| Memories Make Us Who We Are |
| Summary: | MJ visits Parker Industries to deliver a tie to Peter and have him check out her suit. In the mean time he shows her his latest project. |
| Date: | 2016-08-23 |
| Related: | none |
| NPCs: | Min Wei (Peter Parker's assistant) |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Location: Parker Industries offices in the Baxter Building
It is mid-afternoon, and Peter is busy working. Currently the metal chair he has been working on for the last few days seems to be coming together, as there are less wires just going out everywhere, and the headpiece has the sensory modules that will attach to the head fully hooked in. Currently he is under the chair hooking things up singing horribly to himself to the music that is coming from his ear-buds. There are sparks coming from under the chair as he is soldering some more wires to the bottom of it, and making sure that everything is nice and secure. The room is large, but it would seem smaller as it is currently a mess with books, papers, and white-boards all over the room. The books all seem to be about genetics, and inter-dimensional travel as the boards have a weird math that only maybe Mr. Stark, or Banner could understand written on them. There was also a mini-fridge pushed to one of the corners, but it too was half covered with lose papers that had more weird math written on them.
The window to the room was open to bring in fresh air, as he was too high up to be worried about it, and the room was light up bright with lights despite the time as they had seemed to be on for a while. There was a small mess of trash, empty red-bull cans, Juice, wrappers from meals, but it was all piled up nice and neat in a specific location with a sign over it that said trash. The whole mess that this room has become was all information just scattered around semi-randomly, but the actual trash was not part of it.
MJ woke this morning anticipating her appointment with Peter. Before breakfast she jogged from her apartment to the club she has a membership at and swam for half an hour. She picked up breakfast, a bagel and lox, on the way back home.
After taking a shower she put on her charcoal fresco lana pantsuit outfit, wearing her armor's backpack under the jacket. She then took a cab to the Baxter Building, arriving at Wei's desk a few minutes before her appointment time. When the Chinese woman greets her as 'Jane' again, MJ says, "Its Ms. Watson," coolly to her. "Can I just go in?" she asks indicating the office doors past Min Wei's desk as she beings walking towards it.
"Wait," Min Wei practically snaps at MJ as she stands. "I have to introduce you first!" She doesn't get a chance to use the intercom because MJ doesn't actually wait forcing Peter's assistant to rush ahead of her and open the door. She steps into the room and says, "Sir, your… friend is here for her appointment…."
Before Wei can say anything else, MJ is in the room and says, "Hey there cubster," and then, seeing him 'neck deep' in a project asks, "you forgot we had an appointment, right?" and then, a little less vibrantly she stage whispers, "Or did she not tell you about it?" about Wei as the woman was starting to leave the room.
As MJ busts in he doesn't actually hear her, but as she talks he hears a distant voice which is enough to remind him.. Oh no was that today! Raising up he bonks his head on the metal chair as it barely shakes he gives off an.. "Oww…" and then climbs from underneath the chair rubbing his head. "Oh.. Hey.. MJ, that was today? I thought.. well.." he sighs, and slumps.. "Yes, I forgot I got working on this." and waves his hand to the metal char machine behind him, and smiles. "It is a work of art, and maybe an answer to a question we both had." he looks at Wei glaring at MJ, and sighs.. "It is okay Miss Wei I am sure you did what you could, it isn't your fault. You can go for now, I will call you soon for an update on the recording contract." as he says that her expressions softens.. slightly, but she gives MJ one more glare before she nods, and leaves the room.
Peter turns back to MJ, "You know you could be nicer to her, she is just trying to do her job ya know. I guess Peter… I.. am a wanderer hard to keep on track not to mention in the building." he chuckles, this whole time he had wielding goggles on which he flips up to look at her. "Looking great as usual MJ, were we going somewhere because I don't think this would work." he looks down at himself as he is in a normal T-shirt, and Jeans that seem to be dirty with metal shavings, oil, and oter forms of things that come from working on mechanical devices like a mechanic.
To his credit he tries to remember, but with all that has been going on his meeting with MJ got pushed back in his mind, but he does smile and put away his tools to give her the time he said he would. It was hard to step away after he was so close, but he had to for now as he had promised. He does add. "Is that a new hair cut?" hoping to grab a couple of brownie points so maybe if she was still mad at him she would be a bit happier.
MJ looks back at the closing door then returns her attention to young Peter. "You're right. I could. And she could show you some more respect," MJ says, "She treats you like a child and while you are young… you're also her boss. They say you are the CEO and if they are going to say it they should treat you that way."
She pauses a moment after delivering that message.
"Not a new hair cut, I put it up to go with my new outfit is all," she explains as she gives a model's twirl to show off the custom made pantsuit. "And no, we didn't have an appointment out, I was coming to visit the CEO of Parker Industries and didn't want your employees seeing me coming in dressed casually," she further explains.
