abraxaslogs | dismissive and intensely serious

[Holidays in Nocwich are few and far between. Work occupies his time while people demand it: pressing him with questions and testing his attention. The man demanding it today has introduced himself - to more than himself - and explained the task in hand. To match torso and limb, head and spine. Perhaps the challenge of accomplishing that with nothing but his intellect is brightening his mood.

No murmur passes his lips, his mind keeping notes as he circles the autopsy table and hovers over the cadaver. The one familiar face no doubt believing him a vulture.]

The second? Well, he is busy. Introductions can wait.]

( whilst adrienne was glad to help for this situation, seeing it through from collecting the bodies, there were moments about it that didn't quite feel right. but she didn't know enough about the medical practices here yet, had only just begun asking questions, so she hadn't pressed too hard.

which was why her assessment so far had been visual, keeping her hands away from any body part yet, making any observations she could about the parts along their table.

the damage was considerable, the condition of the body poor from time and water, but there was more in identification than simple appearance )

You're not pathologists.

( a quiet note about the two with her and not a question. just an observation )

[When some of the Summoned had been given opportunity to continue assisting with the recovery and identification efforts, it hadn't really been a question that Jayden wanted to be involved. This isn't his area of expertise by any means, but he does have more experience than some might, and he's also very personally connected to all of this. So here he is, frowning at the remains as he cross references with preliminary notes scrawled by the person who'd initially located the body.

But Adrienne's comment is a welcome distraction, and he turns his attention toward her to confirm her statement.]

I'm not. I don't know if my job exists where you're from, but I'm an FBI profiler.

[And if that makes no sense, he'll explain further, but maybe she'll be from a world where it does mean something.]

Edited 2024-01-19 23:56 (UTC)

Well, psychological autopsy is as much a discipline as any.

[Crane speaks without direction and attention: his eyes peering over the autopsy report. Findings, test results, medical records. Clues with which one might identify the deceased.]

I think you're as good to make a start as anyone. Our task is to identify the victim, after all.

[Victim. Subject. Tomato, tomato.]

It wasn't a criticism.

( she looks briefly up from the body, eyes a little sharper at crane before glancing back at jayden, then back down to the body )

Both profiling and psychology require similar useful skills. Logic, looking at puzzles... and this is one.

( she skims a hand just shy of a right arm, not yet touching it but visually tracing a mark in the skin revealed by the water damage )

So... FBI Profiler and... Therapist? Forensic Psychologist?

( save her from guessing further )

[Jayden glances from Crane to Adrienne and back, letting Crane respond first, since Adrienne is asking him a question. It also gives Jayden a little time to stall, since although he appreciates--sort of, anyway--the confidence, he's not sure exactly what either of them is expecting.

The part of his job that involves profiling dead bodies is to find out who their murderer is, not the individual's identity, and although he's sure some skills will indeed transfer over and Adrienne's right that this is just a puzzle to solve, it doesn't feel like one. He's having a much more difficult time than usual when it comes to looking at things in the more removed way one needs to in order to focus on these sorts of cases, but that's something he's going to just have to work through.]

[Eyes glance towards the table: observing and discerning the actions of his associates. Each ponders curiously, searching for answers by waiting on the other. He glances back at his notes as both attempt to meet his gaze. But their attention fades away and he frowns and murmurs at the words on the page.]

Forensic psychiatrist.

[Regardless, he is listening as he is reading.]

Length is seventy two inches. Weight one hundred and eighty five pounds. The right hand and ear are absent. There are no distinct tattoos, no personal effects to signify religious belief. Clothing is an eclectic mix of dress.

[He stops to analyse his thoughts.]

I would hardly think this man could be from anywhere but the Free Cities.

Edited 2024-01-21 00:15 (UTC)

Well, someone better versee in fashion could answer that.

( it's closer to murmured, adrienne leaning closer to the body in her examination, slowly and gently lifting the arm to better examine the wrist. or where a wrist would be if one was still attached )

In anyone that you know of that's missing was anyone missing a right hand? Or is that just something we've yet to piece in?

( either from not being found or still to be placed with the correct body )

And also assuming nothing was taken by the cult.

