crystal;

[heirring]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Richard Dickerson & Wysteria de Foncé
RECIPIENT: You All
NOTES: The highly scientific results from studying a not-so-recent amputation, and a call for volunteers (don't worry, it's not volunteering to get your limbs chopped off). Wysteria is in blue. Richard is in green.

Hello everyone. This is Madame de Foncé speaking, accompanied by Mister Dickerson. There is a whole report written up on the matter which we wish to discuss today. Anyone curious will find it filed among the Project Felandaris records. However, we agreed [sure that's the word for 'Wysteria bullied Richard into it'] that discussing the broad points in a more public venue might do some good.

Go ahead, Mister Dickerson.

Dissection of Madame de Foncé’s arm revealed extensions of the anchor growing outward along the vascular system, confirming the existing supposition that as much of the affected limb should be taken as possible to ensure an anchor is truly separated from its host.

[ There is an odd beat where it seems likely Mister Dickerson is hoping for Wysteria to chirp back in before he continues: ]

It further appears that lyrium has an affinity for -- [ more quietly ] Rifter flesh, for lack of a more delicate distinction. When exposed to Madame de Foncé’s arm it made a fleeting attempt to regrow the parts of her that were missing. [ So the rest of the Wysteria? Another pause. He doesn’t deign to specify. ]

We believe it may hold promise as a healing agent for Rifters if applied topically.

[Which brings them to the true aim of this whole endeavor, the enthusiasm for which has Wysteria's clipping in so briskly after him that there's almost no pause at all between 'if applied topically,' and—]

And so Mister Dickerson and I would like to make a request for volunteers from among the Rifter population. We would like to make a more thorough study of the effects of lyrium on us. I have prepared a sort of sign up form and have posted it on the door of Project Felandaris' office. If you would please add your name to it, Mister Dickerson, and myself, and indeed the general record would be most grateful.

That's all. Thank you. Ask whatever questions you wish to.

[Slightly muffled then, as if the crystal has been lowered away from the general nexus of conversation, Wysteria continues on in the same breath, 'You see, Mister Dickerson? That wasn't painful in the slightest. I hardly see why you were so hesitant—']

Comments

[heirring]

We've yet to test it topically. Rather, a measure of raw lyrium was left with the severed limb and attempted to— reincorporate with and repair it? But the theory seems worth exploration.

[And then, as if discussing the weather beyond their windows and not something she's peeled out of the dustiest report in some long forgotten filing drawer:]

You were held by Venatori once, yes? If you have any insights, Miss Niehaus, Mister Dickerson and I would welcome them.

[youwonscience]

[She knows Wysteria enough to know that the breeziness of her tone is almost certainly genuine, but it still gives Cosima just a moment of pause.]

I'm sure the report's pretty thorough, though I can give the Venatori their own extensive section in the "what not to do" ethics report.

For what it's worth, their lyrium experiments were injection or force-feeding, at least on me and the others I talked to. I didn't hear about any regeneration, though it doesn't seem like it was what they were looking for, either.

[heirring]

No, I suppose they would be.

I don't suppose there's anything specific you recall from the experience? Which you might deem applicable to this work, I mean. I would hardly have you recount the whole ordeal, of course. But I'm sure you understand where a report is one thing, and a first hand account is altogether a different one. I shouldn't wish to retread ground unnecessarily, given the risks.

[youwonscience]

No, yeah, that's fair. I can talk to you about it if it would help, though probably I could be more specific if I knew exactly what you were planning to do. And I'd prefer to talk about it more privately, if that's okay.

wouldn't* sighs abt my typos every day

[heirring]

That's perfectly well. If you wish to meet with myself and Mister Dickerson, we are in the Project Felandaris office together as we speak. Or we might simply turn this to a private line of correspondence by crystal, or indeed discuss it in some other hour. Whichever you best prefer. I gather we will be making no trials of the work today.

Action

[youwonscience]

[Under the assumption it would take longer to say she's coming than just to go, as Cosima was already in the Research department workspace, she heads over to the Felandaris office and knocks on the door frame.]

Still fielding crystal responses, or has it calmed down a bit?

[heirring]

[The Felandaris Office is in something of a scattered state, having been without a permanent resident since Mister Stark ascended to Research division head. What seems clear from the array of paperwork and the general artifact-shaoed detritus is that Wysteria and Richard have taken to squatting in what might uncharitably be called abandoned space.]

