The lines, they go by [o, experiment]

[CAUSTIC.]

He had to finish this experiment by sundown. That was the unfortunate truth of holding his "lab" in a basement. Caustic had very little light inside, besides a small window and the lanterns he had been collecting.
The Wolf's eyes were almost good enough to see through the darkness, but Caustic wanted to watch this experiment in good lighting. His home had a privacy fence- dilapidated, but a fence none the less. It was wood, six feet tall, with various holes through it and boards missing. Caustic hung signs on the outward facing portions, notices not to trespass or disturb him. That way, it was their own fault if they were bothered what he did in his own backyard.
Caustic brought the cage out first, sitting it on a wood board outside. Inside the wire trap was a rabbit. He had fed it a few hours ago, and now it would serve its purpose as a test subject.
This kind of experiment was his calling. It was what he was known for, the desire to test on the living. Caustic considered it to be relaxing in comparison to his other, far more frustrating project. The portal maker had given him nothing but trouble, and Caustic was tempted to smash it. It was only way out of here, so he restrained himself.
He brought out the syringe next, held delicately in his teeth, and the voice recorder around his neck. Since the discovery of his own venomous properties, Caustic died to test it. It had some amount of a numbing effect, when administered in small doses. Octavio had suffered a bite from Caustic, and was numbed for hours. To note, Octavio's cheetah form weighed around 35kg. This rabbit should be around two kilograms, but Caustic lacked the equipment to test it.
Caustic placed the syringe down, watching the sickly green fluid inside move. He lifted his voice recorder, pressing down on the red button with a paw. "By my estimate, it is the second week of March, 2020. Of note, I have been here 52 days. I thought I would have escaped sooner, but alas." He sighed deeply, a green puff of smoke leaving him. "My," he coughed, "Overall health has stagnated but is expected to decline. This is my second experiment in this dimension, where I test the properties of my venom on a rabbit, dubbed Test Subject Five." Caustic grabbed the syringe, carefully, in his left paw. He sat back on his haunches, holding the recorder in his right. He had made grips for both objects using clay, but it was annoying. He wanted hands.
"Five, weighing approximately two kilograms, will be administered point two-five cee-cees of my own venom, and I will observe its affects. The syringe will be administered now." He let the recorder fall out of his paw, ceasing the recording. He opened the top of the cage, forcing his paw down on the small of the rabbit's back, implanting the needle in its side, pushing down on the plunger, then shaking the fur to move the venom around. He pulled the syringe out, quickly shutting the cage. He placed the syringe down, relifting the voice recorder.
"The venom has been," he coughed, "administered. Will update as items of note become clear. Test Subject Five is extremely stressed, otherwise. This may affect the results."

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[Ivan]

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Ivan had barely seen his third moon of life, but he strove to own every heartbeat of that timespan. Wonder fueled his activities, and he held himself aloof. He thought that he was quite intelligent compared to other kittens, though he did have his divergences into enjoying the simpleness of childhood. He only had a few actual strong convictions, but he played devil's advocate and purposefully drove himself in contradicting circles to make himself feel smarter. In other words perhaps, he had all the necessary brain power for higher activities but was sorely lacking in a guide. He also noticed that he had no real hobby, and no physical artificial thing that he enjoyed having. He hoped he would figure out his five items for Beck. He didn't want to let him down, but how could he face his older brother and tell him that I cannot find something or some activity that I can properly call my own.

Stumps drive him to recklessness and recklessness made him ignore the warning signs of Caustic's fence. He squeezed through the holes, accidentally slicing his large, tender ear on something and he winced, leaving a little trail of blood behind him. It clotted by the time Ivan trespassed far enough to find Caustic in his experiment. He hated being fascinated by Caustic's mannerisms. He didn't smell good first of all, and Ivan had bitterly lashed out on his first actual conversation with the wolf. But, just as a passerby slows his walk to gawk at a gruesome murder scene, Ivan finds himself mesmerized by Caustic's method that he finds just as horrifying as watching the two headed thing kill its siblings. Even then in the birds nest, Ivan was enthralled. In a bad way. Because he knew that it was wrong. Why the same principles do not apply to someone such as Caustic, Ivan doesn't know.

He had the politeness to wait for Caustic to finish speaking to ... himself? Well Ivan could not see anyone else. He would have thought Caustic had gone mad. He hadn't noticed the recorder. "I'm going to let that rabbit free." He finally spoke up. A threat, as threatening as a kitten with absolutely no knowledge of how to work cages could be.

