only prime number preceding a cube

@xon-epgha

potentially infinite

715 posts

Killing Matthew Patrick. Be right back.

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

union-of-mad-scientists

"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

union-of-mad-scientists

"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah, we go and check some doors," they nod. "For the record, emotional tiredness also requires rest. Though perhaps of a different sort."

She starts walking up to doors and waving the device around them. Most don't produce any appreciable signal, but there is one made of what may well be bone that produces a beep every three to four seconds.

"I don't think this ours, but it is the strongest reaction we've gotten thus far. Should we look inside?"

Meh. It's nothing. Really not a fan of the fact that it's made of bone, but sure. [Xon pulls out her sword again, the one made of blackened metal and pieced together with gold, and holds it at her side.] Uh, after you?

union-of-mad-scientists

"I mean, it could be animal bone... it's a good, lightweight, and durable material, if you can work it." She shrugs. "It could also just be suspiciously-colored, suspiciously fine-grained wood, or something... But sure."

They open the door.

The world beyond it is blanketed in snow, what they can see of it through the pillars encircling them. A fat man in a red fur suit with white trim is loading bulging sacks onto a sleigh pulled by hogs.

He turns to look at them, and he has a very pink face, tusks, and a steely gaze that was nonetheless somewhat friendly.

"agh," Mer says through a sniffle, "I gnow where thib ib. We need to go. allergiebs."

She runs back through the door, itching at her arm.

[Xon blinks twice at the snow, the pillars, and the... Santa... hog..(?), but quickly shuts the door behind her. She turns to Mer after she makes sure it's shut.] Are you okay? Do you need medical attention? Is there medication that you have to take? Damn, maybe I should lead the way next time to gauge for magic...

union-of-mad-scientists

"Lebt my epi in the lab," they say, "But it wad just ambient. Not fun, bud not life-threatening." She sneezes. Hives are forming on her forearms. "Should work itself out in an hour, I think. Or less. Just don't let me itch too much."

"Honestly, ambient magic doesn't normally affect me that strongly. The Disc is just almost more magic than matter, and that was a particularly suffused part of it - must be Hogswatch Eve over there too, which didn't help."

I'll try not to let you itch. Yeah, though... I don't really know what was going on with that world. Is it one of the stories you've read? (Hope we don't run into the fucking Project Wingman universe, if so...)

Also, dunno why the NADAR pinged it. No clue what's going on there... maybe something with the meta-meta-narrative..?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah. Well, I've read a few of them. And seen some of the movies... Igor really likes the books and he got me into them..." She rubs her face. "They started as a parody of 80s fantasy tropes, but then the author started logically extending those tropes into good worldbuilding and he was excellent at character work in general..."

They shake their head. "Anyway, I did say it was a weaker signal than our world would have. They have something of a narrative connection and now we know what that level of beeping means."

Ah, I see. Might have to pick them up someday for research.

[Xon looks over the device, then nods.] So, doors to probably just pop open and observe at most: beep every three or so seconds.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah. More often and we investigate further, less and we can probably ignore." They start walking again, holding the device up in front of them.

"Unless we see a really interesting one, of course. It almost never hurts to indulge curiosity."

Uh...

[Xon shakes her head to free up space, and begins to walk alongside them.] Yeah. Wonder what we'll find, honestly... if any of them will be worlds we've already been to. Or, well, that I'm aware of. I guess.

#(xon has tooo much brain fog to realize it)

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

union-of-mad-scientists

"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

union-of-mad-scientists

"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah, we go and check some doors," they nod. "For the record, emotional tiredness also requires rest. Though perhaps of a different sort."

She starts walking up to doors and waving the device around them. Most don't produce any appreciable signal, but there is one made of what may well be bone that produces a beep every three to four seconds.

"I don't think this ours, but it is the strongest reaction we've gotten thus far. Should we look inside?"

Meh. It's nothing. Really not a fan of the fact that it's made of bone, but sure. [Xon pulls out her sword again, the one made of blackened metal and pieced together with gold, and holds it at her side.] Uh, after you?

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"I mean, it could be animal bone... it's a good, lightweight, and durable material, if you can work it." She shrugs. "It could also just be suspiciously-colored, suspiciously fine-grained wood, or something... But sure."

They open the door.

The world beyond it is blanketed in snow, what they can see of it through the pillars encircling them. A fat man in a red fur suit with white trim is loading bulging sacks onto a sleigh pulled by hogs.

He turns to look at them, and he has a very pink face, tusks, and a steely gaze that was nonetheless somewhat friendly.

"agh," Mer says through a sniffle, "I gnow where thib ib. We need to go. allergiebs."

She runs back through the door, itching at her arm.

[Xon blinks twice at the snow, the pillars, and the... Santa... hog..(?), but quickly shuts the door behind her. She turns to Mer after she makes sure it's shut.] Are you okay? Do you need medical attention? Is there medication that you have to take? Damn, maybe I should lead the way next time to gauge for magic...

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"Lebt my epi in the lab," they say, "But it wad just ambient. Not fun, bud not life-threatening." She sneezes. Hives are forming on her forearms. "Should work itself out in an hour, I think. Or less. Just don't let me itch too much."

"Honestly, ambient magic doesn't normally affect me that strongly. The Disc is just almost more magic than matter, and that was a particularly suffused part of it - must be Hogswatch Eve over there too, which didn't help."

I'll try not to let you itch. Yeah, though... I don't really know what was going on with that world. Is it one of the stories you've read? (Hope we don't run into the fucking Project Wingman universe, if so...)

