Test Flight!

[lucetimods]

the luceti test flight meme

Reserves have just opened and apps are right around the corner. But are you still on the fence about any of your would-be characters? Well -- here is your chance to take them out for a spin!

▣ TAG IN or reply to others with characters you would like to test flight for Luceti.
▣ ONLY add top-level comments for characters who are not yet in the game. You're free to reply to others with Luceti characters (because that's half the fun) but remember that the whole point of this meme is for potential characters.
▣ PLEASE do not post duplicates of characters already in Luceti.
▣ GO AHEAD and give us a brief description of your character in the top-level comment, along with one or two possible ways to run into your test-driven character around town.
▣ YOU MAY use these threads for your first person samples on your app -- just make sure that you link threads of a goodly length (i.e., threads with at least ten comments from your character).

Need a little help getting started? Remember, you needn't post here as though your character is still brand-spankin' new. It'll probably be more fun for all involved if this isn't a simple dress rehearsal for showing up. Here are a few scenario ideas:

o1. The grocery store is out of food. What do you do?
o2. Wing injury! Call for help or stagger your way to one of our fine clinics.
o3. It's a busy evening at Good Spirits, one of Luceti's local bars. Do you dare try the drink specials?
o4. Have a talent for playing music? Try Cloud Nine's open mic night!
o5. Beach party? Snow party? Leaf-raking party? Gardening party? YOU DECIDE.

Okay. So my examples are pretty non-exciting. But they're really just suggestions. I'm POSITIVE you kids can come up with more creative things.

Above all? HAVE FUN. Oh. And don't forget to RESERVE your characters.

Comments

II

[ablankpage]

[Robert can't help but stop at the sign. The question makes his wings -- a very vibrant teal he usually hides -- flick in irritation. He has been trying (very unsuccessfully) to dye them.]

Yes, sir?

[unfringed]

[Ooh, teal! Now that is an interesting colour. Not often seen in nature, certainly and not on this size of bird. Walter walks around behind Robert and studies the shade.]

Would you mind if I took a sample of your plummage?

[ablankpage]

[The Malnosso have a sick sense of humour, as far as Robert's concerned. They coordinated his wings... with his eyes. They couldn't, of course, match it to his hair -- which might be manageable -- or to the neutral, sepia colours he prefers, no. That would have made the things bearable, after all.

One brow quirks a bit.]

What do you intend to use it for?

[unfringed]

Why for science of course!

[He motions to the box with his instruments and the sign.]

I'm investigating the fringe event that has brought us all here. It's my speciality.

[ablankpage]

[A fringe, a tear. Could be the same thing, called something else across two worlds. It merits further interest, certainly.]

You're welcome to a feather or two, certainly. What do you intend to test?

[unfringed]

Your chemical makeup. You see, each person has a unique energy signature, and in crossing between worlds, that signature changes - albeit in minute ways. The change in your structure at a genetic level can be quite informative, especially if it is causing any significant changes in our DNA.

[He motions as he talks, motioning out the words "minute" and "change" as if he can make people better understand him just by gestures.]

[ablankpage]

A change of chemicals resulting in an alteration of genetic structure. A curious hypothesis.

[Robert considers it for a moment.]

This is a different sort of movement between worlds than I'm used to, admittedly. There have been -- aside from the acquisition of the wings -- no adverse physiological side-effects. A prior crossing I was involved in led to severe haemorrhaging and cognitive dissonance that attempted to fix itself by the creation of new, false, but cohesive memories.

[Then, as if realising something, he starts and offers his hand.]

Robert Lutece. Quantum physics.

[unfringed]

[Oh. Oh!!!! Someone who understands him! Someone else who has-- Wait, that is bad, isn't it? Learning how to cross worlds? It's very dangerous and-- But someone who understands!

Walter hurries forward and takes Robert's hand, shaking it vigorously.]

A fellow adventurer, I see! Walter Bishop, Fringe science.

It's dangerous to cross worlds, you know. Extremely dangerous. Enough to break down the entire structure of reality on one side or both. I can't recommend it.

[ablankpage]

It was... a calculated risk. One that ultimately proved successful.

[And one that would have been worth dying for, but he doesn't mention that. Not right now. Not to this man. That much is a little too personal.]

My life's work was -- and is, actually -- studying the barriers between worlds. My notes, unfortunately, have not yet been returned to me in their entirety, but I remember a great deal of data.

[He casts his eyes over the tools and considers the possibility.]

