[ Qubit smiles proudly, which is probably answer enough on its own. ]
It did.
[ And the next question is going to be "how," right? How did you drill a hole 20 to 30 kilometers long, underwater, into molten magma, in a matter of hours? He's not going to wait for Reynir to ask it, details of implementation are his favorite thing. ]
Obviously, there was still some risk involved - if seawater got into the magma chamber, we'd have run the risk of a phreatic explosion, which would have been much worse. So while Plutonian was digging the channel, we positioned Scylla and Charybdis here, at the entrance - working together, their force shields could withstand a lot worse than twenty atmospheres of water pressure - while I monitored the data and stood by to extract.
[ He might have glossed it over accidentally, but yes, Reynir, you did hear correctly - all the actual digging was done by one guy. ]
But in the end, all went according to plan. The quakes subsided, and Eyjafjallajökull quietly went back to sleep.
[ Reynir gets the general idea of it, saving his questions until the very end. Some of the questions he has he holds back, partly because he's probably already given the impression of being naive and uneducated. He'll just ask Onni later if he knows what a phreatic explosion is (except he's definitely going to forget to do that.
Other questions though, where he's mostly just seeking confirmation, he doesn't mind asking: ]
Plutonian is a person?
[ After a beat. ]
And so are... Scylla and Charybdis?
[ Damn but people from other worlds have got some WEIRD-ASS NAMES, not that Reynir is exactly going to say that explicitly, but it's sort of implied in his tone of voice.
A tiny part of Reynir wonders, in a brief but painful flash, if the Illness could have been prevented it his world had had superheroes like Qubit. But it's best not to dwell on the might have beens. Instead, he just lets himself be happy that in this other Iceland, the day was saved. ]
It sounds like you're a really excellent team. I hope - everyone was very grateful, and recognized how hard you'd worked and how bad it could've been?
[ - regarding the names. Deceased, now, but people nonetheless. It's easier to talk about them now, separated from the loss by a year and change, but he still can't help feeling a certain pang of regret that's not unlike homesickness. They were an excellent team, and he misses that. There's a lot he misses about those days.
It's interesting that Reynir should ask that question, though. He isn't simply taking the public's reaction for granted. Qubit nods, but his expression isn't entirely affirmative. ]
... For the most part, yes. But ... [ he sighs. how to phrase this. ] In the ensuing weeks, the vent we'd opened did cause a local die-off of marine life. Not catastrophic, but more pronounced than I'd anticipated. Moreover, not everyone did recognize how bad it could have been. The data we were working from disagreed with existing vulcanological models, after all.
So we did take some criticism for it. Most of it boiled down to, "Was the response really proportionate to the threat?" Essentially, the scientific community demanded that I show my work.
[ He smiles wryly and shrugs. ] So I did. Wrote up my findings and submitted them for peer review. Which is always a headache and a half, let me tell you. I'm fairly certain they hate reviewing my papers at least as much as I hate writing them.
[ Somehow, every single reviewer thinks his writing sounds defensive! Can't imagine why. ]
[ Reynir closes his eyes and gives a slow nod. It makes sense to him, that there would be consequences. If there weren't, it would seem too much like a myth, something not real. In the real world, trying to make things better sometimes only makes them worse, and sometimes it is necessary but there are still shitty unintended ripple effects. In a way, more than the holograms and more than all the facts and explanation, this detail seals it for Reynir, that all of this story is real. Qubit had done good work, but there's always some exchange.
But as for the scientific community, and showing work and findings and everything, all that is over his head. Please don't quiz him on what peer review means, Qubit. He's just nodding along to some of this. ]
Well, I'm grateful for your work, even if it wasn't my Iceland that you ended up saving.
[ That remark dims Qubit's smile somewhat. It is technically true that it's not the same Iceland, and... there's a strong possibility that superheroes could have stopped the Illness. Momentarily, it feels unfair. Why did his world get to survive so many existential threats when Reynir's didn't?
... But then again, there are always tradeoffs, aren't there. Trusting the fate of the world to superheroes is a big risk. His own world learned that the hard way. ]
Well, thank you. [ He taps his watch to put the hologram away, and checks the time while he's at it. ] Ah. I'd better get going. Carlisle's a stickler for punctuality, I'm afraid.