Also, dunno why the NADAR pinged it. No clue what's going on there... maybe something with the meta-meta-narrative..?

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"Yeah. Well, I've read a few of them. And seen some of the movies... Igor really likes the books and he got me into them..." She rubs her face. "They started as a parody of 80s fantasy tropes, but then the author started logically extending those tropes into good worldbuilding and he was excellent at character work in general..."

They shake their head. "Anyway, I did say it was a weaker signal than our world would have. They have something of a narrative connection and now we know what that level of beeping means."

Ah, I see. Might have to pick them up someday for research.

[Xon looks over the device, then nods.] So, doors to probably just pop open and observe at most: beep every three or so seconds.

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[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

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"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

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"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

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"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

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"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

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"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

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She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

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"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

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Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

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"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

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"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

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"Yeah, we go and check some doors," they nod. "For the record, emotional tiredness also requires rest. Though perhaps of a different sort."

She starts walking up to doors and waving the device around them. Most don't produce any appreciable signal, but there is one made of what may well be bone that produces a beep every three to four seconds.

"I don't think this ours, but it is the strongest reaction we've gotten thus far. Should we look inside?"

Meh. It's nothing. Really not a fan of the fact that it's made of bone, but sure. [Xon pulls out her sword again, the one made of blackened metal and pieced together with gold, and holds it at her side.] Uh, after you?

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"I mean, it could be animal bone... it's a good, lightweight, and durable material, if you can work it." She shrugs. "It could also just be suspiciously-colored, suspiciously fine-grained wood, or something... But sure."

They open the door.

The world beyond it is blanketed in snow, what they can see of it through the pillars encircling them. A fat man in a red fur suit with white trim is loading bulging sacks onto a sleigh pulled by hogs.

He turns to look at them, and he has a very pink face, tusks, and a steely gaze that was nonetheless somewhat friendly.

"agh," Mer says through a sniffle, "I gnow where thib ib. We need to go. allergiebs."

She runs back through the door, itching at her arm.

[Xon blinks twice at the snow, the pillars, and the... Santa... hog..(?), but quickly shuts the door behind her. She turns to Mer after she makes sure it's shut.] Are you okay? Do you need medical attention? Is there medication that you have to take? Damn, maybe I should lead the way next time to gauge for magic...

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"Lebt my epi in the lab," they say, "But it wad just ambient. Not fun, bud not life-threatening." She sneezes. Hives are forming on her forearms. "Should work itself out in an hour, I think. Or less. Just don't let me itch too much."

"Honestly, ambient magic doesn't normally affect me that strongly. The Disc is just almost more magic than matter, and that was a particularly suffused part of it - must be Hogswatch Eve over there too, which didn't help."

I'll try not to let you itch. Yeah, though... I don't really know what was going on with that world. Is it one of the stories you've read? (Hope we don't run into the fucking Project Wingman universe, if so...)

Also, dunno why the NADAR pinged it. No clue what's going on there... maybe something with the meta-meta-narrative..?

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[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

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"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

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"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

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"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

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"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

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"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

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She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

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"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

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Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

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"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

union-of-mad-scientists

"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah, we go and check some doors," they nod. "For the record, emotional tiredness also requires rest. Though perhaps of a different sort."

She starts walking up to doors and waving the device around them. Most don't produce any appreciable signal, but there is one made of what may well be bone that produces a beep every three to four seconds.

"I don't think this ours, but it is the strongest reaction we've gotten thus far. Should we look inside?"

Meh. It's nothing. Really not a fan of the fact that it's made of bone, but sure. [Xon pulls out her sword again, the one made of blackened metal and pieced together with gold, and holds it at her side.] Uh, after you?

union-of-mad-scientists

"I mean, it could be animal bone... it's a good, lightweight, and durable material, if you can work it." She shrugs. "It could also just be suspiciously-colored, suspiciously fine-grained wood, or something... But sure."

They open the door.

The world beyond it is blanketed in snow, what they can see of it through the pillars encircling them. A fat man in a red fur suit with white trim is loading bulging sacks onto a sleigh pulled by hogs.

He turns to look at them, and he has a very pink face, tusks, and a steely gaze that was nonetheless somewhat friendly.

"agh," Mer says through a sniffle, "I gnow where thib ib. We need to go. allergiebs."

She runs back through the door, itching at her arm.

[Xon blinks twice at the snow, the pillars, and the... Santa... hog..(?), but quickly shuts the door behind her. She turns to Mer after she makes sure it's shut.] Are you okay? Do you need medical attention? Is there medication that you have to take? Damn, maybe I should lead the way next time to gauge for magic...

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

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"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

union-of-mad-scientists

"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

union-of-mad-scientists

"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah, we go and check some doors," they nod. "For the record, emotional tiredness also requires rest. Though perhaps of a different sort."

She starts walking up to doors and waving the device around them. Most don't produce any appreciable signal, but there is one made of what may well be bone that produces a beep every three to four seconds.

"I don't think this ours, but it is the strongest reaction we've gotten thus far. Should we look inside?"

Meh. It's nothing. Really not a fan of the fact that it's made of bone, but sure. [Xon pulls out her sword again, the one made of blackened metal and pieced together with gold, and holds it at her side.] Uh, after you?

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

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"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

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"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

union-of-mad-scientists

"I hope you realize that the only reason I am not currently forcing you to rest is that I cannot," they say pointedly. "That, and I am sure it will be best for you if we just get home already, so you can rest without any anxiety about these circumstances hanging over you. But if you need, I am happy to try and carry you."

They start messing with the buttons and dials on the NADAR (because of course it had several).

