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 Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:10 am
"Think this is a good spot?"
Leo sniffed the air and began to dig.
"I'll take that as a yes," his trainer said. It was still early enough in the morning that the desert heat didn't bother her, despite the fact that long sleeves replaced her more usual typical tank top and she'd worn her only pair of tennis shoes instead of sandals. Chemicals... spills... yeah, yeah, whatever. As rust colored stains probably wouldn't be welcome on the front porch, the two had walked a bit, but HQ was still in sight from where she dumped two empty plastic bottles with holes drilled in the caps, a box of baking soda lifted from the kitchen, some steel wool, and a packet of silicone tubing with a magikarp logo on the cardboard sleeve. And, of course, the instructions. Oh, the wonders of the internet.
"I'll go see if I can find our scientist," she told Leo, heading back towards the building. "You stand guard."
Leo headbutted one of the bottles. Real smart pikachu she had right there. Emilie shook her head and went to wait in the main lobby. She hoped whoever came didn't insist that they go down to the labs. Jury rigging was going to be much more enjoyable than sitting and staring at proper equipment.
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:42 am
Getting back to work after the raid had been hard... Luckily Nyx was still a grunt and so wasn't given anything more difficult than taking readings, typing reports, and cleaning up the labs.
She was typing up one of those reports when an email alert popped up on the computer and managed to crash all of the programs she had open at the time.
"Son of a-!" Nyx groaned and leaned back in her chair. A little Eevee climbed up from Nyx's lab and onto the keyboard.
'Boink boink boink boink boink boink boink boink!' The computer complained at random buttons being pressed as the baby pokemon rolled around being cute and trying to get attention.
"Bunsen... Off." She picked up the fur ball and put him on her shoulder, then opened the email.
'To: Nyx, Grunt
From: Emilie, Trainee
Need half gallon hydrogen peroxide and a gallon of muriatic acid brought to the lobby at 8 am.' Was about what the email said.
The grunt sighed. Security had been raised down in the labs, ever since the mess up with the DNA sample that resulted in Langley, so people who needed even the simplest and most harmless of chemicals had to ask someone to get them. If the closest city wasn't hours away, they could just go buy these things... But as it was, the closest city WAS hours away, so Nyx went to the supply closet, grabbed the disinfectant and cleaning product, signed out that Trainee Emilie had requested them, signed her name as the grunt delivering them, and left for the lobby.
What in the world did this girl want to do?
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:07 am
Emilie leaned against a wall and tapped her foot against the ground as she waited. She'd whistled a bit as she walked in, but that had earned a glare from the sleepy looking secretary at the front desk. She knew that the office was necessary for signing people in and giving out missions, but sometimes it just seemed so surreal. Though she supposed the morning she had planned would seem bizarre to anyone. Her requests around headquarters for the collection of objects outside had gotten her odd looks. At least she had some steel wool already from when she had been working with plaster that one time. And of course she hadn't needed to ask for gloves. Gloves.
"Merde." s**t. They were still in her room. Dashing up the stairs to the second floor, she slid into her room, maneuvered around the still wet canvas on the floor (the drying rack was full after Leo's incident with the quart of black ink and discovery of paw painting), and found the gloves at the bottom of a box that balanced precariously on the edge of her desk. The clock read 8:05 as she dashed back out the door and thumped down the stairwell, nearly crashing into the woman with a shock of white hair who had just exited the elevator.
"Desolee- sorry," Emilie held up her hand in an attempt at a wave as she caught her breath. "Sorry. I- Emilie- are you Nyx?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:37 am
"Yeah, that's me." The tiny scientist looked up at Emilie. "So... before I hand these over, what do you intend to do with them?" She held up the two bottles. There were a few things the girl could do with the two chemicals that Nyx could think of... quite a few more depending on what else she had on hand... or any number of things if she didn't intend on mixing the two chemicals at all.
Bunsen, the purple-ish Eevee, was draped over Nyx's shoulder; His tail wagged furiously from side to side, each left swish whacking its owner in the side of the head. He was so excited to see new things!
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:05 pm
"Oh, just making etchant," Emilie shrugged. "Ferric something- ferric chloride. I haven't done it before, but how hard can it be?" She reached out and scratched Nyx's eevee on the head, then paused, going a little pale. "That won't be a problem, right? I mean, should I have to explained that in the email? It's just so expensive to use on the scale I do, and I can only take so much circuit board etchant from tech before they revoke my privileges there..."
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:41 pm
"Uhhh... it could be potentially explosive... but not terribly difficult, no. Do you have everything else ready? If you haven't done this before, I suppose I should supervise." Nyx grimaced. "If something went wrong and I had just handed these over... Where are we doing this?"
If she just left and this girl blew herself up, or breathed in deadly fumes, or got chemical burns, Nadja would have her head.
"Vrrrrerrrr" Bunsen purred. He loved pettin's.
