snowblindrpg | [log] Did the devil say to you, you can make it through [closed]

Entry tags:

[log] Did the devil say to you, you can make it through [closed]

Characters: Stephanie Brown, Zach Spencer, Alphonse Elric, Gabriel Grey, Greg House, Tony Stark, Stephen Strange
Location: The Hospital, 4th floor
Date: Night 199, Morning 200
Summary: A meeting about drugs
Warnings: Drugs

The hospital is eerie in its silence, and snow presses in against many of the windows, keeping much of it in sterile darkness. It still smells like a hospital; the antiseptic is fresh, and there isn't much dust. Someone must be cleaning it, and yet it's clear no one is here. The hospitalsital is four stories high with one basement, all connected via the elevator lobby and staircase. Unfortunately, the wall of the elevator lobby has been torn open all the way down, exposing it to the bitter air outside.

Floors four and three are identical, large waiting areas lined with rooms. There are seven four-bed rooms, ten two-bed rooms, eight split rooms, and two VIP rooms. Each room is in pristine condition, although not decorated, but all of the rooms have been obviously gutted of their electronic components with surgical precision. As it is, it seems more like a very peculiar hotel without all of the standard equipment you would find in a hospital. The nurse's base on each floor is essentially identical in design, although there are a few different things scattered on each that seem to vary day by day.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, it does.

[He doesn't understand why, but he knows it's true by now.]

I have to sleep and eat here too, and the cold-- I can feel it. Not properly, not like I should, but enough that it slows me down and would still kill me if I got caught out at night.

Well, that's stupid.

[ His confusion is giving way to annoyance at this damn town. If Al had a fake 'body' attached to him in order to offset the 'anomaly' of his existence, then that could make this attempt much more dangerous. ]

If it's a separate system, added so they could add the nanites- it might die and take you with it if the nanites are removed. I don't know. If I had my ability, I could tell you if it'd work.

[ But he doesn't. And even if he did, he might just have opened Al up like one uses a can opener, to see what's going on in there. And that wouldn't help anything. He lets out a frustrated sigh. ]

I know.

[Not about Gabriel's power, though that would be very useful about now, but the fact that it could be fatal.]

I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe there was a chance it wasn't going to be like that, I don't want to die, but-- Of all the people here, I'm the only one who even stands a chance of surviving. Don't you think I have to try?

[ He's thinking about it. He does want answers- he wants them so bad. But the possibility for Al to die and nothing to be gained is pretty great in this terrible place. ]

I don't think you have to. There are other non-standard people out there- like the Cat- who could try, too. But it's a good risk to take. If you tell me everything about how you work here, and I get a good look at the machine, I can make guess about what will happen.

[ He didn't have his ability anymore, but fifteen years of watchmaking and a couple years of ridiculously intense anatomy studies mean he's still pretty useful for figuring out biological systems. His mind is already racing, trying to figure out possible solutions for this possible problem. ]

It might help if we look at you under the microscope, too. If we can. Maybe it'd give us an idea about how they attached a vascular and nervous system to you in the first place.

Edited 2017-01-31 19:13 (UTC)

They're still organic, there's a risk that radiation poisoning could still get to them, even if they get their powers back.

[He doesn't know much about the Cat or the other supernatural creatures here, but he does know that he's the only one made of a non-organic material.]

If you want to look at me under a microscope then I don't mind, but I'm going to try this if we can find a machine. Someone has to.

[And that someone is going to be him.]

The Cat's supposed to be made out of stars or something, but I get your point.

[ He nods. ]

Yeah, that sounds good. I'll help run it, if we find it. I want to know everything we can expect. If there's any way to make this safer for you, I don't wanna miss it.

[ He's going to be so sad when he finds out that Stephen has taken the microscope. But for now, he's trying to ease Al into giving him information. Maybe it's safe enough to push if it's for a good cause? ]

So, you started with a human body, right? This is...some sort of temporary state.

[His gaze snaps to Sylar, the lights of his eyes burning very brightly all of a sudden, but... But he did promise an explanation later, and if Sylar is going to help him with this then maybe he deserves the truth.]

Yeah.

[He hesitates a moment, but he's not going to back down.]

How much have I told you about the laws of alchemy?

[ Sylar is tense as a bow string, realizing Al isn't shoving him away from this topic. It's like he's listening with his whole body. He might've asked Al more about his homeworld, but every time Al brought up alchemy, Sylar had paid close attention. It did sound more like science than magic, after all. ]

It operates off of the principle of equivalent exchange, which sounds a lot like conservation of mass- to make something new, what you lose must be of equal value. Same mass, same basic elements.

Right. Equivalent Exchange is the basis on which alchemy can operate, and that's why there are some rules that can never be broken. The most important... the worst thing an alchemist can do is human transmutation, trying to create life.

