InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Soooo cool"

ashley magnus is more badass than you (choseherside) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-03-28 12:07:00

Entry tags:

ashley magnus, nikola tesla

WHO: Ashley Magnus and Nikola Tesla
WHAT: Ashley is worried what will happen if she loses control. Tesla offered to help.
WHEN: Early evening
WHERE: Tesla's lab
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress
NOTES: Reposting because I am an idiot and put this in the network first. >.<

Since arriving in Colligo, Ashley had managed to attack a guy who had tried to kill her dad for the dumbest reason imaginable, ticked off a being that was way more powerful than she could ever hope to be, have a conversation with her father, and spend some time with Nikola Tesla. To most, it would seem like a very busy, if somewhat unbelievable, day. To Ashley, however, it was little more than par for the course. She was used to staying busy, used to picking fights, and used to spending her down time in a lab. Yes, it was normally her mom who was in said lab, and typically the experiments weren't pertaining to her. However it was close enough that she felt almost more comfortable walking into the building Tesla had set up shop in than she did sitting in the apartment the city had decided she should call home.

Although day one of 'How to Stop Ashley if She Loses Control' hadn't yielded too many breakthroughs, Ashley was confident day two would offer much more in the way of results. Nikola Tesla, while certainly a total ass when he wanted to be, was ridiculously intelligent and definitely knew more than his fair share about what Ashley was going through. She might not know the guy all that well and didn't really trust him because, well, why should she? She did, however, know that he rather enjoyed being alive and rested safe in the knowledge he wouldn't do anything too harmful as long as he still wanted to live. Because while she might not exactly be super close with her father, she knew he wouldn't react very well to her being killed - accidentally or otherwise - thanks to an experiment gone awry.

So she made her way inside his lab with the same confidence she always had entering a room. Glancing around with a touch of curiosity, she finally let her gaze settle on the man she'd come to see.

"Got anything good for me?" she questioned as she casually hopped up on the nearest flat surface. Swinging her legs idly, she looked around at the nearest items, going still at some weird device that looked like something out of a science fiction novel. Frowning thoughtfully, she briefly considered poking at it before deciding that was probably not a very smart move. Instead she tipped her head toward it, eyes sliding back to Tesla once more.

"And what is that?"

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oncemighty
2011-03-28 04:08 pm UTC (link)

"Molecular destabilization prism," Tesla said, sparing a brief glance over his shoulder at Ashley before turning back to the microscope that he was fiddling with. "Best not to touch it. I don't have all the kinks worked out yet. You could end up in a million different pieces, and I would be amiss to explain to your father that you ended up as EM induced soup again." He would be more than amiss, actually. He'd probably be ahiding more than anything else because he knew John would gut him if anything happened to Ashley that could be easily linked back to him and his lab. And he'd rather avoid that fate right now considering he was once again irritatingly mortal.

"I have good news," Tesla started, adjusting the dial on the side of the microscope again, "and I have bad news. It's up to you which one that you want first," He said, finally pulling his attention away from the equipment to head over to a bank of computers that he had set up, tapping a few keys and pulling up a score of data that filed onto the screens in front of the pair of them. He wasn't sure whether Ashley would be able to read any of it without him explaining each piece bit by bit, but he figured he might as well give her the chance to look it over for himself before he started in on the nitty-gritty.

"Take your pick."

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choseherside
2011-03-28 04:09 pm UTC (link)

It didn't take more than the 'best not to touch it' before she was yanking her hand away as though it had been burnt. Ashley wasn't exactly sure what a molecular destabilization prism did but it definitely sounded like something she did not need to be touching. And why would he have something like that just lying around anyway? In her mind, something that could rip someone apart at a molecular level just for accidentally touching it did not need to be left out where just anyone could happen by. Nevermind that anyone in his lab would probably know better than to go touching random experiments, that was completely beside the point.

As was her losing sight of why she was there and instead trying to sort out why Nikola Tesla was, well, Nikola Tesla.

Her attention snapped back to him when he said he had good news and bad news. Blinking, her stomach churning a bit with nerves, Ashley shifted slightly so she could better see the data on the screen. Not that she had much of a clue what she was looking at, really. She knew a few things but the science angle really was much more up her mom's alley than her own. So after a few seconds of staring, only having the vaguest sense of what she might possibly be looking at, she decided to fall back on what she did best. Aside from killing things, that is.

Sarcasm.

"Let me guess," she said dryly. "You managed to get a life outside of this lab which, hey, great for you, but that pretty much leaves me back to molecular soup the next time I snap." A brief pause and she gave a slight shake of her head, sitting up straight again.

"Just start with the bad. At least it can only get better from there."

