Dark Dreams (TommyGun15 & StartingOver)

[TommyGun15]

Spoiler

Calculating Sanity (San)


Roll 3 six-sided dice (3d6).  Take the total of these three dice, and multiply them by 5.  This is your starting San score.


ex. Dice result: 5,1,6  Total: 12


12×5=60


Character has a starting San of 60.


A link to a dice roller if you don't have dice.  You'll probably only need dice this once: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

"Yet mad I am not... and very surely do I not dream." - Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat


San: 60


Morgan awoke with a start, peering around with bleary eyes.  The beeping that rang from his alarm clock was grating, and despite the subconsious knowledge that he had things to do today at the moment he could only think about the going back to sleep.  He reach to hit the snooze, only to find himself tumbling out of bed.  That's right, he'd moved his alarm clock to the other end of the room so that he couldn't do that anymore.  Morgan shook his head and groaned as he climbed out of bed, walking over to his dresser and turning off the alarm.  He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.


"Well... I guess I might as well get dressed."


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor slept peacefully on the sofa. She had been staying over at Morgan's place while they worked together. Tor was of average height and with a petite build. She was nornally a deep sleeper so the noises up stairs didn't stir her. She rolled over on her back one of her legs flopping off the side of the sofa taking the blanket with it. 


"Mmmmm." She moaned in her sleep.

 

[TommyGun15]

A few minutes later Morgan came walking down the stairs, hair still messy.  He'd take a shower later, but for now he'd decided to just wear some lounging clothes.  He wasn't surprised to see Tor still asleep, and for a moment or two he debated waking her up.  A few moments later he shook his head and walked into the kitchen, which really wasn't a separate room, but rather just a section of the living room surrounded by a counterpoint and covered in tile flooring.  He wasn't sure what Tor would want to eat, so he decided to just start cooking and ask her if she woke up.  He thinly sliced some potatoes, then cooked them with eggs, bacon, and a bit of seasoningto give it a slight kick.  As he cooked, he began to whistle a merry tune to himself.


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor sniffed once, then again. She opened her eyes and yawned. She sat up and rubbed them being a bit over dramatic. She pushed her blond hair out of her face and reaches for her phone to see what time it was. 


"Hmmmm 10am isn't that bad." She said to herself. She sniffed again and looked over her shoulder at Morgan cooking.


"Well I'll be damned." She stood up and casually walked over. Tor genreally wore a half shirt and shorts to sleep. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that she was showing skin at a mans home, but she didn't care. Things like that didn't concern her.

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan smirked and rolled his eyes at Tor's apparent surprise, turning slightly to hide the small redness that spread across his cheeks.  He'd worked professionally with Tor for a while now, but he'd never really seen her in any state of undress.  Plus she was fairly good-looking, so he couldn't really help a least a small blush.  He decided to speak before things got awkward.


"What?  Surprised I know how to cook?  I can make you something if you want.  Oh, and there's a shower in the downstairs bathroom if you need it.  I don't really keep any toiletries in there though, so you'll have to snag some out of the upstairs.  Unless you brought your own of course."


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"I'm okay for now. " Tor said and she shifted through her duffle bag looking for something to wear for the day. "Whatever you cooked is fine by me. I'm not really picky." She gave up on the clothes for a moment and waked intonthe kitchen. She peered over Morgan's shoulder. 


"Ah I do love bacon." She grinned and went to the fridge. "Want some juice?"


she asked as she took out the container of orange juice.  

 

[TommyGun15]

Looking over his shoulder, Morgan nodded at Tor's question.  "Yeah, sure.  There's some glasses in that cupboard.  Then he turned his attention back to the food.  It looked good, and smelled better, so he pulled it off of the stove and served it on two paper plates.  Morgan didn't really have a table, so he just carried his food over to the couch and sat down.  Even calling it a couch was probably a bit generous, as it was more of a loveseat.  Large enough for a person to sleep on, albeit a bit uncomfortably, or for two people to sit on.  The only saving grace was the fact that it was also a recliner.  Morgan switched on the television and flipped it to the news, where the weather report was on.  "So, how's your work going?  I'm getting along, but it's been a slog the whole way." 


