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Chapter Text

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - No, not this time. Now there is something, a cold and foreign sensation, a newborn whale plunging from the womb into the depths of the sea. A tongue, swimming between your eyes and ears.

1. What is the sensation?
2. (Plunge back into the darkness.)

YOU - What is the sensation?

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - A pain without hurt, a flame without heat. All the blood being pulled out of your body, replaced with anaesthesia. There is no more longing, and certainly nothing to long for. Now there are only hands, lithe and quick, dancing along your abdomen. Drawing you open...

1. I don't want to be open.
2. Will I ever wake up?

YOU - I don't want to be open.

EMPATHY - Nobody does. Being open is scary. That's why nobody loves anybody anymore, and no one will ever do anything again.

1. I don't want to be open.
2. Will I ever wake up?

YOU - Will I ever wake up?

INLAND EMPIRE - Only if you know you're dreaming.

1. [Open your eyes.]

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Blinding white light sears your pupils. A sheet covers most of your body, leaving only your shoulders and chest bare.

1. What's to the left?
2. To the right?
3. Above?
4. Below?

YOU - What's to the left?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - From what you can see without turning your head, a sterile tray of surgical tools sits atop a cart. Next to it, a microscope and a box of rubber gloves. The rest of the room is obscured by a few portable curtains. A saline hospital devoid of colour, the same way you were born.

1. What's to the left?
2. To the right?
3. Above?
4. Below?

YOU - To the right?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - A man in the near distance, clad in an apron and scrubs. He nearly blends in with the rest of the room, dressed up in dove-whites, one blurry mass in your wavering vision. You cannot make out the shape of his face.

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - Even then, you long to reach out and caress it.

1. What's to the left?
2. To the right?
3. Above?
4. Below?

YOU - Above?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - A stained ceiling lined with buzzing fluorescent lights. The dull hum fills your skull.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - Lined up straight and orderly, like soldiers made of mercury vapour and glass.

1. What's to the left?
2. To the right?
3. Above?
4. Below?

YOU - Below?

PAIN THRESHOLD [Easy: Success] - The gaping inferno of an angler fish's jaw. Hell awaits.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Linoleum tiles crowded between steel-reinforced walls, shiny and easy to slip on. Even easier to clean.

KIM KITSURAGI - The man in white moves towards you. He holds a clipboard in one hand and a blue oblong pen in the other. Its rhythmic scratch against the paper almost lulls you back to sleep.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Trivial: Success] - Half-brother.

COMPOSURE - You try to speak but your mouth does not move. Nothing about you moves. Not your lungs when you breathe, not your heartbeat, even as it instinctively tries to pick up at the sight of the lieutenant.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Hello, Harry." He has gloves on, but they're not his *cool* leather ones. Instead, they are a cornflower blue.

INTERFACING - Wearing them like a second skin. He has done this before.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - Lieutenant Kitsuragi considers the people in the Processing division to be animals, clumsy and careless butcherers in a makeshift mess hall. He is glad to be handling your body.

LOGIC [Medium: Failure] - You're not dead. Why are you being processed? What is this *bullshit*?

1. Am I dead?
2. [Savoir Faire - Godly 16] Blink. Think. Move a muscle.

SAVOIR Faire [Godly: Failure] - You can't. Your brain refuses to send the signal to your eyes, to allow them to flutter open or shut. The meat around your bones lies completely still, except for the dark hairs covering your body, rustled by the air conditioner.

ENDURANCE - At least you won't decay.

1. Am I dead?
2. [Locked] Blink. Think. Move a muscle.

YOU - Am I dead?

HALF LIGHT - You wish.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Try not to put too much strain on yourself. It'll make things easier for the both of us." The lieutenant flexes his right hand where it is confined in the glove, stretching the rubber.

