(no subject)

[evowhisperer]

  

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"Stand aside, please, I'm a doctor!"

 

Chaos. Pure, grainy, cheaply recorded chaos. The cellphone trembles violently with its owner's hands, and frightened shouting in Spanish from all around threatens to drown out the wails of a child. The dirty sidewalk is no place to treat the wounded.

 

The seven people bleeding out on the ground may not be alive to care, soon. The child screaming at a young couple's side is unhurt, but rightfully frightened.

 

Several someones pass in front of the camera. The owner moves to the side, and a loud male voice blares out, 'Are they alright? Are they alright?' when no one answers. The owner continues to move, and a frilly sleeve is pushed out of the way.

 

There's a man in a white labcoat kneeling over one of the bodies, pressing a cloth flat against a puddle of red.

 

'Hey, are they going to survive?'  the phone owner repeats. The doctor snags the cuff of someone standing too close, and orders them to keep pressing down. They step forward with shaking hands and kneel also, and soon the doctor stands and moves on.

 

Someone's voice is rising and falling hysterically. There's shouting about police, and an ambulance. The camera turns to look, but it doesn't seem that either have arrived, and when it looks back several people have begun to grab shirts from the store's open sidewalk display, following the doctor's example. 

 

The doctor is wearing a large woman's hat with a tag sticking out of it, now, conspicuously snatched from a knocked-over shelf. He's facing a direction that would normally let the camera see his profile, but the hat is big enough to hide all but his neck. He slows as he reaches a body that stares vacantly away--it's not the first he would've reached, but it is the first the camera has seen--and moves on.

 

Finally, there's the body that no one seems ready to approach, curled up and with its back to the crowd. Broken glass litters the ground around it, and when the doctor pushes it onto its back, he kicks a gun further out of reach.

 

Someone passes in front of the camera. "Hey..." The owner complains. No response, and the owner moves around. "Hey, why's he helping that fucker when there's people here who need help?"

 

The doctor's back is to the camera. It's impossible to see what he's doing until he glances towards the crowd, loops the hat's strap tightly around his jaw, and starts CPR.

 

No one stops or helps him. The camera continues to watch, eventually panning over the wounded, and the unhurt victims still milling around. Someone shouts about the police again, and more people are kneeling over the wounded victim's bodies, pressing down more cloth. The child has climbed into a sitting woman's lap, face buried in her hair.

One of makeshift medics calls out to the doctor tearfully, but they are ignored.

 

There's an outcry. The camera snaps back to the doctor, who's lifting his head from the shooter's chest, pushing down arms that have begun to move sluggishly. More shouting, with more than a couple of screams. The crowd is starting to shuffle back, and the doctor throws up a blood-soaked hand, shouting urgent assurances. The camera glimpses part of his face, and he's young, and very clearly aware of the new dangers--both from revived shooter, and the crowd.

 

"He's not armed!" Triple checking. The doctor kneels on his wrist, shifting the man to check underneath. Quadruple checking. "He has no more weapons! He's unconscious!"

 

The shooter's eyes are glazed but open, and the confusion in the crowd eddies and swirls. Before anyone can do anything, there's armed men in uniforms of the law shoving through the crowd, taking control of the situation. The crowd's din reaches a new high, and the man with the camera is forced back. It becomes impossible to see anything else, as people move back and shake the camera every which way.

 

There's only a glimpse left of the doctor left in the clip, and it's from one last ditch effort. The phone gets held high in the air, and it shows a white coat turned to one of the uniforms, hands forward, bloody, and earnestly reassuring.

 

The clip cuts out.

 

Comments

[evowhisperer]

The fact that his pasted-on smile is covered just emphasizes the thoughts going on in his eyes. They both narrow as he's confused. They widen as the explanation behind it all occurs to him. They focus as he tries to decide how to respond to this. None of the subtext was very clear out loud, but something about the words that weren't said... He doesn't like it.

"Me... too."

This probably be addressed sooner than later.

"Ryuzaki, you do realize that there's things about my work that I'm not going to be able to share, don't you? Because of the copyright laws."

