It Always Starts Abit Messy

Rays of morning sun filtered through the dusty blinds of the diner that Daniel sat in. Rusty screws held the old fake leather padding down as he waited for Trenton to walk through the doors. On a napkin Daniel sketched out what he thought he wanted to get across by as the doors Swing open, Trentons presence was clearly felt. "You didn’t wait long did you?" He asked Daniel sitting down. "Just half an hour. What takes you so long?" "Hey. I have things to do too ok?" The flipped through the menu briefly. "Did you order me anything?" Asked Trenton. "No."

"Did you order yourself somethi-?" His question cut off by a returning waitress. She laid down his coffee and looked almost annoyed that here was a second person now at the table. "Did you need anything else honey?" She asked. "No thank you."

Did you order yourself somethi-?" His question cut off by a returning waitress. She laid down his coffee and looked almost annoyed that here was a second person now at the table. "Did you need anything else honey?" She asked. "No thank you." "Are you sure?" "Excuse me, um... Dorthy," Trenton remarked, eyeballing her name tag, "another coffee here please. And an orange juice. Pulp if you have it." Dorthy scribbled notes on her sheet, tucked it in her apron and walked off, with no other words. "You think she’s having a bad day?" "Yeah Trent. It’s not just me waiting for half an hour here. It’s her too. Your actions-." Trenton cut him off. "So let’s talk. What so wrong that you have to call me here?" "Oh I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I am trying to stick electrodes to mice, hook them up to a computer and decode their brain waves as I decapitate them. It’s not working Trent. Look, I have a rough diagram.-" Trent took the napkin from him. Looked at it briefly. "The line drops off. So what, that’s the issue? Results? Just do something different Daniel. That’s all." "Like what? I got my little guilitine, I plug them in, read the wave lengths and drop the blade. They die. I clean up blood and I do it again. Why am I doing this?" Trenton sat up straight. Folded the napkin and stuffed It in his sports coat pocket. "Give me a napkin." He asked. Then pulled out a pen. Stick figure Box horribly drawn in 3D Stick figure Cord connecting them all "That looks bad." "It’s not the art, mr scientist. It’s the idea. I’m not supposed to share this with you so please keep quiet." Trenton looked around. Almost as if paranoia took over. "This is a person. This is a computer." "It’s poorly drawn." "This is another person, -" "Like kindergarten type art." "All connected by a cord.." "Here’s your coffee." "Thank you. ...do you know why they are all connected?" "Cause your a mad scientist with no brain and you make me do all your work?" Exactly. And these are all connected because your in embryonic stages of decoding the human brain. Learning how trauma rewires the brain and how we can come back from a brain related trauma." Daniel sat back. Sipped his coffee then folded his arms. Trenton sat back too, straightening his tie. "I’ve worked hard for you for two years Trenton. I hate you but I can’t live without you. Your a savior but you have psychopathic tendencies with a lot of narcissism. In short, bull crap. I call bull crap. I don’t believe you. So tell me the truth or we are done. You can take your computers, your guilitine, your dead mice. Your copious amounts of blood and... And die for all I care." Daniel sipped his coffee. Trenton leaned in. "Remote control." Hot coffee burned the roof of his mouth. The mug clanged down. "Come again?" He asked, wiping his face and checking his shirt. "The computer decodes your brain waves. It decides the others brain waves and plunges you into their body. Step one is done. I have all your data." "How’d you get all my data?" "My computers." "Now what?" "Phase two. We go for something bigger." "...No" "What do you mean no? Your labs being outfitted as we speak." "Oh God." "Yeah. Where is my orange juice?" Trenton looked around for Dorthy. "No tip if she doesn’t-." "Trent. What do you mean bigger? Like primate?" "Danny." Trenton looked around again. "Do you know-?" "Sorry. We don’t have pulp. But I’m sure you’ll like it." Both men looked at the Dorthy almost menacingly as she walked away. "try this again.. Do you know how much a cadaver costs?" "Like a dead body cadaver?" Six grand! That’s it! If you show them the " im a scientist card",and they practically give them to you!" "Human cadavers Trent?" "What else in the food chain do we call cadavers?" Monkeys? Whales? Pigeons? For thirty thousand dollars you get five bodies too! I just wish they threw in an extra one. Like a buy five get one free kinda deal." "You must realize these are people." "We’re people Daniel. We purchased the shells of humans. And for what? For a measly bit of change." "All wrongness aside Trent. what am I going to do with five bodies?" "What?! No. I didn’t buy five dead ones. That’s too expensive! Just three. What am I? Made of money?"

There was no real breakfast. As Daniel sat back in his booth, he knew of only a few things. His work was all a culmination up to this point. This was super crazy and Trenton never let him down before. He was insane, impulsive and off his rocker bit, but he was his investor. Trenton believed in what he was doing, and at the same time, he had to keep the Big Shots at bay too. In the end, he was just doing his job and now, it was time for Daniel to do his.

"Trent. I’ll do it. You know I will. The issue isn’t anything with you. Its with my work.. With me."

"Daniel. All do respect my friend."

His face moulded into something serious, and slightly aghast. 

"We will go into the lab together. the more we talk about this outside of the place yo call home, the worse it’ll be."

"Worse what’ll be?"

"Nothing. Never mind. Let’s just go."