8287/Updates and Progress

Updates and Progress
Date of Scene:	17 October 2021
Location:	Columbia University
Synopsis:	Mairin and Demona caught up and discoverd some interesting facts about their new reactor.
Cast of Characters:	Mairin Moran, Susan Sullivan

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Mairin Moran has posed:
     It's early, on a Sunday, and the lab and most of the building are empty. Which makes it a perfect time to get some work done. Which is why Mairin is here, and why she texted Demona to come as soon as she could. There's a small box of a half-dozen donuts on the counter, with an empty space that correlates perfectly to the donut sitting next to Mairin with a single bite taken out of it. Next to that is a large styrophome cup of hot tea, and next to *that*... is a circular object about the size of a lunchbox giving off a bright green glow and humming a steady, low tone.

    This object is hooked to a high wattage power meter designed to test the output of power plant reactors.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona enters the room in a gas mask, and as she sees the glowing object, the gas mask feels far more appropriate than it ever has. "What's that?" she asks, not even bothering to say good morning to her boss/friend Mairin.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin doesn't even look up from the controls of the power meter and those she's make-shifted for the reactor. "This... is a Latverian reactor. A small one. I'm seeing how much juice I can get out of it." She motions to the seat next to her, still not bothering to turn around. "It's tempermental. Even with the spec sheets... I--"

    The glow flashes and then sputters out while the hum sloooowly decds to nothing. She sighs and finally turns to face Demona. "I think there are supposed to be other parts in series with it to act as wave or phase regulators. But without the actual schematics for what it was built for, it's hard to say."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "May I see?" Demona says. "Also: Have you tested for radiation? Your living organs are not suited to reactor work. Tell me what to do. I'll work on it. Last thing I need is my boss to get super cancer because I wasn't around to handle dangerous stuff for her."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Of course," Mairin says with a smile, sliding her chair back so Demona can get at the controls. "These control the amperage, frequency, and phase of the current coming out of the reactor. At least, as near as I've been able to determine. You just need to keep the power meter set to the right range. Too high and you won't see anything at all, and too low you could break the calibration on it." She takes up her tea and leans back, letting Demona try. "I did, actually. No appreciable radiation emission from the housing. Which tells us..." she lets Demona finish, her teachery-ness coming out.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona moves to the thing and holds her hands near it. When she's confident she isn't going to burn herself, she touches it. "It's not nearly as hot as I expected," she says. "A little warm." She looks at Mairin. "What kind of power did you get from it? How fast did you vary the phase? Was the output DC or AC? Wait, DC doesn't have phases. Nevermind."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin grins widely before taking another slow sip of tea. "No, the heat disipation is excellent. Of course I don't think I've managed to get it to full power yet. That could change things. As near as I've been able to tell, it prefers these settings," she points to a notebook with a long list of trial and error. "But every time I try to go past this.. it just fizzles out like you saw."

    She yawns, a rather large one, and rubs her eyes, then reaches over for her donut. "How was your Saturday?" she asks, still keeping an eye on what Demona is doing, but letting her have some autonomy of the testing.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona hesitates. "It was bad," she says. She quickly steers things back around. "What if we put a rectifier on it? Let the reactor do whatever it wants, phase-wise, and just pull out bouncy DC? I mean...most electronics need DC, anyway."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Not a bad idea. Why don't you go snag one off that bench and hook it up." She swings around another computer monitor. "Here are the specs and the schematics. Let me see you lay out the hook up. But let me check before you actually do it."

