The sky was gloomy outside as he worked in his quarters. Today he favoured the snug warmth of his small cramped room compared to the coldness of his lab. Here he felt he had true solitude, where as in his lab he could be disturbed at any moment by various intrusions- Dr Cortex, an escaped creation, a rogue heat seeking missile, anything really.

Rain pattered gently against the glass of the tall arched window and he took a break from tinkering with the small device to lean back and look outside. It was hard to tell if it was night or day with the torrents of rain they'd had the last few days, and though he had always been a homebody he was starting to get a little stir crazy being confined to his chambers. Sure, he could walk around the castle and stretch his legs, but going outside was a challenge. There was the risk of short circuiting, being struck by lightening, or just slipping in the mud and ruining his only lab coat. All were terrible outcomes.

N Gin sighed and grimaced, wiggling restlessly in his chair to try and get comfortable. He was trying to work out the central components of the life support system for their future space station, but on a much smaller, more cost effective scale. Dr. Cortex had given him little time to work. The man was impatient, but his mood had shifted into something even more unpleasant since the failings with the Time Twister. He supposed if he had been locked in looping time hell as an infant, he, too, would suffer some ill effects. Still, it was exhausting, and he was overwhelmed with work. Smoke flooded the room as a sharp pain ran through his head and he sighed lowly, pathetically as he rubbed above his eyebrow to try and still the pain.

The small man placed the cube of gears and wires down and kicked away from the desk. He hopped down from the chair and stretched, his joints popping and cracking. How long had he been sitting there? Hard to say at this point, he had little concept of time, between the constant darkness outside and getting absorbed in his thoughts. Having rarely slept, as well, added to his constant time confusion. N Gin hummed to himself quietly as he waddled through the long hallway adorned with candles and tattered wall hangings. What was Cortex's affinity for castles? They were obsolete and outdated, but in turn they were less conspicuous than alternatives, he reasoned.

N Gin continued to mindlessly glance around until he was absorbed entirely in the beautiful mural above him on the ceiling. He'd never noticed it before. It was chipped and fading, but most of it was there to see. It was a gorgeous display of the night sky and its planetary positions and their surrounding constellations. Around them were decorated alchemic rings and circles, complex but artful formulas, and flourishing gibberish he could never understood if he tried. It encompassed a circular area and it all revolved around the focal point- the sun. He briefly wondered who had resided in this castle before they started squatting in it.

Suddenly he made contact with something solid and fell to the ground with a pathetic grunt. He rubbed his backside gently before looking ahead to his obstacle. It was too tall to be Dr Cortex, too tall to be most people really. His eyes trailed up the long legs to their owner- Nefarious. The cold figured sneered down at him with seeming annoyance, his glare so sharp it sent a shudder through the small man.

"Ah, sorry, Dr. Nefarious, I-I didn't see you there." N Gin stuttered out in a small voice, chuckling nervously but not smiling.

"Obviously." His answer was simple, snide, but not without an small inflection of amusement. His eyes followed where N Gin's had been and he admired the ceiling in silence. He then clucked his tongue in boredom, "What are you doing?"

"Oh I'm just uh... You know, haaanging out..."" He shrugged and smiled awkwardly. He didn't really know what he was doing himself, how could he answer such a question?

Tropy rolled his eyes, "I need an assistant to help me carry out some research, if you aren't too busy doing... whatever this is, then perhaps you'd like to come along?"

"Ohh..." N Gin let out an odd, low sound of excitement as he slowly got to his feet. Something felt off, however. The doctor had never asked him anywhere before, and they had only spoken in passing or during mandatory gatherings. The most interaction they'd had was working to stabilizing the Time Twister to allow his and Cortex's return. His curiosity would not relent though, and he was about to go crazy- or at least more so than he already was- if he had to stay cooped up much longer.

"Yes! Yes, I would love to!" He bounced slightly, mentally kicking himself for having such a poor handle on his emotions. His ears reddened some in embarrassment and a faint smell of exhaust could be picked up as well. Tropy did not berate nor tease him as Cortex would have, and instead simply thrust a clipboard into his awaiting hands. He looked up at the man questioningly.