"So, we're going to be playing hot-and-cold for a while here. We want to make it beep, and for the beeping to get faster paced."

I-I'm fine, it's more of an emotional tiredness than a physical one. I'm kind of morbidly curious what would happen to me if you tried to pick me up, though...

Er, ahem. Do we just go check some doors? That sounds fun. Could probably do that.

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

union-of-mad-scientists

"It was... a lot like being in a fugue state?" They hum. "Like, y'know when you're tired and everything blurs together? Only combined with a fever dream, the way things that shouldn't make sense or work at all did. And how the harder I try to remember those things, the more they slip away from me."

"Are you okay though, Xon?" she asks. "I'm sure that took some effort. Do you need to rest before we start walking around again?"

Yeah, I've been there... interesting. Glad it wasn't painful. Uh, I'm fine. [Xon seems to have bags under the place where her eyes should be, and she's a bit more hunched over than usual.] Enough. Fine enough. Let's... get going, yeah? I'll be fine.

#(girl you NEED a support network!!)

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

Mer's eyes flick to the more ephemeral Xon, but she tries to follow the tugging instead of paying her too much attention. The words are nonsense, but only if she allows herself to actually think about what they look like. Instead, she focuses on the shadows of ideas taking form in her mind.

They guide her hands, and she makes a device. Tests it. Tweaks it. And then again. Time blurs, a process that should have taken hours or even days or weeks condensed into mere moments.

Moments of clarity, that is, as Merlyn did feel like they were doing things between them. This was almost familiar, but there was more fuzz on their memories of those between-times than usual.

Eventually and all at once, in her hands was a device that would scan for and interpret narrative signals.

She blinks.

"Huh."

[Beads of ink perspire out of Xon's face and neck as she re-integrates into her timestream, but she wipes them away quickly.] Y. Yeah. Uh. I guess that's it. How was it?

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

union-of-mad-scientists

"I think that sounds fascinating, actually," they say, eyes lighting up. "If it helps us get home, then great! And I am very curious about the effects on my mind and memory, how similar it might feel to when I am in prolonged hyperfocus, or to taking psychedelics. Please, go ahead!" She gestures vaguely with the screwdriver in their hand.

"And once we're back I may want to ask you some questions about how all this feels to and works for you, if you're up for it."

O-Okay. But you have to stop it if you feel any resistance from your mind, yeah? Being broken like that is not pretty.

[Xon takes a deep breath, then sighs.] Alright. Starting the timeslip. [Brows furrowed, Xon seems to slip in and out of RGB space. Then, as Mer feels a tugging on her mind from what feels like a Wth axis, she jolts to a standing position and begins scribbling things on a piece of paper. Her form seems... more solid, almost, though most of the color has drained out of her -- as if she's a black-and-white inscription on a page. When she's finished scribbling, she shows the page to Mer -- just scribbles in the vague shape of text, incoherent -- and her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. The tugging intensifies, and a perception of a different, more ephemeral Xon flickers in and out of the void -- her actions puppeting the body in front of Mer.]

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

She blinks. "They would? But how do you even GET narrative readings? What does that even mean? Is it quantifiable???"

Merlyn starts to tap her fingers on her arm again.

"I mean, if we can get such readings, that should be much more reliable than anything else I can think of... It should at least get us back to a world with versions of the people I know, and many of those people are capable of doing the rest. But how to build such a device..."

They turn to Xon. "Do you have any more concrete information on these narrative readings you speak of?"

A-Ah. Um. [Xon takes a breath.]

Yeah, maybe? Though... this is more of me tapping into my instincts as a meta-being. Narrative contrivance and the sorta... like, cake-batter consistency of the narrative is something I naturally sift through and subtly twist. That door you just, uh, went through- it felt kind of acidic and uncomfortable, which does not help the fact that it has people there. But I wasn't able to tell until we actually opened the door and waited a bit, and I don't think anything would feel familiar to me, given I don't usually pay attention to it...

A-Anyways. I... kind of forgot you aren't. Like me. [Beat.] Oh, uh, I mean, just in that way. Still... maybe I could try, um. Montage-ing? If I can manipulate my own narrative, and you go along with the flow, it might be possible for me to pre-set a path we can follow where all the testing and failure ends up working out, and then sort of speed along that path. Might be hard to figure out how the thing works in retrospect, though, which would be bad for consistency... and I don't know how you'd feel, trying to intersect with your own narrative stream like that...

[She's thoroughly rambling at this point.] There's probably not any adverse effects to it- at least none that I can gauge to be likely. But it definitely doesn't feel good to step outside your own stream like that, at least for a long period of time. U-Uh, from experience. [Xon winces, just a touch.] And I don't know if we'd keep the memories of each individual moment during the montage-timeslip thing, which could be a bit existentially terrifying...

#(oops! shes a nerd!)

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

union-of-mad-scientists

"Not a transporter, there's not nearly enough here for that. Well, there is nearly enough, but what's missing are the most important parts. Like a better power-source than D-cell batteries." She grimaces.

"A GPS type of thing Could work, though..." Merlyn hums, and begins to assemble various bits and bobs in ways only comprehensible to her. "Or, not really GPS. That relies on satellites constantly observing the Earth, and we don't have something like that for this place. But a small device to aid in our sense of where we should go, absolutely."

They start to add in some wires, making do with electrical tape and hope in place of sauter.

"Perhaps something more like a sensor? One attuned to something unique to our dimension... Not us, we're here..." She frowns, and picks up different pieces to fiddle with.

