Scene #2303: The Science Side of Dragons?

Owner	Pose
Fairy Lamya	Inviting somebody over to do scientific investigations on her and the desolate Bad End Kingdom was not something The Dragon Lamya would ever have thought she would do, much less the girl she invited over was actually her friend. She never had a friend before, not a true one, at least, so the experience is quite new to her. She's spent the past week moving strange scientific equipment to her lair, somehow escaping the notice of humans back on Earth. Now that it's all set up, she's curled up at the mouth of the lair, watching as Entrapta works. "What is it that you're looking for?" she asks, her voice a deep rumble in her chest.
Entrapta	The purple-haired referencee leans her head back so she can see Lamya, her hands busy with some apparatus that glows. "Actually not sure yet! One moment!" She grins, then leans back to her work, where she makes a minor adjustment to a glowing vial that's slowly dripping into a line that's connected to other vials. It all looks very arcane. Then she turns away from it, her protective gloves on her hands and goggles on her eyes. "I'd been meaning to ask you that, actually. What are you looking for? I mean...hang on a moment." Moving back to the equipment, she taps the larger crystal on the side, making it stop sputtering. This happens a lot, apparently some of the stuff she's working with is very delicate. "Hm. Might need to calibrate that again. So why do you take princesses anyway? Or what appear to be princesses," she allows at the last.
Fairy Lamya	What is she looking for? That is a good question. Lamya takes a moment to consider this before answering. "I want to break the cycle that rules my life," she concludes. "I awake. I am driven to kidnap a princess to keep her in my hoard. I protect her until a Hero comes to rescue her, and then we fight until, ultimately, I am slain. Then I wake up again and the cycle repeats." "By awakening Emperor Pierrot, he will bring a Bad End to the world, which will mean that there will be no more Heroes," she continues. "Thus, the cycle would be broken." She tilts her head curiously. "This is not something that I would expect science to answer, but perhaps I am wrong," she allows.
Entrapta	Entrapta sits, resting her chin on her hands, folded. She listens avidly, as if this really matters to her. Then out of nowhere her stomach rumbles, and her eyes glance downward. She shrugs it off, but clearly she hasn't eaten. "I've been reading up a bit," she says. Which is probably an understatement. "Fairy tales specifically, trying to understand where you're coming from, in this case very literally. Do you mind if I eat something while we work? It's very distracting if I don't." But she continues. "I've quite a few questions. Like, what happened before this cycle started, or do you remember? Or is that the beginning of your story? I noticed that most fairy tales just begin, and have no prequel state in which to exist." She's not wrong.
Fairy Lamya	"Go right ahead," Lamya says with a nod. "No person would attempt science on an empty stomach." "I... do not remember what has happened before this," she admits. "Perhaps I had a life before I was a dragon? I do not know. I would like to think so. I like to think that I was... something else. Perhaps this is punishment for something I had done, but as you said, fairy tales just... begin."
Entrapta	The girl pops something into her mouth, a single bite. And that, it seems, is enough for now. She's thinking, and you can almost hear the gears turning. "Most fairy tales begin with 'once upon a time' or 'a long time ago', and end with telling the reader that the characters 'lived happily ever after'. Fairy tales are often set in the past, but not in a defined period of history, and they usually have a happy ending where the hero triumphs over adversity." She pauses, her equipment secondary right now. "The idea of a hero is pretty flexible, you can have very odd heroes. Even villains, if it's written correctly. But the basic theme is always, a problem needs to be solved. The hero solves it, often in a fashion that's obvious only afterward, and often with help. And then there's a happily ever after for the main participant, or participants." Scritching her ear, she says finally, "So you're trying to be the hero in your own story, and this is your tale. At least if you look at it right."
Fairy Lamya	Lamya tilts her head curiously. "What is it that you ate?" she asks. "If you are hungry, you should eat more than... that. I have snacks in the pantry if you like." Because what kind of lair would this be without a pantry? But back to the matter at hand. As Lamya listens to Entrapta breaking down the narratives of fairytales, there is a low, thoughtful rumble. "Yes," she says. "I suppose you're right. I am always cast as the villain, as the 'problem that needs to be solved.' It would be nice not to be. I would like a happily ever after of my own."
