Science Experiments: A Tale of Two Antagonists

So, little back story.

Inque knows grown up Face, which Visi and I attempted to get the two of them together for a creeper couple, though that failed. Drastically.
And now Inque made a deal with younger Face, that if he helped science up a more stable form for her (since she's basically a black blob form right now), he could practice all sorts of inconspicuous torture techniques on her to then use on his classmates, since she cannot be so easily 'killed'.

Edgar:

I was quite happy that the commute between school and my current residency only happened to be three blocks. I despised the commute, and the fact that it was so short made it bearable. ...Correction. Made it barely tolerable. Ideally I would have constructed an artificial ceiling to carry around for outdoors, but I was already marginalised typically, and hideously mistreated by the imbecilic people I was forced to share a school with, and a construction such as that would surely land me in a situation where I would end up accidentally murdering someone and then all aspects of graduation would have gone right out the window.

And so, on my commutes, I kept close to the abrasive brick walls of buildings, and tried to ignore the infinite space above me.

Three blocks later and I was... one could say happy, I guess, to be back inside somewhere with a marvelously concrete ceiling. "Edgar, you received a package today." I was informed as I crossed the main hall of the place, toward the residential area.

"Excellent. I'd been anticipating one." And I held out my hand towards the monk to take the package, which should have contained several new memory cards and a few books for a deal I was upholding.

"You never informed us that you'd placed an order, Edgar." He stated calmly as he handed it over. The one thing that constantly irked me about these monks was the fact that they insisted on using my given name... which frustrated me to no end. Though on the other end of the spectrum, as long as you didn't break anything and kept from keeping vagrants in your quarters, they were typically pretty tolerant of... whatever other activities.

"My apologies, it slipped my mind. It's just more storage for the OS Beta, I assure you. That and reading material."

"That is fine, Edgar. Thank you for telling us." And with that I was on my way upstairs to my room.

I opened the door, which had a perpetually squeaky hinge at my request, as a child I used that squeaky hinge to hear if someone was entering my room without my permission or not... after a time, they simply stopped coming and asking about it. ...it was about that instant, the instant when I opened that squeaky door, when I heard that there was someone in my room. ...Someone who didn't quite carry the same... acoustic density, if you will, as any of the monks here, and indeed, I would hazard to assert as any of the human beings on Erf.

"Who gave you directions to my place of residence?" I demanded immediately, closing the door behind me, and setting down my package and my schoolbooks on a desk five feet to the right of the door and against a wall.

Inque
"Face, is that any way to greet a lady?" I ask in an innocent voice, sitting upon his desk, completely disregarding his question.

I refocus on my attempted 'hand', separating 'fingers' and attempting to get them the right size and shape, though it always turned out wrong. Frustrated, the five limbs sharpen to points, joining to one blade before I start over again.

I certainly missed the solid form of flesh, the correct shape of a person, instead of these horrid angles I could barely hold. Molecules were too loose; it was hard to support a form that was so stretched out and thin.

"Such humble abodes. I rather like it; it suits you very well," I comment, and that's the most I say about his place of residence as I pause in my process and 'look' over to him, tilting my 'head' curiously.

Edgar:

"My greetings get marginally warmer when one warns of their arrival prior to actually... arriving." I informed her, as I heard her sit on my desk. She did not answer the original question, I'd noted, though, I suppouse it didn't really matter who'd given her directions as long as they didn't go giving it out to any idiot who asked.

I listened to her briefly... she was very... transient in nature. Nothing remained constant for terribly long. It was... unusual to say the least. Sounded... strange. Though, really I am not one to comment on oddities...

"I would move out in an instant. I hardly have enough space here." This statement was just as true for lateral space as it was for longitudinal space... In order to get through that squeaky door I'd had to duck my head, and in my own room the ceiling was close enough to feel a bit... unnatural. I was in no danger of hitting it yet, not really... but it was just... the fact that I had to consider that one day that may not be the case...

"I would inquire as to why you are here, though I figure that I already know why- You are here regarding the science." I picked the package back up and took it over to my bed, where I sat and started to peel the tape from the far edge while listening to her...non-newtonian cellular structure.