[His voice wobbles a little, but not enough to stop him from going on.]

When I was four my Mom died, it was a sickness that swept through our village and she faded so fast, and-- my brother and I were left alone. We'd always liked alchemy, started studying it even back then, and we thought maybe... maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we used human transmutation to bring our Mom back.

[His head bows a little, lights of his eyes dimming.]

We worked a long time. We left Resembool and found an alchemy teacher to train us, and we researched everything we could about the forbidden theories of human transmutation. It took years, I was ten by the time we thought we had it figured out. We got all the ingredients... everything needed to make an adult person, right down to the micrograms of chemicals, and then we added our blood. Soul data, because she was our--

It didn't work.

What we made it-- it wasn't human and it died quickly. It wasn't an equivalent exchange for a human life, for a soul, and it rebounded on us to take the price. My brother lost his leg and I lost my entire body, I would have died but Ed sacrificed his arm to bind my soul to a suit of armour.

[He flips open his visor so that Sylar can see the blood seal drawn on the back of his neck.]

That's the conduit between my soul and the armour, my real body is trapped behind something called the Portal of Truth, an alchemy gate the opens during human transmutation. That's why it looked so-- it's been five... nearly six years and it hasn't eaten, hasn't exercised.

[ It paid off. Waiting and not pressing actually paid off. Color Sylar surprised, as he realizes that Al is going into the meat of it here. And yet, while part of him feels celebratory and vindicated, even the beginning of this story hits a little close to home. Losing a Mother and wanting to bring her back- something inside him warns not to prod those feelings. He settles and listens, so closely.

He's putting the parts of this together that Al doesn't say, and by the time the armor shifts to show him the seal, he's squinting to get the best look at it that he can. ]

I can't believe your body's still alive, in that case. Glad it's still hanging on.

[ And then it dawns on him. ]

So that's what's wrong with the revival systems. That's- I'm sorry about about your Mom.

[ He even sounds it. And his brow furrows a little, confused as to why he brought it up. Al's probably heard that way too much from people far more prepared to offer sympathy than he is. ]

Mm.

[He appreciates the sympathy, but it's not needed. It's been a long time and even though he'll never stop missing his mother, the grief isn't a raw wound any longer.]

I think that's partially what's wrong with it, the prices are-- that might be to do with equivalent exchange, but it still shouldn't be possible to revive us at all. Except... there's something called a philosopher's stone, it lets an alchemist bypass the laws of equivalent exchange.

[ Sylar was more than happy to move on from the awkward topic of dead mothers and to focus on this strange blend of magic and science. He was starting to believe Al, that it really was science, just slightly different laws than the rest of them were used to.

The addition of the philosopher's stone seem to didn't change that. So if these were scientific laws, the stone had to be made of some sort of raw material. And if Al hated revivals...he tilted his head to the side like a bird, and raised one eyebrow. He wasn't sure about this, but he'd ask anyway. ]

...what's the stone made out of?

[He's smarter than most.

Usually people just assume that the stone is a stone, and it can be used for good or bad depending who wields it. Or else they think it's a legend, or some dumb magic from a world they don't understand.]

Human life. It takes multiple human sacrifices to make even one stone.

[ Both of Sylar's eyebrows raise now, and he lets out one long breath. It's a way to keep his face from smiling. He got it right, but this is not the time. ]

Right. Of course. So the 'magic' stone doesn't bypass the laws at all, then. You think they're using a philosopher's stone to revive people here? Or some similar method?

Yeah. I think it's a good possibility, and nobody's managed to tell me another possibility that makes sense.

[Just vague answers of 'technology' or 'magic'.]

I think that might be what happened to the other residents, the original ones. Maybe they were sacrificed to make a stone.

[Like Xerxes.]

[ Sylar's head bobs in a slight nod, because he's thinking that over. It's a possibility. He doesn't think he could disprove it, not knowing how alchemy works exactly. ]

Do you know if that method leaves bodies? I've heard there's a lot of bodies in the park, but I haven't gone looking for them.

[ He sighs, but this is honestly much more interesting than talking about anything else that's gone on today. ]

In my time, there's a few methods of resuscitation that can seemingly bring back people from the dead- things like reversing cardiac arrest using defibrillation. The medical tech here is one of the only things I've seen that's leaps and bounds over what I'm familiar with. But I know I've heard that someone got dissolved once- don't know what sort of medical advancement could bring someone back from that.

Yeah, it does. A philosopher's stone uses the soul, the life, not the body.

[That's why the bodies of the condemned criminals, like Barry the Chopper, had still been available to use for other purposes.]

Alchemy could, but-- not... but only with a philosopher's stone. Human transmutation, it can't work otherwise, it just can't.

