Stop and smell the grass

[innocent_insanity]

WHO: Kurloz Makara
TONE: somewhat macabre
RATING: PG-13
WHEN: 13 October, early evening
WHERE: Library
WHAT: Kurloz is taking advantage of Hogwarts' massive library and delving into the medical biology section. (btw he's not wearing his makeup, just his eyeliner)
STATUS: ONGOING

Kurloz had decided to spend the majority of his Saturday sketching. Not completely unusual, and some of the sketches had even been lighthearted ones of the outdoor scenery. He'd even bothered to collect one of the autumn leaves and draw it out in exquisite detail, but then he'd gotten lost in the veins of the plant. Veins had led to thoughts of blood, and blood had led to here, the library, in the shadowy section on biology. He hadn't bothered with the general Healing tomes - he'd gone straight for the titles regarding the transformation and distortion of anatomy through spellwork, staring fascinated at the images depicting various gruesome twisted creatures and failed experiments.

He sat at one of the desks, several of the books piled at his arm as he scanned through one in front of him, eyes fixated on the detailed water-coloured painting of two wizards that had been merged to share one spine, both of their faces in agony as the writer noted that the subjects had not lasted long under the pain.

Comments

[wavesofjade]

Although it wasn't often that she was seen outside of the hospital wing, Dolores occasionally did venture out for a change of scenery and company that wasn't ill or injured. Today had found her drawn to the library, where her medically-inclined nature had taken her to the biology section. She was always so fascinated by the ways in which the Wizarding and Muggle medical professions differed, and as such their interpretations of the way the human body worked and how it might be fixed.

She recognised Kurloz the moment she saw him, but left him to himself for a few minutes while she selected a book - a leather-bound volume on the rarer diseases known to inflict humankind - then quietly approached him, clearing her throat to announce her presence and smiling softly.

"Hello, Kurloz.. do you mind if I join you?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz glanced up and took note of her, smiling warmly and shaking his head, gesturing for the seats around the table he was at. He carefully pushes his pile aside so there'd be more space for Dolores.

[wavesofjade]

"Thank you, dear."

She took a seat and placed her book down when he cleared the space, glancing over at him after a moment and then at the pages of the book open in front of him.

"Is this school work?"

... Really, she doubted it was, but it didn't hurt to ask.

[innocent_insanity]

He paused and got his bag out from under the table, taking out his notebook and a pencil to scribble out:

No, just got curious and went right on digging until this here brother ended up in some proper weird stuff.

He held the notebook up to her so she could read his message, smiling with just a tiny hint of bashfulness as he closed the gruesome library book.

[wavesofjade]

Dolores waited patiently, and smiled when she read his message, hiding it behind her hand as she laughed softly. When he closed the book she tipped her head slightly to read the title, making a quiet sound of curiosity.

"That's very advanced for someone your age. Do you understand it all?"

She clasped her hands together, resting them on the table in front of her.

[bundangos]

Usagi had been in to try to study but had only managed to do about 15 minutes of work before losing all drive, and took to wandering the aisles to find something cute to read or do.

As she wanders she see's Kurloz reason. While she always thought the boy was weird and a bit creepy, she still spoke to him, because sometimes he looked lonely in her mind.

She comes up to him and leans over his shoulder a little.

"Oh wow that's really Pre- ...Uh... Why are they stuck together like that?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz glanced up with surprise and blinked down at his book, wondering if he should really explain what had happened to the people in the picture. After a moment he lifted the book a bit so she could see the small blurb explaining the experiment on the human transfiguration.

[bundangos]

Leaning in more Usagi reads the blurb slowly and aloud and stopping half way through. She stands up putting her hands to her mouth.

"They did that to people!?"

Then she looks around suspiciously waiting for someone to give the inevitable 'shh'. When none comes she looks between Kurloz and the book.

"That's mostly a really nice picture. Um. Creepy though. Is everything in that one so scary?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz pet her shoulder gently and nodded, an apologetic smile on his face as he closed the book to hide the nightmarish images from her.

[bundangos]

She sits down next to him, and crosses her arms onto the table, resting her head on them looking up at him.

"Why do you like looking at spooky things like that? Bunny rabbits in a field are good to look at too. Especially eating clover blossoms.
Or all the mythical creature art! They have googles in some of the books! You know, they're creepy but not scary, with the snakes for hair!"

