Chapter Text
Thunder roared above the old warehouse Taehyung had been cooped up in the past few months. It was dark and ominous with rain pouring harshly outside, where the only sound audible was the storm and the lack of civilization for miles. Despite the weathered appearance on the outside of the establishment, the inside was brightly lit and equipped well with various machines of all kinds. In front of Taehyung was his greatest creation - something he had spent the better part of his life building. The unbridled relief and anticipation thrummed under his skin every time he gazed upon the object in front of him, years of research and experiment was all for the creation of ‘it’. The table in front of him laid his pride, covered with a sterilized white cloth, with various drips and wires attached to it.
And now with the rain, it was the perfect time to finally commence the last step of his creation. Tension settled uneasily in Taehyung’s stomach, a feeling he had gotten used to from nights of restless monitoring of the specimen. However this time the feeling was much more overwhelming, Taehyung had to pat himself on the cheek to calm himself down. Everything he had ever done boils down to this moment, and he will succeed. Yes, he will, surely. He had always have a knack for luck. And scientific procedures, yes.
He gazed at the lump beneath the cloth lying patiently for him. Light bounced off the shape of the specimen without regard for the terrible weather outside, seeming almost eerily still. The steel table provided a steady support as if it's also frozen in time. The table would wait forever for him, but the weather and the specimen was on a countdown. And he absolutely, to goddamn hell and back, refused to mess this up simply because of nerves. Taehyung took in a shaking breath and attempted to steel his nerves - to a debatable degree of success - and pushed himself off the ground towards a machine situated at the side of the table. A rod connected to the machine was already previously deployed. It was only up to him now to activate the apparatus.
With a leap of faith, he flipped the power switch on. Just in time for the furious sky to crack open with blinding fury, sending a zap of roaring pure electricity down the metal rod peeking through the roof, flooding a powerful electrical current into the machine, out through dozens of wires and disappearing under the cloth, leaving behind a terrifying crackling hum in the air. The various life support machines came alive at the electricity well exceeding the threshold, initiating their homeostasis aid process Taehyung had checked twelve times over, all of which ran without a hitch. He watched with a baited breath as the whole process played out as planned, slowly growing increasingly confident and optimistic. He had been extremely meticulous in the whole procedure, especially in the last gruelling 10 hours setting up final preparations, and so far everything is going on as it should be, until the humming faded and the electricity dissipated, leaving behind only sounds of basic life support machines running but no desired results - the next step of his plan.
Taehyung paled, dread washing over. He didn’t spend 7 years on his creation only for everything to crumble right in front of him like this. Maybe there’s a mismatched wire, or an empty drip, or even electrical malfunction - which is likely since electricity is certainly not made for people who still confused cathode with anode like him - only for a sudden movement to caught his gaze under the fabric.
A painstakingly slow rise and fall at the center of the specimen. Taehyung’s eyes widened.
Then, a twitch, and a slight movement. His heart was hammering in his ribcage as his hand reached to tug the cloth away to reveal his specimen, breathing and running on life support with the beginnings of a steady vital signs and some twitch there are there as he was going through the process of possibly resurrection. But maybe Taehyung was phrasing it wrong since his specimen does not consists of a single individual, but instead it could be said that it was instead combined from a cacophony of plural individuals.
Yes, this is it, the living, actual, modern-day Frankenstein.
His life work. Sewn marks which couldn’t heal since the body was previously ‘dead’ littered across its body. Luckily the original subject still possessed a viable brain and spinal cord at the time of death, which allowed Taehyung much more leeway to patch the body up and only concerned himself with the damaged organs. In the beginning he had wanted to do it the traditional way, even, dig up corpses from the grave the spooky way and all, but quickly found that it’s a fruitless endeavor since decaying corpses are pretty much that, decaying matter. And decaying things are the bane of any hopes of regeneration. Then again, looking at the current state of his Frankenstein right now, it doesn’t necessary not look like a corpse as well.
