Subject: "Repeated experiments tend to produce wildly different results."
Author:
Posted on: 2018-11-05 23:03:23 UTC
"So either there is some factor I am not controlling for, or things are just that unpredictable."
Subject: "Repeated experiments tend to produce wildly different results."
Author:
Posted on: 2018-11-05 23:03:23 UTC
"So either there is some factor I am not controlling for, or things are just that unpredictable."
The annual PPC Halloween party was slowly ramping up. In the back, tables were piled high with candies, cakes, and more substantial food for those feeling responsible; the punch gave off an eerie green glow. There was an array of tables filling about half the room, at which several agents were sitting and talking. Technician Tomash had just finished setting up the jack-o-lantern speakers, which had been dug out of a closet somewhere for the occasion, and was now off hiding in a corner somewhere.
Tom wandered over. "I can get that. This one 'ere didn't take much either." He indicated his cloak. "Only problem is it still probably shows too much face..."
He shook himself. "Where are my manners? I'm Tom Andrews, DF. You two are...?"
... to realize that the vaguely familiar woman's comment was directed at him, and then another to realize Gall had come after him. Because of course she had. He stifled a groan, gave a weak (not to say watery) smile, and raised a hand in acknowledgement, then gave his entire attention to piling a plate with anything that met his standards of nutritional value. Cravings or not, that was his child in there, and he was feeding it as well as he could.
Gall, meanwhile, was grinning fit to bust at the reaction. "Hey, thanks! You're, uh..." She snapped her fingers a few times, thinking. "What's her face... Buttercup? And the Dread Pirate Westley, right?"
Charlotte curtseyed neatly, beaming from ear to ear. "Though nobody would really fear the Dread Pirate Westley. The Dread Pirate Roberts, on the other hand..."
"It's fine, Lottie," Ix said quietly. "Don't worry about it—"
"I'm not worrying, I'm just making small talk," Charlotte protested. "You guys were Green Lantern and Hawkwoman last year, right?"
"We were there, though," Charlotte said, not noticing Ix's shoulders hunching further. "I had a bit of a different face at the time, though—lost the vampirism, became human. Good stuff." She raised her eyebrows. "So you two are...?"
((She morphed in November last year, so she is indeed human here. :P
The precise definition of their relationship, whatever it was, had never factored into her pursuit of it. None of the words she could think of were quite correct by themselves, so she threw out correctness, shrugged, and said proudly, "We're f---ing. This here?" She ran a hand over her belly. "That guy." She nodded toward Derik. "First time! At least, I'm pretty sure it was the first time. He was all skittish for a while afterward, and Medical says the little sucker's definitely four months now." She stroked her bump fondly.
"That's great," she said, forcing cheer into her voice. "Congratulations, you guys. I'm really happy for you. Boy or girl?"
Ix turned away to the buffet table, face burning. She couldn't listen to this right now, it was too painful. She edged towards Derik, awkwardly reaching past him towards the peanut butter cups. "Sorry," she muttered. "'Scuse me, sorry..."
Ix's hands shook as she took her food, and she had to remind herself that she was wearing gloves—he had no proper way of telling it was her. "She's really excited. I think it's sweet."
It took Charlotte a moment to remember Gall's home continuum. "Well, I think Dogbreath is pretty good for where you come from," she said. "But it doesn't sound like something that'd fit Derik's home continuum?" She hugged herself, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in her chest. "Maybe you two could find something that would be a compromise."
Ix ducked her head, turning her shoulders away from Derik. "Sorry, I'm not looking to bother you."
Charlotte shook her head. "Hey, nothing wrong with the names from your home canon," she said. "I'm just... a bit jealous, that's all." She glanced back at Ix, wistfulness on her face.
Charlotte sighed, glancing up at Derik as he returned. Ix lingered by the food table, looking no more morose than normal, so she figured she wasn't too upset by her conversation with Derik.
"We can't have kids," Charlotte said. "Well. She can't. It's a bit of a sore spot for her, especially since I want one..."
"Nowhere to keep the baby," Charlotte said. "And the, uh, problem translates over, using the disguise generator. She's been tested. I know adopting's still a thing, but it's... more the fact we wouldn't have any other option, you know?"
Charlotte didn't look wholly convinced, though. "Still doesn't change the fact Ix couldn't..." She shook her head. "Sorry, this is supposed to be a party! I shouldn't be making the mood so glum. Derik," she said, touching his arm. "I never got the chance to properly congratulate you, too."
"I was Christine, Ix was the Phantom, and there was this huge kerfuffle with a Space Marine—don't tell me you don't remember her, at least." She jerked her head at Ix, who had frozen in front of a platter of canapés, eyes huge behind her mask.
