[OPEN] Lab Mingle: Shard Edition

[sciencelizard]

Who: Anyone interacting with the Shards in the Lab!
What: Now that we've figured out that at least four shards went to the Lab, people should have the opportunity to interact with them! Mind their canonical effects, and if you're one of the studiers, there's more info that can be gleaned through experimentation.
Where: The Lab
When: Backdated for over September and into the first week of October (up to the Intro log). For reference, there was one shard early in the month, two more midmonth, and the last near the end.
Warnings: Possible mood swings, maybe some stabbing dependent on shard fuckery. But it'll be fiiiiine.

The Lab sits right around the clinic and shops on the west island and provides a laboratory workspace for the more scientifically inclined residents of Hadriel. It consists of a main lab area and a secondary small room that serves as a break space, including a small kitchen (with a fridge and stove) and a sofa bed. In addition, it houses a large supercomputer. While it's typically occupied for private projects, this month has become a whirlwind of activity- namely, that pieces of the Door are coming back from expeditions. As with anything the Gods don't necessarily want them to have, it's a race to figure out what they can use- or if they can be used at all- while trying to prevent whatever side effects may befall them.

This is a mingle, so go ahead and post your own toplevels and tag around! Mind the info in the What section for details about the fragments and let the mods know if you're going to do something permanent or have questions. Have at it!

Comments

alphys | ota

[sciencelizard]

[Okay, maybe this has gotten a little out of hand.

When Alphys heard about the shards, her first thought was that it would be exciting to just maybe see one. Do a test or two, get a signature reading, whatever she barely had time for. She wasn't expecting four of them to turn up and then people just go ahead and leave like she was the authority here. She should never be the authority on anything. Fucking nothing. She knows fuck all, my guy, who thinks she knows things.

But now that she's been given it, she has to actually do something, so Alphys can be found hard at work throughout the month just trying to get any answers at all. She'll be testing magical signatures, if they can get near each other, all sorts of weird shit.

And sometimes the stress wins out and she just puts her face on her desk for a little bit. It's Fine. She's not getting affected by mind radiation at all.]

[toiletseat_girl]

[George's never actually met Alphys. sure, she works in the Lab part time and she sees her around, but she's never actually gone over to say "hi how are you" or introduced herself yet.

that may change as when George comes into the Lab, she sees Alphys with her head on the table, looking beat. she approaches carefully, trying to not freak her out but figuring maaaaaybe she needs to take a break that's Not Here. after all, too much shards make Jack a dull boy. and we mean "a dull boy" in a The Shining way, not in an actual dull way]

...uh. You okay over here?

[sciencelizard]

[There's a bunch of people around here she hasn't had the chance to have a real conversation with. Newt brings in all sorts of help for Door Day, and while she tries to say hi and give her name, it's easy to lose track of who she has or hasn't met. Her name has become so ubiquotious around here she's getting recognized even when she doesn't mean to be.

All that said, it's why she doesn't feel too bad when she whips her head up and doesn't perfectly recognize who's addressing her. That's not a shard thing. That's just a lot-of-people thing.]

Hi! Hello! Yes, I'm-- it's fine. I'm fine. Just... long day.

[completelycrazy]

[Hey buddy, hey pal, hey small lizard scientist currently face down at her desk and probably groaning. Newt has decided that now is the time to Stop That.

Without any warning, he grabs Alphys by her shoulders so she doesn't eat shit, and then rolls her desk chair right out of the lab.]

You've been hanging out with these stupid fragments for way too long. When's the last time you got some air?

[sciencelizard]

[She's doing her b e s t okay.

He grabs her shoulders, which gets her to sit up, and then suddenly everything is moving and she's much too tired and confused to process all of it. But she's going from zero to Fast and gripping the seat not to just die right now.]

Wh-- I-- I don't know what time is it ohmygod everything's moving, are you okay??

[NEWT PLEASE SHE IS A WEAK WOMAN]

[synthedick]

[Though not particularly interested in studying the shards himself -- mostly because there are folks smarter than him on the job, and he knows when to steer clear of something that isn't his jurisdiction -- Nick does worry about Alphys, and so he makes a habit of patrolling by the lab every other day or so just to check in on her. He used to stop in to see Name every now and then, giving the little Null someone else to chat with while the Doctor worked away in her lab, so he knows just how immersed in her projects she can be.

