#UnethicalPractices

[mslangermann-a]

@unethicalpractice

    Thick silence swelled in the room. No longer did cries of pain shake the walls or the sharp barks of her men ring out. Through brutal torture, the confession was made. Edgar Swansea was the cause of the epidemic. It was by his hand so many were dead and those who slipped past death’s bony finger roamed the streets. Lynn’s hatred burned, a slow boil churning in her gut, and impulse wanted nothing more than for him to rot. But what would killing him achieve? Taking human life would make them no better than the leeches who stalked the streets in search of their next meal. Taking human life was monstrous and she would not be a part of that world. She joined the Guard on the promise of protecting people, defending them from the shadows that go bump in the night.

         If Swansea suffered this treatment, what’s to stop the Guard from doing it again?

    With her heart thudding in her throat, Lynn ordered her men to exit and wait for further orders outside. She was alone with the doctor now, his wrists tied above his head and hanging limp. Beaten and broken, it was unclear if he would survive for much longer. But she had to try. She couldn’t have his blood on her hands. Moving forward, she pulled her dagger free and cut the rope holding the doctor upright. She shouldered his weight with a grunt, digging her heels into the floor to ensure he would not crumple.

                                                   “Walk, doctor. We’re leaving.”

[pxperhearts]

@unethicalpractices

“Creature from the Black Lagoon? Do people really watch these?” It’s a giant poster for an old monster movie that’s re-showing, lined up with posters of similar titles. It’s in a few days. It’s not that it’s bad but... Well, the real thing has to be a lot better.

[cryptoknowmics]

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[undeadunalive]

@unethicalpractice​​ / 🧛

“Edgar, I couldn’t help but notice the longevity of your hours. As both a doctor and your friend, I must strongly advise that you rest, or at least allow yourself a break.”

[aleximedicusa]

@unethicalpractice​.  /  𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐘𝐑 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑.

“ dr. edgar swansea. ” he drawled out the name with patent disinterest, opting to inspect his nails in lieu of making any attempt to meet the doctor’s gaze. he had hoped that this little tour of pembroke hospital would be conducted by reid himself, but they had scarcely crossed the threshold before a desperate nurse had materialised to beg his assistance with the patients. swansea, reid had assured lewis, would be just as capable of a guide. “ reid has told me of you. the man with the cockstand for vampires. ” it was, perhaps, a bit too harsh to be fair, but lewis had met far too many humans who salivated over the very idea of immortals. it had always left a bad taste in his mouth — and when lewis anwyl was displeased, lewis anwyl was rude. that, death had not taken from him. 

[fanaiceach]

@unethicalpractice​ asked: “Lower your weapons. For goodness’ sake, put them down.“

potc starters || accepting

      This feels like a tipping point. A decision gate. A moment from which the future spirals improbably outward while the past remains barred in eternity. There is no coming back from this. No do-overs, no second chances. What he does or does not do here and now will be inked immutably in the history books.

      And Geoffrey wonders if Edgar -- Swansea, the doctor, the goddamn bastard -- if he felt that way when he made his choices. If he had a care in the world beyond the power and notoriety he stood to gain.

      If he cared at all for the consequences of working with a monster like Marshal, if he had even so much as hesitated before traversing the neatly paved way to Hell.

      “Make it easy, Swansea.” Not Edgar, not anymore, not a friendly first name escaping between grit teeth but something old and impersonal, the kind of uneasy formality they’d shed a long time ago. This meeting isn’t unlike the others, the ones that came before. The door is closed, it’s only them in the quiet of an office that had once been comfortable. Where they’d spent hours poring over papers and pouring out glasses -- or at least Geoffrey had. Where the doctor had spread blueprints across his desk for the contingency room, the place where Geoffrey is now planning on fileting and frying Swansea’s damned accomplice Reid. Reid’s betrayal is less cutting at least, an edge that stings but not deep enough to wound.

