Igor's Warehouse, Wednesday Morning

[canlendyouahand]

A single Pi-Rat scampered into Igor's warehouse. It took one look around - taking in the shelves full of jars, some of which glowed and some of which were full of partly grown body parts - and scampered right back out again

Comments

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah was late. It was not the sort of tardiness that one might have expected out of Adah due to her limp, or even due to the fact that she had with her a rather smart rabbit who knew that something was up, something was going on, and was trying to get out of it through squirming and, on a few occasions sinking his teeth into Adah's hand. All Pride was accomplishing with such tactics, however, was making Adah hope that the experiment failed miserably, and earned him threats of starvations, the only suitable punishment for biting the hand that feeds it

[canlendyouahand]

Igors don't bounce. It's simply not in keeping with the dignity of the clan or its members.

Let's just say his step was sprightly as he hurried over to open the door. "And good morning to you. I was beginning to wonder if you'd changed your mind," he said cheerfully. "You have the rabbit, and the machine is ready to go. I think thith ith going to be a very good morning indeed." In his excitement, he'd slipped back into a lisp.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah's slight grunt suggested that she might need a little more convincing at the moment about that theory, getting up slowly from the cage and reaching down to pick it up, where a groove of the handle was already probably permanently engraved into her hand. And now with the impending operation nigh, the shifting of the weight inside the small box grew even more unwieldy and erratic, harder for Adah with her already susceptible balance to manage. She tried to pass it off, preferring the swell of disturbed equilibrium to the burn of assistence.

"You," she declared sternly, "do not live on Apocalypse Avenue."

[canlendyouahand]

"I don't?" Igor blinked, then stepped outside to peer down the street. "Are you thertain?"

[ecirpnellehada]

"Quite," Adah muttered, taking this chance to step inside, if anything so that she could set the cage down in a spot where Pride had less space to try to rattle it around in and he could stop sending those awful pains up her arm. "I now know that road far better than I would have ever wanted to. I'm not sure I would have even found the place if it wasn't for that rat."

The construction of the buildings in this village must have been amazing because, now that she was there, Adah was wondering how she could have ever missed it for a second.

[canlendyouahand]

Igor looked equal parts astonished and disappointed as he followed her back inside. "Apocalypse Avenue was such an appropriate address," he muttered. "I wonder where this is."

[ecirpnellehada]

Despite the combination of her sour mood and her stubbornness to keep it there, Adah had to grin a little, wryly, at that comment, and she shook her head. "26 Chimera Court," she informed him, marveling a little either at whatever slight had lead Igor to believe otherwise or the fact that wishful thinking was just that strong to utterly convince a mind of a fact that wasn't a fact at all. "Still rather appropriate, I'd think, and I have to, if anything, express an appreciation for the alliteration around here."

[canlendyouahand]

Igor beamed at her, giving her the full force of his twisted grin and too many teeth. "Oh, yeth. That's even better," he decided, then rubbed his hands together in anticipation, gleaming a little as he gave Pride the once-over. "Tha--" Lisp or don't lisp, none of this going back and forth. "Shall I show you the machine?"

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah didn't answer at first, giving Pride a bit of a thoughtful glance of her own for a moment. Then she sighed a little, slumped her shoulder so that the shoulder bag with all her research notebooks could slop to the floor, against the case, and she pulled out of the pocket of her shirtwaist dress a small bit of parsnip. She bent, not forwards, but sideways, body like those proverbial blades of grass in the wind, to undo the latch of the cage. She drew the rabbit out with twitching fingers, a clicking tongue, and the promise of a snack that usually calmed him before scooping him up by the scruff of his neck and expertly wrangling him into a position against her chest, cradled in her arm, fingers curled to sooth his nervous twitching with little circles. He let out a disgruntled sort of rumble somewhere in his throat, but, for the most part, stayed still, almost as if content in his fate, as if all his struggle was merely for show

[canlendyouahand]

Igor led the way through a series of benches to where it stood, gleaming and cold and lifeless, stretching high above Igor's head -- not actually hard, with his height truncated by the hunch. It was several feet long, made from tubes of glass and brass, wire and cogs, with hollow plastic tubing woven into and out of the contraption.

Scraps barked and wagged his tail when he saw Adah, but stayed where was, sitting on the chair at one end of the machine, attached to it through the leather cap tied under his chin. "There," he said, patting the machine as if it were a beloved child.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah couldn't help meeting Scraps' greeting with a small smile, actually somewhat warm and a bit admiring since he was a much more...obedient pet than her own, but, then again, if she had the option of putting Pride together from chosen parts, she imagined he'd be much more compliant, too. Then she took in the machine, limping forwards for a better inspection, carefully trying to follow the different lines and wires and tubes as they twisted and spread over the contraption with a fascinatingly rudimentary level of technology but absolutely no lack of ingenuity. And it had character; the sleek and sterilized lines of modern medical technology lacked that profoundly.

"Well," she said, her drawl thick with awe, "it's certainly been worth the wait so far. I'll reserve my ultimate judgment for after we run them through it."

[canlendyouahand]

Igor grinned again and pointed with a flourish at the other chair. "Will the rabbit sit still with the cap on his head?" Igor asked, giving Scraps a pat before walking to the other end of the machine. "If not, I can give him a sedative to keep him nice and calm."

[and I have to go to bed - stupid time zones - up early, though!]

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah glanced down at Pride cradled in her arm; he looked back, dark eyes wide and steady.

"He will," she finally said, breaking the gaze, the silent communication of instilling in the rabbit the exact thing that gave him his namesake. She limped over to the other chair to set him there, slipping another leaf of parsnip from her pocket to give to him as settled. He refused it, though, his twitching nose lifting up into the air. The general effect seemed to be that he felt that if he was going to be subjected to this, he would appreciate it if they would just hurry up and get it over with, thank you kindly.

[[ sleep well, you crazy lady <3 ]]

[canlendyouahand]

Again, Igor's did not bounce. They were dignified. But there was a definitely a certain amount of glee with how Igor picked up the cap, nodding at the chair. "Then onto the chair with him," he said, holding out the cap, its leather ties trailing. "Would you care to do the honours?"

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah just sort of eyed Igor dully for a moment before shaking her head and taking up the offered cap. She could calculate in about two seconds exactly how much more efficient it would have been if he had done it, but, for the sake of the symbolic, she went ahead and carefully settled it on Pride's head (no thanks to the rabbit in the task, either), and still deftly managed to get it secured with just her single hand.

[canlendyouahand]

Igor rubbed his hands together again and hurried over to a box on the wall that contained a red button and a gleaming silver switch, set just at the right height for an Igor. "Captive electricity makes the impossible quite possible," he said, motioning Adah to stand away from the machine as he pushed the button.

The Mind Swap Machine purred as it was transformed from an inert hulk into sparkling, shining life. Water rushed through the plastic tubes and power danced along the wires. "The water keeps it cool," he explained. "And once I flip the switch..." He grinned again. "We'll see it work."