ic Tech Compliance (Open)

[Ari]

Flexing his fingers as feeling and control gradually and visibly returned to them, Leroy's eyes sparkled at the excitement and buzz of action in the room. But he clearly hadn't forgotten that this was a contest as he settled into position, breathing in and out slowly as another block of the black diamond took shape under his eyes. Holding it between his fingers, drinking in the dark light pulsing within, Leroy took stock of the room, scanning it for something, until his eyes suddenly lit on a discarded, half-eaten sandwich on a bench. It was some ghastly, crushed horror of meat, cheese and wilted leaves with a slab of tomato sitting forlornly in the middle.

 

"Joyous!" he sang out merrily, rising and crossing the room in a streak of gold and blue, snatching up the sandwich with a flick of his fingers that transfigured gravity. Taking it back to his desk, the prince put the half-eaten food on top of the crystal block, gently sliding his fingers down the sides as he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in focus.

 

Under their pressure the crystal began to shine, glistening lances of bright rainbow light darting in and out, the solid mass softening and warping its shape, trembling and growing to embrace the abandoned sandwich.

 

"So many problems," Leroy said, though murmured and soft, as if he was not aware he spoke, "yet here is their solution." The light steadied until the crystal and the sandwich alike were impossible to see. 

[KnightDisciple]

On 10/10/2019 at 10:28 PM, Semi-Autogyro said:

C"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.

 

Micah narrowed his eyes in thought, but then nodded.

 

"Yeah. Yeah! That is actually really close to what I'm thinking. Powered Heelys. I'm sure we could figure out something to provide the power..."

 

He turned to the other member of the table as Nick and Claude wandered off.

 

"So, uh, Mia. Is your laptop working better now? I saw you kind of fiddling with it while Claude and I brainstormed. Did you have any thoughts on the powered shoes?"

 

1 hour ago, Ari said:

 

"So many problems," Leroy said, though murmured and soft, as if he was not aware he spoke, "yet here is their solution." The light steadied until the crystal and the sandwich alike were impossible to see. 

 

Micah heard Leroy's commotion and turned. He grimaced in disgust as the boy mashed a disgusting sandwich and that strange crystal together.

 

"What in the..."

[Semi-Autogyro]

Claude turned back to the board and wrote 'PEM Fuel Cell + BLDC Motor' before capping the dry-erase marker and setting it in the tray. It was a potential way to go on the project, for the M&Ms to help their friend Danica. If they didn't wind up using it, no skin off his nose. Claude then ambled over to where Nick and the sisters were.

 

"So, lemme put this on the table before any posturin' starts," he said posture neutral, with hands in his hoodies' pockets. "I'm willing ta work together, but if you pull the same fake outrage crap that you did on movin' day then my boy Nick here and I are gone. I don't appreciate bein' gaslit and don't care for whatever reason you feel the need to play passive aggressive mind games with people. Just work with me straight and we're copacetic. Water under the bridge."

 

Taking his right hand out of his pocket, he held it out to Ashley. "If that works for the both you, I'll shake on it and we can stop beatin' around the bush and we all can keep an eye on the stooges over there." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Ashley gave Claude a blank look, looking for all the world as if she'd never seen him before in her life, then turned questioningly to Judy. The latter made a small noise in the back of her throat - then spoke. "Well bless your heart, Ah'm sure," she said diplomatically as she locked her gaze on Claude's, "but Ah can see mah sister and Ah would just be a distraction for you boys. Danica's mah friend and so is Micah, and Ah wouldn't want anything to keep him from getting his work done for her." She smiled winningly at Nick and said, "Ah'll see you later, Nick, and we can talk some then." 

 

The two sisters went to work on their project after that, Ashley walking Judy through the simple process of removing the outer casing from a computer's hard drive so they could monitor what exactly happened when Judy tried talking to it using her powers. Neither of them were particularly dab hands with machinery but Ashley obviously knew a thing or two about tools, and called the TA over to assist them with the project. 

