#albertbutyoucancallmebert

[cloudydayjoy]

Disaster love chain

[eyeballcommander]

Hallo Commander. This is Bert. I am working on a project that I'd really like you to see. Are you available to stop by my lab anytime soon?

I can certainly make time! Is this about the growth serum?

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Teddy!! Oh how I wish we could meet up. I have a gift for you. Shall I have my ants deliver it again?

Maybe we could chat for a bit at our birthday party? Of course, you’d be there for Freddy. Smiles.

[astronomicalwatchdog]

Hallo. Nice to meet you Finnegan! I am Bert. It is always swell to interact with a scientist outside of my field. Um. Any cool planet discoveries lately?

Hello there, Bert. I agree. What do you specialize in? I have recently discovered a planet that has large bioluminescent mushrooms covering the surface. Is that cool?

[azolla-the-plant-villain]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert Azolla was excited as she made her way to the designated lab on the skull ship. She’d asked Commander Peepers for permission of course!

She respected that even if they were friends that she was still technically a rival villain, and honestly even if she wasn’t it wasn’t very polite to just show up to a friends place unannounced, even if it was for a debatably open invite birthday party for a rat.

But it was fine! Even if she didn’t really know the Watchdog that took care of her, she was sure that once Sherri Jr got a look at the genetically modified tree she had brought her that they wouldn’t be able to turn her away!

The tree was currently concealed under a specially adjusted greenhouse class, it made sure that light got to the precious plant while obscuring what it was to the outside observer!

Azolla carried it along carefully as she approached Bert’s lab, which she had to ask Peepers for directions to.

[mortisnothere]

Well I think you are a very talented video game creator. Why don't you keep it up as a hobby? Make some cool small indie games and maybe sell them on video game libraries? Smiles.

Bert your presence is a blessing in the cold darkness of this grop forsaken empire. I think I will.

[bishop-percival]

@stuckinuniformdevelopment

(prev) Teddy nodded to Bert. “I’ll compile them during my lunch break.” Then he glanced at Mike, who hadn’t responded one way or another, and strongly considered only to Bert. When Teddy saw Bert looking around he came over to help. Then he doubled his efforts once he realized what Bert was searching for. “Sherri Junior!” He called out with the warm tone he only used for her. “Here girl!” Then he smiled in relief when Mike found her and speedwalked over. “Why does she like you so much?”, he fondly said without expecting an answer. Teddy proudly watched Mike and Bert as they exchanged their civil goodbyes. “Thank you both for your restraint.” Mostly Mike. “I’m glad I can trust you to not kill each other.” Teddy’s eye was fixed on the grate as he passed Mike. Soon, however, he slowed to a stop, sighed as he recalled today’s trip to the observatory, and used its actual door for once. It just wasn’t worth Bert (rightfully) scolding him for unnecessarily aggravating the bruises left on his ribs…

Mike did not in fact answer Teddy’s question about Sherri Jr liking him.

Bert loaded her into her comfy spot on the bottom shelf of the cart before giving her some loving chin scritches. He warily glanced at Teddy when he noticed him eyeing the grate, but was relieved when he seemed to give up on the idea himself. Bert followed him to the door, readying his badge in case the guards outside hassled them.

Once the two were gone, Mike let out a heavy sigh as he removed his glass and rubbed his forehead. Glorn, that scientist was damn annoying. He hoped bringing him into this would be worth it. There were also a few questions Mike would’ve liked to ask Albert, but they were questions that likely wouldn’t have been answered their first time meeting. 

So Mike did a quick sweep around the observatory, just checking if anything seemed out of place, then prepared to leave. He pulled the stepladder under the vent, focused on undoing the grate screws to distract himself from being too conscious about his balance atop the ladder, then clambered on into the vent. 

[watchdogsworld]

You if you had a car.

I do have a car. And that's what it looks like

[wickedcooldog]

Cathy ran up to floor 4 and scanned the room numbers until she found 464. Then she flung open the door and jabbed the glasses wearing nerd on the back.

"I'M IT!" she yelled as she turned around and dashed away.