    She eyes Demona, that motherly, teachery kind of look she perfected in the classroom. "Anything I should know about?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks over the schematics for a second. "Yeah, I don't think your rectifiers are up to the job if this thing is only kicking out a small fraction of its potential." She moves to the shelf and takes four hefty diodes. She moves to the soldering bench and makes her own impressive rectifier that would do the job for some industrial jobs. She brings it back to the reactor and hooks everything up using the same alligator clips Mairin had been using. "What's this thing using for fuel? What's the waste on it?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Both excellent questions that the public documentation is silent on." She furrows her brow. "I have a theory though. One that would have sounded insane a few months ago." She chuckles. "What do you know about Latveria?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Next to nothing. I know its name starts with L and ends with 'atveria. Why? Is the green an indication of Kryptonite or something?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin laughs. "No. But I did some research when I brought it back. And it seems Latveria is a small eastern european country known primarily for two things. A very low crime rate caused by a police state government, and it's dictator. One Victor Von Doom." She shrugs at the obviously over the top name. "And by reports I could find... this Doom uses magic."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Magic?" Demona says, taking a step back from the reactor. "Are we sure this thing is safe?" Interesting that she was less concerned about radiation from a possible fission reactor than she is about the possibility of magic inside it.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin actually shrugs at that question. "I can't be certain, but I believe so. It definitly has the look of something mass produced. It has specs and tech data. I don't have any reason to believe it's a bomb, or is reactive in any way." She sighs. "But if this *is* using magic in some way to sustain or grow the reaction, maybe it need some kind of magical stimulous to do that."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I'm not touching it, anymore," Demona says, taking two big steps back and shaking her head. "You figure out what it's using for fuel and I'll consider it. Until then, you're on your own with this magic crap."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    There's a pause as Mairin just looks at Demona in confusion. Her brain processing things. Then finally she leans forward in her chair. "Demona, talk to me." Her voice has shifted, from teacher, to friend. "What happened yesterday? I can't have you jumping at the mention of magic while we're trying to build a magically enhances sentient robot.." Her brow furrows.. intent. "Please.. talk to me."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona shakes her head. "This has nothing to do with what happened yesterday," she says. "I'm not touching anything to do with magic after we talked to that Nettie person." She gestures at the reactor. "You can deal with magic on your own. I'm not interested, okay? I don't want anything to do with anything to do with that woman."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin takes this in, processes it, then tilts her head to one side. "Have you changed your mind about helping me with Gossamer?" Her voice is just flat curiosity now.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "No," Demona says. "That's going to be stuff I know how it works from the bottom up. Qi flow, electrical systems, mechanics. I'll know it and trust it. If this THING uses magic, and we don't know about it, then how the hell are you so damn sure it's not a bomb? How do you know what it's SUPPOSED to do? What if giving off electrical power is a side-effect? No, I'm not touching that thing until you dissect it and figure out what it's using for power."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She nods again, and stands to disconnect the reactor from everything else. "I understand. I'll keep it away from you until I know exactly what it is."

    There are a few momnets of silence as she safes the reactor then she takes a deep brath and turns around. "Demona, I have to ask," And her voice is calm, controled, and a bit emotionless. "You said you don't want anything to do with anything to do with... her." She pauses, "*I* have to do with her." She leaves the inference unsaid.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks at Mairin for a long time. "Lots of people have to do with lots of people," Demona points out. She is calm as she says, "So far, you've done your best to be a bridge and a positive connection on both sides. However, if you start treating me at all like she does, I'm gone."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin returns the look, then lets out a deep breath and nods. "Demona, I will never treat you like that. I... I could explain why, and how I know that. But what's important is that you know I wont. You are important to me. As my co-worker, my partner, and my friend. And I respect both you and your opinions." She gestures behind her to the disconnected reactor. "So... Are we ok?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona lets out a breath she'd been holding. She reaches up and undoes her mask, taking it off before adjusting her hat. "I think so," she says. "I'm a little on edge. I mean, the stuff you dragged me to isn't as big a thing as you think it is, but it took a little more emotional oomph to get through. I also had a super hero land on my van and crunch the solar panels. I burned through my qi reserves and it was in a very dry area. I just about lost myself." She moves back to the reactor and takes a deep breath in through her nose. "It doesn't have a smell," she says. She pulls out her multi-tool and sets her mask aside. "I'm going to start pulling it apart. You have access to a geiger counter?" she asks as she opens up her pocket tool and picks up the orb, looking it over.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Not here, but I can get one." Her eyes actually lock on the multi-tool for a sec, but then she's off to retrieve the tool, leaving Demona alone to work for a good fifteen minutes while she tracks it down.

    When she finally comes back, it's with the counter and a drafting notebook. She drops the counter off with Demona, then sits down flips open the notebook, and starts drafting.

    It's something just watching her do this. Her practiced hand moves through circles, lines, and angles effortlesly even free-hand. She rarly has to erase anything. And all of that while talking.

    "So can I ask what took you so far away?" Her tone makes it very clear that Demona can abslutely say no.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Not far away," Demona says. "Isolated. Clean. Not even a lot of germs. No rats, no pigeons, nothing. Not like a building, either. Buildings are alive. They drink water, breathe air, let out waste, all for the living things inside. Cities, too," she says. "But in the same way you can have a dry rock above the flow of a river with water all around it, the place I was at was very, very dry." She continually checks the counter to make sure it's working and on. Demona has her own mental system for cataloguing things, it seems. She's not making notes, either, but she seems to be very organized as she takes off this part and that part. "And we're sure this isn't an RTG or something?" she says, conversation flowing back to the task at hand.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin furrows her brow as Demona talks, though its hard to tell if its because of what she's drawing, or what Demona is saying. "Not unless that metal is made of something I've never heard of," she answers without looking up. "My honest best guess, is something similar to an arc reactor. Though it's larger that the one Mr. Stark uses, and generates way less power. It could be equally as clean. Von Doom is said to be a genius." She bites her lip and looks up over the top of her notebook for a long moment. "Demona, I'm not good at subtle clues. Is yesterday something you don't want to talk about? Because if not, I'll stop asking."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona puts her hands flat on the table on either side of her work. She doesn't breathe. In or out. She just is. For a few moments, she holds that posture. She takes in a slow, deep breath. "Mairin, I don't know what you want to know, okay? My van is broken and may not charge without being plugged in, I'm scared for my unlife because of your teacher, I'm not sure I've got enough money for my next batch of rice--" She stands upright and turns to look at Mairin, locking eyes with her. "What do you want to know, specifically? Because I'll talk about almost anything, but I've kind of got a lot going on, right now."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    There's an obvious recoil in Mairin's posture at Demona's outburst, but she doesn't interupt. She obviously miscalculated somehwere. She obviously siad something wrong. Which does seem to be the theme of her interactions with people lately. But for some reason it stings esspecially bad coming from Demona.

    "I'm sorry," she says slowly, caefully. "I just thought you might like to talk about the things that are bothering you." She closes the notebook and places it on her lap, folding her hands on top of it. "You've always been there for me to vent to when I was hurting. I just want you to know that I'm here to do the same."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I'm sorry," Demona says, rubbing her temples. "I'm not used to being around people, anymore. I sat underground for years trying to find the flow of qi of the world." She takes a deep breath and says, "Okay, firstly, I just about lost it. I was able to hold onto my self, but I needed fresh qi, and if not for Spider-Man being there, I would have hurt somebody or died in a sunrise if I could hold on that long. Maybe I get back to the van, I don't know. I just feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff and I just about fell."
    She gestures to the workbench. "I was excited for this thing if it's not magic because my solar panels are broken. Mairin, I'm broke. Like, perpetually. I don't even know if I'm getting paid to be your assistant. I've had one paying job in as many months. One. One time someone paid me to do some repair work. I can't fix the van. I can't buy more rice. I need rice, Mairin. Without rice, I'm lost. It's a precipice I walk on. I thought I'd be able to get enough money to at least buy rice. Now, with the solar panels broken, I can be stranded places. I'm scared, and I hate it."
    She gestures toward Mairin. "Then there's your teacher. Every time you talk to me about her, you tell me a new story about how she's basically abusing you. She armed herself when she saw me and wouldn't let me in without getting my name. I don't know if the wards thing was accurate, but she doesn't get my name or even Demona. Ever since I met her, I haven't felt safe. Do you know I have seriously considered moving back to China? Even as hard as it was to get myself smuggled to the states, I would rather live in that cave, isolated, than in fear all the time."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin listens, her eyes locked on Demona's, her posture gradually leaning more and more forward as she focusses intently on what her friend is saying. And, when Demona is done, she scoots her chair just a little closer. Her hands move, maybe thinking about trying to take Demona's, but then just grab her notebook.

    "Demona. I'm sorry," she says, softly, with more than a hint of trepidation. "That... that has to feel awful. And I can't imagine anything like it." She pauses, thinking. "I'm not good with advice. Not like you. I wish I was. I'm a scientist. I make things and fix things and people don't fix like machines do. Which is probably why I like them better most of the time. So... I don't know how to help you feel better. But I can tell you this. You *are* getting paid. Both for your work with me on my research, and the work we're doing at the studio. The studio by itself is paying you about a thirty thousand a year salary as my assistant there. And the research pays about twenty. I know it isn't a lot, but it's something. They just need a place to send it to. They told me, but I kept forgetting to ask you. I'm SO sorry."

