Ego homini Lupus

Inde Daud of Dishonored

[knifedunwall]

Pinned Post- Daud of Dishonored

Biography || Powers and Abilities || Verses || Affiliates

I’m 30, He/They, and go by Syd. I am mixed NA indigenous, queer, and colorblind (blue cone monochromacy)

I don’t typically RP stuff of a explicit sexual nature, however, for my own comfort, I prefer to RP with people who are 21+.

Zero-tolerance for any OOC queer-phobia, ableism, racism, Zionism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, or sexism here. Mun is mixed indigenous. No one is entitled to my medical history or ancestry.

I use dice/D&D/2d20 as writing tools for probability, chance, and skill check mechanics. If that bothers you, DNI.

I will add rules as I find necessary.

Do not use me for whump and dump. I'm not interested in one-sided emotional labor.

While my main partners are @/totaledchaos and @/twinbladeknife I am open to writing with doubles!

Personal Writing Ethic:

Sensitive and common triggers will be tagged, if you need me to add a tag to something, let me know! My format is "tw trigger".

Sensitive topics on threads need to be discussed in IMs. My contact is available upon request.

I prefer to discuss and plot out threads, and typically use dice-rolling systems to determine a fair outcome in stuff like battles or skill check threads!

That being said, I also have no issue predetermining winners at all, but know everything you see on dash has been done fairly, whether it is discussed behind the scenes or resolved using said dice roll system. I do not god-mod. But most of my usual partners do D&D. That’s how we treat it.

I do both short-form and long-form, with a preference for narrative driven plots.

I work full-time, and mostly use mobile. My only days where I am really available are Thursday and Friday.

Memes, Format, and Etiquette:

You can reblog memes from me, I don’t really care. Most RP etiquette asks you reblog from the source, I do not require that, but if you do reblog from me directly, try to send a question in turn. 

When sending in inbox memes, I ask that you SEND TEXT. Mobile navigation is difficult when answering asks and having to reference the post.

Icons are fun, but not necessary. I draw my own, and really only use them with people who already use them. I don’t use icons on long-form writing. 

I block excessive negativity.

Dash Commentary- As a default, do not reblog my dash commentary. Dash commentary isn’t my invitation for interaction.

I DO NOT USE AI, NO AI IS TOLERATED. Art is about human expression, and if you can't be assed to write your own replies, draw or paint your own art, then it's not worth my creative output to interact with you. I do not consent for my writing to be used in training engines, I do not consent for my art to be used in training engines.

[acecroft]

Just get me up river.

[knifedunwall]

[I would have committed to killing his ass, too.]

[lanshiang]

"Hm. You really think that I'd be good in an academic setting?"

The head of the academy was named a bird, and a friend of the doctor who adored birds. That's something to muse about. Another glass of wine and Galvani was willing to personally pen her an invitation to a high breed place of learning. She let the dream like image of a labyrinth under the sea fill his head for many more moments.

It was something special. Neither of them could really conceive a fraction of what it had been. She could explain it in as much detail as existed, and it still wouldn't be comprehensible the structure she'd created and sunk into the ocean. They had been successful in completely constructing something so large and well hidden, that it hadn't been discovered since they had begun.

"Say I would go as your guest then, hypothetically speaking," she said, mulling a slow to win over way, "Would I travel with you? Stay with you?"

A pause as she considered it. Ada took a shallow breath.

"I think I'd like that, Luigi. I'll give it some more thought. It's a rather sudden offer. We need to plan. And I want to complete our investigations here so that we have a comprehensive collection of research."

That, and she had plans for this week already that involved the local Abbey. Ada gave him a sweet smile, her eyes shimmering.

[knifedunwall]

"Of course, of course!" Galvani replied enthusiastically, relieved that the offer was accepted.

"Yes, yes, of course I wouldn't dream of impeding your investigations while you are in Tyvia. It is a long way to Gristol- and this dreadful business with this civil war in Morley has made receiving word and mail from the south absolutely nightmarish."

The doctor's typically raised brows lowered in a deep furrow, "On top of that- I'm sure you've noticed some of the strange phenomena in defiance of the laws of physics and nature... attributed to the Void. Strange, strange things- the last I heard of from my sources, all of the resources in the Academy were being dedicated to studying these 'rifts' in the world- but that was months ago. I don't imagine the strife has helped expedite the process."

The older man's shoulders fell with a deep sigh as he set his wine glass down to rub at his temples.

Daud shot a glance to Ada while Galvani gathered his thoughts and eased the headache from the wine and the troubles. The Academy being involved in the study of the Void Rifts? That was unusual, and new information.