Too immersed, at times. With her nervous temperament, Nick has wondered more than once if she gets enough rest. He figures the answer is a solid no as he walks in to find her with her head on her desk.]

Pack it up for the night, Doc. These fragments aren't going anywhere, and you could use a break.

[sciencelizard]

[The fact of the matter is, Alphys is in way over her head. She never expected this to be a whole thing, to have people counting on her and excited for a research breakthrough. Honestly, it's freaking her out in a major way, because this is precisely where she was before everything went SO wrong last time. The fate of a civilization. An unbreakable barrier. A looming threat as people lose hope. She's going to mess it up again. She knows it. People will die and get hurt and she can't just leave again, it doesn't work like that, what has she gotten herself into--

She squeaks in surprise as Nick speaks, him having entirely snuck up on her in all this.]

I'm sorry! I mean, I. Hello. Hi. Did you need something?

[allthecards]

Have you found anything yet?

[Kaiba isn't about to coddle Alphys just because she's running into problems. If anything, her continuing to work through obvious exhaustion is impressive. He still has issues with her being a 'magical lizard', but not enough to reject the valuable resource. He's been doing everything he can with the mundane research, and is finally willing to deal with her - less than scientific - theories.]

[sciencelizard]

[It's only less than scientific if you don't consider magic having a scientific application! Though uh, that's probably hard for most people without magic to think about without getting a little tied up. She understands, at least.

When Kaiba speaks, she pushes herself up, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hands, pushing her glasses up on her forehead.]

I mean... k-kind of? Depends what you're looking for.

[She shuffles a bit, dragging a paper over from a stack on her right.]

They absolutely have the same, uh, signature as the Door. Have the same output as the Door's magic, though uhm, obviously m-much less. I've been trying to get them to connect to each other, but it's kind of not working? I don't know if they're not strong enough or it, uhm, just doesn't work that way.

yo

[dedikated]

( Well, word really did get out, didn't it? And while the two had vague ideas of what they wanted to do, it didn't... exactly involve this pile of shards.

She stares at them for a good moment, one day as the pile gets even larger somehow, and turns to Alphys with an expression that's only kept neutral by how tightly she presses her lips together. )

Think we need some more ground rules?

[sciencelizard]

[At this point, her elbows are on her desk, fingers knitted in front of her snout like a nervous Gendo Ikari. It's a very serious and contemplative pose for a serious and contemplative researcher.

Naturally, Alphys breaks it within seconds, thrusting her arms towards the stack with an open palmed gesture.]

What do we even d-do with all these. What do I do with this?? I don't even-- yes. Okay. Rules first, yeah. Did you have anything in mind...?

kate / ota

[dedikated]

— everyone tells me to take a break;

( When they asked for shards, Kate honestly expected to maybe get the shard from Law's crew and that would be about it. People would keep them for themselves and their own curiosity, or hand them over to the gods.

Then another comes. And another. And yet another.

And by the end of the month, Kate's staring at four boxes filled with shards, her hands on her hips and a frown creasing her brows. )

... Could build our own Door.

( Probably not, but it's starting to feel like that. )

— people call me a workaholic;

( It's inevitable, really, that Kate would touch the fragments with her bare hands, trying to ignore the effects as she lifts one up and studies it closely — the weight, the shape, the engravings. She pushes past a rush of emotion and exhales. Alright, one more thing to try— )

Stand back.

( She's stood just outside the lab, rather than within its walls, enough empty space between her and any buildings, but she shouts people out of the way anyway before pulsing power through her fingertips, a small spark of white light visible where her hand meets the fragment.

The screech through her mind is so loud Kate doesn't even hear herself scream, but the noise rips from her throat and she drops the fragment like it's burning her hands, barely keeping her balance as it bounces to the ground. )

Hey workaholic, your lazy hippie friend is here!

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufin is on his way across the island, one purpose being to stop at the Lab, find out the latest news, and check up on Kate. Her net post gave him cause for concern, and of course she's working with those dangerous Door fragments.

