It was early in the morning on Rhodes Island, and Doctor was passed out over his desk, drool seeping out from his mask. A soft snore escaped during his inward breaths, and papers were sloppily sprawled out along his desk. Various things too, but currently his desk was full of reports from the last mission he had conducted. And under all the medic, combat, and scouting reports did Kal'tsit find the reports related to money. Upon reading one, she rolled it up and smacked Doctor's mask three times. Paper, of course, did nothing but mildly bother him, a moan being the only response she got.
"Wake up, or it will hurt next time," she threatened. At this, Doctor lazily pulled himself straight and splayed out his arms, yawning before looking at her.
"Good morning Kal, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"It's noon," she corrected. Afterwards she crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. "I came to see if the monetary reports were finished." She then handed the rolled up paper to him, which he took and opened before setting down. "As much as you bother me about working late, you sure don't heed your own advice."
"You know as well as I do why," he said while looking around his desk for something. His veiled face landed on a thermos and he twisted the cap open, the fresh smell of roasted coffee beans greeting his chemoreceptors. "Do I owe you a thanks for this delightful beverage?"
Kal'tsit huffed and turned away, affirming his suspicions. He grinned under the mask and took a sip of the bitter liquid.
"You always did make good coffee."
Her ear twitched, and the thermos was placed down. If he didn't know better, he'd say she was in a good mood today. She had made him coffee without bothering to wake him up, and she hadn't said anything negative yet. He looked at her, facing away and staring so long in time even he couldn't comprehend what she was looking at. He wouldn't be able to focus on the paper if he tried, so he just stared at her, mesmerized, taking in what he could before she ultimately realized where his attention was.
"Let's go out, for old time's sake."
Her gaze turned, no emotion showing physically on her face, but he could tell that she was surprised. Her eyes said so, and her ears perked up slightly. It was only for a moment that he could see she was curious, yet the words to escape her mouth betrayed her incomprehensible body language.
"No."
"Playing hard to get? I always did admire your stubbornness," he said while getting up from his chair and approaching her. Her back was turned, and he slowly reached his hand to her shoulder. "Perhaps you could reconsider if-"
As soon as the hand touched the shoulder, a syringe was a mere centimeter from his eyeball. He had barely seen the movements, and he grinned under his dark veil which he knew she could just see through at this distance. For a brief moment, nothing was said as they stared at each other, unmoving, unchanging, unyielding.
"Is that really necessary?"
"It wouldn't be if you didn't understand the meaning of no."
Doctor let out a lengthy sigh,and when he opened his eyes the brows arched upwards near the center, magnifying the sad look in his eyes as he stared back at Kal'tsit whose expression softened by roughly ten percent at this.
"I know, I'm not the man you first met, but that wasn't the man you swore an oath to."
"And?" Kal'tsit spat back. "You had your chance."
"I changed, Kal, I truly did…" he inched a few millimeters closer to the syringe. "But if what you're saying is that you loved the man I was, the man who let her die, then do us both a favor and don't hold back with that syringe."
A defeated sigh escaped her lips and the medical tool used to threaten him was pulled back. He had a point, he had changed. Sure, they broke up after Theresa died, but after he conquered his grief, he had become vastly different than when she first met him. She didn't move as he took her hand and knelt, holding her hand gently while rubbing the silver ring she still wore. Why did she still wear it? She asked herself that question every morning. Despite all her foresight and experience, she still could not answer that one question.
"Please, grant the current me a chance, just one."
How could she say no to this? Even though he had changed, she still fondly remembered their brief time together and uttered, "Fine, I'll consider it."
"Yes!" Doctor shouted, standing up and raising both hands in the air in triumph. He then returned to his seat. Once he sat down his attention was on the desk, but he still spoke afterwards.
"Next time we're parked in a city, let's go to a nice restaurant. If it ends up being Lungmen, I know some great ways to spend our evening."