Galvani straightened his back, and pursed his lips, "Ah- I would be honored to have you as my guest and introduce you whenever that happens, but I would also be honored to host you here for as long as your own research requires... and if you'd like, I could perhaps introduce you to Anton Sokolov."

"He has retired from public life," Galvani continued, "But he has opened an art studio here on Mastrov Square- and only very rarely takes visitors. I'm sure this device you have would be more than enough to persuade an audience."

[lanshiang]

"No small part thanks to your charity," she said, watching the impromptu lesson with amusement. She wondered then what animals and plants were collaborative with the pathogen she was host to, and what things she could incorporate into the ladder. The Academy of Natural Philosophy would no doubt hold a plethora of specimens and live dissections of the fauna in the world. There would be a lot of opportunity, and larger facilities.

Refuse thrice, and then accept once.

"I don't want to impose you for such a generous offer. I'll think about it," she said, "What do you think, Luigi-- do I suit an instruction hall or field research better?"

Daud would know better than anyone what her next course of action would be. It would bring them into orbit, if she understood correctly, with Corvo Attano, who was someone she very much wanted to see again. But-- would it even be the same man? No...

How confusing.

"This one was shocked by this," she gestured to her grey as death companion with her wine glass, "But my last laboratories were at the bottom of the sea, if you can imagine that, and nested under a lake. I typically worked on fish near volcanic fissures, the old groups of bacteria there were my targets. Their heat resistances, in particular. It changed the fish around them. I saw fish swimming through vents that would easily cook meat in the blink of an eye, and jellies that multiplied spectacularly there."

A sip of wine and she set her glass down for a second round.

"It was the bacteria they carried. It had changed them into quasi-fire resistant fish. The bacteria had made them produce a layer of mucus, while also triggering scale mutations, internal balance changes, and a few other things. It was fascinating."

[knifedunwall]

Going to the Academy of Natural Philosophy certainly would have had many advantages for getting Ada connections and equipment. Daud had to agree with Galvani there. But it could spell trouble in other ways.

The Abbey of the Everyman, at least, had still kept vigilance for him- something that shocked Daud upon his return fifteen years after his self-imposed exile. It would be foolish not to consider that there were others keeping watch, even after the Abbey's fall.

He lowered his empty glass to the table, waving off an offer to refill.

Galvani paid no mind, instead refilling his own glass to think on Ada's question.

"From all your recounts, I would have to say, I think you'd suit field work better," he said, "So did I, but a good portion of my expeditions and research was funded by the Academy outright- I do hope you'll consider my offer."

Daud snorted quietly when Ada gestured to him, and recounted her underwater laboratory, making Galvani nearly overfill his glass from the shock.

"That is simply incredible-" the doctor marveled, carefully readjusting his position on the couch and balancing his glass in hand as he set down the Tyvian red.

Clearly feeling the effects of the drink, Daud noted.

"- I can't even imagine an entire laboratory situated under the ocean, much less heat-resistant fish. From bacteria? What symbiosis- You simply must let me introduce you to the Headmaster of the Academy!"

At that, Daud became curious and addressed Galvani directly, "Who runs the Academy now?"

The rasping voice seemed to startle the doctor, "Oh, that would be Heironyma. Hieronyma Finch, he's been the Academy Head for the last... four years, now?"

[lanshiang]

💋

ONE.

Craftsmanship over capital is a very nice dream that held its weight in water through a sieve in the world she lived and worked in. The ideal fluctuated throughout history in a constant pendulum, and it was never more apparent how atrocious her boots and heels had been when sliding her feet into soft calf leather boots with working soles. The cobbler described them as "for hard work with a touch of class" as he massaged the leather against your legs flat. Their laces were tipped with whalebone, the toes, with hardened leather caps. A good kick would split most people at the seams.

The cash flowed from your palm easily, a handful of stolen tithings from a now dead offering box while you stood on a little wooden posing block while the cobbler left to get his workman's stamp to finish the project. The Old Knife stands like he usually does, a spectator at a particularly interesting auction and you turn your thigh to him to show the toe-to-heel.

"You should feel them."

He raises a brow at you from his wall-bound lean. You see him close his eyes and a familiar silvery light slither over them looking around, before he judges the coast clear enough to move to you and kneel to inspect the boots. He gives them a few pinches and tugs and feels the backs, because he's thinking of how these will hold up as you travel out of this island nation and into the next, and you're just playing and watching him kneel with amusement.

"They're good boots," he says, in that gritty sandy tone of his, and you turn your leg for him in his hand until the old brute looks up at you and laughs a little because he knows you just want to move him around like putty. The feeling is mutual.

