[Claire is expecting him, but Michael's appearances in the Horizon are as sudden as they are outside of it. There's his signature sound of heavy feathers beating the air and within the space of a blink, Michael is standing in the grass a few feet away, eyes on the worn stone walls with something like curiosity. The architecture's not exactly unfamiliar, but this style of building is a little antiquated from his point in time.
He turns to look at Claire.]
Is this where you're from, or somewhere you imagined?
[Some Summoned recreate places from home, and others put together entirely original creations. Michael himself lacks the creativity to do the latter, but he does like to know where those he's met fall.]
[ Claire knows now, what that sound is, and she knows he's arrived. What they're getting up to is around the back of the house instead of in Plainview so as not to scandalize the neighbors. ]
This is my husband's home, his father built it. We'd planned to live here together, once.
[ Her smile is small and a little sad, but she doesn't dwell on her emotions. ]
It makes me feel closer to him. Since you and I last spoke, someone from home has arrived, though not a person I'm very well acquainted with yet.
[ She's certainly not as intimately familiar, in any case. ]
[Evidently, they'd never had the opportunity. Michael thinks of the apartment Adam had sometimes mused on settling down in, the hundred or so middle of nowhere diners he'd wanted to visit, and all the little things that fell between. So many plans they'd made and never had time for.
(There was never any rush; they were meant to live forever.)
He feels a rare pang of sympathy for Claire. It's an underdeveloped skill of his, but he feels it most easily for those whose pain mirrors his own.]
I understand the sentiment. Heaven was built on pleasant memories.
[The Horizon allows its population greater freedoms than human souls ever had back home, but there's a familiar feeling to it nonetheless.
Michael takes a step closer, ready to follow Claire to wherever she set up for the day's lesson.]
Oh? Are they in Solvunn?
[There are one or two new faces in the Commune, from what he's noticed. Somehow he doubts she's talking about the shark.]
[Heaven was built on pleasant memories strikes her as beautiful, but she doesn't say so, keeping it to herself. She'll be thinking about that for a long while. ]
No, he's in Thorne, but we were able to meet briefly when I was helping in the square, in Nocwich.
[ Under a sheet is the shape of a body, laying on a table about the right height for an operating table. ]
His name is John Grey, and he's from nearly a decade in my future. He knows things, and I'm trying to decide if I want him to tell me.
[Michael means his words literally, but he would agree that Heaven had been beautiful. He'd turned down his last opportunity to return there, but by that point, it hadn't been the home he remembered.
Wondering about the state of the body beneath, he approaches the table and lifts the sheet. He's not squeamish. Bodies in the Horizon lacks souls and are closer to meat-based decor than something recognizable as real living things, to Michael.
He nods at her words, believing he understands where her indecision comes from.]
The burden of knowing of events you cannot affect from Abraxas versus the power to change them if you were returned home with your memories intact. [He looks away from the body, back at Claire.] I could always scrub your memory if you didn't like what he told you.
[This is perhaps not the generous offer he thinks it is.]
[ She isn’t asking a question, just mulling over the words. Is that something she would want? She can certainly think of a few things she’d like to forget, but would she? ]
I don’t know if that would be fair to John, to hope he might gain a friendship back only for me to forget. He’s intimated we’re quite close in our relationship. He’s a friend of my husband’s, but the last time I saw him, we’d only just met.
[ She’s let John take his time telling her whatever he’d like but she has her suspicions. Especially given Jamie apparently tried to beat John blind.
There’s a lapse of a few seconds before Claire clears her throat and does the job of getting the sheet perfectly tucked around the lower pelvis to preserve dignity. Even if it isn’t a body based on anyone. It’s faceless, like a cheap mannequin, and is male. For this lesson, they’ll be opening with a standard Y incision. But before that, she hands him a smock and gloves. ]
I wanted the inside to be realistic. Sometimes that involves fluids you’d rather not get on your clothes.
[ She snaps on gloves while looking at him. ]
Is there any particular area you’re interested in first?
[It'd have to be in Nocwich, of course. There are some very hard distance limits on his abilities these days. He'll spare Claire the details of how and when unless she decides to take him up on the offer, though.
He considers her situation, thinking of his own position with his siblings. Without their Father pulling strings, they've found themselves in a fragile truce: they let him be and he lets them be, despite the ugly history between them.]
We're all divorced from our origins. Relationships here need not mirror those from home. If you're seeking outside perspective, I think it makes little difference whether or not you hear him out. Abraxas applies its own pressures that will either bring you together or push you apart.
