Who: Faith Lehane / Jane Foster / Bonnie Bennet / Ray Palmer Where: Various When: Dec-Jan Rating: Up to PG-13 Summary: Catch-all for surprise arranged threads. (Please shoot me a PM if you'd like something! <3) The Story:
"Excuse me!" There's a small-statured woman bundled up in a lot of flannel hauling after Snart crunching the various near-frozen leaves and sticks on the floor of the forest, waving her arms in the air.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? That machinery is my property and you are currently disrupting extremely sensitive and important research!"
He turns on his heels, looking at her with slightly raised eyebrows, the very definition of unimpressed by her accusations. "What are you researching?"
Truthfully, Leonard is also questioning how exactly he's disrupting it, but that explanation can wait. Although he might just be able to extrapolate it from her answer.
Oh, that stops Jane right in her tracks. Someone unfazed by what has come to be Jane's go to shrill persona for not having to answer questions and go about her business as she sees fit. Additionally, he's expressing interest in her work rather than reacting to her ... well, reaction.
"I'm tracking fluctuations in the appearance of atmosphere Wonderland has created," she answers, dropping her arms to her sides. "What are you doing out here? If you want data, I share it with anyone who asks, you know."
It's not as if he hasn't spent more than enough time around high-strung scientists. Actually surprising how many people he knows fall into that category or adjacent to it. It's also not as if he's an idiot, so he has a fairly good idea of just what she's talking about, even if he obviously hasn't studied it. "Didn't know there was any data around to be shared. What are the fluctuations like then?"
Has to be something noteworthy to be tracked, stands to reason.
"Minimal, and suspiciously within expected parameters," she starts, before swinging back around. "People have been collecting data on Wonderland for years. Wonderland just doesn't make it easy for everyone to share and make sense of it-- not useful sense, anyway."
She moves then, little legs tromping along to crouch near the equipment and plug in a thumb drive. Jane tilts her head back up to regard Snart, frowning. "Sorry, I don't think I recognize you. I'm Dr. Jane Foster. Sorry about the assumption and the yelling."
"Leonard Snart, and that's fine. People don't yell at me as much as they should." In all honesty, he can admit that. He watches what she's doing, taking a step back to give her space. "Wouldn't be Wonderland if any of that added up. Could be just as useful to analyse the book, I'd wager."
By which he means, not useful at all. But he's curious now anyway. "There's not a lot of patterns to be found, right?"
"None that are, again, useful." Her tone is amused at his comment, but frustrated with her new train of thought. Jane's smirk lingers-- she likes troublemakers. She doesn't trust anyone who blindly follows any status quo.
"I learned an early lesson in the study of Wonderland. The stars used to move, you know. And they're a good start to analyzing the state of a place-- Wonderland did a good job of pretending to be part of a functioning solar system to the moderately-trained eye," she rambles while still crouching, watching the rudimentary status bar climb toward 100% completion. "And then the stars all fell, revealing illusions in Wonderland's brand of maybes and what-ifs. Now they're static, and I don't trust even the few patterns that do present themselves to me."
"Seems about right. Been a while since I read the book, but defying reason and patterns was part of the point. That and writing while high out of your mind, if I'm any judge." Leonard flashes a brief smirk, watching her determination more than whatever it might be that she's trying to determine. "Maybe you could make more sense of it if you smoked some weed first."
For Wonderland logic, that seems reasonable enough.
"I wonder if that's an unspoken rite of passage here, actually," she answers-- not confirming nor denying just yet whether she's accomplished those rites herself. Jane fights to pull the flash drive from the side of the machine and pockets it as she stands to face her new acquaintance.
"So, since my equipment caught your eye, is there anything I can legitimately help you with, Leonard?"
"Probably same as everywhere." Not confirming anything either, but that's about right either way. He looks at Jane and shrugs, finally just smiling. "I'm sure trying to feel any disturbance in the force is a huge help to us all."
Ultimately a nerd is still a nerd, no matter whether he's also a gangster and part-time supervillain. "You're not cold out here?"
