Work Text:
The skies above Boon County were thick with clouds today.
Snow hailed from the grey shroud above, covering the streets of the county in a pure white blanket... Or, would be pure white, if not for the comical amounts of yellow spots in the snow around the alleyways. It seemed the filth of Boon County would always find its way to manifest.
The snow had piled up upon itself after several days of unending heavy weather. Tall enough to find its way up Magdalene's legs and freeze about half of her calves. Not that she could feel the chill, but dragging her feet through the snow was exhausting... Especially with the ugly bundle of fur trapped in her large hands.
See, normally, Magdalene wouldn't be all the way out here. Any other day, Magdalene would've dropped this horrifically inbred kitten down that pipe outside of her house and be done with it...
However, the heavy snow had completely clogged the thing! Magdalene only noticed since the incessant mewling of the cat hadn't stopped once she had tried to drop it down. She supposed her little donations would have to be in person for the next few weeks or so... It's an annoying revelation.
The kitten in her arms was certainly a weirdo if Magdalene had ever seen one. The poor thing was born without a pair of eyes, and a weird lumpy body that REALLY grossed Magdalene out just by holding it. She held it awkwardly with the tips of her fingers, trying not to feel it too much.
She just had to get to Beanies' place.
Speaking of, Magdalene was squeezing her body through the gaps in electrically charged fencing. The openings were way wide enough for her, but you could never be too careful. Especially around his belongings.
Magdalene huffed, finally stumbling out of the small maze of metal fencing and into a small gap in the alleyways. There it was! The lab. A deceptive building, or at least an attempt at one. The broken windows and dented garage door would make anyone think the place was long abandoned, but the glowing sign hanging above the garage betrayed that line of thought.
She wondered why Dr. Beanies would have that whole sign just to shoot at trespassers and shoo everything that wasn't an animal away from his lab.
Magdalene adjusted her grip on the kitten, finally holding it in her palms and tuning out its pitiful mews. A few months ago, she might've have felt bad for the thing. Now, she finds she doesn't think about the cats she hands off at all. Funny how that works! Magdalene gives her apathy no further thought.
She approaches the frosted front step of Dr. Beanies lab, before pausing. She leans her body to the side, stopping for a moment to check herself in the broken class of one of the windows. Magdalene hadn't seen herself in quite a while, and... Well. She found herself wanting to look at least a bit presentable for her friend.
...
Jesus Christ! When did it get this bad? Her blonde curls were all over the place, and at worst, being matted in a few spots. Magdalene cringed at the sight, tucking the kitten between her forearm and her torso to groom herself. Though, nothing she could do now could fix the disaster on top of her head.
Still, she manages to comb a few strands with her dirty fingernails, making it look SLIGHTLY more appealing than before.
"...Best I can-"
HAAACK!
Magdalene wheezed, throat constricting as she tried to speak. Her voice was raspy, her mouth dry. She coughed into her elbow, squishing the kitten between her arm and her chest. It hisses, the sound going ignored as Magdalene fought against her own throat.
She really needed a drink. Magdalene didn't think, crouching down and shoveling a handful of snow into her palm and shoving it into her mouth. She crunches on the snow, suckling on the water that oozed from each bite. It tasted... Hm. Not good. Not good at all. But it did soothe the ache in her throat.
Then, the door just a few inches away slammed open, making Magdalene jump.
"GET OFF MY PROPERTY! COME BACK WITH A WARRANT!"
Dr. Beanies had come shouting out the door, waving a revolver around in his gloved hand. He pointed the weapon at Magdalene, a scowl on his wrinkled face before he stopped. Whoever it was he was expecting, it wasn't Magdalene with speckles of snow covering her lips.
It was silent for a few moments. Unbearably awkward, too. Magdalene gulped down the rest of the snow, licking her lips clean.
"...Maggie!"
Magdalene imagined the chipper tone Dr. Beanies' voice held was forced, a mix between a smile and a grimace crossing his face. He lowers the gun, keeping it at his side. The doctor peers around, as if checking if Magdalene was alone before continuing.
"What do you want?"
Magdalene blinked, before reaching for the cat that had been unpleasantly trapped between flabs of her skin. She hadn't noticed it had scratched a few red lines into her, prying it away from herself and dangling it towards Beanies.
"Kitten!"
Her voice felt much better now.
"Oh."
Dr. Beanies took the kitten from Magdalene's grasp, giving it a quick look over. It wriggles in his hold, sinking its tiny claws into his latex gloves in a useless attempt to free itself. Dr. Beanies paid no attention to its struggles, stroking a finger over the smooth fur where its eyes should've been.
"I suppose it's not the worst one you've given me... Adequate job, Maggie."
