ic Tech Compliance (Open)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Certainly," said Judy warmly. "Ah'm sorry if I scared you before," she said as Nick took a seat. "Ah heard you have electromagnetic powers and Ah thought, 'Hey, Ah wonder if Ah can talk to him like my phone.' It was just a one-time thing and it won't happen again - believe me, I know being poked and prodded isn't fun." She went into a spiel for Nick, going out of her way to face him and speak distinctly. "My powers are based around radio. I absorb radio waves at the frequency of about one meter, and then I can emit them on my own. Sort of like being a radio and a microwave oven all at once." She smiled tightly at that, the look not quite reaching her eyes, and went on, "Ah came today because Ah can technically talk to computers, but Ah don't know any programming languages or anything, so all I can do is turn my phone on and off - and sometimes it just melts. What about you?" 

[Semi-Autogyro]

Claude seemed to be be enjoying the ruckus, judging by the smirk plastered across his face at the chaos. It only widened when he watched a girl literally headdesk.

 

On 10/3/2019 at 9:35 PM, Dariusprime said:

First, he signed to Claude, "Why don't we invite her," pointing to Mia, "and him over? They could use the company." Especially after Mia's headdesk-ing.

 

Noticing Nick out of the corner of his eye signing at him, Claude simply shrugged with a 'why not' gesture and then followed it with giving Nick a thumbs up. Personally, he could work with anyone. Even little miss anger issues and her slightly ditzy but nice sister. Back when he was wearing the black hat he had worked with criminals that laughed at going to Blackgate, like it was a day spa. So pretty much barring her or anyone else pulling a piece or the like on him, he'd be willing to play ball. 

 

Still, he was interested in desk girl. Probably get a few good laughs working with her judging by her over reaction to everything. So when Nick pointed her in his direction he gave a lazy salute/wave at her. 

 

On 10/3/2019 at 9:35 PM, Dariusprime said:

Nick hadn't met Micah either, but extended the same silent offer to join Claude and himself. All this in perhaps less than a minute.

 

Now Claude did not oppose roping Micah into their little group, since people like him were good at keeping others on task. He was good people, since he certainly had more patience than Claude did when dealing with bishounen Leeroy Jenkins over there. 

 

"Ey Micah, looks like Nick wants to work wit' you and headdesk girlie over there. Whaddya thinkin' of wantin' to build?" 

Edited October 6, 2019 by Semi-Autogyro

[KnightDisciple]

On 10/3/2019 at 10:35 PM, Dariusprime said:

Not waiting for a reply, Nick stood up, twirled his tablet under his arm, and headed off toward Mia. The shift in his demeanor felt significant to Claude, but not unexpected, as the small teen felt most confident when set on a goal of some sort. Stopping beside Mia, he gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder and a warm smile. Those gestures came before an open-handed motion toward where Claude and he were sitting. A quick nod that he was, indeed, serious, Nick shuffled over to Micah and offered a fist bump. Nick hadn't met Micah either, but extended the same silent offer to join Claude and himself. All this in perhaps less than a minute.

 

Micah gave nick a quick smile and returned the fistbump. His rendition of the greeting might lack the sheer enthusiasm of his peers, but considering the comparisons that was only natural. He blinked at the offer to join Nick and Claude, then scratched his chin in thought for just a moment. Then he nodded, speaking quietly but with clear lip movements toward Nick.

 

"Sure."

 

Micah stood and walked over to where Claude was sitting and Nick had gestured. He missed perhaps a half-step at Nick going over to Judy and Ashley, but made no comment to anyone about it. 

 

20 hours ago, Semi-Autogyro said:

Now Claude did not oppose roping Micah into their little group, since people like him were good at keeping others on task. He was good people, since he certainly had more patience than Claude did when dealing with bishounen Leeroy Jenkins over there. 

 

"Ey Micah, looks like Nick wants to work wit' you and headdesk girlie over there. Whaddya thinkin' of wantin' to build?" 

 

Micah smiled as he sat down.

