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Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast; 5/23 - Morning - (Nezh, Kitty & Quentin)
Topic Started: Nov 17 2013, 06:54 PM (599 Views)
Kitty Pryde
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Okay, maybe quantifying 'good tingly' wasn't all that easy. Moving on.

Or, yeah, not so much. Gah! This whole Nemesis goo drinking thing was making her nervous. And concerned. Definitely concerned. Maybe it was silly, probably it was, but yeah. Couldn't quite seem to get past the conviction that it was going to end up doing something horrible to Nezh.

Or that maybe it'd already done something horrible to Forge and Julian.

Nezh was looking sort of uncomfortable with the whole thing, though, and seemed to mostly want to just get back to work. She was a little torn. He probably had a point, and so far he seemed fine except for a little rubbing at his tattoos here and there. If it really was some sort of healing compound, maybe that made sense.

Quentin didn't seem at all sure, though, and the next thing she knew he'd slid his stool over by Nezh and told him to hang back and teach him what to do, in the name of further education. Well, okay. She guessed? She wasn't sure what Nezh would think of that, but a sidelong look showed the Wakandan boy frowning and just looking really confused.

And no, she really wasn't all that sorry they hadn't tried to analyzed the Nemesis goo. She was still pretty sure it would've just left them with eaten lab equipment.

Yeah, if this went bad, Cece would kill them all.

Still, in an effort not to throw any more confused awkward into the situation, Kitty just shrugged and moved on to something else. Maybe they should just work on the uniform stuff. They could grab some more material squares and come at it from several angles at once since Quentin was here to help, too.

Or she'd thought he was up for helping, since he'd planted himself next to Nezh and pretty much charged him with imparting words of wisdom or whatever.

The two boys didn't seem so sure though.

“If you’d like to, definitely,” the tattooed boy said, looking from Quentin to Kitty and then back again, before gesturing to a small pile on the bench behind them where there were a few more test square pieces of unstable molecule-based material. Kitty reached over to grab one,looking it over.

“It’s about training ‘them’ - the molecules, that is,” [Nezh] said, returning to the same explanation he’d been giving a little while before. “They can do just about anything, but they need to learn what they’re supposed to do in a uniform,” he continued rubbing at the back of his neck now, which Kitty assured herself was probably nothing. “For Veil, that means they need to be able to explode, disperse, then reform again when she rematerializes.” Gesturing with his other hand vaguely, fingers opening as if exploding, then contracting again into a fist, before he turned a wry smile toward the other two, shrugging self-consciously. “So far I only seem to have got to the trick of teaching them to be explosion proof,” he admitted and Kitty wrinkled her nose.

Yeah, that definitely wasn't gonna work.

"Why not just put them on her and let her do her thing?" Quentin asked, eyebrows arching as he went over and picked up the container that had held the blue goo. "I'd think they'd get the idea a whole lot better than you trying to fake it."

Kitty shook her head, though, looking up from the square of fabric. "I think they tried, that, right?" she looked over to Nezh for confirmation, "but I don't think it quite worked right."

Quentin was peering down into the goo container he'd retrieved, though, so she wasn't sure he was all that interested in the actual answer. "Anyway, sounds like you guys got it covered. I'm just gonna take this," he waved the container, "and see if whatever's in it can do its thing without ingestion."

The pink haired boy started out of the door, paused and then smirked back at Nezh for what seemed like no reason at all other than to wave, then headed off down the hall. Ooooo-kay.

"So, he's gonna go somewhere and rub that on himself?" she ventured, looking over at Nezh with what was probably a really confused, possibly slightly disturbed look on her face. "I don't think I needed to know that. I really don't think I needed to know that."

Hopefully, it wouldn't end up turning him into some sort of goo zombie, either.
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Gentle
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If Quentin wanted to help - if Kitty did still want to help too, and didn’t have other things she needed to be doing, now that she was back with her team and her friends - then, of course, definitely. There were some more small squares of the unstable molecule material on the bench. Kitty did take one, but Quentin didn’t, and as Nezhno went through as brief an explanation as he could make about what it was he’d been trying to do before they came in - or at least trying to figure out how to do, the pink-haired boy only looked more and more dubious.

"Why not just put them on her and let her do her thing?" [he] asked, eyebrows arching as he plucked the empty goo pouch out of Nezhno’s hand instead, "I'd think they'd get the idea a whole lot better than you trying to fake it."

Nezhno half-grimaced, shaking his head ruefully and looking toward Kitty as she glanced up from the square of fabric she’d taken. Had she heard about that? Yes, apparently, judging by the expression she’d joined him in. "I think they tried, that, right?" she looked over to Nezh for confirmation, "but I don't think it quite worked right."

“Yesterday,” Nezhno confirmed, wrinkling his nose at the description Veil had made of her test run in one of the uniforms that the Resistance had tried for her, and rubbing the back of his neck again, though this time it was probably at least equal parts itching and normal awkwardness, “And it didn’t.”

If Quentin had been interested, he might have explained further, but the other boy seemed like he had other thoughts on his mind, or possibly in that goo pouch.

"Anyway, sounds like you guys got it covered. I'm just gonna take this," he waved the container, "and see if whatever's in it can do its thing without ingestion."

Just like that, he was already halfway back toward the door by the time Nezhno had got through the first part of his confused frown as he tried to figure that out. But when he got to the doorway, Quentin paused, and smirked in a way that Nezhno didn’t remember ever seeing on Nate’s face before.

*You're probably gonna want to hide it better if you don't want her to know.*

It was the other boy’s voice, but... it was... in his head? So he was a telepath after all? Nezhno felt himself go quite still, as he stared back toward the door. Hide it better, so she didn’t know...

...did that mean he’d been listening in on...

...oh.

Oh.

*Good luck with the bugs!* Quentin’s voice said again, and then he was gone, and Nezhno was alone with Kitty, only suddenly somehow that didn’t seem as easy and comfortable as it had when they’d been talking before the Mohawked former telepath had come in.