I've turned off my crystal, [Is Wysteria's matter of fact reply from where she is bent over a pile of papers on which she's taking notes.] Either I will listen back to our results late, or I will hope that anyone with reasonable questions will do us the favor of asking them in person.

[Here, Wysteria sets her pen aside and finally straightens, twisting around on the stool where she's sat.]

Good gods, what an exhausting affair! But I'm pleased you were able to come along, Miss Niehaus. It's very kind of you not to propose stringing anyone onto a rail and parading them out of the Gallows.

[youwonscience]

Look, we've known each other long enough I know you're trying to help. And you did ask for volunteers, which like ... my concerns are mainly about informed consent, but it's not like you're trying to force anyone to participate.

[She takes some comfort in the fact that Riftwatch continues to not only be not the Venatori, but also not even the Dyad Institute.]

You just hit a lot of things people are wary of at the same time. Rifters, lyrium, anchor shards, you know? That's gonna get people's backs up.

[heirring]

I find it difficult to imagine anything of import that wouldn't.

[Surely it's a fact universally known that any point raised with the company will offend someone.]

But nevermind them for the present. [This is punctuated by a little wave of the hand as if clearing the air of some lingering odor.] We're meant to be discussing what you know of the effects of lyrium.

[youwonscience]

Well, we have some templars running around, they might be more useful about what it does on like ... a human body level. My own research has been largely cellular. And I can tell you what the Venatori did but I don't know if it's going to be any more helpful than the original report, it was years ago now.

[heirring]

No, no. I think it would be helpful to have your account of your time with the Venatori. [And not just because 'cellular' sounds like one of Tony Stark's nonsense words—not a description of something entirely made up, but like how someone might describe the alphabet if they were looking at it in reverse.]

As you say, the report is quite old, and there's hardly anyone who was mentioned in it left with Riftwatch. Perhaps you might take some of the research notes which were appended to the reporting and clarify them for myself and Mister Dickerson. I'm sure they made perfect sense to whichever Venatori researcher collected them, but as a third party there are sections which are— let's say more obtuse than others.

cw for nonexplicit mention of torture

[youwonscience]

In fairness to you, the main guy was very high on his own supply. All I have unlocked the secrets of life and you are an insignificant worm, I'm sure you know the type.

[She settles on one of the other stools.]

When he finally believed I wasn't lying to him about being a scientist, he mostly wanted information from me about my own world's natural laws. But more broadly, as best I could tell, I think they were looking to see how much exposure to lyrium rifter bodies could stand. They were also using blood magic on the captives, I think to make sure none of us died before they wanted us to. The asshole I interacted with the most he was,

[A pause.]

...offended, I think. That rifters had access to Thedas's magic in any way. He framed it as taking something that didn't belong to us.

[nonvenomous]

[ Mr. Richard Dickerson has paused in the open doorway -- a lean, silent figure listening with a book in hand. The book is smaller than the average research tome, in the dimensions of its cover if not its page count. The title on the spine is obscured by his grip.

He looks from Cosima to Wysteria, but any uncertainty about his pause is fleeting, shifted quickly into calculation.

He wants to hear this more than he wants to be polite, and there are plenty of cabinets near the door for him to squirrel this novel in as casually as one might place away a jar of preserving brine. Once it’s away, he’ll hook up a spare stool and wind his way over to take a seat while they speak. ]

[heirring]

[Richard's reappearance in the Felandaris office has warranted a brief flickering glance in his direction, but little else as Wysteria absently reaches behind her ear or perhaps into the twist of her hair and draws out a pen. She has no paper instantly to hand on which to write on, but the impulse being clearly habitual she sets to thoughtlessly tapping the back of the pen against her chin.]

Well, I think we can dismiss that particular point as nonsense given the givens. If we're in any way related to lyrium or formed fully out of the Fade, one might say channeling the arcane is practically more native to us than to a mage. But as for the rest— I don't suppose you might know whether they'd successfully determined the lethal amount of exposure?

[youwonscience]

To be clear, everything about his ideology was nonsense.

[Just to make sure we're all on the same page. She glances at Richard, a bare nod, but doesn't otherwise comment on his appearance.]

