Given his position within the Hierarchy, or what he's implied of his position, 'investigating' suggests an element he was unprepared to deal with.
I do suspect that the injury could have been fake to play to our sympathies, however. I think someone who appears to be that stoic and uncontrolled would have simply recorded a message via voice if he was truly hurt. Showing it off seems... calculated, in a sense.
Perhaps he has a lot of pride and respect in giving us something besides an informal declaration. He seems to take his job very seriously.
When many people who are already afraid are relying on you, you sometimes think you must be stoic and controlled, or you'll lose them to fear and chaos. You think if you act afraid and uncertain, they will too. Any weakness might be an opportunity against you.
（ speaking from experience, d? she doesn't reply immediately, turning those words over in her head. it isn't the impression she's gotten from the man, but she can see d's rationale about why it might be. ）
I think you might be giving him too much credit.
（ it's a pattern she's starting to put together. d is capable of grace and kindness to just about everyone except himself.
please never meet orochimaru, tbqh. she's not ready for that redemption arc. ）
Anyway. Enough about the Hierarchy.
I figured out the plasma piece — and I've rented a laboratory unit in Hale for the short term. When are you free?
[Being a man of a lot of patience, he gives her forty minutes, and he doesn't even try to beat her there even though he could. He lets her arrive first since she had been the one to acquire everything herself.
But he does come. Perhaps he walked as calmly and slowly as he approaches which is how it took those forty minutes.]
（ she arrives early — as much a shinobi reflex as her own preference towards punctuality, and when she sees him she gives him a wave. she has one box tucked under her arm, and a second at her feet. she dumps the former on him, and the latter gets picked up handily. ）
Hi. How've you been?
（ their last conversation had been... a lot. so this is as much her gauging the waters as genuinely asking. ）
（ why does she feel 'a lot' is something of an understatement from him... ）
Oh?
（ she falls into step beside him, fingers gripping a little uncertainly at the edges of the box she's carrying. had he gotten tangled up in the jailbreak as well...? she should have asked sooner. ）
（ a spasm of guilt hooks in just behind her ribcage. the rational part of her knows that he's capable enough on his own, that she doesn't need to worry. it isn't like he would have been relying on her to protect him, after all. but he's — a friend, now. it's careless of her not to have known. those awful, lonely cells... he could have been killed, and she never would have known about it.
her fingers tighten on the edges of the box, making the wood creak in protest. ）
Let me know if you'd like help removing the brand. （ she has to thank kaito for that one, turning her onto the badiliscus skins to help. ） And then cursed, huh?
（ like jonas. but d, at least, doesn't smell like blood. she can't imagine how torturous that would be. ）
You aren't the first person I've heard of with such an issue. What seems to be the difficulty?
[Well, she can't feel too bad--at least, she doesn't have to feel too bad. He wasn't much different. Even despite being thrown into prison, he did not reach out to make sure she was alright.
The noise of the wood gets him to glance briefly over at her.] I'd like to remove it, yes. [Very strange for his skin to retain a mark, though, and he'd be lying if he wasn't clinically interested in the phenomenon. But he'd rather not have it there.]
Passing through doors, or archways, or thresholds makes me unable to breathe. But it only occurred at certain times.
[STOP, please check on her!! I hate all these men.]
Whenever the moons were full.
[At least, that's his best assumption. The only thing which seemed to stay the same whenever it happened.] The first time it happened, it had been for only a day. The second time, it was for several. [So this may explain why...
...he sort of hesitates very briefly going into Hale, like he expects for some reason to be barred entry. He'd just have to sit on the outside of hopefully a window and watch in frustration while Sakura worked inside.]
me crying like 'don't make me write lab nonsense pls'
（ do not think that hesitation escapes her as they enter the city gates. hale is... an interesting place, to be sure, bustling and busy and entirely underground. she feels uneasy in this place, which is perhaps a testament to the nearness of the labyrinth that everyone whispers about in the hush and fall of sound.
but she seems to know where she's going and who she wishes to talk to. she sweeps past the eerie black lake, the grand architecture with its high pillars carved from solid rock, and speaks to a woman who's smoking outside a beautifully-built laboratory. the woman nods, and gestures to the door behind her, and sakura gives d a meaningful look over her shoulder before she disappears inside.
providing, of course, that the gods of moons one and sundry don't disbar him from entry, if he trails after her he'll find her again speaking to a technician, who points her to one of the rooms. she's used it before, to analyze shalem's bloodwork — but this is her first time here for this specific purpose, and once they're inside and she's safely pulled the door shut behind them: ）
Okay. Here's what I have so far —
（ hope he's ready for some exposition i'm sure the fuck not about to write out because gosh, here it is! talk about blood! plasma! all sorts of high-falutin' lab tech babble! we have it all, baby, and once she's finished: ）
Did I miss anything?
honestly me even tho i’m playing mr vampire scientist d
[Well, the first threshold of Hale allows him entry without stealing any of his oxygen, so he thinks he might be okay through the rest of it. The architecture of Hale reminds him a lot of the now crumbling remnants of the scientific marvels the Nobility created.