The one he turned in to Alphys and Kate at the Lab gives concrete reasons for concern. Of course he handled it himself at the time he and Jill Valentine dredged it up from the bottom of the ocean. It gave them very peculiar sensations and emotions and they were glad to shut it up in the box and finally be rid of it. Of course, he has a stake in what becomes of these shards, because the reason he volunteered to hunt for them was that he did not want others to be facing what his elder brother Maedhros and his son Celebrimbor must have faced on their return to their own world after the Door swept them away from Hadriel. It's too late for them to avoid their horrible deaths, but maybe it is not too late for the other Hadrielites who have similar situations. If the Door can be modified, or if a completely separate Door can be constructed, then, with luck, the result might be a Door that is capable of sending people to a different point in time than the one they were taken from, or of sending them to worlds other than their own. He would give a lot to see either of these results obtained.

He arrives just in time to find Kate holding one of those fragments and lighting up her fingertips with her power. She calls to him to stand back, but he doesn't obey. Instead he approaches at a dead run. ]

. . . Kate! What are you doing?

ffff

[dedikated]

( She doesn't quite know what could happen, but the danger goes without saying, as far as Kate's concerned. Hence the space between herself and the buildings, the space she attempts to get from others, and why she doesn't push more than a fraction of her power into it.

Not that the amount, apparently, matters, because the unholy noise that ricochets through her skull is deafening, and Curufin's words go unheard as she lets the fragment drop to the ground, stumbling back and clutching her head in her hands, eyes screwing shut.

Okay. Bad idea. Horrible idea. Fucking hell. )

workaholic

[toiletseat_girl]

[George doesn't know what to think about this. on the one hand, it seems potentially crazy given what everyone says the fragments can do to people. on the other hand, nothing else they've tried seems to have accomplished much. so, what the hell. it might work.

it might also blow up in her face?

who knows?

so she stands back as instructed and just kind of. watches.

the scream is a bad sign. so is the near-fainting. and the fragment falls to the ground.

so she darts over, checks to make sure Kate's not going to keel over or something, then kneels next to the fragment, poking at it carefully. then gets the bright idea of picking it up to make sure it hasn't splintered or chipped or anything.

for a few seconds, it's no big deal. there's some creepy The Omen-style whispering in the back of her mind and she does her best to block it out, like she tries to do with the gods' bullshit.

after those few seconds, the whispering builds into a crescendo and she tosses the fucking thing back down]

--motherfucking, cocksucking, sonuvabitch! What the fuck?

[dedikated]

( The ringing in her head might be better described as a jackhammer against her skull, loud enough that it's hard to actually hear what George says. Thankfully, that reaction transcends a need to hear, and days of working with the shards means she knows exactly what the girl is experiencing.

The odd noises, the mood swings, strange voices whispering things that leave you off balance for a while after the fact.

She rights herself back to a proper standing position, makes sure her legs are firm underneath her before she says anything. And what she says is driven by days of trying to make sure people are working safely with the fragments, by the echoing effects of the fragment rattling around inside of her. )

The hell are you doing?

( Don't just grab it. )

Newton Geiszler | ota

[completelycrazy]

[All of these Door fragments hanging out in the lab is maing it awfully difficult for Newt to get any work done, so he's been sparse since they started to show up, doing most of his work at home. Luckily, he had already finished the bulk of his manual research components (i.e. gross monster dissections), and now it's just a matter of compiling notes until the next Door Day comes around. The timing is about as good as it could've been.

That said, since these fragments tend to drive people actually insane and yet leaving them alone is a bad idea, Newt is paying his dues by taking a babysitter shift.

Which also might mean that he's conducting bullshit experiments on them because, like, what else is he gonna do? It's like four in the morning and he does not want to nap in proximity to these things. That would definitely result in some not great dreams.]

Hey, give me a hand with this, would you?

[Hello, lab-goer that Newt is addressing like it's a perfectly reasonably time of day. Hold this bucket that he's handing you, please. Also ignore the mimic trapped in the bucket.

Newt, meanwhile, is already heading toward the back of the lab, makeshift fragment-wielding tongs in hand.]


[ooc: feel free to wildcard him if you want to be getting up to something less crazy LOL hmu at mippins if you wanna hash something out!]

[missiondeterminant]

[Four in the morning is totally a reasonable time to be doing science or... Whatever.

It's extra reasonable when you don't sleep, which Connor doesn't, although he also isn't usually around when Alphys isn't because he doesn't care a whole lot about the pieces themselves or any other idiots who might want to mess with them. Still, he's shown up this time out of his own curiosity, both to see just how deserted the Lab might get and to possibly make some observations about the shards himself. He may not be particularly interested in them, but he needs vastly more to keep him occupied than he really gets in Hadriel.