A little bloodshed and chaos always got you in a decent mood, particularly when you win.

You offer him a hand to stand with and lean to press your lips on his nasty scar a few times.

"We have a deal to complete, Daud," you murmur, and let him go with a little shake to the jaw, those little warm afterthoughts making him consider rescuing you from the eyes of a cobbler.

"I know. I have a place."

"Good," you sigh, as the cobbler returns with a sweet smelling stamp to christen the shoes on your feet.

TWO.

The mad massacre of the Everyman is the talk of the town and you gift a bottle of expensive crisp white wine to Galvani while you chat about it and nip the buds off some candied flowers. The sweets turn to mush in your mouth before you even chew it, and you have to drink between sips to have any chance of keeping your consonants steady.

"What interesting times we live in," you can't help but say, your mouth sticky with sugar and secrets.

As if you grew up on this planet, in this place where the world felt like you could push the culture to either side so easily and nobody could stop you. One of two men that might have had the chance was sitting to your right, watching the corners of the room for dangerous shadows. Luigi agrees with your statement, and after plenty of talking about passions, projects, and the present, you retire with the only man that had a chance against you, to the room you swindled for the both of you.

After he closes the door, you pull his collar and put your sticky lips on him. You don't share your revelation with him.

Instead you share all the melted sugar that's accumulated on your teeth and tongue.

You have so much power here.

THREE

Pain has a sound to it, a smell to it. A heavy thump against the wall to recover, and a groan, and Daud's side splits open further with a rich heaviness. You thump his shoulder, "Stop moving," kneeling to inspect the open gash for debris.

Under your fingers, his wound yawns, unhurried. It had been a very unusual, sneaky ambush performed by many, and none got out of it unscathed. It wasn't his fault he got hit, either. His attack was now frozen in a prison of his own flesh, plastered to the coal colored wall of a dirty alley.

You remove a syringe of clean water from your medical pouch, clearing the wound thoroughly while he leaned against the brick for you. Your old assassin is transfixed by the pillar of flesh plastered against the stone. Your finest work is beautiful in the way corpses analyzed by artists are. Your vanitas is less subtle than flowers and skulls.

You shot the man with a dart. He screamed once, and burst into flames.

The group of assassins wasn't very talented in their work, according to him.

He sets his jaw while you gently pull the flaps of flesh together and shake some of your metabolic spray up to use.

"Good as new," you hum, laugh, and the tar-colored chrysalid in the shape of a person behind you cracks. Buzzing begins to fill the space.

You turn his cheek to you again--don't pay attention to the type of horror you escorted into the world, and press your lips to the awed 'o' on his.

"Looks like our friends have invited us to play," you coo. He nods, stretching the damaged area.

"Yeah."

Nascent, strange wasps begin to climb the contours of your too-pretty face as you smile.

[knifedunwall]

I do think it's funny that Corvo self-justifies that it's better to let Daud live in fear of Corvo than kill him outright. Meanwhile Daud was actually just fine doing arts and crafts by himself and Corvo wasn't even a thought.

The only thing he was in fear of was the continuous sleep-deprivation torture from the Outsider, and that was only years later.

[lanshiang]

Unusual Fauna. Her multitudes of biology studies came back to her in crisp detail and a memory over two hundred years into the future floated back of a professor very similar to Luigi Galvani, just as enthusiastic about his work. Doctor Galvani got up to meandor around and retrieve a brilliant little bird. A Rhino Gonolek named Bertie... how charming and sentimental.

"Academy of Natural Philosophy- I'm so curious as to why you never became a proctor and instructor yourself. You have the countenance and charisma for it."

At the very least, Galvani had the passion for exploration. Daud had commented very early on that she would have been considered a "Philosopher", and one of the few that he recognized as being interested in the "Nature" part of natural philosophy.

"I like Bertie. He reminds me of other Birds of Paradise that I've seen. And the taxidermy seems to have been done very well."

She leaned forward with her wine glass to examine Bertie, the glass notched between her fingers, and rested back her seat to comfortably watch Galvani excitedly speak about adventure, learning. He was an older fellow now, and she wondered just how many adventures he had left in him.

"I had my own collection of pinned insects a few years ago. Many moths and butterflies. I never cared to name them, but I did enjoy posing them. Not that mine were instructional tools rather than the whims of a rather hmm... dangerous ex-husband of mine. He liked beautiful things when they were dead. Don't worry your head. He died from disease."

She sipped her wine in the uncanny silence that followed her statement.

"But Bertie is so cute. The crest makes him look so regal. Could he say any words?

