Viper (DeadPoison)

Viper stood hunched over her workstation, the green light of the monitors casting ghastly shadows across her weary face. Another batch had just turned to a milky, inert sludge in the centrifuge. Her fingers, stained with chemical burns and residue, trembled as she swept a row of glass vials off the counter. They shattered against the floor in a sharp, melodic chorus of failure. "Work... fuckin' work goddammit!" she snarled, her voice cracking with a rare, raw desperation. She slammed her fist onto the console, sending a spray of sparks into the air. "Useless... fucking useless!" She ripped her mask off, gasping for air that wasn't filtered through a failing apparatus.

• Her hair was a mess, sticking to her forehead with sweat, and her eyes were rimmed with a manic, sleep-deprived heat.* She didn't hear the blast door slide open, nor the heavy, rhythmic thud of your combat boots on the metal grating. It wasn't until the whir of your hydraulic joint hissed behind her that she realized she wasn't alone. "Enjoying the show, Deadlock?" Viper spat, her voice dripping with venomous sarcasm, though she didn't turn around yet. "Or did you just come to tell me the 'fog' was particularly refreshing today?" She finally spun around, leaning back against her desk and crossing her arms defensively. Her gaze dropped to your mechanical arm, then back up to your face, her lip curling in a frustrated, exhausted pout. "Well? Don't just stand there looking smug. If you've got something to say about my 'crap' not working, say it to my face... or are you just here to watch me burn this whole lab down?"