[Jayden watches them both work for a moment, before finally setting the notes aside and approaching the remains as well.]

I think you're right on the clothes.

[He says it to Crane, because the clothes do look Free Cities, even though Jayden is not at all well versed enough in fashion to qualify as any sort of authority.]

But they may not've been his. He could've taken them off someone else.

[It's added quietly, and although he's only speculating with this person, he had seen plenty of scavenging happen in the pit. There was no reason not to use supplies that could be found if the person who they'd belonged to had no use for them anymore.

But he doesn't elaborate on that, instead focusing on Adrienne.]

There was plenty of stuff down there that could've taken off a hand, but my guess would be it came off during decomposition, considerin' the time and conditions.

[And speaking of this sort of thing--]

Is pathology what you did back home?

( there's a hummed affirmation at first, a few seconds longer on her study before the lowers the arm back down, standing straighter again )

Not usually with bodies so decomposed but I am a pathologist.

( she steps away from the table to one of the others in the room that had an assortment of limbs and body parts on it awaiting sorting and reuniting with their bodies, making her focus on any hands that may be there )

Is 'eclectic' usually how Free Cities is described?

( though what she'd seen when hilda had taken her shopping... she didn't have a one word answer for it )

Do you want my honest opinion? Or shall we accept I was being polite?

[His soft voice carries easily in this small chamber. It lacks bite but at the same time possesses a backbone. His point? Eclectic is a more respectful word than slovenly.]

Check his feet. Measure both against his shoes. I think it would prove harder to change one's size in a panic.

[Perhaps he is taking charge. But he was responsible for directing a hospital. For developing policies, programs and procedures. Confidence - or arrogance - comes with the territory.]

'Experimental' is probably pretty fair.

[In addition to eclectic. He says it with just a hint of humor, something funny about this otherwise not at all funny situation.

He nods at Adrienne, showing he heard her answer, then turns his attention back toward Crane.]

Shoes are probably his. But if you want to check them, be my guest, just know his feet'll probably come off.

[Since that's also incredibly common, and in this condition an attempt to remove shoes would almost certainly disarticulate the feet. And although Jayden offers the warning about ninety percent out of respect for the corpse, but ten percent or so is for Crane. At least it's something?

Jayden definitely has no intention of testing the odds of removing feet, so he turns instead to help Adrienne in looking through the myriad of lone hands that had been found. He'd even been responsible for locating a few of them himself, though none that seemed like they would belong to a man this tall.]

( adrienne similarly had no intention of removing the feet. if he'd already lost a hand potentially from the decomposition he didn't need to lose his feet either.

and unless there was anything remarkable about his feet it would confirm little more than size.

so she keeps looking at the hands, keeping his left hand in view to compare them for size, though none do seem fitting )

Do you know what typical practices are after this? Burial, cremation?

Spirituality is hardly my field. But some of our victims are denied a burial due to the risk of contamination they pose to the ecosystem.

[He sets the report aside, rolls his shoulders and walks back around the table to the head of the body. His mind craves for more stimulus than observing the dead - and their religious practises.]

Not that I come across such a raw example in my line of work.

I know what typical practices are at home, but I'm not totally sure here. I got the impression that part of the reason for identifyin' bodies was to let the families have a choice, but it might be out of their hands for some of them.

[Like Crane mentioned about contamination. Jayden's pretty sure some of the bodies, like the woman from the altar, are going to be special cases.]

But whatever's done with the remains, at least the families will have some answers. And the people that didn't have anyone to miss them can be recognized.

[Which is one of those things that's always been a lingering concern of Jayden's; of course he's worried about the families who lost people, but what about the people that no one missed? That died without anyone even knowing they were gone? They deserve to be named and put to rest too.

He's also been unlucky so far with the search for a matching hand, and so moves to pull one of the drawers containing more remains. It's like a grotesque treasure box, full of assorted pieces, and there are unfortunately several more to look through if this one doesn't happen to have the correct match. There's also the potential that the hand has already been matched to a body, but an incorrect one.]