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Ever since Caustic had first arrived, Aurum had seen fit to keep an eye on the wolf, even from afar. For one thing, the other had smelled faintly of the Pitt when he had gotten to Tanglewood, which while explained away by Octane and Caustic himself, still held a certain suspicious air to it. For another thing, Caustic was just... unnerving all on his own, no Pittian scent required. The tigon wasn't sure if it was the strange scent and coughing fits, or the way that he looked at everyone so coldly in a similar manner to how Abathur did but somehow even less warm. No matter what the motivations were, Aurum saw little issue with him observing Caustic on occasion. After all, he was the proxy of Tanglewood, and it was his job to make sure that everyone within the group was safe. If Caustic was in some way a threat – which the angel was very much unsure of – then he needed to be... supervised, for lack of a better word. Aurum didn't doubt that Caustic would hate putting up with such a thing, especially considering the excessive amount of signage surrounding his home very pointedly discouraging observation, but the proxy didn't much care. If Caustic really had such a problem with it, then he could come and confront Aurum on his own.

The male had just finished his midday meal when his one blue eye caught sight of Ivan, his nephew seemingly entirely ignoring all of the warnings outside of Caustic's home. Aurum felt a soft curse leave him as he watched the boy squeeze through to the other side, hurriedly getting up to his feet and going after Ivan. He obviously wasn't able to go through the same tiny hole that Ivan had taken advantage of, but luckily for him, there were a couple of missing boards big enough for his tigon form to squeeze through, even with a faintly swelled belly. Once he was on the other side, he continued following after Ivan's scent, freezing up when he saw what was going on in front of him. His stomach tossed and turned unpleasantly at the sight of the empty syringe, and his gaze lingered for a long sustained moment on the poor, defenseless rabbit that had been made a subject. His attention was only torn away when Ivan finally spoke up, the small boy's defiant voice ringing out strongly. Aurum's heart practically leaped into his throat as he moved a bit closer, protectively, "Careful, Ivan..." He then turned his one eye towards Caustic, taking on a certain glare as he spoke, "You... why are you doing this? What even is the purpose of this besides hurting that creature? You're not even eating it." Aurum had little idea of the full extent of Caustic's experiments, which he was sure could grow far worse than this, but he found that he didn't really care to find out more. After all, this alone was enough to make him feel vaguely sick, and he wanted to scoop Ivan up in his jaws and leave immediately.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

[CAUSTIC.]

Caustic is mumbling in his recorder, watching the rabbit. The scientist is transfixed by his experiment, and Caustic’s mind idly wanders to his beautiful gas. It was his magnum opus in every right, and the wolf’s chest puffed as he thought of how he had fallen in love with his own creation.
Results would not leave him. Results would not go cold in his hands. Results were attainable, controllable, and experiment with an end goal in mind.
There was a beauty to death, Caustic knew. The beauty could be interpreted in many ways, however. Luc’s body in his hands was ugly, but Octavio’s open chest was beautiful. Maybe, killing Dr. Humbert and joining the games left Caustic desensitized.
Luc would probably be horrified by what Alexander had become, he idly thinks, looking up at his fence, then back to the rabbit.
Death was a constant variable and experience in the games. While he had rightfully earned his title as an Apex Legend, he was prone to mistakes and being outwitted or outgunned, just like everyone else.
A mistake was what brought him here.
Caustic raises the recorder to his mouth, shifting as he observes his experiment. The rabbit laid on it’s side now, eyes closed as the venom took its hold. ”Subject seems to be sedated, but alive,” he notes. Perhaps a higher dosage would result death in the succeeding tests? Fascinating. Caustic's former NOX gas had many qualities, it was suffocating and corrosive, and spewed in horizontal green clouds. Nothing interesting to the viewer, but to Caustic? It curled into intricate green clouds around his test subjects, snaking into their lungs and killing them from the inside out.
Caustic could have made stronger gases, easily, but the syndicate always held him back. The games had to be "fair" and "balanced" that way. The wolf's ears laid back as the child approaches, the one with the bird, and his eyes narrow into a glare as it speaks. "No, you're not." The rabbit is his test subject, it was prey and it's duty was to die by Caustic's tests, and be subsequently eaten. "Even if you did, it is incapacitated. It cannot run away any longer." This was the one good thing about the Pitt, there were less people to bother him, and less people to meddle in his morally-dubious privacy.