      But he’d trusted Swansea. Called him a friend even if not to his face. And now Geoffrey’s arm is raised and there’s a crossbow bolt sizing up the space between the doctor’s panic-wide eyes, and it’s like Ian all over again, like he can see the starburst bloom of blood and the remnants of his skull and all he can think is how could you, how could you, how could I--

      He hoists the shorter man out of his chair by the lapels of his labcoat, ignoring his protestations and the papers that scatter with the violent shifting of his desk, hauls him a few steps only to slam him back against a bookcase that thumps against the wall. Swansea’s glasses are skewed and his eyes are screwed shut like he’s expecting more, expecting worse, and Geoffrey has half a mind to deliver in the form of his fist connecting squarely with the doctor’s face if only for the satisfaction of watching the lenses shatter. Instead he aims lower, slips a knife from his pocket and jams it into Swansea’s side. Not a blow aimed at anything vital, not a blade pressed deep enough to kill -- just enough to hurt. Just enough that when he twists his wrist he can feel warm blood trickling over his fingers in time with Swansea’s breathless cry.

      “Tell me where the monster is. Maybe I’ll show a little mercy to your pet leech if you give Marshal up now.” All he’s met with is babbling confusion, Swansea’s previous lack of understanding pitched to near hysteria now that he’s under duress. Feigned, as far as Geoffrey is concerned. Nothing that a little persuasion can’t solve. Again he twists his wrist. And it would be easier, perhaps, if the responding keen of pain brought him even a modicum of pleasure. If it did anything but settle like a knot in his gut that threatens to constrict around his heart. But whatever threatens to bubble up from those depths is smothered by the anger, by the striking sense of betrayal that dwarfs all else. “Did Harriet Jones cry when you did your fucking experiments on her? Did Doris Fletcher? Would you have cared -- or is everyone just another lab rat in your greedy eyes?” By the end his words are low, hissed, spat with all of the vitriol he feels growing like a wound inside of him. The doctor only responds with the repeated plea that he has no idea what Geoffrey is talking about, he doesn’t know, he doesn’t understand. And they never do, they never see the destruction and the pain carved in their wake, never look down at the hearts they’ve torn out and trodden on--

      All at once he lets Swansea go, rips the knife from his side and tucks it away, and stalks back to the door. He hears the doctor grunt, pained, listens to him take a few shuffling steps forward just as he throws open the door and signals for his men. The revolver at his hip is drawn swiftly, and he barely has to turn before he’s aiming and firing a clean shot through Swansea’s left leg. The man goes down in a startled heap just as a few guardsmen file in, two of them picking the doctor up by his underarms while the rest begin overturning the place in search of any clues that remain.

      “Take him back to the theater,” he orders coldly, firmly, glancing at Swansea too quickly to meet his eyes. “Find out what he knows -- I don’t care how you do it, but make sure I can get the last word.” Flexing his palm, the one that had held the knife and is still tacky with the doctor’s blood, he adds, “Drag him towards the lift first. I want the leech to know where to find me. When I’m finished with him we’ll have all we need.” 

      He stands there for a moment, watching them go. When Swansea’s form disappears down the stairs, the only sound left is that of the office’s upheaval. The space suddenly feels cold, foreign, empty in spite of the guardsmen around him, and a weight settles in Geoffrey’s chest to match the gnarled snare of something roiling in his gut. 

      There’s still blood on his hand, growing cold, caked beneath blunt nails.

      When he leaves the office and heads for the lift and the carefully crafted executioner’s block that lies beyond, he presses his palm against a column and leaves behind a streaky print. His handprint, Swansea’s blood. A sickly signpost for Reid to follow. He wipes the rest of the blood off on his coat, but it doesn’t fix the flecks trapped under his nails like scarlet-stained crescent moons. He’ll have to scrub his hands later, scrub them raw, until he feels clean.

