Who: Roy, Mayuri What: pre-test meeting fun When: This week Where: SRDI, Buena Park Rating: PG13 for electrified needles and jabbing and going "oooo" a lot. Status: Complete!
The Shinigami Research & Development Institute had all the look of a giant brewery (with tower) that was turned into a heavily industrialized research complex, with white walls and many metal tubes acting as vents, all over the outside of the building. The place looked like it might be locked down in an instant, with many doors having multiple bolts, incredibly thick metal, and different forms of scans and codes to get into different areas.
The owner of the complex, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, was waiting on the first floor, for Roy to arrive. He wore a stark white lab coat that matched the white of his geisha white face. The first floor was perhaps the most well-lit of the entire interior, in blindingly bright fluorescent lighting. In fact, there were so many lights, that there was a disconcerting low-level buzzing hum of the lights, with a few tinks of a couple of lights sputtering like they were going to flicker out at any moment.
Both hands were tucked into the pockets of his lab coat and although he didn’t move - not even a twitch - Mayuri had the look of someone who could be extremely impatient and as though he should be off poking around in the insides of lab rats. Or humans. Same thing, to him.
Roy had the feeling. as he approached the institute, that this was the kind of situation most people would find kind of creepy, or at least, weird. Reminded him somehow of the labs that he and Jade had found real Roy in. But, he reminded himself, this was different. He wasn’t being kidnapped like real Roy had been, no he was walking into this, and he could walk out if it got bad enough.
Not that he wasn’t willing to try. His arm back. His BOW. There was so much riding on this that it was worth the attempt, even if it did resemble Cadmus a little. So, okay. He took a deep breath, then another, and kept on making his way inside to meet the guy who was going to give him back his life, or at least try to, and when he smiled, just a little, it was genuine.
“So...pre op consultation time?” he tried to insert some humor there.
Mayuri tilted his head to one side, in a way that looked almost bird-like. He let out a soft cooing sound under his breath, a long ‘ooooo’ and one hand emerged from a pocket to gesture toward a doorway. He turned and lead Roy through it. At first he was silent, but after he had keyed in one of the codes (he’d delete it from the system, later) and gone through the retinal scan to get them through, he began to talk and evade some of those drips of condensation from the overhead pipes in the dark corridor.
“I would like to inspect the area for the best means to make an incision,” the scientist was saying, like he was lost in his thoughts, utterly delighted to have such a fine specimen. “I do hope you don’t have an aversion to surgery, since it will be replacing what you have lost. We can discuss your compensation also, since this might take the better part of six hours.”
“No aversions, no.” Roy said, quite honestly. He was fine with anything if it gave him the chance to have his arm back after all. “Six hours, really?” He was surprised it was that quick, and clearly the idea was appealing. “No idea it was going to be that quick.” Sounded good so far really, but at the moment. “Yeah, you can definitely take a look," he added, shrugging out of his jacket, which was a lot easier than tugging off the shirt he was wearing one handed.
Still, he did manage to do them both, then nodded at the doctor. “It’s above the shoulder. “ he explained. “Crushed and then they removed it there in August. I had one infection post, but antibiotics caught it.”
“It creates and mends faster if it is a smaller appendage,” Mayuri replied, pointing a finger at the nearby exam table. “It has some adjustments, since it should be a matter of a minute or two for an arm. But the serum is not yet perfected.”
At least, in his dreams, he could replace his own ripped off arm in under a minute. And it was usable. The flesh and bone of humans was infinitely inferior, more satisfying to destroy than to mend or improve upon. But, seeing as how he was stuck in this terrible human rat race, he might as well make the best of it. Even if the best was going to be sub par, now that he knew what he knew. Thanks, dreams.
After putting on surgical gloves, Mayuri leaned in, making a soft ‘oooo’ noise as he inspected the area. He even poked it with a fingertip, experimentally. It wasn’t a bad job, but - naturally - he thought he could do better.
“Do you experience any phantom limb syndrome? Itching in fingertips or on an elbow that isn’t there, for instance,” he inquired, curiously.
“Actually yeah.” Roy said. “More lately, and it’s sort of...maybe psychological. When I’m around stuff that reminds me of what it was like before. I was visiting a range a few weeks ago. My fingers started twitching like they wanted me to go and shoot. I actually looked at them before I even remembered.”
How messed up was THAT again?
“Excellent.” Apparently, to Mayuri, that wasn’t messed up at all. It was some sort of advantage, that the missing arm was still essentially there, on a subconscious level. This really was the perfect test subject. “I would like to do a nerve conductivity study. It’s a simple procedure where I insert needles in through the skin and into the muscle. Then we will do a simple electrical shock to get a test reading.”
Mayuri didn’t wait for an okay, he rolled over a machine on a table, began ripping open a test needle from a sterile packet, and BOINK. He unceremoniously jabbed one right into Roy’s shoulder, while watching him with wide golden eyes to gauge the reaction.
Ideally, Roy should...not feel anything in the site now. What wasn’t there had been relatively numb, up until this point. But when that needle went in suddenly? He was jerking upward with a little yelp that would end up embarrassing him later. It was just, well...
Sudden. Sudden was a good work for it, he thought, as he tried to jerk himself back down quickly.
“Sorry.” He muttered, ducking his head. “Just kind of a surprise.”
“...ahhhhh...” was the only response that was offered to that surprise. That was a good sign, that there was some immediate response there. Otherwise, Mayuri looked delighted, giving the needle a little wriggle between his index finger and his thumb, before he reached over for a knob and gave it a turn, to send an electrical current into the muscle.
The ‘good’ doctor...uhh...scientist...er...kabuki frankenstein nightmare (there, that fits best), was looking between Roy and the read-out, turning knobs to adjust the current as the machine made crackle noises, and seeing how well the muscle reacted to the current. It wasn’t really necessary but it would add credence to how well the serum worked, by providing before and after evidence.
And it really freaking HURT, but it wasn’t like Roy was gonna admit to that. He gritted his teeth instead, and watched, because it wasn’t like unbearable pass out hurting. More like “holy fucking shit it tingles in a BAD way’ hurting. It was also really interesting to watch the current, and he could appreciate that, even hooked up to it like he was.
Idly, he wondered if they’d done this sort of thing to Other Roy, to Speedy, at Cadmus when they’d been creating him and slicing off his arm to grow a whole human. Should he be concerned with how gleeful the doctor was about all of this? It seemed to border on the level of his “handlers” in his dreams.
But no, he’d chosen this, and he’d endure. Besides, it might HELP someone.