[Aside] Unfound Destiny

A story of humanity coming back from the brink of extinction at the hands of a reptilians race of purifiers, and becoming the dominant force in the galaxy. Now, decades later, forces behind the scenes plunge the hard-won peace into civil war.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Zhangjie had a subdued, smug smile on his face as he folded his arms over his chest. The glowing veins along his chin seemed to turn up the brightness a degree, as if stimulated by his amusement. "Destiny, please, these feels like a pretty drastic overreaction, which I think only makes our point for us. You are far too deeply invested in this. You've developed a compulsive obsession about this robot, and it's straining you and your personal life."

He glanced briefly over his shoulder at Kashevski. "And scaring your coworkers."
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Kai
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Kai »

Dr. Briggs narrowed her eyes, almost growling at the pair before her. "I've wasted my life? What about this!?" she asked, gesturing vaguely to the room they were in, and presumably to the entire compound. "I've created the largest concentrated center of learning, research, and knowledge in the galaxy. I've taken the last two centuries' greatest inventor's legacy and expanded it. I haven't sat idly for a minute! So what if I spend some of my time searching for him?" Having said those last few sentences in a single breath, she paused, huffing a bit to fill her lungs back up, eyes almost daring the two of them to complain about her 'hobbies' again.

"And at least I can remember to put pants on, and have enough sense to realize sleepwear isn't appropriate attire for a meeting with the director of my department, let alone the head of the entire facility!" she lashed out at Pollie, before turning to Uso and glaring at the mana-infused man.
"And don't get me started on the time your carefree approach to research managed to demolish an entire building when you blew up that extremely invaluable, irreplaceable man-sized mana crystal we found on one of our trips to broken Terra! That could have boosted our research by DECADES and now it's yet ANOTHER crater on our poor, abandoned home planet!"
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

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Ever unflappable, Zhangjie only seemed more bemused by the fire in Dr. Briggs. "Oh ho ho. We all know I'm a very meticulous, I'm just willing to take the risks you old bones-" he made his swirling hand gesture a second time at the pair of them, "And I do mean the generic you, not the pair of you. And that risk was well worth it, if not the most efficient use of our only man-sized mana crystal..." He trailed off with perhaps a hint of emotion in his voice. It would be a stretch to call it embarrassment- he was nigh impervious to such a frail emotion- but concession isn't really an emotion either.

"Regardless, pointing out our mistakes doesn't excuse yours. Which you know full well, being the genius you are." This was not flattery, of course. Zhangjie was merely incapable of being subtle. "And Kash didn't say wasting your life, she said putting it on hold. Though there is a very strong argument that it has been a waste of some of your time..."

He threw out his hands as if to call an end to the conversation. "BUT as I recall we have work to do. Any chance we can focus?"
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Kokuten
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Kokuten »

Where Zhangjie was quite unflappable, Pollie was very flappable. She didn't like getting yelled at, that's why she got a degree to get into a field where people didn't yell at each other. When Destiny lashed out at Pollie, she visibly recoiled, as if struck in the face. She looked down at her over-sized t-shirt, draped over by a large lab-coat, and she replayed a thought in her mind.

Paula Kashevski was a lady of knowledge, above the petty tenets like a professional dress code when there were important matters to be handled.

She didn't feel quite as confident in that now, being dressed down as she was. It upset her. The feeling didn't rest well in her chest.

"Fine," she muttered, lips pursed her goggle eyes casting their gaze aside, "chase a ghost, instead of people who actually love you."
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Kai
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

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The redheaded director glared at Uso, not exactly wanting to grace that smug asshole with a proper answer at the moment, but seeing Pollie's change in modd and hearing her comment, Destiny went over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking into her artificial eyes with her determined gaze. "I know I look for him often, but when have I actually ignored you guys?" she asked, tone probably a bit rougher than it should have been since she was still a bit upset. "I'm always here when you need me, always ready for whatever we have going on, and always helping out with new research. So don't look at me like i'm betraying you or leaving you behind, because you know I'm not," she told Pollie, before dropping her volume a little and muttering "Though, sometimes it might be nice to leave Zhangjie behind..."