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:44 pm
"That'd be great! If you don't have anything else to be doing, I mean. I'd hate to take you away from anything important." Emilie smiled, though Nyx's frown spelled worry the trainee didn't yet share her concerns. A scientist who carried an eevee around like that on her shoulder had to be a fun person, and any conversation between them would be more interesting than the monologues she directed at Leo as the pikachu scampered about looking for passersby at whom to wave his hat.
"I've got everything else outside," she said, walking towards the door.
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Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:57 pm
"Just grunt work." Nyx chuckled at the pun. "Nothing that can't be put on hold for a little while..." Luckily no other scientists had been on the raid and gotten injured, so her department was still operating with a full staff.
"Alright. So... what are you etching? Well... why and what?" Nyx followed after Emilie.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:15 am
"Oh, I'll complete the occasional circuit board for someone in tech, maybe creating mockups and practicing for some cheap knock off bank note or other documents- you use steel plates for the good stuff... but this batch is mostly for fun." Emilie slid her hands into her pockets and shrugged. "I just like copper etching; something about the fact that it's permanent is a challenge. One wrong line, a extra minute in the acid bath, and you're either screwed or you find a way to work with your mistake. Erasers make things too easy."
Leo saw the pair approaching and waved at the eevee.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:24 am
"I see... Well. I guess having your own personal batch of this stuff would be good for practicing." Nyx looked at the set up and put down the two bottles of chemicals.
"Alright. I'm supervising, so. Have fun." Nyx had a seat on the sand at a distance she deemed safe. Not that this process would become potentially explosive or splattery until much later. She wondered if this girl knew that they'd have to leave the chemicals out for a night or two...
Bunsen wiggled until he freed himself from Nyx's shoulder and trotted over to the pikachu.
"Vrrreee!" The baby pokemon was going to play with Leo, but then noticed how awesome sand was. Bunsen started rolling around in the giant sandbox, trying to bury himself. It was probable that the Eevee would be evolved into a Flareon once he was old enough.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:57 am
Leo tilted his head curiously as Nyx settled down. He liked the scientist's hair. He hopped towards her, closing the distance between them within seconds, and held out his hat to the observer.
Meanwhile, Emilie unfolded the papers she'd printed, produced a pocketknife from her back pocket and sliced the silicone tubing to the correct length. Leo had batted one of the containers into a patch of dry grass a few feet away, she retrieved it and set up the little science project, scooping sand around the bottom of the containers to keep them from tipping over. The gallon jug, though it had contained orange juice in its previous life, was labeled "milk" in thick black permanent marker to distinguish it from the other bottle and correspond properly to the instructions.
Time to add stuff! A few water bottles Emilie had brought in a bag were emptied into the juice bottle- she hoped that whole part about it being cold wasn't a deal breaker- and added the baking soda. She looked at the next step.
"Stir until dissolved," she read aloud. "What do you mean stir until dissolved? With what?" The girl scanned the list of tools at the top of the page. Nope, it said nothing about a spoon or stick or swizzle stick or whatever the hell she should use.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:19 am
Nyx eyed the pikachu... "Uhh... thanks... why, uh... why don't you go play with..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a rubber-band ball. "This!" She threw it. Please please please let that get the pikachu away. Obviously she didn't remember hugging Leo not long ago in the infirmary.
Bunsen had now managed to bury himself under the sand except for his head from the nose up. "VrrrrrRrrrrrrvrrrr" He was happy.
"Why don't you go get something to stir with? Or put a lid on it and just spin it in a circle?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:40 am
Leo ran in a little circle in delight as Nyx hefted the ball and launched it into the sand. Racing after it, just in case the eevee somehow thought the rubber bands were for him, the pikachu picked it up carefully in both paws and held the prize as high as he could, tottering slowly back towards the scientist on his two back feet. "Chu! Chu!"
"But I already drilled a hole in the lid," Emilie said, more to herself than Nyx. Saying things aloud tended to help her thought process somehow. "Oh screw it." The baking soda water would be harmless- covering the top with her hand she shook the bottle. The powder dissolved into the liquid shortly enough, and she wiped her hand on her jeans and put the gloves on.
In another minute the lid was back on the juice jug and tubing again in place. "Muriatic acid," she mused as she picked up one of the bottles Nyx had brought. "These things always have such odd names."
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:52 am
"Don't let the name fool you, it's just hydrochloric acid..." Nyx gave the pikachu a weary look as it walked back over to her with the ball. She forgot to account for 'ball' being a game in which the object is returned to the thrower. At least the fetching gave her a reprieve from there being a Pikachu in the vicinity.
Throwing a ball was a fairly mindless activity, and eventually Nyx started to think the pikachu holding the ball and waddling it back to her was sort of cute... This game gave Nyx plenty of time to observe this little experiment.
"Be careful with that, though... Acid and all that."
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