faderift | (Open) They'll steal your patents for the sun

Entry tags:

(Open) They'll steal your patents for the sun

WHO: Cosima and YOU
WHAT: Open post/catchall
WHEN: Kingsway
WHERE: Gallows and environs
NOTES: Prose or brackets are fine. If you want to talk about another scenario/your wildcard ideas before diving in, DM me or hit me up on plurk/discord. All comers welcome!

I. Infirmary

It's almost easy to forget that she's not in good health, sometimes, which Cosima supposes does credit to spirit healing. But she also never misses her twice-monthly appointments, too conscious of the potential consequences. Since she's here anyway, she brings a few goodies from the kitchen for people well enough to have them but not well enough to fetch them on their own. She's conscious of people who seem to want to be left alone and people who could use a friendly word. And of course, by now she knows the regulars, staff and otherwise.

II. Cosima's lab, the Gallows

Damn, Cosima, back at it again with the microscope. Ever since the phylactery negotiations -- and arguably, since Tevinter, though Cosima wasn't even there herself -- she's thrown herself into her work, harder than ever. They still have so much to learn, and it feels like the conflict is multiplying faster than they can keep up sometimes. She's doing her best, and frustrated she can't do more, though she keeps the latter sentiment to herself.

III. Docks

There's nearly always activity at the docks, so it takes some doing to find a spot that isn't in anyone's way. But Cosima has managed it, and is using her find to watch the water. She's alert enough to her surroundings, since it never pays to let your guard down out and about in Kirkwall, especially as a rifter. But the water makes her feel better. Not like home. It demonstrably isn't home. But as if it's a place that at least makes sense to her.

IV. Wildcard

[Choose your own adventure.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's nice. I mean, we're all busy most of the time, as we should be with the cultists and the wars and everything, but... sometimes it's nice to take a minute and look around, you know?"

Maybe he doesn't, actually, but she still thinks her point is valid.

"And, hey. Lots of things in this world aren't familiar, but the ocean is still an ocean."

"I... suppose. I don't usually allow myself time to relax. If I spend too much time idle I begin to get a bit..."

He pauses, not sure how to phrase this. He didn't really intend to go down this route of conversation, but it's started all of a sudden and here he is.

"...stir crazy? I start wanting to do things. Not just... sit. No offense intended, of course."

"None taken. Sitting still doesn't really come naturally to me either. Though they did studies, on my world. Taking time to sit still, to make yourself calm in a disciplined way... it's supposed to make you healthier. Better able to focus the rest of the time."

She shrugs.

"People aren't designed to operate only under stress all the time, but Thedas is pretty inherently stressful. I'd argue in general, but especially for Rifters. I think it's important to try not to burn out."

"Some of what I do involves just sitting, of course, but I'm usually reading. Or taking notes..." Alacruun furrows his brow. He isn't used to unburdening himself - even in part - to others. So even something this innocuous feels a little strange to him and it probably shows on his face.

"What you say about stress is true, but I also can't let myself sit still while I'm here. I don't want to say stuck, but I want to find solutions. And i think I frustrate myself more while waiting around."

He glances down at her with a little frown of consideration, "Although if they've conducted studies, maybe there is something to it."

"Hey, I'm also not saying sit still for days. Or even a day. Just maybe half an hour, then you can go back to it. I'd get stir-crazy without work to do too, frankly. Usually I'm in my lab. But this isn't waiting, it's recharging. Going back to your work with a fresh mind, you know?"

Maybe he didn't, based on his resistance to the idea.

"You said while you're here. Did you sit still back home?"

"At times. I was a researcher and a scholar and that involves a lot of filtering through dusty libraries and being bent over desks while scratching out notes. It involves a great deal of sitting, at least when not browsing..."

Alacruun shrugs.

"So on my time off, I tend to want to do different things. But at times... contemplation and meditation do help clear the mind."

"What kind of research did you do? I mean, I realize I may not totally have the background, but to the extent you can explain." She's honestly curious.

"Magical research, mostly," Alacruun responds with a low hum of consideration, "Trying to track down the origins of certain spells and components, tracing it all back to the origin - the very first uses of that magic. It was... interesting."

And also looking for eternal life. That kind of thing.

"Ah. I've had to pick up magic as I go, here. My world doesn't have any. Or, I guess, if it does it's really well-hidden." One never knew; Newt's world could be hers viewed from a different angle, but she doubts it. "But it's not entirely different. I traced things back to the origins too, or tried. Life, instead of magic."

"The origins of life?" Alacruun arches a brow, "That's certainly a rather large question. Not one I was interested in myself, but it's certainly a fascinating one. Did you have much success?"

