The doctor's assistant
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Human Solos =&gt; Topic started by: bend on 10-01-2011, 15:37:31</h2>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>bend</strong> on <strong>10-01-2011, 15:37:31</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				- Extract from Prof. Thomas Livestone's lab diary -<br><br><em>Thursday, October 10th 1958, Jameson University, Redhill, USA<br><br>Today I've received the specimens I asked Ferguson to send me. They were delivered in a crate by airplane, directly from the Amazon Forest. They consisted of a living specimen kept in a pot and samples of both seeds and dry flowers. The plant is about 1.5 feet tall, it has a long dark green stalk that separates into numerous smaller stalks at the top, each ending with a large heart-shaped leaf. A single tubular dark red flower grows from the top of the mains stalk. The flower is a four inches long tube, with petals apparently fused together, and stenches like rotten meat.<br><br>According to Professor Ferguson, visiting the western Amazon basin to study the habits of the natives, the plant grows in bushes in moisty and low-lighted areas of the jungle. The natives hold the plant to be sacred, and use them in many religious ceremony dedicated to the "First Mother", as they call their deity of fertility. In particular, Ferguson says the natives sacrifice a young teen boy to the goddess each year during a solemn ceremony, and they say the power of the goddess change the boy into a young maiden that will then serve the goddess as a priestess. The sacrifice is obviously a metaphor for the boy taking over a traditionally female role, but the villagers behave and talk as if he became an actual woman. But he also says he might have made mistakes in translating their language.<br><br>Ferguson was really interested in this belief, that doesn't seem to be shared by nearby tribes. He believes it is an interesting example of how gender roles are flexible in tribal cultures, and he would like to meet one of the "priestesses" himself. Unfortunately they never leave the temple-cave they live in, and nobody is admitted inside without their consent. <br><br>Interested in the possible medical use of the plant, I asked Professor Ferguson to send me one of them.<br><br>With the specimen available, the only thing I need to begin my studies is an assistant. I think I will hire the man I interviewed yesterday. He has a brilliant curriculum and looks like a hard worker.</em>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Beatrice Black</strong> on <strong>11-01-2011, 00:09:48</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				Michael Roberts had been confident about his interview with Professor Livestone. He was worried about moving away from home to Redhill, but his summer internship at the Clark campus laboratory must have paid off and this new opportunity had presented itself when one of the directors pointed it out to him. He had been nervous about meeting the Professor of course, he was well known as a keen thinker and apparently a hard taskmaster, but he had seemed pleasant and impressed with his resumé, if a little distracted throughout the interview session. So he was pleased but only partially surprised to receive a call back. <br><br>Pausing at the restroom on his way into the Jameson lab, he checked his reflection in the mirror. He was always worried that he looked too boyish in a suit and tie, so he flattened his fair hair again, straightened his Clark College tie and knelt down to shine his shoes, before heading up to Livestone's office to knock on the door...
