Interlude: Rhine Labs
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Interlude: Rhine Labs
Don't let any rumours of this thing leak. As far as everyone knows, there is no Ironworm. The Mansfield Prison was not slaughtered by a monster- it was a catastrophic mechanical failure. If we have to throw some people under the bus, do it- it's a necessary sacrifice.
This thing could revolutionize science as we know it. It violates our current understanding of physics, of Arts, of anything.
Name a field of science, and I can name you a dozen ways it's violated the basic assumptions that hold that field up. It's that baffling.
Like I said. Priceless.
If Control wasn't still stuck dreaming, she'd realize the value of this creature. Hopefully Originium Arts or Ecological will agree with me. But that's for later.
For now, we have to get it out of that prison.
Muelsyse saw the light first, as she walked into the alley.
It was a strange one.
A yellow-green bioluminescence coated the small sapling's leaves. That small, fragile thing, held in the man's hands, was trembling.
It hadn't been cared for properly.
They gave it food, and water, but they didn't know enough about it to truly nurture its small, fragile form.
It's unlikely that they would know about its specific dietary needs, or how it had a tendency to grow extremely quickly during the early stages of its life, needing to have its container replaced constantly.
They would also not know about the ways you can stall its development without harming it, by shining a certain frequency of light over its surface- mimicking the glow of the algae-laced waters near its natural habitat, who shine in a different way during a period of scarcity, a way that leads the plant to believe it is not yet time to grow.
She frowned.
Of course they wouldn't know- the information is scarce. The plant is endangered, and it wasn't obtained with much finesse or care- why would they give it that afterward?
But still…
She was not a fan of working with Alvar, even if he has an annoying tendency of making himself needed. Hopefully, he didn't bring that friend of his.
The Zalak wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.
She could just sweep in, take the plant from its box, and run. She wouldn't, though- because she knew him.
He wasn't being careless because he was an idiot. He was being careless because he could afford to. He could outspeed her fastest clone and take the plant from its hands before she could finish blinking. It was futile.
How is he so fast, she wondered.
What little information they have on him- from his first, and only arrest- suggested something, some sort of spring-like structure, fused with his tibia.
Many- in Rhine Labs, in the Columbian underworld, in law enforcement agencies, amongst Messengers- wondered who were Mr. H and Alvar, the highwaymen who steal from Columbia's prominent tech companies, and supposedly sell the technology to the highest bidder in complete secrecy?
Eyes hidden behind his safety helmet, the Zalak lightly prodded the plant's partially emerging roots.
Muelsyse thought the plant was clearly chafing in that minuscule vase. It better not have been permanently damaged.
"Yo." he said. "Here for your plant?"
Muelsyse smiled.
"Of course!" she answered. "You can stop shuffling around, big guy. You're not as subtle as you think you are."
Breathing loudly, the 400 kilogram bald behemoth slithered out of a box in the corner. A box certainly too small for him, and in a way that would require a very flexible spine.
While the man towered over Muelsyse, and the gleam in his black shades made for a frightening atmosphere, the Director of Rhine Labs' Ecological Section had been sufficiently exposed to his ridiculous behaviour to feel absolutely no fear.
Mr. H came closer to her hair. His nose somehow seemed to stretch past his face, in a bizarre sort of movement that defied traditional understanding of nose tissue and buried itself on her forehead, before returning to its rightful place with a sniffing sound that didn't actually connect with the movement of his nostrils.
Then, his face twisted with an audible snap.
Forcing itself into an equally unnatural frown. Too expressive to fit a human face. Too flexible to fit flesh, muscle or bone. It was something else.
He mumbled something about water and smell in broken Columbian, filtered through something that sounded like you smashed the legs of an Ursus accent with a tire iron, and passed through the floor and into the basement of the house underneath.
Muelsyse blinked.
Okay.
"Where's the rest?" she asked, now that this… event was done with. "You said there were more."
Alvar shrugged.
"Don't know much. Think that was all, sorry. Why do you want those anyway?"
"Well, Mr. Alvar, those plants have an unique sort of bioluminescence, you know. They're very rare nowadays, but the symbiotic bacteria that covers their leaves glows brightly, and is highly nutritious to several insect species. Entire ecosystems can sustain themselves on this plant alone."
Alvar checked the time on his Wicked Mouse watch. It was currently 16:35, standard Columbian timezone.