As he blabbed on, she felt the edges of her lips strain. A rare feeling for her, but it wasn't unwelcome. Somehow, she felt at ease with the thought, perhaps a little excited herself. After all, he was the only anomaly capable of disrupting her predictions by wide margins. The only one who understood her, and the only one who surprised her on a regular basis. Perhaps it was time to grant the fool a second chance, he had earned it if nothing else.
When Evan first walked into the Convalescence garden, he thought he had walked into a living dream. A large domed multi-roomed greenhouse where it felt as though the world outside was inconsequential and time felt different in a wonderful way. The smell was also something wonderful, the light fragrance of many different plants, some of which he recognized, tickled his nose as he strolled down the cobbled masonry of the garden. It could only be described as a Garden of Eden, and he had seen nothing like it. The central dome itself was clear and transparent despite it being a barrier to the outside world. He could already imagine being there in the evening, a clear set of moon and starlight under a clear sky. He was so distracted he didn't even notice the young woman calling to him, at least until she waved a hand in front of his face.
"Ah, so you finally noticed," she beamingly said with a wide smile on her face. She was dressed in a work outfit and held a mop. Two large ears sagged out on the side of her head, and a look to her feet would reveal a small fox pet about the size of a fennec fox. "Welcome to the Convalescence Garden. My name is Lena, I oversee the entire greenhouse. I don't believe I've ever met you before. It would be hard to forget someone with your smell."
Ignoring the comment about how he smelled, Evan greeted her back, "I'm Evan Carvey, Closure's intern. This is my first time here."
Lena's eyes widened and she stood on her tippy toes and leaned forward slightly to look at his face. Once she did so she exclaimed, "So you're the anomaly the medical department is so excited about. I work there part time. I wondered what was so interesting about you, but I can tell already. You smell unlike any living thing on Terra." Noticing the strange look he was giving her, she backed away slightly and gave a little giggle before saying, "Sorry, I have an incredible sense of smell. Most people who come here do so for my expertise in aromatics and herbal remedies, so I usually don't have to explain it. What might you be here for?"
"Weedy said this was a nice place to relax. Things have gotten…hectic in engineering lately, and I don't have many of my normal ways to relax. I can already see why she recommended the Convalescence Garden, you do a wonderful job of maintaining this place. It's mesmerizing."
Lena giggled a little then responded with, "Thank you. If you would like, take a seat over at the gazebo and I'll bring some tea."
"That would be lovely."
Lena gave a large beaming smile before walking off to the north wing of the garden. Heeding her suggestion, he walked over to the large gazebo and took one of the chairs. In the center was an aromatherapy device gently releasing a relaxing smell that made him so calm he felt rather sleepy. Frankly, it put him in a daze as he looked at the various plants in the background, and just before he was about to shut his eyes, the clinking of fine china could be heard. The source was of course Lena, who had returned with a Victorian tea set. She placed a cup next to him and gently poured a brew equally as seductive on his nose into the cup. He could tell how fresh it was from the steam. He was no stranger to teas in his old life, but this had to blow away anything he had smelled before. The gentle hint of spices added with fragrant herbs and flowers tickled his nose so much that it took all his self control not to foolishly burn his mouth.
To his surprise, the young vulpo lady took a seat to his right, giving him space of course, and poured herself a cup. After taking in the smell of her own tea, she spoke to him.
"I make it my business to know whoever comes to my garden. Would you like to talk about yourself, or would you like to know more about me?"
Considering his position, he thought for a little while. It wasn't as though his origins were exactly a secret at Rhodes Island, and Kal'tsit hadn't said anything about him revealing his true origins to anyone. Yet, he sort of wanted to hear what others' lives were like.
"Well, since you offered, tell me more about yourself."
"Very well. I was born to a well off Minosian family. Due to my uniquely powerful sense of smell, I developed a fascination with botanicals. I enjoyed it so much that I requested to use our family funds to start a small business. I so enjoyed those days, managing my garden in Minos, making perfumes and herbal remedies with what I grew, and of course making money from my passion."
