Dr Newton Geiszler (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kaijugrrroupie) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
capitalh2014-05-26 09:37 pm
kaijugrrroupie) wrote in capitalh2014-05-26 09:37 pm
Entry tags:
Open!
Who: Newton Geiszler and Yooooouuu
Where: An seedy looking office within LA Chinatown
When: Late March, every evening between 3-5
What: Newt's arrived in LA and before his official job starts, he decides to set up a health clinic for aliens and cyborgs. Because that's a thing you do.
Warnings: over zealous discussion of autopsy probably
[The best thing about not really sleeping much every night meant that Newt got over the jetlag from moving from Japan to America pretty quickly. Nothing several cups of coffee and a bowl of overly sugary cereal aimed at children (not middle aged scientists) couldn't fix, even if it was three in the afternoon.
He's got his laptop open, absently reading the latest shonen jump--it's really not the same reading it online, but it'll do--swinging around in his chair with a bowl of cereal in one hand, sucking on the spoon with his other.
The office is pretty basic, with a desk and a few chairs, a slowly filling bookcase and a sink. He's not had much time to get things set up since he's only been in the city for a few days but it's got the essentials for setting up a totally respectable clinic. As well as suspiciously looking like a studio apartment. He's been looking into getting a gurney for patients to make it look more clinic-y and less like he's living here, but figured a camp bed would do for now. It's certainly been good enough for him, so nobody will mind. If they're visiting they probably have a few different things to worry about anyway.
He isn't even sure if anyone will turn up, but it doesn't matter. He's got about four years of academia to catch up on before he starts at Mintaka, and of course, has left it to the last minute to do it.
But then again, he doesn't need sleep. So it'll probably take him no time at all.]
Where: An seedy looking office within LA Chinatown
When: Late March, every evening between 3-5
What: Newt's arrived in LA and before his official job starts, he decides to set up a health clinic for aliens and cyborgs. Because that's a thing you do.
Warnings: over zealous discussion of autopsy probably
[The best thing about not really sleeping much every night meant that Newt got over the jetlag from moving from Japan to America pretty quickly. Nothing several cups of coffee and a bowl of overly sugary cereal aimed at children (not middle aged scientists) couldn't fix, even if it was three in the afternoon.
He's got his laptop open, absently reading the latest shonen jump--it's really not the same reading it online, but it'll do--swinging around in his chair with a bowl of cereal in one hand, sucking on the spoon with his other.
The office is pretty basic, with a desk and a few chairs, a slowly filling bookcase and a sink. He's not had much time to get things set up since he's only been in the city for a few days but it's got the essentials for setting up a totally respectable clinic. As well as suspiciously looking like a studio apartment. He's been looking into getting a gurney for patients to make it look more clinic-y and less like he's living here, but figured a camp bed would do for now. It's certainly been good enough for him, so nobody will mind. If they're visiting they probably have a few different things to worry about anyway.
He isn't even sure if anyone will turn up, but it doesn't matter. He's got about four years of academia to catch up on before he starts at Mintaka, and of course, has left it to the last minute to do it.
But then again, he doesn't need sleep. So it'll probably take him no time at all.]
no subject
He had missed her during his time in Japan, and the mention of implants on his advert had him worried. He'd known about her obsession with extreme body modification, but never thought she'd actually go through with it. At least from someone she didn't know. She'd asked him a couple of times to install certain upgrades, and at the time Newt had felt too much like a protective big brother to let her do it. He'd wished he had now, because who knows what back-alley she'd gone to.
The knock at the door has him almost choking on the bowl of cereal, and he has to hack up a marshmallow before he can actually get out of his chair to go and open the door. He can smell the take-out before he even opens it, and decides that cereal suddenly doesn't cut it anymore.
He's grinning when he opens the door, but his expression falters when he sees her leg--only confirming his original fears--and takes the bags off of her to give her a frown.]
Mein Gott, kiddo. Where the hell did you get that?
no subject
I made it, of course. Don't judge it on its performance yet, it's not fully integrated. I can't believe you didn't spring for any of the Japanese augments, have you seen the cerebral cortical chips YoTaka is prototyping?
[Kit just lets Newt take the food from her, the whirring of her cybernetic fingers to quiet to really hear over her own voice and the traffic noises outside. Balancing on one crutch and then the other, she takes off her cardigan and tosses it over the back of a chair.]
Not that I'm implying you need a brain power boost, of course.
no subject
I dunno, I kinda like being squishy. And dude, those chips are only as intuitive as the people building them. [he shuts the door and scrambles to go put the Thai food down so he can pay her more attention. She was in his clinic, so she was going to get examined.]
Get your butt over to the bed, I need to make sure whoever installed this did a good job.
no subject
Like I'd let some half rate surgeon work on me. Please.
[but she perches on his exam cot anyway, because he's never going to leave it alone. ever.]
I said I'd do it. You shouldn't be so alarmed.
no subject
Yeah! I know you were gonna do it! I just thought you might, y'know! Get me to do it for you? At least you know I won't butcher you.
[he's getting a little worked up about this, and goes over with a frown, switching the light on, and sliding a hand across her shoulder the check the healed up join of where metal and skin overlapped. This one looked a lot older. She'd had it for a while, and didn't even brag about it to him. Godfucking damnit.
