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Robert had his goggles on, his clear safety apron covering his front, and the most hilarious case of bedhead the man had ever managed in his life. He had been so seriously determined to get this one, god forsaken project right - he'd blown it up, blown himself up, blown a table up, blown Dwight up, and to be quite honest he'd probably ripped a hole in the time-space continuum. But they said he couldn't mix a simple ******** healing salve, and he was determined to prove them wrong.

So far, no luck.

Half the ingredients were unreadable and indecipherable to him. He was working purely off memory of what did, and didn't work, at this point. When he looked up and saw a bright, shining face as Ariane waved at him, he grinned and slowly put down the bottle he was working on. He hardly got to talk with Ariane, apart from a few missions, and that was a shame. She seemed like a lot of fun. Robert put his gloved hand in a tiny case beside him, dipping his fingers in it before lifting it up to his lips and blowing her a kiss. The substance on his fingers blew out towards her, glittering in the air and forming a very rudimentary looking heart before it faded away.

Robert stared at the mess of jumble, his head slowly tilting, and his hair flopping to one side, in a perfect rendition of a confused dog. Even his mouth dropped open as he tried to decipher the ancient language Ariane was writing in. Finally, he licked his lips, and scratched his head, before grabbing a pen, and writing on a piece of paper. He capped the pen and held up the paper, which had one word written on it.

wat

Robert made an 'oh' face as he understood what she meant, and then he picked up a flask, and a bowl. He emptied the contents of the flask, into the bowl, swirled it slightly, and grinned. Then he picked up a pinch of.. something.. and held it up to the bowl. His expression clearly said 'wait for it.. wait for it..'

He dropped the pinch of something into the bowl, and it exploded in a pink puff, into his face.

He remained in the exact same position he was before the explosion, frozen in time.

Then his shoulders slumped.

He picked up the paper and pen, took his sweet time writing something that looked really long and intricate, then threw the pen over his shoulder and held the paper in front of his face.

nuthin.

Robert stared at the writing in the fogged up window for a good few seconds before finally going back to his own paper and pen. A thick pout jutted from his lips, and he took even longer trying to write this particular message, as he brought the paper closer to his face, inch by inch, until it was right up by his nose.

Finally, he flipped it over and on it, in varying degrees of messiness, was his answer.

"im not veri good"

Robert didn't seem upset, or even surprised, that she'd come into the lab to continue the conversation, since people came in and out at their leisure when it was open. It was in the touching of things that Clarice tended to be uppity about, not that many people liked to touch the volatile chemicals and expensive looking equipment in the Life Labs, anyway. Instead, things like groping occurred more often than not.

Speaking of which..

"Yeah, I don't like writing eith-HELLO NICE TO MEET YOU TOO, YEOWZA." He certainly wasn't used to a woman being as forward as Ariane, but as long as he didn't get in trouble for it, he wasn't going to chastise her. Nor was he going to reciprocate - he knew his limits.

With a grin and a flush blooming across his pale cheeks, Robert laughed nervously and tried to answer her question without looking like he'd liked - or didn't like - an a** grab. Were those cameras pointed directly at him all of a sudden? His grin turned into something more serious.

"Well, I'm supposed to do this here experiment until this s**t becomes healing solution. You gotta be real careful about the amounts you add to s**t like this, you know? They keep telling me that this is a real easy mix, but.. well.. whatever. I'll get it eventually."

(He wouldn't.)

Turning back to her, his casual demeanor easily returned. "You're Ariane, right?"

Even as she spoke, and verbally wondered about the dangers of the concoction, Robert had already reached for another set of goggles, and was leaning forward to put them on her. "Uh. Yeah, there's a definite chance of blowing up.. ness. I blow up at least once a day." He snickered, and dumped the failed concoction out, before re-gathering his materials. "I dunno what I did wrong, so far. It takes a while to get it right, but as long as I'm still standing, I'll keep trying." If nothing else, he was persistent with his work. "Soon as I get this, Clarice said I can try to make a runic bandage." He sounded both excited and horrified by the prospect.

Robert sighed, looking at the mess of failed experiments in front of him, and shook his head. "Persistent. Yeah, you could say that. I really just wanna do something on my own for once, you know? They tried to show me what to do lots of times.. but I don't seem to retain information very well."

Though, unbenownst to him, the phrase 'retain information' was one that someone else had used to describe his failures, and he had retained that information very well indeed.

"But anyway, I'm not allowed to test my s**t on other people. Thanks though!" He grinned at the punch, barely moving at the feel of it. "Don't hurt yourself, now."