Scene #9834: Regenesis Project Maturation

Owner	Pose
Shockwave	As Lilian arrives within a spacebridge terminal chamber after stepping through a localized wormhole-like portal, the doors hiss open and she is met with what can only be described as a nightmare of science. (Read area description) The entire sector has been sealed to provide an atmosphere for humanoid organics. Though breathable, it did not feel alive like a natural atmosphere, lacking bacteria and other particles that are only natural to carbon-based life. Instead, the air tastes metallic and alien. Shockwave stands in a darkened corridor across the vast and complicated room, his sickly yellow optic gleaming brightly. It flares as he speaks, his voice intoning in the darkness: "Welcome to my laboratories, Lilian Rook. Next to you is an antigrav sled with fourteen dimension-magnetic containment canisters, both engineered to a size easy for your transport and manipulation. Warning: Do be careful once they are filled with the ore samples, as a few are quite volatile. The chambers with the ore seeds are through here." The sled would scan Lilian automatically and follow several feet behind autonomously. The monstrous, angular Cybertronian turns and begins walking deeper into the dark tunnel, lighting switching on whenever Lilian passes certain intervals for her visual aid. At the end is an atrium that has been configured with a set of fourteen doors aside from the connecting corridor, all of them open and leading into massive chambers. At the center of each chamber hovers a singular ore seed, a small crystal-like substance, each with different properties. The chambers themselves have magnetic-sealing properties to prevent the ores from touching any surfaces, causing each seed to float and spin at a slow, sinister velocity. Shockwave turns to Lilian and his optic flares again as he speaks, "This is Regenesis. Query: Do you require any special configurations or parameters for the temporal growth of the ore seeds?" Beside each of the doors appears a small aperture where the canisters can be attached to extract the samples she requested.
Lilian Rook	Well . . . It's a half-dozen degrees worse than Laplace, but 'sterile, metallic, antibacterial' is still an axis she's gotten used to over her time working there; even if it isn't her favourite. Besides. What in god's name would she expect from the planet called 'Cybertron' where everyone is a robot? It's just that the lab itself is weird. And creepy. And totally gigantic, which makes it feel both weirder and creepier. Her immediate, instinctive fascination with the bizarrely eclectic range of experiments(? storage?) takes an instant backseat. First, she snaps her fingers to summon a loose orbit of hovering will-o'-wisp flames, reacting without thinking to the dark corridor. Second, she looks around for whatever she can try to squint and imagine is a 'sled'. Third, she makes a face about the scanning. Then, finally, she says, "Lovely." and "Rest assured that I've no intention of shaking them nor playing kickball." Even if she did, she'd have abandoned them at this point already. 'This is Regenesis.' The doors are something she counts out of idle habit; for no other reason than its very vague resemblance to the reliquary. Fourteen matches the number, so she'd impulsively assumed already, but nodding and holding her silence from the walk just feels strange. "Not at all. I've brought what little I need with me right here." she says, patting the messenger bag at her side. "It'll be a minute to set each one up individually. Is there no way you can bring each of the seeds into the same location? I don't know if they're ready for mobile transport in the state they are."
Shockwave	Shockwave had briefly observed her behavior, and the faceless Cybertronian displayed nothing at the appearance of the arcane flames. There was little that surprised the ancient creature that nested in the center of the immense frame. The antigrav sled was just a standard flat platform with a handrail and a small control panel to basically switch it on and off and small air-thrusters along the border of the flatbed circumferance to mobilize it. Once at the atrium, Shockwave remained at a respectable distance. It was logical to not 'loom' over organics and make them snap their necks to look up at him. Nevertheless, his hexagonal head angled to Lilian directly and his vocal processors projected: "The seeds will require maturation within their individual chambers. Once the crystallized seeds have grown to fill their respective chamber, and the Ores are mature and relatively stable, then the canisters may be attached to the apertures. This will open the transfer slot on the other side, and cutting beams and gravitic tractors will extract the samples and transfer into your canisters safely. It is not possible for the seeds to mature together without engaging catastrophic consequences." Shockwave turned and took a few steps over to a console along the wall next to the cooridor's portal that they both had came from and tapped a few commands into the incomprehensible keypad. He emitted a low hum of pensiveness. "However. I believe I can provide a superimposed vantage of the ores through quantum reconfiguration of the atrium. They will appear as if in a singular chamber, despite the opposite reality. Will this suffice?"