She closed her eyes, furrowing her brow a bit and shaking her head. there was still fire in her and she was still upset at the impromptu attempted 'intervention' from the pair of her junior peers. "As much as I am loathe to admit, Uso is right, and we do need to get on with this presentation, as we've wasted enough time with you two's meddling."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

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Paula hadn't eyes for many years, so it was always difficult to read her face. When Destiny had first met the plucky grad student, she was quite easy to tell from a distance. She wore her emotions on her sleeve, despite the thin veneer of professionalism. Now, with several years on her shoulders, and some of her face obscured, sweet Pollie was just plain Pollie. The discontent she felt, which was noticeable in her tense shoulders, was hidden well by her face.

Destiny was hard-headed, stubborn, and quite set in her ways; those three things lent themselves to Dr. Brigg's meteoric rise as the figurehead of knowledge in the Renewed Age. The discovery of the link between Terran Science and the Shaver Fields, enabling uniform, scientific learning of 'Magitech'; strides in algorithms that redefined machine learning; fibrous pnuemo-muscle structures that turned automation on its head; and the greatest achievement likely being the Briggs Function, the only known, safe algorithm that could allow safe mind-transfers between a human mind and that of a machine.

Pollie had only managed a quarter of the level of achievement in her current lifespan. Even then, her award winning paper: The Unknowable, Transferable Properties in Materials, was merely a footnote reference in more popular papers in the materials studies of Mystech. Her works were a foundational knowledge, things that cutting edge stood on to confirm their work.

With a sigh and her enthusiasm drained, Pollie grabbed her equipment. She never expected to get through to Destiny, but it was hard to swallow every time it failed.

"Dr. Briggs," said Dr. Kashevsky, coming back to business, "the Anomalous Materials division have analyzed the returned materials from Torriban IV. What we believe to have uncovered are ceramics and igneous formations that seem to react to various waves in a Shaver Field. Their effects seem to be most pronounced at high power, low frequency projections. At this time we have only been able to determine base effects on certain material compositions. I will demonstrate:"

The smallest researcher in the room gathered up a circular, ceramic ball, and set it on the floor. Then, from her coat, she tugged out a narrow rod. "Watch the sphere while I project with this effect rod."

Dr. Kachesky furrowed her brow, the lights on her goggles narrowing as she pointed the wand to one end of the room. With a bit of hesitation, the ball answered, rolling over to the point, before gently swerving it around as Paulie guided it around the room. "Another object has similar gravitational effects, this glass ball for instance; exudes force when the right waves are impressed upon it."

Now she drew up a glass sphere, its shape almost too pristine, and were it not for the small amount of refraction, it was near unnoticeable. Carefully, Pollie put the sphere on the floor, before waving her wand at it. "Now, obsSEERV--"

THWOOMP!

A furious gust of force shot up from the ball, knocking the wand from Pollies hand, and blasting the hem of her large t-shirt over her head along with her lab coat. Thankfully, her shoulders kept anything from flying off, but her garments were upended.

"As you can--..."

Paulie wiggled her arms, furling her shirt back down. "As you can see, the results are incredibly powerful with only slight applications."
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

It was easy for Uso to gloss over the small jabs at him from Destiny. They slid off him like oil over water. The emotional gestures he likewise dodged. "Excellent. Back to work."

Dr. Kashevsky was the one to get them started, discussing the results of her department's recent work. It was all very fascinating, but it was a frustrating field and approach for Zhangjie Uso, which is why he spearheaded Integral Biomechanics instead.

Uso's impatience was as self-evident as Paula's emoting. He had launched himself through academia at an interstellar rate and landed rather comfortably at Destiny's elbow. The cosmic jump from University labs to the legendary Briggs Laboratory had been achieved on his rather prolific dissertations regarding neurochemical stimuli on quantum mechanics within Shaver Fields. His magnum opus, Telekinesis: The Manipulation of Quantum Entangled Particles within Shaver Fields, had not just put him on the radar but had garnered him a brief stint in the intergalactic science spotlight: a few video appearances with talk show hosts like Samuel 'The Duke' de la Torre, or Samantha Spielen. As if his ego needed the nourishment.

Lost in his musings about her findings, Uso barked hearty laughter when she flashed the room. He tried to be professional, but his good-natured self couldn't resist a good chuckle. "It's wonderful, Kash. First question: is our target demographic collegiate girls at Einschlauss Beach? If so, I think you've nailed it." Then he waved it away, as if preemptively dismissing her huffy complaints. "So the material produces differing results. What about the chemistry? If you manipulate the temperatures or density, do your results shift significantly? Do you even get the same response?"
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Kai
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

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Dr. Briggs just kind of, put her palm over her eyes and forehead, while tilting her head forward before shaking it side to side at Pollie's display. Once the younger scientist had regained what little dignity she had left, the elder then let the most junior of the trio speak his piece, before pointing back at Dr. Kashevski.

