Catch all

[fullmetalbrat]

WHO: Ed + Various
WHERE: Around
WHEN: Throughout September
WHAT: Catch-all; hit me up at jiora on plurk if you would like any specific prompts. Likewise feel absolutely free to drop a prompt in here! I'm always up for threads, even stuff as vague as "what happens if these two bump into each other on the street??"
WARNINGS: None at the moment

Comments

Aral

[fullmetalbrat]

[It's been a few days since Ed and co. got back from their trip to Heropa—and to home. Enough time for the rush of excitement that had come with reaching victory and a truly normal life at home to begin to fade, and now, in the absence of that distraction, it was time to face a few of the more present issues that had been weighing on his mind.

Which means wandering through the Vorkosigan's residence one evening, peeking into the different study nooks and living rooms until he finds Aral one evening.]

Hey... Have you got a minute?

[use_everything]

[Aral had settled in the game room. As expected when given more space to expand and a room that could be adjusted as they liked to accommodate the many layers and wild ideas the participants had, it sprawled. Tables were set up with hexagonal grids and painted landscapes, small figurines (slowing becoming standardized... though one of the salt shakers from DC7 certainly followed, not out of any need to BE a supply tower any more, but a certain Barrayaran fondness for things that they began with, regardless of its use now). A suspended plexiglass board above was only reachable by stepladder, for the space theater of play... the rules of which were becoming too unwieldy for the now several notebooks of them.

Aral had just finished a particularly sweeping move that... when Miles checked it tomorrow, would have completely turned the boards' advantage, leaving only one or two avenues for survival ... by conventional means.

Having set that up, he'd settled in a far chair (one of the few not holding other continents) with a fiction period book to read... some strange affair Duv Galeni had recommended. He wasn't quite. Sure why.

The interruption was welcome, even if Aral's demeanor remains entirely, distantly formal.]

Mr. Elric. Come in.

[fullmetalbrat]

[He lingers in the doorway for a long moment even after being granted entry. That precarious plexiglass board is just way too perplexing for him not to gape at it for a moment.]

Ah...thanks. ...Does that one really need to be all the way up there?

[use_everything]

[It does a good job derailing Aral. Not what he was expecting. He nods up at the board, and tone simple with explanation.] Not technically, it helps with conceptualizing.

All of the space theater is handled up there. Everything that happens up there dramatically changes what happens down below.

[fullmetalbrat]

...Huh. [He glances up at the board again.]




What happens if it falls down?

[use_everything]

[He... hadn't thought about it before. The concept of 'space' falling off of the map ... was...]

Destruction of technological advances, a short but powerful radiation wash over the planet's surface and 700 years of isolation, war and inhumane practices.

[It's a very... specific answer. The smile he gave Ed was black.]

Luckily, it's well drilled in this time.

[fullmetalbrat]

...Ah. Sorry I asked.

[use_everything]

[He waves a hand, dismissing the issue.]

I assume you've business?

[fullmetalbrat]

Uh— [He scuffs a hand over his hair, tugging at his braid before letting that hand drop again.] Yeah. I probably should've come by sooner, but I...got kind of distracted.

9/05

[superposition]

[... since there's this nice catchall log here, Qubit will make his entrance over here instead.

A momentary buzz in the air is the only warning before the portal opens, a bright blue disc with indistinct edges, shimmering energetically. The hum it makes shifts slightly in pitch as Qubit steps out, and the glow gives him a dramatic backlight.

Dude likes to make an entrance, apparently.]

Hope you weren't waiting too long. [- sardonically. It was like five seconds.] Edward, is it? [That's what the comm tag said.]

[fullmetalbrat]

[The office Qubit appears in is a small room with a window that overlooks the city, a door that's open into a bland looking hallway, the desk Ed is sitting at (and gaping in obvious surprise), and some other simple furnishings like a lamp and so forth.]

I...yeah. Ed is fine.

How did you do that?

[superposition]

[There's some smugness in his smile - that's some nice vindication right there - as he taps a key on his wristwatch, and the portal whooshes shut, as if it was never there to begin with. (Not without a trace, technically, but it's a trace you'd need some very specialized equipment to find.)]

Short answer: applied quantum physics. Long answer: we'd be here all month.

[fullmetalbrat]

[Ed slumps dramatically over his desk. Why does all the best science have to take so much work?]

Ugh... There aren't any books you could recommend to get started on understanding it, are there?

and then i wound up on a wiki walk

[superposition]

What, on quantum physics? Sure, there're plenty. [He folds his arms.] What's your background, though? [No point throwing him in the deep end if all he's got is high school chemistry, for instance.]

Legit

[fullmetalbrat]

[He straightens up with an exasperated grumble, glancing briefly at the pile of research material on his desk and then back at Qubit with a dry look.]

Biology, anatomy, physics, enough chemistry to be considered a master in the field. Lately I've been teaching myself more about biochemistry and advanced maths; among other things.

[superposition]

[Qubit raises an eyebrow, a little surprised. At your age? he's thinking, but... hey, it's totally possible. Wouldn't be the first young prodigy the Porter's dragged in.]

It's a good start. You'll want to begin with the big names - Einstein, Dirac, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, et cetera. Richard Feynman's lectures, in particular, are a good jumping-off point.

[fullmetalbrat]

[Each of those names is getting jotted down in a quick list.]

And I can find stuff about them on the world web, right?

Winry

[fullmetalbrat]

[It'd taken several days for Ed to get himself resettled into being back—mostly. There were a few things that still needed adjusting to; things like his alchemy being unsealed, or the dozens of little ways living here was different from Resembool, but why would he bother dealing with that when he could immediately distract himself with one of the many, many ideas or projects he'd had before being ported home? Much better to head down into the basement to busy himself like always.]

Hey, Winry, are you down here?

Re: Winry

[heart_wrenching]

In here Ed . . .


[ There's some weird echo to her voice, and the sounds or metal grating on metal. Girl must be working on SOMETHING. ]

[fullmetalbrat]

[Not too alarming. He follows the sound of her voice.]

Are you working on something already?

[heart_wrenching]

[ Well, in the center of the room, standing up, is the starts of an exoskeleton. But . . . there's . . . shadows moving all around it. And behind it, gold hair . . . ]

[fullmetalbrat]

[Moving shadows has never been a good sign at any point in Ed's life. The second he registers what he's seeing he leaps down the last section of stairs to sprint across the room.]

Winry!

[heart_wrenching]

[ She's behind the armor- standing, but on the balls of her feet, back raised and arched unnaturally, eyes staring unfocused at the ceiling. And out of her body are ALL THEM DARK BABY HANDS. ]


Hhheey, Ed- . . . jussta minnnit.

[fullmetalbrat]

[This—... This is new. New and deeply alarming enough to stop him in his tracks and leave him staring in horrified confusion.]

Winry...what...

[heart_wrenching]

[ She sloooowwwwlllly turns to look over at him and-


suddenly the hands vanish. She and all the pieces clatter to the ground. ]


Oof!