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It took some time getting used to the fact that mer could bleed a completely different color. The fact that they were so different from humans wasn’t a surprise, not in the slightest, but there was something distinctly bizarre about seeing a creature that at least resembled a human bleed blue.
It didn’t apply to all of them, although maybe that just made it more jarring. She wasn’t a licensed biologist, meaning no needles or scalpels went into her hands unless they all wanted a big fat lawsuit, but she had watched the actual biologists work on a regular basis. Raven was the most skilled at drawing blood, and the moment he inserted the needle under Answer’s skin, a spray of dark cyan started to fill the containers attached to it. Enough vials to do all of the necessary tests, and then back into the tank he went.
Under most circumstances, that was about as complicated as it got. Blood was for testing, kept organized and sterile in medical-grade plastics held by glove-covered hands. That didn’t mean accidents didn’t happen, obviously, when it came to the aquarium, accidents were as expected as fingerprints on glass or Sol getting electrocuted. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a shock. Jack-O never quite got used to the shrieks people made whenever some mer scraped against a wall or got into a scuffle and came away bleeding. Water had an odd way of making blood look worse. Maybe it was just the way that it defied gravity, seeping out in a muddy cloud instead of trickling towards the ground. Unless it was a severe wound, it generally wasn’t worth the stress of hauling the mer out and dragging them to medical, so the best option was just reassuring guests that nobody was dying and ushering the squeamish off towards something more family-friendly with less bodily fluids involved.
Slayer was a common issue in that regard, which came to the surprise of absolutely nobody. A placard had been bolted to the wall long before she’d even been hired, announcing to any passers-by that no, the betta profusely bleeding from a bite mark wasn’t something to be worried about, actually. Jack-O would admit that it wasn’t an unreasonable worry. Lamprey bites from normal fish could be creepy enough to look at, an open wound made by a human-sized mouth was absolutely a reasonable thing to be unsettled by. Sharon, at least, kept her composure the whole time. If anything, she was quite poised while her partner trailed after, lapping after the final clouds of blood in the water until he’d filled himself.
(She wondered what the more sensitive guests would think if they saw Slayer during his dental checkups. It was easier to view a mer as something entirely non-human once you saw the full set of lamprey teeth up close. And the second set right behind that. And the one behind that. And…)
I-no wouldn’t let her handle the blood vials, but she was allowed to carry the bags. On paper, it was a bit of an iffy legal loophole, but if it wasn’t medical, it didn’t have to go on the reports. Besides, someone needed to make sure Nagoriyuki had something to eat. It was best fresh…which also meant it was warm to the touch. She wasn’t sure if it was weirder or cooler to hold a sack of blood in her own two hands. It wasn’t human blood, but did that really change much? It was still a squishy warm bag of the juice that was supposed to keep something alive.
It did, at least, make a really funny noise when she dropped it into his tank.
Nago never made it any weirder than it had to be. Then again, it had to be perfectly normal for him, anyway. The only oddity was that his food came in the form of a plastic bag. I-no and Raven had been working on some sort of plant-based bioplastic to put them in, but Nagoriyuki didn’t have any issues either way in ripping it open. Jack-O would hang around to fish the remaining trash out as soon as he was finished eating to make sure he wouldn't eat something he wasn't supposed to, even when he never did. Standard procedure, though it meant she was able to see how calm he was during the whole thing. Sometimes it was red fish blood, and other times it was the cephalopod blue. Both went into the water with a wet slap, and the moment he noticed it, Nago would go swimming to grab his meal. Maybe it was just like a really metallic juice pouch. It looked sort of like it when he bit into it. Nago was far more delicate than Slayer, careful not to let any escape into the water. All things considered, there was an oddly gentlemanly kind of quality to it. She could imagine the lamprey sprawled out in a luxurious chair like a rich nobleman, delicately sipping from a crystal wineglass instead of a blood bag. A blueblood drinking a glass of blue blood.
Did the mer ever think any of this was strange? For some, it was all they had ever known, but others had come in already fully-grown. Aquarium life made for an easier one than life in the wild, with the constant need to seek out food and hide away from rivals and predators. Though it also meant putting up with the constant prodding and medical checks. Wild mer didn’t get dental appointments.
For some reason, Jack-O found herself giggling. She tried to imagine going about her daily life, only for someone in the sky to toss down a bag of soup. Hey, free food was free food, no wonder Nago didn’t hesitate.