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Post by Gohan on Jan 29, 2024 23:36:57 GMT -5
Wooden trays jingled as Gohan exchanged a set of vials; an orange tincture bubbling endlessly as flecks of green dissolved in it. The boy furtively chewed away at his pencil as he stared at the solution slowly boiling away. Sterile white walls contrasted sharply with the sharp black of the lab's benchtop, a fine dust of powdered reagents settled near the mass balance and racks of test tubes. The young scholar eyed his workspace with a sigh. Even in the Astral Plane, the benches are never clean...
He would need to work on that. A messy lab was a working lab, but something always tingled in the back of his mind when he saw the potential impurities waiting to infect his chemistry. Quickly swiping his arm was all it took to whisk away the powdery substances in a small vortex, keeping them away from the now-foaming orange vial. If the reaction continued to progress, it would only take a few more minutes until the mixture settled. Rarely did he ever get such uninterrupted study time in this place, consistently interrupted by ne'er-do-wells. He could feel another presence somewhere, not quite manifested in the place equal parts spirit and mind. As always, he suspected, it would be an all-out war to keep his work safe.
WC: 218
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Post by Sitka on Jan 30, 2024 15:06:40 GMT -5
The astral realm formed around Sitka, and she took in the dream she was seeing. It was always interesting to see what another mind manifested, and in this case Sitka immediately wondered what exactly the point was.
Around her was a lab, which was usually for experimentation, but wouldn’t the result just be what you thought they should be, not what they actually were? It was a mental place, fueled by psychic energies, one’s own mind palace. She had seen realms made of cotton candy and gravity being a dance of up and downs. It was rare the rules of existence played a big part here, could it really give a scientist answers to chemical reactions?
But then again, if you could manipulate the place to your own ideals, couldn’t you submit it to the laws of nature? It wasn’t something she considered before. Everyone else was so airy about the place.
The conjurer of this place was a young man, razer focused, and she imagined the strength of will invoking reality on such a place required, or if he was simply using it all as a thought experiment, a recreation to find the thing he missed.
She felt somewhat guilty for interrupting.
”Pretty risky isn’t this?” she asked in her slow tone as if she already had the answer. She didn’t though, but was imagining someone else wandering into the realm ready to pick a fight. That’s what this place was often used for after all.
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Post by Gohan on Jan 30, 2024 20:30:27 GMT -5
To Gohan, science was something which never failed to surprise. One could imagine every possible aspect of an experiment and still have things go unexpectedly due to the most unlikely of circumstances. Maybe a freezer's seal leaked and just a touch of water condensed to the inside; that water could lower the efficacy of a reagent and keep a reaction from proceeding to completion. Perhaps a charge of static electricity in a vial could cling to precious solids, keeping them from mixing homogeneously. Or maybe there was a poorly calibrated scale which could entirely reverse the role of "limiting reagent" between two species.
Sometimes, though, the chemistry went exactly as intended. A woman had appeared in Gohan's lab - both the most private one he had as well as the most frequently invaded. She only watched as bubbles died in the flask, asking an all-too reasonable question while she waited patiently. This time, the woman was the surprise.
"Yeah, it never gets this far," Gohan said, looking up at her with a boyish grin that spread from ear to ear. He picked up the vial, swirling it gently as he offered it to her. "Thank you for letting me finish! I'll let you have the first sip, if you want." The glassware held only a few ounces of liquid, orange and mildly frothy in a way that mimicked the palette of Gohan's attire - an orange gi and oversized white labcoat.
WC: 239/457
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Post by Sitka on Jan 31, 2024 19:35:10 GMT -5
The boy’s gaze stayed fixed until the experiment finished, then he looked up to her with a grin that could warm the coldest of hearts. Sitka’s was usually luke warm, so it was enough to illicit another soft smile, her eyes showing some of her amusement mixed into the good nature of it.
When he offered her the vial, her eyebrows rose but she took it from him. Lifting it she inspected it in the light before looking down from it and to the boy, her smile widening at the matched pair.
She had some experience with Keliouxan scholars by this point, and the study of ki, among many other things required reasonable attire for fighting. They had some more decorative outfits, but it was definitely her first time seeing something clash so deeply with the white lab coat.
