Sparx Lab ꒛꒛ Join us.

[[Q]]

Deliliah (Deli) is a 20 year old intern to the biochemist Robyn Sparx, father of Jiden (Jy), an eighteen year old electronics wizkid. One day, Robyn mysteriously dies -- thought to be by spontaneous brain aneurysm, same as Jiden's mother several years prior.

Everyone's in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all signs point to Jy and Deli being murderers. Even worse, Jy now has suspicious ties to a group of thought to-be international spies.

What now?

YOU CAN JOIN THIS RP IF YOU WANT.
PM me with how you think you'd fit (character idea, etc.) doesn't have to be long.
If I like the idea/character I'll work you in.
Feel free to ask questions, too, if you want to be in but don't have a solid idea of what you want to do.

The RP takes place in slightly futuristic real world. Everyone is entirely human, however the genre will be scifi/cyberpunk and may go into fringe science eventually.

[Delirious]

Thunk.

Delilah's head hit the steering wheel of her car in frustration. She sat idling in the small parking lot of Sparx Labs, and would have been driving home by now if Mr. Sparx had remembered to take her report for the day. This was the third time this week he had forgotten.

She rubbed her forehead where she made contact, hoping there wasn't a red spot. "I told him five minutes before I left he needed it. No, 'later, later'," Deli complained to no one in particular. Minor annoyances seemed to be a bigger deal than they actually were to her; her mom called it her downfall. Climb a mountain? No problem. Return the report to an office less than twenty feet away? Biggest pain in the world.

Not like she had anywhere to be on a Friday night. Deli's usual routine included coming home, feeding her cat, browsing the forum she belonged to, and eating dinner. Some nights she went out to the bar, pick somebody up, and have an entertaining night. Those were becoming infrequent as her internship became more demanding. For working in a lab connected to someone's home, biochemical engineers do a lot of work.

Deli retied her blonde hair into a loose ponytail before turning the car back off. She grabbed the envelope containing today's report and, after locking her own car, heading back towards the building.

'I swear, if this happens again next week I'm going to kill him,' She thought to herself in amusement. She vaguely wondered if his kid was around.. not that she could come up with his name.. before heading inside.

[[Q]]

Jiden sat on a stool and looked into a microscope, watching cells on some slide move around.
He was only eighteen, almost nineteen, and this was the last thing his father had looked at before he died.

Jiden was trying to figure out if it had some special meaning, if there was some secret, or if it really was just a random slide of no importance. Like a homework project of one his father's students, or something. Robyn Sparx, Jiden's father, was a professor at a nearby university so looking over homework wasn't too uncommon.

Jiden frowned, and finally rolled himself away from the microscope, scooting over to the other side of the warehouse, following the long line of lengthy tables.
Half the warehouse was dedicated to biochemistry-- Robyn's work -- the other half was a bunch of electronics equipment. Some mismatch between an electrician and engineer's hideout. It was the remnants of Jiden's long ago deceased mother's profession and what Jiden himself had picked up.
His mother was an inventor, she brought amazing machines to help the medical field and a few nice advancements to the electronic technicians. Jiden was no where near to the intellectual level his parents were, and didn't think he'd ever begin to understand chemistry, but he did love electronics. He could take apart, repair or make better, then reassemble practically anything that ran on electricity.

Once he got to his own workbench, he ran a hand through his long reddish-brown hair, narrowing his green eyes as he made sure his hair was behind his shoulders.
Bending over a circuitboard, he picked up a flathead screwdriver and quickly went to place it over a capacitor when....

WHOOMM!

The warehouse door slid open unexpectedly, Robyn's intern-- Deliliah -- coming inside in a huff.
Jiden's screwdriver slipped, and the capacitor discharged into his arm.

"AUUUGH!" He fell off his stool and onto the ground, screwdriver still in his hand, his back on the floor.
A full second later, he managed to drop the screwdriver and put his hands down, them having been frozen in place before. He took in a few deep breaths, almost certain his entire life had flashed before his eyes and he'd had some sort of mild heart attack.

How much had been stored in that capacitor? He couldn't remember. What a stupid move, regardless.

[Delirious]

Deli froze when Robyn's son yelped, and looked over in time to see him hit the ground.

"Oooh.. ********."

She forgot how loud the door was when it opened. It probably didn't help that she slammed it open either. Robyn would probably come bounding in momentarily to see what the commotion was, and more than likely irked that he was taken away from reviewing his students' homework.

Deli set the folder down on the nearest table and ran over to him, glancing at the capacitor on the workbench before focusing her attention on him. Safety measures that Robyn went over her first week working here ran through her mind, but nothing pertaining to her field really covered electrocution. On the bright side, he was still breathing.

She knelt down next to him by balancing on the balls of her feet, being careful not to touch him or the screwdriver. "Um.. I guess asking if you're alright would be a moot point right now?" Deli bit the corner of her lip; last thing she needed to start her weekend was a lecture from Mr. Sparx.

It dawned on her that he hadn't rushed into the room yet. "Where's your dad?" Deli half-muttered.

