Post by Beelzebibble on Dec 11, 2009 17:23:44 GMT -5
OOC: What? No kidding. Ishkabibble’s starting early? Well, kind of. Things won’t really get going until after the Lugiasian Awards, but the story’s beginning here. Call this a prologue if you like.
As with all the Ish topics, this one is strictly invitational. In this case it’s only me and Qzumaki who’ll be participating. However, Lee’s presence will be felt as well: the Blaise-Alpha dialogue at the beginning results from collaboration with him, naturally. There’ll be a couple more cutscenes that he helped with later in the story; you’ll know his contributions when you see them.
Guys. You don’t even know how excited I am. Once we finish this whole RP, I can die happy.
Saturday the 14th
3:39 pm
This was the time Alpha noted on the clock that hung from the far wall. He checked it against his own watch and was momentarily taken aback: The time indicated there was exactly the same, down to the second. He was certain the two timepieces had been off by a couple of minutes when he had first come to work in this laboratory.
A explanation came to mind. The resident of this space must have synchronized Alpha’s watch to her clock sometime when he hadn’t been wearing it. Yes, that was quite easy to believe.
The room was two stories tall, and windowless, with a ceiling made out of wood of all things. In fact, much of the room’s composition was wooden: the trim bookshelves lining the walls, the broad worktable and the desk beyond it, and the spiral staircase leading up to the balcony and from there out into the hallways of the Parmigianino Institute. Alpha had been surprised this laboratory’s owner didn’t subscribe to more of a steel-and-concrete school of architecture. Possibly there was something about the old-fashioned furnishings that appealed to her.
In any case, while the design of the room might have been antique, the scientific equipment and fixtures were not. The tubes, beakers and flasks covering the worktable testified well enough to this. One, for instance, contained a purplish liquid which was apparently lighter than air, judging from the way it settled neatly at the top of its container.
“I am subscribing to the assumption that you are fully prepared to assist my laboratory duties at the present moment?” Blaise's voice came from behind Alpha, jolting him out of his reverie. Despite otherwise dressed in closely fitting dark clothes, she still wore her labcoat. Alpha, searching his collective memory banks, couldn't seem to recall one occasion that he had seen her without it.
“We will be synthesizing several magical catalysts and enhancing compounds today. Expedience is neccessary due to the volatile behavior of several of the reactants, thus requiring this dedication of manpower to the task.” Despite facing Alpha, Blaise hadn’t tried to make eye contact. In fact, it seemed almost as if she was looking straight through him.
Alpha put forth one token effort to meet her eye before giving up and looking down at the table. Eye contact with Blaise would have been a predictable thing anyway. She seemed to have only one facial expression on reserve for him: pursed lips and eyebrows raised slightly enough to suggest polite incredulity. If he weren't able to consult memories of her from the original Terrian, he would have believed this was the only look she could manage.
“What will I do?” he asked, leaving the roundabout speech as always to his antecedent.
“You will stop obstructing my path, for one.” Blaise jerked her head slightly, awkwardly trying to indicate the table directly ahead of her. Alpha muttered an apology and stepped out of her way as quickly as he could manage.
“As for the actual undertaking that we have before us, you shall stand by with a container of halting agent, and add it to the vessels after I finish engaging the reaction. As stated prior, these reactions are extremely volatile. If we do not stop them at the appropriate point in their progress, they will rapidly become uncontrollable and may self-terminate.” Blaise extended a foot under the table to slide a wheeled stool out from underneath. There was still only one in the room, despite the fact that Alpha had been working in the lab for quite some time now.
The young man picked up the sealed vial that Blaise indicated, and stood by the table. The original Terrian might have rested a hand nonchalantly on the wooden surface, but the original Terrian was not accustomed to working in Blaise Euler's laboratory. As it was, Alpha stood quite upright.
“Tell me when.”
“Remember. Expedience and precision. Elsewise, this could prove to be utterly catastrophic. I will begin the reaction at the end of this twenty count… Twenty…” Blaise slid a metal rack of test tubes along the table with a clatter, and the glass tinkled. Each one contained a swirling mixture of luminous blues and metallic greens, marbling and sloshing back and forth with the movement. Alpha didn’t know why she had started with a twenty count, but it was inevitable that if he asked her, she’d drone on and on in inscrutable technobabble until he wanted to be struck deaf.
