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~:-:NYU - Biology Lab — New York City:-----:~.
The biology labs are all in front of Washington Park Square, the sort of
large green space formerly used in historical times for armies to muster on.
This particular lab is quiet, a place where holy insights can be rendered
thanks to the enlightening glow of science. Machines murmur at the fringes, a
thermal cycler whirling around pipettes and test tubes. The incubator in
particular gleams with a faintly purple light, a centrifuge shut down for the
evening. A cup of coffee is forgotten on a table next to a collection of
black and white prints usually posted to a light-table. A number of models in
various stages of completion reveal twirling lattices of steely grey base
pairs and a wire backbone, others no more than chemical spheres connected by
those tubes and wires to form composites.
It's an environment of intense concentration and discovery, headaches
and breakthroughs. Locked cupboards contain the calibrated instruments and
test tubes, rubber gloves, and pipettes of scientific art. Extra lab coats
hang on wooden pegs over a neat metal desk decorated by a few personal
touches, notably a calendar and several scientific journals in English and
French.
Evening after Labour Day, a time of infamy for the students of New York University. The undergrad class of 1968 look upon their futures with trepidation and their schedules with confusion. A vast snarl of buildings hosts their ilk and the wiser few winnowed down every semester. Grad students smug in their knowledge nurse beers or, wisely, get a good night's sleep, or unwisely party their hearts out in SoHo and Greenwich Village.
Then aspiring Nobel laureates, what about them? They dwell in their thoughts for today is just another day, albeit a late one. Experiments do not care about the labour movement or barbecues or celebrating capitalism in an orgy of greenbacks. Discoveries at the molecular level similarly won't care if she celebrates now or in fifteen years. The young woman is a rarity: a geneticist in a field almost ninety-five percent male, and one with a lab to herself. She's probably the one diversity credit for NYU.
True and not true as she runs her samples through a centrifuge, and examines her notes in manila. There's horribly catchy French ye-ye pop playing and the ajar door makes it easy to hear. She could be the diversity credit for the biology department, but so is she a protege of actual Nobel winners… and the daughter of the greatest living Genetic Councilor in Attilan. Or so that mother would claim, reasonably. This, the girl who easily got stuck in a pylon.
It was evening and while it was not customary for fish men to show up in a lab was not common. TO be created IN a lab? Disturbingly more common. Still his boots carried him into the room seeming to have ignored protocols and camera along the way as was the spy's trade. People love to forget that tidbit about his job and that meant he was doing it well. Still, a muffled, but respectful tone warmed in the room, "Vesper? I hope I'm not disturbing you?"
Large black orbs glanced around the lab and then back to her. His voice was modulated behind the mask which couldn't help but to alter the sound of his voice a bit, but it was a small price to pay for breathing. "Triton. We met… over your brother's project." In case there were ears of course.
'V. Mezieres' helpfully marks the lab in question, hidden in the depths of the biology building where the real researchers do real work instead of lecture bored, wide-eyed students separated from high school by eight weeks and a cardboard hat.
She's bent over her word, drumming a pen against a legal pad. So much wasted information and she has little to show for it. The general elegance of her hard work refuses to present itself in any tolerably clear fashion. She sighs. The coffee cup on the desk has gone mostly cold and the clear path to an answer vanished hours ago. It takes her by surprise a bit that someone is in her office, sliding inside.
She is halfway out of her seat before knowing it. "Ah, pardon…" Triton. Right. Might want to process faster. Vesper hastily runs her hand over her hair. It's not going to help its state. "Hello." Right. Polite. Be polite.
Triton held up both webbed hands in a gesture of peace. His tone, while a bit electronic than it ought to be, carried an earnest and apologetic tone for the startling intrusion. "My, sincerest apologies. I din't mean to disturb your sanctuary. I thought to follow up with you after speaking with your brother yesterday. I promise you I mean you aaaaaaabsolutely no harm." His palms pressed together and he'd been underwater so long he forgot sometimes he had ability to startle other Inhumans from his behavioural tenancies to just be there with no proper preamble. "Also I promise you your brother is quite alright." His attention drifted around the room and her mood was not lost o him. He would offer a smile but the hole lower part of his face were covered so he added a head wobble.
