[Location] The Clinic: Stitches (Leviathan)

[Dhalvasha]

Fall 14, 511 AV

The Doctor's Clinic

Blood suffused the air in Sunberth, a semi-permanent glaze to the senses. At some point, the denizens had stopped worrying about the odd splatter here or there and so, in a way, Sunberth bled with the lifeblood of its rowdy citizens. Dhalvasha was no stranger to violence, although he had conditioned himself to a more graceful form of it. This place was brutal, its every element directed inwardly like jagged temple glass, glistening with all the colors of the bloodstream. He cut a strange figure here, fragile and pale, a wraith among hulking beings of flesh and hunger. How he hoped to take each one gently under his knife, to pluck their organs one by one...document their reactions, understand their physiology.

Ah, glorious.

But such practices were frowned upon...the untoward advances of madmen in alleyways. He would not be one of those...those, things...stooping over fresh kills and hacking a tattered autopsy before being discovered. No, the doctor required care in his work, the ability to think.

For that he'd need a facility.

For that he'd need a fellow monster...or visionary.

Dr. Petricious was a man near enough to that definition to attempt a communion with. From what the Symenstra had heard, the whispered rumors and fear of Sunberth's finest, the doctor was more a man for cutting than sewing. Still, his experimental medical amorality lent a certain allure to his clinic. Dhalvasha's own controversial methodology for biological study paled in comparison to the reupted machinations of Preticious, and their behaviors aligned remarkably well.

Anywhere else in Mizahar and he would have been saddled with tame bone knitting, cleaning up the messes of less graceful creatures. Here, at least, he could focus on expanding his repertoire of medical knowledge rather than wasting time with repetitive procedures.

The Wolf's Den was difficult to navigate, plenty of crueler faces gazing suspiciously at his slight frame and heavy packs. Thus far, Dhalvasha had remained operationally able with his Hypnotism. Slight though his talent may be, it held a certain power when used on the thick headed of violence prone. Each man he passed that gave him more than a few moments of attention he answered with a pleasant smile and a hypnotic lance into their personal aura. It wasn't much to suggest a general calm, assuaging violent or kleptomaniacal impulses in a case by case basis.

It wasn't complex, simply fanning an emotional flame to a quiet ember, long enough to get him across the alley and away from possible confrontation. Even in Hypnotism, the symnestra was surgical in his application. As with all things, incisions, especially into emotional ambiance, were best made with care.

Lest it scar.

He paused at the door to the clinic, rapping lightly with the backs of his knuckles before pushing open the door slowly, "Dr. Petricious," he called, his voice terribly quiet, far from what he wanted to sound like. He cleared his throat and tried again, his voice pervading the atmosphere of the bloody clinic with soft insistence, "Dr. Petricious? Are you in?"

He'd send word ahead of him, a sealed envelope and paper requesting internship, perhaps even paid work, with the Doctor. Being the only one in Sunberth meant someone wanted to keep it that way. Thus the only logical way to survive was to affiliate his name synonymously with the Doctor's.

How else could he continue his experimentation?