[Saiyuki] Perspective (Nii, PG-13)
Title: Perspective
Characters: Nii, Dr Hwan, Gyoukumen
Rating: PG-13
Notes: For challenge #9 on saiyuki_time: magic. The thought that started this one going was "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," courtesy of Mr. Clarke, but then it just... went. In a Nii sort of direction. 40 minutes taken.
Combining science and magic: a great taboo, something to undo the world. Or at least a significant portion of it. Maybe just the people that lived on it. It depended on how you defined the world, really. It was an interesting point, and one that could be argued for quite some time, if you felt so inclined.
It also depended on how you defined science. And magic. Whole other debates for curious scientific minds. Or magical minds, perhaps, although somehow one never heard a great deal about them.
As far as Nii could see, science and magic were more or less the same thing looked at from different angles, which could theoretically mean they were already combined, and somehow the world - for any value of the term - didn't seem to have quite ended yet, which was almost a shame. What on earth had people been doing wrong all these years? Why had it taken their little operation in Hontou castle to get any sort of results?
He tried asking Dr Hwan - or at least Dr Hwan's breasts, which was more or less the same thing in the world of Nii - about it, idly, between finishing the fine-tuning on the latest set of experiments and leaving to needle Gyoukumen, as a sort of passing thought.
She looked as though she was going to smack him, although his actual question hadn't been particularly impolite. Some people had no manners. But it did make her breasts heave rather pleasingly, and she got to be righteously angry for no apparent reason, so he supposed everybody won.
“You are a very strange little man,” Gyoukumen told him when he raised the topic later. “Science and magic are nothing alike at all.” Her long nails pressed against the underside of his jaw, tipping his head up towards her. He did so like her nails, enough that he didn't bother to correct her for some time.
“How on earth can you say they're alike?” she murmured when he did. “As though youkai would use something so crude as science.”
“You're using it now,” he told her, smirking, and her expression sharpened a little, natural cruelty shining through in a rather beautiful way. “It seems to be getting you some results.”
“From necessity only, I assure you. You're lucky you are so useful, Nii Jiyani.”
He knew he disgusted her; took delight in it, even. It was the little things that made life worth living, insofar as he considered himself to be living at all. Every moment of anger and every undermined belief got him through another day. Well, why not? Morality was another one of those terribly relativistic concepts, and also deeply boring.
And boredom was true death.
Unfortunately, he actually was getting bored these days. Old toys broke or grew boring. Perhaps some of these idle thoughts of his should be more thoroughly examined. In a proper and scientific manner, of course.
“What do you think, bunny?” he asked the dusty, threadbare rabbit sitting beside his computer monitor. “Should I do some experiments?”
Bunny didn't answer, but then, his mouth was only a line of thread. He seemed approving, though. Good old bunny. Never one to discourage new avenues of enquiry.
Now. He would need some suitable test subjects, and some monitoring equipment, though it he wanted Gyoukumen to fund the latter he'd have to sneak it through the next budget in disguise. Perhaps he could claim it was for brainwashing Kougaiji. She'd never bothered to pay attention to finer scientific detail; how would she know the difference?
Very good.
Who would be the ideal subjects? People who were a part of both worlds, he supposed. Who could go either way, perhaps. Where would he find...
Ah.
Funny how the universe arranged these little things for one sometimes. It even seemed to be arranging delivery to his doorstep.
He would have to be sure he was ready by the time they arrived.
Characters: Nii, Dr Hwan, Gyoukumen
Rating: PG-13
Notes: For challenge #9 on saiyuki_time: magic. The thought that started this one going was "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," courtesy of Mr. Clarke, but then it just... went. In a Nii sort of direction. 40 minutes taken.
Combining science and magic: a great taboo, something to undo the world. Or at least a significant portion of it. Maybe just the people that lived on it. It depended on how you defined the world, really. It was an interesting point, and one that could be argued for quite some time, if you felt so inclined.
It also depended on how you defined science. And magic. Whole other debates for curious scientific minds. Or magical minds, perhaps, although somehow one never heard a great deal about them.
As far as Nii could see, science and magic were more or less the same thing looked at from different angles, which could theoretically mean they were already combined, and somehow the world - for any value of the term - didn't seem to have quite ended yet, which was almost a shame. What on earth had people been doing wrong all these years? Why had it taken their little operation in Hontou castle to get any sort of results?
He tried asking Dr Hwan - or at least Dr Hwan's breasts, which was more or less the same thing in the world of Nii - about it, idly, between finishing the fine-tuning on the latest set of experiments and leaving to needle Gyoukumen, as a sort of passing thought.
She looked as though she was going to smack him, although his actual question hadn't been particularly impolite. Some people had no manners. But it did make her breasts heave rather pleasingly, and she got to be righteously angry for no apparent reason, so he supposed everybody won.
“You are a very strange little man,” Gyoukumen told him when he raised the topic later. “Science and magic are nothing alike at all.” Her long nails pressed against the underside of his jaw, tipping his head up towards her. He did so like her nails, enough that he didn't bother to correct her for some time.
“How on earth can you say they're alike?” she murmured when he did. “As though youkai would use something so crude as science.”
“You're using it now,” he told her, smirking, and her expression sharpened a little, natural cruelty shining through in a rather beautiful way. “It seems to be getting you some results.”
“From necessity only, I assure you. You're lucky you are so useful, Nii Jiyani.”
He knew he disgusted her; took delight in it, even. It was the little things that made life worth living, insofar as he considered himself to be living at all. Every moment of anger and every undermined belief got him through another day. Well, why not? Morality was another one of those terribly relativistic concepts, and also deeply boring.
And boredom was true death.
Unfortunately, he actually was getting bored these days. Old toys broke or grew boring. Perhaps some of these idle thoughts of his should be more thoroughly examined. In a proper and scientific manner, of course.
“What do you think, bunny?” he asked the dusty, threadbare rabbit sitting beside his computer monitor. “Should I do some experiments?”
Bunny didn't answer, but then, his mouth was only a line of thread. He seemed approving, though. Good old bunny. Never one to discourage new avenues of enquiry.
Now. He would need some suitable test subjects, and some monitoring equipment, though it he wanted Gyoukumen to fund the latter he'd have to sneak it through the next budget in disguise. Perhaps he could claim it was for brainwashing Kougaiji. She'd never bothered to pay attention to finer scientific detail; how would she know the difference?
Very good.
Who would be the ideal subjects? People who were a part of both worlds, he supposed. Who could go either way, perhaps. Where would he find...
Ah.
Funny how the universe arranged these little things for one sometimes. It even seemed to be arranging delivery to his doorstep.
He would have to be sure he was ready by the time they arrived.