rivaan

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"Yeah... I think the time travel made it bigger than it was... or completely opened hte wound." Lisa replied with a dry chuckle, looking at her bleeding arm. Could have been worse, she could ahve been dead... admittedly she could still be dying and this was actually her brain giving her a nice thing to occupy her last moments as they stretched into infinity... Suddenly she blinked and shook her head.' Nope, not even going to approach that rabbit hole...' She silently told herself, dispersing any thoughts of that. This was REAL! Anything else was not acceptable.

"Yeah... I dove out of the way of that one in the last moment... It was aimed at my torso... I think they aimed at my heart to be specific, didn't quite see, they shot at my back while I was leaving my lab." She stated, slightly wincing when hte bandaging was over with and a makeshift cloth bandage made out of Rhia's own labcoat was put on her." I should be good, but we will keep an eye on it. Worst comes to shove, we will just treat it with makeshift medication." She tried to reassure her wife. There were more than a few traditional and folk medicines that modern people didn't really even think about that were mightily effective.

" Apologies accepted, though I'm sorry too, since I'm even more at fault for it." She apologized back. It was honestly a nightmare now that she thought back to it. Once she realized everything, she had promised to tell Rhia as soon as she had an idea for a solution, but it just got worse with time. Road to hell was truly paved with good intentions." What I can do however is swear to never repeat the same mistake at all ever. No secrets anymore. I will always reveal to you everything and never leave anything hidden... except birthday and anniversery presents. If I encounter a difficulty, if I find something that's important and dangerous, I will never try to tackle it again by myself." She grinned a bit as she promised, and looked at Rhiannon." Besides, You've always been the more out of the box thinker. If there's a inventive and unconventional solution to a problem, you'd be the one to find it." Lisa loved Rhia for many things, her smarts, bravery, devotion, wit, the peerless beauty and even her temper.

After a bit, Lisa groaned and began standing up, first to sitting position and then slowly to standing up on her two feet. She felt a bit shacky at first, but her body steeled itself before long." We should get going... those gray skies... they suggest rain later in the day." She spoke aloud, looking at hte clouds that covered the skies like an endless gray carpet. In the distance to the east from where the winds were lightly blowing, one could see the skies were increasingly darker, suggesting that heavier clouds and likely bad weather was indeed headed their way. She'd guess they had a few hours until it was to them though.

"This has the tale tale marks of a Temperate Climate... Looking at the sun position and how it has moved since we arrived, I'm guessing we are northern hemepshere. I doubt we'd be able to see the stars tonight what with the storm slowly rolling in, but once we do see hte star map, we'd get better idea of where we are exactly, unless we find a place with people or something to get proper idea of it before that. Guess those survival classes did come in useful after all." She added with a smile and began walking, slowly taking off her labcoat, but continuing to carry it along. It might be later useful as cloth or even as cloth strips for makeshift ropes or something. It was hard to say mroe things on where and WHEN they ended up at. That said, she hadn't spotted any planes since htye arrived which was a hard thing to do at their modern times when planes were always flying in somewhere in decently great numbers, so usually it didn't take long to at least spot one." There's no planes though... either we ended up somewhere where the air traffic's very small or... we've ended before planes were very widely spread..." She pointed out to her wife. Still WHEN they neded up wasn't of utmost importance right now, they needed shelter before that bad waether caught them out in teh open.

eventually she spotted a wooden post of some kind that she pointed out. When they were close enough, she realized it must have been part of some kind of fence since there were other posts that were in similar state of disrepair. Beyond it were what looked like overgrown retaken by the wilds fields. Whatever wheat was leftover and wild grown was mixed with tall grasses that swayed on the light gentle wind." If there's a fence and fields, there might be a farm nearby..." The engineer suggested.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Lisa couldn't help, but return the kiss for the eternity it lasted. It was all just so sureal, they nearly died and in fact they probably would have died if the protective fiends hadn't held the extra time, suggesting her idea to split them off to a separate and well secured grid was the right one. Had the magnetic fields failed, the two would have been torn asunder in the machine from the forces it generated.