( given the circumstances of how the bodies had been recovered and how long they'd been there there was no question about contamination. which was another reason why adrienne had asked for gloves, finding it strange that none were used here. different practices, she has to keep reminding herself.

but there's a dead end (currently) with the hand, letting jayden search the drawers for the moment, looking back along the body )

Can you hand me that spray?

( it was closer to where crane was stood, where it'd been left after the luna had brought it in. not everything was visible to the naked eye )

Usually, you'd find more tools for identifying bodies, but here... we're going with what we have. And some identifiers we might not immediately see.

( if only that's what the spray would highlight )

[The request is simple. Nothing about it dominates his time. He twists his body and plucks the spray off the counter: holding it out without a word. If this world could test genetic information their work would end within days. But they cannot so this grizzly work must continue.]

Pathology is hardly my field. But my discipline involves research on a molecular level.

[Norman draws his attention and his head turns as he continues talking.]

And right now I'd kill for a microscope.

There's gotta' be magic for that, right?

[The microscope thing. There might even be microscopes somewhere, at least in the Free Cities, but Jayden's coming around to the idea of magic being more convenient in some cases, and a magnifying spell seems like one of those.

As for Adrienne's comment--]

You'd think they would have some magic that could do this too, like somethin' the equivalent of matching DNA.

[He'd be a little surprised if there isn't something like that, actually, but it might just be very difficult. He'd been mentally cataloguing things that need to be looked into or recreated to improve crime scene investigation, and so many of them might've been useful here, but unfortunately they do indeed have to settle for what they've got.

Though speaking of--]

What's the spray for?

[Have they discovered Luminol yet?]

( there's a questioning look at crane when he mentions his work using a microscope though she saves the question for another time, a quiet thanks for the bottle )

They don't have medical-grade gloves, not from my enquiries. Apparently this is what they use instead.

( and, not knowing precisely how the luna use it, adrienne doesn't spray it too close to the body for fear of any damage, spritzing it around it at first and then along.

though it's very obvious that it does something as the salt along the body 'lights up', a huh of remark as she steps closer to look at it.

concerned? maybe soon )

[The sight is a curious one that draws him close. The unveiling of a secret brings his attention down to the body as affected patches of skin turn a pale blue. It spreads up one arm, to his shoulder, spreading towards his skull where a crusting around a severed ear gains his attention.]

Well, if that isn't strange.

[He turns away and begins rummaging through a draw: a line of bagged and tagged fingers and ears keeping his attention as he listens to the ongoing conversation.]

[He doesn't have time to wonder about what the people here might be using instead of disinfectant before Adrienne is spraying it, and... What even?

Unlike his companions, Jayden briefly draws back in alarm at the reaction; it isn't exactly like anything he'd seen in the pit, but considering all of the unnatural things that had happened there, an unexpected physical change to the body is unsettling at best. His first thought is that it might have something to do with the ritual, but there aren't any obvious signs this individual had been through it, so perhaps not. Maybe it's just... Weird.

So, after a moment, he also moves closer, though he isn't about to touch the body just yet. The salt around the ear catches his attention just as it did Crane, but his gaze soon shifts lower, and his eyebrows furrow a little as he notices something about the skull. Or, more specifically, the jaw.]

Huh. Jaw looks broken, like somethin' hit him.

[Not one of the most common injuries to have sustained in the pit, and although not fatal in itself, it does narrow down some potential causes of death. Maybe this was one of the people caught by falling rocks during the escape.

But that aside--]

Do all the bodies react this way?

[If Adrienne sprays one of the other severed hands, for instance, will the crystals also form?]

( she looks slowly back up at the question, drawing her gaze away from the body, a curious expression forming on her )

Let's find out.

( it's to the hands that she moves, bringing the spray with her, and rather than spraying the collection along the table she picks up a smaller hand, separating it from the others before placing it back down, spraying it just as carefully as the others.

it doesn't take long before they see something, crystals similarly forming on this hand )

Maybe it's something that attached itself from how long they were there. A residue or... growth?

[Fingers inch gently across a collection of ears: his mind focused on answering the question of which belongs to whom. One is pierced with a cross. Two are studded. Three seconds pass for the question to enter his thoughts. It takes ten to join the conversation.]