Entrapta	"Well, first I'd try to identify the magical thread that determines a fairy tale as actually being one," Entrapta says. "That's just a matter of learning a completely new type of magic, which I'm actually set up to do! That's basically all I've been doing since I arrived on earth, so...I mean, it's not out of my way." She smiles, then says, "Eat when your body is hungry, stop when you've eaten. Your body will alert you to further needs. That's how I ingest food, and food should never be in larger quantities than your body is prepared to handle. Mine is used to small portions when it calls for them, which is why I don't make it wait." She pauses, then says, "I don't know what it was, actually. Some food I took from somewhere. Do you mind if I test you for storytelling magic? I'll need you to talk a bit. Maybe about aspects of your tale."
Fairy Lamya	"Hm," Lamya rumbles thoughtfully. "I had never thought to examine whether or not my story is magical, though in hindsight it does seem likely." She shakes her great head, "Marchenland //is// a magical place, and that is where I'm from." She sweeps a wing to indicate outside, "As is the Bad End Kingdom, but I do not know if it is the same kind of magic." "I do not mind the testing," she says. "If it will help me break free of this curse." She falls silent for a moment as she thinks about the stories she's always been involved in. "When I awaken or resurrected, I am always beset by a //need//. A drive to kidnap a princess, usually, though it may be some kind of other woman. It's always a woman, for some reason, and not a man. Sometimes, the need is to take a great magical item and guard it from being taken by a hero, but not in this iteration." She looks out of the cave, getting lost in thought. "This imperative is only for taking the princess or the thing and to guard it. There is no protocol for how I treat them once they are in my care. I try to be cordial, to make them comfortable since it is their fate to be kidnapped... to be an object to be rescued." She turns her attention back to Entrapta. "They always try to escape, and I cannot allow that. It turns me mean." "Then someone inevitably comes to rescue the princess or to take the magical object, and we fight." She lets out a low sigh, "And despite my superior strength and prowess, I am always slain. It is quite frustrating. And then, sometime later, it starts all over again."
Entrapta	"I'd been meaning to ask about that, the sexuality of the target. Not in the way they mean it now but in its proper definition, the fact that there is a distinctness to the target of your curse. It suggests motive of the one who placed it upon you." She's gotten up while Lamya is talking, and has been studying the reactions of her equipment. She says nothing about it though. "The aspect that made me think tha you were under your own rules, of fairy tales, though, was the repetitive element." "You're clearly," she mumbles as she bites on something to tighten a linkage, "Sec. Okay. Clearly falling into the fairy tale pattern, but the difference is in you. The villain in the tale is never aware that they're the villain." She turns, looking over a potion that's bubbling merrily. "You are, and that takes you to a different pattern. That makes you ..hm." Pause. She thinks, discarding options. "You're not the villain, you're too self-aware and in need of help. You're not the hero, that would require the ability to act." She raises an eyebrow. "That means you must be the princsss. You're the one that needs rescuing in the tale."
Fairy Lamya	One of the things that Entrapta's equipment picks up is the presence of Dark Energy. Lamya is laced with it, having it threaded throughout her being, though how it affects her is unclear at the moment. She looks thoughtful for a moment as she considers something. "Perhaps that is why I do not remember a life before this," she muses. "It is not that I didn't exist, it's just that I wasn't aware of what I was." Being called the princess causes her to rear up in alarm. "What!? No! I couldn't possibly be... Who would ever rescue me? That's just not how it's done! I would have to be kidnapped first, and considering my size, that is unlikely to happen!" However, despite her denials, something about that notion strikes true to her.
Entrapta	The rearing up of her subject doesn't even make Entrapta blink. She focuses on her work. "Well, that's not a new energy type at all," she says, peering at her work. "Actually I've seen very little of it, I'd need to study this more. You're not showing up on my normal wavelengths, it's an abnormal one. Fascinating..." She finally looks up, then says, "It's all theoretical, fairy tales aren't set in stone. Unless they are, but that's on the bad ending scale.." She's referring to actually turning to stone, like the Medusa's story. Not directly related. "I ..hm. Some background radiation I'm not familiar at all with, I wonder if that's the story magic. Hard to tell with only that one reading, I'll keep this on while I go and get an ongoing reading. If that's okay." She is going to either way, she isn't really asking. "Have you ever heard of the villain being the one who gets cursed? No, it's always the victim. If it is the villain, they're the victim by the story's end. You've been lied to, somewhere."
Fairy Lamya	Lamya just watches as Entrapta mutters and works on her machines. "Normal... wavelengths?" she hazards. "Background radiation?" Clearly, she's interested but doesn't quite understand. "Lied to?" she asks, tentatively confused before the dark energy threaded through her being flares up. "What? No. Impossible! I am no victim! I am taking my destiny into my own hands, and rewriting the tale to bring a Bad End to all!"