"So what brought you to Rhodes Island then?" Lena's gaze suddenly became somber and distant. Her smile faded rapidly from that question. "Sorry, did I breach a sensitive subject?"
"Yes. It's not your fault though, and I am not hesitant to talk about it. It's just…bitter. Minos is a country that does not allow the infected to live within its borders. When I became infected, I was deported. From their research, my family discovered Rhodes Island and sent me for treatment. When I discovered this unused space, I requested to turn it into a greenhouse, and so, here we are today. I consider coming to Rhodes Island a blessing though. Here, I feel as though my work is part of something more, and I know I can put it to good use."
Lena took a sip of her tea and gave Evan an expectant stare. He hadn't forgotten she wanted to learn about him.
"At least you can continue what you love. While I'm learning to enjoy my work in engineering, it certainly wasn't how I expected to live my life," Evan stared into his tea, seeing his reflection shake a little in the ripples. "Coming to Rhodes Island wasn't ever in my plans, but it was the best bet at the time. There's so much of my future that has vanished in an instant. I'm grateful for the opportunity to introduce what I know here, but part of me wishes I could have gone further in my studies before I stopped."
"If you don't mind me asking, what did you study?"
"Well, I study Physics, or the study of the physical world. Particularly I enjoy studying all the tiny details of the universe. In fact, those tiny details explain chemistry, and why something such as cyanide smells of almonds."
"Well now you have my attention. Smell is something I'm good at, but not once have I noticed a stark difference between those two. If you say you can explain it, I would love to hear it."
"Well, to start, chemicals are composed of various elements bonded together. You can think of these bonds like little strings that vibrate, though the nitty gritty is something that requires very high level math to explain. Anyway, when a particle, such as one responsible for smell, is captured in chemoreceptors in our nasal passages, the chemoreceptors detect what frequency these bonds vibrate at, and our brain interprets that as smell. So chemicals that are shaped vastly differently like cyanide and whatever makes up almond smell are smelled the same way. They both have the same harmonic frequency in their bonds."
Lena just looked at him, blinking with a blank face that he had seen on many fellow students and himself. Her head tilted and she just continued to look at him as if he had just stated the most outlandish thing she had ever heard.
"While that is fascinating, it is indeed above my full understanding. I think I will just rely on my nose."
He laughed a little at that response right before replying, "Fair enough. We all have our methods."
After that point, the two continued to chat about little things. As time moved by, the daylight burned surprisingly quick. It wasn't until an alarm went off on Evan's PDA that they had track of time, and it had already become twilight. Lena cleaned up the china, saying she had evening preparations to see to, and Evan felt a little hungry himself. The two said goodbye and he walked out the front door. The garden entrance was located upon the roof of the landship, and the deck itself was particularly hard to navigate at times. Bridges and empty spaces with no signage among other things made him wonder if he took a wrong turn. He certainly didn't want to be lost at twilight.
When he did finally find the entrance back into the ship, he stopped. At first he wasn't sure why, but then a soft tune rang in his ears from somehow nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It echoed deep in his mind, and it started to draw his attention. He let go of the handle and walked away from the doors. As he drew closer to the siren song, words he didn't understand started to form. His legs carried him to the edge of the roof where he finally gazed upon the source of the voice, gently singing into the twilight.
Long silvery hair glowed amber in the setting sun, reaching to her ankles before being blown by the wind. A shawl blew with it, before the hair connected to a head with a tricorn or trifold hat upon her head in a way that reached to certain memories of a certain world he had once explored. Somehow, he could get a glimpse of her face, eyes closed as she soulfully sang the depressing siren's song into the edges of the horizon. His footsteps now fell silently as he drew closer, spurred on by curiosity. He stopped to lean on the rails and watch.
Something about the song spoke to him. A tug of grief, the searing pain of loneliness, a delusional kindness, and other such emotions spoke to him listening to this song he did not know. It lasted only a little after the lights went on, spurred on by the ending of twilight and the beginning of the night.