The Aviator stopped beside them, readjusting her grip on Elanor. Mother and daughter were dressed as the Fourth Doctor and Romana respectively, with Elanor looking like a tiny doll in her hot pink coat and long white scarf. Zeb trailed behind them, adjusting his headband with its K-9 ears.
"I'm more a fan of Ajani Goldmane, myself," the Aviator continued, grinning.
"He's a big lion like Uncle Zeb!" Elanor added.
"That's right!" the second said. "I like Ajani too, but he wasn't in the cards tonight." Was that a snort from the first man? No, it couldn't be. His expression didn't seem to have chamged at all, and surely it would have had to.
The second smiled at Elanor when she spoke. He glanced at Zeb, and those ears did look like they might be vaguely lionlike. Maybe. Sort of. "Well, since you know who we are tonight, who are you dressed as?" he asked the small girl.
... the perfect imitation was completely lost on those who hadn't ever heard K-9. However, it did have a certain robotic quality that was rather impressive. And it certainly didn't hurt that it had been preceded by a twirl that could only be described as adorable . It was quite tempting for the shorter, he who was dressed as Liliana, to say so out loud, but some children could be touchy about that...
"And which Doctor is your mother?" he asked, crouching down in front of her. "Is she... the tenth?" One in thirteen odds weren't that bad, right?
"She's the Fourth Doctor," she said, folding her arms.
The Aviator put a hand on Elanor's shoulder. "I'm guessing you're not too familiar with the show," she said, a half-smirk of amusement on her face.
"I haven't ever seen it," he said, laughing a little as he looked up at the Aviator. "I'm afraid the only thing I know about Doctor Who is that the Doctor can regenerate if he dies and that Moffat is a scourge upon the continuum when nobody reins him in."
"Moffat actually did a pretty bang-up job his last season," the Aviator said. "But for the most part..."
"The air turns blue when she's watching Eleven's run," Zeb stage-whispered.
"Mummy says lots of bad words when she thinks I can't hear!" Elanor piped up. The Aviator facepalmed.
"Maybe I should be glad it might be a while before we can expand our canon list." He glanced up over his shoulder at his partner. "Doctor Who is in... what's the phrase... in our court?"
"As good a term as any," the taller man replied. "However, speaking of our list..." he trailed off as his partner raised his hand, then gestured around them. He-Who-Was-Dressed-As-Chandra raised an eyebrow, and was answered by one from his partner. He nodded slightly, and a slight smile flickered over his face.
He curtsied to Elanor - oh rays how did people manage to do this all the time without stepping on their dresses and tripping themselves. "An honor, Your Highness," he said, before turning to Zeb, accepting the offered hand. "And it's nice to meet you, Zeb! I'm Dilx'Sav'Te'Rin, although most people just call me Dilx, and this is my partner, Animus."
Animus gave both the Aviator and Zeb a cool, appraising look for a moment, then seemed satisfied. "Well met," he said, inclining his head slightly to them.
She held out her arms to him, clearly begging to be picked up. "Your name is pretty long! Not as long as mine, though!"
The Aviator inclined her head in turn to Animus. "And you," she said. "What department are you in? We're DMS."
"Oh, I wish," he sighed. "Pyroars have the best manes. Nah, I'm a Luxray. Well, normally." He pulled off his headband, flicking one of the K-9 ears. "Right now I'm a robot dog."
"K-9. I should have guessed," he said. "And Luxray manes seem pretty good to me! Of course, maybe I'm not the best person to ask. I'm still getting used to this, after all." He reached back and tugged on one of his violet locks.
"Whoa," he said. "That isn't your actual hair, is it? Or do you mean you just haven't gotten used to it for tonight? It looks really cool, either way!"
"I'm actually in disguise too," he said. "I usually don't have any hair at all. It would look really weird to you if I did, and to... basically anybody else."
Zeb folded his hands shyly. "If it's not rude of me to ask..."
Elanor tugged gently on Dilx's hair. "I like your hair," she declared.
He was dressed as Gandalf, with a wizard hat, gray cloak, and staff replacing his usual black robes.
"Happy Halloween! I think. Still not sure how happy this is supposed to be."
“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty happy!”
Lemon put her on her partner’s shoulder. “Chelsea, please.” She looked concernedly to the wizard. “Is something wrong?”
"I was not sure if 'Happy Halloween' was appropriate, since this holiday seems to have some connection to death."
“Do you mean ghosts? Or spirits?”
"That sort of thing seems to have been the origin of this holiday, at least in my reading."
“I guess the ‘Happy’ in ‘Happy Halloween’ isn’t appropriate?” Chelsea said, shrugging. “I dunno, it’s not like we’re celebrating death or dying, right?”
