Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Ymiden 15, Arc 720

On the 15th of Ymiden, Devin Thorn, thief, conman extraordinaire and not entirely clueless incredibly skilled, experienced and all-around awesome Becomer entered the university and walked past the usual classrooms into the basement where a very special thing would take place. To be honest, he had mixed feelings about what was about to happen. He liked medicine and freaky things a great deal, but he didn't like blood and other bodily fluids a lot, mainly because they were hard to get out of your clothes, and there would probably be at least some of that stuff.

He also didn’t like …

… by Delroth, what was that smell?

He stopped dead in his tracks and sniffed a bit.

There was an intense, disgusting and kind of artificial smell that made him slightly sick. He abruptly removed a lacy handkerchief from a pocket of his exceedingly fancy royal blue jacket and covered his nose with it, looking revolted – and mildly offended because they had dared him to confront him with such unpleasantness that early in the morning (It was only around the eighth break! Normally, he was still asleep at that time!).

“Formalin”, a red-haired girl that was wearing a brilliant white lab coat and leaning against the wall next to the set of double doors that the offensive smell emanated from explained in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “They use it to preserve the cadavers.”

“Can’t they invent something more pleasant though?” Devin muttered and made a face. “A dissection course doesn’t have to stink in my opinion! I could probably make something better with medicine and alchemy and such!” he told her in no uncertain terms.

The girl looked at him strangely for a moment as if he were speaking in tongues before she laughed and wanted to know, “You are not afraid of cadavers and such, are you?”

“Nah”, Devin insisted and lowered his handkerchief again. “I’m perfectly fine with cadavers – as long as they don’t suddenly get up again, start to walk around and try to take a bite out of me. I already assisted someone with an autopsy once, back when I was living in Desnind. He was a victim of alchemy gone wrong, and he had green splotches inside his body! It looked really weird!” he told her which probably sounded made-up, but had actually really happened.

The girl eyed him doubtfully for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders, pushed off the wall and told him, “We should really go in now though. Professor Hamilton-Smith will probably arrive soon; besides, I want a good spot and not be stuck at a corner table!”

Devin agreed with that.

He wanted a good spot as well.

He just needed to find a solution for that terrible formalin stuff. He didn’t like it at all, and he didn't even want to think about what his clothes would smell like after that class!

“What’s your name, by the way?” the red-haired girl wanted to know as they walked up to the lockers that were located near the door of the dissecting room in order to put their things away. “I’m Magdalene. Ummm … what’s that?” she asked and pointed at the lab coat that Devin had just put on and that definitely didn’t look like a normal lab coat.

It was not white with pockets and such, at least not completely. It had black and silver details – because those looked so good with his hair and his nails in Devin’s opinion and it was made of a very fine fabric – because Devin preferred to dissect cadavers in style. His gloves were not plain and simple gloves either, but had similar black and silver detailing.

Protection was important; but he didn’t see why you had to look ugly when you protected yourself against whatever dangerous stuff was in the cadavers or on them (or around them)!

“Devin”, he replied brightly while he removed a little wooden case that contained various scalpels as well as tweezers and such from his bag and finally put the bag into a locker. “And this is obviously my new lab coat. Do you like it?” he asked, and looked at her, batting his eyelashes and expecting her to admire his outfit because it was just so awesome in his opinion.

Magdalene just stared at him blankly for a moment though before she put her own things away. She took a look around, at other students in the room that were standing in groups for the most part, sighed and asked, “Do you want to work with me? I think we need to work in pairs or groups of three, and my friend that I initially wanted to work with is sick.”

“Sure!” Devin replied, grinned and marched towards one of the silver examination tables that filled the room. The cadavers were all covered with huge pieces of shiny black cloth – the students weren’t supposed to look at them until the professor had arrived – but Devin had never cared about such things. He really wanted to see what was under the cloth!

He was just about to lift a corner of the cloth and take a peek at his cadaver, momentarily forgetting the unpleasant smell because he was just so curious when Professor Argus Hamilton-Smith suddenly walked into the room. He looked at the professor, and then he quickly let go of the cloth, straightened himself and smiled innocently.

