Chapter 6: Chapter 6 {Alice}
The metal door slides open without a creak, telling me that the thing inside must be vigilant about the upkeep of their dwelling. However, what I see inside makes me second guess my previous analysis: This place is obviously supposed to be used as a house, but has been refurbished with steel panelling covering almost everything. Long, metal, stained tables line the walls and make the laboratory even more cramped. At least, I think this is supposed to be a laboratory. To tell the truth, I've never seen one before. This day has been full of firsts for me. I walk into the room subconsciously, not registering at the time that while the door opened from the inside, nobody is there to greet us. On the tables are curious objects that nobody would ever use in everyday life. I spot a cauldron patched together will different kinds of metals filled with a frothy, fiery mixture that hisses when I pass by. There's what appears to be a constable's gun that has been fused with a sharp, pointy thing and what I think is a ladies' hair-dryer. Broken pipes, mechanical parts, and other thingamabobs are strewn all over the tables, shelves, and floor like unruly wildflowers in a spring field. I turn around and look back at Scarlet, who is eyeing me appraisingly.
"You know, you're being awfully rude," she tells me, dark eyes sparkling,
"Just barging in here like this, looking at a stranger's belongings. I would have never expected it from someone with your upbringing."
I blush, reminded of the strict societal rules that I've been trained to obey my whole life.
"I like it. Keep up the good work," she says, smiling, then turns into a corner of the perplexing room that I hadn't registered yet.
She taps on what looks like another heap of metal and cloth to me, and it stirs. A face, covered with grime but still recognizable as young, looks up at her. I jump, terrified and perplexed. How did I not notice a young man there before? This room is too full of intriguing, mind-boggling things to absorb it all.
"Scarlet! You're looking lovely. How long has it been?" the lump says, standing and disentangling himself from the nest around him.
"Far too long, Professor," she replies, grinning broadly and greeting him with a friendly slap on the back and hug combination.
"I see you've modified the contraption on the door," she adds, gesturing to the ceiling.
I follow with my eyes a long, thick metal wire running from a set of gears near the front door we just entered through to a lever resting right next to us, easily in reach from where this professor was sitting before.
"Yes," he says, sighing, "you know that it's just too much work for me to actually get up to answer the door when I have so much else to do. Why wouldn't I just get my machines to do it for me?"
He turns to me suddenly, like he has eyes in the back of his head. I'm starting to believe that he might.
"And who is this young lass?" he says cordially, removing his reconstructed tophat to reveal a mane of wavy black hair.
I can't tell if I'm imagining it or not, but I'm almost positive that the ends of his hair are singed and steaming as if they were previously on fire. I bend my knee, automatically beginning to transition into the curtsy that I've always performed when in the company of a man. However, I feel Scarlet laugh and kick me gently in the shins. Before, I would consider both of these actions to be incredibly rude and not acceptable of two young ladies, but now I'm beginning to understand that's just how Scarlet works. In fact, for her I think it may be a show of affection and the beginnings of friendship.
"Oh, you don't have to curtsy and gussy up to this old waste bin," she says. "You see, both of us grew up very differently than you did."
"Scarlet's right, milady," the professor adds.
I'm starting to believe that's his actual name, which wouldn't make any sense. Professor the professor? Then again, I'm also starting to realize that there's a whole world unbeknownst to me where things seem upside down and topsy turvy.
"Instead of sipping tea and learning how to ballroom dance without stepping on toes, I had to learn how to live in this world with just me and my inventions. You can see I've done a pretty good job of that."
As he gestures around him, I look around again in amazement. This room seems to have a life of its own, buzzing and flashing and rotating. I can see how someone could devote their whole lives to learning about and creating things like this.
"So how long do you think you'll be staying for?" the Professor asks, and I realize that they've been having an entire conversation while I was looking all around me like a blubbering idiot.
I've really got to stop daydreaming!
"Oh, not too long," Scarlet says, plopping what she's been holding down onto the cluttered floor.
"Sorry, what? We're staying here?" I ask.
"Well, you didn't think you'd be sleeping on the streets when Scarlet has a wonderful host like me as a friend, did you?" the Professor asks, smiling.
"Any acquaintance of Scarlet is welcome to stay at my humble lodgings."
He picks up Scarlet's hefty bag in one calloused hand and gestures for me to hand him my umbrella with the other.
"Follow me, ladies," he says, looking sounding exactly like bellhops do in the hotels I stayed with my grandmother besides the tattered, unconventional clothes he's wearing.
"I will show you to your room."
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone