On The Moon
The group travels from the pressurized main conference area to the hotel complex where all the scientists are staying. They ask a few folks how they heard about the conference, and found out that these scientists had all received an invitation. None knew who was behind the conference.
Scientists from all different realities are here, but no one knows who is putting on the conference. Typically this would be an invitation to disaster, since anyone leaving their home cosm for a foreign one runs the risk of disconnection from that home reality. For those dependent on magical, spiritual, or technological forces that cannot be supported by their new cosm, this can be fatal. Apparently there's a special device being used at this conference, to allow all visitors and technologies to function as though they are in their home cosms, but the scientists here in the hotel lobby aren't familiar with the device itself.
In the hotel room, a letter is waiting for Fernwilter. His animatronic weasel pet, Fitzy - Fernwilter's good friend and the greatest success of his experiments in Weird Science - fetches it and brings it over, chittering.
"Red Heat's perfume, you say?" Fernwilter smiles and opens the letter. "I am glad you are here… otherwise occupied… meet for lunch on Wednesday in the Earthview Spire restaurant." His face drops. "Two whole days? But then she won't see my talk tomorrow!"
Aphrodesia Jones snatches the letter from him. "This sounds all too contrived." She inspects the letter, comparing it with the earlier letter from Red Heat that had drawn them to the moon. "This is a forgery! Both letters are the same, but they weren't written by Red Heat!"
The scientist is aghast. "My dearest Red Heat did not send these letters? But surely such a pioneering scientist as she is would have received an invitation! Perhaps she is elsewhere on the moon.. or even in trouble. Wu-han must have been angry at her defection… even now, he could be trying to win back her love. I must rescue her."
They all retire and make plans for the morning.
The Next Morning
They decide to start by scouting out the Earthview Spire restaurant. It is located at the top of the hotel, with thick glass the only visible barrier between the diners and the vastness of space. As implied by the name, there is a view out some of the windows showing the planet Earth above. Finding a waiter, they attempt to set up an ambush for Wednesday lunchtime.
Fernwilter starts off. "There's a friend who I'm supposed to meet here for lunch on Wednesday, and, well, it's her birthday. So I was just wondering if you could set up some sort of surprise birthday thing - singing, maybe a big cake that someone could jump out of…"
The waiter just gives him a blank look. "There is a luncheon on Wednesday for some of the foremost scientists in the world. In all the worlds. I don't believe that would be appropriate."
"Right, see, but she IS one of those scientists! So that's why it would be perfect!"
The waiter is unconvinced. Eventually, Sir Fernwilter gives up, and decides to disguise himself as a waiter to see who shows up on Wednesday. He takes a few minutes to memorize the menu, and on the way back to their hotel room, Aphrodesia finds a waiter's uniform for him. Options exhausted at the restaurant, they head to the main conference area for the rest of the day.
At The Conference
The exhibits are divided into domes based on technology level. As a guide helpfully explains, "In some realms, the cutting edge of technology is nanotech or fine cyber-ware. In other realms, the cutting edge of technology is -" with a nod to some Living Land lizard-men talking excitedly among themselves - "fire." The group heads for the high-tech scientific advances dome, where they split up.
Aphrodesia goes to look for research related to romance. She comes across a booth doing work on pheromones to cause love, and another booth doing research on chemicals that will kill the sex drive. Having an idea, she asks, "Do you know of any research being done on curing romantic obsession towards a particular target?"
The scientist starts to point her at a booth across the way, saying, "If you want to cure someone's obsession with you, you can --" but Aphrodesia cuts him off.
"Not with me. I want to cure a friend's obsession with… someone who's bad for him."
The scientist stops and thinks for a minute, then points her to a booth at the far end of the hall. "He claims to be able to do that. But be careful - he was stoned out of his mind when the Maelstrom Bridge came down over L.A."
At the indicated booth is a disheveled man with significant visible cyber-ware modifications, wearing tie-dye. He speaks with the lazy drawl of the utterly blitzed. "Heey, pretty lady. I can answer all your questions here. Just take this pill…" He waves a small purple tablet in her direction.
