Who: Hank and Vanessa What: Hank's in hiding and Nessie will no longer stand by! Where: His laboratory When: (fordated) Monday, in the middle of classes
The lights in the laboratory were dim and a couple flickered, the side effect of being on for days straight now. Permeating through the air currents was layers of smells, all signaling a sense of wrongness. Of despair. And desperation.
Firstly there was a smell of rotting food wafting from one corner. Putrid and wet. It mingled with the scent of old papers and the ozone of running electrical equipment. Beneath that was the scent of musty fur that hadn't been cleaned in days. That came from the hulking mutant leaning over a table in the very back of the lab, his head in his hands. Frustration made his shoulders shake silently as Hank McCoy stared down at the latest results of his experimentation. The device didn't work. Again. This was the 51st trial, and all led to failure. Errors in his calculation and construction, something missing he couldn't see. And it was driving him mad!
With a roar of rage and anger, he swept a single large arm across the table surface, scattering notebooks and gadgets that had littered nearly every free surface he had. They crashed to the floor, glass cracking and metal bolts rolling away to disappear into the corners. Unsatisfied, he flipped the table itself, and it gave a clattering crack as it flew back into a wall. The tremor shook one of his whiteboards, making it jerk in place. His arm was cut and bleeding, soiling the already soiled lab coat as he mussed the thicker fur on his head with an angry gesture.
He gave a howl of anger and rage. WRONG! It was all WRONG! By god what was he missing?! He'd been going over every formula, following every DNA strand and NOTHING! No reversal of the mutant gene that tied to appearance, no device that could replicate a functioning hologram of human skin, no way to even bring TEMPORARY relief! Wanda's spell had thrown everything into chaos, and even now he wanted to shatter that tiny human face. Damn her. Damn the professor. LOOK at him! Hideous and monstrous, like the demons Dante had faced in the pits of hell. And for what?! Why couldn't he use this brain of his to puzzle out a solution?! To gain what he'd had such a short taste of?!
He was a hypocrite. Damn it all, he knew that and accepted it...but the hard truth was that Hank could spout pretty poetic things all day long for his students. But given the chance to regain his humanity? He'd leap from on high to obtain it. The freedom of being seen! To go out in public and hold someone's hand! Not worry about the damned government shoving him into a cage because he couldn't change what he was. What he had become for the sake of others.
It wasn't fair, it was illogical, and he wanted to end it! There had to be away. Surely! He was so close to a breakthrough that he could see nothing else around him. His focus was narrowed down to the cluster of whiteboards, covered from edge to edge with a near frenzied scribbling and calculations. Formulas and numerical values danced feverishly in his mind as he limply held the phillips screwdriver in his hand. It had all started so innocently. A burning curiosity of how Wanda had achieved what she had on the mutant's of the school...and it had progressed into an obsession to replicate the process. To find an alternate method of being human again. So driven he'd become, Beast didn't even realize he was sick. His skin was sallow and his fur hung in greasy clumps. There were dark circles under his strained red eyes and he'd lost weight. He hadn't been eating...it was so easy to forget. The times he slept were accidental, finding himself slumped against the monitor of his computer or in the chair that was now the home for more test devices. Sometimes a noise outside the door of the lab would startle him, but he never went out to check anymore. He never left at all really...
He gave a dizzied sway on his feet, feeling light headed again. Beast slumped down to the floor, back to the cabinets in the back of his lab. Somewhere to the side, his monitor had been steadily flashing a blue...white....blue...white... His email inbox was flooded, as was his instant message service. He hadn't logged in for quite some time. Forgotten the outside world completely. He couldn't go back to class...not yet...god he was so close, he knew it. He'd been pouring over the blue prints for hours, why was he so far away? He knew...knew he just needed some more time and he'd have it. Have the answer, that elusive enigmatic riddle's completion that flitted just outside of his thoughts. Like gossamer spider silk, swaying in a dark wind. It was there...had to be...that answer...it was...
Feeling a sob work its way up his throat, Hank dropped the screwdriver with a clang and put his face in his hands. Form hunched and shaking, he broke down into tears.