[[Q]]

Jiden dropped his arms by his sides and sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, ignoring the other's question. After a moment, his heart still feeling like it was beating irregularly, he turned over on his stomach and slowly pushed himself up, sitting on the floor and putting his right hand over his chest to feel his heart.

"He's not here right now," Jiden finally said. It wasn't exactly a lie.
Even still, it was extremely odd for Robyn to not be around. Aside from trips over to the university to teach, he had absolutely zero social life.
But Deliliah probably knew he wasn't scheduled to be at the university today.

Jiden looked down at his chest and his hand. He wore a green shirt with a black long sleeve coat and pants, complete with black boots. He also had a pair of goggles that looked similar to rave goggles (with green lenses) hanging around his neck.
Taking another deep breath, he took his hand from his chest and stood up.

"I think it was just a micro amp or so. Pretty sure I'll be fine...." he mumbled, not really too sure of it himself.

Looking to her again, he finger brushed his hair nervously. "Why are you here so late anyway?"

[Delirious]

Deli stood back up as Jiden rolled into a sitting position, remembering she was wearing a skirt today. Not that Jiden would have seen much anyways, as she mainly wore knee-length swishy skirts that probably shouldn't be worn in a lab environment. But it didn't hinder her work, so Robyn allowed it - but only on Fridays. This weeks skirt was white with a blue/green cityscape on the bottom hem, topped with a plain navy t-shirt. On her feet were low-top turquoise Chuck Taylors.

Fashion aside, she glanced around the lab again as Jiden answered her second question. A questioning look came over her face; it wasn't like Robyn to not be around unless he was at school, and today wasn't his day to be there. "He was here when I left.."

Jiden's mumblings brought her attention back to him. "I came back to give your dad my lab report for today, since he didn't remember to take it when I left." She watched him finger-brush his hair, trying to determine his current demeanor. Shock would be a good guess. But why... oh.

"Oh my god!" Her hand flew up to her mouth, "I'm so sorry you got electrocuted! I don't think sometimes when I do things and I was in a huff and.. ugh." She lowered her hand and offered to Jiden to help him stand. "Sorry."

[[Q]]

Jiden waved her off. "It's fine. I'll be okay," he said to her, trying to calm her down. His voice was rather breathless, however.

He turned and picked up his fallen stool, sitting on it again and facing her, feeling a bit lightheaded and not wanting to stand for too long.

"Well, just uh.. Leave it on his desk or something.. I'll make sure he gets it," Jiden replied lying through his teeth. It was pretty convincing, especially considering he didn't remember ever lying about anything before.

He put his hands in his lap and looked down, his arm and chest still tingling.

"Don't worry about it," he tacked on.

[Delirious]

Deli sighed, letting her cheeks puff up with air as her excitement calmed down.

She was, for the most part, aware that Jiden had been electrocuted since she walked in the door and watched him fall. But the lack of Mr. Sparx had distracted her, and his son's plight slipped her mind until moments ago. More than anything, she was glad he wasn't unconscious or dead. Explaining to your boss why your son was passed out on the floor was never a fun prospect to Deli.

Speaking of her boss.. She slipped the report folder on his desk after Jiden's suggestion, taking a peek down the connecting hallway as she passed. Still no sign of Mr. Sparx. After depositing it, Deli returned to her location in front of Jiden. "Okay, seriously. Where is your dad? I'm pretty sure he would be concerned that his son was electrocuted," she stated, ignoring the tacked on part of his comment.

[[Q]]

Jiden watched the woman slip the folder on his father's desk and turn to leave. He began to relax until she turned right back around and asked him where Robyn was again.

"Everybody gets shocked. That's part of the whole... Electricity thing," Jiden forced a smile, though he still looked extremely tired, as if he hadn't slept in a day or so. Truth be told, he should probably go to the hospital and get his heart monitored, but he was trying not to worry about it.

He looked back down at his lap, his hand now completely numb and his chest still tingling.
"I'm sure he'll be back... Probably..."
Jiden forced a cough.

Robyn was sitting at the kitchen table on the floor above where they actually lived, dead in his chair.

[Delirious]

Deli's hands were on her hips as Jiden tried to play off being electrocuted, unconvinced. She could see the ends of his hair were floating from the static electricity, and his hand hadn't moved from his lap in the past minute or so. Despite being somewhat easily distracted and forgetful, Deli tended to pick up on the smaller things occurring around her. Mountain vs. little things.

It dawned on her that the kid just looked.. drained. 'Maybe he did just step out for a minute. I should probably stop harping him about it and make sure.. ******** what was his name?'

She crouched slightly to meet his eye level, "You don't look alright. Although I can't see any burns on your arm so I don't think it was that bad of a shock. Probably not enough to totally mess with your heart. Is your hearing or vision messed up? Feeling any pain, numbness, tingling?" Deli rolled off on a tangent.

She stopped herself before overloading the kid. "Better yet, do you want a drink of water.. uh?" Deli hoped he would supply his name.

