Mistral's visit is continued from Experiment.
The blizzard had cleared up by the time he made it back to Mercury half a week later, for which Babylon was grateful. The hike down to Mistral took its normal amount of time, and the weather was positively balmy compared to, well, suffice to say, he’d walked through worse. “I’m on my way down,” he called ahead on his ring, and there was that cheery synthetic voice again - perhaps it was her wonder’s piece of code? Welcome back, Babylon Knight!
Babylon made his way down to the lab and waved to Mistral. “I brought you some groceries,” he said, setting his backpack down on one of the workbenches. “Bananas, um, some tomatoes? They’re a local variety. And there’s some corn chips and salsa, too. Just some munchies.”
He paused to greet Mendel with well-deserved scratchies, and then joined Mistral over at her desk. “Okay,” he said, “So, thanks for waiting for me. What have you come up with?”
Shibrogane
She smiled at him as he stepped out of the elevator. “Hey,” she said. She’d been having a pretty productive week as such things went--but, well, there wasn’t much to do besides work, and now she was a little bored. “I’ve got a prototype for you.”
Mistral held up the silver compass by a little chain she’d found on the level above. “I’m not going to ask to be present when you test it,” she said. “But I want you to take copious notes.” She settled herself on the counter once he took it, cracking into the salsa and chips.
She adjusted the fur ruff of her uniform. “So, here we go: to make it go, you need to hold it level and point it at someone. They should probably be standing still, you know?” It wouldn’t work if he was whipping it around, probably. But really, who would want to know about the planetary allegiance of someone actively trying to kill them? Definitely not Mistral. She snapped her fingers at Mendel and brought him over for treats. “Any questions?”
Mistral held up the silver compass by a little chain she’d found on the level above. “I’m not going to ask to be present when you test it,” she said. “But I want you to take copious notes.” She settled herself on the counter once he took it, cracking into the salsa and chips.
She adjusted the fur ruff of her uniform. “So, here we go: to make it go, you need to hold it level and point it at someone. They should probably be standing still, you know?” It wouldn’t work if he was whipping it around, probably. But really, who would want to know about the planetary allegiance of someone actively trying to kill them? Definitely not Mistral. She snapped her fingers at Mendel and brought him over for treats. “Any questions?”
Babylon took the compass from her, impressed with the progress that she’d made in such a short amount of time. “Okay,” he said, tucking it into his coat. “It might be a while before I can get to this. There’s not exactly a surplus of Negaversers in Puerto Ayora.” But at least they had a working model to go off of - and it was almost the end of October already, so he was almost a whole month into his research fellowship, But that was still two months until he was back in Destiny City - just in time for New Years.
“Once I get back to Destiny City, I’ll for sure be able to handle this,” he added, and hoped that she could be patient for this project to pay off - he was determined to not cut this trip short the way he’d cut Alaska short. He didn’t foresee having to - after all, Arkady was with him where he could keep an eye on her! And she could keep an eye on him. And… stuff that he wasn’t going to talk to Mistral about, because it would get back to Kaatje one way or another, and then she’d call him in the middle of the night to scream at him.
“Other than the delay in the testing phase, I think I get it,” he said. “Do you think it’ll keep?”
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“The Light might need to be replenished every so often,” she said, shrugging. “You can probably handle that, if you’re careful.” She twined her fingers into her hair--after her second day in the labyrinth, she’d started just leaving it down across her shoulders. The salsa was good, she thought, but seriously--she didn’t want to wait two months… unfortunately, unless she could somehow lure Babylon and a Negaverser here, she was going to have to wait.
She shrugged. “I obviously didn’t manage to test it on anyone but myself. It may need a lot of tweaking. I tried to account for Chaos in the spellwork, but that’s like… a guessing game even when I have clear memories of what I’m writing.” There were about fifty different ways to power something, after all, and she wasn’t sure she was using the best one… ugh.
Mistral leaned forward and sighed. “So what’s Puerto Ayora like?”
She shrugged. “I obviously didn’t manage to test it on anyone but myself. It may need a lot of tweaking. I tried to account for Chaos in the spellwork, but that’s like… a guessing game even when I have clear memories of what I’m writing.” There were about fifty different ways to power something, after all, and she wasn’t sure she was using the best one… ugh.
Mistral leaned forward and sighed. “So what’s Puerto Ayora like?”
Babylon nodded - he thought that he might be able to work with the magitech, now that she’d gone and set it up for him. In a perfect world, he’d pick up some proficiency for the stuff himself - but this was Mistral’s inheritance more than his, and he didn’t want to step on her toes. “You know, if you didn’t want to wait, I know some people who might want to go to space.”
Just putting that out there.