[ He pushes off from the lab table he's leaning against, does a final last-second tweak to his gun, and closes it up. ]
I'll tell you about the second incident some other time, if you like.
[ That's Reynir for you - he'd forgotten all about why he was here in the first place and the pressing business that Qubit has, and had just been enjoying chatting away without a care in the world. But he takes the hint quickly and gets up as well, getting himself all ready to leave along with Qubit.
When he offers to tell him another story again in the future, Reynir replies, with complete honesty and earnestness: ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
It did.
[ And the next question is going to be "how," right? How did you drill a hole 20 to 30 kilometers long, underwater, into molten magma, in a matter of hours? He's not going to wait for Reynir to ask it, details of implementation are his favorite thing. ]
Obviously, there was still some risk involved - if seawater got into the magma chamber, we'd have run the risk of a phreatic explosion, which would have been much worse. So while Plutonian was digging the channel, we positioned Scylla and Charybdis here, at the entrance - working together, their force shields could withstand a lot worse than twenty atmospheres of water pressure - while I monitored the data and stood by to extract.
[ He might have glossed it over accidentally, but yes, Reynir, you did hear correctly - all the actual digging was done by one guy. ]
But in the end, all went according to plan. The quakes subsided, and Eyjafjallajökull quietly went back to sleep.
no subject
Other questions though, where he's mostly just seeking confirmation, he doesn't mind asking: ]
Plutonian is a person?
[ After a beat. ]
And so are... Scylla and Charybdis?
[ Damn but people from other worlds have got some WEIRD-ASS NAMES, not that Reynir is exactly going to say that explicitly, but it's sort of implied in his tone of voice.
A tiny part of Reynir wonders, in a brief but painful flash, if the Illness could have been prevented it his world had had superheroes like Qubit. But it's best not to dwell on the might have beens. Instead, he just lets himself be happy that in this other Iceland, the day was saved. ]
It sounds like you're a really excellent team. I hope - everyone was very grateful, and recognized how hard you'd worked and how bad it could've been?
no subject
[ - regarding the names. Deceased, now, but people nonetheless. It's easier to talk about them now, separated from the loss by a year and change, but he still can't help feeling a certain pang of regret that's not unlike homesickness. They were an excellent team, and he misses that. There's a lot he misses about those days.
It's interesting that Reynir should ask that question, though. He isn't simply taking the public's reaction for granted. Qubit nods, but his expression isn't entirely affirmative. ]
... For the most part, yes. But ... [ he sighs. how to phrase this. ] In the ensuing weeks, the vent we'd opened did cause a local die-off of marine life. Not catastrophic, but more pronounced than I'd anticipated. Moreover, not everyone did recognize how bad it could have been. The data we were working from disagreed with existing vulcanological models, after all.
So we did take some criticism for it. Most of it boiled down to, "Was the response really proportionate to the threat?" Essentially, the scientific community demanded that I show my work.
[ He smiles wryly and shrugs. ] So I did. Wrote up my findings and submitted them for peer review. Which is always a headache and a half, let me tell you. I'm fairly certain they hate reviewing my papers at least as much as I hate writing them.
[ Somehow, every single reviewer thinks his writing sounds defensive! Can't imagine why. ]
no subject
But as for the scientific community, and showing work and findings and everything, all that is over his head. Please don't quiz him on what peer review means, Qubit. He's just nodding along to some of this. ]
Well, I'm grateful for your work, even if it wasn't my Iceland that you ended up saving.
no subject
... But then again, there are always tradeoffs, aren't there. Trusting the fate of the world to superheroes is a big risk. His own world learned that the hard way. ]
Well, thank you. [ He taps his watch to put the hologram away, and checks the time while he's at it. ] Ah. I'd better get going. Carlisle's a stickler for punctuality, I'm afraid.
[ He pushes off from the lab table he's leaning against, does a final last-second tweak to his gun, and closes it up. ]
I'll tell you about the second incident some other time, if you like.
no subject
[ That's Reynir for you - he'd forgotten all about why he was here in the first place and the pressing business that Qubit has, and had just been enjoying chatting away without a care in the world. But he takes the hint quickly and gets up as well, getting himself all ready to leave along with Qubit.
When he offers to tell him another story again in the future, Reynir replies, with complete honesty and earnestness: ]
I'd really like that.