[unrebirth]

@palacecurse​ @paranoiaspoisondoor @voisemadeofteeth​​

The restaurant’s kitchen is a universe of its own. Beneath the overhead view of the kitchen’s fluorescent artificial sun is an archipelago of boiling pots being stirred into existence: borscht teeming with beetroot, solyanka livened with beef, and at the edge of the universe in the back, is a fresh cattle of borodinsky and wheat bread being herded in trays out of ovens. A microcosm of existence, a cosmos kneaded from the command of its own separate god; a small woman bearing a firm (but not unjust) maternal simmer in her presence, observing and amending, revolving on an instinctive path. 

She pauses where Vitomir has chosen to pay his veneration to her this week, devoting himself on a plastic step tool, peeling a bucketful of potatoes over a wide basin bedded with a growing pile of skin. “Don’t cut them too thick Miro.” “I’ve made sure not to.” Satisfied, she moves to the rest of her devotees. The door to the kitchen swings inward, and someone else stops at the stoop of his dutiful piety. He doesn’t look up and does not stop but slows, the silver reflection of the knife in his hand glimpsing his face and mirroring the inked knife on his forearm. 

There will be no disruption, he has always made sure of that, “I don’t need to remind you that there is no business in the kitchen.” only order. “Is it something important?”

[palacecurse]

the kitchen was a familiar setting for cash, besides working side by side with vito and red respectively. he got to converse with the lady who ran it, often leaving the kitchen with a container of food and faint marks on his arm from being swatted by a wooden spoon for playing a little too much.

he had the day off and was in search of something to do, and it just so happened he was passing said restaurant and decided to poke his head in. a smile crept on his face when he saw his friend in the kitchen and he quickly turned to greet the small woman that was directing the others in the kitchen. 

“Как дела, любимая?” he said, leaning over and giving her a hug before walking over to the sink to wash his hands. “knew i’d see you in here, what’s on the menu old man?” cash teased, drying his hands with nearby paper towels before discarding them in a nearby bin.

[palacecurse]

unrebirth​:

He considers the resulting outcome as a lapse. A needle prick dip on the upward curving graph mapped in his mind and charted on the omniscient holographic board in the annex office. Not significant enough, he thinks, and it’s a consideration felt in the clutched wrist of his hands behind him. Not significant enough beyond a footnote number  that would be halved by decimals, and he watches the convulsions echo into an unceremonious halt behind the mirrored glass. Men made anonymous in sterilized white hazardous suits enter through the right door of the observation room with a gurney and slowly begin removing sensory pads. Beside the slab metal bed, the tall screen mapping the tree-like nervous system of an equally anonymous man wilts from vibrant nerve-blue into a root gray from the disconnection. Another decimaled death caught in the flicker of blue lights. 

Mikhail turns when she speaks, peering at the clipboard beneath the cover of an impartial glance - ‘SUBJECT 324978000A’ at the top, and an ‘Andrew Webb’ somewhere. “We should be better than close.” he echoes her, his gaze returning to the room, watching one of the men sealing the body into a bag.  In a time where everything demands to be now, being quick is never enough. “Do you know why I say that?” He says, still watching the men.  In 10 minutes, Andrew Webb’s body will be made anonymous in dust, and his time of death will be shelved into the database that demands with every expansion, shoveled into the digitized plot of an ever growing technicolor graveyard. This is not enough.

He turns to her again, smiling, and it’s a smile as transitory as the death of some man whose annihilation is reduced to anonymous numbers, “I say that because I believe in you, Denise.”  The smile placates itself into solemness, “I remind you that often, don’t I? Do you remember why?”

the scribbles on the clipboard are just an amalgamation of medical jargon along with everything mikhail was looking for. when he looked it over she was certain the results they had gotten wasn’t good enough considering the fact that they had surpassed their last trial by 30 seconds at the most. denise didn’t try to think about the cremation procedure the body would go through because it didn’t involve her. the first thing mikhail told her was to separate herself from her test subjects and after the first few deaths that took over 30 minutes to finish--she learned that exactly.

“you do, mikhail. you say you believe in me because i have potential. and that people like me lead to the future of the company.” it was something she didn’t necessarily believe in ever since she had to deal with causalities left and right she had to come to terms with what exactly they were doing in the lab--which wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. through tight lips and a stiff nod she sat down in an empty stool and looked up at her superior waiting on any sort of critque.

[palacecurse]

closed starter for @unrebirth​

another day another set of trials, today’s included checking how long someone can survive once their implant had imploded--which in itself would happen very rarely. she had to deal with watching someone convulse and call out for help as the technology embedded in their nervous system malfunctioned triggering seizure after seizure until finally their body just...gave up. something that had became a new normal ever since she came into this business 5 years ago. a hungry young engineer getting handed the opportunity to spearhead world-changing research was something she couldn’t even dream of and neither were the consequences. it was an occurance she had tragically gotten used to, looking down at her clipboard and marking time of death-- 10:32 am-- duration after malfunction-- 5.47 minutes. “that’s our fastest time yet.” she said, scribbling down details on her clipboard. she turned to mikhail watching the body getting carted off to be disposed. “we’re getting closer and closer to zero.” a milestone that would be touted as “quick and painless” in the possible yet rare side effects to the implant that was growing in popularity day by day.

[palacecurse]

closed starter for: @paranoiaspoisondoor​

the sound of footsteps approaching snaps tia out of her daydream, and she spins towards the person entering the room. “well if it isn’t one of my favorite people-- don’t tell vito i said that.” she chirped, a shit eating grin spreading on her face as she she sat up attentively. “what’s the deal? any news on that shipment of parts thing one and thing two went out to get?”