Then it stopped, and without turning the mystery woman said, "Normally I do not have an audience. Do you have business with me?"
"Just a stranger admiring a beautiful song. What's it about?"
"Nothing you would understand," her monotone voice spoke back. She then turned around, her unnaturally red eyes finally gazing upon him, glowing slightly in the dark as light seemed to refract through it like a cat's. She did and said nothing for several long moments as they just stared at each other. She then tilted her head and asked, "Are you going to leave?"
"Do you want me to?"
"Most would be hurrying back to the doors by now, so why are you still here?"
For some reason she had just given more questions instead of an answer. She just awkwardly stared at him, standing there as though she were a lizard confounded by a wall that stood in her way. Staring at each other, Evan began to laugh a little. It was such a bizarre scenario.
"If you want me to, I will go. I probably interrupted something private."
"You didn't, people just tend to avoid me."
"How come?"
She didn't speak for a while after that. She instead bored her gaze into him, trying to figure out what his goals might be. He asked an awful lot of questions, so maybe he was new?
"If you value your safety, then perhaps you should be avoiding me," she said, moving her rather large legs, which were in tights so no shaming, and started walking. She then stopped when he didn't react at all, and once again that empty emotionless gaze fell upon him. Her skin was incredibly pale in the lamplight, yet he felt unconcerned for her wellbeing. Maybe it was because he'd seen a lot of weird things so far? Once again stopping, she hummed in some awkward fashion and then turned to look around her.
"Seriously, if you want me to leave, just say yes. Also," Evan started, moving to the side to allow her space to go. "I was never blocking you. Sorry if I confused you. I'm not a threat."
"How could someone as weak as you be a threat?" she genuinely asked.
"Huh?" he mouthed, brow raised and a double confused look crossed into his face.
"Nevermind," she sighed, walking past him and towards the entranceway.
"What's your name?" Evan asked a little bit after she had started walking away from him. She stopped and stared back at him with those crimson eyes and waited several moments to answer.
"Skadi."
The skies were clear, so he at least had something to look at while he waited. He didn't want her to think he was following her or anything, but it had also sounded like she didn't consider him a problem despite her waiting for him to move before walking off the edge of the deck. He just didn't want to come off as a creep for whatever reason, but he didn't stare at the sky too long. As beautiful as staring at the cosmos was, it sure made him uneasy in some ways. No, the vastness of space, the sheer scale of it terrified him. The ocean depths were always more fascinating in comparison.
"Well, time to grab some grub."
It happened only a fifteen second walk away from the door. A sudden booming sound shook the floor. He had to cover his ears some as they rang, and ran to the door flinging it open. Inside was an absolute mess. Just as he feared, several engine parts were scattered across the room as debris with a smoldering crater on the workbench being the only sign a complete device ever existed.
"Yeow! Note to self, do not try to beef up the combustion chamber with arts," the culprit said as she casually pulled herself off of her rump. She then wiped her safety goggles and pulled them over despite there being enough debris in the air to probably irritate them.
"You. Did. What?!" Evan blurted out, causing Mayer to whip around and give a cheeky grin followed by a pathetically un-innocent 'ehe~' which caused him to swiftly respond, "What do you mean 'ehe'?! Look at the workshop!"
"Hey, at least the drawers are blast proof."
"That's the least of our problems, do you have any idea how much progress you may have dumped down the drain?!" Evan angrily responded, grabbing either side of Mayer's coat.
"I backed up the blueprints."
"That's not the point!" He then started shaking the otter while shouting, "I told you that we aren't using arts, and look what yours did to the project and several others!"
"Yeah yeah, I'll pay for it all. Just stop shaking me."
Defeated, he let go and packed up into the counters, causing tools to rattle briefly due to the shockwave. Shortly after, footsteps sounded nearby and someone ran into the room.