 

"That's kind of a good question. I guess....short term? Last year I made some primitive...let's call them "Segway Skates" for my friend Danica. Her powers give her some advantages, but the downside is she moves pretty slow on her own. She can still think at everyone else's speed, though, so it's kind of a bummer. She uses a Segway to get around outside and stuff, but that's not always enough or a good fit. I tried to make her these skate-things that she could use to get around inside buildings or in other places that her regular Segway didn't work. I only sort of succeeded. I'd like to try making something better for her. Shoot, depending on how successful we are, maybe it could be, I dunno, a new assistance device?"

 

He let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"Longer-term this year, I'd like to do something with an automobile or motorcycle design. I prefer the bike a bit but either one works. Something more than just putting together a kit, maybe?"

[Dariusprime]

Nick sat and listened politely. He nodded at appropriate moments and generally tried to be a good listener. Once she finished, his reply took a bit to type into his battered tablet. Turned to Judy, it read, "Apology accepted. The experience was a bit jarring, but I'm sensitive to such things. I did receive your message though." To keep the text easily readable, the font was larger than normal and necessitated shorter replies. 

 

Another round of typing, and it read, "That's really fascinating! That would explain why your message was mostly in the UHF range. At first I thought a router was glitching. Impressive use of multiple frequencies!" He looked off in a thought a moment, looked to start typing, and stopped.

 

Instead of facing the elephant in the room, Nick decided to answer her question first. Assuming she framed her question around his powers. He ran a finger around the tablet's case in thought and eventually typed away. "I detect all frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, particle radiation, and sonic frequencies." Once that was relayed, he tapped the tablet, looking a bit hesitant, before shrugging and typing, "The things I have heard altered my vocal patterns. So my voice destroys things when I speak. A whisper would destroy delicate objects nearby. A shout could level the building." The weak smile matched Judy's smile well.

 

"Sounds to me," he held up the tablet, "like we both have had bad experiences and are ill-at-ease with our powers. How are you feeling?" A more genuine smile and silent chuckle accompanied the message.

[TheAbsurdist]

"Huh."  He poked his tongue against the inside of his cheek, as he furrowed his brows, showing a pretty good scowl as he did so.  Though it seemed more like he was trying to work out what was happening.  "Hm.  Right, sure, yeah, that sounds good."  Benny's expression lit up as he smiled at Judy,  as he moved with his bookbag towards her and her sister, and whoever else she was talking it.

And he listened, he paid attention, or tried to.  Even as people were clamoring for attention, or a scrap, or something.  It was a lot to process, a lot to catch up on.  The old movies didn't much mention how the future would be, except robots, and flying cars.  One was true.  He moved towards a table, and he spun a chair around, and plopped down, his arms folded across the top of the back of the thing.  

[Avenger Assembled]

Judy's eyes widened, hand going to her throat automatically. "Oh, Ah'm so sorry," she murmured softly. "Don't-don't worry about me, Ah'm fine. Ah've had much worse days than this," she said with that same smile that didn't quite go all the way - at least not until she said, "Ah'm glad you liked the message, anyway. Ah can do other stuff, but it's nice to use it to just talk to somebody. Maybe we can practice sometime." Ashley gave Nick a distinctly laser-eyed look - but didn't seem as interested in chasing him off the way Claude was. "So what do you like to do with science and stuff?" 

[Shofet]

Mia rose up to look at Nick, blinking slowly. She followed his hand as he gestured, and shrugged, picking up her stuff and heading on over to the desk with Claude and Micah. There was already a conversation on-going there, so she instead began to open up her laptop, quietly unscrewing the back plate and beginning to take a look inside. The fan had been annoying her recently, stuttering and dragging, which consequently was making the machine run hotter than it did normally. Looking inside, she saw that fan outwardly looked fine. Quickly taking a second look to make sure her laptop was off, and confirming it was, she began to gently try and spin the fan with her screwdriver, and encountered no resistance.

 

"What the heck is going on with you?" she asked as she began to unscrew it.

