HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"What word would they use then?" Ambrosia inquires curiously. "But yes, I have something for you. If you just give me a moment..." She brings up her tome from her belt and places it on the nearest unoccupied table.
Flipping it open she brings up a page at the very end of it where two circular objects made of a semi-transparent material have been drawn. They could be called orbs, balls, even marbles but they seem quite significant just in the way they're drawn. Since unlike all the other pages there's no text here which explains what they are.

"Alright, so this object is very precious to me so try to keep it within my field of vision as you handle it, alright? Since, well, I have strong instincts when it comes to these things." The scholar smiles but something in her tone suggests that she's being deadly serious about this.
Then she proceeds to touch one of the twin objects and pull it out right from the page.

"This is a dragon orb or ball if you will. It is the most valuable thing that a dragon can own." She explains as she's holding it up for the other two to see. "Though for your purposes, from it dragon essence can be obtained. A supposedly divine reagent. I figured with your interest in gods and alchemy that you might want to see what it can do." Ambrosia gestures to herself. "Since so do I."

She pauses, eyes locking onto Dorota. "I have to tell you to be careful though. Since I already know some of the things it can do and that's probably not healthy for anyone that isn't me or already dead."

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"We just call ourselves alchemists or scholars. The term 'natural philosopher' has been gaining ground recently..."

Dorota then almost freezes in place as the value of the item before her is made clear. But cogs are turning in her head and sooner or later some idea will spring out.

"How much essence could I obtain from it? And what has it been used for in the past? It sounds like the divine fire I was looking for to create Sizewell."

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo positions herself off to the side of the pair, hoping she won't get in the way. She watches the orb with curiosity. Ambrosia hadn't explained the purpose of her visit, and Utayo hadn't pried, but this was something of interest. The subtle mechanics behind her eyes shift, and her vision scans the orb. Could this be some source of mana? Often objects of potential were on some level.

[Magtok]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"My goal isn't immortality, it's understanding." Dorota's answer comes quickly; she's clearly certain of it. "That's why what you said about reality interested me. I'm fine with dying like any human would but before I do that I want to understand my place in the universe."

"We are the architects of our own destinies, Dorota. Your place is wherever and whatever you wish it to be, whatever you're willing to fight for. No matter how implausible, because even the most ridiculous of things can happen here in the Nexus. Reality bends to those of us with the will and tenacity to resist the natural flow of things, to change like Skyside," the cyborg explains, setting aside the cleaning supplies to set up a small portal device on an empty table. A well-polished human skull with a single red robot eye (a new drone that just happens to look like a servoskull or Magtok knowingly plagiarizing a design he's seen elsewhere in the Nexus? Who knows.) emerges from the portal the moment it opens, and quickly seizes the trash bags and mops, taking upon itself to do the work Magtok is supposed to be doing, as the cyborg himself seats himself up on top of the table, just a few inches away from the portal.

"Your boss Reinholdt was public enemy number one, once. Tried to end all of existence, and came closer than I'd like to succeeding. If a stupid talking cat can do that and be a leader of HALO, there's no more excuses for the rest of us. Excel at whatever you want most or you're garbage," Magtok adds as one last parting remark before falling through the rift in space, allowing it to seal shut as soon as he's passed through.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

'Natural philosopher'? Ambrosia had been under the impression that philosophers did the opposite of science. But perhaps that word had a different meaning in Dorota's culture.

She gently places the orb on the table but keeps her hand on it as she's addresses Dorota again. "As much as you want to take." The scholar smiles. "There really isn't a limit, though the essence does return to the orb after a while if it isn't used for something." She wanted to be more specific but then she'd have to get into the more metaphysical aspects and that could wait for now.

Now came the part she had put a lot of thought into however. How much she was going to reveal. "As for what it has done, it, well-" Ambrosia seems to hesitate for a moment. "-it, ah, made me in a way." She has curled up her other fist into a ball while her grip around the orb tightens.
But she had already decided on this course of action. This sudden reluctance was beneath her.

"I was a wuuhh...-" No, she already felt herself disagreeing with her own script. She wouldn't describe herself with that word.
Ambrosia clears her throat. "-apologies, a protodragon. Yes, and through attuning myself to my orb I ascended to my current form." She felt the impulse to point out that she was the mightiest protodragon too but that felt a bit too much. But the idea that she would be in any way lesser than the dragons Utayo mentioned didn't sit right with her.

