Candidate Theories of Quantum Gravity

[redfive_exe]

Who: Dairine and Wesley
What: The bitterest rivals
When: Sat, 20th. Afternoon
Where: The Library (really now. ^^ again)
Rating: A for Arrogant
Status: Closed/Incomplete

Comments

[shut_up_wesley]

"Wahh, I swear I'm never fall asleep on duty again, Commander Riker!" Wesley blurted as the sound ripped him from unconsciousness. His head shot up, toppling the tome he'd had in his hand (Theoretical Physics in Illustration and Application) and subsequently been using for a pillow. Already on the floor was a ream of notes he'd been taking--mostly about what advancements had been made since the book was written and how certain things were just dead wrong.

He turned to see the girl leaning over him, looking rather livid and stammered a moment before finally managing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep--" his eyes caught the title on the cover of the book and his stomach did a bellyflop. That was what he really needed. "Um, will you be using that to wake up anyone else?" He asked doing his best to stifle a yawn. If he wanted to prove to himself that his dream the week before was in fact real, he needed to get back to his own time, and wormholes were generally a good place to start when trying to warp timespace.

[redfive_exe]

Honestly, she'd been too flustered and wrapped up in her frustration to see what he'd been working on. But if she had (and she undoubtedly would) she might have been impressed.

Might.

At the moment, however, Dairine scowled and hugged her own book tight against her chest, protectively.

"Yeah, well, this is a library, not a hotel. So get out of my -- what are you doing?" Dairine knelt to pick up sheets of paper, constantly prying. "This is -- " She cocked her head to the side, looking over his notes. "But you're just a kid!" Older than her, but Dairine was a wizard. They made exceptions for that sort of thing.

[shut_up_wesley]

Wesley wished he could say it had been a long time since he heard that phrase. It seemed to haunt him wherever he went. He glared back at the girl, swiftly collecting his notes and standing, perhaps to emphasize that he had quite a few inches on her.

"And? If you're reading that and understanding it; not just slamming it in people's faces I could say the same to you. Who are you anyway?" She wasn't wearing a staff badge but she sure acted like she worked there.

[redfive_exe]

"Hey, shut up, this is totally legitimate reading material! Why would I have it if I couldn't read it?"

Dairine was more than convinced she understood the intricacies of wormholes and inter-systemic gates better than most people in this parallel Earth. But half-crouched on the floor, flipping through the boy's notes, Dairine found herself floored. It wasn't wizardry, exactly, but a pure science far from accessible in this day and age.

So either he was from the future, or --

Dairine looked up sharply, half-interrupting his question. "Are you on errantry?"

[redfive_exe]

"Um. A couple people did, including you, I'm pretty sure." Dairine tapped at the keyboard and a different set of color-coded graphs appeared. But then, at his insistent hopefulness, Dairine grimaced. There was no easy way for her to break it to him.

"Wes, we -- can't get out." She closed Spot and folded her hands over him, though her fingers still drummed out an anxious beat. "This isn't even my dimension. I mean, the theory sounds easy, tracking energy signatures and all that, but it's like we've been dropped into the center of a massive forest -- you don't know what direction you need to go in order to get out. You're stabbing holes in the dark and nevermind the fact that a spell like that's downright expensive, energy-wise. It's dangerous to be messing when you don't know all the components; it's too easy to end up somewhere else."

[shut_up_wesley]

A familiar stone dropped in Wesley's stomach. But he couldn't accept it. There had to be a way...he needed to get back to his own time, no matter what.

"It's...isn't there anything else you can try?" He swallowed around a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. "I have to get back...I think something terrible's happened to everyone I care about and I'll go mad if I don't figure out if it was real or not."

He shook his head. "I can't give up, and you shouldn't either." Wes locked eyes with her, a combination of hopeful and pleading. "I'll do whatever I can to help. We'll work together. If...if you want, anyway."

[redfive_exe]

"From what I can tell..." Dairine pushed her hair back behind her ear and looked from Wes, to her laptop, to Wes again. "People just disappear just as randomly as they appear. There's no pattern or time period for it. It's just -- " She snapped her fingers, " -- and they're gone."

A strange determination did take over when he implied she'd surrendered. "I'm not. Of course I won't give up! Working together doesn't sound too bad, actually. I mean, you seem capable enough. So okay! It's a deal. We'll work it out!"

[shut_up_wesley]

"Really?" Wes brightened considerably. "You mean it? Great!" More than anything it felt good to not be alone anymore. He might have been a loner when he first came aboard the Enterprise but he wasn't anymore--Wesley knew he worked best with others, and Dairine seemed the best fit out of anyone he'd met so far.

Not that he'd really met anyone else yet. But hey, if Dairine proved to be the average around here...

"Where do you live?" He asked, "I'm on Captiol Road near the hospital. If we're going to work together we should know where to find each other."