A Brilliant Mind [Cap]

„Goddamn it, Dawn, is that smoke I smell!?“ a loud voice echoed from one of the rooms further from the kitchen. „I swear to God if you‘re pulling that Sun summoning thing again!“ a slightly silenced voice of Dawn‘s roommate still reached the ears of a young woman who had set a loaf of bread on fire. Several seconds later some loud steps could‘ve been heard, then a figure of Dawn‘s roommate Cindy appeared in the doorway, „For the last time, Sun rises REGARDLESS if you offer it food, this is the fifth time I tell you that!“ the woman yelled out obviously annoyed by the behavior of her roomie.  „I mean for God‘s sake you‘re a physics student... Third year!!! You've even been awarded for best grades in your course, how can you ace in kinematics without knowing that!? I‘ve been putting up with this bullshit for three years...Jeez“ the woman went back to her room. She probably knew that Dawn wouldn‘t roast the appartment and that there was no point in trying to get to her roommate.

After several seconds Dawn put the flame out and threw the crisped piece of bread into the thrash bin, her ritual was complete. The woman could not understand how could her roommate say that Sun rises regardless of her sacrifice, obviously during the winter when she‘s more busy and doesn‘t have that much time to sacrifice food for the Sun the ball of fire does not appear at the same rhythm. Or maybe it had something to do with the rotation of the Earth just like her professor briefly mentioned but didn‘t elaborate on? It is so unfortunate that Dawn had to skip the precious years of this dimension‘s highschool. It felt like starting to study the mystical arts from the most advanced forms, physics certainly was as mystical an art as it got. Dawn was already ready to go before she decided to make sure that the Sun‘s hunger for sacrifices is sated.

That day was supposed to be a very special one, the professor of thermodynamics has invited a very special guest to read a lecture on his work. From what Dawn read about him in the mystical library of the internet it appeared that he was one of the most famous mystics of physics known to this dimension. He would certainly have very ground-breaking ideas about his subject and Dawn drank overwhelming doses of potion known as coffee that her roommate drinks when she wishes to concentrate. So far Dawn has been trying to avoid trying that concoction but this special occasion appeared as good as any to try it. After all what better occasion could there be then one of the most skilled mystics reading a lecture of his craft. After finishing the last cup of coffee Dawn took her bag and rushed to the lecture.

College was not that far away from the apartment that she and Cindy were renting from an old lady who moved into the city from some place called Poland. It appeared that the old lady started fresh in New York when she first arrived but soon got a small business of renting students apartments for slightly higher than usual prices to sustain her small business. Dawn did not know her roommate that well, the young woman was same age that Dawn was which meant that Cindy started college late as well, so far the woman hasn’t told the physics student why it was so. Dawn herself only started college at twenty years old because she had only arrived into this dimension at that age, until then she lived in the Home dimension. Dawn always wanted to know what Cindy’s reason for later age of starting studies was, probably mostly of curiosity.

A groupie stopped Dawn near the entrance, “Hey, Dawn, you’re early. That excited, huh?” he asked. The one that stopped the woman was not the best example of a Earth dimension local – he somehow knew that Dawn was not from around and kept bugging her for this dimension currency for different things. Yet the woman’s secret was safe the young man only thought that she was from another country or a continent, something called the Europe. People from the Europe were apparently very weird or so John claimed. Dawn wished to meet some of the people from there, seeing how she was also rather strange she’d probably have a lot in common with those people. “Say Dawn, have 10 bucks to spare? Borrow me some to burrow it into the ground so that… The leaves grow back in spring.”

“Was that not why you borrowed ten dollars of currency last year, John?” Dawn asked, the man smiled “Well, the leaves grew back, didn’t they?” Dawn shrugged her shoulders and gave the man his ten dollars. John often borrowed money for physics rituals and he always gave them back, from what Dawn heard he had debts to the whole college but he always gave her the money back. “He’s such a nice fellow doing the ritual for all of us…” Dawn thought to herself. She wondered how do the Earth dimension people know who should do this peculiar ritual each autumn, after all if a lot of people perform it and one is all that is needed is that not waste of dollar currency? Some physics rituals were strange and what was stranger that professors in college never spoke about how to perform them, only how the mystical forces of physics worked. Dawn always found it rather odd, wasn’t how to sustain those mystical forces the main part? Learning physics was much different from what Dawn had imagined.