”Will it give me wings?” she asked, only half in jest.
152 / 406
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Post by Gohan on Jan 31, 2024 23:21:53 GMT -5
Roses bloomed on Gohan's cheeks as the woman gave him a mild smile that seemed to widen the longer she looked at him. It wasn't often that he found someone who entertained his study of the sciences, especially with the demographic most commonly visiting the astral realm. Even less often did he find a smiling face and most certainly it was the first time that a woman smiled at him - apart from his mom, at least.
"N-no," he stammered out, uncertainty draped around his shoulders. "At least, I don't think so. I suppose that since we're here, if you want it to give you wings then it might, but that wasn't how I wanted it to turn out. In that case, I wonder if your belief of what it should be will supersede mine - I did distill and concoct it, and I built the setting here, but if your brain doesn't have the objective experience to recreate what I wanted then..."
The time it took Gohan to ponder aloud was all he needed to forget his shyness around the woman. He continued rambling, a one-track enthusiasm in his voice which was most often present in children or the simple minded.
"Oh!" Gohan cried, cutting his own stream of consciousness short as he stared once again at the woman. "I never told you my name, miss. I'm Gohan. You're very kind to not kick me right away. Would you mind finding out for me if it gives you wings? You'll be my number one test subject!"
WC: 255/712
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Post by Sitka on Feb 1, 2024 19:42:19 GMT -5
Sitka gave a small laugh at the correction of his stammer. She was used to such things, but rarely was the explanation so thought out. A stammer usually brought up some noncohesive explanations, but Gohan was quick to forget the awkwardness of a boy and a girl over the scientific experimentation at hand. If she drank it, would her mental power supersede his? Would the astral realm choose to bend to her will, and what did that say if it did? Was it that her mental power or will was stronger, or was it simply the effect of melding minds?
Curious, wasn’t it?
Her eyebrows rose again at his sudden interruption to himself, and her smile grew again at the cause. His name. It was important after all.
”I’m Sitka,” she offered in turn, watching him as she said it with a gaze that could penetrate a bank wall, then she turned her eyes back to the vial. ”What nature are we giving it?” she asked. ”We’ve contaminated the experiment by letting me know I potentially could, do you want me to try and make it do that, or should I try to be as neutral as possible, subduing my expectations as much as possible?”
She wasn't a scientist herself, but she'd been involved in many experiments in her time.
223 / 629
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Post by Gohan on Feb 1, 2024 20:15:48 GMT -5
Sitka, Gohan filed away the name. The slight diversion to pay attention to Sitka's name was all it took to whiplash back and forth between the roles of 'boy' and 'scientist'. The intensity of her stare made him a little uncomfortable, though strangely it wasn't in a way that was unpleasant. She expounded upon Gohan's own basic statement, attaching her own interpretation and a way to salvage or redirect the boy's experiment. Is that what "butterflies in my stomach" means? It was truly a day of firsts for the young Saiyan.
"Wow, that's a great question," he replied, voice full of anticipation. "I think it should be okay! Your awareness of our conflicting wills and perspectives should be more than enough balance out the outcome probabilities. It would be interesting to see what degree an influenced subject is affected here anyway. Maybe we can both drink some at the same time?" Not only was Gohan looking forward to seeing what may happen if she took the tincture, but also her rationalizations of what effects she felt. Excitement twinkled in his eye as he plucked another vial from the wooden tray, ready to aliquot a small amount of the liquid for himself.
WC: 201/913
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Post by Sitka on Feb 1, 2024 22:32:07 GMT -5
Sitka listened to him, while looking back at the vile. She was trained in psychological warfare on Kanassa, and just the nature of her aura was enough to sway a weak mind when she willed it. She had no doubt that she would grow wings if she wished it unless Gohan placed a strong will against hers. She could probably even turn this orange dream into a green poison.
It seemed however, the boy was more of the mind to just see what happened, so she cleared her mind, a fairly easy task for her and let the idea of wings flutter back without much weight. She made sure not to dig her mind into the folds of this reality, like keeping quiet when you wanted to giggle.
“At the same time then,” she said in agreement, reaching out so he could with his, to pour some of the liquid in the new vile for his tasting. She couldn’t help it though, her mind imagined him with wings once he drank it over herself, and then that was a happy thought experiment, to make her ideas affect him, and to allow whatever he had originally intended.