He lets Sakura be the waypoint between him and the others, not that he doesn’t know how to speak when needed.
They do get a polite nod of his head, though.
With less trepidation than before, he follows her through the door (wow, he isn’t suffocating) and into their designated area where he puts the box she gave him down. He is listening to this amazing techno-speak, but takes a small pocket-sized computer from beneath his cloak somewhere, placing it down nearby.]
I’m impressed you put so much effort into the request.
[Like, she hardly knows him? Neither of them know if this will even work out yet.]
I’ll need a microscope and some of your blood as a sample. I’ll need you to draw some of mine.
You didn't think I was going to do anything by halves, did you?
（ at that request for a sample of blood, she reaches into the box, which is concealing a small cooler for just such a purpose, and pulls out a little vial. pre-drawn. look, it cannot be polite to draw blood in front of someone who has a craving for it regardless of his personal restraint. ）
Tada. The synthetic plasma's here too — （ she pats the cooler. ） just in case.
（ microscopes are ubiquitous, so he's free to take his pick of them depending on his need. she's just going to observe from this point — never know when new knowledge will come in handy, after all. ）
[To be honest, he sort of slightly adverts his gaze when she shows off the vial. Yes, thank you. But also: he is a bit worried by how much it makes the hair on the back of his neck raise, tantalized.
In an effort to not make it seem awkward, he takes off the hat to put it out of the way. Then he unclasps the collared pauldrons from his shoulders along with the cape attached to them; when he gently settles them on the ground, it’s with a heavy thunk. Without all of the bulk, it’s surprising how much he looks like a lean young man. The angular babyface now matches the physique.]
Thank you. I’m not sure there is a machine here which will dehydrate what’s synthesized. So I may only be able to make them in small batches at a time.
[He peruses the microscopes a moment with his eyes, then he brings his pick over by the small, folded computer.]
Is any of this equipment unfamiliar to your time period back home?
her attention blinks upwards from his clothing that he just threw?? on the ground?? okay buddy. and she purses her lips faintly. ）
Oh, lyophilization — there's a machine that can handle that.
（ she points out a small vacuum chamber, and continues on; ）
The machines back home take a few days to run through the process, but this can handle it in a matter of hours. It's mostly familiar, though some of it's a little more modern. Not enough that I'm completely in the dark.
[She is spared from her terrible future fate for a little bit while he sits down and sets up the parameters on the microscope.
Being able to dehydrate them eases the burden of worry he had. Small miracles.]
Alright.
[He leans back from the ocular lens and glances at her in acknowledgement. He assumes if she has questions, she’ll ask.
Turning his head in the other direction, he reaches over his shoulder to the back of his head and starts unzipping the neck of the leather chest piece. The black material peels apart over a pale and muscled back. He takes just his right arm out of the sleeve and rests it on the table.
Maybe the prison brand on the upper arm will distract her from everything else. It’s the single scar he has on his body.]
（ sir please stop disrobing she is a professional. who has absolutely seen scantily-clad men before and is not bothered by nudity in a clinical, medicinal sense, but this is like. too much. too far.
what was it he needed again?
right. blood sample. (why?)
she shakes her head and comes over to him, pulling her medical satchel around to the front of her body. she always carries an assortment of items usually relegated to scrolls in her world, but since she can't always rely on fuinjutsu, the old-fashioned way it is. she takes out needles, vacutainers and tubing. the room was already sterilized as per her instruction, and the items are all single-use by nature, so she's not shy about setting the wrapped needles and containers on the countertop. ）
Nonsense, I'm a doctor. If I was bothered by a little blood, I wouldn't have gotten very far in my career, would I?