Vesper hasn't reason to start too hard. She slips back down into her chair in part to put her feet back in her shoes, rather than approaching a fellow in stocking feet. That would be pretty embarrassing for an impression. Her white lab coat rests on the back of the chair. "No," her French accent is a bit stronger than usual. "You do nothing wrong. This is…" It's late. Maybe wise to remember than when staring at the clock. Surprise lasts for a moment and fades back. "Would you sit? I can bring some coffee. There are not much in the way of refreshments, but some things to eat I am sure." She gives a low sound of dismay at that.
It makes a good cover for looking up at reference to Nexus. Oh yes. Brother. That isn't a thing she really takes to naturally. "Yes. He should be. Is there reason he would not be okay?"
Triton sat as invited taking a short inventory of what was around out of habit: defensible tables, notes, placard with her name, first initial not name though likely some strange attempt possibly to avoid the judgement against her gender which still confused Triton visiting the surface. That made no sense to him. Books, volumes, and ooh refreshment? He shouldn't do coffee but he would. "I'd appreciate that, thank you. Um," How was he going to explain that one to the ball of light and goo become woman. "No reason other than I have a habit of being through as to not create possible assumption were there one. It's… an affectation I picked up. Some people anticipate worst case scenario to simple statements to be prepared if need be, but I don't have wish to put anyone through this without a good reason."
Few windows and a lot of machinery of an expensive sort fill the room. No obvious weapons are anywhere but why would they be when she can phase into a multitude of states? Vesper's technology here is laughable compared to Attilan and remarkable for humans. She has many magazines and journals handling biogenetics and ethics arranged in neat cardboard sleeves. "Coffee," she agrees. The chair squeaks when she rises. The main coffeemaker in the commons is better than the one she has but it will do. Tossing out aged filter and cold grounds, she performs the ritual of selecting properly fresh materials. "My brother is durable, oui? Not a great would threaten him." She wobbles her hand slightly. "He would tell me about trouble to himself." Or he's going to be haunted by inescapable chatter in all electromagnetic spectra until he figures out how to bottle her. Nexus brings out a shard of the feisty and proud in the quiet little researcher. She is demure and proper until defending another. "Do you take cream or sugar? I have them. As it is all goes very well. Are you having no trouble here?"
Triton arched an eyebrow and worked at unhinging the apparatus that held to his face and throat. He squint uncomfortably taking his gear apart. But oh hey he had a face underneath there. "Um, well trouble is relative. Though given the tap tap tapping of your pencil when I came in I might ask the same. But- oh thank you- I thought to bring an idea by you and pick your thoughts over it if you had the time. Also because there are things out there being strange. Part of what I promised our people is that I'd check in on everyone down here from time to time. Is… is everything going well for you presently?" Truthfully he loved his job. Company was often scare in the long hours of the day and he'd grown to love the curious nuisances of others.
"Work is not trouble but a cause to think and piece the secrets of the universe together. Beginning with very small parts of a cell that could be glued on by some strange way." Vesper has no trouble pouring water and waiting for the trickle of dark liquid to fill the lab with a much more palatable scent. Unless coffee is somehow repulsive. inhuans are a strange and unpredictable bunch she is learning. "An idea?" Her eyebrows lift slightly. "I am hardly anyone of consequence. What can I contribute, however? And everything is…" Her hands settle on the bowl of sugar packets. "It's changing. All this is strange. Sometimes I wake up in the oddest places. A radio. The Moon."
Triton waited patiently rubbing the side of his cheek as he adjusted to having the mask off and extended a hand for the paper cup. "Thank you. Wait you… sleep and wake up trans-substantiated in other locales? Are you being pulled into current or that's not healthy. I should think. At least mentally and emotionally. That sounds troubling to less than desirable or convenient. If you'd care to tell me how this is coming about to you I'd be happy to regale you with the details of the ongoing non-human lifeforms that have been found. Still though, this is…concerning."