If he placed the vial to his lips she would as well, drinking the little left and tasting exactly what it looked like, if she didn’t think it looked like the boy. An orange dream.
233/
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Post by Gohan on Feb 2, 2024 0:37:02 GMT -5
Gohan gently pressed the glass in his hand to the small vial he handed to Sitka. A splash of what should have been orange dreamsicle-flavored potion spilled out, expertly caught in his fresh receptacle. It sizzled against his skin with the mild acidity of carbonic acid and left a sweet smell, sticky residue forming instantly between his fingers.
This is perfect! He matched Sitka's smile, blissfully unaware of her slight perversion of his will behind the chemistry. He drew the vial to his lips, sniffing deeply before tossing it back in a single quick shot. Flavors blossomed into sweet vanilla and tangy orange, transporting the boy back in time. Goku's hands tearing the dual stems from a popsicle to share, the warm yellow-and-red paints of their home behind them, and Chi-Chi's angry shouts at her husband all invaded his mind with overpowering nostalgia.
He was only snatched back to his current reality, face to face with Sitka, by an itchiness erupting from his back. Gohan watched her with interest as he felt the protrusions grow longer and longer, piercing through the back of his gi but failing to get through the thicker lab coat.
"I guess your will won out, huh?" he said with a halfhearted smile, cocking his head to rest on an open palm. "But I did taste how it should have been! What did you think?"
WC: 229/1142
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Post by Sitka on Feb 4, 2024 20:53:58 GMT -5
Sitka watched his face as he sipped the drink. She had moved to clear her mind of her own existence as it were, focusing just on the boy and the new sensation. It was just a taste, and her mind easily willed the boy’s back to sprout, but he was lost for a moment in a memory, and maybe that was the entire point.
”Were you just going for flavor?” she asked, still watching him intently, as if he might do something else strange. No, the look wasn’t that he was doing something strange, bringing out an ostracized feeling. It was a look like he was doing something interesting, and she had become quite fascinated by him.
She wasn't sure why. Astral realm visits weren't in the script, and yet she had a feeling already that he was. After all, this place only tied those who were already meant to be tied together by destiny. Her destiny was always going to be in those scripts, so this boy, Gohan, would surely be entering the pages soon, if Klaus hadn't already written an entire chapter.
It wasn't like her to get very interested though. Perhaps she was changing, finally, after so much time, actually looking forward to the next act.
211/1,073
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Post by Gohan on Feb 4, 2024 21:40:30 GMT -5
The itchiness of Gohan's newfound wings persisted even as he felt the bubbly tonic in his stomach begin to fade. The butterflies continued to flutter there, however, as Sitka took her own sip of the semi-magical liquid. He still couldn't tell what was driving the little beating wings, but as the experiment's end drew closer the turbulence only grew.
"Well, yeah," Gohan admitted while waiting for any reaction to take place within Sitka. "It's silly, I know... But I just thought, what if the people of this universe had never tasted my favorite kind of ice cream? So I wanted to see if I could make it again." At the end of the day, the boy was still just a boy, and one who had been transported to a place far from home. It was only natural that he try and recreate what fond memories he could. He shuffled his new wings uncomfortably as he stood in place, eyes widening just a little as they poked into his periphery before he turned his full attention back to the woman before him.
"Will you tell me what you tasted when you tried it?"
WC: 192/1334
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Post by Sitka on Feb 5, 2024 0:52:56 GMT -5
Sitka shook her head as he called his experiment silly. It might have been a little with how much care he was taking with a scientific perspective when he probably should have instead looked for the techniques of a chef, but this is what Gohan knew. Baking was a science anyway. She wasn’t sure about making ice cream but she imagined it required some thought in the regard with temperature and texture.
“Don’t they make it anymore? Back where you’re from?” she asked, spoiled by instant travel and trade. Her own work took her everywhere, so it was rare she missed any one thing, and a craving could be met with a dimensional shift.
At his question though, she considered it carefully, then answered: “Summer.”
It probably wasn’t the answer his scientific mind wanted, but she answered any objections with her easy, almost teasing smile.
149/1222
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