"From what I can tell, we are celebrating having time away from work and decent food."
“I’m off to go get some!” With that, Chelsea walked towards the food table. She stopped and looked back. “You guys coming?”
Lemon looked to Peregrin.
"I am, uh, ... what was your name?"
“I’m Lemon.” Lemon pointed to her partner. “And that’s my partner, Chelsea.”
"And I am Peregrin, with Mary Sues." he replied.
"Where are you from, Lemon?"
(( Sorry, forgot to actually hit post ))
“Though, if you’re asking about which department here, it’s Mary Sues.”
"So, what do you work on outside of missions?"
“We’re in the Video Games Division, so we play video games to expand our canon knowledge. Other than that, I step outside our RC for a jog or to train.”
"That was more my former partner. I mainly try to learn how plotholes work. It has not been going well."
“Plotholes seem to be an interesting sort of phenomenon.”
“Here we are!” At the food table, Chelsea waved to Lemon and Peregrin. “Food!”
and started off by grabbing some salad.
"Yes, plotholes are very interesting things. The problem is that, for all I know, they are actively resisting research efforts. Not a problem I ever expected to have."
“They are?” Lemon questioned while grabbing a slice of pumpkin bread. “How so?”
Chelsea listened in as she grabbed a cupcake that had a spiderweb drawn over black frosting.
"So either there is some factor I am not controlling for, or things are just that unpredictable."
“That’s weird.”
Lemon wordlessly agreed.
“So what kind of experiments did you do?” Although the mask’s maw blocked Chelsea’s mouth, her smile was evident.
"When holes tend to appear, where they go, interesting energy emissions, that sort of thing. It helps that I have access to a lot of data while on missions and in HQ."
"Yeah, Grecian! It was... Iskandar! Yeah, that's it. Although apparently the actual man looked nothing like this..." Ferrux laughed. "Don't ask me, I haven't got a clue... But yes, I really am a dragon. And yes, Ialthos really is a knight."
"...You never let me explain for myself..." Ialthos grumbled good-naturedly. "But yeah, I'm a night. I'm dressed as Halt, apparently. People say I'm a discount Ranger, so I went all in. No idea who you guys are, but you certainly look pretty good for it."
"And Ferrux the Dragon!" The big man looked down at the kids, grinning broadly. "Hey, you guys look cool! What are scouts? How did you make the costumes? Where do you come from? What are your names! I'm dressed as Iskandar! Can you tell me anything about him? I honestly don't know much, everyone just says I look like him, so I figured why not..."
"Excuse him," said Ialthos, sighing quietly. "He always gets like this around kids."
Leonidas nodded solemnly. "Truth be told, I like to think I was much the same. In terms of leading by example."
Sammy snorted at the boys' joke, then added, "It must have been so different to live in those times."
Well, the clatter of heels, and the wordless growl that accompanied it. And the shouts of, "Look out!" and "Get out of the way!" and one shout of, "YOUR BANGS!" That last was probably addressed to the person barreling towards them who probably had no idea where they were, given that they would have had to have x-ray vision to see through their hair. Thus, they were now bearing down on the siblings, and if they didn't move, there was going to be a collision. There would probably be one if they did move anyways, but it would be between the stranger and the wall instead.
"OhTruthI'msosorry," he said, before he'd even gotten off the ground. "Is anyone hurt? I didn't slam into anybody too hard did I?" He brushed his hair out of his eyes again. "OhTruththehorn. Nobody's impaled, right? Should I go get Medical?"
She paused before continuing: “I don’t think Edward’s seriously hurt, judging by the fact that he can still walk. Anyway, he’ll almost certainly pick up a much worse injury before the end of the night. Or he’ll seriously injure someone else. I was hoping to keep him away from the alcohol tonight.”
Thoth wrinkled his brow. "Apparently, that is how it is supposed to be pronounced in any case. I was... not aware of the intricacies of Ancient Terran when I chose the name."
"Go get some snacks, anycase," said Tom. "I saw some fun stuff over at the table..."
((Oooh, fun! I'll be interested in finding out sometime.))
Ian was tugging at him, and he was going along, but he got one last word in before turning and trotting off: "You better fly right, Dragonrider T'oth!"
(( So that happened. Mouths of babes, eh? ))
((I'll say. It was fun to see Henry bounce off this lot.))
Violet, wearing the wig she'd used in her Wonder Woman outfit the previous year, fake elf ears, and an overly shiny gray dress, waved at the two arrivals with the hand that wasn't holding a pumpkin spice donut. "A+ taste in movies for you both. Oh, and congratulations on getting married! I know I'm late to the party but I didn't get a chance to see you the last few months. If anyone asks it's my author's fault."