[ He's lost in thought for a long moment before he nods again. That makes sense. He's often thought that he ended up taking in part of a person's soul when he took their ability- thinking that they're used in trade for the most complex forms of transmutation...that makes sense to him.

If only his mind were working properly so he could use this information. It's these times when he feels the fuzziest. ]

The only other way I could think of is if we were literally made from these nanomachines, or they 'recreated' us out of organic matter, copying us from a backup they've made. I thought that was it when I first got here, that we were all copies, our data downloaded from somewhere else.

[ When had he stopped believing that? ]

That would explain the revivals, but I don't think its any better. Might explain why your body suddenly has an organic component, though.

I don't think we're copies.

[That's a painful thought for him even beyond the normal existential issues, it reminds him of the accusation he levelled at Ed a long time back. Was he real? Was he just a puppet? Stupid words of Barry that got inside his head and wouldn't go away.]

I asked Winter if we were, if there was a possibility, and she said no. She said we were definitely who we all thought we were, not copies or clones.

[ It always came back to this, didn't it? Sylar had done a pretty good job of pushing the issue to the side the past couple of weeks, but...he couldn't shake the doubt that his first couple of days here had instilled in him. The static had felt more real than he did. And if he didn't have his abilities, how real could he be?

Al could probably see the conflict in his face, as he took a long moment to answer. ]

There's that, and there's the experiment that Davesprite did, to test if he was really a sprite. That came out positive, too. If we can't trust what you and him found together, then we really can't trust anything.

[ The look on his face says that's a definite possibility for him, but he knows that leads nowhere productive. And- whatever. He didn't want to talk about it anymore. No wishing revivals on people around Al, he got it. Back to figuring out how to remove nanites from the guy ]

Okay, so I'm going off the idea that the nanites have tried to add a biological system to you to remove as much of the 'anomaly' as possible. You have to eat and sleep, you feel cold, but not entirely. You feel pain and you can bleed. Is pain like the cold? You feel it, but not the same way you should? It could be the new nervous system is too rudimentary to really pass it along properly.

[He sees that indecision, and it won't be forgotten. Sylar is hardly the only person here to be having trouble with the idea that they might not even be who they think they are, but there's not much that can be done about it. They have some good evidence that points to them being real, but it's not conclusive.

He hesitates a moment as if considering trying to offer some words of comfort, but in the end he settles on just a brief hand to Sylar's shoulder before he moves along.]

Yeah, it's strange to explain. It still hurts, and I'm still cold or hungry, but it's not as it was when I got my original body back. That felt so connected, so real, but even though it does hurt, I'm always aware that I'm metal and hollow.

[ Yeah, rudimentary nervous system it is. Sylar nods, but he has ever more questions. Just tell him to stop when you start getting annoyed, Al. ]

Does it look entirely hollow in there? Have you looked or had anyone else look? I imagine the nanites would keep us from seeing anything like that, but who the hell knows?

[ He punctuates that with a shrug. But he would really like to shine a flashlight into Al and see what's in there. If he can see the organic additions, that would help with fixing any emergencies that might happen from removing the nanites. ]

Yeah, it's still hollow, you can see if you want?

[Now that Sylar knows the story, Al isn't shy about opening up. Literally. He can't do what he used to do and take himself apart, but he can tilt the visor of his helmet up and bend down so that Sylar can see he's definitely hollow within.

The blood seal is visible on the back of his neck, the conduit drawn by Ed to bind his soul to the armour, but other than that there's nothing at all.]

[ Very hollow. The symbol peaks Sylar's interest, and he'll ask more about alchemy in the future- what each symbol means, how it works in the alchemy 'equation'. But that's hardly what he's trying to learn right now. He bites his lip as one hand reaches up, stops in midair, and is ultimately put back down at his side again. ]

And if I reached in there, even if there's nothing there, would it hurt? Can you still see me with your visor up like that? I'm assuming there's no way to take the armor apart without hurting you, either...

[ Al would probably be used to the barrage of questions, but before that only happened when automail came up. And he was still going, looking inside Al's armor with a critical eye, and then pulling out a flashlight from his bag and shining it in there. ]

I can't see any indication of any organic parts- it has to be the nanites keeping me from seeing it. It would probably keep me from sensing it in any other way, as well.

[The visor isn't open all the way, more to the point of making him seem as if he's opening his 'mouth' very wide.]

I definitely can't take myself apart, I bleed if I even try to do something small, but... I don't know if you could put your hand inside me.

[A part of him wants to try, wants to know for sure. But that's stupid.]

Something's different, anyway. I mean-- I have to sleep now, eat too, but I don't know where the food goes.

[log] Did the devil say to you, you can make it through [closed]

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I think we can wrap there?