[Case Study] Fido

[Leo Fenrir]

Dr. Linalee Morose watched as her college, Dr. Ambrose, walk by with that smug grin of his. She noted with surprise that he even felt the need to nod at her. It must be quite the project he was working on. College my ass. She thought with a chuckle. Beyond that they couldn't stand each other. The man was the most egotistical, condescending, vile, and sexist specimen of a human being. But she wasn't payed to like the man. She wasn't quite sure if she was being payed at all!

She remembered the day she had been hired quite vividly. She had been interning at the Sir John Metzler III University, working on a project that was supposed to explore the nature of winter hibernation in turtles. The medical applications envisioned had been endless. Apparently the ISI had agreed. She had gone to work one day and found that the whole lab was empty save for a man dressed in a black suit.

Her thought had been how cliché. When the man had flashed his ID badge that identified him as part of the ISI she had grown worried. This had happened in the time of the great controversy surrounding the Ouroboros array project and public opinion of the organization had not been very high. And who wouldn't be worried about their entire lab disappearing overnight.

He had announced that the ISI had purchased the patents on the project (she still wasn't even sure if that was legal) and that she was free to continue her work in one of their facilities. Linalee had accepted of course, though there were times she wondered what would have happened if she said no. She wouldn't have to deal with Ambrose for one.

She gave her head a slight shake. Irrelevant. She had work to do. The harsh light of the LED screen reflected off her glasses, leaving miniature and inverted copies on her forearm. This was completely ignored though. She flicked through several documented records of tests on the subject. The biggest issue, or at least she saw it as an issue, was that the was nothing wrong with the boy.

One would think that the transition from inter-dimensional Wraith to a human would leave some trace or residue in the body. But so far every test result had come back completely benin. She would not give up hope though. I can't give up hope, she corrected herself. Dr. Wrend demanded results and the only person she had ever seen deny him what he wanted was the CEO himself. But he spent too much of his time quibbling and politicking to ever really notice what was going on this far from Nordalnd.

It crossed her mind that locating this facility so far from Leonardo may have been for more then the strategic equatorial location. In her memory the CEO had never visited the Liberty branch of the ISI. Yet Lucard - No! It is not your place to question this stuff! Linalee was surprised to find that she had been staring at the same report for the last minute. Why was it so hard to focus today?

A good 30 minutes past before she gave off a long sigh. These reports were getting her nowhere. It was time to pay a visit to the subject. Leaving in the opposite direction that Ambrose had taken, Linalee made her way to the air lock door. It locked closed behind her with a 'click' and almost immediately the temperature dropped 15 some odd degrees, eliciting a groan of satisfaction. She'd have to find a new office, and soon, she had long ago lost any inclination to take part in hot yoga and now she was having trouble keeping on top of her laundry bill.

Fido, they had yet to find a new name for the boy, was sitting cross-legged in his room staring at seemingly nothing. He noticed her as she entered the room and a huge smile split his face. She noticed a moment of hesitation and the smile slipped a bit. Linalee immediately went to his side to comfort the boy. He had been accustomed to speaking with telepathy for so long that making him understand the concept of a vocal cord was proving quite difficult. He had been quite fast at picking up sign language though, and his hands flew through a greeting.

She couldn't help but smile. The boy was so genuine in his emotion, so innocent. He didn't belong with the likes of the ISI. But the CEO had fled to space, leaving him behind. She fought to repress her thoughts about Lord Dine. She would not get angry in font of Fido. His excited gestures caught her attention and she turned her focus back to the child.

What! Her eyes flew open in shock at what he was signing and she stood up suddenly scanning the room. Could it be!?

[Ari Rahikkala]

* tilts head *

[Leo Fenrir]

(bah thats as bad as allot's jaw dropping. what emotion is that? Do i need to rework it? )

[Ari Rahikkala]

Mostly it's just that I'd temporarily forgotten about this Fido character of yours and was expecting a talking dog to show up somewhere .

And, aside that, I'm curious to see how this will continue.