Caustic's cold and clearly annoyed gaze turns to Aurum now, his tail lowering in defense. He had to do whatever this one told him to, he knew. He could already guess the words forming in the proxy's mind, about his moral corruptness and that the rabbit would need to be killed or set free immediately.
Caustic's methods were only controversial to those who lacked imagination. So, of his options, he elects the easy one: lying. His face remains the same expression, clear annoyance and defensive about his work.
"I have learned I possess abilities previously unknown to me." A half-truth. He was not going to mention what the ability was until asked to explain. "I am a scientist, Aurum, so I must test the world around me in order to understand it. It is my civic duty." A lie, these experiments were for Caustic, truly. They kept him busy. "I am testing the properties of my ability. This way, I may use it in combat, and aid Tanglewood to my best ability."

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[Ivan]

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He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.

— Бра́тья Карама́зовы

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Truth be told, he was feeling a little bummed out that Aurum had followed him. Perhaps he should have been thankful for having an uncle that so clearly cared for him. All Ivan wanted to do was feel older. He wished his voice would drop, he wished he was taller, he wished he wasn't being coddled. His eyes rolled slightly to the back of his head, trying to glance at Aurum's towering figure above him, but it didn't take long for his focus to be once again directed to the wolf and his sedated rabbit.

A shudder raced down Ivan's spine, shaking his slender form. "To suffer ... for someone else! It's wrong." Principles, principles. And Ivan did not yet know of any religion. One might think from his strong moral convictions he could be considered a pious person, but certainly the obsession Christianity has for needless suffering would not settle well for Ivan. No, he was just a young child with an intellectual slant that yearned to be developed but had nothing to ground itself to.

His eyes flickered toward Caustic's own house, wondering what sorts of horrors might be locked up in there. His imagination ran wild. It was enough already that Tanglewood was home to a vast population of mutated flora and fauna. It was probably a biologist's dream. His claws were buried in the ground up to the quick, one of Ivan's telltale signs that he was beginning to grow frustrated. But again, morbid fascination kept him anchored. It might be the death of him.

A rough exhale of breath left his lips, he realized that he had been holding it during his wild imagination ride while Caustic responded to Aurum. Ivan was beginning to feel a little light-headed. Aurum wouldn't let Caustic get away with this. Yes? Maybe. Ivan wouldn't put it past him that this was like a game for the wolf. "Civic duty shouldn't encompass ... unethical experiments ... nice try ... hmm!" Ivan staggered to the side for a moment but shook his head and appeared, on the surface, quite alright.

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Perhaps, if Ivan had not been present, Caustic might have gotten a bit farther in his experiments. Perhaps Aurum would've believed him, or even not believed him, and allowed him to continue anyways, just because he wasn't looking for a fight. However, the proxy had met many a type like Caustic before, and he immediately felt a sense of unease when the wolf tried to explain himself, a soft huff leaving him. Caustic had at first reminded the tigon of Abathur, since they both seemed to have similar styles of looking at the world, but Aurum could now see that comparison wasn't really true. Yes, both were scientists, and looked at the world as an interesting puzzle to be solved, but Abathur looked at it with some amount of compassion, and knew what it meant to care about others. He learned through observation and studying, not through forcing experiments upon the world like Caustic was doing. At one point, Aurum had been glad to find himself growing to become friends with Abathur, and enjoying his time around the large arachnid. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Aurum and Caustic could never get to that point, because of how Caustic felt to force himself upon the world around him and conduct his experiments.

Taking a deep breath inward, the proxy listened to what Caustic had to say before Ivan jumped in, the young boy possessing a horrified look on his face as he faced Caustic's explanation. He noticed how Ivan glanced back at him, clearly looking to see if the tigon was really going to fall for what the wolf was attempting to do. After a long moment of silent thought, Aurum stepped forward beside Ivan, silently offering the feline a side to lean against, considering the way that the boy was swaying from side to side, nearly falling over in a fit. Once he was sure Ivan was supported, the angel turned his gaze back to Caustic, slowly shaking his head in disapproval before he spoke, "Caustic, you have been allowed to stay here under the assumption that you will work with your fellow tanglers, and not cause trouble. While Tanglewood is hardly some peaceful pacifist group, we also haven't been in the business of actively seeking out trouble in a while. I fail to see how this civic duty is helping us in any way, really. All you're doing is wasting a piece of perfectly good prey. Prey lives, to us, to be eaten. Or, in some rare cases, to serve as companionship. That poor bunny is serving no purpose except to entertain you for a while. Either kill it or release it." Aurum glanced down for a moment, his gaze slightly hardened when he looked back up, meeting Caustic's eyes, "And if you want to test your abilities, you can test it in battle. I'm sure it won't be long before The Pitt is stirring up shit again, and I have a feeling you are not lacking in the offensive department, even without whatever this ability is." Perhaps he was being a bit harsh, but he was fairly sure Leroy would be in agreement with him that it wasn't a pleasant thought to have someone torturing perfectly good prey on their territory for no reason except to amuse himself.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

[CAUSTIC.]

