Mar 22 07:19:07 107 PA - KDPD Labs, Tests and Talk
From Chronicles
A police laboratory, with large pieces of scientific instrumentation, and several people in white lab coats as well. Some computer terminals, a large gas chamber, and a cluster of sinks inhabit the central island. A good-sized water chamber designed for ballistic testing is set along the left hand wall. The techs are constantly experimenting and working on whatever new batch of evidence they've recieved today. A door at the far end leads into the morgue.
Weather at Wed Mar 22 07:19:07 107 PA (-5.09C, 22.83F): A friendly cover of white clouds gently drifts overhead. Imperceptible gusts of wind relocate small flocks of snow to land. The new moon hangs overhead.
The late shift, and the lab should be peaceful, with scientists and the dead rarely making noise. An anomaly, therefore, is the loud rock music blaring out from one of the labs, but it is ignored by the nearby workers, shrugged off as a habit of the scientist working that shift. Inside the lab, a petite woman with her black hair in bunches is staring at a computer screen, leaning her elbow on the tall desk. Her chin on her hand, her hazel eyes are narrowed at the text, her lips tightened as she concentrates. The look of intense concentration is rather at odds to her outfit and the music
The late shift, and the lab should be peaceful, with scientists and the dead rarely making noise. An anomaly, therefore, is the loud rock music blaring out from one of the labs, but it is ignored by the nearby workers, shrugged off as a habit of the scientist working that shift. Inside the lab, a petite woman with her black hair in bunches is staring at a computer screen, leaning her elbow on the tall desk. Her chin on her hand, her hazel eyes are narrowed at the text, her lips tightened as she concentrates. The look of intense concentration is rather at odds to her outfit and the music; the short skirt, the bright red knee socks, the leather collar and the sloganed t-shirt all oddities. Over them is thrown a white lab coat, which looks odd, at best.
Still getting a feel for his new workplace as it were, Zyvis is drawn by the music but perhaps not out of any real like but sheer curiousity. When the music grows ever louder he ends up entering into the lab and reaches up one hand to wiggle a finger at his eardrum as best he can. He pauses at the entrance to the lab though, looking around at all the various machinery and the like along with the woman he saw being all cuddly with the gunslinger in the Dregs bar. Still he seems comfortable enough all things considered. He doesn't interrupt whatever it is she is doing, instead just remaining silent and stealthy like the predator he is.
The work is clearly absorbing, and the petite woman remains staring at the screen for some time before she makes several rapid clicks on the machine, and turns with a rapid step, almost a bounce, towards the machine beside Zyvis. She stops abruptly, her eyes widening at the sight of Zyvis, clearly startled and unaware of his presence. She speaks, but softer than the loud music and therefore inaudibly. A few rapid steps take her to the machine from which blares the music, and she twists the knob, the music's volume dropping dramatically, to reasonable levels for background noise. "Hi! I'm sorry, most people don't come down here at this time." Her gaze flickers over him, her forehead wrinkling slightly. "Are you new?"
"No, I am an intruder who has managed to stealthily infiltrate into your inner sanctum of rock music and technology." Zyvis says but his words are laced with amusement and his expression is a smile of mischief and playfulness that reaches his pale eyes indicating he is not remotely serious. He gestures, "I was just taking a look around the building, familiarizing myself with my new work place when I heard your music. Wanted to make sure I hadn't traded a Coalition Leash for a different one." He explains then introduces himself, "I'm Zyvis."
Maya's grin appears, a flash of the one she was showing to the gunslinger so willingly. "Hi! That is so cool, that you were a real Coalition Stalker... you are a stalker, right? Your physiology gives you away." The odd enthusiasm she greets him with is coupled with steps forward, and a hand offered with her broad grin firmly in place. "I'm Maya. I do autopsies and stuff down here." Straightforward friendliness coupled with interest and curiousity shows in her face and eyes. "
"I wasn't actually, in point of fact, a Coalition Stalker." Zyvis says with a small smile, "I am however, a -real- bonafide and true Psi-Stalker yes." He admits as if he could hide it with his sharp fanged grin. He reaches out a hand to shake her own politely, "Nice to meet you Maya." He then tilts his head to the side, "Autopsies? Whatever for? Isn't it easy to tell what killed someone? Age, bullets, knives... etc?"
"Sometimes it isn't, and then we need to know precisely what the physiological cause was, and also somestimes the body can tell us a good deal about the person's life, right up to the moment when pow, they died." Maya's cheerful enthusiasm might be at odds with a discussion about corpses but it is there, nonetheless. "So not Coalition. Interesting." For a brief moment she narrows her eyes at him, more in thought than anything more sinister. "You are working for the KDPD now? I can see how they would find you useful." She remembers what she was doing, and turns to the machine, pressing several buttons as she talks, glancing over to him.
"That's the plan." Zyvis admits, apparently trusting to her superior knowledge on the value of cutting up dead bodies and poking at their innards. "I have this little problem called a conscience that doesn't let me just go about hunting and eating every tasty morsel I run across. Like you for example." He smiles again and then looks at what she's doing with the machine. "I'm not exactly sure yet what they want me to do beyond patrol so, that's what I do. So far it's been pretty uneventful. Have had to start a hunt in my offtime in order to keep myself from going stir crazy."
Maya's glance is mildly startled at being called a tasty morsel but the grin emerges quickly, and she shakes her head. "Most times, when a man calls me that, he is thinking about eating in a whole different way." She comments, taking a slide from the machine and moving across the lab carefully to a microscope, to settle there, perched on a stool. "I bet everyone asks you what you eat, and things like that." The words are murmured, almost absently as she peers through the lens of the scope. "Do you kill every time you feed?" The question is considered, thoughtful, spoken as she narrows her eyes at the image in the lens.
Zyvis laughs, "I get the advantage of thinking about you both ways." He says playfully and then moves away from the door to take a better look around at all the machines, but he doesn't touch anything, keeping his hands to himself. "Most people don't even ask." He admits, "They just tell me 'It would not be a good idea to eat me.' or 'I am not afraid of you.' or 'I know people more powerful than you.'." He smirks a bit and shrugs. "I keep wondering what these people are thinking, if I was truly hunting them, do they think I would walk up and introduce myself?" He looks over towards her curiously then answers her question, "No. I don't have to, and no I don't always kill when I feed. It's just more filling if I do."
"I assumed you were just down here on business." A flicker of a frown shows as she straightens, turning to look at him. The look is a very direct one, her head tilted slightly as she considers him. It is oddly similar to the look she gives the evidence in her care. "If you get very hungry, it would be logical to feed from a friend then, provided you have the self control to avoid killing." The words are both a statement and a tentative offer, as she removes the slide from the microscope, putting it delicately into a tiny box and then into an evidence bag. "Although I'm not offering sex. I don't sleep with colleagues."
Zyvis looks at her curiously, "What?" He seems to have missed her train of thought and blinks at her assertation. "What?" He asks again, but fortunatly he doesn't need three 'whats' in order to finally get what she's saying. He chuckles, "I don't poach, I didn't come here looking for sex or for a meal Maya." He assures her with a smile. He gestures around, "Honest, I just was familiarizing myself with my workplace. It's neither business, nor pleasure just..." He looks around, "Familiarity. In many ways the Dregs is more comfortable to me than the rest of Kingsdale so stuff like this..." He smiles, "Is a bit new and wondrous to me."
"Poach?" The single word is repeated with a faint look of confusion before Maya gets it. "Oh no, Tiny and I are just friends. I don't get into relationships. They get messy really fast." She dismisses the topic quickly, turning her attention back to her first offer. "I didn't think you were scouting the building for sex or food. I was just making a logical offer." The evidence bag is taken across to the storage, locked away and Maya strips off the rubber gloves, tossing them in the trash with a broad grin. "The Dregs is very dangerous right now, with the gangs and the creature loose."
"The creature is what I am hunting." Zyvis says with a smile, "And Gangs, gangs don't bother me overmuch. When they see me at all I have learned several methods of dealing with them." He shrugs a bit, "As 'bad' as the Dregs are, they're a bright ray of sunshine compared to the Burbs." He then goes about walking around the lab again, looking at things but still not touching. "Thank you for the offer. You are the first who has offered such even knowing it isn't a death sentence. Fortunatly I haven't been want for... food." He shrugs a bit. "Do you know anything about the creature that escaped from the Arena?" He asks, turning the conversation back towards perhaps a 'safer' topic.
Maya returns to settle on her desk, hopping up to perch there, swinging her legs. She gives him a considered look, watching him walk around her lab. "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?" The grin that follows this suggests an odd sense of humour, "I don't. I heard it is able to be invisible but I don't know anything directly. I have some of the bodies to work on, but I have to do reports on that." She waves a hand towards the giant freezers in which bodies are awaiting her attentions. "I used to work in the hospital in the Dregs. Nice place." A faint flush brushes across her cheeks, before she changes the topic. "Why the KDPD then?"
Zyvis looks towards the freezers and then over towards her and smiles, "Conscience." He answers, "In the Burbs, my family was well known by the locals. They would come to us when someone or something started to terrorize them. We would hunt them down and deal with them. Just like people sorcerers and psychics are good and bad and everything in between. I figured I would have an easier time finding those who deserved to be... dealt with, in the KDPD than going it alone with nobody knowing me." He answers, "That and it's actually a choice. The Coalition tried to take that choice away from us... me."
"Choice is important. It is one of the things that separate us from being animals." Maya means that, a hint of seriousness showing for one of the first times. "The choices we make decide the route we take, and that is important." An edge of a rant shows there, before she shakes her head, the grin returning. "The Coalition try and take choices from us all. That is why people end up here, I think." She rests her hands on the desk, leaning her weight through them, looking briefly down at her shoes.
"Yes. They do." Zyvis says simply with a shrug but he moves to find a place to lean without disrupting any machinery or the like. "How long have you been in Kingsdale? All your life?" He asks curious and conversationally. "I am trying to get to know the people of my new surroundings. I am wondering just how many people here actually were born here."
"Actually I'm passing through really." The look of enthusiasm lights up her face as she looks up, returning her gaze to him. "I've been here a few months, nearly a year I guess. I was heading down to Tolkeen to see if I could help there. But there are a lot of rifts activity around here, and I wanted to see if I could analyse why, see if I could establish some form of pattern." She seems to gather that she is ranting, rambling rather, and Maya grins again, shaking her head. "And I just got stuck."
Zyvis tilts his head to the side, "So you actually want to go to the war front and battle lines?" He asks curiously, surprise in his tone. "I wouldn't have pegged you for a soldier type." He notes with a smile.
"I'm a doctor." The comment is simply spoken with a smile rather than a grin, softened. "I heal where I can. I seek justice here, and I fix up where I can." She shrugs, sliding from her perch to move across to a machine that demands her attention, emitting a high piercing beeping.
The high piercing beeping causes Zyvis to wince for a moment and once more he is reaching up to rub at an ear with a fingertip. When the beeping is dealt with... "Given the nature of war in this day and age... and the practices of the Coalition.. I can't imagine there are going to be many wounded... just a lot of casualties." Zyvis says with a frown then he shakes his head. "Ok, now that begs the question for you though, why the KDPD if you're simply a doctor? Wouldn't your time be better spent at the hospital or one of the many clinics?" He asks curiously.
"Because I can do both." Maya deals with the machine, her concentration showing in the slowness of her replies, as she slips on gloves, handling the dish with care. "I did work at the hospital in the Dregs. Knight's, it is called. I had a conflict of ..." Again, the slight blush and a hesitation before she continues, "Interests with the Director there. I don't see colleagues like that outside of work, and he and I spend some time together." A flicker of a frown suggests she isn't entirely happy with her own explanation but she lets it sit.
"Which explains the lack of desire for relationships." Zyvis says simply but without judgement. He smiles at something though and says, "You know it's kind of funny. I was asked twice within as many days wether or not psi-stalkers even feel emotions. Like we're some sort of dead thing or monster." He shrugs a bit but approaches to see what she's doing with the dish and whatnot, not so close as to be in the way but just curious what all this stuff does.
