Tinkering

[*ƒiƒi*]

THADDEUS

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But that gives you almost no excuse for not knowing the frailty of your race..."

Thaddeus paused as she said that, his finger tracing his chin in thought. Why, she was right. It had only been fifteen or so years since his becoming part machine, and he had been very much human for the rest of his lifetime. Certainly that wasn't an equal ratio. With a wry look on his face, he nodded solemnly and pursed his lips.

"I do suppose I understand what you mean. It seems my mind has adjusted to this body within such a swift amount of time it has also forgotten anything else..."

With a slight twitch of his shoulders, he raised his hands in exasperation and added, "But then again, it seems like the only thing around here that's completely useless to him is myself..."

He was quite grateful when she decided to ask more about Sirius instead of focusing on his many faults and blindspots. Thaddeus grunted as he thought how to explain such a grotesque and deviant creature. "Well, he's quite... ah, radioactive, I suppose one would say."

With a swift step Thaddeus was moving about the lab, studying this and that experiment, scribbling down notes on a fairly organized clipboard whilst peering down every once and a while to get a closer look. Scratching his head every few moments in confusion, eventually he slammed the clipboard onto a metal table, nearly denting it with his force. A stuttering sigh escaped his lips as it all of a sudden became very chilly in that condensed space. He never was one for teaching.

"I-I suppose you could say he's much like a time-bomb, just waiting for something to explode.. Or implode.." He shuttered but continued on, thoroughly disgusted. "Sirius lives by feeding, much like a parasite. Off animals, people, anything at all. We believe his skin may be able to absorb some nutrients just by mere touch, but it is completely unknown what the after effect of said transaction would be. We lose far too many, ah, what does he call them..? 'Minions'? To natural causes, so we can't afford to waste any men on frivilous experimentation. A horrible shame, really."

No matter how much Sirius was a blaring example of utter failure on his part, he still couldn't help but be fascinated by such a perversion of nature.

[»Míríel«]

Victoria has a coy smile on her lips. "Oh come on, you aren't that helpless. After all you wouldn't be so close to him if you weren't worth something. Perhaps he's hard on you because he knows your potential." Victoria retied her leather apron securely. It was something that made her concentrate.

She had just turned back to her piece and her jade eyes had been studying it intently when the sound of a fist against metal burst in the air. Turning around she looked at Thaddeus's disturbed and disgusted face. "Yes a horrible shame...IT would have been fascinating if the experiment had worked. Perhaps he could be used for something, perhaps he shouldn't be left to waste in that room." Puckering her lips slightly her hips cocked as she thought for a moment. "Have you done any tests on his skin to see what was happening or how it reacts to things?

[*ƒiƒi*]

Thaddeus

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"After all you wouldn't be so close to him if you weren't worth something."

Thaddeus took this in with an incline of his head, recognizing the slight truth in her statement. Maverick didn't keep around the mold growing on the walls. He didn't keep the damaged weapons. He didn't even hold on to any old trinkets that had grown outdated. Why wouldn't it be the same with his army? Sure, that may sound coldhearted, but that's the way he worked, regardless of whether it sounded "nice" or not. They were not here to make friends, or be treated with dignity. They were there to follow orders.

Stretching his rusty arm out he nodded in agreement at her statement about Sirius. "I've been saying that for years. But then again, any of our opinions are just about as well-heard as his consciense." He chuckled dryly at the absurdity. Maverick, having morals? That was immoral within itself. He had abandoned the unspoken laws of life long ago.

As that thought passed his mind, he clicked his fingers. "Ah, that's right!" Thaddeus leaned over to glance at his calendar, one of the days marked with a smudge of black oil. He pointed at it repeatedly, giving it emphasis.

"The next raid. It is approaching rather swiftly. Oh, I do hope it isn't too messy... Although nothing could compare to the fight we had to put up to take over this mansion.. Poor wretch, that governor. Thank the heavens he was a single man. It took long enough to clean up the mess he alone left behind. Well, that, and Maverick has always had difficulty with striking women..." he sighed.

