Survivors intuition

[littlekreen]

Nurses were always busy creatures of long hours but the city's ills and injuries had their own particular rhythm. It was they that noticed it first. A short consultation with the dermatologist for a skin abrasion. An Xray for a forearm that some little suspicious voice said flexed just slightly the wrong ways but otherwise seemed fine. Young men with a faint grey streak in their hair at the roots that didn't quite seem like a dye.

The EMTs, as men and women of the front line so to speak, were the ones to notice a very particular change in demographic. While the gangs always had their plethora of injuries in spates of violence it didn't often come with a suspicious silence. They saw police often enough to ask about a spate of minor lacerations but knives didn't make the kinds of wounds they were seeing certainly not something closer to cougars or bears than normal sharp edges. The community in that particular area kept its mouth shut and tried to take care of its own problems as it was. The claims of a kitchen accident or an animal attack were a very thin excuse they had to accept.

The doctors however saw something different as bits and pieces of tests came back. While they couldn't talk to the public about their concerns they certainly did to each other as strangeness bred consultations. Some came from places where a certain familiar specter raised its head as markers of outright heavy combat. The telltale marks of bruised shoulders from heavy fire or the faint marks on the forehead from a helmet impact. Bruises from something impacting a chest with armor on. Then the first alarm rang when a man treated for a triaged laceration all the way around his upper arm. The injury wasn't as much a cause for concern for them as it was only a blown stitch but what the x-ray showed when it came back. The inside had been entirely sutured together in dense continuous windings rejoining veins and arteries. The bone itself wrapped in thin strands of metal where it had been shattered in half and rejoined. A quilt of sutures was not something someone with fingers could do even with the best microsurgery. Another dermatologist raised alarms about findings of sulfur compounds in a 'chemical burn' on a patient with a curious five lobed shape to it but on the outside surface of his pectoral muscles underneath the skin.

The patients of course all lied through their teeth about where they'd gotten the wounds but had the money for treatment. A definite change from their usual habits within Dallas of gun battles leaving bodies in the morgue. Rumor alone added more fire to the mix as nurses started to recount having to update files where arms were no longer missing when foreign patient records were pulled but chalked up to errors in the antiquated systems.

They didn't have to understand what was going on to know something was wrong but it wasn't until the EMTs showed up with four indigents with necrotized lacerations near Knox/Henderson they had something to report. Each with those same inner burns under the skin. A call went out to MCU with the details they had.

[Circe]

Catherine sighed in frustration as she flipped through the report, and grimaced at the photographs contained inside. They were gruesome and disturbing things to look at, and only served as an all too uncomfortable reminder that this world still held many dark and terrible things. Taking a swig of her now cold coffee, she tried to focus and reread the contents of the report. At first glance, it appeared to be a necromancy problem, but they had made sure to break up that years ago. But she'd never heard of a magic that was able to suture together bodies like these had been. "The hell..." She muttered to herself trying to make sense of it all. Catherine was usually the first to admit that there were serious and very glaring absences in her magical education, especially for a Warden, but she did her best to take the advice from experts.

All the physicians reports seemed to be pointing to one thing, that while the case had been kicked over to MCU, they still didn't know anything helpful. It also meant that she would have to meet with the ME before briefing the team on their newest problem. That was something she certainly was not looking forward to doing, as she didn't get along well with Baird even under the best of circumstances. Catherine wasn't entirely sure why, as she had made every effort initally, even going as far as go down to the facility and introduce herself. But she supposed somehow, somewhere along the line, she'd done something to warrant the other's response.

Glancing at the clock, Catherine downed the rest of her coffee before grabbing her jacket and heading out to meet with Baird.

[demikara]

Baird usually didn't get living bodies to examine. But this time she had the case files of living people, and had tentatively reached out to speak to at least one of the affected. Her speciality was medicine, and this certainly counted as it. Though she had never heard of a living being having had parts sewn on them like this. Some of the injuries would have called for a prosthetic of course, but no one was in the business of sewing on new limbs, even in the Unseen. She would certainly know if that was the case. It would have hit Iatrus at least. the Unseen's premier medical journal would have snapped that study up in a heartbeat.

Right now though, she had an appointment with the warden concerning necrotized lacerations on patients with an inner burn, under the skin. That was somethign she definitely hadn't encountered before and it had set off a storm of think, of theorizing how it might be possible. Certainly nothing mundane could do it. And five lobes...that was unusual and she wanted a closer look at the burns themselves, or at least a patient who she could run some more tests on. Something that could pass through the epidermis without affecting it at all was interesting. But she really needed more information before she could do more than theorize.