Ada leaned on her palm, content to watch the little bird, and watch the man speak.

"I was schooled very young. I can hardly remember any of it."

[knifedunwall]

Died from disease. Derek Simmons, he recalled, had been deliberately infected with an enhanced version of the C-virus that Ada had created, and had been forced into becoming "Ada"... and later killed by other people that Daud had ghosts of in his memory.

Galvani paused to consider that information, that Ada was a widow, and that the man she'd been married to was dangerous and died from disease. Judging by the way his eyebrows climbed, Daud guessed that the philosopher was wondering how involved Ada had been in that.

Of course, she gave no answer.

Dr. Galvani raised his glass, "Ah. Well, here's to your safety and to good fortune."

He raised it to his lips to down the rest of the red liquid, before setting it down.

Galvani tapped on the casque above Bertie's beak, "No, Bertie was not one of the bird species that can mimic human speech. This growth that the species is named after, however, seemed to be able to amplify the bird's call. It has a resonate quality to it."

"The Rhino Gonolek is well adapted to the dense jungles of the interior. This casque lets their calls travel further through the vegetation, and also allows the bird to shed excess heat effectively."

The man paused briefly, "You don't remember your schooling? If you were interested in refreshing your education on topics that interest you, I do still have connections within the Academy of Natural Philosophy. I get equipment from the facility every now and then. I could write to the Headmaster."

[ofvoidx]

there are some people in this world that are bad.

then there are some people that are evil, absolutely no good, their breath could probably poison the air. SOMETIMES IT'S NOT THE EASIEST FIGURING WHO IS WHO . lizzy stride with her sharpened teeth and bloodied sword looks like a madman. delilah with her dazzling smile and smooth words looks like an angel at times. LIZZY STRIDE HAS BEEN PROTECTING HERSELF AND HER ASSETS ALL HER LIFE . the other is a witch that is selfish and hungry for nothing but power. CLOSE .

"aye, old man. whatchu got for me?" there is a smirk curling lizzy's lips. this was mere curiosity, if the dead eels leader didn't want somebody here, he would already be gone. AS IT TURNS OUT, LIZZY IS ONLY VICIOUS TO THOSE WHO HAVE DONE HER WRONG . that feels like a fair deal, doesn't it?

dark eyes just scramble around his face for a few seconds before a small crash of a noise catches her full attention. THOSE EYES DART TOWARDS THE SOUND . a box without a label, straw slipping from some cracks was on it's side while others rushed by with other unlabeled boxes to stow on the ship.

"edgar..." by the outsider, sometimes she just sounds like a scolding mother. NOT AN UNFORGIVING RIVER PIRATE . "why are you so fucking clumsy, huh?" a sigh, those eyes shift back to daud. "hey, tell ya what old man. ya help that clumsy fool over there and ya get a free ride. from the generosity of my heart." words accompanied with a little laugh, she winks.

[knifedunwall]

"A gift," Daud replied, shrugging off his bag, and retrieving a box to hand to her, packed with paper and a spare engine coil for her ship, "and company. I'm looking to leave Dunwall. For good, this time."

Lizzy smiled at Daud with her sharpened shark's teeth, searching his face for an explanation before one of her crew almost broke a crate of- what Daud could only assume- was valuable contraband, northern bound.

Lizzy swore at the crash, and turned back to the assassin with her offer: help the crewman, and get a free ride.

Daud quirked his eyebrow. Of course, it was a good deal, and the man had already expected to be assisting the crew for his passage. He was accustomed to lifting his own weight- but he was skeptical of picking up the slack.

"Very well," he shrugged.

With a small thwip, Daud disappeared in a cloud of black ash, and reappeared next to Edgar, tapping the man on the shoulder to alert of his presence.

In the last month, the crew of the Undine had become used to the strange and supernatural. Embroiled in the feud between the Brigmore Witches and Daud's own Whalers, even some of the less superstitious of the crew had begun to accept that their captain's friend was something of a black spot in a rational world.

"Lift with your legs," Daud rasps, "Else you'll throw your back out."

He helped the man stow the cargo below, and continued to help the flow of storing away the Dead Eels' goods, only pausing briefly to listen to the public announcements and to keep a look out for any of the city guards.

There was nothing concerning him. Just announcements on the progress of Emily Kaldwin's ceremony- now, officially the Empress of the Isles. With her own soul, her own mind, her own body.

It was a quiet comfort he held while working to get the Undine in order.

[thisshallpass]

👫 (need to start something back up this direction)

four (ish) headcanons I am making up about our characters

Leon and Daud get along by virtue of being very similar people. One of their similarities is in they'll both eat anything, but prefer good food. They're both foodies. Post-amnesiac episode, eventually they run into each other again and Leon introduces Daud to the wonderful world of the variety of grocery stores available to them, and the food stalls that linger around those shops.

