Helloes and goodbyes

[Emily Littleton]
Campus is campus, no doubt about it. Emily's back at school, trying to
catch up after a weekend of magely mayhem. It's midterm, and no one
can afford to slouch just now. Not the frosh she TAs, and not the
Orphan herself. This Awakening thing is tough on study habits though.

And it's not entirely academic, hunting out Henri Bean, though there
is a fair bit of academic admiration lost on the younger girl. Emily
can appreciate what Bean's infamy represents, being in a similar field
of study (and a few years her senior).

There's a phone call, at some point, from the Orphan to the Etherite.
It goes a bit like this.

"Hi. I'm Emily," a pause, because that muddled accent makes it a bit
more difficult to understand. Bean shouldn't have any bother with it,
but she might. She might. "I saw your info at the house, and I wanted
to say hey. I'm new to this whole Opened Eyes thing, and a couple
people said we might have some stuff in common."

Just reaching out. Friendly like. And an exchange of information;
where to find Emily on campus (in a shiny engineering lab full of
servos, blinking LEDs and very expensive toys), her cell phone number.
The like.
[Administrator]
August Grant, welcome to Lake View (Northside) (Now)
[Administrator]
August Grant has switched to Magnificent Mile (North Side) (Now)
[Henrietta Bean]
*It had been a very long night. Evil Hermetics, traitorous Euthanatos,
and rebellious toxic waste can sure take it out of a girl. Her
protocols had been carefully crafted, coded, and absorbed (literally).
Still, she wasn't quite comfortable enough with her new improved
sample to nap. The skinny Etherite is running on energy drinks and
fumes, laying in the Arts lab half asleep when her phone rings.
Suspicion on a Bean's part, grudging agreement to meet, bolstered by
the mention of the lab Emily's in.

She's easy to hear approaching. Clattering down the hall, a thick
industrial lunchbox in hand. She's a sight, thats for certain. Pink
pajama pants scorched, filthy, and tattered to the point of being
fishnets. thigh high purple socks flash beneath the ruined trousers, a
twine belt looped through the fabric of pink pants, off of which
dangles all manner of tools and gizmos. Several layers of stained and
filthy tanktops , bright polkadotted goggles (lens-less) and an unruly
mane of frizz complete the look as Henri pokes her head into the lab
and looks around, squinting.*

OI?

Where's this Emily?
[Emily Littleton]
This Emily's lab is in the basement of the physic's building. It is a
shared space for the people who being neat automation and the group
working on miniaturization of common components. Emily works in the
latter, but dabbles in the former (whenever possible).

The door, usually guarded by one of the RFID keycard scanners, has
been left cleverly unlocked and ajar by an opportunistically-placed
waste bin. So when Bean pushes the door open, clanking and squinting
all the way, the lab opens up before her in all it's gadgety glory.

The Orphan, this Emily, emerges from one of the sectioned off desk
areas. She's a fairly tall girl, dark hair, deep blue eyes, in jeans
and a shirt that reads No, I will not fix your computer.

"Hello!" she says, cheerfully, waving to Bean. "You must be Henri!
It's nice to finally meet you."

No evil Hermetics or traitorous Euthies here. Just the girls,
gadgets... and goop?
[Administrator]
Goopy, welcome to Lake View (Northside) (Now)
[Henrietta Bean]
*Henri's holding her lunchbox close, looking around the lab as at
least 40 lbs of extra gear dangles and clunks, threatening to pull pj
pants off the teenager's narrow hips. Electric blue eyes swivel to
Emily. She seemed ok so far. Henri cracks a grin just short of manic.*

Heyo mate. You called about scanning my sample?
[Emily Littleton]
"Yes," Emily says, "Well at least in part." A little pause. "I can't
do much on the Mind front, but I can look into Life and a couple other
senses."

Emily ducks her head a bit, almost shyly, then looks back up to Bean
with a broadening grin. "To be honest, I was intrigued at another mage
who refered to anything as a sample and wanted to test it. It's a nice
change of perspective from the others I've met so far. Hardly
scientific types, if you know what I mean?"

