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Post by black379 on May 18, 2018 13:33:45 GMT -8
The corpse was in no shape to sustain life. The soul was of a meaningless bird. If they succeeded, this process could save Florence's patient, and restore dozens of trapped spirits to their rightful place, wherever that may be. Beyond that, the implications of reanimation enormous. Death, the only certain and final weakness, could be reversible.
A hundred justifications sprang up to subdue the obvious moral dilemma of their task. Adeney could only hope that the ends justified the means.
He went still for a moment and stared blankly across the table. Already he had committed himself to this task, to Florence's endeavor, and didn't want to appear remorseful. Nor could he betray what he had done with Silvant's body.
"Whatever happens... Remember what I had said of Doctor Silvant. She did nothing to deserve this. Any of it."
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 18, 2018 14:23:39 GMT -8
Florence squinted behind her lenses at the notes, reading again and again through the writing... the words of a dead man that lingered through time, still. She had scavenged the life's work of a forgotten man.
The serum was to be injected into the neck; from its brain, it could rapidly reach the heart.
"I do not believe this is a fate deserved by anyone..." She wiped off the tip of the needle and walked carefully back to the table, ensuring that the straps would hold fast against any madness the serum might evoke.
Leaning in, she examined the point on the neck where the needle would go.
"But her tragedy shall serve a greater cause. Even beyond death, she advances our understanding of medicine and continues to save lives."
She poised the needle, piercing the skin with great care. There was only enough for one trial yet, until she could concoct more...
Florence pressed her thumb against the barrel; the ichor drained into the corpse.
"We will remember her."
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Post by rumsztyk on May 22, 2018 10:29:15 GMT -8
He exhaled exhaustedly. "Thank you for being... sensible. I plan to cleanse the body and the mind as well." He rolled his shoulders, wincing.
"I know of a bathhouse next to the Abbey, I think it prudent to use their services." Ibrahim straightens up, intent to move out of the Sanitarium. His brow was still sweating, and he tried to alleviate his headache by rubbing of the temple.
"You may join me." He remarks idly, then adds in a sharper tone. "But know that I require absolute silence."
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Post by black379 on May 26, 2018 7:03:00 GMT -8
Adeney's jaw quivered until he clenched his teeth. He grasped the dead girl's wrist and held her shoulder, as though the bindings weren't enough to restrain the body, should it spring to some horrible semblance of life. His eyes were fixed on Florence's hands and he eagerly watched her inject the serum into the corpse.
"Is there... something I can...?" He looked up to the woman doctor's corvine mask and then to the captured crow. "The bird."
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 26, 2018 11:06:10 GMT -8
Florence eyed the corpse intently, straining her eyes for any movement.
"Yes, yes... bring the bird, but contain it within the sack. Expose a portion of its body so that we may attach the wires." She spoke, hurriedly, flitting between the slab and the nearby table, gathering the supplies: the phosphorous, the matches and wire, and a scalpel...
It was a strange difference this year made between her last attempt. What lead up to this moment was the sacrifice of countless scholars: Dr. East, Dr. Flanel, Dr. Whateley, now Dr. Silvant... Even those who had no business with medical science: it was important to keep Solomon, Missy, and Jacques in mind.
It was what any scientist could hope for: that their hard work would benefit others for ages to come, even after their death.
She pressed the tip of the scalpel into the skin, into the fleshy underside of the arm with careful hands. There was a hole she had gouged out, and then it was stuffed with the soft, lightly glowing-- albeit foul-smelling-- metal.
Then the copper-and-lead wire was readied and inserted into the corpse's wound that had the phosphorous.
She turned for a moment to ready the matches. Silvant's fingers twitched.
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Post by black379 on May 27, 2018 14:05:30 GMT -8
The sack was still alive, the frantic bird quarreling to free itself. Adeney arrested the bag in his arms, holding the flailing and cawing creature to keep it still. When the crow had mostly given up its struggle, Adeney, with great care and effort, opened the sack enough to expose the bird's feathery belly. Its wings remained caught beneath the burlap and his hold.