“Arrogant, shit-stirring ass,” Nezhno murmured very, very quietly to himself, still watching the empty doorway where Quentin had been standing, until Kitty spoke again and he caught back hold of himself enough to look at her, hoping that wasn’t as awkward as it now felt, all over again, like it hadn’t since their first conversation.

"So, he's gonna go somewhere and rub that on himself?" she ventured, looking over at Nezh with what was probably a really confused, possibly slightly disturbed look on her face. "I don't think I needed to know that. I really don't think I needed to know that."

“No, probably not,” Nezhno agreed, making an effort to sound ‘normal’ when he didn’t. No, she didn’t need to know things that would only make her feel uncomfortable. Quentin probably had a point about that, at least. So... hiding it better, then? How was he supposed to do that, when Kitty Pryde was looking at him? “I don’t think there was very much left, though,” Nezh went with, looking down at the hand that the other boy had plucked the mostly empty pouch from, rubbing his wrist with his other hand. Then he shrugged slightly, and looked back up, finding a smile when he did look at Kitty that might be a good way of hiding anything, but which he didn’t seem to have much choice in doing anyway.

“And I promise I’m almost definitely really certain that I’m not a ‘goo zombie’,” he told her, lips quirking very slightly, even if his tone was mostly serious.

“So...” he added, but trailed off helplessly.

It was awkward, all over again.
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Kitty Pryde
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And there went Quentin, goo pouch in hand, to apparently try to unravel the mysteries of the weird blue stuff Nemesis kept trying to get everyone to ingest. Possibly in some weird bid to take over the world, one gunk infected person at a time.

Or hopefully she was just being paranoid, since apparently Forge, Julain, and Nezh were in those ranks now. Yeah, she'd go with paranoid.

Except Nezh was kinda muttering to himself now. She couldn't tell what, exactly, but he was watching the door like he expected somebody to suddenly pop in through it. Maybe he thought Quentin was going to change his mind or something?

Personally, she was more afraid that the pink-haired, mohawked boy was gonna go somewhere and rub goo all over himself now. Something she never, ever wanted to think about or know. No, really, really did not want to know that, ever.

“No, probably not,” Nezhno agreed, though he sounded a little...odd and she wondered if she'd missed something somewhere? Or maybe he was just as much with the not wanting that mental image as she was. Yeah, they'd go with that and not that he was slowly being zombified by a mad, Nazi scientist. “I don’t think there was very much left, though,” he added, looking down at his hand and rubbing at his wrist with the other one.

Was that the ache still from the tattoos, or-

“And I promise I’m almost definitely really certain that I’m not a ‘goo zombie’,” he told her, lips quirking very slightly after he shrugged and looked back over to her, smiling. Yeah, okay, she was definitely being paranoid, wasn't she?

Kitty smiled back a little sheepishly. She was making him feel awkward, she suspected, and that was definitely not good. Or something he needed her to be doing. So, ignoring further mention of goo. Or Nemesis. Or zombies. Right.

“So...” he added, but trailed off helplessly but she smiled back and glanced over to the magnetic vice and the square of fabric there again. And totally ignored any awkwardness that was trying to hang around again suddenly.

"So," Kitty picked up, "you taught it to be explosion proof? That could be pretty useful, you know." Maybe not for Veil, but she was pretty sure there were lots of people around who'd be interested in being not exploded. "So it definitely 'learns'. We just need to figure out the best way to teach it what it needs to know to work for Veil."

Which was to temporarily let go it's molecular cohesion, instead of doing everything it could to hold it together against all comers. So, putting their heads to a new approach it was.
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Gentle
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It was awkward again.

Between the itching tattoos, his attempt to assure Kitty Pryde that he very probably wasn’t a ‘Goo Zombie’ that only seemed to have made her uncomfortable too, and Quentin’s ‘advice’ that wouldn’t stop revolving in his head, Nezhno was starting to think he was going to be stuck in that feeling for the forseeable future. Now every power of conversation he had (there had never been very many, but there had been some) seemed to have evaporated again, leaving him with no words in his vocabulary but a single trailing ‘So’.

It could have been worse though. At least it hadn’t been an ‘ummm’ this time.

But Kitty Pryde smiled, and when she did that, nothing seemed quite as uncomfortable or awkward, even though maybe it really should have. "So," [she] picked up, "you taught it to be explosion proof? That could be pretty useful, you know."

Following her gaze to the vise and back, Nezhno twisted his lips to smile a little lopsidedly. “Well, I think it ‘learned’ more than I ‘taught’,” he admitted, “but yeah.” Useful might be being a little generous, but it was nice of her all the same. And if Veil ever needed to not be able to use her powers, they’d know how to do it - though they’d basically found that out yesterday anyway.

Actually, if being ex-plosion proof also guaranteed being im-plosion proof, maybe they could find uses for that with anyone who’d crossed Gloria the wrong way, but... well, maybe he just wouldn’t say that right now, and thankfully Kitty was keeping going anyway. "So it definitely 'learns'. We just need to figure out the best way to teach it what it needs to know to work for Veil."

“Yeah, just that,” Nezhno agreed, but he was smiling in spite of the dryness in his voice has he said that, because ‘we‘ figuring it out already seemed to have made the problem a lot more tractable than it had been half an hour ago, when it had just been him, racking his brains in an empty lab trying to come up with new ideas. He gestured back to the vise once again, stepping over to the bench and leaning over it, leaving room for Kitty so she could see when he pointed out the way he’d arranged the the little machine.

“Dr Richards said that there’s a particular combination of a static magnetic field and an oscillating current that can cause them to decohere. I was just trying to set that up when you came in.” He glanced back, rubbing unconsciously at his neck again, but pointing his free hand to one of the other benches. “And I have one set up over there with a thin layer of butter spread on it, but any ideas you have we can-”

Catching his own words trickling back through his ears made Nezhno stop short, blushing behind his tattoos. “That made it sound like I got mixed up about breakfast, didn’t it?” he asked.