He places one palm flat over his chest, right over the front panel of the apron. The other presses firmly down onto yours.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] - *Stations of the Breath*. A religious burial rite from the Pre-Dolorian era. It is performed by placing one hand over your chest and the other on the body of the deceased, breathing in, then out. It is usually held for only a few seconds, more if you are grieving the deceased.

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - One last breath of life. One last piece of love.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant inhales slowly and steadily. As he breathes, a twin rush of air fills your lungs.

COMPOSURE - The force of it rattles your body.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Trivial: Success] - It is the last breath of a child lost to polio, of a sailor drowning in the evening, of a million splatters of blood lined up against a brick wall. Here it comes. The full stop.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant pulls his hand away from your clammy chest and reaches over you to grab a scalpel. The silver instrument slots into his hand so nicely you forget to be afraid.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - Like a lamb...

1. Wait, I'm not ready!
2. Fuck it. Let it happen. I don't care anymore.

YOU - Wait, I'm not ready!

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Success] - He who hesitates is lost!

HALF LIGHT - It is impossible to stop him now.

1. Can't I at least have some questions first?
2. Fuck it. Let it happen. I don't care anymore.

YOU - Can't I at least have some questions first?

RHETORIC - Let's hear it, then.

1. How did I die?
2. Is any of this real?
3. Why can't I move?
4. Fuck it. Let it happen. I don't care anymore.

YOU - How did I die?

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Failure] - Uhm...

LOGIC [Formidable: Failure] - Well...

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Good question, Harry!

1. Do you have a good answer?

YOU - Do you have a good answer?

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Heroic: Failure] - Nope.

TASK GAINED: Find out how you died

RHETORIC - But Kim might!

1. [Pain Threshold - Impossible 18] Ask Kim how you died.
2. Is any of this real?
3. Why can't I move?
4. Fuck it. Let it happen. I don't care anymore.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Impossible: Success] - It's a miracle. You open your mouth and wheeze at first, but it happens. The creaking of your jaw does not go unnoticed by the lieutenant, who turns to look at you.

COMPOSURE - Be cool, be cool!

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - Wink at him, maybe?

1. "Hey, Kim."
2. "What the fuck is going on?"
3. Say nothing, just cough.

YOU - "Hey, Kim."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Hello." Oddly enough, he seems unsurprised as he pulls the white sheet off of you. The hand holding the scalpel pauses midair.

LOGIC - Question time.

1. "How did I die?"
2. "Where am I?"
3. "What is this?"
4. "Okay, I'm ready, you can go ahead." (Proceed.)

YOU - "Where am I?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "A lab in processing." He pauses. "It was complicated to get you here, us being from different precincts. But since we were temporary partners, an exception was made."

1. "How did I die?"
2. "Where am I?"
3. "What is this?"
4. "Okay, I'm ready, you can go ahead." (Proceed.)

YOU - "How did I die?"

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant's demeanor shifts. He tilts his head, his lips tensing into a hard line. "Do you really want me to tell you?"

COMPOSURE - Yes.

INLAND EMPIRE - No! Something's not right.

1. "Yeah, you can tell me anything.
2. "Actually, now that I think about it, I'll pass. (Back off.)

YOU - "Yeah, you can tell me anything."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Okay." The lieutenant leans down and cups the side of his mouth. His lips graze the edge of your ear, sending shivers all over your body. His words are a smooth, low whisper:

"Suicide."

COMPOSURE - If it could, your heart would beat a little faster.

TASK COMPLETED: Find out how you died

VOLITION [Godly: Failure] - Oh, Harry. I tried to help you. We all did, in our own way. But you're not like everyone else. You got down and stayed down.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Failure] - And everyone you loved watched you go, unable to tear their eyes away.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Like the burning wreck of an aerostatic sinking into the sea. Spilled fuel shimmers in coalescing scales atop the belly of the water, unable to assimilate.

INLAND EMPIRE - It will never go away.

VOLITION - You were good at what you did, for a while. But no marble column is safe from crumbling.