"Well-" The scholar gestures to herself. "Not this body of course but my actual one."
She takes a deep breath, she had now shared it and despite her nervousness she was sure sharing it with people she could trust would make her feel better.

Eventually.

"Meaning that it specifically contains my essence." She glances at the orb she's keeping a tight grip on. "Though I don't believe I fully grasp what that entails yet. The scriptures I've read about it were vague and my willingness to experiment with it has been lacking admittedly. I do know that when carrying it the orb enhances those abilities I already possess but it can act independently if separated from me too." She wasn't about to get into details on that however.
"But perhaps the most notable ability that I've discovered is animating objects and the dead. Perhaps in a similar vein to your divine fire, Dorota." Ambrosia gestures at the alchemist.

Meanwhile, Utayo will with but a glance confirm that the orb basically oozes mana. Every color of it seems to be represented within this orb. Though looking at it for more than just a few seconds she will likely realize that the degree of each color is different. Blue is especially strong while green is the weakest of the five.

"What are you looking for?" Ambrosia asks her as she's staring at the orb. "Do feel to ask questions, I'll try to answer as many as I can." Curiously, as she holds the orb, the exact same coloration of mana seems to be expressed from the scholar. So it does seem like the two are linked somehow.

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Dorota's attention is captivated by the orb to the degree she seems to barely register Ambrosia's voice or Utayo's presence.

"The Divine Fire is a lot less... tangible than this. It's an abstract spark of creation. The Divine Fire that animated Sizewell came from my and my ex-wife's blood. When you say it raises the dead, do you mean as undead, or actual resurrection?"

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo does not see anything about Ambrosia. It's more that she can see fonts of mana, not the mana in other things. The latter would be quite the elaborate machine, and surely beyond such subtle cybernetics. She can certainly see the mana emanating off the orb itself, however.

When Ambrosia speaks she shifts her eyes upward, the machinery in her head shifting invisibly again. "You're aware my research pertains to energy sources. That's quite the notable one, though I myself wouldn't know how to harness it without weeks of study." Weeks might be an underestimation.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"While the orb itself is tangible what it contains is less so. I didn't want to try get into metaphysics right away though." Ambrosia first attempts to explains in an apologetic tone. "But it's something abstract that has been trapped in a physical object like a mosquito trapped in amber. That's the best way I can explain it but honestly I don't fully understand it either. It's a creation of the divine and in those matters only philosophers like yourself dare to dwell." And the religious of course.

"Scholars like myself only dare to guess as it's hardly an exact science." Ambrosia pauses, briefly considering commenting on the 'ex-wife' matter but ultimately decides not to. She was still trying to do a presentation so she should be distracted by a colleague's personal life. "But is more objective however is how it can be used as different amounts lead to different results."

The scholar gestures to herself and grins as she looks between both Dorota and Utayo. "I'll let you be the judge if you consider me 'undead' or 'resurrected' however as I don't know how you qualify those categories. But yes, this body was brought back using it, though the mind... well, that's again more of a philosophical question." And one she had tried to not consider too closely.
She knew that she acted differently while using this body but there were all sort of explanations for that. She had gone through all of them many, many, many times so she should know.

"However, the higher the dose and the closer to the moment of death the more likely it is for the brain to retain its full functionality. However, a higher dose also result in more mutations like these." Ambrosia gestures at her horns. "And mine have only appeared over time which might also just be the result of my, er, presence within the body."

Then Ambrosia turns to Utayo and lifts up the orb, bringing it closer to the moonfolk as to give her a better view of it. "Is that so? Fascinating. Since no one but me have been able to truly harnessed its powers so far. Though admittedly I've also not allowed many closer looks until now." She turns to look between them again, ending up focusing on the planeswalker. "And I admit that I'm now curious of how you could use it. Since considering it's animating powers it might be able to create drones like yours, perhaps?"

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"I might be able to use it to animate a golem like Sizewell. But I don't know if I would." At least Dorota retains her scruples while being fascinated by the substance. "I know that many alchemists treat their golems like tools, but Sizewell is more like our child. And I'm still not sure where the difference came from. I don't know how it might help me in my research into divinity but I need to try."

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo arches an eyebrow at Dorota's comment. "You're saying that with this divine fire you've alluded to you were able to create a sapient construct. That's remarkable, and not a feat I've seen replicated in even my home world with magic or technology." Her entire posture seems to reflect an even greater interest with the way she leans in and the addition of more expressive hand motions to accompany her speech. "I've witnessed many quite advanced automatons, and even constructed some myself, but the creation of true independent thought is in a league of its own. If this orb is contains that capability, it would be quite wasted in my hands."