Inque
Space? I pause in watching him before jumping off the desk and snaking quickly over the floor to 'stand' in front of him. Curses, 'neck' was too long, wasn't it? "A liquid is not limited to a container, hm?" Demonstrations of abilities aside...

I glance about the room abnormally, the lengthy 'neck' bending at impossible angles for a person. "There's your side of the bargain as well, Face. I'm not /that/ greedy to ignore my promises..." Hmm...fine, maybe I was, but waiting around was simply a bore.

My 'face' splits in a cartoonish 'smile'. "It is not like you will not need me to experiment your attempts upon. I do not think this is a one chemical fixer."

Edgar:

"Right, right." I had not forgotten that I was now entitled to testing out whatever torture methods I wanted on her to try and figure something out for the idiots I had to tolerate at school. Because, it is quite easy to dwell on thoughts like that at lunch, or really at any other time during the school day when I had to tolerate any kind of social interaction with them. Situations like that came about increasingly briefly, but they still happened with enough frequency to cause the thought of taking a sharp object to all of them to pop up several times a day.

"And It's certainly not an easy dilemma that you've posed me with... That's actually, hopefully what's come in the box... Along with an extra 16GB of storage for... that's irrelevant to you." I stated. This was one moment where I was quite relieved that I could not actually ever stare at someone, because... the sheer number of anatomical impossibilities she was achieving... It was almost distracting. So, I just listened casually, eavesdropping on her movements as I finished opening the box, and peeling out all the packing foam.

The memory cards were right on top, wrapped in an additional layer of packing foam, and my books were underneath... The one I had only found in an unbound box edition, which was frustrating since then I had to take care to keep the pages in order, and it would be irritating to carry around, since it was practically a whole sheaf of single sided paper. The other two, happily, had been available as conventionally bound books, which was much more convenient. I could take those to school and pretend they were textbooks, and nobody would be any the wiser. ...Though, truthfully I spend more time sleeping in school than anything else. Another thing that no one would actually notice, though I tend to make it glaringly obvious on purpouse, just to prove a point.

"Yes. Wonderful. This is the one instance where I wish that the Audian curriculum provided molecular physics and applied chemistry as electives... Would be so useful to have an actual... lab to do most of this in. ...There's a work sink downstairs... I suppouse we could commandeer that, as the need arises." I informed her as I went and put the storage in a box on my desk already half full of other miscellaneous computer parts that I had been collecting up. Everything was still wrapped to keep them from damaging each other.

I turned away from my desk to 'face' her, although the gesture was purely for her benefit, as it didn't matter to me whether I was 'looking' at someone or not - I could hear them just fine either way. It was something that I had discovered throughout my years at school to be "impolite" and "unsettling". I didn't understand the problem really. Though it was fantastic fun to pull that card out in hallways or something and listen to them all silence themselves collectively. I felt a bit of a grin tug on my face just at the thought of that.

Inque
Collectively that was a bunch of giberish to me, though I did understand the need for labs or supplies. "There are no such labs you could possibly rent? I had preposed the possibility of getting a separate space, when you do get to applying your soon-to-be practiced skills on someone. It could have two uses," I say, sitting on his bed and 'looking' back up at him.

"But actual labs aside, if you cannot easily get something through your packages I can offer my skills and steal it for you easily...." To a point, of course. I could not pick up anything extremely bulky or heavy. Another frustration, I'm afraid.

Sinks... It made me shiver, which looked more like ripples throughout my form. "Though if the space downstairs is absolutely needed, I will have to forbid any sort of water. We do not mix well, as you might imagine..." Which was something I needed to be conscious of in this city. Seemed to be cloudy and threatening rain constantly...

Edgar:

"You overestimate Audian technology. Most scientific advancements, should they accidentally occur, are simply handwaved away as 'oh, yes, The Internet did that... so if we do this again, The Internet will do this again.' Which...admittedly, works in most situations, considering The Internet itself and what all it does. But realistically, I find that it would be at the very least unwieldy to try and code for something as vague as 'something that could solidify a large quantity of non-Newtonian fluid into an operating human being'. Not to mention irrationally resource intensive... I mean, really. The amount of stupid crap we would probably receive up until we actually hit success... It would be utterly ridiculous. So at the very least we will be narrowing search terms to something more... I would say 'easily acquired' but I do not know that that is the most precise term for it. And if not, we will be narrowing for a list of ingredients, though that would be less advantageous on my part, considering all the prep time that would probably be going into that..." And I was waxing technicalities again. She probably didn't need to hear all that technical nonsense. Oh well. A bit late to consider that now.