“Seven…” Blaise’s hand darted out, a sharp, serpentine movement. She unstoppered one of the test tubes, and drew it from the rack. The mixture began to sizzle, and glowing white sparks shot off of the surface and hit the glass. Wherever they landed, they left tiny silver flecks, which soon flaked away and tumbled back into the stew below.
“Three…” Blaise grabbed the flask of levitating fluid from the table, using her thumb to pop it open as she inverted it. The fluid ran to what would be the “bottom” of a normal bottle.
“Two…” The woman slowly tilted the bottle sideways, as if to pour it into the air. A single droplet emerged, and tumbled towards the ceiling. Blaise quickly turned the container upside down again, retaining the rest of the liquid.
“One!” Blaise’s hand with the test tube rocketed forward. She flipped it in midair, catching the eggplant-colored bead at the same time that the roiling fluid began to spill out. She turned the tube again with a practiced flick of her wrist to catch the result as it dropped.
The fluid had turned into a miniature storm, sloshing more violently than it had any right to do even with Blaise’s motions. Big green sparks began shooting from the surface, one chipping the inside of the tube where it struck. “Now would be a good time, duplicate.” Blaise threw her hand out to the side, waiting expectantly for her assistant to dole out a measure of the solution.
“Understood.” Alpha was prepared to show his mettle by approaching the murderously seething solution and reaching the vial out to it without fear. This would be a fine image once he opened the vial.
He hesitated. The stopper didn't simply pop out. He tried twisting it one way. And then the other. He'd been trying to keep his eyes on the table so as not to give away his confusion, but he was finally forced to raise the vial up to scrutiny. His hands felt huge and clumsy. He couldn't open it.
“Um...!”
“You imbecile!” Blaise shouted, and flung the test tube aside. As it arced through the air, not yet spilling so much as a droplet, Blaise shot to her feet. She grabbed the vial in Alpha's hand, and threw her free arm in a punch to his elbow. Having forcibly removed it from his grasp, she dashed his stoppered container to the ground.
There was the sound of breaking glass... that didn't seem to end. As the vial hit the floor, blue liquid shot out of all sides, forming a puddle. The liquid glowed for a moment, and then shot upward into a vitreous pillar. The other tube hit, and Blaise used her hold on Alpha's arm to leverage him into the space behind the newly-created obstruction. She slammed him into it, quite a bit rougher than was necessary, and turned away.
After a brief pause, there was a loud bang as the reaction went critical. Alpha threw up his hands to cover his face. Glass shards sprayed through the room, a few hitting the pillar and leaving large slashes where they struck.
“Fortunately, we managed to preserve the base components for the production of further enhancers... On the more lamentable side of affairs, however, is the fact that in doing so, we expended all of our halting agent.” Blaise began to chew Alpha out, even with their ears still ringing from the blast. “Do you have so much as a notion of the amount of time and resources that I'll need to dedicate to synthesizing another cubic centimeter, never mind an entire accumulation of great enough quantity to undertake this procedure once again?”
She turned away, picking a shard of glass out of the desk as she sat down once more. She glanced around as if to verify that nothing was damaged before beginning to fuss with a container of clear fluid.
“Honestly, duplicate. I had presumed that the condition under which I had appropriated you was restitution for the time and effort expended when the progenitor-Brogue had spoliated my information about the Empiric school of mystic arts. However, it seems that the progenitor has bestowed me with little more than a white elephant of an aid... I do not comprehend whether this action is merely in spite of me, or if even the original has such as a gross level of incompetence, but I am most assuredly not amused with these antics.”
Somewhere amid Blaise’s words, Alpha had tried at least once to slip in an “I’m sorry.” But now that she’d turned her attention away from him, he found he wasn’t going to be able to repeat it in the silence.
He stood still for another moment, looking at the floor, then went to the closet to bring out a mop, bucket, dustpan and brush.
While he was sweeping the glass shards up, a couple of sentences that were not quite text and not quite speech entered his mind.
Buddy. My number-one guy. How’s it going?
