A Matter of Housekeeping (Invite only)

[echidna]

Eliza Gaiani was the first back to the base.
The creatures had largely finished what they could of the structure, but as Eliza entered, it was incomplete - she could see that from outside, even. The old trainyard had been a great place, and there had been a lot of materials, but there... just was not enough. Metal was simple... but electronics? These abandoned old things were anything but great sources of it. They needed resources, damnit.

Food wasn't really an issue. Knock over a few grocery stores, raid a few farms in the country, and she had all the food she could want - there was no real shortage, considering that humanity was still recovering from a zombie apocalypse and the fact that zombies don't know a box from bread. No, food was simple. And now that people were recovering from the so-called end of the world, and life was returning to the streets of new york, slowly, sifting through the remnants of the time before the zombie-ridden hellhole, they took funny notice of things like monsters. Just the same, there had been incidents.

A TV, rigged to a computer setup she learned in highschool, came to life at the press of a button on its panel, and began its boot sequence as the first thing the Broodmother did, even before she turned on the lights. It was probably once a lounge, back when the old structure was in use, her room - but it was hers, and she doted what she could upon it. No sense sleeping in rags and living like an animal. Maybe that was good for sensei, maybe not (honestly she'd never seen where he slept), but it wasn't a way for a girl to live.

There was a something on her bed. When the lights came on, the first thing Eliza got was the friendliest greeting she'd ever gotten from a beetle the size of a cat. The creature flitted, and landed on her head, its legs gently holding onto her hair and forehead. Eliza took a long minute, and scooped up her progeny, the firstborn of the Opal beetles, a creature she affectionately called Snowball. It hadn't minded the name - mother gave it that name, after all, and mother was incapable of doing wrong, at least in the world of the insect she'd given life.

It was this kind of purity of love that made it endearing. That, and she found beetles adorable (always trundling about awkwardly, carrying things around in its mandibles, pleased as punch just to have them to hold onto - it was handy, actually, happily holding and helpfully offering objects she set in its grasp: Pencils, books, cans of soda, and of course its favorite object in the whole world: a big red rubber ball, which it would happily carry around and play with in her room.

But snowball didn't need much food or water, and it was a quiet, thoughtful sort of creature - the perfect kind, in Eliza's opinion. A dog wasn't this loyal and trustworthy.

Smiling, she set her ball-toting pet onto her head properly, and it took instinctive, gentle grip automatically. Mother had work to do! As the computer finished its boot sequence, Eliza sat down at the old office chair pulled up to her desk, and shuffled close.

[echidna]

No sooner had she done so than a respectful thumping, the kind where a too-big hand was trying to be subtle and polite, yet insistent at the same time, met her ears. They all knew she was home by now - they were, after all, linked into her mind. But who? Eliza didn't bother to probe through - she tried not to do things like that too much - to her, her children that were fortunate enough to develop into full sentience deserved more respect than to have their thoughts read. Somehow, it seemed wrong.

Standing, she said a soft "Hold on, hold on, I'm coming, dear." as the beetle squeaked its toy rubber ball. Since when did it squeak? Oh well. She opened the door. Standing at the doorway, hardhat in hand, was a devourer with a thickish black coat and white belly, calm grey-orange eyes displaying his obvious sentience. The most notable feature on this one's face was perhaps the big grin it had, translating surprisingly well into human standards, despite the eyes that rolled in their sockets and blinked independantly as he regarded her.

"Ah, Mr. Grinner." Mother began, and motioned the Ravener in.

Raveners are a lot like devourers. In fact, they were devourers - that is, until they satisfied their manic hunger for the first time. This one, who reminded her strangely of a dark man with a moustache and bushy hair oiled into obedience, ducked respectfully into her room and shut the door behind him with a simple motion of his tail. Eliza marveled at how handsome he was - now that he'd put some meat on his bones, he looked healthy. Damn healthy. She was pleased and it leaked into her voice as she offered him the bowl she kept on her computer desk.

The Ravener regarded the offered bowl of cured, slightly stale meat, with little change in expression, its tongue dipping to grab a single piece and dart back into its mouth... then one or two more, sending them down its throat without bothering to chew. He could tell from his mother's smile that he pleased her, and his grin grew.