[walriding]

@unethicalpractice​ asked: ❛ We don’t have real answers, because we still don’t know what questions to ask. Our instruments are useless, our methodology broken, our motivations selfish. ❜

annihilation starters || accepting

      He’s still in the process of buttoning his shirt back up when the other doctor enters the examination room to speak with Reid. Immediately the atmosphere shifts -- mostly on Miles’ part. He’s back to being closed off, uncomfortable. He’d only agreed to these little routine physicals when they became a sort of bargaining chip. They were willing to let him take on more field work, provided he cooperated with some of their scientifically-minded requests. Of course, it hadn’t been phrased exactly like that. Jonathan is always quick to remind him that he isn’t a prisoner here. But Miles knows it isn’t that simple. He’s seen enough to know they keep tabs on persons -- cases -- of interest in the instances when they’re released, like tagged and tracked animals. The promise of field work is like a carrot being waved in front of his face, but it’s something. A chance to do something when Miles has felt like he’s been languishing for so goddamn long.

      The reporter doesn’t want to admit that he’s a touch curious, too. Whatever knowledge he has of his attachment has been skimmed off of Murkoff’s files or learned through experience -- neither of which has provided much of a prognosis. There are things he still doesn’t know about it, or about what it’s doing to him. 

      But just because he trusts Reid when it comes to such examinations doesn’t mean he extends the same faith to everyone in the facility. Swansea is a perfect example of that. His interactions with the doctor have been limited thus far, owed almost entirely to Miles’ general unwillingness to speak extendedly with the man. Something about him just feels... off. Like he enjoys his work a little too much. Miles has witnessed -- lived --  what that kind of blind personal interest can do to people. It corrupts, and more often than not leaves a grisly trail in its wake.

      He watches and half listens to the physicians’ chatter -- it doesn’t seem like it’s directly related to him, at least. Then Jonathan is called away by some medical crisis in progress, and Swansea lingers behind looking over his colleague’s notes. They’re alone like that for a long moment, Miles fumbling with the last button and Swansea either purposefully or unintentionally ignoring his presence. Almost unconsciously the questions fall from his lips, ones that he’s been searching for answers to ever since he got here--

      “What do you want, anyway? This place, your work -- what’s the end goal? You take people like me and you study them like... like lab rats, and for what? What are you trying to do?”

      No answer can be expected given the messiness of the question. Normally he’s better at that, at formulating a query that gets to the meat of an issue. But everything about this new life of his is undercut with a weary desperation he’d only felt fleetingly before. Miles is a dead man. That should grant him all the time in the world, and yet the limitations of time have never been more pressing than they are now.

      Swansea smiles faintly, gaze not leaving the file folder he’s skimming through. “We don’t have real answers, because we still don’t know what questions to ask. Our instruments are useless, our methodology broken, our motivations selfish.” It’s only at the conclusion of the response that pale eyes find Miles’ brown ones, and the reporter holds the gaze for a while before nodding slowly and slipping off the examination table to gather up his jacket. The answer isn’t a comfort for its content -- but it feels more honest than a lot of what he’s been told up until this point.

      Sometimes the truth, even when chilling, holds a solace all its own.

[petticoatblue]

@unethicalpractice​ speaking the truth of their inevitable dynamic

[cainiine-a]

@unethicalpractice​

The night is still for the fraction of a breath. Both a rare occasion and an almost holy treat when your ears have grown accustomed to coughs, to wails of pain, to murmurs. It almost leaves her tense in anticipation, waiting for a sound to have her move on her feet again and prepare her for the worst. But, alas, all is quiet in the hospital's walls and perhaps it is a blessing for all its residents to be granted a minute of peace.

She spends it with cleaning her bloodied hands on a rag that is nearly equally as dyed by red as is her skin; finds a clean spot and begins to rub at the liquid while continuing to oversee the beds with an alert, dog-like gaze. The silence, however, does not last long as footsteps break its weak structure and she only turns to look when the steps approach her. Ever so polite she smiles and nods. " Good evening, doctor. Out for a stroll? "

[monstriiss]

WHAT BRAND OF STUPID ARE YOU

Smart until infected with stupid

You think you're safe don't you? You are probably the responsible one in the group, perhaps even the mom friend. You are relatively smart but all it takes is one little thing to suck all your braincells out. It could be hanging around your fellow stupid friends, it could be being left alone, it could be having a bit too much fun. The stupid lives inside you and it just takes the right environment for it to show.

tagged by: @unethicalpractice ty ty <3

tagging: @suresaint @anammxlech @ulfhrafnx @fractempyreal @devilscharity @culhund @hereticalmother @monagxrie @korctyshka @korosakis @abracafockyou @celestieu @killsfirst @vaderari @vilestblood @deifiler @yellowfingcr @derjaegermond @umtplex AND YOU!