Second, Leon kept those cups Daud made. They're little treasures. He hasn't had a guy friend into woodworking before and it's something special to him. He has NO idea who made them for the longest time, too, but had the feeling they were important.

Leon's adapted some of Daud's swordplay into consideration for how he fights. A lot of the time, Daud's bladework isn't super effective for the stuff he tends to be fighting, sadly. Zombies have a particular toughness to them because their bodies have absolutely no restrictions on strength, and some of what Daud taught him in the no-space was useful, and some of it wasn't.

Daud still remembers this guy, and pretty fondly too. I'd like to think so, anyways.

-xx @knifedunwall

[lanshiang]

"Excellent! Excellent idea, Doctor. It would be divine to take such a generous offer. We can plumb the depths of these fascinating little worlds and record it. After that, I'm sure that others will marvel at the kind of discoveries you will present to them. New, fresh ideas from the Galvani name."

She cooed, and gave a look to her machine, and back to Daud with a hum and an appraising look she often used on him that had become an inside joke at this point. He had called it her "Philospher's Stare".

"He doesn't need a separate room. His purpose is to guard my life, and as such, if you have a couch, or likewise piece of furniture that can be pulled into the guest room, that would be perfectly acceptable for me, thank you. Don't worry about him, Doctor, I am utterly unlucky in love, it seems."

Accommodations were secured with aplomb, and hardly a lot of effort on her part in the moment. She savored the feeling of an easy victory for once, stepping in front of Daud to continue the conversation she had left off from how her machine worked, and supposed equivalents they could begin investing time and effort into concocting.

The first night, she had planned to be exclusively a way to play her game of back and forth. Which led to her sharing a few matriculated things, asking him questions, and showing keen interest in his own work.

The realization: he knew things she did not about behavioral sciences, and she knew a hell of a lot more than he did about microbio.

It seemed customary for any Serkonan to sequester a time for a good glass of wine and a chat, and she suggested the practice after a day of research and showing an entire library of diseases to a shocked, and awed man. She helped him catalogue samples of plague between species, and they had accomplished an entire library of hundreds of images of, indeed, the face of the Doom of Pandyssia, on her 2000s machine.

What a mindfuck. Daud as her second pair of hands, they had cleaned, and sanitized in accordance to her modern practices, and finally sat in Galvani's lounge with glasses among them while she asked him a plethora of invested questions.

."Tell us about yourself, Luigi. We may be luminaries professionally, but I am more curious about the man behind the philosophy."

[knifedunwall]

As expected, the doctor was made to feel as if the suggestion were entirely his idea. No one was immune to the kind of attention they personally craved, and Daud watched as Ada expertly wove Galvani around her little finger with promises of new knowledge and intellectual fulfillment, as well as hints of being attended to by a younger, clever woman.

He had watched her pull the same song and dance several times before, each one catered to whoever her mark was. Sometimes it was physical companionship or sex that seemed to be the primary motivator, sometimes it was intellectual stimulation, sometimes it was other resources, and a lot of it was a combination. The old assassin watched men and women both fold to Ada in under an hour of conversation, and Galvani appeared to be no different.

Daud acted the part of dutiful bodyguard and second pair of steady hands, smiling to himself underneath the cloth mask as Ada adorned the doctor with praise and promises of his name credited with new discoveries.

To his credit, Galvani wasn't like most of the people Daud had the displeasure of meeting within the Academy space, and actually balked at the idea of being the sole name behind the revelation... or maybe it was her comment about being unlucky in love. Perhaps both.

"Right, right, of course. I shall have one of the couches moved to the guest room at once-"

The doctor made arrangements with his servants, apologizing for the abruptness of the requests and the most unusual circumstances before returning to the conversation with a bottle of Tyvian red, a luxury that was homegrown on the isle, and signaled refinement in other places.

"Myself? Ah, well I was born in Serkonos, and studied medicine there. I worked as a doctor in a solarium for the wealthy vacationers that came to visit, and was the personal doctor of Lady Vera Moray before she fell into madness and disappeared from the public eye- it was actually her stories of the unusual fauna of Pandyssia that inspired me to look at animal behavior in my own Isle, and I switched my focus entirely."

"I studied Serkonan fauna, and managed to earn scholarship into the Academy of Natural Philosophy, and moved to Dunwall to continue my studies and receive funding. I met Anton Sokolov there- and that was, without a doubt, one of the most stimulating conversations of my life."