"I need to document a few things, I have some ideas for this... 'space station' Dr Cortex," He sneered lightly, his disdain for the man ever present, "is so excited about. You know, something to actually enable it to perform properly. You've seen his notes, too, yes? Utter drivel."

"I, uh..." N Gin gulped some and muttered incoherently. He felt wrong bad mouthing anything his superior did, and feared impending punishment if he spoke out of line... but Tropy was also his superior, which put him in a suddenly stressful situation. To his relief the man already seemed bored talking about Cortex and started off walking, motioning for N Gin to follow. He waddled behind him, struggling to keep up with his long stride. Two steps for the lanky figure was nearly six for N Gin.

As if realizing this, suddenly Tropy slowed his pace to a more casual walk, and N Gin sighed out thankfully, doing his best to hide how out of breath he was from jogging along side him.

"You'll need something to protect you from the momentum, unless you want to implode." Trophy said dryly as they approached his lab. It, like his own, was cold and spacious, but so much more elegant and neatly organized. His own was a jumbled scrap heap of broken and half finished projects. He had a bad habit of starting a project only to abandon it and begin another as a better, more exciting idea popped into his head. Everything was neatly arranged and labeled precisely, shelves stocked with books and odd looking bits and bobbles. Many of these things were items he had collected in his travels, ancient machinery made better, or just simply there to satisfy his endless hunger for knowledge.

"I think this will fit you? Maybe. Come here." Trophy picked up a chest piece similar to his own he wore on his travels, only it did not have a clock on it, rather various gears and wires. The two large pistons in the back had been replaced with several smaller ones all feeding into the large raised square surface on the front of the armour "It's a prototype, but I think it'll do. You'll be helping me in multiple ways today."

N Gin murmured oddly but no actual words came out. He stood by awkwardly as the tall man knelt down and fastened the device on him, similar how a parent would tie a life jacket onto their child. It fit around him snugly, but molded to him comfortably. It was almost as if it had been made tailormade for him.

He held his arms out as the armour clamped together on both sides. There was a sudden compression in his chest and stomach. It was a bit difficult to draw in a full breath in this thing, but be that the device or his weight he couldn't be sure, and didn't want to draw that kind of attention to himself. Whatever this thing was, it felt cold and tingly, like electricity. N Gin looked down at it, touching the slowly turning cogs then pulling away quickly as they threatened to pinch his finger. He was embarrassed and glanced up to see if Tropy had been watching him- he was.

He adorned himself with his usual gear and gathered his large tuning fork, "This is different than the Time Twister, and you cannot touch anything unless I tell you to, do you understand? Picking, a- a daisy could possibly lead to catastrophic affects in present time. And, as hilarious as complete and utter chaos is, this is purely for research purposes. In short, keep your hands to yourself. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." N Gin nodded and hugged the clipboard of charts to his chest. He suddenly felt nervous. What if he messed up? What if he set off a chain of events that would undo everything. The thought of it was both elating, and frightening. He had little confidence in himself, the decades of bullying from home, to school, to his work having chipping it out of him small pieces at a time.

"Don't hold your breath or you'll pass out." Tropy said simply as he made some adjustments to the metal sleeve of his arm and tapped his fork on the ground. N Gin only had a moment to mutter out a confused sound before it felt like he was being hit by a bus, perpetually. The momentum was so intense he found he couldn't move, he felt dizzy and nauseated as his lunch from earlier threatened to come up. It reminded him of one of those horrible spinning rides at amusement parks, only infinitely more terrible. There were lights, discombobulated sounds and flashes of time. And as suddenly as it began it was over.

Tropy dusted the ashes off himself, the spot where they 'appeared' having left a giant burnt patch in the grass around them. N Gin rubbed his forehead, willing the nausea to go away. His ears were ringing and he felt unsteady, like he was standing on an uneven floor. He leaned forward and wretched, throwing up much to his own embarrassment. He expected Tropy to be disgusted by him, and likely he was, but there was no harsh words or chastising that followed.

