A Scientist's Intent

Log Info

Title: A Scientist's Intent
Emitter: None
Characters: Synapse, Cordelia
NPCs: None
Place: Cordelia's Lab…err, room, campus.
Time: Afternoon, sometime early July, 2010
Summary: Well, they said they'd do it. The campus' two mad scientists gleefully set to perfecting a de-hormonizer. But, of course, on testing it, it sort of backfires. What in God's name are they making now? It's doubtful that even they know.

When we last left our heroes, they were gleefully contemplating doing /horrible things/ to their classmates' minds via a combination of brain-blocks, psychological blocks, and MAD SCIENCE! Thus do we open upon the climax of the action: the TESTING PHASE.

"I think we've perfected it!" Cordelia declares, shoving her goggles back on her forehead to look at the finished product with a self-satisfied smirk and the rosy glow of delighted SCIENTIFIC GENIUS upon her cheeks. "Now, to TEST it!"

Synapse snaps his own goggles back and eyes the finished product himself, thoughtfully. "Do we have a subject on hand? I mean, if we had rabbits, they'd be perfect, they're at -least- as hormonal as teenagers. Or shall we just skip and go right to human testing?" Notably, he doesn't seem to be implying this is wrong in any way, more just…faster.

"Well, we /are/ building off of pre-tested brain chemistry, we should be okay for human testing!" Cordelia bounces a bit in place. "Though would it even /work/ on us? I mean, we're making this to negate behaviour we observe in /others/…" The blonde scratches at her cheek thoughtfully, tossing the vial up in the air and catching it.

Synapse, not paying attention to the flipping, muses. "I suppose we could give ourselves a controlled dosage. Presumably we -do- have those responses, we're just not…aware of them, consciously. This way we can suppress them completely so they don't get in the way of our later work!"

"I /like/ that plan!" Cordelia tosses the vial again — it's a good way to mix it, after all!! — and cackles (there's no other word for it, really) as she catches it again. "Got the suspension solution for this? And the delivery mechanism?" Fancy words for a spray bottle — is it justified to treat Jerry like an un-neutered cat? — but it's appropriate, /really/.

"Of course!" Synapse blurs, and returns a moment later with a spray bottle. "DMSO solution, to make it absorb more quickly through the skin. They don't mix until the trigger is pulled, at which point it sprays them together." He offers her the bottle with all due ceremony. "Ready when you are."

Cordelia gives Synapse a bow, takes the bottle and hooks up the vial with all due ceremony and a 'hssht' of escaping gas. She beams at that sound. "I love that noise," she declares. "Experiment: START!" She hefts the spray bottle, then calmly lifts it to spray Synapse with it, and hands it right back to him to do the same. Well, at least it doesn't smell bad. Just strange.

Synapse returns the favor, noting clinically, "I'm not feeling any effects just yet, but well, I suppose if it's simply an unconscious awareness, I wouldn't, eh?"

"Me either," Cordelia says with a shrug, checking her pulse and recording the data. She also snags Synapse's wrist to check his pulse, which /also/ gets recorded. "So, once we get it confirmed that it's functional, we douse Jerry with it," she declares, then grins broadly. "And in the meantime!" She turns to her closet, tossing it open (and neatly dodging a clatter of various brass, leather and chrome bits that come spiralling down from the shelves) and kicking out her Babbage-Aided Design and Construction Engine. "Let's see what we can make!!"

"Ooh. I'm more of a biologist than a technologist, but with all this I'm sure we can come up with -something- to do." After Cordelia takes his pulse, he notes again, with a faintly distracted expression, "Still no effects, though…though possibly it's slightly warming. Are you noting anything similar?"

