1139/Murphy's Laws of Dating

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Murphy's Laws of Dating
Date of Scene: 13 April 2020
Location: Lobby - Four Freedoms Plaza
Synopsis: What was supposed to be a surprise.. ended up being a surprise. Still, as first meetings with dad go, Daniel calls it a succes.
Cast of Characters: Daniel Hastings, Reed Richards




Daniel Hastings has posed:
It was a pleasant Monday afternoon not long after lunch. Daniel had spent the morning teaching physics to a bunch of high schoolers and was happy to have a study/lunch hour to spend on his own. Given the traffic, there was no way to make it from Happy Harbor High to the Four Freedoms Plaza in under that.. unless you had gifts. Unfortunately, Valeria had informed him there was to be no more teleporting into the tower. Parents rules. So.. this time he made his way to the lobby and checked in with security. Sure, his name was on the authorized list thanks to Val but that doesn't mean Val was going to be home every minute of any given day.

It meant that Daniel waited. Leaning on the counter while they paged Val to let him know he was in the lobby. The bouquet of flowers in his hand, recently bought from a street vendor, was sniffed while his other hand rested atop his lunch box on the security desk. "Nice weather we have, isn't it." Idle banter with a man who has better things to do. "Impressive how fast they repaired the roadway outside don't you think?"

Reed Richards has posed:
The receptionist chuckles. "You should see how fast structural damage to this place gets repaired. Wish I had that kind of service at my place..."

<<Mister Hastings?>> a synthesized voice asks. It comes from a floating box roughly the size of a toaster, a human-like face emerging from its side like a continually re-printed three-dimensional topographic map. A trio of humming thrusters on its underbelly keep it aloft.

<<I will escort you to the appropriate area. Please remain within two meters of me at all times to avoid the facility's countermeasures identifying you as a potential threat.>>

The toaster floats through the lobby toward a large elevator door, casting a beam into a sensor above the door. It chimes and, moments later, opens. <<Follow me, please,>> the device states.

Inside the elevator, a recorded audio message begins playing. "Hello there, and welcome to Four Freedoms Plaza. I'm Reed Richards, and my family and I are glad to have you join us for--well, for whatever you're meeting one or more of us about. You'll arrive by the time I finish this sentence."

The elevator doors slide back open, and the toaster begins floating down a hall to what appears to be a large laboratory-like room. Klaxons whine from within, and disproportionately extended human limbs flail about.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    Daniel straightens with the address by the synthesized voice. Looking to the sound of the voice, he gives a small laugh at the presence of the.. box.. thing. He's not terribly surprised.. though he had expected Valeria's voice and not a robot. Ah well. He takes up his lunchbox and tips his chin to the receptionist. "Cheers mate." And then he's off to the elevator.

    Now the mention of staying close has him curious and so Daniel tilts his head, "Stay.. I thought that was the point of my giving blood the other day? So that I would be on the security list." Hmm. He'll have to ask her about that later. Elevator it is. Doot dootin doo doo doot dootin doo. Wait. That's not Valeria's voice. Shit.. button.. ground floor.. tele.. no teleporting.

    When the doors open, Daniel takes a few extra moments to decide whether he wants to step out of them. Ah well. In for a penny in for a pound. He follows the floating box. Brow slowly starting to knit as the warning klaxons get louder and louder. "Ahh.. is this normal?" He asks the box. It strikes him as normal somehow.

Reed Richards has posed:
The klaxons suddenly stop, and the head of Reed Richards appears at the end of an elastic neck, weaving its way out from some labyrinth of absurdly complicated-looking machinery.

"It's perfectly normal," he says matter-of-factly. The floating toaster-box chimes and Reed offers a thin smile. "You must be Valeria's ... ah ... friend. Just a moment."

His limbs retract behind or into or under some of the machinery elsewhere in the room, and a few moments later he walks out like a normally proportioned person.

"I'm sorry about that. It's just that I'm in the middle of an important experiment. I'm trying to see if I can /grow/ moments of time, like cell cultures." He gestures to the floating robot. "A.R.C.H.I.E. there was meant to protect you from--well, it's not necessary to bore you with the details."

Reed clears his throat. "Valeria's not in at the moment. What can I do for you today?"