[»Míríel«]

Victoria laughed at his comment about their opinions. "Isn't that the truth." Her slender hands slide one of the needles back into place. That was the last one, all had been dipped in the poison. She had decided to dilute the poison a bit. Better for it to seem like some mysterious illness than a poison. It was hard to make poison, but it was even harder to do it discreetly. To much concentration and it would be obvious that the death had been planned, to little and the person would live. It was a thin line that Victiora liked treading.

She turned toward her mentor as the sound of his fingers snapping called her attention. That black smudge on the calender looked like the notorious black dot. Death, that little smudge seemed to scream it loud and clear. A smirk came to her face. "Ah yes, the next raid..." She frowned at his word messy. "I hope not...things like raids should be short, clean, and to the point. But as the both of us know, few things turn out that way. " When Thaddeus mentioned Maverick's problem with striking women, Victoria blushed slightly and turned away, setting her bracelet down. "That..." The bracelet clinked on the wooden table. "Is an understatement my friend."

Her eyes stared at the wall that was behind her workshop. The walls had been covered by her sketches and drawings of new ideas and inventions that poured out of her brainstorming, but he eyes were blank. She rubbed her upper arm with her hand for a moment. To be loved, even by someone like Maverick, a one night stand, would be so nice. But she respected herself, and him too much to let something like that happen. What would it be like to be truly loved, to have someone support you whenever you fell, and even when you were soaring through the air like a bird, to be there right by your side. Could it truly be something like fairytale, could love really be something that burned within you like a living coal? Victoria sighed and let her hand drop. No, Love was only a spark, something that flashed and faded, never lasting. It was something that poets never could capture because ti never lasted long enough for them to know what they had felt. Yes, love was a spark, nothing more.

Victoria sighed once more and flicking her pony tail off her shoulder she ruffled through some papers that littered her table. She needed to clean this mess up... it was getting out of hand. Even though she usually was organized, here she let her mind flow and empty out everything it wanted, and you could see just by the state of the table how her mind worked. Somehow she knew where everything was, and even though a little area was always kept clean for tinkering, everything else was covered with books slouching against one another and papers laying around like leaves on a Autumn day.

[*ƒiƒi*]

THAD

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"That is an understatement my friend."

Thaddeus smirked in remembrance in all of the times Maverick had come so very close to slapping Raemond's face off when she was sassing him, and yet he had never brought himself to do it. He would yell, break things, grab her by her clothing, but never had he ever truly stricken her. Now, Thaddeus on the other hand, was a completely different story. Head slaps, thwacks on the back, and heavy punches in the chest were part of his daily ordeal with his taskmaster. Not that he ever deserved it, according to him. Raemond had been asking for it for quite some time.

He rolled his tense shoulders in an attempt to relieve the anxiety that was creeping up on his old robotic bones. There was always one flaw to their plans, some far worse than others. Often enough they were forced to brawl lurking members of Bloodhawk's fleet, typically to the death. They had to be a shadow, an invisible breeze just blowing through; without that, their entire plot could fall apart. A sigh escaped from his lips as his fists clenched, itching to toy with that flamethrower that had been giving him so much grief from beginning to end.

Raids were always unsettling. There was never any certainty, no matter how much Maverick testified to the opposite effect. Even he, with his supernatural abilities, was no clairvoyant. Only time would tell.

"Yes...." he muttered, his eyes fixated on the scattered pieces of the weapon, putting it together in his mind. "Time will tell."

[»Míríel«]

Victoria nodded her head. "Yes...time will tell." She didn't mean about the raids, instead she was still thinking of love. Time would tell if it was true, it would, she knew it. Picking up the bracelet she twirled it around, examining everything, testing, resetting and testing again. It was done. Her fingers were eager to start again, but her mind was to full of other things to concentrate. Setting the bracelet down once more she turned to Thad. "I'm going to call it a day. I finished my little weapon...See you soon." Taking off her leather apron she threw it over her chair and headed back up to where natural light was. Just as she reached the door she turned and flashed him a smile, "Don't freak yourself out about that flamethrower to much...Though somehow I know you will anyways." She turned and headed out.

[*ƒiƒi*]

THREAD ENDED :3

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