WHO WANTS TO SEE A DEAD BODY

[spelleton]

Who: Ekkehardt Gehring, Miach Mihie (imitationsoul), Flat Escardos (escardos), Giorno Giovanna (giornata_gloriosa), Sherlock Holmes (improbablenotimpossible), James Moriarty (hatesdeerstalkers)
What: Ekkehardt invites people for body-poking.
Where: A little facility in the Outlands
When: Sometime mid-February
Notes: Warnings for mild body horror, sickness, and corpses. I'll match your format.


Ekkehardt has a few more people than he expected on this trip. Nevertheless, if people really are that interested in what resources he has access to, he supposes he can't complain.

"The facility we're visiting is considered an ally by the family I serve," he explains. "As House Gehring are cursebreakers and healers, we find it important to keep records of any disease, curse, or anomaly we can't fully explain or understand. Independent research outposts like the one we're going to be looking at today are incredibly valuable for our work."

[ Log will be divided into toplevels below. Feel free to tag each other as well as Ekkehardt/NPCs. ]

Comments

BEFORE TRIP: QUESTIONS

[spelleton]

[ Pester Ekkehardt to clarify things before you leave. ]

FACILITY ARCHIVES

[spelleton]

[ The facility's archives are meticulously clean and well-kept, despite being on the small side (especially compared to Daybreak's vastly larger library). Books are sorted on the shelves not in alphabetical order but in relevance to the disease, curse or 'anomalous method' that they are most closely related to. Everything from generic manuals of Outlands disease to specific papers and journals about certain cases can be found here - though the collection isn't encyclopedic, they certainly seem to be striving to be.

A veiled, near-faceless figure dressed in white from head to toe is sitting by the entrance of another, much smaller room with the door shut. The plate next to it reads "Handwritten and Verbal Accounts." ]

FACILITY LABORATORIES

[spelleton]

[ The laboratories, it's explained, are for 'active cases'. Things - usually bodies - under investigation, and samples being tested. There are three separate laboratories, carefully warded to ensure no cross-contamination occurs.

Two of the laboratories - named 'Mercury' and 'Salt' - are occupied; Salt holds two personnel inspecting a cadaver, and whoever is in Mercury seems to be doing something that involves lots of jars filled with fluid.

The third one, 'Sulfur', is currently empty. All three laboratories are accessible, since Ekkehardt is the one doing the tour today. ]

FACILITY BODY STORAGE

[spelleton]

[ The cold storage for the facility is, surprisingly, located on its second floor. The various wards and sigils, for those capable of reading magic, feed into each other to create several floor-wide spells capable of sealing off, detonating, or exposing the second floor to the harsh atmosphere of the Outlands if needed.

Right now, though, the temperature is cool, though everything is brightly lit. Several rows of sealed caskets, each with their proper place in the walls and floor and spelled for preservation and proper temperature for body storage, greet the visitors as they come through several doors and wards to get to the storage room.

"You can go ahead and look at the bodies, since Doctor Gehring is here with you," the white-veiled attendant standing guard explains. "But we humbly request that you don't take anything. This might be a research facility, but we strive to preserve the peace of the dead, and so we keep their belongings with them." ]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

[Well clearly, there's only one question to ask about all of this.]

Will my condition be among your records, now?

[I mean. He is a hell of an anomaly.]

[spelleton]

If you want it to be. Not everyone wants their conditions to be recorded.

[ He shrugs. ] As eager as we are to catalogue what we can, patient privacy is still important.

[hatesdeerstalkers]

I was merely curious. I am fine if you wish to have it be recorded, however!

[A laugh, before he continues.]

Though I do appreciate the opportunity to see this facility, of course. I'm sure it'll be enlightening!.

[spelleton]

I like to think it is. They work quite hard. But to people outside of our professions, I suppose it must seem rather macabre. And you need to have a high tolerance for corpses already, of course...

[ He glances over their little group. ] But, well. I think I don't have to worry about anyone here getting squeamish.

[imitationsoul]

[ One might have expected Miach to act like a kid in a candyshop once entering the morgue, but surprisingly that's not quite the case. She steps into the room in a secure stride, but then remains still in the middle, looking around at the caskets with some solemnity.

So many anomalies, preserved for science forever. Did they suffer in life? Did they want this? An eternal existence beyond death, as a cold storage case... It's macabre, as much as Miach is grateful for the opportunity. Her hand gentle traces one of the caskets before she dares open and examine anything. ]

Good morning, dearly departed. How's eternity treating you?

[imitationsoul]

[ The archives are the best! The absolute best! Miach could move in here and probably be happier than she's ever been, for a good while.

She can be found spending a lot of time browsing through anything that concerns brains and emotion flow. The latter especially seems to interest her and she's actually taking notes, which is a rarity. ]

cw: severe injury

[spelleton]

[ The casket Miach chooses to open is under an extra barrier; what appears to be white smoke swirls around the cadaver. It smells faintly of incense, and blood.

Deep wounds score the body's torso and scour their features almost from existence, a disfiguring discoloration spreading out beyond them that still remains a vivid, bloody crimson, even in death. Flash-frozen in a kind of perfect stasis. What little can be seen of their face is oddly serene. ]

Sadly, better than life treated them. [ The veiled attendant's tone is somber. ] They volunteered for this process. They desired to be preserved in case the daemon they gave their life to defeat ever returned, so that their curse could potentially be weaponized against it.

This is one of the oldest cadavers they have stored here, I believe. Near to one of the first. [ Ekkehardt, for his part, seems as stoic as ever. ] They've proved an invaluable resource for treating other curses that spread through injury, given that the curse never died with its host, but the suffering they must have felt during their life was immense.

[improbablenotimpossible]

[She's not the only one, the vampire was quickly going from books to book, writing down titles that caught his attention - pity he can't borrow them for later. His focus, however, seemed to be on curses and unusual cases]

Ah - pardon, need to pass by.

[He didn't want to bump or disturb her while she's writing]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

Mm - well, I suppose, but forensic science is a field of study for a reason. Perhaps in the modern era, people have become insulated from death - but in my day, having a corpse or two around was nothing unusual.

[DEAD BABY/CHILDREN PICTURES, MAN. Victorians were fucking wild.]

And you're right about that! This group will be able to actively appreciate the work your family has put into this!

[hatesdeerstalkers]

[Well, he's interested. Leaving the other two labs alone, Moriarty quietly enters Salt, tilting his head as he watches what they're doing - hoping to listen in.

Of course, if they're not talking, then he'll ask. But the less obvious way is often the better one!]

[giornata_gloriosa]

[Giorno is going through the archives in an odd manner, cherry picking items from the shelves to look through, studying small areas of them before respectfully returning each to their home, before moving along. He does so with all the purpose of a socialite reviewing trendy magazines.

Watching him closer will show that he is looking for portions that have information on any plants or animals that had been involved in each section, reading over those portions avidly, before moving on. Occasionally he breaks pattern to read a bit deeper into portions that provide details about areas of the body. The teen never once shows a shred of repulsion, even if images are shown, to open wounds or operations.]

[giornata_gloriosa]

[Giorno finds himself wandering the area, looking over a few caskets before he finally stops at one and carefully opens it to see the person inside, his head cocking a little to inspect it.]

What a funny and fickle thing fate is... to pick some people to bear something, and... as if sacrificing those, leave others unmarred by it.

[There is a distinct curiosity to him as he looks over the whole casket.]

cw: corpse choppin

[spelleton]

[ The two of them are indeed engaged in conversation, though the unusual thing about it is that they appear to be leaving large chunks of it unsaid, as if half the conversation is going on in their heads.

Still, they work with brutal, eerily coordinated efficiency as they dismantle the apparently fresh corpse of what seems to be a chimera of some kind.