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor grabed her plate and brought it over setting it on the floor then she hopped up and ran back to the kitchen. She ran back with the glasses of juice. 


"If your asking me if I've figured out how to make someone marry me then the going has been very slow." She took a bit of bacon. "But if you're referring to my research on brain waves then I've got something really cool to show you!"  Tor gsve a giggle.  She leaned back on her hands and looked at Morgan. 


"Something so cool, we might get funding."

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan took a sip of orange juice, raising an eyebrow at Morgan's statement.  "Really?  That's great, I can get some more work done on cell reconstruction.  I think I'm close to a breakthrough that will revolutionize the medical industry.  I just need to figure out how to stop the reconstruction process before the subject develops cancerous growths."  Morgan trailed off as he thought more about his experiment.  His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden alert from the T.V.


 "Shocking news this morning, as yet another victim of the recent deaths has been found.  Mr. Henderson, age 31, was found dead in his garage last night.  As with all of the other victims, Henderson had no markings on his body whatsoever, nor could the police find any evidence of suicide.  Coroner's are still researching the possibility of disease, but so far have found nothing.  What is known is that this is the sixth death this month, and the police are asking people to report any suspicious activities."


Morgan shook his head as the news Alert music faded out, and another fluff-piece about celebrity rehab came up.  "Damn shame about that.  So, what's this really cool thing?"


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"Seems we have a rash of deaths." Tor said watching the T.V. Her mood seemed to turn a bit sour as the news story finished. Her face lit back up when Morgan metioned what she has to show.


"So what if I told you I could make a person brainwaves change?" Tor's smile grew. "What if I said I could cure insanity. I could fix any number of issues we have with our brains." Tor took a bite of her bacon.


"I think I can do all of that!"

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan smiled back at Tor, happy to see her so excited.  "I'd say that sounds like a miracle of modern medicine, and like you're having a lot less trouble than I am.  The problem with my research is that whenever it fails, my rats die.  Then I have to pay for new ones, and the sponsors get angry at me for spending money, and it's all a big disaster.  But, I'm making progress as well."  Morgan smiled and raised his glass.  "To saving the world."  He took a sip, and dug into his bacon for a moment before stopping, a thought occurring to him.  "Actually, I do have a question.  If you've figured out a way to change someone's brainwaves, isn't there a chance it could be used to change someone's brain in a less benign way?"  Morgan was quiet for a moment.  "Then again, who am I kidding.  My research could be used for horrible things too.  Heck, any scientific research as the potential for misuse." 


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"Well yes." Tor said sipping on her juice. "In theroy you could make a sane person go Insane. As morbid as that sounds even that would be a break through. We have not yet pinpointed excatly what causes insanitiy. " she thought to herself. "You can make someone have alzheimer and watch it erase who they were and then simply cure it. You could pretty much make that person your pet." Tor shuddered at the thought. "That's why I don't think I'll every be able to see this through. While it could do amazing things, the harm is very real."

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan frowned, giving Tor a serious look.  "Come on Tor, that's quitter talk.  Listen, just last month I managed to make something that would've guaranteed us enough money to fund a lifetime of experiments.  I created an aerosolized chemical that, when inhaled, caused malign cancerous growths to form within minutes, leading to a one hundred percent subject death rate within less than an hour.  Rats aren't the same as humans of course, but I could've sold it to any goverment, private military organization, or any number of other buyers and made billions.  But instead I destroyed it, and all the notes I took while producing it.  I couldn't live with myself I'd chosen to profit off of other people's suffering.  But am I giving up?  No.  It's a setback, but I'm going to find a way around it, and one day I will create the panacea."  Morgan sighed, shaking his head.  He'd gotten more carried away with that than he'd meant to.  "Sorry.  But you're a smart person.  I know you can figure out a way around this."  Mrgan smirked.  "Besides, you already went and got my interest piqued.  I'd love to see what you've been working on.  If you do, I'll show you my research."  Morgan winked playfully, knowing he'd probably have shown her any way.


