[2010 Resolution] - Drabble 17
Date: August 2, 2010
Prompt: "Some sick sign of affection."
A crimson eye twitched in barely restrained anger as the young chimera stared in disgust and disbelief at the recently published Science Journal. It was her design they were hailing as a stroke of genius, her idea they were applauding, but it was not her name they were crediting.
"What the fuck is this?" she demanded, slamming the volume down on the table of the wizened mass of wrinkled tentacles and clammy skin that was her mentor.
He squinted through his glasses at the open page, "I should think you would be able to recognize your own prototype."
Her scowl deepened as she pointed to the name printed beneath the image, "With all due respect, last I checked Myaxx isn't spelled as Corvax!"
"It most certainly isn't," was the elder chimera's casual response.
"Aren't you going to call them and clear this up?" she growled.
Corvax sighed and removed the spectacles from his face, wiping them in slow, methodical circles as he answered, "Not when there's nothing to clear up."
"Excuse me?!" she roared, rearing up to her full height to loom over the seated chimera.
"Come now, Myaxx, you don't really expect them to believe an apprentice as young and as unknown as you could be capable of producing something like this? They'd never even think about testing it. No, I did you a favor in submitting it under my name." He slid the glasses back onto his face and stared at her pointedly, "Now if there isn't anything else, I'll see you in the lab tomorrow."
Fists clenched and unclenched over and over as Myaxx left, muttering beneath her breath, "This isn't over, asshole."
And indeed it wasn't.
Come the next morning, Corvax found his apprentice hunched over a microscope and furiously scribbling down notes on a pad. He coughed a greeting, saw her shoulders tense as she straightened herself to respond in kind.
"What do you have there?" he asked, walking towards her past the other apprentices and their mentors. She eyed him suspiciously, and he supposed she would have her guard up after finding her device with his name on it. But that was just how the way things worked and at least she learned it now while she was young and still filled with ideas.
After a moment's hesitation that lasted far too long for Corvax, Myaxx admitted, "I'm not really sure."
"Let me take a look," He offered what was the chimeral equivalent of an olive branch and frowned at the trepidation that flashed across her face. "Let me take a look." This time it was an order.
Begrudgingly, Myaxx stepped aside.
Corvax raised his glasses to peer into the microscope, ridges forming where brows would have furrowed in confusion. "I don't see anything," he declared.
"Really?" She didn't sound surprised. "Maybe you just need to look closer. Here-" An unbelievably strong hand gripped Corvax by the cap of his skull and pulled him inches away from the microscope. "Let me help you."
The duet of an agonized shriek and the sickening squelch of metal impaling flesh filled the lab as Myaxx drove Corvax's face into the microscope.
Prompt: "Some sick sign of affection."
A crimson eye twitched in barely restrained anger as the young chimera stared in disgust and disbelief at the recently published Science Journal. It was her design they were hailing as a stroke of genius, her idea they were applauding, but it was not her name they were crediting.
"What the fuck is this?" she demanded, slamming the volume down on the table of the wizened mass of wrinkled tentacles and clammy skin that was her mentor.
He squinted through his glasses at the open page, "I should think you would be able to recognize your own prototype."
Her scowl deepened as she pointed to the name printed beneath the image, "With all due respect, last I checked Myaxx isn't spelled as Corvax!"
"It most certainly isn't," was the elder chimera's casual response.
"Aren't you going to call them and clear this up?" she growled.
Corvax sighed and removed the spectacles from his face, wiping them in slow, methodical circles as he answered, "Not when there's nothing to clear up."
"Excuse me?!" she roared, rearing up to her full height to loom over the seated chimera.
"Come now, Myaxx, you don't really expect them to believe an apprentice as young and as unknown as you could be capable of producing something like this? They'd never even think about testing it. No, I did you a favor in submitting it under my name." He slid the glasses back onto his face and stared at her pointedly, "Now if there isn't anything else, I'll see you in the lab tomorrow."
Fists clenched and unclenched over and over as Myaxx left, muttering beneath her breath, "This isn't over, asshole."
And indeed it wasn't.
Come the next morning, Corvax found his apprentice hunched over a microscope and furiously scribbling down notes on a pad. He coughed a greeting, saw her shoulders tense as she straightened herself to respond in kind.
"What do you have there?" he asked, walking towards her past the other apprentices and their mentors. She eyed him suspiciously, and he supposed she would have her guard up after finding her device with his name on it. But that was just how the way things worked and at least she learned it now while she was young and still filled with ideas.
After a moment's hesitation that lasted far too long for Corvax, Myaxx admitted, "I'm not really sure."
"Let me take a look," He offered what was the chimeral equivalent of an olive branch and frowned at the trepidation that flashed across her face. "Let me take a look." This time it was an order.
Begrudgingly, Myaxx stepped aside.
Corvax raised his glasses to peer into the microscope, ridges forming where brows would have furrowed in confusion. "I don't see anything," he declared.
"Really?" She didn't sound surprised. "Maybe you just need to look closer. Here-" An unbelievably strong hand gripped Corvax by the cap of his skull and pulled him inches away from the microscope. "Let me help you."
The duet of an agonized shriek and the sickening squelch of metal impaling flesh filled the lab as Myaxx drove Corvax's face into the microscope.