Blood Makes Noise [2430-1-1-Sun-8:30pm]

[Klove Makem]

Klove hated the Below.

It was everything he couldn't stand. The rank smell of humanity. The lack of open sky. All the tight, closed in walls of steel going on and on forever around him. The filth and the screams of people in the distance and the general mood kept him on edge, moreso than he usually was. It was a bit better if you were inside, but he was out in the street trying to draw in customers, and there was nothing around him to block out the lingering stink of sweat and dirty clothes.

He wasn't afraid of the Below. Even if he hadn't had a monster lurking just under his skin, he had a pistol tucked in the back of his pants. But he still didn't like it. But he didn't have a choice in the matter about liking it or not, he was still down here on Grace's orders, getting the necessary blood. He was offering a Green for anybody who would sit down and let him draw a pint of blood. Anywhere else on Terra would have gotten people asking questions about what the blood was for, and where was it going, and are those needles hygienic enough? But on the Below, people just happily sat down and gave as many pints as they could. They would have bled themselves dry, but Klove only took as much as he thought they could give, and sent them away with the cash.

The work was alright. Mostly it made him hungry. Grace had given him some extra coins so he could get some food when he'd filled the cooler he was sitting on. The last he'd checked, it was three-quarters full, and he could leave anytime he felt like it. But he wanted to fill it. Grace would be so pleased if he filled it all the way up.

He smiled, thinking about how happy she'd be. The sign beside his feet flickered a little. Klove picked it up and shook it, getting the screen to steady out. It read "1 PINT = 1 GREEN". He set it back down by his feet and looked out at the crowd, waiting for someone to come over and ask him what they had to do for the Green.

[Olive]

Olive's excitement at the new planet had slowly diminished the more she realized how out of place she was. Once and awhile she would spot a centaur, or perhaps a dwarf, amongst the masses of humans on Terra, but not once had she spotted a fellow faun. And more often than not, she simply got strange looks from the humans she tried to say hi to. They weren't very friendly, she realized. Maybe this explained Sol, she pondered to herself as she had wandered, slowly making her way along platforms and through shiny metal buildings where people tried to sell her things. They were pretty looking things, and tasty looking things, but she didn't have any of the human money with her, so she was out of luck.

She barely even noticed that she was headed downwards, deeper into the city. There had been a few elevator rides that had confused her... whole rooms that would drop down without warning, but felt as though they steadied out quite quickly. But when they opened, she was in a new location! How interesting!!

It was when she realized how dark it was that she began to wonder how late she'd been out. When she hit the streets, a new wave of emotion hit her. This was not the same exciting surroundings as she'd first seen. This was dark and dirty and the people here gave her even weirder looks. Looks that made her more uncomfortable than confused.

When a man approached her, smelling of something she couldn't quite comprehend other than rotten, and asked her something she didn't quite understand, she quickly realized she needed to find her way back to Sol and fast. She ducked away from the smelly man and scurried away from him as fast as possible.

[Klove Makem]

The smell caught his attention, and he jerked his head up. It was fresh, wild, not like the scent of cooked or rancid meat. Klove glanced around to find where it was coming from.

He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her. Klove hadn't paid much attention to girls. He knew they existed, and he knew what they were for, but he was too busy to bother with them. They wanted to talk and hug and have (urg) talks about emotions. Until now, they had been hardly worth bothering with, not when there were animals to hunt.

And she was an animal. Her ears twitched and her hooves made clattering sounds on the hard paved street. She had a grace to her, a grace that made him want to chase her down and... eat her? A disturbing thought, but not completely out of place in the mind of a werecreature. She smelt afraid. It was rolling off of her in waves. He repressed the urge to chase her down and, instead, called out to her. "Hey! You!"

[Olive]

Another person called out to her, and she couldn't help but feel even more panicked. But then she paused. This voice had sounded clear, not garbled and old like some of the scary men who she had walked by. And younger too.

She turned, looking for the source of the voice. Finally she spotted him looking at her, sitting against a wall filled with some kind of strange art she couldn't read. He looked a little out of place. Less dirty, younger... even kinda cute. Why was he calling out to her?? He looked like a less scary option than the rest of the people on the street. Maybe he could help her!

She shuffled closer to him. "Um... hi!!"

[Klove Makem]

"Hi!" He said, voice getting cheery as she came near. She smelt wonderful compared to everything else. He just wanted to press his face into her hair and sniff it.

And then she would run away in terror. Not a good plan. But years of being with Grace had helped him learn to control his desires. So instead of doing something impossibly dumb, he stood up and awkwardly stuck out a hand to shake, "I'm Klove."

After a second, he realized he was still holding onto tubing in that hand. He shifted it over to the other free hand, and then re-stuck-out his right hand.

[Olive]

He seemed pleasant enough. Definitely the most pleasant thing around this part of the planet so far. That was good enough for her at this point. "I'm Olive!" she beamed back at him. "I'm kinda lost, I think."

After his switchover of the object in his hand, she took it in her own and shook it excitedly. Then she paused, suddenly curious as to what he was doing. Weird tubes, huh? "What's that thing??"