[Dariusprime]

Nick pointedly did not look in the direction of the rainbow light. He even went so far as immerse his senses into the Cacophony. The sound reminded him of quickly tuning through radio stations, and in a way that surprised him, did seem to make the situation bearable. After a moment his focus returned to the sisters.

 

He blinked in surprise at Claude's intervention. Yeah, Claude was good people. The young man looked pleased.

 

The sisters' reactions did not come as a great surprise though. Well, perhaps Ashley's rather subdued response. Claude must have really thrown her for a loop. In response, he smiled and nodded to each of the sisters. After a quick nod of thanks to Claude, Nick took his leave and returned to his table. Nope, still not looking at the cubes plural.

 

He sat down and slid down his chair a bit with his tablet in hand. The table shook with a thump, and Nick grimaced silently. Rubbing his knee, he typed a message and held up the tablet for Mia and Micah, "Sorry about the delay."

 

Nope, still not looking over at the cubes. He focused on the whiteboard drawings before looking to Micah. Huh, personal transport!

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

Ashley 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.

 

Ben was completely oblivious to everyone except Heroditus, far too engrossed in the contents of his laptop screen to read anyone else's lips.

 

Quote

"Though I am unfamiliar with most of your references..."

 

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Most kids my age don't have my, let's call it 'breadth of education' when it comes to TV and movies and stuff. Gotta show y'all THE CLASSICS and BROADEN YER MINDS."

 

Quote

"...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."

 

"It uses electricity, yeah. It's like..." Ben's hands waved frantically through the air in pantomimes which, at best, only vaguely resembled the scenarios he described. "OK, picture you gotta buncha tunnels all running parallel to each other, and there's a buncha fish swimming through all those tunnels. And every coupla meters, you got gates you can slam down to stop the fish in each tunnel. Now imagine that every single piece of information in the world, every word, every number, can be represented by some combination of which tunnels are closed and which still got fish swimmin' through 'em. And for each tunnel, it's just two options, one or the other, Yes and No are the only people in the room with us, Maybe's on the bus headin' outta town. Computers are like that, except the fish are electricity. Or electricity is the fish. Man, not to be a cliche or anything, but I could go for some fish right now. Anyone else hungry? I bet we could Postmates some OH HEY, so this thing can pick up thoughts, but, like, are thoughts energy? 'Cause this thing can use a couple different kinds of energy as a carrier to transmit information, coming AND going. That's how I'm gonna get a lot of the stuff I wanna send it. Coupla different wavelengths of radio, which is basically light. And this thing's old, so I can even send stuff over infrared, which is basically light AND heat. Can you do anything with that?"

 

[TheAbsurdist]

Now, Benny was sort of sitting with the Smiths, trying to catch up, but it was a whirl, and then Claude was coming on in, and being... a jerk?  He couldn't get a great read, he got Ashley bristling protectively.  He seen it before, and Claude was a lot, and there seemed to be a bit of roping off of people into things.  Not that Ash was helping.  He sighed, and he shifted a bit, and his hands held up, near his own shoulders as he managed a mild expression on a face on that teen movie villain face of his.  "Hey, hey... listen, I just don't want some nth dimensional shenanigans, okay?"  That smile was genuine, his voice calm, level in a conciliatory way.

He had the loosest body language possible, and only those deep in understanding these things would pick up that the meathead guy's stance was practiced.  Like he was already ready for more than a bit of trouble.  "I am just learnin' stuff, I mean, I just know basic stuff, and passed pre-calc... so lotta ya' talkin' way over my head.  But we don' need the posturin', please, teach doesn't need us havin' a pissing contest right?  An' probably the build could do without it too."  He managed to include his eyes over both Claude and Ash.  He managed to not sound accusatory, more just not wanting a fight.

 

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

Valeria relaxed a little as the little tech club seemed to settle down to actually do some work, as long as there were no new surprises, she might make it through the hour relatively peaceful.

 

“Is everything going well Ms Velásquez?”

 

Valeria almost jumped at the sudden arrival of the Headmistresses; how could someone be so quiet without any powers?

