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Post by The Jenn on Aug 3, 2011 21:33:15 GMT -5
Finally - finally - Teo was old enough to participate in an off-campus summer internship. The program directors at his Corvistowne boarding school pretty much laughed at anybody under thirteen who applied, as he had last year. And he'd gotten laughed at. But this year, at least they knew he was seriously interested... right? That was what he told himstelf was the reason they accepted him. He was too young to get a 'good internship'. That's what a lot of his peers were telling him. They said that wherever the directors put him would be crap. They said he'd be shoveling bander poop and acting as a test subject. But you know what? That was fine. At least he'd be out in the Corvie community! At least he'd be able to prove himself able to participate in a lab environment, more than his mixed-breed standing implied! The researcher he'd been assigned to assist was named Karkat Vantas, a Ten of Spades who'd apparently made some interesting discoveries in the past few years. So said the directors. They hadn't told him much else, though, just to pack up and prepare himself for several months of labwork over the summer. With a bag handle in one foot, he hopped on the other up to Mr. Vantas's front door. Dropping the bag briefly, he lifted the foot to knock. Then he stood back and waited, tail flicking lightly back and forth with nerves. He tried to look mature and presentable. He probably looked nervous as shit. |
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Aug 3, 2011 22:15:24 GMT -5
There was a fuckload of work to be done. This was nothing new. There was always a fuckload of work to be done, which was the reason why the Mr. Vantas in question had even bothered to sign up for this balls-stupid internship program in the first place. The thought that it was a terrible idea continued to plague him, horribly, but there was no backing out now. He assured himself that if whoever they sent him was too awful it wouldn't be too difficult to get rid of the snot-nosed little wriggler. But hopefully it wouldn't come to that. So on the morning of his new intern's arrival, Karkat busied himself with preparations. He cleaned the lab. He checked his cultures, giving some of them new media and marking others as needing to be split within the next few days. It would be good to train the kid on those ones, as they weren't particularly delicate. He made sure Crabdad had fresh food and water, so that he wouldn't be interrupting things. And then, finally, a sandwich in hand and a veritable novel of paperwork sitting on the table just waiting for the eager eyes of a student, he waited. In his waiting, Karkat simultaneously nourished his body with the snack and read over the information they'd sent him on his intern. Thirteen. That wasn't that much younger than Karkat's nineteen, all things considered. The oddest part though, was that the kid was hardly Corvie at all, from the looks of things. It was probably some kind of subtle "fuck you, Karkat" from the world, or at least the school's upper echelons. He took it as a challenge. He'd take what they gave his own mixed ass, and he would make it work. As much as he wasn't exactly looking forward to it, he would fucking manage. Because that was the kind of person Karkat was: A hatched goddamn leader. There was no way to deny it. A sudden knock broke him from his distracted state and he set down both papers and lunch, quickly clip-clopping his way to the door. With very little flair he opened the door, then stared down at the child that stood there. His ears twitched, and his eyes narrowed. " Well you're a colorful goddamn mess, aren't you?" He said dryly, turning to enter his home with a wave of his hand that indicated Teo should follow. As soon as the bird had stepped in, Karkat would close the door. " Welcome, I'm glad you're here, assorted bullshit pleasantries, I'm Karkat, are you ready to get to work?" |
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Post by The Jenn on Aug 3, 2011 22:36:38 GMT -5
The door opened and Teo stood up even straighter, waiting to meet his fate.
His fate looked to be short, brusque, and bipedal. Also a goat-something. Corvie for sure, but his tail looked bright. The expression on his face didn't seem best pleased. That was all the bird could get from his first impression before he opened his mouth to greet his effective slave-driver of the next few months.
The man beat him to it. He barely got out a "Hello, Mr. Vantas-" before he was waved inside and snarled at. Was that a snarl? Or just talking?
He wished he had Diamond charm like some of his relatives. He wished a good impression came to him as naturally as breathing. His Dad called him charismatic, but that was his Dad. Eff, this didn't look good.
