14922/The GIRLs of science.

The GIRLs of science.
Date of Scene:	10 April 2023
Location:	A bar near Alchemax in New York city.
Synopsis:	Nadia Pym catches Gwen Stacy after work to talk about potential science team ups! A plan is hatched. A scheme unfurls. And a friendship is hopefully made!
Cast of Characters:	Wasp (Pym), Ghost Spider

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Wasp (Pym) has posed:
Nadia Pym is many things. Persistent is one of them. They don't occasionally refer to her as the Unstoppable Wasp for nothing! Well. To be honest. They don't refer to her as that at all. But /Nadia/ likes the sound of it. And isn't that the important thing?

Which is how she has tracked down one Gwen Stacy at work. Not for some sort of evil revenge scheme, but because she's read several papers she wrote in college and found them fascinating. She's make the perfect candidate for an idea she's had for a while now. But has so far lacked the resources to put in place. The Genius in Action Research Lab. GIRL for short. Why stick to boring old traditional structures when she can remotely host a virtual space and bring in the finest female scientists from across the world. So they can support each other, learn new things, and make the world a better place.

All she needs is three things. A good enough server to host it on. Check. A list of potential candidates to recruit. Check. And a convincing sales pitch to get them interested.

That's the tricky bit. Her post work approach has sort of worked. In that Ms Stacey agreed to hear her out over drinks at a local bar. Thankfully she has a fake ID and can throw in a little Red Room training to walk the walk and talk the walk with the bar staff. "And here's your drink," she says. Putting Gwens order down on the table. "And mine." Which looks like water. And probably is because she's a good girl! Or maybe it's neat vodka and she's just extremely hard to get tipsy thanks to genetic enhancement.....

"I know it's a lot to ask of people," she says with a beaming smile. "Putting time aside to work on science projects without pay. At least to start with. But it's not really about getting rich. It's about making sure the world is better for everyone. Curing diseases that corporations find too expensive to treat. Stopping aliens from moving the planet."

She gestures excitedly with her hands as she talks. She even has papers and data to support her points! Of course she still looks like a teenage girl in a frilly pink dress, tights and smart black shoes. With a bomber jacket slung over the back of her chair which says GIRL across the back in big letters. Maybe she's just a random weirdo?

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen is fairly easy to find. After all, not many of the biochemists at Alchemax have barbell piercings, a growing out undercut with the tips dyed pink and, well, wears a flavor of bright blue ballet shoes around. She was, honestly surprised at the invitation. Flattered and interested, but surprised. After all, she doesn't have a PhD, just a Masters. She doesn't think she, in her day job, is anything special.

It's her side hustles that are way more interesting.

Gwen's drink order is simple. Appropriate for an After work .... Networking session. Namely a Gin and Tonic. She smiles brightly as Nadia sets the glass down, leaning her elbows on the table, folding her fingers together and resting her chin atop the backs of her hands.

"I'm really flattered that you'd seek me out on this, but aren't there a lot more ... qualified ladies out there than me? Like, I heard of Toni Ho, she's barely twenty with three Doctorates and is doing wild things with Stark-like tech and less than lethal weapons. Why me?"

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"I would like to answer the question honestly," Nadia says earnestly. "But I do not want you to take some parts of my reasoning the wrong way. Firstly, I based my list off work I thought was intelligently written. That was the primary criteria. It doesn't matter what grade someone got or if they have a silly piece of paper from some crusty old college." She shrugs. "I do not even have any high school qualifications. And I was able to figure out how Pym particles work."

There would probably be a hashtag humblebrag in there if she know what either of those things were.

"My second criteria was based on need," she explains. "People who have more to gain are more likely to take risks." She pauses. Almost like she's giving Gwen a little more time to enjoy her drink before point three. "And finally it's because you are much easier to meet than Ms Ho. I would /love/ to get time to speak with her! But for some reason if you just turn up at Stark Industries and declare you wish to their brightest female employees they look at you funny and ask if you have an appointment."

She pouts.

"One thing I would like to avoid is weapons research. I'm sure some projects could have military applications. But taking funding from Governments and military contracts gives them a degree of oversight I would rather avoid."

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen sips her drink a few times, savoring the contrast of floral botanicals and the sharp citrus of the lime against the deeply bitter tonic water. She sets her glass down, running a finger with chipped metallic purple polish around the rim. She weighs everything Nadia says with the measured reaction of a scientist. Methodically and logically.

Though the talk about appointments at Stark Industies makes her bark a laugh.

Gwen looks at Nadia, tilting her head. "Well, I don't do weapons. My main focus is the combination of animal and human DNA for medical purposes. It's promising, but no real results, " she lies blatantly.

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"It's certainly a promising field," Nadia agrees. "I genetically engineered my own DNA several years ago. Not with animal DNA specifically. It was... I have some notes about it in my papers." She rustles around in a brown leather messenger bag and pulls out some of her own notes. Oddly the bag doesn't seem to get any emptier when she removes the documents. It's rather like the bag is bigger on the inside than the outside..

The documentation, if it's real, is slightly terrifying. Totally untested genetic alterations. Carried out to her entire body. Using techniques that are politely described as novel. Or if you went into most colleges. Theoretical if they were being nice. And highly controversial if they were not.

It's not even entirely clear what most of the changes do. A fact which isn't helped by most of the citations being in Russian.

"Obviously we won't be able to do any real world genetic testing on people until we have a physical space set up. Not any official testing anyway. My own personal lab is fully stocked for that sort of work but... it's not technically certified by any of the bodies which regulate labs.."

