---

The only thing that kept Maya company in her cell was an old wire bed with an absolutely shredded mattress - the staff never bothered to give her a new once, not since the last 5 times she ate her mattress. She never slept on it anyway, she preferred her little corner in the demolished room. The place where she sat was the only place in the room that wasn't covered in blood, bite marks, or scratch marks. There was also a fingernail stuck in the wall beside the vent above her door when she'd tried to rip it off to escape.

Maya, evidently, wasn't that bright. Well, she used to be at least average, but apparently her insatiable need to eat strange things made her eat her intelligence and personality. Now, she was just a tiny ball of pure cannibalistic (well, everything-istic) joy.

She never kept track of what time it was, but there was just one thing that made her know it was the start to another fun-filled day of try-not-to-get-killed-by-experiments:

"WWWWWAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Of course, it was the extremely loud greeting of Worogoro (or, "Robot Pickle," as Maya liked to call him) as he sauntered into the facility. Maya had to wonder, if Worogoro looked like a pickle, would he taste like one? If she actually managed to get to the little amount of face he left out, instead of his stupid armor that tasted like pure pain to bite, she'd be able to find out. Except, your teeth are already broken enough, the tiny amount of sanity she had left tried to warn her; in the few years Maya had been stuck in the facility, she had broken teeth on a variety of things. There was:

• One of Dr. Phillip's inventions (that also left one hell of a mark)
• A stun gun. Her little voice of sanity tried to warn her that she'd get electrocuted if she tried that, but she did it anyway.
• ... and a wrench.

Of course Maya wouldn't listen to that snippet of sanity - because her sanity voice was boring. She enjoyed her life. Though she couldn't really bite things anymore, since she's been gagged. But she'd figure out how to cause trouble in another way, she was sure of that, at least.

---

---

Mari Suya had been sitting in her room scrolling on a website with a certain green color scheme long before the others had stirred. She missed the quiet as it allowed her to sit and cry about the tragic murder of her parents and boyfriend before having a hearty bowl of cereal with colors that matched her rare and beautiful rainbow hair. The milk represented her white angel wings and sometimes when she was lonely, she would play with the cereal pieces and if she was lucky, there was sometimes an employee to keep her company. . . though they were usually on fire and screaming for bloody mercy which is something that Mari had become adjusted to ignoring.

Today, however, Mari wasn't exactly feeling lonely. She was feeling quite popular on the website that she was browsing and this was a result of her new "OC" or original character, Selena Ebony Moonlyte Dementia Dark'Ness Wentz. Selena, like Mari, had bright rainbow hair and was well-liked by boys especially. Although Selena was a Goddess, she could also turn into a wolf and had bright blue angel wings that would change depending on the cycle of the moon. Like Mari, Selena's parents had tragically died after a forbidden romance and a war was started over the girl, but for different reasons. Selena was also a rock star, magical girl, princess, and a host for a maid cafe. She was absolutely perfect just like Mari and that's why Mari loved her and why people loved Selena and therefore loved Mari.

Even the obnoxious screaming of Worogoro could not draw her away this trance for Mari knew that she wasn't like the other girls.

---

There he stood in his personal study, a room that had formerly been a community space, which he had taken over not by asking people to get out, or to allow it to him, but by adorning it with the most advanced security measures their world had to offer including, but not limited to a fingerprint pad, an eye scanner, a measuring scale, a DNA test, passcode, numeric lock, several advanced padlocks, a dial mechanism or five, voice verification, a bioengineered 'guard beast,' a specialized, adaptive personality and background test, a highly advanced virtual intelligence, and a quantum recognition system.

The only downside to the security measures was that it took him about 5-10 minutes to enter his study every single time, which while vexing, was worth the personal space, security, and isolation from the insular minds of his...decidedly less science-minded compatriots. He shuddered and then spat upon the ground, one of his drones cleaning up the mess .003 seconds after it had been made. Turning his attention away from his terrible employer and "fellow." employees, Argent McAllister walked across the room and then began interacting with a holographic keyboard, his fingers zooming over it with inhuman efficiency. Two seconds passed and there were eight paragraphs written on the display, which upon the finishing of the final sentence opened several windows. McAllister swapped between them, checking the status of various projects of his, some of them outsourced at other labs where he operated them remotely with a variety of highly advanced robots.