SHIVERS [Formidable: Success] - In the distance, cities of gold skyscapers and whip-lean condo buildings stand back-to-back with artificial strips of trimmed lawn between them. Nobody lives in these buildings. Their perfect silences remain empty and uninterrupted. Underneath their steel beams and reflective windows, an entire population is lost. Rats scurry through dock foundations carrying disease and human flesh in their teeth.

FORGOTTEN IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST.

You wanted to be there once, living in squalor with your new love and unburdened life. But no one is there, no one can afford it. Grand-Couron. A vacuous palace.

HALF LIGHT - But you don't want anything anymore. Everyone can fucking burn. Who gives a shit?

ENCYCLOPEDIA - You know nothing, really. As a child, your education was scant; dividing resources between your brothers and sisters made you used to it. Everything came secondhand. All the love came with mothholes in the middle.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - The force is no place for a scholar.

1. Will I ever stop wanting?

YOU - Will I ever stop wanting?

PAIN THRESHOLD - No, never. Not even in death.

SUGGESTION - That soft, sweet thing... caressing your face, the ghost of rosy lips on your own. Invading all of your dreams to leave them hallower than before.

EMPATHY - But your longing lies elsewhere now.

1. Wait, what? Where?
2. It can't be.

YOU - Wait, what? Where?

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant is watching you catalogue and file this information into your brain. His expression is obscured behind the glare reflecting off of his glasses.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - To reach out and touch him, feel his lungs deflate smoke into yours. Chest to chest...

DRAMA [Medium: Success] - He will be your next great tragedy, sire.

INTERFACING - Rubber-clad hands tilt your head back to examine the irregular dilation of your pupils. On the inner side of his middle finger is a callus from always writing. It brushes the side of your cheek.

1. "I'm sorry for everything, Kim. I love you.
2. [Drama - Heroic 15] Don't say that.

YOU - "I'm sorry for everything, Kim. I love you."

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant carefully schools his expression. He pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I know."

REACTION SPEED [Trivial: Failure] - Huh?

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Failure] - What was that?

LOGIC [Medium: Failure] - Come again?

PAIN THRESHOLD - A terrible rejection.

KIM KITSURAGI - "I didn't want to mention it."

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - It was a can of worms he wasn't willing to open. Especially not in Martinaise.

KIM KITSURAGI - "I try to keep all of my work relationships professional. I hope you understand."

VOLITION - Ouch.

KIM KITSURAGI - "And your behaviour was questionable."

VOLITION - *Ouch*.

1. "Were you afraid of me?"
2. "I have no idea what to say. I'm sorry for everything.

YOU - "Were you afraid of me?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Of course not."

"I was worried, yes. You were compromised, and it seemed a bit inappropriate to address, especially after the way I saw you act with the payphone. You were dealing with a lot, emotionally and physically. I supported your recovery, but..."

He looks suddenly uncomfortable. "There's only so much one person can do -- but I did want you to get better." The scalpel has left his hand and is now lying in wait on the tray.

1. "I don't want to get better. I want to get worse."
2. "She was so beautiful, Kim. You should've seen her." (Proceed.)
3. "I have no idea what to say. I'm sorry for everything." (Proceed.)

YOU - "I don't want to get better. I want to get worse."

KIM KITSURAGI - "I'm sorry. I don't know what you want me to say to that. Should I encourage you?" There is genuine apology in his voice.

1. "I don't want to get better. I want to get worse."
2. "She was so beautiful, Kim. You should've seen her." (Proceed.)
3. "I have no idea what to say. I'm sorry for everything." (Proceed.)

YOU - "She was so beautiful, Kim. You should've seen her."

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant sighs, exasperated. "See? This is why. You haven't moved on from anything at all."

VOLITION - Six years. For six years you filled your body with alcohol and drugs and dirty air. And you've lost everything, only to learn *nothing.*

1. "I'm in love with you."

