Difference between revisions of "Tell her about the Twinkie"

Arthur has come to enjoy Detroit pizza. He has a fresh slice on a plate, witha plastic fork, as he comes on out to the riverfront. The man with food and a white coat stands in front of Transcendence, staring up at it.

"Arthur?" asks Amane in a fairly surprised voice as she makes her way over to you. "Will wonders never cease. Let yourself out of the lab today, huh?" She holds up her own slice of pizza, "And we apparently had the same idea."

Arthur looks over, and chuckles. "Amane, good morning." Pausing to dig into the pizza, cutting off a piece with his fork to eat. "The local places are good. Much better food than the Washington area. Food is awful there." He then points with the now-emptied fork at the sculpture. "This is called Transcendence, and Alma Hunter says it's important."

"Does she now?" responds Amane thoughtfully as the wind tousels her long silver hair with a scintillation. You can hear the crackle of static around her, like she is a coil channeling it. "Alma Hunter, hmm," she murmurs as she simply lifts her pizza slice to her mouth to eat. She's used to portable foods, and has no issue with finger foods.

Arthur pauses. Didn't she have black hair before? And she's... crackling? He's obviously looking at her hair a moment. "Rough week?" he smiles, before looking up at TranscendING again. "Alma is joining your status, within our little club here in Detroit. And she says this thing is stealing ghosts."

"Hmm? Oh, my hair? Hah... more like rough months. It's actually been like this since Bhutan," she's speaking very softly now, "But the black hair dye gradually stopped working. I can't dye it at all now, it's like pouring ink on metal. Just rolls off like water off a duck's back." She takes another bite of her pizza, "And yeah. I build up static like crazy. It's hell on electronics sometimes." She looks back to you, "She was a Chakravanti before, right? They don't seem like the types you can typically just walk away from... especially given their propensity for shared experiences with death. Ah well, not like I don't get it." She frowns, "Stealing Ghosts?"

Arthur stalls with another bite of pizza before he answers that. He steps closer to be heard easier as he asnwers though, while staring at that gap at the very top of the sculpture. "I'm not up on the details of their organization. But I think you're right. And I'm not sure how much help she'll get within our club if they come knocking. As long as she understands she can't just leave US willy nlly... I imagine she'll be fine" Another bite. "So your hair is fine, like hair still, but... huh. Fascinating. But enough of my being nosy. Yes, stealing ghosts. Sucking them up into a portal and taking the energy."

"Yeah, the local book club seems... well, more like a loose alignment of acquaintences you met once at a flat in Islington before going off with a guy who said he had a spaceship because your degree in astrophysics wasn't going to do more than put you in the dole line." She takes another bite, shrugging, "Hey we all deal with backlash at one point or another. My awakening just involved dumping a nove-like truckload of hastily created plasma onto the person who had been trying to turn me into their own personal patient zero for the coming zombie apocalypse. So, I guess I get to be even more conductive than a normal person now."

Arthur smiles. "That's exactly the problem." *munch* "We're disorganized, we're divided, and we're weak. That's why I brought everyone together. We're going to get picked off one by one unless we do something about it. And... wow. Sounds dangerous."

"Hah, dangerous," says Amane, "We re-write reality like it's computer code. On the fly." She wolfs down her pizza, pausing for a moment to chew... and to breathe. "It's all about power dynamics. Magic, people, the world we live in. Dangerous isn't taking a stand, using that power, even channeling it through you... dangerous is NOT doing so. Because life leaves its marks, one way or another. Death would be too easy. So you walk the path... dangerous or not."

Arthur smiles. "I would put it more as, we're writing our own unauthorized scripts that push closer to the limits that we haven't discovered yet." It's not magic. It's science! "I don't know if you're aware of Clarke's Third Law, but I think it does apply to what we do."

"I wouldn't be much of a geek if I wasn't familiar with Clarke's three laws," says Amane with a laugh. "Especially the 'Sufficiently advanced science... ' etc." She shakes her head, "Though I really don't think things are quite as black and white as science and magic." She nods to Transcending and says "Wish I had some knowledge in the ghost department to help with that. I will say... the piece does feel like it has some strange geometry."

Arthur grins pretty widely when she knows it. He knew it! She wasn't what she was really PUSHING that first time they met! "You've got a lot of depth, Amane. Mind if I ask how you ended up shooting plasma at someone? Few people would try to do that on the spot."

"Oh man," says Amane, "I mean... I lost a lot of what I did after it happened." She rubs the back of her neck, almost like someone in a manga. "I was psychic before I awakened. To be honest... that would be the encapsulated definition of how I work with energetic forces. It's an egregore, a thought form that I channel through my body... it feels very similar to how I used to use electrokinesis only now I have a broader understanding of the base physical forces. It's all a form of psychokinesis, probably a softer form of science than you are used to but still quantifiable in that way I suppose. I would still say I use classical E.S.P."

Arthur does eat as she speaks, but he's paying very close attention to every word she says, considering them. "I wonder how that works..." he murmurs, before smiling. "Thank you. I was very curious. The human mind is an incredibly complex electronic web. Attuning your mind in that way is a feat." Then looking again to the sculpture. "So would crossing over to see what's going on in alternate dimensions."

"Yeeeah," says Amane, "My breakthrough didn't really involve that kind of dimensionality. I can use my E.S.P. the way that Seers have all the way back to the begining of human history... but I actually mostly rely on the power of technology invested with my psionic resonance when I do that. That's why I'm kind of sensitive to the geometry of that thing... I feel like it has some deliberate deviations in its design. Well... it's kind of hard to put into words, but that's pretty close."

Arthur stares at the sculpture a good bit longer. Eating, looking, listening. "It's like that bit in Ghostbusters. Either a mad man designed it by accident, or a mad man designed it on purpose. Either way, it's worth looking at."

"Not a bad description, really," says Amane, "Though when it comes to Ghost Busters I always loved the Twinky explanation for PK Energy." She smirks a bit, "And screw those people who panned it, I actually liked the new Ghost Busters movie better." She turns to face you fully "Well, anyway. I should be going, I have an appointment at the courthouse in about an hour."

Arthur smiles. "I haven't seen the new one. Ramis is so underrated. Anyway, good luck with your hair. And if you really are curiousa bout the, uh, the twinky, talk to Alma at Wayne State's Hall of Science. She's heading up this effort."

"Understood," says Amane as she salutes playfully, "Take care man." With that she strolls onwards. That silver hair or no, once she is on your perhiphery you have a hard time... keeping up with where she is. You may soon realize she has blended seamlessly with the crowd walking the streets a ways away... and then she might as well have vanished into that veritable sea of humanity.