Pulling away he looked out the window and, judging by the angle of light entering the window, he could tell it was about time for him to--UGHHH--associate with the rest of the staff. Though, more importantly, for him to check up on the three ongoing experiments of his that he hadn't outsourced.

Walking to the door he punched a series of codes, setting the system up to monitor his location and status, as well as to notify him of any impending threats of possible breaches in security, not to mention status reports on his various projects. As he exited the room, he stopped for a moment to take stock of his belongings before glancing almost longingly back at his study before the door was closed.

Once he'd gotten a good look of its comforting aesthetic he turned his eyes away and snapped his fingers. In response, all of his security measures slipped into place, the guard beast rising out from the floor, where it was held in place by several stasis beams a cage, and a series of chains.


Moving on Argent went downstairs to the first floor, the sound of the disgusting ork's roar reaching him easily. Seconds before it occured his ears were covered by what looked like headphones while he braced himself on the stairs. When the tremors had passed he continued down and then through the hall, seeking out their joke of a boss 'Adam Philip'. Finding him reading a fucking doctor seuss book, at which Argent scoffed with great derision, the scientist cleared his throat loudly to get the man's attention, before he spoke.

Once he had the man's attention he began, "Why aren't you in the lab working on the experiments or looking over data here?" While it was a question, it almost sounded like the arrogant Argent was trying to order Philip to do those very things. He glanced around the room, his normal--almost permanently--scowl forming on his features as he did. He snapped his fingers twice, then tapped his wristband. In response several hundred minuscule nanobots erupted from the cracks in the walls and floors and got started with cleaning the place up and organizing things properly.

He did this...EVERY FUCKING DAY when Philip arrived. It was ludicrous, he was NOT a janitor, but nonetheless he could not STAND how the place looked...let alone smelled after a day's work. "Furthermore, why are you reading Dr. Seuss of all things?! It is a child's book and you are certainly NOT a child, Mr. Philip," as he said the man's name, he glared at him, clearly perturbed to find his "boss" slacking off yet-a-fucking-gain. He was at the end of his rope with the man, and it showed.

It was particularly apparent when he accidentally--and subconsciously--commanded some of the nanobots to deconstruct one of the legs of Adam's chair. AFter all, the nanobots were, first and foremost, linked to Argent's consciousness.

The robot "woke up" so-to-speak. In the corner of the room, his blue "eye" lit up and he slowly walked towards Adam. Fuck. They forgot to wake him up again. "I'll be off to do some experiments." the robot said. His joints began to lube up and he walked quicker until he started running into the biogenetics lab.
There, he took a microscope and began watching microbes do things. He looked at his chart and let out a robotic sigh. Simple experiments. The genius intellect of the the world's greatest mathematicians combines and he was forced to slave away like.. some.. sort.. of.. robot..? Well, he was a robot after all. His main experiment involved transferring the Cyclodomes to the Sientswords' petri dish. He lifted one up and brought it over to the other dish before dropping it. He then repeated that before dropping it again.

And again.

He promptly looked on the desk in the lab before grabbing a laser pistol and shooting the petri dishes, microscopes, and everything else in the room.
The ork's roar didn't bother him as he wandered out of the bio laboratory section. Another boring day.

---

---

Amadeus' day began like any other average joe scientist's would. At around 5:00AM, his alarm clock went up to tell him that it was time to stop whimpering and aiming his multi-tool at the vent next to his bed, and get to his morning routine. He swung his legs out of bed, and plodded about his salvaged USG lifeboat evacuation pod wearing only his USG Crew Member sweater and his favorite (read: only) pair of clean briefs.

He approached the makeshift mirror he constructed from a medical drone and stolen rear view mirrors. The thing held the various pieces of reflective glass up with multiple extendible arms, some that creaked and retracted, others that fizzled and fell off. He checked his mask-adorned face and tousled his hair before giving out a vocoded sigh.