 

“Everything has settled down now Headmistresses.” She still felt like a junior when talking to her

 

“Good, good, I look forward to seeing if we produce anything they could take to the ArchTech Expo.”

[Ari]

"An exposition?"

 

Leroy turned around in his seat, lights racing the depths of his suddenly pitch-black eyes. Behind his head, the pillar of light began to pulse in a steady rhythm, black and white lights melding with increasing speed into a cold, searing grey.

 

"I have heard of the good works of this Taker. Is the school in affiliation with them or their hoardings? Should we construct some prosthetic limbs? I have heard such is their speciality!" 

 

He swiveled around the other way, addressing Benicio across the room "Good Mr. Wang, perhaps you would be kind enough to attend? Your native gifts are splendid, and could open many doors!"

 

The light around his crystal subsided, and the Dragon Prince of Earth-2 eagerly turned back to it. It had taken on a cylindrical appearance, and the sandwich was gone. The interior was some sort of free-floating mass within the crystal confines.

 

"Crude, but effective." Leroy smiled, waving a hand over the top of the cylinder. A perfectly fresh sandwich materialized atop it, with the same  ingredients as the leftovers fed into it. But these vegetables glistened, the bread steamed and the cheese was perfectly melted. 

 

"This was how Mother solved world hunger," he said cheerily, "after the planet surface proved inhospitable and resistant to agriculture. When the ground could unleash stonetigers and the seas boil with whalesquids, one must think outside the box!"

 

He frowned. "Wait. This is putting your thoughts into a box..." He lapsed into grim silence, stroking his chin and squinting suspiciously at the magical sandwich-dispenser. 

[Semi-Autogyro]

On 10/19/2019 at 7:22 PM, Avenger Assembled said:

"Well bless your heart, Ah'm sure," she said diplomatically as she locked her gaze on Claude's, "but Ah can see mah sister and Ah would just be a distraction for you boys. Danica's mah friend and so is Micah, and Ah wouldn't want anything to keep him from getting his work done for her." She smiled winningly at Nick and said, "Ah'll see you later, Nick, and we can talk some then." 

 

Claude's response was dismissive. "Tch. Your loss, Sunshine." he said derisively before turning his attention to Benny. Who he shot a calculated look at before talking. 

 

On 10/24/2019 at 10:15 PM, TheAbsurdist said:

"Hey, hey... listen, I just don't want some nth dimensional shenanigans, okay?"  That smile was genuine, his voice calm, level in a conciliatory way.

He had the loosest body language possible, and only those deep in understanding these things would pick up that the meathead guy's stance was practiced.  Like he was already ready for more than a bit of trouble.  "I am just learnin' stuff, I mean, I just know basic stuff, and passed pre-calc... so lotta ya' talkin' way over my head.  But we don' need the posturin', please, teach doesn't need us havin' a pissing contest right?  An' probably the build could do without it too."  He managed to include his eyes over both Claude and Ash.  He managed to not sound accusatory, more just not wanting a fight.

 

"Nah, I ain't going to do anything, man. It's just that me and Grimace the Menace don't see eye to eye. Personality wise and historically speakin', that is. Nicky boy over there wanted me to make nice and work together in case the yahoos over there make the next black plague or something."  Claude shrugged.

 

"Didn't take, but eh, results weren't that important. Willing to offer the branch was. Anyways, speakin' of trying, wanna join our group?" He indicated Micah, Mia, and Nick.

 

"No skin off my nose if you don't, though." Claude ended the conversation by returning to the aforementioned group and shooting a lazy salute at the headmistress as he sauntered by. 

Edited October 27, 2019 by Semi-Autogyro

[Dr Archeville]

Heroditus stopped in his tinkerings to give OctoBen his full and undivided attention.  Which was necessary, given how fast and varied his trains of thought were!  "Ah, so your computers operate on some manner of... of... of zevgosic arithmos, where information and instructions are broken down into simple questions with two mutually exclusive answers.  How elegant!"

