Closed What the Petch You Drinking? [Kechaiya]

[Thannis Daraktheon]

Timestamp: 19th of Fall, 514 AV

After some hubbub about snake people that Thannis had only heard half of a half of a story of in the tavern the gangs that rules Sunberth had went completely bonkers. They patrolled the streets in force and had open battles with rivals not caring if innocent civilians got caught in the crossfire. However this was not neccesarily a bad thing. Scoundrels though they were many of the gang members would not loot their own fallen comrades. After having stumbled across a man nearing death a few days ago and finishing him off for the blood he decided to pat the body down just in case and had found a few coins.

Ever since he had taken to strolling around Sunberth and looting whatever did bodies were in private enough places and, if circumstances permitted, having a little drink as well. It was on one such stroll, in the late afternoon he noticed a glittering trail of blood across the ground. Hhe had been looting what was probably a Daggerhand when he noticed it. He pocketed a couple of silver mizas from the daggerhand and stood. He was in the middle of a narrow street. It wasn't exactly an alleyway but it was still very narrow. One dagger hand lay slumped against a wall. He looked as if something, or someone, had ran something sharp into his gut several times. However a good few paces away there was a large splotch of blood on the ground and then, a little ways down the street several more splodges all dotted together.

Thannis wondered if the daggerhand had come here having been wounded somewhere else. He crouched down in the dirt and examined the splotch of blood closest to the daggerhand. He could see some foot impressions in the dert but he couldn't tell if they were the right size for his dead friend. There were, however, a lot more impressions around the same area. The daggerhand had either had a scrap with someone here or had been dangerously off balance. The evidence seemed to Thannis to point in favour of the daggerhand being alone when he arrived here.

Thannis decided to go over to the other trail of blood anyway. Perhaps there would be others and they might lead him to a nearby battle or, hopefully, this guy's attacker/victim whom he hoped the daggerhand had left in a similar state of death. Sure enough when he bent down to the ground he made out more footsteps. These ones lead away around a corner into an alley. Thannis moved up to wall and crouched sneaking forward to the corner before cautiously peering around it. There was another splotch of blood about halfway up the alley and from then on there was a thin tril of blood leading all the way up and into another side street.

Thannis ran as quietly as could along the aleyway keeping himself close to the wall that's corner gave the entrance to a significantly smaller side street between two buildings. He peered around the corner. A man was laying splayed face up on the ground. One bloody hand lay open with a dagger resting on top of it. The dagger was absolutely drenched in blood. It had definitely been the offendeing weapon. Though thannis saw that the man had a sword still sheathed in a hilt by his belt. It must have been the daggerhands weapon.

Thannis crept toward the body. At first he thought it was a corpse but as he drew closer ne noticed the chest was heaving ever so slightly despite the darkening pool of blood that was growing outward from him. He didn't seem too conscious though. He'd been stabbed too. Closer to the heart than the daggerhand. A thought had gripped Thannis. What if that big pool of blood back there had been this guy's blood. What if the daggerhand had taken him by surprise back there and stabbed him. Then, somehow, this one had gotten the dagger and had his revenge. However, about to bleed out, this one fled. Thannis looked up and down the narrow side street. No one was around. He wondered where this one had been going and why he'd been ambushed by a daggerhand. He looked thuggish but really one could never tell outright. It was probably just a gang thing.

Thannis bent down and picked up the bloody dagger. He wasn't too scared of the unconscious thug. With wounds like that it would be a miracle for him to do anything even annoying to Thannis. Thannis licked the blade absentmindedly. Therewas two different kinds of blood on it but it still just tasted like the same old blood. Coppery and delightful if a bit congealed and dry by now. Thannis would have to do something about that. Thannis took the dagger and plunged it into the thug's neck. His eyes shot open and he gurgled something blood already filling his mouth. Something made Thannis smile amusedly at this and stab again. This time there was a little spurt of blood up into the air. Thannis dodged it. As much as he would like to bathe in it he couldn't have his clothes getting all bloody.

He withdrew the dagger and bent down to drink from the running flow of blood from his neck. It wasn't as warm nor was there as much as he would like but 'twas good none the less. 'Twas good...

Credit to Skerry

[Kechaiya]

"Oy that petchin' hurts ya bitch!"

Kechaiya glared at the man who instantly quieted down. After all, he was in quite the predicament. He had a crossbow bolt shot through his shoulder, and was lodged into a wooden crate, property of a shop, sitting in the alley behind it. He was effectively pinned there, and had been that way when Kech happened upon him while doing her daily rounds, looking for patients. She dug into her pack, pulling out a pair of snips, normally reserved for cutting herbs at the stalk. Blades on either side of the wooden shaft, she had to use both hands to try and cut through it. Grunting and huffing she worked at it, ignoring the pained protests of the man, until it finally cut through. She took the broken piece and tossed it away, fletching and all.

"Walk forward, shaft slide out. Then I sew up."

The man nodded, gritted his teeth, and walked forward, wincing in pain, the bloodied shaft being pulled free. He then slumped to the ground, leaning back against the crates. "Thanks for comin' along Doc, sorry I swore at ya." Kech just nodded, as she pulled out her sewing kit, and a few other things. She was about to start preparing the grain alcohol when she heard the familiar sound of gargling blood. Her patient whispered, "What the petch was that?"

Kechaiya brought a finger to her lips indicating him to be quiet. She then peeked her head out past the crates and couldn't quite figure out what she was looking at. It appeared that a man was... sucking at another man's throat. Kechaiya had heard that some men chose to try mating with other men, but had never seen it before. Curious, she kept watching, until he pulled away for a moment, and she saw the blood. He was sucking at the man's blood. That was even more interest catching than the idea of two men attempting to mate. Why in the world would he drink blood? Kechaiya never liked the taste, it was a bit metallic, thick, and warm.

Then her patient peered around, "What the petch... Are ya drinking blood? Are you one of them there spider peoples?"

Kechaiya was ready to swat the fool. Clearly there was something medically wrong with him to be drinking blood. "Stay here."

Maybe he was just addled, or starving to death. Kech had a hunk of bread in her pack. She grabbed it, and stood up, walking out from behind the crate, approaching cautiously. She held the bread out in front of her. "You hungry? No need drink blood, I give bread. I doctor. I help you."

[Thannis Daraktheon]

“What the petch...”

Thannis stiffened suddenly. He looked up. Instinctively he licked his lips to get the blood from around his mouth. The dagger was still in his right arm and he gripped it tightly. However, for perhaps the first time ever, the hint of danger didn't stir the Beast. Perhaps this was due to the fact he'd eaten twice in less than twenty chimes.

“Who goes there?” He growled out into the empty alleyway. Thannis had never had the opportunity to speak with his foes. By this point the Beast had usually taken over him and he'd sprang at them. “Show yourself! Don't make me come looking for you.” He gave his orders as assertively as possible but, again, he'd never had to do that before so his words rang with a mixture of fear, uncertainty and hesitation.

He didn't have to wait long for someone to show themselves. It was not who he had expected however. A small woman approached him from some crates at the other end of the alley. How had he not noticed those before? The voice he had heard was male. He was instantly suspicious. He coiled himself into a position of greater readiment over the dead body. He almost looked like a wild animal protecting it's kill from another.

“Who else is with you? What are you doing here?” Thannis barked out ignoring the offer of bread. What kind of a mad woman witnessed this and offered the perpetrator a hunk of bread? That was when he noticed she had eyes of complete blackness the likes of which he had never seen before. For a moment he, the Undead monstrosity, was unnerved by it. “What are you? What's up with your eyes?” Thannis demanded to be answered.

Credit to Skerry

[Kechaiya]

Kechaiya had hoped to entice another patient into giving her gold to treat him. She hadn't expected him to be so aggressive and bestial. It seemed as if he were protecting the corpse from her. What the petch would she do with a body in an alley? She was nowhere near strong enough to haul it back to her home to explore and experiment on it. The man barked out inquiries at her, and she was starting to grow nervous. This man's behavior was coming off as quite dangerous.

She was about to answer him when her injured patient didn't take to kindly to the questions. "Oy, ain't nunya bizness blood sucker!" Kechaiya looked over at him shocked. What the petch was he thinking? He couldn't even use his left arm and here he was provoking a guy that drank blood from corpses. A hurried shh escaped her lips as well as a glare that made the man shrink behind his crate.

Normally she would craft an elaborate lie as to why her eyes were black, an old habit to both protect and entertain her. If people feared the eyes, maybe they would think twice about messing with her. But she didn't have the time, so she had to go off the cuff. She raised her hands up in front of herself, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. In a calm, soothing voice, "My eyes cursed by gods. I doctor. Why you drink blood? You sick?"

Kech was already preparing herself to run like a prisoner out of Hai. Her patient was on his own after that antagonizing he'd done. She'd learned long ago to trust everyone as far as she could throw them. The only thing she could trust was mizas, and she'd not received any yet, so there was no point in sticking around if this became sketchy.

[Thannis Daraktheon]

Thannis had taken an instant hatred toward the black-eyes' friend. He was rude and clearly an idiot of dramatic proportions. Thannis got the impression an idiot like that would have come out from behind those crates if he could. Which meant that the man was probably injured. It was probably another survivor from the fight that had taken place here. When the doctor repeated again that she was, in fact, a doctor Thannis put the pieces together. She'd been treating this man's wounds and Thannis had just rolled right onto the scene. He mentally chastised himself for getting into this kind of a situation where he had multiple witnesses.

