Victor Frankenstein (Doctor Whale) (
jolting) wrote in
entrancelogs2013-05-31 06:55 pm
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Transcending limitations
Who: Doctor Whale and his victims test subjects or lab assistants
Where: Mainly his laboratory but probably other places too
When: During the science event
Rating: R more than likely
Summary: Doctor Whale doing science things and experimenting on people
The Story: He was always seeking answers, always wanting to push the limits. All this time in Wonderland and he never tried to really push those limits. But something about this particular weekend made him forego any restraint. He wasn't going to stop until he found answers.
If people got hurt in the process, he did happen to have Adam's healing blood. But before he got ahead of himself, he needed to find his subjects... Hopefully Luke wasn't too squemish, because Whale would need his assistant.
[Ed | Vincent | River | Helen and Luke | Fear Gas (OTA) ; If I forgot you or want to make your own section, feel free to tag in anyway]
Where: Mainly his laboratory but probably other places too
When: During the science event
Rating: R more than likely
Summary: Doctor Whale doing science things and experimenting on people
The Story: He was always seeking answers, always wanting to push the limits. All this time in Wonderland and he never tried to really push those limits. But something about this particular weekend made him forego any restraint. He wasn't going to stop until he found answers.
If people got hurt in the process, he did happen to have Adam's healing blood. But before he got ahead of himself, he needed to find his subjects... Hopefully Luke wasn't too squemish, because Whale would need his assistant.
[Ed | Vincent | River | Helen and Luke | Fear Gas (OTA) ; If I forgot you or want to make your own section, feel free to tag in anyway]
no subject
"Helen, good to see you," he said. "Come, I was just about to start the tests." He gestured for her to approach. There was more protective equipment available should she find it necessary.
"What we have here is what appears to be a normal sample of human blood. But it's more than that... This blood is from the man who resembles me, Adam Monroe. He claims that his blood can heal anything. Today we're going to see if that's true."
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Normally, he wouldn't have minded. It was only fair, since he didn't yet have a piece of paper that let him strong arm people into calling him 'Doctor'. But today he had itchy fingers and thoughts that nagged at him during what should have been a basic set-up. There were such things he could do with his own experiments, if he just had the chance...
Still, he was anxiously keen to impress Whale, so those thoughts were easily suppressed for now. Although he did give Helen a quick wave and a cheeky grin when she appeared in the doorway.
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She noted the differences in Dr. Whale's appearance, but made no outward sign that she had. Instead she inclined her head towards him and motioned Luke forward as well. Time to begin his scientific training. Besides, they could likely use the extra hand.
"How shall we do that?" While she normally wouldn't have agreed to hurting themselves or anyone else to test this theory, today she was feeling a bit... lax in her normal beliefs. How else would they find out, after all? The floor was open to either of them to answer if they wished.
"Do we know much about this man or his blood? Can we test its properties, look into the genetic structure it provides for clues?"
She had experience with blood injections, after all, and that was likely showing through at the moment. Later on, she would likely regret this, but at the moment she couldn't find it in herself to care.
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"All he told me was that he could heal from almost anything." He fingered a tube filled with blood. "And that the ability was the result of evolution. Helen, I would appreciate your insights into the genetic side of this. Luke, you and I will observe the physical aspects of the blood's power. You aren't squemish, are you?"
Whale clearly intended to test the truth of this blood's healing qualities. And doing so required an injury.
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The experiment itself, though, he found that very strange. Back home, Luke could get the properties of alien blood analysed in the time it took to update his facebook status, yet Helen was discussing the logistics as though it was something that needed questioning.
They were both intelligent. Rigorously attentive to their work. At least one of them spoke like an expert in genetics, and the other had very exotic taste in lab wear. But Helen was from the forties, and, if you believed Henry's fantasies, Whale had spent the last thirty years in a time warp. It was likely they weren't familiar with the advanced alien technology Luke was used to observing. This was gonna be how they did science back in the olden days.
"No, I'm not, Doctor Whale," he said, and moved to stand by his side. When he thought the man wasn't looking, he shot Helen a baffled smile. "Is this going to end with one of us getting stabbed?"
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Maybe stabbing themselves if her first idea didn't yield decent results.
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"I'll be the test subject," he decided. "Adam Monroe and I share physical similarities." And before either of them could stop them, Whale took up a scalpel and ran the blade acrosss his arm.