Lilian Rook	If she knew he was doing it on purpose, Lilian would probably compliment Shockwave's manners; in lieu, she just assumes that him keeping his distance could have ten different possible meanings and so she strenuously decides to consider none of them. "I see." she says, sighing very quietly. "That's a useful overview of the process. And far be it from me to risk catastrophic consequences." Frankly, combining the factual statement and the oddly silly followup in the same dry tone makes it difficult to discern how serious she is. "Well, never let it be said that I've shied away from an honest day's work. I am getting paid, after all; in a manner of speaking." Prepared to do the same thing fourteen times now, she's already opening her bag when the offer comes. 'They will appear as if in a singular chamber, despite the opposite reality. Will this suffice?' "You can do that?" Lilian only has to blink to realize how pointless her incredulosity is. Yes, obviously, he can do that. "And I can actually affect all fourteen of them at once?" The two-dozen-strong cluster of floating black metal shards she's stuck with for the time being bob up and down in the absence of facially expressive interest.
Shockwave	"Indeed. You will be able to affect each chamber. The seeds, themselves, will not be superimposed, but the atrium will. I will attempt to explain in common parlance--", he said as his head swiveled to 'sidegaze' as much as his singular optic allows towards her. "Within the atrium, there will be fourteen different instances of yourself with infinitesimal quantum variances that are equivalent of each ore's quantum signature. I assure that this is not a duplication of yourself, nor a copying, merely a phase-shift so that with a singular effort directed that will affect through quantum tunneling." Before she had a moment to react, he intoned, "Observe." Shockwave touched a few more keys. The atrium began to hum and conduits along the walls illuminated with flowing energon and emitters came to life. He tapped the engagement key and what took place was like something out of a psychedelic trip. All sensory input seemed to stagger. Audio came echoed and as he turned back to face her, it was like echoes of himself moved semi-transparent until they unified again as he stood still. If she passed her hand in front of her face, it would appear as fourteen different hands were waving back and forth. "I-I-I.. c-c-can.. a-a-administer.. a-a-an.. a-a-aerosol.. a-a-anti-e-e-emetic.. i-i-if.. n-n-necessary.." Anybody who hadn't ever taken psychedelics before would probably projectile vomit at this stage before they got used to the sensation.
Lilian Rook	'Within the atrium, there will be fourteen different instances of yourself with--' §I can never let anyone know this happened. They'd be so, so weird about fourteen of me. They'd--§ 'I assure that this is not a duplication of yourself, nor a copying' "Oh, okay. That's fine." Lilian says, finishing an inside-thought out loud. "That's sort of fascinating." she says, only as conversational filler, just before she stops to really think about it. Glancing back at Shockwave (and up, up, up) she says "Is that a function of the building? As in, does it only work in here? Or in a similarly closed environment, where the machinery defines the parameters of the modifiable space?" The walls glowing and humming seems like a pretty good answer. Everything else after that is just sort of horrid. Despite having last used hallucinogens literally two days ago, she can't help but shut one eye and curl a fist against the side of her face. "That won't be necessary." she says, stiffly. "I'll get in trouble if my wife hears I've been taking drugs from strangers again; aerosolized or otherwise." She'd also get in trouble if she found out how much liberty cap and fly agaric is still in her study, but, well . . . "Kindly boot it up on my part, would you? And it'd help if you could give me a rough estimate of how much objective-frame time progression these things require to mature. Or is it just a 'you'll know it when you see it' thing?"
Shockwave	When the effects seem to settle and Lilian gets accustomed to the sensation, things sort of just 'snap' back to normal. Shockwave, once again facing her, replies to her initial inquiries: "Throughout my laboratories, I have implemented a variety of environmental emitters for experiments such as these. Originally to mitigate undesirable consequences through phase-shifting. I would not be able to reproduce this effect elsewhere without transporting a localized generator of similar technology." He ignored her speech regarding her wife and the trouble she would be in. It was not his place to reply to her relationship parameters. He was, at least, respectful of that much. At the request to begin the engagement, he turned back to the console and tapped a few more keys. "Please stand in the center of the atrium." Once she does, another key is pressed and a central dais raises so that she is mid-height of the room and eye-level with what she would perceive be only one room with all fourteen ores within it as her sensory inputs overlapped. "Disengaging containment fields for direct arcane temporal influence. Requested time is minimum one million revolutions of localized forward temporal displacement. The seeds will grow to fill the chambers. Once they have reached fifty-percent growth of the space within, you may discontinue." He taps a few more commands. A quiet hum that perhaps had not been perceived earlier ceases altogether and there was a 'shimmer' of a forcefield-like energy barrier between her and the open superimposed chambers that suddenly winked out of existence. She would have direct line of sight of the ore seeds now with nothing standing between her and each. "You may commence at your convenience."
