Video ; @samsa

[enucleation]

[ it's a video! And Kaneki is at what looks exactly like a morgue because he is at a morgue. To the left there is a dead person, and he will talk about it in a moment. To the right, his cursed doll is sitting at a table, immobile this time; she had a bit of a makeover ever since arriving to Serthica. Currently he is wearing a white coat, just like a doctor would (spoiler alert: he is not a doctor)]

Good evening, I hope everyone has settled in, in this... steam-punk city. [ a pause ] I feel like we might go through every literary genre at this point.

Anyway - [ Kaneki rises some papers he will be reading from as he approaches the dead body ] I was given a job as a mortician. [ how fitting ] and I can tell you a little bit about what I have seen here.

There is some sort of affliction, even in healthy looking bodies. A rot - [ and that's when he shows the dead body up close. There is a rotting look to it, green and festering, inside the abdomen ] It shows in abdomen and muscles. Also, the bodies decompose at a strange rate. None of them seem to follow a normal human pattern for decomposition, some too slow or some too fast. Honestly, I'm not a doctor so I only know what I read in medical books, but I haven't found information on this. [ he puts the papers away and walks away from the body ]

Lastly, during that eventful summit, some of the delegates started acting weird when Minaras rose. I can't put my finger on it, but there was a strange smell. They smelled human, they are human. But- [ he pauses, frowning a little. How is he supposed to describe a scent? ] It was just not normal. There are others in this city that smell like that, some of the bodies that arrive here, too. It's not everywhere but it's--

I can't recognize it. And no, the rotting bodies are unrelated to that smell, I have checked.

So, this is the information I currently have. If anyone has anything to add, I'd love to hear it.

Comments

un: absterge

[downswing]

( .......hold, hold everything. )


The dead remain dead?

[enucleation]

I don't follow them to burial, but no one has suddenly woken up on my table.

[downswing]

The dead here do not bear the marks of passing.

un: workstormit | audio

[bravelyrunsaway]

What in the skies is that doll doing there, did it come in with the body?

( pardon the initial distraction, kaneki, he doesn't have the rundown on the cursed doll yet. he'll get back on topic, just. what. )

[enucleation]

What do you mean?

They do rot, even if unpredictably.

[enucleation]

[ oh you are in for a TREAT ]

No, it's mine. [ well -] Technically, I'm haunted by it. it follows me everywhere.

[bravelyrunsaway]

You're... haunted by a doll.

( here's his extended pause, and a cautious: )

I assume a possessed doll, and not a magic crafted one?

[downswing]

Oft, the dead release their spirits.

Not here. Not that we sense.

[enucleation]

Yes, possessed by the spirit of a little girl. I found the doll at a lighthouse we have visited before, and she has been haunting me since then.

[ he doesn't seem too worried about it ]

[bravelyrunsaway]

Oh. Better than a ghoul.

( ... contextually he means something very different from kaneki, and at present he forgets what kaneki called himself. cross-cultural issues being what they are, he only catches himself a moment later. )

They're magical creations on my world. Soul devourers, among other things.

[enucleation]

[ kaneki rarely assumes people mean his species when mentioning ghouls. No one seems to know his kind, just the usual fantasy and magical ones ]

They are a bit different from what I'm familiar with.

The doll has been completely harmless so far, thus I stopped worrying too much about her presence.

[enucleation]

Even the ones that have rotted away?

[bravelyrunsaway]

You're a braver person than I.

( said with something like a dark chuckle, and if it's sincere, or if he means also complacent, or if there's no meaning at all, he doesn't indicate. he does shake himself off, redirecting back to anything but the doll, for all his eyes wander back toward it while he watches the image display.

magic rests poorly underneath his skin, and yet. convenience, and forced familiarity on the ships, leaves him versed in its use now. )

If we meet, can you direct me to the scent you mean? I've a sensitive nose, which is half a bother in cities like these, too many things I don't know and can't say are or aren't meant to be here. I want to get a marker on this scent you mention... and the rot, such as it is.

[enucleation]

More like, I don't have a choice in the matter. [ she is always there. Always watching ]

If you wish to drop by the morgue, I can easily get you inside without being noticed by the guards. [ he knows the city is always under surveillance, but it was easy for kaneki to figure out how to move around without having said surveillance on him all the time ]

[bravelyrunsaway]

I'll inform my little... mechanical servant of my intention to attend upon a call to verify jewelry found upon a dead woman. They do have wills here, don't they? Have you heard of any?

( his point also being: they can subterfuge with some validity behind it to make it more appealing to the nature of this particular city. a benefit to his false identity, the odd ways he can move. )

[downswing]

Have not seen the dead deeply decomposed.

Only, at the summit.

un: song | voice;

[spoilers]

[ Well, the doll is creepy, and it doesn't escape her notice; but perhaps a testament to her life (and death) she doesn't question it. Why wouldn't they keep strange children's toys among their dead? Who is she to judge?

There are more important questions at hand here. ]

What is your rot.

[ It's phrased more as statement than question. ]

Maybe they meant it literally.

un : deft hand of little deaths (voice)

[scrapgege]

... If they're rotting, doesn't that mean they're already dead before they actually 'die', somehow?

I have seen many diseases in my time, but one that would rot a body from the inside out would either be very localized, or an epidemic bad enough it would be very visible.

I hope it's not a disease.

[He didn't really mean to say that last part out loud.]

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

The Minaras people seem to be deathly afraid of rot and decay, pardon the pun.

This... might be the cause of their fright. It doesn't explain where it came from, though.

voice; un: owl lady

[traaaaaash]

Ew, that is gross! But hey, good nose on you.

un: dr.mccoy; video

[biomed]

Environment, diet, location of death; all that can affect the rate of decomposition. I'd like to see some of these corpses, if you don't mind.

( hey there, he's super-interested, adding as an afterthought, )

I'm a doctor.

[enucleation]

Indeed they do. I'm certain that would work well.

[ kaneki hums softly ]

I will be waiting for you, and alert the front desk of your arrival. [ and work out the bureaucracy of bringing him on, too, but Kaneki is certain that will be easy enough ]

[enucleation]

They do rot. I am not able to see them spiritually, but if you do wish to have a look at the bodies we have in the morgue, you are welcome to.

I'm certain I can slip you inside.

[enucleation]

[ don't judge Kaneki's child too harshly, she is lovely she is haunted

Ken nods ]

There is a chance of that. I don't know if the bodies after "cleansing" will still contain this same rot, but it's something I can try investigating. [ if he ever receives a body of someone who died soon after leaving the civic integration centre ]

[enucleation]

I'm not entirely sure. I was told the spirits, however, seem to remain behind even after the bodies have passed away.

[ a pause ] I'm not a doctor, but a diseases that keeps the spirit after death here is not something I've heard of.