Professor stood up and spoke for a while, he probably thought that for some reason his students would not study until just before the exams so he wanted to let them know the basics about what the guest would be talking about. “Why would he think so lowly of us that we would not study? Does the world’s balance not depend on our knowledge of arts of physics?” Dawn wondered to herself. She knew very well what the lecture was supposed to be about since she studied whole year long because she believed that knowledge of physics was integral to the existence of this world. The way she saw it if the laws of physics are not given their sacrifices, what stops an angered gamma-ray burst from frying everything? Was that not why she left that page from books of physics incantations under her mattress? No, that was from rogue black holes and solar flares… “Alright, you can come in now, Mr. Vergil.” The words of professor abruptly tore the young woman’s attention from her wild fears back to the lecture.

The so called genius that the professor invited to give his lecture was nothing Dawn expected him to be. He definitely looked more like the age at which one would still be in college or blowing them away in one of those professions that were considered lowly in this dimension. While he was certainly of similar age that most of the students in the hall were Vergil definitely looked much more refined and had this strange look like he was completely sure of what he was doing here and completely backed himself up. It was a lot how Dawn wanted to feel most of the time, have no fear of screwing things up and making a fool of herself for no reason except her own lack of experience. While the man carried around his glasses he did not appear to need them, this confused Dawn a little, the young woman did not understand what quirks were and thought that for everything there had to be a clever reason or explanation.

Ever since the guest opened his mouth and said the first few words it was obvious that this was not your average everyday personality. This man had strange attraction to him, he knew what and when to say to exactly make his point clear and if he didn’t he simply didn’t seem to care. It was the first time that Dawn saw the example of what the word charismatic defined. The man did not lack self-confidence but it looked like it was more that of a healthy kind instead of disgusting one, every time he praised himself there was basis for his words. He spoke of the origins of the Steel Industries Tower, something that the student read about when she read about this famous genius online. Not that much reading had to be done to know about one of the most prominent landmarks around the city.

Most students were interested in the man’s lecture at first. Yet with every ten or fifteen minutes of his speech parts of crowd just started to do something else, even the intro speech which was quite filled with social interactions with his crowd like jokes and references to their knowledge. By the time that Vergil got to the actual lecture only the most loyal fans of his personality or the most nerdy students stayed focused. By no means did that mean that Mr. Vergil was a bad spokesman or did not know what he’s talking about, it was just the way all students acted. All except for Dawn who had a fascination for craft that was considered mystical in her dimension. It was like what an ordinary person would feel who suddenly started studying magic all of a sudden.

That fascination with the mysticism of physics was probably what made Dawn not let her attention slip from the lecture for even one second. It was so amazing seeing a person who lived and breathed in the things he was talking about especially if those things were so weird and mystical for the woman. It was like meeting the supreme magician while being a normal person and listening to him talk about his mystical crafts. When the guest spoke about the chance to work in the Steel Industries tower Dawn knew that she had to try. She wasn’t a genius by her intellect capacity and wasn’t the prodigy of the craft so it was likely that a genius like Vergil wouldn’t accept her application but at least she’d get the chance to see and breathe the mysticism of physics. To see the place where physics was made, where laws of physics were defined and bent to their limits.

Then again Vergil reminded the young woman of the man who destroyed her people and ravaged her home dimension. The scientist kind who was looking for more, exploring and conquering wherever they treaded to. It was this curiosity that both Vergil and Dawn herself to some extent had, wish to explore the laws of what was considered a constant in this dimension that caused the destruction of her people and death of most of her kind. As much as fascinating it was hearing about all the different things Vergil spoke about Dawn just couldn’t help but feel this dark bitterness. In a way she was a traitor to her people. First thing she did, after moving into the other dimension, was enroll into a college to study physics – the mystical arts that killed her people. It didn’t help that she was genuinely interested in it as well.