[Michael probably doesn't have any business offering relationship advice. The hierarchy of Heaven had made it so simple, once upon a time. The only relationship terms he'd had need of were superior and subordinate. It'd taken him nearly a thousand years in the Cage to define what Adam was to him, and friend is a concept he's only warmed up to since sometime after arriving in Abraxas. Internally, he's still building these concepts from the ground up.
But he's also an archangel, and archangels are nothing if not arrogant and self-assured. He'll speak with authority on any topic.
Archangels don't have much use for ideas like the dignity of a corpse, either. It's all meat suit to Michael. Nonetheless, he lets Claire take the sheet from his hand and fold it as she feels appropriate. This is her domain and he'll respect her authority here. He pulls on the smock and gloves without complaint.]
Not especially. I'm aware of human internal anatomy and my previous host was studying medicine, so I understand basic first aid.
[Essentially: he'll let her be the judge of what would be of most value to show him.]
[ Claire pauses, wondering if she should even entertain the thought of telling John. She doesn’t know him as well now as she will a decade from now, but something tells her he won’t want to forget. ]
After I know everything, perhaps we can revisit the idea. But I also can’t say I disagree with you. For now, let’s get started, shall we?
[ Not said unkindly, but ready to push her future aside for the moment.
Everything she’s doing is out of habit, and nothing more. She would do the same if she were alone. She would do this for the dead in the real world as a personal show of respect, and she doesn’t stray from her methods in the Horizon. For their purposes though, and the potential hazards of Abraxas, she decides it’s better to begin on the outside. ]
As a disclaimer, no bodies are exactly alike, and especially here, someone may present as or have qualities of being human but have completely different anatomy. For example, I’ve no clue how I would treat our new shark neighbor if he were ever injured. I know he has the basic internal parts we all do—heart, liver, stomach, et cetra—but that’s it.
[ Can he get sick? That’s just one of a multitude of questions she has. ]
In any case, this is the body of someone who was poisoned. After Jocelyn, I won’t rule anything out. Lean in, what do you smell on the body?
[ If the Horizon has done it’s job, when close enough, the body should smell like almonds. ]
[Of all the Summoned, Michael is the least likely to be offended by a request to get back to work. Productivity is among his favourite hobbies—though he would understand her wish not to think too deeply on her own future, too. Michael doesn't have anything to look forward to back home and he prefers not to dwell on it.
He turns his gaze on the body, nodding along to Claire's explanations. He's well acquainted with the concept of human variation. The bloodline that makes one a suitable vessel for him to occupy is one such peculiarity he'd had to keep a close eye on throughout the years—and, in a similar vein to her own wonderings, he hasn't a clue if or how well a creature like Nanaue would tolerate angelic possession. Here's to hoping they won't need the answer to either question.
Though he briefly pulls a face, Michael leans in and takes a whiff, as instructed.]
Carbonic acid, hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, putrescine, cadaverine, a hint of hydrogen cyanide. You'll have to forgive my lack of a human sense of smell. [He does not look terribly apologetic as he leans back.] What does it smell like to you?
[The question is genuine. Her guidance as a human is of as much value to him as her guidance as a doctor.]
[ Claire laughs, but this time, she makes it clear it isn't because of him or anything he's done. She did learn from last time. ]
I should have known you would at least understand something as basic as this. Yes, it's cyanide. To anyone not with finely honed senses, it smells of almonds. Based on the things in Jocelyn's garden I wouldn't put poisoning past anyone in any faction. If it can be grown, it can be a weapon in the right—or rather, wrong—hands.
[ It would take a hell of a long time to collect enough peach or cherry stones, but if Geillis did it in the mid-18th century, anyone in Abraxas could. It's just a matter of knowing what to do and how. ]
A person poisoned this way would vomit, gasp for air, and ultimately go into cardiac arrest. It's obvious if you arrive in time based on the smell alone. But if it's dissipated by the time someone finds the victim, it looks as though a simple heart attack occurred. Cyanide isn't detectable in the blood, either. Not after a day or two.
[For his part, Michael takes the laughter in stride. The sound reassures him she isn't put out by his alternate perception throwing a wrench into what would have been a clever lesson plan for another human.]
Senses like mine have their disadvantages. I can't appreciate what it is to smell an almond.
[Not an apology, but an explanation.
Poisoning always struck Michael as a complicated and fallible way of accomplishing what a blade could guarantee with one well-placed strike—though of course, poisoning an angel is a difficult feat to achieve in the first place. Given how few angels Abraxas is home to and how limited the reach of all Summoned is thanks to the faction borders, maybe it's a possibility that deserves greater consideration. Michael considers the corpse.]
Whether cyanide poisoning or a heart attack, there was a time I could have solved this with a resurrection. Even now, I could simply clear the substance from my vessel if I were poisoned. [He looks across the examination table at Claire.] What would you do, if you suspected poisoning of this type and arrived before they died?
[ That makes her sad for some reason; she tries to imagine would it would be like to never know what it is to appreciate a favorable scent. But he already said it was a disadvantage, so she finds no reason to say anything of it. ]
We should all be so lucky, but if they aren't like our poor fellow here, and if the patient still had a pulse, I'd try to get activated charcoal into their system as soon as possible so that it could begin to absorb the toxins in the body. And if they were already having trouble breathing, then they'd need to be put on oxygen which I'd have to ask Wanda to make for us with her magic.
[ Claire pauses and turns to look at Michael, trying to determine what he feels he might need to know. ]
Tell me, what would you be most interested in learning?
[There's something a little sarcastic, a little cheeky in his tone—by Michael's standards of expression, at least. He was looking to hear what could be accomplished if their magical resources were exhausted. She's given him a complete answer, though. He guesses their poor theoretical poisoning victim is simply out of luck if they can't get their hands on the supplies she mentioned.]
Is that a general philosophical question, or in terms of what I think you could teach?
[There are so very many things he could be putting his time and effort into now that he has neither his old responsibilities nor his former goals to guide him. He assumes Claire means the latter, though.]
Abraxas has dampened my powers before. The same happened intermittently to those who were abducted. What I'm interested in learning is how to keep this body alive as long as possible, if that were to happen again—how to care for it if I break a bone, if I'm bleeding, if I'm otherwise wounded. The kind of injuries you may have seen while the Lost were recovering in Nocwich. Does that help?
[If there's a proper name for this course of study or a starting point, he thinks Claire will know it better than he.]
In this world, if I could use it to definitely save someone, yes. In my own, there's nothing of the sort, so unfortunately, if the dose is high enough someone would die within minutes. Short of being in the hospital when poisoned, it would be unlikely to save anyone. If they were being poisoned slowly over time, that may be a different matter.
[ Claire looks at Michael, standing casually as she waits for an answer. ]
I only asked because it's difficult for me to know how detailed to get in areas that you may have knowledge of. But yes, this helps tremendously. In that case, I think the better course of action is to start with the outside of the body.
[ She glances down at the table, and the Horizon obliges in giving her a dislocated shoulder to work with. Shoving thoughts of Jamie and how they met aside, she points out the joint now at an odd angle. ]
A dislocated shoulder is quite common and I saw more than one. Perhaps people falling as they ran, or someone grabbing them to be sure they didn't stumble and fall. May I take your hand?
[ If yes, then she'll guide him to feel first the normal shoulder joint and then the dislocated one. If not then she'll show him where to touch instead. ]
Can you feel that? It's essentially like a ball and socket.
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no subject
He turns to look at Claire.]
Is this where you're from, or somewhere you imagined?
[Some Summoned recreate places from home, and others put together entirely original creations. Michael himself lacks the creativity to do the latter, but he does like to know where those he's met fall.]
no subject
This is my husband's home, his father built it. We'd planned to live here together, once.
[ Her smile is small and a little sad, but she doesn't dwell on her emotions. ]
It makes me feel closer to him. Since you and I last spoke, someone from home has arrived, though not a person I'm very well acquainted with yet.
[ She's certainly not as intimately familiar, in any case. ]
no subject
(There was never any rush; they were meant to live forever.)
He feels a rare pang of sympathy for Claire. It's an underdeveloped skill of his, but he feels it most easily for those whose pain mirrors his own.]
I understand the sentiment. Heaven was built on pleasant memories.
[The Horizon allows its population greater freedoms than human souls ever had back home, but there's a familiar feeling to it nonetheless.
Michael takes a step closer, ready to follow Claire to wherever she set up for the day's lesson.]
Oh? Are they in Solvunn?
[There are one or two new faces in the Commune, from what he's noticed. Somehow he doubts she's talking about the shark.]
no subject
No, he's in Thorne, but we were able to meet briefly when I was helping in the square, in Nocwich.
