Of Labs, Languages and Unexpected Visits (Oscric)

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

Victoria rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times. Her vision had gotten a bit bleary since five that morning. She had gone out for lunch, but her forty-five minute break had been the most time she had spent out of the lab today. She had set up several control experiments on a stagger, and the day had mostly consisted of taking down results and waiting. At, she glanced at the clock, four o'clock now, she was just waiting for two last solutions to set, but she'd still have to wait another hour before she could leave.

Victoria sat up and stretched in her chair. She took the hairband out of her hair and reaffixed her hair into a high ponytail, smoothing it back in the process. She looked back down at her notebook, and over to the two running experiments across the room. She glanced at the clock one last time before she reached down into her bag and took out a black graphing note book and began to study the notes she had taken during her last Japanese lesson.

She began to mutter a few of the words quietly. She wasn't quite proficient yet, but if the other six languages she knew meant anything, she wasn't particularly worried about the progress she would make. After a minute or two, she looked around, and upon seeing the emptiness of the lab, she smiled at herself and began saying the words more clearly in a regular voice. The whispering had gotten a bit straining and it's not as if anyone would hear her botched Japanese anyways.

[OSRIC YOUNG]

Hank's younger brother was twenty years old, and in his second year at NYU, studying law, and also physics. Just like Wilson had. Oh, Wilson. The only one of them who'd made it. Or at least, was starting to make it. Wilson, who was the down-to-Earth guy, the one who'd kept them in check. The one who stayed in school.

Smooth Bastard.

Still, Osric loved Wilson dearly, just like he loved Hank, and Hank's brothers, whom he loved just like he loved Wilson's little sister. Carl was a different matter, but fuck Carl, he didn't matter in this equation. What mattered was, Osric liked Hank's younger brother well enough that when Hank phoned Osric and asked him to bring his brother his lunch that he'd forgotten but Hank was too busy to drop it off, Osric immediately said yes and did it happily.

It wasn't as if he had anything better to do.

Anyway, Hank's younger brother thanked him and they hugged briefly and then Osric decided, he was in NYU, he might as well explore the science building he was now passing through. Whether or not he was actually allowed to do this was dubious, but Osric paid little mind to rules. He viewed them as helpful guidelines, really.

Peeking his nose through room after room, he soon got bored. They were just empty classrooms, lecture halls, labs. The labs were a bit more interesting, all white and pristine and full of things he was sure he could have fun with, but he wasn't so unmindful of 'rules' that he knew it was probably best to leave the dangerous chemicals and gasses to the professionals, lest he want his face blown off.

He decided it'd be more interesting to go home and maybe watch a movie, because his arm was hurting a bit today, when he noticed a girl in one of the rooms. She was really very pretty, long wavy brown hair that passed her shoulders and shrouded her back. She was sitting, leaning over a notebook and speaking some sort of gibberish Osric recognized as Japanese. He knew how to say, "Good evening," and "Thank you very much for coming tonight," in a fuck ton of different languages because hey, just because their planned tour in Europe opening for a bigger band got cancelled didn't mean he hadn't studied for it before that.

Osric stepped in against social niceties to get a better look at the girl. Oh yeah, she was definitely hot. He wondered if she was nice too. He thought, She probably was, because he tended to assume veryone was nice. He smiled, and spoke up, "Konbanwa!" He said cheerfully in his bad accent. "Hey there! I'm Osric! Who're you?" It was not a more graceful way to great strangers, but hey, it was the best he could do.

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

After a minute or two, Victoria grew a bit annoyed with the opening and closing doors in the hallway. Maintenance wouldn't come around for another hour or so, and it was most likely some student was lost and in the wrong building. One would think that after the first twenty empty rooms any lost straggler would catch a clue and find a new building to disturb.

She listened as the opening doors came closer and closer to the room she was currently sitting in. Against all luck, she heard the door adjacent to the one she was in open and close and the footsteps stop, presumably right outside her door.

She continued reciting her Japanese as she glanced briefly to the side to take in her unexpected visitor. He looked innocent enough, but if he was a student he must've been hopelessly lost. Needless to say, he didn't quite look like he belonged in the science labs, let alone the graduate studies section.

She turned her attention back to her Japanese as she heard him step towards and open the door. She hadn't seen him before, and she knew most everyone who came and went in these labs. She really did hope it was some chemistry major she didn't know looking for supplies.

"Konbanwa!"

No such luck. She straightened up her posture, closed her notebook, and adopted a soft smile. She turned to face the entrant and she wasn't so quick to judge his accent, considering that she herself was only getting a hang of it after a year and a half.

"Hey there! I'm Osric! Who're you?"

She made sure that her smile looked completely genuine. He couldn't know what sort of mood she happened to be in and her manners wouldn't let her prejudice affect the exchange.

"Victoria." She paused before adding imploringly, "Please, don't call me Vicky." She smiled with a few more teeth and a chuckle, hoping that he'd pick up on the joke. She had locked her eyes on Osric's, but she kept her face downcast a bit. While she'd never admit it, she may have been trying to act a bit coy. It just seemed to her that Osric was the sort of guy that operated on that wavelength.

[OSRIC YOUNG]

The girl basically tried to ignore him until he spoke. Then she sat up straight, smiled. Was polite. He thought it was awfully funny when people could turn a smile on and off like that. But maybe some people could.

"Victoria," she introduced herself. "Please, don't call me Vicky." She gave a small huff of laughter. Victoria was such a pretty name. He wouldn't call her Vicky. Vicky was someone else. She didn't look like a Vicky anyways.

"I won't," Osric promised seriously, before smiling again and sitting on a small stool at the long table next to Victoria.