That's the closest she'd ever get to a thank you from him. Magdalene found herself smiling anyway, bringing her hands together in front of her stomach to fidget with her fingers.
There wasn't much to be said now, was there? They stared at each other for a bit, silence filling the air. Dr. Beanies looked Magdalene up and down with squinted eyes... Magdalene wished she could tell what he was thinking! No doubt, something biting about her bloodstained overalls or her messy hair.
Magdalene nodded tightly, before stepping back into the high snow. She shivered, feeling the snow make its way under the legs of her overalls. She couldn't feel the cold exactly, but Magdalene could feel the wet texture against her skin.
She almost made it back to the electric fencing, before Dr. Beanies called her back.
"Maggie! Where are you wandering off to?"
Magdalene looked over her shoulder, tilting her head. He hadn't gone back inside, instead standing in the freezing cold of the doorway. Dr. Beanies leaned his body against the door frame, tossing the kitten absentmindedly over his shoulder to cross his arms over his chest.
"I've..." He paused, glancing over his shoulder and into his lab. "Got another invention for you to play with. Come inside!"
Oh. Right! Yes... Though, Magdalene swore she had just gotten something from him the other day. She thinks she remembers receiving some strange needles from him, but her memory wasn't anything impressive these days. If he had something, then she'd take it! Not that he gave her a choice.
"Oh! Well, if you're..." Cough! "...Okay with it, Thomas."
Magdalene made her way back to the doorway.
"Quicker! Before your feet freeze off and I have to attach a new pair!"
"Calm down...!"
Magdalene playfully bumped Dr. Beanies into the doorway with her shoulder, earning a grunt from the old man.
The interior of the lab was impressive compared to the outside. Large vats full of an odd gray liquid, whirring machines that Magdalene couldn't begin to understand the purpose of, and the distant yowls of cats that echoed from some distant hallway. Magdalene set her gaze on one of the large tubes, watching a tumor-ridden cat float about inside.
She was so distracted with the deformed cat that Magdalene nearly tripped over a thick cord as she passed the vat, stumbling on her heels and forcing herself to grasp to a table's edge to stay upright.
Dr. Beanies passes by, knocking his knuckles into her side lightly.
"Don't make a mess."
"I didn't even knock anything over!"
"You would have! You're lucky my lab accommodates for people of... Many sizes."
"Thomas!"
This earns Dr. Beanies a slap on the shoulder. He winces in pain, and despite the glare he gives Magdalene after the fact, he keeps his lips sealed.
Magdalene followed after Dr. Beanies through the lab. On her regular visits, she was confined to the first room, where Dr. Beanies would hand her off a new invention, maybe exchange a few lines of conversation and send her off on her merry way.
Now, Dr. Beanies was guiding her into a room on the side, opening up a metal door and stepping through. He hardly waited for her, the door nearly closing on her as she approached. The room beyond it wasn't much of a surprising sight. Cords hung from the ceiling here, a few ceiling tiles missing to make room for them. More machines were piled up on each other, a bunch of plugs and wires going in between them. Magdalene didn't understand how that made sense to anyone, but she supposed that's why she wasn't the scientist here.
Dr. Beanies had made his way to a desk swamped by dated computer monitors and various tools. Magdalene could recognize a few... Screwdrivers, drills... That stuff. In the middle of the bits and pieces laid what she assumed was the invention, a weird sleeping mask sort of thingamabob with an odd red glow to the lens.
Odd thing was (if it wasn't odd enough), was that it was in pieces. The strap wasn't attached, laying on the table just a few inches away, and the wires poking out from the sides of the lens didn't give it the impression of being finished.
Magdalene gave the table a look-around, and settled her sights on Dr. Beanies. He wasn't... Pulling anything else out. In fact, he was dragging a swivel chair and taking a seat in it. The leather seating was torn to bits, yellow foam leaking out of every rip.
"...Uhm. Thomas, where's the..."
Dr. Beanies turned the seat to Magdalene.
"On the table," He gestured a glove to the mechanism on the table. "Genius."
Magdalene could hear him chuckle at his own sarcasm. The scientist turns his back to Magdalene, facing his work.
"If you used your brain for just a moment, Maggie, you'd see it isn't done yet."
"Oh... Well. You're normally not so lax on those things, doctor."
She flicks a discolored finger against the top of his balding head.
"Shut up. Just wait five minutes, it'll be done! It'll really shake things up this time, Maggie. You'll be impressed!"
Maybe she would be. It seemed to be more science-y than the broken mirror he had given her a few weeks prior, anyway. And at least he sounded excited about it...
Magdalene sighed, patting down her overalls absentmindedly.
"Fine..."