“It’s really pretty,” he said, letting her change the subject. “Like, very tropical paradise-y? A bit touristy. It’s about twelve thousand people, so, like, it’s not tiny, but it’s really close to tons and tons of wildlife and rainforests and it’s so cool.” He hoped he wasn’t rubbing that in her face too much - in another life, Mistral might have been a magitech prodigy, but in this life, she’d been an environmental scientist. “Arkady’s having a lot of fun - I’ll send you a link to her birdwatching blog, if you want it?”
Again, he didn’t - he didn’t want to sound like he was gloating.
“What’s it like working here?” he asked. “And getting your memories from before back - if you don’t mind me asking?”
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“I’m pretty sure most of those people would be four times my size and find murdering me an acceptable price to pay for corrupting my Wonder,” said Mistral, who had had few encounters with the Negaverse and no intention of increasing her current rate of meetings, which was hovering at a nice cozy one. “Or else find me an easy target someday when they’re needing some kind of pure virgin for dark rituals or whatever. No, thank you.”
She sighed. Her interest had never been in birds, or evolutionary studies--she’d wanted to spend her time tagging bears and keeping track of their population growth rates. Failing bears, wolves would’ve been awesome. Instead, she got a ******** avalanche and… “Sure,” she said. “Sounds like she’s having fun.”
Mistral crunched into another chip before nudging the bag towards Babylon. “It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t know--the memories are… they happen. And then they’re gone. And they don’t feel like they’re mine, even though I’m obviously standing where Asimov was and doing what Asimov did. I mean, that’s the weird thing about memories, isn’t it?” Her gaze slid towards the screen for a moment, and then she looked back to the scraps on her worktable. Metal shavings, carving tools, some treats for Mendel, who would probably need to go back up to the lobby level soon.
“It’s like this: memory isn’t perfect, right? It can change the shape of a room, or the color of a specific tent on a mountainside in April, and… and memories can be distorted. They’re just--” and she waved a hand through the air “--just an interpretation, they’re not a record, and they’re useless if you have the facts.” Compartmentalize. Compartmentalize. It was easy to accept an avalanche as out of her control. Her team--her professor, her mentor, and the two other grad students--they’d died, instantly. She’d never had a chance to save them. The labyrinth, though. The most deadly part had been… not her fault… but the fault of the person she’d been.
She twisted a hand into her hair. It’d fallen out of its bun long ago, and now straggled loose down her shoulders. “I hate it here,” she admitted. “I hate what this place wants me to be. But if I don’t do this--no one else can acquire the memories I can. No one else will ever be able to remember writing that journal. If I don’t do it, no one can, and…” Mistral shrugged, looking over at Mendel as he snuffled beneath one of the long lab tables. “Only duty endures, I guess.”
She sighed. Her interest had never been in birds, or evolutionary studies--she’d wanted to spend her time tagging bears and keeping track of their population growth rates. Failing bears, wolves would’ve been awesome. Instead, she got a ******** avalanche and… “Sure,” she said. “Sounds like she’s having fun.”
Mistral crunched into another chip before nudging the bag towards Babylon. “It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t know--the memories are… they happen. And then they’re gone. And they don’t feel like they’re mine, even though I’m obviously standing where Asimov was and doing what Asimov did. I mean, that’s the weird thing about memories, isn’t it?” Her gaze slid towards the screen for a moment, and then she looked back to the scraps on her worktable. Metal shavings, carving tools, some treats for Mendel, who would probably need to go back up to the lobby level soon.
“It’s like this: memory isn’t perfect, right? It can change the shape of a room, or the color of a specific tent on a mountainside in April, and… and memories can be distorted. They’re just--” and she waved a hand through the air “--just an interpretation, they’re not a record, and they’re useless if you have the facts.” Compartmentalize. Compartmentalize. It was easy to accept an avalanche as out of her control. Her team--her professor, her mentor, and the two other grad students--they’d died, instantly. She’d never had a chance to save them. The labyrinth, though. The most deadly part had been… not her fault… but the fault of the person she’d been.
She twisted a hand into her hair. It’d fallen out of its bun long ago, and now straggled loose down her shoulders. “I hate it here,” she admitted. “I hate what this place wants me to be. But if I don’t do this--no one else can acquire the memories I can. No one else will ever be able to remember writing that journal. If I don’t do it, no one can, and…” Mistral shrugged, looking over at Mendel as he snuffled beneath one of the long lab tables. “Only duty endures, I guess.”
Okay, then, thought Babylon, who felt like Mistral was getting a little bit short with him - but he didn’t blame her. Here he was, out in the world, basically living through all these opportunities that rightfully should have been open to her, too. The Galapagos might not have been her dream, but Alaska definitely had been, and she’d been robbed of all that.