Not that it had stopped her from trying to figure something out other than 'probably magic' but it did stop her from confirming anything. And even then, the people involved...they weren't inducted into the unseen. They would have gone to a different hospital entirely if they were. Probably just one of the clinics to be honest, rather than a hospital at all.

[Circe]

Catherine could always tell when she was getting close to Baird's end of the facility, things got colder and quieter. But there was also the rotten, cloying smell of death covered by the acrid smell of disinfectants hanging thick in the air. Not too far off, in a distant and rather disused corner, a florescent light humed quietly; its ballast slowly going bad, too often neglected by the janitoral staff of the facility.

Pausing a moment outside the doors that lead in the ME's domain, she adjusted her jacket and blouse before taking a breath and stilling herself. Baird was someone who she often found herself more on the outs with than anything else. But she was still part of the group of specialists that Dallas had assigned to it, and that meant that despite everything, Catherine had no choice but to work with her. Generally she would have sent Molly, or Xiaolian, or really anyone else down, but today she'd been the one to draw the short straw. Something that Xiaolian had been all to keen on reminding her about, making some sort of weird mishmashed phrasing in English and Chinese about fairness in her annoyance with her boss.

Letting out the breath, Catherine slid her badge through the reader and waited for the beep that would acknowledge her permission to pass into this next section. '... gets along better with anyone but me.' She thought to herself in passing while pushing the door handle down as soon as she heard the sharp electronic beep, and went through to find Baird.

There was something about their ME, that while she couldn't disagree she was qualified, put Catherine on edge more than she would like to admit. The assistant the other demanded to keep didn't help either. She just hoped that they could have a calm, and civil discussion like adults. Instead of the other searching for weak points and chinks to exploit.

[demikara]

Evaline looked up when the door opened and resisted the urge to sigh. Rufus was sitting on the back of her computer chair in his bird form, given they didn't have any bodies on the table right now. Not that there weren't bodies to be seen to. There were always bodies to be seen to. But she was focusing on this right now and so her examination table was empty. "Warden." She greeted politely. She didn't bother putting up the case file. It was probably what Catherine was here to see anyway. "If you're hear about this new case on my desk, I'm afraid I have nothing to share, unless you have more information. Or can get me a patient."

She was rather hoping for the patient. They'd be mundane, but she could work around that, if she needed to. They probably wouldn't let her cut them open to actually lay eyes on the mark, but she could probably work around that. Rufus cawed impatiently and she glanced at her familiar. "It is an interesting case though. I've never seen work like the scans show before. I don't actually think a garden variety human could do some of suture work that scans show."

[Circe]

"Good afternoon to you too Dr. Baird." Catherine responded. It seemed for once that the medical examiner wasn't arm deep in a dead body for once, and her creepy assistant was no where to be found. Both were good things as far as Catherine was concerned though.

"The case is on my desk as well. I had hoped you might know a bit more than I do about this. And I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear you ask me to bring you a body."

Especially given the risks and implications associated with doing so. The last thing that the unseen needed was to be accused of disappearing mundane to experiment on. She also didn't want to give Brandon a call about possible necromantic magic running amok. Catherine would gladly trade the mine field of speaking with Baird instead of Brandon. Sure, there was animosity there, but it wasn't like there was with Brandon. There wasn't the associated baggage and history with Baird, just a general dislike on both their parts.

"I was more so curious to see if you had any ideas based on the general location mentioned in the file. Looks like it's South Dallas, over near the fair." There had to be something that one of them had caught that the other one had missed. It looked to Catherine like someone was experimenting with the general population, a someone that the unseen knew well enough to stay away from.

"There also seemed to be sulfuric compounds associated with many of the burns. We've classified this for now as undead, but like I said, I had hoped you might have some better ideas." Catherine was trying, but the other woman was notoriously difficult to work with. Each interaction was like pulling teeth, no matter how hard Catherine tried to be pleasant.

[demikara]

"A patient, not a dead body. Living is perfectly fine in this case." She'd even return them where she found them. "Though admittedly, I would get more out of a dead body." She looked over the case files again, flipping through them curiously. "I didn't notice anything special about the location no. And without magical scans, I can't confirm it's involving necromancy. My current best bet is something not human. I suspect the five lobed shape that's under the skin is some of handprint." But she couldn't be sure without better scans and pictures and preferably an in person visit.

She checked the locations again against her mental map of Dallas. "The area they're coming from is known for gang violence. Maybe something Unseen is getting involved with mundane crime." It was difficult to say especially without more details. "Have you tried scrying South Dallas for any necromatic magic yet? The wounds I'm seeing are unusual. I am concerned with the necrotic nature of some of them. Necrosis is...it isn't necessarily indicative of necromancy. There are mundane causes for it. But it's certainly not indicative for anything good."

