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Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 1:56 am
by Stefan Dornkirk
52 Searing, 121
The minor degree in biology Stefan had received after his graduation from one Academy to another was not something he could impart in an afternoon, or even in the weeks he had to assign reading material to his would-be pupils. So far as he knew both Brenner and Eitan had faithfully completed the basic reading he'd set for them so they could at least understand what he was saying when they spoke of the challenges carrying out their Grand Plan would entail. Inviting them to join him in an experiment would, hopefully, give them a more applied knowledge of what they'd gotten from the homework.
Moving around the small laboratory he kept at Dornkirk Manor he adjusted the instruments, peering through the microscopic devices, ensuring the glass trays were fitted tightly. He'd set up most of what was needed the night previous but it was his habit to go back over anything he intended to present to others before the actual presentation. This was an experiment he'd observed and then performed himself in the first year of his studies for his degrees. It wasn't difficult and, in his opinion, did a good job of helping one understand many of the most basic concepts of the building blocks of life.
He felt that the other two leaders of the search for a final solution to the problem of magic ought to understand, on a physical level, what it was they were likely to find. The parasitic creatures Brenner's surprising foray into research had uncovered were microscopic, requiring a level of technology to even observe that had only been rediscovered in the Brass City less than a decade before. It was still crude compared to what ancient texts said had once been used and the instruments Stefan was using for his demonstration were significantly better than the ones he'd used at the University. Several of the improvements were his own and wouldn't be available, even if he'd released the schematics, which he had not, to any but the wealthiest of biologists due to their prohibitive cost to manufacture.
Once he was sure everything was in place, clean, and ready he had but to wait. An activity he would not be long at, it seemed, for he could already hear two familiar voices approaching his scientific sanctuary.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:31 pm
by Brenner Dornkirk
Brenner had been working his arse off preparing for the expedition, and so it was a pleasant novelty that today's commute was so delightfully brief. So much so that he was even able to sleep in a bit, and take a languorous bath to relax into the day. After drying off, he got into a set of silken pyjamas over which he donned a similarly silky robe and stepped into a pair of slippers.
It was in this exceedingly casual state of dress that he met Eitan in the foyer en route to his brother's laboratory.
"Eitan." He smiled, looking more relaxed than he had in weeks. Eitan was one of the few around whom Brenner felt comfortable enough to meet in his bedclothes. His brother was, of course, another in that very small cabal of trusted confidantes.
"I hope you'll forgive me for being relaxed in your company, but I'm rather taking advantage of the opportunity to dwell in comfort for a few extra hours whilst we're about today's work. I hope you don't mind."
Eitan had seen Brenner in the buff, so the elder Air Commander certainly didn't imagine he'd be scandalized by seeing him in flowing silk as he brushed past the tall halfbreed and led the way into the laboratory.
"Good morning, brother mine." He said with a grin of contentment and an air of optimism in his baritone- which was a bit richer for having woken so recently.
"Your two apt pupils have arrived and stand ready to be enlightened. I was able to finish up the rest of my homework on my own..." He'd come aknocking on Stefan's door the prior evening with a few questions, but they'd been explained to his satisfaction so he was able to finish up on his own before giving in to slumber.
"So what's on the agenda for today?"
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:26 am
by Eitan Angevin
Eitan appeared at the Dornkirk Estate ahead of the time appointed, but not so far ahead as to be rude. The doorman told him he was expected in Master Stefan's laboratory, and Eitan assured him he knew the way, though, in truth, he saw Brenner approaching and fell into step with him. He himself was dressed more casually than normal, but he couldn't appear on their doorstep in his own bedclothes, which were much scantier than Brenner's own.
"Brenner," he acknowledged with a lazy smile. "I suppose next time we have science class, you'll have to invite me to the pre-party sleepover." He chuckled, and imagined one of their boozy planning sessions segueing through the Land of Nod into one of Stefan's experiments. It was too bad one of them wasn't independently wealthy enough to have his own home, the better to set up as a base of operations for their forthcoming expedition.
He thought Brenner looked smart in his uniforms, but he knew how to wear a set of silk pyjamas as well, it seemed.
"Stef," he greeted when they were in the man's inner sanctum. "I also completed the assigned readings." He had the copies of the books Stefan had lent him as well as copious notes in his messenger bag. "I did forget my silks, though. But I wouldn't wear them as well as Brenner, so." He chuckled and fished a bright red apple out of his bag as well, made a show of buffing it on his lapel, and then held it out to Stefan.