The pleasant calm is a thin padding for an otherwise solid wall. As far as Cesar's concerned, he's trying to break it to him gently.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Oh."

He sounds unconcerned, the sound casual and quiet.

"...is that all, then?"

He might even sound relieved; clearly, red tape is something that Ryuzaki simply doesn't see as an obstacle to be taken very seriously.

[evowhisperer]

"Ah, well." His eyes swing to the side as though shaking the mind behind them, trying to reorient for this unexpected shift.

"... Yes?"

It doesn't take a genius to peel that answer apart. Cesar's brow furrows, and he folds his arms against himself.

[dead_black_eyes]

"I thought so. You made it sound like there was a problem."

Impatiently, Ryuzaki shakes his head.

"If you're not through taking photographs, please hurry. There are other things I really want to see in action while the bodies are still fresh, preferably sometime this week?"

[evowhisperer]

His face is still twisted, but L is urging him on before he can continue. This isn't over, and it's only going to come back to interfere with things later.

Well, it'll happen when it'll happen. Swallowing his protest, Caesar picks the camera back up and goes to take pictures of both bodies' fingernails, as well as other salient details. When he's done he steps back and puts the camera down, turning to L.

"Do you want to run your own tests before I collect samples?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"That's for next time," Ryuzaki replies coolly, watching Caesar finishes photographing the receding nail beds of the corpses. "Tonight, I am merely here to observe and assist you in your methods with as little interference from the ones I learned as possible. As long as Kira is a force to be reckoned with in this world, I doubt there will be a shortage of cadavers with broken hearts..."

[evowhisperer]

He nods, turning to a table with a set of tools laid out. There's no hesitation as he puts on surgical gloves, picks up a sample bag, and takes a swath. Just like that he's carrying invisible Providence badges again, and the air is cold and empty. He can do this. It's nothing more than a routine dissection of an unusual EVO.

He holds the main bag out to L for him to keep, taking a swab of saliva here, or a clipping of hair there. When the easy samples are done, he reaches for the waist of the cadaver's prison uniform.

The body is unattractive, and it's a mercy that it hasn't bloated much. The clothes are cut back without sentiment, though it's clear that he's not as experienced in this as he would like to seem. The naked body is inspected again, this time quicker, with even fewer expectations than before.

The camera comes back out. Caesar hands it to L, turning back to the table with tools. Syringe... or scalpel?

"Most of the time the morgue has already begun their autopsies, and the organs are already out."

He sounds troubled.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Not these," is Ryuzaki's quick reply. "That would really mess things up, wouldn't it? No, special instructions were given to ensure that these remained intact."

He takes the camera with his delicate, two-fingered grasp, slipping it into the pocket of his lab coat alongside his own cell phone, dead eyes glancing over the corpse.

"You haven't already found something unexpected, have you?"

[evowhisperer]

"Nothing, yet."

His pause stretches on, before he turns his head slightly. "Please take pictures, in case I've missed anything."

Not that he missed anything, but it's good practice. Mind made up, he takes the scalpel, turning back to the table. If L is taking pictures, he'll wait until he's done. It's as good a time to mentally prepare himself for this as any.

[dead_black_eyes]

"You think there's a possibility you've missed something?"

Ryuzaki takes out the camera, but seems relatively lax about taking photos, seeming to believe that his own eyes and memory are more reliable.

"Are you nervous? That's the impression I get. We won't be disturbed," he says, furrowing his brow, already looking for other reasons Caesar could be uneasy. Could it be that despite his scientific credentials, he's not that experienced with actually cutting into corpses?

[evowhisperer]

"It's good record keeping," he explains, which is its own answer. No, he doesn't think he missed anything. He's finding comfort in the structure, more than anything else: as a scientist, it's been his life's training to document each step of the way. Why stop now?

He lifts the scalpel in his hands, apparently inspecting its edge, before holding it up over the cadaver's chest. "Please don't ask questions while I work. If you need an answer, you can hold them until after we're done."

