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It's an average day on Staves Rest and you are simply trying to exist. You might be eating lunch in the Town Square or going for a walk around town... regardless of what you were doing beforehand, a tap on your shoulder and one question throw you off your natural rhythm.
Kohaku: Excuse me. Would you mind if I took a sample of your blood?
You freeze, a natural defense mechanism, and struggle to break eye contact with the staxie in front of you for a few moments.
You prepare to laugh to break the tension because clearly this is a poor attempt at a joke but before you do, your eyes shift down to his hand where he has a syringe. (Capped, of course. Safe needle practice!)
Oh no.
Kohaku: How rude of me, I didn't introduce myself... though in my defense, I figured you already knew who I was.
Kohaku: Regardless, I will not punish you for intelligence or lack thereof. My name is Kohaku and I'm a marine biologist slash oceanographer... no one was practicing either field so I took it upon myself to do both.
Kohaku: I couldn't help but notice you boast a rare mutation; the green florescent protein, also called the GFP to your average staxie.
You don't even get an opportunity to interject as he just keeps on going.
Kohaku: The GFP is not originally found in staxies, rather other species, most commonly jellyfish. Which means...
He finally pauses and looks at you expectantly. You decide that nodding is the most appropriate response. He rolls his eyes and continues.
Kohaku: (Ugh.) Obviously, this means that the GFP was presented into the staxie genome at some point... meaning we have a history of being genetically engineered. Fascinating, no?
Again, he looks at you expectantly. You unsurely nod again, this time he nods back with a smile. A win!
Kohaku: Ah, it tickles the imagination to think of how this came to be... who or what did this? Why? Oh, I would love to prod their brain about this...
Kohaku: Alas... I'm not going to bore you with the details because you won't understand anyways, so I'll put it in layman's terms-- I want to try engineering the GFP to give off a different color.
Kohaku: And I figured you'd be willing to help the progression of science, yeah? I've collected different florescent proteins with different chromophores and I'm terribly excited to try it on a test subject.
Kohaku: So all I'll need is a sample of your blood and I'll give it back to you later after I've extracted your DNA and altered your genome, okay? I'm not sure if you'll begin expressing this mutated gene immediately or if only your future children will.
At first you were afraid-- granted, you still are-- but this sounds kind of cool... you've always wanted to glow a color that wasn't boring old green... you agree!
Kohaku: Alright! I don't have a waiver done up yet so I will take your verbal consent and run with it.
Kohaku doesn't hesitate to put a tourniquet on your arm, wipe your forearm area with iodine (hopefully you aren't allergic) and take a syringe-full of your blood. He gives you a ball of cotton and tells you to hold it on your injection site before he removes the hub of the needle and places it in a large plastic cup in his pocket with "Sharps" written on it in marker. You question the safety of that.
Kohaku: Thank you for your generous donation to science, I'll see you in a day or two! Or more!
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