Thread: The Hourglass Archives [ Ariamella & jvj9000 ]

Aimless doodles covered two pages of an open notebook, decorating the lined spaces with novice drawings done in black ink, and endless iterations of the name Stephanie Kensington written in cursive, all in varying shapes and stylistic flare. Beside it, a laptop was also open with two windows pulled up on the screen a Word document that was empty save for a heading that read Fundamentals of Sociocultural Anthropological Theory, while on the other half of the screen an Internet browser was open to various social media sites. Both notebook and laptop were pushed off slightly to the side, allowing for Stephanie to lay a brochure flat in front of her, her grey eyes examining the cover of the small, laminated paper for what seemed to be the hundredth time. The words VISIONEX Your Link to the Past was printed across the upper half of the slim document, and she reached a hand to open it when female whispers behind her caught her attention. ... Yeah, I applied for it too, but they told me I didn't have the right qualifications. Qualifications? Like, a genetics thing... Not sure. But I hear it's pretty interesting if you and your partner get matched up with a couple. I mean a couple , you know? Both girls giggled quietly to themselves, then turned back to listen to a male that dominated the air with his moderately loud vocals. Ahead of her, the professor was talking animatedly with his hands and speaking about the history of classical anthropology and its transition into the more modern views of the 20th century. Stephanie knew she should have been taking notes or recording the lecture at the very least, but all she could focus on was an entirely different subject one that involved VISIONEX , a nifty little trip to look back into historic human life, and possibly even a steamy encounter that would feel as if she were the one actually living it. At least, that's what the rumors were, and she was perfectly willing to take the chance of it being right or wrong. VISIONEX was the company that had invented cutting edge technology which allowed people to view the past for a limited amount of time, like living through the eyes of people from whatever time period was chosen. It was still in development but deemed perfectly okay for human use, so naturally the first subjects allowed for experimental research and testing were those interested in such a thing historians, archaeologists, various researchers and academic personnel. Grad students even had there own specialized program for it. And not just for the possible entertainment purposes, but for the educational aspect of it. Why speculate the past when one could just live through it? It would have been perfect had it not been for one glaring shortcoming in its development, namely that only certain people were compatible for its use. Obviously that raised some questions among the academicians who had been bent on using it to finally end years of historical debate would it be right to rely on a machine when only certain individuals were privy to the information that came out of it? Would it create a sense of entitlement among those said individuals all because they had been graced with a specific DNA sequence within their ninth chromosome? B-17, they called it. Marker B-17. Those were all very compelling questions, ones that Stephanie should have taken into consideration seeing as she had just started her graduate degree into sociocultural anthropology, but at this moment in time she didn't really care. Well, she cared, but not for the reasons that old crotchety historians did. No, what she cared about was that the pros were enough to outweigh the cons, and that those pros were enough to convince the very man in the front of the room to join in on the fun and be her research partner. Mhmm, she thought to herself, Dr. Martensen would make a fine partner indeed. She had, of course, applied for the new research opportunity and had received a call about how impressive of a candidate she was for the program. It wasn't like she expected any less. Along with completing her undergraduate with a 3.9 GPA and honors, she had already completed an internship under the American Anthropological Association, and currently studied under what was considered to be supreme faculty in the field. By all accounts, she looked to be a serious and studious individual who was happy to participate in such grand research. Not that she wasn't interested in helping to make groundbreaking discoveries, but she was interested in a little bit more than that. A lot more than that, actually. What appealed to her about the program was that it worked in pairs, usually best with one of each gender. It was supposed to bring the participants to an easier match in history, and considering they went in as co-ed pairings... well, one could only imagine what the machine paired them up with. Already rumors circulated that, if you were lucky, you'd get matched up with some hot couple doing the naughty, or something close to it. The words erotic and aphrodisiac had been thrown around, but who really knew how the damn thing worked? A smile tugged at the corners of the young, 23 year-old's lips as she thought of the two girls behind her, thinking a bit haughtily to herself that she did have that 'genetics thing' that was essential for VISIONEX program. And she happened to know the dear professor had it as well. That much had been fairly easy to figure out. Genetic profiles were usually kept on file as additional identification, and a short walk to information was all it took to gain that juicy little tidbit. She still wasn't sure why the front-desk lady had let her see it profiles were usually off-limits for the students, but at the time, Stephanie had wanted it and she'd wanted it badly. Dr. Caleb Martensen was more than just a potential partner... He was, as many of the female student population described it, everything that was good and right and sexy in the world. Being one of the youngest of the faculty, he was sure to have dozens of female admirers, and the graduate students that were placed under his supervision were looked upon with curious envy. The man himself was placed under more curiosity than his students, and Steph knew that simply because he'd been assigned as her advisory faculty member. But she didn't exactly want sex from this whole thing. If it was just that, she could have walked across the street to the nearest bar, announced that she wanted a one night stand, and gone home with some skeeze. No, what she wanted was the tiniest, maybe even the slimmest chance that Caleb Martensen saw her the way she saw him. Dreamy, romantic, attractive... the list could go on. She would just need him to agree to this one tiny thing, and then she'd finally get that chance. It wasn't until a some person harshly brushed against her arm in haste to exit the room that she was pulled out of her reverie. The lecture was over, her laptop still sat as empty as it had been before, but Stephanie realized that this very moment would be the perfect opportunity to ask. With an easy smile, she clutched the brochure in one hand and approached him. Dr. Martensen! This may be a bad time, but I was wondering if you're free to talk a little bit? She held out the VISIONEX brochure, a confident gleam in her eyes as she talked. Have you ever heard of this company? They're running research programs for graduate students. It covers that new tech, you know, the one that lets you see history through eyes that have actually lived it. I thought you'd be glad to know that I got accepted. Stephanie laughed a little bit, a slightly melodic sound that matched her rather feminine presence. She had the hook out, and now she'd just have to see if he took the bait.