Chapter Text
Claire really thought the day would be normal. There had been a lot a weird stuff going on lately, or really ever since she came to Morganville but at least usually she was safe in the sun. Well relatively speaking at least. Today though there just seemed to be something in the air. She could hear arguments happening on the street, people getting thrown out their houses and strangely even the other students seemed to be affected. Normally the students remained blissfully unaware, continuing to attempt to party without ever realising how much danger they were in.
That being said, weird had to hit a certain level before she was concerned, else she would never have a relaxed day in her life. Her classes passed pretty normally although the teachers all seemed a little jumpy, and a people didn't seem to even attempt to hide the fact they hadn't done the pre reading. But that could just be because they were about to have a break and their patience had ran out. It wasn't a big surprise for TPU, she was surprised they even had the numbers to run some of the more advanced classes she took part in. But there always seemed to be just enough people, even if half of them chose not to show up.
She dropped into common grounds on the way to the lab and that too was weirdly quiet. On an average day she would struggle to get a seat at the least and there would definitely be at least a few people in the queue. The majority of the people today were sat alone, where as it would usually be big groups. And the few groups were barely talking. Still she hadn't come this way just to miss out on her mocha. Eve wasn't working, but half the time Claire couldn't keep track of her schedule anyway. Instead Oliver was behind the counter.
These days they were relatively civil, he understood that she was somewhat useful as far as humans went, to both the founder and the town. Whilst she accepted that in his ways he could be just as useful... When he wanted to be. One perk of being well known to one of the super scary vamps in town? He knew her coffee order.
"The usual?" Oliver asked before she even had a chance to say anything.
"Please." she replied and got her wallet out of her back pack "It's a bit quiet in here today. Where's Eve?"
"She said she wasn't feeling well and she went home" that was a few too many words from Oliver and she made a note to send Eve a text.
She debated getting Myrnin a coffee as well, he was likely to get grumpy if she turned up empty handed, but she compromised with some Muffins instead. She paid Oliver and thanked him for her drink and began to leave.
"Claire?" she turned to Oliver "Keep an eye out today. Somethings... Somethings not right" she nodded and left.
If Oliver was concerned then there was definitely something to worry about. He wasn't usually one for ominous warnings and it made her tense. She walked a little faster, if the machine was playing up again she might just about go insane. They had had enough problems with the thing to last a life time.
When she got to the lab Myrnin was no where to be seen, which was unusual but not un heard of. Claire started to look around and figure out what Myrnin had been working on but she couldn't make sense of any of the things she was seeing. Which was mostly piles of junk, half put together contraptions mixed in with screws and something that looked a bit too alive for her liking. Avoiding dwelling on that for too long, she picked up one of the many books lying around and sat down on the arm chair and started to read. It was about brain chemistry and artificial effects. Reading it just made her hope that this time she and Myrnin would be on the same page, that making sure the machine didn't effect inside the town again was a big priority.
Then again, he could just as easily be thinking of making telepathy a thing or mind control. She shuddered, then again he already had a strange amount of influence in the second one already although she often tried to forget that.
The door to the lab slammed open and then closed, and Myrnin came rushing down the stairs carrying a large brown paper bag. It didn't seem to weigh anything to him but that didn't give her much indication, it could be anything from a new book to a hunk of lead and he would show no signs of strain.
"What's in the bag?" she asked, it wasn't the first time she asked the question and it probably wouldn't be the last. Usually the answer was that she wouldn't want to know, or that he wasn't ready for her to know and she expected today would be no different.
"It's a collection of things actually" he said, though he showed no signs of paying any attention to the fact he was talking and continued on his way to the back room to take off his trench coat and hat and apparently deposit the brown bag there as well. "There's some blood from the blood bank because my supplies were running low and that, as you know, is dangerous. There's a human hand taken from a corpse in the morgue though its currently escaping me why I needed that..." he trailed off for a second as he went back to the collection of what she could only describe as junk on the table "and finally some paper because I have decided that I should probably try and write things down, for example the purpose of the hand"
He stared into space for a minute seemingly trying to recall the hands purpose, but eventually he shook his head and went back to tinkering. Meanwhile she sat shocked. Maybe he hadn't been lying when he said she didn't want to know, in fact if she knew her curiosity wouldn't get the better of her she would vow to never ask again. Myrnin seemed undeterred by her presence today. And in a mood she didn't recognise. That would either mean that the interaction would end in a death threat, or a very productive day. It really could go either way.
"What are we working on?" she asked.