The machine whirred without an end, unlike Taehyung’s rationality and patience. He did put in the possibility of the chance his specimen might be brain-dead in his calculations, and while quite a high chance existed, Taehyung felt cheated when physiologically the body responded yet not cognitively. This is what commonly happens when the human brain is deprived of oxygen, but still Taehyung can’t help but feel upset, especially after the extensive effort he put into recovering and preserving the brain.
Just when Taehyung whipped out a pile of scratch papers to recalculate the whole process, the monster opened its eyes. Its eyes were glimmering, a pale muted maroon color resulting from chemicals he doped the specimen with to make it even barely functional, it blinked once and twice behind a mop of stark black hair. Taehyung had never ran faster in his life.
The monster laid there, catatonic. Even by the time Taehyung reached the tableside, it was still with the exception of the rapid increase of blinks. The rational part of him slightly clawed at his insides that despite the fact the specimen managed to open its eyes, it could still require up to hours to ‘re-calibrate’ or process its surroundings, or even worse it could just be a physiological response which makes no difference to its cognitive status.
Taehyung put his hand to the specimen’s cheek, finding the body temperature of it to be rising - a sign of increased survival chance - and a confused, dazed gaze gliding to his face. Of course, another part of Taehyung, the morally and ethically concerned part of him felt like shit. Maybe not that shit. Okay, maybe slightly shit. It’s gaze seemed alive. And to be completely honest, he did not expected that. In hindsight, he was so focused on whether resurrection is possible to be able to let his thoughts wander elsewhere, much less the monster’s sentience. It is highly unlikely that its brain survived the lack of oxygen for so long with little lasting impact, but if it did, he wondered what would his specimen feel right in this moment.
Finally the monster drew a small gasp. A physiological response to emotions that could signify minimal brain damage. Taehyung mentally cheered, gleefully scrambling for the previous scrap paper pile to jolt down the observation as the fruits of his experiment finally shined. It suddenly appears greatly disoriented as it became aware of its surrounding, its once - and frankly still - handsome face scrunched up, eyes darting around its mismatched body where its old limbs were replaced with unfamiliar ones. Various body parts at different degrees of decomposition neatly sewn together in a horrifying display of body modification to the normal human. The monster refused to move a single part of its new vessel, merely silently letting its eyes darted across the wires and drips only to pause at Taehyung’s face.
This is it, the moment he had been waiting for. He coaxed up the lowest, calmest voice he could muster and spoke. “You’re alive, speak monster.”
The monster fucking flinched. Taehyung felt like he would cry, he was beside himself with exhilaration.
The monster’s nervous system is working holy shit, it took everything in Taehyung to not break out in a big, inappropriate grin.
“What happened to me?” The monster slurred in a hoarse voice, still probably processing what was done to him. The ventilator’s tube leading into his mouth was still attached, making speech difficult, probably giving him a hard time speaking and a lifetime of sore throat.
“You were resurrected.” Taehyung wasn’t sure explaining his whole fascination with the mechanics of life is the best course of action right at this moment. He certainly was hoping for a lot of things and feeling an array of emotions, but he kept calm.
The monster froze. “What year is it?” Taehyung swore there’s a beginning of a grimace on the monster's face. Is something wrong or…?
“2018.”
The monster dropped its bafflement almost spontaneously, to Taehyung’s surprise. “Am I a product of a peer-reviewed research?”
“Uh,” Taehyung lost all train of thoughts. The monster regarded Taehyung with narrowed eyes.
“Hold the fuck up do you even have paperworks for my body parts? And source?”
“Well, no.”
That was when the monster pretty much exploded with frustration. “Good god here we go again with mad scientists. Going around taking body parts left and right and completely disregarding any fucking ethics. Why do you think this is a good idea? Are you that fucking selfish to strive for personal knowledge while ignoring the possible consequences of bringing someone back from the dead? Kids these days, don’t you have a fucking conscience?” The monster muttered, panting and coughing dramatically after he finished. Taehyung spent no time taking the endotracheal tube out of his throat and switching to a nasal cannula to provide him more comfort, the monster nodding in gratitude as he hacked away any remaining discomfort. Well, now it feels wrong to call him monster, when he was clearly coherent enough to reprimand Taehyung and express gratitude. Wait that isn’t supposed to be his biggest concern right now.
