Experimentation [FINISHED]

[Bee]

Mnemosyne felt a slight twinge of something that might have been distantly related to remorse as she watched the feline approach the much larger stallion. Not enough to prompt her to assist, really, unless it turned out that Minh was way in over her head, but Minh was probably used to dealing with unruly research subjects.

And then Minh started hog-tying Shinrai, and Mnem decided to kick back and enjoy the show. She hummed a cheerful tune as she watched the action, and when the horse was safely restrained, Mnem stepped forward with the needle.

With any luck, they would see a positive reaction soon. And they did. It took a few minutes for it to kick in, but gradually the stallion stopped strugging against his bonds and settled into a more restful state.

"Excellent!" she exclaimed gleefully. They would need to watch him for a little while longer to make sure everything continued well. Speaking of time...Mnem glanced at the clock. Late, late, late. She wondered how much more experimentation she could fit into this session. Shinrai's opium daze would not last forever, and it would be best to be rid of him before the unpleasant aftermath symptoms set in.

She glanced at the feline. "I think I can test a couple more poisons before we need to let him go, yes?"

[Dark]

Minh stared at Mnemosyne with something akin to horrified respect and handed the diabolical canine another needle. She really had no clue what sort of strain the stallion’s body could handle, but it really wasn’t worth arguing over with Mnemosyne. They’d find out soon enough.

“I’ll just… be over here.”

She wandered in the direction she last remembered the bander breeding pens being in: she’d had to separate the last brood when they became sexually mature (and discovered cannibalism.) It would be interesting to see if they’d developed any other characteristics.

Huh.

They really shouldn’t have had the jaw power to chew through that wire… she’d made sure to reinforce it after last time. She glanced nervously towards all the nooks and crannies they could have taken refuge under, and slowly climbed onto a table to get off ground level.

“Hey, Mnemosyne, you haven’t seen any loose banders…have you?” Innocent. She was innocent. Absolutely innocent.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne, who was giving the stallion a short period to rest and recover before she tried her next poison, slowly shifted her gaze in Minh's direction, with an expression that clearly communicated that she thought Minh had done something quite brainless. Bandersnatches? Why on earth would she have seen--

She sighed heavily. Right. The banders. Normally she did not consider Minh's little creatures to be her problem, but they had obviously just become such. The things that feline had done to those banders made them dangerous to have running free about the house. Especially when they were in the middle of such a delicate experiment.

Setting the needle down, Mnem said, "Okay, let's find the little buggers. Shinrai is safely restrained and..." She let the sentence hang in the air for a moment. Perhaps she ought to give him a little bit more tea, just in case? Yes, that was good. Just a bit, mind. So Mnem trotted briskly to the kitchen and returned shortly thereafter, gently urging the stallion to drink the tea. It went down easily.

Back to business then. "Let's get looking, then."

[Dark]

Minh muttered her thanks as she stretched out a paw to grab the nearest blunt object—which just happened to be an outdated, archaic printing of Decadence Encyclopedia—and kept an sharp eye on the floor. With the genetic mutations she’d forced on the Bandersnatches they’d become a bit unruly to manage, and she really didn’t want anyone to get some sort of notion in their furry little heads to go for her ankles, because that would just hurt.

She jutted her neck out a bit and craned about, eyes scanning vigilantly while her ears twitched in constant motion, trying to pick up even the faintest whisper of sound. Nothing; the stealthy little buggers were hiding well indeed. This called for bait.

Leaping and scuttling and arching from tables to stacks of books and slinking around the protruding lip of a cupboard got her to the icebox, which she nudged open with an extended paw and rummaged about for the bait, finally snagging it with the tip of one claw.

Closing the icebox absently with a hind leg she tossed the cold meat into a fairly clear gap in-between the rubble and settled down to wait.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne had a premonition that things were not going to go well, but she had that sensation often when she was around Minh. She considered the feline to be a good friend, but a lot of the time she seemed more "mad" than "scientist." Mnem wondered what sort of monsters the banders had morphed into--she had never paid much attention to them, really. Now, crouched next to Minh, she turned her sensitive hearing to the patter of deformed little bander feet.

There it was. The click-click-click of tiny claws and a faint hissing snarl. Many tiny claws, and many nasty snarls. They traveled in packs, it seemed. Roaming bands of banders. The idea actually removed some trepidation from Mnem's mind--the mental image was too precious.

Less precious was the sight of a small, wild-eyed fluffball of hate lurching out of the shadows to attack the bait Minh had let out. It did not seem interested in eating it. It mauled the damn thing, and then let out a loud shrill of triumph and threw it into the distance, where Mnem assumed the rest of the pack was hiding. The pack screeched madly in response. Then the little bander ran; there wasn't even enough time to leap over the mess of Minh's house and club it.