Maya is just holding it for a moment, her mind elsewhere. "Does it?" The question isn't really one, the first sign of reserve shown by the petite woman. "I imagine most sentient beings feel emotions, surely? It isn't logical otherwise. Animals die from lack of their companions, so it would be stupid to consider otherwise." The swift switch of conversation is welcomed, grasped at and she returns to working, reaching to take the strip of paper from the machine, reading it slowly with the dish held in her other hand.
"I imagine they have difficulty understanding how I can live with myself being what I am." Zyvis says with a chuckle and a shrug. "It's hard to make people see anything outside of their own little world view." He admits and then he has to ask, "Ok, teach me. What is all this and what are you doing?" He looks between the paper she is reading and the dish she holds in her hand.
"Everyone is a predator in their own way." Maya's statement is simple, and she holds out the sheet of paper towards him. "This is the read out from the machine. It states the heat I ran it on, to confirm that everything was as it should be. This dish holds some swabs from a body, which I ran a culture of. I wanted to know what was there." Maya frowns at the dish reprovingly, "And it tells me nothing useful."
Zyvis can't help but smile, "It's a pity you don't do relationships with fellow workers. I think you're the first non-stalker I've ever met who understands that everything in life is either predator or prey." But he steps off that subject to return it to the topic at hand, "So, what was up with the body that you would want to know if there was anything special in it?" He asks, "Did they just fall over dead for no apparent reason at all?"
"They fell in some stuff, and it won't tell me what it is." Again, she frowns at the dish before she moves, putting a lid on it, adding the sheet to it as she slides it into an evidence bag. "I know what killed him, I just wanted to know what the stuff was." Maya turns, leaning against the evidence lockers and giving him a direct look. "Cats hunt mice, dogs hunt cats, humans hunt most things that taste anywhere near good. Why is it illogical for something to hunt humans?"
"Most people I've found aren't really creatures of logic. They are controlled by their emotions and instincts." Zyvis says with a shrug, "The worst part is they can't even tell it's instinct, they think it's some nebulous morality that must apply to everything because they will it so." He leans back against the nearest solid object and folds his arms across his chest as well. "It's also a large part fear. They don't want to accept the fact that they're not the lords and masters of everything they survey."
Maya slants him a look that matches her grin, the mischief he'd have seen in the bar reappearing. "People are afraid of being eaten. It makes them edgy, and means they either have to tell you they aren't, or be seen to be afraid. Well known psychological response. Whistling in the dark." Maya shrugs, giving her evidence table a look with her head tilted. "I think my shift is over." With that, she strips off the gloves, tossing them into the trash.
Zyvis chuckles, "Ah how much better would the world be if everyone just understood what we stalkers understand. You're either predator, or prey. Sometimes you're the predator, sometimes you're the prey. It's just nature, live and learn. Everything dies eventually." He smiles wryly but then pushes off from where he was leaning. "Well, was nice to finally meet you in truth, ma'am." He says with a playful wink before he heads towards the door. "Maybe I'll just have to quit..." He hmms thoughtfully, shooting her an appraising look but it can't hide the teasing mischief in his expressive eyes.
"Some days you are the bug, some days the windscreen." The reply is laughingly spoken and "Maya." The firm correction of her name is given with a grin that warms her hazel eyes. "Well, I am just that good..." The laughing return is done as she tugs off the white coat, dropping it into a laundry basket. "And now I'm going to see if I can find some dancing and some coffee. Join me? I don't mind talking outside of work."
"Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll pass." Zyvis says with a smile, "I should get back to my hunt, I don't even know if the thing is diurnal, nocturnal, or if it even sleeps at all." He shrugs and then adds, "Besides, I can't dance, and I don't drink much of anything at all."
"Dancing is instinct." Maya's comment is a joke, and she shrugs into her coat, buttoning it up against the night outside as she reaches for an umbrella. "Then I'll see you around." The broad grin is offered again as she turns to lock the door to the lab for the night, keeping it secure from all evidence thieves everywhere.
