crystal;

[grindset]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Viktor
RECIPIENT: all
NOTES: crowdsourcing ideas For Science. strongly encourage hijacking/chaos/making it weird.

Good afternoon. This is not an urgent message. If you're engaged in anything serious, please accept our apologies for the interruption... and... and be safe, wherever you are.

[This is not a common voice to hear over the crystals—nor does the speaker emerge from Research's rooms very often, at that. In fact, even after a year and a half, there may yet be some people he's never really spoken to. He sounds slightly nervous, somewhat less so as he goes on:]

But those who can spare a moment... you are invited to imagine, [softly clearing his throat,] to imagine a ship... only, unlike the ships you might have seen to date, this one was built to traverse the sky. And this flying ship, it is yours—and now, you must finish outfitting it. Add any contrivance or convenience you might wish, whether practical or extravagant, for personal comfort or professional efficiency. Cost is of trivial concern, and the laws of physics yield to your every whim. Whatever you imagine can be realized.

So... what do you add to it? What does it do?

Comments

[grindset]

[This takes a moment to come back:]

Tony Junior.

[elegiaque]

Wait, we have to— it needs to have a little library nook. He wanted to have a pornography section in the library named after him.

( was he serious? wobble hand. is it just like her to remember that, years after the fact? of course. )

[grindset]

[A soft breath, amused. (And those in the room with him will see his posture has begun to sag.)]

I can't promise anything until we know the size of the ship, but there should be room for a few books.

[elegiaque]

He probably didn't mean it. But I think it'd be —

Not a fitting memorial, exactly. Just one that might have made him laugh.

( it's nice to imagine, for a moment. maybe a laugh through his nose, maybe: hey, this is what you remembered? for real? the sort of memorial that has to be explained, so you find yourself telling someone about him, smiling,

it is, maybe, a silly idea. but she knows more about grief than about airships. )

[grindset]

Yes... very likely so.

[After a moment of staring down at the crystal on his wrist,]

This project is, in large part, a continuation of his work. He'll be present in it—that I can promise you.

[elegiaque]

I haven't got any doubt of you.

[grindset]

I...

[Everyone can hear this.]

It's very much appreciated.

[elegiaque]

( she relents, instead of causing him to spontaneously combust from something like so are you— )

Let me know if I can do anything actually useful, ( is an offer without expectation; maybe she can't! but sincerely meant. )

[grindset]

You do plenty, but, I will. And... thank you. It's kind of you to offer.

[It's just as sincere. Anything he might come up with on the spot would be busywork, like as not, and thus unbefitting; this is something he ought to keep in his pocket for the right moment.]

[elegiaque]

I think Stark thought I was in his division about half the time, anyway.