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Ambrosia shoved away the thoughts of the implications regarding having a golem child and then divorcing. It would hardly be her place to talk about how marriages were 'supposed' to be after all given that she too was married.

Thankfully she had caught another notion in what Dorota had just said that was worth exploring. "So the way we seem to define 'divinity' is the ability to produce sapient life, right? Since while I know little of Utayo's society I suspect her drones would be far more controversial if they were actually sapient. There's obviously a lot of reasons for that but from this more spiritual angle it would be seen as taking the role of the creator. Of masquerading as divinity."

The scholar sits down and puts the orb in her lap, cradling it like child.

"I suspect we that we are at least somewhat familiar with this notion though perhaps by that terminology. Since the role of 'creator' implies more than just creating something here." She gestures to Utayo. "For instance, if you compare Mrs. Iwatsuki's drones to her unborn child you would find a wast difference between the two. But a divine creator implies something able to produce children much like she produces drones.

Able to shape both their bodies and minds in a way that even those among us that don't consider themselves spiritual or religious would be comfortable with. Hence why its often portrayed as the domain of something greater than ourselves. Something incapable of making mistakes."

Ambrosia looks back to Dorota. "But this was not the way you produced Sizewell, no? Since to me it sounds like you left that component of his creation to, well, why don't you explain to us? Since I suspect your own thoughts on that matter might bring you a bit closer to an answer to your own question."

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"We did create a sapient construct and I didn't realize the implications of it until later." At the time, she had other things to think about. "As for how we created him... that's a bit of a long story. I had been looking for a source of the Divine Fire for some time. We asked... some kind of fey sovereign for help. And we underwent a vision quest of sorts. It gave us access to a substance that expanded our perception. When we used it, we saw what we had to do. We each dripped some blood on Sizewell, who at the time was complete but inert. Combined, our spark of life passed on to him." She coughs. "That was how we realized how we felt about each other, but... well. That's in the past now, so forgive me for omitting some details. In retrospect, I suspect that this symbolism played a major part in the process."

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"It seems you still know quite little of this divine fire, despite having made use of it." Utayo observes. There's no judgement in her tone. "I suppose that's unsurprising. If the result is the creation of sapient life, you can't be careless. Such limitations are natural barriers for experimentation. It's a shame at the same time, though."

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"Symbolism does carry a great deal of power when we're dealing with more aethetric sciences. But there are much worse ways to discover this than with a realization like that, Dorota." Ambrosia comments with a smile. "I didn't even realize you were 'supposed' to be attracted to men until I started to live with humans."

Her attention is then directed to Utayo as she mentions the natural barriers for experimentation being a shame. "Mrs Iwatsuki, when you say it's a shame what do you mean exactly?"

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"The Divine Fire is elusive. Records of it are contradictory, so it seems it takes different forms for different people. I tried to understand the goblin perspective on it, but I could find anything in-depth they'd be willing to share with humans. Maybe if I learned one of their languages."

She looks over to Utayo, curious about the answer. She almost says something about how creating Sizewell was better than regular childbirth because no one had to be pregnant first... but given that Utayo is pregnant herself it'd probably be rude.

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"Well of course if there was an ethical way to experiment with the concept the discoveries could be quite remarkable. Ambrosia's statements about the significance of the creation of life are entirely true after all. Not just as a thought exercise, but real potential. The concept is quite fraught, though, as I've said." Utayo explains. "Perhaps there's other capabilities of this power, though, that are less potentially dubious."

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"I suppose now would be the time to mention the downside of bringing back the dead using the orb. Since the longer they've been dead the more of my physical and, ah, mental features they gain. Everything essential to keep the person alive has to be replaced after all or it wouldn't really be resurrection."

She makes a gesture at her head. "But this also includes memories and other mental traits like that since the brain takes damage too." Though perhaps she was going into too many details now. "Erm, but my point is that this might prove another use for it. As a living person taking part of it would probably not suffer any mutations unless it's consumed over a longer time like in my case." She points a finger at one of her horns. "It could do things like enhance physical strength and endurance which HALO and vigil probably would find quite helpful." She now turns to Dorota.
"But you might be able to find even more uses for it through alchemy. Since I'm not incorrect in assuming you test the reactions of different materials with one another using the scientific method?"

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Raising the dead with this essence sounds like something Dorota wouldn't want to attempt. Too many ways for it to go wrong. As for using it on the living... she has some bad memories of such experiments, but it's definitely far less dangerous.

