Thread: The Hourglass Archives [ Ariamella & jvj9000 ]

RE PROJECT B-17 Ariamella jvj9000 It had worked. Stephanie visibly relaxed, switching her weight from one hip to another and crossing one leg over the other as she let the professor look over the brochure. She fiddled with her hair as she waited, bringing the wavy brown tresses to one side and running her fingers through them. Her lips quirked up in a half-smirk, about to laugh when he said, like a horse of a different color who said those kinds of things? He was only in his early thirties and was already sounding like some of her older professors who were easily into their fifties and sixties... But he did have a little bit of a that 'nerdy professor' streak about him, which was probably where the horse analogies and tweed suits came from. But still, for such a history fanatic, he hardly looked the part. Then again, neither did she. At first glance one might have thought her another one of the younger sorority girls strutting about in tight workout clothes and a overly colorful Nike shoes, but she was far from that. At least, far enough to where her intelligence shined through whatever looks people thought she had. She grinned in response to Martensen's words, giving an enthusiastic nod when he mentioned his approval, and then again when he mentioned the project. Ah, yes, the independent project. All of the first year grad students knew about that, and had known about it since the beginning of the first semester. It was supposed to give them ample time to start poking around for ideas and possible topics, as the project was their most important assignment to be completed within the first year. It was designed to give them just a small taste of what would be expected from them for the following three years, almost like an introduction and first step into writing field statements and the thought was even scarier the final dissertation. But no matter how large or how important it was, many students treated it much of the same way they treated their undergraduate essays with procrastination. Stephanie had chosen her topic of study already, really since the end of the fall term, but kept herself waiting to start her research just because of VISIONEX . It had fit so well with what she wanted to explore that she decided to use it to kill two birds with one stone. Why not, she figured. A memory, she told the professor, smiling, you experience someone else's memory. Essentially one should be able to just walk in and use it to view the past, but it doesn't quite work that way, at least not yet. There's some preliminary testing before they consider you for it -- DNA scanning for compatibility with the device -- and use of the machine itself isn't something you can do by yourself. You experience the memory in pairs, not as two people looking through one window, so to speak, but as two separate people who were there at that moment in time. She still wasn't entirely sure why it had to be that way, but figured it had to do with stabilizing the minds in order to enter the memory at all. Or something. Hell, she wasn't a scientist. Her smile fell a bit at the last bit of her words, and she glanced to the floor quickly before shooting Dr. Martensen a hopeful look. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. The partnership is an important aspect in this program, and I wasn't able to find anyone who was interested the particular subject that I want to study. She didn't mention that she hadn't actually asked anyone, and neither did she mention that she had, in fact, intentionally left the spot blank. I was hoping you might be interested in filling that open spot? I figured you might find the whole thing intriguing, and well, to put it bluntly, if I don't find a partner or academic supervisor at the very least, my acceptance will be revoked. Stephanie looked crestfallen, and while she actually did feel a bit bad at the thought of losing the opportunity, a lot of her act was just played up to show how 'devastated' and 'crushed' she'd be if it was taken away just for lack of a partner. And this is really important to me. My independent project is about change in gender relations with modernization of the world, and I really think this program is going to help me with making my own observations rather than just reading up on them. But, you know... It's not really something that's an option for me if I don't have an academic colleague. She knew it was almost unfair of her to pull the 'I need it for my studies' card, but it was better than just asking him to be her partner out of the blue. That would've just been weird, and this method was a lot more practical. It was a perfectly normal relationship for students to work with or under professors, and there was no doubt in her mind that he might want to conduct is own personal research. Besides, the independent project was the biggest piece reviewed during end-of-year examinations, and it basically dictated whether the faculty deemed her worthy of even continuing with graduate studies. If Dr. Martensen simply wasn't interested in the VISIONEX program, maybe he'd be one of those professors that took great pride in seeing his students succeed. Besides, I think there are plenty other possibilities one could explore with such a project. Say... what if you didn't have to examine, uh, objects to see what it says about, um, life and history? What if you could just... experience that firsthand? Stephanie nervously tugged on a strand of long chocolate hair. Wow, it was difficult even trying to search through her mind and grasp one of the last sentences of his lecture, and she had thrown that last bit of bullshit out just to see if it'd reel him in even more.