 

As she worked, she listened again to the conversations around her. The conversation about making something for Danica made her perk up. She looked over at Micah, and waved her screwdriver. "That'd be really cool of you," she said, before realizing what she was doing and going back to prodding the fan. "I'm her roommate. Would be cool for her to get around more easily."

 

Then, she looked up. "Anyone have any idea why a fan might start and stop weirdly? It's not the fan, clearly, and I'm kinda worried that means it's something with the computer itself. Like the power supply. And that'd really suck."

[Dariusprime]

Nick slowly nodded once in recognition of her sympathies, and nodded again at her answer. He didn't believe it for a second but appeared to accept her answer at face value. The brightening of her smile seemed to please him though. Before he could write a reply, he caught Ashley's look and made eye contact. It lasted a second or two. Long enough that his smile slipped a bit but still felt guileless. Quickly enough he went to his tablet and typed. Probably to keep from fidgeting.

 

Holding up the tablet, it read, "I did. Having someone to talk to can make a huge difference. Would you like to set up a regular practice time? I could use the practice too." Scratching his head, he erased the message after she finished, and posted another one, "We could meet in one of the common rooms. I live on campus and am free most evenings."

 

As to her question, Nick leaned back in his chair, slowly turning the tablet end-over-end. His gathered thoughts translated into another message, "Little of everything. I tinker. Code. Figure out how things work. I'd like to find a project car to rebuild." He continued shortly, "I really like astronomy, but the light and radio pollution here means I'm out of luck. Why I came here today: to find another hobby."

 

His face lit up as a thought occurred to him. Perhaps it was obvious in hindsight. He added one last message, "Maybe I can help you learn to talk to computers?"

[Semi-Autogyro]

On 10/5/2019 at 3:37 PM, KnightDisciple said:

Micah smiled as he sat down.

 

"That's kind of a good question. I guess....short term? Last year I made some primitive...let's call them "Segway Skates" for my friend Danica. Her powers give her some advantages, but the downside is she moves pretty slow on her own. She can still think at everyone else's speed, though, so it's kind of a bummer. She uses a Segway to get around outside and stuff, but that's not always enough or a good fit. I tried to make her these skate-things that she could use to get around inside buildings or in other places that her regular Segway didn't work. I only sort of succeeded. I'd like to try making something better for her. Shoot, depending on how successful we are, maybe it could be, I dunno, a new assistance device?"

 

He let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"Longer-term this year, I'd like to do something with an automobile or motorcycle design. I prefer the bike a bit but either one works. Something more than just putting together a kit, maybe?"

 

22 hours ago, Shofet said:

As she worked, she listened again to the conversations around her. The conversation about making something for Danica made her perk up. She looked over at Micah, and waved her screwdriver. "That'd be really cool of you," she said, before realizing what she was doing and going back to prodding the fan. "I'm her roommate. Would be cool for her to get around more easily."

 

Claude nodded as he listened.  "I gotcha. Remind me to show ya my ride when I get a chance, it's a restored Lambretta DL scooter that I rescued from the scrapheap. But for now, just gimme a few to think about what we can do for this project."

 

Claude closed his eyes and began the mental motions for accessing the repository for the information needed to create a device that Micah had described. A few heartbeats later, Claude opened his eyes and focused on the problem at hand with newfound knowledge. "Lemme pitch some things by ya," he told Micah and Mia as he stood and moved to a nearby whiteboard. Twirling a marker as he picked it up, he began writing on the board.

 

22 hours ago, Shofet said:

Then, she looked up. "Anyone have any idea why a fan might start and stop weirdly? It's not the fan, clearly, and I'm kinda worried that means it's something with the computer itself. Like the power supply. And that'd really suck."

 

The Bostonian boy continued to write as he answered Mias' question. "Yeah, I'd check your BIOS or any other temperature or fan controllin' software. Next would be making sure all your connectors are properly seated. Could also be a CPU/GPU overclockin' thing that's messin' with your internal temps so it kicks the fan on randomly." 