Perhaps we could share findings, now and then, as I intend to pursue my research here. A bit early to suggest a collaboration, so merely... discussion, I should say.

[unfringed]

[Oh no...that. That isn't good. To continue research into breaking barriers between the worlds, here of all places?

But...wouldn't it be good? If only Walter could remember how he did it, he could explain to this man the consequences - the terrible, unforeseen consequences - that came with such endeavours.]

It will tear the very fabric of your universes apart.

[He seems solemn for a moment, but only for a moment. He did it out of personal need - one selfish need that ruined two worlds, but this man? Maybe he has better reasons. Perhaps his reason is to seal the soft spots, to fix the worlds instead of destroy them. This isn't his alternate, the worlds must be different.

He claps his hands and rubs them together.]

But that doesn't seem to be bothering our captors, now does it? Indeed, I would very much like to hear your theories on this. It might be very educational to hear about how others have bridged the gap.

[ablankpage]

We managed it, actually. The transfer of one [three, by the end of it] person from one reality to another. An extremely painful, dangerous process, but we did manage it. ["We." It isn't even something he thinks about, isn't something he hears. Because it's simple fact.] I'd be curious to know how the people here do it without those same effects.

[And, perhaps, he could find a way to bring Rosalind here. To not be alone. One half of a whole. It's very disconcerting after being a unit for twenty years.]

I would be happy to detail my work with the Lutece Field and the Lutece Tears. Probably called something vastly different in your world, I'm sure, but the basic principle being windows -- which can become doorways -- to other worlds.

[unfringed]

We called them soft spots. They weren't windows, though. [They were terrible cracks in their universes, bringing with it destruction, terror, horrors unforeseen. It was his fault. No one knew how to fix them.]

I discovered that crossing over without the proper equipment causes extreme tears in the person's genetic structure - the result of passing through one reality and into another. There are those, however, who have the ability to jump safely to and from the other world without incurring such sicknesses.

[But it came at such a cost. Such a terrible, unforgivable cost.]

How were you-- you and your partners-- able to do it?

[ablankpage]

Partner. [The correction is automatic. Nothing else bears it.]

We were each on opposite sides of a wall, if you will. We discovered, at almost precisely the same moment, the first... crack. A single atom that refused to fall. We used it as a transmitter for Morse code, opening and closing the field we discovered.

By each working on our side, we were eventually able to engineer a device that allowed for the transfer of one person from one world to a different one.

I crossed the threshold to join my partner, to allow us to work together in one world rather than separately in two.

[unfringed]

[Partner. Like Belly. Where was he anyway?]

Oh, I had a partner once - I shared a lab with William Bell.

[He sounds very proud of that for a moment.]

And I do hope you both managed a safe transfer. Take something from one world and it needs to balance out the mass lost - equal exchange can sometimes be a messy business.

[ablankpage]

Equal exchange? [Robert can't help but be intrigued.] We noticed no such requirements. Not with the transfer of objects or people.

[Because going between the worlds had been tested a hundred times with little things. Apples, balls... many of which were completely obliterated upon contact. Until both currents were strong enough, he theorized, to support a bridge between the interim space.

Then it was a simple process for Rosalind to amplify the strength on her side to make passage possible with only one device.]

[unfringed]

[A world where the laws of physics don't matter? WALTER WANTS TO LIVE THERE]

Perhaps it was unnoticeable to you. It isn't always that the world will balance in the same place as the transfer takes place - although it is the most likely.

Belly and I sent a car through once.

A similar car came back but was transplanted many yards away and it appeared around a statue.

...

It was so exciting! Even now the students at Harvard call it the greatest prank ever pulled.

[ablankpage]

Incredible. [He can't help but smile a little at the thought... and it brings forth so many questions.

After all, he hadn't noticed anything of the kind between the worlds. Him leaving, taking a child, bringing Booker DeWitt through worlds. Still, that doesn't mean these things never happened. Merely that he did not observe them.] Our main barrier was, for the transport of individuals across worlds, the effect it had on the mind and body.

[unfringed]

Yes...unfortunately it seems not many are made to withstand the difficulties of crossing universes.

[Even Walternate could only bring over the shapeshifters, organic mechanoids, and nothing else. It was exceedingly difficult to maintain stability and--]

--and it can lead to a breakdown on a molecular level for those not attuned to the crossing.

[Who said anything about being completely lucid right now?]

....Oh, dear. That reminds me - I haven't had lunch yet.