After Vergil finished his lecture and left the hall Dawn could hear a lot of talking in between the students, it appeared that she was by far not the only one interested in meeting this genius man and possibly work for him in one of the most prestigious and famous landmarks in the location called New York. “Oh my God, I’m totally applying for that job… That Vergil guy is pretty hot.” Dawn overheard a conversation in a row behind her after standing up and putting her notebook and pens inside her bag. “He does not have the qualities of emanating heat… Why would she say that?” Dawn wondered, “Yeah, imagine working in that place and having access to the biggest personality on TV, that guy has jackpot written all over him…” the friend of the student duo behind Dawn replied.

It was pretty obvious that Dawn would try her shot at getting the job as well, “It looks like those girls wanted to work for him just for the possibility of a physical reproductional relationship with Mr. Vergil… That’s strange, is that common among people here?” the student wondered as she stood in line of students waiting to talk to the man. It was quite ironic how most of them paid absolutely no attention to the man during his lecture and yet when given the opportunity to work for him took it with quite the excitement. “It appears that the line is bigger than I thought… If the reasons for wishing to work in Steel Industries are so numerous this Vergil will have quite a stressful day deciding who to pick for his job."

And finally after most of the queue was done with applying for the job, whether it was successful or not, finally Dawn happened to meet the genius called Vergil face to face with time closing in to the hour the man had to spend in talking with applicants. “Mr. Vergil, my name is Dawn Smith, I enjoyed your lecture greatly and I would like to work for you.” The woman said in quite a rushed tone, she knew that she didn’t have too much time so she had to do what she could. “My reasons for wanting to work for you are not as strange and intricate as some of my peers, I simply wish to see the place where mysticism of physics comes to life and to be a part of that process.” Dawn said after the queue moved to her. “Maybe if I got an actual constant job, Cindy would stop yelling at me so much…” Dawn wondered to herself, it was true that paying the rent was not that easy just from the doubled scholarship for exceptional performance. A job may have helped patch things up with her roommate and help her forget all of Dawn’s quirks, in addition to dealing with her natural curiosity.

“This one’s one of our better students, some of her practical experiments in the lab were a little weird as she does have some quirks with the way she works but her grades are great.” The professor appeared to be assisting the man with some of the evaluation of the personalities of the applying students. It may have been accomplished by a casual conversation but seeing how many students decided to apply for working in Steel Industries some guidance was obviously necessary.

Vergil was one of the people around the Earth dimension who didn’t believe that physics was mystical. This was not by any mean a unique opinion, in fact most people to whom Dawn had told that there may have been any mysticism about physics or any branch of science they’d shut her down. It was a commonly accepted fact that physics was not anything that was mystical in this dimension, the woman had noticed the difference of physics taking the role here that was taken by magic in her own dimension. Still the more Dawn studied physics the more she understood that not only physics had the properties of mystery and mysticism to it, despite being the constant laws, but also had things in common with magic. Of course the way she saw it, Dawn was nowhere near as smart as Vergil but she still wanted to get her point through.

“Actually my preferences are quite close to why I believe there’s mysticism in physics. People around this… Country…  Believe that there is nothing mystical with physics, yet for some reason they consider thing like magic mystical. In the place where I was raised in, physics was just as mystical as creating life out of inanimate objects would be to any of New Yorkers. I personally enjoy nothing more in physics then engineering, it creates concepts and even things with their own programmed minds out of lifeless objects. Things that accomplish tasks that could not be done without them. A lot of people believe that magic is just science which current scientists do not understand, I say that physics already is mystical in nature. Skilled engineers can easily create an object which a normal citizen could call alive and intelligent. Physics has reached a point in its reach where stumbling upon a new invention only opens possibilities for dozens of more, answering a question only raises more questions and seeing how physicists sometimes work with concepts they cannot fully grasp themselves only reveals how close what we call magic is to the core of theoretical physics."