 

Claude finished up what he was writing, as he capped the marker and began idly gesturing at first drawing on the board with it. "One, self-balancin' skates like ya suggested. Problem is is they'd probably be a bit fiddly with lotsa movin parts if ya needed to repair 'em."

 

 "Two, hover boots. Same problem with added fun of falling from a lot further up." He tapped the second picture. 

 

"Three, frictionless boots. Let her provide her own impulse but she could get up to speed faster as it were. Just not incline friendly. But she'd probably beat everyone else on a downhill."  He gave a grin at the pair. "But any of these are pretty doable. Any more ideas you wanna throw out there?" 

[Ari]

QuoteBen's eyes widened, just a little bit more than they should've been physically capable of doing. "Man, what IS it with this place? Everyone thinks it's Prison Rules, gotta find the coolest cat and kick his ass on the first day. I totally get why everyone ELSE thinks that's me, but DAMN, man, you look in the mirror today? I'm not even TRYIN' ta compete with this whole Prince Akeem thing you got goin' on over here. But if you really wanna dance, I mean, all I really know how to 'build' is code. So, like, I can write a program or put a website together or somethin' like that. I can put a computer together if all the parts are there. But I'm not, like, soldering my own circuit boards or anything like that."

 

"Be at ease, I have a plan: programmable matter. My sister showed me how to make the black diamonds. Behold!"

 

Releasing Benicio, Leroy stepped a few steps from him and clapsed his hands together into a hard tangle of flesh and bone. Taking a long, slow breath, the scarred boy drew his hands apart, sweat beading on his face as it contorted in concentration, golden eyes fixed on a bead of perfect darkness between his fingers

 

Arms shaking with the strain, Leroy held his hands at shoulder-width as the point expanded by fits and jerks, hardening and stabilizing under the Dragon Prince's fevering gaze into a rectangular block of glossy black crystal. Something pulsed in its heart, shimmering waves like some dark rainbow washing through.

 

Letting out the breath he'd taken in eternities ago with a wheezing gasp, Leroy fell to his knees, clutching his creation in hands gone pale with loss of blood. The forces at work had pushed it up past his slender wrists.

 

Hauling himself up with a chair, Leroy offered the block to Benicio, his hand shaking so badly it looked more like he was trying to cast a spell on the other boy. "H-here, t-t-take. M-ma-make my-my own, in a-a minute. Too much. Too...too fast." He settled into the chair like a sack of potatos, "Easy...enough to learn. Responds to your thoughts. Changes shape, mass, can provide power and shape energy, one need only have the mind for it. I have heard you emulate a hero of uncommon cunning and genius, perhaps this will be a fitting challenge!"

 

Remembering their instructor, he waved to Valeria "Do not worry, I will be fine. Merely need a minute." He smiled reassuringly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ah've got one of those on mah bedroom desk!" called Judy cheerfully as she watched Leroy do his beautiful work. "Show him the thing with the lights, honey."

 

Turning back to Nick, she said with a more genuine smile, "Ah'd love to meet and practice," she said cheerfully, "Ah don't really get a lot of opportunities to do something with my powers that isn't "learning how not to blow things up.'" She grimaced, then said, "Ah'm free most evenings, Ah don't eat or sleep," she admitted, "so Ah have lots of free time." Twirling the end of her long brown hair with her hand, she went on, "Ah can just about turn them on and off, but I'd like to be able to, you know, talk to machines, make them do what Ah want. That'd be pretty cool." 

[Dr Archeville]

Heroditus had been glancing over at Mia and her laptop.  He'd met her one other time, and they'd briefly discussed computers, but never followed up beyond that.  Now he was wishing he had.  What a fascinating device!  All those components... and the lines, almost like runic engravings.  But where are the crystals?  Are they embedded in those tiny bits?  Do they need that much protection?  Does that not interfere with their energy flow?

 

He also caught the bit about Micah wanting to work on a vehicle, both for Danica and for his own use.  A mo-tor-sye-kull?  What manner of conveyance is that?  I should talk with him about that at the next Green Squad meeting.

