(no subject)

[trustycrowbar]

Who: Gordon Freeman, all physics students, anyone else.
What: Physics class, and some unfortunate mishaps
Where: Gordon's teaching lab, Science & Math Building.
When: Late morning, Friday

"Alright, class, this time around we're talking about electromagnetism and gravity. In electromagnetism charges create fields, which impact the motion of other charged bodies."

He punches a button on a display, and a metal ring threaded on a pole launches into the air with a dynamic ringing sound. He catches it.

"With gravity, matter creates a field that impacts the motion of other matter." He adds, tossing the ring into the air. "If they sound similar, there's a reason for that. Now you alphas are going to learn the finer points of electrostatics and gravity and why everything falls towards the earth instead of straight up. The Lambdas among you are going to get a rundown of special relativity and the two little postulates that go on to explain all of electromagnetism."

And he sweeps an arm to the... interesting looking contraption in the background. A squat mess of pipes, tanks, rivets, monitors and strangely glowing portholes. "Also all of you will get a glimpse of where the two meet, as Mac and I turn this bad boy on and we attempt to see if we can detect a gravitation in its natural habitat."

Comments

Attendance

[trustycrowbar]

"First, I know there are some new people in the class. So, when I call your name, let me know your're here and whether you signed up for the alpha or lambda tier of the physics course."

Alpha meaning basic physics concepts and lambda of course meaning college-level stuff. Better be up on your math!

He's here. OBVIOUSLY.

[star_punched]

[trustycrowbar]

"Mac." He acknowledges with a half-smile. "Ready for this afternoon?"

[star_punched]

You bet he was.

"You bet I am, sir!"

He made sure he had his goggles and everything. He was mad excited. He can't believe he would be here. Doing some science.

It was so surreal and cool, and UNLIKE him. But he didn't care. He wanted to try something new with himself. Push himself.

[luneshalla]

Looks like you have someone here to observe Mr. Freeman. Now wether she's here to observe the class and learn, or observe something else is entirely up to you.

The dark skinned female takes a spot in the back, not taking a seat but reclining against and slightly on one of the tables and looking around with interest.

[trustycrowbar]

He lends the lovely druid a quiet nod and a meaningful smile. She wasn't on the roster, but he didn't expect her to be. She's welcome nonetheless.

[luneshalla]

No worries Gordon, she won't interrupt the class. She's here with honest curiosity and she'll stay in the back and take in the course. She's intrigued to say the least, but he already knew that.

[trustycrowbar]

Oh yes, he knows. He finds her curiosity delightful... among other things.

...wait what was he talking about again? OH RIGHT, CONDUCTIVITY AND CURRENT...

[heartofarapier]

If Eirika was to claim she knows what she's doing when she attends Dr. Freeman's class, it would be a falsehood. But she's attentive and studious, something that's carried over from the private tutelage she's received back in Renais. Some things do not change, even with the atmosphere as it is.

She sits properly, eyes upon Gordon, and with roll call, she seems to have developed the habit of lifting her right hand subtly when he calls to check her attendance. Perhaps this won't be so strange, after all. And even if it is, she's bound to learn a great number of things foreign to her.

It'll probably be a difficult journey to make.

[trustycrowbar]

He knows it's not easy. Eirika in fact made him realize just how differently everyone was educated, here, which is why he's taking special pains to make sure he covers the basics first.

"The world isn't flat, you see. It's a sphere, and we're attracted to the center of what sphere. But the sphere is so large as to appear flat to us." He finds himself adding in lecture, as well as other points to make sure we're all on the same page.

As for math... there's only so much he can do without a designated math teacher, but he tries to make it make sense.

[heartofarapier]

She tries to remember what she knows of the world. In hindsight, she really doesn't know much anything beyond the lands of Magvel. And there's plenty in the land she doesn't know much of either. At least... 'Grandmother' seemed to make that clear to her. Talks of the Demon King and the Great Dragon...

"A sphere," Eirika replies as she listens. "Round, you mean." Then she taps at her chin lightly, "Hm. But all worlds are different right? Do you mean this world that we're in, or that all different worlds work the same way? Is it not possible for some worlds to be flat?"

Chin in the palm of her hand, she eyes him with a great interest. How does one know the world isn't flat anyway? That'd require traveling across its entirety and that would be quite the journey.

[trustycrowbar]

...Well, uh...

"It isn't impossible for a world to be truly flat I suppose, I haven't exactly seen them all, but on any given world this is most likely the paradigm."

oh, this'll be great.

[quickly]

Today, Scout has finally decided to attend class.

After months of poking around campus, sleeping in far too late, and, well, doing absolutely nothing of value, Scout has gotten bored. And when he gets bored, bad things tend to happen.

Unsure of which class to attend first, and where the classes even are, he finds himself at a bit of a crossroads -- half of the buildings here haven't even been explored by him, and admittedly, all of the possibilities of what he can find and do are daunting.

With his head spinning just a little at the thought of ... getting lost, though he'd never admit it, he wanders into the nearest building, peering into every window attached to a door he can find, until --

He spots a room with people! Not just people, but that older, nerdy guy that said he liked sports a while back. What was his name, again? Frank? Richard? Greg?