"What to use, though? Most forms of particle radiation it would put off are probably... Not unique to it. I wonder..." They start turning out their pockets, which were full of primarily wires but also various wrenches and screwdrivers, and dremels and other small tools she uses frequently. And a myriad of other small objects that one might expect to find in the bottom of a purse.

"No, no it should be something more like Radar. It sends out a signal, and depending on the readings that bounce back we will know how similar it is to our world. I've noticed that the random background fuzz is a bit different in each one..." She sighs. "But do I trust my memory of what ours is like? Uurgh, this is hard to do from the outside..."

[Xon sits in the air next to Mer, legs cris-crossed and hunched over on her elbows.] I know you mean, like, from the outside of the dimension. What if you were outside of... I dunno, fate? Oh, outside of the narrative! What about making a narrative-radar? A NADAR, I guess. Rather than gauging the radio readings from each door, you'd be gauging the narrative readings- the vibes, I guess. Those would probably be a lot easier to gauge.

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

union-of-mad-scientists

"Alright, I will." She ruffles Xon's hair (or tries to anyway), and then approaches the person who looked the least busy.

"Hello! I am somewhat lost, do you know of a way to travel back to my timeline?" They ask, hoping these people speak English. Or Welsh or Laosian would be fine too, but those felt less likely.

The scientist blinks, and then presses a button on their collar.

"{What proof do you have that you are from another timeline, and not just some sort of spy or saboteur}?

"Well I did come through a door which I presume was not here previously," she points to it, "And importantly not through whatever your normal way is. Nothing that passes for security here was aware of my presence until just this moment - I passed no guards, no workers, no management. No One. If you have security cameras, they will not have seen me until just now. Not much in the way of physical objects though."

"{Hmm. Fine, that’s good enough for me! They don't pay me enough to care a whole lot}."

Merlyn grimaces. "Yeah, I hear that... *cough considerunionizing cough* But, anyway, do you know of anything that can help?"

"{Off the top of my head? No, why would I? That's still science-fiction stuff, over here. And besides, I'm a chemist, not a physicist}"

Merlyn sighs. "Right, of course. In that case, have you got any old machines or spare bits of funky substances I could use? I may be able to engineer something to help myself, if I just have access to the right materials..."

The chemist grins devilishly. "{Actually... several of our machines are old and in terrible condition, but the management doesn't want to replace them. Electron Microscopes are not cheap, after all. But... They are insured}."

"Oh, say no more, my friend!" She grins back. "Just point me at them, instead."

They do, and Merlyn makes short work of gutting all the ones she can for parts. Stuffing loose wires and such into her pockets, and grabbing everything that seemed even remotely useful.

Eventually, like some sort of bizarre reverse Santa, they were waving goodbye to the cheering workers with a bag of parts slung over their shoulder, and walking through the door back to the void corridor.

"If you play your cards right, you might get to go home early today! And Say I threatened to set off mustard gas or something, so you don't get in trouble for this!"

The door shuts behind Mer and Xon.

"Alright, now for the fun part! Building!"

[Xon, throughout this entire exchange, has been doing nothing but staying out of view. She does try to help with the transferral of parts... but most of the wires end up glooping through her hands, so she kind of just stays out of view there too. After the door closes, she lets out a big sigh -- then turns to Mer, somewhat revitalized.] Right! Building!

...Um, what can I do to help? And what exactly are we building? A transporter? Dimensional GPS? Uh, dowsing rods? Wait, we wouldn't need all this wiring for dowsing rods.

#(the woes of not having outright tangibility. Sad!)

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

union-of-mad-scientists

"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

union-of-mad-scientists

"But weren't we looking for people who could help us?" She says gently, "I can do the talking if you’d like, but we should at least ask before leaving."

Most of the people hadn't yet noticed them, but they were beginning to get a few curious looks.

"It should be fine, I speak scientist," they grin.

[Xon bonks her forehead against the doorframe, looks at the room, then bonks her head on the door again. She groans, but relents.] Okay, I guess. I was hoping it'd be one person rather than like five, but I suppose there's no choice. Lead the way?

#(we're so back)

union-of-mad-scientists

[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

union-of-mad-scientists

"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

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"Oh, that's perfect!" Mer runs after Xon, and yanks the door open.

Behind it lay a room made almost entirely of concrete, with sharp angles everywhere. It was decorated with steel benches and tables, and one wall was almost entirely window. Beyond it could be seen a mass of skyscrapers, and light trains running on raised bridges all around them.

On the tables were a variety of beakers and burners and vials and all sorts of chemistry equipment and materials. There were even a few people in lab coats bent over them.

[Xon skids to a halt at the entrance, just... kind of staring at the people.] Uh. Mer. [She steps back a little, face darting between the people and the window.] Mer there's people here. Mer. [Xon begins pulling on Mer's arm.] Um, maybe we go somewhere else, with less people.

#(i am not asking u to move somewhere else. xon is simply uncomfortable with that level of people. make her uncomfy)#(>:] its gonna fucking suck for her!!!)

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[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

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"Yeah... I suppose I could try for something that fits my lab and/or castle specifically? Something to keep in mind, anyway."

They look around at all the doors that were just floating here, in the void.

"I wonder where that goopster went... Oh well, somebody else's problem now. Would you like to pick this time? Try for something that looks like it might have a high technological level, if you can?

O-Oh, uh, okay. [Xon furrows her brow, looking at the corriDOORs. Eh? Maybe not. There's a bunch... wooden ones, pink ones, green ones. Just outside the edge of her vision, she spots one that looks like it's made of blued steel and has big, fuckoff rivets in it. It's got a single, circular window in the middle of it, reinforced with a circle of protective material to prevent structural failure. She looks between Mer and the door a couple times, then starts running off towards it.] Over here, I think I found one-!

