Text | Private and OTA

[evowhisperer]

Private to Karl:

'There's a farm approximately 30 miles south of Locke that I believe we can use without being disturbed. Please bring a box of metal things you don't mind losing, a panel of bulletproof glass, and a large bag of sand.'

He includes an address and a time.

---

The website says the farm has been abandoned for fifteen years. When Cesar shows up on another day to see if any squatters have moved in, he finds graffiti on the side of the barn, a lot of overgrown grass, and a suitable sense of neglect that he mentally checks 'Find Location' off his to-do-list. The next time Cesar arrives is the Saturday they've agreed upon, and he's an hour early to get started setting up. He pulls his car up to a wide patch of hard-packed earth near the barn, and starts to unload.

By the time he's done he has an array of objects set up for testing use. Some of them make sense, like the metal coat hanger and with a stripped umbrella wire-tied to it. Others don't, like the set of cheap wind-chimes dangling from the back of a fold-out chair.

Unbothered by this, he moves the car further away when he's done and leans against its (somehow still immaculate) trunk to wait. He'll have his cellphone in his hand: why not find some idle way to pass the time?

---

[Phone Text, Open to All]

What's your favorite invention? If you can't think of one, name something you want to see made real.

Comments

Text

[dead_black_eyes]

I'll go ahead and be the first to say a time machine.

Text

[evowhisperer]

To go back and change things that have already happened?

Text

[dead_black_eyes]

I suppose that's one application. Another might be to go back and properly appreciate good times we may have taken for granted until they were past.

[text]

[swissarmyjesus]

One thing I want to see made real, huh?

Well, my arm's supposed to be able to turn into a giant buzzsaw, but I only know how to build about half of it, so I haven't ever actually been able to make it.

[text]

[evowhisperer]

A giant buzzsaw? That's amazing.

Out of curiosity, how do you get as far as halfway in the first place?

[text]

[swissarmyjesus]

Other way around. I'm missing the first half, not the second. I know how to turn a giant sword into a buzzsaw. I just don't know how to make the sword in the first place.

[Text]

[lightsoflife]

Standard measurements. Where would we be without them?

But if we're talking imaginary inventions, I'd love something that lets me be in two places at once.

[Text]

[evowhisperer]

As residents of the only country that hasn't gone metric, I think we'd be in America. ;)

Humor aside, I can definitely agree. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my work includes going between metric and nonmetric regularly. It's taxing, but at least those are generally the only systems we have to convert to.

What would you do if you could exist in two places at once?

[Text]

[lightsoflife]

I walked right into that one, didn't I? Thank goodness science has it right, in any case.

As for being in two places at once, it would be useful for balancing obligations. Parenthood isn't always easy, and don't me started on work.

[Text]

[belphe]

Vaccines.

And, in the realm of imaginary, the ability to record dreams and memories so they're never lost.

[Text]

[evowhisperer]

Considering how many people would be dead without them, I would agree.

Do you mean a means of recording beyond what you can do with pencil and paper?

[Text]

[belphe]

Yes. With dreams, especially, as soon as you wake up, they're already decaying. Even if you write them down immediately, you won't remember everything in them. I wish I could, just once, examine one fully from start to finish while I was awake.

[moreweaponsthanyou]

You mean both fictional and non-fictional?

Text

[evowhisperer]

Both.

Do you have a preference for either?

Text

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Non-fictional definitely. There's actually lots of things I'd love to see made real.

Text

[onecream_fivesugar]

Hamburger earmuffs.

Text

[evowhisperer]

... Hamburger earmuffs?

Do you mean literal earmuffs made of hamburgers, or earmuffs that are only shaped like them?

Text

[onecream_fivesugar]

Real ones. Obviously.

Just think about it, they're nice and warm and the bun is soft against your ear.

...Then if you're hungry you can just eat it!

text;

[kyoumibukai]

I wish there was mind-reading technology. Sometimes you just wanna know once and for all how somebody feels about you.

[If Steven reads this, he'll probably think it's about him... but really, the person Lucas is thinking about is his own father.]

text;

[evowhisperer]

Not to be facetious, but have you considered the benefits of talking to someone directly?

I would think that reading this sort of information from someone's mind when they wouldn't tell you out loud would probably be a significant breach in privacy.

text;

[kyoumibukai]

Sure, there are people you can do that with. And then there's my dad. It's his job to lie with a smile on his face.

[Handwritten]

[gobybessie]

Written language.

[Text]

[evowhisperer]

I suppose that was well played.

Without it we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?

action.

[flamberge]

The time and the place both work perfectly. It's as though the universe willed for it to align so well. Karl looked into the location himself before going and he couldn't have asked for a better place. Though possibly not perfect, doing any better is likely an impossibility. Granted, getting there on time involved running out of his house the second he returned from Boston, but it ought to be worth the rush. All the items requested got quickly gathered up and shoved in the trunk before Karl quickly sped off towards the designated location.

Upon pulling up to the farmhouse, Karl spots someone there and waiting already. Chances are it's the one who's going to be assisting him with the experimentation. Either that or someone who enjoys hanging out at abandoned barns, the likelihood of which isn't high. A quick glance at the car's clock reveals it being a minute past the official meeting time. A teeny bit late, but hopefully not enough to have kept him waiting for too long a time. He pulls up a short distance away from the other man's vehicle.

action.

[evowhisperer]

The process is gradual enough to be subtle, but the end result is clear: Cesar tenses as the other man's car pulls up. A cacophony of last minute doubts swells in his mind, and for a long moment Cesar is imagining scenarios of what might happen if this man were unfriendly. He could be from his brother's captors, here to eliminate him as a loose end. He could be an unfriendly Numbered that somehow found out about his employment at Thunder Corp, and is actually here to teach him a lesson about working for the wrong employer. He could be someone that Cesar has leaked information on, here for vengeance--

Cesar's stomach sits in a knot. This is no time to kid himself: this is a man he's leaked information about. Cesar has already betrayed him in a very real way. If Karl knew, he wouldn't be here for such a frivolous, curious activity, and they'd both be expecting an extremely different encounter.

Cesar puts a mental shoe at the center of the silent din, trying to crush it all to the back of his mind. The new car had bulletproof glass just visible through the back seat's windows, and that's just enough to make Cesar decide this wasn't the time for insecurities. He pushes away from his own car, turning his mouth up in a practiced, professional smile.

"You're here for our planned experiments, I presume." He stops after a few paces, giving Karl a chance to leave his own car without being crowded. (He still looks ill.)

"I'm glad you could make it. Traffic on the highway was bad on the way over, and I wondered."