Then he pressed his CommLink's receiver button and 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd started blasting through his helmet.

He jigged and jived as he brushed the front of his mask with a toothbrush, before proceeding to take out a disposable razor to try and get at that pesky 5 o'clock shadow on his breathing apparatus. In the shower, he howled out of tune to the song like a baboon in distress, taking care to get at all those creases and crannies on his mask with the loofah. Breakfast was easy, he thought as he uncapped a tube marked "Gud Gunk" and squeezed its entirety into the input port on his mask. The greenish brown gunk dribbled out from beneath and down onto his neck.

"Awwh cripes." He said as he moved back into his bathroom and gave his mouth a proper wash. Difficult but at least his breath, and mask, would smell minty fresh.

---

With that done and dusted, he stepped into the suit storage unit and let it dress him in his usual attire, EVA auxiliaries and all with a clean sweater and clean pants to match. He promptly exited his evacuation pod to the alley it had crashed in, just a few minutes walk from Mr. Phillips' (or as he liked to call him, Dr. Phil's) swanky laboratory. Amadeus entered and commenced his daily morning routine of checking on everyone in the building.

"Mornin', Dr. Phil!" Engrossed in his readings as always, such an inspiration. And one of Amadeus favorite scientific journals too. What a swell boss to work under.

"Mornin', Ms. Suya!" The roll of her eyes means that she's having a good morning. The distant look of longing and the sparkling flick of her rainbow hair meant that she was hungry or something. Amadeus would get her a bearclaw later.

"Mornin', Mr. McAllister!" He was always so chipper in the morning. Amadeus knew they shared a special bond. Especially with the all the nicknames they had for each other. Like how Amadeus would call him 'Mr. Mac' and he would call Amadeus 'bloody nuisance' and 'useless slime'.

Such a special bond.

"Mornin', Ms. O'Beirne!" He didn't have any scrap for her to chew on, but he'd find some soon enough. For now he could only offer some Jolly Ranchers. They were a pretty good substitute in his opinion.

"Mornin', HAT!" The triggerhappy bot put him on edge with that laser pistol, but it was great to see him all the same. He couldn't offer HAT a Jolly Rancher to he resolved to just saluting at him.

He finished the greetings by heading straight to the coffee machine and starting up a brew.

It was there that he was confronted with the massive form of his good buddy Worogoro, killing a whole pot of joe in one go. He was impressed, as always. His blaring rock music ensured he couldn't hear the terrifying roar that he made before, so his nerves were fine. He popped a pill and squeezed it beneath hs mask to be sure. Now was the time to socialise, his favorite part of his job.

"Well hey there, Mean and Green! I see your enjoying the brew to start the day! Y'know I really do favor that there double shot espresso, but I see you take yours black! I never could do that myself, far too bitter for too long. Quick and painless is how I work."

He tried his best to shuffle around the massive bulk of the Ork to get to the coffee machine, voice practically smiling for him in place of a face.

Rex had a system for surviving the morning rush, and the accquistion of something approximating a healthy breakfast for whatever he was, and this morning was much like any other. It began with carefully perching upon a coat stand that had long since given up it's career as a place for coats and hats to pursue it's lifelong dream of gathering dust. It remained near enough to the entrance to suit Rex's purposes, a perch from which he could wait for Amadeus to make his entrance. More or less right on time, Amadeus passed by, and Rex leapt to the ground, following along in his footsteps on all fours. With his ears perked up, his nose to the ground, and his eyes focused on his feet, Rex wove a meandering path behind Amadeus.

Then, on the final approach to the coffee machine, he made his move. Scrambling rather ungracefully out from behind Amadeus, he made his way up onto the table that held the miraculous machine that provided the bitter brown stuff that he had developed something of a craving for. After only one failed attempt to clamber up the table leg and on to the tabletop proper, he sat and stared at where the pot would be - should be! - were it not for the big, green coffee stealing machne that was Worogoro.

Rex stared despondently at the coffee machine, sans pot.

"Why? Coffee?"

