smashrising | Group Theory and Experimentation

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Group Theory and Experimentation

Who: Gordon, Shantae, Ronnae
What: SCIENCE! And other antics.
Where: The mansion basement labs.
When: End of Summer
Warnings: Good ideas, bad ideas, non-traditional relationships, big honkin' lasers.

"Hey, could you hand me that micrometer?"

The Labs had definitely taken shape over the past few months. What once was a large empty basement was now abuzz with diodes and tracks, makeshift displays made out of old televisions and projectors. Gordon was proud of how far it had come, and he was thankful for Ronnae's help. The half-elf was startlingly brilliant.

He was thankful for Shantae being there too, but, to put it gently, that had nothing to do with helpfulness. She was a walking disaster in the lab, but she was such a lovely disaster that it was well worth cleaning up after her. Besides, she was getting better. They haven't accidentally summoned any monsters in weeks...

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Shantae had figured out that the best place for her to be while in the lab with Gordon was sitting at the side. Ever since that time she decided to surprise him by wearing just a lab coat for him, she figured out that PERHAPS he didn't need her help. That poor monster... Instead, she sat on a desk, kicking her legs, watching the scientists work with rapt attention. She was fascinated by what they were doing, even if she didn't understand it beyond the absolute basics.

"So you guys are working on a laser...?" she asked, hoping she understood.

Ronnae handed over the micrometer without skipping a beat on her own work, so much so she didn't even need to look at what she had just handed over. You'd swear at first glance that it'd be a miracle for anyone to find anything remotely precise in the number of gadgets and tools all over but for Gordon and Ronnae it seemed as second nature as breathing. "Here ya go," she voiced as she tightened a few more bolts and went over some notes before smiling.

"Oh, it'll be more than that! But yes, a laser would be an accurate observation!"

"There are countless experiments that we can do with columnated photons. And that's even before we turn the thing up to 11 and burn a hole through the island, which, let's be honest, we probably will."

He finishes filing down the part he's been working on to within tolerance, and turns with it in his hands, nearly bumping into Ronnae. "Oh, uh, sorry." He mutters, their bodies still in close proximity.

Shantae giggled at them as they excitedly spoke of their project. She didn't feel she had a hope in figuring out what they were really doing, but their explanations certainly got her excited enough. She smiled eagerly, watching them work.

But then there was that close brush. Gordon so close to Ronnae... They had such a natural rhythm together. They worked together so well that Shantae couldn't help but smile. What beautiful machinery they could make together... "Not used to working so close to a pretty girl?" Shantae asked Gordon with a laugh.

"No worries, I got it," she responded eagerly as she snatched a few tools that slid with the bump. "But yes! The posibilities are pretty close to endless! I can't wait to get all of these running at full speed! We might be even able to get some pretty great improvements to overall everyday life around here!" Yeah, techwork always got the girl in a more confident, cheerful mood.

Even Shantae's comment flew right over her head as she assumed she was talking about herself and not about Ronnae which was clearly closer than her. "I'm sure he appreciates having you here," she said with a smile. "We get inspiration from all places, those we care about are great catalysts for it!"

"Gjh." Gordon said in response to Shantae's query. Oh he knew exactly who Shantae was taking about. He admitted, he'd been intrigued by the green half-elf girl for quite some time. She seemed too young and fragile to handle as anything beyond a lab parter, however. On top of that, he isn't sure how to respond when he hears that sort of thing from his own girlfriend. He chuckled nervously, and sidled past to set the part aside.

"They, they certainly are." He added to Ronnae's statement. "It'll perfect power transmission throughout the mansion--we need to get to work on that reactor, by the way." He added as an aside.

"I know he appreciates me here," Shantae replied, chuckling and holding her hand to her mouth. "Well... MOST of the time at least!" she joked, winking at Gordon. They knew exactly what she meant by that. She could be quite a distraction when he wanted to work, both in the "asks too many questions" sense, and the "mercilessly teases and flirts with him until he hefts her onto a work bench and makes love to her" sense. She made no apologies either way.

But there was definitely something there when she brought up Ronnae and Gordon's proximity. His terse little reaction said it all. She couldn't deny that she thought Ronnae was beautiful, and her own leanings might have taken her in that direction if she hadn't fallen like a rock for Gordon. She wondered... "That means you'll be able to get more of the electrical stuff working again?" she asked, going along with curiosity about their task more than curiosity about Gordon and Ronnae's "compatibility".

"Indeed! On both accounts!" she responded to both Gordon's statement about the mansion and Shantae's curious question. "Once we're done we can get everything up and running and more!" she seemed pretty cheerful about it.

"With everything we salvaged from around the mansion and the basement, we have more than enough to not only fix, but improve even!" she winked and gave a thumbs up. "I can't wait to get everything going again, and see what else we can make!"

"Now the question is, what kind of reactor to use."

He sets the gizmo he had been working on into the cabinet.

"I've been meaning to ask. How does magic fare for power generation? If it were up to me, I'd make a good old-fashioned fission reactor and see where it goes from there, but we don't exactly have an endless desert to store the waste in here..."

"Not sure what to tell you from my end," Shantae replied. "Where I come from, the height of technology was a steam engine," she added, kicking her legs as she leaned forward on the table.

"Are you kidding me? Magic is THE best reagent for power generation." she wiped at her brow with the back of her hand and smiled confidently. "And magitech's one of my specialties. We just need to make sure the host or source magic to be either neutral or non-chaotic in nature."