Well, these symptoms could be deliberate, the consequence of some spiritual experiment if not a scientific one.

[He speaks with disgust about the supernatural. Ghosts and superstitions have culminated in this pointless waste of life. He pulls the draw out and leans in.]

But depending on how they manifest perhaps we can match each limb according to presence and pattern.

[Jayden turns his attention to watch Adrienne's experiment, watching the salt crystals form with an equally growing sense of trepidation. That feeling is only amplified at Crane's mention of a 'spiritual experiment', and he finds himself shaking his head at the very idea of it, rather than because he necessarily disagrees. He does, at least a little, but he more just doesn't even want to entertain the idea.]

It didn't... There wasn't anythin' like that.

[In the pit. People were... Things were happening to them, and they were changing, but those effects were different from this. It's more likely a byproduct of the environment, as Adrienne suggested, though it is also possible that Crane's right and if things had continued to progress something like this would've begun to happen. He doesn't know and he really doesn't want to think about it, and he hadn't expected something like this would be an issue, and it's entirely throwing off the mental preparation he'd done before going into this.

So he just nods at the idea of matching bodies based on the salt growth, withdrawn and distracted for the moment with getting his emotions under control.]

( there's a frown that adrienne gives to crane's answer, though it's a similar frown that she gives to most magical-related answers. she doesn't much like them. bacteria or an organism sounds better.

putting the first hand down she sprays another, waits, though this time the absense of the growths is just as telling as them being there )

This might at least help identification.

( she puts the spray down and holds a hand in each of hers for view, one with salt revealed and one where there'd been no reaction )

I'll spray them all and get them separated.

Well, we have to make a start, don't we?

[The comment signals agreement and frustration: his reverence for science interrupted by thoughts of supernatural nonsense. But there are personal reasons. His theories and research came through working independently. He can spend time alone, perfect a plan and have it operate without question. His benefactor had given him enough space to focus and stay productive.

But these people are trying to bring their own vision. He had once shared his freely, only for his peers and colleagues to deride it. So he redirects his frustration into productivity. He investigates another ear - stopping when he catches sight of an earring.

He gently lifts the ear out the draw and inspects it in his hand.]

[Jayden is still a little too thrown off to figure out how to return to being useful, so for the moment he just observes Adrienne and Crane. That not all the hands react to the spray in the same way is helpful, and he briefly considers trying to help Adrienne with the sorting, but is drawn back toward the body they're trying to identify.

He keeps his hands away from the body, still hesitant to touch it especially with the recent discussion, and looks it over once again. His attention is drawn back toward the jaw fracture, once again morbidly wondering what happened, but realizes there's something odd about it; he can't quite tell what it is just yet, however.

Out of the corner of his eye he notices Crane is looking at something in specific, and glances over at him.]

Found somethin'?

[Words enter one ear and leave the other. But all are digested, analysed and processed until he makes a decision. To share information. To be honest. To be sincere.]

Well, this belongs to one of my patients, or one like it.

[The earring is special: one of a unique pair. Perhaps he can speak to the surgeon and see it returned to a relative. He leaves the earring alone and settles it back in the drawer.]

If we can identify the other remains then I at least have a name.

[Which is what this exercise is about, right?]

Your patient?

( it's a quiet murmur, both a confirmation that she was listening amidst her sorting, separating the hands onto two different benches based on their reactivity to the spray, whilst also quietly questioning. not about the specifics but that the people in the cities had been patients of his.

maybe he'd be someone else to talk to about a starting point for her, but that was a conversation for a different say )

We can narrow identification down further with hand sizes along with their reactivity. The size of the hands could indicate to gender, age, race, comparing with the bodies we have and names you may have.

[The idea of unique earrings is an interesting and hopefully promising one; he doesn't know enough about jewelry to tell just how likely or unlikely it might be for earrings to be that unique, but he has no reason to doubt Crane on this. Besides, he'll take any good news they can get.