He's almost angry when the actual surgical scarring doesn't look as hideous as he was expecting it to.]
You coulda died if this was done wrong!
no subject
Besides, it's been over a year and I'm still very much alive. You can do the next one.
[she pats him on the arm.]
no subject
Oh. Right. [He frowns at himself, scratching under the band of the headlamp before making a frustrated noise.] Japan was crazy.
no subject
That's completely unnecessary. [she waves away his screwdriver and her whole forearm just pops open as if by magic, no screws, no buttons, no command. The steel cables that have replaced Kit's muscles and tendons are hidden inside another layer of casing, but most of the wiring and circuitry is laid bare. There are ports inside, too. USB, micro USB, fire wire, some weird ones Kit invented, a whole row of them.]
[Kit taps her temple.] It's all up here, Professor. The screws are just part of the assembly.
no subject
--Newt. C'mon Kit, it's not that hard. [he doubts she'll actually switch to his name, since she hasn't in all the years he's known her. Anyway, back to work.]
You designed this right? --oh hey, look at that, I can totally charge my phone in you.
no subject
[she runs her organic hand lovingly down the inside casing, stroking the carbon fiber shell and lightly touching the twisted braids of wires running along the core.]
My own design, yes. This is the first version to actually be installed, though there was a working model before it. KPLASA v1.1, software version 5.10.6, if we're counting. The leg is 1.0, software 1.1.2. I'll start writing neurological patches for it once the nerve grafts have actually healed. I can move my ankle and flex my knee if I think about it, but I've only been able to wiggle two toes so far.
[say what you want about the surgery, the implants themselves are beautifully done. The arm at least seems not to have any lag time, and the movements of Kit's fingers look almost natural, if a bit uncanny valley.]
The best part are the implants in my head, though.
no subject
Dude, it's beautiful. Fucking bea--woah, what?! You let someone drill into your head?!
no subject
[Kit reaches into her pocket and pulls out a little 3d projector - no logos or markings, it's one of her own inventions. It comes to life with a little tap on the top, two pictures of a head CT scan pop up. the first looks to be mid-surgery: over a quarter of Kit's skull has been removed on the left, and there are several sensors installed in her brain. Not deep inside, just more on the surface, though a few have wires going further in. There's also a magnet on her right temple, just under the skin. The second scan is after she's closed up. The sensors are still there, but the missing skull has been replaced with a large titanium plate, complete with a magnet that matches the one on the right side.]
Don't be mad. I promise the operating room was very clean, and I told the surgeon that terrible things would happen to him if anything went wrong. He's a genius, you know. He just wasn't cut out for finishing his residency.
no subject
He gives a sour grunt, and goes back to looking at her arm, poking a few of the nerve connections--to test her reflexes of course--and mutters something about how that hack probably doesn't even have one doctorate, so how the hell could that be a genius.]
no subject
Ow, come on.
[she sighs, wiggling her fingers and refusing to meet Newt's gaze.]
I had to. Technology is progressing faster than ever, but if our bodies don't progress with it we'll stagnate. This is the next step in human evolution - transhuman evolution, even. One day we're all going to be wired in, upgrading our mobile platforms, backing up our cerebral data to the net. I'm just not waiting for somebody else to do it first. Audentes fortuna iuvat, Proffess-- [deep breath] Newt.
[finally, she looks up at his face.] I'm sorry.
no subject
And if you push it too far, you lose everything that makes us human. The human body is an amazing machine, Kit! It evolved eyes. It did that all on it's own! Don't you think that's freaking fantastic? It evolved an organ that does detoxification, protein synthesis, and produces biochemicals for digestion as well as about five-hundred other jobs all at once! And don't even get me started on the brain.
[he draws in a breath, the biologist in him trying to make up for the general frustration at her being her. He's had this conversation with her a thousand times. He knows he won't change it.]
Sure, it's a bit fragile, and a bit squishy and gross, but it got us this far. If you take everything away, what's gonna be left of you? Data? Megabytes and code that can be hacked, and altered with just a few keystrokes? I'm not saying you're not smart, Kit, because damn, you're scary smart, but. There's always somebody smarter. And if they get past your defences, how will you stop them? How will you still be you?
[he heaves a big sigh, taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose. She knows he's for cybernetic prosthetics. She knows the job he's just taken is in a robotics and cybernetics company. But everything is different when it's about her. When she apologises, he glances at her with a frown and rolls his eyes, shrugging his shoulders.]
--Look. Just. Next time, keep calling me, okay? At least then I'll know you won't be getting mutilated by some hackjob pretending to be scientist.
no subject
I'm already data. Brains are data. [but it's too hard to explain. She sighs.] I promise not to let anybody hack my brain. And not to become... not myself. I'm being careful, I promise. And I'll keep calling. And no more hackjobs. Mintaka did my leg, anyway. I've been talking to Dr. Baelheit.
[Newt doesn't need to know Kit's exact opinions on what it means to push the boundaries of humanity, or what she feels is her destiny to transcend the physical form. Not right now, anyway.]
no subject
He makes a frustrated noise and then huffs like a child would when admitting defeat.]
Good.
[He pinches the bridge of his nose, sighs and flicks his headlamp off. He trusts her enough to have made sure all the robotics were up the standard. Mostly he was just checking for his own benefit.]
Yeah? What's he like? I kinda haven't got a good read on the guy yet.