As Rhiannon finally pulled away to forbid her from doing anythign stupid ever again, she chuckled a bit painfully." I promise, Love." She replied, a bit winded out. Let's just say that having all the air blasted out of her lungs when they fell and then having Rhia occupy her like that didn't do wonders for her cardio. She wouldn't have it any other way though." I swear there shall be no secrets ever from me anymore. No matter what happens, I will tell you everything... and no stupid suicide plans anymore." She chuckled, it turned into a cough halfway, but at least she wasn't coughing out any blood so that was a good sign. Meant it likely hadn't gotten into a internal wound.

"Lie down with me... I think we need to rest a bit more. I literally cannot move myself... 'Traveling' with an injury seems to not be a good plan." She chuckled and looked at the gray skies again." Besides...when was hte last time we actually spend the time to just rest and look at the sky? We were still in colleage." She mused.

Needless to say, it hadn't been completley missed by Lisa that they were in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Forest on one side, fields on the other and nary a machine in sight. Not even relay towers or automated farming. In fact the fields looked rather abandoned which she knew wasn't something to happen easily in their time, so who knew where and when they appared. Still Lisa just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being alive without moving with her life for a bit while longer. They will have to get up and seek shelter eventually, but at least if she was getting the signs right it was still morning here, so they had time. For now just rest and bask in Rhia's presence and the fact they were alive. There were many chirping noises in teh forest, along with the sounds of other prey animals, which meant there weren't predators anywhere close.

Frozen Darkness

The girl let out a childish giggle as she picked up her payment for the barrel. She had a sly foxy grin on her thin lil face." Hey, got to do what you got to do to survive. Besides you need to know where to search for htese deals, it's not like just everybody will agree to give you that for a knife or for a even two." She shrugged, clearning noting his slight annoyance she had made a bargain of the deal.

"Well, I got to go then. Will leave you to do your thing in peace, I suspect that pretty lady companion of yours will return soon too anyhow." The child stated and neatly hide the knives away somewhere underneath her loose clothing after wrapping the blades into a piece of dirty cloth." Will come by next time you come over to Underhaven again, we can swap stories or something. Come on, Snuffles, we've got places to be." She called to teh dog as it barked happily, gave Donny a final tilted mutated puppy look and ran after it's supposed owner, leaving Donny alone to start making noise.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Can't be certain until it doesn't or does happen. Besides it just needs to be passable and suitable, getting another setup as Underhaven might take years. What people need is at least somewhere they can be reasonably protected and get some food sources going. As I said, an outpost for this place might be a good idea to lessen the number of people camping here and get them to work on somethign productive." She simply replied to him." Well if I do find something good, you will be one of the first to hear, you seem like the right guy to arrange or at least pitch the idea around here. Anyhow, was a pleasure meeting you, friend." SHe reassurd him as he moved away.

As Cat headed back to their makeshift camp between the crates, she noted the state of the place now. Calmness, granted it was nearing 'nightfall' so people were mostly resting now. Given the situation, resting was an important task, it allowed one to safe up the crucial energy of their body, especially since supplies were rather tight. There were surprisingly old guys with good armor. They looked rather well actualy, ther bodies in pretty good state and training, unlike 13th shelter where the old military guys were nowdays all getting fatter nad out of shape where the slaves and regular civilians were growing thinner and thinner.

Finally after a good deal of time longer than she initially suspected, she returned to their camp to see Donny fiddling with his new rifle and then he had a small campfire going in a small barrel." YOu seem to have just as productive time as me." She quipped in amusement as she took seat in their lil shelter, placing all the gains from her trading run by her." Got us some supplies... actual coal, paper, bullets and so on. I saw and learned interesting things too.." She showed him and said conspiratorially in rather quiet voice.