#(you wanna do the description this time >:]?)

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[Xon slips into existence inside of the Metachamber, looking a bit frazzled and strange. She's pretty dizzy, for a few moments, but realizes where she is and looks around to gauge if Mer is in the immediate area.]

-- @xon-epgha --

They hadn't been, but Xon's presence in the metachamber activates an alert. She comes running only a minute later, the lab wasn't very far from the Metachamber.

"Xon!!!" Mer practically tackles her in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

O-Oh! Uh! Hello! [After a moment, she hugs Mer back.] ...Good to see you too. How... long has it been?

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"A while. I'm not the best judge of time, ironically, but..." They frown. "A few months, at least. maybe more."

She smiles. "It's okay though, you're here now! How have you been?"

[Xon snickers. She trails off after a bit.] I've been worse. Been writing... something else. Bigger. More frozen in time. Definitely not as bad as before, though... uh, what about you? Hey, why were you around anyways?

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"Oh, I had just been working in the lab, but then I saw there was activity in here, so I came over!" She hums a little. "I have been... Mostly fine? Jackie died again, and came back with amnesia this time. So that has been. Hard. I haven't been going out much myself... possibly as a result of that, now I think about it..."

They shake their head briefly. "Well, and I have been studying this new 'door' phenomenon that's been going on the past few weeks. Was actually working on an experiment to induce one's appearance, but that can wait."

"That other thing you're writing is going well, I hope?"

Eesh. [Xon slowly slips away from the hug and goes to hop up on the desk, as always.] Amnesia always sucks. Hope you resolve that particular plot thread... whether it's acceptance or whatever. Though it seems like something even longer-lasting than the door thing... I dunno. Can I watch your experiment on that, by the way?

(And, uh, it's going okay. I think. Lots of irons in metaphorical fires. Lots of not writing when I should be. All that. Sigh.)

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Mer sighs, and sits down in a chair. "It's probably going to have to be acceptance, at this rate, yeah. Amnesia is harder for me to fix than just being dead, which is hilarious from some perspectives."

They run a hand through their hair. "You are more than welcome to watch the door experiment, of course. It... probably shouldn't be dangerous? And, that's how writing goes sometimes, as I understand it. So don't worry too much about your rate of progress."

Yeah, it's... probably fine, this is how I've been for every writing project I've ever had. [She sighs.] Whole different world going on in there. Bittersweet ends for all! Ha. I hope you and Jackie have fun, even if you have to rebuild all those memories again.

[Xon flinches just a bit at their touch.] Hey, wait, did you drag a desk into the Metachamber just so I could... I didn't even realize... uh. Door-related shenaniganry is... familiar to me. I mean, Alex, and Noxie- don't remember if you've met her. Gah, my timelines aren't adequate. Suffice it to say I am very interested in that. Though maybe outside of the chamber that makes me vulnerable to physical altercation.

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"Thanks, Xon. And, That does seem a good precaution, yes," she nods. "I'm not even sure if it'll work, mind. I'm basically just setting up a door and poking a wormhole at it." She hums a little. "If that creates one of these doors, I'll then have to experiment with directing it, as most of them have seemed to be centered on one specific person and their iterations across time and space. I can start by trying to have it centered on me, probably, but after that I'd like to see about expanding the scope..."

Oh, that'd be ripe for shenanigans. I figure there might be something more to them than just a wormhole ported into a door, but they... yeah, no, not my domain. Could be anything. Shit, could be a really good milkshake. [She stops.] I'm rambling. Definitely interested in seeing an alternate-door Mer, though.

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"I mean, the natural generation probably is a bit more complex than just a wormhole. Would have to be at least three of them, really, and probably a whole lot of other nonsense. But we isolate variables in this house."

She grins sharply. "I, too, would be interested in seeing the me that comes through a door. Shall we go then?"

Yeah, yeah... hmm. Can't help but imagine how they work, honestly... and yeah, I guess we shall. [She hops off the table, and steps outside the Metachamber's field, then scratches her head.] Uh, well... you'll definitely have to lead the way. I think if I tried to go there on my own I'd either instantly teleport through time and space mid-sentence, or I'd get mixed up in the mazes and get caught in some kind of shenanigans.

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"Well, luckily I am very used to leading people around here!" They clap her hands.

"Onwards!" Mer leaves the chamber also, and makes a sharp right. Then she knocks on the wall in a 3-2-3 pattern, and it slides open. "This is the quickest route."

Oh, excellent. How do you keep track of all this? I can barely remember what I'm wearing, most of the time. [Xon inspects the sliding bit for a little, then steps quickly behind Mer.] I guess I on some level am aware of at least a few reasons why. Fuckin' weird to imagine, though... hm.

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"It's a lot easier to remember where the secrets are when you remember building and installing them, for one," she shrugs, "And I have nearly two decades of practice by now, which is a little over half my life."

Merlyn trails their hand along the wall as they walk.

"I did consider writing coded messages on the walls to help, but decided that would be too easy to crack so I never ended up doing it."

Oh, definitely. That's absolutely inviting some fucked up shit to happen, god- you'd kill me if Astatine had coded wall messages, it'd be way too obvious. It's... I dunno. Gotta try to manifest here more. You're... really interesting. [Her voice trails off at the end, there. How fucking long has it been since she's just talked to someone?] Thanks, by the way. Um, for showing up. Appreciate it.

