Wrong Side of Town [End]

[Bee]

The brat took to the task with alacrity. His enthusiasm would likely not last long when he saw the whole scope of what he had to do, but housework would really be the last of his concerns once Minh and possibly her youngest spawn got their hands on him.

"I'll just go grab Minh really quickly..."

And Monty. She happened upon Monty first--her ever-faithful bander was ripping the guts out of a rat. The rat appeared to still be clinging to life, twitching and squeaking feebly.

"Monty," she said, cheerfully, "how would you like to watch the little boy downstairs and keep him and his bandersnatch out of trouble?" S/he would keep the kid in line, for certain. She pointed to the rat and smiled morbidly. "You'll be handsomely rewarded."

Monty snarled at her. But apparently s/he got the message, because s/he chewed the last bit of life out of the rat, tossed it aside dismissively, and strode off towards the Lowlander kid.



Monty perched on a high shelf, blue eyes intense and baleful, as Mnem continued her quest to grab Minh.

Monty watched.

[Kitty]

He stopped and picked up a paw to poke at a stack of what looked like trash for a moment ... what on earth was some of this stuff? He started to pick through it and sort it as best as having just paws would let him and he was quite content to do so, his brother was a messy slob and he often picked up after him ... but why did she need to go and grab someone else? At least he figured it was another person .. .some people named objects after all.

He continued to do this until Raanan came and sat next to him, black eyes peering up and fur bristled. He coughed once and that's what really got the triple-breed's attention. He peered first at his own bander and then let his olive eyes follow the banders gaze up to see a....what exactly was that? He wasn't entirely certain what it really was, but it looked like a bander. He blinked a few times in rapid succession before tilting his head o he side in an oh so canine manner.

[Bee]

Monty snarled, perhaps a not-so-subtle hint for the kid to stop looking and get back to work. S/he surveyed hir apartment kingdom, viewing these two as weak-looking subjects. Perhaps, if they got attacked by plant life or wandering experiments, s/he could officially call them prey.

While Monty hungered for the tasty flesh of the guests, Mnem continued up to Minh's lab--up the normal stairs, through a trap door, up the secret stairs, across a hidden room, up a ladder. Sometimes she thought that perhaps they had gotten too whimsical with their architectural choices.

It was in the hidden room that she spotted her youngest offspring, chasing various mutated bandersnatches. The one trapped in her tentacles looked to have some sort of beak and...scaly appendages coming out its back. Its one eye rolled around mindlessly while Thalia played with it.



"Hey," she snapped. Thalia looked at her curiously. "Get downstairs. I have a present for you and Minh. You can have it once it's done cleaning."

Thalia bounced excitedly. It wasn't even her birthday or anything! She dropped the scaly freak of nature and rushed downstairs, spotting the little thing quickly as it cleaned. A Lowlander! She thought of Iskra. Oooh, she liked them. Such exciting rot...She grinned.

[Kitty]

He eyed the creature warily, little rat eyes pinned themselves against his skull and staying their. Raanan was glued to his boy's side, glaring and growling at the threat. Brokat poked at the bander and got an indignant cough in return but this was for the best ... he didn't want to give that ... thing any sort of a reason to attack. He went back to his cleaning, trusting that the green, stripey bander would keep an eye out on the somewhat sheep looking creature atop the bookcase.

His fur instinctively bristled when he heard footsteps that weren't the same as the woman's who was supposed to get him home. He peered over a feathered shoulder and was struck instantly by the contrasting colors. The tentacles and the hair didn't even strike him as off, he'd seen quite a few abnormal traits on all sorts of cards growing up so ... they were really nothing. But those colors! They were just so very... pretty.

Well, his mother had raised him to have manners... so he might as well use them....

H-hello. I-I'm Brokat.

[Bee]

"Hi," she said, gleefully. She waved a tentacle in happy greeting. "I'm Thalia. We're going to be great friends, I can tell."

__

Mnem hit the lab, at last. She had long since given up on knocking and just jimmied the lock to get in; the time it took Minh to answer the door usually made breaking the damn thing down the least bothersome and frustrating option, and to avoid frequent costly door replacement she had just learned to pick the locks.

Minh wasn't in the main room. Off poking a bander full of holes, mostly likely. Well, it was time to get her attention, then.

"MINH!" she yelled, hoping that the power of her voice would break through whatever dreamy fog or experimentation-induced Tuned Out Zone Minh might have fallen into. She could be pretty piercing when she wanted to be. "Minh, I have a present for you!"