But there was a point to it. Or, at least he’d thought there had been, when he’d set it up. Now it mostly sounded odd.
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Kitty Pryde
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Sooo....

Okay, there was awkward now, but they'd gotten through that before. A couple of days ago, even. And even if Nezh had just drank Nemesis' unholy goo, he seemed pretty unzombified at the moment. Even if he wasn't, there wasn't a ton she could do about it that probably wouldn't bring a ton more awkward.

Right, then, back to the project it was. Since it was right there. And it seemed somehow safer than goo, or Nemesis, or zombies, or possibly Quentin as far as something to talk about and work on. So far, he'd apparently taught it to be explosion proof. Which could be pretty useful, even if it wouldn't be particularly useful for Veil.

Nezh looked over at the vise and there was a lopsided smile that looked better on him than a pile of awkward. “Well, I think it ‘learned’ more than I ‘taught’,” he admitted, “but yeah.” There had to be somebody out there who needed something that would keep them from exploding unexpectedly. Or, actually, she wondered if that might work for Jamie Madrox, if they ever got theirs back? It could be handy for times when he didn't really want to dupe at all, if it would.

Exploding might not be exactly what his powers did, but it could be worth looking at and the brunette filed that idea away for later. Maybe they could look into it sometime.

For now, they knew that the fabric definitely learned, so they just needed to figure out the best way to teach it to disperse along with Veil's powers. Which, at least theoretically, shouldn't be that hard, right?

“Yeah, just that,” Nezhno agreed, but he was smiling, despite the possible dubiousness of how easy that 'just' might be. Kitty smiled back since, yeah, he might have a point but she was being optimistic here.

Then he motioned back toward the vise and moved to the bench, leaning over it. Kitty squeezed in next to him to see what he was up to as he pointed to the setup. “Dr Richards said that there’s a particular combination of a static magnetic field and an oscillating current that can cause them to decohere. I was just trying to set that up when you came in.” He glanced back, rubbing unconsciously at his neck again, but pointing his free hand to one of the other benches. “And I have one set up over there with a thin layer of butter spread on it, but any ideas you have we can-”

She was pressing her lips together and trying really, really hard not to grin as she glanced over to the other setup, but it must've been sort of obvious, since Nezh stopped mid-sentence. And was he blushing? She was almost sure he was blushing, though she couldn't tell for sure.

“That made it sound like I got mixed up about breakfast, didn’t it?” he asked and she did grin then. She couldn't help it.

"Maybe just a little," Kitty agreed, holding her thumb and forefinger apart just slightly in demonstration, "but considering how the food supplies used to be around here, I'm pretty sure you're not the first one." But, you know, sometimes with science you had to improvise. At worst, they might teach it to melt, or maybe be melt proof.

The grin widened just a little, then faded slightly as she thought all that over and nodded consideringly."The right current should definitely break the coherence," the brunette added, deciding she'd think about the whole butter idea in a minute. "I can verify that first hand." The right one had definitely broken her coherence pretty darn well a few years ago, even if it wasn't exactly the same. Same basic principle. "Then we'll just need to get it to re-cohere."

Which hopefully would be easier with a uniform than a person,and it should be since this stuff was designed for dealing with all sorts of powers. Man, now she really wanted some toast.
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Gentle
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So. That was... well, that was Kitty Pryde, squeezed in next to him at the bench, looking over the vise as he tried to point out the major points of what he’d been trying to do there. He should... really really not think about that dream he’d had - the one that had started something a little like this - Nezhno knew.

While he focused on just explaining the science, that mostly went okay, the Wakandan boy thought. Hoped. He hoped. It wasn’t really any different than it would have been talking to someone else about this at the Design School. There was the vise, that he was setting up to try to implement what Reed Richards had said about decoherence in the right kind of electromagnetic environment, and there was the other square he’d set up earlier on the bench with the cooler, the one that had the layer of butter spread on it, but if she...

...if she... why did she look just like that right now? It was a little as though she were trying to swallow her lips, to keep from making a sound, only...

Oh... Nezhno realized, stopping short in the middle of his sentence and being very, very glad of his skin and the tattoos for whatever help they could give him in hiding the blush he could feel burning. He’d made that sound like he’d gotten mixed up with breakfast, hadn’t he?

Well, at least she was actually grinning outright now. In an odd way, that seemed to make everything a little easier. "Maybe just a little," Kitty agreed, holding her thumb and forefinger apart just slightly in demonstration, "but considering how the food supplies used to be around here, I'm pretty sure you're not the first one."

Nezhno flashed a quick, only somewhat awkward smile back at her. Somehow, even if she was having to try quite hard not to laugh at him, the way she smiled made it all seem to be not quite as embarrassing as he’d feared. “Large parts of my brain are still definitely pretty unhappy about the waste of food that isn’t a turnip,” he admitted, catching his tongue between his teeth for a moment and weighing once again whether he’d really managed to justify that even to himself, “but... well, anyway. This one first.”

Because Kitty had looked thoughtful for a moment, but it seemed like her attention had gone back to the fabric and the vise that was right in front of them. "The right current should definitely break the coherence," the brunette added, seeming to decide - probably sensibly - that the butter had probably been an unnecessarily stupid idea, "I can verify that first hand."

She wasn’t talking about having done this with uniforms before, was she? Nezhno turned his head to glance toward the far-too-pretty girl standing next to him, watching her face for signs of whether he’d guessed right that the injury she’d mentioned in Wakanda was what she was thinking about, and whether she’d prefer to not talk about it any more than she had to. She seemed as though she wasn’t very upset, if at all though, so that was good, if he was right about that.

"Then we'll just need to get it to re-cohere."

Just that, again. With a smile, and a quick nod for her, Nezhno looked back toward the vise, weighing the problem for a few moments before he spoke again. “Do you remember what it was that the King did for you, to make that happen?” he asked curiously, turning his eyes back up to her.