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"Aww, thank you! Interesting is a wonderful thing to be, all my favorite things are interesting!" She chuckles. "And yeah, if fy Enaid, if F'anwylyd, had such things on their walls I would definitely have strong opinions on that. Not to the point of murder though, and directed just as much at them as you." They grin sharply, holding back another laugh.

"And... don't worry about it, I'm always happy to show up for you. And you're welcome here anytime - honestly I have been thinking of that Metachamber as your room, same as any of my kids or other houseguests have."

Ah, shit, oops. Sorry. [She scratches the back of her head, tilting her head away.] Uh, I didn't mean to make it a consistent location of manifestation. Might be better to move it to, like, a closet or something. Or maybe. I dunno. It's very much a, um. Big... laboratory-esque room. For a writer, I mean.

[Xon tilts her head back to neutral, having realized something in real time. Dumbass!] Oh, wait, if you meant the Metachamber itself... Ah. I mean, that'd be fine. Even if, I mean, I do have my own room... um, in the... yeah.

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"A home away from home is a good thing to have," they say gently. "So you just let me know if there's anything else you want in it. I guessed on the desk, and put a few chairs in for good measure, but..."

Mer hums a little, and then pulls a lever to open the exit door.

"We could maybe even sort out some windows, if you'd like. They'd have to be fake, unless we move the mechanism to a room on the upper floors, but either way we could make it work."

God, you just guessed on the desk? Nobody even told you? [Xon coughs.] Mortifying. Windows are... I don't mind them. I'm sure Astatine has some fake windows you could install.

I didn't know how much I missed feeling gravity. [She clenches and unclenches a hand, staring at it strangely.] Thanks, though. Um, for the offer, I mean. Maybe I can set up a phone so you can summon me in? Dunno.

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"Not a terrible idea... though, I have been known to forget people exist when I don't see them regularly, so like. Don't be surprised if that doesn't happen super often, yeah?"

"And I'll ask Astatine about the fake windows, that's a good idea too. Ah! We're here!"

They open some industrial-looking doors and enter the Laboratory.

Ha, ha. Ha. Same. [Xon follows close behind Mer, though peers at her surroundings closely. She sticks her head inside the doors to see what they're made of, too.]

[Muffled] I'm pretty sure Astatine would definitely enjoy seeing you again. Have you been cooking together consistently, or..?

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The doors were some kind of metal, probably a steel alloy, in a honeycomb-like pattern on the inside.

"I have been trying to, though we do sometimes need to skip a session for various reasons." They hum. "And we usually watch something while we eat the result after - I've finally gotten them through the entirety of the original PowerPuff Girls, actually. It took a while because they do also get turns to pick. But... nothing terribly exciting. From your perspective, it would be the sort of thing that is implied or assumed, not shown in-text or on-screen. Still nice though, from mine."

(Ooh. Structurally sound.) [She gloops her head out of the door, seeming a bit brighter.] Oh. Great. Um, I meant that enthusiastically. Never seen the PowerPuff Girls... what else have you watched?

...I'm glad they've been filling the time with you. Though... exciting stuff doesn't always have to happen for the narrative to matter, you know? Character building, fun moments... kindness.

Ha. Honestly, I ask because I've sort of been shirking my duties here. Too focused on... that other world. [She scratches her head again.] Maybe later.

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"Oh, Ghibli movies, Discworld movies, Fast and Furious, Alien, Pacific Rim, Transformers... all sorts of stuff." They begin to gather up a few bits and bobs, and fiddle with some sort of contraption.

"And I do know that downtime can be important to include, just not all of it. Can get... repetitive, from a reader's perspective. And... don't feel too bad, about paying less attention to us. You left us on a good note, at least. And while I did miss talking to you, there is a lot worse that could have happened."

[She inspects the machinery closely, uncommonly curious.] Transformers, huh? I wonder what Astatine thought of that. Sounds... nice, though. Been trying not to dwell on things, but I figure I'm probably going to be dealing with thoughts in regards to just disappearing for a while.

...Thanks. Uh, I didn't mean to just drop all that shit on you. Sorry.

(Wait, you missed talking... huh?)

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"No need to apologize, hun. We all get down in the dumps sometimes, I don't mind. And," she grins, "If you want Astie's opinion on Transformers, you might be better off asking them. Not sure I could do it justice, really."

Guess so. Just feels like I'm down there more than normal. [Sigh.] Oh well. I'll have to go ask them about it, too... gotta be a funny gag in there somewhere, right?

Oh..! Uh, mind explaining what you're doing? It's all a little... fuzzy, to me.

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"Oh! So, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the wormhole generator we're going to be using. For the door thing."

"I do also very much still need to set up a door to use, but that's the easy part."

I see... [She pokes at the wormhole generator, frowning at the way it distorts her hand.] Maybe it would be a good idea to get a blast shield too, in case of... well, I guess I haven't really seen where these lead. I was gonna say in case you create a door to like, a world where the entire earth is made of explosives or francium or something, but I don't know whether that's within the purview of an attempt to create something like this.

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"I suppose it could be possible?" They frown. "I haven't encountered any such worlds yet, but that may just be luck. So, blast shielding certainly couldn't hurt. I'll go grab some."

She stands up. "In the meantime, I have a couple of door options lined up by the wall, would you like to pick one?"

Will do. Better safe than sorry, and all...

[Xon meanders over to a side of the room, inspecting a line of doors closely. There's a normal wooden one, a painted-white one like you'd see in American Suburbia™, a submarine's door, and a glass door. Wait, a glass door? How would that even look with a... why do they even have one here? Whatever. Xon moves over and (out of habit) tries to grab at the handle -- this, uh, does not work.] Ah. Uh, want to try it on this one?

