+1 more scientist

[underscene]

He's tall. He wears a cleanly pressed green uniform; a barcode and series of numbers where a name plate would typically be. A surgeon's mask hangs around his neck and his hands are still gloved. He's pristine to the point of unnerving, and everything but his eyes might suggest he was in perfect health. He was not, however, nearly as together as he seemed... but that was the story of everyone, wasn't it? The more perfect the outside the more mess lay within.

To say that Cyro had many questions for the forum would be an understatement. As blip amongst the folk within, he'd been watching and listening to people come and go for a bit of time. With such a well of knowledge (and potential stupidity) available here from diverse physics, realities, time, and law, it seemed like such a waste to ask an open question.

It was at the moment where words caught somewhere in his throat he came to a startling realization: he was actually afraid. That must be the ultimate conclusion. There was little else to explain why, even here, he couldn't ask what he wanted to ask. What if no one had an answer?

"Genetic engineering," he began, walking calm through the forum and toward the front. "Does your world have it, how advanced is it, have there been difficulties with it?"

Comments

[underscene]

That world died long ago. Now he lived in a society that was very military in mind, in fashion, in function. Everything pristine. Nothing out of place. Everyone had a job, a duty, a place to be.

"The infuriating thing is," he waves a hand, not entirely sure how to handle someone giving genuine regards toward him and his plight, "what they are doing is completely logical, so a large portion of my mind understands it completely. The reverse of that is what they're doing is to me and my brothers."

He looks over the crowd idly, "it puts me in a very strange dilemma."

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity would do very poorly in that kind of place.

"The logical thing isn't always the right thing, or the best thing," she points out. "The fact that something's understandable doesn't mean you have to agree with it."

Mention of a dilemma gets a raised eyebrow. "What's the dilemma?"

[underscene]

He didn't know anything different than that kind of life, but it wasn't- well, he supposed it would depend on what was known to anyone who happened to visit. Not like anyone could visit from the outside without experiencing a very lethal welcome package. It's not that it was dysfunctional. What else could they do? Mankind would find a way to survive until they were squeezed out inch by inch, history proved that time over.

"Entirely dependent on what someone understands as right, isn't it? What if your death could grant insight into the ability to repopulate without dysfunction, would you let yourself go? You should," he paused, "but because you're human, you probably wont."

You being him in this case.

[brave_heart_verity]

They kill all the possible new breeding stock? That's short-sighted.

"Anyone who says 'hey we could fix everything but you have to die' is probably lying," she points out. "It might be easier, but that also doesn't make it right."

She pauses then, looking thoughtful. "If they were telling the truth, though? Yeah. I'd sacrifice myself."

((Aw crud I forgot the disclaimer again, sorry. I seriously shouldn't be allowed to RP when I'm sleepy.

So, about Verity: she's got a magic spell stuck in her that lets her always know when someone is lying to her. She can also see through illusions.))

[underscene]

No. they now enforce reproduction with those that can still organically reproduce because of the malfunctions witnessed in the original five GE's. Prior to that, when he and his brother's successfully lived beyond 5 years without defects, the government rolled the process out to the public (not that the masses are entirely massive in his dome, roughly 300 or so in population). Which meant there was somewhere between 50 - 100 little ones that will very potentially experience similar psychological malfunctions as the original five, with the additional quirk of developing a mutation which could easily get out of control when coupled with psychological turmoil.

"Observation is important," he points out, detaching from the matter. Not that he doesn't agree. It would make more sense to both observe and treat. If you find a treatment for the prototypes then you can continue to perfect it on the rest of the products, but half f him was under the impression they also weren't keen on the mutation that unexpectedly came with it all.

He observed her for a moment and then spoke, "I would not, or at least I am in a position where the selfish desire to not becomes more tempting by minute."

(( no worries! feel free to have her catch on with anything that happens in the narrative, I'm pretty flexible with that kind of stuff. Haha. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! ))

[brave_heart_verity]

That is definitely a problem. Meanwhile, her world is massively overpopulated. Pity people are too stubborn to help each other in situations like that.

"This is true. But observations are influenced by the observer." A society not being keen on mutations is definitely something they both understand.

"That's okay too. It's your choice."

((Thanks. A heads-up is appreciated because I don't want to jump to the wrong conclusion.))

[underscene]

"I agree," came with the tone to suggest that his superiors very clearly did not agree. He took a moment to adjust his posture and then he offered a hand, "I'm known as Cyro."

((and note, he is psychic through physical contact. Although at the moment he's wearing surgical gloves so, but do with that what you will!))

[brave_heart_verity]

She shakes his hand with a smile. "I'm Verity. It's nice to meet you. So... do you know about this place yet?"

((She has no defenses against that sort of thing, so if it works through the gloves he'd know how nervous and generally unhappy she is. The word "horrible" is coming up a lot, but in better news, she thinks well of him so far.))

[underscene]

His intention wasn't to actually learn about her but his gloves were thin enough to pick up a bit of this and that. It came in use for the OR when a patient hadn't told them the full truth of their history and things of the like. Verity seemed so calm and pleasant, but like he'd previously noted.. what one seems and what one is are two different entities.

"I know a little," he offered a nod. "I love to learn. Have you been here long?"

[brave_heart_verity]

People keep telling her to "fake it 'til you make it", which makes her skin crawl, but the other option is quickly becoming 'sit alone and go insane' so. She tries.

"A few months. It can be really nice here. There's all kinds of new things to try." She does genuinely like visiting the Nexus, which he might get an idea of before she withdraws her hand from his. It's safe, and safe is important to her.

