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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 19:31:23 GMT -6
Morgan looks away, slipping out from under where the individual had practically pinned them. It wasn't good form at all to punch someone at a work related party. The perhaps-not-quite-a-human took a sip out of their mason jar, and stepped out closer to the edge of the dance floor and away from the wall. They were used to being short, and knew how to keep that disadvantage from being an issue. "Y-you're managing to be quite annoying right now." They warned. They didn't really want there to be a large scene, but it was also distracting them from watching Millicent. The individual laughed, and pushed off of the wall, taking two steps towards them.
Morgan hadn't bothered to ask this particular individual to leave the Labs, hoping to get more information out of him. It wasn't exactly that Morgan didn't trust him, it was more that it was more advantageous to have someone they could trust to a degree gathering intel. They sighed. This would throw a bit of a wrench into things. However, they did have a slot open, and they could use a good programmer. It was a risky venture. They turned to look at him, his eyes now back to normal.
"F-fine. Resource wants me to put together a personal team anyway. S-some shit about me being overworked and it lowering Morale. Understand you'll be working on my personal team." They said. The slight magical buzz that was threatening earlier abated. The human realized quite quickly that he had been nervous, not angry. It made sense. "You start this upcoming Monday." They said. Then, Morgan went to get lost in the crowd.
This wasn't something they wanted to deal with the entire night. It was time to find Millicent, because she wasn't sitting on the table anymore.
[16]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 19:46:12 GMT -6
Turns out that Millicent was not only petting the prototype Worginu, but was trying to ride it- not that she even knew how to do that yet! Morgan fought the urge to run over and scoop her up from the creature's back. It's only a puppy, Morgan reasoned with theirself. Instead, they stood on the outer-ring of people circling the puppy, and found Dis nearby. "D-dis, you're not gonna believe this but-" Dis turned and smiled, her eyes closed in amusement. 'Your daughter is just lovely, and everyone loves the prototype, calm down okay?' Then she noticed Morgan's serious expression, and stepped away from the crowd. 'What is it?' She asked. Morgan stepped away from the crowd as well, voice low. "I just hired my first personal team member- and it's Jason." 'WHAT?!' She asked. 'Didn't he have another assignment?' Then, she understood suddenly. 'Oh, so he needs to get out- okay- well... You know your workers aren't going to be happy. To their knowledge, he's a new hire, and getting such a high position?' "They'll have to live with i-it." Morgan said, rolling their eyes. "And so will I. So, h-how about the other two come from the other teams? Y-you make a selection. I have a programmer, and I guess I'll need a botanist, and..." They thought. They were a little buzzed right now, anyway. "A behaviorist. Preferably both of those with secondary majors, too." Morgan said. Dis nodded. 'This was... Unexpected. But it should be a fine team. I know just who to ask. Now- HAVE SOME FUN.' She said, before finding someone to go speak to. Morgan felt a little bit alone. They spent the rest of the evening keeping just out of sight of Millicent while keeping an eye on her. Millicent was having the day of her life. [17]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 20:06:59 GMT -6
Morgan took Millicent home after the party was over, and not only were they on the bad end of a buzz, but Millicent was asleep. Actually getting her home and in bed wasn't hard, but Morgan could tell it was going to be another sleepless night for them. They holed up in their lab and played a dumb game on the WATT for a bit. It didn't help that they knew that all of their animals were asleep, as well as their sentient family. The human finally sighed, and pinched the bridge of their nose.
Morgan decided to stay up all day too, and even though it was their day off they had enough to do at home to make it to where it was practically going to be impossible to do anything leisure-related today. When night finally came, they slept incredibly hard, but thankfully without nightmares.
By the next Friday, it was time for the Worginu and Repointe to go out. Dis had been correct, the function seemed to raise spirits and get the teams going faster. Their personal team had been decided already, and honestly they weren't too terrible. Morgan was awkward with them at first. By week two, Morgan had their names memorized, and had them set up their own offices and a Lab all for them (the one Morgan had been using before, in fact).