"There's more to the refugee riots event we heard earlier... at least another side to it. We will need to be careful on how we proceed with that." Cat didn't go into details right now since she didn't know who might be listening in, but it was enough to inform him and give him a clue." What about ya, beside getting a fire barrel, anythign interesting?"

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"I will try... The generator itself was secured well enough from breaching, but depending on teh strenght of the bombs, they may be able to force it to malfunction despite that. I've protected it from tampering, haven't actually gone the route of giving it a strong blast resistant shell yet. It was planned for when I complete the serial manufacturing design for wider use." It was true, the generator here was a prototype same as the time machine. For the 'comercial' version, she was already finalizing some of the schematics and one of the key features was a nearly indestructable shell and safeties she designed just in case somethign like this happened... sadly those weren't featured on the prototype.

"Rhi, don't get killed... if you have to, just comply with whatever they demand, I will get you out if something happens." She pleaded as they were separating to go both ways in attempts to stop a massive tragedy from occuring. There were thousands of people in the research complex, it was a multi-bulding one, so many pscientists and engineers worked here after all.

Pulling herself away from Rhiannon was the hardest thing she had done in many years, but they had work to do. The machine and the generator had to be stopped. Her first course of action however was to go to the security room and at least take a peek at it from distance. The fact she couldn't see anyone there or outside the door wasn't meaning well for the situation as she crept in closer and snuck a glance inside. The security room was wrecked. The computers smashed, the security guards were both killed. She wanted to throw up at the sight of their dead empty eyes and the holes they had in their heads, but held it in. Their guns were gone... and seh could safely assume that the other guards were likely targeted too. There were more infiltrators than the one they had seen, tehre was whatever number that had snuck in with the inspection group at the main lab, then there were the duo that apepared in the engineering. It wasn't a stretch to assume there were more and now with the communications and emergency alert system out, they could clean up any guards without raising too great a fuss.

"Fuck...fuck...fuck" She growled as she began rummaging around the room for anything of use and to her luck, she quickly located what she was mainly searching for. The guards had a hidden gun stashed away in a hidden spot. It was for situations where something unsuspecting happened and they were disarmed or caughed unaware and needed to rearm. It was a pretty simple revolver, wouldn't make it through armor, but it'd do. With that in hand she hurried to power, but sadly didnt' make it all the way there, mainly because there were too many people guarding it now and because she saw from distance that they had smashed the emergency shutdown manual switch. The fact they had made it in, meant they had the codes, which didn't bode well. Lisa's paranoid conspriacy theorist mind, quickly formed a pretty spot on theory that this was an internal job. SHe swore and ran back towards the lab, if the notifcations for the experiments weren't shut off yet, it meant that Rhia was either killed or captured. There was no way to stop it now. Even if they shut down the experiment and had access to the controls, if these infiltrators and terrorists had access to their codes, it meant that the ones that Lisa and rhia could use, were likely already replaced, making them unable to access the system.

No, Lisa ran, stopping for just enough to tear one of the sleeves of her lab coat to turn it into a makeshift bandage around her arm. She had one way and one chance to save Rhiannon and maybe herself. The machine... they knew it was operational, but these people didn't. True it didn't have a blink drive, which meant no control over their destination be it time or space, but also no way to track them either in case somebody tried to do so, which would already be hard once this whole places goes 'nuclear'." Can do it... I assembled that machine, I know it inside and out... It's not impossible to trigger it manually..." She mumbled as she neared the lab and stopped, it is guarded, she reminded herself. She snuck a glance over the lab's door's glass window and saw her wife sadled and pinned to the ground. Well Lisa now saw red. Nearby she spotted one of the big tool cabinents that was with wheels down. It was completely metal and could easily hide her and a manic plan formed in her head. From what she counted the guys here actually had one gun, likely the others that had grabbed the weapons off security were killing more seucirty.