"Is everyone alright? That was a big boom," the seemingly complete stranger asked. When the unfortunate intern gazed on a familiar set of grey ears with a ponytail he suddenly forgot about his current troubles for a brief moment. "Oh, hey there Evan," Grani greeted with a smile and a wave.
"So you're back, where were you?"
"On a mission. Boy was that one an adventure. You won't believe the stories I have to tell."
"Then tell me over a pint, I'm assigning myself a second day off as Henry Ford would suggest. Not much I can do with an exploded workshop."
"Oh, can I join?" Mayer asked as though she hadn't been the reason for the sudden lack of work.
"You, will clean up this mess and report what you did or so help me, I will return you back to Rhine Lab."
At this, she pouted like a child, crossing her arms then turning away as one of the mechanical arms picked up debris.
As Evan turned around to leave, he heard a small mechanical whir and turned around in time to see a MEEBO lunging for his ankle. He picked up his foot and slammed it as hard as he could into the little otter, clearly done with Mayer's shit. He thought he had stopped it until he saw the MEEBO rapidly heat up and start to beep in regular intervals, decreasing the time between counts.
A shiteating grin appeared on Mayer's face and he felt a pit drop in his stomach like a chunk of lead. His first choice was to run, but it seemed as though he couldn't outrun the beeping. It finally stopped and he waited, only to hear a small puff as the MEEBO calmly disassembled and Mayer picked up the usable pieces for recycling.
"You should have seen the look on your faces," Mayer laughed. "Priceless!"
Grani gave a nervous giggle in response before looking back to see Evan was already walking away, done with Mayer's shenanigans for the day. She waved goodbye to the mischievous otter and the two of them walked to the cafeteria where, to his obvious surprise, she bought a pint along with him.
"I had no idea you were old enough to drink."
"Hey! I'm a fully grown adult too you know," Grani playfully teased with a pout, turning her head away, but not without the hint of a smile as she kept one eye on him. He laughed at that and apologized.
"So where were you for the past…"
"Month? Well, I was on a mission to a place called Dewville."
The following conversation proceeded to be one of the most fascinating tales Evan would hear so far. A tale of how Grani singlehanded rescued a damsel in distress from some bounty hunters and met up with Skadi who proceeded to demand Grani hand over the girl she had saved. Wait a minute, Skadi?
"Hold up, I met Skadi literally last night, she was there too?"
"Yeah, it was really weird. No one had said anything about her coming on the mission. I was so excited to see her too, especially after she had singlehandedly sent the entire bounty hunter gang packing."
"I assume you two worked out your differences?"
"Yeah, but that didn't happen until the finale. She's really actually nice though, just bad at communicating. Helped me clean up the area of all the bounty hunters afterwards. Quite an easy chore when you have someone that can bust a hole through a cave with just their sword."
He felt his jaw slack and drop at that without knowing it before he set it back. This just further reinforced his theory that he had landed himself in an anime world: a woman who could rip through the earth with a sword like it was nothing. That's the person he had met last night? Thinking back, he hadn't thought anything of the two-handed greatsword on Skadi's back, but he certainly remembered it.
The gray horse continued her story from that point, revealing how she met a kind bounty hunter named Big Bob, who sounded like an absolute unit from the description she gave. He learned how Bob helped them through a forest full of traps, and how the enigmatic Skadi just casually busted through them as though it was something of complete norm to deal with taking deadly traps to the face.
"Not one to think things through it sounds like," Evan commented. At this, Grani chuckled and continued. Her story continued, running from both bandits and Skadi until they were separated from Bob, leaving Carol and Grani to seek the treasure out while being hounded by a confrontational Ӕgir who was rumored to cut a mountain in two. Turns out it hadn't been until Skadi rescued Grani from rocks did she start piecing together the force of nature meant no harm to her.
"So we're right at the door when, guess who shows up? Bob!"
"No way," Evan commented, totally hooked on the riveting tale. "Wasn't he injured?"
"Yeah, but turns out he had his own gang the whole time. Some former Reunion goons."
"Reunion?"