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

[ratticusinfernus]

With rat breeding and supplies management being a one-woman job Veronica had the freedom to come and go whenever she pleased. Which meant that there was nothing stopping her from immediately heading to Bert's lab.

Veronica shifted her black specimen transport bag to her side and held it steady with one hand before trying Bert's door.

...Huh, locked. It made her wonder if he had any secret projects to protect. Oh well! If it's anything cool she'll hear about either a grand success or amusing resulting chaos!

She confirmed that it wouldn't budge, then gave it several quick raps as she said, "Good day Bert! I'm here with Marius."

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

[cloudydayjoy]

Don't trip scientist watchdog!

@joeyprotozoa

[eyeballcommander]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

(Previous) Bert nodded, just as willing to move on as there was a reason Commander Peepers was here in the first place, and that was to show him his new blaster. And delighted by how it seemed the worst of his anger was over, the presentation Bert wanted to give came back to him, along with some confidence. “Well,” he started as he excitedly pumped his fists, “imagine the power of one of those big bulky atomic laser vaporizers.” He spread open his hands, then crunched them together as he continued, “Now imagine that power, albeit slightly weakened, condensed down into that blaster.” He started his own pacing around, with Sherri Jr following right behind him like a shadow. “Indeed, this blaster can obliterate just about any opponent, reducing them to nothing but a wisp in the wind! Well, there are some size limitations, sure, but even then it’ll zap away a huge chunk out of them. Truly a conveniently portable death ray!” He added some sinister finger tapping to his pacing. “It can blast holes through thick walls. It can blast holes into the ground. Too lazy to get up and throw out an empty milkshake cup? Bam, just disintegrate it away.” “And not to worry,” Bert said as he scurried back to Commander Peepers’ side and pointed out the blaster’s dial, “you still have your standard stun and blast settings.” He then put a hand on Peepers' shoulder. "And I could go on and on about the hours I poured into developing and implementing cutting edge safety features!"

Commander Peepers’ eye sparkled in amazement. “It can really do all that?” Then he picked it up and squinted while he looked for ways to get it open.

“How’d you condense its energy storage? What is it powered by? Does it have any means of generating power? If so, what’s the cooldown time between shots? If not: Does it have interchangable batteries? Could they be quickly swapped out? Or does it have to be plugged in?”

Commander Peepers paused to take a much-needed breath. Then he set it down on the nearest counter space he could find as he continued to examine it.

“Does it have any security measures for if it falls into the wrong hands? I’ve been considering putting a biosensor on the version I have in development, but gloves kinda complicate things...”

“Hmm...” He stopped and crossed his arms while tapping his foot and resting his hand on his chin. “What if... I used the glove itself as a key by embedding an RFID chip into it!?”

Then he wrote that down in a little notebook before going back to Bert’s blaster. He kept it opened next to him in case he needed to jot down another idea.

Once he had gotten through his first series of questions he looked to Bert and slyly smiled. “Safety features, eh? Did Walters rub off on you?”

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

(Previous) Sherri lit up when Teddy hugged her and said he’d still play. Yay! Maybe a fun game would calm him down. She excitedly bobbed her head up and down to answer Teddy’s question. Staying in the lab would certainly be the safest option… Although, the thought of playing hide and seek outside was very intriguing. The Skullship was massive! A single game could probably take days! Weeks! But that was an idea for another time. She took a moment to type something on his phone again, hoping to word her rules in the most concise way possible. “i count to thirty now.” Sherri then closed her eyes and put her paws over her ears…

Standing up while only using only one arm— and without being able to put his weight on the other— was a daunting task. Or at the very least: Time-consuming.

Teddy managed. But by now he doubted he had much time to hide. He sighed before gently resting his hand on Sherri Jr’s and waiting for her to notice.

“Wait... could we please start over?”

[freddythewatchdog]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

It had been a pleasant morning so far. Freddy had woken up at the crack of dawn-- so to speak-- and was excited to find that they had cooked his favorite food.

By the time he got Teddy's text he was ready to start the day with a spring in his step. After he checked the timestamp he groaned, for his brother mainly scheduled texts to hide just how late he'd stayed up. And they always arrived exactly at the top of the hour.