 

Leroy's display was the least interesting to him.  It did catch his attention, and he was respectful of the effort the Atlantean Prince put into it, but he'd seen similar feats countless times (and done with considerable more ease).  He set his tablet down on the table, went to his side, and offered him a drink from his second waterskin.  "An impressive effort, Prince, I am sure your tutors are proud."  His tone was respectful as ever, but had a slight undertone of one praising a child for finally writing their ABCs correctly.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Dariusprime]

Nick froze at receiving a new signal. The signal felt...strange...to say the least. The analysis rang strongly of matter-anti-matter and sounded like what he would guess a black hole would sound like. He slowly turned and watched wide-eyed at Leroy's display. Yes, the prince impressed him. Especially given the effort required!

 

Once the strange object emerged, Nick pursed his lips to whistle but managed to clap his hand over his mouth in time. The energy signature from the block pulsed alongside the glow, an eerie, cosmic chant that was at once mesmerizing and sending chills up his spine. He decided, for his own sanity, to study it at a respectful distance.

 

That Judy had another block of the stuff on her desk made Nick blink. Now while it wouldn't put out anything dangerous, particularly to Judy, the "programmable matter" thing still made Nick nervous, and he looked it with a bout of fidgeting with his hands. Part of him was curious as to what the "thing with the lights" entailed though.

 

Thankfully, his conversation with Judy picked back up. Typing away, the tablet read, "No sleeping or eating? Lucky! Seriously though, how about Tuesdays and Thursdays around 4 pm? We can practice until dinnertime. Add time/days as needed." The follow up message, after glancing around the room and ignoring the creepy Lego, read, "I'll see if I can scavenge up some old computers and other electronics. If you fry them, they go into the recycling."

 

Surely Claremont had at least a closet of old office devices, or failing that, the local thrift shops had to have a few Windows 98 PCs languishing in obscurity. They would go to a good cause or go out in a blaze of glory! Maybe their new teacher would know a cache?

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

When Leroy started to stumble, Ben started to lean in and reach out to him, both with his hands and with the several tentacles which had reflexively slid out from under his shirt. But when he waved away any potential help, insisting on pulling himself back up to his feet, Ben backed off.

 

"You sure you're OK, Man? Looks more like you pulled, like, ALL the muscles. You sure you don't want, like, some water, or an Advil or something? Nurse, get this guy an I.V., stat?"

 

Eventually Leroy's protests were sufficient for Ben's attention to wander to the black crystal cube Leroy had just conjured. "So you're saying...this thing...can basically be...anything? And you wanna have a make-anything contest?" Ben stared into the gleaming black crystal. "...Anything...GOT IT!" He leaped to his feet, slapping Leroy on the shoulder while his tentacles scooped up both the cube and his green laptop. He ran up the wall, until he was standing on the ceiling. Then, standing upside-down, he turned to address the room.

 

He held up the cube. "So, hey, my thing here uses thinking to make stuff. So I need a way to interface this," he shook the cube like a rattle, then held up his computer, "With this. Before I spend a buncha time making one one myself, figure I should ask, anyone here got any thinky-based tech I can borrow? For, like, science?"

 

[Shofet]

Mia slapped her forehead. "Of course," she said, her voice full of realization. Hastily, she got to work at replacing the fan and just to be safe, checked out the connectors. They seemed to be fine, which lead her to believe what she was thinking was right. Once the computer was back together, she booted it up and began to run some software maintenance checks.

 

While those ran, she now had some free time, given they would take a while. Her eyes wandered over to the programmable matter, and she smirked. She could do that real easy. But she'd let them have their fun.

 

Instead, she scooched over to Judy and Micah. "You two don't mind if I butt in, right?"