"Yeah, an Ursus based infected militia fighting for the rights of the infected, but Bob left with someone else because they thought Reunion's methods were becoming…unsavory and dangerous to the infected."
"So to recap, you're sitting in front of a vault with a force of nature otherwise known as Skadi, and a former activist militia looming over your head for the treasure."
"That's what I thought. Bob wanted the treasure to give his men a better life, but then suddenly some rocks were about to fall on Carol and Skadi saves her. After I bug her for details, I realize she never wanted the treasure. Turns out she thought she was doing me a favor by keeping me out of the loop of her own personal mission."
"Empty headed much?"
Grani giggled a little then said, "Yeah, she's not one to think her actions or words through."
Grani described the ensuing battle for the treasure and how she and Skadi fought Big Bob, who was capable of going toe to toe with the mountain-slaying operator. She described it in such great detail, he felt as though he was seeing the battle himself. The whirring of Bob's chainsaw and the crashes as bounty hunters flew against the wall of the cave. Somehow, it all ended with no major injuries. Then came opening the treasure and cleaning up Dewville.
"So, Skadi stuck around to help you clean up the bounty hunters after you got anemia opening the treasure, Big Bob left with enough money to go make a life for him and his comrades, and together you all removed the source of conflict from Dewville. That's quite the tale, you could make a book about that."
"The adventures of a former Victorian Mounted Police, that would be fun to read. You really think I could turn my adventures into a book?"
"Hey, if you want to, I have some writing experience. It can be quite rewarding. Besides, I'd say that tale would be a bestseller, Grani and the Knight's Treasure. A true story."
Her response was to laugh a little, even though he was serious. That was one hell of a tale she just told, and he found his food was getting cold since he was so focused on listening. He decided now was a good time to start eating his food which was finished in a typically fast manner. Once he was done, he realized he was a good ways into the afternoon.
"Sorry, I've got to go, but it was nice seeing you again."
"Bye, see you later."
Nothing really exciting happened for the rest of the day, minus walking in on Amiya giving Closure and Mayer a lecture while both sat on their knees as she berated them for exploding a workshop. Why Closure was getting lectured, he didn't really know. He couldn't care less though, as it seemed he was off the hook for the lab exploding. For all he knew, Closure may have done something stupid.
Rather, it wasn't until he walked into Closure's 'office' that he was aware something else might be wrong. She was at the computer, highly focused on something while the seahorse was just casually cleaning up some remnants of Mayer and Closure's first disassembly together. Currently, she had an industrial cannon pressure washing the oil off the floor. He took a random guess at what Closure was so focused on, and decided to chime in.
"So, how shocking is my next proposal?"
"What?" Closure asked, her attention breaking from the screen. Her gaze struggled to focus on him before she continued, "Oh, that. No, I haven't looked. I have a question to ask you though, did anyone visit you last night that you're aware of?"
"No…why?"
"Come look at this," she said, moving her swivel chair back and gesturing him over. He walked over to the screen which was, oddly enough, security cam footage from last night. The time on it was a little after 3 AM, and once his attention was on it, he saw it play. A whole heap of nothing happened for a few seconds until he saw someone come down the hallway and stand in front of his door. Closure then proceeded to fast forward the footage, and this person didn't move still. Evan took a look at them, the long silvery hair and hat looked familiar, but it wasn't until she was there after two hours did she look at the camera, revealing Skadi's full face. Closure made an uncomfortable shiver sound as though something seriously gave her the creeps. "Why does she stare at the camera like that? Did you do anything to upset her?"
"No, I don't think so. All I did was listen to her sing on the deck of the ship and compliment her singing."
"You what?!" Closure reacted pretty harshly, turning her head to face Evan, clearly bewildered by his response. She then chuckled nervously and took a few deep breaths before continuing, "You mean to tell me you interacted with the Skadi, the rumored Living Catastrophe, and you didn't know she was outside your room for two whole hours?"
