Oliver Freddy was cheerful and excited this early October morning, as his intensive studying this semester was starting to pay off. They had just received their results for their mid-term exams yesterday, and Oliver Freddy had passed with a solid A. He was very close now to earning a spot on the Dean's list for excellent students. Inge was a little further behind, but was still doing good, relatively speaking. She was content with getting a weak B on her mid-term, but she had hoped to do a little better.
Oliver Freddy wasn't particularly hungry either this morning, as
he had just finished a pretty massive meal yesterday shortly before
bedtime, so he thought he could spend some time experimenting at the
chemistry table before class. Maybe chemistry could hold some of the
solution to making sentient plants... pun intended. ;)
Or maybe not.. disappointed with not learning anything new, he had to pick up his bag and head down to the Science building for his lecture..
Downstairs Inge had just finished her breakfast while listening to
Liz Tarry babbling enthusiastically about her own technology project,
while typing frantically on her computer. Inge, being an art student,
didn't understand half of what she said, and could only nod and say
"mmhmm... " and "..that sounds really
interesting..."
When walking upstairs to get a shower and put on some clothes, she had to struggle really hard to not look at the beer keg standing in the corner.. She really wanted to head over to it and have a beer, just one couldn't hurt.... right? ...and if the Watcher hadn't stepped in to tap her on her right shoulder to guide her in the right direction, that's excactly what she would have done.. but I don't want to see that happening...
- Painting, writing and science -
After finishing her shower and feeding Oliver Freddys anchovy Ansgar upstairs, she sat down to have a solid cup of coffee.... If the Watcher wouldn't allow her to drink from the keg, atleast she should get a coffee to kickstart her day and help her get ready to write a few more chapters on her science fiction novel...
It rewarded her with 15 more simoleons after she handed them in to the publisher, but writing can be tiresome, especially when the effects of the coffee run out..
To keep her mind away from the beer keg, she thought some fresh air might do her good, and wanted to go for a bike ride around town.. to bad it was raining, so she chose the second best thing right now..
..to walk upstairs and start a painting of her bike instead. She
wanted to paint it using a cold, blue palette, and she had already
decided on a name for the painting, "Tragic Bike".
At the same time over at the Student Union Oliver Freddy had some more reasearch to do. With the latest addition of Inges DNA to his collection of samples, he now had three different types of DNA. One of a fish, the anchovy Ansgar, one of a werewolf-human hybrid, Samantha, and last one of a human, Inge.
Trying to remember what he had learnt so far about the structure and building blocks of human DNA he picked out his sample of Ansgar, to look for similarities. It was already known that in some species of fish, such as the zebrafish, shared up to 70 % of its DNA with human DNA. So he thought it should be possible.. Specifically he wanted to find what excactly genes they had in common and where there could be a possibility to connect the two. Not because he wanted to create mer-people, but if he could figure out a way this could be done.. it would certainly be hmm.. revolutionary.
If anything, atleast because it would lend some evidence to all the tales of the seafarers of old about the alluring mermaids, calling on them with their beautiful song only to grab hold of them and drag them down to the depths, leading to a certain death...
Fascinating, but he also knew that research of this kind would be highly controversial and eschewed by the scientific community at large. In spite of the obvious existance of human-animal hybrids like Samantha, the general notion was that humans and animals should not mix... due to both legal and moral implications...Yet, at one point, for whatever reason, they must have, and even created offspring that was able to survivie for more than a week.. how could that be done!?
Unfortunately he didn't really come any closer. His study of Ansgars DNA didn't help to much. First of all, he was an anchovy... and even if he could locate the genes of his DNA that would be common with human DNA that wouldn't necessarily point him to a method on how they could be joined..
Disappointed he had to leave the lab knowing that he was only treading through known waters.. His findings provided useful insight for his upcoming exam, but not much else. He was still only an undergraduate after all...
So it was back to the books again.. he was rereading chapters previously read, looking for tiny details that he might have overlooked. Maybe there was something in there that could be a tiny pointer on where to go next..
Many of these pointers would probably be dead ends for him, not
leading to what he wanted to find answers to, but still pointing
towards areas of research that might be interesting to others.. He
could already picture it in his mind, getting to publish his first
article in an academic journal, with the typical conclusion at the
end... 'further reasearch is needed'.....