[Circe]

Catherine just stared at Evaline for a moment, trying to wrap her head around the confounding logic that the other had just tried to use. How was a dead body not a patient? "I would suggest using whatever professional connections you have in the area then, doctor." At least then she wouldn't have Baird hounding her about it at every turn, impatient for results. "In the meantime, I suppose I could try to reach out to some of my own."

Catherine couldn't believe the words that had just come out of her mouth in response to Baird, wasn't this some sort of ethics violation? She couldn't be too sure, but she did know that Kasimir didn't need to get wind of this. It would only add years onto the already lengthy parole and pay cuts she was already dealing with. Sure the court had provided her an allowance, but she really wasn't sure how long even that would last, given Grigore's capricious nature and Tyrus's proposed reforms.

"Scrying? That's divination..." Catherine added, unsure if she wanted to explain why that was not a specialty that she was comfortable with. "That's... not my speciality, Baird. That's Boyuan's." And it really wasn't her strongest skill, as Catherine had easily classified for her Warden's rank with psychic and fae based magics, none of which tended to be terribly strong in divination. She could see that this discussion was going to be a chore.

"I had assumed the five lobed print refered more to the five pointed pentagrams the new age nutcases these days are so fond of." The pictures she had seen, hadn't been terribly good or terribly clear; both things that did little to help their case. But what was clear was that Catherine was not looking forward to another case involving necromancy. The very idea of which made her stomach churn at even the slightest suggestion of it being present. "If there are mundane cases and it's in a gang related area though, why do you think they're sending it to us? Wouldn't this just be a bad batch of some illegal street drug? If that's the case, DPD should get it, not us."

[demikara]

"Because there is no way, even with the best medical care in the world, a mundane could manage what we're looking at. To start with, the burns are under the skin. The epidermis is not effected in anyway. That should be impossible. The skin acts as a protective layer, along with the layer of fat that covers our muscles. Somehow, these marking are directly on the muscle themselves. There may be a spell somewhere that can manage that, but I've never heard of it. And you may be right. It may be a pentagram. The hand print was just my assumption." She shrugged. "But the real beauty is the sutures." She shifted through the case file and brought out one of the pictures. "Look here. This is an intricate network of sutures. Not even the best microsurgeon machine could manage this. Certainly spells could have the same effect, but wouldn't look like this at all. Spell-healing looks a good deal more natural that this." She pointed out. "This is a network."

And it was impressive. "And have Boyuan scry then. She's your specialist." She would definitely try and find one of the patients if she could. If she could manage to ensnare one to study then she could have more answers. Of course, tracking down someone based on their records like this broke all sorts of ethics laws, so she doubted she'd get anywhere. But she could at least put out the word that she was looking for similar injury patterns as part of a police investigation. With luck, they'd hold the patient there long enough for her to look them over. "Most likely, we were sent these cases because they are incredibly unusual. It could still be mundane in origin. It wouldn't be the first time I was given a mundane case by accident."

[Circe]

Catherine did as instructed and took a look at the picture Evaline was holding, humoring the ME the best she could. But already the woman's attitude and demeanor was beginning to wear thin. Catherine didn't appreciate being treated like she was stupid, even if she had made some poor choices in the past.

"I'd be surprised if that population even knew anything even remotely so sophisticated." She muttered under her breath. Many of them were little more than butchers masquerading as surgeons. Things that were common in war zones and with those who didn't want to be found, or had only cash to pay. South Dallas was no exception to this, and was all of the above depending on where you went. However Catherine still had little to no idea what she was looking at, and had thought she could rely on Baird's expertise. Instead was standing there letting the other, who she was at least in theory a peer of, if not fully outranked in MCU's hierarchy, lecture her like a child.

"If that's a network.. then there's not a necromancer in Dallas talented enough to do this. I've met most of them and they're.. special." Catherine said after a moment of thought. It was the best way of putting it, many of them thought of nothing more than following the addictive nature of their magic to any length. Sure it may have included her nephew in the category, but as far as she was concerned Brandon had done his own share of stupid things in the past few years. How he still lived to tell the tale was beyond her. If Baird claimed they were sutures, then she would have to believe it, as she had little else to go off.

"It's one or the other, I can't claim either of us are right." There were still too many unknowns about this one particular case for a decision to be made either way. "And I am very well aware that Boyuan is my specialist, I would like to point out that many of us share the load here, and are cross trained in several disciplines. That being said, your current position in office serves at the Council's pleasure, as do I, so I would encourage you to drop the attitude with me." Catherine said levelly having had more than enough of the woman's backhanded comments and patronizing nature.