It's not the whole truth, but it's close enough to the truth and
emphatic enough in its delivery to ring true.

"Besides, the only time we've met, so far, you were hollering at your
landlord and doing something with Chocolate. I thought it might be
nice to put all that in perspective a bit."
[Henrietta Bean]
*Thats where she knew her from. Goopy is clutched a little closer in
his lunchbox, wide blue eyes narrowing, smile dribbling off thin
features as quickly as it appeared. The diminutive scientist presses
her lips into a thin line and hollows her back. Puffing up like some
exotic frizztopped bird, making herself bigger.*

Wait, you're Ashley's friend, roight?
[Emily Littleton]
Emily held up her hands in front of her in a classic no harm intended
pose when Henri flustered.

"Eh... of a sorts," Emily said, shrugging a bit. Noncomittal. "Like I
said, I'm new. I take friends where I can get them. I met Ashley's
apprentice, Enid, when I had just woken up. We were friends of a sort,
and now Ashley is a friend of a sort."

The Orphan wandered over to one of the long-legged lab stools and
perched atop it, casually. There was plenty of room for Bean to roam
the lab, set her things down (or not) as she pleased.

"Why... what of it?" Curious now, and a little concerned.
[Henrietta Bean]
Don' like her. One bit. Tried to take over my brain she did. I'll not
have a thing to do with her. It her what told you to call me?

*Henri shakes her head and wanders the perimeter. Eyeballing the
taller woman with no small suspicion. Lunchbox held close as she makes
to tinker with someone's project, unabashed. A curious slant of eyes
Em's way before her lunch box is rattling and Henri's unlatching it.*

What sort of wizardry you do mate?
[Emily Littleton]
There's a breadboard on the countertop, with the schematic for the
prototype pegged to the wall behind the workspace. The diagram is
perfectly level, if Bean takes note of these details. The board could
be a bit better optimized, but it's a fairly good first pass at a
complicated problem.

The breadboard is not made of bread, but it might make a good snack
for someone...

"Ah, at the moment? The learning how to get my feet wet type. I've got
grasp of a handful of senses, but haven't gotten much further. Been
given a lot of pressure to join up in a cabal or Tradition, but
haven't found one that fits yet."

Emily eyed Bean warily, as Bean was tinkering with one of her projects.

"You might not want to..." Twitch. Worry. "I..." Frown.

"What about you?" she settles on, trying not to snatch the board away
from Bean. All in the interest of potential friendship.
[Henrietta Bean]
*A pencil comes out, and the Bean makes a few scribbles in the margins
of the blueprint. Arrows wiggling towards various areas that could be
streamlined a bit. The lunchbox bumps again and Henri sighs, opening
it and feeding a grey-gold lump of goop a handful of bolts from her
pocket, a spring thrown in for good measure. That done, she hops up
onto the counter with a clunk of oversized army boots. A knee drawn up
and hugged with pale, sooty arms.*

This here's goopy. He's the sample, I figure. If you wanted to try at
scanning him some. But he don't much care for wizardry. This yours?

*A quirk of her lips as she tosses a thumb back behind her shoulder at
the blueprint.*
[Emily Littleton]
Emily watches as Bean feeds the blob in her lunchpail. "Ah... I've got
some spare LEDs in the parts bin." A pause. She sounds innane. "If you
want to vary it's... diet... somewhat."

She slides off her stool and wanders closer to where Bean's scribbled
on her notepad. Closer to Bean and Goopy.

"Hey, Goopy," she says, eyeing the blob carefully. Waving, even, a
little. (Best to be on good terms with our inorganic alien overlords).
"And yeah, yeah it is." Peers at the schematic a bit. "I... hadn't
thought of that. Thanks!"
[Henrietta Bean]
He does like silicon... But I'm not entirely sure the little bugger
wouldn't make a laser out of the light source, yeah?