Was that presuming too much? Or prying? Only somehow - maybe because of what she’d asked him on Monday about his surgeries, and how the vibranium tattoos had worked - Nezhno found that it was hard to picture Kitty Pryde not having insisted on knowing everything that was going on for the science of her own treatment while it was happening.
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Kitty Pryde
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She shouldn't laugh. Really, she shouldn't. She shouldn't grin, either, but Kitty couldn't seem to quite help it. Just a little.

Not that using all sorts of stuff in the lab was all that strange, because it wasn't. There was just something about the idea of buttered uniform pieces. And the look on Nezh's face. Yeah, maybe putting her in mind of odd breakfast choices (even if the butter was a great heat conductor). Juuuuust a little bit.

He gave her a fast, maybe slightly self-conscious smile in return. She hadn't meant to make him all embarrassed, especially since it was pretty cute. “Large parts of my brain are still definitely pretty unhappy about the waste of food that isn’t a turnip,” he admitted, catching his tongue between his teeth for a moment as Kitty added a sympathetic nose wrinkling. God, if she never, ever saw, not to mention had to actually eat, another turnip in her entire life she'd be a happy, happy person, “but... well, anyway. This one first.”

"I'd definitely rather eat the uniform, even without the butter, than the turnip," the brunette told him, still holding that grin for a second before her expression turned more thoughtful and she looked back at the piece of fabric in the magnetic vise. From personal experience, she knew that the right electrical current - or massive energy disruption (which amounted to the same general thing, she supposed) - on the right frequency could definitely break the molecular bonds, causing discoherence.

Yeah, Nezh was kinda looking at her now. One've those thoughtful ones that made it her turn to feel a little awkward. Even if she shouldn't, really. It wasn't like she'd done it on purpose or anything, and when she thought about it in connection with scientific principles and a case study, and not 'omg, I'm disintegrating', the whole process had been pretty interesting.

Also possibly helpful, since they need to get this piece of fabric to dischohere, then recohere again.

Yeah, there she went with the 'just' again, but she was pretty sure they'd conquer this and Kitty returned Nezh's smile with one of her own as he nodded. Then he gave the vise and it's contents another once over, obviously thinking. “Do you remember what it was that the King did for you, to make that happen?” he asked curiously, turning his eyes back up to her and she nodded this time.

Yep, that one was pretty much etched indelibly onto her brain.

"My molecules were discohereing because of a massive energy disruption," she started, turning his way and leaning one arm onto the edge of the table. "Definitely not a controlled situation, like in a lab," which was probably obvious, because why would anyone do that on purpose, "but Ororo called T'Challa in pretty quick after Moira figured out what was going on. He came right away, and Reed Richards, and Forge was there already," Kitty added with a half-smile, "which was probably good, since even the stasis pod wasn't doing much to hold me together."

That'd been scary. One've the scariest things she'd ever been through. The waiting itself, even though it wasn't that long, had seemed like forever.

"What T'Challa came up with was filling the stasis pod with modified ions," pausing, she frowned slightly and added, "though not really ions, I guess. More like cold plasma? All the electrons were stripped off the outer shell. All that mixed in there, intercalating with me for a while," like mixing cake batter together, or that's how she'd thought of it at the time, though it was more complicated than that and didn't turn her into something else when she was 'baked'. So maybe more like mixing the dry ingredients together, "Then they ran a specific current through it, replacing the missing electrons. That had it crystallizing back to solid and bringing me with it, and putting back the molecular bonds I was missing, or that were in the process of failing, too."

It hadn't been all that much fun, or pleasant, but it was a lot more pleasant than drifting off into nothing but wisps of Kitty.

"They put together a machine and a program to handle all the calculations and exact adjustments and stuff." Kitty sighed dramatically and grinned a little. "I'm still a little put out that I couldn't help with that, it would've been pretty amazing."
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Gentle
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She was smiling. Smiling was good, and not just in the way that - trying not to be obvious or not - Kitty Pryde’s smile seemed to make at least medium-sized swathes of his brain go a little funny, but in this case because it looked like bringing up this topic hadn’t made her too uncomfortable. So it should work, and then all they needed to do was ‘just’ get the molecules to recohere again after they were disrupted.

Well then. Glancing back over the vise for a moment, Nezhno thought the problem over, then came right back to Kitty. She had been through this once before, or something like it - so did she maybe remember what it was the King had done to solve her recoherence issues?

The look on her face said that had been, very probably, a fairly stupid question. Nezhno ducked his head slightly, lips twitching in a way that lay somewhere between embarrassment and amusement. Yes, why was it not really surprising that Kitty Pryde hadn’t taken being in the midst of broken powers as an excuse to not bother to find out what was being done to her? (He really should have asked about how they made the tattoos, he thought as an aside, and not for the first time since she’d asked on Monday).

"My molecules were discohereing because of a massive energy disruption," she started, leaning one-sided against the bench and looking toward him. "Definitely not a controlled situation, like in a lab.”

This time, it was definitely a more unadulaterated amusement that had Nezhno’s lips twitching slightly, touched with a little understanding. “No. It usually isn’t when those things happen,” he agreed solemnly. Or it hadn’t been for him - though considering what he could remember of the ‘lab’ where they’d taken his first set of tattoos, maybe controlled settings weren’t really as controlled as you’d think either.

"But Ororo called T'Challa in pretty quick after Moira figured out what was going on. He came right away, and Reed Richards, and Forge was there already," Kitty added with a half-smile, while Nezhno did his best to hold back the flicker of surprise at that. The Maker had been there, when the King and the Queen... no, he probably didn’t want to ask about that part of it. Definitly didn’t in fact, and in any case it would only interrupt Kitty for no good reason at all, "which was probably good, since even the stasis pod wasn't doing much to hold me together."

The expression on her face said that there was probably an awful lot of understatement going into that, and something about it made Nezhno think for a moment of reaching out to squeeze her hand. But he thought better of that, only nodding with a degree of understanding that came from at least some sense for what part of that might have been like for her.