"Mahm, I ben' thinkin'" he said in a calm, rumbling voice. "joo know, aboot tet liddle pro-checked ya had me workin' on?" he asked rhetorically, and continued "W'got th'stuff a'think - shoo-dun bee'a prollum, oh, not'a'tahl - gots a spoh pikked oot n'ever-ting." Mr. Grinner said, mirth leaking into his voice. Jerky always put her children in a good mood. Her too, actually. She took a bite.

"Oh? Thats great, son! And I saw you got what you could done - did your brothers give you much trouble about it?" she asked the ravener, and he shook his head no, fur wisping this way and that as he did. Producing a rolled up workmat from somewhere about his person, the ravener she'd left to finish the work, Mr. Grinner, whom had a gift for things of the sort, the first of his kind, grinned proudly as he set it on the floor with great deliberate care, tongue wetting jet black lips as most of his eyes focused on either the paper or his mother.

Eliza leaned down, looked over her son's handiwork with great interest. His hands weren't meant to hold pens or pencils. Hell, before he ate his fill on gas station pizzas, hot pockets, and a couple turkeys from the store - still frozen, mind - she'd never even thought it possible that one of her children WOULD develop a spark like Mr. Grinner had. Life, she mused, must have a will of its own.

Why, the first thing he'd made was a pencil he could hold with his whole hand rather than thumb and forefinger as was the default option for him. Then, he made a table he could adjust the angle of - all by patient experimentation and need to mother his creations. Then, the world was his oyster - he was a natural, a spark - a creator almost from the moment he could speak.

And this was Grinner's latest - the Sanctus.

Before the trip, Eliza had spent whatever free time she had on her magic books, whatever time she could obtain, whenever she could obtain it, for the express purpose of the research. Lord knows she didn't have what one might call an expansive library, and it had taken her weeks of careful notes and looking... but when she at last worked out the dweomers, she'd hit another snag - it required a very specialized space for it to function properly.

She'd almost given hope the ghost until she got back, that is, until Mr. Grinner offered to help so eagerly. Now, looking over her son's map, however primitive it was, she could see now the reality of it, so plainly, so pure in its rugged lines and childlike, but small and careful handwriting, misspellings ignored, that it made her thoughts jump in line and march single file, each piece of his design falling into place nicely.

"Very, very good... Are the measuremen-"

"Yehs mahm." he interrupted, still grinning, pleased as punch to say it.

"Very.. good! The Atrium is probably the best place for it anyhow... that way the dweomers will offer some benefit to the peri-" she could see that her son was looking at her funny. Eliza coughed. "yeah... It looks good. Go ahead and start in on it, Mr. Grinner."

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[slade]

"Start on what my apprentice?"

Slade's voice boomed out of the shadows without warning, at first the voice seeming to come out of thin air but as he slowly stepped out of the shadows light fell upon him, first upon his single eye, then outlining the orange parts of his outfit and that contrast in place the whole of his being stepped into the light. He looked at his apprentice with with curiosity and a flame behind him, an intensity that seemed to radiate from him. He didn't enjoy surprises in his domain nor secrets... well that was a lie. He liked secrets just not ones that could be used against him. And here he found his apprentice engaged in... something.

Granted it was too easy to find out about, all he had to do was observe her pets in their pursuits so he doubted she was plotting against him... at least not this directly she wasn't stupid. If she was he wouldn't trust her as much as he did, but still some information would be required, some clarification.

"What is going on dear child?"

[echidna]

Eliza no sooner let the Ravener out of her room, the great creature respectfully tipping his hat to her, and one other. Eliza took a moment to register this, but it did give her a second's warning before Slade, her teacher, spoke out, and she felt the eldritch in him, bound up tight within layer upon layer of control, burning brightly. He was irritated, insofar as she could read a man like him.

To her credit, she merely made a mental note to leap out of her skin later on, in private and hide under a blanket and shiver a little at the feeling. Weakness would only earn her contempt in the face of the man himself. She knew that.

With a calculating expression, Eliza turned and watched her teacher rise from the shadows like he was made of the stuff himself. She hadn't noticed him until Mr. Grinner tipped his hat to two people in the room. God that was sloppy... but the road had worn on her. She was distracted, on top of it all. Just the same, she didn't ask how long he was standing there. She bloody knew he'd been there the whole time.

"Sigils, master - a spellcircle I've been researching." and with that, she laid her cards on the table, pulling from her desk a plastic drafting tube, which contained ink and graphite-smudged inscriptions: A magic circle, written in immaculate detail, just managing to give off a faint bluish green glow - the sure sign of power in the inscriptions.