*Henri smirks, warming to the orphan now that she's taken an interest
in goopy that isn't "Oh no Henri! we should kill it!". Bloody Rustics
with their chanting and carrying on. This was Science!*

He's an interesting little bloke. Sentient, yeah? Smart as a bloody
tack. What're you takin mate?

*A wide gesture to the university, her feet jiggling with nervous
energy as the Etherite pops an energy drink and offers it to Emily.*
[Emily Littleton]
There was a fair bit of Oh, No Henri going on in Emily's mind, but she
kept that back behind the unfeigned and obvious curiosity toward
Henri's sample.

"Sentient, eh?" Emily asked, canting her head a bit to the side and
eyeing Bean. "Your sample passes the Turing test, does it?"
Skepticism, but also eager interest. It wouldn't do to just take
another's word for such things.

"Has anyone scanned it for a Life pattern yet?" she asks, even though
Goopy doesn't take well to wizardry. Some tests had to be run, sooner
or later. For Science's sake.

Against her better judgement, Emily partakes of the Energy Drink
that's offered. She will likely never sleep again. "I've some biscuits
in my desk drawer. Should I get them?" she asks.

"Also, we have multimeters and oscilloscopes here, if you want to
check anything out on a mundane level. I'm a third year, engineering
student. But I'm applying to the grad department, so I should be here
a few more years."
[Henrietta Bean]
It certainly self aware. Hungers for input, my goopy.

*The former child prodigy scratches at her face a moment, tone fond as
she looks at the lump of goo now grinding bolts into nothingness, air
around it warming as it expresses heat as a waste product to ..well..
digestion? Whatever. Another grape energy drink is cracked as Henri
considers.*

Never done much in the way of life scannin. I dun work with those sort
of etheric complexes. All Inorganic, I am, though I'm looking to
learn. Getting interested in Time flux. Done a full matter work up,
he's nothing I've seen before. Unstable as all hell, to the point of
near unidentifiable. He spits out heavy metals though, so mind you
don't touch the little shit. Yeah?
[Emily Littleton]
"You want me to try?" Emily asks, about the Life scan, as she sips at
the over-caffeinated drink and observes Goopy in its... native?...
state. She set the drink down and folded her arms across her middle,
so that the fingertips of one hand just happened to rest on the pulse
point of her opposite wrist. (Focused [ready]).

"Where'd you find it?" she asked, still resisting using gendered
pronouns with the amorphous entity. It felt a little un-Scientific to
anthropomorphize Goopy this early on.
[Henrietta Bean]
Mm. That toxic spill up on the mile?

*She chirps after a hard slug of caffeine and grape flavored
stimulants. Leaning back on the counter Henri eyeballs Emily, her head
cranking sideways as her feet thump against the counter.*

Thought I'd go play superhero by nixxing the badness spillin all
around, but instead I found a bunch of suspicious blokes in hazmat
suits, and a whole lot of goop. So I stole me some.

An feel free to scan if you'd like. Though he's a tough nut for bein spied on.
[Emily Littleton]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Botch x 1 at target 3)
"Ah..." Emily said, carefully, though her brow knit a little. Worried.
The reason (or one of them) became apparent to Bean very soon.

"One of my students, from the physics class I TA, was injured in that
mess," she said, and Emily's tone was grave enough to imply serious
injury. "She's got some pretty deep cuts, and a nasty break. Said the
chemi company got her into an experimental treatment plan. I guess
she's healing up alright..."

Emily's voice trailed off there and her concentration on things unseen
intensified. She reached out with the senses Jarod had taught her,
letting her own heartbeat anchor her awareness.

((Life 1))
[Henrietta Bean]
*That gut clenching strangeness of reality gone awry. Henri winces as
Emily scans Goopy with reverence, and then.. things get sideways. She
scratches a hand through her hair, half scowling.*
[Emily Littleton]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10 (Success x 1 at target 4)
Emily's eyes blinked open and she looked a little disoriented for a
moment. Then her jaw set (oh no, that didn't just happen) and she
figured, naively, that she'd merely missed her mark somehow. Emily and
Paradox are not well acquainted, you see. They've only met in passing;
she's seen his hand on another, but not felt it herself.