Saturday the 14th
1:46 am
Halfway around the world, in Winstone City, Terrian Brogue strode up the sidewalk toward the parking garage. His hair was ruffled. Busy night. Though he hadn’t stopped being surprised at how placid this city seemed when you were out on the street at the darkest hours. Not a soul in sight. Puritanical, that was the word. All the exciting things in Winstone happened indoors.
Ugly night, too, honestly. He couldn’t see the stars through the thick clouds overhead. The moon was a pallid dot. But was he in a mood for meteorological griping? No, Terrian was not. He felt much too good for that. Also too tired. Meteorological griping demanded energy.
Alpha’s response came in: Complaining is a useless diversion.
Isn’t it, though? I was just thinking that. How’s our mutual friend? You’d tell me if she were experimenting on you to give you superpowers or something, right?
She hasn’t expressed any interest in my physical person.
Terrian chuckled as he crossed to the next block. Just busywork, then. Hope that’s not too demanding.
There was a slight pause. Terrian waited for the bad news; he had come to expect slight pauses like this whenever Alpha was irritated. Poor guy. A red car wheeled slowly past, the first to do so in a while. Terrian squinted under the harsh headlights, and was still blinking as he received Alpha’s next reply.
It’s simple work, but plentiful. Her instructions occupy me so thoroughly, in fact, that I haven’t had a day’s free time to go study the English and French dialects in New Orleans. I think I recall you telling me that would be one of the perks of service to Ms. Euler.
No kidding? Um… sorry about that. Terrian faltered, then hit on a change of course. So what about her, anyway? Mention me at all?
Why, yes. At last check, she thinks you’re either an idiot or you have an awful sense of humor.
“Either”-“or”, now? Nice! I knew you’d make some progress there…
But a quick response from Alpha, New task. Must talk to her, cut the conversation short.
Terrian had reached the parking garage by now anyway. He passed the ticket booth, unmanned and automatic, and moved toward the stairs to the second level, where his car was parked.
Grubby place, this garage. He’d thought so about the buildings outside, too. This wasn’t the rich part of Winstone City. Classy architecture, like that fancy hotel with the Italian name, was not on display around these parts. All the more reason to hasten back to his lovely new home and get some sleep.
As with all the Ish topics, this one is strictly invitational. In this case it’s only me and Qzumaki who’ll be participating. However, Lee’s presence will be felt as well: the Blaise-Alpha dialogue at the beginning results from collaboration with him, naturally. There’ll be a couple more cutscenes that he helped with later in the story; you’ll know his contributions when you see them.
Guys. You don’t even know how excited I am. Once we finish this whole RP, I can die happy.
Saturday the 14th
3:39 pm
This was the time Alpha noted on the clock that hung from the far wall. He checked it against his own watch and was momentarily taken aback: The time indicated there was exactly the same, down to the second. He was certain the two timepieces had been off by a couple of minutes when he had first come to work in this laboratory.
A explanation came to mind. The resident of this space must have synchronized Alpha’s watch to her clock sometime when he hadn’t been wearing it. Yes, that was quite easy to believe.
The room was two stories tall, and windowless, with a ceiling made out of wood of all things. In fact, much of the room’s composition was wooden: the trim bookshelves lining the walls, the broad worktable and the desk beyond it, and the spiral staircase leading up to the balcony and from there out into the hallways of the Parmigianino Institute. Alpha had been surprised this laboratory’s owner didn’t subscribe to more of a steel-and-concrete school of architecture. Possibly there was something about the old-fashioned furnishings that appealed to her.
In any case, while the design of the room might have been antique, the scientific equipment and fixtures were not. The tubes, beakers and flasks covering the worktable testified well enough to this. One, for instance, contained a purplish liquid which was apparently lighter than air, judging from the way it settled neatly at the top of its container.
“I am subscribing to the assumption that you are fully prepared to assist my laboratory duties at the present moment?” Blaise's voice came from behind Alpha, jolting him out of his reverie. Despite otherwise dressed in closely fitting dark clothes, she still wore her labcoat. Alpha, searching his collective memory banks, couldn't seem to recall one occasion that he had seen her without it.