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"Which -" they turn around to look, "Oh, the glass one? Sure! Should be interesting to see if we can see beyond it. It's just been blackness behind some of the windowed doors I've studied, but who knows?"

Merlyn begins the process of setting up the blast screens. And, clearing enough floor space for this experiment, a few tables of science junk needed shoving.

And, of course, putting the door in some free-standing supports...

Who knows. [Xon just watches for a bit, but after a while begins to use her intangibility to look for random bits of debris or tools that Mer needs a bit easier. She eyes the supports. This feels like Monsters, Inc.]

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It does, a bit. Even more so as they begin to hook up the generator to the door - it might not be scream powered, but...

"Okay Xon, are you ready?" Merlyn is grinning sharply, as she puts the last bolt in place.

Yeah. As I'll ever be, I guess. [Xon stretches and rocks back and forth on her feet.] Are you?

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"Definitely." They press a big red button and make a mad dash for the blast screen.

It is not fast enough.

There is no explosion, but instead a strange... schlumphing? sound? As a Mass of green-orange-puce goo seeps out from under the door, though only the lab can be seen through the glass of it. The shiny, sticky-looking substance gathers itself up into tentacles as the door opens, all on its own.

In a blink, the tentacles shoot out and grab Merlyn. Xon too, somehow. It pulls them through the gaping hole in reality, and the door shuts behind them.

Ack--! [Xon screeches, not having expected to feel anything today -- let alone some sticky, cold goop grabbing around her ankle. They're both dragged into a nullspace; empty blackness extends in all directions, only separated by a mess of doors in all shapes and sizes. Behind them, the glass door back to OSHA fractures and tears before shattering apart.]

[This is particularly bad, because the goo-slime-thing that pulled them in here seems to have bunched up and spilled out of a nearby door, having dragged the poor bastards in just out of sheer unluck. Probably. It still seems malicious.]

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"Well Fuck." Merlyn sighs, and wrenches their foot away from the goop. Or, tries to, anyway. They let out a string of curses in Welsh.

"Okay, I think first we worry about how to escape from this thing, and next we worry about how to get home."

The goop monster was no longer dragging them particularly fast, but it was still an insistent pressure at their ankles as it shlopped forwards.

"What is it even made of?"

[Xon shudders. Grossssssssss.] No clue. I can try slashing at it with my sword, but that tends to not work on anything but metatextual entities... and it's really more of a piercing weapon, even though it's a saber. Nothing else I have, though. [She looks up, and around at the area.] Uh, there's a lot of doors here. You think we could hide from it in one of them? Once we can get it off us. Fuck.

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"Hiding does seem a decent plan, once that does happen..." she hums a little. "And given that it can touch you it may be metatextual enough? But then again given my luck it would probably just smoosh back together if you cut it..."

"If we had some fire, maybe, it seems the type of thing to not do well with heat? Or, salt, even, the goo may be sluglike that way?"

H-Ha. If it's a luck thing then we're both fucked. H-Hold on... [Xon clenches a hand around nothing, then draws her sword from the ether. She furrows her brow.] Do you have anything made of steel, or anything that'd spark like it? I... I have some stuff I can burn.

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"Hang on, let me check..." She starts digging around in her pockets. "I've got uh... Oh, my nail file is in here! It's metal." They hand it over. "Have we got flint, though? Steel on steel isn't the best for sparks. And what exactly is it you have to burn?"

My sword is made of flint- ack-! [The dark bits of her blade flash, dulling into a matte black. She's tugged and slips a bit closer to the goo pile.] Toss it over, uh, please? It's -- I'm gonna try burning my bandages.

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"Odd material for a sword, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?" They trudge a little closer to Xon. Grateful for having worn good leather boots, she didn't want to know what the goo felt like on her skin.

"Are you sure you want me to throw it? What if I miss?" Merlyn tries to just hand the file to Xon, but she's just out of reach.

"Oh, screw it, be ready to catch on three!"

"One,"

"Two,"

"Three!"

The nail file turns end over end as it flies towards Xon.

[Xon scrambles and jumps for the file, just about catching it (though it warbles and warps her hand). She motions like she's tugging something off her head, and a second later a stained-through set of ink-oily bandages flickers into existence in her sword hand. She swaps it to her file-hand (gripping the file with the cloth, which seems to help a bit) and begins to try and light the bandage.] God dammit, I really thought this'd be easier..!

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"It's the sort of thing that does take practice, unfortunately..." they grimace. "A lot of force too, as much as you can muster. And you need to make sure those bandages are catching the sparks."

Okay. Got it... [Xon tries it again, with more force, and after a bit she manages to light a spark on the soaked-through rags. It lights like it's soaked in alcohol, and she stares at it for a second before tying it to the end of her sword.] Uh, shit. What now?

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"Poke the ooze with it and see what happens! This is all guesswork!"

Ech. Yeah... [Xon jabs the flaming rod at the slime-monster-thing attached to her, which sizzles and recoils; it slithers off of her leg but leaves a bit of goopy residue. She backs up, then pokes at the pseudopod grabbing Mer.] Don't like how this thing looks. Or feels. Ew.

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"Yeah I can see why. The color alone is just.... al.ost indescribable." They grimace, and try to shake off some of the residue.

"So. We need to go through one of these doors, yeah?" They open one made of dark wood and brass.

"This seems as good as any."

Y-Yeah. [Xon sheaths her sword, covering her eye-area with her sleeve and hurrying in.]

