crystal & medical questionnaire.

[portalling]

FORM: Sending crystal + blank questionnaire available at the infirmary
SENDER: Stephen Strange
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: The form is below! Submit your character’s response as a reply to that sub-thread, and this will also be linked from the Riftwatch orientation & infirmary wiki pages for posterity, so you can edit/submit a new one if details change. Your character does not have to take this super seriously. Strange might just come nag if they don’t.

What with the new faces recently, I’ve been working on the medical curriculum and refreshing the infirmary’s recordkeeping. It’s high time to establish some better-kept patient files.

To that end, we’ve provided a written questionnaire at the infirmary — thank you to Amsel for her neat penmanship — and I’d appreciate it if you could fill out a form for yourself and drop it off. The records will only be referenced by healers in the course of their duties, and otherwise locked away; your personal details will remain private. Having as much information as possible will only help the healers take care of you properly.

If you don’t read Trade or otherwise require assistance filling out the form, say as such and we can have someone sit with you. Any other questions, let me know.

— but also, fill it out.

Comments

[portalling]

In the abstract, sure, but not to the extent that that reaction really matters in the end. To each their own preference.

But I also once entombed my own corpse in my own rooftop, so I admit I might be more blasé about this sort of thing than I should be.

[favoriteanalyst]

You've gotta stop saying things like that.

[portalling]

( A laugh— Mobius so often catches the worst of these— )

Hm. Noted.

[favoriteanalyst]

Not that it's not fascinating, [because every time he says something fucked up and horrifying, Mobius still wants to know], just at least not where everyone else can drop in and go 'hey, you know, that was a really concerning thing that you said, what the shit is wrong with you'. As a suggestion!

Nevarrans might find that detail curious though.

[portalling]

The Nevarrans have got their heads on straight. If I could do an exchange semester with the Mortalitasi, I’d be out of here in a heartbeat.

[ Sort of joking, sort of not. ]

[favoriteanalyst]

I won't argue that. And obviously, given Nevarrans, the general entombing idea isn't the most repulsive and weird thing.

It's really the fact that it was your corpse. Is the notable part there. That's the part that turns heads right off their shoulders.

[portalling]

[ Stephen’s life is undeniably weird even for his home universe, even as he takes it all in distressingly casual stride. But he grants Mobius this: ]

I do concede it was a little alarming at the time.

[pathlit]

[ my good doctor, what the actual fuck ]

[portalling]

[ listen, ]

[bouchonne]

[ The best way to deal with Rifter Shit is pretend you didn't hear it. ]

In the abstract, sure? What, I am not permitted to be revolted by the absolutely tasteless staging of Le Rat Rouge that was put on a few years ago in which the titular Rat Red was reimagined as a disgruntled Orlesian noble who sided with the uncouth and simple Fereldan peasants, merely because I refused to see it?

[portalling]

[ It takes him a moment to sort through how to receive Byerly’s own tone; in the end, Strange decides it’s funny. With some bitten-back humour and, dryly: ]

Fair enough. I see no problem with this whatsoever.

That said, if you did see Le Rat Rouge, you could be armed with every last piece of context to lambast it properly. Write the most scathing theatrical review in the papers.

[bouchonne]

[ A theatrical pause, and then he admits - ]

I actually did see it. But I stand by my argument.

[portalling]

Are you always like this?

[ A beat, elaborating, blunt but not actually trying to be insulting: ] Contrary, for the sake of being contrary.

[bouchonne]

[ Unoffended: ]

Of course not. I can be quite obliging - but generally only towards people I detest.

[portalling]

Ha. Duly noted. I’ll try to cultivate some perpetual amiable disagreement —

What is your favourite theatrical work, then?

[aberratic]

[ adding to the dogpile, whoops— ]

Under what circumstances? Was it a simulacra, or a clone? We have magic for that in my previous home, but I'd never seen it in action. Did the corpse remain so, or was it to be revived later? Doctor, you can't say such things and not expand!

[portalling]

[ Oh finally, someone with the right priorities— ]

You have clones in your world? How are they made?

This one was an alternate version of myself from another timeline, in a world where I’d made different choices and had a truly awful ponytail. He fell out of a portal dead at my feet. He wasn’t revived as such—

[ Hmmm okay actually he does know enough that people would be alarmed about this one. He toggles this conversation over to private as well. ]

He wasn’t revived as such, but I did have to control the corpse for a time, to accomplish an urgent mission at a distance.

private ∞

[aberratic]

Clones are made magically, grown for three months from a bit of flesh and then functionally identical to their original, though I believe they can be younger. It's incredibly advanced magic, nearly god-like, so I have had no contact with a clone myself, and can't speak to it more than that. All I know is that it is possible.

