The dissection cubes were a little experiment from Bianca when she tried to understand how to multiply cells selectively. Using a single cell, she isolated out of the fresh corpse of one of the many rats plaguing the slums they were living in, Bianca successfully tried to encourage the cell to multiply, healing it with consecutive healing soundwaves of her talking random words into the cube she put the cell in for storage.
A cube, where she put a grape before, hanging free of a piece of yarn amid the glass cube. After her voice was heard by everything inside the cube, she sealed it away and repeated the process a dozen times, putting the cubes afterwards under a floorboard, so that the landlord wouldn't notice them.
Kneeing now on a fairly clean-looking paper, Bianca inspected the rotten floorboard covering up her experiment for an entire year. Patiently waiting for the moment, they can finally get put to use. She placed her paws at the edges of the board, wanting to pull, only to hold two pieces of wood in her paws. The floorboard, however, was still intact.
< Have I said dirt hole?> Galen was holding back his disgust, but Bianca felt him throwing all over her mind. <You two really have to move out. That all here is inhuman ... even by Nemthi's war-ridden standards. Like for real. It smells horrid.>
Bianca let out a deep sigh, trying to avoid breathing in the fumes of rot. With a face telling a novel regarding the definition of disgust, she threw the shards away and pulled once more, now finally holding the whole board in her paws.
<I know Galen, I know. Give it some more time. If Denton is pulling this off, we can not only move out of this shit hole, no!> a confident smile hushed over her face <We will be drowning in riches. It will finally allow Nemthi to call something their own that matters in global politics; A formula that grants independence from Etherium's cancer prevention booths. Their monopoly will, at last, be no more, and we two will be the professors teaching other Cleric-Labicer duos the secrets of cancer treatment.>
<Fingers crossed!>
Bianca was now looking at the content under the floorboard: Seven glass cubes were lying there containing an unidentifiable and slightly transparent mass. The rat cells multiplied more and more until the resulting cube of synthetic rat meat eventually reached the rotting grape. The mass mixed itself with the intruder corrupting parts of the monoculture with purple colouring. These will be the 'cancer cells' Denton will soon evaporate, leaving only the pure cell mass intact. At least that was the theory the siblings had upon creating the cubes.
I had my doubts regarding if my arcane influence even would be able to kickstart the cells to divide and conquer. I was so nervous I didn't check our cubes for the entire span. Luckily my doubts were unnecessary and we will have some homegrown meat to test our theories on. Come here to mommy, my little aberrations.
Holding now one of the currently very dusty glass cubes in her paws, Bianca returned to Denton on the other end of the little room. He was observing her from afar, seemingly in a heated argument with his spirit Khõra. A warm smile softened his grimace after he finally realized Bianca looking back, paws behind her back whipping up and down on her feet:
"And? Have the cubes developed as you told me they would?" Denton, who was now in power again, asked her, barely failing to hide his curiosity regarding her little project.
Bianca presented the cube proudly to the interested albino, whose eyes widened surprised seeing the grape-corrupted block of synthetic meat:
"Just as I planned. Do you see the looming thread barely visible behind the thin layer of skin? This will be your target, tiger. Show me you can exterminate it without harming my blocky baby. You can do that, right?", Bianca clinked with her lashes while sticking out her tongue, taunting her brother.
"Don't tempt me, sis. You know better than most how I can be if left unsupervised. Don't play with the tiger in the room and put down the block. I am in the mood for some controlled destruction of our mortal enemy. Rotten grapes!"
Both simultaneously burst out in guffaw, barely able to contain themselves amused by the other's bad method of acting. Bianca put down the block on the only working furniture in the dirt hole, a kobold-sized table (a normal-sized stool), and unlocked the glass dome granting the cell structure its first dip into the smelly used-up air around them. If Bianca wouldn't know it better, she could have sworn that the small block shrivelled down significantly from experiencing such bad air.
Denton was eying the block now closely, nearly playfully. Unleashing his repressed childishness, he gave the gelatinous-like blob a little nudge with his claw giggling like a mad scientist about to go down a way not taken ever before. Then he closed his eyes, starting to recite wordless stuff Bianca couldn't understand at all, his palms pressed to an intertwined knot.
"Everything alright. bro? What are you muttering to yourself?"
Denton opened his left eye looking over to Bianca, sadness reflecting in the raging play of red hues:
"Aiming a few words to mom and dad, Bianca. They may haven't had cared about us when still alive, but still ...", he looked down to the ground, a single tear running down his snout, "... Even they would have been proud of what we will achieve today, don't you think, sis?"
Bianca was caught off guard by the sudden naivety of her dear brother. Her care for their raven parents was never really present, especially after that one time, when her father told her the reason why they even existed in the first place.
Never planned. Never cared for. Dad wished we would have never existed in the first place. And mum as well. She vanished when we were still children, throwing herself in the lap of some aristocrat signing away her freedom for a life of degeneracy. A life only those kobolds are seeking, who lost all ambition in life, who gave in to their cravings clouding their brain, fully embracing it. Food, a warm bed and a way to satisfy our unique needs. My respect, if I had any in the first place, went fully down the drain after Dad told me that on his death bed. ... Denton was not listening when he said all that. ... You are so lucky your world is still intact, and I intend to on keeping it that way. You are too pure to face this truth at least.
Bianca put on her best smile and briefly folded her paws as her brother did:
"I am sure they will look over us when we undergo the most important moment of our life. Bronze be my witness!"
Apologies, my queen, for abusing your name; it was necessary.
Denton smiled softly. That was enough to satisfy his seek for assurance. He suddenly pounded his chest, letting out a silent cry of confidence and as a direct follow-up staring down the block of meat with piercing vision. Staring it into submission, breathing deeply:
"I am ready. Let us write history!"
"He looked to the ground, a single tear running down his snout." I have some questions regarding that scene: 1. When Denton cried, did his tear specifically run: A: To the tip of his nose as he hung his head or B: To his lower jaw/chin 2. Exactly how would Denton react and what would he say to me if I hugged him, rubbed his back and licked that tear running down his snout with my tongue? Because every time I read that part, I fantasize licking Denton's tear from his snout. 3. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the saltiest, how salty would Denton's tear taste on my tongue if I licked it from his snout? 4. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being freezing and 10 being the hottest, how warm was that tear running down Denton's snout? I know these questions are weird but please please PLEASE reply back!
Specific questions indeed. Lets see. 1. According to his anatomy I would say tip of the snout, between his nostrils. 2. He would appreciate the gesture very much as you would grant him comfort at his most hurtful moment, thinking about the parents Bianca fabricated for him to be overly caring. Words like „T-thank you.~“ or similar fairly wordless expressions of gratitude for the attention would come over his lips. He would react more with hugging back and purring strongly. 3: I would give that specific singular tear a 9 4: Fairly warm, unusually warm for a lizard….4 Every time you read that part? How often did you read my novel? O.o