Magdalene couldn't say she minded the wait. Dr. Beanies wasn't awful company, despite how almost every other person in the county seemed to think something terrible of him. To Magdalene, he was... Charming, she could say. Maybe not a casanova, but he had his moments. Amusing would be a better word.
She took to leaning against the back of the ragged chair, listening to it creak under her weight. Magdalene peered over Dr. Beanies shoulder, watching him work. Or at least what she thought might've been work. Dr. Beanies was poking at the lens with the tip of the screwdriver, not achieving anything in particular. She knew well enough not to pester him about it.
Magdalene gives the room another look over from her spot, eyes searching the dull workspace for anything that could capture her interest. She finds what she's looking for when her eyes land on what she imagined was a mini-fridge tucked between two machines. Magdalene removed herself from the chair in seconds, stomping over to it.
Her imagination was correct. The thing was sandwiched between the large machines, humming with the effort of keeping itself cool.
Magdalene got on her knees, cracking it open. She'd expect a complaint from Dr. Beanies, but none came... And she understands why.
It's mostly empty, except for a half-eaten burger and a loaf of bread covered in green spots and white fuzz. Honestly, the burger had a few of those too. Magdalene's face cringed with disgust, recoiling from the chill of the fridge.
"Thomas, when's the last time you bought groceries?"
"Huh? Few weeks ago or something. That stuff lasts."
Very clearly not. Despite knowing this, Magdalene reached for the burger and closed the fridge. Better than nothing, as long as she picked the green spots off.
"Not really."
"Bah! What do you know? You don't even own a fridge!"
Okay. She doesn't, but she USED to. And she also did just see a new type of mold being developed in that fridge.
"I'm just saying... It's nasty in there, Thomas!"
Magdalene stepped to a chute in the side of the wall, burger in hand as she began to tear off the green pieces and toss them downwards. Every time her hand came close to the opening, she felt dry air against her palm. Was the air warm down there? She couldn't tell... If so, it was probably an incinerator or something on the other side. That's good. Magdalene didn't really want to pollute Dr. Beanies workspace with mold spores, or whatever this nasty burger would do.
Magdalene had torn a few of the moldy spots off of both the buns and the ingredients at this point, inspecting it with a careful eye. It seemed clean enough for her standards (which weren't too high in the first place). She bites into it, and it's about as pleasant as you can imagine, but it's a flavor she was admittedly used to.
Dr. Beanies had turned his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow as she shoveled the burger into her mouth. The invention went forgotten, his focus taken by Magdalene and her odd diet.
"You're still eating it, so it's fine! You complain too much."
"I don't! How hard is it to go to P-Mart and get something?"
"I have a higher palette than you, Maggie. I know better than to stoop to eating kibble!" So he'd rather eat mold? "I only go low enough for Pinky Winkies."
Oh. Maybe it's more than the mold that gave this burger its horrible taste. Magdalene had never been to a Pinky Winkies herself, but listening to the radio had given her (or had at least attempted to) enough of an idea of the quality of food they sold. She'll stick to cat food, thank you very much.
Magdalene still finishes the burger though. She sucks her fingers clean of the few crumbs left behind.
"Besides, I'm banned from P-Mart. Or at least until that wretched lady gets fired."
Wretched lady? Tracy? He must be talking about her. She could imagine Tracy unloading at Dr. Beanies, and Magdalene could practically see her face turning a bright red. Magdalene suppressed a giggle at the thought.
"She's not wretched," Magdalene catches sight of another swivel chair, grabbing it by the arm to drag next to Dr. Beanies. She takes her seat a couple inches away, resting her weary legs. "She's just... Troubled. Something like that. Something's up with her."
"You TALK to her?"
"Yeah. She's the only worker they have... I think? I haven't seen anyone else work there."
"I'm not surprised, the place is a shithole, especially without my valuable funding."
Magdalene leaned in Dr. Beanies' direction, closing the gap between them by a small bit.
"You weren't stealing anything?"
"No! They were being paid in exposition, Maggie. If they didn't bar me from the establishment, they would have been in a... Ehhh, an article about me, sometime. That alone would send them up the corporate ladder!"
"Hm..."
Magdalene placed her hand in her palm, a coy smile crossing her face.
"I wouldn't think they'd accept... Uh..." She tried to think of something witty, but nothing came to mind. She crosses one leg over the other, fidgeting to distract herself from the failure. Her brain couldn't think of clever things to say in such a short time anymore. "...Yeah."
"What do you know? You can't even get a sentence out."
"That's not my fault!"
"What, are you blaming me now? Are you saying my stitching job was mediocre?
Dr. Beanies mimicked her in leaning forward, propping his elbow on the arm of his chair. He raised his other hand, running a finger through her blonde curls absentmindedly. Specks of remaining snow fall out of her messy hair at the gesture, drifting to the floor and melting into tiny puddles.