"I guess you want them for your garden or something. That's nice. Shame on the Originium sensitivity, though." he noted, before pausing. "Guess that's why it's so rare nowadays. It was a pain transporting it here."
It was exactly thanks to that.
With the opening of an increasing amount of Originium mining facilities around its original habitats, this particular plant- the lucidic bush- had quickly become an endangered species.
The bacterial colonies that dwelt on its leaves didn't react well to the increasing amount of Originium granules in the air- and died off quickly.
With their death, the insects that fed on them and pollinated the bush itself perished shortly after. The animals who survived off the insects fell as well, and from there, a total collapse of the ecosystem followed.
What few specimens of the lucidic bush remained were in the collections of rich eccentrics, in the laboratories of universities and corporations, and one particular specimen had been acquired from the starving forest around a newly-established Originium mine.
It was rumoured to be a potent Originium Arts enhancer, a key ingredient of a regenerative tonic, and a hallucinogenic drug capable of inducing a state of understanding of the cosmos.
It was none of those things. What made it valuable to Muelsyse was another thing entirely- its value to an ecosystem that she had, for quite some time, been attempting to reconstruct, if only in a limited format.
"You really got some nerve, stealing from Rhine Labs and then selling right back to us for a higher price." said Muelsyse. "Are you really sure those were all that was left from the transport?"
"With you being the Wing bigwig that you are, Muelsyse," noted Alvar. "If you can't pay what we're asking for this bush, you should probably go looking for some budget expansions. It's not much."
Muelsyse blinked. Wing? Then shook her head.
"You know it's not that easy… I'm just the teensy weensy Director of Ecological! I can't go around and just ask for a budget expansion! I had to pay for this out of my own pocket!"
Alvar raised a single eyebrow and offered the box with the plant.
"Really." he asked, before pausing. "Actually. Don't answer. I don't care. Hope we see each other again, Miss Director. Your money is as good as any other."
She took the plant in her hands. Didn't say a word.
Shortly after, Alvar was alone once again, in that alley.
He wouldn't be for long.
...Sir, your insurance premiums for the month.
That's too much. I- I can't afford this.
Sir, if you cannot pay before the deadline, we will only cover prescription drug costs for the rest of the month. And you'll need to get a physical at a designated health care facility before that, don't you.
Damn, the physical... I don't have enough for that on my own. But I already paid...
Sir, if you can't pay your premiums on time, then you definitely can't afford a physical examination, or the follow-up treatment.
I...
We've been told that your Oripathy has been worsening recently, hasn't it? Have you reported any acute symptoms? Pain around the stomach region, where your crystal aglomerations were last detected?
I'm feeling fine, damn it!
Sir, we have here- right here- your last purchase. That's quite a lot of analgesic drugs. Are you sure you-
I've been working my ass off this month and you still want more. The hell you want me to do? What can I even do?
Well, considering your health and the social issues around it, a possible option would be to move into an Infected treatment zone next month.
Infected... treatment zone? No, no. I can't go there.
Well, sir, if you don't want to enjoy the discounts offered in a specialized treatment zone...
Wait. How long do I have until I have to pay?
Until next week, sir.
...alright. I can pay. Trust me in this.
Are you sure?
Yeah. There was that one contract... for Rhine Labs. Something to do with the recovery of a subject. The pay's more then enough.
Very well, sir.
And besides... I'm Infected. I haven't exactly got a lot to lose. Mansfield...
Date: January ██th, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
We've recovered the specimen. It doesn't seem to be moving, but the properties you observed were indeed confirmed.
Whatever it is, it can survive anywhere- in the absence of breathable air, under extreme heat, under the cold of the absolute zero. The material we've extracted from its body is replenished soon enough, and it maintains its properties.
Energy is still excited about it. Ferdinand hasn't left the room since we did that preliminary scan of its outer layer and of the samples. Parvis is interested too.
That said, we still haven't pierced that layer. We've theorized the creature's got to have some kind of innards, but so far- nothing. It runs on nothing, I guess.
That said… the properties of its ferrofluid body are baffling.
I think this might be perfect. It might be what we're looking for.
"Hello, Mr. Parvis." noted the receptionist, through the phone. "Are you well? This is the third time this week you've called in sick."
The elderly Caprinae chuckled through the phone line.
"It's nothing. Just some headaches. I'll come back soon enough."