It's also on her person now. But that part is... trickier to explain.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen takes a passing look at the notes. She doesn't read Russian, but she does own a smartphone. She grins as she swipes it to life and hits the translation app, reading quickly. Her expression shifts through interested, to puzzled, to slightly horrified, and back to interested. A couple parts make her doubletake.

"This is, uh, as the kids say, Wild. Like, there's some shades of things I've done but...at a level I can't even see. You did this? To yourself?"
Gwen grabs her drink and starts drinking it down rapidly, not even enjoying it. It's like the things she's done is...building a sandcastle next to the work of a master Mason.

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
Some of the words, when put through the app, come back pretty much nonsense. Theoretical research terminology from secret Soviet projects don't generally tend to make it online! There's also a whole lot of 'top secret' and 'document not for official publication'. If they're fake she certainly went pretty hardcore on sourcing old Russian notepads from a classified military facility to make it up on.

"Oh yes," Nadia says with a nod. "It wasn't my best work. I was in my early teens at the time and I had to operate under some unusual conditions. But I was was able make some later upgrades to iron out a few quirks." She giggles. "You can see on page five where I almost made myself allergic to canines. And there was no way I was avoiding pet stores filled with puppies for the rest of my life. So I had to redo the entire section of DNA."

She drains her own drink, which certainly seems like water, like your everyday typical Russian. Slamming it back like it was nothing and then putting the glass down with a thunk.

"Do you think you might be interested? If so I'd be more than happy to get another round of drinks to celebrate!"

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen is pretty bright, smarter than average. She did, after all, splice her own DNA with a spider's to get cool powers. That said, on this scale? What Nadia claims to have done to herself? She feels like a pen light nest to a lighthouse. That drink is finished in one final gulp. Partially because it's hard to believe and partly because she suddenly feels incredibly, incredibly small.

If she only knew.

"Part of me just wants to walk out of here right now. That's Pride talking. It's dumb as hell," she says, clicking the barbell in her tongue against her teeth as punctuation. "The rest of me says I can learn so much, up my game, and meet cool people, so..."

Gwen leans forward, grinning. "Better get the celebratory drink, and I'll have what you're having. you know, solidarity."

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"Hopefully there will be plenty more of us! So far... I last tried recruiting people when I got to America," Nadia explains, tapping her finger against the bottom of the empty glass. Having flipped it over before the thunk. "And then I went to do some research and... I got a little carried away. And I may have... not left my lab for a while.." She coughs and it almost sounds like she's saying 'a few years'.

That's because it was. And she did. It's not her fault time moves weirdly in the microverse!

"I'll see if they'll let us have the bottle. It's not /bad/ stuff. But although I never want to go back to Russia. You can always get good vodka." Even if it's made by the guards looking after the underground base you're a captive in and you're stealing it to use as medical alcohol. But that's a story for another day.

She heads to the bar to collect the order. And brings it back to the table. "Here's to new friendships and SCIENCE!"

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen is very good at listening. Plus, you know, one G&T is not enough to get her anywhere near drunk. Spider Stamina. "I understand living in the lab," she says. Except not on that scale she doesn't. She will, though someday. Probably. "I guess as the first official member, I can keep an eye out for...prospects? Is that the word?"

Then Nadia goes and brings the whole ass bottle. Hoo boy, luckily she's got a little PTO saved up just in case things get out of hand. Not like she actually has time to go on a real ass vacation anyway. Most of them are used for injury recovery because fighting whackos is dangerous and she gets hurt.

Okay, recovery and suit repair.

This is where it gets dangerous, as Gwen will make the attempt to match Nadia drink for drink. She will stumble home as a mess.

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"I've got a list of all the equipment I have access to somewhere around here," Nadia muses as she pours out the next round. "But like I said it's hard to get to my lab. So to start we can work virtually and I'll feed any requests for machine time into my system." It's a well stocked lab. For genetics work but also other scientific fields. Some sort of surgical suite. Physics equipment. Powerful computers. Even the gear for superhero costume work. Her surname is Pym after all!

It must cost a fortune to operate a building that size. At least without horrible cheating....

"Oh if you know any brilliant young women feel free to give them my contact information. As I said. Initially we'll be an informal network who help each other out. Provide mentoring. Whatever is needed really. Hopefully at some point we'll be able to fund a physical building and then who knows. But I hope we'll become an official group of Science Adventurers."

Quite what a Science Adventurer is she's not entirely clear. But there will be science and probably. A few adventures.

Ghost Spider has posed:
As the next round is poured, Gwen stares at it like it's a snake. She's all in on it now, but she is going to hate herself in the morning. "At the moment, not really. My social circle is .... eclectic. I know some brilliant musicians, but not, like, uh .... us?" There's Pete, who isn't a lady, then the band, who are not scientists.

Not a social butterfly, this one. Unless she is.

She eyes the vodka again, and grabs the glass, lifting it with the barest tremor in her hand. "Mazel tov, I guess?" Then she, the absolute moron, throws it back in one go. She grits her teeth as it goes down, clicking that barbell against her teeth as she wills it to stay put.

Oh, that's warm.

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"You never know who you might meet," Nadia says solemnly. "Although I've not really been able to... socialise a lot." She coughs. "There's always one more experiment and... I do get very hyper focused sometimes. I haven't been to a party in... it must be three years." The fact she's being hunted by Russian super spies with access to advanced technology, while a problem for most people, doesn't even make the list of reasons she doesn't go out. It really is all about the work!

"I decided I'd grow a perfect orchid one time. And got distracted for four months." She slugs back her own drink with casual ease. A few vodkas will get her merry. But size changing is very calorie intensive!

She does ease a little when pouring the next round. Not quite such large measures. After all it's more of a marathon than a sprint.