questions of science, science and progress

[highprofilerichkid]

Characters: Tony and Valdis
Date: Late January
Location: Valdis' apartment
Situation: Valdis has some information that Tony might be interested in, and a decision she wants his input on.
Warnings/Rating: none yet


When Tony receives a vague message from Valdis asking for a meeting, he assumes it's not a social call. Valdis can be melodramatic (like someone else he knows... not pointing any fingers or anything, Gene), but she's usually pretty straightforward about simple stuff, so he doesn't think she'd be cryptic about setting up a coffee date. If she's being evasive, it's probably for a good reason.

So he agrees, and shows up at her place at the requested time. He knocks. "Hey, Valdis. It's Tony."

Comments

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis took another drink of coffee, slightly surprised that Tony would be so chill about what she was telling him.

"I think it got them home," she replied, setting the coffee down to pick up her yimo to show him some posts she had found, "During the storm, in the liminal rifts, people saw mist, a dark jungle, other strange places. And then there's these," she handed him her yimo, a blurry photo of what appeared to be some sort of goat grazing on underbrush. "I think this is what was on the Narrakra. This animal, one that I haven't seen anywhere else. I think this storm is connected to whatever took those people, and it needed death in order to give them back."

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony takes the offered yimo and studies the blurry photo for a few seconds. "Okay..." he says slowly, frowning slightly. "Yeah, that makes sense. So, the storm wasn't a one-off thing: something having to do with the Dreaming is already opening these liminal rifts. The Narrakra ran into a rift, but one that was big enough and, uh, open enough for the ship to actually fall through. They must be unstable – temporary, like the ones that showed up during the storm – so they went through and then couldn't get back. And this ritual sacrifice of one of the animals from that realm reconnected them to this one."

Tony sets his mug down on the coffee table so he can flip through the other network posts about the rifts. "I think you need to tell your Aisling contact about this, Valdis. I know death magic is a big no-no, but if these rifts keep showing up and they're able to swallow stuff as big as a whole cargo ship, there's nothing to say something like the Narrakra won't happen again. And if there's really only one way back... people need to know about it."

[redlightgreenlight]

"It sounds crazy when you put it like that," she said quietly, yet she felt that is wasn't. "I know that my contact needs to know these things, but in order to do anything, she would need to inform her superiors, and they will ask questions."

Valdis paused, trying to word it in a way that Tony might understand.

"If you found some new technology that you didn't understand, what would you do with it? How would you approach it? How would you interact with it? And if you discovered it to be dangerous, to be some sort of weapon, what would you do about it?"

[highprofilerichkid]

Despite the rather grim subject matter, Tony grins a little. "Less crazy than a lot of the stuff I've seen here."

Also, are you sure that's the best choice of analogy here, Valdis? You remember who you're talking to, right? "And if I found a weird, dangerous technology that I didn't understand, I'd probably mess around with it until it blew up in my face, and incorporate it into my armor if it didn't," he says, with humor in his voice. "But I'm guessing that's not the point you're trying to make."

(What is the point she's trying to make, actually? Is he Valdis in this scenario, and the new tech is death magic? Or is he the Aisling scientists and... Valdis is the new tech? Or... God, he's bad at metaphors.)

He swaps the yimo for his coffee mug and takes another sip before continuing in a more serious tone. "What kind of questions are you actually worried about them asking, Valdis? I mean, I get why you play your cards pretty close to your chest, but your powers give you some pretty unique... access? insight? into the planar magic here. You might help a lot of people."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis sighed, shaking her head. He'd just brought up a whole new potential problem, and she didn't like it any more than the other scenarios.

"My powers can also kill on a massive scale, Tony," she replied, "People fear what they do not know, but I'd rather be feared than played with. Thank you for bringing that up."

She took another drink, still fairly calm.

"It's less that I don't want to help and more...fear of what might be unleashed if scientists start messing around with the magic of the planes , fear of what they might discover."

Valdis swirled the coffee around her mug, thinking, "Has anyone ever ripped your heart out of your chest for the sake of science," she asked casually.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Uh... actually, they kind of did?" (And Valdis is zero for two on Tony getting the point.) "It was medical science that ended up saving my life, but I did have a big experimental battery stuck in my chest to replace most of my cardiac function, yeah." What does that have to do with anything, Valdis?

Tony is little confused by that tack, so he grapples with one of the other points instead.

"Look, Valdis: Aisling, or someone else, is going to keep messing around with the planes no matter what you do. That's what scientists do. If they can't figure out something from one angle, they'll just try another angle. So if you think the planar magic might be dangerous, and you think you know something about it that they don't, everyone's going to be a lot safer if you work with them instead of trying to hide it from them and hoping that they drop it."

Valdis likes figurative devices, and though that's obviously not Tony's strong suit, he attempts one of his own. "Anybody can weld, but you're not going to know to wear polarized goggles unless someone tells you that a welding arc emits UV. It's better to learn about something dangerous ahead of time than find out that it's dangerous the hard way."

CW: Mentions of Violence

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Clearly the boy's intelligence didn't translate into critical thinking, he truly was an idiot in certain ways.

"Ok, Tony," she said finally, "Do you remember what I did to Gene? That was mere play, cat versus mouse, compared to what I am capable of. I am dangerous. I can walk through the souls of the living, and apparently I can walk in the souls of the dead now too. I wield death in ways that no one else can, not even in my world. My kind are called reapers for a reason. I have ties to all four planes." She took a breath, "And you want me to walk into the tower where they study the planes and submit to tests on my abilities."

She calmly took a drink from her mug, trying to decide if she should continue.

"Aside from that, I'm fairly certain those medical professionals didn't break open your rib cage with their bare hands and tear your still beating heart out of your chest. Luckily for me, I woke up in Konryu." And not on some lab table.