Experiments Gone Awry! [End]

[Sangreal]

Faust's home was much like any in Corvistowne, a ramshackle mess that looked more like a work area than a place to live. Inside, bottles and beakers were strewn everywhere. Concoctions bubbled and hiss. Steam rose from some of the pots, even some that clearly were not being heated. It was muggy in the place, and the smells were unnatural and constantly shifting.

Faust stood in a small island of open space surrounded by vials, burners, and various other contraptions. With one leg on the ground, he used the other to pick up a vial labeled 'Essence of Dreariness.' This was a hard concentration to find, and he was quite proud that he had received a pure shipment.

One drop was all he needed.

And he expertly dropped one drop into a small clay pot on a burner. The pot hissed and spat, unused to the pure essence it received. The mixture inside turned green for an instant, then bright yellow, and finally settled on a dull orange.

"Now, if I'm right, it needs one hour on the burner to thicken and burn off some of that alcohol." He picked up his pen and made a few notes on the pad near his feet.

A knock on his door startled him, and he didn't notice when his wing brushed a bottle marked 'Caution - Sensitive Chemicals". The concoction bubbled for a moment and spat a few drops into the air where they landed, unnoticed, into a vial labeled 'For Fenzik'.

"He's early," Faust muttered until he finally got a chance to catch the clock on the wall. "Oh, that late already? On time, then." He took flight and moved over to the door, his foot catching the latch holding it shut. His visitor had arrived.

[Varde]

Fenzik fidgeted lightly as he waited for Faust to answer the door, idly tracing patterns with his claw on the front of the heron's dwelling. "Hopefully he's home," the rat mused. "I don't imagine he'd have forgotten about --" At that moment, he heard the sound of the latch being undone, and the door swung open to reveal the familiar, unmistakable black-and-red-patterned feathers of a fellow Corvistowneian whom he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Why, greetings to you, Fau--" Fenzik began to exclaim, but the vast quantities of steam and other gaseous substances, each with its own peculiar odor, rushing out the door collided with his nose and lungs like a sack of bricks. His eyes teared up immediately and he barely suppressed a coughing fit. "Faust, my fr-- my friend," he finally managed to wheeze, blinking madly. "It's been -- too long. Smells like quite an -- array of interesting concoctions you've got -- brewing in there," he observed, now feeling a little light-headed. "I trust one of them is -- the one I ordered?" Abruptly, however, he shook his head vigorously, realizing that he was being much too rude in proceeding so quickly onto business matters. "Forgive me, where are my manners? It's a great pleasure to see you again, Faust," he said as he regained a bit more of the ability to speak, and extended a front paw for something of an awkward handshake.

[sangreal]

Faust stared at the extended paw for a few moments before it really registered what the rat was trying to do. He lifted a leg and "shook hands."

"Manners, yes. I am doing well, and it is always a pleasure to see someone with such similar interests." He looked the rat up and down and was pleased to note that he still had all six limbs intact. "Your problem posed a healthy challenge. I'm well-versed in knock-out drugs as you know, but they usually are meant to work on creatures.

"Of course, a knock-out drug is merely a type of stability agent. What's more stable for the human body than to be safely unconscious? To apply those same stability algorithms to work on one of your concoctions was fun, and I'm a bit proud of the results."

He looked back at his lab and realized they hadn't moved from the doorstep. "Manners, yes. Perhaps we should retire to my lounge. It's nothing much, but it will do, and it will get you away from spying on-- er, I mean smelling all these concoctions."

[Varde]

"Most excellent," said Fenzik with a grin as the heron began to boast about what he had accomplished. "And you should be proud! You're one of the most talented scientists I've ever known, let alone had the pleasure of working with," he added. The flattery was probably unnecessary, but the rat found that a little buttering-up of a potential business partner never tended to go amiss. That being said, though, Fenzik often feared that his words of praise tended to come across as sounding more manipulative than he intended them. In the vast majority of cases, his compliments were sincere. There were exceptions, naturally -- but this meeting was not among them. Faust was indeed remarkably skilled at what he did, and the rat couldn't wait to see the results.

"Ah, a good idea," Fenzik agreed when Faust suggested they relocate to the lounge. He had to laugh when the bird mentioned spying, though. He hadn't met a Corvie yet who wasn't, at least to some extent, secretive about aspects of their work. Some even took this paranoia to extreme levels and never allowed another living soul to so much as peer within the confines of their labs. Faust obviously didn't fall within this category, but Fenzik understood and respected his desire for privacy all the same. "Yes, yes, of course," he said, nodding and wearing a good-natured smile. "After you, old friend."