SUGGESTION - Please, Harry, don't say it.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Failure] - But it's too late. The words come tumbling out before you can stop them. Your voice is small and wavering, like a chastised schoolboy.

YOU - "I'm in love with you."

KIM KITSURAGI - "No. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to be your new deity, your... *problem-solver*. I can't fix you."

SHIVERS [Formidable: Success] - In the East, 160 kilometres from here, an untouchable stone monolith rises over waxed and weather-beaten rooftops. The cracked fuondation does not feel anything, but if it did, it would long to touch the sky.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Now let me finish the autopsy, please." The lieutenant taps his foot. He has run out of patience.

1. "Okay. You know me. I'm really well adjusted and I'm okay with this.
2. "No!" (Fling yourself off of the operating table.)

YOU - "Okay. You know me. I'm really well adjusted and I'm okay with this."

KIM KITSURAGI - There is pity in his expression when he looks at you. A frown tugs at his lips, the smallest canyon of worry manifesting by his brow. Nevertheless, he picks up the scalpel to get back to work.

HALF LIGHT - You want to rip him apart. Everyone is always leaving. Why, Harry? What the fuck is wrong with you?

YOU - You lie very still on the steel table. The belly of the blade comes down over the apex of your scapula, drawing two perpendicular lines across your pectoral muscles until they kiss in the lower centre of your sternum.

PAIN THRESHOLD - It doesn't hurt, of course. Corpses don't do that. But corpses also don't yearn, and yet here you are.

SHIVERS [Medium: Success] - Lieutenant Kitsuragi stands on the balcony of the Whirling-in-Rags. An air of calm saturates the hour. Just as the first few flakes of snow begin to fall, he extinguishes his cigarette and pockets it to trash later. As he turns, he tucks an orange handkerchief into the right back pocket of his cargos, much to the confusion and dismay of one Harry du Bois. A trail of smoke chases after him as he disappears into the hostel.

INLAND EMPIRE - The homologous structure of love swells and ebbs within you, sharp as a bullet wound in your side.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Love, love, love. What even *is* it?

1. Baby, don't hurt me.

YOU - Baby, don't hurt me.

RHETORIC - Don't hurt me no more.

YOU - Your flesh splits down the middle of your torso as he cuts down to your navel, twisting at the umbilicus. A little ribbon of red flesh is visible beneath the thick layers of skin and fat.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Having fun, detective?" The lieutenant remarks as he forms a V with his fingers, probing the primary incision and beginning the process of reflecting the flesh backwards. Your chest goes first, the flaps of now loose tissue drawn over your neck.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - Okay. Say something that'll get his attention and show him that you're really, really normal.

DRAMA - Tell him a cool story!

PERCEPTION - Describe every sensation in fantastic detail.

SUGGESTION - Tell him how you feel. It'll work this time.

PAIN THRESHOLD - It hurts, Kim. It hurts a lot.

1. "I'm not dead, Kim, this is a huge mistake!"
2. "I feel vulnerable and confused about myself. I'm scared and I want someone to hold my hand."
3. I don't want to say any of these. Why are these options so terrible?

YOU - I don't want to say any of these. Why are these options so terrible?

LOGIC - Because whoever wrote you is lazy and doesn't want to come up with something profound. Now pick one.

1. "I'm not dead, Kim, this is a huge mistake!"
2. "I feel vulnerable and confused about myself. I'm scared and I want someone to hold my hand."
3. I don't want to say any of these. Why are these options so terrible?

YOU - "I'm not dead, Kim, this is a huge mistake!"

RHETORIC - What a stupid thing to say.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant is busying himself with pulling back curtains of flesh to expose your viscera. After the primary incision is opened, he takes a heavy cartilage knife to your sternoclavicular joints, sawing through the costal cartilagines.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - Silver on bone white, like an oyster and its pearl.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - Outside, footsteps are barely audible through the thick walls. Somewhere, a gurney rolls on squeaking wheels. Doors slam and bodies get thrown around. But it is quiet in here -- you can hear the lieutenant breathing beneath his surgical mask.