Let's get this over with. The scalpel plunges into the body low over mid-chest, cutting down to the navel in a single slice. It's deeper than it needs to be, and when the next cut--from shoulder to the top of the first cut--bites into bone, he realizes he's cutting too deep. Well, there's no thick carapace to penetrate here, is there? The third cut completes the 'Y' more easily, and Caesar spares a moment to be thankful the corpse hasn't bloated. The body is already hideous without releasing pockets of gasses from it, like some macabre balloon.

Whatever the earlier hesitation was, it seems to be gone now. He's turned off something inside of himself, and he peels back the skin.

He doesn't look up, holding one flap in place. "Tape."

[dead_black_eyes]

"This room is under video surveillance from every angle, anyway," Ryuzaki says, shrugging. "Every possible record will be, and is being kept. Please don't feel you need to give me busy work."

He sounds amused, actually, and maybe he is; even when playing a role, he's not very used to being treated like an intern. At any rate, it's fascinating to watch Caesar's bids for authority when he's cutting too deeply, as if to complete an unpleasant task as swiftly as possible.

It's already in Ryuzakis' hand when the other man requests it; he passes the tape to Caesar, secretive, hidden smile glittering in his eyes.

"So nice of you to demonstrate the novice error of cutting down to bone. I appreciate being able to see it in practice rather than have to go through it myself."

[evowhisperer]

Caesar shoots L a sharp look, picturing L cutting into a giant celaphopod and having it come alive under the knife. Who's the one being studied here, anyway, himself or the corpse? He'd ignored the cameras, before, but something about that comment has him feeling their weight again. He's being investigated, isn't he? And wouldn't a task as grim as this be the perfect way to learn more about him?

The chest cavity is open, and Caesar drops the scalpel into a tray, reaching for more sample jars. Now that he's figured this much out, there's not really anything he can do about it. What could he say? Caesar fills the jars, ignoring him for now.

[dead_black_eyes]

Ryuzaki doesn't shrink under the sharpness of that near-glare, scarcely even reacts to it. Because of course Caesar's right about whether he's being studied. That much, by now, is probably very difficult for even non-geniuses to miss.

He moves to helpfully hand over the jars Ceasar's going for. "How does the heart look? Are you planning to take it?"

[evowhisperer]

"It looks like it's been through a heart attack. Larger. The tissues are still stiff." Not that Caesar's the kind of doctor that would have experience in this, but he knows what he's seeing, and he knows from the last few weeks that this is expected.

"And no... I'm not planning to actually take anything in its entirety. All I need are samples, and I'm expecting that you've already subjected hearts like this to every scan you have available." For all the good that information will do them. Taking a heart without his lab's scanners will mean nothing more than having a macabre paperweight.

He's picked up a circular blade and is cutting a dime-sized hole from the left lung, carefully placing it inside a jar.

[dead_black_eyes]

It's not Ryuzaki's first autopsy; he's seen these things before, even if the smell is off-putting to him to the point where he gags and lunges for the peppermint oil. He's oddly comfortable otherwise, leaning close to the organs and tissues to examine what Caesar's describing with his wide, observant eyes.

"Indeed. Every test we have at our disposal, and then more at the hands of cardiologists, surgeons and countless other medical and scientific professionals. I'm very curious to see what you plan to do that we haven't yet..."

He glances up expectantly at Caesar.

"Which one are you going to revive? The other one? Or him, once he's stitched up again?"

[evowhisperer]

His goal of ignoring him as much as possible fails, and Cesar stops what he's doing to look at him. The chunk of lung he's still holding doesn't have enough moisture to drip.

"I'm not going to revive either of them. They're too far gone."

Was this something they'd been expecting of him all along? But they hadn't told him. If he'd known that was a condition, he could've said something from the start... Just how magical did they think his cure was?

[dead_black_eyes]

"Right, that makes sense..."

He says it in a way that makes his disappointment clear, even as it sounds like he's trying to find workarounds.

"I guess that I'm just very excited to see that aspect of your work again; you'll have to forgive a little bit of impatience on my part. What's the expiration date, if you're pardon the vulgarity of the expression?"

[evowhisperer]

"On the bodies?"