All she wanted to do was go home to her cat, as pathetic as it sounded.

[[Q]]

Jiden listened to her, and gave a small smirk afterward, forcing a breathy "heh."

"Jiden," he said later.
Jiden was normally pretty easygoing. Either immersed in his gadgetry or cracking some joke with a smile on his face. Given his situation -- father completely overloaded with work and Jiden left to entertain himself -- he had seemed to adapt fairly well and no one ever really wondered about him.

In truth, he was usually praised as being some sort of electrical genius, taking after his mother and bound to come up with something amazing eventually. For that reason, he didn't bother with school. He'd tried it, but like any smart kid, had grown bored and about the age of ten he took the test for his GED and kept to himself in his lab since. Occasionally he'd participate in some engineer forums. He'd made some headway in the hobby battle robots scene, but didn't really fully apply himself anywhere too heavily. Robyn didn't want Jiden to entirely miss out on a "real" childhood, so had never forced his son to go get a job or jump start adult life. Realistically speaking, they had all the money they could've wanted anyway.

It was all this that came through Jiden's mind. It had only been about an hour a go that he was eating cereal in the kitchen when his father came up to make himself sandwich. The man had sat down to eat it in his lab coat, asked how J's day was going and then promptly passed out on the table.

Jiden had turned around and dropped everything, rushing over. He didn't know what to do at first, or what had happened. But when the eighteen year old checked for breath or a heartbeat, there was nothing. Jiden grabbed a defibrillator and attempted to resurrect his father, but blood came out of his ears after a few tries and Jiden knew his father was gone.

It had been sudden, unexpected, completely uncalled for...
His father had been taken away just like his mother had when he was six.
Jiden had no idea what to do. Something snapped in his brain and he simply went back downstairs into the lab and tried to pretend it had never happened.
He didn't want to look at it. He didn't want to think about it.

Maybe if he ignored it, it would go away.
Every fiber of his being knew it wouldn't, but he still hoped anyway. Some sort of teenaged resolve stuck in him. He was stubborn, he didn't want to believe he was suddenly alone in the world with no one to look after him.

But now Robyn Sparx's intern was trying to get him to go up there to the kitchen, to his father, to ruin everything. To absolve him of his unique fantasy that everything was okay.

"Were you and him... You know...?" He looked at his numb hand. "...In love?"

[Delirious]

"Jiden."

Well there's a name not heard every day.

"I'm Delilah... Deli," she replied.

Deli didn't know much about him otherwise, and his father was never really a talkative person when it came to his family. She knew his mother died when he was young, and that his dad never remarried. Jiden, from the various battle robot awards she had seen in Robyn's office, was an electrical whiz-kid who completed school early.

When Delilah started interning at Sparx lab weeks ago, she had noticed him putzing around the lab. He would tinker with something electronic, say a word in passing to his dad about something related to his interests, and that was the bulk of what she could visibly see. He wasn't much of a social kid, and Deli was so busy with her intern work that she couldn't spare much time to socialize anyways.

She just assumed, since Robyn was a workaholic and Jiden appeared to be immersed in his gadgetry, that they had their own dynamic that didn't involve a lot of interaction. Deli vaguely wondered if she had more of a relationship with Robyn than Jiden did.

"Were you and him... You know...?" He looked at his numb hand. "...In love?"

Deli's eyes went wide, "Wah? No no, oh god no. I mean.. no offense to your dad or anything but he's twice my age and.." Well, that took her off guard. "No," she settled on, exasperated, "I'm just his intern."

Curiosity took over her, "Why is there something I'm not aware of here?" She cocked an eyebrow. 'Oh god please don't tell me my boss is in love with me.'

[[Q]]

Jiden's shoulders rose as he took in a large breath.
"He's dead," was his curt reply.

His body tightened up a bit, and he closed his eyes.

"In the kitchen," he whispered, trying to make himself appear smaller in his stool.

He didn't really expect her to believe him or anything. But he wasn't sure what else to do.

[Delirious]

Deli's mouth went slack.

"Wait.. no.." She whispered in disbelief.
Her eyes flicked around the floor, hopelessly looking for words.

"In the kitchen," She heard Jiden whisper.

When she left work two hours ago Robyn was sitting at his workstation, looking over some cell samples from one of his star student's work. Deli was listing in her report oddities he noticed in the cells. They were developing a new diet drug designed to break down specific fats in the body, and Robyn had assigned some of his better students to provide some lab cell samples with an early test of the drug.

Her last words to him were "Don't forget, report."

Within two hours..
He was perfectly fine when she left.

"D..dead?"

[[Q]]

Jiden took a deep breath.

"Dead."

The eighteen year old closed himself off for a moment, but then stood up, forcing a smile on his face.

"But who cares about that, right?? I mean, there's so much to do! Save lives, build bots, have fun?"

He cracked, looking down. "...s**t," he grumbled, a shiver climbing up his spine.

He waited a few uncomfortable seconds before he finally said, "I don't know what to do with the body. Who do you call for that, anyway."