View source for 2020-09-30: Research, Discussion and 3D Printing

{{Infobox Log
|name      = Research, Discussion and 3D Printing
|summary   = Astra, Hector and Vic discuss the gals' research projects (and methods), a build project and some concerning local news
|icdate    = September 30th, 2020
|ictime    = Late afternoon/early evening
|players   = [[Astra]], [[Hector]] and [[Vic Rasmussen]]
|location  = [[Nexus]] Computer Room
|prptp     = [[Plot: Web of Horrors]] (prequal/tie-in)
|spheres   = [[Traditions]]
|themesong = 
}}
[[Category:Logs]][[Category:Astra]][[Category:Hector]][[Category:Vic Rasmussen]][[Category:Traditions]]

Astra is lounging in an office chair while she waits on a 3D Printer to finish fabricating something for her. Oddly she's reading a book about the layout of the Umbra rather than anything on electronics like one might expect. She occasionally sips at an iced coffee and peers at the printer do see if it's made any progress. whatever it's printing is complicated.

----

Walking in from the library carrying a Renaissance-era leather-bound against her chest. "Hey Astra, been thinking of calling you," she says as she gently sets the book down, exposing a smaller book that appears to be an Italian<->English Dictionary on top of it. Before sitting she unslings her bag from behind her back and sets it down on the table next to the two books. She continues to speak as she pulls out her computer and begins powering it up. "What are you reading?"

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Astra glances up and smiles when she she's Vic enter, "Hey! What are *you* reading?" She asks as she peers at the old leather bound book. "I'm trying to understand more about what happened to..." She pauses and swallows, "Oh that's right. I haven't had a chance to tell anyone yet. Arumi's Uhm.. Gone."

----

 Hector had arrived OOCly at this point, thus the re-set in Vic's next pose.

Vic and Astra are together and separate in the Nexus' computer lab. The tattooed sorcerer is lounging in an office chair near a 3D printer fabricating something; she's drinking an iced coffee and reading a book about the Umbra. Meanwhile, Vic has her laptop on but is flipping though a thick tome with a translation dictionary open across the laptop's keyboard.

She looks like she was about to answer a question when something else got told to her leaving her slackjawed for a moment. Quietly, but still loud enough to barely be audible over the noise of the printer, she asks, "What do you mean ''gone''?" The question about the books she's brought in from the library is left unanswered for the moment.

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Hector heads through the door, sipping on a Big Gulp and takes in the view. "Hola." he says with a smile and then adds, "Whatcha guys working on?"

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Astra says, “We finally got into Arumi's lab after the London Etherite's just packed up and left, and we'd found they'd abandoned all work on the Space ship in an attempt to get to a version of The Hollow Earth that doesn't actually exist anymore. Instead Arumi and whoever else was involved ended up in..." She pauses and flips to another page in the book she's holding, "A Mythic reflection of the Hollow Earth, of which there are thousands, and we have no idea which one she ended up in." She glances up again, "That's the short version. Also you're not the only extradimensional alien to have slept on my couch anymore, but that's part of the long version."”

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"Not the only..." Vic begins and stops. She opens her mouth again to speak then closes it. Finally she finds her thoughts and says, "So she's lost like I am... could I..." she swallows and then asks, "Could it have been a cosmic re-balancing? Also, I want the long version at some point."

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Astra takes a breath, "I'm still kind of numb from it. Apparently there's this thing called Quiet that can happen to Awakened Mages and that may have been a factor in this? But.. Yeah, that's the vibe I'm getting too, This may have also been a sort of after effect of whatever brought you here." She says to Vic, then smiles apologetically to Hector, "Hey! As for what I'm working on right now, this is my second attempt to print sensors into a spandex glove. It's been keeping me busy!"

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Hector listens to all the shenanigans and then nods at Astra, "Sooo, why are you translating that book in like the slowest possible way? Just set up a camera to view the pages, and then run the imaging through the translation program your using, and have it display the English on the laptop screen."

----

Vic looks stunned still. Then when Astra looks at and addresses Hector her eyes follow the sorcerer's the Virtual Adept mage sees her psychic ally. Speaking to him Vic says, "Hey there, Aitch-two, pull up a chair," waving a hand at any one of the myriad chairs around the room. To answer his question she says, "Because sometimes you need to absorb the information the way the writer intended you to, Aitch-two," and then, as much for Astra as for him, "Its a book by a member of the Celestial Masters, I found it when I was looking in the library for information that might pertain to a theory I'd heard of before and that I mentioned today... that being that at some point in the far depths of the past the world wasn't the way we know it as today, perhaps flat even." She pauses then says, "Its just something that struck my fancy. Honestly its a distraction from other things I'm working on... like the people who sound like they're link dead showing up in the news."