[Klove Makem]

"I kinda figured. You don't look like you belong down here." She was way too cheerful and too trusting to be from the Below. It was a miracle someone else hadn't thrown a sack over her head and dragged her off somewhere.

Klove glanced at the tubing. "It's for blood. I'm paying people to take some blood. It's uh. One green for one pound." He paused, then considered she might not know what a green way, "I mean. Twenty dollars for a pint of blood." Another pause as he tried to think of something else to say. "I... could take yours too? If you wanted money."

He winced a little. Oh boy. Now he was sounding like some sort of creepy murderer. "Or not. Don't worry about it."

[Olive]

"Yeah," she admitted. "This is my first time on this planet! I was trying to explore but I think I explored a little too far." She glanced around, starting to shiver a little. "My friend Sol is gonna be so mad at me..."

She glanced down at the tubing. "Oh really??? People can do that?? What's the blood for?" Then, she shook her head. "I like my blood. I don't really need money, but I need to figure out how to get back to the right dock. Sol is probably waiting for me. I hope he's not too worried!"

[Klove Makem]

"It's easy to get lost. I've done it a few times." Of course he always had his nose to guide him home when it got bad. Olive probably didn't have the same ability.

"Yeah, it's really easy." He lifted up the cooler lid to show her the other sealed bags of blood. "You just..." Klove stopped. Getting in depth was probably a bad idea. He really doubted she'd be okay with descriptions and having her pass out was bad. Even if it would give him a chance to smell her better. He forced the thought away. "I can take you back up to the docks. If you want."

[Olive]

"This city is so big! It's not anything like the space port on Antheia," She glanced up, feeling uncomfortable about the idea that she was outside but couldn't see the stars. She loved stars. They were so twinkly and pretty. "The only things that tower over you are the mountains, and most people don't live in those."

She leaned in to peer into the cooler, scrunching up her nose at the sight of all the blood. Maybe he was a doctor? She'd heard once they collected blood to use to put in sick people. It creeped her out, but if it helped people it couldn't be that bad, right? She glanced up again, excited at the mention of getting back to the docks. "Really?? That would be so nice of you!"

[Klove Makem]

"Antheia is pretty weird for a spaceport. It's different on other worlds, especially Terra." Antheia. He hadn't though of it for a while. He'd liked that world, the light, those thick forests, and the wildlife that hadn't known to be afraid of him until it was too late. He'd been a little younger and a lot stupider, and as far as he knew, he was still wanted for poaching. That explained why Olive had gotten so lost so quickly. Everyone was friendly and trusting there. Well. Not everyone. But mostly everyone.

"It's on my way, so it's no big deal. And walking alone in the Below is dangerous." He quickly packed away the tubing and sign into the cooler, locked it shut and heaved it up onto his shoulder. He took a moment to make sure his balance was right. The cooler wasn't light, but it wasn't painfully heavy either. Klove pointed right, "There are express elevator's over there. They'll take us most of the way."

[Olive]

"Terra is all metal. Is there anywhere to run in grass??" She wondered how the humans and their soft feet could stand walking on metal platforms and hard floors all the time. And the only trees she'd seen were in big pots and boxes inside the buildings she'd wandered through. That didn't seem right. Trees liked the stars too.

"Aw, thanks guy!" She beamed as he packed up his things to get going. She threw her arms around him in a big hug to say thank you. "I don't think I could find my way by myself."

[Klove Makem]

"No. It's all metal all over. Grace says there used to be grass, but that was nearly a century ago. Some of the rich have little forests." Sometimes you could see them when you were coming in on the Queen. There were entirely enclosed in glass and set on the top of high buildings. They weren't real forests though. All the wildness in them had been weeded out and trimmed away, and all that was left was something that looked like a forest, but wasn't one.

Klove didn't expect the hug, nearly dropping the cooler as he suddenly found her in his space. He tried to relax as she hugged him and, with a little guilt, he lent forward and sniffed her hair. She smelled so nice. His stomach rumbled, a warning that he should hurry up and get her home and then get something to eat. "I-it's no problem." Klove said, "Just pay attention. Then you won't get lost next time."

[Olive]

"Poor forests..." she shook her head in disappointment of the Humans, her ears flopping about. "No wonder the Elves aren't supporters of them being on Antheia."

"Alright, let's go!" she bounced excitedly, heading in the direction Klove had pointed in, not exactly knowing what he meant by the word "elevator", but she figured she'd know soon enough. She was happy again, knowing she could get her way back up to Sol, and she couldn't help but skip a little.

[Klove Makem]

"Yeah." Nox didn't have the same problems as Antheia did. Humans didn't go out into the forest when there was a good chance you'd be eaten. It was one of the very few advantages his homeworld had. "It's just the way humans are."

He followed Olive, keeping step with the excitable faun. He couldn't seen the elevators from where he was. The problem with the Below was that you couldn't see very far at all. There were buildings to block your eyesight, and twists in the road that had evolved over time as the planet moved and shifted, rebuilt and renovated, until all traces of whatever these places used to be were worn away to nothing. The Elevators would be easy enough to spot when they did reach them. The glass and steel towers stretched on up forever. "What are you and uh... Sal doing on Terra?"