"Also, I brought somethings. One for you and the other for you to check out… as you suggested."
Peter thinks for a moment to consider what she is saying. "I am sorry, my mind is full of numbers.. Could you remind me? I am sure I will be happy to help out, but I just can't remember which thin.." he remembers.. "Oh the armor!" he speaks up remembering, and smiles. "Yea I was looking forward to it, but I can't do it here we will have to move to the Lab with the scanning equipment." he moves the mini-fridge, and pulls out a juice. "Before we go, I wanted to explain that.." he thumbs towards the big chair he was working on. "Do you want some juice, or something to drink?" like it was nothing new.
Grabbing some water also he moves back towards the chair, and smiles putting a hand on it. "Do you remember how we are.. well.. different from normal people around here. This will fix that.. It is awesome, and I call it the Dimensional Mind." and smiles at her, and chuckles to himself. His eyes shine like MJ would know when he was proud of something that he made. "Be ready to be amazed!"
MJ smiles at Peter's scattered mindedness and says, "Yes, the armor, and its okay that you forgot," to the first. His kind offer makes her smile broaden slightly, "No, I'm fine, I had lunch on the way here," as she produces a long narrow box and holds it in front of her. However, before she can offer it to Peter, he is talking about his invention and her smile fades some as she asks, "Dimensional mind?"
Peter smiles, and starts talking.. It is about multidimensional theory, and how they are all connected together overlapping on top of each other, and then tosses a little bit into genetic memory that was in all of us that goes all the back through our ancestors. Before he catches himself realizing that other then the basics this was way beyond what they taught in school, so stopped thinking about it. "Sorry… to put it basically once it is powered you sit in the chair, and it will implant all of the thoughts, memories, and history of the original dimensions copy into our mind." he smiles at her.. "With this, there will be no need to act like MJ from this you will have the thoughts inside your head so there will be no guessing." he laughs. "Though I am having problems powering it as the amount of power required would be immense." he shakes his head thinking about it… "But I am so close." he adds before turning to looks at her with a hand on the machine.. "What do you think?"
MJ manages to hide the horror she is feeling on the topic from her face, leveraging her years of acting experience to do so.
After clearing her throat she dodges his question by asking one of her own. "Who are you going to test this on?" She does not voice the other questions that pop to mind… How do you know this won't overwrite the person's mind? Or even wipe it? … No, she'll stick with simple easy questions and keep the concern out of her voice. Yes, that's the trick.
Peter holds up a hand like he expected it. "That Miss Jane is a very good question, but first I will answer the overwrite problem as that was the hardest part." He moves to the whiteboard, and flips it around to show a picture of the human mind. He knows she didn't ask, but it was such a pain to fix he wanted to explain anyway, so he continued. "You see, our memories are just electrons the paths they make form a specific pattern that makes.. well us." as he talks he points to key points of the mind, explaining the different parts, and what they do. "You see, the brain is vast lots of connections before the procedure those paths are saved in a back-up like file so that they are safely stored. Then, after that is done the thoughts are implanted literally on top of the others, so while the original paths are saved. There are new artificial paths created so the new thoughts are accessible. While they would be weak at first of course, but it would be there accessibility." he turns and looks at the chair, "As to your question, about who to test it on, I don't know yet.. It could work on anyone not from this dimension. I mean it could be anyone who wanted." he chuckles, "Could you imagine to be a perfect replica of both them and yourself. I mean there is so much our other selves know that we don't it is crazy!" he shrugs, and looks at her with a smile. "Not to mention it has never been done before!"
MJ's expression darkens at first as she is called 'Miss Jane' but doesn't interrupt. She listens. Its clear that she knows he's dumbing down the explanation… and that she is happy that he is doing so.
When he finishes explaining she asks, "But, if you have to re-write the original memories and both are integrating like that… would the resulting person still be me?"
Yes, its exactly like Drs. McCoy and Pulaski on Star Trek about the Transporters.
Peter smiles, and looks at her like one would a child asking about something beyond them. He started.. "Yes.. " he then paused as he thought about how to explain it.. "You would be you, and be them. Sure you would have their memories, but yours wouldn't go anywhere. I mean it shouldn't change your personality since what makes you act the way you do doesn't change only more memory circuits that give us access to memories that you didn't have." he considers it again. "Imagine.. if you could remember how eggs with bacon tasted.. Do you think it would change how you act? Would it make you mean towards people that you were not before? I mean sure you might avoid eating eggs, and bacon after that because you know the taste is something you don't like, but other then the basics of the memory it doesn't change anything you are still you."
He stops, and shrugs.. "You have more stuff that makes yourself then just memories I mean I can't say it won't change you at all as what you do with those memories is up to the person, but how do I put it.." he looks at her, and smiles. Imagine if you had a purple lens.. All the light that goes through is purple, if you change that light to come from another source it is still purple. Does that help at all? I thought you would be more excited about this.. I mean it is a chance to gather our memories so no-one can doubt we are the proper people for this dimension."