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Astra peers at Hector, "This book is already in English, and I need these cameras to record me being in this room for six hours so I can get away with some shenanigan's in here tomorrow." She says in a completely serious voice, then finally lets a grin slip out at the last moment. She looks curiously at Vic as she explains, "Are all hackers as into Philosophy as you guys are or is it just the V-Depts?"

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Hector takes off his backpack and settles into a chair, taking a sip from his drink, he closes one eye as if what Vic says doesn't make too much sense but just lets it go. Instead he just asks "Link dead in the news?" and then he makes the same face since the book is already readable.

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Vic nods to Hector after looking at Astra in curiosity over her comment about needing hours of film. She then answers Hector's question with, "I've been reading in the news about people showing up in the hospital brain dead. With the numbers of them and the fact that the doctor's are having trouble finding causes I'm suspecting that they're becoming linkdead in the D-Web. If so what's in the hospital is just vacant meatbags."

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Astra shivers a bit at Vic's explanation, "That is why I could never bring myself to watch Sword Art Online. How can that even happen in real life!? Are these regular people or are they technomancers?"

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Hector shrugs, "It's just like deep diving, but something severs the connection to your body, trapping your pscyhe in the D-Web. Though most sleepers just use VR gear which is shallow diving, so if there are sleepers that got pulled into the deep web something may have, yanked them there."

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Mirroring Hector's demeanor on the topic, Vic says, "Yeah, its not unknown to happen sometimes in my world. Its called Internet Overload Syndrome there... Or Eye-Oh-Ess." Addressing Astra, "This is why I wanted to check on the status of our project... but I do plan on picking up some off the shelf VR-Goggles for now as I'm going to have to go in sometime soon I think. A moped to start me off while you kit me out a custom sports car."

----

Astra sighs heavily, "I'll be honest, I'm learning as I go here. But you've motivated me to pick up the pace with your cyberspace horror story." The sports car comment makes her smile at least, "There aren't a lot of off the shelf parts I can use in this thing, but thank god for 3D printers!"


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Hector listens to all of it and nods, he sips his drink some more, "Vic if you want gear in the meantime get a commercial Vr headset, then [[Dramatic_Systems#Improve_item|upgrade it]] and then link it to a trinary system, with all of that it should negate the lag.

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"I'm scraping everything together to get a pair of basic VR goggles, Aitch-two. Doing that I'm going to be living off of the food Raise stocks at the gym and free meals at Roasters for a month," Vic says. "At least until I can get myself a legal identity that'll let me expand my income and such." She then, speaking with an intentionally smarm in it, says, "I'm not even barely legal in this world yet, despite my age."

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Astra looks worriedly at Vic, "Are you gonna be okay? Tell Rufus I said if he can't hack out an identity for an illegal alien then he's totally not 1337." She smirks. "What about the tech from your homeworld? Is there anything in it that we don't have here? Maybe we could sell in and patent it!" She says innocently. She probably just wants a look inside Vic's laptop again.

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Hector ditches the drink for a backpack pilfered Rice Krispie Treat, "Oh, about that, I meant to ask, you wanna work at the A.R. gaming center once it's up and running?"

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"We might be able to do that, Astra, sure," Vic replies to her one-time roommate and then, addressing Hector, she says, "Sounds like a good way to start getting me on my feet more fully." She returns her attention to the tattooed sorcerer and says, "Rufus?! I was planning on doing it myself... with some help from my friends too natch," with that she smiles in Hector's direction as well, "Just trying to figure out the way the US is different from the IS that I'm more familiar with."

 Vic pronounced IS as if saying "Eye Ess" just as she said US as "You Ess".

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Astra raises her hands defensively, "Sorry! Didn't mean to suggest you couldn't do it yourself, but your friends do have the home turf advantage as you just pointed out." The 3D printer starts beeping angrily, which Astra replies to with a groan, "Look, I know silver chloride isn't your favorite chemical to work with but can't you cut me a break just this once!?" She sighs.

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Hector smiles at what Vic says, "Oh, well, I have just the prog for that! I designed it for someone else who I think is from out of town." he gets out his phone and types on it a bit and then chuckles, sending Vic a program called 'So you want to learn how to be a normal American?' which is a series of 90's after school PBS specials with a few School House Rock episodes slurged in to keep the watchers attention.