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oncemighty
2011-03-28 04:13 pm UTC (link)

The bad. Tesla had figured that she would start with the good, but he was sure that he could rearrange his statement to accommodated the switch in order. Possibly. "There's a lot of stuff your blood that I don't recognize," All right, that had sounded lame. Wrinkling his nose slightly, Nikola shook his head and let out a soft puff of air. "All right. Good news. The pattern that was used to bond the vampiric DNA to your own DNA is very similar to a method of replication that I was working on myself. I wouldn't have entirely put it past those bastards to have stolen some of my research during one of the times I had to run away from them. But yes, bad news. There are, well, items in your blood that I don't recognize, and because of this, I don't know how the debonding procedure that I have in place would react with your structure. It's possible that those foreign bodies would, for lack of a better word, muck up the entire process. I'd rather figure out what they were before I go trying anything fancy. But, as it is, it is possible that the medication that your mother whipped up for me to keep my vampiric urges at bay might work similarly for you."

Of course, all of this was just theory at this point. He'd have to actually putt all of these things into practice to be sure, but, it was better than nothing in the end, wasn't it?

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choseherside
2011-03-28 04:14 pm UTC (link)

Ashley was all set to hear the bad news. She didn't know what it might be but she figured whatever good news followed would be an improvement, so there was that much at least. Unfortunately, about the time he seemed to start in on the bad, Tesla swapped back to the good. Either that, or he really had to work on his communication skills. Which she really doubted considering she was pretty sure the guy liked listening to the sound of his own voice about as much as he liked proving he was smartest guy to ever be smart.

Right. The good news first, it seemed. Why he had asked for her to pick when he clearly had a speech worked out, she didn't know, and by the time he'd finished speaking she really didn't care. Good news, bad news, it didn't really matter what order she heard it in, the outcome was still the same.

"So..." she drawled, "you're saying that we basically have no idea what the Cabal really did to me and, because of that, if I manage to snap before you figure it out, this whole city is pretty much toast." Pausing, Ashley simply sat there for a half a second before snorting.

"Well. I don't know about you but this day just keeps getting better and better." With a slight sigh, she looked from the screen back to Tesla. "Right. What is it we need to do to make any of this theory actual fact?"

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oncemighty
2011-03-28 04:19 pm UTC (link)

"Basically, I just need to mix you up a batch of my old medication. Haven't had any call to make any in some time, so I don't have a dose ready, but," He paused, the dinging of the centrifuge sounding precisely in that moment, as if he'd timed it that way. Which he probably had, ridiculously irritating showman that he could be. "But I do have one half way complete," He said, crossing over to the piece of equipment and removing the vial, examining the contents carefully.

"Your mother invented this for me back at Oxford to help stave off the bloodlust that was inherent in my condition," Tesla said, glancing over at Ashley. "As your base characteristics are all vampiric, it should help take some of the edge off, help you keep a tighter hold on your human self."

Of course, until Nikola was completely sure that there wasn't so other type of control of trigger that had been embedded outside of the vampiric urge to kill, he couldn't be entirely sure that it would keep all of her more base characteristics at bay. But it was at least a stopgap until he could develop something more specifically tuned to her immediate issues. Crossing over to another piece of equipment, Tesla transfered the vial to a pair of tongs, quick freezing it in a vat of dry ice before emerging it in a vat of hot water that was set in the same area.

"Once it thaws, it will be ready. Shouldn't take more than a half an hour," He said before nodding to the screens. "Are there any details that you want? I've got a bunch even if I can't tell you what they all mean yet."

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choseherside
2011-03-28 04:20 pm UTC (link)

She couldn't help but grin a bit when the centrifuge chimed at the exact second he needed it to for maximum effect. She didn't know if he'd done that on purpose or not, but she was definitely amused at least. Shifting a little so she could watch what he was doing, she frowned - not in displeasure but merely mild confusion - at the process. She nodded at what he said, her attention flickering back to the vial until he'd finally set it in the hot water.

She looked to Tesla when he turned back to face her, following his attention to the screens. For a second, Ashley simply sat there. Words rarely failed her and weren't really failing her now, but she definitely wasn't sure just what to say. Finally she decided on the truth. It wasn't like it took someone as attentive to details as James Watson to realize that science wasn't exactly her strong suit.

"I'm going to vote for anything you've got," she said with a faint grin. "Because I have to admit, I have no idea what most of that means and do not think now is the time to start guessing."