[ Under a sheet is the shape of a body, laying on a table about the right height for an operating table. ]
His name is John Grey, and he's from nearly a decade in my future. He knows things, and I'm trying to decide if I want him to tell me.
no subject
Wondering about the state of the body beneath, he approaches the table and lifts the sheet. He's not squeamish. Bodies in the Horizon lacks souls and are closer to meat-based decor than something recognizable as real living things, to Michael.
He nods at her words, believing he understands where her indecision comes from.]
The burden of knowing of events you cannot affect from Abraxas versus the power to change them if you were returned home with your memories intact. [He looks away from the body, back at Claire.] I could always scrub your memory if you didn't like what he told you.
[This is perhaps not the generous offer he thinks it is.]
What was his place in your world?
no subject
[ She isn’t asking a question, just mulling over the words. Is that something she would want? She can certainly think of a few things she’d like to forget, but would she? ]
I don’t know if that would be fair to John, to hope he might gain a friendship back only for me to forget. He’s intimated we’re quite close in our relationship. He’s a friend of my husband’s, but the last time I saw him, we’d only just met.
[ She’s let John take his time telling her whatever he’d like but she has her suspicions. Especially given Jamie apparently tried to beat John blind.
There’s a lapse of a few seconds before Claire clears her throat and does the job of getting the sheet perfectly tucked around the lower pelvis to preserve dignity. Even if it isn’t a body based on anyone. It’s faceless, like a cheap mannequin, and is male. For this lesson, they’ll be opening with a standard Y incision. But before that, she hands him a smock and gloves. ]
I wanted the inside to be realistic. Sometimes that involves fluids you’d rather not get on your clothes.
[ She snaps on gloves while looking at him. ]
Is there any particular area you’re interested in first?
no subject
[It'd have to be in Nocwich, of course. There are some very hard distance limits on his abilities these days. He'll spare Claire the details of how and when unless she decides to take him up on the offer, though.
He considers her situation, thinking of his own position with his siblings. Without their Father pulling strings, they've found themselves in a fragile truce: they let him be and he lets them be, despite the ugly history between them.]
We're all divorced from our origins. Relationships here need not mirror those from home. If you're seeking outside perspective, I think it makes little difference whether or not you hear him out. Abraxas applies its own pressures that will either bring you together or push you apart.
[Michael probably doesn't have any business offering relationship advice. The hierarchy of Heaven had made it so simple, once upon a time. The only relationship terms he'd had need of were superior and subordinate. It'd taken him nearly a thousand years in the Cage to define what Adam was to him, and friend is a concept he's only warmed up to since sometime after arriving in Abraxas. Internally, he's still building these concepts from the ground up.
But he's also an archangel, and archangels are nothing if not arrogant and self-assured. He'll speak with authority on any topic.
Archangels don't have much use for ideas like the dignity of a corpse, either. It's all meat suit to Michael. Nonetheless, he lets Claire take the sheet from his hand and fold it as she feels appropriate. This is her domain and he'll respect her authority here. He pulls on the smock and gloves without complaint.]
Not especially. I'm aware of human internal anatomy and my previous host was studying medicine, so I understand basic first aid.
[Essentially: he'll let her be the judge of what would be of most value to show him.]
no subject
After I know everything, perhaps we can revisit the idea. But I also can’t say I disagree with you. For now, let’s get started, shall we?
[ Not said unkindly, but ready to push her future aside for the moment.
Everything she’s doing is out of habit, and nothing more. She would do the same if she were alone. She would do this for the dead in the real world as a personal show of respect, and she doesn’t stray from her methods in the Horizon. For their purposes though, and the potential hazards of Abraxas, she decides it’s better to begin on the outside. ]
As a disclaimer, no bodies are exactly alike, and especially here, someone may present as or have qualities of being human but have completely different anatomy. For example, I’ve no clue how I would treat our new shark neighbor if he were ever injured. I know he has the basic internal parts we all do—heart, liver, stomach, et cetra—but that’s it.
[ Can he get sick? That’s just one of a multitude of questions she has. ]
In any case, this is the body of someone who was poisoned. After Jocelyn, I won’t rule anything out. Lean in, what do you smell on the body?
[ If the Horizon has done it’s job, when close enough, the body should smell like almonds. ]
no subject
[Of all the Summoned, Michael is the least likely to be offended by a request to get back to work. Productivity is among his favourite hobbies—though he would understand her wish not to think too deeply on her own future, too. Michael doesn't have anything to look forward to back home and he prefers not to dwell on it.