PERCEPTION (SMELL) - He is trying not to inhale the miasma of clinical death.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - Wait! Shouldn't he be doing a preliminary inspection of the body before cutting you open?

1. "Isn't there an initial inspection you should be doing?"
2. Forget it, he knows what he's doing.

YOU - "Isn't there an initial inspection you should be doing?"

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant pats your thigh reassuringly. Pat-pat-pat. "Already done."

1. "By who?"
2. "Oh, okay." (Leave it alone.)

YOU - "By who?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "By the person that found you. I was not there. The lieutenant readjusts his posture. "I am sorry that I wasn't there for you..."

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - If the person that found you knew how to perform a proper inspection on a cadaver, then they must have been a fellow officer of the RCM. The only other officer-looking people you saw in Martinaise were...

ESPRIT DE CORPS - Oh. Oh, no.

1. "That's bad, isn't it?"
2. "Whatever. I didn't want to be a cop anyway, everyone can go fuck themselves forever."

YOU - "That's bad, isn't it?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "I wouldn't say it's good."

COMPOSURE - Despite yourself, you find that a little laugh bubbles out of your throat. When you look at him, the lieutenant is smiling too.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant takes the knife and pulls back the rest of your chest wall. In its place is a vague tingling, fuzzy like radio static, vacant space soon filled by cool air.

INTERFACING [Medium: Success] - Your ribcage is old and calcified -- it will require a bonesaw. He has one, of course, beginning to exert upwards tension over the posterior surface of your sternum.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Your chest cavity is now exposed. The deflated mass is a damp and sad lump, like a tongue sat between serrated teeth.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Interesting," he hums, turning away to take a breath. "Tell me how you died, Harry."

RHETORIC - He is repeating what you said to the hanged man.

1. [Inland Empire - Easy 8] Tell Kim how you died.
2. But I don't know!
3. "I don't want to."

YOU - But I don't know!

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Liar.

1. [Inland Empire - Easy 8] Tell Kim how you died.
2. But I don't know!
3. "I don't want to."

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - He knows you killed yourself. How exactly it happened is the mystery here.

The big answer? You got sad. You got so sad that you denounced everything you've ever stood for and gave the world a big one-fingered salute with your head up your ass. You couldn't detect, so you died. Three pill-flavoured cocktails later, you were dead in a bathtub with a gun in your hand.

1. Gun in my hand?
2. Pill-flavoured cocktails?

YOU - Gun in my hand?

INLAND EMPIRE - Gun in your hand, finger crooked over the trigger. You were going to shoot yourself, but exhaustion won out first. Now you'll be asleep for a very, very long time.

1. Gun in my hand?
2. Pill-flavoured cocktails?

YOU - Pill-flavoured cocktails?

ESPRIT DE CORPS - Drugs and alcohol are not uncommon in the force, especially for someone who has been there a long time.

You failed yourself. For the longest time, you were the best of the best; the *real deal*. Charming, handsome, unbridled genius -- all words used to describe you at one point. But no one would think that of you now.

PAIN THRESHOLD - You fell out of the orbit of the rest of the world and began to entertain massive delusions of grandeur, superstar-based esoteric egoism. It was an idea much, much bigger than you. And you fell into it.

You drowned yourself in mixers and self-loathing until you couldn't take it anymore. You tried to shoot yourself. And you couldn't even do that right.

INLAND EMPIRE - You've been a shell of a human being ever since. But it wasn't the fresh wounds you couldn't drink away. It was the scar tissue.

VOLITION - Six years.

ENDURANCE - Six fucking years!

INLAND EMPIRE - The hurt never faded. The agony lingered like a stray dog. There was only one way you knew how make a brain go quiet.

HALF LIGHT - Blow it out!

1. That doesn't sound like me at all.

YOU - That doesn't sound like me at all.