"For teacher, with love and admiration." He winked. Eitan had had his coffee and a bit of something to break his fast. The apple had been an insurance policy, but his stomach seemed just fine and he was certain the Dornkirk kitchens would provide luncheon, and so the apple was more useful as the prop for a joke, though his admiration for Stefan's education and intellectual rigor was no jest.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:25 pm
by Stefan Dornkirk
A small frown creased Stefan's face, one he would have been ashamed to know looked remarkably like his mother's expression of disapproval, as Brenner entered wearing nothing less than silken pajamas and a robe.
It was more than he'd been wearing when he'd appeared at Stefan's door the evening previous, which was, perhaps, why he said nothing about it now. His mind quickly came up with a half dozen reasons why his brother's choice of garments made perfect sense for the situation, two of which even made sense, before turning his eyes to his other 'pupil' for the morning.
"Good morning," He greeted, surprisingly pleased to have someone else to broach and tease over Brynn's eccentricities. "I..." He began, intending to draw their minds to one of the major passages he'd assigned in the reading before seeing the little gift Eitan had brought him. He knew, really, he did, that it was a joke, but it made him feel something. Naming it was beyond him but it hinted at acknowledgment, even unintentionally as he was sure it was, so he took the fruit with an expression that tried and failed to mock its own gratitude.
"Well," He managed to answer, "someone is taking my tutilage seriously at least." The smile he directed at Brenner would take any sting out of his words, he hoped, before setting aside inconvenient feelings and gifted snack alike.
"If you will take your places before the scopes," He gestured to each station, of which there were now three, not knowing if either man would know what the instruments were. "We will observe for ourselves the experiment laid out in the theoretical in chapter four of Introduction to Biological Life."
It was an effort not to drop into the lecturing tone of his favorite teaching at the University, but he managed well enough.
"There are little knobs on the sides, you see?" He pointed them out at his own station, "You can adjust them until the slide becomes clear. I got them to my vision but yours' will inevitably be a little different. Don't turn them wildly, minute adjustments are all it takes. When you can each see the movement of the little creatures on your slides let me know."
There was a long moment of mostly quiet as the two men worked to get their instruments adjusted. On the slides were creatures that would have been difficult, though not impossible, to see with the naked eye. Under the scopes, their tiny lives became startlingly clear. They had limbs and digestive systems, they moved and ate as any larger creature might, or, nearly so. The study was beyond avant-garde, only men entrenched in the experimental were beginning to write on the subject and, aside from the theoretical, nothing had been published that Stefan knew of.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:48 am
by Brenner Dornkirk
"You know Dornkirk Manor is open to you anytime." Brenner said with a gentle pat to the small of Eitan's back. He knew his old friend had been joking, but: "You should consider staying with us more often, honestly..." He trailed off for a moment before amending his thought and proceeding, "At least until we set off on the expedition. Stefan and I do some of our best work late of an evening." He cracked an impish smile, "And you can't beat the dress code."
By the time that thought was out, Brenner found himself facing down Stefan's ostensible disapproval. He might have been cavalier enough to dress this way, but he wasn't oblivious to Stefan's reaction. He answered the elder Dornkirk's grimace with a complementary scowl.
"Oh, man alive, Stef! Can't a man be comfortable in his own home, at least?" Of course he hadn't done it out of scorn. There hadn't been enough thought put into it for any malice aforethought to have been at play. Whatever the case, it seemed Eitan had elected to assume the role of teacher's pet to serve as foil to Brenner's class clown, and their diligent professor seemed content enough to proceed without spanking the latter with a ruler.
Brenner nodded at the first instruction, and approached one of the instruments toward which Stefan had gestured. He furrowed his brow a bit at the sight of the apparatus. A cylindrical tube held aloft of a small tray by a metal arm.
"Um..." He glanced over to Stefan to see what he was doing with his own contraption, and mimicked by peering into the top of the tube. He adjusted the knob as per Stefan's instructions and was aghast at what he viewed when his vision became clear.
"Heilige Scheiße!" He exclaimed, disbelieving that there was actual motion- actual life on such a scale. He drew back from the lens so he could lean close and try to see with his naked eye what he'd just seen magnified. He squinted at the slide on the stage of the microscope, unable to see anything at all- let alone the locomotion of organisms. He returned his eye to the lens at the top of the cylinder and stared in awe, taking note of how the entities moved and their seemingly amorphous shapes. At times it seemed a leg would appear, only to be swallowed back into the greater organism.