"I think it's just the side-effect of finishing the formula. I always wind up feeling a little glow of accomplishment there." Cordelia nevertheless holds a hand to her forehead. "Hm, no elevated temperature." She glances over her shoulder at Synapse and grins. "I can make anything with this, it just takes a bit of coaxing to get it up and running." She points at some cables in the closet. "Could you toss those out the window? Even if we're not going to have a storm I still need the elements aligned properly…"

"Sure." Synapse blurs, and the cables are suddenly outside, as requested. "So we can make -anything-. I've got some schematics for a few things I drew up earlier, we could try to use it for one of those."

Cordelia reaches out to ruffle Synapse's hair, a slightly too-cheerful grin upon her face. She does a little lunatic-look a little too well, sometimes. "How about… we improvise? You're handy to have around," she tells him. "Thanks!" She begins to fiddle with the Construction Engine, hooking up various wires and setting various acidic pots to the boil, and steam begins to chuff from various ports.

Synapse eyes the process of getting the device up and running with interest, leaning over her shoulder to watch. "Is there anything else I can do to help with setup?"

Cordelia grins at Synapse from close range, then pulls her goggles down over her eyes. She waves a hand towards the closet. "You can rummage in there for inspiration," she says. "Pretty much anything in there is destructable for parts." Pause. She brightens, if that's possible. "Should we go out? We might need more space…"

"As much as I'd -like- to go out, I got in trouble last time I built things on the quad. You may have seen the remnants of the trebuchet I made out there." He snaps his goggles back down, grins at her quickly, and crawls past her into the closet to start rummaging through things. "Oh, I think we can use -this-." He hands what appears to be a air-powered rivet-gun back over his shoulder. "At least the pneumatic chamber should still have plenty of force behind it."

"Ooh, I forgot I /had/ that!" Cordelia beams fondly at the sight of the rivet-gun. "And we can use the steel from the rivets as base-materials for the Babbage-Engine," she says, nudging the now-burbling construction engine with one booted foot. "Tools!" She bounces to her feet, moving to the wall to hit a panel, and the wall rolls back to reveal a veritable /wall of tools/. "Ooh, we can use /this/." She pulls down an impact wrench, then a screwdriver, beginning to disassemble the impact wrench with a gleeful chortle.

"I…I think I'm jealous of your toolset. I've been relying on just whatever I can put together that's on hand; they won't let me make major changes to my room yet, which saddens me." Synapse eyes the wall of tools with undisguised awe.

"I … well, I just /did/ this. Better ask forgiveness than permission, or so Dad says and then Mom smacks him for it." Cordelia looks up from her work, eyes magnified by the lenses she has up, and looking rather, well, demented indeed. "And besides, you can always use my tools." She pulls out the ratcheting mechanism and offers it to Synapse. "I think if we hook that up to the pneumatic chamber, we can get fabulous torque…"

Synapse can work with his hands almost as quickly as he can move; the ratcheting mechanism is fixed to the pneumatic chamber in just a few moments. "I'll hold you to that, though it may mean that I stop in at odd hours. Sometimes I just get inspired to do things in the middle of the night."

"Ooh, I /know./ Sometimes you wake up and there's just a /brilliant/ idea in your mind, and you have to make it right then and there or lose your inspiration." The nods from Cordelia equal distinct agreement, yes. Evidently she's forgotten any thoughts of monitoring the effects of the dehormonizer in favour of /making something/. She steps past him to the closet, regarding the bits and bobs scattered there with a frown upon her face. "Hmmm…"

"I've got to say, it's nice to be able to collaborate with someone who can keep up with me." Synapse points past her leg at the makeup and disguise kit. "Anything good we can use in that?"

"Not likely," Cordelia says, pulling it out and setting it down with a *thump*. She opens it up by pressing a button; it expands into an old-fashioned little ring-and-curtain changing room, complete with cheery, chiming music. "It's a disguise kit. Convenient, but not really useful for what we're doing. Here, let me demonstrate." She parts the curtains and steps within, pulling a lever and pushing a sequence of buttons before pulling the curtain closed. There is a chuffing and a doleful steam-whistle, and moments later, Cordelia parts the curtains, dressed to the nines in tan and black skirts, corset, opera-length gloves and, of course, boots with many, many buckles, and her hair wound with copper and gold wires to make her a little… odder, even. "See?"

