Stability at High Temperatures

[trustycrowbar]

[Action]

[An extra-long repair stint in the Labs has meant Gordon could conveniently hide from the hot weather, but he couldn't say underground forever. His day off leads him to what USED to be JLS headquarters, the library, Sundollar Coffee, lab supply warehouse, grocery store, Sundollar Coffee again, and other parts of town. He seems to be taking the hot weather gracefully... so far. Though if that SPF 75 sunblock he picks up at the drugstore is any indication, his relationship with sunlight seems to be a little strained...]

[Video to Rex.]

Hey Rex. I just wanted to say thanks again... for everything you did during that EVO outbreak. I've got a question. The guys down there said you absorb these nanites into you when you cure something. What happens if you absorb too much of the stuff?

[Fidgety video, to Ran.]

So uh, how're you fitting in down there in the labs?

Comments

[faithful_kitsune]

Well, the work is certainly stimulating, but I cannot help but feel the other scientists act a little oddly around me. Is it just my imagination?

[trustycrowbar]

Hm? It's... it's probably nothing. You're certainly not the most unusual person working there.

[Of course, they give Mordin some weird looks too.]

Don't let it get to you. They're just not used to seeing someone at the labs that's so... [So... lovely? Oh dear god yes he did set it up but he can't go through with it--]

...so diligent.

[faithful_kitsune]

*The undertones whiff right over her head.*

Do you think so? I do try my best.

[trustycrowbar]

[And in a certain sense he's relieved by that. His grin returns when hers does.]

I've already seen you run metaphorical circles around guys with white hair and tenure too. Which... is pretty much everyone in there. [He snorts a laugh.] Makes me wonder if they have a reanimation machine or something down in bio. It brings whole new meaning to the term "employee turnover."

[faithful_kitsune]

Maybe some of them are youkai. They can be rather long lived, after all.

Ah, that's right. I did remember a few details here and there about home. I remembered a shrine maiden who was very important to the place. She maintained a border around the land where we lived which kept it isolated from the outside world.

[trustycrowbar]

[Was that a joke? He'll take it as one.]

You'd think they'd be more comfortable around a, uh, a lady fox like yourself. And that they wouldn't panic at every single monstrous spider that wanders by...

--Oh you did? Fantastic, Ran! A border, hm... [The physicist rocks back an inch or so, hand going to chin in thought.] Huh. This is interesting. You mean something like a physical forcefield you can smack into, or are we talking closed topography where you start walking and wind up in the same spot you started? Both are possible if you have enough potential difference, though if it's a "shrine maiden" that kept the thing up, then god only knows how it was actually made.

[Literally.]

[faithful_kitsune]

Well, it is a bit difficult to describe. It is physical, and yet not. Either way, it allows isolation from the declining belief of the outside world -- a method of insuring the continued existence of youkai, if you will.

[trustycrowbar]

Is your existence is a function of their belief, somehow? Youkai in general, I mean, of course.

Not yours specifically...

[faithful_kitsune]

Much of a youkai's power lies in the human belief that they exist. If humans believe that all things are caused by scientific sources, however, then the mystique and fear that gives them power no longer exists. Do youkai exist entirely on belief? It is hard to say, but it is a central tenant to our existence.

[trustycrowbar]

I... I see.

[...Wow. That's something for a scientist to chew on.]

Funny you find yourself drawn to the sciences yourself. See... I don't fully believe that it's science-against-magic like everyone seems to think it is. I don't like using the word "magic" at all, but that's only because it gives it a... a needless sense of the unknowable. Sure, a major purpose of science is to explain the way the world works in simplest terms, but that doesn't mean that things like other dimensions and powers beyond our perception are out of the question! It just means that we haven't figured out how they fit in yet.

[He runs his hand through his hair with an odd smirk.] That being said... I guess you can say you've made a believer out of me.

[faithful_kitsune]

Well, the problem is thus: Youkai rely on being unknown. Their power is lost when there is an explanation, especially since the explanation typically stops being them. It is... complicated.

Still, I am glad you believe in me, at least.

[trustycrowbar]

I can handle complicated. It's not the first time I've dealt with an irreconcilable two-state duality where the observation changes the outcome.

[...I think he's flirting. Hard to tell. Can someone translate?]

There's no harm in it; I can try to disprove all I like but no matter what, I can't deny what I see right in front of me.

Not that I would want to deny it, either.

[faithful_kitsune]

To be fair, it is a little simpler with creatures like me. We're simply based on beasts. Harder for those youkai who were previously used as cautionary tales, or methods of explaining natural phenomena.

*She frowns. Something niggles about this comment, but she's not sure what.*

[video]

[third_alternative]

I overload. Why?

[trustycrowbar]

...What happens when you overload?

[third_alternative]

I can't do much of anything when it happens, and these weird...metal tumor-things start growing out of me. I don't have any control over it.

I don't know what it's like beyond that, though. The one time I remember overloading, they managed to get the excess nanites out of me before anything really bad happened.

[trustycrowbar]

Might be some kind of hypermetabolic reaction of the nanites, if they're the ones breaking them down then--

[No, no dammit, this isn't why he called him.]

Anyway it looks like you can take in trillions of the things and still not be in danger of overload. That's good.

...because I was starting to worry about you for a moment there.

[third_alternative]

[...d'awwwwwwww---]

Oh, come on. No need to start going all nanny on me! After all, I'm a professional at this stuff.

...It does help that you guys made that curing signal, though. Without that, I probably would've overloaded.

[This is his way of saying 'thanks for caring.' Rex just isn't quite sappy enough to outright say that.]

[trustycrowbar]

You're a professional, sure, but you were also the only one that could cure at first, and as far as I know you were the city's only hope up until we found an alternative. It's easy to forget your limits when people depend on you like that.

[He's not your nanny shut up Rex.]

[third_alternative]

[no but being worried is totally a nanny thing! you big nanny.]

Well, yeah, but... [he shrugs] it's over now anyway, so it's not like it matters.

[trustycrowbar]

...So now that it IS over, what're you going to do? Chances are wherever you were working got flattened. I know JLS is a mess... Hell, in hindsight I'm surprised and thankful that Ermis didn't get flattened!

[third_alternative]

I'll find something else to do, then. No problem. There's always something to do around here.

I'm just glad the basketball hoop outside the apartments is still okay. After something like this, I need to shoot a few hoops.

[trustycrowbar]

Pfft, shooting hoops? Really? I haven't done anything like that in...

[...]

...Meet you outside in twenty?

[third_alternative]

You got it.

[twenty minutes later....

Rex is outside by the hoop, cradling one basketball between his arm and his hip and holding onto an enormous cart full of basketballs in the other.]

[trustycrowbar]

[Gordon meets him there a little earlier than he'd figured. He had enlisted the service of a pair of shorts and a tank top and roughly a half a pound of sunscreen, but at least he was better suited for the hot weather now. He eyes the cart of sporting equipment with a raised eyebrow.]

...Came prepared, did you?