"Ah, yes, I remember my first time." The doctor chuckled some and sighed, then snapped out of his musings quickly, "Come along then."

N Gin wiped his mouth then hurried after him on unsteady legs. They trembled as he walked, but after a while the traumatic effects ebbed off and the pressure in his chest and head subsided. The thought that he would have to endure that again on the way back made him almost wish he hadn't come along at all. Almost.

"I would call the prototype a success. I was concerned the chest would cave in under the pressure, but it seemed to have made it through with only a small dent." Tropy said as he looked down at the smaller man walking hurriedly beside him. That would explain the deep pressure in his chest, then, it was literally about to be crushed. That gave him even more anxiety about the travel back.

While they walked he stole glances at the man that towered above him. They had worked together closely to stabilize the Time Twister, but after that their time together had dwindled down to nothing as they both had their own duties to attend to. He had always been curious about Tropy. Where did he come from, and what did he like? He must have such vast amounts of knowledge and stories, having collected them for centuries. Or was it more than that? He dared to think he was actually pleasant to be around, and he loved eavesdropping on his personal musings, or just watching him work from a crack in the door. He, too, had seemed a bit changed after being stuck in the purgatory-like time loop, but it was something he couldn't put his finger on. Maybe he was just thinking too much into things.

In his thoughts he failed to pay attention to where he was going and heard something smash under his foot. He lifted his shoe up tentatively to examine it, a thick gelatinous strand of purple ooze connecting him to his victim, and realized he had killed a very large bee, about the size of his fist. It buzzed lowly and weakly before giving out, its legs occasionally twitching. He gave a startled sound, then began to inwardly panic, Trophy's words echoing in his head. He trembled and placed his foot down, back onto the obliterated insect.

"Ahh, m-master, I'm-I'm so sorry..." N Gin sputtered out in panic as he stood glued to the ground. He starting breathing rapidly, anxiety gripping him and threatening to break him where he stood. Oh, what had he done? It wasn't so much the chaotic effects of his actions he was worried about, he was terrified of disappointing the man. It was the first actual bit of personal time he'd gotten to spend with him, he didn't want to ruin it on account of his being clumsy.

The man turned around and looked at him oddly, "What are you so panicked about?"

"I-I-I... I killed it!" N Gin pointed to his foot hysterically, trembling. Surely he was in for it. He had never dealt with Tropy's anger before, but he had seen snippets of it from his arguments with Cortex and his underlings. The man could quickly work himself up into a rage, and that cool, methodical exterior would melt into a fit of frustration and desperation. He didn't know if this would be such a time.

Tropy cocked a brow and looked down at his foot then back to him, his face questioning.

"I-I stepped on something, I stepped on a bee. What if... Oh, what if this makes the entire ecosystem fail now?" He raked his fingers through his hair nervously, hands trembling. As Tropy approached him he instinctivity cowered.

"Are you serious? Do you know what this means? You have completely wiped out the entirety of this planet's food chain. With no bees, there is no pollination, no fruit, no animals, no humans. It's purely evil, but there is no one to celebrate you."

N Gin hiccuped awkwardly as he sniveled, both ashamed and elated at his triumph and failure. The tall man knelt down and regarded him oddly for a moment. His face was grave, but in a flash it relaxed into something of a smirk.

""I was teasing, you twit. The butterfly effect is... More complicated than that. Mm, Sometimes." Tropy checked the meter on his metal sleeve, pushing some buttons and nodding a bit, "Everything's fine in our timeline, save for a slightly lowered percentage of apple trees.

N Gin stood there dumbly, glancing from the doctor to his foot in an attempt to process that he had not singlehandedly destroyed the world. Trophy grew impatient and tugged on his arm, uprooting him from the ground "Come on, you're wasting precious time."

