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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Linderel" data-source="post: 3068554" data-attributes="member: 44291">Untitled"That's a really, uhm... cute lizard. Critter. Thing. So-- what was that you needed help with, again?"The green, scaly creature lounging on the desk (picture 2), seemingly innocuous, made Robin really nervous. Not that she would ever admit to it in a million years. No, sirree! There was nothing that could faze Robin Farrel, and the rest of the world could damn well keep thinking just that if she had any say in the matter. Not even if said lizard looked like it wanted to eat something with a little more substance than whatever it was that Annie fed it.Either way, she didn't really want to know what it was, exactly, since it didn't look like a normal lizard at all. She didn't even want to think about it. Everyone knew Annie hung out with some very strange people, not to mention she had a bit of a mad scientist in her.Poking a vial half filled with a bubbling green liquid-- "Don't touch them! They're very fragile," Annie rushed to say-- she followed the girl through a vast expanse of room after room that the other called a house, absently wondering where the parental units were. She'd met them the previous time she had come here, and they seemed nice people, although unnervingly resemblant to their daughter in terms of geekiness.Robin sometimes idly entertained the thought that maybe they had produced the girl in a test tube for all her perfection. Then again, maybe not. That was the stuff of science fiction stories... yet. They arrived at a flight of stairs, winding deep underground and lit only by the occasional lamp imbedded to the wall here and there. Giving an incredulous stare at her host's back as she started descending, she followed suit."Let me get this straight. You have..." she started and shook her head bemusedly as the other turned to blink at her. "You have another laboratory? In the basement?""Sure. My own room only has space for about a third of my equipment, and if I screw something up, I won't be causing any harm to the furniture. Or Gojira-- the lizard.""... Right." Trust Annie to give a name like that to a pet. She was just too weird sometimes.Why Robin was agreeing to help her classmate was beyond her, really. It wasn't like she wanted to get involved in any shady business. Besides, trekking all the way up here was beyond troublesome. How Annie managed to travel to campus and back every single day was a complete and utter mystery. Not only did the huge building stand on a cliff, looking down over a valley (picture 1), it was also a fair distance away from the rest of the town. She felt slightly woozy every time she walked to the terrace, unable to forget there was practically nothing more than a thick wood floor between her and a very long fall.Then again, Annie didn't leave her excellence at passing all academic courses with flying colours. Who knew how she had time for it, but the girl was also an athlete. Trust her not to be bothered about a little trip of, oh, fifteen miles every single morning, or a drop that to Robin seemed only a little shorter.Not that she envied her. It was always amusing to hear the girl go on about her newest project, though, so maybe she didn't mind that much after all."Now, what is this thing exactly, then?" she asked, leaning over the table to look at the current project."Mushrooms." Her voice was flat, and Annie cringed, just a little, seeming to brace herself for the inevitable explosion. Robin was rather infamous for her short temper, being known for being sometimes able to go off for twenty minutes straight about one or the other. Usually, the people on the receiving end of her fury merely opted for looking suitably chagrined, deciding to try and ignore the onslaught of expletives, insults and inane spluttering. She was a great person to hang out with, after all, if you just could deal with the temper.The thought was not always that comforting, though. Like in the present case, where the girl looked very much like she wanted to cause someone - or something - bodily harm."After all of that," she ground out, her voice dropping about an octave and then beginning to rise again, reaching a crescendo at the end, "you're trying to tell me this whole thing is about mushrooms?!"Annie nodded, timidly, and pointed to the large glass container sitting on the windowsill. True enough, there was a group of blue mushrooms (picture 3) in one corner of the container, all innocent and happily unaware of how close they were to becoming the object of the wrath of one Robin Farrel. Beside her, she could hear her classmate let out a frightened squeak.By this point glaring at everything and anything that her eyes landed on, she advanced on the container, the quiet 'eep' sound from behind being strangely gratifying. Not that she truly intended to harm the contents, even though the thought was very tempting. Annie would be devastated if all her hard work went down the drain.Of course, she didn't see how these mushrooms were special, but logically they must have been. The girl never got quite that excited over nothing. And judging from the way she was now squeeing in delight and clapping her hands, this was something big indeed.Squinting, Robin trained her attention on the container once more. She rather regretted that after a while, as she witnessed the little blue mushrooms stir and pop open a round pair of bright eyes each.Blink. Blink.The fertiliser Annie had been giving them had to have been pretty damn potent. She didn't quite get why they had spent a dozen vials and caused some sort of explosion while apparently trying to develop an even more efficient mix, but nevermind.Watching the contents of the container detach from the dirt and hop around, blinking at the world in general, she decided she didn't want to know.Feeling slightly hysterical, Robin hoped they wouldn't suddenly sprout arms and legs and start jigging. That would have been way over the line. She felt like she might faint were that to happen. Hell, at this point anything could make her jump.As the laws of universe went, that was exactly what happened next. Or something very near to it. She was too flabbergasted to process most of the images being sent to her brain.This was it. She was never going to come to this house again. Ever. While Annie cooed over her new... pets... ? she turned tail and got out of the room.Too. Freaking. Weird.She could apologise later.Stumbling to her tiny apartment practically on the other side of town, Robin had distinct trouble paying attention to her surroundings, resulting in more near-crashes with lamp posts she cared to count. Through the stupor, she thought she might have almost walked under a car, but she wasn't entirely sure.She definitely needed a long, long bath. Preferably accompanied by a glass of something slightly stronger than water. Oh, yes. Fishing around in her bag for the ever-elusive keys, Robin froze when her fingers brushed something cool and dry but very much alive.Out and up her arm skittered the very same lizard she had been shooting suspicious looks at just a few hours prior.She considered fainting as an option, or maybe screaming at the top of her lungs. That sounded like a pretty good idea. Nevertheless, she merely ended up letting a strange, slightly choked sound, feeling light-headed and edging past hysteria.Well, drat.</blockquote>

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