I'd heard her...ripple? That was a bizarre word choice to be employing to describe someone...but... to be fair, I had once written the term "acoustically squishy" into a history paper... I digress. I heard her ripple at the mention of sinks.

"I cannot place a 100% guarantee against the eventual use of water in whatever transpires in the course of us executing science, considering that it is a universal solvent, and may be necessary to provide two of the five elements deemed necessary for living organic matter. Though I can guarantee that I will forewarn you before it's employment so that you can go somewhere less...moist. At this point, I mostly intend to use the sink as an available drain to deposit whatever waste we happen to produce in, so as to not accidentally release deadly neurotoxins upon my place of of residence." I explained calmly.

"Furthermore, if you would like to somehow come up with the capital to get a better location for all of this, that would be fantastic. Between science, schoolwork, independent projects, torture, and sleep, I am afraid my time for going outside is wearing a bit... thin." Not that I particularly minded of course... the outdoors and I had a hate- hate relationship.

"Depending on the square footage and relative water resistance that you would like, prices go up considerably. I'm sure you could find an actual price quote on that somewhere, but considering that I have not really looked much into real estate I couldn't give you one off the top of my head." I added after a moment.

Inque
More giberish, though I listen politely and nod at the correct times like I understand what's coming out of his mouth. "Okay, okay. Points taken," I say when he finishes. Threes only so much to be expected from a student of this place, with how poor he rambles about the school system and such.

That being said, perhaps I was taking my chances with him... Though one doesn't come to dictatorship with stupidity. I rather like my odds in that case.

"What will be first on the agenda, then?" I ask, in terms of these books and the talk of experiments for torture practice.

Edgar:

"Very first on the agenda is probably fifteen minutes of me looking over some stupid text for history. However, after that... Our current options are probably either playing with silicon or attempting non-lethal torture. I have a whole box of silicon gel mix sitting in the bottom of my closet, because it's an artificial substance that replicates human flesh pretty well in instances where crash test dummies and ballistics mannequins are needed, and tends to have the same kind of molecular makeup as carbon based entities. My fear with the undiluted silicon however is that you would solidify too much... considering the fact that at present you don't have any kind of bone structure or anything, or indeed, any kind of musculature..." I went ahead and sat at my desk chair, turning it toward my bed, again, simply to maintain this facade of normal conversation, where both parties 'look' at each other or whatever.

"I suppouse that it would be your choice as to whether you'd rather do science this evening or torture. I'm indifferent as to which... though I would like to take a few hours after midnight to install some of this hardware into the OS... But that is a different matter entirely." I continued. As long as I was making a productive use of my time, I was alright with either, realistically, considering that both would have to get done eventually.

Inque
"It would matter on the torture you would want to practice tonight, I imagine. I cannot yet half very complex forms, though I can do some basics. A throat for your ruler-down-the-asophagus, perhaps." I didn't want any chemical mishaps of that nature so soon. I might end up as useless to his practice and then out deal would be null and void.

"I do not believe I can optionally do this, but you might be able to separate a sample from me to test on. Though I do not like the idea of wasting my matter away, so this will have to be done sparingly," I prepose as a solution to his fear, pausing to think. "A more solid form would make me able to imitate the human body more, and thus make your practice more accurate. So sensibly, science on me would be the logical first choice."

Edgar:

"Science would probably be logical, yes. And I am relieved to hear that you can part with a bit of yourself for the sake of testing, as, for some of these things, I wonder if you would be able to return to your typical state. Out of curiosity... would you be able to reabsorb sections that we had conducted experiments on, in order to see whether or not they would assimilate and behave properly?" I asked, as I stood and walked over to my closet to pull out the box full of silicon powder I'd received several days back.