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"Why would you create something like that anyway Morgan?" Tor said looking at him. She stood and put her hand on her hip. "While my findings do have the capacity to do great harm to anyone, it also has the capacity to create good for all involved!" She huffed. "I would have personally kicked your ass if you actually sold that anyway!"

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan gave Tor a somewhat confused look, then a small realization dawned on him.  "Right, right.  You're  a neurologist, not a biologist.  So you see, a cancerous growth, or tumor if you prefer, is just tissue growing in a shape or form that it shouldn't.  A big problem with my experiments, especially in the earliest stages, is that it's difficult to create something that stimulates cell regeneration well enough to heal a significant injury, while at the same time doesn't cause so much growth that tumors start to form.  I didn't intentionally create a bioweapon.  Besides, what I'm doing has the capacity to help people too.  Like I said earlier, I've got something really cool to show you, and I'm fairly certain I solved the cancer problem."  


Morgan then finished off the last of his breakfast, carrying his paper plate to the garbage and his glass to the sink.  Once he was finished he looked over at Tor with a smile.  "Well, ready to get started?"


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor raised any eyebrow. "I dunno you seem to have some mad scientist in you." She gave a grin and through away her plate. She stood up and stretched giving a over dramatic grunt. She put her hands down back at her sides and gave Morgan a nod. 


"All right let me get dressed, I'll meet you at  the car in 15." With that she grabbed her duffle bag and disappeared into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan rolled his eyes at the mad scientist comment.  "Oh, I'm not the only one." He said jokingly, watching Tor stretch for a moment before stepping away from the garbage can so she could get by.  With a shake of his head, he went upstairs to get dressed.  When he came back down he wore a black polo shirt and khaki pants, along with a pair of semi-casual shoes.  He carried a bag of research notes out to the car, setting it in the back seat and climbing inside to wait for Tor.


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"Ah yes all the boys will be mine!" Tor said to herself at his comment. "Not like they would notice me anyway." She groaned and got dressed. She wore some jeqns and a simple t-shirt. Tor wasn't excatly the peek of buisness casual. She grabbed her bag that had her computer and notes in it and headed down. She slid into the passenger seat and buckled herself in. 


"Ready dude." 

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan nodded and started the car, turning on the CD player as he pulled out of the driveway.  Morgan happily nodded his head along to his driving mix tape as they drove, a strange combination of hard rock, folk rock, and indie rock.  As he parked outside the lab, Morgan gave Tor a questioning look.  "So, do you want to play show and tell first, or shall I?"


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

"Well considering all I have is a few slides and nothing hard or concrete I'll let you go first." She smiled at him. "Besides you know how my department is. They try and shun me every time I show anyone outside of it anything." She rolls her eyes and slips out the door. 


"So we have to wait for them to buzz off."

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan grinned and got out of the car, his case of files clutched in his hands as he headed into the building with Tor.  Once inside, he led Tor to his section of the laboratory.  Unlike the neuroscience department, the bioscience department was largely empty save for Morgan.  A few scientists would use it on and off for testing different chemicals on lab rats and such, but Morgan was one of the few full-time biologists in the lab.  As such, no one was really there to stop him from showing his work to Tor as he led her to his section of the lab, which was completely encased in a hermetically sealed chamber of frosted glass.  Morgan stepped into the sterilization chamber, which sealed before giving them a full-body decontamination.


"These experiments must be performed in a completely sterile environment.  The smallest microbe could throw off our calculations, or even cause a major biohazard that may require a full quarantine of the lab."  When the decontamination was finished, Morgan stepped into the second chamber, wherein there was a set of hazmat suits.  Morgan began to put one on, motioning for Tor to do the same.  When he was finished, he stood next to the door to the largest chamber, waiting for Tor to be ready.


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor gave a whistle looking around as they walked into Morgan's lab. "So much space, I'm jealous." She grinned. "Maybe we can get some on this funding, there's a few things I could think of." She pulled on the hazmat suit. "You even get hazmat suits!" She forwned. "Seriously not fair." She walked up next to him.