"Master, I've been giving some thought to the supply lines problem... and I've come to a conclusion that physical movements back and forth to our domain by creatures even with as much discretion as mine would only draw unnecessary attention to us down here." she said in one breath, and let out what was left of it, relaxing herself a bit.

The sigils were complicated, in three layers moving inward, with architecture lines built into the circle's dimensions, marked archways that completed a three-dimensional field of power that seemed to shift under the eyes, even on the paper.

"This is one of my projects - the circle, with others like it imbued with sympathetic energies, can fold space - which is to say, It is a monodimensional gateway we can use as a sort of... shadow network, master, controlling movement into and out of our realm here even in a mystic capacity." she said, coming plainly with her teacher - she knew damn well he could tell if she were to lie to him.

"It is the first step to establishing a sanctuary, and bases of operation we can move between instantaneously - the only thing required to move between them would be a runic mark, tattooed upon the skin or on say a vinyl sheet with sticky on one side, with a compound of my own designing." she said, with a hint of pride in her voice, a big, sincere grin on her face.

"Can even move objects with it, master - and thats the point."

[sephiroth]

Dr. Cross was also within the base she was just starting to get comfortable in the new place. It had alot of clockwork and gear mechanisms all around. She had at first found the base a little unsettling but it was no big deal. She was in her own part tuning and adjusting two short swords on a worktable.She had removed the blades and power fist from Jericho the previous night and was checking his equipment and ensuring that they were both operating as good as possible.

"Stupid military...." She muttered as she was working with the tools, "yeah it was a great idea....but you tuned the emmiter wrong....its a wonder you..... idiots......*welding sounds, and wrench movement sounds* didn't kill him...." She muttered to herself as she was tunning the emmiter to operate smoother and making it safer by removing the electrical circut in the blade.

She put the piece aside for now, and continued to work on the blades tunning the emmiters so they would vibrate at faster rate making the blades a bit deadlier.

She had another set of blades off to the side of the table, not completed yet and definitely more actual swords than anything else. They were thin and longer than the blades she was working on, she grumbled to herself as she continued to work calling all the other scientists she used to work with idiots morons ect.




Jericho on the other hand was idly wandering away from Charlie he was out of his bulky powered armor shell and wandering around. He occasionally would walk up to a opal beetle or some other creation of eliza's and sniff it or examine it closely. his body was heavily cybernetic mostly on his right side was a cybernetic arm, leg, and part of his chest. Any other creature would probably have died in a similar situation.

The werewolf seemed to find some of the less dangerous and psychotic of the broomothers creations interesting or at least a curiosity. He snorted after he had done his explorations for now and was about to return when he heard voices comming from the brood mothers room. curious the werewolf paused and peaked through the wall using one of his vision enhancements listening to the conversation before him not that he understood one bit of it.

[slade]

Slade was unsure if he should be irritated or impressed with his apprentice's forethought. Sure Slade himself had had some plans gaining momentum to solve that very problem but she had spotted what she had considered a flaw in the plan and went out of her way to solve it in the best possible way... that part had impressed him. What irritated him was her working on a large, high power, high risk ritual without first consulting him. He decided to play both cards, sometimes you had to tear down and build up at the same time with apprentices. His gaze fell upon her design.

"First things first apprentice from now on come to me if you are planning extensive rituals like this, rituals like this are not child play, if you get it wrong there is a chance you could poke some cosmic entity that makes the work of H.P. Lovecraft look like Winnie the Pooh and while I am willing to take many risks to accomplish my goals I am not willing to have some elder being blow up my head using my thoughts as a fuse. I DO hope you understand that."

Slade studied the plan and bent over it, his fingers tracing the runes, his lips moving soundlessly within the mask. Finally he hummed loudly.

"That said this isn't a bad attempt, you put in enough safe guards so you have been paying attention, and you have improvised a lot here to make this work... that said all this will do right now is make a bright light and turn whatever is on the circle eighty degrees."

Reaching into a compartment Slade took out a pencil and began to write on the margins of the plans.

"Now the basic idea you had, the basic runes will work and you figured out a way to prevent loss of containment which will save a lot of work but what we need here is something akin to the Athrin Transport only a bit more... homebrewed if you will."

Slade hummed a bit and then nodded figuring it would work.