"What T'Challa came up with was filling the stasis pod with modified ions," pausing, she frowned slightly and added, "though not really ions, I guess. More like cold plasma? All the electrons were stripped off the outer shell. All that mixed in there, intercalating with me for a while."

“Like a bath in ion soup?” Nezhno asked, wrinkling his own forehead in turn and tilting his head to one side as he looked back with a semi-quizzical expression. Or was that just this possibly unhealthy new obsession he seemed to be developing for mixing science and breakfast together?

"Then they ran a specific current through it, replacing the missing electrons. That had it crystallizing back to solid and bringing me with it, and putting back the molecular bonds I was missing, or that were in the process of failing, too."

“Huh.” Nezhno glanced from the far too pretty brunette to the scrap of cloth in the vise, trying to think that over as quickly as he could, then looked back up. “So was it acting like a scaffold to help your body figure out how to reassemble itself again?” That was... kind of amazing. And unusual. And if you could just figure out a way...

"They put together a machine and a program to handle all the calculations and exact adjustments and stuff." Kitty sighed dramatically and grinned a little. "I'm still a little put out that I couldn't help with that, it would've been pretty amazing."

Pretty amazing? In spite of two eyebrows that were climbing up his brow a little, Nezhno found that he couldn’t help but laugh a little for the melodramatic air she’d adopted to relate that. “Yes, it really doesn’t seem well-organized when you’re too broken to help with the cool physics,” he remarked mildly, almost perfectly seriously, except that a little dryness still snuck in in spite of all his best efforts. “Do you think you can remember enough of the theory to try recreating some of the process with these?” he asked her, gesturing toward the pile of scraps of unstable molecule cloth. “Because that might not be a bad working model for what to do for Veil.”

Figuring out how to embed an intrinsic current for self-assembly would be an extra challenge or ten, but if the basics of the strategy of the physics worked out, the rest was very nearly just engineering.
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Kitty Pryde
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Right, so explaining how she'd managed to nearly discorporate, and then get put back together, which did kind of maybe relate to what they were trying to do here. Not her favorite topic, but it was years ago and it'd turned out okay, so not a horrible one, either.

Looking at it from the angle of all the science-y things made it even easier and she decided she might as well start at the top. That would be massive, accidental energy disruption, so it definitely hadn't been a controlled, lab-type situation in any way at all.

Which, yeah, okay that was probably pretty obvious and Nezh was looking kind of amused, which had her grinning a little herself. “No. It usually isn’t when those things happen,” he agreed solemnly and Kitty wrinkled her nose a little. Yeah, definitely obvious, but she was starting at the beginning and that was it.

She moved on, though, to after. How Storm had called T'challa in as soon as Moira could tell them what was happening and that it was getting worse (which she'd have been able to tell them herself, if she'd been able to talk). Forge had already been there already, which sent a flicker of surprise over Nezh's face. Yeah, probably hard to reconcile that from his perspective, but it was true all the same.

T'Challa had come, along with Reed Richards, and she'd been pretty glad to see all of them because drifting into random, separate molecules wasn't all that much to look forward to and she'd wanted all the help she could get. Especially since the stasis pod wasn't doing much to slow it down.

Which she'd like to say sounded worse than it was, but it wouldn't have been true. It must've shown, because Nezh nodded at that and there was understanding there on his face. Yeah, he would definitely understand about powers doing things you didn't want them to and that weren't in any way good for you.

But they were talking about the science end of it, so it was easy enough to move past that part and on to what T'Challa had finally come up with. Basically, filling the stasis pod with modified ions that were more like cold plasma. No electrons on the outer shell, so they just mixed around with the molecules that were 'her' for a while.

“Like a bath in ion soup?” Nezhno asked brow creased and expression questioning and Kitty nodded, pulling a slight face that she couldn't seem to hold back.

"Exactly like that," she confirmed with a nod. "Probably the weirdest feeling ever." Really a lot like floating around in pea soup. Or at least that's what it put her mind of. Or maybe runny jello.

Whatever it had felt like, it'd definitely worked. After she'd marinated a while, they'd run a particular current through it all, put all the stripped off electrons back, making the ions crystallize and bring her with them, since they were all mixed in together. Like giving her body back a framework it was missing that it needed to pull her back together.

“Huh.” Nezhno glanced from the far too pretty brunette to the scrap of cloth in the vise, trying to think that over as quickly as he could, then looked back up. “So was it acting like a scaffold to help your body figure out how to reassemble itself again?”

Smiling, Kitty nodded. "Yeah, it was like giving my body back the support it needed to relearn how to make itself solid again, and stop drifting all over the place." And if they could work out how to apply that to the material for the stealth suit, then put all the other pieces together, Veil would have her suit that would follow along with her, pretty much no matter what she turned into.

T'Challa had built a machine that had handled all the calculations and exact adjustments for her, but they probably wouldn't need anything quite that complicated. Just remembering that, though, was enough to make her sigh a little wistfully, even all these years later. She'd really wanted to help with that and was still a little bummed than she hadn't been able to. It would've been amazing.

Okay, that probably did sound a little odd, considering what was going on with her at the time and Nezh's eyebrows headed upward accordingly. And there was a little laughing that had her grinning again. But come on! A machine to put someone back together!

“Yes, it really doesn’t seem well-organized when you’re too broken to help with the cool physics,” he remarked mildly, but there was still some not serious in there, too. She could tell.

"You have no idea," she returned, not quite able to keep her own expression or tone nearly as serious as his.

“Do you think you can remember enough of the theory to try recreating some of the process with these?” he asked her, gesturing toward the pile of scraps of unstable molecule cloth. “Because that might not be a bad working model for what to do for Veil.”

Giving the piece of uniform a considering look, she nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so. And what I don't remember, we should be able to figure out between the two of us," Kitty added with a smile. Yeah, this could definitely work. "Finding the specific current we need will probably be one've the bigger challenges there, but if it worked on me, it should work on that."

