inbox;

[craters]

❝Hi, you've reached Haruno Sakura. If this is a medical emergency, please leave your name, location, and a brief description of the injuries.❞

𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗧 🌸 𝗔𝗨𝗗𝗜𝗢 🌸 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

（ ooc; if you'd like to handwave her healing/helping your character, feel free to reply and just put HANDWAVED in the subject line. helps me keep track! ）

Comments

un: bloodrose | text

[immortalrose]

Long time no see, Sakura. It's Augustine again.

This may come as an odd request but I believe I will need stitches.

[craters]

Where are you at the moment?

( she is already packing her things. stitches aren't likely unless her chakra fails — but just in case. )

[immortalrose]

In the Barrens at an old manor that has flowers at the front. I've been striving to make this place somewhat...livable.

[Out of all the abandoned buildings here in the Barrens, his manor is probably the most colorful of them all thanks to the flowers he stoletook from the Oakwoods. His new garden is meager at best but he's slowly recreating it out of various oddities he found throughout Stygia.]

It's not far from the entrance. Just go West.

[craters]

On my way.

（ it doesn't take her all that long — he isn't so very far from her, and shunshin makes short work of the distance without being altogether exhaustive. and then here she is, knocking on the door politely. ）

[immortalrose]

[The manor in question is an old one. An old house that has seen better days that still possesses some form of grandeur. While most of this home is made of brick and stone, most of the wooden awning has been rotted away by decay. Many of the structures here within the Barrens showcase such decay but it seems a certain someone has been trying to fix it.

Without much delay, Augustine quietly opens the door. He lets out a relieved sigh once he realizes it's Sakura, silently grateful it's not another curious passerby. As he described, his current dwelling is quite colorful thanks to all the flowers he took from the Oakwoods. There's no telling how long these posies will last within such darkness but he's trying to find a way to cultivate these plants in the absence of proper sunlight.]

Thank for arriving as quickly as you could.

[Despite the gratitude, his tone is tense. He steps aside to let the young woman in, careful not to agitate his heavily bandaged right hand when he closes the door. Even though he tried to treat the wound itself, it won't stop bleeding. That explains why the telltale scent of blood permeates through the disheveled living quarters.]

[craters]

（ she gives him a nod — not quite ready to smile until she's assessed whatever damage it is that needs stitches. her single-minded focus means those flowers are noted but largely ignored.

it's ino's hand in her life, she thinks, that allows her to identify the bright, colourful clusters of flora at a glance. ）

It's no trouble at all. Is there somewhere comfortable we can sit? Preferably a room with a sink, if...

（ she trails off, giving their surroundings a bit of a look. he's clearly been trying to clean it up — but what's a vampire's opinion on indoor plumbing? hard to guess, and she doesn't want to be rude. ）

— there is one.

（ she finishes, a little decisively. ）

[immortalrose]

[Regrettably, most of the structures here within the Barrens are devoid of indoor plumbing. That's because so many of these buildings are in such terrible condition after years of neglect. However, Augustine managed to find a structure that still has most of its facilities intact. So yes, there's a sink in the small kitchenette that certainly has seen better days.]

Come, there's a sink nearby.

[It's nothing short of a miracle that the pipes here aren't rusted. Even so, Augustine has taken to boiling the water regardless. Better safe than sorry and all that. He thankfully have a fresh bowl of water nearby, one untainted by whatever impurities that exist in the Netherworld. While he's not completely satisfied with his little home yet, he's fortunate to find something decent enough here.]

I'm sure you've seen far worse injuries in the past.

[The dhampir mutters as he gestures to Sakura to take a seat at the table. While the chairs are a little wobbly, they're strong enough to bear their weight. He sits down across from Sakura as he works silently to unwrap the haphazardly placed bandages around his hand.]

This is a self-inflicted wound, sadly. It seems I overestimated my healing abilities in this realm.

cw: mental health/self harm refs

[craters]

Mm.

（ that seems to be a nebulous sort of neutrality on the matter of her having seen worse injuries. naruto, bless his cotton socks, has been yelling the word ninja from the proverbial rooftops, but she's rather more close-lipped than that. the truth will likely come out eventually, but until then...

as he unwraps his hand, she slings her medical bag down onto the table nearby, pulling a bottle of antiseptic hand soap. it doesn't need water to work — all the better, in a place where the water sources are a bit suspect, and as she's lathering up her hands — ）

You're not the only one whose abilities don't seem to be cooperating. But when you say self-inflicted, were you trying to harm yourself on purpose?

（ yes, she is absolutely both practiced and blunt enough working alongside people with varying levels of trauma that she's just going to first make sure that the damage wasn't intended as self-harm. accident is one thing, but that is quite another and would require a different approach. ）

[immortalrose]

[The question alone leaves him gobsmacked for a moment or two, especially since he never really gave much thought about this. Even as a dhampir, he can heal twice as fast as any human because of the potency of his vampiric lineage. Blood sorcery isn’t exactly a commonplace practice among his kind but would make sense for a vampire to possess such powers since they can regenerate quickly.