How graceful. Jane's eyes narrow with a curiosity she doesn't usually take in people at the way he doesn't really answer her question. She shrugs, and stomps her booted feet at the mention of the cold.
"I've worked in worse conditions," she answers. Pointedly: "Then again I'm not roaming aimlessly around."
"Good thinking. Nothing good ever comes from roaming aimlessly." No, the pointed remark doesn't even begin to penetrate his skin, instead he simply looks at her with an expression close to a smile.
"Cold never bothered me either. I wonder... Do you have any idea when the next event will happen?"
That's a version of an answer she can accept, at least. At his quid pro, she quo's up her device to tap through a few screens. Her brow furrows as she works backward and then forward.
"For memory-based reality shifts, it should be another week, approximately, according to my tracking. But for those precipitated by one of the natives here, it's more difficult to say. Not everyone owns up when Wonderland gets lost in their memories," she says as she tucks the device back into her jacket pocket. Jane sniffs against the cold and glances back to the mansion-- but if Leonard wants to talk shop, she's more inclined to stay than go.
Leonard frowns and then slips out of his jacket to offer it out to her, not urging, just holding it in case she wants to take it. He likes the cold, so he doesn't mind in the least and given he still has actual questions to ask, it would seem rude not to at least offer some protection from the cold. Underneath the jacket he wears a normal gun in a shoulder holster, the cold gun has been rather prominently visible in the other holster the whole time.
"Do you have any patterns on when the stuff strikes that rewrites who you are entirely?" As his voice belies, he's not a fan of that.
Considering she hadn't anticipated being out this long, and Leonard's questions are climbing an increasingly interesting trajectory, Jane takes advantage of his offer.
She feels quite tiny once the coat is draped over her shoulders, and she chooses to focus on the matter at hand over that feeling. Her eyes linger at his waist, jumping from one weapon to what she now assumes is the other-- but she speaks as she talks.
"Well, that's a little loaded-- would you count identity loss or memory loss as such?" Jane asks, lifting her eyes back to his finally. She shifts her weight with some measure of discomfort, but presses on: "Additionally, there have been a few instances where residents were able to choose to change as far as I remember. Were you here for Hogwarts? Is that more like what you're looking for?"
Luckily Leonard is at least fairly slim, for a man, so it's not as if the coat swallows her up entirely, but obviously it still looks big on her. He doesn't appear to be cold, even though he crosses his arms in front of himself, listening to her. "I've never heard of us having a choice. Can you tell me how that went down?"
He nods in answer to the other question. "But yeah, I was there for Hogwarts. That's the kinda thing I mean. Didn't have the best of times. I know myself. I want to stay and be myself."
Jane nods at the way Leonard expresses his intent, slow to form the understanding that maybe it's not the right venue to delve into matters of singular identity in a place that openly subverts memory and agency. Stick to the data, then.
"As I remember it, residents had been afforded an ability to not feel, I think? It was as if emotion were a choice, and we could choose to mute it-- but it was a total solution. All or nothing, I mean. I'd have to reference the logs," she finally answers, pulling the coat a little tighter around herself. It hadn't been a difficult occurrence to deal with for Jane; the aether hadn't yet taken hold, and she generally found herself quite capable of managing her feelings to begin with.
"Are you familiar with parallel dimension theory at all?"
"Yes." Very simple answer, perhaps too straight-forward, but life has been strange as of late and parallel dimensions aren't exactly that out there. "Though I don't remember having the choice not to feel. I can deal with my feelings, there's only a handful of them anyway."
Obviously not a literal truth, but even with everything he has to deal with right now and has had to deal with in the past, Leonard can manage his emotions. A lot of painfully learned lessons. "But parallel dimensions, sure. Also alternate timelines. Why?"
"It helps people sometimes," she starts. It's a delicate theory, the idea that none of this is real; that it might be the case for every timeline in every universe any of them have experienced, either shared or not.
"There's no proof that these occurrences aren't simply glimpses of other worlds entirely. I know I've met a few people who knew me by the same name in a different profession. Who's to say that's not what all of this is?"