And might even be easier, in some ways, since the unstable molecules were already built to adapt. or that could end up making it harder in some ways. Only way to know was to get in there and start trying.
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Gentle
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Exactly like a bath in ion soup, which according to Kitty Pryde, was also the ‘weirdest feeling ever’. Deciding that he had only limited context to evaluate that claim, and no reason at all to doubt hers (most of the strangest things he’d ever felt would fit nicely under an umbrella of ‘unpleasant and highly painful’, not really needing to compete for weird), having never taken a bath in any type of soup at all, Nezhno nodded, and let the slim brown-eyed girl carry on with her explanation.

A current to de-ionize the cold plasma, crystallizing back to solid, and bringing her with it. If he’d understood that right, that meant the plasma were acting like a scaffold to help her body work out how to put itself back together again?

This time her nod came with a smile, rather than a grimace, and though the world seemed a little softer around the edges for a moment, Nezhno did his best to blot that out of his mind, focusing on the words she was saying. Or trying to, at least. "Yeah, it was like giving my body back the support it needed to relearn how to make itself solid again, and stop drifting all over the place." And there had been a machine they’d built, she went on to say, one that handled the calculations, adjustments, and everything that would be needed to give that the precision it must have needed, to restore her without making anything worse.

And of course, Kitty Pryde - as he was almost becoming used to, after these few days that seemed far longer than they really could have been paused then, to bemoan the fact that she hadn’t really been in a fit state to help, seeing as it would have been ‘pretty amazing’.

She really was- in need of just a little teasing for that, Nezhno decided, making his mind change directions as quickly as he could manage. Not being so obvious, so a serious face it was, humor peeking through just a little around the edges as he did his best to mildly agree with an observation of how poorly organized things must be if you were too broken to participate in the cool physics being invented to save you.

But he shouldn’t have bothered with the effort of trying to change his mind’s direction, because it all went to nothing the next second, when Kitty Pryde smiled, or very nearly smiled. "You have no idea," she returned, and her eyes did smile, and she...

...she really was something special. That was a thought, and perhaps one he had no right or business thinking, but it was a fact too, so... it was there, and there didn’t seem to be any way of forgetting it that Nezhno could see, so perhaps whatever Quentin had said, it would be easier to just admit that (to himself, at least) and then move on with things that he did have business thinking about.

The uniform, for starters, and Kitty’s story about her own experience might actually be able to provide a framework for something they could do with this material for Veil. At least if she could remember enough of the theory to start recreating the process of ion soup and current scaffolding.

She thought about it first, eyes on the material like it would help spark her memory, then nodded. "Yeah, I think so. And what I don't remember, we should be able to figure out between the two of us," Kitty added with a smile that Nezhno returned without reservation. If she had enough time, and wanted to be around for this, to help Veil, or to help solve the puzzles, or all of it... well, that would have been amazing no matter who she was. So it was allowed to be amazing that it was her doing it.

"Finding the specific current we need will probably be one've the bigger challenges there, but if it worked on me, it should work on that."

“It’s definitely safer than trying that logic in the reverse direction,” Nezhno commented, one eyebrow quirking upward briefly before he turned back to the vise, pulling down the sheet of paper he’d tacked up on the other side with the notes he’d managed to scrawl while Professor Richards was speaking about unstable molecules earlier that morning. “What do you think-” glancing back Kitty’s way with a querying expression, and passing the sheet toward her, though who knew if she’d even be able to make sense of his hurried writing, let alone what he’d been trying to get down, “shall we start with the specifications Dr Richards gave me, then go exploring from there if they don’t work?”

Even if they didn’t, it would at least be a place to start.
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Kitty Pryde
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No, really. Still put out she didn't get to help with the Kitty Reconstitution Machine. Or at least get to poke around at it.

Stupid, progressively degrading intangibility.

She smiled, though, because yeah, that probably sounded pretty funny for someone who should be a little more worried about their molecules drifting apart than they were what machine was going to be used to fix them and how it worked. Somehow, though, she thought Nezh would get it.

Not the matter at hand, though, the slender teenager reminded herself. This was all about working on Veil's uniform and getting it to let go when it needed to and reform when it didn't. Simpler to say than probably do, but they had unstable molecules and Pym particles and the stuff she could remember about her own putting back together. Between those things, and what Nezh had already gotten from Reed Richards, and possibly Nemesis, they should have a really good shot at making this work.

Between the two of them, they'd figure it out. That was one thing she was sure of as Nezh smiled back and she went on with thinking about a good starting point. Or at least maybe the biggest hurdle they had. Which might be finding the specific current they'd need.

Possibly also coming up with some ion soup if they needed it, but she was still going with current. They'd found one that worked on her, though, so they could start with that then work their way through or something. The process had worked for her, in the end, thank god. It should work on a uniform bit, too. Hmm...maybe they shoud start with the one with the butter...

“It’s definitely safer than trying that logic in the reverse direction,” Nezhno commented, one eyebrow quirking upward briefly and Kitty let out a brief snerk of amusement. Well, yeah, though she guessed she'd kind of been her own guinea pig, hadn't she? Then Nezh reached up and pulled down a piece of paper from the vise. “What do you think-” glancing back Kitty’s way with a querying expression, and passing the sheet toward her, as she took it automatically. Peering down at it, her brow creased as she tried to make out what was obviously hurried writing, “shall we start with the specifications Dr Richards gave me, then go exploring from there if they don’t work?”

Nodding absently, Kitty read through a few lines. "Yeah, let's start there and work our way through. See what we get," she agreed with another nod and a smile, laying the notes carefully on the bench in front of her. "Who knows we may get lucky." If not, well, trial and error was just part of how it worked sometimes.

Then, another thought struck her and she added, with a look around the lab, "Did somebody unlock the Pym Particles for you? I think they had them locked up in the safe, so if they didn't we'll probably need to get somebody to come let us into the storage."