[Dark]

She swooned gently in his muscled arms, bosom heaving, rosebud mouth open and gasping. He was so strong! Then he leaned down and kissed her, tenderly, and she felt a glorious bolt of delicious electricity shoot straight to her womanhood."

Minh turned the page, humming off-key to herself while she absently stirred a beaker with one tentacle. Yolanda really needed to figure out that Fabio was just using her--sure, he had that rippling muscle thing going on, and his eyes darkened beautifully when impassioned, and his voice was a purring rumble very much like summer thunder--but all he really wanted was--

Minh’s brow furrowed for a moment, feeling like she was missing something important, before promptly coming to the decision to ignore the faint prickling of awareness in favor of her novella. Treacherously, her ears twitched, pulling her attention from the thickening plot once more. Present?

She scrambled for the trap-door, choosing to jump rather than take the time to use the latter, dashed around the corner, under some misleading piles of material, and skidded to a halt in front of Mnem. “You called?”

[Kitty]

He eyed the pretty... whatever she was and was and, at first, was terribly nervous but then she spoke some more and he was relieved. She knew that they would be great friends, and she wasn't at all disturbed by his region and... rot? The thought brought and awkward looking smile to his beak-muzzle and had his bushy tail thumping cheerfully against the ground. Beyond his family he didn't really... have any friends and this was a new and exciting prospect.

Raanan, however, was not convinced. The bander turned and eyed the girl before bristling and growling at her. He was, of course, quickly reprimanded by a light peck from his triple-breed boy and sneezed before looking away indignantly.

He turned his gaze back to Thalia and his tail started to thump against the ground even faster.

Sorry about that, Raanan is... a little over-protective.

[Bee]

"That's okay," Thalia said cheerfully. She looked up at Monty, growling soft and low on the shelf. "Monty kills things and wears their bones. Our banders can be friends too!" She glanced around the area. Things had moved. Was their guest cleaning? Maybe Mom had made him. Mom did things like that. "You need a hand?"

__

"Yes," Mnem said, and then announced with some degree of pomp: "I got you a gift. There's a little Lowlander miscreant wandering around downstairs. Thalia and Monty are monitoring him. You're more than welcome to tie him down and poke him with needles to your heart's content. I want him out of my sight when he's done picking up around the house. I'm going to find his mother...Well, I'll get around to it." She could think of several things she was going to do before putting much effort into that.

[Dark]

It wasn’t just any sort of present that Mnem had brought her, and Minh felt her entire body begin to thrum with anticipation; she hadn’t had a proper test subject in ages. A Lowlander, even. Of course, with Thalia around that meant she would probably have to share, but Minh thought she could accept those terms. Sometimes, acting the mad scientist was more entertaining in groups. Minh thought that this just might be one of those cases.

Minh stopped herself from running off to play with her new toy immediately, though, taking a moment to survey Mnem. Mnem, who never brought her anything. Mnem, who never did anything for anyone unless she wanted something.

“Is this about sex? Because if it is, it’s going to have to wait until later--I have tests to run, and I’m sure you see the importance of my research. So this--” she gestured between them, already mentally down with her daughter and soon-to-be-subject, “--will have to wait. Love. Ciao.” Minh pecked Mnem on the cheek and made for the stairs.

[Kitty]

Well that was ... more then just a little unnerving actually. The bander .... really did that? He flipped one little rat ear back skeptically and peered up and over at the ... odd looking creature perched atop the bookcase. Well, it didn't look average, and it certainly didn't look ... friendly either so maybe, just maybe ... He was distracted from his musings by a most interesting proposition, she was offering to help? Most people didn't like cleaning, then again... most people didn't make an offer to be his friend either. The offer brought his attention back to the odd, tentacled girl and even got his bushy tail to thump lightly as well.

W-well, if you ... wanted to, o-of course.... you could.

He smiled shyly, his tail thumping lightly a little bit more. This, of course, was brief ... he had cleaning to do after all! The faster he finished this task, the faster he could spend time with his new friend, right? He cheerfully went back to his task with this in mind. Well, until her heard steps quickly approaching, steps that didn't sound like the oddly mannered human's either.

The triple-breed perked his ears up and peered over his shoulder at the entry way, flipping a feathered wing down and out of his way to have a fully unobstructed view. Was this another potential new friend?