He turns his gaze on the body, nodding along to Claire's explanations. He's well acquainted with the concept of human variation. The bloodline that makes one a suitable vessel for him to occupy is one such peculiarity he'd had to keep a close eye on throughout the years—and, in a similar vein to her own wonderings, he hasn't a clue if or how well a creature like Nanaue would tolerate angelic possession. Here's to hoping they won't need the answer to either question.
Though he briefly pulls a face, Michael leans in and takes a whiff, as instructed.]
Carbonic acid, hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, putrescine, cadaverine, a hint of hydrogen cyanide. You'll have to forgive my lack of a human sense of smell. [He does not look terribly apologetic as he leans back.] What does it smell like to you?
[The question is genuine. Her guidance as a human is of as much value to him as her guidance as a doctor.]
no subject
I should have known you would at least understand something as basic as this. Yes, it's cyanide. To anyone not with finely honed senses, it smells of almonds. Based on the things in Jocelyn's garden I wouldn't put poisoning past anyone in any faction. If it can be grown, it can be a weapon in the right—or rather, wrong—hands.
[ It would take a hell of a long time to collect enough peach or cherry stones, but if Geillis did it in the mid-18th century, anyone in Abraxas could. It's just a matter of knowing what to do and how. ]
A person poisoned this way would vomit, gasp for air, and ultimately go into cardiac arrest. It's obvious if you arrive in time based on the smell alone. But if it's dissipated by the time someone finds the victim, it looks as though a simple heart attack occurred. Cyanide isn't detectable in the blood, either. Not after a day or two.
no subject
Senses like mine have their disadvantages. I can't appreciate what it is to smell an almond.
[Not an apology, but an explanation.
Poisoning always struck Michael as a complicated and fallible way of accomplishing what a blade could guarantee with one well-placed strike—though of course, poisoning an angel is a difficult feat to achieve in the first place. Given how few angels Abraxas is home to and how limited the reach of all Summoned is thanks to the faction borders, maybe it's a possibility that deserves greater consideration. Michael considers the corpse.]
Whether cyanide poisoning or a heart attack, there was a time I could have solved this with a resurrection. Even now, I could simply clear the substance from my vessel if I were poisoned. [He looks across the examination table at Claire.] What would you do, if you suspected poisoning of this type and arrived before they died?
no subject
We should all be so lucky, but if they aren't like our poor fellow here, and if the patient still had a pulse, I'd try to get activated charcoal into their system as soon as possible so that it could begin to absorb the toxins in the body. And if they were already having trouble breathing, then they'd need to be put on oxygen which I'd have to ask Wanda to make for us with her magic.
[ Claire pauses and turns to look at Michael, trying to determine what he feels he might need to know. ]
Tell me, what would you be most interested in learning?
no subject
[There's something a little sarcastic, a little cheeky in his tone—by Michael's standards of expression, at least. He was looking to hear what could be accomplished if their magical resources were exhausted. She's given him a complete answer, though. He guesses their poor theoretical poisoning victim is simply out of luck if they can't get their hands on the supplies she mentioned.]
Is that a general philosophical question, or in terms of what I think you could teach?
[There are so very many things he could be putting his time and effort into now that he has neither his old responsibilities nor his former goals to guide him. He assumes Claire means the latter, though.]
Abraxas has dampened my powers before. The same happened intermittently to those who were abducted. What I'm interested in learning is how to keep this body alive as long as possible, if that were to happen again—how to care for it if I break a bone, if I'm bleeding, if I'm otherwise wounded. The kind of injuries you may have seen while the Lost were recovering in Nocwich. Does that help?
[If there's a proper name for this course of study or a starting point, he thinks Claire will know it better than he.]
no subject
[ Claire looks at Michael, standing casually as she waits for an answer. ]
I only asked because it's difficult for me to know how detailed to get in areas that you may have knowledge of. But yes, this helps tremendously. In that case, I think the better course of action is to start with the outside of the body.
[ She glances down at the table, and the Horizon obliges in giving her a dislocated shoulder to work with. Shoving thoughts of Jamie and how they met aside, she points out the joint now at an odd angle. ]
A dislocated shoulder is quite common and I saw more than one. Perhaps people falling as they ran, or someone grabbing them to be sure they didn't stumble and fall. May I take your hand?
[ If yes, then she'll guide him to feel first the normal shoulder joint and then the dislocated one. If not then she'll show him where to touch instead. ]
Can you feel that? It's essentially like a ball and socket.
[ ...essentially. ]