@omnicvisionary from here
Not half as much a mystery as you are, O'Deorain. Luckily, Max is an omnic and smiling is neither possible nor expected.
“Science and odds are much alike in that respect – neither behaves the way we anticipate. Which means I am bound to disappoint you eventually, Minister.”
He doesn’t ask her why she supports a new human-omnic war, although he wishes he knew. It would help his leverage if he understood the woman’s motivations.
“Tell me, have you been working on anything … interesting?"
She laughs when Maximilien admits fallibility. It's charming, truly, his humility is a nice change from the brash lot she usually has to deal with.
"Oh, have I!" Moira exclaims. It's a bad idea, she muses, to ask a scientist what she's working on unless you have half an hour to spare.
"Optogenetics, an old-world technique of exploiting light-activated halorhodopsin to excite or inhibit neurons. A hundred years old, and yet uppity, prudish milksops limit work to mice models even still. It's a dead-end of stagnant research." She sighs dramatically, but the excitement bubbles away in her chest, not even considering that her audience might have a different idea of 'interesting' to her.
"That is, until I decided it was worth resuming." A sinister glint sparkles in her eyes. "My volunteer misses his wife terribly. But shine a yellow light in his brain and he forgets entirely what she looks like. Isn't that grand?"