The coffee machine, unsurprisingly, did not answer back.

---

The sound of creaking wood trying hard to support the weight of probably the lab's largest resident pulled Maya from her trance and perked her interest. Of course, her whole room shook when her dear ol' Robot Pickle banged his tank of a hand on her already heavily-damaged door - Maya was pretty sure that he was going to be the one to cause her escape, 'cause soon this baby was going to fall again. Why did they never bother to get a good door? A few more bangs from Worogoro, and she could just push the door down. "Oi, you awake ya grot?"

Maya scuffled to her feet, and was going to sprint to her little opening which she only wished she could squeeze through; but, when she got half way across the room, Worogoro had simply tossed her whole bottle into her cell, and hopefully without aiming, had smacked Maya right in the face with it. The force had sent her flying back into the rear wall with a loud crash. The inner Maya wanted to scream and cry, but the rest of her was more focused on the food.

In one movement, Maya had ripped off her mask and shoved the bottle in her mouth. Unsurprisingly, she didn't drink from it like a normal person - she bit right into the side, sending the goop flying all over the place and on her, but she "enjoyed" it anyway. Spying a glimpse of Worogoro's hand through her door's opening, she noticed that he was carrying a raw steak. Again, she scrambled back to the door, leaning as most as she could against the letter slot. Her face had a long, bottle-shaped red mark across it, but she didn't care.

"Aw, Pickle, why can't I have any steak?" she whined through her tiny window between her and the livestock researchers. She knew exactly why she couldn't be handed food - she'd actually try to bite the hand that fed her. But of course, that didn't stop Maya from trying. She was nothing if not obstinate.

Maybe that's why many of the researchers refused to work with her - out of fear for their limbs. But then there's Worogoro, the giant Ork who for some reason wore heavy armor. Was it for her, just so he wouldn't potentially die from spending time with her? Don't be daft, Maya's inner voice reprimanded her, you just can't be trusted.

@ClocktowerEchos

'Dear diary,

Last nite night I had a dream. And it was FRIGGING AWESOME! In it, I was really super duper intelijent smart and I knew the science and Mr. Philip was there, and he was conlaturating congraturating proud of me and my achievements in the science! I was super science-y and cool and I had a lab coat and glasses and stuff that made me look smart. I thout thought it was real but then my alarm went off and I woke up. :(

Anyway, I gotta go learn the science. Wish me luck, diary!

Sinserly Sincerely,
Denny. <3'

With that, Denny closed his diary. He looked around his room, which was a mess due to him rarely cleaning it, and threw on some clothes that smelled half-way decent. Looking into his bathroom mirror, he tousled his hair and made sure his breath smelled good enough before grabbing his flute and heading out the door. He was going to learn the science that day, if it was the last thing he ever did. And, given the fact that APTLLFTS wasn't exactly up to OSHA standards, that was very likely.

Anyhow, Denny got on a tram, humming a random song and ignoring the voice in his head saying 'Welcome. Welcome to City 17.' as the tram got closer to his office. Soon enough, it was time for Denny to get off, and that he did, taking in the scenic city. He admired the ambient noises of muggings-in-progress, cars honking and people yelling, and he especially enjoyed the lovely smell of rat feces and french fries from the McDonalds across the road. After taking in the city, Denny walked to the lab.

"Hellooooooo, laboratory!" Denny exclaimed, looking around the lab. The employees here ranged from normal people like himself to creatures and machines he never even dreamed of seeing in his lifetime. Anyhow, everyone ignored him, and went about their business. As Denny walked around, he remembered a scene from his first day. He was lounging around by the water cooler, as he assumed most people in offices do because he saw it on an office sitcom, when he saw someone who was somehow both frozen and on fire ran past him, screaming. Tailing that person was a bear. It was also frozen and on fire.

"Huh," Denny said, taking a sip from his cup and continuing to act casual, like everyone else. He assumed it was a normal occurrence around the office, and he didn't want to be 'that guy' on the first day.