"Hey," he said suddenly, looking around the lab excitedly. "Are you scientist? I mean, you are right? Can you make stuff? Like, could you make something for me?" His eyes shone with excitement. The idea of being able to see what he had in mind would be brilliant. And Wilson's sister would love it.

It occurred to him that he was being a bit rash. So he quickly added, "Just for a friend. As a gift. Hey we could be friends." He hoped he didn't sound like he was trying to use her. But it had popped into her head and now he couldn't get it out.

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

"I won't,"

She lifted her head up to face him a bit better, and she smiled a bit wider as she saw Osric's excitement grow as he glanced around the lab.

"Hey. Are you scientist? I mean, you are right? Can you make stuff? Like, could you make something for me?"

No, Osric definitely wasn't a science major. She laughed a bit, it was rather refreshing, there was a large handful of grad students that rarely got half this excited. There was truly no joy in working with them. All science should be done with a healthy dose of wonder and bounce-out-of-your-chair excitement. Osric while still a bit distracting, may have just redeemed himself a bit.

Then she thought back to his request. She followed his gaze around the lab, wondering what he imagined that she could possibly craft. She couldn't imagine he'd have any use for a 1 Molar solution of Hydrochloric acid, and if he did, she'd just fetch it from the cabinet. She looked back at Osric and smiled a bit incredulously.

"Just for a friend. As a gift. Hey we could be friends."

Victoria laughed before replying. "Sure." Victoria stood up and lifted her bag onto the counter. She stowed away her language notebook and pulled out her tablet, quickly checking her schedule for the rest of the day. She relaxed and focused on Osric when it appeared that she did not any classes scheduled for the rest of the day. She walked around the counter and around Osric before stopping directly opposite of her newfound understudy and laying her tablet down on the counter. She put both her hands on the table, palms down and elbows slightly bent, before she inquired jovially, "So, what can I get for you?"

[OSRIC YOUNG]

Victoria began to laugh and smile at him, and he beamed at her, because she seemed much more genuine this time. "Sure," she said, and Osric watched as she looked through one of her notebooks quickly before putting the ones she had out away.

"So, what can I get for you?" She asked kindly, and Osric clapped his hands together comically in glee.

"Right, so, my best friend. Well, one of my best friends. He has this little sister, and she's really nice and everything, and sometimes she makes me bracelets. I'm wearing two of 'em now, see?" He showed her his wrist, giggling like a child. He was just so excited.

He pulled his arm back after a moment, and then said, "I was reading this science magazine a while back, and I read this article about this lady who made a rabbit glow by injecting jellyfish jeans into its skin, I think?" He failed to mention that he had read said magazine while he was in the hospital and high on morphine, so he may or may not have read all of that article correctly. "I was wondering, do you know how to do that? Like, maybe with a mouse or something, or a rabbit I guess. But Wilson's sister - her name's Maddy by the way - she really likes science in school and stuff and so she would think it was really cool, and her birthday's soon," he said everything quickly, smiling the whole time. "Do'ya think you could do something like that?"

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

"Right, so, my best friend. Well, one of my best friends. He has this little sister, and she's really nice and everything, and sometimes she makes me bracelets. I'm wearing two of 'em now, see?"

She glanced down at the bracelets, and she smiled as they briefly brought back memories of when she was making them as a child. Victoria wasn't entirely sure where he was going with this introduction, but along she would go with the ride.

"I was reading this science magazine a while back, and I read this article about this lady who made a rabbit glow by injecting jellyfish genes into its skin, I think? I was wondering, do you know how to do that? Like, maybe with a mouse or something, or a rabbit I guess. But Wilson's sister - her name's Maddy by the way - she really likes science in school and stuff and so she would think it was really cool, and her birthday's soon. Do'ya think you could do something like that?"

She let a bit of her incredulity leak into her expression with a few quick blinks and a wider smirk. Her mind began to reel as she saw the situation very quickly spiraling out of control. Sure, she could easily get a glowing anything, there were those glowing cat that could resist the cat version of AIDS, but she wasn't sure is she should be spending a bunch of money on someone she had just met. Then again, what were first dates anyways? She looked back at Osric and she surprised herself when she realized that she was really more worried about disappointing him than getting him an animal that glowed.

"Say Osric, does Maddy like fish?"

She wasn't entirely how carefully he had read the article, considering that articles like those tended to be littered with disclaimers these days. Too much of a risk for the animals to mix with the breeding populations, but like she had said, there had been a brand of fish they were selling these days that glowed.

"You see, while glowing rabbits might not be my specialty, I know a shop that sells glowing fish. Same science and everything, but just a bit more, you know, manageable."

Victoria tried to sell it with a smile, watching for a reaction from Osric.

[OSRIC YOUNG]

Victoria listened to Osric's explanation carefully, and considered it for a moment before she asked, "Say Osric, does Maddy like fish?"

"Uh huh, I mean, I think so. She just likes animals in general," Osric said, grinning as he thought of Wilson's family's dog. He was a mostly white Russel Terrier named Arthur, who had a few light brown spots scattered around the fur on his little body. Osric loved that dog; sometimes he dog sat for them.

"You see, while glowing rabbits might not be my specialty," Victoria said, "I know a shop that sells glowing fish. Same science and everything, but just a bit more, you know, manageable." She smiled and Osric nodded eagerly.

"Oh yeah, that'd be so cool! She'd love that. Hey, do you think you could tell me all the sciency stuff behind that later? I could record you and show it to her, she'd think it was so cool!" Osric loved giving gifts to people. He liked seeing them thankful and all, but really, he just loved to make people happy. It felt good. By the time he was ten, he liked giving gifts more than receiving them.

"Can we go now?" He asked. "Or, wait, are you doing something here? Sorry, I didn't ask," he smiled slightly sheepishly. "But we could get her a fish. Her birthday's this Friday."