"You ask a lot of questions. We are not currently working on anything, I am working on figuring out the ins and puts of telepathy, purely because you mentioned it in passing the other day and the idea hasn't left my mind since" she blinked at that, half the time she assumed he wasn't listening to her, it was strange to think that some of his crazy ideas were inspired by things she had mentioned in passing. Especially things she had been joking about... mostly at least.
"Do you think we can do it?".
This was interesting stuff, the stuff that made her think that even if she had a choice that Morganville was a better place to learn then any prestigious university. Where else was she going to learn things like this, where else could she even mention something like telepathy and not get kicked out for being insane. Myrnin was looking directly at her now, seemingly distracted from his task and vaguely annoyed by the look in his eye but he still answered.
"With enough time I think we could probably achieve it. However I'm not sure it's worth it and there's a good chance if you remain human then it wouldn't be achieved in your life time any way"
She opened her mouth to ask another question but before she could he put his hand over her mouth. She hoped he had washed it since he had been in the morgue, though she knew her chances weren't great.
"Please don't ask me any more questions just now, you are completely distracting just by being here all this chatter makes it worse" his brow furrowed like he hadn't meant to say that and Claire worried that it meant the illness was coming back. He shook his head "Actually Claire I think you should sta-" now he covered his own mouth.
"Myrnin?" she asked, this was worrying behaviour even for him.
"Something strange is happening" he stated before rummaging around, eventually finding some chalk and then wheeled out the big chalk board from its place against the wall. The board usually meant they were theorising, or arguing, over a new concept or theory. Or she was being forced to learn something like when she first started. That didn't seem to be the case today.
'Can't control what I'm saying, but I feel fine' Myrnin wrote on the board and paused to look back at her.
"Why didn't you bring me coffee?" he asked, noticing the empty mocha cup and muffins she had put on the side.
"I didn't want to deal with you on a caffeine high, although with all the weirdness going on I think that would of been the least of our problems" a bit less sarcastic then her usual response, but he was worrying her.
He squinted at her and she suddenly felt like she was the experiment here.
"Myrnin what are y-"
He cut her off "Tell me a lie"
She thought for a moment. How could she go blank on a lie. Something simple then "I hate art" she scrunched her face and signalled for him to give her the chalk.
'I was trying to say I hate physics' she wrote and he nodded slightly.
"We can't lie" he said aloud
"Why?"
"I don't know" he considered "apparently though if we don't know the answer we won't just know the answer because we can't lie"
She nodded.
'What could cause this?' she wrote, not wanting to sit here for the next hour whilst he explained every possible cause.
He considered for a moment and then wrote 'If I ask you a question can you choose not to answer?'.
She shrugged.
"What do you think of me?" he asked, before she even had chance to write a response.
She tried to clamp her mouth shut but it didn't work, she was going to kill him for this. Would it of been so hard for him to ask her what the digits of pie were? What her favourite equation was? It was too late to berate him though the words were already spilling out.
"I think you have an excellent mind and it's a shame that you are sometimes too insane to do anything with and also too violent to ever be completely trusted because I have a strange compulsion to help and trust you even when I know I shouldn't" if she could just stop there, she tried to fight it again but something told her that if she tried to fight it would only make it worse. That was confirmed when she tried to clamp her jaw shut only to feel like a pair of invisible hands was prying her mouth open.
"I think that you could probably accomplish anything given enough time and I'm honoured that I get to learn from you and work with you. I also think you are very handsome and" he face was burning now and she looked away at the room so that she didn't have to see his reaction "that your fashion sense is hilarious but also an excellent sign of how many years you've seen and how many things you've learnt. I consider you a good friend and I hope I never have to kill you"
She breathed in. That had felt like her very organs were being ripped out from her mouth, although she had an inkling that it was only the fighting that had made it that way. She was exhausted both physically and mentally. She swallowed and said "No you can't choose not answer"
She looked over to him from the corner of her eye only to see him trying to contain a laugh. She was embarrassed and angry and he was laughing. She kicked him in the leg and he let her, although he did let some laughter out.
"You are having too much fun with this already" she wanted to embarrass him as well. It was only fair. There was a good chance this would make him mad but at least he would stop laughing. She slowly backed away to make sure there was enough space for her to get her words out.
Luckily he was too distracted by what he saw as a humorous event to notice when she positioned herself around the other side of the work bench.
"We need to know if vampires can fight it" she said it quickly and matter of factly and she watched the split second of realisation on her face as he moved to stop her but it was too late "what do you think of me?"
The regret was instant, she had made a mistake. Never ask a question you can't handle the answer to.