Maybe he should talk about other things than birdwatching blogs, then. “Ever since I took Menachem to the cauldron, I’ve been seeing his memories at my wonder,” said Babylon. He’d debated telling her before about what he’d seen in the kitchen, but if anything, he thought it might help absolve her of guilt. He didn’t know exactly what she thought her wonder wanted her to be, but so far it had made her feel responsible for the deaths of over half a dozen people, and that… that wasn’t easy.
“Raziele set the traps,” he said. “I saw her talking to Menachem. They’d already sent Asimov to Earth, and she didn’t want her to know about them. If anyone had the opportunity to know about the traps in advance or how deadly they were, it was me, not you.” After all, they’d assumed that the harmless things they’d encountered just entering the labyrinth were normal parts of the security and decontamination system. “Ana, all those people came here to help you willingly, and there’s no way you could have known what was in the labyrinth. This place is huge. It would take months to explore every room of it.”
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“I knew there were traps,” she said, but--he was right. She didn’t know about all the deadlier ones. There was no way she could have, not with her starseed keyed into the defense systems as it was.
She couldn’t forget Degrasse, though. Or any of the bodies buried in the rich loam of the lobby. “All I can really do is make sure they’re not forgotten,” she said, scraping her fingernails over the countertop. “My uncles are joking that I found religion, but I don’t know if it really counts if the people you’re venerating were just… people.” But she owed them. She owed them so much. Just because people didn’t actually use their communications rings, or the updates that had been paid for in blood… “I’ll call you if I get up the nerve to grab a Lieutenant or something.”
She couldn’t forget Degrasse, though. Or any of the bodies buried in the rich loam of the lobby. “All I can really do is make sure they’re not forgotten,” she said, scraping her fingernails over the countertop. “My uncles are joking that I found religion, but I don’t know if it really counts if the people you’re venerating were just… people.” But she owed them. She owed them so much. Just because people didn’t actually use their communications rings, or the updates that had been paid for in blood… “I’ll call you if I get up the nerve to grab a Lieutenant or something.”
“Yeah, but the only traps we’d seen were silly ones,” said Babylon, hoping that was some consolation. “I got some water dumped on me. The wonder was sealed against intruders, but that’s all we knew - that it was sealed.” There was no way to anticipate what awaited them. The code had taken their messages to the fallen to the cauldron, and he didn’t - he didn’t think that anyone could hold a grudge once they were reborn. (He sort of wondered what it was like, if you died in one life and were immediately alive in the next, or if you were conscious of every moment you spent in the cauldron waiting for your number to come up.)
“I was thinking that Captain Titanlåvenite might come willingly,” Babylon shrugged. “He’s the one who requested I find out if something like this were possible in the first place. I’ll send him a message later tonight to let him know I’m out of town but I’ve made progress, and that if he wants to know more he should seek you out.”
He was pretty sure that their last encounter with Titan had left a good impression on Mistral, at least. “Would that be alright with you?”
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The giant one? Um… not so much. Mistral frowned at Babylon, and said, “I’d rather skip, thanks.” For all she knew, Titanlavenite would promptly commit at least one murder without the calming influence of Babylon right there. She suffered enough aggression from her own kind--the other side was actually supposed to hate her. “I know I’m holding you back,” she told Babylon, “but unless you can get someone else there who can look out for me, I’m not doing it. I don’t trust the Negaverse.” She wasn’t sure that she trusted anyone, not with what she knew now.
“You can send him a message, but I’m going to keep giving the Negaverse a wide berth. I’m already half dead. No reason to become completely dead when this can wait.” She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her attention to Mendel, who was starting to look a little more antsy than she was comfortable with. “I have to take him up to the lobby,” she said. “Do you want to come with?”
“You can send him a message, but I’m going to keep giving the Negaverse a wide berth. I’m already half dead. No reason to become completely dead when this can wait.” She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her attention to Mendel, who was starting to look a little more antsy than she was comfortable with. “I have to take him up to the lobby,” she said. “Do you want to come with?”
Babylon nodded, understanding her hesitation. Titan was his friend, but he was huge and he was corrupt, and those were two points against trusting him around Mistral on his own. “Sorry, I didn’t think that through,” he said. The only person he could think of to pair with Mistral for something like that was Hvergelmir, and he wasn’t sure where she stood with Titan in the present day.
He loved the Galapagos, but it did make taking care of things back in Destiny City really inconvenient. “We’ll just stick a pin in this and pick it back up in December, then,” he said, his focus turning towards the dog.
“Yeah,” said Babylon. “I’ll head on upstairs. I should get going, anyway. Arkady will be home soon.”
