young_oldman | IC Inbox: Empatheias

[ The call comes to her during her sleep. So sharp a contest it is between the pleasant, light dream she has been having and the brooding, sorrowful signature that is his call, that she wakes up immediately. ] Lu Meng...? [ She inquires groggily, rubbing her eyes as she sits up in her bed. Out of habit, she also begins to comb her fingers through her acquired bed head; it's just something that she tends to do when on a "phone". Even if the other person cannot see her, she feels more apt for conversation when she is presentable.

She looks out her window to see the stars still overcast, but she knows it's still far from dawn. ] What's going on...? Can I help you?

I'm deeply sorry to wake you. I'm--

[The words break off. Although he's struggling to find the words to use, the deep pang of loneliness, sorrow and anguish reverberates as loudly as the loud clang of a gong, turning the silence into a painful one.

Eventually he takes a deep breath and says, rather plainly:] I'm in need of company tonight.

[Although his tone is calm, his other emotions flying over the link between them paint a vastly different story of how he's truly feeling inside. And the strongest feeling of them all is a plea.

Please don't leave him. Not tonight.

[ The storm of negative emotions cascading over the amulet serve much better than any alarm clock she's ever used. Oh, and those bells are ringing loudly to her, telling her that she must drop everything and go help her friend.

There is another pull, however, one manifested by that plea towards her essence as a god. Perhaps, had he waited, she would have come to him even without him him directly asking her. Either way, such a plea is too powerful for her to ignore, let alone it being from a dear friend. ] I'll be over right away--

[ She responds, grabbing something to pull over her nightgown as well as a coat. ]

[Of course she'd jump to help. But while that bubble of anxiety has popped, sending out swells of relief that Sanae is willing to accommodate his request...it's quickly replaced by another bubble of growing concern for her safety. And of course, the usual guilty feelings that he often has for troubling her so deeply, the self-admonishment that he should be able to handle this on his own.

But...at least with the latter, it seems not as intense as it used to be. That particular destructive inclination had surged instinctively, because that is simply the kind of person Lu Meng is, someone who values an independent and strong spirit and mind. But he's been learning about emotions, learning about healthy coping of emotions and his own illness, and as a result he's...somewhat able to arrest that train of negative thought from continuing by reminding himself of his almost daily mantra; that seeking a listening ear every now and then is not a weakness, but part of the road to recovery.]

There's no need for you to make your way here. [He quickly adds.] It's terribly late, and you shouldn't be out on the streets at this hour.

I promise you, it's comfort enough for me to hear your voice.

Are you sure...? [ She offers one last time; she's just about to leave her apartment. ] It's really no trouble, and we all live close together.

[ She can handle herself against some thugs, totally! Only not, because Sanae doesn't like be necessarily violent towards humans. ] Besides, I'd be flying. [ Not taking the streets.

But if he tells her to stay, she'll stay and just chat over this not!phone. ]

I'm sure. My house is in no good shape right now to entertain guests anyway.

[From his room, he can hear the clinks and careful, crunching steps as his emotional health care-taker picks up the pieces of broken plates and cups off the floor.]

Really, I only wanted to have someone to talk to. To take my mind off...my troubles. [She knows what kind of troubles he's talking about.]

[ Her hand leaves the doorknob, and she steps back into her own kitchen, deciding to turn on the fire core to heat up some tea. ] Mm, I understand.

[ She shuffles in her slippers to the cabinet, bringing out some chamomile and lavender, thinking of just what she can talk about to him. ] Would you like to talk about... anything? Or something in particular?

[ She has a variety of topics to choose from, as it were, but it's only polite to ask what he'd like. ]

[He settles himself on a chair, resting his arms on the desk. Sanae can't see it, but he's buried his face into his hands.

It's going to be a long night. He's silent for a moment, considering what he can ask. Eventhough he did approach her for conversation...the truth of it is that he's not really sure what to talk about. He just doesn't want to be alone in the silence tonight.]

You should pick the topic. I am troubling you tonight.

Hmm.... [ She sighs to herself, beginning to think of what must can be most appropriate and light hearted. Or if not light hearted, adequately distracting. ]

[ Perhaps he'd like to learn about-- ] What if I told you there was a... thing This thing that has both a negative and positive energy to it. But this thing is tiiiiiny. So tiny, that you can't see it.

But-- the thing about this thing is that this thing's energy can be one of the most powerful things in the world?

Something that small till it can't be seen, and yet it holds great power...no. I don't know what that is.

[Curiosity pricked, he sits up slightly straighter at his desk, peering out at nothing in particular through his fingers.]

What is this...thing?

This things is--.... call an atom!

[ She announces proudly, glad to be sharing things about science with him. ] A atom is basically the smallest unit of matter. [ Sort of, but she may or may not get into the details later. ] They're comprised these charged particles. Protons are positive, and they're found in the center-- or nucleus-- of the atom. Neutrons, which are neutral, are also found there. And then there are electrons that orbit it, which are negative.

[ Now watch her rant. Now watch her say-say. ] But--- but, these atoms are... they're mostly empty space! Imagine if you put a pea out in the center of Macintosh park. That would be the center of the atom, where you'd find your neutrons and protons. The electrons would be orbiting... all the way out to the edge of the lake!

So, now-- think about it. These atoms make up basically everything-- you, me, the word. So what does that make us? Mostly..... [ wait for it. ] empty space!

[Give him a moment to absorb this science lesson. He's thinking so hard on what she's just told him, that part of his thought process leaks back to her:]

but humans are made of flesh and bone and blood...unless an atom is what makes up the flesh itself why is there so much empty space why does the negative energy circulate so far from the center is she talking about yin and yang when she negative and positive but then what is this neutral energy how can matter be made out of empty space, that makes no sense i'll ask her one question at a time to not overwhelm her

But how is matter made out of empty space?