"Yeah, wait Living Catastrophe, she can't be that bad. Grani said she was nice, and she didn't threaten me or anything."
"Evan, Grani thinks everyone's nice. Skadi's a force of nature who can single handedly take down some of the strongest opponents we've seen."
"Uh huh…" Evan deadpanned, prompting the vampire to say something else with increasing urgency.
"She's an Abyssal Hunter who hunts Sea Terrors!"
"Uh huh…"
"Some of which can be huge and dangerous."
"Uh huh…"
Closure picked up on the pattern and gave a lengthy sigh. That was when Weedy decided to come into the conversation.
"I've tried asking some of the other Ægirian operators before, and only Andreana seems to know something, but she's pretty tight lipped about her time as an Abyssal Hunter. I've heard that in Ægir, Abyssal Hunters are treated with caution and avoided because rumors and events of disasters often accompany them. Skadi is rather antisocial, claiming that disaster befalls those she interacts with, and combined with her strength some took it far too seriously."
"Wait, so even where these Abyssal Hunters come from, there's prejudice against them?"
"As I have heard, yes. No one has heard anything from Ægir, and no one knows why. All that is known is that one day Ægir refugees flooded into Iberia, and then Iberia collapsed and isolated, starting the Inquisition."
It didn't take a genius to put two and two together that a refugee crisis following a collapse which birthed an Inquisition would be a recipe for disaster for the refugees in question. It was essentially a tale as old as time in his old world. Seems humanity has flaws in any world.
"Thanks, I think I get the picture, so Closure, please pull up my proposal, we have some work to do."
"Alright, alright. Let's see what we got here…" she halfheartedly replied, pulling it up on her computer. As she read it, her eyes widened and she looked at Evan and asked with a serious face, "Are you serious? This is achievable?"
Author's Note
Haha, I said next month, didn't I? Well, anyways I'm going to be scrounging through notes and doing research behind the mechanisms, mathematics, etc which covers how the Photoelectric Effect works in relation to Solar Panels. It should be said math is a heavy portion of Physics and Engineering. You need not only the statistics to prove what you have works, but you also need the math to explain the damn stuff. The mathematics behind this are...complex to say the least since you need the Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom's mathematics to help explain when an electron is free, and you need Planck's constant and the light frequency to find out how much energy you need in each photon to achieve this freedom. You also need the light range needed to activate the whole process. Needless to say, that's a lot of theory.
So...that's the more complicated side of what I'm doing for next chapter. To respond to some of the reviews, I drive a 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid, so gas is relatively inexpensive. Can get 500 Miles off a 10ish gallon tank. As for films...maybe some I can think of, but I'm not an avid watcher of films, and with how much requires internet...yeah. As for romance, I have a growing list of candidates that range from temporary to permanent, for sake of preserving the story I will not say any of them, and I surprise myself on thinking of some of them.
Anyways, I'm also baking the raw lore and backstory to something more palatable for my taste in terms of motives and such behind the major villains themselves. I did say that by chapter 3, things would derail from normal. Well, I'm repurposing the railway, and making it a lot longer. More twists and turns. Some things will remain the same, but the road of Arknights' canon story is heavily altered. As for what exactly I'm planning, that's way off into the future.
I will say the following about events though. Alongside the story's arc progression, Evan will take a role in the following events: Heart of Surging Flame, Who is Real, and maaaybe Maria Nearl. The events that are going to be filed under happened off screen or already over are, of course, Grani and the Knight's Treasure, Twilight of Wolumonde, Code of Brawl, Mansfield Break, Under Tides, and Originium Dust not necessarily in that order. Originium dust is on the no Evan list because I've gone through his reasons to be there, and found no good ones, no, not even invented. I also never finished the event, so I have no idea how the story wraps up exactly. I'm also making it so that Evan's world doesn't have either R6S or Tom Clancy. The 'No good reason' excuse applies to those events too, minus Under Tides. I would just rather keep Under Tides as Skadi's personal journey honestly. As for Gavial...that's still up in the air.