She could phase through it, probably, but she'd rather not set off alarms or short out really expensive equipment or whatever.
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Unintelligible noises made by putting some portion of your breath out through your lungs weren’t meant to sound that way, Nezhno was pretty sure. They weren’t meant to sound... well, attractive, quite frankly. But somehow, Kitty Pryde’s did anyway, and maybe that was the way she looked like she was amused when she did it, and maybe it was...

...well, maybe - probably, actually, maybe even definitely - it was none of his business, and he should just get on with showing her the scrawled notes he’d been trying to take while Professor Richards was talking earlier, and stop letting himself think things like that. So the piece of paper it was, and a request for her opinion, and another request - or maybe this one was a suggestion? - to try starting from the specifications he’d suggested, and see how they got from there.

She was already reading them over, though she nodded in a semi-distracted way, then put the sheet down in front of her on the bench. "Yeah, let's start there and work our way through. See what we get." The smile said that maybe she was looking forward to doing something, just to see what happened, didn’t it? Or was that just the way he felt? "Who knows, we may get lucky."

And even if they didn’t, it wasn’t really that hard to feel confident they would get to the right combination in the end, so there was that, though something else seemed to have occurred to Kitty, because she was looking around the lab, maybe like she was looking for something. "Did somebody unlock the Pym Particles for you? I think they had them locked up in the safe, so if they didn't we'll probably need to get somebody to come let us into the storage."

Nezhno shook his head. “Not yet,” he admitted, “but if this part doesn’t work, we’re not going to need them at all, so we can probably wait a while before bothering anyone.” Or jinxing themselves with overconfidence, but probably it would be weird if he said something like that to Kitty Pryde, wouldn’t it? Or would it?

Or even if it was, would it be weirder than admitting he’d spread butter over a piece of clothing?

Deciding that maybe it would be better generally if he just sidestepped as much of that as he could, Nezhno shook his head, looked toward the vise, shook his head again, then looked back at Kitty. “Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’m thinking-” he began, a little uncertainly, because even to him, that hadn’t exactly sounded like an auspicious opening for a set of thoughts to be outlined from, “if this approach works, and we manage to build in a self-contained self-dissipating module into the suit, we’re going to need to build in a switch for it too, so that it triggers when Veil uses her powers, and only then.”

Pausing then, and tilting his head to one side as he considered it, Nezhno thought for a moment, one hand forming into a fist that turned this way and that, like he’d always done when working through things in his mind, (though not in the last few days, on account of it hurting every time he’d moved that way), then included a couple more additions to that list. “A way to bind the unstable molecules to Pym particles, so that dissipation comes with shrinking, and a way to let the shrunken unstable molecules hitch onto Veil’s.”

Not that any of those things would be simple at all, but some of them at least, the Maker and Professor Richards - even Dr Nemesis - had already given suggestions on that he thought he might be able to turn into real workable things, if he spent enough time working through them. Or less, if they both did.
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Kitty Pryde
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Nezh already had some good notes here, from the look of things. Definitely a good start and it seemed to her that they might as well go ahead and get to work.

Work their way through some of it, see what they got. They might even get lucky on the first couple of passes, who knew? Stranger things had happened.

Not that she'd mind all that much if they didn't. Even when something didn't work they way you thought, there were still things to learn and sometimes it was fun to just see what you got. Even if it wasn't the thing you were trying to get.

Regardless, they'd eventually work their way to what they wanted. She was sure of that much.

Her next thought, though, had her looking around the lab. Pym Particles. They were gonna need those. Maybe not right now, but at some point. Had Nezh already had somebody unlock those for him? Or would they need to get someone up later to get them outta the safe for them?

The Wakandan boy gave his head a shake. “Not yet,” he admitted, “but if this part doesn’t work, we’re not going to need them at all, so we can probably wait a while before bothering anyone.”[/i] True enough, and Kitty nodded.

"It'll work," she insisted with a smile, because she couldn't help herself. It could take a little time, but they'd get it. She had a feeling.

There was more head shaking and Nezh looked over toward the magnetic vise, then back to her again. “Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’m thinking-” he began, a little uncertainly, and Kitty nodded thoughtfully for him to go on, “if this approach works, and we manage to build in a self-contained self-dissipating module into the suit, we’re going to need to build in a switch for it too, so that it triggers when Veil uses her powers, and only then.”

Okay, yeah, that was a really good point. Veil already had enough random naked when she tried to use her powers. She didn't need randomly triggering stealth suit surprise nakedness added in for fun.

Kitty thought that over as Nezh seemed to do the same, pausing and head tilting to one side consideringly. “A way to bind the unstable molecules to Pym particles, so that dissipation comes with shrinking, and a way to let the shrunken unstable molecules hitch onto Veil’s.” His hand was in a fist, turning from side to side like it was habit.

Huh, maybe the blue goo was helping after all, since Nezhno didn't seem to notice he was doing it and she was pretty sure he would've, because it would've still hurt at least a little.

"So we need a trigger, and a binder that'll either do a bunch of things in one package, or several that each specialize," Kitty mused, brows drawing together again. Hmmm...they had options, it was just a matter of figuring out the best ones. "Binding the Pym Particles to unstable molecules shouldn't be that hard, I don't think. The protocol, or something close, should already be out there, right?" And the notes seemed like they already had plenty in the way of leads for that. "Hitching them onto Veil and getting the trigger right, though...Hmmmmm..."

Might be harder, but no reason it still shouldn't be doable.

"Let's start with Reed's specs and see what we come up with while we work on that," she suggested, moving to start setting up for that part. Then smiling over at him she nodded toward his fist and added, "Maybe that goo wasn't such a bad idea after all. It looks like you're feeling a little more flexible."
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Gentle
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“It’ll work,” she insisted with a smile, one that Nezhno had to fight with himself a little to return in an appropriately measured fashion.

It was funny, really - Kitty Pryde had had the kind of confidence about her when she uttered those two words that he was used to associating with N’Kono, when he had an idea he liked that he’d decided had to work, but on her? On her, it seemed more like it fitted, and like she’d only be confident if there really was cause for it.

