A puppet among researchers

Wanderer 7

Don't you love it when you are having a normal conversation with someone and they accidentally hit the release on your hand?

What?
that's never happened to you?

Wanderer of course wasn't happy about it
But it's not like he told collei. So he wasn't too upset.
So he calmly asked for it back.
Then she proceeded to scream in his face.
'*sigh* mortals!' wanderer thought.

"Oh my gosh! There's blood everywhere oh MY GOSH!" Collei screamed, as she threw the hand away from her.

Wanderer rolled his eyes.
"That's not blood." He said, without any explanation.

Collei wasn't listening.
Apparently she was panicking.
Why is she panicking? She didn't lose a hand.

He picked up his hand.
As he was inspecting it (it definitely needed to be cleaned before reattachment) when Tighnari and Kaveh ran up the hill

Great more mortals!

"Collei, are you ok?" Tighnari said as soon as he got close enough to her.

"She's fine!" Wanderer said.

"How could you b- OH MY GOSH! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND?!?" Kaveh said as he started to freak.

Wanderer once again rolled his eyes.
"It is a Prosthetic idiot! Do either of you have some disinfectant?" Wanderer said.

"I have some in my hut. We can reattach it there too." Tighnari stated, then turned to Kaveh and asked,"Can you Watch over Collei while I get this done?"

"Umm yeah of course." Kaveh said clearly relieved that he wouldn't be helping.
Coward.

~

After arriving at Tighnari's hut, Tighnari immediately turned to him and asked, "why?"

"Why what?" Wanderer asked.

"Why hide that you have a prosthetic? Don't You know these things need maintenance if they are to last longer?" Tighnari asked as he waved Wanderer's hand at him.

Wanderer blinked.
He actually didn't.
Well he was told, but after his experience in Irminsul he had assumed that everything Dottore said had been a lie.
Apparently he didn't lie about everything!
But what else did Dottore say that was true?

Apparently Tighnari took the silence as a no!
Tighnari muttered something about malpracticing Doctors then gestured to the bed.
So wanderer sat down.

Tighnari inspected the hand, then said. "I've never seen anything like it. Where was it made?"

Wanderer even though he knew the answer he gave Tighnari a glare and said, "what do you think?"

Tighnari sighed, "was it just the hand that you lost? And if not, how much of the arm did you lose?"

Wanderer hesitated,
How much could he tell Tighnari?
Because all of him was a prosthetic in a way!
How do you explain that without telling him that he is helping a fake human who was once made to be a god?

Tighnari crossed his arms at wanderer's hesitation.

Wanderer rolled his eyes but took off the rest of his arm.

"HOW DID YOU LOSE AN ENTIRE LIMB?" Tighnari demanded.

And because Wanderer was feeling spiteful, he took off a leg as well.

"HOW DI..." Tighnari started but Wanderer interrupted him saying, "A fire!"

Tighnari defensive stance disappeared instantly.

"How much of you is left?" Tighnari asked on a way that said 'if you don't want to answer it'll be ok.'

"Not much, I should have died in that fire." Wanderer said and meant it.
The fire that had taken the last of Kunikuzshi and the Kubukimono. The only thing that was left was the ashes that made the balladeer.

"Don't say that. Your life isn't a worthless thing that burns like firewood. It has more worth than that." Tighnari stated.

"If you knew what I've done you wouldn't say that." Wanderer muttered.

Tighnari looked like he was gonna ask what he had said but Kaveh's voice said. "Collei is in bed it took me a while to calm her.. OH MY GOSH YOUR LEG!"

Wanderer rolled his eyes. "I have four Prosthetic limbs. Get used to it. I've had to."

"FOUR?!?" Tighnari and Kaveh said in unison.

Wanderer just glared at them.

After a moment Tighnari said. "We May have to remove all of them to get that liquid out."

Liquid? Wanderer muttered a curse.
That liquid....
<"you seem inpatient? You should know that becoming a god is far from a trivial affair.">
'Nonono not here not now! Nahida..' wanderer tried to contact the archon but he wasn't fast enough.
The memory had already gotten through.
<"the biological transformation is a lengthy process. As such. I too would recommend that we would commence as soon as possible. In the event that a successful connection is established, his body will become permanently bound to the machine. He will be unable to move independently of..> "WANDERER!" Tighnari scream had shut it off.

Wanderer looked around the room.

Only thing he could see was a very concerned Kaveh and Tighnari.

"I'm fine!" Wanderer said as flatly as possible.

"Oh yeah? THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL FINE?!? How many times does your heart have to stop for you to realize that you're not ok and need medical attention?" Kaveh said.

It was right then that wanderer came up with the perfect explanation for his no heartbeat.

"My limbs weren't the only things burned in that fire. Most of me was burned! I have a plate over my heart! That's why you can't hear it! My heart is fine!" Wanderer stated.

That shut Kaveh up!
But not Tighnari.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Tighnari asked.
He almost sounded offended! interesting.

"Oh yeah I love telling everyone about my horrible accident." Wanderer said sarcastically.

Tighnari didn't say much after that.
He just reattached all of his limbs!
And then wanderer walked back to his tent