maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

WHO: Qubit, Kanaya, Science Friends, Karen Starr later (probably)
WHERE: the lab at Starrware
WHEN: Sept 8 & 15
WHAT: maybe getting one thing, and then breaking the other thing.
WARNINGS: horrible nerds, questionable lab safety, and probably a tantrum

(Starters below, but here's some setting-)

The lab Qubit's been borrowing from Karen is pretty good-sized, although a lot of the floor space is taken up by counters, so he's had to get a little creative with where he puts things. The counters themselves are littered with electronics equipment, instruments stacked up on top of each other and wired together in ways that probably look random and haphazard to anyone who's not an electrical engineer themselves. They're a little more futuristic-looking than in the pictures, of course, but the mess is real. What little counter space isn't taken up by working devices is occupied by parts of them instead, and there's at least one decent-sized stockpile of old and broken electronics that don't appear to have anything to do with the rest of the equipment.

But the centerpiece, with as much space dedicated as he can make for it, is the portal itself. It's a little bit of a monster - a nine-foot-tall trapezoidal archway, metallic green, with that sort of blocky retro-future aesthetic its inventor gravitates toward. It's attached to the rest of the machines by thick bundles of cable, some snaking across the floor, others draped like vines over, under, and around the other equipment in whatever way lets them reach. The computers are turned on, but the portal itself is still dark... for now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[[ooc: oh my god i looked up a clip and that's freakin hilarious lafjksdla]]

[More and more machines thrum to life in the ensuing minutes, including the gate itself, though it's just the preliminary start-up at this point. It's all surprisingly quiet, since very little in here is air-cooled.]

No, it shouldn't have any impact on our memories. No ghosts haunting this machine.

[Oh whoops here's something unplugged after all. He drags a stepladder over and hops up to connect it to the top of the machine.]

And you're right, that could present its own issues, but - fundamentally, the gate's still incomplete. Right now it can only span realities as they exist in "the present"... Of course, time being the relativistic little monster it is, all that means is I don't get to choose where any two dimensions intersect, temporally speaking. So that's the next order of business, inventing time travel.

[Just about ready! He comes back down and starts looking for the remote on one of the desks. (It is on a different one.)]

[He appreciates the explanation, even if most of it is only an overview and more in-depth explanations would require more background information than Newt has on the subject. Not that he hasn't taken a few physics classes himself! But that is enough to know didn't really know much about this topic at all. He has only scratched the surface.]

Oh, hey, if you're looking for the thing with the [figuratively or literally. He points to the desk he and Hermann just walked past.] Big Red Button, it's over there.

B-but wait. Okay, now, I GET what you're saying, that linking dimensions without a time-travel element means it's a crap-shoot where we get dropped off at and it's just as likely--no, Hermann, don't--it's MORE likely that we get unloaded into a time either before or after we left--posssibly distantly so! NOT THAT I HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST THEM, but I don't really want to end up with dinosaurs. So, yeah, the time thing is next. But that's not really my issue here.

My ISSUE is--how are we going to KNOW? Even if the rat safely goes through the portal and comes back without being eaten by a raptor or a Morlock, how are we going to know what time it was there? Because wouldn't it be fairly safe to assume that your math requires knowing the variable or some shit of where these two dimensions intersect to calculate how to move them along the...axis? [Hey, theory bothers him. Newt likes more concrete things. Sorry he's in here challenging your mathematics. It's what he does. He requires explanations and information and experience tells him this is one way to get that, by questioning like the asshole he is.] And 75 million years ago didn't exactly have newspapers.

[Looking over his shoulder] Ah. Thanks. [He'll just come and get that. It actually looks kind of like a keyless entry fob for a car.]

We'll know because once the rats get through safely, I'll go after it and have a look around. It'll be connecting to my home universe - I have the most data about that one, obviously. Enough that I should be able to piece together when we've ended up without much trouble. Hopefully, close to when I left.

[That reminds him, though. He grabs another device off a shelf and clips it onto the cage.] And - this'll be recording their trip. Basic environmental data, plus something to tell us whether we're looking at any time dilation. I did think this through, Newt.

[Invent time travel. Yes, that sounds a fair bit more daunting than traversing dimensions, (not to mention considerably more fantastical) but Hermann's prepared to spend the next two decades fully understanding both aspects of the phenomenon that brought them here.

But first, they have to ensure the portal's working. It should, given Qubit's extensive expertise on the subject.

He circles around to the largest display screen for read-outs and feels the buzz of anticipation and discovery all over again. Years ahead of his research, the keys to greater understanding lay here in this lab. Hermann clasped both hands over his cane to keep them steady]

I'd be more concerned about your rats drowning, Newton. 71% of the Earth's surface is water, after all. Provided of course, Mr. Qubit hasn't also factored that into his calculations.