Also, it was a much prettier smile than he remembered N’Kono having, but that was probably neither here nor there, was it?

In any case, though he was probably getting ahead of himself even by mentioning it, Kitty’s confidence (not to mention her smile) was infectious enough to have Nezhno deciding to outline some of the thoughts he’d been thinking about what they’d still need to do for this suit, should they manage to overcome this early - but highly significant - obstacle of managing to get the unstable molecules to dissociate at all.

If that worked at all, it would need a switch - Kitty seemed to process that, and see why almost instantly, so after another brief pause for thought, Nezhno continued. A way to combine the unstable molecules with Pym particles, and a way to bind that compound to Veil herself as she dispersed, so they’d be on hand when she wanted to rematerialize.

“So we need a trigger, and a binder that'll either do a bunch of things in one package, or several that each specialize,” she mused, after he (and one gently rotating fist that he hadn’t quite noticed, or at least thought about) were done with that list, which was small in points, if not in massive potential complications, looking thoughtful.

Nezhno nodded. “Yes. As few as we can manage, I think, since we’ll have to make them disassemblable-“ slight pause for frowning there, because that word, once he’d said it, didn’t really sound like it was actually as much of a real word in English as he’d thought it was going to be in his head, but he quirked his lips a little and just went on, “-as well.” Streamlining that mechanism, as much as they possibly could, could only help them, it seemed.

“Binding the Pym Particles to unstable molecules shouldn't be that hard, I don't think. The protocol, or something close, should already be out there, right?” Nezhno nodded again - that part seemed to already be a built-in functionality to Wasp and Ant-Man’s (if that was still Mr Lang’s codename) uniforms, so it should be one of the less difficult parts to adapt to this, he thought. Or at least he hoped. “Hitching them onto Veil and getting the trigger right, though…Hmmmmm…”

There was something intensely compelling about Kitty Pryde when she was thinking, Nezhno couldn’t help but think, all resolve to stop being obvious and awkward aside. Like that was what she was meant to be doing - focused, totally absorbed in the problem she was tackling, and determined to see it unravel before her. It was easy to see-

-well, a lot of things actually, but one of the things it was easy to see was how she could come to be confident that the things she’d chosen to set her mind to would work otu.

“Let’s start with Reed's specs and see what we come up with while we work on that," she suggested, moving to start setting up for that part on the vise and its controls, then turning on Nezhno with a quick smile that didn’t seem to quite fit with starting a basic field set up, however long it had been since she’d had a chance to really do things in a lab.

“Maybe that goo wasn't such a bad idea after all. It looks like you're feeling a little more flexible.”

More… flexible?

“Huh-?” Nezhno asked, not very intelligently, unconsciously lifting one hand up to rub the back of his neck out of confusion and getting at least a second into that before he began to realize what she must have meant, because that… didn’t actually hurt. Oh. He smiled, probably a little crookedly, removing the hand from his neck as an afterthought, but sort of leaving it hanging to one side, because he couldn’t quite figure out what else to do with it. “Yeah. I suppose I am.” So.. it hadn’t been zombie goo after all - though now that he was thinking about that again, Nezhno could quite resist adding with another slight hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth, “Would now be a bad time to tell you I’d also like to eat your brain?”
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Kitty Pryde
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Right, so trigger, binder that'd do a bunch of things in one, or a few, packages, or a good many more that would specialize. The last one, she'd rather not go to except as a last resort after nothing else worked. The more they had to incorporate, the more complicated it was going to be to get it all working like it should.

Nezh seemed to be on the same page, which wasn't really a surprise. “Yes. As few as we can manage, I think, since we’ll have to make them disassemblable-“ he paused to frown and Kitty couldn't help grinning. Diassemblable. She wasn't sure if that was a word, but she was gonna have to remember it all the same. His lips sort of lifted up a little, too, and he finshed with, “-as well.”

Yeah, exactly. So the more they could consolidate into a neat 'package' the better. And less likely to go completely bonkers on them. Binding the Pym Particles and unstable molecules should at least be fairly straightforward. There should already be protocol for that. Or she pretty sure that was part of how Jan's and Scott Lang's costume's worked. Nezh nodded to confirm that, so that was good.

That brought them to getting it all to hitch onto veil and getting the trigger right. Which was definitely gonna take some thought. Probably a little trial and error. Possibly a lot of trial and error.

It was okay, though. At least with her. Some experimenting and trial and error and working on something in the lab toward a definite goal, well, that sounded like a lot of fun. They could start with Reed's specs, see what they got from that, and add or subtract as they needed to.

Turning to smile at Nezh to see if that was good with him, since she'd already started kinda setting things up there, the brunette noticed something else, too. Maybe the Nemesis Zombie goo wasn't such a bad idea as she'd been afraid it was. At least that's what she was guessing was responsible for him being able to make a fist without wincing now.

“Huh-?” Nezhno asked looking confused as he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck. Whoops, guess it had snuck up on him. Then he must've caught on, because he was smiling again, maybe just a little abashedly. It was good to see him smiling and not wincing every time he needed to move. Nemesis might be useful for something after all. Who knew? “Yeah. I suppose I am.” So, she guessed that answered the question of whether he was gonna be all zombie-fied or not. “Would now be a bad time to tell you I’d also like to eat your brain?”

Oh man.

He was smiling a little, she could tell, and Kitty sort of grinned back while wrinkling her nose at him a little at the same time. "No," the brunette told him with a shake of her head and an impish look. "After you already tried the brain eating would be a lot worse time. Now you can't sneak up on me."

Pausing in the setup, she turned a little more toward him and cocked an eyebrow. "I fought Dracula once, you know," she pointed out, "I could totally take you as a zombie."

Plus, you know, there was the phasing. Which made the brain eating a lot harder for the brain eater in question. So yeah, she definitely felt like she had the advantage in a Nezh-zombie vs. Kitty showdown.
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