"A connectome is like a highly detailed map of your brain," Morgan says, easily slipping back into her unflappable neuroscientist voice. "It shows the layout of your neural pathways, charts out every little detail of what makes you 'you'."
"Ohh, wow!" You can see all eight of Entrapta's eyes light up. "I haven't ever gotten much of a chance to study that kind of thing, do you think... you could tell me more some time?"
Morgan blinks at her, mildly surprised. "Sure. Happy to try, anyway. I probably mentioned this already, but my memory isn't always the most reliable thing. And yes, that problem is related to the issues I have with making yourself the subject of an experiment," she says with a wry smile and a sidelong glance, assuming she's accurately predicting Entrapta's next question.
"Oh, I see," says Entrapta. She taps her chin with her thumb. "So whatever you were doing that was such a bad experience affected your memory too... Okay, so it seems really unlikely that this'll have much overlap with anything like that, but I still think it would be useful to know more before we start this experiment. After all, the whole point of mistakes is to learn from them!"
Morgan looks away again, unease coming off of her in unsteady waves. She supposes she's been misrepresenting the issue, albeit inadvertently. Experimenting on herself was stupid, but it's also kind of the only reason she ever came around to wanting to stop the Typhon and take down her family's company. The real source of her regret is everything that happened-- everything that she did-- in her days with Transtar before those experiments.
She shakes her head after a moment. "No... I did learn from my mistakes already. That's why I'm being so cautious. I..." She pauses, looking at the monster thoughtfully. She's not even sure how well Entrapta can keep a secret?
"Let's get to your lab first. Then I'll tell you what you need to know," Morgan says. It's only really half a lie.
"Sure!" chirps Entrapta, picking up the pace as she leads the way. She looks back at Morgan over her shoulder, though, and says, "But I meant I should learn from those mistakes, too, if I'm gonna be working with you."
Something new flickers back over their connection. Surprise? Maybe also a bit of appreciation. Morgan smiles lightly, keeping in step. "Noted," she says calmly.
Entrapta grins back at her, and leads her up to the house where she lives with Emerald; a four-storey townhouse with some weird contraptions jutting out of the roof.
"Okaaay I think my roommate is out right now," she says as she steps inside, "but this is mostly her stuff... some of it's my old roommate's stuff, but I mean, he's not coming back for it." She laughs, a little unconvincingly. "My lab is up in the attic, so, ah, follow me!"
The lab is lit by a couple of skylights, showing a space lined with cupboards, shelves, and cluttered worktables. A battered office chair is pulled up to one of them, with a partially assembled automaton slumped in it. Although there are clear areas, most surfaces are dominated by bits of machinery, things in the process of being taken apart and things in the process of being built, and things taken from the former and waiting to be used for the latter. A board with a lot of notes pinned to it hangs on one wall.
As they enter, something on the nearest table whirs to life and starts making tinny little barking sounds.
She thinks to ask what happened to the disappearing roommate, but, actually, maybe she doesn't really want to know.
Morgan follows Entrapta upstairs, and jumps slightly at the unexpected barking, turning her attention in that direction. "You program yourself an attack dog or something?" she asks with faint amusement.
"No, she's completely harmless!" says Entrapta earnestly. She picks up the small metal-and-porcelain dog from the table, and it stops barking, wagging its tail instead while Entrapta absent-mindedly pats it on the head.
"I actually didn't program this at all, programming is a little out of my reach so far... I'm working on building a, catalogue of magitech components that would allow for a variety of effects to be created without needing to go through what someone had to do to make this, which would have been... as far as I can work out, somebody sitting down and making a single enchantment that covered every single thing this little guy is supposed to do... But it's a work in progress, and it's a long way off from anything like the kind of computing I'm used to, hahaha."
"Wow. Sounds impressive," Morgan says with the kind of sincerity that a whole mess of her co-workers back on Talos would have killed for under her reign as Director of Research. "Looks impressive, too. Got any examples of a combination in action?"
Entrapta's enthusiasm is infectious. Also, she wants to put off explaining the sim lab and her brother for a bit longer, if she can.
For her part Entrapta is over the fucking moon, and Morgan isn't even her boss or anything. Her excitement shining through their new Bond is practically tangible, but it's hardly a secret window into her feelings, because she's grinning all over her face, too.
"Yes!!" She sets the steampunk aibo down and hurries over to one of the other work tables, where something that looks like it might have been a typwriter at some point sits surrounded by a mess of tools and loose parts.
"This is really just a test, it's a little too simple to be much use just yet, but," she presses one of the keys, and a rectangle of light appears on the wall above the desk. She keys something out on the typewriter, and the words TA-DA!!! appear on the projection.
She looks at Morgan and grins.
"So this is actually a combination of about six different components, you can see them back here," she indicates the back of the device, where a cluster of artifacts carved with various runes are incorporated into the workings of the machinery in an extremely particular fashion. A couple of them are glowing faintly. "At this stage you could definitely get something more useful just from doing one enchantment, because this can't even record your input, but my theory is if the individual enchanted components can be made small enough, and you had enough different kinds and were experienced enough in their uses, they could be used to produce effects far more complex and versatile than Aefenglom's current magitech!"
Morgan is visibly surprised when the projection kicks on. Or at least, visibly surprised within her usual scope of visible emotions, meaning she raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes a little bit. Her interest is obvious, though.
"Wait. So you made that using pre-existing enchantments scavenged from other magitech?" she asks, tilting her head slightly.
"Yeah, mostly!" says Entrapta happily, extremely glad to be explaining her work. "But couple of these I had custom made – this one here," she leans over it and points, "has a more versatile enchantment that I'm routing this rune I got from an old shop sign through to make the light project onto the wall behind it instead of what it would ordinarily do, which is just light up the letters it's attached to, and then this one connects the enchantments from these three because otherwise I couldn't link their functions together to create the typing effect..."
She doesn't wait for an answer. Morgan steps up to peer at it closer, pursing her lips thoughtfully as her eyes flick over the runes. Naturally she can't resist the temptation to push a few buttons, and the letters 'M', 'Y', and 'U' show up on the screen along with what Entrapta has already written. She's so creative.
She also holds down the 'u' button like one might on a modern computer, looking to see if it continues to type out the letter, or if she has to continually press the button to get more of them to appear.
"My guess would be that it has something to do with the runestone receiving continuous input, as opposed to rapid repeated activation. It's probably causing magnification of the effect."
She backs off from the device, shrugging lightly. That's just her guess, anyway!
Entrapta beams, first at the gigantic U on the projection and then at Morgan.
"Thanks! Obviously there's a long way to go before this can really do anything but I think I'm making real progress with the tech here..." She plants two of her hands on her hips. "I figure in a year or two I should have this nailed!"
"Just keep me posted on what you need. I'll do my best to provide."
She can feel they're getting uncomfortably close to returning to talking about her own past, but she's hesitant to be the one to bring it up. Morgan would be happy to just let that slide away, forgotten for the time being.
"Yesss," says Entrapta, gleeful. "Say, how about I draw up a list, would that be okay? And you have to tell me more about your scientific areas of expertise so I know what's best to ask you about!"
"Hmmm. Neurology and robotics, mainly. And, a list would be fine. I might not know how to do everything on it just yet, but I can always try to learn."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
She shakes her head after a moment. "No... I did learn from my mistakes already. That's why I'm being so cautious. I..." She pauses, looking at the monster thoughtfully. She's not even sure how well Entrapta can keep a secret?
"Let's get to your lab first. Then I'll tell you what you need to know," Morgan says. It's only really half a lie.
no subject
no subject
no subject
"Okaaay I think my roommate is out right now," she says as she steps inside, "but this is mostly her stuff... some of it's my old roommate's stuff, but I mean, he's not coming back for it." She laughs, a little unconvincingly. "My lab is up in the attic, so, ah, follow me!"
The lab is lit by a couple of skylights, showing a space lined with cupboards, shelves, and cluttered worktables. A battered office chair is pulled up to one of them, with a partially assembled automaton slumped in it. Although there are clear areas, most surfaces are dominated by bits of machinery, things in the process of being taken apart and things in the process of being built, and things taken from the former and waiting to be used for the latter. A board with a lot of notes pinned to it hangs on one wall.
As they enter, something on the nearest table whirs to life and starts making tinny little barking sounds.
no subject
Morgan follows Entrapta upstairs, and jumps slightly at the unexpected barking, turning her attention in that direction. "You program yourself an attack dog or something?" she asks with faint amusement.
no subject
"I actually didn't program this at all, programming is a little out of my reach so far... I'm working on building a, catalogue of magitech components that would allow for a variety of effects to be created without needing to go through what someone had to do to make this, which would have been... as far as I can work out, somebody sitting down and making a single enchantment that covered every single thing this little guy is supposed to do... But it's a work in progress, and it's a long way off from anything like the kind of computing I'm used to, hahaha."
no subject
Entrapta's enthusiasm is infectious. Also, she wants to put off explaining the sim lab and her brother for a bit longer, if she can.
no subject
"Yes!!" She sets the steampunk aibo down and hurries over to one of the other work tables, where something that looks like it might have been a typwriter at some point sits surrounded by a mess of tools and loose parts.
"This is really just a test, it's a little too simple to be much use just yet, but," she presses one of the keys, and a rectangle of light appears on the wall above the desk. She keys something out on the typewriter, and the words TA-DA!!! appear on the projection.
She looks at Morgan and grins.
"So this is actually a combination of about six different components, you can see them back here," she indicates the back of the device, where a cluster of artifacts carved with various runes are incorporated into the workings of the machinery in an extremely particular fashion. A couple of them are glowing faintly. "At this stage you could definitely get something more useful just from doing one enchantment, because this can't even record your input, but my theory is if the individual enchanted components can be made small enough, and you had enough different kinds and were experienced enough in their uses, they could be used to produce effects far more complex and versatile than Aefenglom's current magitech!"
no subject
"Wait. So you made that using pre-existing enchantments scavenged from other magitech?" she asks, tilting her head slightly.
no subject
no subject
She doesn't wait for an answer. Morgan steps up to peer at it closer, pursing her lips thoughtfully as her eyes flick over the runes. Naturally she can't resist the temptation to push a few buttons, and the letters 'M', 'Y', and 'U' show up on the screen along with what Entrapta has already written. She's so creative.
She also holds down the 'u' button like one might on a modern computer, looking to see if it continues to type out the letter, or if she has to continually press the button to get more of them to appear.
no subject
"Oh... huh!" Entrapta leans forward, delighted and intrigued. "I have no idea why it's doing that!"
no subject
She backs off from the device, shrugging lightly. That's just her guess, anyway!
"Gotta admit: that's some impressive stuff."
no subject
"Thanks! Obviously there's a long way to go before this can really do anything but I think I'm making real progress with the tech here..." She plants two of her hands on her hips. "I figure in a year or two I should have this nailed!"
no subject
no subject
no subject
She can feel they're getting uncomfortably close to returning to talking about her own past, but she's hesitant to be the one to bring it up. Morgan would be happy to just let that slide away, forgotten for the time being.
no subject
no subject