Caustic's head tilts to the left as he watches a shudder run through Ivan. Idly, he wonders if that is fear, and his ears perk upwards at the idea. Green eyes flicker to his test subject, making note of it's labored, slow breaths. There were things Caustic understood to be true that the members of Tanglewood could not- first, this was the natural order of the universe. If the rabbit was willing to survive, it would be in Caustic's cage. Second, the strong would filter out the weak, as the wolf proved himself to be the superior combatant by hunting down the rabbit. Third, Caustic's methods were only controversial to those who lacked imagination.
If this was not the natural order of the universe, the rabbit would have never ended up in his grasp, and it would not be suffering now. This rabbit's purpose, as a member unable to function in the clans, and as far as he was concerned, equivalent to an insect. It's life was inert, meaningless, but it could serve purpose in Caustic's grand experiment. 
To suffer for another...
His eyes glaze over for a brief moment, thinking of Octavio's body. Octavio enjoyed suffering at Caustic's expense, so to proclaim such a thing as wrong... was incorrect. The dot about Caustic's left eye pulls up, his face attempting to morph into raising an eyebrow as the child spoke.
He watched Ivan look towards Aurum for support, and Caustic's ears tilt back again.
Oh, he's done for.
"Dr. Caustic," he interjects immediately. They were not friends, Aurum was not close enough to the scientist to drop the Dr. from his name. Caustic's face furrows, puffing out his chest, raising his tail and letting his ears perk. Caustic is, unknowingly, displaying dominant behavior. The Wolf's mind is trying to compromise and mix with his human intellect. He waits for the Tigon to finish, lips twitching, but he attempts to reserve himself.
It is not a waste! He wants to scream at the proxy. Caustic's experiments were vital and important, this rabbit was serving it's purpose, and when it died, he would eat it. Was Aurum so foolish to think the scientist would waste anything? Evidently so! His ears tilt back again, fur raising and bristling, be he knew he would have to do as Aurum said, and he seethes at the seams at the idea. He opens the rabbits cage from the top, snaking his arm inside and finding the creature's throat, pressing down on it.
It would die, soon, cleanly. Caustic knew he would have to contend with ripping into it with his teeth later. His head tilts back to give Aurum a sideeyed, narrowed gaze. "Are you so ignorant? Waiting until an actual battle to test my abilities is foolish. I could not perform to the best of my abilities if I waited." He begins to doubt the tigon's intelligence, "Does a blacksmith wait until war to test his new sword? Never, Caustic had tested his traps hundreds of times before he used them in the field, to ensure they were durable, expelling the same amount of gas as the same speed and duration every time. Testing was vital to the process. He twists, feeling the rabbit give a death's gasp under his paw. He closes the cage, grumbling as the Wolf's brain is already forming mental images of ripping into it.
"It has perished, and I will eat it. Could you please expel yourselves from my property now?"

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[Ivan]

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He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.

— Бра́тья Карама́зовы

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While Ivan's mind was hyper-fixated on the morality and ethics of things, he did realize Caustic had somewhat of a point in the pursuit of science. While Ivan was by no means a political creature or designed with a mentality towards war, he did find it unnecessary to wait until the moment to figure out if something was suitable to use. Now, he still stood by his original explanation, that nobody ought to suffer for another. He did not know Octane but his imagination dreamed up all sorts of creatures and personalities. He had not left a stone unturned on the possibility of someone actually desiring to suffer. That was simply a perversion of the will, and Ivan was careful to not base his thoughts on simple observations and experiences, because that was relative and not the objective truth that he knew now, clear as Caustic's pale yellow gas, was his destiny to pursue, whatever it was.

The lightheadedness was starting to clear up, and he sighed heavily as he leant against Aurum for support. His strange gaze was fixated on Caustic, a renewed sense of purpose. Ivan's eyes narrowed with bitter ambition. He'd wait outside Caustic's door for however long it'd take. He'd show him.

Even if Ivan agreed with Caustic's response, he still had to nitpick it. "I don't think blacksmiths would swing it at a peasant's head, just to make sure it really can work." If Ivan believed in divine figures, he would have said a prayer for the rabbit's soul, but in this case, its suffering was finished. There was nothing to say. "Don't follow me, Aurum." The thin black cat muttered as he abruptly broke away and scurried through the same hole in the fence that he had entered.