However, his bastardized form of this taboo art makes it far more dangerous than it needs to be simply because he refuses to sacrifice another to perform it. That’s why he finds himself in this peculiar predicament. He never had to worry about his own welfare in such a manner since he would always heal quickly afterwards. Now Augustine finds himself struggling to “survive” with more than half of his supernatural abilities voided.]

…I suppose you could say that. [He finally answers after a moment or so of uncomfortable silence.] It was necessary for the task at hand lest my acquaintance and I would’ve succumbed to a harsher fate.

[He chooses his words very carefully as he recalls the events that transpired in the Oakwoods. A little too carefully, honestly. He’s on the proverbial defense now.]

[craters]

Hmm.

（ the timing's a little too coincidental for her mind to drift anywhere other than the woods. she did hear about that — the need for a blood sacrifice, experienced by more than just a few people. not the worst thing she's ever heard of being offered in such a pact, but her expression does ease a little. at least his implication implies it wasn't a matter of a mental healthcare crisis.

she sits back down opposite him, and gestures to see his wound. not actively dripping blood — she's curious about how his physiology may affect his circulation. it's even hard to judge how old the wound even is to any precise timeline, given the colour of his skin. her usual indicators are all off. at what point does his temperature indicate fever? is a darker hue to his skin a good or bad thing? the doctor in her desperately wants a blood sample, but instead — ）

Sorry, I'm not trying to pry — but it's important. Thank you for answering.

（ she clears her throat, then: ）

My healing seems to be working at the moment. Do you object to me using my power on you?

cw: gore & blood

[immortalrose]

[Unwilling to speak more about this subject, Augustine settles for silence once more. He stares down at the grotesque injury with something akin to a frown. Due to his unusual appearance and just as unusual biology, it's quite difficult to tell whatever not he's in great pain or close to becoming ill. However, the wound upon his hand seems almost bluish in shade unlike the rest of him. It's a dark blue, almost like ink, with red-black blood oozing from the laceration. The meat there has a bluish hue as well unlike the usual rosy pinkness of human flesh. All of the muscles and tendons within his hand are various shades of blue coated in red by his blood. It's rather unusual sight, almost like someone dyed his innards indigo.

In addition to the odd coloring, the wound itself would feel unsettlingly warm. Augustine, for better or worse, always tends to feel a bit cool to the touch but wounds like these highlight the furnace burning within. He grimaces briefly when he tries to flex his hand, his fingers quivering as he tries in vain to move them. Yes, this a serious wound.]

No objections. [A tense sigh escapes him as he regards Sakura with a look of worry.] I would be a fool not to rely upon your talents now.

I can barely curl my fingers, nevertheless tend to this injury myself.

gently godmodes this...

[craters]

（ her examination is quick and thorough, laying out a clean sheet beneath him so he can rest his hand on something a little more forgiving than a table. ）

Don't worry. We'll get you sorted out, okay?

（ her tone is gently reassuring, as she tests the temperature first of the skin nearest the wound with one hand, and then against his forehead with the back of her other wrist. the difference is worrying, certainly, but without the vivid striations of infection that tend to afflict humans it's hard to gauge.

so instead of trying with the help of limited senses, she closes her eyes. chakra is invisible to those who have none themselves, so when it eclipses her hand the only thing he will be aware of is the way it feels. she shifts her palm over the wound, and he may experience a flood like the cool rush of spring, winter-kissed but warmed by the sun — a sense of invigorating newness. fresh water and all things green and growing.

with the chakra, she reaches out along the various leylines of his body, charting the injury, the pathways of infection and the worst of the damage. healing with chakra is about using the natural energies of the body to encourage growth, but it's harder with the way her abilities are blunted now. and she has to take care, too, with the way his body differs from what she's used to.

it's a slow process, overall. tedious. time ticks by, and she remains in meditative stillness, eyes closed as she works. clearing out the infection is paramount — a wound will heal on its own given time, but she doesn't want to waste her energy on healing it first and finding she has no chakra left to deal with the agonizing crawl of heat along his veins.

and slowly, slowly, the flesh begins to knit itself back together. beads of sweat form on her brow, and her expression — initially neutral — becomes gradually more troubled as she continues on.

she isn't able to fix it completely. but she's given it a solid week's worth of natural healing in a markedly smaller timeframe, and by the time she opens her eyes with a faint frown of self-directed annoyance, her chakra gutters out. a sharp exhale, then, and — ）

I think that's about all I can manage for now. How does it feel?

[immortalrose]

[The reassurance is comforting despite the fact he’s too proud to voice it.

