[Plot] That Boy Ain't Quite Right. No, More Than Usual

[Will Stanton]

"Well, it's probably more reliant on when the others wrangle the fae then it is up to me. Convincing someone that flighty may require a little force."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I'm not so sure. They must have come along for a reason, after all. I don't buy that it's just about seeking refuge."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, well, they generally wear their hearts on their sleeves, but I suppose that's the problem with Fae -- you never really know, and they've got wheels within wheels."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Especially if they are, ultimately, still you then I would imagine they are angling to be pushed into it in a dost protest too much kind of manner."

[Will Stanton]

"...You cut deep, headmistress."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"We can always blame it on the Fae instead."

[Will Stanton]

"And if I'm about to be forcefully inducted into that particular family?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"What do you mean 'about to'? Aren't you an adherent of the Fairy Queen Morrigan?"

[Will Stanton]

Will blurbled in protest. "The Tuatha Dé Danann are not fae! That's ridiculous; Sam's not some...some boggart or something. It's an entirely different thing."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"They're at least adjacent, are they not? I'll admit my limitations are begrudgingly admitting their existence, not the finer points of classification..."

[Will Stanton]

"It would be like comparing yourself to a Mr. Coffee. Maybe distantly related; maybe there's even a spare part or two that you could have repurposed, but not the same."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Fair enough." she says, holding up her hands in a mix of bemusement and relinquishing her assumption. "Still, related or not, having a goddess on your side is bound to be helpful in not ceding any ground there, yes?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, Sam's just a baby goddess. Wouldn't want to tax her too much, you know?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Ah yes, of course. Limited responsibilites until she graduates deity school."

[Will Stanton]

"Three miracles due by end of term, along with a writeup of a pseudo-scientific basis for each one."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I don't think that's unreasonable. And if I do write a paper on the mechanics of meta-physics of course that'll count for co-writing credit, given it's accurate."

[Will Stanton]

"I think you would end up tearing your hair out if you tried to document the sorts of things she could do. So, that would be amusing."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Assuming there isn't if not a rational then at least a comprehensive explanation at the end of it."

[Will Stanton]

"I think the rules to these things only exist in order to be broken at appropriate times by appropriate means, so that's...neat."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"So I'll find the rules for breaking the rules. Science is a never-ending pursuit after all."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, but try too hard, and you'll find yourself in one of those unsolvable loop things. Going all Kirk v. NOMAD on you."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If I come up with a truly unified quantum-field theory, contradictory and 'unsolvable' things will just become perfectly explainable para-causal events."

[Will Stanton]

"And I shall be there to throw a wrinkle into your smooth fabric of space-time, over and over again."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I wouldn't expect anything less." she chuckles. "And you do seem to be doing alright if you're taunting me with violations of natural laws."

[Will Stanton]

"Of course I am. Everything's just fine," Will burbled.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Healthy as a bucket?"

[Will Stanton]

"I don't believe that's an expression, no."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Now who's lacking faith."

"By the way, your wayward self got me thinking. I'd always wondered why all the dimensional overlaps and rifts lead to such wildly differing worlds with just enough similarities sprinkled in to see the resemblance. Where are the dimensions differing in minor details? Theoretically there should be countless universes full of inconsequential differences and gradual divergences but we only ever see the dramatic shifts."

[Will Stanton]

"Maybe it's like...a knight's move in chess? Can't go to a surrounding square; has to make a more notable jump.

Maybe the energy needed to open a dimensional rift is large enough that it shoots you past the very closest dimensions?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"That's not a bad theory. A minimum impulse needed to overlap. Like electron-shells or alpha-particle ejections. Hmm, I wonder how the probabilities of quantum-tunneling would affect that. I might be able to test that... Access to near-identical dimensions should collapse immediately but even a temporary flicker could displace matter long enough to put it out of phase." she starts theorizing, grabbing some spare components and moving to a second workbench to lay out a very rough assembly of magnets and coils and three small lasers aimed at a simple cubic inch of metal. She flicks open a red safety cover and flips a switch. There's a series of bright flashes as the lasers fire in some rapid pattern, followed by a moment of nothing but small spots on the cube glowing faintly where the lasers hit it. Then it slowly starts listing as if it's melting but rather than collapse it sinks into the workbench for a moment. Then it stops with an odd sound of metal whining, firmly embedded in the surface of the table.

[Will Stanton]

"That's not a bad theory. A minimum impulse needed to overlap. Like electron-shells or alpha-particle ejections. Hmm, I wonder how the probabilities of quantum-tunneling would affect that. I might be able to test that... Access to near-identical dimensions should collapse immediately but even a temporary flicker could displace matter long enough to put it out of phase." she starts theorizing, grabbing some spare components and moving to a second workbench to lay out a very rough assembly of magnets and coils and three small lasers aimed at a simple cubic inch of metal. She flicks open a red safety cover and flips a switch. There's a series of bright flashes as the lasers fire in some rapid pattern, followed by a moment of nothing but small spots on the cube glowing faintly where the lasers hit it. Then it slowly starts listing as if it's melting but rather than collapse it sinks into the workbench for a moment. Then it stops with an odd sound of metal whining, firmly embedded in the surface of the table.

Will's headless body took a few steps back, so as to not get in the way of Ashlie's delicate work.

"I can't quite see," the bucket said from the floor. "What's going on?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Oh, my apologies." she tears her eyes away from the experiment and bends to pick up the bucket to place it back on top of Will's shoulders.

"It got phase-shifted for a moment." she says and pulls out a pen to tap the metal cube, making it slide just a tiny bit. "Correction, part of it is apparently still phased into the table."

[Will Stanton]

Will reached up to steady the bucket as they talked, being careful not to tip it over and spill all over the workbench.

"Are you saying you just tried to dimensionally shunt that, and it sunk into the table?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"More or less. I tried nudging it into a closely adjacent dimension, mathematically speaking. Instead of leaving our dimension it must have... lost it's probability distribution. You know how atoms are mostly 'empty space'? That's of course not exactly true, except, I believe, for the ones currently intersecting the table."

[Will Stanton]

"And we're sure we didn't just exchange it with a cube from a dimension two inches lower than our own?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"It's possible, but then I'd expect it to be fused with the table." she says and nudges the part of the cube sticking out of the table again, moving it around. "I think it's still partially phased because the denser matter of the table is preventing it from fully reverting."

[Will Stanton]

"So, if we just....pull it out, it will resolve back into reality, then? I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense..."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Let's find out." she says and grabs the small cube with a pair of pliers and slowly pulls it up and out of the table before letting it drop onto the table with a nice, solid clang.

[Will Stanton]

"Congratulations," Will deadpanned. "It's a cube."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"A cube with annoyingly little sensor data to figure out what precisely happened to it. And who knows how a detector would react to the process. Unless..." she says, eyeing Will.