She swiped the keycard and ran behind the cabinet, pushing it down the corridor while hte doors were opening, it flew forwards into the lab at speeds due it's weight, the completely even floor and it's well moving wheels, making all the instruments clank and rattle inside, creating a horrendous noise that pulled the attention of everybody inside the lab. Shots immediately were fired from the terrorists, while Lisa herself tossed herself kneeling on the ground and aimed the gun just like how she'd do in shooting ranges.' 5 people, I got 6 shots... breathe in breathe out and kill the fuckers. Rhiannon's mine.' She thought and the first shot rang out while everybody was distracted and there was complete chaos from her distraction tactic. it hit the man stradling Rhiannon straight in the chest. The next one rang out, taking the guy with the weapon. The rest all ran for cover, thinking they were being attacked by some remaining security.

Lisa ran into the room, over to where Rhia was and in the emantime fired another loosely aimed shot to keep the other 3 buggers occupied and hiding while the countdown of the experiment had already began, making it too late to stop it without the codes, codes she inwardly knew were already changed." COME ON, RHIA!" Lisa cried out, losing no time in pulling her wife standing and dragging her towards the time machine. A shot flew past her head as one of the men had ran over ot he gun his comrade dropped. Lisa fired back, making him hide just in time as she pulled Rhiannon into the machine. It didn't appear protected, but once they were fired upon once more, the shots veered off course because of the magnetic fields surrounding it. Lisa then tore one of the panels and proceeded to cross the wires inside. The countdown till generator intiation was growing lower and lower. The magnetic fields were on ebcause they were seprate powerline and were almsot always powered on.

"It's too late..." Lisa finally stated as she finished fiddlign with the wires and switches in the panel, she sat down, all energy leaving her body from the stress and bloodloss." There's no stopping it... this is our only chance... if we don't make it... I'm sorry for everything and know that I love you." She stated as the countdown reached zero. There was a loud proclamation over the speakers. then a distant explosion, then sparkls flew off everywhere from the walls and cables. The machine came to life, energy emmitters and coils crackling with power as reality was folded on itself and torn to pieces. There was a blinding roar, everything was trembling adn then with a deafening explosion there was only white as the machine, overcharged from the spike as the generator overloaded, snapped to life in a blink.

White,dark,twisted colors of madness, being crushed,reformed, the infinity of the world, the madness at the edge of human perception and the void between worlds... It all lasted a single moment and and yet was an eternity. A paradox within itself and an impossibility within the possible.

Lisa saw the flash of light, saw what she could only describe as madness, a paradox and then after an eternity for the human mind and a moment in time, they were out and falling. She fell flat on her back, blasting the air out of her lungs from the impact as she groaned, staring at the gray sky over them. She was bloodied, tired, hurt and completely confounded... Her mind couldn't quite understand what had happened, but she knew one thing as she looekd to her side. Rhiannon was there and they were (probably) alive.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"...what?" She asked quietly once she heard what Rhiannon told her over the phone. It took Lisa a lot of her will to not react outwardly at the men who were apparently not supposed to be there. She just nodded and replied a simple "Sure." Before turning around and looking at them with an annoyed expression." So you are really part of the inspection...?" She asked in a very annoyed voice. She had to play them for the time being.

The men looked at each other and nodded." Yes, we were told to make sure the generators were in proper state for the big experiment." One of them replied and she could swear they likely have guns or somethign udnerneath their lab coats.

The growled." Fine... take your readings, but im going to be having some complaints to your bosses." She replied and allowed them to enter. The men looked pleased, though they were looking at her with generally suspicious eyes as they made their way into the lab. Lisa called over some of her underlings." Keep an eye on those guys... I need to go to check something out and under NO condition open access to the generator's internals." She told them and htey nodded. The generators were a convined and isolated machines. It had a very well secured outer shell, a casing that was completely airtight. It protected from dist and other such things for hte most part and also served as the first line of defense against sabotage.

