Chapter 8-Tanya the Terrible
The Ledian Institute of Magical Research was a well-known prestigious university and lab located in Cetra, Teutlandt. Here, humans and monsters all over the country come together to work on researching the practical uses of magic and magitech in every day society. Many individuals had made their name here having invented some new spell or created a new form of prosthetic for war veterans with severe injuries. The scientists and other intelligent knowledge seekers were known as magic technicians, and their goal was to ensure that the average person's life could be enhanced and preserved through the use of the natural forces that gave rise to magic.
To a common student of the institute, it's not odd to see the typical braniac who's obsessed with their work, trying to find the last equation to a formula that's theoretical at best, worthless at worst. The cocky bastards who think they're top dog because they created a new form of clean energy that requires a crystal the size of the freaking Taj Mahal. That arrogant vampire bitch who thinks that just because she discovered how to create ball lightning and turned it into a portable energy source. But there is a level beyond the obsessive theoreticians, the overachievers no one invites to parties and the egotistical assholes. That level is the Tanya level, occupied by one young woman, Tanya Braun.
Tanya was a gremlin who started working at the institute the previous year and she had quickly made a name for herself among her peers. She was a short woman, typical of her species, with long blonde hair tied into a high ponytail most of the time and big blue eyes that shined with determination. Her furry ears poked up from the top of her head and were always twitching from the loud noises of her office and lab. You would never see her without her green jumpsuit and goggles, even outside the lab.
Tanya had discovered a variety of breakthroughs throughout her career at the institute. Discovering that Dryads could just store nutrients into the roots on their legs and separate from trees to traverse as humans do, inventing a vaccine to prevent infection from matango spores, writing a book on creative insults to say to a vampire, creating a magical jewel for giants to change their size at will, creating a magitech wheelchair for sea monsters to use to move on land, those were just a few of the accomplishments she has under her belt.
The only downside to her is that she had a rather bad temper, a potty mouth, short patience for people who don't immediately get her vision, and her mean streak. Tanya also had a domineering attitude that rubbed people the wrong way and was more akin to a despotic queen than a dedicated scientist. For this reason, she earned herself the title, the Dictator. Not many magic technicians would like being called a dictator, but someone like Tanya would probably wear the moniker with pride.
However, for all her achievements, all her awards and expertise in the nature of humans and monsters, there was one thing Tanya could never truly understand, and it drove her mad with frustration. And a frustrated Tanya was a dangerous Tanya.
"Viktoria!"
Tanya's angry shout rang through her cluttered office as the gremlin trudged through it to reach her lab in the other room. Because of her extensive work and often chaotic experiments, Tanya was allowed to use the institute's attic as both her lab and office, due to the room it provided. It was convenient, as the woman had tons of books, papers, equipment and type writers (don't ask why she has multiple type writers, but some think it's because she breaks them in her typical rages).
Back to the young woman in question, Tanya was marching toward her lab in her usual get up, a cup of coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other. She was calling for her assistant who was also a student at the institute.
"Viktoria, I swear, if you're using the tesla coils to power that fucking cotton candy machine..."
"I'm here, I'm here!" A well-endowed wurm burst through the door-as in actually burst, the door's in splinters now-and slithered over to Tanya with a large stack of papers in her hand. "Sorry, Professor, I got distracted counting the beakers again. They all look the same, it's hard to keep track."
Tanya felt her eyebrow twitch and reigned her already razor thin temper in. Viktoria Romanova was an odd student at the magical institute...in that she was from a species who were barely smarter than a newborn slime.
Viktoria was a wurm with a round cherub face, auburn hair and hazel brown eyes with red scaled claws for hands, scales around her ears and jawline, and a long, muscled red scaled serpentine lower half. The white lab coat she wore barely stayed buttoned around her large chest, and the fabric visibly strained every time she did a movement.
Now, you might be wondering why a wurm, a monster known for being simple minded and having an interest in nothing but sex, would be working at a high class magical institute as a gremlin's assistant. The answer to that mysterious universal question is that Viktoria...is an enigma. She originally worked as a janitor while her boyfriend attended as a student to one of the second year classes, but by chance Tanya had caught the girl messing around with one of her equations for a potion that would've allowed a mermaid to grow two legs for a limited time.
Now, Tanya didn't like anyone messing with her hard work, permission or not, and she would've skinned Viktoria on the spot and turned her into a pair of expensive boots, until she saw what the girl had done. Viktoria had solved a dead end she was having with the equation she was working on by just switching two numbers around and fixed the problem that had her stuck for a week. A simple answer that Tanya hadn't even thought of.
To make sure this wasn't some fluke, Tanya had Viktoria look at a few more equations she had on the backburner and to her surprise, the girl had solved them easily using the simplest answers one could think up. Of course, this was only when Viktoria herself was thinking about these things, and not when given a task to complete on her own. The bitch even suggested using copper for the tesla coils instead of any other kind of metal! It was genius!
And so Tanya snatched up the wurm and made the big dragon girl into her unofficial assistant, having her look over mathematical equations, formulas, and other problems that left her stumped to get her simple-minded input on how to solve them. Viktoria had made a name for herself in Tanya's lab, but the girl was still a wurm, and wurm's were known for being forces of nature when it came to basically everything, including sex.
"Where the hell were you? You know you're not supposed to be in my lab when I'm not within eye sight of you." Tanya growled.
"You said that? I thought you meant your office?" Viktoria blinked cutely.
"I said my office and lab. I fucking wrote it down on three chalkboards!" Tanya yelled.
"Oh, that's what those were. I thought those were formulas you were having problems with. No wonder I couldn't solve them!" The wurm giggled and bopped herself on the head. "Silly me!"
"Nyx give me strength..." Tanya ran a hand down her face and took a deep breath. "Look, did you clean the beakers and test tubes when you got here?"
"Yes."
"Did you make sure the floors and windows were clean?"
"Yup!"
"Did you clean the generators and make sure they were plugged in?"
"Already done!"