VOLITION [Legendary: Failure] - Oh, Harry. You're only fooling yourself.

1. "I couldn't take it anymore, Kim. I wanted it all to stop. I drank myself numb and I tried to shoot myself, but I couldn't even get that right. I fucked it all up. I failed you. I failed Elysium."
2. Don't say that.

YOU - "I couldn't take it anymore, Kim. I wanted it all to stop. I drank myself numb and I tried to shoot myself, but I couldn't even get that right. I fucked it all up. I failed you. I failed Elysium."

COMPOSURE - You don't know why you're being so honest with him.

EMPATHY - He is the first to know this, and a secret is an intimate little thing.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant pulls his hands out of your chest cavity and quickly writes something down on a clipboard. "Do you feel any better now?"

1. "No. I don't."
2. "Yeah, I feel great."

YOU - "Yeah, I feel great."

COMPOSURE - Liar.

1. "No. I don't."
2. "Yeah, I feel great."

YOU - "No. I don't."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Mkm," is all that he says. You feel a sudden migraine coming on, and realize that your head is packed with ice. Little throbbing clusters of pain threaten the edge of your forehead.

The lieutenant proceeds to cradle the sides of your heart. He draws it out, slowly, sensually, until the thing looks like a wounded bird in his hands; each ventricle a broken wing. He takes it out of sight and you feel a little emptier inside.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - One by one, your organs are weighed, sampled, and examined. Every time he takes something from you, your nerves flutter. It's enthralling.

1. What's that supposed to mean?
2. No, I'm choosing not to feel anything anymore. (Discard thought.)

YOU - "What's that supposed to mean?"

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Face it, pansy-boy. You've always wanted to surrender yourself to someone else. I tried to coach you, make you into a real man! But you weren’t *hard* enough.

1. Okay, maybe I'm not hard enough.
2. Am I making this erotic?
3. You're really mean to me and I don't appreciate it.

YOU - Am I making this erotic?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - One hundred and one percent.

ENDURANCE - You never realized it, but you have a bad habit of throwing yourself away. It feels good and leaves nothing for self-reflection at the end of the day.

KIM KITSURAGI - He finally returns with new gloves on. A scalpel is in his right hand. "Okay. This might be scary for you, but it’s been going well so far. Stay calm for me, okay?" The lieutenant begins to remove the ice packed around your skull.

INTERFACING - Very gently, he slides the blade across the crown of your forehead, brushing back bits of dark hair in the process. He knows he should've shaved your hair off before he began.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - He thinks you look good like this!

1. Yeah, I bet he does.
2. That's ridiculous, I look like shit right now. Am I crying?
3. What's Kim doing right now?"

YOU - Yeah, I bet he does.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - That's more like it, superstar.

1. Yeah, I bet he does.
2. That's ridiculous, I look like shit right now. Am I crying?
3. What's Kim doing right now?"

YOU - What's Kim doing right now?

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant is pulling your temporalis muscle back. He then takes a saw to your cranium and begins to cut in a halo, carefully turning your head.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - He is not disgusted, but certainly not pleased. It's the loud noise of the saw he doesn't like.

KIM KITSURAGI - Eventually, the saw powers off. He takes a chisel to the inner laminar of your calvaria and begins to work it away.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Hey! What the fuck is going on? Oh, God! A sensation! Make it stop!

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant pulls the dome of your skull off and submerges it in a cold bowl of water. His fingertips press against the surface of your brain.

SHIVERS - I LOVE YOU, LIEUTENANT KITSURAGI. YOU WILL DIE IN THE CENTRE OF MY HEART.

6 FEET BELOW THE GRAVE OF AN OFFICER KILLED IN ACTION, A SINGLE SKELETON LIES IN THE DARK -- HIS LEFT HAND IS FOLDED OVER HIS ABDOMEN, THE OTHER OUTSTRETCHED WITH ITS PALM TO THE SKY.

