Wrong [Fic]
Nov. 14th, 2014 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hostile_experienceThe lab smells wrong. It's not the cleaning agents, she knows because she had them changed three times before settling back on her old formula. Elenore has also had all the air filtration checked three different times on slight concerns. The smell shifted a little, but it still wasn't right. Three different experiments didn't make things any better. They've changed the floor polish. Then they stopped using any at all. Even the glassware and heating elements have been changed and nothing quite does it. Elenore still refuses to admit she knows exactly what it is.
The combination of metal, plastic, and glass just doesn't have the organic smell of the lab that had been her life's work until she took it apart to help fuel the new company. There was nothing living there. She keeps it too clean and dead. It comforts the investors and employees who had heard a few too many rumors or seen a few too many of her accomplishments for comfort. After all, her kinds of genius rarely comes without insanity or a superhero costume, and no one she's elected to deal with wants to work for someone with too much of either.
Which doesn't stop the lab from smelling wrong. Or the tools from being in the wrong place. People are constantly moving things as they clean or borrow or attempt to run the few small experiments she claims to still be working on so no one gets worried. It's less of a problem when she works in other people's labs. They're allowed to dictate their own domains even if she is the boss, but her lab should be hers. That is her goal for the day, regardless of the meetings she'll have to make at some point. It starts with banishing everyone. It ends with nothing really having changed. She isn't ready to move on and forgive herself or her work for failing. She's only ready to try.
The combination of metal, plastic, and glass just doesn't have the organic smell of the lab that had been her life's work until she took it apart to help fuel the new company. There was nothing living there. She keeps it too clean and dead. It comforts the investors and employees who had heard a few too many rumors or seen a few too many of her accomplishments for comfort. After all, her kinds of genius rarely comes without insanity or a superhero costume, and no one she's elected to deal with wants to work for someone with too much of either.
Which doesn't stop the lab from smelling wrong. Or the tools from being in the wrong place. People are constantly moving things as they clean or borrow or attempt to run the few small experiments she claims to still be working on so no one gets worried. It's less of a problem when she works in other people's labs. They're allowed to dictate their own domains even if she is the boss, but her lab should be hers. That is her goal for the day, regardless of the meetings she'll have to make at some point. It starts with banishing everyone. It ends with nothing really having changed. She isn't ready to move on and forgive herself or her work for failing. She's only ready to try.