“Cursed by Gods?” Thannis asked curiously letting his guard down a little. “I'm going to stand.” He declared slowly rising to his feet. He held his hands out in front of him. His right still held the bloody dagger but limply. “No alarm. Just standing.” He repeated in the same kind of broken Common as the Doctor had spoken to him.

He managed to get all the way to his feet before it happened. The other man scrambled to his feet and rushed in front of the Doctor. Thannis backed off but hunched forward his dagger held firmly so that he could strike out with it if he needed. He even let out a growl. The man swayed dangerously and drew an iron sword out of a sheath at his belt. Blood leaked in no small amount out of his shoulder and his eyes, though filled with defiance, were lidded and heavy. He held the sword loosely in the opposite hand. Thannis guessed that his good hand had been the one that now hung limply at his side because of what seemed like a hole in his shoulder. “Get- Get away fae that Doctor you blood sucking shyke!” He declared in defiance and promptly fell to the ground eyes rolling in their sockets.

Well that's one way to get rid of a witness, Thannis thought idly. This left just Thannis and the female Doctor with the black eyes as the only two wholly conscious folk in the alley. He didn't know if the guy was dead or not but he suspected he was merely conscious. He suspected, in fact, the man might not even be in mortal peril. This made Thannis say something he'd never really thought he'd hear himself say “You fix people for gold, Doctor?” Thannis asked continuing before she could answer “I pay double if you let him die. I'll even drop...” as he said the word he let go of the dagger. When it hit the ground he promptly stated “that.”

Credit to Skerry

[Kechaiya]

She watched as he stood, explaining his actions as he did them, hands up, and it did bring her some calm. It was what she had done, and clearly he wasn't looking for more violence. It was what was expected from a genuinely sick person and not some blood sucking monster. As he stood, she saw a flurry of movement from her patient, and she quickly shirked away from him, not wanting to get caught up in whatever violence she assumed was about to occur. That is all gangsters knew, was force and fear.

It seemed the gangster had developed some sense of protecting her. Perhaps because if she were to die, he wouldn't get fixed up, or maybe because she got him free from that arrow. Either way it was stupid. The other man had shown no sign of wishing to attack. And then he passed out, probably from blood loss and exhaustion. Well that was a bit of good luck she supposed, on everyone's part involved.

Then the blood sucker spoke, and the mention of coin kept her interest. Coupled with the good faith of disarming himself, along with that nagging need to know why he drank blood, he had her complete interest and attention. If she'd understood him correctly, and she was fairly certain she had, he was offering twice as much gold if she did nothing. Kechaiya didn't even need to think twice, she'd done worse for less. But she also knew she had an advantage. He had no idea what she would've charged the man.

Stepping forward toward him slowly, she decided to double the normal cost of what she would've charged the man. Her prices were, after all, cheaper than pretty much any other doctor in Sunberth. She didn't know much math, but she knew how to work with mizas, "Is two golds exam. Four golds clean, sew, bandage. Four golds extra salve, bandages. Is ten golds twice. Twenty golds, he die." She'd been walking closer as she said that, she used her foot to kick his dagger well out of reach. This close might be dangerous for some, but she had her own dagger in the waist of her skirt, beneath her blouse. Confident that he wasn't a threat to her, she went for the cherry on top. "Why drink blood? Sick?" The curiosity in her voice, in spite of the thick accent, was more than a bit obvious. She'd never heard of such behavior, and was eager to learn to treat it, or try and figure it out.

[Thannis Daraktheon]

The Doctor made no movement to get involved in the occurrence. Since the situation had begun she had seemed only curious and non-confrontational. For some reason Thannis found that he was beginning to like this Doctor. When she stepped forward and kicked the dagger away with no small amount of courage he found himself grinning. She spoke quickly in that broken accent of hers and the cost kept on going up. Thannis was happy simply that she had agreed to do it. He could pay her price no matter the exuberance.

“Twenty?” Thannis asked mulling it over. “Okay, gimme a chime.” Thannis bent down to unconscious gangster. Thannis rifled through his pockets for any coins he could find. Then he moved to the dead gangster and did the same. He counted all the money he had scrounged with a smile and added the rest from his own gold. “There you go, Doctor. Don't spend it all in the one place.” Thannis said in a somewhat cheery voice. He was feeling much better now that he had defused the situation. “

Do you think anyone will see anything more than just a gang scuffle here if it were investigated in future?” He asked the Dcotor curiously. She of all people ought to know about identifying wounds. He hadn't bit any of them. In fact the only wounds he had given either of them had been stabbing the throat of the first one. “Speaking of which.” Thannis muttered to himself and with one swift stomp he crushed the recently fallen gangster's neck with his boot.