The answer that Dawn gave to Vergil was only her own personal opinion, the way she saw it there was little difference to a skillfully crafted android and actual life. Some people believed that life was mystical and the very concept raises a lot of questions and engineers can easily make androids that barely differ from actual life. She also almost gave her origins up, so far only her roommate was aware of Dawn’s strangeness since Cindy knew that Dawn could do magic. Just barely Dawn managed to imply that she was from another country instead of leaving clues that she’s somewhat mystical in nature herself. For some reason both her father and Cindy told Dawn not to reveal herself, to try and conceal any proof of magic in her or her origins.

“Therefore I’d like to work for you as an engineer and prove to you that there are some areas where physics has to be mystical in order to tread.” Dawn finished her answer to the question raised by the genius. Dawn’s very existence in this dimension was one cruel physics accident, the fact that she came from a dimension where matter was anti-matter she should’ve died immediately. Yet for some reason she did not combust like the energy that she calls in from her home dimension. That alone was enough of a mystery, there is no law of physics that explains anti-matter being able to co-exist with environment made of matter. Finding out why this was the case was not Dawn’s intention but it proved to her that there was still mystery to the way laws of physics worked.

“I believe the people around here like... Guarantees as they are called. If I am allowed to work for you as an engineer, Mr. Vergil, I can give you access to an anti-matter energy source and interdimensional travelling within seven days.” Dawn said, one thing she learned during her stay in the Earth dimension was that the local people loved short and concrete answers and guarantees. For some reason the local people were absolutely different from the people in Dawn’s home, they rushed somewhere all the time, never having time to properly finish their business, they rarely engaged in philosophical discussions just for the sake of discussing which was common in the woman’s own home. The professor who was casually observing nearby looked rather shocked by Dawn’s claim.

“Wait, there’s no way you could do that…” he interrupted, “That is for Mr. Vergil to decide, if he wants it or believes I could do it or if my skills would be useful for him. That is the point of this conversation is it not?” Dawn replied with a smile. It was true that she could deliver with what she promised, the young woman still remembered the device used to dimensional travel by the physicist that killed her people and ravaged her home dimension. She could easily make batteries of anti-matter energy material which she had infinite access to due to her own powers of energy manipulation. As long as she gets access to the technology in the Steel Industries Tower,  Dawn could deliver with pretty much anything she promised to make. Of course she would not technically be inventing those things, she’d just be using her own powers and knowledge of her home dimension and another dimension travel device to come up with a more stable concept.

And it all could be attributed to her affinity for physics. Arts of mysticism and physics working together. Dawn really wanted the job, not only would it greatly benefit both the interests of her genius possible employer but it’d also help Dawn with coping better with her everyday life as well as prove to her once and for all that she has basic understanding of physics, that she can match the level of inventiveness and creativity needed to prevent the disaster like the one that hit her people from happening ever again. And then if she has enough confidence in her skills in physics she can leave this dimension and stop bothering the wonderful people that live here with her inability to learn their ways.

Dawn was rather surprised by the fact that Vergil’s answer consisted of him telling her to remove the time limit from her claim, while his reasoning of time limits putting stress and strain made quite a lot of sense but the confusion stayed there. “Is the way of Earth dimension not to be overly confident? Have I made fool of myself yet again? Maybe that’s why the professor looked so confused… Oh boy… What should I do…?” the woman blushed and was thrown off balance by Vergil’s work on the conditions of her claim. It was a trait very common to the interdimensional being to be constantly doubting if her actions fit those of the local way and they were not without a base – Dawn constantly messed things up. Like that time when she walked in male clothes for several days and didn’t understand why they were hanging on her so freely…

“I… I am a bit confused as to why did you remove the time limit. Still if my suggestion still interests you I would love nothing more than to work in your company.” Dawn replied and signed the contract. All that this conversation revealed to the woman was that she was still not capable of entirely understanding the local ways, the people here loved overconfidence and guarantees and yet for some reason her employer wished to not rush the woman. Is doing things fast and efficient not the preferred way of this dimension? Perhaps not all people are the same and not all of the dimensional principles and character traits are universal. There are a lot of interesting new concepts that Dawn could’ve learned from these people. People in her own dimension were far more alike in their ways. They were all slow and taking their time, rest was considered as useful as productive work.

