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Wanted: Volunteers for scientific survey of Sacrosanct tech resource locations and salvage.
must be willing/able to traverse long distances unaided by teleporters
weapons training recommended
technical and/or medical training a bonus
credits/free food available
Interested parties please reply ASAP.
( [Locked to: Godric] )
must be willing/able to traverse long distances unaided by teleporters
weapons training recommended
technical and/or medical training a bonus
credits/free food available
Interested parties please reply ASAP.
( [Locked to: Godric] )
Reply
[That's not the right answer. nealfnqafjda No you cannot come over you cannot come over to her lab, then you will know where it is and you might come over at other times.
Ohgod. You might even try to rescue her, if there's an emergency. That would be horrifying.]
No.
[But if you don't come over then. This won't be secure. The ingrained need to hide progress from authority until project completion is too much.]
You [Should? Need? No, no, no, no...] have to [perfect.] come to my lab.
[Location ping!]
It's easier to explain in person.
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[And then there was a steve outside her lab. I am tagging from a gas station. This is my level of dedication.]
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[Yep. That's what she's doing. She'd open the door if she weren't paralyzed with feelings.]
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[He knocks again.] Hello? Um. Miss Ross? Or... Dr. Ross?
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The door opens with a hermetic hiss, and Kim peers around the corner as if she were expecting an attack, all five feet and three inches of her. Okay. Okay, Ross. You can do this. He's just...a person.]
...hhhhhhh....hi.
[This is going so well!]
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[Friendly and a little nervous, given the way she's acting.] Um. Did you- er. Should I- ...Did you want me to come in, or talk... out here?
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In. Please.
[An aneurism would be amazing, right now. Or a rift in the floor beneath her. Enormous time-space moles that conveniently emerge just at the point of greatest embarrassment, and devour you whole, that'd be the best.]
...
[OH MY GOD, WHY IS THIS DOOR SO HARD TO OPEN RIGHT NOW.
This is ridiculous. Eventually Kim manages to master the door of her own design and shepherd the superheroic appleface into her dimly lit mad scientist's lair. At that point we may count it a miracle that she manages to remember that guests require hot beverages.]
Coffee?
[Or maybe she's just fooling around at the espresso machines because it lets her not make eye contact.]
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What? Oh! Yes, please, thank you. [He shifts to parade rest to keep himself from fidgeting. Steve is starting to worry again that he did something wrong in their last meeting, something that - because of differences in universes - neither he nor Peggy would catch.] Um. Dr. Ross? Is everything all right? I mean, I didn't... Did I do something to upset you? I'm sorry, if I did, I didn't mean to, I'm just not very...
[He trails off, raising one hand to make a helpless little gesture.] I'm never sure how t- This isn't to say that I think about - What I'm trying to say is I'm not really... I don't have a lot of experience with women - with talking to women, I mean, and if I said ( ... )
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So, she's mostly just staring in horror at him as he continues babbling, like a deer in the headlights, unable to move, unable to shake the slowly dawning comprehension of her doom. This is it. This is what death feels like. A cute boy talking to you, apologizing for something he didn't do and calling you a-
...]
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Women are creatures of the world, they go to bars and talk to attractive men and wear delightful party gowns while laughing over their alcoholic beverages and wafting beautifully coifed clouds of hair over their shoulders like siklen waterfalls of color! Kimiko barely has a ragged mop!
A mop!!!
...
Oh god, he's so sincere. He means it. He really means it and he's still standing there, looking at her with those big blue eyes and he is genuinely sorry for having triggered Kimiko's psychosis. It's impossible.
He's not human.
He's not human!
He can't be!]
...That's....fine. It's not your fault. I don't...
[break contact! break contact! Whew! She manages it when the Espresso machine chirps and she turns to take care of the minutae of coffee.]
I don't generally talk. To b- [boys.] ...people. Much.
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[How does one fit that much relief into a single syllable?It is in fact possible. He almost-but-doesn't-quite fidget again, watching Kimiko fiddle with the espresso machine and thinking of those little cafes in London that he never actually went to.]
That's- I don't either. I mean I didn't, much. Kind of have to now. Um- I'm not trying to be rude, but what was it you wanted to keep private? From the AI, or is it a... [Another flailed gesture.] Untainted experiment sort of thing.
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[A kindred spirit in hermitude? But he's Captain America! Doesn't he uh... Have to go...y'know...do daring deeds all the time?
Regardless, the question helps Kim find the rails again. The business of Science! That's solid ground.]
Mostly, I'd like to avoid Hypatia killing the project before it's finished. I told you before that I had experience with multidimensional travel? Powerful people who run enclosed population concentrations like this one tend to take umbrage when you try to leave without permission.
[She says it as if it's true. And maybe it is, but Kimiko's not referring to merely sacrosanct. This entire universe is too small a cage for her, now that she's seen how wide the horizon can stretch. She wants more.]
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[He catches himself and goes pink. She probably thinks he sounds like an idiot.] Sorry. I'm not a scientist, but I haven't had much to do other than think about this.
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[And. We're back to staring?]
Uh.
[NO. NO, THAT IS ENOUGH. YOU ARE KIM FUCKING ROSS AND YOU CAN DO THIS.]
I'm looking for a way out. [Liar.] Wait, what? Of course it's possible! What idiot told you it wasn't?
[Mild annoyance makes a good shield against awkward.]
It's not like...that. At all. [Sigh. At least he knows when to be quiet. A little of her desire to combust recedes with this demonstration of Steve's willingness to blurt out stupid things.]
The problem is that the Rift is shifting between an unknown sequence of universes at highly chaotic intervals. I'm sure there's a pattern, but we can't even begin to measure the leap-time. In addition, it's incredibly radioactive and physically accessing it would probably kill you. The rate at which it deposits matter in the junkyard is a good indicator that it's exo-trans-universal, not the reverse.
So far, the biggest point of discovery has been that the rift is affecting the teleporter system. We might be able to reverse the effect, but...tests.
I'm working on...[Just ( ... )
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