Millicent had loved the function quite a bit too, really, a bit too much. Morgan was a little afraid about how fast she was growing up. It was weird going through the process of being a parent so fast. That was the way of harachiu it seemed, though.
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 20:19:07 GMT -6
The production of Worginu and Repointe for public use went off without a hitch. Morgan had been anxious about getting it just right to the point of worrying the rest of the WELP teams sick, so the success actually scared Morgan a bit and left them breathless. Morgan made sure to make a public appearance, but only as long as they absolutely had to. They came back to their desk with an exceptional coffee placed on it from their favorite coffee shop (the one with the Catseye Logo) and a little note that had two names on it. Morgan looked at it, eyes soft for a moment, and then slipped the note into their desk before drinking the coffee without a second thought. Dis wouldn't have allowed anyone to poison it with her there, after all.
Morgan was about to go home that evening whenever they stepped outside in the rain of the spring afternoon, and saw the dark shape of an alurook against the lightning flashes illuminating the dark clouds.
"Dis... DIS- call the team, the samples are here!" Morgan practically screamed, at Dis, who was a few paces ahead of them and looking down at her WATT.
[19]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 20:34:55 GMT -6
The whole team met up for overtime, and took the sample container from the leg of the alurook. Of course, the samples were inside of the old, faulty equipment, so Morgan was terrified that they would be unusable. Dis made coffee for everyone and excitedly extracted the pieces of hide from the tubes. The first two were fine, but the third, and Dis made a face. "...It's that damn coolant again, isn't it?" Morgan said, defeated. Dis looked apologetically over to Morgan. 'Yeah, but the new ones don't have this problem. Shouldn't have any future issues with species samples. This one is definitely out of date. It stinks to high heaven.' She said. "Damnit. Wuh-Which sample got ruined?" Dis turned the vial over. ' Sample D, retina of Tresluscus species with nocturnal habits.' They needed as many samples of this species as possible, or they'd never be able to patch them. Jason booted up the system, getting it ready for programming, and one of the other team members piped up. 'Maybe I can try to save it?' It was the botanist, Tani, who was also a general chemist. Morgan shook their head. "Too volatile, this sample is beyond de-decayed." Morgan said. The other few samples seemed to be fine. "Lets see..." The third team member carefully unloaded the other samples and fed them into the machine. Slowly, information began to read across the screen.
Patchy. All of it Patchy.
"Shit." Morgan cussed beneath their breath, staring at the screen incredulously. "Okay, so a-after we get the information fed into the machine, I'm gonna need Tani to see if there is any way chemically to patch the holes. I-if at all possible I don't want to have to use DNA of any common or Labs creatures." They said, leadership instincts kicking through finally.
[20]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2020 21:26:34 GMT -6
The team worked into the night. Enough coffee was had to probably kill a sarane, though thankfully it was shared across the team. Morgan and Dis worked tirelessly in an attempt to figure out exactly what the holes were and which could be patched, and Tani worked to try to find a way to recover the lost information with the other two team members. Eventually, early in the morning and about when work was to start the next day, the team stood about fruitless and frustrated. The project would be ruined before it even began. Morgan bade the others goodbye, and let them off for a couple of days. The overnighter would take a toll on everyone. Dis stayed behind, staring at the screen with frustration, guilt, and a deluge of disappointment in her face. Then, she turned away, staring into a the glass that Morgan had on the table that was half-drained of coffee. Suddenly, she looked excited, and turned to Morgan. 'Morgan. What if -I- patched the hole?' "Dis, we a-already tried. There's no way you can do something alone the whole t-team couldn't." Morgan said, patting her on the shoulder in a rare show of camaraderie. "It is fine, we'll have to pay out of pocket for a-another sample set, but you said it yourself, it shouldn't be an issue this time." Morgan gave her a smile, trying not to show their own frustration in the meantime. 'As uncharacteristically kind as you are being right now- no, that's not what I mean! What if we take some of my DNA for the project? Patch the holes with it?' She looked hopeful. [21]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 17:06:09 GMT -6
Immediately Morgan goes from polite and understanding (partially because they were exhausted at this point theirself) to crossing their arms and giving a stern look. "No, ab-ab-absolutely NOT." Morgan put their foot down. "You are sentient, we a-a-a-are not going to be doing th-that... LABS shit here." The human finally got out, going into a slight stuttering fit. Dis waited across the room, holding her cat mug in her hands and staring at the googly-eyes with interest. 'You know that's not how they did it, don't you?' She sighed, sitting her mug down. Morgan hushed up for a moment, still looking a bit dour. 'They didn't do it like that. No, there's a chance that using my DNA might make them a little smarter, or maybe my nature would render them a little off- but it's all we have right now.' She said. Morgan hadn't noticed when she had gotten up to the desk, drumming her nails on the desk.