[Dr Archeville]

Benicio drew Heroditus' attention, in both the "oh, great, this guy" manner and the "ah, my area of special interest" manner.  Alright, yes, he is a freakish-looking motormouth, embodying many things 'wrong' with Surface Worlders, but he is a fellow member of Orange Squad, so you need to learn to get along.  Besides, he seemed more upset at Aquaria's speech than anyone else, and the... discomforted by my... traditional enemy is my... ally?

 

The Atlantean raised his hand, "I may be of some assistance, Squadmate Benicio," and with the other retrieved his tablet.  "This is an Atlantean memory crystal, which can record and play back text, images, and sounds."  He glanced at the tablet, and a 3d hologram of Claremont Academy appeared above it.  "We use them for information storage and entertainment, since we lost most of our books and scrolls during The Sinking."  A note of sadness and loss was in his voice at the end there, but it was quickly dispelled.  "The most relevant aspect of them, though, is that the information is stored and retrieved by the user telepathically.  And since my secondary purpose here is to figure out how to incorporate Surface Worlder technology and magic with Atlantean mechanomysticism," he offered the tablet up, "I would be both very interested in and honored to assist you in this endeavor."

[TheAbsurdist]

Benny fished out some Popular Mechanics from his backpack, and started to flip through them.  He was out of his league, and he knew it.  He had a good functional grasp on science and stuff, but that was theoretical, and this was all stuff waaaaaay outside of his league.  Then it got interesting, or terrifying, and they were being super blithe about it, but then... when's the last time they dealt with a inter dimensional drug slinging missing link biker gang that was a controlled by sea urchin like aliens?

 

"Huh... Ya, uh, sure it's safe?"  He looked at the shapeable matter, not at all positive that it was going to turn out well.  There was a twitch as he started to spool up, like a spring, legs tightening, his arms shifted and bracing as he gripped at the chair.  He didn't seem scared, more... ready, anticipatory.  Ash would get the read of someone who'd seen trouble before in their life, and was seeing in again.  

[KnightDisciple]

On 10/6/2019 at 10:17 PM, Shofet said:

As she worked, she listened again to the conversations around her. The conversation about making something for Danica made her perk up. She looked over at Micah, and waved her screwdriver. "That'd be really cool of you," she said, before realizing what she was doing and going back to prodding the fan. "I'm her roommate. Would be cool for her to get around more easily."

 

Then, she looked up. "Anyone have any idea why a fan might start and stop weirdly? It's not the fan, clearly, and I'm kinda worried that means it's something with the computer itself. Like the power supply. And that'd really suck."

 

Micah shrugged at Mia's compliment. 

 

"I mean, sure. Part of it is just my cuss stubbornness not wanting to leave things undone or half-finished."

 

At the mention of a fan, he leaned over just a bit.

"What about the wires? Like, the ones between the fan and the rest of the computer? If it's just the fan, and everything else works consistent, you've isolated the problem to wherever things 'branch' off. Or something controlling the fan?"

 

 

On 10/7/2019 at 9:17 PM, Semi-Autogyro said:

Claude finished up what he was writing, as he capped the marker and began idly gesturing at first drawing on the board with it. "One, self-balancin' skates like ya suggested. Problem is is they'd probably be a bit fiddly with lotsa movin parts if ya needed to repair 'em."

 

 "Two, hover boots. Same problem with added fun of falling from a lot further up." He tapped the second picture. 

 

"Three, frictionless boots. Let her provide her own impulse but she could get up to speed faster as it were. Just not incline friendly. But she'd probably beat everyone else on a downhill."  He gave a grin at the pair. "But any of these are pretty doable. Any more ideas you wanna throw out there?" 

 

Micah took out a notebook and pen and started scratching down notes and a couple of rough sketches.

 

"Hm. So, a Segway's all about having it doing the moving for you. Like, you just lean. It's doing 99.9% of the work, right? And I think what I was trying to do with the first round of this thing was the same thing. But...what if it was more like a 50/50 split? or maybe 80/20? Something that just kind of gives more oomph? Like the friction-less boots, but less about removing resistance and more about adding impulse?"