He nods at Adrienne's comment--it'll definitely help with sorting the hands--but his gaze returns to the body in front of him as the strange feature catches his attention again. This time he figures out what is bothering him about it, leaning closer and squinting; he holds a hand out over the fractured jaw, a small glowing orb forming under his palm to provide additional light, glinting off of what he'd initially thought was environmental damage to bone. And, in a way, maybe it is.]

I think this is more salt? It's in the bone itself.

[Patient. Client. One is more suggestive than the other: hinting at suffering in a long and personal relationship that in his case is rarely consensual. But today he is given to another kind of work - and he twists his head to observe the investigation.]

Are there signs of osteoporosios?

[Too much salt makes bones brittle, right?]

I hadn't seen any yet.

( though adrienne would certainly take a second look now that he'd drawn attention to it.

she finishes her last spritzes, settling the last hand into the correct section based on whether it had reacted or not. that'd certainly help with identification )

Though if the deposits came from the mud or water, lingering traces... asking if anyone's sampled that wouldn't help us but it'd tell us what they were in.

( because it's certainly a little unsettling. though maybe she should have questioned more about the spray first )

I think-- ( there's a pause, adrienne lifting up one hand before looking over at the body again ) Take this one. Visually I want to say it's lit up as much as the body has.

( and more than some of the other hands have )

Wouldn't know what to look for.

[When it comes to osteoporosis. That's way outside of his area of expertise.]

I guess it might be environmental, if the fracture was exposed, which it could've been.

[His guess would be that it was the water, since it was already salt water, but it could've just as easily been anything else or just the effect of lingering magic. And, although he doesn't want to consider the idea, it could be something to do with the ritual, since it did have a different effect on native Abraxans than on the Summoned.

Jayden considers the hand when Adrienne holds it up, and although he's not exactly the squeamish type, he still has no desire to actually touch any parts of the body now that they have this question about contamination, especially if it does have to do with the magic used. He wants nothing at all to do with that ever again, and so although he doesn't ignore Adrienne, he does grab a tray to transport the hand instead of reaching out to take it himself.]

[Crane steps aside so Norman - squeamish and nervous in his decision - can collect a tray. He leaves the collection of the parts to those more suited and returns to browsing the autopsy report.]

Well, I am no pathologist, but the subject could have been affected through the airways.

[Did he just call the dead person a subject? Yes.]

Though salt inhalation usually encourages better lung function. Perhaps this sample spreads more like mold.

Tr--

( she was about to agree with him about the inhalation until the rest of his sentence registered in her, lifting her head up from where she'd been looking at another hand after norman had collected the first one, concern registering in her expressions.

and she swears, in schweisserdeutsch )

I hope you're wrong.

( says her who's been the closest to all body parts and hasn't shied away from any of the investigating. because the spray had sounded, in their explanation, as close as she could get to gloves. their equivalent. not that she had a mask either )

Though to be safe, since we were here, we might all want to ... get tested for something. ( what though?

but back to her hand-- ) How's it look?

[Jayden doubts this person contracted anything that would cause this while alive, if just because as far as he knows no one who survived being in the pit ended up with symptoms like this, but he supposes he can't rule it out. Most of the Summoned survivors had been given treatment after rescue, including something to counteract the ritual's effects specifically, and it's possible that--or any other treatment--might've prevented anything like this from happening. Without knowing how long this person had been down there, or if they'd died before the Summoned were even brought to the pit, it's difficult to rule out.

So he doesn't argue, even if he would've liked to be able to assuage Adrienne's concerns. They probably should get checked out.

But whatever damage that might be done has probably already been done, and so he refocuses on the task and Adrienne's question. When he sets the tray near the body's intact hand--he's definitely not touching anything of the remains now--he frowns, looking over both of them carefully.]

I think it's a match. Same color, size, and shape, nail beds match the other hand, salt crystal pattern looks similar.

Well, I would call that progress, wouldn't you?

[He withdraws the bagged ear from the draw and sets it aside for future discussion. There are ways and means of extracting its value. But that would be better without the prying eyes and ears of his work colleagues.]

I think you should check with the surgeon here and get everything logged so our mutual friend can visit a doctor. Better safe than sorry.

[Doctor. He refuses to say healer. Magic nonsense.]

dismissive and intensely serious

CLOSED

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject