[OPEN] Pressure wouldn't squash me and fire couldn't burn

[spaghettification]

Who: Dr. Siebren de Kuiper and You
What: Springtime shenanigans
When: Before April event
Where: Library, Downtown Hollow, Festival Green, Northwest Hollow
Warning(s): CW for hallucinations (visual, auditory) caused by a traumatic brain injury.

1. I live in the shrubbery, for that's all I crave [Library]
Guess who's now working at the library? Honestly, on some level, he thinks they just accepted his application because he offered to clean the tops of all the shelves, which is what he's doing on this fine day. Floating toward the ceiling, find your new library assistant with a cloth, swiping the dust off. Oh, he'll sweep later, but for now those with dust allergies may need to beware!

Still, if you have a question about finding something, or just want to stare at the man who gravity forgot, here's your opportunity.


2. I don't want these excitements to see me to my grave [A Bad Day]
It's a cold morning, but Siebren is up early, meandering the streets of Downtown Hollow (for values of meandering that involve floating above the cobblestones, barefoot). There's a frustrated look in his eyes, and every so often, he looks over his shoulder.

"Shut up, shut up! I don't need your opinion on the matter. And stop following me!"

There is, in fact, no one visible following him. But he's clearly very agitated by whatever he's hearing them say.


3. I can live life in vacuums for years with no drink [Telescope]
3a. Construction
Siebren's first paycheck goes partly to food, but with the rest of it, he buys a brass pipe, glass lenses shaped to exacting specifications, mirrors and other miscellaneous parts. Find him in the Festival Green on an afternoon he has off work, carefully working off a hand-drawn diagram to assemble something that he's clearly excited about.

3b. Stargaze
If Siebren knows you at all, and even more if he likes you, come a clear evening you may get a message on your sending stone, inviting you out toward Northwest Hollow, away from the streetlights of the town itself. There, a very happy scientist and his telescope await company for a good old gawking session at the moons and the planets.

Don't worry if you don't know him yet; once he's gotten the telescope working, he posts a bulletin board notice inviting anyone at all to come do the whole astronomy thing with him.


4. And put up with hardships more than you can think [Wildcard]
Find me on Discord to plot!

Comments

CUS YA HAD A BAD DAY,

[saltwaterlungs]

Darcy's in an alley smoking out of range of anyone who could ostensibly rat on her when she sees Sigma go past. At first she thinks he might be talking to a ghost, but nothing seems to follow him, and there's a momentary pang of panic on his behalf. She swats out the cigarette and peels off into the street to pursue.

"Hey-" she gets ahead of him and starts to jog backwards, "I don't know what you're seeing or hearing, but I think it might be something that the rest of us aren't, no? You want a hand?"

[spaghettification]

"I'm hearing him continue to insult me and my work." There's a gesture at empty air. "I may not be respected like I once was, but I am not willing to allow myself to be dismissed. I spent years working for Lucheng, both on the moon and on the space station."

[saltwaterlungs]

"Okay, and what I'm saying is that I don't think I see Lucheng or whoever, and I definitely don't hear him, I think you might be having a time, dude."

Darcy reaches to pat for her phone and-

"Fuck- ehn, my usual trick needs a phone and they haven't invented those yet. I don't think sitting for a daguerreotype would work either. Do you know anywhere around here with a mirror?"

[spaghettification]

"No, not Lucheng--the large Samoan man. You really can't see him?" Siebren can't stop seeing the bull in a china shop, even with Darcy saying he's not there. "He'll follow, if we try to go somewhere, I'm certain!"

1

[notinflictthem]

Hawk has a book of poetry tucked under his arm when a small smattering of dust lands on his shoulder. He cranes his neck, and utters something he never thought he'd get to say to another human being.

"How's the weather up there?"

[spaghettification]

"Chances of dust clouds, but otherwise clear." The man's accent is Dutch, and his smile comes easily to him. "I did find some child's drawings up here earlier. Who knows how long ago they climbed up to hide them here."

[notinflictthem]

"Tall kids," he remarks.

"You uh- you tell Mr Newton you were going to be breaking some of his rules or are you on a 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' thing with him?"

2

[misbegottendreamer]

That voice, that unusual harmony- oh!

"Muthsera de Kuiper?" Drelasa moves to approach the good doctor, but is startled when he suddenly shouts. Fortunately, she doesn't assume the aggression is directed at her in particular; this is far from the first time she's heard shouting like that. Instead, she readies herself to defend herself, but keeps her body language inviting, hands open and visible.

"You are... not feeling well, I suspect?"

[spaghettification]

"I would feel better if he would just shut up!" Nearby, a potted plant on someone's balcony doesn't so much fall as fling itself at the ground where no one is standing.

[misbegottendreamer]

“‘He?’ Who is troubling you, muthsera?” She pauses, a thought suddenly crossing your mind.

“Are you… forgive me for prying, but are you perhaps being troubled by the Fourth Corner?”

It would be strange if that were the case, seeing as her world’s gods seem to be absent in this place, but… it’s a familiar place to start.

3b

[blindwatchersees]

"Now, that's a Dwemer device if I've ever seen one. Granted, I don't know if I ever have< seen one. I'll be frank, I don't really know what a 'Dwemer' is, but I know they had things like that. For planet-gazing, if I'm not mistaken."

Theodor chuckles, and adds a teasing, "Gedragen de planeten zich vanavond, doktor?"

[spaghettification]

"Gedragen?" Siebren lets out a hearty laugh, shaking his head. "Nee, ze dansen als schoolkinderen. All we need is a maypole, no? Do you want to take a look?"

[blindwatchersees]

“Almost feels a little intrusive, but I suppose the burden is on the planets to keep their secrets. Yes, then, it’s be a delight!”

2.

[decohere]

Ava materializes a few yards back from Siebren, her hands up in surrender. "Sorry, I wasn't- Wasn't following." But she did happen to be behind him, heading the same direction, so she does understand why it'd look like that!

[spaghettification]

"Not you, him!" Emphatic gesturing at empty air. "Mauga. He's been mocking me all morning, since I woke up."

Did Max ever mention the Samoan Talon operative, loud and bombastic and chaotic? Either way, he's not here at all.

[decohere]

She swipes a bit angrily at the air he's gesturing toward, because the idea of somebody else sneaking around invisible actually offends her in a very hypocritical way that she doesn't want to think about too closely.

"Nobody's there."

A pause.

"Ah. You know, this happened to me once. Followed around by one of my former handlers..." Of course, that was induced by some flowers with some rather nasty side effects. And she's beginning to remember he's mentioned... days where he's not quite right mentally.

wildcard.

[abhorrently]

It's been a bit since she saw him, since settling into town and busying herself with getting situated with everything, but she's made sure to wave in passing and keep sociable with him in a polite fashion, and today is no different.

"Dr. de Kupier! Good afternoon!"

It's an ordinary day, if a bit chilly, but...he looks perplexed, and she draws nearer.

"Everything all right?"

[spaghettification]

"I can't find the conference center. I was due to present my findings on the effects of lunar orbital fluctuation and gravitational pull on the trajectories of sun flares. How do you lose a conference center in a town such as this?"

He is, so far, only a little agitated.

[abhorrently]

"The conference center? What's it called? I might be able to give directions."

Maybe it's another term for a specific building that she hasn't yet heard and realized.

2

[pineapplesalmon]

César's walking in an oilskin poncho, different than what he'd get in the Western Hemisphere but close enough to be comfortably reassuring.

He sees Siebren and raises his hand, opening his mouth to say hello. Seeing the look on Siebren's face stops him, and he watches him yell at someone who isn't there. César remembers what Siebren at the Potluck. ... Oh, dear.

"Siebren?" César asks cautiously.

[spaghettification]

"Stay back! Don't give him a reason to turn his attention on you." There's a panicked note in Siebren's voice, despite the fact he seems to be gesturing at empty space.

[pineapplesalmon]

César freezes right in place automatically before he catches himself and makes himself relax, steadies himself.

"He can't hurt me." César says gently; what he doesn't do is start an argument about what Siebren is seeing.

Telescope Construction

[immortaldemonsoul]

"Oh, how lovely!" Sorry, Siebren, all champions of Azeroth have the irrepressible curiosity of cats that know they will always, always come back. A six foot tall elven woman is leaning over the diagrams, the cloth blindfold she wears seemingly no major impediment to her studying them closely.

When she realizes the engineer is looking at her (with affront? With curiosity of his own?) she smiles at him sheepishly and explains, "The gnomes of my world build devices like this. Are you a...what's the word?" She snaps her fingers, trying to remember... "An astromancer?"

[spaghettification]

Siebren lets out a soft, nervous little chuckle.

"Not quite. I am an astrophysicist. I study the motion of objects in space--stars, planets, moons, black holes. The forces that bind them in their eternal dance, their life cycles, the meaning of everything."

[immortaldemonsoul]

"Oh! Thank you for the correction. But, please excuse my ignorance...is not space itself a black void? How could it have any holes in it?"

This is, it must be emphasized, absolutely not an attempt to be funny. She's really not familiar with the concept.