" Leonard Speaking"
' Pill Leonard Thinking'
Leonard kept his gaze at the sharp grey eyes that looked majestically at the gathering of scientists and wealthy investors. On the Pill, he captured various emotions, like hope, pride, weariness, and slight disgust, that seemed to look at people the same way a man looks at a zoo animal. There was a subtle similarity to the naked disdain Sheldon had for everyone, but in Dr. Paige's eyes, these emotions came as a result of wisdom, instead of arrogance. Leonard understood her gaze to some level. A scientist of her level, coming to a conference meant to attract investment. What truly surprised him, however, was the fact that Paige did not look at other, so-called "distinguished scientists", but rather at young people in the conference. At one point, her eyes met his, holding his attention for a fraction of a second before moving on.
Leonard sat halfway back, glasses slipping down his nose, pretending to be anonymous among the rows of physicists and graduate students. This came to him last night at a Poker game. Now that he had money, from his stint at Vegas casinos, to begin his research on the Pill; he wondered what his next steps would be. He knew that research was a money pit, so he needed a passive income source. He will start investing in the stock market soon.
The sudden decision to come to this conference was to challenge his mind. He wondered if he would meet any famous scientists. Maybe now, he can follow their thoughts. The sabbatical was supposed to be about "personal projects," but really it was about this — seeing how far the pill could take him.
On stage, Paige Swanson tapped the chalk against the whiteboard.
"Now, most of you are familiar with the problem of quantum error correction," she said, her voice calm but cutting. "But what's not widely understood is that the topological approach isn't just elegant—it's necessary. Entanglement entropy doesn't behave the way the textbooks pretend. It resists simplicity."
Equations sprawled across the board — elegant, alien, beautiful. Leonard leaned forward.
He almost understood. Almost.
His brain began to itch. Pill fired, pathways opening like trapdoors in the dark. He recalled Sheldon ranting about qubits, remembered Beverly lecturing him about epistemology at age nine, visualized card sequences from the Bellagio tables, linked them to probability wave collapse.
And then the pieces started sliding into place.
He wasn't following Paige anymore. He was running parallel. The equations broke apart, recombined in his head. String theory drifted into quantum topology. Symmetry groups danced with number theory. History of physics filled the gaps, like mortar in a wall he hadn't realized was half-built inside his skull.
"Great, isn't it?"
Leonard looked at his side. He found himself staring at two familiar eyes, staring at him through a set of glasses.Leonard blinked at the figure beside him — same glasses, same posture, same nervous tilt of the shoulders. But the other him sat straighter, eyes sharper. The other Leonard acknowledged him with a nod before looking at Dr. Swanson's explanation.
Normally, if Leonard encountered a doppelganger, out of the blue, he would seriously freak out. But something kept him calm. He carefully observed his clone, before asking in a calm tone, "Who are you?"
The clone smiled, "You know who I am. I'm you without the brakes. In fact, I am surprised it took so long.
Leonard defended, "What are you talking about? Don't you see my success at the casinos. I can utilize my knowledge in ways I never thought were possible."
The other Leonard laughed a hearty laugh, before replying, "So that's the reason it took so long. You really don't give yourself enough credit."
The other Leonard chuckled, low and unhurried. "That's the point. You think the Pill made you win cards and dice? No. You always had that. The Pill just stripped away the noise long enough for you to see it. You were capable before, but you never dared."
Leonard did not seem to believe this. He knew the changes that Pill brought him. His heightened awareness, smoothness of thought and mental processes; they were significant advantages brought by the Pill. How could his clone say that he was already capable of that.
Leonard shook his head. "No, it sharpened me. It gave me clarity I never had."
The clone leaned closer, voice steady. "Clarity is useless if you don't use it. Think about it—how many people do you truly believe are smarter than you?"
Leonard froze. He wanted to list names: Sheldon, his brother, a handful of Nobel winners. But one by one, they collapsed under the weight of the question.
