<div align="center"><em>Vanessa and her dad get to work</em></div><hr/><br/>As they huddled together over the camera and sensor box, the awkwardness between them seemed to fade away.  Vanessa knew well that getting someone to work on a project with her was a sure-fire way to erase the usual uneasiness she had with other people.  She might not always know what to say to someone or how to look at them and be looked at back, but having work between them was the best social lubricant Vanessa knew.<br/><br/>She watched as her father manipulated the camera in his great hands, silently marveling at his gentle touch.  She had been told that she herself had a light hand when it came to objects that few suspected merely by seeing her limp digits at rest.  Vanessa wondered if this was how other people saw her.  After all, he was her father.<br/><br/>Her tongue protruded thinly between her lips as she listened, envisioning his instructions.  The camera had needed something; the celestial bronze was not enough to make it react solely to immortal subjects.  Perhaps the Ichor would be exactly what it needed!<br/><br/>"It's a lot like donating plasma. Just use a centrifuge to separate it all and then you'll be able to see the Ichor and we can draw it out, Have you ever given blood before?"<br/><br/>Vanessa shook her head, her black hair tossing over her shoulders.  "Not on purpose," she replied.  The joke was weak and self-deprecating, well suited for its speaker.  "Are we going to have to strip the wires to apply it or should we coat bear wires and then insulate them?"