Date: January ██th, ████
To: Dorothy
From: Ferdinand
Regarding the Transmitter project, Dorothy: I think you might find this particular material very useful.
"Again?" said Muelsyse.
This time, she was the one to wait for him. He was carrying another box- this time, many jars full of tiny, chittering insects.
"...eh." he answered with a shrug.
It really wasn't his problem if Columbia kept making their trains so easy to sneak into. Maybe Rhine Labs could invest into better transportation methods?
"You paid me my price already. I'm just here to hand you your bees, Muelsyse." he noted.
In the background, Mr. H was looming over an increasingly intimidated Rhine Labs security guard. The man was quaking on his boots by now, but he wasn't letting go of his weapon.
Whatever he could do to him wasn't worse than what Saria would do. If the Director of Defense learned he was-
Ah. Right.
Forgot about that.
"Wasn't me last time, you know. With the flowers." muttered Alvar, ignoring the occurrence in the corner. "Got it from some guys trying to sell it, swiped it right off their hands. Figured you'd like it."
He handed the box to the Elf without much fanfare. After checking a bit to see if the insects were alive, she nodded.
There was something strange about him.
"You, Mr. Alvar. You never really told me what you were doing before..." she made a wide gesture. "All of this. You said you had, what was it? A pretty nice job?"
Blatantly fishing for information, sure, but it worked. Alvar nodded and made a pensive expression.
"Yeah. My old boss' gone, though, so that's out of the picture. I didn't feel like going back to construction work, so..."
"Construction work?"
Interesting. He'd pretended to be one as part of the Mansfield breakout, but she didn't know he actually had been one at some point.
"What made you drop that? Not well-paying enough, hm?"
"Not really. I ran over some kid with a steamroller."
Muelsyse blinked.
"What?"
"Yeah. The kid was just there, and I was driving the thing, not really paying attention. Got fired after that." he said, with another shrug. He didn't seem to care much. It was just a thing that happened.
In that moment Muelsyse realized she really didn't know anything at all about the person in front of her.
And that was that, at least for now.
Dorothy Franks poured a vial of a strange, silvery material down a tube.
As if fell into the black, metallic fluid below, something strange happened. It started... mixing. Merging.
Every reading coming from the bottle had stopped making sense.
The material baffled, and fascinated her. This fluid didn't seem to obey any logic but its own.
It was impossibly light at times, and impossibly heavy at others- with no real rhyme or reason to its shifts. It changed density on a whim.
And now, it was mixing with her material, of its own initiative. It seemed almost alive, even after being separated from the main body, and moved many miles away.
There was possibility, there- it had something governing its movement. Dorothy was sure she could understand- she was sure she could grasp what was behind it.
Returning to her laptop, she tapped a command into the prompt.
"Rise."
The liquid obeyed.
Date: January ██nd, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
The specimen is stirring. It reacted badly to something- when we brought it to the terrarium to test its reactions again. We think it's that plant you brought yesterday.
Energy brought something new, a drill. Cooked up by Originium Arts specifically to drive through its tissue. I'm forwarding you the blueprints. Using it, we've managed to extract something from its inner layer.
It's black. We're unsure of what it actually is, but the scans are all returning… water.
Regular purified water.
That can't be, obviously.
Now, we can't move it from its spot, and it's… almost sniffing it? It doesn't seem to have a nose. It's a mass of iron and bone.
I'll keep you updated, Director.
"It's not a plant this time." mused Alvar.
He wasn't sure of what was in the package- it was some kind of sphere, warm to the touch. Probably some Singularity trick.
Muelsyse was taking a lot of time to get here, for sure. It was almost like he blew up that transport for nothing.
He chuckled. H would be already be grumbling if he was here.
Unfortunately, he was not. Every time some new season of the newest Higashian cartoon he was hooked on showed up in Columbia, he'd become unavailable for a week or two. Just normal stuff- Alvar was long since used to it by now.
Didn't mean it wasn't annoying, though.
Man, he really could go for some-
Before he could finish the sentence or Muelsyse could arrive to receive the package, however, he heard a sound. Something crushing the pavement.
Something hissing, for one second. And then, the grinding of metal passing through stone.
"Mr. Parvis?"
"Yes?"
"Didn't you call in sick?"
"Yes, yes, I did. But there's been a recent discovery, you see. I couldn't exactly stay home."
"Ah. Well, sir, I think you should take more care with your health..."
"Ha, because I'm old, no?"
"No, sir, it's not that. I just think that-"
"Don't worry much about me. You're still young. You've got much ahead of you. I don't have much time to spend sitting on my bed. Have you heard of the new test subject we got our hands on?"
"The... ferrofluid mutant, sir?"
"It's not exactly a mutant. The Arts spectrometers didn't locate any Originium residue. That said... we've found something else."
"Something else?"
"Not to toot my own horn much, but it was my idea. Using some old symphonic Arts formulas to translate light into music- old stuff, barely in use nowadays- we managed to detect an entirely new kind of radiation, being emitted from its body. A variety of radiation entirely different from anything Originium can produce."
"That... is interesting. I imagine Energy's interested already."
"Oh yes, Energy and Originum Arts. Ecological's finding more use on the properties of its liquid body. Did you know it can violate conservation of mass? Or at least, we think it can."
"Violate conservation of mass... I see. So, I imagine we're going to be collaborating with Directors Dorothy and Ferdinand more closely in the future."
"We will! This creature really is fascinating. We don't know what it is, or from where it came from. The only identifying details are the DNA samples encountered on its bones. Tied to one Jesselton Miller. I imagine Ferdinand knew him, by the look in his face when we investigated."
Ahrens Parvis pauses, massaging the side of his head with an index finger.
"Are you well, sir?"
"It's just a headache. They've been getting better recently."
"Do you believe... it might be a side effect?"
"Of the radiation? Possible, and unfortunate if so. After the discovery, we've placed the creature in isolation, but there was an interesting thing..."
"What?"
"We used the formulas on the areas the creature visited, calibrated to detect that mystery radiation. But the control variables also reported a somewhat lower amount- even though they were kept far, far away from here. Radiation that we are sure should have been detected, in some way, earlier. If not by us, then by another institute. It seems as if this mysterious energy is all around Columbia, now, and did not exist before."
He smiled at the young researcher.
"That's interesting, isn't it?"
Date: January ██nd, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
I felt their sound.
It soaks those leaves.
We're coming.
There was a creature, there.
Its very presence radiated danger.
Every movement, every slurred twitch, had the primal, ancient parts of the human brain trying desperately to communicate that ancient knowledge- this is serious. This is a monster.
It was a gigantic, melting blob of liquid iron- many bone daggers and skeletal hands bursting from the boiling surface. But, simultaneously, the environment was silent- too silent. The only sound he could hear was the grinding, incessant and torturing to listen to.
Laughter echoing in the sky.
The form of the Distortion twitched. It recognized him. It knew him. The man in front of him, who was already taking his hammer from the backpack, was recognizable. Faintly so.
But what was more recognizable was something else.
A sound.
It was blind. It was mute. Its skull had melted into slurry and bone fragments. Its skin, its legs, its arms were all dissolved, so it could not touch. But it could still hear.
It heard the past and present. Transmissions on its head. Here, something had echoed. Here, someone spoke.
On the coat of Alvar, it felt the sound of laughter. A loud, boisterous laughter. It hated that laughter. It was the reason as to why it was what it was. Its mind was broken, shattered, but it hated things. It hated many things.
It hated white fur. It hated Liberi. It hated Rhine Labs. It hated bone, and pain. It hated itself.
But it also hated Mr. H, and his incessant noise.
It couldn't attack.
It wouldn't attack.
Not until it was told to.
It was an actor. A toy. An amusing thing for an audience. An audience that was always, always laughing at its antics.
It was a show. It was all a show.
Alvar could see it now, almost imperceptible. Infinitesimally thin strings, connecting the blob's melted appendages to something, high up in the sky. Those strings were not always there. They were connected to something, but not always.
Only when the show was in session.
Only at the appointed time.
Faces twisted into cruel grins, they were dolls of bone and cloth. The garbs of a prisoner, of a warden, of a construction worker.
They were smiling and laughing.
They always were.
I suppose I really am getting old.
Though… I'm not too ready to just accept a voice in my head yet. I've yet to stoop to that level, you see.
That said, I'm a scientist. I would be open to researching an interesting phenomenon… if it would do the polite thing, and tell me its name.
"Carmen." Yes, that is a nice name. You're a scientist, as well, hm.
Well, I'm Ahrens Parvis, Miss Carmen.