And he didn't kill any of our people, no. We got rescued before any of us actually hit our limits. I mean, I guess it's possible there was an unlucky rifter or two that the Venatori got to before the Inquisition did, but if so I didn't pick it up from his methods or his monologue.

scumbag rockefeller: tags in, immediately loses notif

[nonvenomous]

[ Richard nods back, disinclined to interrupt.

Even once he’s settled, he waits for a beat of quiet to hedge in with a politely and assuredly scientifically-based, medically-concerned, magically-prescient: ]

In what way were they utilizing blood magic to keep you alive?

[heirring]

[If Wysteria has any objection over disparaging potentially useful information—really, just because they're methods they wouldn't imagine pursuing, if there was any legitimate information gleaned from the work then surely it would be their responsibility to consider the damages—, she somehow manages to keep it to herself.

Obviously it would be dreadful if anyone had died. And obviously the Venatori researcher in question had been a delusional madman.

In other words: it's a good thing Mister Dickerson takes advantage of this beat of quiet, lest Wysteria had found some impolitic way of filling it.]

[youwonscience]

[This time, at least, the grimace isn't (directly) about ethics.]

I wish I could tell you more about that. This was really soon after I first came to Thedas, and as far as I know, there's no magic in my world. None I was exposed to, anyway. So the main thing I could tell at the time was they were either using our blood or, more occasionally, either a junior researcher or probably a slave? It was hard to do much recon while being actively tortured. As far as subjectively, um.

[She exhales.]

It felt different than spirit healing. More, uh, brute force knitting a wound or an injury back together. Then again, they weren't concerned about pain or getting it 100% better, they just didn't want us to die mid-experiment.

[nonvenomous]

[ This would be consistent with what Captain Holden described. Mr. Dickerson nods again, whiskers smoothed through a glance to Wysteria in search of missing context. ]

Were there physical maladies caused by the ingestion of lyrium that required healing?

[ Or was this an all around senseless torture party with incidental lyrium exposure? ]

[heirring]

[During this, Wysteria has drawn some loose pages over and fetched the pen from behind her ear so she may begin jotting down various notes in a rough, more or less translatable shorthand. Scratch, scratch, scratch says the pen's nib across the page—a soft staccato background music.]

[youwonscience]

I guess it depends on how you count things as "physical." For me personally, I had hallucinations and disorientation, which everything I've heard about lyrium leads me to believe were probably chemical effects on my actual brain. Besides that, uh, there was ... fatigue, thirst unaffected by water. Cold hands. The others had similar symptoms, as far as I heard. But I don't think the healers had much they could do besides keep us comfortable while the effects wore off with time.

That said, I was in bad shape when I got back to Skyhold, so it's possible they did things I don't remember or wasn't conscious for.

[nonvenomous]

[ Mr. Dickerson’s primary takeaway is that lyrium sounds very useful, honestly, as a means of torturing Rifters. Neither of them can see into his skull, but there’s a particular pull at the corner of his mouth that reads more hmm, curious than that’s terrible. ]

Do you recall anything about what you hallucinated?

[ He glances to Wysteria’s notes as if to see how detailed they are for the purpose of cheating off of them later. ]

[heirring]

[The notes she's taking certainly appear to be fairly voluminous, if the number of marks on the page and the tempo of the pen's metal nib scratch is any indication. They are a brisk, succinct summary of symptoms, already combining with a slew of little marginalia which suggests an intent for follow up questions—if not for Cosima specifically, then certainly to be raised over the course of their forthcoming work.]

Yes, that was going to be my question too, [this, echoed, without looking up as Wysteria scribbles some further mark.

It's going to make for a respectable cheat sheet.]

[youwonscience]

[Whether Cosima's discomfort comes from their reactions, returning to a fairly traumatic memory, or both is unclear. After a short pause, though, she does answer.]

It's been a long time, and I wasn't in any shape to take a lot of notes then. But my memory is that it was largely a mix of paranoia — bugs under my skin, eyes in the walls, that kind of thing — and disorientation in time and place. Seeing people I knew at home who aren't in Thedas, confusion about who it was who was torturing me and why.

[nonvenomous]

[ Dick’s nod catches mid-tilt at the transition from bugs in the wall to people at home. It continues on after a pause, hung up on the grass burr catch of his curiosity. ]

Thank you, [ he says, upon tracing back over the last minute or so of discomfort. ] This will help us to know what we should look out for. [ And how best to phrase any warnings they issue to volunteers in such a way that the experience doesn’t sound like torture. ]