Soon enough, Denny was done reminiscing, and walked to his cubicle. It was decorated with motivational posters with cats, albums of Denny's favorite flute-based musicians (as you can probably guess, Jethro Tull was pretty much the only band up there), and a computer which Denny never used. He didn't even know if it worked. Maybe someday he'll find out. Anyhow, after a few minutes, Denny heard a blood-curdling yell from someone. Denny didn't even flinch. He was getting good at this whole 'ignoring the abnormalities' thing. Besides, if he remembered correctly (a rare occasion), it was the Ork, Worogoro.

With nothing to do, Denny pulled out his flute and began to play Locomotive Breath by, you guessed it, Jethro Tull.

Eliana Elatir

interacting with Mari @cynder

Eliana yawned, stretching her arms up over her head and blinking her eyes open. She sat up, stretching again, and easing out of her luxurious bed that was made out of a matchbox lined with beanbags and cotton balls and soft cloths. She padded across the smooth desk, fumbling for the switch that turned on the strings of Christmas lights that ran along the ceiling of her cardboard box suite. Standing before the tin-foil mirror, she ran a pink plastic hairbrush (that looked suspiciously like a Barbie doll's) through her fiber-optic locks. She slipped into her standard attire, fitted blue dress and somewhat sheer white lab coat with a monogrammed "E" on it. She settled her silver circlet (that marked her role as Grand Duchess) onto her head, and threaded her wings through the slits in the back of her clothes, fluttering a few times to get the circulation to them going.

She opened the small swinging doors that split her boxy home in two. She turned on the tiny ultraviolet lamp, sighing in relief as her wings trembled, drawing in the energy. When she had enough to get through the morning, she switched the light back to the normal and roused Aeona. The sleepy puffsprite yawned, leaping at Eliana and clinging to her, all six limbs wrapped around her torso. "We go work?" The little creature chirped, running its antennae over Eliana's face, draping its fluffs over her head and shoulders.

"Yes, Aeona, we're going to work."

"Yay! I play with Mickey and Minnie!" The puffsprite flailed some of its fluffs and its antennae. Mickey and Minnie were the lab mice that were being used to test the effect of the neurotoxin. "Wait, do I get to eats them?"

"Yes, yes.-- wait, no! I mean yes, you get to play with them, but no, you don't get to eat them yet. If you ask nicely Woro might give you a bite of steak."

"But steak is icky when cooked. I like juicy."

Eliana laughed, bouncing the puffsprite on her hip and causing it to say "wheee!"

The Grand Duchess exited her box, fluttering up into what was the lab's breakroom. The others here had been kind enough to give her a cardboard box that rested in the corner, behind the counter. She stretched again, straightening her lab coat, and then exited the break room through the mail slot. She flew straight to the lab, grinning as Aeona detached from around her waist and fell in slow-motion, its fluffs spinning around her, into the mouse cage. The mice flinched away from the small puffsprite, which wobbled over to them anyway and clung to one of them. Eliana giggled, turning to leave - Aeona would take care of itself.

She flew to the bedroom of Mari Suya and tapped on the doorframe. "Mari? Are you awake yet, dear?"

---

---

Mari Suya was blaring My Chemical Romance to adjust to her daily emotions and also to ignore the chaos of the laboratory that was in motion just on the other side of her bedroom door (especially when someone was begging for her help - she was so compassionate, but why would she help them when nobody else did?) when she heard a tiny knock at the door. At first she believed that she had imagined it, but there was a voice along with it: "Mari? Are you awake yet, dear?"

It sounded like Eliana, the token. . fairy space woman(?) who also took up residence at this hell hole of a "laboratory". Mari knew Eliana and she also knew Argent, Philip, Maya, Denny, Worogoro, and all the others who were somehow affiliated with the laboratory as well, but there was always the question of her fondness of the individuals. For some reason, Mari often found that she got along with men more than women and it didn't had NOTHING to do with jealousy. She did like Eliana though. Or rather, she thought of Eliana as a friendly rival who was not as perfect as she was, but close.

"I'm awake," Mari shouted, getting up from the desk that was in her room only to head over to the door and find herself face-to-face with the miniature woman, "Did you need something?"