"So. Going by that theory, there'd be an alternate world out there where I'm a forever sixteen year old lost boy?" He's not really saying this to make fun of her or to deliberately poke holes into her theory, he just wants to be able to understand her thinking as quickly as possible. "And there's a version of me where someone told me I'm a wizard before I hit eleven?"
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in the pines no one will find you
no subject
Truthfully, Leonard is also questioning how exactly he's disrupting it, but that explanation can wait. Although he might just be able to extrapolate it from her answer.
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"I'm tracking fluctuations in the appearance of atmosphere Wonderland has created," she answers, dropping her arms to her sides. "What are you doing out here? If you want data, I share it with anyone who asks, you know."
no subject
Has to be something noteworthy to be tracked, stands to reason.
no subject
She moves then, little legs tromping along to crouch near the equipment and plug in a thumb drive. Jane tilts her head back up to regard Snart, frowning. "Sorry, I don't think I recognize you. I'm Dr. Jane Foster. Sorry about the assumption and the yelling."
no subject
By which he means, not useful at all. But he's curious now anyway. "There's not a lot of patterns to be found, right?"
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"I learned an early lesson in the study of Wonderland. The stars used to move, you know. And they're a good start to analyzing the state of a place-- Wonderland did a good job of pretending to be part of a functioning solar system to the moderately-trained eye," she rambles while still crouching, watching the rudimentary status bar climb toward 100% completion. "And then the stars all fell, revealing illusions in Wonderland's brand of maybes and what-ifs. Now they're static, and I don't trust even the few patterns that do present themselves to me."
no subject
For Wonderland logic, that seems reasonable enough.
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"So, since my equipment caught your eye, is there anything I can legitimately help you with, Leonard?"
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Ultimately a nerd is still a nerd, no matter whether he's also a gangster and part-time supervillain. "You're not cold out here?"
no subject
"I've worked in worse conditions," she answers. Pointedly: "Then again I'm not roaming aimlessly around."
Is he?
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"Cold never bothered me either. I wonder... Do you have any idea when the next event will happen?"
no subject
"For memory-based reality shifts, it should be another week, approximately, according to my tracking. But for those precipitated by one of the natives here, it's more difficult to say. Not everyone owns up when Wonderland gets lost in their memories," she says as she tucks the device back into her jacket pocket. Jane sniffs against the cold and glances back to the mansion-- but if Leonard wants to talk shop, she's more inclined to stay than go.
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"Do you have any patterns on when the stuff strikes that rewrites who you are entirely?" As his voice belies, he's not a fan of that.
no subject
She feels quite tiny once the coat is draped over her shoulders, and she chooses to focus on the matter at hand over that feeling. Her eyes linger at his waist, jumping from one weapon to what she now assumes is the other-- but she speaks as she talks.
"Well, that's a little loaded-- would you count identity loss or memory loss as such?" Jane asks, lifting her eyes back to his finally. She shifts her weight with some measure of discomfort, but presses on: "Additionally, there have been a few instances where residents were able to choose to change as far as I remember. Were you here for Hogwarts? Is that more like what you're looking for?"
no subject
He nods in answer to the other question. "But yeah, I was there for Hogwarts. That's the kinda thing I mean. Didn't have the best of times. I know myself. I want to stay and be myself."
no subject
"As I remember it, residents had been afforded an ability to not feel, I think? It was as if emotion were a choice, and we could choose to mute it-- but it was a total solution. All or nothing, I mean. I'd have to reference the logs," she finally answers, pulling the coat a little tighter around herself. It hadn't been a difficult occurrence to deal with for Jane; the aether hadn't yet taken hold, and she generally found herself quite capable of managing her feelings to begin with.
"Are you familiar with parallel dimension theory at all?"
no subject
Obviously not a literal truth, but even with everything he has to deal with right now and has had to deal with in the past, Leonard can manage his emotions. A lot of painfully learned lessons. "But parallel dimensions, sure. Also alternate timelines. Why?"
no subject
"There's no proof that these occurrences aren't simply glimpses of other worlds entirely. I know I've met a few people who knew me by the same name in a different profession. Who's to say that's not what all of this is?"
no subject