[underscene]

Safe is very important and somewhat of a confrontation with his nature, but what if he could bring his brothers here and what if there were answers? What if this was the place that they could be fixed and actually live a life that wasn't under the microscope of someone waiting to see what the next stage of your madness might be.

Maybe he could forget and move on and maybe this overwhelming anger could be put to bed. Maybe he could return to the days that he was just a kid who loved being able to help people. Repair and replace and give them new lives in the face of death. He was watching himself change into this.. horrible thing, and he couldn't do anything about it.

Lofty ideas, really. "I didn't come to this place on purpose. Do you know.. if there is." He paused, but no.. his brothers were not as well off as Cyro was. "Do you know if there is someone that could help me, here?"

[brave_heart_verity]

Lovely ideas, she'd say.

"There's lots of people who can do lots of things." This is absolutely true and really not helpful, she knows. "What exactly do you need help with? Getting away, finding someplace new to live, something else?"

[underscene]

In an ideal world he wouldn't be becoming this neurotic machine with a lethal trigger. Alas.

Her unhelpful comment made him smile, though. The first genuine one she'd seen.

"Yes, that's actually why I am so fascinated and grateful to find this place. I," a pause, "our defects," he waves to his eyes, "apart from my eyesight, are all psychological. We don't react to medications or any know treatments and I haven't been able to decipher why and how all of a sudden we're deteriorating, mentally."

[brave_heart_verity]

It's a good day for her when she can make someone smile.

"Ah. You want... doctors? I haven't met any medical doctors here, other than you, but there are some people who might be able to make introductions. Samus maybe. She's been here longer than I have."

[underscene]

It's a strange thing to do research on yourself and not entirely recommended but what choice did he have. He was the one that had intensive knowledge in neurology, but then his knowledge in genetic research was subpar comparatively.

"Samus," the name rolled on his tongue and he lodged it away for later. There was a pause and then a switch, "but tell me about you. I'm interested, and hopeful."

A short smile came to his lips at the end statement.

[brave_heart_verity]

Nobody should have to do that. It sounds horrible. Then again it doesn't sound like he can trust anyone else to do that.

"Me? Oh." Not her favorite topic but okay. "Pretty standard human woman. Early 21st-century. I live in New York. I have an exceedingly boring job and daddy issues. Um."

Sorry Cyro, she's not good at this.

"I always know when someone's lying to me." Because that's the sort of news you want to just drop on this guy.

[underscene]

Mm, it wasn't so bad as much as it was likely of him to miss something because he was too close to the subject. Regardless how objective he could be the fact remained that it was himself and his brothers.

"Pre fallout," he nodded. "It might be nice to see that, know what it's like. Anything like this place?"

He looks at her when she makes her confession and offers a short smile, "I can read thoughts and emotions through touch."

That was good to know, though. He lied.. often. Which could be troubling.

[brave_heart_verity]

She almost says something about how he should have told her, but... she didn't exactly wear a sign either, so. "Is that why you wear those gloves?"

She'll answer his question, but it takes a little time to try and make it sound reasonable. "It's full of people with all kinds of powers and abilities. We have a lot of superheroes and supervillains. It's not always very peaceful. But if you want to come visit that would be okay. We'll avoid the places where that sort of thing is most likely to happen."

[underscene]

Everyone has a secret. There's more than just these few things between them that they hold secret, more than likely. He looked down at his hands when she talked about her gloves and considered for a moment, well, lying.

"No," came a short exhale as he pulled them from his hands. "They're typical procedural gloves. I was heading into the OR but the door lead here instead."

Instead of continuing on the matter he moved to speak about her world. "It's not that far fetched, the nuclear fallout has affected people in my world in strange ways. Most of it for the worse but some of it not. I know that's not the same but people who cannot accept what is right in front of them, you know."

[brave_heart_verity]

So many secrets, but also private things they may reveal in time.

She's glad he didn't try to lie. Although the idea he's missing a surgery is a little troubling.

"Some of it is because of radiation. People getting too close to nuclear tests, or scientists who decide 'hey, let's made a radioactive ant' or something." She doesn't understand how Ant-Man's powers work. "Some are born with powers. Humanity is evolving surprisingly quickly right now, where I'm from. Some of us get our abilities in other ways. Magic or extensive training or non-radioactive scientific intervention."

[underscene]

Magic? He was always under the assumption that magic was a false ability. Wouldn't magic just be an ability that one innately had or learned as opposed to just magic? Details.

"Scientists are naturally inclined to poke at everything because they can and observe that it in a hope that it teaches them something." He loved science but he was far from blind about the morally grey line it constantly walked.

[brave_heart_verity]

Magic is very real where she's from. But that doesn't mean she understands it.

"Wanting to understand isn't a bad thing. I take it you're not inclined to seek magical solutions to your problem?"

[underscene]

He would be interested to see it happen just to validate the different logic of physics and world dynamics. It's just so fascinating, really.

"I'm inclined to meet whoever can help. It's hard to determine when the string will finally snap. My brothers are worse off than I am, stability wise."

[brave_heart_verity]

It would make for an interesting field of study, and Verity needs a project to take her mind off things if he ever wants a lab assistant...

She's hesitant to bring this up, but he's going to find out eventually. "There are a couple powerful mages here that I've met. You'd need to be careful what you agree to with them, and I don't know how much they can do, but... Naugus or Schön might be able to help."

[underscene]

He noted the hesitation and nodded when she gave him a warning of these people. Cyro would like to say that he was incredibly cautious but that began to slip away as the mania crept in.

"Do you stay here?"