She smiles a bit. "I mean, I wasn't getting to the bottom of it all by myself, from scratch. It's a field with centuries of foundation behind it. But yeah, some. My research was about..." Cosima considers how to describe it; she's done it a few times in Thedas and she's still not sure she's been successful.

"If you started with two organisms that were physically identical in every respect, and exposed them to different stimuli, they might end up physically different. Like, my sister and I are twins, but I need lenses to sharpen my vision and she doesn't. But what I'm studying is on a much smaller scale."

"Ah, I see..." Alacruun thinks he grasps the idea, although he's not quite sure he entirely agrees with all of its conclusions. Then again, he's also not foolish enough to simply dismiss the idea without doing his own observation and testing. Of course, he's also not strictly a scientist so much as a scholar.

"Smaller scale? In what way? Narrowed down to a particular origin? Or studying a particular organism?"

"Kind of neither, kind of both. We can look at very small samples of tissue, too small to see without equipment. That also allows us to get a look at the earliest stages of development, and we can see similarities between development of different kinds of animals. Different scholars in my field have different approaches, but a lot of my specialty has to do with identifying differences and similarities."

She's been describing her research for years, now, and it feels... oddly distant, these days. She's almost wistful.

"That sounds vaguely familiar. A bit like all research, really - you look for the differences, for the aberrations, and then you follow them, to find out the why and the how and to see who originally wrote it down that way..."

He pauses with a laugh.

"Well, at least in my line of work. Studying life... there isn't usually someone who 'wrote' it, although sometimes the gods have meddled..."

"Yeah, it's not... we don't work from the assumption that there was a personal will behind what happened, at home. Our working theory, which I think is pretty sound, is that the animals that are better at having offspring who survive into adulthood are the ones who pass on their heritable traits. So if an animal happens to be a little faster or better at eating certain kinds of plants or something, they're more likely to survive long enough to have kids who have those advantages."

She shrugs. "Science is a method. It should work here as well as anywhere. We're just working with a different framework."

"That does make a certain amount of sense when explained so simply," Alacruun makes a low noise of approval, "That sounds... well, it is a relatively simple concept. Easily grasped and there's logic to it. I'm sure you've more evidence for it than that, but even just hearing it, I can't say that it necessarily sounds wrong."

He cocks his head to one side to regard her for a moment.

"I cannot say I am a scientist with any reasonable degree of seriousness; I'm a scholar, if anything. A researcher. But I think you and your companions in your homeworld do a service to your people."

She looks pleased, as much at getting her point across well as at the praise. "All sorts of research are important. I know really little about magic, for what it's worth. But yeah, I've been thinking. If -- when -- we get Corypheus taken care of, I can't do exactly what I did at home. It needs equipment that I can't duplicate in Thedas. But maybe I'll work on seeing if there's evidence that evolution works the same way, here. Become a naturalist."

"An admirable goal, but..." He cocks his head. He's curious and his eyes spark.

"You don't think they'll find a way to send us back after this is all over? Resigning yourself to life here?"

A pause.

"Or is it you would rather not go back?"

She rubs the back of her neck, absently. "Neither, exactly. It's, um. I've been here for more than two years, and I've seen a lot of people come and go. But I haven't seen anything to convince me that they can send us back on purpose, or that we can control how that works. Maybe that'll change one day, or maybe I'll go involuntarily, but I can't plan for that."

Cosima shrugs, a bit. "No one knows, yet, how long one of us might be here. But I think my time is better spent assuming I might stay than hoping I might go and not having anything to do about it."

"That is... unfortunate. Or maybe not unfortunate, just frustrating. I'd hoped to be able to go home one day, but..."

Alacruun shrugs, "If I don't, I can't imagine that I'll be too put out. Things are... better here, even with the thread of annihilation hanging over all of us."

"It's different for everybody, I guess? Where you come from, what you're leaving. Though I hope you're not offended if I point out things must have sucked pretty bad if Corypheus is a step up."

She's not trying to pry, but it's an invitation to share. If he wants it.

"It's a long story. Suffice to say I was unjustly imprisoned, with very few prospects for escaping..." Alacruun's expression tugs into a frown, "Here, at least, I have the capability of free action. I am at relative liberty. It is... much better. Even with the threat of annihilation hanging over one's head."

"Hey, I'm sorry. That's rough." She's quiet, then adds, "I'm sick, and they can treat it here, even if they can't cure it. There's not a treatment, where I come from. So... I don't know. If I'd go if I was given the choice." She smiles, quick and almost apologetic. "Kind of a downer topic, but... I think it's something not a lot of Rifters talk about. That some of us might be better off here."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(Open) They'll steal your patents for the sun

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject