001 // tiny researches [TEXT]

[imperfectness]

Good evening. I'm Carlos, a new arrival.  I'm a human scientist, from Earth, year 2013.

I was hoping that some transports would be able to help me with an informal survey regarding their home world and time points. Feel free to leave some answers blank, I just wanted to get an idea of what different worlds are out there. This is for my own personal research, but I appreciate any help you can provide. I apologize if someone has asked these questions before, I just wanted to get up-to-date data.

Thanks!

[There's a small survey attached!]

World name:
Date you left and arrived here:
Days in a year:
Hours per day:
Moons? (If YES, how many):
Climate (desert, forest, etc.):
Home country and city:
Carbon-based life? (If NO, please clarify which element, eg. silicon):
Races (Human/Non-Human):
Brief description of technology in your world:
Has your race ever encountered extraterrestrial life? (If YES, please elaborate):

Comments

YAY TEXT

[imperfectness]

Good to meet you, Dr. Freeman! You're from a slightly future point than I am.

I've never heard of Black Mesa- is this where you encountered the extradimensional beings? Do you know how they came to your universe? This is relevant to my own research into Night Vale.

[trustycrowbar]

It was. Black Mesa was a government research facility under the New Mexico sands; since more than a millenium has past by Exsilium's clock, I don't think its knowledge has to be as confidential as it used to.

I was actually a research assistant there twenty years before the time I quoted to you, and I know exactly how they came to my dimension, yes. An experiment I was part of went terribly wrong and merged the waveform of the dimensional membrane between our world and the borderworld. It hasn't been stable since.

[imperfectness]

Remarkable! Thank you. That helps with my own research into Night Vale.

Do you know if any of these dimensional rifts might be naturally occurring?

[trustycrowbar]

It's not a complete impossibility, quantum tunneling and Einstein-Rosen-Podlosky entanglement being what it is. The membrane between worlds is just another potential barrier that can be punched through if wavefunctions reach far enough. Although I imagine natural breaches to be random and remarkably rare, unless someone's done some assing around with the quantum structure of your world too.

[imperfectness]

Not what I've seen from the history of the town, but that would seem to be maybe not the best source of information. The city council or any number of other people could have tampered with it.

I ask because the town I was living in before I arrived here was a sort of hot spot for strange phenomena. Curiously enough, also in the desert in the US Southwest...which would also be tricky to point out on a map.

[trustycrowbar]

You don't say.

This is the town you mentioned before? Night Vale?

[imperfectness]

Yes, it's where I've been saying for the past year and a few months.

[trustycrowbar]

What sort of strange phenomena are we talking about? If you don't mind my asking.

[imperfectness]

Undergound cities populated by tiny, intelligent beings, residents being replaced by buzzing shadows, a forest spontaneously appearing, earthquakes that no one experiences...something's always happening in Night Vale. Even time itself doesn't work right.

Even the residents themselves report things like visiting countries that don't exist on maps outside of the city. Have you ever heard of Franchia, perhaps?

[trustycrowbar]

[...]

No, can't say that I have.

[Man, and he thought HIS world was messed up. At least all the strange countries he'd never even heard of can be accounted for--tracing back to which country it WAS before the Combine got to it, he'd imagine--and the ominous tremors of the earth are nice and palpable. But one thing in particular sticks with him:]

Time ITSELF doesn't work right? What do you mean by that?

[imperfectness]

I'm trying to figure out how exactly to explain it.

I guess the clocks are the best example. All of the clocks in Night Vale are not real. Most are hollow, some are filled with a gelatinous grey material that appeared to be growing hair and teeth.

This would be significant enough on its own, if not that by all of my calculations, the sun rises and sets earlier or later than it should.

Time doesn't really work in Night Vale the way it should. I haven't exactly figure out how, unless there's a disturbance in spacetime around the town.

[trustycrowbar]

[Okay, clock-shoggoths aside, now you have him thinking, Carlos...]

A differential in gravity could warp the fabric of spacetime, but on the order of the kind you would see on Earth, the difference would be so small that no instrument on our Earth or this one could measure it. There would have to be a neutron star directly under the town for the effect to even be perceptible, and obviously that isn't happening anytime soon.

[Heheh. Heh.]

I assume you had at least a watch with you that worked, right? If you really don't have any working clocks and measuring solar time, then it may be a systematic error.

[imperfectness]

I had a watch, yes, but someone else has it, now.

[sad about that.]

I think there might be something strange about the town causing everything, possibly something affecting the town on a quantum level and allowing other universes to bleed in, but I need more research to reach a conclusion.

[trustycrowbar]

...if you're interested, we can collaborate.

You're obviously trying to assess the myriad influences here in this world too. I'd before tried to get some information about the different kinds of powers wielded by the other transports. I firmly believe that any powers you see here, whether they're called magic or whatever they wish to call it, all stem from a new handful of natural laws that have yet to be discovered.

It was a careful attempt, as any wrong move would have left the spellcasters convinced that I was a ham-handed naysayer, and anyone with a scientific background considering me a pseudoscientific hack. That, and the bombings, disasters and monster attacks tended to interrupt my work quite a bit. As such, I didn't get very far, but it's possible that together we can accomplish more than what we can alone.

[imperfectness]

That sounds like it would be ideal. Would you be able to share your research thus far with me?

[trustycrowbar]

Absolutely. Firstly, at least some of the spells can be learned by relative laymen: guys like you and me. There's no unapproachable ivory tower of magic going on here, it's based on the use manipulation of physical laws.

...Incredibly elaborate physical laws, but physical laws nonetheless.

I'll send you the data I have so far.

[Which is, sadly, mostly anecdotal, as Carlos will find out later.]

text/video

[imperfectness]

Thank you, I'll look it over later tonight, if that's alright. I wanted to finish logging my data from here.

So when you say spells, you mean things like my coat? Hold on a second.

[And the video feed pops on. He gives a tiny wave to the camera.]

Oh, there we go. Uhh, hi. I wanted to demonstrate, you see, this coat I was given by the initiative...it seems to have, ah...some kind of visual projection capabilities. Let me demonstrate.

[And he holds his hand close, and in his palm is a very small version of the moon.]

I haven't done more than basic testing, as of right now.

[trustycrowbar]

[There's a pause, then his own video feed springs to life, Gordon in a similar labcoat but not THAT similar, judging by the curious peer he's giving the screen.]

Fascinating... so that's what they gave you? I'd imagine it to be a type of nanomachine projector array woven in with the cloth. Hardly a spell, but to someone who wouldn't have a clue what was causing it you'd be a master wizard. [He adds, the laugh at the end just a little awkward.]

oh my god they are both awkward it's too cute

[imperfectness]

[He laughs and looks away after a second.]

Haha, yeah. I thought it was something like that. As far as I can tell there's no substance to them so it's not actually rearranging atoms into matter, just projecting the visual of whatever...I need to test it more to see exactly what the capabilities are...uh...I think I might be able to use it to ah disguise myself? By projecting the surroundings? Maybe?

I'll have to try that later.

I know, right? XD

[trustycrowbar]

I imagine if the illusion is large and strong enough, you could. Certainly you can bluff by pretending to hold things. Like weapons, or... valuable items or, err... small explosives...

[He coughs.]

Also, things that the Initiative alter tend to have capabilities that increase over time. They evolve, I suppose you could say.

[imperfectness]

You mean like...the technology adapts to the user? Or is it the user simply becoming more proficient with it?

[trustycrowbar]

No--well yes, there IS a learning curve for some of the new items that are given out, but the technology in fact adapts to the needs of the user.

[He pauses.]

Coincidentally, they'd upgraded a wearable item of my own, but one I had for months beforehand. Technically it would be YEARS, but that's not really that important. The point is, it subsequently developed an enhanced capability after that. A spontaneous upgrade--an enhanced strength augmentation, to be specific. I didn't just FIND something that was there the whole time; it wasn't there one second, and the next it was.

[imperfectness]

Interesting!

[He smiles.]

So what item was it? I got a, uhh, new item, but something that seemed familiar. The armory seemed a bit...thorough.

[trustycrowbar]

It's called an HEV Hazardous Environment suit. A sort of armored hazmat suit with extended applications. I get the feeling a lot of first-iteration DoD research went into it to justify padding funding estimates; you don't see too many pieces of hazard gear with a built-in weapons selection system.

[And he's still trying to figure out how a dozen weapons, ammo and explosive rounds, charges and grenades, anti-air rockets AND a crowbar can all fit into that hatch on the back.]