N Gin blinked in confusion as the tall man pulled him along like a disobedient child. He slowly came to the conclusion he'd actually done nothing wrong, but the shame and unease he felt inside did not abate. His stress made any of the doctor's attempts at consolement crash and burn. As they walked he tried to scrape the bug carcass off his boot discreetly in the grass until they came to a sudden hault in the middle of the dense forest.

"Ah, yes this is what I was looking for. You see that up there?" Tropy pointed to a small oddly shaped fruit dangling from the twisting, snake like tree in front of them. N Gin squinted his eyes, straining to see it among the canopy of leaves. He gave a meek sound of agreement then the Doctor continued, "They're extinct in our timeline. They used to be numerous, but over time, with the oxygen levels dropping off, so too did they. However, they're self replicating and happen to be a very versatile fuel source."

"Ah, so you could use them in place of our current rocket fuel, or combine it?"

"I'm leaning towards trying a mixed approach. If i could incorporate this element within our existing recipe, I theorize I could extend the life of our fuel supply by twenty years, or better."

N Gin flipped through some of his notes, admiring his neat, flourishing hand writing. He had heard from many people he had the hand writing of a serial killer, so looking at another's that was so elegant was oddly pleasurable. The theories made sense, and the proposed formula caught his eye, "If you reconfigure this equation... If this source does what I think it does, you could also make it to where it was slow burning, which would extend its life more and put less strain on the space station as a whole."

N Gin paused, opening his mouth hesitantly for a moment before actually speaking, "You know if it grows off itself, as long as it isn't toxic we could possibly use it as an energy to run the entire station on, rather than having a heavy generator room. I-in theory, I mean..."

His confidence wavered under Tropy's intimidating gaze. He looked over what the smaller man had pointed out and nodded some, "Yes, I can see where that's plausible. I'll have to run an analysis on it to see if we can make it safe for biological life forms to be in that close proximity to, but if so, we will have what is literally an infinite supply of energy."

N Gin felt something bubble up inside of him and rest in his chest. It made it hard to breathe again, but he wasn't sure why. His feelings often ruled his life, yet was disconnected from them at the same time. Tropy mused a moment about N Gin's proposal, scratching his chin then used his tuning fork to will the small fruit towards him. He broke it open with ease and removed the tiny pit from within. The flesh of it was oily and smelled putrid and sweet, much like rotting fruit. The pit fit neatly into the palm of his hand then he offered it to N Gin to inspect. It was much denser than he expected it to be and fumbled it in his hands awkwardly before getting a hold on it.

It was so heavy. The pit was smooth and round like a pebble, but had an odd smell like ammonia and coal and left a shiny, slick residue on his gloved fingers, "Are these even edible?"

"Sure, if you want to spontaneously combust, be my guest. You would be better off drinking gasoline than eating one of these." Tropy chuckled lightly as he wiped his hands off then took the clipboard from N Gin and began scribbling down some notes, flipping through the pages and making changes to his various diagrams. N Gin sighed and looked back down at the small clump he held then idly began to wander off from the doctor.

The air was clean and crisp and smelled like fall leaves and sweet grass. It was silent, save for the occasional call of an unfamiliar bird in the distance. He continued to walk slowly, observing the unadulterated nature around him. He had never seen a place like this. Sure, he had been in the woods many times, but never such a thick and luscious jungle as this one. The tree canopies were so thick light could barely filter in in some spots, yet somehow it was devoid of any animal life. There were insects, large ones, and some birds, but nothing else. It was eerie.

When he looked up he suddenly realized he had no idea where he was and that small seed of panic within him started to sprout again. He muttered out incoherently to himself in his anxiety as he looked for his tracks back, but there were none. The ground was covered in leaves and thick vegetation, nothing could leave foot prints here, nothing human anyway.