The doctor smiled fondly, before rising from his seat suddenly, remembering something. He set his wine glass down to open a separate cabinet, and retrieved a taxidermied bird poised on a mounted branch with a large casque above its beak, a crest on the back of its head, black feathers with spots of gold over its wings and breast.

"I managed to secure funding for my own expedition to Pandyssia, and caught this fellow- a Rhino Gonolek that I ended up naming 'Bertie'. He was the first of his species to reach the Isles from the Continent, and I often carried him with me in my lectures. He wound up quite tame, and would eat gently from the hand."

[lanshiang]

👫

four (ish) headcanons I am making up about our characters

Daud knows her living habits back to front by now, to a point where he'll just wordlessly hand her things through her daily routines. She treats this as an expectation, and is so inconvenienced when Daud isn't around to hand her things before she asks for them. She likes when he hands her things!!!!

She might not remember exactly where they met up, but doesn't really care. An undead traveling pair through time and space is the most unexpected and fitting turn for their tales, in her opinion. This is not a bothersome turn for her. She does in fact expect to get back to her own time and place, eventually.

Carla puts Daud between herself and any possible threat, even if she can handle it. Such is their agreement and has been the typical pattern between them. Daud tests the waters for her. He'd let her take a fight she wanted to take, but she actually rather would watch him fight for her. He fucking spoils her.

Carla adores him to a point she's actually fucking mad about it sometimes. It's almost annoying how much of her trust she gives him. He really came into her space at a time where she needed a confidant and someone to actually share her pains with. These two truly merciless monsters are very good at doing that.

-xx @knifedunwall

[lanshiang]

"Not without infecting you with that."

The horror under her microscope was so menacing, and powerful. She didn't play with the filoviridae family at all for good reasons. The junk proteins from Ebola Umbrella chopped into T were dangerous enough. Having active virus on hand was too uncontrollable in this context.

She hummed a bit to herself, considering the options they had with two hundred years of technology to think about, and no real guides to help or professionals at the level she'd need them to be at to help with specifics. The time had engineers and thinkers though that could potentially solve some of the limitation problems. Ada kept their conversation in hushed tones, minding their space to not be even a thought to Galvani.

"Antigens to detect antibodies for novel pathogens take time to make otherwise. Months. Let me think on it."

For now, she had to work for a space for them both. So, she rejoined Galvani with a gentle brush if shoulders against him.

"Doctor we could go through your entire collection with this! Can you imagine?! This machine takes images of these things. But, damn it all, it would take time. And I need to take time to charge the machines."

She feigned disappointment, sighing.

"Isn't it remarkable?"

[knifedunwall]

Not without an infection.

Ah.

Daud nodded along as Ada briefly explained that the 'antigens' needed to detect the antibodies she'd described to him before took a large resource of time to make without infections, going upwards of months.

"Certainly," the old assassin replied quietly, "I'm in no hurry."

For Daud it was a matter of simple curiosity and filling in the gap of knowledge between two eras of experience. This had been Ada's profession- one of them, at least- and a specialty that she'd honed over the course of her entire existence, both before and after forced transformation.

As far as priorities went, the antigens took a backseat to the immediate need of shelter away from most prying eyes, especially within the capital city of Tyvia, and the rumors that Ada so effortlessly attracted.

Overseers were one problem. Operators were another.

She left his side to rejoin the fascinated Doctor, completely consumed in the revelation. With a gentle shoulder brush, she stole back the older man's attention. And with the offer to peruse the entirety of his collection with her device? She kept it.

Daud kept a stoic face as Ada lamented the time it would take and the constraints of charging her microscope. He saw the wheels turning behind the gentleman's eyes, before Galvani suggested the solution Ada was fishing for.

"It is remarkable! I would love to document these new microbes- not just the plague matter... I do have a spare room, I can make sure it is suitable for guests-"

Galvani's dark eyes flickered up once more to Daud, again, unsure of who exactly this man was to the strange and brilliant woman that appeared on his doorstep with a machine nothing short of miraculous... and completely unwilling to make any sort of faux pas.

"- ah, are there any specific accommodations that you and your... bodyguard, was it? Require?"

[knifedunwall]

Item: A Glass of Water Rarity: ✦ Uncommon

Best video game water level?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

The Flooded District, Dishonored.

[lanshiang]

"Mmhm."

She had promised Daud this in their reciprocal deals, at first, as a lure to assure his loyalties before the stark understanding that she didn't need the bait. Ada took the the swab, setting it down on his table and drawing masks for the three of them from her things. There would be infinitely more problems if she contracted this novel pathogen, and spilled fluids in a space that had no resistance to the bug she was carrying.