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Valeria's ahh friend. Daniel really tried hard not to read too much into that. "No need to apologize, sir. I was not intending to interupt your work." Umm. He looks to the flowers in his left hand and tucks them behind his back. What flowers? "Security. I understand, sir. Valeria had mentioned the countermeasures were extensive.. which is why she asked for a blood sample." Ahem.

Curious eyes are curious though and Daniel can't help but eye the equipment in the room. That is until Reed clears his throat and asks the direct question. There's a flash of disappointment and he blinks, "You? Sir? Ahh. I don't know that there is.. although.. well.. perhaps there is." And so he sets his lunch box down on a corner of a flat surface.. it's the only one he could find.

"I don't know what Valeria may or may not have told you about my.. condition.. but it occurs to me that since I've been reading dead ends.. you might be able to find some manner of answer." Daniel takes a deep breath. "You see I have this problem that I could say is a side effect of sorts. I keep having visions.. of other places.. I can't say they're not part of our temporal stream as I've never been to these places but the ones that I do recognize appear to be within the frame of my understanding as 'present'. The primary issue being.. they do rather come unwanted."

Reed Richards has posed:
"Hm?" Reed asks before shaking his head. "Yes, yes. Countermeasures for the building. A.R.C.H.I.E. here was more to protect you from being identified as something more like ..." He pauses for a moment. "... like a chronal anomaly seeking to destroy space-time. Based on the laboratory's experiment parameters, you see. There's a really fascinating overlap in human DNA and a potential genetic structure of chronotons ..."

Reed stops himself and smiles politely. "But again, nothing to worry about there."

He listens to Daniel's problem and nods. "Would you say these visions are like dreams, or are they sensory hallucinations, or are they images in your mind? Or something else entirely?" One of his arms reaches out to a nearby whiteboard, where he begins jotting out a series of equations while continuing to look at Daniel.

"And how frequently do you experience them? Is it during any particular replicable phenomenon?" Reed frowns slightly. "I mean--do you tend to have these visions when your blood sugar is low or when you're asleep or when you're physically aroused?"

Daniel Hastings has posed:
"When I'm what?" Daniel sounds offended.. stunned.. shocked even. There's Science and then there's.. there's.. affrontery. He clears his throat to regain his composure. "No no. Nothing like that. I'm seeing these places. Experiencing them. I'd reach out and touch some of them but for the fact that oftentimes it's the void of space near some astronomical phenomenon and interacting with that locality could be fatal." He looks to the wipe board.

"Perhaps.. it might be easier if I explained what happened." Daniel knew he'd have to at some point so he looked around and moved to clear off a stool to sit on. "In Nineteen forty seven, I came in contact with an artifact of unknown origins. Now, understand I was part of a team seeking to understand this item and we had safeguards in place but.. accidents happen." Sigh. The more he relived that moment the more he it was rubbed in just how stupid it was. "In the instant of contact, I felt myself otherwise spread across the cosmos. How long that lasted I couldn't say but to look at the whole of creation all at the same time nearly shattered by consciousness and I reflexively latched onto the first near Earth habitable planet I 'saw'. That was Kirit. Within the Kree empire. In the Andromeda Galaxy. I appeared there. Whole. After a fashion. I've been having these visions ever since."

Reed Richards has posed:
"What sorts of places are you seeing?" Reed asks, still nodding and taking down notes, of a kind. "Are your experiences fully immersive, or do you still feel like you're in the 'real' world, so to speak, wherever you were before your vision struck you?"

His other hand extends out, searching for something until it retracts with a device that looks like nothing so much as a tricorder. "I assume you won't mind if I take some baseline records for comparison?" Reed states, barely inflecting the end of the sentence upward into a question. "I'll confess some initial interest ... you said you found yourself in the Kree empire. When was that?"

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Daniel laughs, "Good question. Given that I don't have access to a Kree calendar that was either two months ago.. or eighty years and two months ago. Alternatively, the planet could have some manner of dilative effect and every year passed there is twenty Earth years though I find that less likely as a more instantaneous temporal distortion. Most likely at the time I fled from Kirit and was nearly blown up by their constabulary."