"Nonsense. I'll put more i-into the budget this month, to fund another e-expedition, and that's that." Morgan snorted.
Dis tilted her head, and turned around, staring into the mirror across the room. 'I think I'd look very, very nice with an ear gauge. I've always wanted one!' She said, taking her long parti-cat-parti-goblinoid ears in-between two claws. Morgan's face was blank for a moment. 'I'm going to try this. Chances are, it won't work, and if it does? We get to save that funding for another project.' She said.
With a long-suffering sigh, and for once in their life, Morgan relented.
[22]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 17:16:48 GMT -6
The only ones privy to the decision that Morgan felt quite strong-armed into was their own personal team, and the plan was not enacted for several days after the failure of the samples.
Morgan fidgeted with a puzzle box nervously and sat behind their desk but kept their face deadpan as they delivered the news to the team, along with orders that the rest of the employees and anyone outside of the organization were not going to be privy to this information until after the species were developed, so that plausible deniability could be kept in the case that this turned out to be an unethical disaster. After quite a bit of argumentation across the team (including Tani looking very distressed and Jason attempting to talk some sense into the last team member that was planning on walking out until that was narrowly avoided) Dis came in just before lunch with a brand-new skull shaped ear-gauge, and a tiny jar with a bit of ear in it.
The jar was handed over. The piece was extracted and Tani made sure that the DNA was carefully extracted before handing it off to Jason. Jason had the sequences fed into the machine, and everyone stood there looking various mixtures of anxious and dour for a moment before Morgan got a-hold of it, and then began looking through it.
Chaos Magic. It was very important for making this work. Sure, they had various mages across the teams, but no other chaos mages. Jason and Dis looked at each-other wearisomely as Morgan began the Work and waved the rest of the team members out to get lunch.
[23]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 19:59:59 GMT -6
Morgan was sure to come home on time each night to take care of their family and pets, but they worked all the way through lunch on most days for a full week. Dis would come in to their personal lab, stand there for an hour or so quietly, and then leave food on Morgan's desk. Sometimes, Morgan would find the food before the end of the day and get it eaten. The other team members bobbed in and out sometimes, working on other projects with other teams for a while. During this time, the first couple of customs went out, Repointe mostly. It would seem that folks were a little more hesitant on the Worginu. It made sense, they were... Definitely different than a vulticus, that was for sure.
Finally, Morgan emerges from the Lab about lunch one work day, with a notebook full of papers, and a beaming expression plastered on a sallow, haven't-eaten-or-slept-much-this-week face. The team came running across one of the breakrooms to see the notebook, and found exactly what they were hoping for- sketches of a species that Morgan was sure would do well, and pages upon pages of notes. Some scratched out, some penned deep enough to show anger into the papers, and some of it written in the margins of the papers.
Back at the lab, the team crowds around four vials with tissue samples encapsulated within them.
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 20:06:49 GMT -6
Morgan took the weekend completely off after that. Usually they did at least a few of their own personal projects in their own lab at their estate, but they kept it firmly locked, and tried not to sleep the entire weekend away. They played with the tat-family in the yard. Millicent and Morgan cooked and worked out a few times. They took Millicent out for ice-cream and they took turns walking Nico around the park. Morgan was soul-weary, that kind of tiredness that one feels bone-deep, maybe even soul deep. They didn't even go out to the mansion to look for things they'd normally try to practice with. They were too tired for it.
