driftfleet | (no subject)

That could really mess with you. Your friend from home, you think, tells you they don't like peanut butter and you remember them loving peanut butter and then you don't know if you remembered wrong or if they aren't actually from your world.

I'm like -- 99% sure Kara and I are from the same world.

[ when you have one friend and you've also spent the last couple of years being pretty in love with her -- you forget nothing. ]

For the most part, it's been the same with my friends. Though I admit I only realized Clint was from a different world when he showed his Blockbuster card; the franchise has quite gone by the wayside in my time.

Kurt is from years into a future I didn't expect any of us to have [Make of that what you will.] so I don't think my percentage can be that high. I just know he feels like family.

[ squeezing her hand is a go. his heart looks like it's been put together by a kindergartner playing with duct tape at this point - it breaks so often. ]

But there has to be a difference. I mean. All these worlds - they exist side by side, right? So something has to be keeping them apart, something has to be different between people from separate earths, something measurable.

All the more reason to value him. Winter and Jim were very much like that, though their timelines were very different. [Well, and they were the same person, so there's that.]

You're probably right, but I'm afraid I haven't the least idea what it could be. Some kind of particle, perhaps?

[She nods and squeezes Winn's hand back.] I managed to meet Jim before he disappeared and met Winter shortly after that. [So she knows how important he was to Winter even wearing the same face.]

You think there's something we could actually detect? [She hadn't thought about that before, but now she is.]

[ he doesn't know either of those people, and again he feels like he's intruding here - on a better conversation they could be having. ]

There always is, it's a matter of finding it. [ did he just stumble on project 2567884? probably. ]

[What's important is that they're here now, and that they can care about each other just as much whether they're from the same timeline or not. The Vision has a feeling Kitty and Winn are getting a good start on that.]

It would be difficult to discover without having two such environments to compare but--I don't see why it could not be discovered.

We might not have environments to compare, but we do have people. Assuming we can do it in a way that is full of consent and not harmful. [She came from a place with some pretty grotesque human (and mutant) experimentation.]

[ there's already one subject whose consent they don't have to wonder about - winn will absolutely be experimenting on himself. the problem is that he and kara don't make a very good control group - what with him being human and her being kryptonian and all. they have so many differences that would have nothing to do with which reality they originated from. ]

I think step one would probably be just taking a lot of measurements to compare.

That would be simple enough, though I admit I may not make a good test subject. [What with being a vibranium-infused synthetic person and all.] And of course, I'd want informed consent.

Mutants might skew the results too, but I guess that's harder to know without knowing what we're looking for.

Of course, we're all about the consent.

[ he nods, doing this against someone's will will never cross his mind. there are plenty of scientifically inclined people who'd want to participate, right! ]

Or it might actually help, with separating factors that have nothing to do with which Earth you're from, if we get a big enough sample.

That's a good point as well. Ultimately, the more data collected, the more conclusions we may be able to draw.

We could maybe look at two people who are the same person but from different worlds like the Kurts. That might cut down on some of the extra differences.

That'd be great -- you think they'd be up for that?

I admit I only know the one, but it would be a good experiment in data-gathering.

Naturally, we'd have to determine what data we should gather first.

[~~Of course by the time someone thinks to ask one of them may be gone!~~]

How did we end up with a project over breakfast? Winn, I blame you. [He's a project magnet.]

[ he laughs ]

Yeah that's fair.

[ projects are usually his fault. and by usually he means always. turning back to vision. ]

You got ideas?

Breakfast conversation isn't entirely something I'm accustomed to, so I apologize if it's inappropriate.

[It doesn't seem to be, though.]

Biometric signatures would be simple enough, noninvasive, and unlikely to provide any information someone may object to.

It's not you, Vision. Winn's been collecting ways of spending less time with me. [Jokingly accusing.]

[ kitty please, you know he loves every second he gets to spend with you. ]

Well if I spend any more time with you, I'll be a stalker.

[ which. really doesn't bother him if his tone is any indication. ]

What do you mean by 'biometric signatures' exactly for the - non-biologists among us?

We can't be having that, can we?

[He nods his head at the question.] There are a number of variables that, when combined, identify an individual more comprehensively than any single characteristic. Biometrics include fingerprints, facial recognition, voice patterns, retinal scans, gait analysis, even a remote brainwave pattern. Some of these can be imitated or concealed by certain Fleet members, but to my knowledge the full set cannot be imitated by anyone's current abilities.

No, stalkers are bad. [Haha, foreshadowing.]

Are you able to scan people's biometrics, Vision? Or would this be more of a "we would need to build a thing" situation?