Forced Second Thoughts - a PSL for Leia and Klaus

[baronwulfenbach]

This PSL will contain spoilers for Star Wars and for Girl Genius. It will also contain angst, discussions of, violence, possibly torture, mad science, and worst of all... politics. You have been warned.

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[baronwulfenbach]

He called the machine "second thoughts". Quite a clever name for it, if he did say so himself. And he'd have to if it were to be said at all. Because no one knew the machine even existed, save for Klaus. Not even Boris is very capable secretary. He'd taken every precaution. He could not be tracked here by any means. Not even by the Jägers. Still, he was cautious not to use this place too often.

The machine itself was spread across the walls of the room. All four of them, for there was no visible door. One of the many things he depended on was the seeming impossibility for a man of his size to fit in the crawlspace. After his last round of injuries that was becoming less a seeming and more a reality. Ah well, soon it wouldn't matter any more. Not for a good long while.

But for now... For now he had time. A series of large tables dominated most of the room. All but one had tools, parts, small machines.... one held what looked like a small electric kettle, some sturdy cups of indiscriminate material, and many clear decanters, unlabeled but stoppered, of brightly coloured liquids.

Away from the tables, and conveniently placed right over the entrance he had come up through was a rather large pair of cushioned recliners. Given his somewhat massive size the one he looked in seemed almost small. He was leaned back, drinking an odd concoction and studying an odd looking machine on the nearest table. A round sort of device with a big and obvious red button. The kind that just begs idiots to press it to end the world. She might have seen Agatha working with plans, and eventually mockups that looked disturbingly similar near the end of their time in Nautilus.

Beside the man was a device that was less familiar in appearance perhaps... but clearly connected to Agatha. If the giant trilobites on it didn't give that impression, or the fact that it was still working despite what seemed to be some truly impressive battle damage, then the odd sounds it was making - so much like that odd atonal humming noise Agatha made when she focused - would give it away.

The man himself was in an impeccable grey on grey suit. And while he was recently very badly injured, he showed no sign of it, save for possibly the thick stitch work around his wrist that looked as though at some point his hand had been amputated then reattached. Though that did look like an older operation. He rubbed at his face, seeming weary as he sipped his drink.

Whatever the machine on the wall was, it interrupted Leia's ability to remain unseen and intangible. Luckily for her this happened when she was in the only blind spot the man had in the room. In that she was directly behind him, between the back of his chair and the corner of the room....