where: Around + the Clinic
Warnings: N/A for netbook post; gore, self-surgery, human experimentation (consensual?) on the 2nd prompt which will be under a cut


i. Netbook/Phones bc April

I was told my abilities of "finding things" could be useful to people here, so I'm here to offer my services. My specific power is difficult to explain, but let's just leave it at "I can help you find anything physical as long as it's in the dimension I'm currently on". I don't believe I can assist with anything intangible.

My one request is that no one asks for anything they don't want the False God to know about. I'm currently Corrupted, and planning to deal with it at a later date.

ii. clinic / cw: gore, self-surgery, human experimentation, corruption things (click to expand)

[So anyway, Thorns is "dealing with his Corruption at a later date", meaning he's in the clinic hoping to slip past the healers' radars and get some work done. Laid out on the workstation in front of him are a number of test tubes — half of them empty, half of them full of a pale liquid — completely unlabelled, a scalpel, medical scissors, syringes, and enough paper towels and gauze to soak up the blood that's definitely going to spill. Before he starts, Thorns guns one of the liquid-filled vials like he's taking a shot at the bar, waits about five minutes, and then takes the glove off of his Corrupted arm. It's partly tree bark now, visibly blackened like his dark skin has been burnt, tiny little sprouts shooting up from between the cracks.

It's gross. Thorns knows (thinks) he can use it either way, distil his blood for some sort of toxin, cut the roots in his veins out and see just how fused flesh is with plant matter. With the Heart Essence guiding him — turns out his unique abilities work to find things within himself, too — it's a simple matter to cut the bark off and press the scalpel directly into his own skin. The painkillers he took should do wonders to numb it.

It does not. The initial press of a blade is met with a dry, bitten back and muffled whimper of pain, and the tree bark and tiny vines fight the scalpel as soon as he tries. It hurts like cutting into a nerve cell directly, but Thorns presses on, stopping only briefly to draw a syringe and inject the painkiller directly into his flesh-and-blood arm. This still does very little for him, but he feels like it works now — no doubt a placebo effect, but it's enough of one to allow him to continue slicing. Here is the part where you might walk in on this, drawn by the scent of blood and the clattering of glass from the laboratory room in the back proper. You might be just in time to see Thorns loading up another syringe of a different concoction of his, or to see him with various blood-draw tubes in his arms, where his blood is just partly black.

...

Alternatively, you may walk in on him a bit later, alerted by the clattering of a chair as he falls out of it and hits the floor in a heap of limbs, bleeding heavily from that arm, fighting to get back into his chair to grab the antidote to his paralytic toxin off the desk.

Either way, he probably needs help.]

Comments

[wolfetracks]

This sounds like it'd be highly illegal anywhere else.

( he gives the bag a glance and it's almost too much. something is wrong with it, and the 'danger sense' rings like a gunshot in his ear instead of the steady heartbeat of dread and the scratches he's used to-

sidney looks away, instead focusing on tending to thorns. )

... Thinkin' of using it somehow?

[sailingfor]

Trust me, it's illegal on Terra too. [While only half of him is working adequately, he figures he'll start pulling out the needles now, since the paralytic has him mostly-numb and they won't hurt to withdraw. Not that pain has ever bothered him, really, if the metal arm is anything to go by.] ...but that's the plan, yes. I've never made a toxin using my own blood before, but it shouldn't be difficult.

[The difficulty comes from the process of extracting it, really, and he's still cut open and his healing Arts aren't coming to him quite so easily right now. Once the tubes are all out, Thorns slumps against the cabinets under the desk and breathes a sigh.]

[wolfetracks]

( sidney helps, and then gently starts to wipe the puncture wounds and, if he can, bandage them. it's only a few little things, but- they build up, and he's already dealing with that black blood shit.

after a moment, he sighs. )

You need to rest before you do anything else.

[sailingfor]

[Thank God they're in a clinic and not somewhere stupid where there wouldn't be bandages, like idk the lake—]

Sí, sí, but there's no rest for the wicked. [isidor thorns arknights—] I have to put the samples in a centrifuge, aside from cleaning up the mess before Señora Lily gets upset...

[wolfetracks]

...

Thorns. Sit your ass down. I don't trust myself with the samples but I can handle the rest. And you need to recover.

( the grip on his shoulder is tight, unyielding- you are going to have an apple juice and a nap or so help him- )

[sailingfor]

Luckily for you, mi querido amigo, I'm sitting down right now.

[Sidney is gonna have to deal with Thorns mouthing off for the Rest of his life, but at least it's breathed out playfully while he's, uh. Suffering over here.]

...Gracias de verdad.

[wolfetracks]

( sidney's quiet for a moment before he squeezes thorns's shoulder for a moment. )

Stay put. I'm going to get you something to drink and snack on while you recover. Alright?


... And, you're welcome.