( video & action )

[hyperkinesia]

[ The feed starts with Bruce sitting in what looks like a large high-tech sort of place, from the glimpses one can get from the background. Despite the hint of tiredness that still lingers, after being so busy throughout the first half of the month, he actually looks happy, or at the very least pleased with himself. ]

Hi, everyone. To those of you who don't know me yet, I'm Bruce Banner, as of recently Moira's Chief Science Officer. I hope everyone's recovering well from everything that's happened, though I still recommend anyone who got injured to drop by the medbay and get checked out. Even if you'll be alright on your own, there are ways to ease your suffering and to even heal your wounds faster, and there's nothing wrong with accepting a little help sometimes.

[ Looking at a couple of specific people here, by the way. You know who you are. ]

On another note, the Science Department's been running since the beginning of the month. I've been a little busy but it's starting to come together now. If anyone wants to come by and check it out, feel free to. I know more than just a few of you have an interest in the kind of work that will be done here.

The thing is, it's just me for now, and it would be useful to have a few more Science Officers on the ship. So, if that's something that would interest you and you think you have the knowledge, feel free to apply for the job. I'd love to have people around to work with. [ He smiles a little at the camera, then he adds: ] If science is your thing, you'll want to join in.

[ Look he needed a slogan to lure people in, alright? Just... be charmed by his awkward smile and his dorky attempt at a joke and let's call it a day. ]


(( ooc: Read up on the Science Department, and if your character's all about science and would consider a job change, join in! In the meantime, he'll also be around the Science Department, if anyone prefers to just drop by and say hi instead of replying to the broadcast. ))

Comments

[hyperkinesia]

[ Funny as that mental image is, it's not something Bruce imagines just then. He does nod, even though Al can't really see it. ]

Sure, you can drop by. It's pretty quiet now, actually, especially since everything's settled down.

[armoured]

I'll be there in just a few minutes, okay?

[Sadly, he forgets to hang up right away. Which means Bruce is treated to the sound of a huge metal suit of armour clanking its way around the ship.

Al skids into the science department only a short while later, having run the whole way (and got lost at least once).]

I'm here! Excuse me, Dr. Banner? I'm here!

[hyperkinesia]

[ And it's a very entertaining broadcast, at least for the first few seconds. Eventually Bruce stops waiting for Al to turn it off and does just that himself, already waiting for him to show up at the door any moment now.

The skidding sound gets his attention, and he turns to greet Al as he comes inside. ]

That was quick. [ He smiles a little. ] You must've been the most punctual kid in class.

[armoured]

Yeah I was, but it wasn't hard. The school I used to go to only had a few pupils from the village, and I stopped attending when I was seven.

[That's a normal time to stop education, right?]

I didn't want to make you wait, and I'm pretty excited. I guess I didn't need to run here, huh?

[hyperkinesia]

Only seven? Why's that? [ A pause, then he adds. ] Or-- is that normal, for you?

[ One can never know, and Bruce shouldn't assume. For all he knows, years are longer in Al's world, or the lifespan there is shorter than what Bruce's used to. ]

You didn't, no. It's pretty quiet around here. [ It's empty save for the two of them, and Bruce gestures vaguely around the wide area. ] Feel free to look around.

[armoured]

[He will take that invitation with no further prompting, heading to the nearest bit of machinery with fascination practically radiating off him in waves.]

Not really, but some things happened that meant we had other subjects we wanted to pursue.

[He reaches out to hesitantly hover a hand over a row of buttons.]

What does this do?

[hyperkinesia]

[ Bruce smiles a little amusedly as he walks closer to Al, standing right next to him. ]

Well, that opens that door - [ He points to a large chamber, tall glass windows that allow them to see inside. It's looking pretty empty at the moment, though. ] - and the next one seals it. The others regulate a multitude of functions inside. Disinfection processes, air vents, gas filtering, vacuum, radiation screening... It's a chamber to handle any sensitive samples, for instance, or scan potentially dangerous materials. It can be used for a myriad of other things, though, testings and the like, as well as a general disinfection chamber.

[ He motions for Al to follow, leading the way to what looks like a light table of sorts. ] I'll show you something more interesting. Well-- cooler, anyway.

[armoured]

[He drinks in the explanation with great interest, and he's itching already to try it out and see how the chamber works first hand. But he obediently follows along where Bruce gestures.]

I think everything in here is really interesting! We don't have anything like this technology where I'm from, we don't even have anything like these--

[He waves his wrist to display the MID.]

[hyperkinesia]

[ He looks at the MID curiously. ] They attached it to your armor? [ Weird. Bruce hadn't even noticed it before.

Either way, he doesn't linger on the thought for long. Instead he turns to the table, activating a small holographic screen and tapping on a few menus. A short moment later, an image shapes up over the table, another holographic projection, though this time it's of a portion of the area they're currently at.

There are a few stars, one nearer that looks more like a sun, and a couple of planets too, all of it rather small. Smaller still, there's a tiny dot at the center, and when Bruce reaches into the image and taps on it, a small text box pops up, with the title "MOIRA" and a few specifications listed out underneath. ]

This is us.

[armoured]

[Al is definitely glad that Bruce doesn't question that further, because he hadn't even thought that it would be weird to have it attached to his armour. Will he need to hide it to prevent questions in the future? All new worries to mull over.

But they're all chased out of his head at once.

First of all the holographic projection takes his breath away, and then to realise he's looking at a map of where they are in amazing detail... well, the gasp of surprise and delight is pretty audible.]

Wow.

[He reaches out, fingers hovering just above part of the projection, afraid to actually touch.]

I've never seen anything like this, it's... it's amazing. These stars, the planets, can you go further afield? Can you see our homes?

[hyperkinesia]

[ Al's reaction doesn't surprise Bruce in the least. He too had been in awe as he worked on this map, and he's not all that unfamiliar with holographic projections himself, even interactive ones. ]

No-- not that far. Sensors and information can only provide me with so much of this universe. Sorry. [ He smiles apologetically. ] I can show you my world and its surrounding area, if you want to see it-- but I built that image out of what I remembered and what information I could find at the library.

[armoured]

[He can't help the stab of disappointment, though perhaps it would have been even more painful to see his home and not be able to visit it or know what was happening there.]

Yeah, I'd really like that. Would you tell me more about your home, if it's not too personal?

[hyperkinesia]

No, not at all. I don't mind.

[ Turning his attention to the screen again, he taps on the menus until a holographic projection of planet Earth pops up. ]

This is Earth. I'm... not sure if your world is similar, or even the same? [ He looks over to Al questioningly. Even if he might not be familiar with what's modern technology to Bruce, he might still be from Earth, just an alternate version of it. Anything is possible. ]

[armoured]

No, that's-- Earth is where I'm from too!

[He's all too excited about this, because now he thinks (entirely erroneously) that Bruce is from somewhere he knows. Maybe he's just been here a while and that's why he's familiar with all the technology, and from Drachma or somewhere with little to no alchemical power which is why he hadn't really known of it before.]

Where on Earth are you from? It's... wow, it looks so real, almost like I could touch it.

[hyperkinesia]

Is it? [ Bruce smiles, though not quite as excited about that prospect, mainly because he knows for a fact that it's not true. As much as he likes keeping an open mind, he does know that widespread alchemy like the kind Al's used to would definitely have made it to modern times - if not through practice, then at least through history. ]

You can touch it, actually. It responds to touch. [ Touch of skin and flesh, though-- he's yet to realize that the armor is completely hollow, that there's no hand beneath that metal. Bruce spins the projection around until he has the North American continent turned to them, then he zooms it in a little, tapping on where Ohio is. ]

I was born here - Dayton, in Ohio. [ A couple of pictures of the city pop up when he touches it on the map, then he moves over to New York, the same happening when he taps it. ] This is where I last was, before coming here. It's called New York.

[armoured]

Ohio? New York? I've never heard of those places? What country are they in?

[He feels the first seeds of worry that Bruce maybe isn't from the same place as him, not the Earth that he knows at all. And that's scary, because how many Earths are there? And how will he know if he's going home to the right one?

Al reaches out to touch, but the display doesn't react to his fingers at all. He's just cold and dead metal as far as it's concerned.]

Um, am I doing something wrong? I was hoping to turn it and find Amestris.

[hyperkinesia]

United States of America. This one right here.

[ With two fingers he selects the border of the US and it highlights, the area popping up and filling in with a different color. There's a small chart with general information, but he doesn't zoom in on that. He figures Al doesn't know the country either, so it wouldn't make much sense to him. ]

No, it's supposed to respond to touch. Maybe it's the glove? [ He pauses, eyebrows knitting together, then he goes on to add. ] Unless you're not organic. It might not respond, if that's the case.

[ Delivered casually, because at this point? Bruce has seen more than enough to believe anything, and not be too shocked by it. ]

[armoured]

O-Of course I'm organic! Why wouldn't I be, that's just crazy...

