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

crystal;

[notathreat]

... okay, back up.

The lyrium tried to regrow Wysteria's arm, or it tried to regrow Wysteria?

[detestable]

[ what the fuck. ]

You including a vocabulary list along with the offer of a hack job?

[armd]

(HEY YOU FORGOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT)

How are you conducting these tests, exactly??

[illithidnapped]

[This is.

This is...]

...you're telling me the anchor shard in any Rifter is potentially...

Growing.

[No, more than that:]

You're telling me you want to experiment on Rifters using something so volatile it has a penchant for lethality and madness, just because it could— hypothetically— be used to topically mend.

[bouchonne]

Madame de Foncé - [ and, technically, there are two people talking, even if one of them has a rather more dominant personality, so he adds as a slight afterthought: ] - and Mister Dickerson, please. Take some pity on those of us with weak stomachs.

[ophidia]

You cut your arm off to try this.

[favoriteanalyst]

I have to agree with serah Gecko: not everyone has your particular fervor for scientific interest, and given the inherent dangers of introducing lyrium to one's person, the very least you could do is offer up some form of compensation for anyone's willingness to help you in this endeavor.

[Dicky's not mentioned because someone has at least heard of tact before. His tone betrayed the fact that what's suggested is Bonkers In Yonkers y'all.

To say nothing of the conversation with Byerly. Everyone be glad By is a diplomat and that Mobius is not heavily inclined to jump to his defense. Because Mobius is trying very hard not to become a particular brand of mad about it.]

I'll read the report for the details, of course, but as far as the anchor in the--severed arm. [Not that the good madame has any qualms about calling it what it is. No apparent need for delicacy.] It persists? Even removed from the, uh, let's call it host for now, and pickled? No change in size or luminescence? No ill effects on yourself for its removal?

[exequy]

I hope you are taking notes on how many rifters are cowards. It might mean something.

[youwonscience]

Not that I don't love, like, the pursuit of knowledge, but I feel like I should maybe write a supplemental report on ethics in soliciting sentient volunteers for a medical study and slip it in as an appendix.

I am curious, though. You used the lyrium topically? I've only ever run into applications where it's ingested in native Thedosian contexts, as far as I remember.

private.

[ipseite]

If it is agreeable to you, whilst I would prefer not to publicly declare my name upon a door, I would be amenable to participate. I have had some luck in reproducing effects of my magic hitherto impossible within the boundaries of Thedas by utilizing lyrium more directly, so I find the pursuit ... interesting.

Crystal;

[apocalypsegrown]

Well, firstly, Madame de Foncé, how much is your word worth? If one was to volunteer? Issit just thrown around, or issit 'on pain of death if broken'?

[doggish]

You play with things you do not understand.

This is a foolish idea. Idiotic to the extreme, and for a nebulous purpose you can barely define. You wish to experiment? I will commend you on taking your madness out on yourself first, but there is nothing good that can come from lyrium experimentation. At best, you will poison and sear the bodies of anyone fool enough to volunteer; at worst, you will drive them to madness and addiction, and all for . . . what? The potential to heal a gaping wound? You do not even know if it will work. You did not see it heal; you saw it mutating, desperate to reform and reattach to a living host, and you think it can work as neatly as a bandage.

Do you understand how people like Corypheus began? How magisters of old began to delude themselves so greatly that they attempted to become gods themselves? Like this. Well-intentioned extremism fueled by delusions of grandeur. You will count yourself lucky that I do not deem your zealousness glory-hounding and little more. You see a substance that you barely understand and you think yourself so clever that you can make it dance to your tune, all without dreaming of all the ways in which it could backfire.

[A beat, and then, oh, so bitterly:]

No. I suspect you do dream of them. I suspect you are so thorough about your documentation. But you deem them failed experiments, and move on, jotting it down as a useful note and nothing more.

Do you wish to know how this ends? I can tell you. With mutilations like mine. With the blood of hundreds spilled to fuel magic and experimentation that oh, I'm certain someone somewhere could justify if they tried long enough. Perhaps I can heal a handful of the population if only I experiment a bit more, and it ends only when the cost is too great— and I do not trust that you will ever deem a cost too great, should it all be in the name of some nebulous furthering of scientific method.

Leave it be. Or experiment upon yourself if you wish, but do not poison an entire organization with your mania and your sociopathy.

crystal;

[fairforce]

This is going to sound terribly flippant--and while I do appreciate the effort to be open about the whole matter--some of us were eating.

[An affinity for Rifter flesh. Eurgh.]

In fact this all sounds terrible.