Though at first it looked completely and seamlessly intact in the imitation of a classically horned daemon, as they draw swift lines at seemingly random places and pull the body apart, they shift back into the twisted flesh of different creatures.

Both of them stop, in unison, in the middle of their procedure, but only one looks at Moriarty. Even from behind a white veil, the gaze is piercingly keen. They take turns to speak, even so. ]

Honored guest Mr Moriarty.

Is there anything you would like to ask?

cw: body/eye horror

[spelleton]

That's certainly a philosophical way to phrase it, though it's not wrong. Sometimes it seems infection and survival, after all other factors are considered, are a matter of chance.

[ The casket Giorno peers into is that of someone distinctly inhuman. Their limbs are curled haphazardly against their body, as if they're merely sleeping.

Multitudes of eyes have burst from their skin in a particularly disfiguring rash of sores, their frozen pupils wide and unseeing. ]

[giornata_gloriosa]

Well... I think of the accident my parents were in. They died, but the couple in the other car did not.

Though I'm unsure if I see fate as a blind man picking lots... or a sadistic one following whatever path they see will get the most reaction.

[He looks over the body and eyes with a kind of curiosity.]

Were those functioning... prior to death?

[escardos]

This is interesting. It’s like they’re sleeping.

[ flat’s cheerful persona seems to contrasts horribly with the somber atmosphere of the storage. he hovers over them, some longer than others as he observes every detail that he can take.

once he finds one that he’s rather interested in, flat looks up, eyes full of curiosity. ]

How did this one die?

[escardos]

Miss Miach~

[ flat says it in a soft, but cheery, whisper as he approaches her from behind to sit next to her. he has his own book in hand, one about curses and their manifestations. ]

I’ve never seen you take notes before. Is the book that good?

[escardos]

[ when ekkehardt had invited him to join in the excursion to see corpses, flat had thought that the actual corpse observing would be the most interesting part.

when he realized which institute they were going to, he felt a small tinge of nervousness that he tries to keep to himself throughout. he knows this place—

it’s where he sold all of the research done by his family—the escardos. books that were yellowed with age and kept together with hundreds and hundreds of years of magic, full of ciphers that were said to contain the secret to eternal life, among other things—but no one in his family had been able to figure out how to decipher it.

perhaps they meant nothing at all. just a cruel joke for a family that had stagnated for centuries. flat didn’t care either way, and had sold it off as soon as he had obtained the rights to the escardos estate and everything with it; burn your bridges, they say.

except he never thought to be looking at the books again, the spine staring down at him as if mocking him. ]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

[How facinating - a true chimera, in all senses of the word. He's leaning in to get a better look when the two suddenly speak, blinking at their...oddness, but discarding it as just it being due to their proximity to the outlands.]

Ah...I suppose I'm curious as to when you got this specimen? It looks rather fresh.

[spelleton]

My condolences. Children shouldn't have to oversee the burials of their parents so young. [ There's a hint of sadness there; it's not as if he doesn't know how it feels. ]

They were, yes. I believe this person was a seer in life...an unusual reaction to a strange power. Something akin to an allergy, except far worse.

The eyes were useless, except to provide a greater variety of visions to condense. It's an old disease, but this is the most intact body this facility was able to obtain.

cw: body horror

[spelleton]

[ This cadaver is intact, with no outward signs of disease. Their hands folded over their stomach, they really do look as if they're asleep. Humanoid but not human (the dull scales, remnants of fins and gill slits are a strong indicator)

In response to Flat's question, the attendant comes over and offers a set of runed rods to Ekkehardt, one of which he takes. He taps it on the chest and lifts it; skin and all that's beneath lifts with it like he's pulling back a canvas sheet, one half peeling neatly off.

The insides of the corpse - bone and flesh alike - are black with ink, inscriptions made in an almost impossibly small hand. The strange words twitch and wriggle sluggishly, their paths having carved bizarre shapes in their wake. ]

A curse fired as a weapon devoured them from within, [ the attendant explains. ] If you wish to look closer, use the rods. They create a barrier against it.