    She almost flinches back, ready for Demona to be mad.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Instead of angry, Demona looks relieved. She buries her face in her hands and takes several deep breaths. "I'm so glad this place isn't sterilely clean," Demona says. She pushes her hands into her single hoodie pocket and says, "It's quite a relief to be getting any money at all. When you say research, though..." She trails off, not even sure what question to ask.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    There's relief written in every aspect of Mairin as Demona doesn't yell at her. "I mean my research for the DoE. As my assistant, you get paid. Not much, they never do, but maybe it'll be more when we get your clearance."

    She reaches out a hand, not really to touch anything.. just as a gesture. "Will it be enough for what you need? I can give you some money too if you need it. I don't mind at all."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona considers for a moment. "That's about a thousand dollars a week," she says. I haven't gotten a paycheck, yet, so I assume I'm being paid every two weeks." She makes eye contact with Mairin as she says, "As soon as I get a paycheck, I should be okay." She takes a breath and lets it out. "I won't lie, that's a huge load off, honestly."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin sighs. "You wouldn't even have been worrying about it if I'd remembered to tell you," she says sadly. "But, they do need you to talk to payroll and give them somewhee to send the check. They're pretty particular about it." She leans back, eying Demona warily. She could ask what she was doing with Spider-Man, or how she got into that situation... But what good would it really do to know. How it happened isn't the problem.

    "You know...." she finally says. "You can always call me if you need help. If you get.. stuck somewhere. I'd help if I could."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona says. "I'm gonna set up a script on my phone. A kind of emergency button. It'll send you a text. Hey, if I set up a proxy texting number, you could set that to bypass any do not disturb settings. If I text you with that number, you'll know it's an extreme emergency."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She grins. "That sounds like an excellent plan."

    She pauses, hesitant. She is loath to bring up Nettie in front of Demona. As much so as she is to bring up Demona to Nettie. And... maybe it's just best to leae that one alone until she has some kind of good news to report.