She was almost at the door when she heard some commotion." Hey, what are you... ugh." There was a muffled whistling sound and a momentary gurgle from behind. She literally wasted no time as she dove out the door, as bullet had lightly hurt her, leaving a gash since it hadn't quite hit true due to her last minute dive out the door. She heard a slew of cursing, shouts and death throes as she scrambled and slapped her keycard on the doorpad, sealing THAT lab off. From what she heard, apparently this wasn't part of the plan and her calling them out on it forced their hand. She herself wanted to curse, especially as she looekd by the armored glass doors that they were taking something suspiciously similar to a bomb from the cases they brought.

She touched her comms to call Rhia to halt all experiments and lock down the systems when suddenly a powerful buzzing sound filled her ear instead, their internal communications seemingly being jammed. So Lisa did the one thing she could. Holding her right hand to stop the bleeding from her wound, she ran. She ran towards Rhiannon's labs. Meeting Rhia halfway.

"RHIA! They were infiltrators! They opened fire as soon as I tried to leave!" She said, holding her bleeding arm. Her wound had dyed a good deal of that sleeve on her white coat crimson red." They have bombs! I think they want to sabotage the generators and blow up the entire complex! We need to lock down the systems so they cannot power anything and evacuate!" It was then that what she thought was impossible happened. green and red signal lights began coming to life as a neutral emotioness female voice began announcing the start of the experiment. The machine was to be powered up and the generators were being booted on. She looked at Rhia in horror. If the generators powered up, and those bastards blew themselves up along with it, the resulting explosion from the generator would blow the entire complex, there wasn't enough time to escape!" WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN THE SYSTEM!"

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"Well.. yeah. That's how it works, you win some you lose some." The man gave an awkward laugh for a moment, clearly feeling she wasn't overly pleased by this, but he too was just following his orders. He looked at the crew hew was with, most of them, people he hadn't worked with before, but such was the nature of their job, sometimes you get assigned people you've never met and you had to make it work." It's simple really, we are just taking readings and recordings. All the machinery we've brought is various sensory equipment. The top brass is very eager to see the degree of progress you've made due to the latest discovery and the fact that while the machine burned out last test, it still came to life for a brief moment prior to it. Your own sensor data suggest it had began to wrap space on itself to some degree before it suffered failure to the main systems, so we are all hoping that the new test after the new modules, safeties and modifications are in place, might bring about a even better result." He explained with a fake business smile on his face.

"You won't even realize we are here, we will just be out of your way, observing from safe distance and taking readings around the facility as usual, just with more people." He added as the inspection crew began unloading some of the big boxes, taking out said reading equipment which seemed pretty spot on, some of it was more stationary, turning out to be a sensor with it's own computer setup which htey put at the corner of the testing chambers, the furthest away possible from the machien, one of hte inspectors took palce there, and began scanning and looking over the readings. Others scattered around carrying smaller boxes and sensors, asking questions from the staff and the like. Some took a few of the interns to be brought to inspect the power systems, which meant htey would clash with Lisa since she was going to be working there for a bit." Now why don't I run you through the quick details of what we are sent to do as we usually do? I mean the two of us have done this god knows how many times already." He tried to be upbeat and polite. Something was telling him that she was in a bad mood though, you didn't know a person for about a decade without learning something about them and at least learning how to read them a bit.

Meanwhile in the power systems hall, where Lisa and her engineering stooges were working, it to was a hive of activity. Lisa had to build a completely unique one of a kind generator for the machine. It was a prototype and require it's own hall, just for safety sake. There were enough switches and safeties between the power generator and the time machine that no matter what happns to the Time Machine, the generator would be fine. It took years to get the Power Generator to work properly. If the time machine theory was mainly Rhiannnon's brainchild, then this Power Generator was Lisa's. Without either, the project never would have gotten this close to completion. IN fact this power generator was what was allowing the machien to draw enough energy to bend reality. Lisa build a second one, albeit smaller to run the containment field(Electromagentic field).

