Jago: "This is more like it. Bulging beakers brimming with bubbling brews. An expanse of emulsified elixirs and a mystifying miasma of malodorous mist. This place is ripped straight from the pages of a Jules Verne."
Litefoot: "It's quite remarkable indeed. Though I'd be more impressed if I could fathom the science behind such equipment. I have no idea what most of these things are for."
Lambert: "You know, all you really had to do was ask. I'm happy to show two promising candidates such as yourselves the majesty of my creations."
Litefoot: "Egads!"
Jago: "Majesty? More like monstrosity if you ask me."
Lambert: "Every leap in technology has its detractors, those who cling to the past rather than embrace the future. People feared the first steam locomotives, you know. Thought the raw speed would rend the flesh from passengers bones. Yet now the science is commonplace."
Litefoot: "Spare us the grandiose declarations of misunderstood genius, please. Your creations are barbaric perversions of the natural order, your formula removes the very thing that makes us human, rather than enhance our humanity."
Lambert: "You would disavow the very gift I have bestowed upon you? Ha! Philistines are the curse of visionaries. There isn't yet a word for what I do, nor how the fusion of species is achieved, though the closest moniker would be a form of biological alchemy."
Jago: "The fevered and fanatical folly of desperate fools. Sounds accurate to me."
Lambert: "The only fools here are the ones denying the future. What began as alchemy evolved into the field of science now called 'chemistry'. It is the same with my lifework; I have unlocked the secrets of nature. I have broken down life to its very constituent building blocks. I have isolated the biological data that creates spider's silk and merge it with sheep. Imagine wool with the proportional strength of spider silk."
Litefoot: "A noble enough goal, if used for the right ends. But you couldn't just leave it at that, could you? You tested your science on humans, on us, without consent."
Jago: "You paraded unfortunate victims of your machinations in front of the public, for monetary gain, you cad."
Litefoot: "Not to mention our friends, Ellie and Quick. Tell me, why target us specifically?"
Lambert: "That was not actually my doing, you were suggested by an associate of mine, Julian. He has helped me develop my virus from a scientific curiosity to that catalyst of humanity's evolution. He had his reasons to dose you lot, and it was all he asked in return for his ample resources."
Jago: "That cove again, what's his angle, eh?"
Litefoot: "I suspect we will find out eventually, but Julian is a problem for another day. Lambert, how many have died for your scheme already?"
Lambert: "You cannot put a price on progress."
Jago: "You can when the currency is blood!"
Lambert: "All pioneering ventures have casualties, of course. Some people are resistant to the change and their systems cannot take the strain. Others are too weak, and give in to the change too easily."
Litefoot: "But what dies that mean?"
Lambert: "The change is more severe. The animal part takes control and the person is lost, becoming nothing more than a snarling beast."
Jago: "Is that why the Yard is flooded with reports of jungle cats stalking the streets?"
Litefoot: "Why I have corpses ripped apart on my mortuary slab?"
Lambert: "Those casualties were unfortunate. Where possible, I have tried to recapture any test patients who fully turned, but mistakes happen. Those I have captured are housed here, in modest comfort."
Jago: "Modest comfort? I've seen more hospitable graves. That's nothing more than a pit in which to dispose of your mistakes."
Litefoot: "There must be a dozen felines in there, half starved. And these were all people once?"
Jago: "Still, I'm glad of the bars separating us from them, they don't look friendly. And I can't blame the creatures."
Lambert: "It serves its purpose. Disposing of troublemakers like you for instance!"
Jago: "Unhand me!"
Litefoot: "He's opened the pit with a concealed level. Careful Henry!"
Jago: "I had noticed actually. Hard to miss."
Lambert: "Die, you ungrateful idiot."
*screams*
Litefoot: "Oh no! Henry!"
No comments:
Post a Comment