It's nice to meet you.
Don't let any rumours of this thing leak. As far as everyone knows, there is no Ironworm. The Mansfield Prison was not slaughtered by a monster- it was a catastrophic mechanical failure. If we have to throw some people under the bus, do it- it's a necessary sacrifice.
This thing could revolutionize science as we know it. It violates our current understanding of physics, of Arts, of anything.
Name a field of science, and I can name you a dozen ways it's violated the basic assumptions that hold that field up. It's that baffling.
Like I said. Priceless.
If Control wasn't still stuck dreaming, she'd realize the value of this creature. Hopefully Originium Arts or Ecological will agree with me. But that's for later.
For now, we have to get it out of that prison.
Muelsyse saw the light first, as she walked into the alley.
It was a strange one.
A yellow-green bioluminescence coated the small sapling's leaves. That small, fragile thing, held in the man's hands, was trembling.
It hadn't been cared for properly.
They gave it food, and water, but they didn't know enough about it to truly nurture its small, fragile form.
It's unlikely that they would know about its specific dietary needs, or how it had a tendency to grow extremely quickly during the early stages of its life, needing to have its container replaced constantly.
They would also not know about the ways you can stall its development without harming it, by shining a certain frequency of light over its surface- mimicking the glow of the algae-laced waters near its natural habitat, who shine in a different way during a period of scarcity, a way that leads the plant to believe it is not yet time to grow.
She frowned.
Of course they wouldn't know- the information is scarce. The plant is endangered, and it wasn't obtained with much finesse or care- why would they give it that afterward?
But still…
She was not a fan of working with Alvar, even if he has an annoying tendency of making himself needed. Hopefully, he didn't bring that friend of his.
The Zalak wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.
She could just sweep in, take the plant from its box, and run. She wouldn't, though- because she knew him.
He wasn't being careless because he was an idiot. He was being careless because he could afford to. He could outspeed her fastest clone and take the plant from its hands before she could finish blinking. It was futile.
How is he so fast, she wondered.
What little information they have on him- from his first, and only arrest- suggested something, some sort of spring-like structure, fused with his tibia.
Many- in Rhine Labs, in the Columbian underworld, in law enforcement agencies, amongst Messengers- wondered who were Mr. H and Alvar, the highwaymen who steal from Columbia's prominent tech companies, and supposedly sell the technology to the highest bidder in complete secrecy?
Eyes hidden behind his safety helmet, the Zalak lightly prodded the plant's partially emerging roots.
Muelsyse thought the plant was clearly chafing in that minuscule vase. It better not have been permanently damaged.
"Yo." he said. "Here for your plant?"
Muelsyse smiled.
"Of course!" she answered. "You can stop shuffling around, big guy. You're not as subtle as you think you are."
Breathing loudly, the 400 kilogram bald behemoth slithered out of a box in the corner. A box certainly too small for him, and in a way that would require a very flexible spine.
While the man towered over Muelsyse, and the gleam in his black shades made for a frightening atmosphere, the Director of Rhine Labs' Ecological Section had been sufficiently exposed to his ridiculous behaviour to feel absolutely no fear.
Mr. H came closer to her hair. His nose somehow seemed to stretch past his face, in a bizarre sort of movement that defied traditional understanding of nose tissue and buried itself on her forehead, before returning to its rightful place with a sniffing sound that didn't actually connect with the movement of his nostrils.
Then, his face twisted with an audible snap.
Forcing itself into an equally unnatural frown. Too expressive to fit a human face. Too flexible to fit flesh, muscle or bone. It was something else.
He mumbled something about water and smell in broken Columbian, filtered through something that sounded like you smashed the legs of an Ursus accent with a tire iron, and passed through the floor and into the basement of the house underneath.
Muelsyse blinked.
Okay.
"Where's the rest?" she asked, now that this… event was done with. "You said there were more."
Alvar shrugged.
"Don't know much. Think that was all, sorry. Why do you want those anyway?"
"Well, Mr. Alvar, those plants have an unique sort of bioluminescence, you know. They're very rare nowadays, but the symbiotic bacteria that covers their leaves glows brightly, and is highly nutritious to several insect species. Entire ecosystems can sustain themselves on this plant alone."
Alvar checked the time on his Wicked Mouse watch. It was currently 16:35, standard Columbian timezone.