[grandhighwizard]

The Potions professor glanced curiously down at the book as he passed the boy's table, pausing when he saw the illustration, and studying it with an arched eyebrow. It wasn't really his area of interest, but Rhys could imagine how such an image would have fascinated him as a teenager.

He reached out, tapping one long finger against the picture to get Kurloz's attention, then raised his eyebrows inquisitively when the boy looked up.

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz jerked a bit and lifted his head, blinking up at the professor with curiosity. They hadn't engaged much in Potions and outside of classes they'd never really spoken even before Kurloz's gap year.

[grandhighwizard]

The truth was, Kurloz hadn't been particularly interesting to Rhys up until very recently. Just another child who seemed good natured enough, but never particularly gifted or too odd, from what he'd heard from other professors before he'd come to teach here. The biting his own tongue out incident, though, that was interesting. Very interesting.

"What's your interest in this, my lad?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz stilled for a moment and pushed the book closer to the professor, tapping his finger on the page, specifically on the men's faces showing their excruciating pain. He glanced up, hopeful that the professor might understand without him having to get the notepad out.

[grandhighwizard]

Rhys looked down at the picture with a hard to read expression for a long few moments, then one corner of his mouth quirked up in a subtle half-smile. "Is it just the pain? Or any ... extreme experience or sensation?"

[preanimator]

"Well, that was done entirely wrong," the smaller boy in the glasses commented disdainfully, completely uninvited. "You can't attach them there and expect that to work, it's basic anatomy."

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz glanced over his shoulder and blinked slowly, his face clearly expressing 'so?'. He took his notebook and jotted down:

not the point bro - you've got to up and open your mind to the possibilities of fucking around with anatomy like this. how much can the motherfucking human body take?

[preanimator]

"And what's the use in that? Yes, all right, this is very dramatic and all, but it's also incredibly primitive. You can test the limits of the human body much more efficiently that trying to join the spinal cords of two people - all that's going to do is kill them in a relatively short order, and you won't find out anything about actual pain tolerance," Herbert argued. "Or whether co-joined bodies can survive, since where they've attached them is far too high up. You can't expect two sets of lungs to work properly off one fused spinal cord, that's just bad medicine!"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz smiled and shook his head, turning the pages to the beginning of the book with the publisher's date on it, recording the piece to have been written well and truly back in the dark ages, tapping at the faded ink numbers in emphasis. It was an experiment - the stepping stones of the advanced Healing and spells of today, surely Herbert would understand?

[preanimator]

Herbert peered at the date, adjusting his glasses, then huffed, annoyed that he hadn't picked up on that right away. "Of course, it would be a primitive text. Why don't you have anything more up-to-date? Or is this a History project?"

[doctorkishitani]

Shinra passes by Kurloz' desk on his way to the Charms section, catching a glimpse of the other boy's book out of the corner of his eye. Intrigued, he moves to peer over Kurloz' shoulder, taking a moment to examine the image before turning to smile inquisitively at the Slytherin as he whispers excitedly.

"Hello! I don't think I've read this one yet. Is it from the restricted section?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz glanced up and blinked, smiling a bit and shaking his head. He patted the space next to him at the table, indicating Shinra should sit, and pushed the book closer to him so they could both see the pages.

[doctorkishitani]

Shinra breaks into a grin at the invitation and quickly takes the offered seat. He takes a moment to examine the painting a bit more closely before speaking.

"I'm not surprised they didn't live long. The spine would be an extremely difficult point of conjoinment, but it is an interesting one. Do you think they were intending for them to share one consciousness?"

[innocent_insanity]

Kurloz grinned and scanned the page before finding the blurb on the intent of the experiment, tapping his finger over it for Shinra to direct his attention to. Thankfully someone had paraphrased the Old English into something more understandable.

'The purpose of this experiment was to observe whether through sharing a spinal cord two wizards might then share their abilities as well as their thoughts.'

[doctorkishitani]

He frowns contemplatively, pondering the blurb he'd been directed to.

"So it was an attempt to join consciousnesses." He then begins to scan the pages for any more translations. "I wonder if they were able to share any thoughts. I wouldn't think so. Healers didn't have as much of an understanding of the complexities in the human nervous system at that time, so the conjoinment process probably wasn't nearly as intricate as it should have been. Are you interested in conjoinment?"