Intellectual Collaberation/Competition

By all accounts it was a nice day at SciLabs. Sunny with just a few white clouds out, a cool wind to balance the radiant heat, and just a lot of people out and about with the day being so inviting. All accounts but for one Dr. Emily Delumia, who came stomping out of the main building into the courtyard after the sliding glass doors allowed her exit. "My God, I cannot stand these people! They always give me the most irritating attitude whenever I'm here!" exclaimed Emily, who emphatically plopped her butt down onto an open bench to express her frustration.

"You did give the initial license of your theory to NAXA... I'd be pretty miffed too if I was the world's other major scientific foundation." suggested Mir from inside her PET, putting herself in the shoes of the SciLabs representatives. "You can only break ground on a new field once, after all."

"What on Earth did they expect? I'm a Netopian girl, and Uncle Walter let me use NAXA's equipment for a lot of the experiments! I owed it to him and the organization to grant them first implementation! And now I came here to discuss the terms of a secondary license, and they give me... that attitude! I'd like to see them fashion a Lumian filter on mere heresay!" huffed Emily as she turned her head to flip some of that long blonde hair back over her shoulder. "Absolutely unbelievable."

"Well... The director probably got a little more irked when you walked into the office in just a yellow blouse, denim capris, and a pair of sandals. That's... not quite the level of professionalism one would normally expect in license negotiations." explained Mir, pointing into her screen at Emily's completely casual outfit. "Not in Electopia, anyway."

"Well maybe these people could learn a little bit from Netopia about how to relax!" snapped Emily, in about as un-relaxed a state as could be.

"Uh... Emily, maybe you could learn a little bit about cooling off, too." said Mir, actually calling out her Operator on it.

Emily's index finger tapped rapidly and aggressively against the bench's armrest for a few seconds, before she ultimately let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Calibrate the LTC for use, we're going to go bust a few viruses. Nothing's more relaxing than generating some experiment data... especially on these bigots' front lawn."

"Scholarly competition is far too intense..." muttered Mir to herself as she picked up her cannon and made way to the jack-in portal.

(Jack-In, SciLab Net)
"Uhhhn..." moaned Mir from inside the PET as she continued the arduous task of getting the Champox's gasoline-like stench out of her nose.

"You poor thing... We were going to go back home to Netopia after this, but maybe I should drop by the apartment in Den City so you can get a proper cleaning." sympathized Emily, who was not one for offensive smells either.

"That would be... appreciated..." whimpered Mir, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes as she tried blowing her nose for about the 20th time.

"Alright then, let's go...! Err... Wait, can I even report back at NAXA without finishing those negotiations...?" asked Emily suddenly, as if she had been forgetting something important this whole time.

"... Yeah, it's probably... *sniff* gonna be settled... in court... *sniff* otherwise..." It sounded like Mir's nasal issues were getting worse instead of better.

"That would be troublesome... Our upcoming tests could be delayed if there's a license dispute!" gasped Emily in terror. "I suppose I'll just have to go back in there, gut out that age-old arrogance, and figure out some terms..."

*AH-CHOO*

"..."

"... Please don't look..." begged Mir. Poor girl.

"Sorry, Mir, I'll try to make this quick." apologized Emily sincerely as she slipped the PET into her purse and walked back into the SciLab main building.

(Moving to A Legal Resolution)