Dimensions

I had to give her some kind of respect, she didn't seem to like it but she downed more than I expected her to do. "Oi, my turn." After she shivered I grabbed the bottle and took a couple swigs each bigger than what she herself had done.

Demi:

I took the bowl and started to mix it in silence.  Once he set the bottle down again, I took another swig.  “Why do you drink this stuff?” I asked, though in truth it was growing on me.  The warmth and the numbness.  My fingers tingled as I stirred the cookie mix again.

"Because I don't have to care as much after drinking. Humans, yourself mostly included have these annoying tendencies to care. Care about their work, care about others, care about themselves. Enough booze and you stop caring. And when you stop caring things don't hurt as badly. Though like any medicine it has it's side effects. Liver damage, vocal damage, sickness if consumed in large quantities." I shrugged and set the oven to start warming up.

Demi:

Not caring sounded good. Maybe I would request a bottle all for myself from Simon, though I doubted he would give it to me. By the time the cookies went in the oven, I felt dizzy. I sat on the countertop to keep from tipping over. I made myself look down at the floor instead of out the window. I kicked my legs absently, like a child, and reached for the bottle again. “What are you trying to not care about, Doctor?” I asked after my sip.

"Everything. Emotions are a waste of time, illogical, and pointless. People are therefore the same because they feel such things. As perfect as I am I still have my flaws because I can't prevent myself from feeling." I waved a hand then took the bottle from her. Eyeing for a moment I took one last drink then put the cap back on. "You've had enough."

Demi:

I laughed at him. “Perfect? Really? Is that why your wife left you?” I wasn’t usually a mean person, but I was tired of this place and my jailer. And things were only going to get worse over time. My cheeks felt hot. How badly I wanted to crash through that window to my freedom. If it weren’t for his powers, I might be able to make it away… The second hand on the wall clack in the kitchen stuttered.

A bitter laugh escaped me. "I told Veronica from the beginning that it wouldn't work. That it wasn't going to end well. She persisted...and I believed her. But I was right. I usually am. But she left and I realized I did care. But it was too late."

Demi:

“How tragic,” I said sarcastically. My heels thudded against the lower cabinets. “Seems to me like you’re pretty far from perfect.” I crossed my arms. The smell of cookies filled the room, but I was still bitter.

"Mmm. So tell me your accomplishments. So long as we are going to be judgmental little shits, might as well see who pisses the best." I glowered her way, folded my arms and settled against the wall.

Demi:

I stared at him.  “It’s hard to accomplish anything when I’m locked in some guy’s basement.  But, I’m pretty sure I’ve accomplished more than you simply by being born, or tell me again why you and all your super special friends are going to be researching me?”

"Yeah? And I wonder who is at fault here for that. I imagine you are like every other emotional little teenage girl. 'Woah is me, my life is so horrible and oppressed, my family wont let me do whatever I want. I'm smart enough to know better.' Well congratu-fucking-lations. Here you are. Stuck here because of your own damn fault and now berating the one person who gave the tiniest bit of selfishness to drag your unintelligent ass to his personal lab instead of leaving you to be taken apart by people who don't care that you are a person and have needs or feelings." I sneered at her, "Your life had you not decided to use your powers without considering the concequences, and had I not decided that your case was interesting would have placed you in a room just big enough for a bed, a toilet, and a sink. Maybe not even that. You would have nothing, no rights, no freedoms, no chance to make choices. They could do whatever they damn well pleased and likely at the end of it all you would have been dissected and tortured just to find out what really makes you tick."

I snapped my arms wide, and with a glare I yelled, "But no, I'm just the asshole with super special friends keeping you prisoner in my basement. Way to fucking go, you are getting in a pissing contest with the one man who is smart enough and the biggest damned selfish prick to want to prove that your gift can be controlled and render it not a danger and will prove my brilliance by sending you fucking home so you can go cry to your mother about how abused you were and not how you were kept so that you didn't destroy countless lives."

Demi:

No one but my mother had ever yelled at me. My throat got tight the further he went. My eyes started to sting when he described what could have happened to me. And then I was struggling not to sob by holding my breath. Tears rolled down my cheeks by the time he finished and I looked away from him. My legs had already stopped kicking. I brought my hand up, sniffling, and wiped at my eyes.

And then she started to cry. Why did they always have to cry? How could one logically try to argue a point? There were no conjectures, stories, reasoning, or debates that could fight against someone starting to cry. It was the most unfair way to cheat your way out of losing. No matter what happened, what I said or did. Once the waterworks started I lost.

Muttering a stream of obcenities under my breath I turned around and pulled the cookies out of the oven. Letting them cool for a minute while using my alchemy to speed up the process just a tad I shoved a couple into her hands. "Eat."

Demi:

I sniffled a couple times but then I brought a cookie up to my mouth. I was silent for a long moment except for sniffles while I nibbled at the cookie. “It’s yummy,” I said quietly, still not looking at him. “Thank you.” I felt heavy now. Numb and heavy. I finished my cookies and slid off the counter. I was dizzy and unbalanced.

"You were the one that wanted them. And you helped. Give yourself some of the credit." I stood there awkwardly, reaching up to rub the back of my neck right up until she slid off the counter and seemed like she was about to fall. Moving quickly I reached out and put one hand on her shoulder the other at the small of her back. "Come on. Lets get you down to your room. You aren't looking too good."