"I guess you want them for your garden or something. That's nice. Shame on the Originium sensitivity, though." he noted, before pausing. "Guess that's why it's so rare nowadays. It was a pain transporting it here."
It was exactly thanks to that.
With the opening of an increasing amount of Originium mining facilities around its original habitats, this particular plant- the lucidic bush- had quickly become an endangered species.
The bacterial colonies that dwelt on its leaves didn't react well to the increasing amount of Originium granules in the air- and died off quickly.
With their death, the insects that fed on them and pollinated the bush itself perished shortly after. The animals who survived off the insects fell as well, and from there, a total collapse of the ecosystem followed.
What few specimens of the lucidic bush remained were in the collections of rich eccentrics, in the laboratories of universities and corporations, and one particular specimen had been acquired from the starving forest around a newly-established Originium mine.
It was rumoured to be a potent Originium Arts enhancer, a key ingredient of a regenerative tonic, and a hallucinogenic drug capable of inducing a state of understanding of the cosmos.
It was none of those things. What made it valuable to Muelsyse was another thing entirely- its value to an ecosystem that she had, for quite some time, been attempting to reconstruct, if only in a limited format.
"You really got some nerve, stealing from Rhine Labs and then selling right back to us for a higher price." said Muelsyse. "Are you really sure those were all that was left from the transport?"
"With you being the Wing bigwig that you are, Muelsyse," noted Alvar. "If you can't pay what we're asking for this bush, you should probably go looking for some budget expansions. It's not much."
Muelsyse blinked. Wing? Then shook her head.
"You know it's not that easy… I'm just the teensy weensy Director of Ecological! I can't go around and just ask for a budget expansion! I had to pay for this out of my own pocket!"
Alvar raised a single eyebrow and offered the box with the plant.
"Really." he asked, before pausing. "Actually. Don't answer. I don't care. Hope we see each other again, Miss Director. Your money is as good as any other."
She took the plant in her hands. Didn't say a word.
Shortly after, Alvar was alone once again, in that alley.
He wouldn't be for long.
...Sir, your insurance premiums for the month.
That's too much. I- I can't afford this.
Sir, if you cannot pay before the deadline, we will only cover prescription drug costs for the rest of the month. And you'll need to get a physical at a designated health care facility before that, don't you.
Damn, the physical... I don't have enough for that on my own. But I already paid...
Sir, if you can't pay your premiums on time, then you definitely can't afford a physical examination, or the follow-up treatment.
I...
We've been told that your Oripathy has been worsening recently, hasn't it? Have you reported any acute symptoms? Pain around the stomach region, where your crystal aglomerations were last detected?
I'm feeling fine, damn it!
Sir, we have here- right here- your last purchase. That's quite a lot of analgesic drugs. Are you sure you-
I've been working my ass off this month and you still want more. The hell you want me to do? What can I even do?
Well, considering your health and the social issues around it, a possible option would be to move into an Infected treatment zone next month.
Infected... treatment zone? No, no. I can't go there.
Well, sir, if you don't want to enjoy the discounts offered in a specialized treatment zone...
Wait. How long do I have until I have to pay?
Until next week, sir.
...alright. I can pay. Trust me in this.
Are you sure?
Yeah. There was that one contract... for Rhine Labs. Something to do with the recovery of a subject. The pay's more then enough.
Very well, sir.
And besides... I'm Infected. I haven't exactly got a lot to lose. Mansfield...
Date: January ██th, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
We've recovered the specimen. It doesn't seem to be moving, but the properties you observed were indeed confirmed.
Whatever it is, it can survive anywhere- in the absence of breathable air, under extreme heat, under the cold of the absolute zero. The material we've extracted from its body is replenished soon enough, and it maintains its properties.
Energy is still excited about it. Ferdinand hasn't left the room since we did that preliminary scan of its outer layer and of the samples. Parvis is interested too.
That said, we still haven't pierced that layer. We've theorized the creature's got to have some kind of innards, but so far- nothing. It runs on nothing, I guess.
That said… the properties of its ferrofluid body are baffling.
I think this might be perfect. It might be what we're looking for.
"Hello, Mr. Parvis." noted the receptionist, through the phone. "Are you well? This is the third time this week you've called in sick."
The elderly Caprinae chuckled through the phone line.
"It's nothing. Just some headaches. I'll come back soon enough."
