Enter Dr. Bishop

[dr_bishop]

Who: Dr. Walter Bishop and anyone who'd like to join (open)
When: Mid Day
Where: Lobby
What: Walter and Gene check in.

Comments

[bluesuit_handy]

"There's at least one case of two people who knew each other on the outside being here from slightly different universes," nodded Handy, munching the chips. "And I was in a different universe from my original self when I was brought here, anyway."

He thought it over. "Most of the people here are humans from the early twenty-first century, so there aren't too many who would have any reason to know anything about reality bubbles."

[bluesuit_handy]

"Oh, right, right." That made more sense, then. "Time travel?" he asked, always drawn to that particular topic when he learned that anyone else had been doing anything with it. Particularly in the twentieth century--Jack's time and the Time Agents were one thing, but early experiments like Walter and Bell's had to be were another entirely.

[dr_bishop]

"Yes, but we could never get beyond the radiation. I built a device that was capable of instantaneous travel, teleportation if you will. But every single thing we sent through it would become irradiated." Walter shook his head. "The difference between instantaneous travel through geographic space and chronological time is only a matter of minor calculations. We just could not work out the radiation. Travel between parallel realities is much simpler fare." He waved his denoting the effortlessness of it.

[bluesuit_handy]

"I've always found it was the other way around," commented Handy idly. "Not that radiation isn't a problem, but travel between the different universes has always been more difficult. And more dangerous in terms of having the correct power source to get back."

[dr_bishop]

"Not at all. Not at all. It's a matter of finding weak spots and manipulating a gate or doorway if you will. Then travel between the two realities is as simple a matter of walking from room to room." Walter had walked back and forth himself. "Once you've got a stable gateway it will virtually maintain itself until you use a power source to close it."

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy found this information somewhat alarming. "You have to be careful not to damage the integrity of the barriers between universes," he said. "Break down the walls, and they won't merge; they'll fall apart."

[dr_bishop]

"That is the key. The integrity is already damaged. The two realities are leaking together in places. Don't you see? That is what the ZFT is trying to prepare their recruits to fight against!" Didn't anyone see? "The spots occur without manipulation, they will eventually degrade enough to cause permanent gateways. Ones that will not need an energy source to maintain, and cannot be closed with my plug."

Walter thought and scribbled some more. "I should check the data, a plugged gateway that was manufactured may actually be more stable than a weak spot."

[bluesuit_handy]

"How different are the universes you've been able to visit from yours?" asked Handy, trying to think of the implications of several universes suddenly becoming accessible to one another like that. He couldn't help but wonder, too, if it had anything to do with Rose's dimensional cannon. "And how long ago did you start noticing this?"

[dr_bishop]

"It was the LSD. Mid to late 60's. The hallucinations felt real. It was all so familiar, yet slightly off. Almost as if it were deja vu." He paused and made a bit of a face. "But not precisely that either. That was why we began to think that we were glimpsing other realities. Most drug induced hallucinations that people were reporting back then were surreal. What we saw was so similar that you almost had to look for the differences. Waste paper basket at the wrong end of the desk, an assistant wearing a green tie rather than a blue one. Insignificant details to an otherwise exact moment."

[bluesuit_handy]

"And you're sure it was just run-of-the-mill LSD?" asked Handy carefully. "You were making it yourselves. What made your hallucinations different from everyone else's?"

[dr_bishop]

"Of course it wasn't run-of-the-mill LSD!" Walter snapped derisively, but then he stopped and realized. "There is no reason you should know any of it, I shouldn't yell. Clearly, we come from different realities. You're very passionate about the danger of opening a gateway where you come from, and yet it is occurring without much prompting where I come from

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy tensed when Walter shouted at him, ready for the conversation to turn ugly now that he was seeing him angry for the first time, but it passed as suddenly as it had come.

He listened to Walter's explanation, nodding slightly. There was something to be said for the consistency and quality made possible by use of a proper laboratory--not that he was that impressed with humanity's tendency to drug itself to the gills for every little reason (including recreation).

"So you just saw the alternate realities on these trips?" he summarized. "You must have still been physically present in your own universe. And then you found that you could make gateways to go there for real."

[dr_bishop]

Here