[demikara]

She hardly needed the job, but it wouldn't do to get fired. So Evaline subsided. "Of course. My apologies." It was best to play nice with the warden, who really was entirely too sensitive as far as Baird was concerned. "I can't pinpoint anything else without speaking with someone who had this procedure done on them. Mundane testing doesn't account for magic, if some form of magic was used at all." She didn't know. She couldn't know. It was entirely too up in the air. She looked over the pictures again. "Maybe it could be some new sort of runic healing array. Something that doesn't heal how magic usually does. I'm confident I would have heard of any breakthroughs like that, but sometimes...sometimes people don't share their research."

And often when they didn't share, there was a bad reason behind why. "From my point of view, the best steps forward are scrying to try and find more information or finding someone who actually had the symptoms we see. I can't even make a conclusive observation on if it's mundane or unseen at this point, though I am leaning heavily towards unseen." The odd muscle burn pattern, under the skin, pointed her that way. That was something she was fairly confident couldn't come from a mundane doctor of any sort. And the fact that each patient had the same structure meant she was leaning to it not being some sort of new and unusual illness. "I am curious as to way so many sutures would be needed though."

[Circe]

Catherine nodded and let Evaline continue, deciding that eventually the woman's arrogance would get the better of her. But knowing her luck, the ME would suck up to any Councilor that decided a visit to Dallas was worth their time. For the most part they were alone here and expected to fend for themselves without much outside help. "Would it be possible for you to speak with the physician who sent you the information? I believe you would know what to ask as our medical expert here." As much as she hated to admit it, Baird was the only one who hadn't gotten chewed up and spat out by the Dallas office. And as much as she didn't like the other, Catherine had to make it work. If it had been up to her, Baird would have been tossed out on her ass with a few choice recommendations to the state medical board.

"I'll ask Boyuan to give it a look, and have her see if she can't look for anything out of the ordinary. But this is going to need to be a joint effort... with your cooperation Baird." Catherine reminded the other, knowing full well the sort of fit the ME was going to throw when they started putting pressure on her to do more than just poke at the cadavers.

[demikara]

Which meant living patients. Her least favorite kind. "Patient confidentiality laws actually work against us in this situation, but I can try. So long as we avoid any incriminating information about who the patient is exactly, we could probably treat it as a consult." It was certainly interesting information if nothing else. And if she applied the right pressure, she may get more information about the patients as well. "I would appreciate the lieutenant's assistance. Hopefully we'll find something quickly. I hate it when cases go unsolved."

And unfortunately that happened more often than it didn't, even with the bright minds of Dallas' best. At least partially because there was too much work to do for the number of hands able to work it and at least partially because there was rarely an easy answer when magic stuck its nose in other people's business. "I will also put the word out that if anyone sees similar trauma, that I'm to be contacted immediately." That much she could easily do at least and ti was the work of minutes to get the word out to the hospitals in the surrounding area. There would be questions, but she could probably come up with some answers.

[Circe]

"I understand, but that's up to you to figure out how to get around, legally and discretely." Catherine stated matter of factly. She just hoped that Baird understood the tenous position most of the unseen was in now. To go poking around about unusual things and ask uncomfortable questions often was met with hostility and resistance.

Fortunately for them, there were loopholes MCU could exploit. Things that the law said and that could be enforced as a means of getting to know what they wanted, but more than likely it just involved giving some of their legal advisors a heads up. Many of them were fae, and seemed to alternately enjoy and dread the things that Catherine's team got involved in.

"And I'll make sure to tell the Lieutenant that she needs to work with you on this, I'm sure she'll appreciate a change of pace." That was the nicest way of saying that Catherine suspected that Xiaolian was getting tired of Tyrus and his lessons. The pace at which the other had been making the mage work was blistering to say anything at all.

[demikara]

"Of course. And I will do my best to keep it quiet as to why we are looking for these patients." Though really, she didn't think she'd have much luck. There was something to be said for trying though. And trying was about all she could do. "I'll continue to brainstorm some possibilities while waiting on the lieutenant. Perhaps one of my colleagues from outside of Dallas has seen something similar. I'll have to double check the databases." The good thing about the modern world was that basically everything was in the database. The downside of course being that they were still hell to look through given that they weren't nearly as standardized as they could be.

It was difficult to standardize the effects of magic at times. There was plenty of reason for the variation in terms used and so long as everyone understood each other, she was usually fine with it. But when it came to looking for unusual cases well. She'd start with where the mark was. That was standard enough she may get a hit.