Date: January ██th, ████
To: Dorothy
From: Ferdinand
Regarding the Transmitter project, Dorothy: I think you might find this particular material very useful.
"Again?" said Muelsyse.
This time, she was the one to wait for him. He was carrying another box- this time, many jars full of tiny, chittering insects.
"...eh." he answered with a shrug.
It really wasn't his problem if Columbia kept making their trains so easy to sneak into. Maybe Rhine Labs could invest into better transportation methods?
"You paid me my price already. I'm just here to hand you your bees, Muelsyse." he noted.
In the background, Mr. H was looming over an increasingly intimidated Rhine Labs security guard. The man was quaking on his boots by now, but he wasn't letting go of his weapon.
Whatever he could do to him wasn't worse than what Saria would do. If the Director of Defense learned he was-
Ah. Right.
Forgot about that.
"Wasn't me last time, you know. With the flowers." muttered Alvar, ignoring the occurrence in the corner. "Got it from some guys trying to sell it, swiped it right off their hands. Figured you'd like it."
He handed the box to the Elf without much fanfare. After checking a bit to see if the insects were alive, she nodded.
There was something strange about him.
"You, Mr. Alvar. You never really told me what you were doing before..." she made a wide gesture. "All of this. You said you had, what was it? A pretty nice job?"
Blatantly fishing for information, sure, but it worked. Alvar nodded and made a pensive expression.
"Yeah. My old boss' gone, though, so that's out of the picture. I didn't feel like going back to construction work, so..."
"Construction work?"
Interesting. He'd pretended to be one as part of the Mansfield breakout, but she didn't know he actually had been one at some point.
"What made you drop that? Not well-paying enough, hm?"
"Not really. I ran over some kid with a steamroller."
Muelsyse blinked.
"What?"
"Yeah. The kid was just there, and I was driving the thing, not really paying attention. Got fired after that." he said, with another shrug. He didn't seem to care much. It was just a thing that happened.
In that moment Muelsyse realized she really didn't know anything at all about the person in front of her.
And that was that, at least for now.
Dorothy Franks poured a vial of a strange, silvery material down a tube.
As if fell into the black, metallic fluid below, something strange happened. It started... mixing. Merging.
Every reading coming from the bottle had stopped making sense.
The material baffled, and fascinated her. This fluid didn't seem to obey any logic but its own.
It was impossibly light at times, and impossibly heavy at others- with no real rhyme or reason to its shifts. It changed density on a whim.
And now, it was mixing with her material, of its own initiative. It seemed almost alive, even after being separated from the main body, and moved many miles away.
There was possibility, there- it had something governing its movement. Dorothy was sure she could understand- she was sure she could grasp what was behind it.
Returning to her laptop, she tapped a command into the prompt.
"Rise."
The liquid obeyed.
Date: January ██nd, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
The specimen is stirring. It reacted badly to something- when we brought it to the terrarium to test its reactions again. We think it's that plant you brought yesterday.
Energy brought something new, a drill. Cooked up by Originium Arts specifically to drive through its tissue. I'm forwarding you the blueprints. Using it, we've managed to extract something from its inner layer.
It's black. We're unsure of what it actually is, but the scans are all returning… water.
Regular purified water.
That can't be, obviously.
Now, we can't move it from its spot, and it's… almost sniffing it? It doesn't seem to have a nose. It's a mass of iron and bone.
I'll keep you updated, Director.
"It's not a plant this time." mused Alvar.
He wasn't sure of what was in the package- it was some kind of sphere, warm to the touch. Probably some Singularity trick.
Muelsyse was taking a lot of time to get here, for sure. It was almost like he blew up that transport for nothing.
He chuckled. H would be already be grumbling if he was here.
Unfortunately, he was not. Every time some new season of the newest Higashian cartoon he was hooked on showed up in Columbia, he'd become unavailable for a week or two. Just normal stuff- Alvar was long since used to it by now.
Didn't mean it wasn't annoying, though.
Man, he really could go for some-
Before he could finish the sentence or Muelsyse could arrive to receive the package, however, he heard a sound. Something crushing the pavement.
Something hissing, for one second. And then, the grinding of metal passing through stone.
"Mr. Parvis?"
"Yes?"
"Didn't you call in sick?"
"Yes, yes, I did. But there's been a recent discovery, you see. I couldn't exactly stay home."
"Ah. Well, sir, I think you should take more care with your health..."