Sitting on the stool, Daniel picks up his feet to rest them on the foot rail. "So.. think of them as out of body experiences. Only my body is there. And where I am. Which is to say those about me still see me and believe that I am present but my senses cease detecting local input and instead view.. hear.. smell.. wherever the new location is. In the case of more astronomical instances, hearing and smell aren't a factor for lack of atmosphere but I'm experienced flashes of numerous alien worlds. Well.. six? Yes. Six." He confirms after a moment of thought.

Reed Richards has posed:
The whiteboard notes pause for a moment. "I just want to make sure that my calculations are correct so far. You're telling me that you might be an eighty-year-old fugitive who's romantically interested in my daughter?"

He sighs softly. "I'm sure that Sue would have a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this, but--if you don't mind me saying so--you're not exactly motivating me to assist you."

Letting his hands retract to manipulate the scanning device, Reed is quiet for a long beat. "Luckily, I'm easily intrigued by potentially reality-shattering paradigm shifts in scientific knowledge." He taps away at his device. "Tell me this, Daniel. Are you familiar with something called the 'astral' plane?"

Daniel Hastings has posed:
"I'm sorry what?" Daniel tilts his head. "Sir, I am an Agent of SHIELD who was co.. nevermind what I was doing. The point is that I was shunted to another galaxy. Yes, I stole a Kree spacecraft but I did so from a smuggler.. which I thought seemed a fairly karmic thing to do if I wanted to get home. Only.. the locals were keeping an eye out for that ship so they took off after me the moment I hit their scanners. How else would you expect I return to Earth?" He runs a hand through his hair. "I've since been reinstated." To make that point, he reaches into his jacket and shows Reed his badge. "Since I'm clearly not dead."

The badge is tucked back into his jacket as Daniel continues to look at Reed.. well.. he wasn't entirely sure Richards was sane from the beginning but then most men of his intellect aren't wholly stable. Hell, he's been accused of being unstable. He sighs. "Sir.. I'm a scientist. I mentioned this to you because I hoped that for the sake of my sanity you enjoyed a good intellectual challenge. And.. I have an honest fear that one day I'll have one of these visions and not be able to snap out of it. So if that means some manner of synaptic suppression? So be it. Unfortunately, neuroscience isn't my field." He brings a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Yes. I have. I spoke to Doctor Strange just the other day. He told me I shouldn't have meddled in cosmic powers." He lifts his chin and looks to Reed.

"Doctor Richards.. I'm fond of your daughter. I find her smile infectious. Her intellect dizzying. Her general.. hopefulness.. inspiring." Daniel does at least sound in earnest. "But please.. I am twenty five. That's it. No more. No less. Whatever else I've experienced is.. a point of the reality-shattering paradigm that I'm speaking to you about."

Reed Richards has posed:
Continuing to manipulate his scanner, Reed raises one hand. "Alright," he says softly, and then again. "Alright." Reed offers a thin smile. "Please forgive me. I needed to take some readings that involved you ... if not stressed, then certainly uncomfortable. That's a difficult thing to do if you tell someone about the test ahead of time."

He sets the device on a nearby surface and folds his arms across his chest, one index finger and thumb stretching to rub his chin. "There are several options, none of which is particularly logical--at least not by the standards of conventional science. I suspect some of my colleagues might make a case for a kind of localized wormhole, but that doesn't strike me as the case."

"No," Reed continues, beginning to slowly pace, "my instinct is to pursue the question of whether or not you are individually attuned to a kind of dimensional orientation that runs orthagonally to human perception. I wonder if there might be a telekinetic element, as well, that allows for your consciousness to be moved through it, even temporarily." Reed makes a series of half-hearted gestures where his fingers intertwine like intersecting planes, but changing directions as they move.

"Of course," Reed says, "there's always the possibility that you're really some sort of higher-conceptual entity that /believes/ it is a man. I believe I once read a paper theorizing something similar about a floral entity of some kind..."

Daniel Hastings has posed:
"I was born in Quebec City if that helps? My parents moved to Toronto when I was a child." Daniel offers with a game sort of shrug. "Then it was to Oxford and.. His Majesty's Royal Naval Air Force.. now Her Majesty's of course. The War and all that." He lifts his hands to ruffle his own hair as a tension breaker.

