The Red Matter Paradigm By Joslyn DJ
Soundtrack: "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" Coldplay - "1901" Phoenix
Prologue
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September in California was a beautiful time of year...
Sunshine, a cool breeze, and a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds filled her senses as she stepped outside. Man, what a great day! Everything was lining up for her.
She had finished all the paperwork yesterday. Now it was time to drive to L.A. and check out the University where she would be completing her education.
She'd need to find a place to live for a little while until she sorted out living arrangements near campus… Good thing her cousin lived in Pasadena!
She could hardly believe it was happening, having grown up in a semi-small town off the coast, now here she was, ready to hit the road en-route to one of the biggest cities in the world!
Her icy, blue-green eyes squinted up at the sky, the young woman taking in a breath of the fresh autumn air before unlocking her car and throwing her luggage in the back, turning the key, engine revving to life. First order of business? Roll down the windows and pick a CD to blast on the way to L.A. County!
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Back at the apartment…
Leonard had finished sorting through his e-mails and organizing his files on his usb drives; he had everything he'd need for the weekend. Swallowing nervously, he glanced over his shoulder. Usually he did the sneaking up on his roommate, but you can never be too safe-
"Leonard, what are you doing at my desk?" The tall, brown-haired physicist crossed his arms from behind him, standing on the other side of his friend, causing him to jolt in his seat.
"What? Oh! Sorry Sheldon… Just had to copy some files to take with me to work." He laughed nervously, stuffing the flash drive in his pocket before grabbing his coat and stepping rather quickly towards the door. "See you later!" He blurted out, his friend blinking after him in bewilderment. What was that about?
Turning back to his desk, the blue-eyed genius sat down contentedly, a small smile playing on his lips. This was going to be a great week… Good weather, structured routine, "Oh yes." he sighed happily.
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"Definitely a great week."
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Chapter 1
The Alteration of Scientific Conduct
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Knock, knock, knock…
The familiar three-part sound resonated on the solid wood of the apartment door, it's occupant nonchalantly rising from her seat as she waited to hear her name followed by two repetitions of the knock-and-call she had grown to know so well.
But not today… this time it was different. She tilted her blond head, lips pursed in a frown as she went to the door and opened it. "Hello?" She was greeted by her smiling neighbor, Leonard, and an even shorter person-something she thought to be an impossible feat-standing beside him. "Hey, Penny. I wanted to introduce you to someone, and get your advice on something." The lenses of his glasses glinted in the artificial light of the hall as he adjusted them, looking to the young woman on his right.
"This is my cousin, Sienna." He held out his arm to sort of present the girl for review. "Hello there!" The young girl said in an uppity tone, obviously happy to know the girl across the hall wasn't a figment of Leonard's imagination or the fanciful tales when she had heard their phone call earlier that week.
Giving an outgoing grin, Penny held out her hand to shake the hand of the female before her. "Pleasure to meet you! My name is Penny. Would you guys like to come in?" She asked, her casual attire of sweatpants, tank top and messy bun indicating it was her day off. "Sure, but I can only stay for a minute." Leonard replied as he stepped forward to Penny's offer, closing the door behind Sienna and himself.
"Alright, no problem." Their host patted the cushion of her couch as she passed it-signaling for them to sit-and then went into her kitchen and opened the fridge. "Can I get you anything?" She looked at them as the question left her mouth, before bending down to peer inside at the chilled shelves of groceries, listing off a few options. Coke, water, Dr. Pepper, vodka-oh wait, ignore that last one. Not exactly the type of impression she wanted to make on a new guest, even though it was just one of Leonard's relative.
"A coke sounds good." Leonard replied with a slight shrug, before looking to his cousin. "Would you like one?" He asked, as if the young woman needed reassuring that it was ok to accept the offer. She smiled at him in thanks for the go-ahead, then nodded and chimed in. "A Dr. Pepper would be great, thanks!" Her alto tone ran smoothly with the words as she sat down on the comfortable couch. She looked around the room, taking note of the rather pleasant color scheme of the environment.
This girl must have good taste, her second favorite color was the primary theme in the decorations she saw, with dashes here and there of her first favorite.
The world needs more purple… She thought to herself, smiling again at Penny as she was handed a can of the soda she requested, before the blond plopped down on the other end of the couch. "So what's up?"
Leonard rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well, you see…" He began, attempting to continue his sentence, stumbling over consonants and stuttering over syllables, until his cousin sighed in exasperation and bent the tab off her soda can, proceeding to toss it at him. The aluminum bounced off his glasses with a small 'tink' and a grumble from the nerd wearing the lenses.
"Leonard received an e-mail from an old friend of his that lives out of state. His friend-Aaron-knows about Leonard's work with experimental physics and offered him money to help him with some research." Sienna explained, reclining in her seat after taking a sip of soda, setting the can down on the coffee table.
"Oh how cool!" Penny commented, pulling her feet up under her where she sat, before blinking curiously at Leonard's expression. It very clearly depicted his opinion on the matter, along with the words:
"No, not cool. It's very not cool. Sheldon hates the guy, so I haven't told him I'm leaving yet…" The blond frowned. "Oh… Isn't that going to be a problem?" She asked, thinking of the tall wackadoodle who shared the apartment with Leonard. "Yes… That's where I need your advice." Leonard began his explanation, swallowing down some coca-cola before continuing to speak.
"Sienna is transferring to a school near here. She graduated Monterey Peninsula College with a 4.0 GPA with honors and a degree in Graphic Arts and Theology. Now she's going to UCLA to study for a PhD in Philosophy." He said, the young woman smiling as Penny gasped.