The clone tilted his head. "Exactly. You've been living like a supporting character in your own life. The Pill didn't make you brilliant, Leonard. It's just forcing you to stop hiding it. Now you need to do something you've never been good at—take risks. Controlled risks. Push your limits, instead of orbiting someone else's."
Leonard swallowed. "And if I go too far?"
"Then you learn. That's growth. Play it safe, and you'll waste this. Push carefully, and you'll find out who you were meant to be."
The doppelgänger's expression softened, almost like encouragement. "We'll talk again. For now, thank Paige. She just unlocked the door. The rest is up to you."
The lecture ended, and a new scientist came to the stage. However, Leonard's mind was still captured by Paige's lecture, and a silent marvel at his understanding of complex quantum physics. The conference has a meet and greet session, where various scientists mingled with the conference attendees. Leonard scanned the people, before finding who he was looking for. Dr. Paige Swanson sat at a lonely table in a corner. Her posture indicated boredom and exasperation at the event. Leonard approached, careful not to look overeager.
Flashing a confident smile, Leonard introduced himself, "Hello Dr. Swanson. I am Leonard Hofstadter. I attended your lecture today."
Normally, a scientist at her level would not give someone of status a second thought. But for some inexplicable reason, Paige Swanson gave a nod of acknowledgement. She asked her own question, "So. Did you come here with a doubt. I have a flight in about four hours. If you could only ask the main ones, I will be able to answer them."
Another unexpected outcome. With her intelligence, he expected outright disrespect. Maybe his perception was coloured by his experiences with Sheldon.
Leonard shook his head, "You misunderstand Dr. Swanson. I did not have doubts about your lecture. It was quite informative and profound. Your framing of decoherence wasn't just technically sharp. The way you contrasted lab noise with conceptual noise—it reminded me of how writers struggle with unreliable narrators. Same data, different interpretation. It's rare to hear physics explained with that clarity."
Paige raised her eyebrow at that. While the room was full of scientists, she could count the people able to follow her train of thought on her fingers, with several fingers left over. The face of this young scientist did not spark any recognition. So either he was someone who hid his achievements, or he was pretending. There was also an off chance that he was a multidisciplinary genius, but those are rare.
Paige decides to test further, "Oh! Your understanding seems to be quite high. So, how about…"
What followed was a sharp twenty minutes of questions, answers and academic ideas bouncing between the two. After her inquiry was completed, Paige found herself admiring the person before her. Not only was his understanding of quantum physics at a high level, he could find connections between multiple related fields. It was the first time she had seen someone explain advanced physics with poetry and literature.
Paige teased, "So you're saying I'm an unreliable narrator?"
Leonard smiled, "Only in the way every good scientist is. Until the data collapses, we're all telling competing stories."
As the two were about to discuss further, the announcer announced the end of the conference. Leonard turned to Paige before suggesting, "You have about two hours before you have to reach the airport. How about we discuss further over a light meal. I haven't eaten since morning, and I suspect you haven't as well."
Paige is a beautiful woman, no one can disagree with that. She has received many invitations over the years. She usually declines them, but today, she found Leonard intriguing enough to accept.
At a small cafe outside the venue, Leonard and Paige sat in front of each other. Paige had a Texas-style steak, while Leonard opted for a small Chuck-eye. As the two continued talking, Leonard asked the question that had occurred to him in the beginning of her lecture.
"Dr. Swanson, pardon me for asking, but wasn't the conference today a bit lower than what someone of your ability would participate in."
Paige sighed a little before replying, "It is. But I would rather attend and meet with talented, passionate young people, than miss it, on some imagined concept of status. Science should never be limited to status. It should be universal, something that benefits humanity as a whole. But the academic progress is bogged down by grant applications, fundraisers and personal relations."
Leonard was taken aback. His interactions with Seibert had given him some understanding of the nature of fundraising, but he did not believe that CERN would lack funding.
Paige continued, "I was invited by the organisers to boost ticket sales. Someone who is a lead researcher at CERN looks good on the invitation. I accepted because scientific development anywhere is growth in our understanding of the universe. You might not know, but many good scientific projects are buried because of the funding issue. I also try to find promising scientists. You are a great example. If I did not attend this conference, I would have never met you."