The red-cloaked doctor hurried to Florence's side while the crow shrieked a cacophony of cackles.
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 30, 2018 21:08:20 GMT -8
Florence's focus was captivated, then, by the corpse, which had begun to breathe.
Her mind raced with hundreds of thoughts, questions, conclusions to be made... a discovery of this caliber would shape history-- and perhaps not positively. To accept death, and then undo it, went against the cycle of life and death that the world abided by.
She would thwart it here and use this new skill with utmost caution.
"She stirs." Her typically monotone voice was full of awe and wonder at Silvant, who's glazed, blood-shot eyes had flickered open and were staring vacantly at Adeney, dancing over the features of his face with vague recognition.
It seemed that she was there, but not entirely. It remained to be seen, to Florence, whether this was an after-effect of the serum or general undeath.
Either way, it was fascinating.
With a start, she hurried to tend to the bird, striking a match and lighting the phosphorous attached to Silvant, and then the other end of the wire, which she thrust into the exposed feathers of the crow.
Both entities, the bird and the woman, writhed and cried out in a primitive response to pain, and in that moment their shrieks, in unison, seemed to sound as one.
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Post by black379 on May 30, 2018 22:02:20 GMT -8
Adeney maintained a struggle with the bagged bird. For an instant his glance fell to the enlivening corpse, but he didn't register the movement until he looked again. He held the crow firmly in his arms while Florence plunged the wire into it. Its small flailing talons were useless to free it.
The doctor's skin paled, and his mouth gaped as his gaze matched with that of the dead girl. He was frozen with awe, stricken with fear. He was overwhelmed with elation for their horrid success over death. Yet if his hands could move, he might have strangled the essence from her body.
"Impossible."
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 31, 2018 10:34:03 GMT -8
Silvant fell back with a choking gasp, straining her ruined arms against the leather bindings. Her back was arched, as though the slab she was strapped to was agonizingly hot to the touch.
Her expression was screwed up into a mix of pain and hopeless confusion. But her eyes were lively and bright with some newfound sentience.
They looked all around the room, then to Florence with an unadulterated hate. Her expression softened some, though, when they passed over Adeney...
She stared at him, bewildered. She watched his eyes and made no noise besides pained gasps, and her jaw hung open.
---
"It lives..." Florence whispered, steepling her fingers. Her blood rushed in her ears and she felt alive.
The fruit of all her labor-- this was a victory after decades of strife. To defy the most basic of nature's laws! To do the impossible!
She felt young again, delving into new territory rather than expanding the old.
"She lives--! Ha!" She said again, with a short, delighted laugh; the mask gave it an acoustic quality. It sounded alien in her tone.
"Look--! Look how she moves!"
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Post by black379 on May 31, 2018 16:26:14 GMT -8
Adeney didn't realize his grasp on the crow was tightening, enough that he might break its struggling wings. Instinctively, he wanted to kill the girl, to undo their travesty against nature. What he and Florence had accomplished was perverse, an affront to the one certainty of existence: an end.
Audrey's lips sucked in air, her chest swelled with breath, and Adeney admired every motion of her body. His eyes raised and searched for the expression behind Florence's beaked mask. Surely her laugh was unwarranted. Inundated with a mixture of emotions, he mimicked the woman doctor with a short chuckle of his own.
"It's worked?" He took the girl's hand, perhaps to soothe her, or to give her something to struggle against besides the leather binds. He wanted to feel what strength she had.
"Sh-she must be in horrible pain."
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 31, 2018 19:15:27 GMT -8
Audrey surrendered to the assault of alien sensations, feelings, and thoughts that were so clear it was painful-- like the touch of snow so cold that it began to burn.
Her skin felt bare, hot to the touch. Each draft of air wrought an unnerved shiver from her.
She opened and closed her mouth, like a fish out of water, and screwed her eyes shut. Her eyes were useless; this new world lacked the colors she knew.