But it had to be important if Teddy was sending a document instead of a meme or one-word response. Freddy leaned against the wall as he opened it. Once he'd started to skim it his phone slipped from his hand.

Nothing could prepare him for what he found. Freddy didn't even bother to check his screens for cracks before carefully reading Teddy's letter over. What was that supposed to be!? If he didn't know his brother better-- and if Teddy didn't make it sound like whatever happened was out of his control-- he'd mistake it for a suicide note!

Someone must've forced him to write it! That's the only thing that made sense! And if that was the case, he had no time to waste!

Freddy called Teddy as he ran, only for it to go straight to voicemail no matter how many times he redialed. After the tenth (at least) time he called Cathy to ask, no, demand for her to check the sleeping quarters.

When Freddy barged into Teddy's lab his boss started to tell him to tell his brother to stop being dramatic and come in anyways. (Really, who says they're calling out dead?) But once Freddy made her cut out his nonsense he realized that she knew even less than him.

At least he'd confirmed that this had nothing to do with Captain Tim. Not that he expected it to when he'd just helped him harvest more acid a week or two ago.

There was only one other person Freddy could ask. The only person Teddy talked to out of work. (Technically the Glornists counted as work and, more importantly, if he had to get answers out of them he was coming with his blaster out.)

At least Teddy had been nice enough to tell him where to find him, even he was pissed that he'd expected him to distribute his will without even looking for him. It shouldn't be too hard to find him, right? All he had to do was start asking around once he got close to his friend's lab.

Apparently it was. "Whaddya mean you don't know a Bert!? ...You know, Albert Scharzschild!? He's worked here for years!"

Asking for the guy with a thick-rimmed glass and a strong accent who worked at the lab Teddy mentioned gave him slightly better results. Apparently he'd caused a stir by secluding himself in the lab (as his annoyed coworkers eagerly told him.)

Freddy took a deep breath to calm himself as he reminded himself that Bert was just as stressed as him, then knocked on the door and asked, "Bert? You there?"

[bishop-percival]

@stuckinuniformdevelopment

(prev) Bert’s childish behavior earned him a flat, deadpan stare. Although seeing Mike get brought down a peg was pretty funny. Teddy’s lid twitched a few times as he held back a smirk. When Mike reiterated his point Teddy nodded and straightened up. “And you will.” Then Teddy tucked his notebook away and pushed off on his knees to help himself to his feet. He continued to speak as he put his chair away. “Should we end it here?” Once it was properly pushed in he warily glanced at Mike, waited for him to reach the furthest point on his pacing path, unconsciously took a step back, and brought his phone out. “I’ll send my own fun hypotheticals on the off-chance they’ll help with brainstorming.”

“I think this is a good stopping point. I’ll be needing to get back to the Glornch soon anyways,” Mike said as he paced all the way over to the telescope and slipped behind it.

Bert looked as if he was deep in thought, glancing about his laptop and cart. But he soon slightly shook his head and started packing away his things. He smiled at Teddy and said “Please do.”

He started to push his cart toward the door when realizing it was remarkably lighter than before. Bert perked in shock at how he almost forgot his own dear rat!

He quickly turned and rushed about the room, saying “My girl! Where’s my girl!”

Mike reluctantly stepped out from behind the telescope with Sherri Jr in his arms again. “...F-found her…”

Mike had seen her sneak behind there, and wanted to slip her a snack (the cashew he had disappeared earlier) before she had to leave. Sherri had since forgotten it was her gift to him from earlier, therefore forgetting she was mad at him, and gratefully accepted it before hopping into Mike's arms. 

Mike met Bert in the middle to hand her over. Bert hugged Sherri Jr tight and then cringed at the priest. 

“Well Reverend, I can’t say it was a pleasure to meet you… But I’m sure we can tolerate each other enough until this is all over.”

“Likewise,” Mike flatly said with a nod. He stood in place and waited for everyone to leave his observatory. 

[watchdogsworld]

Hallo Hank. A rock I found. Thought you might like.

What does it smell like?