Suddenly the buzz stopped as a couple of unknowns entered the hall dressed as inspectors, but Lisa recognized NONE of em. They were carrying boxes and what not, taking readings, but she wasn't buying it. Paranoid was not her middle name, but it might be in the near future. In any case, it was a well known fact that without Lisa's direct approval NOBODY enters the Power Systems hall. She was rabid about it and inspectors knew to at least wait for permission. It was both for security and safety for everybody involved. This is why she hated newbies. She growled at them and chased them out to the entryway with a spanner, before pressing the communication unit in her ear and calling Rhiannon, whom she knew should be with the inspection team leader." Hey, Rhia, can you tell your inspector menace to call off his bastard goons before I send them to a hospital? We had a deal, nobody enters Power Systems without approval. If the generators goes out of control, mgiht as well say goodbye to most of the Research Complex. Also why are there people here? Doesn't the team usually stay over with the Machine?" Lisa, wasn't aware there were over twice the usual amount of inspectors.

Frozen Darkness

"It always seems to be so indeed." She nodded at the people comment. She sighed and thought." Well that might explain the ferals... my apologies, but on our way here we've encountered a few ferals that have been caught by the cold wave. If they've fled via the reactor, some of them might have been irreversably changed. You have any news on your daughter's fate?" Cat asked, her voice soft and rather friendly. There was more to this conflict than it seemed. She had thought something was wrong when she heard the briefing mention that the people who fled took seeds of all things. So starting a new colony was one explanation, now the sole question was if there were any of those who fled that still retained their facultries. What the man said suggested there was and that not all of them had turned ferals. There was still too little information overall for her liking though. They'd have to proceed carefully from here on out.

She caught of course the scent of his alcohol. That smeleld rather strong. Unusually so, it was hard to get access to proper spirits for the most people. It required specific equipment to refine alcohol and most settlements didn't have that. Cat had no intention of griling him about it, alcohol was pricey commodity and it was his. Asking about it would likely make him defensive and she didn't want that. A conenction with him seemed like a good thing to have.

"Hey, since I've got no plans to stay at one place for too long, even if I was accepted in Underhaven, I'd always be scouting and exploring the tunnels. Maybe I will keep an eye out for anything useful and of note that might help if things get bad. Like another place for a settlement for example or at least one that would make a good refugee center temporary in case a conflict begins?" She suggested. It didn't hinder or cost her any to keep an eye out for such locations." We are at the edge of the known region, right? I doubt even Underhaven has explored much further beyond, there could be anything out there and I imagine a good resource producing location might ease up the requirements for entry and ease the tension some, a farming outpost of sorts for example?"

She'd have to talk with Donny about this, he had a rather decent head on his shoulders, so he'd likely have a good insight on this situation. Still she now had some suspicions on the sides of the conflict, she wouldnt' be killing the escapees if they weren't ferals. Theyd' need to proceed carefully indeed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey it's a nice story... just a bit too kind for some." Ellie reassured him." I know the other kids I live with will like it, I mean they are younger than me, would appreciate a good bedtime one." The kid smiled at Donny. Seems there were other kids around that were likely homeless too. Urchins, question now was if they were orphans and urchins when they arrived or if they were abandoned afterwards. Either could be, or maybe their parents died while trying to earn their keep here.

"No worries, if you get any good information or stories out there, do make a note to tell me some later, okey? It's not much, but dealing in rumours, information and stories at least earns some cash." She was essenitally living as a novice bard from the pre cataclysm fantasy tales. She entertained bar patrons with stories, bartered in information and rumors. Ellie was already learning how to play a guitar from one of the other refugees, but it was slow and she didn't own one." Well... it will have to do until I'm old enough to also explore the tunels or start selling myself out." Honestly grim to hear a child speak about these things, isn't it?

"Hmmm?" She made a sound, turning her head to the burning barrels." Well... maybe? I assume you don't just want some brief sparkle..." Ellie added, thinking." Well I can probably find you some... and a decent knife will be a fine barter. Fine... give me a little while and I will return with some." She finally stated and walked away, though her dog stood behind, tilting it's head at Donny, patiently waiting for it's owner to return. About 5 minutes later, the girl returned with what appeared to be a a small beer keg that she was dragging behind herself since it was heavy and she wasn't able to carry it." Here, this should burn properly for a good hour and will give of heat for at least another one afterwards while the embers settle. Guy wanted 2 knives for it, but I tlaked him down to one, though I'd take the second one as commision, if you don't mind." The kid grinned. Hey she had to make a living too and while she wasn't well of herself, she knew the place and who had what and where to deal with different items.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Everything could have went better, different actions could have been taken, a single decision might have been enough to alter everything, but ironically unless they used their time machine to push the metaphorical domino chain of reactions, the gameboard had been set and Lisa had to live with her decisions. The good, the bad and the ugly. She watched Rhia get back into the car, swalloing heavy tears and taking another couple of moments to steel her mind, she wiped the last few budding tears away from her eyes and followed her wife back into the car.

"Of course. However long you need." She replied simply and nodded, turning back the car's engine and resuming the drive. Certainly not what she had wanted to happen. In fact till last night it was all rather fine, it wasn't until this morning that the illusion had started to unravel when she saw the experiment's results. Well, truth to be spoken, Lisa kind of knew this might happen, with a brilliant wife as Rhia along on the project, how could she expect them to fail. It's been over a decade.' Guess teh fact we stabilized the machine this time around, should have suggest to me that we might have managed it in advance.' She thought.

It didn't take too much longer for them to arrive at the research complex. Passing through the massive guarded gates of the walled off complex, the dozens of massive buildings located inside. It was a veritable walled of village on itself. Hell there might be villages and small towns that were smaller than this place. The congregation of the best and the brightest that the governement had managed to rope into their web. Some of these people would complete their projects in peace, never to know the true nature of it. Some would face their struggles. Still she drove off to the parking lot of their research building and pulled a mirror and a small makeup kit from her purse, quickly masking small redness around her eyes. A bit vain, but she preferred not to till of people of what's happening.

Passing through the entrance required a full credentials and biometrics check. FIrst was the personak keycard, then there was both fingerprint and retina scanners along with a facial recognition just in case. The guard on the security check, a middle aged man in uniform, armed with a submachine gun, greeted them as he had done for years now since he was assigned to their facility. He was just one of dozens for their building alone. Following the halls and corridors, the two had to separate for a bit as Lisa moved to engineering to get her equipement and files.

Over in the main hall of the experiment chambers, the place was already a hive of activity with their colleagues all working. Some were cleaning the sensitive machinery, otehrs were attaching the new equipment to replace the burnt out ones from the last experiment. Now it wouldn't be too outlandish for it to be happening, it usually was how thing went in their labs, what would pull attention however was the inspection crew that were all dressed in white labcoats, safety equipment and of course the badges they had to carry." Ahh, Mrs Windsor, good morning." A man greeted her. They called her by her maiden name because with both her and Lisa being technically Mrs Johnson, it was confusing. Still at least he was a familiar face, in different to the other inspectors. None of them were returning faces. That said the inspection group this time was significantly bigger than usual. Usually a team of 4 people would come, ask a lot of questions, get the explanations and carry off the flashdrives with the reports. This time there were 10 and even carried their own equipment crates too." Sorry for the mess, but we got some orders to bring some sensory equipment to take readings when you reassemble the device. I hope you wouldn't mind too much? "

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"Hey, we've both got our own copies of the contract... it's the official business contract after all. I also had laywers check it for loopholes we can use, spend months on it, but every lawyer I turned to said the same thing ,it's an iron clad one." She replied, she never did anything illeagal, she went through all proper channels, it just never worked out.

