Cast-Offs of Divinity - A Merchants of Divinity Quest

Chapter 1: Turn 3, Start of the Marathon (Week 16):​

---

"Learn, Learn, Burn". Common wisdom is that education is best done at a measured pace mixed with other activities.

No true scientist ever let common wisdom stand unquestioned. But with your extensive education in Biology you have an excellent grasp of the relevant fundamentals. From the buildup of stress hormones, to falling neuron responses and rate of connection formation.

Turns out that in a city of science common wisdom and best scientific practice have a notable degree of overlap. Study habits and lesson plans are made not just with intuition, but science.

Being an intelligent scientist means knowing and respecting the scientific best practice.

Being a mad scientist means doing it anyway.

---

Fifteen minutes before your first scheduled patient your assistant arrives. She is half a head shorter then you, has bright pink hair and wears her physician-cut labcoat over her shoulders like a cape. You aren't sure what you expected, bit wasn't this.

"Hello! I'm Dr. Nacre from the medical association! Your Leviathan Grimm correct?" She greets you with a casual wave and smile.

"Correct. It is good to meet you, I hope we work well together."

"Yup yup! It's always wonderful helping rookies over the first hurdle. I hear it was way worse before we implemented the assistant system."

"Dare I ask?" A hyperbole. You always dare to ask.

"Oh the pass rate was terrible. The only real way to keep up the required pace is to overbook. But that is way harder to manage without someone to take the spillover. It's about the balance you know? Too little and it doesn't count. Too much and you drop the ball somewhere. Either way it's a wash. You don't need to be perfect, but it's pretty close. Most ain't so keen on trying a second time." She glances at the slight bags under your eyes. "You'll see one way or another."

You just raise an eyebrow. "I suppose I will." You check the time. Thirteen minutes until the first patient arrives.

"Oh hey what is that?" Dr. Nacre looks at the box of equipment you brought over from your lab. Enough for the early stages of your current project at least.

"I heard that time spent as required by other contracts doesn't count as in interruption. Is it not correct?"

She glances at you, reassessing. Then she shakes a fist in the air. "Ugh lucky! I wish I had that when I did it. Maybe you will make it after all."

You nod slightly bemused and check the time again. Twelve minutes. You pace back and forth. Checking your equipment and supplies. Folding cot in the corner and stack of packaged meals in the desk. Check your phone and make sure you have all the necessary pickups and deliveries scheduled.

Check the time. Six minutes. Start pacing again. What is Dr. Nacre doing? You glance over. She is lounging back in one of the three lobby chairs. Is she asleep? You can't tell.

Check the time. Five minutes. Ugh, you need to stop this and calm down. Maybe Dr. Nacre has the right idea. You take a deep breath and close your eyes. In and out. Relax.

*Ding* *Ding*

"Hello, I'm here for the 8:30 appointment?"

Showtime. You affix Polite smile #4 and open the door.

---

The morning starts our normally enough. If it wasn't for Dr. Nacre's presence it would be indistinguishable from any other day. After the fifth hour however your energy starts flagging. This would normally be the point where you switched to some other task. Perhaps an experiment or social call.

Instead all you get is a short break to eat. It helps, but it doesn't last. Eight hours in your headache has returned and your smile is strained.

Dr. Nacre presence is constant except for the few times she peels off a patient or two from the waiting room. You hardly even notice the second examination room added to your clinic. An advantage of the city's modular construction you suppose.

"That is all for today then, unless you have any other questions?" Part of you hopes they don't because it means this appointment will continue to drag on. Part of you hopes they do, because it means you can delay your next appointment slightly.

"Well, I've been having some trouble with my sleep schedule recently..."

Ten hours in you get to take a break for science. It helps. Not as much as you wish. But enough to shake some of the sluggishness off of your thoughts.

Fifteen hours and thirty minutes in and you are done. You less consume and more commiserate with the packaged meal in your hands. "Is it like this every day?".

"Eh, today wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst either." Dr. Nacre smiles "Chin up! You'll get used to it." To your tired eyes she looks exactly the same as when the day started.

You just sigh and start preparing for sleep. You were budgeted eight hours, so you are going to use them.

---

It gets worse. You aren't sure if the city has it out for you, or if it is just a statistical anomaly but number of patients you have to deal with steadily ticks up. Dr. Nacre is nearly as busy as you are. You only see her infrequently passing through the lobby.

Besides her it is just a blur of faces you won't remember and names taken off a medical file. You finish reading and force on a smile "Welcome back Mr. Wright. I hope the stitches haven't been giving you any problems?"

At some point you wonder if this is what bot work feels like. The repetition. The exhaustion. Each patient looks less and less like a human, and more and more like a checklist. Are you really thinking and reasoning, or are you just following an algorithm? It takes something unusual to rouse you from the haze. Fortunately reality provides.

Appendicitis. That is what your initial diagnosis was. The pattern of abdominal pain and loss of apatite was distinctive. Only slight irregularities made you order a routine scan in preparation for the surgery.

Looking at the results, this was not an appendicitis. A small mark on their file notes their history as a test subject. This was a failing implant.


Its function confuses you. Your first thought was something related to the digestive system due to its proximity, but the scan doesn't back the theory up. Perhaps instead it is related to the high density of blood vessels or nerves? There are too many possibilities. You curse the lack of detail.

Regardless you have a golden opportunity to poach valuable research. Do you deal with this yourself, or do you refer them back to the original makers of the implant?

The extraction itself would not be terribly difficult. But your relationship with a certain mercenary team makes you well aware just how touchy some labs get. The timing of the approaching expeditions works in your favor however. With all the chaos you doubt any reprisal will come before you leave the city, if any comes at all.

Both decisions can be fully medically justified, so neither will interfere with your ongoing marathon.

What do you choose?

[] Extract the implant in full
DC 15 Medicine roll to extract it.
DC 20 Biology to preserve it.
Gain the implant for future reverse engineering or repair.
May or may not provoke a reaction from the lab behind this.

[] Stabilize them and send them back to their original lab.
No roll.
No risk.
Might gain a small measure of regard from the lab.

---

AN: In case anyone is wondering, this is the 97 that got rolled earlier. The rest is yet to come...