Perhaps this is why she retries the rote.

((Life 1, +1 dif))
[Goopy]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[Who's dat scanning goopy?]
[Emily Littleton]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7 (Success x 1 at target 4)
Goopy pushed back. Which added Awakened to the list of potential
adjectives that could be attached to the ball of toxic sludge
currently spewing heavy metals and heat into Emily's labspace. The
mission (make sure Bean's okay [determine origins of Goopy]) had long
since gone off the rails. She'd have to answer for that later.

This. This was serious business. It almost warranted Chuck's srsbznss
face, but Emily was unpracticed in such expressions.

Once more, she reached out. This time taking care and time to work the
rote carefully. Hopefully that would work out better for her.

((Life 1, extending to next round))
[Emily Littleton]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 8 (Success x 1 at target 4)
((Life 1, extended))
[Goopy]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 1 (Botch x 2 at target 5)
[The goop does not abide]
[Goopy]
The Goopy does not abide magick scans. It's hard to tell if the Goop
is naturally resistant to magick, or whether it simply dislikes magick
in all forms. Thankfully, no one's put it near the Node to find out.
Yet.

The goop starts to ripple as Emily reaches out. There's a staticy
feeling around it. Difficult to lock onto it with magick, at first.
Maybe it's resisting, maybe not, it's hard to tell. It's like there's
some sort of... anti-magick bubble around it. It keeps making attempts
to lock on, difficult.

The goops starts quivering. It can be seen spinning around one way,
then the other, as magick is performed on it. It shudders, faintly,
ripples trembling out. It quivers, the quivers increasing in
intensity, until it suddenly loses cohesion as a sphere of goop and
splashes, with a syrupy thick "glomp" into the bottom of the bucket.
Sloshing around thickly, like syrup in a bowl.
[Henrietta Bean]
*Henri's scowling as Emily bombards the goop with magick, messes up,
and does it again. Goopy starts reacting and then bursts, splashing
into the lunchpail like so much useless syrup. The birdlike etherite
gasps in horror, clanking as she leans over. Voice a thin tremor as
she looks at her little toxic friend.*


...Goopy?!
[Emily Littleton]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4 (Failure at target 6)
She's a newly Awakened Apprentice; things do not always go well for
Emily. Unfortunately, though, her attempts at reading into Goopy's
(nonexistant?) Life pattern have... killed... the unliving ball of
toxic waste.

Somehow she felt tremendously guilty about it, too, given the look of
abject horror on Bean's face. Emily reached up and rubbed at the back
of her neck, looking very uncomfortable and sheepish.

((Dox, dif 6))
[Henrietta Bean]
I... I gotta go.

*Frowning and packing up her goo - turned syrup. What was she
thinking, letting the apprentice poke around at her sample. Henri Bean
you idiot. She clatters hastily off the counter, energy drink
forgotten.*
[Goopy]
A few minutes go by. There's no response from goopy. But eventually,
there's the faint whirring noise again. The sound of it chomping on
bolts, as usual. Grinding them down, digesting them, and whatever else
keeps getting tossed into its pail.
[Emily Littleton]
"Ah... okay then..."

Emily watched her head out, clanking and stomping all the way, without
so much as a hand offered in help. The Orphan caught her lower lip
between her teeth and scrunched her eyes shut in frustration. As Henri
hit the door, she said softly, "Sorry..."
[Henrietta Bean]
S'okay. He's okay. Just.. Gotta go now.

*Mutters a Bean in relief as she clatters out. Best to leave before
any more damn tests went awry. Bugger this, she'd have to do it
herself. ... She wished Dylan was here. Lunchpail clutched to her
chest, Henri Bean heads out into the night.*