"We will need a couple of books to pull this off but..."

Slade looked over at Eliza and in a slow practiced motion patted her once on the head, a seldom used praise.

"My apprentice your thought processes have made leaps and bounds, you are thinking three moves ahead and that is a step in the right direction."

[sephiroth]

Charlie sighed to herself and continued her tedious work of improving the vibroblades, they were getting close to being functional again. She had taken a break from Jericho's power blades as they were starting to become fiddly, and gone to finishing slade's simpler versions. She finished of the power source and activated one of his two swords. They were sword length, and had a very small hilt right below the blade to help protect his hands from the powerful vibration of the blades. She swished the humming blade about and swung it experimentally accidentally letting it slip from her hand. The blade buried itself into the wall easily as if it had been made of butter, she let out a surprised scream amazed at her handiwork. "Well that's one down." she added walking over to the blade and deactivating the sonic emitter.

She wouldn't be surprised if Slade had heard the whole accident, he had a way appearing out of nowhere when you least expected it. She removed the blade from the wall and snapped the closing mechanism shut, the blade collapsed easily reverting to a harmless hand stick just as he had asked.

After finishing it she headed over to a computer and began doing more study on another pet project something involving chemical compounds. She could never stay on just one task for long she had a sort of ADD when it came to working on projects it helped keep her sane however. Slade and jericho would have to wait on their weapons a bit longer. She had one made and that would be enough for now, she thought to herself as she examined the molecule before her.

[slade]

"Now if you would-"

Slade heard the noise, the scream accompanying it and lowered his head repressing a sigh. The noise had come from Charlie's lab and therefore it was Charlie's problem but... considering some of the stuff she was working on Slade didn't want anything to chain reaction, Slade had decided he would rather not be reduced to component molecules anytime soon.

"come with me..."

Slade's legs propelled him at a fast walk through the hallways, he could have run and made it their momentarily but he didn't want to give the impression of panicking, he glanced over at Eliza to see if she was paying attention, was picking up on the why and the hows. There was much that wouldn't matter if he had to tell her rather then her picking it up on her own. So far she was proving most able, wither she would end up as talented a apprentice as the previous two was a matter for the future.

Slade found himself in the lab and looked blankly at the hairline cut in the wall. If he hadn't been looking for what was wrong he probably wouldn't have even noticed. As it was he found himself walking over to the wall and looking at it with his arms clasped behind he back.

"... Doctor... what part of the scientific method requires you to put holes it my nice structurally important walls?"

[sephiroth]

"I am sorry about that sir" she said when she heard the comment about the scientific method and what it had to do with the walls. "I was just finishing the details on one of your swords, and it slipped while active." she said in a far off voice still examining the computer simulation of the molecule she was trying to build. She looked at the chemical before her it was complex and potentially very hazardous most likely.

Charlie sighed as she examined the compound, she sighed to herself as she examined the compund it was a nerve agent known as VX gas. A highly unstable biological weapon, she was trying to find a way to make it more efficient, but so far every simulation she had run proved to be a dud. As she was assessing one of the molecules she added something and the simulation fell apart. "damn....wrong chemical." she said her mind obviously focused on the task before her. It soon became obvious to charlie that there was nothing she could do and gave up on it. She knew that there would be no way to safely use the chemical, much less make it. She began pressing keys and erased the the chemical and all her simulation data. 'there's no safe way to disperse it and its self decay is too slow......' she thought. "Bugger it....." she said aloud after too many failed attempts. She doubted weather or not slade would want something so terrible. 'why had she been messing with it...' she thought to herself. She shrugged and turned back to her other projects


Charlie got up and sighed her mind wasn't able to focus on chemicals, so she went over to her table and began doing some drawings in a sketch pad, which contained fascinating technical schematics and other random things that the doctor had made, it took her about 30 seconds to register what slade had said. She had a remarkable talent of being able to drift around, in her thoughts and not notice things as simple as people. Then she turned and saw slade, "I"m sorry sir..." she added her mind reeling for a moment then remembering the conversation that had just taken place while she had been on auto pilot.

At that point jericho had wandered back into the lab sniffing the marking on the wall with some relative curiosity. He knew somewhere deep inside that it was similar to his own weapons on his armor, the werewolf then trundled over to Slade then to the doctor and then found a nice place to rest and proceeded to fall asleep cause there was very little else for him to do.