heirring: ([033])
Wysteria Poppell ([personal profile] heirring) wrote in [community profile] therookery2023-09-18 08:05 pm

CRYSTAL;


FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Wysteria de Foncé
RECIPIENT: All y'all
NOTES: Potential discussion of human experimentation, drug use, etc


Greetings, Riftwatch. This is Madame de Foncé speaking. I will be brief.

[Presumably this is met with a round of skeptical noises from every corner of the Gallows.]

This is a formal request for a last slate of volunteers for my inquiry into the effects of lyrium in the anchor shard. Any member of the company with a shard is more than welcome. A sheet has been posted on the notice board in the dining hall, alongside a thorough description of the risks associated with the work. The language of this posting has been reviewed by a number of highly qualified members of this company, and you may take it as fact.

[Have they approved the specific language? Who can say. Certainly Wysteria doesn't specify.]

Trials are to begin promptly, and I require at least one native Theodosian with an anchor and would prefer to have one or two additional Rifters included in the study. All participants will be thoroughly briefed at each stage of the work.

Should you have any questions, you are welcome to extend them. Do not vandalize my pages on the board. Thank you and good day.
portalling: ᴛʜᴏʀ: ʀᴀɢɴᴀʀᴏᴋ. (pic#15600903)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-20 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my god—

( Is this what people feel like when they're talking to him? Karma. This is probably karma.

A moment later, however, that incorrigible curiosity kicks back in, with the crisp voice of a physician who just wants to know:
)

Is the shard still there? Has there been any noticeable change in the limb since you cut it off? Or is it in a state of complete suspension, as it were?
portalling: ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ. (pic#15621547)

that good shit

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Y’know, that is actually a relief. That we don’t just evaporate into nothingness without it. There’s been a certain amount of existential anxiety on that particular front.

The rest, though, is— kind of alarming.

( But he says it cheerfully, all interest piqued. He’s caught the taste of an arcane mystery, and god but he loves arcane mysteries no matter how ill-advised. )

Mine is fairly new so I haven’t seen them, no, and I’d appreciate the examination. When you say “inert”, does that mean the colour has faded? That it’s visibly different from a living shard in some way?

And I also realised that I’ve never actually asked. Did you cut off your arm purely for science? For the additional freedom to leave Riftwatch at will? Or did you hate having it that much? —if this is too private, just tell me to piss off, it’s fine.
portalling: ɴᴏ ᴡᴀʏ ʜᴏᴍᴇ. (pic#15601051)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
( No apology for the offense, just trundling onto the next question: ) How many years? For it to reach that point of danger.
portalling: ᴛʜᴏʀ: ʀᴀɢɴᴀʀᴏᴋ. (pic#15613382)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
On the one hand, that’s aggravatingly inconsistent. On the other hand, not unprecedented. People can contract lung cancer without smoking a single cigarette; bodies behave in unpredictable and unfair ways.

Fadiation contact— Physical trips through the Fade? Use of the anchor? Closing of rifts?
portalling: ɪɴfɪɴɪᴛʏ ᴡᴀʀ. (pic#15643389)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
Terrible luck of the draw. I’m sorry it got so bad, but simultaneously glad you found a way to solve the issue.
portalling: ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ. (pic#15621546)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
( And Strange is just awkward enough with this sort of thing that he takes note, but doesn’t know how to address it. The easier thing, then: letting Wysteria breeze through and wave the topic aside. His next remark comes askance. )

Precise fingerwork has been crucial to the way I perform spells. Yet I once met a sorcerer who was missing a hand entirely, so intellectually I know it’s not necessary — but I’d still prefer not to have to lose an entire arm and re-learn everything. Once was bad enough.

Regardless. Yes, I’d like to observe it. Have you looked at any part of it through the microscope?

( Gruesome topic, but… )
portalling: ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏf ᴍᴀᴅɴᴇss. (+ Aʀᴍᴀɴɪ) (pic#15781046)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
It can’t harm, and you never know what you might learn. Niehaus, Cosima— I read the report about red lyrium being infected with the Blight having come from observing it closely with the microscope. Perhaps the shard looks inert to the naked eye, but you might still see some movement at a miniscule and microscopic level. Perhaps we can get a better sense of how it spreads through biological tissue.

How good are you at drawing?
portalling: ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏf ᴍᴀᴅɴᴇss. (pic#15781128)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. We’d want someone with a good hand to illustrate whatever we see through the scope. The sight’s likely to be very abstract, y’know, like those water and grass slides Cosima and I demoed at the expo? But there should still be some— I don’t know, illustrative record for this too. A visual copy to have on file. ( offhand, almost to himself: ) God, I miss photography.
portalling: ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏf ᴍᴀᴅɴᴇss. (+ Aʀᴍᴀɴɪ) (pic#15781057)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I’ll do a company-wide poll; I find myself in need of someone who could draw up some informative posters around the infirmary, too, so the requests could go hand-in-hand.

( —ok he’s gotta ask )

Your husband wouldn’t care about your, uh, arm?
portalling: ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏf ᴍᴀᴅɴᴇss. (pic#15781165)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-21 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, you’d know him best. I’ll see if I can lure him or someone out. Artistic skills aren’t exactly on Riftwatch’s recruitment list, but it’s needed.

Is there something particularly fascinating about old dwarven pots?
portalling: ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏf ᴍᴀᴅɴᴇss. (pic#15781031)

[personal profile] portalling 2023-09-30 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
Some later interval; I’ll line up an artist first and then get back to you on the whole ( said wryly, ) self-autopsy thing.