Oh right and I had that history nonsense to read. I was fairly certain that it went somewhere along the lines of "and then they all murdered one another for varying reasons that may or may not have been just, and hence the modern world was made." but, I was finding that my history teacher disliked when I turned in pedantic trolling instead of legitimate essays... despite the accuracy of said pedantic trolling. I sat back down at my desk, setting the box of silicon on the desk, and pulling out a thick and useless history book from the stack of books elsewhere on the desk. ...History and then science. I wished it could be the other way around, as the latter was more fascinating, but... I did want to graduate after all.

Inque
I glance at a 'hand' again, practicing fingers again. "I would imagine I could. My molecules like staying together, after all, otherwise id just be some puddle on the floor..." A scary thought...even /less/ of a form... I shiver again. "I'm not sure if whatever you put in the sample will stay concentrated once my pieces join again, or if it would spread throughout my body and become useless under such ratios of substance-to-me. But I suppose we will figure that out when the time comes..."

Edgar:

"Dilution would have been what I was hoping for, actually.. considering that we don't know what ratios would even work at this point... I would hate to accidentally overwhelm your system with useless garbage before we know whether or not it works, or what concentration works... We don't know for certain that Silicon is even the proper direction to be going. We should probably be investigating some kind of carbon based gel substance as well, though something tells me that that would be rather... nasty to deal with." I responded. Though, if that were to occur too often, it could cause some kind of bizarre reaction between chemicals that don't sit well with one another.

"Alright. Allow me fifteen minutes to deal with this hideous homework and then we will contemplate the matter further and start with the execution of science." I stated, finally opening my history text to the appropriate page and feeling around for the first section of the chapters I was suppoused to be going over. I would skim. I'd done the whole book once at the beginning of the semestre, and just ran them over quickly once before their assigned day so as to make sure that I didn't ...accidentally... hand in some kind of scathing semantic argument. ...or rather, accidentally hand in a scathing semantic argument that would be immediately perceivable upon first read through.

Inque
At least he was thoughtful. I nearly percieved it as kindness, however this was the one who was going to kill the monarchy and such, I remind myself. He was certainly the schemer, and I liked the fact. Least I could do was wait quietly and patiently.

Edgar:

The fifteen minutes elapsed painfully slowly in my case... I really didn't need to hear any more about the mild successes of the primitive hierarchy, considering the fact that all that was in the past now anyway. Who cared if they happened to build the city that I happened to be sitting in currently? Who cared if they were responsible for some of the installations of fundamental governing practices that were important to keep the exchange with the Internet running somewhat smoothly? Were they not also, in the long run, responsible for producing the hideous monstrosity of governance that happened to be destroying the place now? Aren't they the reason that the regime had become so oppressive and restrictive in the first place? ...Aren't they the reason currently that one cannot sacrifice organic matter via shrinebox, and the underlying cause of much of the economic upset that has arisen as an extension of modifications to the domestic policy without bothering to appropriately modify the rest of the policies to accommodate the one change that was suppoused to help? Furthermore, doesn't the entire system run horribly inefficiently since it matters not whether or not the current holders of the city happen to possess enough braincells required to fire one synapse, let alone operate the complex mental processes required to consider the effects of changing one law upon the masses?

Eventually, I slammed the book shut... almost on my own hand, in sheer frustration of having to tolerate that biased drivel. I was uncertain as to how much of the stupidity I'd actually retained and how much of it I had taken and filed under: Sheer Human Stupidity, to never be looked at again from fear that I may drop IQ points right then and there. "Right. Now that that catastrophe of political design is done with... Let's move onto something more... inherently logical, shall we?" Of course the question was largely rhetorical... but whatever.

Inque

If that meant experiments, of course.

I quickyly go across the space to peek inside of the box, then again glance at my hand. "Some sort of container might be best in getting a sample, so it doesn't slip through some crack to return to me. Something glass or ceramic would work best." There was a vague wonder if getting a part of me ripped off would hurt or not, even though I knew I had nothing at all resembling any sort of nervous system to send or receive such signals.