Thannis had an answer to give the Doctor when she asked for the third time the question that had driven her out from behind those crates in the first place. “I cursed by Gods too.” He repeated in almost the same manner she had said to him earlier. “God didn't like me. Put his curse on me. Made me pale. Made me unable to eat or drink. Only thing I can eat is... Uh, blood.” Thannis had no idea why he was telling the Doctor any of this or why he was speaking in short bursts. Maybe her way of speaking was rubbing off on him. “Don't tell anyone, would you?” He added at the end kind of lamely. He briefly wondered if gold would shut her up too. Hopefully fear would do the job. Then again Thannis wasn't being very fear inducing at the moment.

Credit to Skerry

[Kechaiya]

Kechaiya watched as he looted the dying man for coin. At least he wasn't stupid like the poor fellow bleeding to death. She may have extorted him, over inflated her prices, but he wasn't paying it all with his own money. She assumed it to be a win win situation. After all, dead men don't need mizas. Gladly accepting the money, she added it to her pouch, the attempted joke lost on her poor understanding of Common.

The question he posed was a curious one, if she understood it properly. She gave him a curious look, not sure if he meant what she interpreted. She flinched suddenly as he crushed the man's throat with his boot. That was just strange, he'd paid her to let him die, only to kill the man himself. But then she listened intently to his claims that a god had actually cursed him. What were the odds. She had made up that story, and here was a man that it had supposedly happened to. Everyone had heard that the gods could curse, but she'd never actually met one.

But it made sense. The gods were well beyond simple mortal logic, and there was no reason she knew of for a man to drink blood. A normal person would vomit from too much of it. It was sad. Kechaiya loved eating more than nearly anything else. Fish, chicken, potatoes, the foods common around here were all delicious to her. Back home they had vulture, lizard, goat, all delectable. When he asked her not to tell anyone, she now knew the reason for him asking what it looked like here. Moving past him, she knelt down next to the man he'd been drinking from. There was no signs of biting or anything other than a stab to the neck. The other man had been shot and his neck crushed.

"Look like normal gang wound. No question."

Kechaiya knew the importance of not talking. Everyone in Sunberth did. Words were power, and power could be used against you. And she didn't have any reason to use this knowledge against this man. If anything, he was a lot of future business. "Need drink blood once day, like food?" She had purposefully not said she would keep his secret yet. Depending on how he answered the question, she might offer a business trade to him. After all, she was a doctor in Sunberth, and doctors knew people who bled to death all the time.

[Thannis Daraktheon]

Thannis smiled. “Good. I'll just leave the bodies as is then.” Well that was that sorted. The question she asked next was a strange one. Why did she want to know how often he had to drink blood. “Not really. Often but not as often as food. I don't feel hungry. I just get urges. Like cravings. They tend to come on suddenly. I don't have too much warning.” There he went again explaining things in numerous short sentences. She could obviously understand him. He just couldn't help it. “I need to get it from the source too. Cold blood bad.” Thannis face contorted at the thought of cold blood. It was sustaining but disgusting. “It help but bad.”

Thannis scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure what else to say or do. Standing here in front of two dead bodies in broad daylight was a bad plan. They were just waiting for another thug to stumble upon them and another confrontation to occur. “I should probably leave here... Well, I wouldn't think people would be too happy to see a young woman with black eyes standing over two dead bodies either. Are you going to keep my secret?”

[Kechaiya]

Kechaiya nodded, understanding that he didn't have to drink the blood daily. That was good. If it had been daily, then she would have no chance at the deal. She could lose a patient every so often, but couldn't do it all the time. The fact that he needed it fresh made it a little more difficult, but not impossibly so. He was probably right about the standing around, and she agreed, nodding as she started down the alleyway. "I keep secret. Walk me."

Stepping over to corpse, she hopped a bit to get her pack into a more comfortable position. She looked over her shoulder back at the cursed man, "Come. Have talk of mizas." She continued along to the corner, peering around out of safety. The streets were clear, and it gave enough time for him to catch up. Stepping around the corner, assuming he'd join her, she continued speaking.

"If ever crave bad. Find me." She described the directions to her home, on the north side of Sunset quarter, "Bring twenty gold. I get you blood. Fresh blood. Patient die all time." After all, if a patient was already dying, there was no point in wasting perfectly good blood when someone could actually do something with it. And besides, if this man was willing to give her twenty golds now, she had a suspension he had plenty of money and would certainly be able to afford it again. And he seemed resourceful enough to not have to rely on her. She would be his safety net, and he would be her rainy day fund.

"One thing more. No kill child. I think you kill child, secret no be secret."