[pxperhearts]

👀

[finalvlog-a]

which two greek gods are your parents?

Atlas & Atë

Oh, sweet child of penance and folly! Your father eternally holds up the skies, and your mother the maker of misfortune among the gods. A life of greatness stands before you dictated by endurance, stubbornness, and impulse. No man can tell you what realm you preside over, but look to themes of downfall and regret as you grow into your power.

tagged by: @mementomacabre​ tagging: @loqis​ , @somnus-lucis-caelum​ , @unethicalpractice​ , @vampyrdoctor​ , @walridiing​ , @bellytochin​ , @blesscdbliss​ , & YOU

[undeadunalive]

“How about we go on a walk. It might calm your nerves.”

Comfort Starters

Jonathan could barely remember the last time he’d gone for a walk without a destination being set in his mind. The sheer amount of times he’d run to and fro through the sleeping streets of London, lapping up every street and alley in the dead of night with the same perseverance as a steam train trundling along the railway tracks. But to go outside and simply pause, maybe even look up at the night sky, at the clouds whispering by, the moon that seemed to shine down like a spotlight in Doris Fletcher’s theatre -- - it was all far more appealing than he’d realised.

Without another word, the former medical officer gave a small nod of his head, long and steady strides leading the way, quick to find himself starting out in the back garden of the Pembroke. It was hardly the most picturesque of views, but it was familiar, quiet, certainly far more peaceful without wheezing rogue Skals loitering in every corner.

“Thank you, Edgar.” Suddenly came his gentle voice, that same smoothness to it as though it slid directly from his silent heart and over the end of silver spoken tongue. “A spot of fresh air is... inviting to say the least.” Though he did find himself letting out a quiet and gentlemanly scoff of amusement that seemed to flicker across his pallid features, pinching at the edges of his moustache. “And no... the sheer irony of that statement is not lost on me.”

@unethicalpractice

[lachrydoll]

-- @unethicalpractice asked:  📓for Beckett. would you like some cool vampire news my good sir

   “The Spanish Justicar of clan Toreador...hm, yes, I’ve come across her a few notable times in my travels, but I’ve yet to witness her be the one to wander out of her domain in turn. Last I had seen of Violetta was perhaps a few decades ago, when I was trying to acquire an audience with Durga Syn--as heaven knows how finicky with their presence some elders can be...”

Beckett was musing, now, mostly to himself, but making a show of his absorption of Swansea’s news. He leaned back in his chaise, comfortable in the office shadows. The whole of the hospital stunk of blood and medicine and dying hope. This was not the first epidemic he’s played peanut gallery to, and it certainly isn’t his second or third, either. But his usually transitory lifestyle often left him not dwelling too long in the real scourge of it--especially in the hospitals. Too tempting. He could tilt his head to Swansea in admiration of the other’s self-possession in such a blood-swathed tenure.

   “A Justicar to travel so far personally without sending anyone in her stead? Perhaps this miniature plague we have is more than just a concern for kine after all.” That meant he might actually have to pay attention beyond whatever mortal contacts he may have to find hurried replacements for, or any deals with mortal middle men that may find themselves suddenly giving out like an unsupported bridge. “At the very least, it’s interesting enough to keep me in town for a bit longer...I hope you don’t mind a guest staying over his due.”

The information was valuable, if at least to his own biting curiosity. To hear it from Swansea first and not from any other Kindred who has had far more time to become better attuned to the symphonic cacophony of the world was viably impressive.

   “You seem to have a talent for wringing out gossip from the grapevine into a fine wine...a very valuable skill to have, especially in the days to come.”