They knew that come Monday morning, it was time to start working on the Tresluscus species... And they were still anxious. Dis' fix for the lost information in the DNA samples had technically worked in the way that it producing a living being according to theory, but they weren't entirely sure if it would turn out right. Fiddling with Genetics were sometimes a little more art than science in some ways, especially when magic was involved.
The scary part was that Morgan was magically fatigued. They felt a little unsure of their own safety while they built back up strength. Working with the DNA had been much more difficult this time than it had been with the thesis statement species. It was a little scary.
[25]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 20:50:24 GMT -6
Morgan leaned back in their desk. It was apparently performance review day, and they were halfway through a stack of papers that thankfully had pictures of Morgan's employees on them, because honestly it was practically impossible to remember this many names. All of the teams were doing well, and as much as it surprised Morgan, Team C was outperforming the other two teams under Dis' tutelage, despite the fact that most of them were (almost done with, but still) interning. Morgan was sure that they should be offered jobs fresh out of their schooling.
About three-quarters of the way through the accursed stack, Tani comes in and sits across from Morgan in one of the seats. 'Ah- Reviews?' She said, smile splayed across her face. Morgan waved her off with a paper in one hand and a coffee cub in the other. "Go-on now, d-dun, I ain't gonna show you yours yaknow." Tani stayed, placing her hand on the desk nervously, three-inch claws blunted at the tips but tapping on the desk soundlessly.
After marking a few of the papers, Morgan looks up, and asks- "S-so, do you need something? This is boring, so I'm sure you don't want t-to help me grade papers." Morgan said. Tani laughs, and brings one of her leathered paws to the back of her nape, showing her teeth amicably. The human glanced up over the papers curiously at her, wondering exactly what she needed.
[26]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 21:02:10 GMT -6
Tani was a tall mammalian- easily big enough to have to duck to get through most doors. Morgan threatened to have the doors redone just for her, but she laughingly joked and ignored it a bit. She was a very abnormally tall mammalian. It came with the territory of looking like a PHIL, Morgan guessed. She was a very large bear-like mammalian in every since of the word, including personality. Morgan realized that they hadn't seen her looking anxious before, though. Morgan tilted their head and slit their eyes, unsure suddenly. Finally, the scientist speaks. 'I'm worried about the efficacy of this project.' She finally got out, nervously. Morgan suddenly understood, nodding and leaning back in their chair a bit. "If you simply must n-know, I was very against it at first. I have no intention to run this e-e-establishment like the labs." Morgan said, their voice dripping with distaste. They sit the file in their hands upside-down on the table so that it could not be read. "If t-these creatures come out... Needing what sentient be-beings needed before... You know, I will put this project down." A sip of their drink. "In a heartbeat." Tani's anxiety did not melt off of her frame, however. Her honey-brown eyes watched Morgan like one would watch a snake.
Morgan sighed. "I don't agree with it, and I do have the money to get m-more of the original samples. H-however, it might be..." They searched for a word. "Advantageous for future development to see this through Just Once. Dis did offer t-this of her own accord, and y-you know how difficult it is to say no to her when she is excited and s-set on doing something."
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 21:15:51 GMT -6
Morgan frowned a bit, but sat their food down anyway. "T-tani, you know we c-can reassign you if you want, no pay docked at all. W-we can also find you a n-new job within the city if you want, we have those partnerships." Morgan said. "W-we don't want to lose you on the team, b-but if this is a matter that is a breaker for you, i-it's understandable." Morgan said, suddenly tired. "H-honestly I don't like it either. I... D-don't agree with sentient beings being pets for one. I-I also don't agree with..." Suddenly, their teeth grit with malice. "The old methods o-of reaching that sentience. T-th-the price was Too High."
Tani looked stricken for a moment, being offered to leave apparently had not been her goal today, but she took it in stride. 'I hate it, I hate it- I can't stand the thought of producing slaves for people!' She said, suddenly rising fast enough to bonk her head on the tiles on the ceiling. Morgan looked apologetic for a moment, and then stood as well. "T-tani, I have failsafes built for t-this species. They're... W-well, they won't be helpless for long. P-plus, I do not plan for t-this to be an issue again."