“I - I’m sorry? But anyway uh it seems like you retain most of your cognitive abilities this is great news-“
The resurrected not quite alive man leveled him with a glare. “Proper test first, kid. Stop jumping to conclusions just because I’m passionate about a topic doesn’t mean I could walk upright yet. Don’t think you’re off though, we will be having this conversation later.”
This is the weirdest evening ever. Taehyung thought as he brought the man a laptop. The man regarded him with a hostile glare, alright. “I, uh,” Now he was losing his composure, no textbook or fiction or anything ever told him getting berated by your Frankenstein is a possibility. But he had to admit that it was starting to sink it now the weight of his experiment, toying with human life, playing god. The man was startlingly sane, if not a bit heated, and it might be the only thing that is keeping Taehyung from going insane himself. Yep, weird evening alright. “Right. Let’s, uh, get a brief report on your cognitive status, if you allow me…” He added meekly as an afterthought.
“You have not a clue what consent is before today so why bother asking me for permission.” Ouch.
Taehyung was starting to feel indignant and defensive. He didn’t spent 7 years to receive this disrespect from a corpse. “Listen I’m just trying to be nice. I’ve spent half my life dedicated to studying this nature of life itself okay and I know it is pretty unethical but,” The man’s royally pissed of gaze bore into his soul and Taehyung wisely relented. “I am so sorry,”
With Taehyung’s acquiescing and the man reluctantly agreeing to cooperate, together they watch as the man proceed through cognitive abilities tests one after another at Taehyung’s instructions. The man breezed through the tests with ease, well, as much ease as a previously brain-dead person could, but still it was relatively intuitive for his part. Jokingly Taehyung thought maybe the man was tech-savvy before, until he recalled the man’s infatuation with bioethics and it was all he could think in his head. Did he really fucking resurrected someone in a medical profession and/or the scientific community? Out of all the possible occupations a dead person could previously have, what are the chances of it being a goddamn doctor. One that seemingly knows his stuff too.
The man asked in the middle of one test, “Is MCI really what you want to test for? I’m pretty sure I’m barely 30 when I died.”
“MCI…?”
“Mild cognitive impairment for alzheimer's. Mostly for people who are 50 or older.” Yep, a fucking doctor-slash-scientist for sure.
“You were almost brain dead, just do it.” Taehyung sighed.
The room relapsed into silence, minus the whirring of life support machines.
“My foot’s numb.”
“Not surprised, I can't suture nerve cells.”
Half an hour passed with similar tidbits of conversation there and there but otherwise they managed to get an overall idea of the man’s current cognitive abilities. His executive function is quite extraordinary for someone practically resurrected, his episodic memory is also not too bad, but his processing speed seemed to have went through a marginal decline. The man expressed frustration several times which is an indicator as well that his frontal lobe seems to be doing not as bad as Taehyung previously assumed.
“So it’s not half as bad, exceptional for a walking corpse.” The man concluded.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect that.”
“Me neither.” The man smiled. “Despite the shit amount of ethical concerns in this...whatever this is, you did a good job, mr…”
“Taehyung. Kim Taehyung.” He offered.
He expected the man to offer his own name as well but he was silent, an unreadable look in his eyes.
“Is there something wrong?”
“I may have amnesia.” The man concluded. “I can’t remember my full name. Or my past for that matter. It didn’t crossed my mind at all, weird.”
Taehyung felt a pang of sadness for the nameless man, his creation. In a way, it was his fault, isn’t it? To awaken this man from his eternal slumber and subject him to an unstable body and the miserable living world. He is responsible for that. He didn’t thought it would be possible to create a creature so sentient and conscious, in his mind he thought the stereotypical Frankenstein is the only possible result from an amalgamation of humans. Not in his wildest dreams did he even dare imagine a Frankenstein to be so awake. He was starting to understand now why the man was furious when he realized what kind of morally abhorrent experiments lurk in the shadows in this world, including this one.