She paused in thought for a moment. "I mean, we can use the volatile ones too, we just need a good enough catalyst and encasing to be able to withstand any spikes in output."

"What kind qualifies as 'volatile?'"

He leans against the lab table. Now this is interesting to him. The magitech of Ronnae's world is a complete mystery to him, one that he would love to pursue.

"For that matter, how do you use magic at all, there? How does it work?"

Edited 2016-09-01 07:03 (UTC)

"I think she means dark magic," Shantae added. "I've had my own experiences with dark magic, and it's not something you want to mess with. But if it's magic you need, I've got plenty on tap!" she said. "Don't forget, you're talking to a half-genie here!"

"Volatile, you know, chaotic magic." she stood straight and put her hands on her hips as she thought, looking at both. "Yes, dark magic has a tendency of being volatile. But magic in general, of all types can be volatile depending on its own unique personality." she paused, looking for a way to explain.

"See, younger magic tends to be more excitable, curious and very much rebelliuous, but doesn't mean there aren't calm ones. And in that same regard, ancient magic can be very unreasonable and unwilling to be bound or share essence which can make it very dangerous. Now chaos magic... that one's the most powerful but hardest to harvest a stable source of. This of course can change from world to world, I'm just basing my research on what I've personally experience or studied at lenght."

She did look to Shantae and smiled. "I mean, if you don't mind... I can definitely study whatever you can provide and do some field tests!"

"That sounds like how you would describe people in general, as well as magic." He observes, returning his attention to Shantae.

"You'd let us use your magic that way? I admit, I haven't considered drawing power from a living thing..."

And he isn't sure how he feels about that living thing being her. He's far from squeamish, but there's something brutal about the idea...

"Well, if it were anyone else, I'd say no," Shantae explained. "Well, anyone other than you or my uncle. But I trust you guys to be careful. I can at least see if I can use my magic to help out. And if nothing else, I can try granting a wish!" she offered, trying to sound helpful.

Ronnae thought for a moment, her face sinking a bit. She didn't consider Shantae's state or effects by sharing some of the magic. She only knew of the effects from magical beings back home.

"I... that's true I didn't know it would be different from home." She bowed low apologetically. "Most powerful creatures back home... sharing magic is like a drop in a bucket, or trimming nails I... I figured Shantae was really powerful herself so I didn't think ahead. I'm really sorry."

She bowed again looking down but not as she normally would have as she shared an awkward smile. "I let my mind take hold and run on overdrive when tinkering... Guess I should think ahead better."

"It's fine, Ronnae. Hell, that's what I like about you." He says, tapping her chin up gently. "You think like I do. Well, like I did. Back in my world, that is. Besides, maybe she IS that powerful. Let's be honest, you'd know better than I would."

He lingers at Ronnae's face for small while, then glances at Shantae.

"Wishes. You know, I keep forgetting you can even do that?" He adds with a chortle. "Might just be easier to wish up an endless power source. That's... ah... how it works, right?"

He doesn't know, and he keeps forgetting that magic makes the second law of thermodynamics more of a vague guideline than anything.

Oooooh. Shantae DEFINITELY noticed that... She squirmed a bit in place, trying not to grin too brightly. She had to do something about this...

But for now. "I don't think I'd be able to do that," she replied. "I'm only a half-genie. My wishes can't exactly be large scale, otherwise I could just wish us off the island and back to our worlds. I can do some things though."

Ronnae smiled appreciatively, it was more comforting to be reassured that it's okay to just be herself than anything else and she gave a nod. Though, she did raise a finger up and shook her head. "I'm not fond of relying on wish spells and similar magical requests." She looked to Shantae and smiled apologetically, "Not that I don't trust you!" she made sure to state that as fact cause really, she totally trusted Shantae.

"It's just... Wish magic, or Miracle magic can be very... testy. And it's with good cause, I mean, if you could just wish for anything without any problems or catch then... I'm not sure things would go well for most." Cause it was generally those with negative ambitions that got their hands on those kinds of power. "So, no offense you know?"

"What can you do?" He asks to Shantae, then after thinking about the wording of the question: "I mean, what kinds of things have you done before?"

"Well, I've only ever granted two wishes before," Shantae explained. "The first time, I granted Mayor Scuttlebutt's wish to restore Scuttle Town to how it was before the Ammo Baron weaponized it. Then I granted Hajime's wish to turn himself back into a human after Eggman turned him into a robot."

Ronnae thought for a few, arms crossed and head tilted as she pondered the actions explained. "So a time shift and a repolymerization? Those are good and not finicky enough to warrant too much worry. Magic should always be respected no matter what though, even when drawing or manipulating it." Which was something she was very adept at through her engineering.

"I mean, whatever you guys want we can definitely work out together!" That's what teams did!

"Right. Ronnae, why don't you take a couple measurements of Shantae's power, and work out a reactor system based on that? It sounds like you've done it before, so I figure it won't take more than a few days. In the meantime, I'll build a housing unit and start working on the transformer system and an, eh... extraction chamber."

...

"I wish there was a better way to phrase it."

"Just be careful," Shantae reminded them, hopping off her seat. "Even a fragment of stray genie magic can be dangerous if misused. But I don't think I need to tell you guys that!"

"But this is kinda fun, isn't it? The three of us, working... very closely... together?" Shantae said, trying not to smirk too broadly as she said it.

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