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oncemighty
2011-03-29 10:40 pm UTC (link)

"I suppose I should start out with what I know, then," Tesla said, moving over to one monitor and making complicated gestures over the images on it as he pointed out the various structures that it displayed. "What the Cabal did was utilize the Source blood in order to bond various samples of Abnormal abilities to your DNA. Rather than altering the structure of your DNA as the Source Blood tends to, these abilities are layered on top of your own genetic structure, bonded to a third strand of nucleotides that have been intertwined with your double helix generating a strong triple helix. This bond is something that I have devised a way to break, but my formula only allowed for the vampiric traits to be stripped from a system, not... Not everything else," He said, glancing over at Ashley. "From what I've seen, you have at least three other abilities: teleportation, regenerative healing far beyond what any vampire should be capable of, and some sort of low level psychic field. It is possible that you're also carrying other abilities, either passive or dormant, and because of the unusual situation of your parentage, it is utterly impossible to know which, if any, of those abilities are natural and which are synthetic so simply devising a method to strip them all out would be reckless and possibly harmful to your overall health."

And, again, Nikola had absolutely no desire to be on the other end of John's ire much less Helen's should she arrive once again.

"I'm unsure what implications your blood holds at the moment. If I had your mother's lab and the various samples that she's collected to run a comparative analysis against I might be able to garner more answers quicker, but as this," He made a vague gesture around the room, "and this," He tapped his head, "are all I have to work with at the moment, any discoveries will take longer."

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choseherside
2011-03-30 11:24 pm UTC (link)

Although not nearly as much into science as her mother or the man standing before her, Ashley wasn't necessarily a slouch either. Sure she couldn't read most of the information on the screen but that didn't mean she didn't understand what he was saying. She could keep up, for the most part, and pretty much got the memo by the time he'd finished speaking.

Basically, she was a living, breathing, walking experiment of the Cabal and it was going to take even the great Nikola Tesla a bit of time to figure it all out. Which was fine. Her main worry was losing control and he seemed to have a way that would theoretically prevent that much, at least. The rest, whatever the rest turned out to even be, would just have to wait.

"Anything I can do?"

A bit of an odd question, considering the source, but she had several reasons for making the offer. First was the fact that this was her life they were talking about. Being involved, especially when she'd had no say so when the Cabal had been running the show, made her feel at least a bit more in control in a very uncertain situation. There was also the fact that sometimes having help was better than none at all, even if that help happened to be a girl who would much rather be shooting things than running experiments. Plus... well, plain and simple, Ashley was bored. Aside from stopping by to visit with James, she really had very little else to do in the city. If nothing else, sitting around here was better than sitting around in her apartment, alone.

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oncemighty
2011-03-31 05:05 am UTC (link)

"Not at the moment," Nikola said, sparing at glance over at her. He knew he should probably give her something. He honestly didn't think Helen Magnus's daughter would be the sort to sit idly by and wait for things to happen to her, but at the moment, there wasn't even any busy work that he could give her. Until he better understood the problem that he was working to fix, he didn't need an assistant. He worked better alone when he wasn't in need of the extra pair of hands to hand him things and hold that their and make sure he didn't set himself on fire because that really hurt now. "But I will let you know as soon as I need anything else. It'll probably be more samples, though. So don't hold your breath for anything too active."

As the equipment that had the solution in it pinged again, Tesla crossed over to it, picking up the vial and turning to hand it to Ashley, "This should last you the rest of today and tomorrow. Take a third of it everyone six hours and come back here tomorrow afternoon. I'll have managed to make a longer lasting supply by then."

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choseherside
2011-04-23 04:29 pm UTC (link)

Ashley hadn't really expected him to have anything for her to do at this point but she still felt a surge of frustration at knowing she really was being forced to play the waiting game. It was, by far, her least favorite game to play. Especially when it concerned her own well-being and ability to interact with everyone else without worrying about wanting to rip out their throats.

Nodding, she took the vial from him and glanced down at it. It seemed like such a small, inconsequential thing, yet it very easily could be the only real answer to her current problem. Looking back to Nikola, she offered a small, sincere smile.

"Got it," she assured him. Holding the vial up toward the light, she studied it for a second before dropping her arm back to her side and turning back to the scientist in front of her. "And thanks. Really. I appreciate all of this." Ashley might not be the best at showing her gratitude but she definitely was grateful. She just also really hoped it worked.

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oncemighty
2011-04-23 04:41 pm UTC (link)

Tesla grinned, clapping Ashley on the shoulder. Maybe his experience with her had been limited and his experience with her before the Cabal especially so, but that didn't negate the concern that came almost inherent with anyone's associations with Helen Magnus. Nikola had his issues with all of her kiddies, varied in degrees depending upon the one that you'd be referring to, but he still would go out of his way to make sure that they were all safe. And here, in this place, where he had the capability to help rather than only being able to seek revenge over the ultimate outcome, Nikola planned on doing everything within his power to make sure that Ashley was well and intact for as long as she was here.

"It's just good to see you in one piece," Nikola said, chuckling slightly. "Now, you'd might want to check in with your father so he doesn't think that I'm performing horrible and grotesque experiments on you and come down here to kill me. Lack of psychotic chest monster or not, he'd still happily murder me over something like that."

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