Satisfied that this isn't going to be the issue he worried it would be, Caesar puts the lung tissue into a jar, moving to the next organ. The heart is still trapped behind too many bones to get as good a look or a sample as he wants, but he'll deal with that soon.

"Think of my cure as a glorified pacemaker. Its purpose was to restart the heart's natural rhythm, not reverse decay. I don't think it would do a very good job on anything that's not an otherwise perfectly healthy body, either. That would require--" Tissue reconstruction, actively moving things that don't belong, selective antibacterial efforts...

"A lot more," he finishes simply, glancing L's way but not actually looking at him. "More than it can handle right now."

[dead_black_eyes]

Ryzuaki is eyeing that pesky sternum and rib cage, and is taking clear visual inventory of the various saws and drills at their disposal.

"Less 'miracle drug' and more 'advanced machine,' then," Ryuzaki replies easily, selecting a small, chisel-like tool and hanging onto it, waiting patiently for Caesar to finish collecting his samples of the accessible organs. "But now that this has come up, it's important to me that we see the results of this 'pacemaker' on a heart affected by an attack not caused by Kira. Though it would be difficult to secure an environment where that kind of test is possible, I feel it's necessary."

[evowhisperer]

"You want me to bring back someone who's died by an ordinary heart attack?"

It's hardly the worst request an employer's ever given him. He could save a life, fine tune the nanites without Kira's influence confusing things, and prove at least four different nanite-protocol-related theorems in a single project. The only drawback would be the exposure his cure would have to the rest of the world...

... Well, it's not like anyone could do anything with the nanites after a self-destruct sequence, could they? Besides, if he adjusted the replication rates, he could do this without even depleting his supply.

"... If I'm given total control over the patient's recovery and environment until the time of acceptable recovery, then I'll do it."

He hasn't even turned away from the cadaver. One last jar is put on the table beside it, and he puts a pointed instrument in the tray beside the scalpel, and he turns to the saws.

Safety mask goes on, and there's no hesitation here, either. He picks up an electric circular saw, fiddles until it gives an experimental spin, and then lowers it over the ribcage. Shrill whirring fills the air, and soon bone dust and cartilage microparticles do, too.

[dead_black_eyes]

Nonexistent brows raise; seemingly, Ryuzaki is pleased by the lack of a need to elaborate further around such a delicate, distasteful and morally troubling subject.

"I'm sure it could be arranged," he says with that strange, breezy confidence that Caesar's doubtless learning to associate with him the more time they spend together. "There are a lot of different countries, all with their own laws for execution, and it's just a matter of finding one with humane standards that are less stringent for execution."

He says as much as casually as if it was arranging a trip to the supermarket for sugarcubes.

[evowhisperer]

"... Execution?" The saw turns off, and Caesar pushes his goggles up look at L directly.

"I'm not sure I understand that correctly. When did this become about executing a prisoner, instead of saving a willing patient's life in an experimental procedure?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"What else would you call unnecessarily inducing a heart attack?" Ryuzaki asks coolly. "What you're describing would never be approved, or take too long to authorize, and any existing illness or conditions could affect results. No, the subject has to be in good health and scheduled for execution. That's how L prefers to operate, because a court-ordered death is very different from an experimental procedure on an innocent patient."

[evowhisperer]

""And how do we know that isolating a patient's death from natural causes would give us an experiment we could actually learn anything from?"

For the first time the jacket is clammy and restricting, but he very deliberately doesn't pluck at it. He has to look assured, not tense.

"Whatever trigger we use to induce the heart attack isn't just going to vanish. We could theoretically be giving ourselves the same problem, this time with blood and new blame on our own hands."

"Present it as a medical catalyst. Support it from behind the scenes as a fake charity cause. I think you may find more volunteers than you expect if you approach it from an altruistic point of view, and you'll get more cooperation along the way. Our goal is speed, isn't it?"

It's a fragile balance. He can't push too hard, or this will devolve into a fight. He won't just give up, because a life is on the line. Fighting this directly won't get him anywhere, he has to speak Ryuzaki's language. L's language too, apparently. He can do this. How else does anyone stay as high as he was in Providence and not be swept along like a puppet?