"Amazing. I mean, I can change clothes that fast, but that's just, you know, an aspect of my speed." He gives her a thorough looking over, even poking in a place or two, with her permission.. "It even does up the laces. Huh." A pause. "Uh. Where were we…torque, yes? With this much, we could turn something very, very large, I think, or much smaller, but very dense…Like, say, the lodestone, there."

Twisting around to watch Synapse poke at her outfit, she stifles a snicker. "Of course it does. Can you imagine having to find someone to help you lace into a corset? Embarrassing, and /very/ improper." While perfectly comfortable in her newfound finery, Cordelia pulls the curtain again, punches in another sequence, and steps back out in her usual 'work' clothes: corset, leather pants, and goggles. "Hmmm. If we did that, it might affect the pulse of the aether, and I could probably divert some of my own power into it that way…" she says thoughtfully.

"Very awkward. M'mother has a maid to do it for her- brought her along from their home dimension when she fled her father. So that's how your powers work? You've got a store of internal energy that you siphon off into things? Interesting."

"I've always messed with inventing things," Cordelia says as she rests a hand upon the lodestone, "It partially pushed me to actually /create/ instead of, well, sketching them." She glances at him. "Yeah, I know. Your mom showed me how to do up my first corset." She leaves it at that, though.

"Oh -right-." Synapse snorts. "I remember the time you babysat. And then that they wouldn't let you do it again afterwards. I was actually kind of sad, that was fun." He pauses, then vanishes, returning a moment later to the exact same position. I had this in my room- we could break it down." 'This' is a scale model of the trebuchet he build on the quad. "For some reason most of the screws are of a tungsten allow that could be useful, and the main springs can survive being wound by something like our loadstone assembly here. I'm sure we could do -something- with that."

"Mom was mad that I'd let you near anything acidic despite the fact that we were /perfectly careful/. Parents, sometimes." Cordelia sighs in resignation and then brightens as he returns with the trebuchet. "Ooh. High heat resistance…" she murmurs, beginning to take the trebuchet apart and fitting pieces onto their project with interest.

"Acid…ooh. Acid! Hold on again." He vanishes, and returns. "I tried to recreate some of the old tomb batteries- the really old ones they used for electroplating and the like back in the early historical period. They're smaller, but they function, and we can at least get the acid out of them if you like." Three fist sized primitive batteries get stacked on the floor.

"Ooh, we can use that to etch the metal plating, and as ammunition…" Cordelia contemplates the newly-arrived batteries. "Or maybe self-defense. Or we could use the batteries themselves…" She trails off again, picking up one of the batteries and using a crowbar to pry a spot open for it, hooking it into their creation with cables with a satisfying *click* followed by a low hum.

"That's a -fantastic- idea." Synapse follows suit, connecting the other two, then grins over at her. "This is the most fun I've had since I've got here, by the way, working with you. Thanks."

"Well, of course. Not like anyone else can keep up with us." There's no false modesty in Cordelia's tone, just a matter-of-fact statement. "But you're right." She returns the grin, then places the lodestone in a setting that allows it to float and rotate over the remains of the rivet-gun. "Hmm. That should do it?"

"I think you're right. So all that's left is to turn it on, and we're done." Synapse leans in hand, accidentally resting on hers, faces close. "Shall we do it together?"

Cordelia blinks at seeing Synapse so close, eyes widening slightly as she pushes her goggles back. "Of course," she says, only the briefest of hesitations in her words as she shifts her hand onto the big red button. And leans a little closer to Synapse. And then drops like a puppet with her strings cut, fast asleep.

Synapse blinks, and less than half a second later, he's falling asleep right next to her. Whenever they wake up, they're going to be presented with a possible doomsday device that they have no idea what it does. Nothing can -possibly- go wrong here.

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