"okay show me what you got."

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan chuckled slightly at Tor's  mention of the hazmat suits.  "Yeah, say hello to six months worth of funding.  All necessary of course.  Now allow me to show you why."  Morgan pressed a button, and the door to the testing area opened.  Inside there were several different tables, a fairly well-stocked shelf of chemistry equipment, and a cabinet.  The tables were of varying lengths and sizes, some with a variety of bottles and instruments on them, other completely bare.  The cabinet was covered in bulletproof plexiglass, and affixed with a key card lock.  Inside were bottles of what appeared to be various fluids, marked with names like "Ebola", "Anthrax", and "Smallpox".  Morgan walked past these though, heading straight for the other side of the room.  He seemed to know exactly what he was looking for, opening up a small miniature cooler built into the wall and removing a beaker of green liquid.  He smiled faintly as he looked at it, a gleam in his eyes.  "Here it is, the results of years of research.  It's not finished yet, but to even get this far... it's a miracle."  Morgan was quiet for a few minutes, just staring at the contents of the beaker.  Then he seemed to realize how quiet he was being.  "Allow me to demonstrate."


Morgan pulled a blood bag out of the cooler, the sort one might see in a hospital.  He set the bag on a table, then got a petri dish and an eyedropper.  He let a small amount of blood drip into the dish, just a few drops, then sealed the blood bag again.  Then he took the eyedropper, and drew a bit of the green fluid out of the beaker.  "Just a little bit with this.  We've fixed the cancer problem, but a little bit still goes a long way.  He slide the dish under a nearby microscope, then dripped the fluid into the petri dish.  At first, it seemed the fluid was merely mixing with the blood, turning it all red.  Then the amount of liquid in the dish began to increase.  It went slowly at first, but it was getting faster. Morgan looked under the microscope and smiled.  The blood cells were dividing at a rapid pace, so fast it was hard to spot individual cells.  He stepped aside and smiled.  "Come on Tor, take a look."  The entire bottom of the petri dish was coated in blood, and the fluid was beginning to rise in the shallow dish.


@StartingOver

 

[StartingOver]

Tor followed. She stopped and let her eyes wander over the vials. "Might as well be Satan's spice rack." She muttered. She turned and caught up with Morgan. She watched him take the blood and put it in the small dish. Then she watched the new substance that Morgan had created and place it with the blood. 


"So what you're telling me is you basically made man made stem cells." She watched the blood grow and expand. Something that only happene inside the human body now happening in a lab. 


"You can just remake cells that are lost during kemo."

 

[TommyGun15]

Morgan grinned as he started walking over to "Satan's spice rack".   "Not quite...  normally stem cell therapy can take weeks, or even months to heal injuries.  What this does is it stimulates the mitosis cycle of the exsiting cells, causing them to divide at a rapid pace.  The constant divisions lead to the decay of cellular stability, which meant high rates of mutation, which eventually caused cancer.  But by adding an infusion of the tumor suppressor p53 protein, we're are able to prevent mutations.  In the future, we might even be able to use this as a way to extend human lives by up to forty percent."  Morgan frowned as he reached the cabinet, pulling out his keys.  "There's just... one problem with the current formula."


Morgan unlocked the cabinet and opened it, removing a vial labeled "Amoeba".  He carried it over to a table had an observation box that looked eerily similar to a microwave.  "This isn't anything too dangerous, but it should show you what the problem is."  He used a clean dropper to pull out some fluid from the amoeba vial, and another to pull some of the solution, putting them both in a pertaining dish and quickly putting the dish in the box, sealing it tight.  Just like with the blood, the effects were fast.  The fluid began to increase at a rapid rate.  A large, light green puddle began to form, rolling around the bottom of the observation box as if it had a mind of its own.  Morgan pressed a button on the box, and the roiling mass of single cells died as it was bombarded with microwaves.  "Now, imagine that was Ebola.  Or Plague.  Hell, even the common cold.  The formula works, but only totally sterile conditions."


@StartingOver