"Fascinating, Stef! What, exactly... are these?"
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:49 pm
by Eitan Angevin
Eitan liked the idea of cohabiting with the Dornkirk brothers, but he didn't imagine their parents would approve. Perhaps he ought to buy himself his own home. It wouldn't be so grand as the Angevin estate or even this manse, but he would be the king of his own castle and the brothers could drop by and stay until whenever they wanted to leave. It would be nice.
In any case, Stefan seemed oddly pleased with the gesture, so hopefully his snap at Brenner for the pyjamas wasn't going to set the tone for the rest of the morning. He stepped up to the work station and looked dubiously at the "scope." While the College of Minders had taught him a thing or two and his regular education had touched upon science, as well, this was some cutting edge stuff and he was quite careful with the little knobs. He had grown up surrounded by expensive things, but this was an expensive thing he didn't understand and he always approached things he didn't understand with a certain degree of caution. If it was someone he didn't understand, he occasionally approached them with his cock out, but that was generally a mistake.
"Mists," he muttered when the tiny creatures came into focus. At least, he thought they had to be tiny things magnified, similarly, though not the same, as how a spyglass made faraway things seem near. They would have been monsters were they larger, and it made him wonder if they weren't always surrounded by monsters, only the monsters were too small to hurt them.
Then again, their quarry was tiny monsters that might hurt him, at least. Or they would attack the magical pollution within him, and the attack would likely damage him, as well. Tiny monsters might not know the difference between the profane sigil and the upright soul it tarnished. That was terrifying.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:18 pm
by Stefan Dornkirk
Stefan tried not to let Brenner's peevish outburst upset him. He hadn't even said anything about what his brother was wearing, even if he had looked a complaint he felt it was unfair to attack him for it even if his remark to Eitan might have been read as an admonishment...
When the topic turned immediately back to the experiment at hand it was easier to forget and move on.
It was an effort not to laugh when both his pupils swore at finding the correct balance between the magnifying lenses and were able to see what he'd placed between the glass plates for them. Gratifying too, since he'd set up the scopes all on his own once the parts arrived.
"Pleurastrum terricola." Stefan said, sounding very refined in answer to Brenner's question before making a wry face and admitting, "Its pond scum, and contains the plants, and, we are coming to realize, many other tiny organisms. I can't entirely tell you everything that is on the slide. You can move the focus around some, using the larger knob on the side."
It only moved back and forth along a single axis, but Stefan had plans to add additional knobs and their corresponding mechanism to make finding any place on the slide you desired possible.
"In the theoretical experiment, it surmises that we might be able to affect the behavior of the creatures by offering them what they view as food. I thought this to be of particular interest considering our goals, so I have been working with the creatures since I was able to obtain this equipment."
The various types of stimuli, both nutritional and otherwise, he had used on the living organisms existent in the pond scum had rendered diverse results, all of which Stefan had cataloged and made extensive notes on. But for the time being, it seemed only relevant that the two men observe the reaction caused when a food source was introduced.
"Once you have a clear view of several of the larger tan-colored specimens I will come and add sustenance to your slides so you need not interrupt your observations."
When he got the go-ahead from both men he came alongside Brenner first, and then Eitan, adding with a dropper the substance that had caused the strongest reaction. It had taken only moments for the little writhing masses to frenzy toward their favorite food, swarming over it, and each other, until none of it was left, at which point they returned to their, comparably, much more sedate state. Based on the writings Brenner had found on the parasites they were hunting this seemed the most similar to what they might encounter.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 4:15 pm
by Brenner Dornkirk
Brenner tipped his head back and guffawed at the revelation that the quite grandiose-sounding nomenclature with which Stefan had replied to his query amounted to little more than sludge. His laughter quickly faded as he realised the implications of that.
"This is just... normal?" Of course he'd heard theories about tiny organisms like these being more prevalent than was commonly understood, but... Brenner had swum in ponds! Had these little creatures crawled over him? Crept inside him as he paddled and made a life with his body as their planet?
"Surely these creatures must be magical in nature..." He surmised, grimly. It was a horrifying prospect as far as the Air Commander was concerned. He shivered at the notion, but Stefan drew his mind back to focus.
"Splendid." He nodded in vehement agreement with the next phase of their little experiment. "My findings suggest they may well be in a dormant state if we find them in the absence of a food source. And, to that end, I do believe we ought to bring some sort of, um... Bait, for lack of a better word? At least something that might draw them away from the magically afflicted members of our party. I thought, perhaps, dragonshards reduced down to a powder or something of the kind, but I'm certainly open to suggestions if anyone has a better alternative..." And for that, he looked to Eitan whose comparative expertise in the arcane arts might prove most useful in providing further guidance on that particular matter.
Brenner adjusted the apparatus and lined up a good view of the specimens in question, then nodded to Stefan and returned his eye to the scope to observe the fair feeding frenzy that ensued when he administered another variable to their tiny universe.
"Bloody brilliant." He grinned devilishly. "Imagine what a feast Kalzasi would serve up to a creature that swarmed eldritch energy the way these things descended upon... Well, whatever that was you fed them."
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:29 pm
by Eitan Angevin
"Sugar water, no?" he asked absently, his gaze fixated on the silent feeding frenzy visible through the scope. At least, he thought he remembered that being named as a universal food source for a wide variety of organisms from hummingbirds to ants to the infintessimal things. There was something unnerving about this that he felt the others would not share. If this was the mystery of the natural world, how could the decide what was natural and unnatural? What gave them the right or the wisdom?
These were dangerous questions and he pushed them aside.
Then he blinked back to reality, registering the questions.
"Well... if they live in the Warrens, they aren't far from dragonshards. So... logically... scientifically...? Dragonshards aren't a likely food source? Assuming they can move to find them. If they are small like this, perhaps they can't. Do they live in water like pond scum? Or in the air like diseases? Aether permeates everything. I might have to be more careful because of my rune, but there's a possibility they could eat the aether out of a whole person as well, though, I would think we would know more about them if they were so omnivorous."
He frowned.
"From the reports you've shared, it seems they prefer the aether being shaped by mages, but we ought to be careful about the unknown." He considered. "I wonder how Pleurastrum terricola responds to a ward..."
Eitan looked through the scope again, threading an anchor into a bit of something that looked inert, and then threading the barest hint of aether into it.
Re: Training: Biological Experimentation
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 12:13 am
by Stefan Dornkirk
Stefan nodded, watching as Brenner's mind attempted to wrap around the enormity of the minuscule world existing around them at all times. It had taken some time for the elder brother to adjust to the idea, more than one sleepless night had been endured, if truth be told. The knowledge had finally settled into him with the realization that nothing had changed; he had lived his entire life with these invisible creatures around him at all times and if they had done him no harm so far, nor most of humanity throughout time, it was unlikely they would suddenly start just because he now knew about them.
"As far as we can tell, they are entirely natural. A part of the world, in the same way bees and ants break down or tend to trees and plants, so these smaller animals tend to them also." It was a safe way to think about it, and not untrue as far as Stefan knew.
"They seem to eat bits of dead plants and other things not useful to the living environment, cleaning the water, cleaning the air. The world is much like a machine, it seems. The more we learn the more it makes sense how everything works together for the sustenance of all. The largest and smallest work in concert. It's really quite brilliant and almost beautiful."
He stopped there, realizing his sentiment, even expressed at a significantly lesser level than he often felt it, was likely to get him teased in the current company, or, almost any company. There were a few people, Lady Jane Farroway for one, who saw things similarly, but it would take time, perhaps lifetimes, before the population as a whole was able to absorb and appreciate the ideas.
The teacher's mind snapped back to the present at Eitan's inquiry, and he answered,
"More or less, I experimented with several different mixes of nutrients for these particular creatures but it certainly contains sugar. It seems to be one of the purer sources of direct energy and the little things do tend to use up a lot. They move their whole forms to get anything done. Imagine if you had to use every muscle in your body to take a breath or a step."
Leaning back against the heavy experimentation table Stefan considered the question of bait.
"Can you move a ward once it's attached to an object? For instance, if you applied one to a rock and then threw it, would the ward remain attached?" The implications of the question seemed obvious enough that he did feel the need to state them aloud. When Eitan leaned over close to his scope again Stefan could not see what he was doing, but grew by turns alarmed and fascinated by what might be going on.
Inside the slide one of the tiny creatures encountered the ward, trying several times to move through it before sending out tiny feelers. When it discovered the edge of the barrier it changed shapes and slid around till it was past, continuing to float along it's merry was as though knowing its purpose and being entirely content in it.