Livingstill x ReaderWitnessing this, you decide to…

- Go to the VIP room to ask your supervisor about it.
> Sneak off and wander through the facility while no one is looking.
- Don’t do anything.

It’s the dead of night and no one is really here except for you and a couple of guard dogs, so you can probably wander around without getting caught. A walk would help wake you up, right What’s the worst that could happen on your first night Of course, you promised yourself that if you got a little too close to getting caught, you’d rush back to the front desk.

As you wander out, you, unfortunately, lose sight of the masked criminals pretty quickly. You would think their loud banter would give them away, but it was so easy to get lost in these hallways and some of the office walls were probably soundproof.

You halfway consider just giving up and returning to your post and maybe trying later, but to be quite frank you don’t even know where in the facility you are. You were barely given a tour of Tsukuba’s inner works when you were hired, your supervisor simply assumed you would remain on the ground floor.

There’s a door. Obviously, the Crusaders didn’t go in here, but at this point, you might as well investigate.

However, nothing could have prepared you for what was on the other side.

Various vats of liquid are inside what seems to be a laboratory. And in the vats, you see human limbs, organs, and eyeballs drifting around. What’s even worse is that the eyes seem to be conscious, staring directly at you when you walk in.

There’s a man inside, but you can’t even tell if he’s alive, really. You know who he is, your supervisors said he’s the head scientist of Tsukuba; Doctor Livingstill.

He begins to laugh. “Sticking your nose where you shouldn’t on the first night, newbie” His tone is surprisingly playful for his appearance. Livingstill turns around, and you can’t help but wince upon getting a better look at him.

His face resembled that of a skull with his wide smile, pale skin, and bulging eyes. The scientist’s limbs were so thin that one could surely break them in two if they tried. He notably has some sort of protective glass over his right eye and wears earrings designed to resemble talons along with a green feather sticking out of his lab coat. Perhaps even if Dr. Livingstill was creepy, he had to be fashionable.

“Now, what’s a rat such as you doing in a place such as this” He inquires.

“I got lost,” you lie.

“Hardly,” he doesn’t buy it for a minute. “You’re supposed to be at the front desk, aren’t you The bathrooms aren’t that far off, which tells me you were snooping, weren’t you”

Oh crap.

“Let me guess, those bumbling buffoons that bring me my subjects caught your attention” He’s definitely as much of a genius as he lets on. “I suppose it isn’t your fault, and it’s foolish that the disclosure agreement needs to hide my brilliance from the lower grunts in Tsukuba.”

His brilliance You take another look at the vats.

“Liquefied humans” He declares proudly. “The next stage of evolution is for mankind to become one This shall be the key to immortality Isn’t it beautiful”

“More like horrible” You gasp. “Why would you do this What if none of those people want to become liquid”

“Ah, I see, so you’re just like all of the other imbeciles, fully incapable of understanding my genius.” He scoffs. “I suppose you want to join them Only people who get in my way and call me a freak get special early access to my experiments.”

Special early access No thanks

“I’m not going to get in your way or say anything”

“A bit too late for that, calling my actions horrible and such.” Dr. Livingstill rolls his eyes. “If you wanted to stay alive, you would have kept your mouth shut, my dear.”

Dear That was it, you were putting your foot down. You could tolerate a few threats, but being called ‘dear’ was simply demeaning

“Now look here, if you want to progress in your work, you can’t just have everyone agreeing with you” You tell him. “You’re going to have people that challenge your ideas for the better, and that’s just how things in this world work You can’t advance without it”

Dr. Livingstill pauses and his expression softens.

“And don’t call me ‘dear’, or I’ll file a complaint to HR You don’t want to be called a freak, and I don’t want to be called ‘dear’, so let’s treat each other with respect, okay”

He cackles with laughter.

“Humorous Alright, I’ll let you live.” Livingstill says that so casually. “I must say, it’s bold of you to demand respect from your superior. You have a lot of moxie. Extremely admirable of you.” He then hesitates. “So, you think I am disagreeable, but not a freak or a madman”

Madman Well, maybe he was…

“I don’t agree with whatever is going on here, but I’m low on funds and I can’t break NDA.” You sigh with exhaustion. “I don’t have any reason to call you names.”

“What of my appearance”

Huh That’s an odd question. It kind of came out of nowhere.

Wait, was he not being called a freak because of his experiments, but rather, because of the way he looks Is that what fueled him to liquefy other people

How long has that been going on for him Surely it couldn’t have been recent if he had such a deep-seated hatred for humanity.

“At first glance, you seem scary, I admit,” you confess. “But looking at you now makes me sort of sad.”

He blinks, confused.

“Sad How so Do you pity that I’m so hideous or something”

“Well, no. There are stories about disfigured men whose faces resemble a skull, they hide from the rest of society, longing to be loved.” A chuckle escapes you at the thought of the head scientist in a dark cape. “You kind of remind me of those types of characters, doctor.”

Livingstill becomes quiet. He turns away from you, but his embarrassed expression can be seen in the reflection of the glass vats.

“Begone from here already, pesky rat. I won’t liquefy you today or tell your supervisors that you were in here.”

So cold Exactly like the deformed, immoral anti-hero in a romance tale You can’t help but giggle again.

“Not to alarm you or anything, but your face is as red as your hair right now,” you point out. “Your precious human liquid vats are giving you away”

Dr. Livingstill doesn’t respond to you, choosing to look the other way so you couldn’t see him and then shuffling to another part of the lab, not wanting to be witnessed.

Maybe he won’t be so scary if you keep that mindset around him He probably would have tried to perform some sort of twisted research on you, but instead, he became a subject for you to study in the near future.

You just had to hope you wouldn’t get juiced for your hubris.