“We will be synthesizing several magical catalysts and enhancing compounds today. Expedience is neccessary due to the volatile behavior of several of the reactants, thus requiring this dedication of manpower to the task.” Despite facing Alpha, Blaise hadn’t tried to make eye contact. In fact, it seemed almost as if she was looking straight through him.
Alpha put forth one token effort to meet her eye before giving up and looking down at the table. Eye contact with Blaise would have been a predictable thing anyway. She seemed to have only one facial expression on reserve for him: pursed lips and eyebrows raised slightly enough to suggest polite incredulity. If he weren't able to consult memories of her from the original Terrian, he would have believed this was the only look she could manage.
“What will I do?” he asked, leaving the roundabout speech as always to his antecedent.
“You will stop obstructing my path, for one.” Blaise jerked her head slightly, awkwardly trying to indicate the table directly ahead of her. Alpha muttered an apology and stepped out of her way as quickly as he could manage.
“As for the actual undertaking that we have before us, you shall stand by with a container of halting agent, and add it to the vessels after I finish engaging the reaction. As stated prior, these reactions are extremely volatile. If we do not stop them at the appropriate point in their progress, they will rapidly become uncontrollable and may self-terminate.” Blaise extended a foot under the table to slide a wheeled stool out from underneath. There was still only one in the room, despite the fact that Alpha had been working in the lab for quite some time now.
The young man picked up the sealed vial that Blaise indicated, and stood by the table. The original Terrian might have rested a hand nonchalantly on the wooden surface, but the original Terrian was not accustomed to working in Blaise Euler's laboratory. As it was, Alpha stood quite upright.
“Tell me when.”
“Remember. Expedience and precision. Elsewise, this could prove to be utterly catastrophic. I will begin the reaction at the end of this twenty count… Twenty…” Blaise slid a metal rack of test tubes along the table with a clatter, and the glass tinkled. Each one contained a swirling mixture of luminous blues and metallic greens, marbling and sloshing back and forth with the movement. Alpha didn’t know why she had started with a twenty count, but it was inevitable that if he asked her, she’d drone on and on in inscrutable technobabble until he wanted to be struck deaf.
“Seven…” Blaise’s hand darted out, a sharp, serpentine movement. She unstoppered one of the test tubes, and drew it from the rack. The mixture began to sizzle, and glowing white sparks shot off of the surface and hit the glass. Wherever they landed, they left tiny silver flecks, which soon flaked away and tumbled back into the stew below.
“Three…” Blaise grabbed the flask of levitating fluid from the table, using her thumb to pop it open as she inverted it. The fluid ran to what would be the “bottom” of a normal bottle.
“Two…” The woman slowly tilted the bottle sideways, as if to pour it into the air. A single droplet emerged, and tumbled towards the ceiling. Blaise quickly turned the container upside down again, retaining the rest of the liquid.
“One!” Blaise’s hand with the test tube rocketed forward. She flipped it in midair, catching the eggplant-colored bead at the same time that the roiling fluid began to spill out. She turned the tube again with a practiced flick of her wrist to catch the result as it dropped.
The fluid had turned into a miniature storm, sloshing more violently than it had any right to do even with Blaise’s motions. Big green sparks began shooting from the surface, one chipping the inside of the tube where it struck. “Now would be a good time, duplicate.” Blaise threw her hand out to the side, waiting expectantly for her assistant to dole out a measure of the solution.
“Understood.” Alpha was prepared to show his mettle by approaching the murderously seething solution and reaching the vial out to it without fear. This would be a fine image once he opened the vial.
He hesitated. The stopper didn't simply pop out. He tried twisting it one way. And then the other. He'd been trying to keep his eyes on the table so as not to give away his confusion, but he was finally forced to raise the vial up to scrutiny. His hands felt huge and clumsy. He couldn't open it.
“Um...!”
“You imbecile!” Blaise shouted, and flung the test tube aside. As it arced through the air, not yet spilling so much as a droplet, Blaise shot to her feet. She grabbed the vial in Alpha's hand, and threw her free arm in a punch to his elbow. Having forcibly removed it from his grasp, she dashed his stoppered container to the ground.
There was the sound of breaking glass... that didn't seem to end. As the vial hit the floor, blue liquid shot out of all sides, forming a puddle. The liquid glowed for a moment, and then shot upward into a vitreous pillar. The other tube hit, and Blaise used her hold on Alpha's arm to leverage him into the space behind the newly-created obstruction. She slammed him into it, quite a bit rougher than was necessary, and turned away.
After a brief pause, there was a loud bang as the reaction went critical. Alpha threw up his hands to cover his face. Glass shards sprayed through the room, a few hitting the pillar and leaving large slashes where they struck.
“Fortunately, we managed to preserve the base components for the production of further enhancers... On the more lamentable side of affairs, however, is the fact that in doing so, we expended all of our halting agent.” Blaise began to chew Alpha out, even with their ears still ringing from the blast. “Do you have so much as a notion of the amount of time and resources that I'll need to dedicate to synthesizing another cubic centimeter, never mind an entire accumulation of great enough quantity to undertake this procedure once again?”
She turned away, picking a shard of glass out of the desk as she sat down once more. She glanced around as if to verify that nothing was damaged before beginning to fuss with a container of clear fluid.
“Honestly, duplicate. I had presumed that the condition under which I had appropriated you was restitution for the time and effort expended when the progenitor-Brogue had spoliated my information about the Empiric school of mystic arts. However, it seems that the progenitor has bestowed me with little more than a white elephant of an aid... I do not comprehend whether this action is merely in spite of me, or if even the original has such as a gross level of incompetence, but I am most assuredly not amused with these antics.”
Somewhere amid Blaise’s words, Alpha had tried at least once to slip in an “I’m sorry.” But now that she’d turned her attention away from him, he found he wasn’t going to be able to repeat it in the silence.
He stood still for another moment, looking at the floor, then went to the closet to bring out a mop, bucket, dustpan and brush.
While he was sweeping the glass shards up, a couple of sentences that were not quite text and not quite speech entered his mind.
Buddy. My number-one guy. How’s it going?
ISHKABIBBLE
SCENE ZERO
Paolo Undertakes Preparations to Look the Part of a Made Man
SCENE ZERO
Paolo Undertakes Preparations to Look the Part of a Made Man
Saturday the 14th
1:46 am
Halfway around the world, in Winstone City, Terrian Brogue strode up the sidewalk toward the parking garage. His hair was ruffled. Busy night. Though he hadn’t stopped being surprised at how placid this city seemed when you were out on the street at the darkest hours. Not a soul in sight. Puritanical, that was the word. All the exciting things in Winstone happened indoors.
Ugly night, too, honestly. He couldn’t see the stars through the thick clouds overhead. The moon was a pallid dot. But was he in a mood for meteorological griping? No, Terrian was not. He felt much too good for that. Also too tired. Meteorological griping demanded energy.
Alpha’s response came in: Complaining is a useless diversion.
Isn’t it, though? I was just thinking that. How’s our mutual friend? You’d tell me if she were experimenting on you to give you superpowers or something, right?
She hasn’t expressed any interest in my physical person.
Terrian chuckled as he crossed to the next block. Just busywork, then. Hope that’s not too demanding.
There was a slight pause. Terrian waited for the bad news; he had come to expect slight pauses like this whenever Alpha was irritated. Poor guy. A red car wheeled slowly past, the first to do so in a while. Terrian squinted under the harsh headlights, and was still blinking as he received Alpha’s next reply.
It’s simple work, but plentiful. Her instructions occupy me so thoroughly, in fact, that I haven’t had a day’s free time to go study the English and French dialects in New Orleans. I think I recall you telling me that would be one of the perks of service to Ms. Euler.
No kidding? Um… sorry about that. Terrian faltered, then hit on a change of course. So what about her, anyway? Mention me at all?
Why, yes. At last check, she thinks you’re either an idiot or you have an awful sense of humor.
“Either”-“or”, now? Nice! I knew you’d make some progress there…
But a quick response from Alpha, New task. Must talk to her, cut the conversation short.
Terrian had reached the parking garage by now anyway. He passed the ticket booth, unmanned and automatic, and moved toward the stairs to the second level, where his car was parked.
Grubby place, this garage. He’d thought so about the buildings outside, too. This wasn’t the rich part of Winstone City. Classy architecture, like that fancy hotel with the Italian name, was not on display around these parts. All the more reason to hasten back to his lovely new home and get some sleep.