MJ reflexively takes half a step back as she feels that long absent urge to flee the room, to get away. She doesn't run, but part of her really wants to. At first, she can't say anything and then she says, "Do not treat me like a child Peter Benjamin Parker," speaking firmly and very softly to cover the quaver trying to make itself heard in her voice.
As she continues, a little more like her normal self, MJ adds, "You are showing your youth. Imagine remembering an ugly breakup with your husband who you remember loving and marrying. Or…" and now she chokes as she says, "… remembering your father's abuse twice over, possibly with different hateful words in each parallel memory."
MJ doesn't know if this Peter knew she was abused as a child. Right now, she doesn't even care to share it softly. /Her/ Peter knew and so /this/ Peter now must as well.
Peter smiles, and holds up his hands. "I am sorry MJ, but you know how this science stuff is, I will try, but I have to break it down so much it is… well it is difficult I am sorry if I go a bit too far." he looks at the chair, and pats it gently. "Imagine if you were dead, or maimed.. There are a lot of things to consider I understand, and whoever goes first will go through a quite strict background check before they sit in this chair." he smiles at her, "There is a reason we have Shield contacts, and I am quite sure they can find someone with minor issues to be the first human experiment when we reach that point."
Since the MJ he knew wasn't as close as she was with her Peter he didn't know, but he continued.. "We will take the first experiment, and look at the reaction to adjust where we go from there. I wouldn't worry, despite my appearance I am not completely childish as one may guess from my assistant." he looked at her he didn't like being called childish, but he couldn't get mad at MJ so it lead to a weird middle road though he wasn't as good an actor to hide those feelings.
Peter sighs, and looks at her. "This is a wonder of science, and all you worry about is someone losing themselves to become, well themselves.." moving away from the chair he adds.. "This is a wonder of science, imagine multidimensional science.. If this works, then it could be only the first step… This could lead to our way back home!"
Those last three words break the spell and MJ smiles again, albeit wistfully. "Alright. Its just… Our memories are what make us who we are," she says and clarifies by asking, "Have you ever met someone with Alzheimer's, cub?"
Peter nods, and moves over and takes the box that she brought in with her. "Oh yes, but that is a bit different, the core may change when parts are taken away. The original memories will still be there, and actually will be the default, as no matter how much I force artificial thoughts in there, as long as the originals are still in there they should take over. Though, you bring up a good idea, I never thought about it for Alzheimer's patients." he thinks about it some more.
He holds up the box, "Anyway… how bout we get your armor scanned, and get ya going as I am sure you are prob busy, and while I always appreciate your company I wouldn't want to buy out your business just to make sure they don't fire you." and laughs to himself, as yes he could prob do it he had no intention to as he hadn't even looked into it yet. He did make a mental note though to check into it, heck he had a new recording company, maybe modeling could be profitable as well.
With a shrug he moves away towards the entrance. "Then again.. maybe I would." he added, with a grin just to tease her a little bit.
"You'll want to open the box, its a gift for you," she says as he takes the box out of her hands. She then asks, "Should I wear the armor to the lab like I am now or remove it here and carry it?" without moving to follow him yet.
[OOC Note] The box has a black paisley on black silk tie in it. Basically something like this:
Peter stops and opens the box with a small whistle.. "Wow.. that is crazy good." he pulls out the tie, and holds it up to his Tee-shirt. "What do you think is it me?" and smiles at her carefully putting it back into the case. Before he leaves he cleans up a place in his office, and places it down carefully. "Don't worry I won't forget it, but I can't take it where we are going. You understand right?"
Finally after putting it down with a note that says in bold "Do Not Forget" he turns and moves towards the door. "Thank you it was very kind of you. I hope maybe I can repay the favor eventually, though that means you were in some kind of trouble so…" he chuckles, and shakes his head. "Anyway… lets go get that armor scanned. Don't worry you don't have to wear it, just put it down in the lab shouldn't take more then an hour."
He leads the way out of his office, it wouldn't take long to get to the sealed lab which would look way more professional then the mess of his office. From there on it would be just him working as it took his direct attention to scan it, and it wouldn't lead to much talking if he wanted to get it done.
MJ goes to the lab with Peter, removing the armor-turned-backpack as they change into the clean room outfits. She simply watches as he examines the armor, producing the baseline scan he said he should have in case he has to do repairs to it later.
Atfer this is over and they are out of the lab any thought of a continued visit ends when Ms Wei approaches Peter and reminds him of another appointment he has to get to. Neither she nor MJ trade cold looks, but they also don't really acknowledge each other in the interaction.
As she leaves the Baxter Building MJ says, "I need a drink," to herself before heading towards a bar frequented by the professionals in the neighborhood.