"Luke, if you would time how long it takes for that to heal, please." His movements were so methodical it was going to be difficult to argue. Especially when he just went through with things anyway. Like that cut, or injecting himself with the blood. If something were to go wrong, he wanted all the responsibility on his own shoulders rather than theirs.
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But just like Luke didn't want to admit he was confused by Helen's practicalities, but unable to offer her a better alternative, he also didn't want to argue Whale's methodology. Luke believed in a hierarchy. If worst came to worst, Wonderland would revive him.
To cover up his nervousness, he tilted his chin and tried to convey 'I'm a serious scientist and not perturbed by any of this'. Timing was simple. Didn't even need a stopwatch. Luke's brain worked faster than his hands; it'd be more accurate to observe closely and run the mental calculation afterwards. So he folded his arms, watching that needle and whatever consequences came of it.
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Helen kept silent, not making any move to stop anyone else. The only thing she actually did was to move to place her hand reassuringly on Luke's shoulder, if he would let her. Perhaps they could all deal with this as long as they stuck together. In the meantime, she watched Whale's movements, ready to use her medical knowledge if they needed it.
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"About one minute or so," Whale mused. "Would you concur with that, Luke?"
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Helen's hand had been a steadying comfort while he'd been sceptical, but now they'd succeeded his worries were all but forgotten. Luke grinned wildly at the two of them. His enthusiasm was childish, but who could blame him? That had been awesome.
"You... regenerated."
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But of course that would require James' presence in Wonderland. Her expression fell and the hand on Luke's shoulder went with it.
"Self-healing. What a wondrous gift."
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He paused, closing his eyes to relish in this next thought. "With science, my name can truly stand for life." There was triumph and excitement in his eyes when he opened them again. Magic may have beat him before, but now he had a better weapon to fight back.
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He almost patted Helen's arm, much like she'd held his shoulder, but held back at the last second out of shyness. It wasn't surprising that she might take issue with the process. Instead, he tried to temper his excitement into a kind smile. One that didn't pry, but acknowledged her reserve.
But nothing the doctor said was inaccurate, except for the fact that magic didn't exist and was never going to be an option. Whale was right, there was a good opportunity to improve quality of life in the mansion, next time an event came around. Luke looked for something to scribble calculations on, so they could all have a reference to work with.
"Repeated blood donations are going to be inefficient," He mused. "Could we synthesise it? And we'll have to test other subjects. Different types of injuries. How long it remains in the blood stream… What if it was, like, functional immortality for a few months? That's mad."
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As far as she was concerned, everything could be explained by science.
Dr. Whale's excitement was contagious, however, and soon enough, Helen was grinning as well, her eyes lighting up with the promise of using this new blood for the good of all. "I wonder if we could. If I may have a sample of the sample --" Despite how awkward that sounded. "-- I might be able to create a serum from it. I'm personally familiar with blood injections, so this shouldn't be too difficult, particularly if there's something here that can examine this blood on a genetic level."
Something or someone.
"It may not even be immortality. It may simply be a heightened ability to heal, an antigen that causes skin to regrow more quickly than a normal human."
If they could truly synthesize something even remotely similar, the possibilities would be endless.
no subject
He of course had no idea that both of his assistants didn't believe in magic. He, unfortunately, had no choice in that matter: magic was real, and his very arm was a permanent reminder that he turned to it instead of science in his time of need. But they were more than welcome to scoff at it if they wished; he certainly did once upon a time.
"I'm afraid that as it stands, the healing powers of this blood extend only as far as we've just seen," Whale told them both. "The one who donated told me as much. It won't grant me a longer life or keep me from being harmed again in the future. It felt no different than any other blood transfusion."
"But I'm sure between the three of us, we'll find a way to make good use of it."
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This morning, he would have waited for permission. Now, his anxieties ebbed away. Luke wasn't just a lab assistant, he was a genetically engineered genius lab assistant. The other two had experience and knowledge, where Luke only had intuition and an alien database implanted in the dusty crevices of his brain, but he was their equal. The experimenter, not a subject on a table, or an object who shut up and did what he was told. And he could give them tools they'd never dreamed of. They might even become proper friends, the three of them.