 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

"I may be of some assistance, Squadmate Benicio. This is an Atlantean memory crystal, which can record and play back text, images, and sounds."  He glanced at the tablet, and a 3d hologram of Claremont Academy appeared above it.  "We use them for information storage and entertainment, since we lost most of our books and scrolls during The Sinking. The most relevant aspect of them, though, is that the information is stored and retrieved by the user telepathically.  And since my secondary purpose here is to figure out how to incorporate Surface Worlder technology and magic with Atlantean mechanomysticism," he offered the tablet up, "I would be both very interested in and honored to assist you in this endeavor."

 

"Oh yeah, we are squaddies, huh." Ben dropped down into the desk next to Heroditus, doing an effortless half-flip in the middle of the descent. "Sweet." He pounded Heroditus's fist. "OK, so I'm gonna write a bunch of code here," he pointed to his green laptop, "And I want the info these scripts are pulling together to go in here," he touched a finger down onto the shiny black cube. "So if you can enter info into that tablet, and pull info out of it, just by thinking about it, then we should be able to get info from my computer through your tablet and into The Hellbound Heart over here." Ben typed furiously as he talked. "But, like, a LOT of info. I'm not talkin' about reading this thing a bedtime story." His voice lowered to a whisper. "I'm talking CRITICAL MASS, know what I'm saying? Why just 'science', when you can SCIENCE, am I right? Project Runway over there's gonna bunt it and slide into first, but you and me? We're swingin' for the FENCES."

 

[Dariusprime]

Nick somehow dragged his attention from Ben and gave Mia a thumbs up before moving his seat so she could join the group. He looked at Judy for her preference before focusing back on Octo-Ben. His shenanigans were already the stuff of legend and very endearing, if he was honest. Seeing him on the ceiling, calling out for telepathic(?) assistance, didn't really phase Nick. Hearing Heroditus not only volunteer but possibly suggest the perfect interface between the cube and Ben's computer filled him with dread.

 

Now Nick had enough self awareness to know he was a bit of a scaredy cat. Well, more like cautious in his own opinion. Still he only needed a few seconds to realize he didn't like this idea. Combining Ben's mad skills and programmable matter should be done under...more controlled conditions. Not that he distrusted Ben. He seemed like good octo-people. Heroditus, although he didn't know him well, seemed generally quite level-headed too. But this was ill-advised.

 

Benny spurred him into action. For the most part, Nick had been polite and inclusive with Benny as anyone else. After all this was Claremont. Looks really didn't mean much here. Benny though had the look of someone that had seen or started some stuff. If he was nervous, something was afoot. Now he just had to deal with the situation in a productive manner. His face furrowed in thought.

 

Typing on his tablet, he held it up for Judy and Mia, "Would you excuse me a moment please?"

 

After which he moved quickly. A big circle around the cube landed him next to Claude. The tablet passed to the Bostonian, reading in small font, "Would you make sure they don't blow up the school or call forth Dagon or something? You're trained for this weirdness. Please?" He didn't want to plead, but the small teen looked worked up and kept glancing at Ben's cube.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Dariusprime

[Semi-Autogyro]

Claude looked away from his current discussion with Micah & Mia at the commotion coming from Inky & Jenkins. 'Oh sure, give the class clownfish a frickin' blank cheque for mayhem, why don't you.' He mentally groused before looking at Valeria with a raised eyebrow while nodding in the dingbat duos' direction, wondering if she was going to do something about the situation before it got further out of hand. 

 

22 hours ago, KnightDisciple said:

"Hm. So, a Segway's all about having it doing the moving for you. Like, you just lean. It's doing 99.9% of the work, right? And I think what I was trying to do with the first round of this thing was the same thing. But...what if it was more like a 50/50 split? or maybe 80/20? Something that just kind of gives more oomph? Like the friction-less boots, but less about removing resistance and more about adding impulse?"

 

The Bostonian returned his attention back to Micah, catching roughly the back half of his suggestions.

 

"Huh. Lessee." Claude paused to stare at the whiteboard for a few seconds. "We could do somethin' like a pair of Heelys' but provide impulse to the - Yeah, Nick?" he stopped as Nick popped up beside him and showed him his tablet.