The mask must be a trick and a half to remove and deal with. Vesper says nothing. She has a strong enough idea of biology to understand the basics. "Sometimes." Her smile is vaguely tight. "Stress causes a reaction. Sometimes my dreams are not very good. When that happens it is easy to travel too far. It does not hurt. And once I map out the routes around the city the incidents happen less." She doesn't say much more than that. Not so much hackles up as defendingn herself. "The problem is time. I move quick." It's a second to hit the Moon. "You do not need to concern. I don't come undone very well. What has you down here?"
Adaptation, the very essence of life, forever draws interest. "You detected something. This is a broad something," says the Gallic brunette. Her hands fold neatly in her lap after delivering the coffee, her own awaiting being poured and prepared. No cream or sugar for her; is that to be surprised, when she has darkness in her cultural makeup if not her soul? The little ball of star needs to exist in darkness to shine the brighter. "Poke at something? Where is this thing you would like to look at?" There are so many sketches of information she doesn't have background in, the blurry strokes of absent context leaving her analytical expression marked. "Please explain. I believe I am not entirely clear on all this."
Triton was used to speaking with his Sister, thankfully. He sipped his coffee and elected to tackle the items in succinct order. "There is a lifeform in an island they call 'the dragon'. I do not believe this to be an actual dragon. Given current circumstances and Kree reports I believe it to be one of the Kree Labs. Mother refering to a 'creator of life' or in this case a genesys. There are reports of a large large life form on premesis that I'm quite interested in. If I bring you back samples I would be grateful if youcould help us identify their nature."
Her eyes widen as her pale skin goes to pearl. Now it truly does behoove Vesper to sit down, heavily, in her chair. It squeaks under her inadequate weight. "You want me to test the specimens and samples. Mon dieu…" Her hand goes to her cheek unbidden and her elbow rests on the table. "Is there any danger to us for this? I… my equipment here is only human." That sounds wrong. It makes her wrinkle her nose. "It's not as good as Attilan. What the people there have could be much more powerful. I don't know. Nexus would have a better idea. Here there is a chance someone else would see. I'm…" This is swiftly bordering on awkward. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she breathes out slowly. The rattle of her lungs suffering in New York is audible; no reason they thought she was consumptive. "I am working on a project by the dean's request. It is very much consuming. The person behind it is… bad. He's a very bad man. I would look at this but it cannot be at the university where he can find the specimens. I can't tell what he will do. He's been studying on humans. Mutants. He's dissecting them."
Triton held up a webbed hand as to abate her very real concerns, "I don't have the samples yet. This would be a separate recon mission. I'm also- wait someone's expierementing on the Mutants?" His brow ridge furrowed over large dark orb of eyes. The expression was mildy disturbed to mildly mortified. "Maybe we could sppeal to the genetic council? They might grant you use of some equipment. I'm certain we can makke an appeal to them that this may have fall out that affects us as well? How did you find this out?"
"Someone is harvesting their cellular information, and portions of their bodies. It may be they have our people but I do not know yet. It's been focused largely on a mutation and genetic string with…" Vesper raises her hands and she steps back mentally once. "We do not even know what the sequence of DNA looks like. We have almost no idea. And I have seen mine. You see the reason why I am distressed about such things. I may need to appeal such. My…" Her breath comes in and hitches. "Nexus' mother is Cynas." Just one of the Genetic Councilors. No one important. Do the math. "The concern for me isn't to pull Attilan into what may an isolated matter with someone of unknown power. We have troubles enough and I am still searching for the scope of the problem. But if we can solve one problem — this dragon? Or whatever is down there? It would be easier to handle immediately." She gives a particularly odd look at Triton, understanding slowly dawning on her. "I would not be seen or heard for the most part. If we have to go somewhere contained I don't breathe either."
Triton furrowed his brow and said "My cousin may have interest in this and we might be able to run inquiry without involving all of Attilan. Having knowledge and deciding what to do with it is better than no knowledge and no decision if one is to be made." It would seem he was in favour of fewer opportunities to say well, if we only knew sooner. Then again, he does gather information for a living. Curiously he asked, "You… transsubstantiate. Can you survive below water for any length of time out of curiosity and if so will that endanger you or others? Because getting electrocutes sort of sucks.