Lilian Rook	'I would not be able to reproduce this effect elsewhere without transporting a localized generator of similar technology.' "I figured as much. It'd be too convenient not to be using everywhere else." Lilian says, after just coming off coping with the unpleasantly overwhelming sensory feedback. "The amount of work that fourteen of me could get done in a day . . ." No! Bad! You just told yourself not to tell anyone! 'Please stand in the center of the atrium.' At about this time, actually standing in the center of the atrium, Lilian wonders at the situation that she's found herself in, stepping on the big red X indicated by a self-professed hyperlogical amoral scientist robot in a giant dark evil-looking lab while he presses a button. For a very short time, she wonders if, perhaps, she should get on Petra's ass a little less about 'falling between the couch cushions and ending up in Narnia'. But then Shockwave just does exactly what he promised, and there is no green test tube or ACME anvil or rube goldberg machine involving clackers and tesla coils, so as always, Lilian decides she is correct about everything and people should learn from her example instead. 'Requested time is minimum one million revolutions of localized forward temporal displacement' "Oh lord above. We're going to be here a while--" Lilian begins to say, before she remembers that she is doing fourteen of these at the same time, and thus, "Oh I can just layer it concentrically can't I?" What that actually means is shortly obvious. 'Commencing at her convenience' entails stepping into the chamber(s), settling down on her knees, withdrawing an almost stereotypical vial of deep violet-black ink, and using it to pattern out three concentric layers of arcane geometry that end up using most of the gigantic spaces anyways, only remarkable to a scientist for the subtly freakish kinesthetic control involved in doing so. It's not terribly interesting until she retrieves a collapsible rod using seven separate metals under a tungsten carbide casing, and starts doing something that looks a lot like arc-searing the lines into the floor, able to pace around as she does so with the length of the bizarre power tool. Finally, the process engaged is only visible as a distortion analogous to black-gold 'fizz' or 'foam', like the grain that appears in unshielded cameras pointed at radioactive materials; one that begins at the center and expands outwards into the larger, outer circles, with exactly the same torque dynamics as a gear train of equally increasing size. With a million lab sensors pointed at the process, it's more notable that the 'black' pinholes correspond to light (and energy) vanishing into a previous temporal frame, and the 'gold' pinholes correspond to the same arriving from a future timeframe, sieved through millions of erratic holes in timespace. "So." Shit. This is still going to take a little while. "What happened with your hand?"
Shockwave	Shockwave observes from his vantage point. It appears as if she is going into one room, when the phase varians has her actually split between all fourteen, as she concentrically begins to design on the floors of each chamber. "Your assessment is correct. If you require a phase-variance generator in addition to your requested samples, I will also provide as compensation for your efforts. Phase-variance technology is not strictly Cybertronian, but I can engineer a generator for your size in two cycles, if you wish to experimente." Hey. Shockwave is all for dark science and weird things. Why not, right? His optic is recording everything that Lilian is doing, each single design that she draws, even the colored fizzy-foam after she takes out a rod of various metallic substances. There are silent warnings appearing on the console next to him that are fed into his internal HUD display regarding the multitude of spacetime perfurations, but he logically presumes this is a result of her arcane process. "Fascinating..." he seems to trail off before his optic snaps to her directly, "Ore-8, Destruction. I had failed to compensate entirely for is radioactivity. It interacted with my internal energon flow and the reaction was a localized explosive of moderate proportions. The hand is in the main chamber that you arrived in, which I shall study at a later time. I have a number of spare parts available as contingencies." There was not much for Shockwave to do other than observe. Though he had zero affect on anything arcane, the ores would provide similar results. His optic seemed to glow a bit brighter with anticipation.
Lilian Rook	'Your assessment is correct. If you require a phase-variance generator in addition to your requested samples, I will also provide as compensation for your efforts.' God that's so tempting. But, "I'd like not to be greedy." Lilian says. "I accepted your original offer. I won't try and wheedle more out of it for me whilst I'm smack in the middle of fulfilling my end." Two cycles, though . . . That's, days, right? She'd assume years, because the Combaticons are always going on nonsense tangents about measuring time, but Shockwave already set up this lab this quickly, so that seems unlikely. "I might try to take you up on it once I've made some progress with the ores, though. One thing at a time." Ha. Ha. Very funny. 'Fascinating...' "Hm?" Lilian blinks back at him, noncomprehending. Surely not about magic, right? 'Ore-8, Destruction. I had failed to compensate entirely for is radioactivity.' "Goodness. Even as just a seed?" she says. "Or was it the process of converting the raw energon material into the 'ore-8' variant? Not that you struck me as the paranoid type, granted; and I suppose it doesn't matter when you can just stick on a new hand." She sighs just thinking about it. "Losing half a leg isn't an experience I'd care to repeat." The maximum differential of each layered circle appears to be 100:1. Wiring them together like this has an exponential effect, reaching one million with three circles, but one-hundred-million with Lilian(s) actively channeling on each sample herself as a four step; hence the whole array is an external, assistive multiplier serving double function as a breaker system. For the most part, she seems to be content to focus on maintaining it, being a non-zero effort; but practice makes everything routine. "It'll be ready momentarily." says Lilian, followed by a muttered "Christ, listen to me. I sound like a smart-microwave." with a sigh. "You can remove the arrays at your leisure; they shouldn't be reactive with anything all on their own. If you want permanent versions for yourself--" Hmm, is this like arms dealing to a Multiversal supervillain? No, surely not. "--I've patented a similar, reusable system, for use by people other than just myself-and-family. Seeing as it's only a side project, I haven't scaled it to nearly this extent, but I imagine you might enjoy taking a crack at it." With that, the process should be pretty much complete.
