Welcome to Gaia! ::

Humming a pleasant tune, Cyriel strolled down the dark, winding corridors of the research bay. As a Second in Command, she was allowed to do such things, to wander through the high level areas, though normally they creeped her out. It lived here, and it was not something she always wanted to behold, but today she doubted it wuld be around, judging by the news of the clipboard. There was another reason why she didn't come down here often, and that was... a certain woman. She didn't like being around her.

Putting this thought from her mind, she waltzed down the echoing corridors, past one of the archways. A certain someone inside caused her to stop abruptly, piroet gracefully, and walk in.

"Hellooo!" she chirped happily, striding over to stand next to Matarael as he gazed out into the blue of the Tank, "What's up?" She and Matarael had been friends longer than she could remember. Whereas his serious attitude and dismissive personality grated on most, she knew what he was like underneath.

She giggled to herself, before divulging the news.

"I told him." she said with a smile, "I finally told him. We're going to do something together some time soon." She looked him in the face, her own shining with excitement, "It'll be just like old times!"

She started humming again, a tune she didn't know but one that suited the atmosphere none the less. He would understand, he always did. They were like brother and sister, almost, they knew just what to say to make the other feel good.

"Still no sign of Flanny?" Flanny was her name for the flanda... whatever monster. At least, she saw it as a monster, just like Nessie, in fact. Somehow, the name made it seem all the less scary. But it was. Very scary. And every full moon, it seemed, it would haunt her dreams like a ghost. She shivered.

Her face turned bright red at an alarming speed. She whacked him savagely on the arm.

"Not like that!" she yelled, scowling ferociously, "I meant the three of us, not... just me! Jerk!"

She turned her back on him quickly, folding her arms and lifting her chin up to show that she disapproved of his words. She left a short pause before adding, "And yes, he is being worked on. You'll probably never get a chance to see him now." She looked out into the Tank, eyes calm again. She couldn't hold a grudge for long. "He's certainly a sight, that's the truth."

"Oh no," she replied, turning so that her whole body faced the glass in front of them, "he's tiny, to start with. He looks..." she struggled to come up with a simile, "...well, like a plant, only with obvious legs and a head. His head stays the same but... his legs keep changing. Sometimes there are too many to count. It's like he's a liquid, but quite solid... like treacle. He's... green, I think. I can't remember."

When she had been watching him, his colour had been the last thing on her mind. The only colour she had been aware of was a gruesome red. Everywhere. Yes, Flanny's power belied his size. That was certain.

"I'm surprised you've never seen him, you should stick around for feeding."

"Of course he needs to eat!" she said incredulously, "He's a living thing too. He just happens to eat rather strange things, is all." She gave a pause, mostly for dramatic effect, "Steel." she answered finally, "He eats big cubes of scrap steel, like most of our armada." Her mind flicked back to her one-time viewing of the flandamerite refuelling session. It had merely touched the metal, and the block had dissolved, like it was on fire. There was even a thin, green smoke to accompany it. She shuddered.

"They feed him once every five months, here. I think the next one's in a few weeks time at five A.M." she looked over at him, "But I think you have duty then, right?"

She nodded slowly, her eyes slowly falling so that she was looking at the floor again. It was hard for him, they both knew it, no matter how much of a positive face he put on it. It was admirable, his tenacious spirit, but also quite disconcerting, what if he decided never to give up. He could do himself some serious damage. It wasn't good for him, and it worried her. It was part of the reason she so much wanted him to take a break. The other part seemed to speak for itself.

She sidled up next to him and rested her head against his shoulder.
"What are we to do?" she asked forlornly.

She nodded, turning to look at him and smiling sadly.

"You too."

As he left, she turned back to the water. THe thing that lived in there, Flanny, it was no good. It was... too smart. It had killed, it might do so again. And if the project listed on the files at the back of the clipboard were to be put into action, she feared for Allen's life. This was too big for them, they knew so little about it and yet they were using it for so much.

But Matarael was right. She would be right beside him, to protect him if things turned sour. And besides, she felt, instinctively, that Allen would emerge victorious on the other side, whatever befell. He just would, that was the sort of person he was. Unbelievably strong of mind and spirit. Not like her at all... And yet still she feared for him. There was a great hole inside him that could not be filled, she had sensed it since they had first met. He was looking for something, but she (and nor he, it seemed) had no idea what it was. That was why he was trying to hard with his projects, he wanted to find something that would fill the gaping hole in his heart. She just wished... that something would be her.

Discontented with standing, she sat on the floor, bringing her knees up to her chin and hugging her arms around them. At times like this, she felt so helpless.

ooEyes wide, she looked at what she’d made, previously she’d been asked to work for the government but she’d turned it down for a job in which she could truly experiment, this job. In front of her was possible the most powerful extractor known to man, it uses the same amount of energy as the previous model but this one has real power. The flandamerite was ready to be released into its usual tank; the power surge can now be controlled and put to better use than blowing fuses. She turned to her right and nearly walked in to a lab assistant who handed her a clipboard with delivery details on, some of the spare parts had arrived for ‘flanny’ and the drivers were being ‘modified’. She didn’t know what happened to the delivery assistant other than they’re offered jobs within the company, she supposed for the sake of secrecy.
ooShe hit the button that returned ‘flanny’ to the depths of the tank, checking the scores of dials and lights for any complications, there were none. With a smile she returned to her little office to begin the paperwork for the successful experiment, filling out reports and forms were the least interesting parts of her job but after a break through like that, she felt she could put up with it. Entering the room, she flicked on the lights and smiled, counting twelve cups of cold coffee and nine plates of various foodstuffs. If the food was delivered on time (as it always is); she’d been working solid for about three days with minimal sleep and no sustenance. She settled down on her comfortable chair with a groan of the knees, she began to file and sort and report but within moments she was asleep.