He had been waiting patiently, just like he had been supposed to!

When Devin had first met Professor Argus Hamilton-Smith, he had had a huge crush on him. Argus Hamilton-Smith was young, he was handsome, he came from a rich family, and he had an impressive title; in short, he possessed all the qualities that Devin found desirable.

He had considered hitting on him (or maybe just dragging him into the next empty room), but unfortunately, the professor had turned out to be a horrible bastard and a terrible snob.

Argus Hamilton-Smith had been mad at him for trying to take his class over and made him grade the terrible essays of his Letter students! How dare he? The man had practically asked him to take over! And what exactly was wrong with smoking in class anyway?

“Good morning, class”, the professor who was dressed in a very fashionable suit that Devin definitely was not envious of because his clothes were all much, much nicer greeted them and marched to the front of the room where he stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. “We will, as I told you last time, take a look at the chest cavity and the heart to-trial. I will spend some time with each pair or group of you and see how you are doing.”

“And I will start with”, he continued and abruptly looked at Devin. “Doctor Thorn, our local celebrity and esteemed councilor since he already has some practical experience if what he says is true. It is only fair that I start with the expert and give the rest of you a bit more time to look at your cadaver and prepare, don’t you agree?”

Argus Hamilton-Smith’s tone of voice was very sweet and friendly, as if he really only had his students’ best interests at heart, but Devin knew the truth. He was evil, evil, evil!

“I hate to disappoint those of you that have an interest in more unusual conditions, by the way”, he continued, still looking at Devin whose wanting to specialize in mutations was well known at that point. “It is important that you learn what a normal body looks like on the inside before you study various abnormities.”

“Doctor Thorn, would you please take your scalpel and make the first incision?” he asked Devin who was torn between hurling said scalpel at him or impressing him so much that he immediately resigned from his job and asked him to take over because he was the better doctor and teacher anyway!

“What? You are a councilor?” he heard Magdalene who stood next to him ask. “Why didn’t you say so when I asked you what your name was?”

“Oh, I considered it”, Devin replied. “Sometimes, I like to surprise people though! Their reactions to finding out that there is a member of the government among them are usually very entertaining. Do you like my lab coat better now, by the way?” he asked hopefully because people were usually more inclined to humor a celebrity (who was really, really rich on top of it).

“No”, Magdalene replied in no uncertain terms. “Treating you differently because you are a councilor wouldn’t be right. Professor Hamilton-Smith’s seems to be getting impatient, by the way”, she observed and lowered her voice to a mere whisper so that said professor wouldn’t be able to hear her. “You’d better get started. Look! He’s already coming over to us!”

Devin removed the cloth from the cadaver, staring momentarily because it looked so different from the recently deceased, formalin-less bodies that he had worked with in Desnind (the skin had a kind of weird color), gulped and proceeded to make the first incision. His hand trembled just a tiny bit, not because he was nervous, or disgusted by the sight of a cadaver (he didn’t care about that at all; he was an experienced doctor and had a zombie in his basement, after all), but because he still hadn’t gotten entirely used to the terrible, terrible smell of formalin. He would definitely invent something that smelled more pleasant! Or maybe, he would just wear lots of perfume the next time!

(Something minty would probably be good, he decided.)

He looked at Professor Hamilton-Smith who was standing very close to him which was something that he would have appreciated once upon a time but which he definitely didn’t like now. Professor Hamilton-Smith looked back at him, expectantly and almost challengingly, and Devin grabbed a corner of the skin that he had just cut with a tweezer and separated it from the layer below, using one of his scalpels. He was just about to start with the fat layer when a girl that stood at the neighboring examination table exclaimed, “What’s that disgusting yellow stuff?”

“That is fat”, Professor Hamilton-Smith replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, momentarily turning away from Devin (which was something that the young Mortalborn was eternally grateful for; he couldn’t focus very well when the professor was breathing down on him).