"Ha, because I'm old, no?"
"No, sir, it's not that. I just think that-"
"Don't worry much about me. You're still young. You've got much ahead of you. I don't have much time to spend sitting on my bed. Have you heard of the new test subject we got our hands on?"
"The... ferrofluid mutant, sir?"
"It's not exactly a mutant. The Arts spectrometers didn't locate any Originium residue. That said... we've found something else."
"Something else?"
"Not to toot my own horn much, but it was my idea. Using some old symphonic Arts formulas to translate light into music- old stuff, barely in use nowadays- we managed to detect an entirely new kind of radiation, being emitted from its body. A variety of radiation entirely different from anything Originium can produce."
"That... is interesting. I imagine Energy's interested already."
"Oh yes, Energy and Originum Arts. Ecological's finding more use on the properties of its liquid body. Did you know it can violate conservation of mass? Or at least, we think it can."
"Violate conservation of mass... I see. So, I imagine we're going to be collaborating with Directors Dorothy and Ferdinand more closely in the future."
"We will! This creature really is fascinating. We don't know what it is, or from where it came from. The only identifying details are the DNA samples encountered on its bones. Tied to one Jesselton Miller. I imagine Ferdinand knew him, by the look in his face when we investigated."
Ahrens Parvis pauses, massaging the side of his head with an index finger.
"Are you well, sir?"
"It's just a headache. They've been getting better recently."
"Do you believe... it might be a side effect?"
"Of the radiation? Possible, and unfortunate if so. After the discovery, we've placed the creature in isolation, but there was an interesting thing..."
"What?"
"We used the formulas on the areas the creature visited, calibrated to detect that mystery radiation. But the control variables also reported a somewhat lower amount- even though they were kept far, far away from here. Radiation that we are sure should have been detected, in some way, earlier. If not by us, then by another institute. It seems as if this mysterious energy is all around Columbia, now, and did not exist before."
He smiled at the young researcher.
"That's interesting, isn't it?"
Date: January ██nd, ████
To: Muelsyse
From: █████
I felt their sound.
It soaks those leaves.
We're coming.
There was a creature, there.
Its very presence radiated danger.
Every movement, every slurred twitch, had the primal, ancient parts of the human brain trying desperately to communicate that ancient knowledge- this is serious. This is a monster.
It was a gigantic, melting blob of liquid iron- many bone daggers and skeletal hands bursting from the boiling surface. But, simultaneously, the environment was silent- too silent. The only sound he could hear was the grinding, incessant and torturing to listen to.
Laughter echoing in the sky.
The form of the Distortion twitched. It recognized him. It knew him. The man in front of him, who was already taking his hammer from the backpack, was recognizable. Faintly so.
But what was more recognizable was something else.
A sound.
It was blind. It was mute. Its skull had melted into slurry and bone fragments. Its skin, its legs, its arms were all dissolved, so it could not touch. But it could still hear.
It heard the past and present. Transmissions on its head. Here, something had echoed. Here, someone spoke.
On the coat of Alvar, it felt the sound of laughter. A loud, boisterous laughter. It hated that laughter. It was the reason as to why it was what it was. Its mind was broken, shattered, but it hated things. It hated many things.
It hated white fur. It hated Liberi. It hated Rhine Labs. It hated bone, and pain. It hated itself.
But it also hated Mr. H, and his incessant noise.
It couldn't attack.
It wouldn't attack.
Not until it was told to.
It was an actor. A toy. An amusing thing for an audience. An audience that was always, always laughing at its antics.
It was a show. It was all a show.
Alvar could see it now, almost imperceptible. Infinitesimally thin strings, connecting the blob's melted appendages to something, high up in the sky. Those strings were not always there. They were connected to something, but not always.
Only when the show was in session.
Only at the appointed time.
Faces twisted into cruel grins, they were dolls of bone and cloth. The garbs of a prisoner, of a warden, of a construction worker.
They were smiling and laughing.
They always were.
I suppose I really am getting old.
Though… I'm not too ready to just accept a voice in my head yet. I've yet to stoop to that level, you see.
That said, I'm a scientist. I would be open to researching an interesting phenomenon… if it would do the polite thing, and tell me its name.
"Carmen." Yes, that is a nice name. You're a scientist, as well, hm.
Well, I'm Ahrens Parvis, Miss Carmen.
It's nice to meet you.