"Ooh! You must have an amazing creative mind." She spoke in a praising tone. Having an artist in the building was a refreshing change of pace compared to the numbers, formulas and algorithms she had to see on a near-daily basis at the guys' apartment.
"Why thank you!" Sienna grinned, shrugging and muttering an 'I suppose so' in a slightly shy tone. She didn't like bragging about it, she just loved learning! ...and writing, and researching, and drawing, and…
"Yes, but here's the problem." Leonard sighed. "Sheldon is rather anti-religious because of his mom's...well...extremities with it. I'm afraid that if I walk in there, blurt out that I'm going to help a guy whose guts he hates and leave my room to the care of a hopeless romantic in love with art and theology, he's going to tear apart Sienna's mind with calculations attempting to disprove everything she believes in, quite possibly down to her very existence!" Leonard looked a bit exasperated, causing his cousin to frown.
"I don't know what to do. She already has all her luggage waiting outside, and I need to get to work. I was hoping you might be able to introduce them and somehow soften the blow?" His dark eyes looked hopeful, Penny blinking in mild surprise. "Well, okay, but I wouldn't have a clue of what to say… "Hey Sheldon, this girl is going to be sleeping in your apartment. Play nice and let her make pretty things"? I can't see him adjusting to that much better than the flat-out truth, honestly..." The blond mused.
Her curly haired friend lowered his head in slight defeat, resting his chin in his palm. "It's such a bummer, too. The whole reason I offered her to stay at my place in my absence was because I felt like she'd actually be able to put up with him and make a good conversationalist for that Vulcan. She's quite the young intellectual in her field-and a bit of a sci-fi nerd/gamer on top of that-problem is Sheldon views it as a field of incompetence and whimsy."
"Hey! I'm still in the room." Sienna grumbled, furrowing her brow at the physicist. "Sorry, Sienna…" He sighed, giving her a weak smile. "But Dr. Cooper isn't exactly the most gracious admirer of the liberal arts or anything related to religion." They sat in thoughtful silence a moment, Leonard looking at his watch and tensing.
About ten minutes later, he was fumbling with the doorknob in a hurry, leaving with a 'thanks for your help Penny, I'll leave her in your care!' before rushing downstairs. He was already running late for work as it was, and the annoying text from Sheldon-who had been waiting exactly 4 minutes and 23.7 seconds outside-only seemed to add more tension to the whole situation in his mind.
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To anyone outside their friend circle, it wouldn't seem like such a big deal, introducing two people from contrasting positions. But anyone outside their friend circle was essentially considered a neanderthal to the one, and predictably uninspired to the other. It was a sort of clash of the titans, if you will; though the male overshadowed the female by a good 10 inches, and she could probably bench-press his weight in her sleep... but that's besides the point.
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"Wow... This is unbelievable!" Penny swooned, turning the canvas around and around, staring at it with a tilted head. "I can't even tell which way is supposed to be up! No matter what angle..." She turned it again, "it looks right! How do you make stuff like this?" The blond quickly turned to her new-made friend, Sienna, the young woman bashfully grinning.
"Well that was the goal." She chuckled lightly. "It's a technique called 'inverse illusion'. Here, I worked out some formulas for placement..." She paused, her grin turning a tad cynical. "I know, math in art? I hate it too." She laughed, before continuing. "Anyway. I basically overlaid a bunch of inverse illusions of abstract designs to make it look like that. Quite a trip, huh?"
Penny gaped at it. She couldn't believe this girl had combined math with art. Do people even do that? Aw heck, what did she know about the stuff? She came from Nebraska. Lord knows they could use some more art culture over there. "Well, I love it Sienna. It's amazing!" She set the small canvas down by the girls luggage.
"Thanks so much! Wanna' see some more?" Sienna offered as she pulled out her laptop, opening up other documents to show Penny, the waitress eager to look at other artworks the girl had made.They poured over files of artworks and papers, philosophy, theology, paintings and graphics all neatly organized in folders on the girl's spare drive.
Next, Penny was shown some websites Sienna had made. She was flabbergasted when the artist showed her the code, giving her a double-take as Sienna explained she had written the entire thing out. Man, she had no idea so much went into webpages like that! The most she ever did was google a nice pair of shoes to complete her wardrobe...
Pulling out one last thing to show from her suitcase, Sienna held a small frosted glass box. She opened it carefully, some expensive jewelry tucked away in little compartments inside. She lifted the faux mirror bottom of the container and pulled out 3 nearly paper-thin sheets of glass. "These are my best works..." She said in a near-hushed tone, a light dancing in her eyes.
The glass panels had an abstract, bursting pattern scattered across them in the richest, brightest hues of sky blue and indigo. One looked like smoke frozen in a crystal, two dimensional prison. Another like flowers bursting with falling petals scattered around them, and the third purely abstract, almost resembling the scars and craters on the moon.
"It was a very expensive process and had many failures. After weeks of working on it, I got these as a result." Sienna let Penny hold one, the waitress stunned at how light they were. "These are gorgeous! I can't even begin to imagine how you've made them... I've never seen anything like it!"
"It's what we do." She smiled, speaking for artists in general. The most commonly shared goal of nearly every artist was to be innovative-push the boundaries and break the rules-which is what made formulas like 'the golden mean' and 'rule of thirds' in art so ironic at times.
The way everything mingled in numbers and emotion, a delicate dance of planned spontaneity... She loved it. It gave her a thrill that surpassed words.
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To her, art was just that... Pure serendipity.