"WHAT?! NO!" Lisa replied horrified at Rhiannon's accusation of sabotage." I NEVER SABOTAGED THE PROJECT! How can you even think that when I've stayed along you for all those long hours sometimes without sleep for days on end just to complete parts of it!? All those sleepless nights, struggling with the roadblocks we've struck! I never sabotaged anything, I worked just as hard as you, but because of our slow progress and roadblocks, I hoped that by the time we've actually acomplished it, they would have dropped us. I swear, I NEVER did anything to hinder it. If I did, I wouldn't fucking have just admitted to you right now that we've succeeded damn it! Hell I didn't know it until you were dressing up before we left! I've done this tests a number of times throughtout the years whenever we've thought we've might acomplished something and it never worked! Can you imagine my shock when I checked the phone as I've done over a hundred times before, but this time instead of the same old state, I see we've done it!?"

"So yes, I had to figure out somehow to branch into the topic of discussion. What could have I said? 'Honey, look, look, we've succeeded in the project! We are probably going to get dropped of it before long once they realize, but anyhow, do you want us to stop for donuts on the way?' I never expected us to actually have a working prototype within the next few years!" She gripped, still a bit incesned Rhia even suggested she was sabotaging their project." We were technically kids back we we signed those contracts, Rhia. Just like countless others who've gone through the same thing, our heads were into the possibilities and hte dream." She said tiredly in the end.

"Look... we've got a bit of time still... even if we finish connecting the blink drive and secure all the systems, we won't have enough of time to actually run a proper test today. We can discuss more how to proceed back home after we prepare... Even if we don't announce the success, next test would show it. I can probably stall any force requests for an experiment from the government for a few more days with technicalities and safety regulations after the last burnout. Maybe we can figure something out... might be able to get them to keep at least you with the project as it's lead... " She said, rubbing her temples.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"There's no excuse for me to give... by the time I realized it, it's already been years into the project." She replied ,running a hand through her raven hair." I hoped it would stop, if they thought that the project wouldn't succeed, eventually they would have just left it alone, drop the funding and allow us to move on, pursue it on our own, a fool's goal and all that. We could have made it work by our own two hands, without the oversight, but... yeah... they aren't dropping it and because of a foolish decision made straight out of highschool, we are in this situation and in a way it's my fault. Given my family's history, I should have noted the possibilities for backstabbing in those documents we signed back then. It's nothing illeagal, but I was so... blinded by the possibilities so notice them. I tried, you know. I tried to find a loophole from the contracts, something to allow us to leave with the research in our own hands, but there wasn't one. WEnt through every page of that mountain of papers that we signed back then, combed through all the fine print and there was nothing."

"What changed...?" She mumbled, biting her lower lip, it was a very specific subconcious habit of Lisa's when she was nervous. Something that Rhiannon would know after over a decade as a couple." The device worked... for a brief moment during our last test before the drive burnt out and the whole thing suffered a catastrophic collapse. I had set a pair of burner phones the moment the experiment was on and the device operational, I sent a mesege from one of the phones to the other that was turned off and in my room. This morning while you were getting dressed I checked it. There's the messege that I send... that was recieved twice. One two days prior the experiment date."

"We've succeeded even if it was only for a fraction of a second, enough to send a SMS through. You are right, we can bring the machine to work within acceptable parameters likely even today. I... panicked... my plan to wait this out and just get us dropped and freed means nothing now. I... have no idea what to do anymore." She was nearly to tears." 5 years, I hoped for five years that they will free us, I made sure to point out to them every bad turn out at every experiment, just trying to get them to stop caring, to convince them the oposite of what we know. To convince them that this was impossible and they shouldn't care to have the research under state secrets, but for some reason they only cared for the possibility... I'm sorry..."

"I don't know... I... maybe... just..." She had tears in her eyes now.