The Emmachanical Universe
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Date: 09/18/2018 Time: 12:00pm EDT |
55 Winder Street, Lower Midtown, Detroit, MI
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Cast: | |
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Arthur comes up his walk and to the door of his house, having just gotten back from a trip downtown, to the river front. Emma comes from a different direction, but seems to have the same destination. She pauses when she sees Arthur go up his walk, offering him a small wave. "Heya." She greets, affiably. Arthur smiles, "Doctor, please do come in," as he opens up and steps in. Place is unlocked, since the interns are huddled around a black half dome sitting on the conference table. "Allow me to introduce you to the Static Wave Dampening Grid Projector. Can't turn it on yet, as I don't have the coil installed. But we're testing that downstairs now." Emma enters after Arthur, looking to the halfdome with rapt curiosity. She approaches the table tepidly, looking from angle to angle, trying to investigate without touching. "_Fascinating!_" Emma says, enthusiastically. "You've really outdone yourself this time, for sure." Arthur laughs, and comes up to it. "Thanks. I hope so. But the proof will be empirical. When we load this thing on a dinghy and invade the sovereign littoral waters of Canada." Pointing out a few parts. "It does sound too. I really expect it'll work alright. Enough to cover us at night. So how's your work?" Mention of her own work causes Emma to momentarily grimace, apparently less than enthusiastic about her progress. The disappointment carries over into her voice. "I've been... waylayed by a number of things that really... well, let's say that it's delayed my major investigations." She offers a helpless shrug, to punctuate the sentence. "I will say, it's afforded me time to hit the books though." Arthur grins. "At least we were productive on that front. Best part is, as I gave you that rundown, I had a couple of breakthroughs of my own. Really paid off in this project, too." Emma nods absently, eyes starting to wander down and away, back to the device. "You know... you might be the person to talk to..." She starts, finally looking back to him. "My Advisor was... more concerned that I learnt my chemistry, and it cut down time for some of my personal studies. While I made good progress in the dimesnsional sciences and space-time problems, I never did get back to my roots. You know, classic mechanics. Forces, and the like." Arthur smiles. "Sounds fun. I've got about... ah. half of my Paradigma library available to me now. I've been going through some, just reproducing past experiments, and getting breakthroughs in AEtheric effects on matter. I can walk you through some fundamental mechanics, and the fundamentals of AEtheric mechanics. In fact.." He looks over at Jaylen. "Naah, too soon." Emma glances at Jaylen when Arthur does, her expression turning momentarily curious. "Too soon?" She echoes in turn, looking back to Arthur. "Oh. I... think I know what you mean." She says, offering him a small smile. "Maybe, can't hurt to try, right?" She then shrugs, turning her attention, and the topic, back to research. "I've been using background ether to decompose force carrying particles for quantification purposes, but I've never... well, outside of pushing electrons around in chemistry, not done much past that." Arthur laughs, and leans over, voice dropping. "I'm fairly certain Jaylen has it. I'm determined to get him going by the time he leaves my lab. Hopefully even to get him hired on with the firm and working with me full time. But I need him to have a breakthrough of his own before I can really start walking him through AEtheric physics." Smiling. "Exciting stuff. And decomposing particles? That's wild. We should have gotten Feynman. He'd have made a great explorer. Heh. Well the good news is, if you've done enough physical chemistry, you have the math for it." Emma nods a few times at the mention of math. "Yeah, easy peezy lemon squeasy." She says, cheerfully. "I mean, it wasn't easy at first, but for spacetime problems, I use n-cube and Lymen-Smith equations pretty regularly. In fact, I've been trying to solve a particulary nasty Lymen-Smith equation for punching through delibrately thickened space time..." No sooner she's said those words, then she pauses, and starts to look just a shade guilty. Arthur hums. "Thickening of space time... I wonder if that's similar to what my inductor does. It's funny when two researchers with completely different fields converge on the same topic from different directions. Asimov had a story about that. Don't remember the title though, stupidly enough. It's the one with the device that looks back in time. Chronoscope." Her reaction makes him pause though. "What are you up to? It sounds fun." Emma tries not to look guilty, with mixed success, as she shakes her head. "Nothing important. Just... working on a small problem for Abraham." She pauses for a long moment, like considering what to say at this point. "It's... complicated." Arthur sits up. "Abraham. That's...." He rolls his hand as he tries to think. "That's Aaron? The Order does like to complicate things. Stamp collecting instead of science. But they're good people. And... no worries. Confidential research is confidential research." Emma shakes her head, like clearing it. "Aaron, right." She says, before finally offering a small nod. "He introduced himself as Abraham first. I start to wonder if they have the right idea with aliases... less to connect their day-to-day life with their life amonst the Traditions." Arthur chuckles. "Different strokes. A good chunk of the Ministry uses aliases of course. I never needed it. But I was never in the field like this, now." Emma offers the other a vague shrug, like she didn't have a very firm opinion. "I don't know. I think if I were to do this all over again, I'd use an Alias. Many the Society of Ether greats used aliases. Madam Elektrika, Doctor Acellus, Doc Eon..." Arthur leans on the edge of the conference table. "Yeah. But taking a name because you're that famous, is different from takinga name to hide your identity. I mean, if i'm going to be Doctor Jolt, Lord and Master of the Power Grid, I at least want to sign a deal with Jolt Cola and bring back the original recipe." Emma rolls her eyes at that, before favouring Arthur with a tired expression. "I think you just don't get it. No sense of play." She complains, though none too seriously. "Anyhow..." She says, like changing the subject back, "If you were me, and wanting to get back into classics... where'd I start?" Arthur drops his jaw. "No sense of play? If I went out there, hijacked a TV stations, declared myself Doctor Jolt, and I'm bringing a storm to shift the power grid from solar to hydro... and Tropical STorm Jolt came off of the lake to innundate the city, wouldn't that be fun?" He grins. "The Mechnical Universe is a great book, even if it is by the Techers. All classical, all foundational." "Uh." Is about the best response Emma can initially muster for a few seconds, leveling Arthur a long exrpession. "I mean... that's *one* definition of fun..." She 'concedes.' A few blinks later, and she clears her head. "Mechanical Universe. Check. I'll have to dig through to see if it's in my library." Arthur laughs, and shakes his head. "Ours is a grand tradition, Emma. Even though we work hard and fight against an existential threat, sometimes you have to dream." "Our dreams are *so* very different." Emma says, cracking into a wide smile and shaking her head. "I'll leave you to your tropical storms? I've got some reading to do..." Arthur laughs again. "Alright, thank you for visiting. I'll keep you up to date on the desting. And getting a hold of a dinghy. Oh, before you go, Alma said she may have to back out. So we may need to get alternate help in her fields. Keep an eye open." Emma pauses a moment, grimacing. "She mention why?" Emma asks, some of the earlier fun draining from her voice. Arthur nods. "She's abandoning her tradition, squabbling with the Order, and reevaluating her life priorities." Emma blows out a sigh. "I was afraid that'd be the answer." She says, shaking her head. A few moments later, she shakes her head again. "Alright, I'll look around." She comments, before heading back for the door again. | |