[Al's voice is too high and too fast, followed by the most nervous sounding laughter known to mankind. He is sadly not very subtle about all of this.

He does drop his hand, though, since he obviously won't be able to use the projection in the same way Bruce does.]

So, uh, the United States of America? I've never heard of that, and the map doesn't look at all familiar, but we're both from Earth. How do you suppose that works?

[hyperkinesia]

[ Yes, that is pretty suspicious. In fact it's a wonder Bruce hasn't even thought of this before, or thought it strange how touchy Al seemed to be about the armor. ]

No, it isn't. We've got a number of non-organic lifeforms on board. Artificial intelligences, computer programs, gigantic robots, and for instance a race that's basically... well, precious stones, whose bodies are just hard light projections.

[ Just saying, Al wouldn't be the weirdest thing on board, at least not as far as Bruce's concerned. ]

Well, it's possible we're just from different versions of Earth. It developed one way in your universe, and another way in mine. The number of universes out there can be infinite, there's even a theory in my world that states that anything that can happen, will happen, either in this universe or another. So, we know this as Earth, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're the same Earth. [ He pauses, smiling a little. ] Does that make sense?

[armoured]

[Al still doesn't even know what computers are properly, and the idea of artificial intelligence or robots is beyond fantastical. Besides, he is organic, he's just... not organic right now.

Still a little awkward, he's nevertheless caught back up in the explanation and excitement about sharing theories with someone else who actually understands and has the same dork enthusiasm about it all.]

Yeah, it's a fascinating theory. But that would make our presence here even more amazing, because it would mean that the device used to transport us onto the ship could pierce different dimensional planes as well as just simply transport matter from one location in the universe to another. And really, that's amazing enough on its own!

[hyperkinesia]

[ Al will see for himself eventually, just how different everyone on board the Moira really is. Organic or otherwise, regardless of it being a fixed characteristic or merely circumstantial, there are all kinds of people, creatures and forms of existence here. One learns to keep a very open mind after a while. ]

Amazing and almost unbelievable. [ Bruce appreciates the excitement in Al's reaction, showing some of his own, though more tempered. ] The levels of energy needed to run a system that's able to do something like that should be off the charts, and that's even without thinking that a mechanism like this should rip this universe apart. It's a mystery, and a miracle, that this whole place is in one piece— or that we've all made it here in one piece, ourselves.

[armoured]

Do you think that could be why the Ingress is unstable? It's possible that it was only intended as a way to move people from one planet to another, or onto the ship from another, not from different dimensions.

[If they could find a way to measure this and take readings, it's possible they could figure out why people keep getting pulled in and work a way home faster.]

[hyperkinesia]

Maybe. This whole process can be just a consequence of a malfunction, or it might have been the originally intended purpose, only now it's much less controlled. It's hard to tell. The captains themselves might not know exactly what the Ingress was made for, after all there's the very valid hypothesis that this ship wasn't originally theirs.

[ He falls silent, processing his thoughts for a moment, then he adds with a wave of a hand, speculative. ] Maybe the ship itself is from another universe. Maybe it was actually designed to travel from one universe to the next, instead of pulling people in here.

[armoured]

You could be right, but I think it's more likely that it was designed to bring people in. Even if the Ingress itself is malfunctioning in order to pull people from unintended locations, it would still likely be working along its original purpose. Like a telephone with crossed wires.

[He spreads his hands, big metal fingers splayed in the air.]

There's a technique in alkahestry called the 'Dragon's Pulse', which is about feeling the chi flow of the land and then manipulating it in order to perform remote transmutation. Affecting something from a distance. This could be based on the same sort of principles, just on a much larger scale. I wonder if they'd let us examine the Ingress to research into it?

[hyperkinesia]

[ Bruce nods in agreement. It's a more unlikely theory, he really was just shooting hypotheses into the air here. Helps keeping his mind sharp, thinking of different options, even ones that seem far less logical or obvious. ]

So, kind of like tectonic energy— except across universes, instead of a single planet. [ Bruce is more of a science man himself, tending to think of things in terms of what he's learned and studied, so it's a little more difficult for him to see things from an alchemist's point of view. Until recently, these things weren't even real to him.

But then, he can turn into a big green monster, so he can't really talk much. ] This all reminds me a little of wormholes, actually. They're these kind of shortcuts connecting two separate points in spacetime. Except in this case we'd be talking more of a spacetimeverse spectrum, considering. [ He raises an eyebrow, shrugging. ] We could ask. I've been thinking of doing some readings of the Ingress myself, just to learn more about it, but I haven't seen about asking yet.