"It's not telekinesis." Daniel assures Reed as he reaches out to a soldering gun that's about twelve feet away. "But it can look like it.. if you don't understand that.. where an item is in space is mutable... in relation to other points in space." And yes, the soldering gun starts to float and 'fly' towards him. Rotating until he can grasp it at the grip and not the tip should it be hot. "That much I've experienced. Learned. For instance, what you just 'saw' as flight was actually just me willing space to draw out until the item was near enough for me to grasp. Then I allowed space to return to normal. Only the space between was simply air so there was no visible distortion."

Reed Richards has posed:
"I follow," Reed notes. "I feel compelled to move through the most likely of explanations toward the implausible. When we find the answer, though, then things will be most remarkable. The manipulation of space itself is fascinating," he adds. "I'm surprised that there's not an incredible burst of observable power to make that happen."

He places his hands on his hips. "Daniel, I know that you're most interested in visiting the Plaza to see Valeria. Even so, I can't help but suggest that you come by more frequently for occasional tests of your abilities. If there's manipulation of space-time involved, perhaps your visions are like figurative ripples or the wake of your disruption of natural space-time movement. We might, then, be able to track those ripples to determine where and how you're connected elsewhere in the universe."

"Or beyond," Reed notes, shrugging. "Once we move past the implausible, we push against the bounds of the impossible. And there, anything might occur."

Daniel Hastings has posed:
"I've tried looking beyond..say Earth.. but outside of the Moon where I have a visual frame of reference.. everything else feels out of reach." Daniel explains. "I can effectively fold space and go to anywhere I can perceive. But beyond that.. I don't know. Maybe I can? Maybe that's a limit of my human perceptual frame? Sure, I could picture Earth in my mind's eye but I couldn't 'see' it. To be able to teleport there. Not that I'd call it teleportation."

Daniel muses a moment on Reed's hypothesis. "That.. actually sounds intriguing. And possible. When you think about such things as how finite most Einstein-Rosen bridges are and the forces at work.. if I'm creating them at will and space snaps back with a ripple.. then maybe I'm seeing the return ripple. Or maybe I'm becoming the point at the end of a bridge at which the other end is my vision." Now it looks like Daniel's juices are flowing. "Just.. make sure Valeria is here for them, hmm? I'll never hear the end of it if she misses out on.. anything."

Reed Richards has posed:
"Of course," Reed says in a calm tone. "This is a science experiment, and it would be unethical of me to threaten the anonymity or confidentiality of a subject without their express permission."

He smiles. "So this will be between you and me until such time as you see fit to make your participation known. Some call me overly concerned with science, but it is precisely this sort of consideration that I have in mind while being so concerned."

Reed looks back to the mass of ludicrously complicated machinery he'd been working on before. "Now. Perhaps you should drop those flowers off in the kitchen on your way out. I fear I have an experiment to return to that might threaten space-time in an entirely different way ... and given the information you've shared with me, I'm not sure A.R.C.H.I.E. could do such an effective job of protecting you, after all."

Daniel Hastings has posed:
"Ahh. One.. other thing. If you don't mind my asking." Daniel inquires as he hops off of the stool. "About the teleporting. Would it be possible to say.. teleport to the hangar bay? Instead of checking in at the desk. I only ask because as my visits become more frequent.. people will start to ask questions." Ahh publicity. "I'm not sure how many times I can check in and use the ruse of Agent.. not especially since I did just ask the receptionist for Valeria." Loyal employees still talk to friends and family who aren't so loyal. "I'd naturally wait there for.. well whomever."

Reed Richards has posed:
"That seems reasonable to me," Reed says. "Although I also assume you'll be alerting Valeria--or anyone--that you're arriving, more to ensure a safe space for reconstitution than out of any conservative demand for politeness. I'd hate for you to arrive just as Ben's got the pogo plane exiting the hangar."

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Daniel chuckles. "Of that you can be certain. I always try to look before I leap.. quite literally. For instance, if.. well you get the idea." He gives Reed a snap salute. "It was a pleasure meeting you, sir. Certainly, it was a better encounter than with your wife. Please.. tender my apologies for.. I imagine .. oh just not meeting you both the way its supposed to go. That's life I suppose." He looks about for the floating box. "I imagine ARCHIE will see me out then? I'll refrain from leaping until I'm in the garage. Just in case." There's a wave of his hand at the delicate machinery in front of him.