[ Ooookay. She should try to take this one step at a time. ] See, that's the thing! You're technically sitting on a bunch of atoms right now. You are all of those atoms! But while each individual atom is mostly empty space, they are arranged in a way that makes up what we are, in different patterns.

It's kind of as if...we're all more volume than we are mass.

Then wouldn't we all be hollow inside? Yet our bodies are packed inside, with organs and fluids and bone. And why are we not light as a feather then, if we are made out of empty space? Unless an atom is so heavy that it weighs us down...

It's the arrangement of different atoms-- some of us are more densely packed than others-- as well as the speed we travel at. So relatively speaking, we can say that something weighs more than something else. But when you get down to each and every building block and see that they're mostly empty space, that still means that we're mostly empty space.

Not to mention... If we were moving at, say, about the speed of light-- you can bet we'd be just about weightless!

Like a building block, with numerous rooms inside...alright. I can see that.

But wait, what has speed got to do with weight? And what is the speed of light?

[What are all these things Sanae is telling him? It's all so confusing.]

Are you familiar with the phrase "matter can neither be created nor destroyed"? Well, there's something a little peculiar about that, especially when you consider incorporating energy and light.

To begin with, the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. [ A pause. ] That means it just goes very, very fast.

Anyway, a very famous scientist in my world proposed that the speed of light was the absolute upper limit of any speed. He developed an equation: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light, squared. That means, mass-- when going as fast as the speed of light-- can turn into energy, a state that theoretically has no mass.

[ *Note that Sanae is not giving the best explanation here, because she's Sanae. Also while weight may decrease the faster one goes, some may say the mass may increase the faster one goes depending on how one looks at it (relativity, cough cough). It can get confusing. ]

Edited 2015-12-06 02:36 (UTC)

[There's just a long, stunned silence to greet Sanae's science ramble this time.]

...ah...I'm sorry. I'm afraid I still don't understand.

[He doesn't even know that the world is flat Sanae, this is information overkill.

Then there's a beat, and something like...fondness? Spilling from him to her. Normally he'd never ever let anyone know if and when he's feeling such affection, but it's...nice to see and hear Sanae so happy and excited. They've been having too many depressing conversations lately. This one is a nice change.

And because he is who he is, there's also a little embarrassment at having such warm fuzzy feelings.]

I didn't know you like the sciences so much. Are you sure you're a priestess, or an inventor? [...gasp. Is he...teasing her????]

[ And he in return will feel that soft sort of embarrassment overcome the network, accompanying a light blush to her cheeks. It's not often she gets to rant about ~science~ to people she knows-- and that they actually listen. ] Th..thank you.

[ She smiles into her tea. ] Ah, when I was younger I always thought of becoming an engineer-- an aerospace one. Or an astrophysicist. Or nuclear engineer. Something like that. [ But her path was set on becoming a priestess before she even knew what any career was at all. ]

In a way, I am, because I can create small stars for myself.

[He smiles a little himself; with no one around him, he can indulge a little in his...softer emotions.

His previous sadness is still there, lurking at the back of his and thus her mind as well, but a soft, glowing warmth has begun to grow and gradually, gradually begins to nibble away at the sorrow and loneliness.]

An engineer...is that an inventor? You'll have to explain all those professions to me, I'm afraid I've never heard of them before, not even here in Empatheias. Are they similar to astrologers, looking up at the stars to chart their paths and predict the future?

[So. Space. Tell him about it.]

I.... hm. An engineer is an inventor the way a physicist would be to a philosopher, if that would make sense. A physicist studies physics, but you can specialize in a category-- like nuclear physics. A nuclear engineer would be applying that knowledge to machines.

[ She nods to herself, sipping her tea. ] In a way... if you become really good at being an engineer or a physicist, you can predict anything from when the next eclipse would be five thousand years from now, to which star will be the next north star in two thousand years, to exactly what time you'd have to leave the earth to land on the moon with the shortest amount of travel time.

[ So. Kinda like an astrologer predicting the future. ] These predictions are all accomplished by science.

Ah, but we wouldn't be able to predict what sort of life you might have or who your soul mate is based upon what heavly bodies you were born under. [ She says with a laugh. ] In fact, since the first time the ancients have invented the zodiacs, the axis of the earth has shifted. The months and the zodiac are not aligned as they once were traditionally.

I see...and mankind has observed these all changes through science as well? How our knowledge of the celestial bodies has changed. [He takes out a piece of paper on his side, and begins to write down as much as Sanae had been telling him. It's mostly for his curiosity, and he is a note-taker, bad handwriting notwithstanding. But who knows? Perhaps the day may come when such knowledge will be useful. How else are the Otherworlders to return home, if not through space?]

Ah, but you mentioned travelling to the moon. So, the future has..."space ships" and "space travel" as well? [He's actually heard of travelling through space from Roxas, actually.]

Mm-hm! [ He can expect her nodding to that even if he can't see her. ] Humans made it to the moon in 1969! Amazing, huh?

[ Aah, what a time that must have been! ] I'm not from a world where humans have traveled outside of our solar system, though. But I've met people from other worlds who have!

One day-- one day I'd like to travel beyond the researches of our solar system. Maybe even to the center of our galaxy. Or maybe even to another galaxy!

How long did it take them to travel to the moon? It must be an incredible distance from the earth. How did the ship fly through the air? Did they manage to find and bring Chang'e and her rabbit back?

[An interesting question, given the request that the Apollo team received from ground control in 1969.

Don't laugh Sanae, he's from 3rd century AD OK. Only a heartless bastard wouldn't feel sorry for the bunny girl and want to bring her home to earth.]

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