---

Maya stared at the iron door, which she had to scramble away from to avoid ending up looking like a pancake, at her feet. She lifted her head to look at Worogoro, who looked just as confused as she did; and then the moment ended - both started scrambling about. Of course, Maya was trying to escape, and the ork was trying to keep her in. Before she could even reach the other end of the room, the iron door was back up, and Maya ran right into it with a loud clank!

Maya groaned, rubbing her head as she lifted herself from the floor, just in time for Worogoro's entrance:

"Lissen 'ere, you want da meetz den youz gotta annoy da big boss. Also, no eatin' me squig eitha!" Maya looked at the squig, rather unappetisingly; even she wouldn't touch that thing with a 10 foot pole. Unless of course, it was chewing on her leg, as it often would whenever Worogoro and Maya got into a scrap.

"But you're my big boss, Pickle," she cooed, almost flirtatiously, as she approached the giant ork. And much like a spidermonkey, Maya pounced onto the giant figure and scampered about in order to avoid being pulled back off. Worogoro wasn't in any real danger, because there was no way that Maya could actually tear into the little amount of face that he actually left exposed.

Instead, Maya was too busy looking for any trace of the steak that she'd spied earlier. Eventually, Maya stopped scampering around, instead decided to unleash her inner sloth and lock her arms and legs around Worogoro's large arm, her head by his armored hand. No matter how hard she was shaken, Maya didn't seem to care, in fact - she found it fun.

The walls covered in peeling paint had been charred by the many people who frequently caught on fire. An Eve starred at a burn mark, contemplating how to minimize the amount that would appear. She thought about applying chemicals that were resistant to fire, or setting up force field along the walls. Strangely, it did not occur to her, that she could immediately lessen the amount appearing by putting out one of the workers who had been running around screaming for quite some time now.
As the Eve starred intently at the wall, oblivious to everything else, the worker finally stopped screaming- because an old lady appeared out of nowhere and wacked him with a cane so hard he fell over. “The nerve of today’s youth, when I was young we did things right. Yep WE never caught on fire.”
She continued to lecture him while he slowly burned. Someone was finally kind enough to put him out when they were at the “In my days, anyone who was on fire was looked down” part of the speech. The Eve that had been staring at the wall finally looked up to see that the area had gotten a lot more damaged, and that an employee had had most his clothes burnt off, and was still giving off smoke.

As all that was going on, another Eve walked to overly complicated door that had an overpowered security system. She looked down at what appeared to be a pile of intertwined metals that wriggled about in her hands like she was reading off a screen. She knocked on the door and waited- for a long while. Assuming the door also had a camera to monitor the area, she spoke.
“Excuse me, a black whole is currently forming inside your room. Could you please let me inside to clean it?”

These 19 words made dread grow in the hearts of all the workers. Meetings meant death in this company. The last meeting they had, half their work force was transported into space via a wormhole. The one before that, a nuke was launched on the ISS. (That had landed them in some hot water.) Adam sprinted down the hall, and jumped into the meeting room. It was time.

---

---

---

Bobular

---

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. SQUEEG!

A squirming mass of putrid of unknown materials squeezed out of a pipe along 53rd street. The being wriggled with discomfort, as its orifices grotesquely oozed into place. That was much better. Well, not really. Bobular was still existing. Existence meant more pain and despair. Yesterday’s plasma bomb testing had not killed Bobular. Time for another day.

Bobular’s slimy wheat grass sludge created a trail down the alleyway as he dragged himself through the back way street. He moped through, past the dumpsters and stray cats which were eyeing him with intense fear and confusion.Pulling his wet body up the stairs to the back entrance, he heaved a heavy sigh. Bobular was not sure if he enjoyed going to this lab. He was not sure why he still even went. The slime oozed with dissatisfaction, then opened the door to the lab.

Bobular pitifully moved down the hall. His daily mope was interrupted when he heard a loud and brazen announcement echo through the laboratory.



“Sigh… Time for another meeting…” What kind of torture err I mean spectacular scientific discoveries , awaited Bobular? He wandered into the meeting room, groaning with every step.