（ she's going to draw his blood and absolutely Not Think about the tiny little ᴼᴴ ᴺᴼ ᴴᴱ'ᔆ ᴴᴼᵀ going off like a claxon in her brain. it's ridiculous, she feels twelve years old all over again, making eyes at sasuke when they were all first assigned to team seven. not exactly the world's most pleasant retrospective.
as she gets everything ready but just prior to the whole 'stab him for science' part... ）
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I don’t know. Even if it was not the intention, it was a likely outcome in time.
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（ they certainly aren't immortal by any means, but if souls can be harvested for steel there's no telling how else they can be used.
horrifying, but it isn't as if insane men wanting immortality for themselves hasn't been a recurrent theme in her life to this point. ）
I agree. And it didn't seem like they were too interested in jurisprudence, either.
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He was also injured.
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I do suspect that the injury could have been fake to play to our sympathies, however. I think someone who appears to be that stoic and uncontrolled would have simply recorded a message via voice if he was truly hurt. Showing it off seems... calculated, in a sense.
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When many people who are already afraid are relying on you, you sometimes think you must be stoic and controlled, or you'll lose them to fear and chaos. You think if you act afraid and uncertain, they will too. Any weakness might be an opportunity against you.
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I think you might be giving him too much credit.
（ it's a pattern she's starting to put together. d is capable of grace and kindness to just about everyone except himself.
please never meet orochimaru, tbqh. she's not ready for that redemption arc. ）
Anyway. Enough about the Hierarchy.
I figured out the plasma piece — and I've rented a laboratory unit in Hale for the short term. When are you free?
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[Can't wait for Amun to be evil actually, so D can frown. Frowns also at Orochimaru.]
I'm free now.
[She didn't have to do all that, but he will NOT say this because she always wants to beat him up when he does.]
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（ enough time for her to put everything into scrolls and be on her way. ）
text → action
[Being a man of a lot of patience, he gives her forty minutes, and he doesn't even try to beat her there even though he could. He lets her arrive first since she had been the one to acquire everything herself.
But he does come. Perhaps he walked as calmly and slowly as he approaches which is how it took those forty minutes.]
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Hi. How've you been?
（ their last conversation had been... a lot. so this is as much her gauging the waters as genuinely asking. ）
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He inclines his head in greeting, and then he takes the box she gives him without hesitation or complaint.]
A lot has happened.
[He will at least be that honest. This month… was so much and for what.]
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Oh?
（ she falls into step beside him, fingers gripping a little uncertainly at the edges of the box she's carrying. had he gotten tangled up in the jailbreak as well...? she should have asked sooner. ）
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Mm. [Sometimes, even when you mind your own business, you get caught up in every other mess.] I was arrested.
[He had been caught up in the prison abduct and, unfortunately, he was on the receiving end of it.]
And, as far as I'm aware, I was also cursed.
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her fingers tighten on the edges of the box, making the wood creak in protest. ）
Let me know if you'd like help removing the brand. （ she has to thank kaito for that one, turning her onto the badiliscus skins to help. ） And then cursed, huh?
（ like jonas. but d, at least, doesn't smell like blood. she can't imagine how torturous that would be. ）
You aren't the first person I've heard of with such an issue. What seems to be the difficulty?
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The noise of the wood gets him to glance briefly over at her.] I'd like to remove it, yes. [Very strange for his skin to retain a mark, though, and he'd be lying if he wasn't clinically interested in the phenomenon. But he'd rather not have it there.]
Passing through doors, or archways, or thresholds makes me unable to breathe. But it only occurred at certain times.
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everything.
she gives him a sidelong glance, and then: ）
What sort of 'certain times'?
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Whenever the moons were full.
[At least, that's his best assumption. The only thing which seemed to stay the same whenever it happened.] The first time it happened, it had been for only a day. The second time, it was for several. [So this may explain why...
...he sort of hesitates very briefly going into Hale, like he expects for some reason to be barred entry. He'd just have to sit on the outside of hopefully a window and watch in frustration while Sakura worked inside.]
me crying like 'don't make me write lab nonsense pls'
but she seems to know where she's going and who she wishes to talk to. she sweeps past the eerie black lake, the grand architecture with its high pillars carved from solid rock, and speaks to a woman who's smoking outside a beautifully-built laboratory. the woman nods, and gestures to the door behind her, and sakura gives d a meaningful look over her shoulder before she disappears inside.
providing, of course, that the gods of moons one and sundry don't disbar him from entry, if he trails after her he'll find her again speaking to a technician, who points her to one of the rooms. she's used it before, to analyze shalem's bloodwork — but this is her first time here for this specific purpose, and once they're inside and she's safely pulled the door shut behind them: ）
Okay. Here's what I have so far —
（ hope he's ready for some exposition i'm sure the fuck not about to write out because gosh, here it is! talk about blood! plasma! all sorts of high-falutin' lab tech babble! we have it all, baby, and once she's finished: ）
Did I miss anything?
honestly me even tho i’m playing mr vampire scientist d
He lets Sakura be the waypoint between him and the others, not that he doesn’t know how to speak when needed.
