Stand Back! I'm Going To Try SCIENCE! [open]

[etherthief]

Almost got it now.

She's been working at this for days. Several unanswered calls from CERN and the empiricist groundy riding her ass about unfucking whatever documents she fucked. Not important right now. Not important potentially forever. That was a little joke. Ha, ha.

Dimensional strata aren't at all difficult to locate, it's narrowing in on each particular field that gives her trouble. She can practically see this one now, shimmering just a little out of her focus, if she lets her eyes wander a bit, she can just barely see it, and see beyond it. Like looking lazy-eyed through a screen door.

The Park beyond it looks almost identical, which is moderately encouraging. She's not looking for too massive a culture shock here. The field is much stronger here than it was at her lab, she's discovered, which seems strange. Something to do with the magnetic fields of that Earth, maybe? She hadn't really anticipated the stratum to be uneven, but it is significantly more visible in Central Park than anywhere else she's checked. Fascinating. Perhaps something is happening on the other side.

Well, in a moment, either she'll be able to ask someone, or she'll still be here, sitting in the grass.

She adjusts her hijab and raises her left hand to brace it along the invisible barrier. She can feel the clicks and whirrs of instruments and circuitry moving within the digits of her prosthetic. A soft hum that travels up the arm to the elbow, where silicone meets flesh. Soothing. She lets her eyes flutter closed, a bit of a romantic gesture, as though there were anything remotely spiritual about this process. She splays her fingers slowly, waiting for the alchemical reaction, the infinitesimal brushing of molecules across her carbon fiber skin. There it is. There it is.

She transmutes. Thinking carefully, intensively, about the universal constants that separate one world from another, splitting them, expanding them. Digging out a little hole, just for her. It's a tedious mathematical process, and she allows her thoughts to cradle every step of the formula. This is as close to meditation as she'll ever get.

There's the shift. A little tremor runs through her arm, and she sucks air through her teeth. Easy. Easy. This is it, don't get too excited but also don't fuck it up. She exhales a steadying breath and parts the field delicately, and then lets herself slip through.

It's very different from the test runs and the other times she's tried it and halfway succeeded. There's a sudden sucking force, expanding and contracting roughly, like someone's pulling from the other side. She feels all the air go out of her and gasps in a moment of panic, her reach and concentration shaken. She's supposed to let herself in gently, not like this, with all this force and undertow.

And then it's over, just like that. She's right where she was, but where she was (is) has changed. It's New York, but it's not her New York.

Fuck. Yes.

A little shaky on the dismount, but it all worked out fine. She's not glowing or anything. Nobody's freaking out about her sudden arrival. She can run figures and see what caused that hiccup later. She gets to her feet and brushes off her skirt, then looks up to survey her surroundings proudly. New universe. All right then.

Better find someone to talk to.

Comments

[heysoulsister]

Jodie's not looking for trouble - or so she'd insist, if anyone asked. Nor is she here to gawk. Many of the previously cordoned-off areas have been reopened to the public, though there's still a lot of yellow tape around Bethesda and its immediate surroundings (as well as one area where a suspiciously human-shaped crater has been stamped into the lawn - she might have gawked at that one a bit).

But while she missed the total shitshow of two days ago, it has sort of driven home the point that new arrivals might be trouble, and that the front lines should probably consist of something besides terrified civilians. Which is why it's not entirely coincidental that when some woman in a hijab appears out of thin air, Jodie is sitting on a bench all of thirty feet away, pretending to read a book.

Jodie's posture undergoes a subtle shift as she glances at the new arrival over the top of her book. Whoever she is, she looks pretty fucking pleased with herself. Red flag. But Jodie doesn't want a fist through her chest, so she stays on the bench and deliberately lowers her gaze back to the page. Go check it out, Aiden.

He doesn't need to be told twice. Glad as he is that Jodie wasn't anywhere near that rampage, Aiden can't help but be kind of miffed that he missed such a golden opportunity to hurl some shit around and kick some ass. Recon work isn't as fun, but it's better than nothing, and he dutifully gets right up in the woman's face (she doesn't seem to be aware of him; what a treat) before poking around to see if she has any hidden weapons. Nothing. Except - oh, hey, this is interesting. One of her arms isn't really an arm.

The tether hums with his gleeful curiosity, a feeling that roughly translates to: would you look at this shit?! Like he might be a few seconds away from picking up a stick and literally poking this woman with it. Jodie lifts her gaze again, brow furrowed a little as she tries to spot what has Aiden so excited. What is it? she asks, just a bit irritably. Then, is she human?

There's a swift confirmation, but it doesn't feel like a complete truth. Then comes the giddy clarification: she's a CYBORG!

The book drops a few inches as Jodie continues to size the woman up. She doesn't look like a cyborg, but Jodie's not the one of them who can see through things. "Shit," she breathes.