Bees do it
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Date: 5/25/2018 Time: 07:00 EST |
Somewhere Old East Side a patch of land with many edges including an overgrown meadow. |
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Cast: | |
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It's Friday, May 25, early in the morning. Alma spent the night outdoors. She's caked here and there in mud. She is sitting up, cross legged brushing off herself, finishing with her shoulders. Her skin is slowly unzig-zagging the patterns left by a night sleeping in a meadow. She stretches and puts her shirt on. Pulling out her phone, she texts a message to Maria. "Sorry I didn't come home last night. I didn't want to bike home in the dark. I stayed at a friend's place." Flipping through her messages she sees a text from Jane with a link to an old article about the electrosensory abilities of bees. She starts reading this on her phone and falls back to the ground to hold it over her face as she scrolls through the article. Oooos and aaaaahs emanate from her. "This is SO COOL" she says out loud. She jumps up and starts walking around the grove, putting her cheek extremely close to some of the plants she finds. Jae rolled out of bed, showered, and brushed her teeth not too long ago. Like most reclusive hackers she is a night owl. Unlike many stereotypes her hygiene is immaculate. She isn't wearing much at the moment, perhaps owing to the fact that she just climbed out of her own bed and the only other person with access is a girlfriend who won't be home for hours. So Jae scrolls through her email as she straightens up the room and makes her bed. Why might be unclear since she has no intention of leaving today. Elsewhere, a drone is roaming the city and reporting back to the feed directed to Jae's glasses. It might be an ordinary drone but how difficult is it to send real-time camera footage these days? It's more than suitable for scouring the city for interesting news. Alma is dressed considerably differently. For one thing, where is her pocket vest? Where are the cargo shorts? The tank top? She's wearing a button-up shirt with a color and a skirt! She isn't even toting her duffle. She's got a black leather purse instead. wtf. At least her shoes are sensible. There she is, walking around with three buttons or so buttoned on that shirt looking really closely at plants, Sometimes bending down and holding the fringes of her hair close to them. If only she had a balloon. The drone is just exploring the forest. Alma is there! It whirs as it follows, a tiny thing likely invisible in the upper foliage. It does robot camera things, like focusing its lens on the woman in question. For futrure perusal. She is on the List. Alma doesn't have a balloon and isn't sure how to build up static electricity in her hair with what she has accessible to her right now. she takes a break from finding bees and interacting with flowers to search for: how to generate static electricity. The drone shifts closer, descending from the trees. There's silence for now as it comes to a stop, watching. Then a text message: What are you up to now? J0 has excellent timing. Alma's phone buzzes in her hands. She reads the text message and looks up at the drone and smiles. She starts tapping and longpressing her phone's screen and sends an article over to J0. "Look at this", she types and includes the url about the electrosense abilities in bees. "My girlfriend in New Zealand sent it to me." She continues typing, "It's so fucking cool. I'm trying to see if I can feel the hairs on my skin react to flowers. If I got up enough static charge in my hair maybe I could see it move too! but I can't figure out how to do that with what I have here." She typed so much that it probably broke up in to multiple texts. Do you have a comb? It doesn't matter. Reach out to the drone but don't touch it. Just hold still. Alma doesn't have a comb. She reaches out to the drone and holds very still. Sorry. With that message the drone flits forward. and lands on Alma's hand. There's a bundle of wires there where the camera is connected. It seems a bit of a charge's built up because there's a jolt when Alma first touches it. Like pressing an elevator button at the wrong time. After that there's nothing. It's not dangerous, apparently. Just plenty of electrons to share. Which is what Alma asked for. Alma jerks a little, surprised. "Cool!" she says. She sticks her hair close to some plants to see if it moves at all. The charge might be leaking out pretty quickly, hard to say. She's got shoes on again. It's a pretty strong charge, but it's likely not to be enough for Alma's project despite all attempts. Another text is sent like a flare: Next time we build an electroscope. <<OOC>> Alma says, "my friend gave me a link to an open access article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5599473/" | |