He tried for what felt like forever to find his way back but ended up getting himself deeper into the forest. It was so dark here and he could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. There was sound around him, rustling leaves and breaking twigs, but it echoed oddly and bounced around in the hub of leaves and branches, making it impossible to find the source. It was disorientating, but it was getting closer. He was certain it was some giant monstrosity of an animal, and like a fool he'd brought nothing to arm himself. As it approached closer at a more rapid pace he knew it saw him, but he could not find it in his anxiety induced stupor. It was on him, touching him, and he yelped, flailing at it mercilessly.

"Stop- stop that. You idiot you could have gotten yourself killed." Tropy approached him quickly, sighing out harshly and pulling him to after fending off the flailing attack to his legs. He hugged him tightly and N Gin's mind fizzled out. The torrents of frightened thoughts he had were replaced with dull, fuzzy warmth. He could not muster up the mental signals to return the affection, so instead just leaned into the hug and closed his eyes while Tropy chastised him under his breath. Suddenly the man pulled away and N Gin had to catch himself before falling forward. As his senses returned to him slowly, his mind struggled to take in what had just happened, and why had it happened?

He chanced a glance at Tropy then looked away. He couldn't be sure of the expression on his face, but if he didn't know better there was a level of embarrassment to his anger. Finally the doctor's face relaxed and he sighed some, "Right. Well, we've came what we were after. We should be going, the weather here is volatile and it looks like an electrical storm's approaching."

N Gin was confused, his heart beating awkwardly and aching with some strange yearning as he stood beside Trophy. There was a tight pressure, his head spinning and instantly he was queasy as he stumbled forward. Everything was too bright, too busy. Then suddenly they were back in Trophy's lab. He was inwardly thankful he'd already thrown up, as he would have felt guilty defacing the polished perfection that was his lab. His legs threatened to give way but he willed them to manage so he could preserve one shred of his dignity, if there was any left.

Tropy took the small seed pit from him and placed it into a beaker to examine later and began to help N Gin out of his suit. He was silent, brows creased in concentration as he tried to undo the particularly tricky lock. It had melted some during travel and as a result was proving a challenge.

"I uh... I don't guess you'll be wanting to use me as your assistant anymore." N Gin chuckled out softly, uncomfortably. He gulped some as Trophy's eyes met his. They were fierce and sharp, intimidating, but at the same time something about them was so inviting and almost hypnotic.

"Why do you say that? So you threw up and killed something. We all do our first go around." He shrugged slightly as he pried at the fastened sides of the protective chest piece, "You did well, and I appreciate your time."

"Uh I... Th-thank you, master." Gin stuttered, his tone bordering shrill from the sheer elation he felt from being praised. He wasn't sure what to do with his excitement, and between the hug earlier and now this, he felt like he might explode.

Trophy grimaced slightly, "Please stop calling me that, it's very off putting."

"Oh, then what should I call you?" He asked in confusion. Cortex and all his superiors preferred to be addressed as master, or some formal variation of their name. Tropy was on par with Cortex, so it struck him as strange he would ask anything different. It was how the hierarchy worked.

Trophy cocked a brow, "You know my name, use it. I know it sounds odd, but the reason we have names is to make it easier to address others."

His sarcasm was lost on N Gin as he looked at him strangely, but his attention was diverted as the doctor finally got the metal plate off him. He heaved it onto the table, resting his hands on his hips as he examined the damage. Overall, he seemed pleased it had only sustained, what he considered, minor damage. He removed his own armor and smoothed out his lab coat, then began examining the seed in the glass jar. Tropy started gathering various beakers and vials from the cupboard above the table and started arranging them neatly.

"Should I leave you, sir?" N Gin asked awkwardly, rubbing his hands together.

"No, Actually, I was hoping we could work together. We both know Cortex's forte isn't... Well, anything. His ideas are plausible, and functional, but a bit outdated compared to our current needs. I think with our combined talents, we could create something remarkable."

He felt bubbly inside, excited, eager. The stress of being overworked and overwhelmed had suddenly melted away from him at the doctor's prospect. He agreed eagerly and waddled off quickly to his quarters to gather his notes and research. Suddenly, being cooped up in the castle on a rainy day had lost its dismal feeling.