"Oh, um, yes? Uh. Assorted pleasantries to you, too. Um. I'm Teo. I'm ready to work. Is there somewhere I can put my bag?" Seeing as he was currently balancing on one foot and holding its handle carefully with the other, wings just slightly spread for balance.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Aug 3, 2011 23:06:19 GMT -5
If Karkat had any idea how terrified he was making his new student, he might have relented. Or he might have carried on, considering the kid was going to have to learn the way things were going to be sooner or later. First impressions could go fuck themselves on a bed of rusty nails. The kid would either deal with it, or he wouldn't, and the carcinogeneticist would rather find out before he wasted too much of his time.
He was fucking busy, and important to boot.
"Karkat," he replied shortly, a surge of irritation flooding him. Hadn't he just fucking said that? He could swear that he had just fucking said that. He wasn't a Mr. Vantas. It made him feel creepy and old. Fuck that noise in every leaking orifice it had. "Just set it wherever. You can get it when we settle you into your room later on. Do you like tacos? Because we're having tacos for dinner."
There was something in his tone that implied very strongly that if he didn't like tacos, Teo would probably be hungry tonight. That wasn't because Karkat didn't care about the boy's preferences, but rather that he was out of groceries and that was really all that was available.
As Teo organized his belongings, Karkat took a seat in a slightly ratty chair beside his coffee table, picking up a stack of papers. "Tell me about your Corvie interest. Do you have any experience in the lab, or has it all been theoretical?" He made a face at his sandwich, pushing it aside. Crabdad could finish it, work was more important. "Because I'll tell you now, theory is a worthless load of shit. You won't learn anything unless you do it with your own hands and fuck things up once or twice. But don't do that."
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Post by The Jenn on Aug 4, 2011 15:32:54 GMT -5
Putting his stuff wherever seemed like a simultaneously sensible and dangerous thing to do in a still-stranger's home. Whatever. Teo hopped over to a slightly less cluttered wall and tucked his bag up against it, making sure that it wouldn't fall and break anything belonging to his host before turning back.
"I like tacos, Mr. Karkat, don't worry. I never got them much at home because Dad didn't like them." Was it cool to talk about his Dad around his new employer? His new, apparently temperamental employer? Probably not. Crap.
"And I, um. I'm interested in eyes, particularly the retinal nerves and the cornea. I haven't gotten much experience with my interest in particular. Most of my labwork has been general courses monitored by the school. I don't have a lab to work in back home. The house's belongs to our roommate and he's mechanical, so not a lot of his equipment would really apply to my studies."
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Aug 4, 2011 16:59:08 GMT -5
As the boy found a place to set his belongings, Karkat eyed him warily. He was relieved when Teo picked an out-of-the way location for it, and even more relieved when nothing was even so much as nudged in the process. Despite the constant "Mr"-ing, things were off to a relatively good start. Nothing was broken, no one was crying, and Crabdad was being completely silent in the rooms above. "Lucky thing he's not here then, isn't it?" He replied with a derisive snort.
He shoved a pile of papers at Teo with a hooved foot, then leaned back and thought about what the boy had said. Eyes? Who gave a shit about eyes? Unless it was related to the neural and retinal cells, of course, Karkat sure as shit didn't care.
Which was a problem. Because it meant that Teo would likely be just as uninterested in cellular growth. Unless he could somehow work this around, they would both be very frustrated, very quickly. "While you're with me, you will learn the basic techniques of cell culture. We'll touch on the basics of stem cell theory as well, but we won't be working with any of that." There was a yet in that statement, strongly implied though unspoken for the time being. Karkat scowled slightly, then shook his head. "I'd make you go through it all now anyway, so it's no real matter. Just more for me to work on with you. Fuck. It's fine."
They had given him a number of questions to ask the boy when he'd arrived, to get a better feel for his temporary assistant. All of them had been bullshit. So he asked a genuine question, something that would actually tell him about Teo's ambitions: "What are you looking to get from this, exactly?"
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