Entrapta	Entrapta doesn't turn from her machines. "By awakening Emperor Pierrot, he will bring a Bad End to the world, which will mean that there will be no more Heroes," she quotes Lamya's own words. "I heard what you said. You're driven to kidnap, then to fight, then you die." She shrugs. She adjusts some things. She doesn't seem upset, unlike her compatriot of the current moment. "So you think that the Emperor is that much stronger than you are?" She pauses to write down some readings. She's letting Lamya answer. Or she's just not in a huge rush, which amounts to the same thing.
Fairy Lamya	"Yes," Lamya says, slowly lowering her head. "As mighty as I am, I am limited in my power to affect things. Emperor Pierrot has no such limitations, save that he is asleep and needs enough Bad Energy to awaken." She considers Entrapta for a moment before her form shifts and shrinks until she is in her dragon girl form. One that she had not shown Entrapta before. "This is the purpose of the Picture Book of Darkness," she says, pulling the artifact out from... somewhere. It's a large hefty tome nearly dripping of Dark Energy. "Using the Black Paint of Darkness, it is able to bring about the Bad End of the people around it to drain them of all the Bad Energy they emit." She steps forward and offers the book to her guest. "You may look, but be careful. It is very powerful."
Entrapta	That gets Entrapta's attention. She comes out, tape measure at the ready, and immediately checks to see how tall the new girl is. Because of course she does. "I never can grasp how the physics works, you'd have to store all that mass somehow," she says. But she doesn't expect it to be explained. Magic, after all, is kinda BS when you get right down to it. Then she looks at the book. Then at Lamya's new face. Then behind her, as if checking to see if she's hiding a dragon back there. "Do you want me to scan it? What is it?" Normally she just grabs things, but this is a girl based around science. She has no urge to magic, herself.
Fairy Lamya	Lamya's tail swishes lazily back and forth as she's measured head to toe and tip to tail. "It's magic," she says, echoing Entrapta's thoughts. "It has its own rules. I do not pretend to understand them all. Perhaps someone like Joker has a better grasp of them but..." Her gaze warily travels to the mouth of her cave as if just naming the evil harlequin would summon him. "I do not think it wise to bother him about it." Turning back to Entrapta she says, "It is a magic book. I do not know how it works, but since you are doing research on all... this, I thought you would like to scan it."
Entrapta	Entrapta smiles. "I'd be happy to," she says gently. "There is no bad data, and if it can help then it's going to be useful to others. That seems to be a pattern, overall. If it helps in one place, it'll be useful somewhere else at some point. So, never wasted." She motions to an area on the table, then frowns. She pushes STUFF out of the way, some of it falling to the floor, then motions to the now empty space. "Let's get started then. Once I've had some time with it you can tell me what the heck I'm looking at. Because 'it's a magic book' doesn't really tell me much, you have to admit."
Fairy Lamya	Walks up to the table and waits patiently as Entrapta clears it off before setting the book down on it. "Well, no," she concedes. "I wish I could tell you more. All I know is that it, with the combination of the Black Paint of Darkness to activate it, will create a zone that..." she pauses as she struggles to find the right words to describe what happens. "It brings the Bad Ends of people to the forefront, I guess. Their apathy and despair become Bad Energy which is then siphoned into this book, and given to Emperor Pierrot." Her eyes glance at the book in question. "''How'' it does this, is beyond my understanding. I couldn't tell you this any more than I can tell you where my mass goes when I change forms."
Entrapta	"Good!" Entrapta says, grinning wider as she puts her hands on Lamya's shoulders. Or almost does, she stops just short. Doesn't really like touching, but she knows the gesture. She lowers hr hands, a bit awkwardly, and keeps smiling. "Step one of becoming a scientist, achieved. You're coming along, and it's super useful." She turns back, then starts to turn her stuff to face the new input. "Step one is always the same. You gotta be able to admit, that you don't know. So you can progress. You'd be amazed how hard that can be, sometimes. Now, help me set these up. I'll teach you what they all do, and you can really start learning!" She's happy to share. It's a passion. She wants not only to learn, but for the world to learn. And, Lamya is part of the world. And as of now, Lamya is being pulled into the whirlwind that is Entrapta. We hope that it's a good thing, because it is unstoppable. Unless you bit her head off, that might slow her down. You know, for a while.