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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 5029126" data-attributes="member: 3285">No Pain, No Gain: Part 11 – The ConAfter some further conversation from Armbruster wherein Jim-Bean assured her that they wouldn't try to escape, she let them out of the pen. She showed them around the caves, starting with the lab, pointing out the refrigerator and freezer as examples of her good will."You're all going to have to pull your own weight around the house, of course," she said. Willie growled at Hammer whenever he came near. Hammer gave the wolf-beast a wide berth.Each agent was assigned chores.  Hammer had the bulk of the work, including fetching water from an underground pool, cleaning the dishes, and most disturbingly, emptying the latrine. Archive became Armbruster's research assistant.  He had was assigned the dull, dirty, and dangerous work: drawing quivering microscopic horrors, sniffing bubbling alembics pouring off poisonous gases, and reading paragraphs that tempted the mind to disintegration. She took Jim-Bean aside into another chamber.  "You're different, aren't you?"Jim-Bean swallowed hard.  Armbruster poured three bottles of wine into a large glass vat the size of Jim-Bean's head.  She poured the remainder of it into a beaker and offered it to him."You could say that," he said, taking the glass.  Her hand brushed his arm, the contact a little too long to be an accident."You're more like me." Armbruster sat down, legs crossed on the floor.  She was wearing makeup and had even put on a makeshift bra, a large lab coat over it, and a rough skirt of sorts.  "I could tell.  You're on the same path to evolution." She handed him a book.  "You should read this."Jim-Bean flipped through a few pages.  "What is it?""Unaussprechlichen Kulten, or Nameless Cults," said Armbruster.  "Friedrich von Junzt wrote the original in German. The English edition was issued by Bridewell in London in 1845, but it contained numerous misprints and was badly translated. A heavily expurgated edition was later issued in New York by Golden Goblin Press in 1909."Jim-Bean perused the contents.  The text contained information on cults that worshipped pre-human deities such as Ghatanothoa and included hieroglyphs relating to the latter. There was also information on more recent cults including that of Shub-Niggurath. "Interesting," was all Jim-Bean said.  He knew he was treading a fine line.Armbruster sipped the vat of wine. "I received a message from Qn about you, you know."Jim-Bean feigned drinking the wine, barely sipping it.  "Who?""It's a Mi-Go.  It's very interested in you, wants a blood sample. But it wouldn't say why.  I'm not inclined to hand you over to them…not just yet."Jim-Bean sat down, cross-legged, in front of Armbruster. "Keeping me all to yourself?"Armbruster just smiled.  "Did they abduct you?"For some reason Jim-Bean found himself talking freely about things he knew he should keep secret  This was madness, he knew abstractly.  But then, was he so much different from her?  He had long since left his humanity behind…"Yeah.  Yeah, I think so, but some days I'm not so sure.  I used to have a British accent and then one day…I lost it."Armbruster frowned.  "Lost it?  Like you forgot who you were?""Like that was never me in the first place.  I'm not sure I've ever been fully human…" He took a long gulp of the wine.  "I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this, this is crazy."She smiled and shook her head.  "It's not crazy.  This is exactly right," she said with sympathy and whispered understanding. "And now it's all this otherworldly stuff dominating your life. I know, man. It's hard. But it's something you have to see your way through. It's a good thing you have friends.""Yeah, friends."  Jim-Bean sipped more wine.  "Sometimes I have memories…I think I'm to be destroyed if I ever disobey orders.  So I'm not sure who to trust anymore."Armbruster put one hand, the size of a catcher's mitt, on his back.  She rubbed his back in slow circles, pulling him a little closer to her.  Despite her size, her hand felt warm and soft. "I understand.  I'm the same way.  Some days I think Dr. Finley is only using me.  He doesn't understand that we're a new race. He just treats me like I treat Willie – a dog on a leash.  If we ever bite back, they think they can have us dragged out and shot.  Well I won't let that happen to you, don't you worry.""Thanks," said Jim-Bean.  He was up against her leg now.  It didn't horrify him, even though it should have.  He was very sensitive to the skin on skin contact."Once this other world, this wonderful universe we're only beginning to understand, enters your life, there's really no choice but to embrace the truth.  So many researchers at Dawn Biozyme were consumed with greed by my research. All they thought about was how it could make them money – but secretly they were afraid.  Their whole goal in life was to get rich…and then what?  Capability maintains no necessary connection with temptation. Anyone can adopt Outer God worship as a path to personal betterment; after all, we're living proof."All of this seemed to make sense to Jim-Bean when he knew it shouldn't.  But he still had a mission."I need you to open up fully to me, Jenny.  I can feel we're kindred spirits, but I feel like you're holding back.  If you can open your mind to mine, I think we can…"He faded off as she leaned over him; all smothering, all encompassing woman.  His flesh rippled unnaturally at her touch."I think we can," she said with a whisper.It was only later that Jim-Bean realized he had been seduced by a monster.</blockquote>

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