 

21 hours ago, Dariusprime said:

The tablet passed to the Bostonian, reading in small font, "Would you make sure they don't blow up the school or call forth Dagon or something? You're trained for this weirdness. Please?" He didn't want to plead, but the small teen looked worked up and kept glancing at Ben's cube.

 

Those that were looking at Claude as he read the message would have seen the normally laid back teen go very still and shoot a calculating glance at the cube before scowling and passing the tablet back to Nick. "You know the rules," he signed emphatically before staring up at the ceiling and sighing. 

 

Micah and Nick could pick up a muttered "freakin' puppy dog eyes" under Claudes' breath as he looked back at his roomate. "I'll keep an eye on it and step in if it looks to be gettin' too crazy. That work?" He signed at Nick.  

[Dr Archeville]

"Though I am unfamiliar with most of your references," Heroditus replied to Benicio's spiel, "I believe I understand what you intend."  He began retrieving components from the pouches of his bandoliers, small bits of wire, slivers of crystal, thin strips of rune-engraved metal.  "Connecting my pad to Prince Leroy's cube should be a very simple matter, but connecting my pad to your laptop will be considerably more difficult.  In part because I have no idea how your laptop functions -- which is why I came here -- and in part because your laptop does not think as a person does."  As he talked he assembled some of the pieces into a short cable with clips on either end, hooked one to one corner of his pad and the other to one face of Leroy's cube.  "Your laptop uses electricity, yes?  To power it, and to store and transmit information?  So in a way it would be like connecting two memory crystals and transferring contents from one to the other.  But we would need to work out some way to translate that electricity into something closer to mental energies which my pad could receive.  I know several techniques for transmuting elements, manipulating matter," he rummaged through his pockets some more, "but changing energies?  That is... well, my sister does that, with her spells, so it is possible.  I just need to figure out how I can do it."

Edited October 16, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Dariusprime]

"That is all I ask," Nick signed back.

 

Retrieving his tablet, Nick looped around the ill-fated cube and back to the Judy and Ashley. His gaze followed the action among the cube group. Took a lot of willpower to refrain from doing a "I'm watching you" gesture at the cube itself. Eventually, he stopped next to the pair, still watching the techies set up their experiment.

 

His thoughts dwelt equally on the cube and his brief conversation with Claude. Actually stopping the other group himself seemed unlikely, and the few moments journey let him rationalize its safety. Surely, such a thing couldn't be that dangerous. Maybe fry Ben's computer but nothing more. Claude's keen eye watched it now. Even if Nick's censored version of Claude's "time cop" rule book still felt worrisome. 'No one can serve two masters' and all. Plus Ms. Velasquez stood ready to intervene. Right?

 

Looking to the sisters, Nick typed out a message, "I should get back to my group. Would you like to join us? Be easier for Ms. Velasquez to keep up on two groups too."

Edited October 18, 2019 by Dariusprime

[Avenger Assembled]

Ashley smiled, with teeth, and whispered "That's nice, but I think Fun-Sized Mark Wahlberg there might have a few ideas about that." She looked over at the other group and said loud enough to be heard, "Hey, if you boys turn us inside out, I'm gonna make you eat that thing, fair warning." Figure the Atlantean can hear us, anyway. She shot a look at the room's instructor, checking to see if the TA planned to intervene. 

[Dariusprime]

In for a penny, in for a pound. Is that how it went?

 

Having extended the olive branch, Nick must have decided to make the best of it. Ashley's raised voice startled him as he began typing. The tiny smile he hid must have been about what she said to them. Although to be frank, "Fun-Sized Mark Walhberg" was pretty good zinger. At the thought, he glanced over to Claude before going back to typing.

 

His new message read, "I bet we can make peace. Worth a try? Please?"

 

As held up the tablet, he glanced back and forth between the sisters. He pointedly did not look in the direction of the boys working on the cube. Nope.