That kind of necromancy is very advanced—far beyond the skill of a novice, and even many adepts. Did you specialize in necromancy, or was it a matter of necessity that induced you?

[ ness is not, despite her questions, particularly knowledgable of magic herself. she was taught to tap into the innate magic of her father's drow blood, but only to call up pretty lights. still, her innate sense of curiosity and access to the writings of the greatest minds of faerûn means she can sound a lot more knowledgable than she is. ]

[portalling]

To what purpose are they made? Would the clones be walking around, conscious, sentient, at the same time as their originals? Do people ever wind up fighting their clones?

[ She’d said she couldn’t speak much more about it, so Strange bites back the tidal wave of questions he wants to ask. ]

Sorry if you don’t know any of the answers; I just find this fascinating. I wouldn’t say I had an arcane specialty, as such— I’d inhale whatever I could find, magic-wise. That specific necromancy was a matter of necessity, and not the sort of magic I’d be able to do ordinarily, so I won’t be raising any corpses here, alas.

[aberratic]

[ unfortunately, she has no answers for him—but she does laugh, because gods, she understands that tidal wave so well. ]

I find it fascinating too, I truly wish I had more answers for you. Unfortunately I've just told you everything I know on the subject. If we were in Faerûn I would know just who to ask to get you answers, but, alas.

Sad about no corpse-raising here, though. Necromancy is a perfectly acceptable school of magic when you're not being dramatic about it, I've always thought. How have you found the transition to Thedosian magic? Is it very difficult to adjust to, or has it mapped well onto what you could do before?

[portalling]

Both, if you can believe it. On the one hand, everything is… lesser, more difficult. Like wading through thick mud where I’m used to sprinting. Everything requires more effort and I tire more easily with magic than I used to.

But on the other hand, there are enough commonalities — enough theoretical overlap, thematic similarities, a similar use of runes, like languages sprung from the same root — that there is still a route to work with. Perhaps the path in the forest is overgrown and hard to walk, but there is still a path, and it should grow more passable in time.

At least, that’s my hope.

And if you’re interested in necromancy, I hear you should read up on the Mortalitasi in Nevarra; they’ve got their heads on straight about it. ( Heh. )

[aberratic]

Mm, [ she hums, thoughtful, turning that idea over in her mind—an overgrown path, ready for someone to wander it again, clearing overgrowth and debris from a path long-forgotten. a smile. ] You've a pioneer's curiosity and an autodidact's dedication, I imagine blazing that trail anew may be more satisfying to you than if the path was easy.

[ not that the difficulty wouldn't be frustrating, certainly, or troublesome, or that she doesn't think he's railed at his newfound constraints once or twice—but stephen strange has the air of a man who likes to earn his victories, in her limited view of him. it wouldn't be half so interesting if he'd come to thedas with no challenges to overcome. ]

I'm not interested in necromancy as a personal pursuit, [ to clarify, ] I simply see little reason to be afraid of it in itself. Resurrection magic is necromantic in nature, after all, and we all hope there will be someone to bring us back if we go before our time. It's the dose makes the poison; it's the use makes the magic malign or otherwise.

[portalling]

Precisely.

( And he thinks, then, of his mentor. The Ancient One tapping into the powers of the dark dimension. Wanda and her slippery slope. The way Stephen himself had reached into the Darkhold. Hypocrite. The other sorcerers often recoiled from his methods, but still, at the end of the day— )

I’ve always thought a scalpel is a scalpel is a scalpel. A hammer is a hammer, and can be used to smash down a wall or build one. There’s hardly any spell that can’t be bent towards good ends; in the end, the tool is what you use it for.

[aberratic]

Precisely.

[ it's so nice to talk to someone who understands. ]

Nothing is good or bad or evil or benign by nature, it all simply is. It's up to people to use our tools for good or ill, even necromancy.

[ and blood magic—though she's not about to say that out loud, not even to someone as sensible as stephen. ]

Am I correct in supposing that perspectives like that aren't so common here? There seems to be a... dearth of nuance, I suppose, in Thedas.

[portalling]

You’re correct, yes.

( There’s a brief pause, and Stephen can practically hear an imagined voice in the back of his head which sounds very much like Captain Gwenaëlle Baudin, words of reason and censure in his ear, )

I do feel bound to mention that their lack of nuance isn’t unfounded; this world has seen terrible things happen at the hands of magic and uncontrolled mages. They’re not unreasonable for being fearful. Which doesn’t change the fact that I wish they’d be more open-minded and nonjudgmental and my life would be much easier if they were,

but still. We should be careful who we say such things in front of. Riftwatch is used to these sentiments but the locals aren’t.