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>bend</strong> on <strong>11-01-2011, 11:00:03</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				Prof. Livestone put down the newspaper he was reading and said "Please come in, it's open." in his low and powerful voice. His coworkers always joked that he should have been a lyric bass rather than a biologist.<br>The voice came out of a man that could be in his late fourties, despite a hint of white in his brown beard and hair. His blue eyes however denoted an intelligence and a mental nimbleness left untouched by the passing of time.<br>He was sitting at a heavy-looking wooden desk, and was wearing a lab coat.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Beatrice Black</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 12:40:22</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				Michael walked in and over to the desk to shake the Professor's hand before sitting across from him. He had been impressed by the man's office in the first interview, its full bookshelves and framed awards, and seeing it again was a reminder of what a privilege it was just to have a chance to work with him.<br><br>"Thank you for seeing me again, Professor. I was very impressed by the facilities here, and your research plan sounds very exciting." <br><br>He had discussed his planned work on altered and heightened states brought about by biochemistry and its long-term effect on the mind and body, which sounded like it could be fascinating work. And lucrative as well, because this was about a job, after all... The Professor was obviously doing well out of it, although judging by the lack of a ring on his finger he didn't need to support a family. Neither did Michael, currently, because finding a well-paying job had to come before asking Julia to marry him. If he made it through the trial period, he'd ask her then... take her out somewhere fancy...<br><br>"I've brought my references, and a sample of my thesis work, as requested." He offered the manila folder containing the evidence of the first twenty-seven years of his life's work.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>bend</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 15:03:10</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Prof. Livestone took a good look at his new assistant, shook his hand and stood up.<br><br>"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Roberts. Please, take a seat."<br><br>He then opened the folder the young man gave him, and opened it. He spent a good ten minutes browsing through the papers inside.<br><br>"Your references look in order, Mr. Roberts. Can I call you Micheal? If we're going to work together, it's better if we drop the formalities.<br>Anyway, I'll take a deeper look at your past work this afternoon."<br><br>He opened a drawer and took out a number of papers, typewritten in small letters.<br><br>"This is your work contract, I need you to sign at the bottom of the last page. Take care to look at all the work rules, and especially remember that whatever happens inside our laboratory, is to be kept secret. Much of our work can be very valuable, and we don't want other research groups to learn the details about our research until we're ready to publish the results."
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Beatrice Black</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 15:12:07</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				Michael sat in nervous silence, doing his best to keep smiling, as the Professor read over his file, answering his prospective employer's occasional questions. "Michael is fine, sir." <br><br>He tried not to relax too obviously as he handed over the contract. He read through it, puzzling through some of the legal jargon, glancing at the section on health and safety and injury quickly - he didn't want to sit there reading for too long while the Professor waited, after all. Reaching the end, he retrieved a pen from his inner jacket pocket and signed his name and the date.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>bend</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 15:45:06</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				"Perfect, Micheal." He said, putting the contract back in the drawer.<br><br>"Now that the formal side of things is settled, it's time to put yoursself at work."<br>The professor stood up and led the young assistant to the nearby lab, a place full with many different instruments, test tubes and workbenches. On one of them stood the mysterious plant.<br><br>"This specimen is a yet unknown plant, sent to me by Professor Ferguson of Anthropology. It is used for religious purposes by a tribe of Amazon Indios, so we're going to study if it has useful medical properties. As you sure know, tribal cultures make wide use of psycho-stimulant plants, such as Peyote or Cannabis, and many powerful drugs were discovered by studying them...<br><br>First, I want you to transplant it into a larger pot, then try to look for any reference about it or similar plants in scientific literature. We need to catalogue it first. I will send a specimen to our bothanics too."
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Beatrice Black</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 17:23:42</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				Michael nodded through this list of instructions. He looked around and located a row of hooks for jackets, putting his on it, rolling up his sleeves. Retrieving a pair of gardening gloves and a strong fork, he approached the plant, his nose wrinkling at the scent. "Well, it certainly smells powerful enough," he noted.<br><br>Bringing the larger pot over, he first filled it with suitable soil, checking the pH balance was correct, then started to fork through the earth around the plant to loosen it and bring up the roots...
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>bend</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 21:07:02</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"Good. Now I'm leaving you at it, I have a meeting with the University Board. I'll try and ask for more funds, we really need some new equipment. God work" The professor left Michael alone in the lab...
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: The doctor's assistant</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Beatrice Black</strong> on <strong>12-01-2011, 23:06:33</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"Thank you, sir." He smiled at the compliment, a good sign after just a few minutes... Of course, this was work that a decent gardener could do, but cataloguing the leaf, flower and root shape would be more his area,and he needed to see the root to do it. just a pity he had to smell it, he thought as he finally uprooted the plant, clicked the prepared camera to take a photograph, and lowered it into the larger pot, patting the soil down so that it had a snug fit and then adding some water. <br><br>Armed with pictures of the leaves and flowers, while he waited for the snapshot of the root to develop, he started to look through the visual indexes, making comparisons to the mandrake but while certain plants were similar, none were identical. This truly was a new species, previously unknown to science...
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