Magdalene was used to such gestures from the doctor. It was supposedly nothing affectionate, just some upkeep of her already drab appearance... But she did like the almost tender way his finger seemed to brush against her scalp. She bumps her head into the latex glove, rubbing the side of her head into his palm impulsively.
"...No, it's fine."
Magdalene knew better than to argue with him. She didn't want to face the snowy outside of Boon County again so soon... And it was kind of warm inside the lab, if she had to admit.
Dr. Beanies didn't give a verbal response, but his eyes lingered on her face. Magdalene could tell he was inspecting the stitches lining the left side of her face, taking a good look at his handiwork. His hand moved from her hair, now positioning his fingers on a few of her stitches.
His mouth quirked up into a smile, wrinkling his eyes.
"You know, I've heard a disturbing lack of thank yous coming from your mouth. I bring you back from the grave and you don't even have an ounce of gratitude?"
A finger picks at Magdalene's stitches.
"I don't remember asking you to do anything like that."
"That's impolite, Maggie! You don't say thank you when someone gives you gift? I could take it back whenever I want, you know!"
Magdalene gave him an exasperated sigh, the threat all too clear to her. Truth be told, she wouldn't care if Dr. Beanies took her life from her now, or any other time for that matter. Magdalene couldn't say her life was pleasant, both before her revival and now. Besides, she knew he was being hypocritical- Dr. Beanies never thanked her for the work she did for him, yet she finds herself folding to his demands out of some odd fondness.
"Fine... Thank you, Thomas."
"There we go!"
Dr. Beanies grinned, fingers giving her stitches a light tug. Magdalene imagined it would've hurt if she had been alive, but all she felt was a sharp tug on her skin.
Dr. Beanies had an odd look to him, his beady eyes gleaming with a strange excitement as he messed with the stitches. He had managed to wiggle a finger underneath one of the exposed parts of thread, parting the poorly connected flesh. Only a droplet of blood leaked out, sliding down her cheek and leaving a stain on her skin.
Magdalene cringed at the feeling of her skin splitting, and the sensation of latex rubbing against exposed muscle. Yet, she found herself not minding too much. The way Dr. Beanies' looked at her was... Well, it wasn't flattering, per say, but Magdalene had never been looked at in such a way before. She supposed it was intriguing, much like many other parts of him. Maybe that's why she still spoke to him, despite her mediocre work and his tantrums about said work.
"You're going to rip my face off if you keep doing that."
Magdalene warned, her smile persisting.
Dr. Beanies paused for a moment, before removing his finger. He kicked his feet up on the table, brushing his forgotten invention to the side with his boots. Had he ever intended to work on it in the first place?
"I could put it back together."
"You would?"
"No use in an assistant with a half-missing face, is there?"
No, she supposed not. Still, it seemed special. Magdalene had imagined he would just leave her with the side of her face missing... Maybe he still would, if she pissed him off enough.
"I could put all of you back together. You're not the most difficult corpse to work with, Maggie."
"Is that a good thing?"
Dr. Beanies put his hand back to Magdalene's face, wiping up the blood that had streaked down her skin. It mostly just got smeared all over the side of her face, though. Her tongue sticks out, licking off what she could.
"...Yes, I suppose so. Less work for me to deal with. You were enough trouble to just collect as is!"
Was she? Magdalene doesn't imagine she would be a difficult corpse to gather, but that part of her brain was far too fuzzy to really remember.
"Well, thank you, then."
This one was more genuine.
It went quiet, silence passing over the two of them. Dr. Beanies kept his hand on her face, tracing his hand over her stitches once more. He didn't pick at them this time, however. It was more of a quiet admiration. All of the focus on her seams made Magdalene think he wanted to rip her apart and put her back together again.
She was surprised to realize she wouldn't mind it if he were to do that. Magdalene thought if it had to be someone, she wouldn't trust anyone but Dr. Beanies more. He had already put her back together, after all, what's the harm in him doing it again? He seems like he'd enjoy it, too.
Magdalene's eyes drifted to his desk, looking at the remains of his little invention. She had come inside for it, but it seemed so insignificant now with Dr. Beanies touching her face like this. Magdalene didn't intend to move from her spot, but she'd bother him about it anyway.
"How long are you going to keep me here, Thomas? You invited me in for the..."
"Oh, be quiet! I'm taking a break right now."
Magdalene stifled a laugh.
"Okay, then..."
Magdalene pressed her head into Dr. Beanies' palm, forcing his hand upright just to hold the weight of it. She'd stay like this for a little while, or as long as Dr. Beanies would permit it.