Shockwave	Shockwave processes Lilian's questions and offer instantly by stating, "Even as just a seed, indeed. As it is derived from distilled energon, its radioactivity with engex-grade energon within a Cybertronian's frame is an unstable volatility. This is the purpose of the dimension containment canisters, which utilize a small localized phase-variance technology to prevent radiation from the ores escaping and interacting with one another. Precautions are required when experimenting, though the radioactivity will not be as instant with organic carbon-based cellular biology." He didn't say it wouldn't happen, just not as fast. As she seemed to be nearing the end of her ritualistic preparations and the timeline shunt was coalescing, he continued, "Your offer is noted and appreciated, but I must refuse. Permanent versions of arcane temporal dilation and contraction could prove ... detrimental." While he was the epitome of a 'mad scientist', even he knew not to cross certain boundaries. He had no means of interfering with arcane energies. When she said he could disengage the arrays, he wasn't quite certain what would happen with her phased and inside each simultaneously. Nevertheless, he tapped the console and powered down the quantum phase-arrays and then turned his head to observe the result.
Lilian Rook	"Engex?" Proper noun detected. "Well, I'm neither a Cybertronian nor filled with energon nor touching Ore-8 today." Lilian says. A disobedient shard taps her cheek like a fingernail in thought, which she fails to notice. "Ah, but thank you very much for the safety equipment all the same. Would you like it returned afterwards?" The sled keeps making her think of a shopping cart. 'Permanent versions of arcane temporal dilation and contraction could prove ... detrimental.' "Oho?" Her tone changes. "That sounds like a story~ Ah! But if it's not one to share, then never mind me!" The timing is coincidental, but it feels vaguely like a punctuation when Lilian closes her eyes, breathes out, abruptly closes her hand, and steps back away from the outer circle, performing a gesture with just her two still-sparking fingers that traces the rough 'gear train' connection out until it completely stops. As she promised, the result is just inert (albeit exotic) ink, carbonized onto the floor plates in a way that'll probably just come out with bleach. "If I recall correctly, you said 'attach the canister to the apertures'?" It sounds simple enough. Ore-11, 'Evolution', was the one she was promised, so she takes the sled over (well, really, it just follows her) and she starts hefting containers (provided she can reach the thing they're to go into) until she's done. "Ah, just say 'when', though; I can't weigh these myself." Taking the sled back out again, she idly says something about "--have to ask Exis if there's any effect on her when--" under her breath, then properly turns and does her stupid little excessively formal wave. "Just out through the same bridge?"
Shockwave	Shockwave observes. She had been true to her word, though he had provided her with fourteen canisters to extract a sample of each ore that she desired. The result of the growing and mature ores in each of the chambers now caused the protective barriers to ignite once again, preventing any external interaction now that the phase-variance was static into one quantum signature. He had felt dangerous, but it seemed she was mainly concerned with a singular ore. "A story I shall share another... time, I assure you." She could easily lift and attach the canisters to the aperture, which had been set at her height. As soon as it attached, the transfer slot opened. Inside the chamber, laser cutting beams would begin slicing circularly while a gravitic tractor pulled samples into each of the canisters until they were filled. What Lilian Rook now possessed was a veritable treasure trove of a reality-warping substance that could directly affect evolution. With as much as fourteen canisters of the mature ore, she could easily scatter its particles across her entire planet and trigger an unprecedented evolutionary event. Shockwave, if he had a face, would smile. "Indeed. The same corridor. Allow me." He walked down the corridor and into the main laboratory chamber and sent a silent signal from his internal comms array to open the spacebridge for her to enter with the sled. He observed her for a moment as he stood within the center of the scientific nightmare of a room and said in his monotone: "Gratitude to your efforts in the advancement of this project, Lilian Rook. I look forward to the results it will yield." What the slag has she done? Before she could ask, he sent the trigger command and the spacebridge shunted her right back to her previous coordinates along with her prize.