“Well then if that is all, I would not dare to waste any more of your time, Mr. Vergil, I thank you for the opportunity. Have the best of days.” Dawn smiled and bowed her head slightly then turned around and left the room. “Europeans… Strange people…” the woman could hear the professor say through the door as she did not rush to leave the facility after signing the contract. A student stopped Dawn as she was walking away, he looked genuinely worried about something he was still waiting in the line, “So… Vergil Bartholomew Aiken, how is he?” the man asked, Dawn shrugged, “I am not the best at judging people, I am afraid, one thing I can tell for certain is that he does not emanate heat, I have got no idea why other women would call him “hot”.” The woman replied and left her conversant in awe.

Dawn could feel the student judging her with his sight. “Ugh, I can’t just seem to get the hang of this communication thing… It is not as easy as it seems.” The woman felt genuinely angry and saddened by the fact that she once again looked like she was a foreigner. Why was it so hard to just be like everyone, to just manage to keep up the conversation and not be looked at like she was someone outside the group, someone foreign, someone different, someone who will never belong here. Dawn wished nothing more than to belong in this dimension, however after several mess ups like the ones previously the woman was starting to understand that she may never belong in this dimension, perhaps this is just not for her. Maybe returning home and going on the path of sole survivor was the right choice as opposed to trying to be someone she is not.

“I can see the way they look at me… I am different than they are, the people here are rather untrusting and cruel to things that are different… Mr. Vergil may have shown that people here are different then other people of their kind, that their characters vary and yet that one thing never changes, people always see different as evil, as someone they need to cast away. Perhaps it is best if I leave them alone after I fulfill my promise to Mr. Vergil.” Dawn thought to herself as she was walking through the park the faculty was located in. It was not out of ordinary to have such dark and withdrawn thoughts for the interdimensional one, she was not the one who took a failed social interaction that well. In fact failing in interacting with people was pretty much the only thing that depressed Dawn. She was a pretty upbeat person just like her kind except for that one thing that always took her down…

“Hello my mate of room, I am back from my lecture!” Dawn said out loud as she unlocked the door to her small apartment and went in. The woman took her coat off and went on into the living room, the door to Cindy’s room was closed with the usual “If you open the door asking me where the garlic is, I’ll strangle you, Dawn!” note on it. “It appears my roommate is engaged in physical reproductional activity… She does that quite often but for some reason does not produce any offsprings… It appears the ways of reproduction of this dimension are rather odd and ineffective…” Dawn took an apple of the fruit jar and went into the kitchen. Cindy did not appear to enjoy very much when her reproductive partners knew of Dawn’s existence. At least the woman understood so when her roommate kept being filled with joy after Dawn stayed hidden.

After some time when Cindy’s friend left and her roommate was watching TV Dawn found an opportunity to talk to her. “I have signed a contract with Mr. Vergil for a job, it may improve our relationship with Ms. Tonkovski and our currency situation.” Cindy dropped the apple she was eating, “Wait… Vergil… THE Vergil?! Vergil Bartholomew Aiken? How did he ever get interested in your weird stuff?” the roommate appeared rather hesitant to believe in the way reality was. “Well, I’ve promised him to show some inventions that our people considered elemental, also I can provide him with an energy source which is very valuable to him, anti-matter is the second most expensive kind of matter…” Dawn replied trying to make as much sense as possible for her non-physicist friend. “Okay… Just, Dawn… Listen to me… No magic in there! Don’t yuck it up with your magic… Don’t make tools levitate around you like a martian or something…” Dawn scratched her forehead, “Why would martians use telekinesis… I do not think that I understand the reference…”

Either way, this day brought a whole myriad of changes into Dawn’s life, maybe that was for the better…


[EXIT]