– Keith's Comics -
After Inge had finished her painting and hung up on the wall
outside their room, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out to
dry up the puddles on the sidewalk enough for Inge to think she could
now take her bike for a small trip. She had no idea of where she
wanted to go, her aim wasn't really to go anywhere in particular. She
just wanted to get out of the house, because she knew it would be
sensible to keep some distance between her and that beer keg...
..but when she walked out the door, she was shocked to find her
bike no longer there! Someone had stolen it! Or maybe some of her
absent minded dorm mates had borrowed it, that wouldn't be
surprising.. If the bike wasn't returned before the end of the day,
she thought she would have to report it to the police as stolen and
then consider it permanently lost, because that's just how things
worked...
So what was to be a pleasant bike ride, turned into a car ride instead, aimlessly driving around the blocks for a while, before finally parking it outside Keiths Comics, a place she didn't really visit all that often...
She would sometimes read cartoons though, ones left around the dorm by her fellow students. Some cartoons where of the childish and vulgar kind, leaning on offensive humour. She considered them pre-pubescent and quickly put them down, but others had, atleast for a cartoon, deep and engaging storylines with detailed drawings, sometimes covering an entire page. Those were the cartoons that were a little harder to put away, and though she wouldn't admit it publicly, some of her art might even be inspired by these cartoons.
She was curious, yet she didn't want to be seen actually buying a cartoon in public, so she pretended to only hang around there to watch the cooking channel on tv yet again...
There weren't to many people inside the comic store today, so she
probably could've bought a cartoon or too, as long as the store clerk
kept quiet about it..
There were only a few people hanging out in the backyard. Náddjá Sohtunjok, a freshman art student practicing graffiti and Shasha Parks interviewing Millie Grubb for her semester assignment.
I hang around and focus on Náddjás painting and let the
interview happen in the background, until I hear slapping... I don't
know what the topic was, but Shasha must have asked a question Millie
didn't excactly approve of..
Inge had noticed the commotion from inside, but was to late to the
party.. to figure out what happened, as Millie was already leaving
the scene and Shasha was contemplating continuing a decorative art
piece on her own.. What the dude standing there tapping his foot is
waiting for, I don't know..
Whatever happened wasn't her business anyway, she thought as she walked away to run off to her lecture. She wanted to improve her performance after the mid-term and could feel already that she was getting closer to making it onto the Dean's list as well.. She really wanted to pass her final exam, with the usual flying colours.. ;)
– Plants and more science -
Oliver Freddy needed to give his brain a break to digest all this
information once more, so after feeding his stomach with the usual
dry and overcooked burger from the Student Unions canteen, he went
home to relax while tending to his little garden again.. He couldn't
relax completely though, as he kept thinking about how to extract a
sample from the apple tree that would hopefully start growing..
atleast as soon as spring arrived, because it had already gone
dormant before the winter...
Then it was back to the lab again.. now he would examine the DNA
sample from Samantha. This one should be interesting...he was
expecting her DNA to definately be something unique...
He was caught up in his research now, he didn't even notice Hanna Germanotta in the background anxiously rehearsing a presentation she was about to hold..
..and finally he discovered something! Without getting to technical, which means I'll have to get technical.... ...it looked like he had discovered a combination of nucleotides – DNA building blocks - that were present in both Samanthas DNA and in the DNA of Ansgar, and according to the theory in the books he just read, the same nucleotide should also be present in every human DNA as well.
This could be the way, or atleast one of the ways, where animal and human DNA actually could be merged. Likely there would have to be more than just one nucleotide common in each DNA type for a merge to be successful, but atleast he had potentially uncovered one of the pieces... He just needed to confirm this now, by finding the same nucleotide in Inges DNA and he would be on his way to something great... or disastrous! That remains yet to be seen... more research was definately needed...
While Oliver Freddy was doing his scientific discoveries Inge was
finishing her lecture to run back to their dorm to continue watching
the cooking channel.. During the lecture break, Samantha had talked
to her to invite her to a party over at the girls sorority house
later that night. Inge was really excited about this, as she would be
of any party invitation, but this one meant a little more as it come
from Samantha, who was, besides her boyfriend, her best friend in
this town..