Scout plants himself against the door, and fiddles with the knob, only to find that it's locked. Shoot. Guess class started a while ago...

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon pauses in mid-sentence when he hears the door rattle and glances over. Hey, it's... that-kid-he-doesn't-recall-the-name-of... and he's
fogging up the glass, the way his nose is pressed to it.

"Hm. If I didn't know any better I would begin to think that my lectures were getting popular." He quips to the crowd as he opens the door. "C'mon in, kid, have a seat, we're just getting to the hard part."

[quickly]

"Yeah, yeah, awright," he mutters as he casually slides into the room and surveys around for an open seat. There aren't many left, so apparently Greg was right about his lectures being popular.

Does that mean Scout will actually show interest in what he's talking about? Most likely not.

He finally spots a seat all the way in the back and plops right into it, looking far too eager to "learn".

"I like difficult shit. Bring it on, Grant."

[trustycrowbar]

Ahem. "Gordon."

Lecture/Student Questions

[trustycrowbar]

"The first thing to remember is that all matter attracts other matter. The reason we're not constantly crashing into each other is that the attraction is so weak for things of our mass that the force is imperceptible. We ARE drawn downward, however. Or rather, towards the center of the earth, which is a helluva lot more massive than we are and able to pull that much harder... for the record, yes. You do attract the earth to YOU as well."

...

"Einstein postulated that the speed of light is the same, no matter how fast you're moving. But this means that length and time, both of which make up speed, have to CHANGE as we go faster. Length shortens. Time slows down. This is why, even though the speed of light is finite, no one can ever reach that speed."

Lab... um... oh crap.

[trustycrowbar]

"Alright, Mac, let's turn this thing on."

He beckons his lab assistant out of the lecture crowd, and keeps explaining to the room.

"If this thing works, we'll be able to actually see... sort of a vapor trail of a gravitation. If my calculations are correct, it'll be a short flash of light and nothing more, but you'll know it when you see it."

[star_punched]

Gordon's eager lab assistant sprouted from his chair. What an odd sight right? WELL GET USED TO IT. Mister Jock is out here and gonna do some science.

SCIENCE.

"Yessir! So uh, do we press this thing over here...?"

There is that button. That you press. To turn it on.

[trustycrowbar]

"That would be it. Goggles on, people."

He dons a pair himself, huge enough to cover his glasses, and glances between the monitor and the chamber.

"Graviton tail, test 1." He quietly announces for the recording, then prods the big red ON button. Immediately the lights flicker as the power draw shifts to the machine and a low, resonant hum fills the room, builds pitch, resonates in the sternum and makes one hope it's over with soon.

"Almost at critical mass... any minute now... aaaaand..."

--and his last statement is cut off by a large flash of... purple-green-blue-WHAT-IS-THAT-COLOR-OHMIGOD and a shockwave that breaks lab glass everywhere and knocks everything and everyone backwards.

And... into the air. In which they seem to stay. Floating.

"--The hell?!" Gordon flails and grabs a desk for anchorage, then looks up at the similarly buoyant members of the class. "Dammit, not again... Is everyone all right?!"

[star_punched]

Okay so.

It was Mac who pressed that button.

So he was here holding onto the corner of the wall. And he was on the ceiling. He looked like Spiderman except he...was not Spiderman.

"Uh...I'm okay, sir!"

After class/WHERE DID THE GRAVITY GO?

[trustycrowbar]

"From the looks of it, we nullified the gravitational field in this area."

No, YOU did that, Gordon. This is all you. Now that everyone's found something to grab a hold of, pieces of glass have been vacuumed out of the air and the ceiling fans have been turned off, a strange mote of normalcy creeps back into the class.

"Thing is, I'm not really sure why... I only meant to EXPOSE the graviton field, not disrupt it! Ah... Anyway, class is dismissed, if someone can go and check to see where the edge of the disruption lies and mark them somehow, that would be a great help. I'm going to stay here to figure out what exactly happened."

[Feel free to mingle and threadjack here! Ladies, be sure to keep your skirts down.]

Someone stayed to swim around~

[shallajin]

Ellistree was highly amused by the mishap but seemed to be taking it in stride as she floated about the classroom in a very relaxed and laid back position.

Hovering nearby Mr Freeman, Ellistree rolled over on her stomach, laid her hands under her head and looked down as if she was floating on a flat surface.

"It always intrigued me how science could replicate magic. It seems that is true here as well~"

[trustycrowbar]

Ah, Ellistree. As irritated and task-focused as he is right now he needs to see you badly. He looks up and sees you floating above, so lazily with silvery hair floating everywhere, that he can't help but smile a little.

"I'm glad you like it, but this 'spell' I cast might have some dire consequences I don't know about yet."

[luneshalla]

"Oh all in due time, I'm sure you'll manage to fix whatever comes about from it. That's not to say that there aren't things many of the students couldn't learn from this. Maybe you should take this chance to make due witht he hand fate dealt and use this to explain, test and teach things related to the incident."

Ellistree mused as she looked down at Mr. Freeman, a playful smile on her face as per usual.