"That is the basis of my practice, yes. A lot of it comes down to trial and error. Do you know of any applications of this essence to other materials?"

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"It seems to me that you require a means to test its capabilities without resorting to experimenting on people as a first step." Utayo observes. "Quite the conundrum when it's so open ended in its potential."

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Ambrosia nods to Utayo. "I completely agree. There's people who've proposed doing sort of experiments with the orbs but I turned them all down since I barely knew them."

She pauses for a moment and then holds up the orb. "Touch it, I'll show you something. It's completely harmless, I assure you."

If they do they will feel it strangely warm. But not warm like an object might be. While the surface is as hard as one might expect it feels like touching something living. There's even a beat to it which now is easy to compare to the one of a hearts. In fact, Dorota might notice that the orb gets even warmer and how the pulse increases as Utayo touches it.

"I can feel you touching it." The scholar remarks. "As if you were touching my arm just now. Since it isn't just an object, its a part of me. Just like any limb or organ. One might even say its synonymous with my heart." She explains, never letting go of the orb. "And that's why I can't just let anyone experiment with it. I need to trust them."

A beat.

"Uh, you can let go of it now." She clears her voice and lays down the orb in her lap again. "But to answer your question Dorota, I don't actually know. In fact, that's why I brought it here to you. To find out. I've been overprotective about it for a long time and I feel like getting some answers. So is there any kind of material you want to apply the essence to perhaps?"

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Ambrosia can... feel people touching the orb? This just became slightly strange. And why did it...

"It's warm and I feel something like a heartbeat. Both just intensified. Curious." Dorota lets go of the orb. "It's hard to pick just one. I could use clay, which is surprisingly receptive for some purposes despite being so common. Or copper, which is a common conductor. I wish I still had the material I used as a conductor when making Sizewell, but there wasn't any left when I was done. Gold and silver might also be interesting. They're not very useful for practical tool-making but have alchemical applications."

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo places her hand on the orb, her brow arches as she observes the feeling and takes in Ambrosia's explanation. The removes her hand when requested without remarking further on that.

"Such simple tests seems harmless enough, though do you expect any issues, Ambrosia?"

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

The scholar shakes her head at Utayo's question. "I don't. Seems harmless enough. Though I think a concept of what you want to create is always important when you're dealing with things related to the aether." She gestures to Dorota. "So what would you say that the goal of your experiment is?"

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"I think I'd start by making clay vessels of different shape and using different metals as conductors." Dorota narrows her eyes, thinking. "Then I would apply the essence and see what reaction it has. And proceed based on that."

[bc56]

Fox in Box
Through the teleporter steps a foxy, redheaded woman... Foxy in a very literal sense of the word, as the canine ears and the nine fluffy tails will clearly show.
The voluptuous vixen takes a few steps away from the teleporter and surveys her surroundings. She catches sight of the view from the porthole and immediately looks nauseous.
"Coming here was a mistake," she murmurs.

[Gullara]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo folds her hands over her lap and settles into watching the other two work for the moment. It should be an enlightening experience, but she has little to contribute at the moment.

[Felandria]

Fox in Box
Through the teleporter steps a foxy, redheaded woman... Foxy in a very literal sense of the word, as the canine ears and the nine fluffy tails will clearly show.
The voluptuous vixen takes a few steps away from the teleporter and surveys her surroundings. She catches sight of the view from the porthole and immediately looks nauseous.
"Coming here was a mistake," she murmurs.

Oh, I certainly hope not!

How can I be of assistance?

Felandria is standing there, hoping she can provide this new visitor with whatever it is she needs.

[bc56]

Fox in Box
"Sorry, it's just all the water makes me uncomfortable." That's one way to put it, if not the whole truth.
The nine-tailed fox looks up at Fel. She feels short even at the best of times, but talking to a giantess is something else.
"You do science here, right? And magic? And science on magic?" she keeps glancing nervously at the porthole as if she expects it to explode inward at any moment.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"Good idea, the way clay can be shaped makes it perfect to experiment with." Ambrosia says with a genuine smile. This was coming off to a great start.

She looks between Dorota and Utayo. "Perhaps we could all make our own clay vessels, or at least suggest their shapes if you're not comfortable with taking on sculpting Mrs. Iwatsuki?" She gestures to the moonfolk.

[Morty]

[A Meeting of Minds]

"I think... yes, each of us crafting or suggesting a vessel would be appropriate." Dorota does like this idea. "Thankfully I always have some clay on hand."