“You mean I have this in my body as well?” the girl who was about eighteen and had two long blonde pigtails asked, a look of utter horror on her face. Her skin had taken on an interesting greenish tinge. “I don’t want to have something like this inside of me!” she complained. A moment later, she began to sway dangerously – and landed in a heap on the floor. A couple of students immediately gathered around her and stared at her.

Professor Hamilton-Smith looked at her for a moment before he told Devin, “I will accompany Miss Carver outside. The rest of you will continue to work on your cadavers. I want to see progress when I return”, he added before he put an arm around poor Miss Carver who was just coming to again and accompanied her out of the door.

Devin looked at Magdalene questioningly. Due to all the excitement he had forgotten how bad the formalin stuff smelled – or maybe he had finally gotten used to the smell a bit – but there was something else that he was concerned about now (although he tried to not show it – Devin Thorn was never concerned about anything!). How was he supposed to cut the ribs? He had assisted in an autopsy, and he regularly extracted teeth because he was actually a pretty good dentist, but he had never cut ribs in half before – or removed them entirely. What kind of tool did you use for that? Did they have axes here?

Devin walked over to a table where a few more surgical tools were lying, eyed them all and finally grabbed the biggest saw that he could find since there were no axes to be seen anywhere. He had watched his friend Lysander who was a woodworker and such saw logs in half every now and then. If it worked when it came to thick logs, it should work when it came to ribs as well, shouldn’t it?

“Rib shears”, Magdalene who had followed him told him in no uncertain terms. When he wasn’t sure what that meant, she grabbed the tool in question and handed it to him before they walked back to their cadaver. For a while, they worked next to each other quietly, struggling because it was definitely not an easy task and preparing the cadaver, before a scream could suddenly be heard, followed by the sound of someone crying.

“I … I can’t do this anymore”, a young man with curly black hair sobbed and abruptly dropped his scalpel. A moment later, he abruptly rushed to the door, his face kind of yellow as if he were about to throw up. He moved out of the door just as Professor Hamilton-Smith walked in, without poor Miss Carver. They proceeded to crash into each other.

Professor Hamilton-Smith stared at the young man quite murderously. The young man refused to even look him into the eyes, but just sobbed even more and looked like an absolutely pitiful mess. A moment later, he abruptly moved away from the professor, ran out of the door and down the hallway. Professor Hamilton-Smith watched him, absolutely flabbergasted before he turned to the rest of the class and proclaimed, “Where is his partner? Can you please see if he’s alright and accompany him back inside, if he’s willing?”

“To be honest, Doctor Thorn”, he remarked, once the young man’s partner, a somewhat chubby boy, had left the dissection room. “I thought that you would be the one who would faint or run at the sight of a cadaver, considering your general appearance. Maybe I was wrong about you – a bit. You still haven’t opened the chest cavity properly though”, he observed. “I want to see a heart before this class is over. The same goes for the rest of you. Go back to work right now. Unless you want to stay longer?”

Devin glared at the professor before he turned back to his cadaver. He didn’t know why the professor had thought that he was squeamish – because he was definitely not. He was a Becomer and a dentist and such, and he had seen much worse. The only thing that he was worried about was how he was supposed to get the smell of formalin out of his clothes and his hair after that class (blood was not a concern, after all; to his surprise, there was none). And besides, he would never, ever give Professor Hamilton-Smith the satisfaction of seeing him run or cry, because of anything!

Fortunately, the rest of the (first) dissection course continued without any further interruptions such as students fainting or crying at the sight of a cadaver and without any further problems, although the heart that Devin and Magdalene were supposed to prepare didn’t look entirely perfect (some of his cuts had been wrong). He blamed Professor Hamilton-Smith rather than his surgical skills for that though. The professor had regularly revisited Magdalene’s and his table ( as he had everybody else’s in order to make sure that they were doing things correctly and treated the cadavers with the necessary respect). That had been incredibly distracting!

All in all, it had been a comparatively interesting experience though, despite the lack of mutations and deformities, and he might even return rather than finding an excuse and missing the next course, Devin decided - provided that he found a solution for the formalin problem that he had thought about at various points during the lesson.