Edgar:

"At the moment, I am afraid that the best I can get us is aluminum or tupperware... Though I think we ought to start a list of things like that that would prove useful so that I can start coding for them during my coding class..." I stated and was already reaching for paper, a pen and a ruler so that I could start said list. After several frustrating moments of writing backwards so that I could flip the paper over and read it from the dents that misshaped the smooth plane of the paper at a later date, I was ready to go find some kind of tupperware or aluminum can or something that would hopefully suffice for now.

"I suppouse I will have to make an excursion downstairs to acquire this container... Perhaps we should look at the instructions on this stuff to see if I will need to acquire any other miscellaneous things in order to best do this..." I reached into the box for whatever mixing instructions had been provided, and was irked to find that the surface of the paper was completely smooth. Fantastic. "I don't suppouse that you could read this aloud could you?"I asked after a moment. I despised asking for this kind of help.

Inque

Snaking around, I look over his shoulder at the piece of paper. At least my past host had taken some time to learn the basics of letters, that Harley girl providing some usefulness as a teacher when she felt like it. I tilt my head, wondering about a few of the words. Awefully long, some of them... But I read what I can, spell out those long ones that I was unsure of pronunciating.

"Shall I wait here for you to come back?" I ask afterwords, settling back to a height that I could hold easier.

Edgar:

It seemed as though some kind of instruments by which to measure would be useful, and although it did call for some water- for some reason enigmatically referred to in this instance as dihydrogen monoxide, I was planning on engineering it so that we would simply be using her instead of the water, and hoping that that would activate whatever complex needed activated for the gel to solidify into it's fleshlike consistency. "Don't be alarmed by the mention of water in there, we're modifying it." Though, I didn't know if she would have caught it anyway, considering that she seemed to have trouble with many of the words. "Hopefully you will be liquidy enough already to serve as the activating complex." ...and if not... well, I'd consider that if the issue arose.

"And, yes, if you would just stay in here, I think that that would not only be more expedient, but safer, considering that I haven't informed anyone of a guest in my quarters..." I informed her as I stood up to voyage downstairs to the kitchen. "If anyone knocks... hide." I added before opening the door and ducking through the door frame. "I will be back momentarily." And with that I departed to the kitchens.

Inque
stealth was easy in my terms. To be safe, I glance around the room again. Under the bed would be easy, or if it was necessary and nice out I could go through the window. I should do some exploring during the night, perhaps, figure out a few secretive and inconspicuous paths that I may take for easy travel if the need arises.

Edgar:

My trip to the kitchens was uneventful. While I was down there, I acquired for myself a bagel with lox for dinner, and ate it as I walked, being careful to refrain from biting my own toungue...I hated when that happened.

I returned, opening the squeaky door and entering the room, all the while finishing up the last of the bagel. I let it close behind me and set the tupperware on the desk. "Do you need assistance removing a piece of yourself from yourself, or can you manage on your own?" I asked after I'd finished chewing. Rude to talk and eat... and potentially dangerous for me.

Inque

"Yes, please," I say. "I cannot hold items very well, I'm afraid. Its a...frustration I hope you can cure..." I didn't like being so helpless like this, not even being able to hold the container... Holding out my 'arm', I leave him to figure out how, exactly, to go about doing that.

Edgar:

She extended an arm. "I can imagine how that would be frustrating." ...Now... how to go about actually separating a sample...What did I have that was sharp enough to do that...? Hm. I had bits of sharpened plastic tucked away from my early childhood... with which I would poke people if I didn't feel like biting them when they were mean. I drew blood twice with those pointed bits of plastic... good memories. ...well, alright, moderately good memories, considering the circumstances surrounding the use of those bits of plastic.

"Excuse me a moment... I have to go dig out some sharpened plastic..." Which I got out of the depths of my closet. I briefly wondered how sanitary it was to be using such things that I just dug out of my closet on another being... but realistically, the Audian Health Bureau used less sanitary items on people on a daily basis...so I was hardly concerned. "I have no idea how you interpret any kind of pain, and quite frankly, such things are only mildly relevant to the current dilemma in that, if you do experience pain, it will be very shortly." I then proceeded to attempt removing a piece of her from herself via pointed plastic and a tupperware container.

Inque

"No pain," I mumble as he attempts. Not very well. As said, I like sticking together, and a cut would fuse as quickly as he made it. Wasn't this a problem...