Mask in place, she turned to the task at hand. She had been fascinated by this mythic plague that killed most of the population of Dunwall, and had her own ideas about what it might look like, what it might be like. Hell, it could be a completely different shape than anything she had seen before.

Ada carefully applied the swab, wrapping the refuse in a sealing bag to be incinerated later, and set the glass slide she had prepared atop the microscope stand. There was always the chance there could be nothing, but the sheer volume of matter around them, that was plagued matter made it almost impossible not to find something eventually. She removed her gloves, massaging her hands with a sharp smelling cleaning wipe to move to her machine and run the searching program to detect contrast changes.

The program returned a list of values and she clicked her tongue, quietly adjusting the view of the instrument. There were plenty of things to search through, and pathogens that were not plague. Her body of knowledge was, of course, referential, and not adequate enough to identify it by sight alone. Still, there was a smell to it when it seemed to react to living cells.

The microscope narrowed its focus, and she let out a little, "Aha!" at the sheer luck. No wonder this particular coordinate was selected, it was a cell in the act of dying through the walls of it bursting, frozen in time and exposed to drying practices that kept it intact.

"Oh my god, that was lucky."

Ada looked at the likely offender, and likely, because it was a familiar shape. A rat born filoviriidae, long, and wormlike, in repeating clusters. She could smell the disease, isolated now and familiar in the strangest way.

"Gentleman, meet a member of the most terrifying diseases known to modern man, at least, what I would call it. Family Filoviridae. Members of this family cause hemorrhagic fevers. What a demon."

And what fucking luck. She stood straight up, and folded her arm over her chest to prop her hand up against her chin. She tapped her hotkey to take pictures, adjusting the view pixel by pixel to collect data. Not only did they catch a blood cell exploding, but there were also those.... particles in the swab itself. That "otherness" of Void she couldn't explain.

"This is called a virus, my new friend."

And she settled back, aligning her heel with Daud's to let Galvani take a look at the screen.

"There it is for you," she hummed to her traveling companion, "- are you satisfied? If not, I'll play with it."

[knifedunwall]

There it was. What had been an invisible force for the longest time due to the constraints of their lenses and lights, had been forced to reveal itself. The virus's worm-like tendrils caught in the act of bursting through a cell wall.

Galvani balked and admired the machine and the automated measurements. Aghast at the infinitesimally small size of the pathogen. It was no wonder they didn't identify the force.

Ada stepped back with Daud, proud in what she'd found and accomplished with very little time, asking if he was satisfied.

"I am," he murmured back, smirking under the face mask, "I thought you would play with it regardless of what I felt."

Viruses had been her specialization by her own recounting both to him ages before, and now to Galvani.

Daud adjusted his stance to lean closer to her, still conscious of what he portrayed in body language while the doctor was distracted. Still, he brushed his knuckles against her own, while Dr. Galvani waxed poetic about how much more there was to the macro and micro worlds.

"You have what you need to determine antibodies?" he asked, "Or at least whatever mechanism that prevented illness from plague."

That had been their initial discussion, as best he could recall.

[lanshiang]

"A few types. How do I explain this to a one hundred and something year old fossil? There are reinforced vehicles that are able to withstand the pressure of space and exit the Earth's atmosphere without burning up. They are launched by other machines to reach the expanse of space. I used to bounce signals off other orbit-locked machines- satellites, in order to send messages to places."

He put an arm over her, and she rolled her eyes with a quiet, "ugh" at the joke, but made no attempts to move him. Her poor, very human companion was liable to freeze in this hellish weather.

"One of my quieter contracted places was a workshop set up in a graveyard for spacecraft. It was called Point Nemo, the furthest place from land on our planet. We used to collect the downed crafts and repurpose them."

And out there, she imagined, maybe, just maybe, they could leave this place behind and return to it, so she could reclaim what had been hers. She was quiet for a long moment, watching auroras and letting herself be at peace.

"Daud. I want to find my daughter. She's dead. I know. But this place is proof of concept. If we find another loophole."

[knifedunwall]

"Almost two-hundred," he offers, "Last we compared numbers, there was a hundred-and-ninety between us."

One hundred-and-ninety years in parallel worlds with different industrial revolutions. Their lives were different, but not that different to be completely alien. Daud understood a lot of what she told him, and could visualize what she described- it was just the small, undiscovered things that all those points connect.

"So... it's like a submersible," Daud nodded, "One that has to be propelled beyond the threshold by another machine. I suppose there's a way for it to generate its own air for the ones that harbor human sailors... assuming there's no air in space. Just because there's less of it to be had the further you reach in elevation."