Gingerly, Taehyung reached over and pulled the man into his chest. Who surprisingly spluttered at the sudden affection, thrashing in his hold. Maybe it’s sadness, maybe it’s pity, but he wanted to offer a semblance of comfort.
“W-what was that for?!” This man’s frontal lobe was working for sure, all right.
“You can’t remember your full name, right? Tell me the name that you remember.”
The man’s brows furrowed skeptically but he relented, with difficulty he tried to recall his own name. “There’s three syllables, but I only remember Jin.”
Taehyung flashed a warm smile at Jin who was still in his arms. It was a lovely name, for an eccentric, professional, sentient, undead person. Who was even capable of embarrassment. “Hello Jin, you are strangely cute when shy.” He even dared teased the scowling frankenstein.
“Let me go I’m teeming with grave bacteria.”
Taehyung had never let go of anything so fast in his life before rationality took over. “I didn’t even dig a single part of you from a grave!”
“I still could have HIV, MRSA, or other sick pathogens, pun intended.” What. Taehyung short-circuited momentarily then groaned. The man relapsing into squeaky laughter in response, throwing him off guard. “Depending on where you retrieve parts of me.” Jin added, shrugging. “I got a hunch you didn’t really sterilize or screen the body parts you got. Which you definitely, emphasis on definitely, have to do before every organ transplantation.”
“You’re literally a frankenstein hygiene shouldn’t matter anymore.”
“What?” Jin whirled around and glared at him so fiercely Taehyung was entirely convinced then that his frontal lobe was intact. “First off, I’m the one thing you want to keep sterile in your shitty shady excuse of a lab. Don’t they fucking taught that in highschool corpses are the perfect breeding ground for microbes-” Do schools ever teach that? Taehyung was sure his definitely didn’t. And on second thought no school should explicitly teach that. “-it’s why corpses bloat! I doubt I have an immune system anymore which is exactly why, for both your well being and the reliability of your results in this experiment, you have to keep the fucking place sterile in this essay I will-”
Jin’s spiel probably will went on for much longer if not for Taehyung covering his ears yelling ‘bloody murder oh my god shut up I’m so sorry.’
“Also another thing, I’m not a Frankenstein. Your disturbing lack of knowledge of classical novels appalled me. Frankenstein is the name of the scientist who brought the monster to life, not the actual monster.” Jin huffed, decidedly ending his rants for his sake.
It probably would have came across as a bit preachy if this was from a normal person, but considering the special circumstances Taehyung was more impressed that anything. Maybe he was even a tad bit too mesmerized than he should have been by rants of hygiene and a trivia about an 18th century novel.
Until his rational side kicked him in the ass again. “Wait how could you possibly remember that but can’t remember your past?”
Jin blanked out for a moment. “I have no idea.”
Taehyung was hoping for a more detailed response, expected a more invested answer, but apparently Jin wasn’t interested in it as he thought. He made a mental note to look into Jin’s mental process later.
“I could see that perverted look in your eyes, Taehyung.”
“What?” Taehyung blinked.
“People always look a certain way when they try to psychoaggravate, you know?” Jin stared at him.
“Psycho what?” Emphasize on what because he had not a single clue what Jin is talking about.
“Psychoaggravate.” Jin furrowed his brows. Taehyung still remained blank and Jin gave a spot on impression of a university professor trying to explain Freudian psychology. He sighed. “It’s just a term me and...someone, I‘m not sure who, coined up. It’s as straightforward as it can be, you aggravate psychologically to get desirable results similar to psychoanalyzing except this one is more satire and I like it.” Jin’s voice had been getting gradually softer as he neared the end of his sentence. Then a pause. Taehyung could see the beginning of a blush fanning Jin’s ears and cheeks, to his misplaced excitement. Jin looked down, hand reaching to scratch at the back of his head. “In hindsight, that sounds dumb.”
In that moment Taehyung knew, must protecc.