"It would be good not to tell all of Attilan. Or tell Maximus, because I cannot be sure of…" Vesper's eyes flash unnaturally bright and the hint of their chocolate depths completely evaporates in a wash of blue plasma. "That he will use it for good, either. Not right now." Her breath escapes in a bubbly rush of a sigh as her back touches the chair. She ought to drink that coffee before it ggets cold. To Triton she nods. "I have never tried to see how long I could stay in a form. There does not seem to be a limit. Being light does not make me hungry. I get nutrition or nutrients from another source."
Triton held up a webbed hand and worked on his coffee while he was without the mask at least. Much harder to drink anything with it on. "My cousin is… complicated." Always a judicious choice of words but he was never one to talk down his own family. He even liked Maximus when he didn't want to slap the crazy out of him. Le sigh. He offered finally, "Well you can try it here off Long Island. It'd be useful to know as an asset."
"All your people are complicated by the terms I know." Vesper says this but no harm or bite associate themselves to her words. "It is not easy to understand all the nuances. But then I am not important and barely known. Certainly not of the high house. My brother's opinions about that aside." Her chin rests lightly upon the bit of her palm exposed by turning upwards. "You want me to see if I can go under the water and stay cohesive, yes? If I try this thing, will you be there if I have problems? I know I can walk on the water."
Triton didn't seem to take offense to this revelation at all. There was even a nod of agreement, "No king or council is perfect in its entirety and we gain better harmony seizing the strengths of both. Still…" He finished his coffee and looked more than a bit uncomfortable moving him to reattach teh wask with a small flinch at it punctured and attached in places. It was a moment before he answered. A webbed hand splayed against his chest, "Vesper, you have my word. Of course I'll be present. THe idea of: hey go out into the ocean and see what happenes? It's a little folley without a spotter. There current, undertow, the chill, animals, boats, water pressure, the dark. It's a theme park of things constantly trying to kill you while being incredibly pretty." ALso like some dinners with his family beut he left that out.
Vesper inclines her head in acknowledgment. She'll even deign to blush a little. Her cheeks flare the pink hue and she wears it well enough. "I do not like to aassume anything. You never know what kind of exercise this is or what I need to know. The problem of all that is terrifying. You want me to go into the dark at crush depths. Delightful, let's go find ourselves a shipwreck in Long Island Sound. I might even know where one nearly happened off the lighthouse." Her hand passes over her face, and then drops away to her lap. "We will need towels, a good coat, and anything more?"
Triton had a mile that reached his eyes and his head tilted to teh side, "I um, never really had much need for either but you can. Sure and that actually sounds pretty great. Good idea in fact." His skin shifted from green to olive as it adapted to the lighting in the room. "I don't know, could bring a cooler, do lunch. Make a day of it. Ya know, at worst it works and we even accidently have fun learning something. What would the world do with that data?" There was a tone of modulated humor coming from him. As if to assure the other point, "Really though I would not leave you behind. It's not in my nature. Also, I'd imagine you'd be very unhappy about it."
"It would not be appropriate for me to be in wet clothes." This could leave the question of whether she is actually to change her clothes with her. Answer, yes. Vesper rubs her hand over her shoulder, still thinking as Triton speaks. "A day could be done. Though if you need me to be there it should only take a little while for me to find the right beach. Transporting me is never the problem. The rest of it, coolers and such. Well, I'm not very good at carrying anything yet."
Triton chuckled and held up both hands and wiggled his fingers. "You know, Vesper, I can get them and jsut walk there. It's really not a problem. Besides that it's just good company." He flinched. Finally the saline was starting to kick in, and that was honestly a relief. He handed the paper cup back to her. "Thank you, for the hospitality. I'll see what I can find out for you if I hear anything. I, um," He paused and chuckled, "I hate to be going but I need to be. Really though, if you run into issue, you are welcome to ask. Please feel free to do so." With that though the scout took a step back, dipped his head in departing salutation, and pivoted to make his way out quietly as he showed up.