WIATING TO INTERTWINE WITH YOURS.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant rips his hand away as if burned. He is silent for a very, very long time...

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Formidable: Success] - There are tears brimming beneath his glasses, virga that never falls. Blink and you'll miss it.

KIM KITSURAGI - After a moment, he clears his throat. "Let's continue with the autopsy. No visible hemorrhaging. No post-mortem treatment to the skull."

COMPOSURE [Challenging: Success] - His thumb clicks the pen repeatedly. He is nervous.

1. "The city loves you, Kim."
2. Stay silent.

YOU - "The city loves you, Kim."

KIM KITSURAGI - "I'm sure she does."

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - The truth, sire.

1. [Suggestion - Challenging 12] Convince him to listen to you.
2. Give up and die.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] - He knows what it is like to have only the city -- and even then, barely.

1. "The city loves all of us. And I don't want you to be alone in your suffering. I don't want any of us to be alone."

YOU - "The city loves all of us. And I don't want you to be alone in your suffering. I don't want any of us to be alone."

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant knows there is no avoiding this. He sighs in defeat, but he is listening. "Fine, I concede. What's the matter, detective?"

1. "I'm sad and tired and hungover. My head is always hurting and nobody I love loves me back.
2. "Nothing. I want to talk about *you*."
3. "The world is going to end and I'm terrified of the horro vacui that will come with it.

YOU - "I'm sad and tired and hungover. My head is always hurting and nobody I love loves me back."

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant straightens his back, glaring down at you. "Okay. Then you will get better. You will solve this case, and the next, and you will *stop* drinking. Then you're going to get your shit together so massively that you will find someone you love and that person will love you back in equal measure. Maybe it will be this spring, or it could be this summer. Maybe even winter.

He pauses to take a breath, catching your jaw in the firm grip of his right hand. "It will take time. But it will happen, and you will be there to watch it all unfold. Do I make myself clear?"

AUTHORITY - His voice leaves no room for argument.

1. "Okay. I'm ready to get my shit together."

YOU - "Okay. I'm ready to get my shit together."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Good." The lieutenant nods in affirmation, tugging his mask off, and leans down to press his lips to yours.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Trivial: Success] - It is the sweetest taste in the world, wholesome and vast, the crashing of a wave against a jagged cliffside. Bruising and hard, your bodies join together in a saccharine conflagration the same time everything slides into darkness.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Lips on yours, a cracking in your chest. Someone slapping you across the face. Hard.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - How hard?

KIM KITSURAGI - "Detective! Stay with me. Are you awake? The lieutenant is crouched over you, performing chest compressions. He looks frantic. There is a bit of sweat running down his brow.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - Abyssus abyssum invocat.

1. "I'm here! I'm here, Kim!"
2. Slip back into darkness. Let the abyss reclaim you.

YOU - "I'm here! I'm here, Kim!"

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant breathes out in relief and exhaustion all at once, helping you up to your feet. He produces a handkerchief from his pocket and dabs a bit of blood off of your upper lip.

1. "I thought I was dead."
2. "How long was I out?"
3. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" (Proceed.)

YOU - "I thought I was dead."

KIM KITSURAGI - "So did I."

EMPATHY [Godly: Success] - He was terrified of the thought.

1. "I thought I was dead."
2. "How long was I out?"
3. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" (Proceed.)

YOU - "How long was I out?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Only 10 minutes, give or take. Any more and I would've called an ambulance, but..." He is still trying to catch his breath, avoiding eye contact in favour of looking down at his boots.

1. "I thought I was dead."
2. "How long was I out?"
3. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" (Proceed.)

YOU - "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant pats himself down, checking for injury. "Very minorly. I only have a small headache. That pale compressor -- I'm glad you destroyed it. We should get going."

1. "Alright, let's go."

YOU - "Alright, let's go."

You leave the FELD basement and cross the waterlock, moving in comfortable silence with the lieutenant. Then, suddenly, a strange electricity fills your body.

INLAND EMPIRE - Stop. Just up ahead: danger.

What you have isn't enough. You'll need more firepower. A ranged weapon.

KORTENAER - "I'm all out of shits to give, loincloth." There's a feverish gleam in his eyes. "Welcome to the fucking reckoning."

TITUS HARDIE - "Put your damn gun down." Titus remains calm. "People are gonna get hurt. We need to talk this through, alright?"

KORTENAER - "SHUT UP!!! You're not gonna talk yourself out of this, loincloth-shit fuck!"

1. Say nothing.
2. "Kim, what's going on here?"

YOU - "Kim, what's going on here?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Ssshhhhh...." The lieutenant raises his left hand.

ELIZABETH - "This is just a misunderstanding. Nothing irreversible has happened yet. You can just return to your unit and forget all about this."

DE PAULE - "The kipt is merciful. Willing to spare us if we just forget about our murdered and humiliated commander." Her tone is frighteningly emotionless. "I think we should just kill everyone, Korty."

ELIZABETH - "You're all drunk, come to your senses!" She sounds very sure of herself. "You won't gun down seven people in the middle of the street. This isn't a frontier town or a jungle outpost."

TITUS HARDIE - "Easy, Lizzie..." His voice is almost gentle. "Let me handle it. I know guys like this. I'm sure we can come to a peaceful agreement. Ain't that right, fellas?"

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - He is facing overwhelmingly superior firepower -- and he knows it.

RUUD HOENKLOEWEN - "Peaceful..." It sounds like the armoured figure is weeping.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Fuck, there's a third one... how did we miss something like this?" The lieutenant points to the helmeted figure.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - The lieutenant is genuinely worried for his life. You should consult him before getting in there.

1. "We're out of time. This is...
2. "What do we do?"
3. (Whisper.) "The big one is the mercenary at the gates! The scab leader."
4. "Stop, this is the police!" (Get between them.)
5. (Whisper.) "Let's walk away for now."

YOU - "We're out of time. This is..."

KIM KITSURAGI - "... the mercenary tribunal." The lieutenant nods.

1. "We're out of time. This is...
2. "What do we do?"
3. (Whisper.) "The big one is the mercenary at the gates! The scab leader."
4. "Stop, this is the police!" (Get between them.)
5. (Whisper.) "Let's walk away for now."

YOU - "What do we do?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "My plan is not to get killed." He puts his hand on his holster. "But we have to intervene."

1. "We're out of time. This is...
2. "What do we do?"
3. (Whisper.) "The big one is the mercenary at the gates! The scab leader."
4. "Stop, this is the police!" (Get between them.)
5. (Whisper.) "Let's walk away for now."

YOU - "Stop, this is the police!"

INTERFACING - The weight of your gun feels solid and sleek in your hand as you withdraw it. When the first shots are fired, you ignore the knee-jerk reflex that tells you to reach for Kim's hand.

EMPATHY - Something tells you he is already reaching for yours.

VOLITION - One day you will go down in the line of duty and you will not get up. But today is not that day. The lieutenant needs you, and you need him. Go, Harry.

We're all counting on you.

Chapter Text

Resources and references used:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visibleproofs/galleries/media/autopsy/video_1_mp4.html (Video; recommended if you have difficulty following along with the written autopsy)

https://australian.museum/learn/teachers/learning/virtual-autopsy/  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopsy  

https://biospecimens.cancer.gov/resources/sops/docs/GTEx_SOPs/BBRB-PR-0004-W1-G4%20Brain%20Autopsy%20Normal%20Tissue%20Collection.pdf  

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6006107/  

https://fayde.co.uk/  

Work skin:

https://archiveofourown.info/works/45461515/chapters/114383950#selectors

Users who helped out <3:

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Additional notes:

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation and/or mental illness, please reach out. You'll never know when one goodbye to someone is your last.