[Behind the door is a large wood chamber full of spinning gears and hissing pipes, groaning with size in a stark contrast to the total silence of the void behind the two. There's a window on the wall, showing a sandy, burned desert from the perspective of some giant Colossus-type thing. Whatever the hell the door led into, it's walking slowly along the plains.] Holy shit...

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The goop-creature makes no move to attack them again as they flee - whatever it was, it was smart enough to not put itself in harms way, it seemed. But it could be heard schlurping away, presumably to find other prey... Or whatever it had wanted them for, anyway.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Xon," Merlyn jokes as she looks around the room. Then she opens the window and leans out as far as she dares, looking both up and down to get a sense of what they were riding.

This is a parallel dimension, right? So maybe it is Kansas. A really... really dry version of Kansas. [The sky is a really thin blue, and it seems like in the distance there are some high, clouded mountains with green tops. It's an endless abyss of sand other than the mountains. And a few huge, wooden... vehicles, maybe? With steam pouring out of the top, and a constant ambulation across the sand, it almost looks like a herd of animals migrating. Or a really, really wide freeway.]

[They seem to be on or inside the same kind of thing, a big wooden body on ambulatory legs driven by steam power. It's large enough to have probably three or four full decks, though it's also pretty slow to move. A large trail of pseudo-footprints leads off into the distance. Xon keeps an arm over her eyes.] ...Mer? Do you happen to have a bandage or like, cork, or something?

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"Oh. Oh! Uh..." They dig around in their pockets some more. "I mean, I could always tear up my shirt or something, but that wouldn't be the most sanitary... Ah, here we go! I've got an eyemask in case of sudden nappings, would that do?"

She chuckles sheepishly. "I do keep a first-aid kit in my bag, but that is... still in the lab."

Oh, that... actually would work, I think. Really well. T-Thanks. [Xon shuffles over and offers Mer their nail file back.] And, um, sorry for scratching this. And... getting goop on it. Um. [She looks at the nail file, which is dripping with ink and has a bit of soot on it.] Do you want me to hold this for a bit actually

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"Nah, it's fine, free samples of weird goop are something I actually enjoy getting! And it's whole purpose is to get scratched so..." They smile, and gingerly grab the file, exchanging it for the eyemask. "Though... I may want to put this in a bag or something... Just to contain the ooze, if nothing else..."

Mer looks around again. "No, nothing of the sort here... Oh well, we'll just have to hope then." She sighs, and sticks the file in a side pocket.

It's, uh, just some alcohol-based ink. I hope. [Xon slips the eye mask around her head. She wipes her face one more time, then nods.] Okay. Better. Thank you.

...So, what do we do now? I guess we could go back out the door... if it's even still there. I don't think the door you made survived The Goopster, though, so we'd have to find another one to OSHA.

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"Yeah... and, since this was clearly not the result I wanted, building another door would only cause more problems, if we even had the materials." They hum a little. "Worst case scenario, I have to build another time machine over here - I can use one of those to get us back, but it would be quite labor-intensive. Even more so, if the society here doesn't have ready-made parts that I need."

She begins to pace, and tap on her arms.

"As you said, even if we go back through this door, that'll only get us to the goopster's void. Our door is gone. But... it may be possible to find a similar enough world to ours that someone would have a way to put us back where we belong. I think That should be our goal, for now."

They frown at their surroundings.

"Unfortunately, something tells me this is not one of those worlds. It does look terribly interesting though... I wonder if I could find my way back to it later..."

I mean, Astatine has a dimension-hopping device. Though... it might interface with a different layer of the kinda dimensional weave thing than the door system. Hm. It is pretty, in an existential kind of way. I might try to show up here again. Maybe you could anchor a wormhole onto me.

[She clenches her fist, and loosens it after a second.] I'm feeling a lot more tangible than I should be here, too... might need some help not being torn apart, if it comes to that.

Uh, anyways. Maybe there's someone controlling these uh, big perambulatory things. We could go look for them, if you can't think of a way to jury-rig a dimension-hopper? And if they don't figure anything out I guess we'll have to brainstorm something together...

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"I mean, I could figure out ways to make a dimension-hopper out of scrap, given enough time. But we don't even have scrap. I'm not Angus Macgyver, there are Limits to what I can do with a shoestring."

They keep pacing for a little while longer.

"As much as I would love to interrogate someone about how this thing works, it's kind of enormous. So either it is very densely populated and it will be difficult to find someone who could help us because of all the like, people who just live here, not being knowledgeable enough - or, there is only a skeleton crew keeping it moving for whatever reason it is they have it moving in the first place. And then it would be difficult to find them due to the sheer size of it. We could very well end up wasting more time here than we would going back and forth from a dozen doors, or more."

Yeah... good points. Probably wouldn't be a very great idea for me to stay here, either, since I think it's kind of drying my vital fluids out. Uh, if I need those... I honestly dunno. [Xon fiddles with the hem of her skirt.] Best to be on the safe side. Door time?

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"Door time," they nod, and head back to the void.

"So... Do you think what the doors look like has any correlation with what's behind them? It could help us find a way home faster, if so."

She hums a little. "I wonder if that's why the door shattered, if it wasn't representative enough of our world?"

It's possible. I know that most of the doortals Alex uses are generic, but do have some identifying features of them on it... [She looks out at the not-corridor of doors.] What would even be representative of OSHA, though? It's such a... thing. Like, would a hazard door work? What if it went into the cafeteria, though? Wouldn't really fit for that location.

#(wanna reset the thread soon? like go back to the first post and continue from there to avoid lag issues hjsfskdf)

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