[thesadsaint]

@unethicalpractice liked for a small starter 🧡

The Guard being in London was cause for some concern. Sean had taken extra steps to keep the Sewer Skals safe from their prying eyes, but he had to always be on his toes. Patrolling the East End was part of his nightly routine, but it had become far more dangerous. Not only on account of the guard but the skals that were feral rather than civil. Sean had just watched some of those creatures get destroyed. The use of the cross as a weapon was disturbing to him, but it was the man in a lab coat showing up that piqued his interest. Despite his curiosity he turned to leave, eager to avoid the attention of the Guard.

He doesn’t get far. A woman with a scarf wrapped around her face grabs his arm and tugs him forward, “Found this one in the shadows.” She announces, pulling him towards the other members of the Guard, and the oddly genial man in the white jacket.

Sean doesn’t struggle. He allows for her to guide him forward, although he does defend himself, “Hardly in the shadows. Most of the East End is shrouded in darkness at this hour.” He remains calm in spite of the situation. He’d faced worse with the gangs in the area. “I apologize for interrupting.”

[fanaiceach]

@unethicalpractice asked: ♥ you know who bb

ship meme || accepting 

Gives nose/forehead kisses

Geoffrey sneaks them in because he’s taller, but Edgar is probably more prone to those small acts of affection overall.

Gets jealous the most

I was prepared to say ‘neither’ but then I remembered Geoffrey clearly getting Steamed(tm) when Jonathan showed up as the new bff so... Geoffrey I guess. But I don’t see it happening often once they’re more official about their relationship.

Picks the other up from the bar when they’re too drunk to drive

Geoffrey, because Edgar can’t hold his liquor half as well. Not that Edgar gets drunk often (if at all), but when he does Geoffrey is there to scrape him off the floor.

Takes care of on sick days

Edgar is the obvious choice because he’s a doctor, but they both seem prone to working through sick days because they have more important things to do.

Drags the other person out into the water on beach day

It’s a mutual thing, they both like spending time around / in the water I’d say.

Gives unprompted massages

Based on the fact that he’s more casually affectionate, probably Edgar.

Drives/rides shotgun

Depends entirely on the vehicle. If they ever have a car it’s probably because Edgar wanted one so he’s free to do that driving, otherwise Geoffrey just has his motorcycle which he will absolutely throw Edgar onto the back of at least once.

Brings the other lunch at work

If they’re both vampires they don’t exactly have to eat in the technical sense -- but Edgar would probably be more aware of the blood hunger than Geoffrey is. He has to remind Geoffrey that he needs to feed fairly often.

Has the better parental relationship

Well neither of them exactly has parents in the picture currently, so... 

Tries to start role-playing in bed

Geoffrey is pretty vanilla -- aside from the obvious vampire related kinks -- and Edgar isn’t into sex much at all, so probably neither of them. But who knows, maybe Geoffrey sees something online one day and wonders if that’s something they should try.

Embarrassingly drunk dancer

Edgar is just the more embarrassing drunk in general lol. Keep it together, man.

Still cries watching Titanic

Geoffrey. He’s the only reason why Edgar watched it in the first place because only people who live under a rock haven’t watched Titanic, Edgar. And Geoffrey cries at the end but not when Jack dies -- the very end with all of the photos of Rose living her life and then reuniting with Jack in the afterlife gets him every time. Don’t look at him or he will deny that he’s crying bloody tears.

Firmly believes in couples costumes

They deal with enough spooky shit that Halloween can be ignored without them feeling bad.

Breaks the expensive gift rule during Christmas

Most likely Edgar because he appreciates luxuries a little more. And Geoffrey is more of an ‘acts of service’ kind of gift-giver anyway.

Makes the other eat breakfast

Again, I see Edgar as the one who’s more cognizant of starving vampire needs.

Remembers anniversaries

They both do, even if anniversaries are tricky after a century of friends to enemies to friends to lovers nonsense. Difficult to determine when you first got together when your relationship requires a flowchart. Although if a wedding anniversary is ever a thing, that’s easier to remember. 

Brings up having kids

Oh god neither of them. Or if they do it’s just to laugh about it. Them as parents? A mess.