They do get a polite nod of his head, though.
With less trepidation than before, he follows her through the door (wow, he isn’t suffocating) and into their designated area where he puts the box she gave him down. He is listening to this amazing techno-speak, but takes a small pocket-sized computer from beneath his cloak somewhere, placing it down nearby.]
I’m impressed you put so much effort into the request.
[Like, she hardly knows him? Neither of them know if this will even work out yet.]
I’ll need a microscope and some of your blood as a sample. I’ll need you to draw some of mine.
what even is a science can i eat it
（ at that request for a sample of blood, she reaches into the box, which is concealing a small cooler for just such a purpose, and pulls out a little vial. pre-drawn. look, it cannot be polite to draw blood in front of someone who has a craving for it regardless of his personal restraint. ）
Tada. The synthetic plasma's here too — （ she pats the cooler. ） just in case.
（ microscopes are ubiquitous, so he's free to take his pick of them depending on his need. she's just going to observe from this point — never know when new knowledge will come in handy, after all. ）
yes
In an effort to not make it seem awkward, he takes off the hat to put it out of the way. Then he unclasps the collared pauldrons from his shoulders along with the cape attached to them; when he gently settles them on the ground, it’s with a heavy thunk. Without all of the bulk, it’s surprising how much he looks like a lean young man. The angular babyface now matches the physique.]
Thank you. I’m not sure there is a machine here which will dehydrate what’s synthesized. So I may only be able to make them in small batches at a time.
[He peruses the microscopes a moment with his eyes, then he brings his pick over by the small, folded computer.]
Is any of this equipment unfamiliar to your time period back home?
im so sorry
sakura: a keen objectifier of men. no she will not be accepting criticism at this time thank u. ）
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her attention blinks upwards from his clothing that he just threw?? on the ground?? okay buddy. and she purses her lips faintly. ）
Oh, lyophilization — there's a machine that can handle that.
（ she points out a small vacuum chamber, and continues on; ）
The machines back home take a few days to run through the process, but this can handle it in a matter of hours. It's mostly familiar, though some of it's a little more modern. Not enough that I'm completely in the dark.
i’m sorry to sakura…
Being able to dehydrate them eases the burden of worry he had. Small miracles.]
Alright.
[He leans back from the ocular lens and glances at her in acknowledgement. He assumes if she has questions, she’ll ask.
Turning his head in the other direction, he reaches over his shoulder to the back of his head and starts unzipping the neck of the leather chest piece. The black material peels apart over a pale and muscled back. He takes just his right arm out of the sleeve and rests it on the table.
Maybe the prison brand on the upper arm will distract her from everything else. It’s the single scar he has on his body.]
If you don’t want to, I can do it on my own.
her torment is too great
what was it he needed again?
right. blood sample. (why?)
she shakes her head and comes over to him, pulling her medical satchel around to the front of her body. she always carries an assortment of items usually relegated to scrolls in her world, but since she can't always rely on fuinjutsu, the old-fashioned way it is. she takes out needles, vacutainers and tubing. the room was already sterilized as per her instruction, and the items are all single-use by nature, so she's not shy about setting the wrapped needles and containers on the countertop. ）
Nonsense, I'm a doctor. If I was bothered by a little blood, I wouldn't have gotten very far in my career, would I?
（ she's going to draw his blood and absolutely Not Think about the tiny little ᴼᴴ ᴺᴼ ᴴᴱ'ᔆ ᴴᴼᵀ going off like a claxon in her brain. it's ridiculous, she feels twelve years old all over again, making eyes at sasuke when they were all first assigned to team seven. not exactly the world's most pleasant retrospective.
as she gets everything ready but just prior to the whole 'stab him for science' part... ）
Why is it you need your own blood...?
😔
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cw... orochimaru??? (medical experimentation/torture refs)
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you almost got an itachi tag instead and that would make this thread wild
i would have howled with laughter NIISAN!!!
he and d in the same room would be hilarious. negative talking.
two traumatized prodigies who have a lot of love who don’t talk
should i be asking what happened to d's mom...........
it’s okay probably…
that's the opposite of reassuring
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