"I would be more concerned if she did not feel pain. I believe she is fully functioning." Said the Masked One, her kidnapper. While before she had heard the Mask caw, it was not until she was in this new skin that she could comprehend the meaning of it. The words resonated somewhere deep in the back of her mind.
She felt the Male's limb grasp about her own appendage. It placated her somewhat, but she did not know why. She held the hand limply there, as if in resignation, and slumped against the slab. This new world was exhausting, and her wounds were many and agonizing.
Her mind churned, and she fought to find a means to communicate with these creatures.
She took a breath and pushed it out of her throat, like she would sing if her voice were right. Then the beak up front closed suddenly to give the sound a twang, with the tongue held close to the bottom of the mouth.
"Hhh-how?" She whispered hoarsely, surprising herself with the sound that came out.
---
Florence stared forward, enthralled, though the mask did not betray as such. It maintained a bulwark of neutrality about her, even when her tone trembled with awe and her hands steepled together.
She stared at the woman, her creation. She studied and mentally noted every detail.
"She... is... sentient." Her voice was giddy with delight, "We have succeeded."
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Post by The Carrying Blade on Jun 1, 2018 14:39:45 GMT -8
“Do not worry, absolute silence is something we appreciate so that will not be a problem. Let’s hope there’s no one else in there, or if there is they won’t be obnoxious, but knowing religious types we should bet the worst.” Nasuada mentioned, something short of an annoyed smile popping up on her face before she moved on forward. Going to leave the Sanitarium with Ibrahim towards the Abbey and it’s bathhouse.
//Nasuada+Ibby heading off towards the Abbey.//
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Post by black379 on Jun 2, 2018 13:02:05 GMT -8
Adeney was in shock as the girl spoke in a small and coarse voice. They had given life to a corpse, and Florence could do the same to restore her patient. But what were they to do now, with Audrey's body. It was still a mangled frame with the soul of a simple bird.
Her fingers curled loosely in his hand, and he was determined to keep her alive. As much as it was or was not Silvant, he regretted killing her before and couldn't do so again.
"We have to sedate her. She will start to bleed out." He instructed, ignoring Audrey's question. The body and soul could hardly be acquainted while she was actively dying. Adeney squeezed her hand firmly before letting go to grab gauze, stitches, and other supplies.
"Well done, Doctor Florence."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Jun 2, 2018 16:05:00 GMT -8
"Sedation is dangerous. Her consciousness is fragile."
Florence reached to brush back Audrey's tangled, raven locks. She stared into her grey eyes from behind her own lenses. Her eyes were intelligent, oddly bright, like lamps in the dim of the lab.
And yet, there was so much she didn't know. What was the extent of what she had done?
"This would not have been possible without the help of yourself, and others." She nodded her beaky head, tearing her gaze away from the eyes of the girl.
"...But did you not mend the wounds before this procedure?"
Worriedly, she loosened the straps a hair-- not so much to free Audrey, but to maneuver her-- to look behind the shoulder.
---
Audrey's shoulder, indeed, had begun to ooze with blood with a fresh, red hue, and not the rusted shade of old blood left to decay. And there was color, again, behind her skin that was unlike the waxy white of death.
She stared back at Florence, entranced, with a brewing a hate.
Shivering, she closed her eyes again, but found it difficult to truly keep them shut. The new world she had found herself in was maddening, but it kept drawing her back.
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Post by black379 on Jun 2, 2018 21:05:12 GMT -8
"I... didn't expect this." He replied quickly while helping Florence to turn the subject. Adeney pressed against the wound with a bundle of cloth to smother the bleeding from the girl's shoulder. "I only did what I had to, for her to function some moments. But her body was... ruined. I-"
Audrey's legs had been the least tended to. They were clean of infection, but bore gouges and bites that would begin to bleed steadily. Most of her toes, and bits of her feet and calf had been chewed off.
The doctor took her jaw not so gently, without much regard to her sentience, and raised the girl's chin to examine the stitching on her throat. The fatal wound he had dealt her seemed mended well-enough for now. Surrendering her jaw, Adeney looked her in the face.
"No giving up this time." He assured her with a breathy voice.
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