He’s fearful of losing all mobility of his hand, especially nowadays. Augustine is in a process of not only fixing up his newly acquired home here but also working hard to create a small floral boutique at the harbor. The dhampir purposely kept himself busy since arriving here, doing whatever odd job available on the noticeboard. Losing his hand because of this self-inflicted wound would place him in grave jeopardy. He’ll have to figure out another means of tapping into his special brand of magic but until then, he would like to keep his hand, please.

While the table was dusted off clean by him earlier, the white sheet is much more agreeable against his skin. He remains silent as Sakura studies the wound, his eyes never leaving her as she works her magic. For the life of him, Augustine can’t figure out what sort of magic she’s using. He's a trained mage, you know. An umbran mage, at that. He should be able to detect whatever brand of magic she’s using on him but for some oddity, he cannot. Augustine can certainly feel this strange magic working on him but he can’t seem to comprehend how it works.

Maybe it’s because they come from two different worlds? That certainly seems like a likely hypothesis all things considered. The laws of magic would differ from world to world judging on its inhabitants. While there’s something oddly familiar about the magic Sakura is using on him, it still feels quite foreign nonetheless.

He feels strangely invigorated now, almost as if he took a sip of cold freshwater. It has an almost minty sensation to it, this underlining coolness that borders upon warm and cold. This odd sensation helps to quell the fiery bite of his wound, mending it slowly. It’s then that Augustine takes his gaze off her in favor of watching how his flesh starts to regenerate. Bit by bit, the flesh neatly begins to meld together. The severed tendons are made whole after several attempts followed by the bluish flesh that follows. A few droplets of blood dots the sheet as Sakura works her magic, the wound is slightly agitated as Augustine regains circulation within his wounded hand. The heat that once emanated from the wound is now cooled but it’s not fully healed just yet.]

It hurts. [He mutters as he flexes his hand a little.] But it’s a good kind of hurt.

[A sigh of relief escapes Augustine as he looks at the jagged cut. It’s no longer a deep gory gash anymore but rather a more manageable nasty cut. This is something he can handle without much worry.]

[craters]

Don't wait so long next time, okay?

（ her tone is gentle, but chiding nonetheless. if he'd come to her a week ago, she probably could have healed it all in one go. minding the infection ate the bulk of her time and attention. ）

I wasn't sure if it would help, but I did bring, um —

（ she rummages around in her musette bag, and then almost shyly places a bottle of blood in the middle of the table between them. ）

I'm O+, so I've been keeping some of my own blood on hand since it's useful for surgeries and in situations where bloodloss has affected a patient to the point they need a transfusion.

（ not a universal donor, but it's still widely accepted across a broad range of other positive types. ）

If you need it.

[immortalrose]

I won't.

[He promises as he reaches over for something to staunch the bleeding. While the wound itself still aches, it's at least a damn sight better than it was earlier. Just when he was about to wrap the bandages around his hand, Augustine's eyes suddenly grow large once Sakura presents her "gift" to him. He stares down at the vial of blood with alarm, his eyes darkening in hue at the promise of that sweet delectable nectar.

It's been too long since he last drunk the blood of the living. Far too long. While it's not unlike him to fast for long periods at a time, Augustine is practically starving himself. He stares at the vial for a moment before hesitantly reaching for it with quivering fingers.]

…A-Are you certain about this, Sakura?

[He's at a loss for words right now. Never in his life has anyone offered their blood to him so freely. He feels terrible that the young woman would go through such lengths for his sake but at the same time, he's absolutely famished.]

[craters]

（ wow please don't make a big deal about this!! her gaze cuts away — she really should be helping him wrap his hand, but now she's just wildly embarrassed by all of this. ）

Of course. I told you when we met, didn't I? It's fine.

（ ... after a moment, though, she does reach to help him, gently shooing him away from the bandages and dressing so she can take up the work of caring for it. ）

Just do me a favour and don't drink it in front of me. I'm still coming to terms with being a fountain pop!

（ a joke... it's a joke. ）

[immortalrose]

[How can he not make a big deal out of this?! She’s asking for too much right now but he’ll try. Try as he might, he can’t help but gawk at her for that terrible little joke.]

That’s probably the worst joke you’ve told yet.

[He teases in return as she redoes his bandages. Sakura is much more efficient at this than he is, then again she has ample experience on her side and the use of both hands.]

Nevertheless, you have my sincerest gratitude.

[True to his word, Augustine hasn’t bitten anyone since arriving here to the Netherworld. He held up to his end of the bargain but not without much sacrifice. There’s enough horrors here for everyone and he doesn’t want to add to it.]

[craters]

Well, it's nice to know where the bar is so I can get under it later!

（ casual self-deprecation at your service. but she finishes with the wrapping, neatly pinning the bandage once she's finished checking the tension. ）

And you're welcome. You can owe me a meal later too, how about that?