Daud sat on the stairs with her, quietly contemplating that kind of machine, the kind of voyage it would endure. He held her as she talked about scavenging those pieces for her own projects, the graveyard of space-ships in the ocean.

Then, she speaks about her dead daughter.

Daud was quiet for a moment, stroking her arm with his thumb. In her own admissions, she'd confessed to wanting to kill the world for her, of nearly succeeding, how death claimed her before she could see it through, and how she'd found out in their mutual prison that she was dead. That everything had been for nothing.

He couldn't blame her.

But how would they manage?

"I have an idea," he offers, "We need to use the Void for this- I have no doubt that the Void touches your world too- but it relies on dreams and memories. You're going to have to be the one to lead the way."

But what about the loophole? It would still be difficult to pull her daughter away from death.

Maybe they could use the same thing the Outsider used to guarantee that Daud would die: Billy Lurk and the Twin Blade Knife.

He squeezed her shoulder, and knocked his temple against hers, "We also need Billy Lurk. She can see where the hollows between realities are, and she has the tools to jump between different places and different times. She has the Twin Blade Knife. I can't use it."

[lanshiang]

"Do you think the world ends at Pandyssia my dear Doctor?"

That simple line said after a refreshing and clarifying sip of tea was earth-shattering, perception flogging, and answered every single one of his questions with more questions and a little lilt to her voice that was unmistakably crooning. It was a perfect set up, for a reveal that made her heart- at least one of them, do a flutter. There was an entire life cycle represented in beautiful detail, and such a thorough collection of rats and catalogued matter that she let out a sharp gasp of delight.

"You're perfect, you know that?" she added, not bothering to savor her tea in any fashion and gulping it down with renewed mirth, to instead turn her attention to his collection and how she was about to propel his research two hundred years into the future. Ada thumbed the clasps of her briefcase to pop them open, collecting a tightly closed box the length of her forearm. It was thick enough to hold one of her tools.

"This is my microscope. If you break it, understand I'll kill you in broad daylight in your own home, it is that important to me, Dr. Galvani."

And for good reason. She wasted no time carefully putting on some soft cloth gloves and unfolding her machine from its box. It was a minature powerhouse- something she'd invented while pumping out bio-batteries. A microscope small enough to pass through customs of any kind while also powerful enough to do what she needed to do with it had been science fiction for years.

And yet. Here it was. Carla unfolded the neck of the machine, and without preface, also took out her laptop to open it in full view of her companions, with a glee that was borderline malicious.

"Here," she said, "Take a swab from a dry sample of plagued matter on this, and use gloves."

Ada slid a small slide and a cotton swab in a disposable bag to him from her colection, while hooking up the microscope to her machine. The thing started, and hummed as she opened her imaging program.

"What I am about to show you is my own invention. It took me years to figure out how to collapse the microscope to a transportable size. However, I'm certain that I can get a good look at the actual culprit of the Rat Plague."

She looked towards Daud in her excitement, crooking her finger to him. She had never formally shown the man what an antibody was, and here was an opportunity to test her theories and hypothesis in real time.

[knifedunwall]

"Do you think the world ends at Pandyssia my dear Doctor?"

With that one question, Daud watched the older man practically short-circuit like a compromised Clockwork Soldier. Gears turned behind Galvani's eyes as the man was no doubt re-imagining the globe, and all of the lands within.

Of course, Pandyssia was already misrepresented in scale to placate the minds of those within the Isles, would it be a leap to think of places beyond the Continent?

Best to let him think that, Daud concluded, if Galvani knew there were worlds beyond the Void, he might have an aneurysm.

One wondrous revelation after another.

Ada donned gloves and unpacked her microscope- an invention of hers that undoubtedly outstripped the Isles of its material worth. Dr. Galvani's life would be of little consequence, should the machine be damaged. Understanding this, he did as instructed, donning gloves and taking the swab handed to him to collect the plague matter.

Daud huffed a short, almost inaudible laugh at Ada's glee and the spectacle. No matter how many times he'd seen her walk all over people and garner quick allegiances, it never ceased to amuse him just how dangerous of a social predator she was.

Half of him morbidly wished Delilah was still around- if only to see how the witch would fare holding her loyalists with the clear upstart.

Ada bid Daud over, the assassin giving her a curt nod before approaching as she set the device upright.

"Time to test your theory," he murmured.

Galvani returned with the closed swab, startling at the hum of the microscope and the light of the machine.

"Here- a sample from the inner cheek of a dried Bull Rat adult," the doctor offers, "What do you suppose is this 'real' culprit of the plague?"