But, alas, there's someone still there. Connor considers the bucket that's held out to him and also considers just not taking it, but decides to go along with it for the moment even if he is very dubious about what's trapped in it.]

What are you doing?

[toiletseat_girl]

[what do you mean, 4am isn't a perfectly normal time to be at the lab. okay, technically she doesn't need to sleep so 4am might as well be 4pm for her. so here she is, at the lab with the creepy shard fragments willing to lend a hand with whatever. she's not picky. she'd also really like to get her hands on one of those fragments, but she's not going to say so.

and fine, Newt wants a bucket held, he's getting a bucket held. whatever. she takes the bucket and eyes him as he goes over to the shards with what looks like a pair of spaghetti tongs]

Fine. What've you got planned with those things?

Caedra | OTA

[abyssalarcana]

[On September 19th, Law's ship pulls back into the islands, and Caedra helps deliver what they found. She tracks down Newt and Alphys initially that first day and questions them - but afterward she can be found snooping around the fragments themselves, taking photos from different angles and making what sense she can of their patterns. Initially, she works with Nate, but when Nate leaves, she lingers. The photos are helpful so that she doesn't have to spend too much time staring directly into the strange surfaces of those relics. She commandeers a desk and litters it with sheets of paper covered in diagrams formed of swirls, dots, and linguistic analyses.

She shows up at odd hours, seemingly without any semblance of a schedule. Day, night, half an hour here, five hours there. She doesn't seem particularly dedicated to her work, after a while, but rather just bored. And when the linguistics hits a wall, the spiral diagrams turn into a weird form of art on the pages instead of anything that might be meaningful. But look, maybe this is just how she does things, who's to say?

When not 'working' but still present, there's no doubt that Caedra is keeping an eye on those who come and go. The first time she spots you she will certainly ask:]

Who are you?

the 21st

[missiondeterminant]

[Connor had started showing up shortly after Law's post, and finding out that apparently security was not a consideration so far in the idea of gathering all these pieces together. He isn't actually all that concerned about people stealing the pieces themselves, since he has little to no investment in the Door or the gods in general, but he does want to look out for Alphys.

He also has other obligations and has to at least half-heartedly pretend there's a need for a sleeping schedule and breaks, so he misses crossing paths with Caedra a few times but it was only inevitable they'd run into each other at some point. He's returning to the Lab after a short Guard shift, and tilts his head slightly at the question once he realizes it's directed at him.]

Connor. Yourself?

Barry | OTA

[barold]

[Okay, listen.

Barry knows what he's doing. Everything is under control.

Never mind that he's covered head to toe in what looks like sheets of thin metal, a clunky helmet plonked on his head, thick gloves covering both hands. In one hand he's clutching a shard, brought up close to his face, while the other hand is holding something that looks like a magic wand.

He's been like this for hours now, just puttering around the lab with a shard up to his face, thinking, murmuring, occasionally tapping the wand against the fragment.

Don't worry. He's a professional. He's got this.]

[sciencelizard]

[Do you, Barry. Do you.

She'd blame him for the weird shielding, but it's more than she's done, especially since Alphys has on more than one occasion just held the thing up to her face. But she's kind of been watching him for a bit, just... wondering what he's up to. So eventually she asks.]

Are you casting s-some kind of spell?

[dedikated]

Er.

( Look, she's seen some Shit, but even Kate needs a moment to digest exactly what she sees on this day. )

That why I couldn't find any tin foil in the shops?

( ... Katherine. )

Kaiba | ota

[allthecards]

[Kaiba had gone with Law's crew in order to study the shard immediately. He had recordings from the divers and preliminary information. And all of it was leading to absolutely nothing. He's been in the lab almost constantly from that point.

He kept to the area he'd claimed as his own. It was a single table, surrounded by the more technical and less gory parts of a Null. It also had a holographic screen instead of monitor powered by single projector re-purposed from his duel disk.

He glares at anyone who gets close to his area, occasionally swears at whatever he's working on, and more than once looks like he's about to start throwing things. Is it the fragments influence or just him? It's anyone's guess. It's obvious that things aren't going well.]