'You didn't plan for it at all.' Tani said, flatly.
Morgan was silent, waiting to make sure that she was finished before speaking. "T-tani, I promise. If anything looks like i-it is going wrong again, we-we'll pull the plug on this whether Dis likes it or not. B-but Dis is really into this project. She hates it too, you know? B-but she... You know, just ask her. I can't tell all her secrets." Morgan finally said, a palm flat on their cheek.
Tani stood for a moment, clenching and unclenching her fist, and Morgan stood, taking their glasses off to wipe their eyes. "J-just go talk to Dis, and let me know if there is anything else I kin do for ya after?"
[28]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 21:27:37 GMT -6
For a moment, Morgan was a little bit sure that Tani was going to try to deck them. However, after a moment the large bear mammalian re-clenched her fists and left the room. Morgan sat back down and called Dis immediately. "Oi Dis, Tani's gonna be coming to you. I-i-If I were you, I'd tell her why you're so keen on this project." They warned, tiredly. After Dis clicked off of the phone, Morgan leaned their head on the desk, thoroughly exhausted. Of course they didn't really want this, but at this point... They may have just broken through exactly how to do this without going down the Labs-road. And if they could do that...
Then what? Big leap for Science-kind, tiny steps for producing cheap slaves? The human rubbed their temples quietly. They felt a headache coming on. After a little while, they heard Dis' door being opened, and Tani laughing in the hallway. Well, that was probably a good sign at least. Losing Tani from the team would be... Not ideal. She could be replaced, but Morgan already had a ton of paperwork piled up and it was all they could do to finish this before working on their own project.
Three of the samples were given to the teams, one a piece. The last sample was for Morgan to develop with, or rather, their team. The human was unsure what direction to go with it, but decided to produce a prototype with whatever they decided to go with. Morgan wanted to make sure that the species acted as they were supposed to, preferably before they went out to the City...
Slaves. Morgan thought. They needed to make sure that these would work side-by-side people by design, if they were going to avoid the slave issue.
[29]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 29, 2020 21:47:16 GMT -6
Someone came into Morgan's office a couple of hours later. Morgan didn't even look up from where they had their head on the stack of the completed papers. "Hey Dis- I-I-I sure hope you brought me some-" A bag was deposited on the desk and Morgan reached out hungrily to grab it, to find cake-balls with poprocks on them. The human sat up excitedly- when did Dis have the time to get them those awesome cakeballs from the Catseye? They looked up, and saw that Jason had deposited himself in the seat across from the desk. Oh. Okay then. Morgan took the bag and then glared with concern at him. "O-okay, what kind of a bribe are these?" Morgan asked. 'I heard you dealt with Tani. She seems to be feeling better now.' Jason says more than asks, picking up a bear-claw and tucking into it. "Word travels q-quick." Morgan replied, matter of factly. Jason nodded. 'Indeed.' Morgan pulled a drink out of their desk and offered it over with a clean paper cup. The human hadn't really expected to be sitting here, having alcohol in paper cups with a coworker after nearly getting decked by another co-worker. Still better than working at the labs though. 'So what ARE we doing with this species?' Jason asked. 'I know you don't do well with sentient production...' He seemed to be fishing for something. "If you've g-got somethin' to say- say it. I'm losing my patience with today." Morgan said, eyes flashing bright green at him, but obviously half-assedly. A moment passed, and Morgan poured them another drink. Finally, he spoke after draining about half of his paper cup, 'A-are you okay with us having this much reign over projects? I know you didn't want to do this, originally. This is Dis' thing.' Morgan just sighed. "I dunno." They popped a cakeball into their mouth. "Dis, y-yknow, she's never gonna have a brood. T-that's a big thing for kappers. S-she needs this 'bout as much as I needed WELP." A moment passes. 'Like another hole in the head.' He said. They drank in peace. [30]
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