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| ONLINE - 2
| *Auxetic Titan
| *Feynman
\/ PERSONAL +
# chat
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:10 PM
So, you never told me. Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Or— gasp ! Could it be that you’re married?
Feynman Today at 8:12 PM
That’s a pretty invasive question, you know.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:14 PM
We are talking in the PERSONAL channels
We’ve known each other for months and nothing about your love life? Your job?
just delete these channels, then
What else is this server for than for us scientists to mingle??
Feynman Today at 8:15 PM
I’m raising my eyebrows.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:16 PM
I’m waggling mine
Feynman Today at 8:16 PM
Hah. Funnily enough, I can imagine that.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:18 PM
can you? And what do I look like, pray tell.
Feynman Today at 8:18 PM
You’ve got blonde hair.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:21 PM
Hm. go on...
Feynman Today at 8:22 PM
Yeah. Very rugged look.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:24 PM
You wouldn’t be wrong. People have called me ruggedly handsome.
Feynman Today at 8:24 PM
You have a big nose.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:25 PM
asdfgujhas;
I’m choking
Feynman Today at 8:27 PM
Oh?
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:27 PM
you’re unbelievable
Feynman Today at 8:27 PM
Oh?
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:27 PM
My nose is cute as a button!!!
Feynman Today at 8:27 PM
:)
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:28 PM
Wow. You wound me.
Feynman Today at 8:28 PM
Sorry, Tank. Couldn’t resist.
Auxetic Titan Today at 8:28 PM
You know, since you started this server
i don’t think I’ve ever seen you this relaxed.
…Feynman is typing…
Well you bring that out in me, Mr. Tank|
Well you bring that o|
Well yo|
Feynman Today at 8:30 PM
Well, work’s been good, lately.
What was Bruce doing? That sounded like flirting. He didn’t want to come off like he was flirting. Because he wasn’t flirting. Of course not; he just…
He liked Tank. A lot.
It was difficult not to. The man was wildly intelligent, incredibly witty—and they had connected in a way that Bruce hadn’t since…well, ever.
Bruce was a man of varied interests, and it wasn’t his fault that those interests were quite—niche? esoteric?…boring? So what if he didn’t have a life outside his work. So what if the other professors stopped inviting him out to drinks. He was the one who refused each and every time, anyway.
Bruce had chosen this life, so he had nothing to complain about. He had a stable job, he was good at what he did, he even enjoyed it for the most part. That was better than what a lot of people could say.
But was this all that he would amount to? The only thing he’d have to look forward to, waking up each day and going through the motions and not connecting with anyone ever?
There was a tight ball of anxiety in his chest that had refused to unravel for the past few years. He could barely function sometimes, he just craved…human interaction—anything, really, that meant he wouldn’t have to feel so goddamn empty.
So Bruce joined servers, that was his thing. He joined and then he lurked and then he just felt too damn awkward to say anything after a while so he just left. Wash, rinse, repeat. It was a soul-crushing cycle that he couldn’t break.
Discord had been a godsend. He could make communities based on interests and start discussions and even, hell, just send memes. He would wake up every morning and have notifications for messages that he missed, and he would moan and groan that was asleep while his friends had all the fun. At least, that’s what he thought it would be.
Months on this app and he had no friends.
It was an app for chatting—maybe you needed to have friends already. Bruce knew that was a terrible excuse, but for a while he believed it.
An app to connect people. Connection. A logical sequence in thought or expression. So Bruce did what he always did, and trusted science. What would the logical next step be?
He’d like to say that his hand slipped. Yes, it slipped when he accidentally pressed the “new server” button, and it slipped when he named the server “The Science of Chemistry”. Not the best pun, admittedly, and a lot of people joined who didn’t get that the server’s sole purpose was to unite lonely scientists from around the world.
It sounded even sadder when he put it like that, but whatever. It was true.
Then Tank had joined. Tank, who was brilliant and clever and who may even be smarter than Bruce, he couldn’t tell. He was charming and charismatic and also Bruce was doing the thing again, where he couldn’t stop waxing poetic about the man. It was absolutely ridiculous.
\/ IMPORTANT +
#intros
Auxetic Titan 04/06/2018
I’m Tank. Older than you, probably. Found this server on the net, yada yada. Let’s see if we have chemistry then, shall we? I think you’ll find me positively electrifying.
Tank’s icon was a photo of Nikola Tesla, and that was yet another completely underwhelming pun. He also figured out right away that his handle—Au Ti—referred to a gold titanium alloy. Classy. Bruce snorted out a laugh, despite himself.
His own intro had gone like this:
Feynman 03/21/2018
Feynman after my favorite physicist. You can call me Rick. Please don’t hesitate to @ me if you encounter any trouble on this server.
Immediately after Tank had entered the server, he had gotten a DM:
[Find or start a conversation]
Feynman
#8085
This is the beginning of your direct message history with @Auxetic Titan.
Auxetic Titan 04/06/2018
Feynman, huh? He’s a favorite of mine, too. Smokin hot.
Feynman 04/06/2018
That’s not why it’s my handle, but sure.
Auxetic Titan 04/06/2018
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
- Richard Feynman, 1974 Caltech commencement address
;)
Bruce was charmed.
After that, they had mostly stayed chatting in the server. Bruce didn’t know why Tank stuck around, it was mostly inactive even though Bruce tried to jump in and get the conversation going a few times every day. They had a whopping seventeen members, half of which were probably just students who had joined hoping to get some homework tips, but when Tank started conversations people tended to listen.
Bruce had never understood it when people said someone could light up a room just by walking in. But then Tank had walked in, and the room was…suddenly lit.
He caught himself and shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts before they left the territory of “friendly” and entered “completely irrational and maybe even slightly flowery”. He had better concentrate—you know, on his actual job.
Again, Bruce liked this job. It was challenging, although in the sense that he constantly had to push himself out of his comfort zone when dealing with his students. He had to practice simplifying the concepts that made the world work, and he had to do it while keeping the attention span of a bunch of eighteen-year-olds.
Despite everything he had been through, Bruce would never get sick of talking about science. He could do it all day—in fact, it was probably what kept him sane. More than that, it was the only way he could see the world beyond the reality he lived in every day.
Bruce yawned and pushed his chair back. It wasn’t that late in the night, but he still had a ton of papers to grade. He was going to need some coffee for this. At least eight mugs worth.
He scratched his side idly as he waited for the coffee to brew. What homework should he give out on Monday…
There was a beeping from his laptop and he hurried back to his work station. He leaned over just in time to see the desktop notification:
Auxetic Titan
Hey
Bruce, still bent over the back of the chair, started typing with one hand.
…Feynman is typing…
Tank had always been the faster typist, though.
Auxetic Titan Today at 1:32 AM
You wanna meet up?
Bruce dropped the mug in his hand.