"It seems you still have the floor. I am curious to know if you've tried differing conditions to achieve differing results, as well. Or if, you've perhaps thought of other commands or applications for your inputs or desired outputs of these objects."

Destiny didn't seem too terribly awed by the display of what Pollie refused to call magic, although Pollie's lack of decorum definitely seemed to have registered an earlier response. The tall redhead seemed to dig into her own mental database of everything she had learned over the past seven decades, being reminded of something quite simple that most had glossed over, but Pollie's insistence on the term 'Shaver Fields' had reminded her of.

"Aren't these reactions congruent with the theories posited by the AI Shaver that first detected the fields of energy named after it? Though most of us now call it magic as it aligns very well with fictional stories from ancient Terra describing similar phenomena. I believe we were all amazed when Dr. Plutanovicz' final AI he designed before his passing had been able to even detect such an esoteric source of energy, that multiple societies' greatest technologies to that point had been completely ignorant of? Of course, if Shaver were still around, but its sacrifice to prevent a black hole from forming and destroying the entire Coginitus sector has been viewed by many as having a positive effect on our combined societies in the Milky way..."

the Professor mused for a bit, trailing of when she realized she had gone on a tangent, clearing her throat and motioning back to her Protégé. "Anyway, Please continue, Pollie."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Kokuten »

"These materials are very resistant to temperature change and physical trauma. Despite heat and pressure fluctuations, the level of effect only seems to vary depending on the amount of disruption in the fields surrounding the orbs. Essentially, more power means greater effect. There are only a couple of exceptions."

Pollie was at the other end of the room now, speaking over her shoulder as she fished out her catalyst rod from under a table. As she stood up, there was another orb in her hand, one that hadn't been there before. "Shaver's initial postulations were, in fact, a driving force behind some of our testing. Reviewing the data-library led us to various sources of 'Old World' Shaver academic references, many of which we took from the Battle Hymn of the Republic fifty years ago, so their connection to Terra can be asserted. Horton, Suhre, Yamamoto, Caxton, Jefferson, and Stiles; all of them make references to these orbs. Particularly, Suhre and Caxton wrote on what they referred to as 'Alchemical Properties'."

The woman's face soured at the mention of the Alchemical, disdaining any measure of magifying her scientific field. "Studies of 'Old World' Anomalous Materials aside, the works of Caxton assume a great deal of prior, esoteric knowledge, but what we have understood has helped us achieve what I would call 'fantastic' results with these samples. Using Suhre's writing to interpret some of the higher knowledge, we were able to observe a chemical reaction with a pair of orbs we thought to be previously inert."

Paula pressed her finger to the projector she had brought with her. An image spat up from the machine, displaying pair of black, rock-like orbs. The scientist held up the one in her hand, showing its polished marble color, then producing the other from seemingly no where. "What I have in my hands are the results of immersing the objects projected in a mixture of magnolia bark, gold dust, alcohol and blood. When set to a boil for an hour, and set out in good sunlight for three days, they assume this color and... They produce rather alarming results now."

That said, she looked at Uso, her glowing goggle eyes looking stern. "Do not drop me."

Without much explanation as to what was about to happen, she lobbed the marble-textured orb at the man. Then, she touched her catalyst rod to the one still in her hand. A small spark erupted at the contact, and Pollie disappeared in a wisp of light, leaving behind the orb she was carrying to bounce on to the floor.

She reappeared instantly, curled around the lobbed orb now, sailing through the air at Zhangjie.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: [Aside] Unfound Destiny

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Zhangjie nodded along, his eyes laser focused as they always were when faced with new knowledge. As Pollie gained proximity to her point, his arrogant smile crept across his face. And then it vanished in a flash as he was faced with his least favorite thing in the world: surprise.

His hands shot up, but Zhang was postured as if trying to defend himself rather than catch her. The glow in his eyes and lines upon his neck grew in intensity. The air between the youthful scientist and the hurtling crash test dummy roiled as if in a heat wave. Pollie and her orb slowed and came down gently just a couple steps away from the intended target. She stumbled, likely as surprised by her easy landing as Zhang had been at her launch. He caught her on the second step and tipped her, like they were dancing and it was the next step. With his smug grin he suggested, "A little more warning next time."
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