(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"Anything I could do to help?" I offered.
The man's eyes turned inwards to look at each other, then back to me.
"Dunno. Fng!" He shuddered; the mouth below his chin moved up to
envelop the one his nostril formed. "This sort of thing happens quite often;
we can't seem to - Fnug! - help but sample the stock. If ye find a way to help,
the two of us would – guhkahk! - be grateful, sir."
"Yes, I was hoping you could help me..."
Half of his mouth curled downward into a frown; he shook his head. "Work
in da stock-room all day, I do. Gaaaahk!" He shuddered violently; suddenly, a
third eye popped open over the bridge of his nose... the left one shifted
sideways as the new eye took its place. "I speak only of the - fnahk! - store,
sir." That said, the skin of his face seemed to 'eat' the new eye, and the left
one returned to its old location.
"The old engineer in the Foundry tells me I need to get a sample of my blood
and skin for his machine to work. I need you to do that for me."
"A scraping? Very - schnik! - well." His right hand took up a razor blade; his
left, a wide-mouthed bottle. There was something about the surgical
removal of skin that was infinitely more disturbing than getting a knife to
the guts. Maybe it was the deliberate precision to it: how it reduced my
body to a fleshy machine, like I was some doll that could be taken apart and
stitched back together. Nonetheless, I clenched my jaw as he removed a
small section of skin from my forearm, placing it into the bottle along with a
small quantity of blood. He then placed some gauze over my wound and
handed me the bottle. "Ye need anything - guh-gack! - more, sir?"
"No, that's all. Thanks, and farewell."
Yech.
~~~~~
"I've got it right here," I said to Nihl eagerly, "Take it. Show me my dreams."
Nihl rolled the bottle in his hands, nodding. "This was only the first step. The
machine also requires a birdcage, adorned with razors, fine-wrought, to
mimic the destructive power of dreams, and their ability to capture our
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