Chapter 5.3 – October 2023 – Further research is needed..

 

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.

Oliver Freddy taking a DNA sample from Ansgar, February 2023. (From Chapter 4.3 – February 2023 - Whichever one you feed...) Oliver Freddy taking a DNA sample from Samantha, May 2023. (From  Chapter 4.6 - May 2023: Wildfire, part II.. )

 

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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Chapter 5.1 – August 2023 – part II: Plants, planets and pillows.

I would just like to start with this image, where both of them dream about art. Oliver Freddy isn't usually into art, it's Inge who is the art student, but they obviously have some influence over each other. I suppose in their dreams now Inge would be the brush and Oliver Freddy would be the palette.. but then, who is the canvas? :P

Well...

Cute morning wake up picture. Inge looks like she has something on her mind. Oliver Freddy is a little groggy. He knows his first lecture will start soon in just a few hours. :P

..but first, breakfast time. Oliver Freddy talks about their date from yesterday, they've been together as a couple for quite some time now, which is impressive for their young age! :P

Inge talks about the party they ended up at. She has really started to enjoy them now that she has finally reached her secondary goal of actually becoming popular.. Just don't let it get out of hand. ;)

They have a good conversation by the breakfast table now though and there's no apparent disagreement.. then Oliver Freddy gets a little grumpy for having to run off to his lecture this early..

..but that's university life. That's what you came here for. Now go and make mommy proud. ;)

Inge has plenty of time though, so she spends her forenoon playing with the ball with Jonathan. It looks like they enjoy each others company now and Inge even feels attracted to him, but I can't tell if he still feels the same about her.. and yet, though while playing with him, she gets a wish to go on a date with Oliver Freddy again.. so in her mind, she knows what her plan is, or.. she doesn't want to place her bets on this one..

 

Taking advantage of him needing a bathroom break, she sat down on a computer to start a new novel. After her first attempt at a romance novel, "A miner's heart", had flopped and gotten some pretty negative reviews, she wanted to try something different and go for a science fiction novel instead.. 

    Not necessarily skipping over the romance, but not keeping it as the main driver for the storyline either. She wanted to make it a novel of.. exploration? A heros journey? Something like that? Distant planets and science wasn't necessarily her thing, but she had her boyfriend to lean on.. and being a writer, she had learnt, one would need to be able to conduct ones own research on a wide variety of topics... 

    She pictured this lone character from a planet known as Demetris IV by the Kakoseidus, but called Mag Ildatach by its inhabitants... If it went well, she hoped she could make it into a series of books.. maybe..

 

Oliver Freddy had finished his first lecture in the history of geriatrics, which was.. not the most interesting topic, but it was.. alright. His mind was still occupied with what he had been reading about the plantsims, so he went to the Student Union building to do some more experiments and a few of his plant samples. He didn't get to much wiser, but atleast he managed to extract some of their DNA.

Inge couldn't spend all her time writing, so she had to take a few breaks watching the cooking channel. In some circles, chefs are considered artists too, and she enjoyed watching it. Not just to learn recipes, but also because some of the chefs on the show were a little more experimental than others, and had some pretty radical ideas on how to design the food on the plate. Very fascinating what they can make just by a few simple ingredients, sometimes less really is more.. Food for the eye, maybe not so much for the stomach. ;)

Then it was back to writing again.. what if there could be an entire planet made out of meat somewhere out there? Like a gigantic meat ball.. no of course not, that's much to ridiculous... she imagined that Mag Ildatach had a slight dark red hazy hue to it's atmosphere, even during the middle of the day, as the planet had just seen a massive burst of volcanic activity filling the air with tiny particles that would still linger in the air and cool the planets climate for years to come... The volcanic eruptions had caused a night to come, and the planet was now in it's morning hours again...

 

Oliver Freddy couldn't let go of the idea of fusing human and plant DNA, and went to the whiteboard to make a diagram of what he knew so far about the different types of DNA.. there had to be some common ground, some way they could be combined and still produce a life form that could actually live as both human and plant.. Imagine the benefits of being able to pick up nutrients directly from the soil, and not having to go the route via.. other plants and meat from other animals... Maybe plantsims was the future..

However, he didn't really see a solution to his diagram – any possible way of splicing the DNAs, and it still looked very much like nonsensical science fiction at this point.. the kind of stuff that a novelist might come up with, since when writing a book things don't actually have to work, they just have to sound like they do..

 

He didn't want anyone to find his silly diagrams, so he wiped the whiteboard clean before he ran off to the library to read up on logic instead... Talking plants and trees, bah! One would have to be insane to come up with something like that...

After sending in the first chapters of her new novel to the publisher, Inge had received a small payment of 14 simoleons and decided that was enough writing for today, so she spent the rest of her time before the lecture playing some video games. It was a warm and pleasant summer day now that all the rain had passed from earlier this month, so she decided to skip using the car and run all the way to her lecture.

 

The library was peaceful and quiet, the perfect place to do some indepth reading on logic and clear thinking, where there would be no army of dancing university mascots to continuously rupture the silence..

 

..but even if the only sounds heard are people whispering in the distance, quiet footsteps on the stone floor and fumbling of paper from pages being turned in a book, going deep into the philosophy of rationalism and realism can be a tiring experience, so at one point he found it necessary to make the decision to head out to get some fresh air while returning to his dorm for a less dense atmosphere...

I was expecting him to relax or even go to sleep, but nope.. he immediately went for the computer to rehearse what he learnt during todays lecture! What a good boy, mommy will surely be very proud when she sees his grade report! ;)

He even remember the feed the fish, Ansgar, that he keeps in a bowl just outside their bedroom. A detail I haven't mentioned, but it was a fish he caught last year, and for some reason there he wanted to keep it as a pet, instead of something to be sampled for scientific purposes..

Then it's back to studying again.. Oliver Freddy really takes his studies seriously. ;)

After Inge is finished with her lecture, she listens to a joke by one of her fellow art students, and hearts begin to flutter again..

Inge is the kind of person that is very easily impressible, not because she is easily impressed, but because she is almost hyper sensitive to everything in her surroundings, whether it's people, butterflies or a beautiful sunset in a rundown industrial harbour area... the curse of having an 'artistic soul', she just can't help it.. it doesn't even have to be beautiful in the traditional sense to be impactful and cause an attraction in her... sometimes even when she's sober..

                    I see beauty in dead flowers...

..but she knows she has to stay grounded and not get carried away, so once the topic has changed from jokes about the art of food to the craft of writing she seizes the opportunity to give a nod to the journalists, such as the mother of her boyfriend.. so that this guy knows she is taken, and effectively closing this door for both of them..

 

Then it's time to leave him and the other students behind for a while, to return to her favourite item to get some alone time to unwind without all these impressions from the outside world.. The couch and the tv are perfect companions when you just want to be by yourself...

 

They didn't find time to go on a date today, but later when it's time for supper with her boyfriend she starts to talk about the bed and pillows...

 

Oliver Freddy catches on to what she's saying, and listening to her voice talking about bedsheets makes him want to give her a kiss.. ;)

 

Let dishes be dishes, there's no need to ask.. wish granted... and from here there's only one way this could go..

Sometimes it's just hard to take your eyes off of what you really love..

The face of someone that knows what comes next...

Waiting patiently...

The bed is comfortable, the pillows are soft, but.. oh, would you look at that!

The bed probably didn't find this to comfortable, but the kids sure enjoyed it, taking their turns being both the brush and the palette.. Art was made and when they were done the brush was dripping with paint, however this art was of the kind that could only be enoyed in the moment as they made sure that nothing really stuck to the canvas... for now...

 

Good night.. ;)

 

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