Demi:

I sagged against him, unable to stand up straight. No man other than my own family had really ever touched me. My chest ached and my ears laid flat. I would have done anything in that moment to be safe in my father’s arms. Nothing could ever hurt me when I was with him. My mother was the fighter, but he was the shield.

It was an involuntary action to use my ability to get back to them in that moment. It was like in the lab when he told me to try it, only this time it was more intense. My numbness turned to pain in that instant when whatever force kept me from going home reacted my power. It felt like lightning crackled in my head and down my spine.

I sucked in a gasp and gripped the doctor’s arm tightly. The fogginess was gone. The jolt of pain had countered the effects of drink and brought my mind to throbbing clarity.

Once she sagged against me I had no choice but to adjust my hold, the hand at her shoulder sliding down to her arm as I had to practically cradle her against me just to keep her upright. I started to speak, to say something when like an electric prod she jerked in my arms and after such event pain lanced through my arm. "Fuck." I cursed, arm flexing under her nails though I didn't do anything to draw it away. I did however shift her away from my chest, enough where I wasn't having her sagged against me. The last thing I needed was for that painful attack on my arm to move towards my face. And if her ears were any indication then she was not in a happy mood.

Demi:

I threw his arm off me and used the momentum of him pushing me out to pull away from him.  I gripped the countertop, trembling.  I didn’t mean to use my power, it had just happened, like when I was a child.  My heart was racing and my head was throbbing.  I knew I had hurt him, but I wouldn’t apologize.  You trap an animal and keep them prisoner, you should expect a few scratches.  He was lucky I wasn’t really trying to fight him.

I looked at my wounds now that she had released me. Blood welled and trickled down my arm I noted with barely any emotion at all inside. Her nails were what caused the bleeding, light as it was. "Interesting. What happened with you?" I let my arm return to my side and it was with full interest and curiosity that I studied her trembling.

Demi:

I shook my head. “I want to go to bed,” I said quietly. I wanted to go to sleep and sleep forever. I spared one more glance back to the black window and my eyes watered. “I want to go to bed,” I repeated, turning my back to him and the window.

Nodding I gestured with my wounded arm. "Come on then. Let's go to your room." I still had the same expression though it had lessened somewhat. If I had my way I'd study, experiment, and likely keep her up well into the morning. But that would be bad for testing. Incomplete data.

Veronica:

The next few days the only contact I had with Tobi was to tell him when the other scientists would be arriving. All the preparations were made. Some new equipment was installed in his lab, much to his displeasure I was sure.

Dr. Lang and Dr. Kepner were the first to arrive. The other three would be arriving the day after. Dr. Kepner immediately grated on my nerves when I met him. He was arrogant, like Tobi, but he insisted on explaining things to me that I was already well aware of. He also referred to me as Mrs. Marin even after I asked him to call me Director Veronica.

I was fonder of Dr. Lang. She was quiet but clearly intelligent. The few conversations I managed to have with her she treated me as an equal and with respect. She was also quite beautiful, a fact that I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy for.

For different reasons I was not looking forward to introducing the two to Tobi. He would not take kindly to Kepner, I knew. Especially when their field of study was so similar. And I thought he might take a little too kindly to Dr. Lang. while we drove to the lab I gave them both a warning as to Tobi’s character.

Tobi:

Who ever had invented the societal norm of 'you should play well with others' was the biggest idiot in the world. Whomever it was was lumped in right along side the same person who believed people should share, and the asshole who came up with the idea that if you can't say anything nice you shouldn't say anything at all. I was not someone who shared, I wasn't about to be nice to people I didn't want around, and above all. I wasn't going to play well with the peers who were about to be joining me in my domain.

I'd gotten the names of each and everyone of those who'd be working with me on Danny, and I'd spent a few days getting my research done on them. It was wasted time perhaps, but valuable to me. Joining me today would be Dr. Lang and Dr. Kepner.

Dr. Lang a Behavioral Analyst, an interesting person as by the pictures I'd found she was gorgeous. But she wasn't just known for her charms, she was a brilliant thinker and used her smarts almost more often than her body. It would be an interesting battle of wits and all the more difficult to try and push her to leave.

Dr. Kepner was a pompous fool. Arrogance oozed out of his work, a trait I was utterly innocent of...mostly anyway, but the man made some good points I begrudgingly had to give him. For him I felt the best course of action was to attack his pride. I'd dug into his research and published works. Upon finding one of his alchemical formulas that I found flawed I attacked his work. I filled up a trio of whiteboards with my findings that disproved and discredited the basis of a good chunk of what he'd been working on.

Oh it was petty to be sure, but so was the loud rock music playing out of speakers set into the walls. And the utter disregard for everyone around me, Danny and Simon included. I had a war on my hands and I was going to win it. No matter how much I had to cheat.

Veronica:

Simon let us in and took us down to the lab. He looked apologetic when we went down the stairs and the music became louder. The first few attempts to get his attention went unnoticed or rather ignored. When he didn’t respond to my announcement at the door, I marched over to him.

“Dr. Marin,” I said, voice raised over the music. I put my hands on my hips without thinking and gave him a warning look to behave. There was only so much ridiculousness I could handle from him. “Dr. Lang and Dr. Kepner are here to meet the DH and inspect the lab.” They were both by the doorway, waiting to be introduced.

"And?" I raised an eyebrow at her. Only looking at her once I was forced to acknowledge her presence. "None of that means that I have to be around or care. Do I need to stand by and hold their hands while they get situated?"