    "So," she says with what she hopes is a cheery tone. "What do you think? Arc reactor wannabe?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona turns and looks at the reactor again. "Dunno," she says. "Never seen an arc reactor. This is amazing, though. Can you give me maybe an hour to tear it down? So far, nothing's even mildly radioactive."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Take all the time you need," she says with a grin, opening her notebook back up. "I need to get this out of my head before it drives me crazy. You know how design ideas are."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona starts working again. She is very careful and takes apart bit after bit. It's not just an hour. Hour after hour passes. Nearly five hours later, the orb is reassembled just like it was. "This thing is amazing!" she says. "The fact that it generates power at all! She shakes her head. "Is this how arc reactors work?" she asks, turning to Mairin.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin has been in and out of the lab. It's obvious she isn't working on Gossamer, but she's deffinitly building something. She looks over from a table where she's soldering some parts and laughs. "Your guess is as good as mine. What have you found out?" She spins hre chair around to give Demona her undevided attention.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona holds up the orb. "Firstly, I am guessing this resembles Tony Stark's arc reactors about as much as the early, Soviet space program rockets resemble modern NASA stuff." She turns it over in her hands. "It's only kinda dangerous, but I can kind of see where corners were cut just to make the design work. I have no idea how to fix it, honestly, but at least I don't have to have it implanted in my chest, right? Not that I couldn't." She stops and considers. "I mean...I could...just BE the power for the van. Nobody would steal it...might steal my tires, I guess."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She laughs, "Wait, back up. So do you know what powers it theen? Or what the waste is? Or how we can bring it to max power?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona grabs a pencil and sketches out a quick cross-section. "This bit," she says, tapping at it. "It just looks like metal, but the reactor is absolutely tapping it for power. The only waste it seems to give off is heat. It's crazy! I can't even imagine how this is working. Even if you never get any more power output out of it than you did before, it's like...wait," she says. She starts scribbling math. She pulls out her phone and does quick searches. Her eyes go wide. "Oh my god," she says. "It's all jagged and weird...I think this is a fragment of vibranium from something!"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin squints her eyes and stands up to walk over. "Are you sure? I mean... I wouldn't put it past an Eastern European dictator to get ahold of some but..." She sits back down in the shair she'd had earlier and looks over Demona's math. "It would explain the efficiency, and the lack of waste. But it still doesn't tell us how to bring it to full power. It should be generating considerable more than it is. Is it just... broken?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona shakes her head. "No," she says. "However, it's INCREDIBLY unstable," she says. "The vibranium isn't exactly a premium sample, and the reactor, while brilliant, feels almost like a mass produced first prototype with no revisions after the initial--" She scribbles more math. "Oh!" she says. "That makes sense..." She taps the reactor with her pencil. "It has to suck!" she says. "It's designed to accomodate a wide variety of bits of vibranium. I am willing to bet money that if you had another one of these that work, the vibranium shard inside would be a completely different shape. Like they're from something that exploded that was made of vibranium."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin nods slowly, thinking. "Well this really isn't useful for Gossamer. But I agree that it could be useful for your van. Though I'm not sure you want to keep something so valuable as vibranium in it. Even a poor sample of it." She considers. "I have to wonder too... If part of the problem with my test was the lack of a load." She scetches absently on Demona's paper. "Did you find anything like this? An interlock to cut the power production if there was no load able to take and use it?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Nope," Demona says. "Though, admittedly, if you have an infinite source of power, why ever turn it off?" She taps the pencil on the orb again. "So, I assume these are Latvian surplus, and they're using something even better, now? Even so, how did you get your hands on this? If it's too expensive for us to have, why do you have it?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She grimaces. "Well..." She leans backa bit. "You remember our friend Mr. Blake from the cafeteria? Well when I came to work on Fluffy today--that's what he apparently calls his cat which makes me SO glad we didn't--but when I got there today, he had two of these in the workshop. He was hooking them up to capacitors to test their output and..." She shakes her headin exasperation.. "I asked him where they were from but he never gave me a straigt answer."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Hmmm," Demona says. "That's worrying." She taps the pencil eraser on her chin a few times before she says, "Do these things show up on scans of any kind?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "It is. And it's more so because he wants us to install the larger of the pair into Fluffy." She considers, "I mean it would show up on a power scan, if someone had that kind of scanner aimed at your van. Aside from that, I don't know that it would. I don't know enough about vibranium. Not many people do."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona considers. "Not really safe for you to have if it can be sensed. What's a power scanner? Why do you have this one? Didn't he want it as backup power for Fluffy? Charge some batteries, run an electrolizer to generate hydrogen to run a fuel cell, anything?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "A power scanner can detect running current and power emissions. They're not common tech. Usually only government agencies or those with a lot of money and reason would keep one around." She clears her throat, "As for why we have this one... Thomas said I could have it if I..." She clears her throat again and blushes a little. "Well I had to best him at something. He gave it to me as a reward."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona narrows her eyes as Mairin almost confesses. "Deets, girl," she says. "You can't hang a carrot out there like that for me and expect me not to follow it."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She sighs, "There's nothing to follow. He... Told me that if I could get the thumb drive with the specs out of his hand, then he would give me the smaller one. He was being an ass, as usual."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "What did you do?" Demona asks, crossing her arms and leaning on the heavy workbench. "Am I going to be disappointed in your conduct?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin blushes a bit, but also smiles in a kind of self satisfied wasy. "I told him it wass stupid. He... insuted me... So I tried to grab it. He must have been distracted because I was able to grab the drive, before he could close his hand, so my hand eneded up inside his." She shrugs slightly, "The rest isn't important."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "So, he kissed you or you kissed him. Did you have sex with him?" Demona asks.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin blanches at the thought, "What?? No! Neither. He just... picked me up like a child and carried me around to show off. And when I focussed on my qi to calm down, he thought there was something wrong with me so he let go of my hand. Hence, I got the thumbdrive, hence..." She motions to the reactor.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona raises a hairless eyebrow, but lets it fall almost immediately. "Okay," she says. "Well, if he stole it, it's on him, not us, right? He gave it to you freely. If someone comes for it, I just have to make sure whatever we put it in, I can get it out quickly."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "At this point... yes. That's what I'm going to say. As far as I know, he could have bought it. We might as well use it. And..." she motions to Demona, "You're welcome to it if you want it. As long as you share anything you find out about it with me. Maybe I could design a better one."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Should have taken some 3D pictures while I had it apart," Demona says. "Let's hook it up to the rectifier I made and see about using it to charge batteries or something. Load it up and see how it performs." She turns and starts hooking things up to the orb again, just pushing the limits of her knowledge through experimentation.