She wondered if they all looked like that terrible little beast, which had sported one bent, filthy, bat-like wing and tiny spikes that ran down its back.

Mnem was faintly disturbed.

"That bander's dynamite."

[Dark]

Minh hummed faintly in agreement, just a tad bit wigged and fast heading towards full-blown paranoia. From what she understood of wild bandersnatches it was the alpha female that would lead an attack such as they’d just witnessed, and if her banders were falling back into those same patterns it would appear Monty had taken control of the pack; which did not bode well for either her or Mnem.

Monty from a rather spectacularly failed experiment that Minh should probably have put down immediately at birth but the little fuzz ball had been so cute as a baby that Minh hadn’t been able to go through with it, helpless against that cherub gaze. And then Monty had grown up, and Minh had a crash course in true fear. Monty was smarter than the other banders, always waiting, always watching, and always testing her prison bars for weaknesses. Minh had managed to catch the first revolt, barely, and reinforced the cages—but she hadn’t been able to put Monty down, even after all of the trouble she’d caused because the damn thing was watching Minh with that smug little smile, alien eyes promising pain.

So Minh has approached it like she did everything else that she couldn’t control—she ignored it. Looks like the time of plausible deniability was over though and she’d dragged Mnemosyne unwittingly into the final showdown.

“So, uh—that was Monty. Avoid her at all costs, m’kay?”

[Bee]

Mnem shot Minh a brief, withering glare. Like there was any way in hell they were going to able to avoid that. The nasty little critter was probably instructing its pack on how to properly prepare a canine-feline casserole as they sat there. Her enormous blue eyes--freakishly clear and intense--had seemed to promise destruction to everything they lay on. That bander needed to be caught. Mnem doubted she could be trained--"Monty," as she was called, seemed so far removed from the bandersnatches she had seen in the shop that she hardly considered them of the same breed--but she needed to contained.

They there never going to get anything done, otherwise.

But perhaps they could rid themselves of the pack before trying to catch its leader. Perhaps the mean little beast would feel less confident if she didn't have the other banders to rally and serve her. "Is there any way we can trap the rest of them first, and then face down...Monty?"

[Dark]

Trap them? That’s what she’d been trying to do—but she hadn’t factored in Monty having control of the pack, and that completely altered how one had to go about the entire operation. Monty was a bander apart.

“You’re right, of course—a pack is only strongest as its weakest member, or some sort of philosophical-gobbledygook along those lines. A plan for doing so, however: not so much.”

They needed a diversion of some sort, something that would divide that pack and allow them to capture the stragglers. Considering how quickly the banders moved and how nasty their bites were, however, they also needed some way to take them down that did not involve actual physical contact—unless either one of them fancied loosing an appendage or two.

Minh glanced towards her medical cabinet as an idea slowly took shape, “Hey, Mnem… how good are you at darts?”

[Bee]

Mnem smiled broadly in genuine delight. She had found it necessary, a few times, to subdue a few of her more unruly customers. Poison usually worked best when one could slip it into a drink and watch a person slowly sip their own death, but in an emergency one just did not have that sort of time. She had not used darts, as such--more like small, circular containers full of poison that bursted on contact. The fumes were what knocked them out. The amount of bew stored in the little makeshift bullets was small enough not to defuse much and harm Mnem, and she was always far enough away for it not to matter anyway.

The bullets shot out of a handy little pellet-gun apparatus that had been gifted to her by a pack of Lowlander twits seeking her favor. She knew the mechanics of shooting. She could work darts.

Her smile took on a dangerous edge. "I think I could manage."

[seraaches]

The haze was receding. Not fading; it was still there, dulling his mind and reactions. Grey-green eyes slipped partially open, proving his completely out of it status. His head came up first in a strange bobbing motion that he just couldn’t really control especially since the poppy tea remained in his system even now.

Home… The one thought remained firmly in the front of his mind and the horse knew he had to get there. He tried to bring up his left foreleg so he could stand, but his leg wouldn’t move. His nostrils flared and he tugged at the leg again. It wasn’t moving. He had to get home! Panic threatened his system as he struggled against his bindings again. He snorted instinctively, still unaware of wot exactly was going on but certain that he wasn’t moving when he should be. His head went up into the air again and he began to struggle in earnest, though Minh’s ties were very well done; the stallion wasn’t coming loose, even his tail immobilized by the ropes. But it didn’t stop the horse from thrashing on the table and making distressed noises he was unaware of.

(( 25th post in thread ))