He babbled as he sought out odds-and-ends (copper wires, repurposed machinery, oddly shaped tubes, and, most important, a lot of vials with brightly-coloured solutions). It was habit, but also an invitation for criticism and comments.
"Create an electric probe to charge the blood, and an electric field for capillary electrophoresis… we'll need lots of electricity. Degrade the RNA- chemicals are toxic, but that's all right." They had healing blood, after all, should anyone melt some fingers or burn their skin off. "Acrylic glass, some soda-lime, bit of optical fibre... If it goes okay we'll have a biodata matrix in, um, ten minutes, maybe?"
no subject
"I shall certainly do my best with it." Whether or not they had the necessary equipment remained to be seen, but oh she was looking forward to it.
Luke's comments caught her attention afterwards and she glanced at him, a look of pleased surprise on her face. He seemed to know a lot more than she'd given him credit for. "You may have to explain some of that," she admitted, smiling in spite of herself. "Regardless, it sounds like a good idea." And she trusts he knows what he's doing.
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But because it was altered human technology, some parts still needed manual operation. An improvised microprobe, pointy strips of metal slotted into plastic handles and wired up to a generator. A small silicone basin with a conductive layer for optimal blood electrocution, and then a complicated system of tubes and vials of mixed toxins to purify the DNA. It should be simpler to use than it looked.
"Electricity can manipulate our bodies right down to the genetic core? So control a high enough voltage, and you can use a probe to pick up DNA molecules like you'd draw on a dot-to-dot game. Someone else washes it to dissolve the bits we don't need… Should take about the same time it does to boil a kettle."
And as long as they did exactly that, didn't touch anything but the plastic, and the thing didn't fall apart as they worked, they wouldn't fry themselves, or short-circuit the machine, or splash themselves with acid, or start a fire... Basically, as long as nothing went wrong, nothing would go wrong.
"This," he said, stepping back from his jerry-rigged creation and clasping his hands in a demure movement, "is alien science."
no subject
She refused to dwell on the question of whether or not John's could have been altered.
"This 'alien science' is wonderful." Later she would ask where he'd learned it. "All right, since you seem to know the most about it, who would you delegate to what task?"
Helen didn't mind letting him take the lead for a bit. It would do them all some good to change roles for a time.
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Luke was suggesting they send an electric current through a living person's body. Whale might not know anything about alien technology, but he did know about electricity.
"Alien science is still science," Whale said. "What you're suggesting is excellent in theory, Luke, but we must be cautious when putting it into practice. This is more than just a cut arm we have to worry about." But if he used that device on Adam Monroe, then there was no need to worry. The man wouldn't die, no matter what happened.
"All I need is one of those probes." He'd have to find some way to get rid of Helen and Luke, because he intended to do as much as he could with Adam as long as he had the immortal.
no subject
Except Whale wanted the electricity part. Which meant Helen would purify, while Luke did the boring code transcription. He bit the inside of his lip as he readjusted to playing the well-behaved assistant.
"Yes, doctor. It only needs a drop of blood. It's not going to waste much."
If Luke was mentally slipping Whale into the role of the controlling scientist who'd made him, Helen revealed herself to be more like his mother with every new interaction they had. His smile for her was muted, but genuine, and he planned to brief her on the properties of each solution while Whale probed the fluid.
"Probably already know chemistry sets like the back of your hand, Doctor Magnus." Only with more chances to lose that hand, if you weren't careful.
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"I've certainly used my fair share of them and watched them evolve," she admitted with a smile. Oh yes, if any of them had messed something up with their Source Blood experiment, they could have received a lot more than a simple burn. "I'm assuming you're suggesting we use those to probe a sample of blood to see how it reacts to cleansing?"
The theory of all of this is sound and familiar to her, even if the way of going about it is different and new. She's following the suggestions as best she can.
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For now Whale would focus on the probe and extracting what he could from Adam's blood. The man told him about mutated genes and the next stage in evolution. How would that reflect in the DNA? Admittedly Whale knew more about anatomy than the genetic structure, but even he knew that what they would see from a nearly four hundred year-old man would be unusual.
"Blood sample taken from Adam Monroe, for the record," he said to them both. "Originally from planet Earth. Physical age estimated at twenty-four, possibly twenty-five. Actual age estimated at four hundred. Now, let's see what his blood has to tell us..."
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Oh god I thought I'd replied to this SORRY EVERYONE