Aphrodesia hesitates. "I'm just looking for something to-- "
He cuts her off and waves the pill at her again. "Whatever you want to know. The answer is in here! Just hold the question in your heart…"
Seized by a sudden impulse, she takes the pill from him and swallows it, quickly falling unconscious. Aphrodesia finds herself suddenly standing on a mountain top, with clouds of all colors around her.
Echo - followed by Raphael, in case she needs some spiritual guidance - goes looking for information on the reality devices being used to make this conference possible. They seem like a potentially deadly weapon for the High Lords to use in their attempts to convert parts of Earth to their realities. What she learns is that something similar has been used by the Nile Empire in some places to assist their invasion… but these particular devices haven't been seen before. After a little while longer it becomes clear this avenue of inquiry has hit a dead end. Remembering all the death threats Fernwilter had received they decide to go look for him and make sure everything is all right.
On the way, they come across Aphrodesia lying unconscious, with a dirty cyber-hippie using a sharpie to draw intricate diagrams on her - diagrams that look like circuit diagrams. He is about halfway done giving her a "sleeve" on her second arm.
"Hey." Echo steps up to the pair. "What'd you do to her?"
The hippie narrows his eyes at her. "What? She's getting answers! Just like she wanted!" Aphrodesia does seem to be unharmed, so Echo lets it drop.
"Hm." Raphael says. "Whatcha drawing?"
He responds better to Raphael's obvious cyberware, apparently not seeing through Echo's skinsuit to the even more thorough modifications underneath. "Uh. Just thinking what she'd look like with cyberware."
Echo hisses. Raphael looks at her and says to the hippie, using his best Stern Inquisitor voice, "This woman is… a friend of ours. She wouldn't like that, I bet."
The fellow sighs and sits back, capping his sharpie. "Okay," he mutters. "You're probably right."
Meanwhile, Aphrodesia's vision quest has taken her to a turkish bath. It's half-full of jello and half-full of pudding. The two are having a war. Although she wants the pudding to win, the jello is victorious. Red jello. The color of romance.
Satisfied that the hippie scientist isn't going to make any unasked-for cybernetic modifications on Aphrodesia while she's unconscious, Echo and Raphael go off looking for Fernwilter again while they wait for her to wake up. They finally come across him in an area showcasing animals that have been engineered to perform useful tasks. He's checking out a vacuum attachment for Fitzy when they find him. "Hey guys! This display is very interesting! They use an interchangeable adapter system --" he goes off on a nigh-incomprehensible tangent, full of scientific jargon. The man was inarguably a genius… of some sort.
Content that Fernwilter was not, at that moment, being assassinated Echo tuned him out and looked around. The place was full of scientists - extremely happy scientists, clearly very excited about science. There were people from all realms, but there didn't appear to be any threats nearby. Satisfied, she nodded to Raphael and they both went to check on unconscious Aphrodesia again, leaving Fernwilter to his animatronics.
Aphrodesia is watching the sun rise. Suddenly everything is illuminated. She opens her eyes and sits up. Looking at the hippie, she asks, "What was that?"
"Answers," he replies.
"No, seriously, what -- and what is this?" She can see funny colors around him, and reaches her hand out toward the strange nimbus of color. Her eyes widen in alarm, noticing the drawings on her arm.
He nods sagely. "You can see auras now."
Barely paying attention, she shrieks, "AaAAH! What did you do to my arm?!?"
The hippie is unfazed. "Hey, chill, man. You know, you'd look great with cyberware?" Disgusted, Aphrodesia gets up to walk away. He taps her on the shoulder and hands her a piece of paper. "It is what you asked for."
Remembering her request for something that would put an end to a romantic obsession, she takes it and lets him explain how it's used - it can be placed directly on the tongue, or dissolved in water and then drunk. As she turns to leave she sees Echo and Raphael approaching. She tells them she's OK, intrigued by these auras she can see now - and somewhat disturbed by the fact that the ninja doesn't have one. The scientists have strong enough auras to keep her attention, though - they all seem to be so excited.
They go together to grab Fernwilter, since it's nearly time for his talk...
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