Oliver Freddy had returned to the books again.. He didn't feel
like doing anymore research on the DNA samples for now, but still
decided to reread the chapter on human DNA for the third time
today...
-- Samantha's party --
After watching the cooking channel for a good while, Inge became hungry and decided to have a quick microwave meal. Samanthas party was coming up soon, and she didn't want to be late, so there was no time to use any of what she had learned from watching tv.. and just to make sure, as she was putting her dinner into the microwave, Samantha called her to give her a friendly reminder..
Samantha wanted the party to be a success, in part because she felt she
had to impress the other girls a little bit, and it would have been
such a downfall if she threw a party and nobody showed
up!
..but she wouldn't need to worry, atleast about Inges attendance. She would definately be there, she just had to finish her meal first. :P
..also, when she walked out the door – prepared to go there in a
taxi just in case.. she found a pleasant surprise. Her bike had now
somehow mysteriously returned to the bike rack after having gone
missing earlier.. so there would be no need to report it to the
police as stolen. She should probably give everyone a reminder
though, that it would be nice if they could be so kind to ask before
borrowing...
Inge decided to go alone to this party and not bring her
boyfriend, mostly because this is a girls sorority house after all,
but also so that he wouldn't once again make those unpleasant
comments about her beer drinking..
However, lucky for Inge I suppose, the girls had no beer keg in
their house, so that wouldn't have been an issue anyway.. So, after a
little bit anxiously ringing the door bell (because it might be that
unpleasant Hanna Germanotta opening the door...), she changed to her
swim wear and walked inside to find the host of the party.. They had
some friendly chatter about their days and exchanged a few jokes,
before cheering for the university again. Inge trusts Samantha and
feels she has found a good friend to which she can share most things,
and is not embarrassed to admit to enjoying cartoons.. Samantha
enjoys them too. ;)
Samantha had invited a bunch of girls (including her mom) to a pool party, but for most of them the october nights where a little to chilly for swimming outdoors, so instead it became more of a swim suit bonfire party instead. That's also a good way to enjoy these autumn nights, seeking the warmth of a good fire under a starry sky..
Cora Sidwell is not happy about Shannon Arkers presence.. who does
she think she is, coming here defying the dress code in her
graduating gown... She's not even a student anymore, she has a job
now! Boo! Shannon couldn't care less though.. in her mind she knows
who the loser is, and it's not her.. She knows what matters and she
never felt the need to dress in revealing clothing to get anyones
attention.... That Cora is so amusing...
After a while the lack of a beer keg didn't really matter to much,
as Inge had found another way to amuse herself by chucking various
smelly test tubes into the fire..
It was a pretty calm evening, and everyone was well behaved, probably due to the lack of beer keg, so there wasn't really any drama going on. Which is nice to sometimes... eventually Inge got tired and wanted to go home and get some sleep, but of course...
..not without stopping by the host and thanking her for the
invitation and saying how much she enjoyed the evening, before
parting ways with a solid hug of the kind only best friends can
share.
It was very fitting that Samanthas mother Susie just entered the
door right then. It pleased her very much to see her daughter having
made such a good friend among the humans, because she knows how hard
it can be for their kind to fit in with the general
population..
It was a sight that warmed the mothers heart even more than the
bonfire outside. She almost considered to invite Inge over to their
place, but that was just almost... She knew her husband would
probably say no to inviting a human to their home, no matter
how friendly said human appeared to be with his daughter... Not every
fire that warms is a good one, and Samanthas father had certainly
been burnt once or twice...
The bonfire party probably went on for several hours more, but now
it was time for Inge to leave for the night.. she was a little
anxious if her bike would be borrowed again, but luckily it was still
there right where she left it...
Her boyfriend was pretty when he was sleeping.. she knew that. Now that she was sober it was clear... it wasn't an effect of the beer... he was simply a very pretty human being, as he had been since her high school days.. He was one of the few, well, really, the only one who had the bravery to stand up against the bullies and make her school days tolerable, and she had always respected him for that...
Sleeping next to him was one of the best things she could do...
Good night... ;)
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