Leonard blushed a little. While he had mostly shed his hunger for validation, her praise did make his heart flutter. He nodded in respect, "I am flattered by your praise."
Paige wondered, "Still, it was surprising that a brilliant scientist like you was not famous. Did your university not promote your achievements?"
Leonard's smile stiffened a little, he waited before answering, "I am a bit of a late bloomer. Besides, just because I have knowledge does not mean I have achieved anything of significance."
Paige raised her eyebrows. She encouraged Leonard, "Being a late bloomer is not sometimes to be ashamed of. I know many early bloomers who did not have any achievements to their name except some research papers. Sooner or later, you will be a shining star in the field of science."
Leonard smiled gratefully. The two finished their meal and Leonard offered to drop her to the airport. Paige gave him her contact information before departing.
Leonard did not go directly to his room. He wandered around Vegas, trying to clear his head. The presence of his clone made him really curious. If he hadn't really explored the true limit of the Pill, what else could be done. For a while, he even had the urge to go to a comic book store, but Leonard killed that urge.
'If the pill could bend my mind this far, I had to treat it like an experiment. But this one couldn't live on university servers or Seibert's grant ledgers. This had to be mine alone. Off the grid. Documented in notebooks and hard drives that no one could touch. The casinos proved what I could do with math. Paige proved what I could do with science. Now it was time to see what I could do with myself.'
He decided to go on a shopping trip. First, he bought some new electronic items; A new phone, laptop, a music player, and a DSLR camera. Next, he decided to buy some writing implements, before picking some books on psychology, biology, philosophy, and the brain.
At his apartment, Leonard picked up the books and decided to read. He kept a voice recorder on hand before opening the books on brain, psychology and philosophy. As he started to read, his brain started to itch again, looking at his side, he found another Leonard. There was another clone at his other side, flashing a smile, Leonard started to read.
'The more I read, the more it connects. All my neurons seem to be firing at once, allowing me to form connections between new knowledge and existing knowledge. So this is the true potential of the pill.'
Once he had finished all the books, he decided to explore his mental connections.
'It is said that meditation helps people explore their psyche. Let's see if I can explore something more.'
Leonard calmed his mind, focusing on his senses. The easiest to focus on, was his vision. Soon, he started to feel the flow of flood in his blood vessels, the tiniest sensations on his skin sharpened to detailed sensory data. As he focused more, he started to feel the subtle electrical impulses that originated from his sensory receptors. Carefully following these impulses allowed Leonard to map his nerves before his awareness felt his visual cortex. As his other senses sent impulses, he began mapping out the sensory regions of his own brain. Carefully he analysed the connections that were present in his brain.
A little playfully, Leonard connected his sharpened auditory sense impulse to his visual cortex. With his eyes closed, Leonard whistles a little. Despite his closed eyes, he saw a visual representation of the room which his whistle had shown. Leonard grinned, "I'm Batman."
Leonard did some more experiments. From fusing his vision with senses like touch, smell and taste, he learned to smell light and taste colour. His body was in his complete control. He could even influence his body to release hormones. His thoughts went back to science and how the seemed to connect. Images flood his mind: black holes twisting like Möbius strips, electrons dancing across graphene sheets, cosmic filaments mirroring neural pathways. His mind was filled with countless applications, theories, and possibilities. Things like lightsabers, space travel, teleportation, folding space, computers the size of a grain of sand; all came to his mind, no longer as fantasy, but as believable future possibilities. He always felt shackled, be it his home, at Caltech or even his relationships.
For the first time, Leonard felt free.
For the first time, Leonard Hofstadter felt limitless.
AN: That's a wrap. Leonard has started to shed his insecurities and his natural brilliance is fully enhanced.
AN2: Thank you to everyone for all the love and encouragement I received for the story. I know, the updates are a bit slow, but I have many projects and a teaching job to balance. Please bear with it for a while, till I get into the rhythm.
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