 

When Ben mentioned infrared and heat & light, the Atlantean perked up.  "Ah!  Now those, I do know!"  He withdrew three components from his pouches -- two rune-stamped metal strips and a flat transparent crystal pane -- and wove them together into a circlet, which he placed upon his head.  "This can translate my thoughts into moving images made of light, like my memory crystal, but at a far greater range and size."  He turned towards the front of the classroom, and concentrated a moment.  The gem briefly flashed through a rainbow of colors, and a very lifelike image of Heroditus appeared next to Ms. Velásquez, which smiled and waved at Ben.  The image disappeared as he turned back to his teammate, "it can also generate a full range of light, to banish darkness from a room.  And I believe I can adjust it," he removed the device and took what looked like dentist's tools from one pouch, "to operate in the infrared range."

[TheAbsurdist]

"I mean, we aren't all like Koch and Pasteur," Benny said, with a frown on his face, he looked back to the Smith sisters, feeling bad, but there was a bristling from at least one.  It didn't help that really his attention was on Ben and Heroditus, who were messing with bigger, uglier, scarier stuff.  It reminded him of a little of the stuff he had seen.  He wasn't scared, not in the slightest, or really worried.  Benny was more than willing to just leap at the whole things...

"Thanks for the offer, Claude, right?  Thanks.  I might on another time, but ya doin' things a bit over my head, and I think I'll be a minus, not a plus, so I'll help out the Smiths if they'll have me.  Maybe on another project we can all shuffle around.  I can at least do the heavy lifting..."  And he held out his hand to Claude to give him a handshake., with a big 'aw shucks' smile on his face.

[KnightDisciple]

On 10/20/2019 at 4:43 PM, Dariusprime said:

He sat down and slid down his chair a bit with his tablet in hand. The table shook with a thump, and Nick grimaced silently. Rubbing his knee, he typed a message and held up the tablet for Mia and Micah, "Sorry about the delay."

 

Nope, still not looking over at the cubes. He focused on the whiteboard drawings before looking to Micah. Huh, personal transport!

 

Micah shrugged.

 

"No worries, Nick. So, this is an idea Claude and I kind of stumbled into, as a way to help my friend Danica get around quicker. Elevator pitch is "motorized heelies". Small, easy to control, doesn't interrupt her daily life. It doesn't need to win an Olympic sprint, just help her get around a bit quicker inside buildings or whatnot. She has a Segway for outdoor stuff."

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Ben barely looked up from his laptop enough to pay attention to what Heroditus was saying. He was completely oblivious to Leroy, Headmistress Summers, and everyone else in the room, consumed as he was with his work. If he caught anyone waving at him out of the corner of his eye, his only response was to mutter "Can't talk, sciencin'."

 

Quote

"Ah, so your computers operate on some manner of... of... of zevgosic arithmos, where information and instructions are broken down into simple questions with two mutually exclusive answers.  How elegant!"

 

"Yeah, exactly. You got it." He typed frantically as he spoke.

 

Quote

When Ben mentioned infrared and heat & light, the Atlantean perked up.  "Ah!  Now those, I do know!"  He withdrew three components from his pouches -- two rune-stamped metal strips and a flat transparent crystal pane -- and wove them together into a circlet, which he placed upon his head.  "This can translate my thoughts into moving images made of light, like my memory crystal, but at a far greater range and size."  He turned towards the front of the classroom, and concentrated a moment.  The gem briefly flashed through a rainbow of colors, and a very lifelike image of Heroditus appeared next to Ms. Velásquez, which smiled and waved at Ben.  The image disappeared as he turned back to his teammate, "it can also generate a full range of light, to banish darkness from a room.  And I believe I can adjust it," he removed the device and took what looked like dentist's tools from one pouch, "to operate in the infrared range."

 

"Sweet! Man, we gotta hook this thing up to my computer on movie nights, get some real in-your-face three-DEE action up in here! OK, I worked up a simple algorithm to start with, real bare-bones stuff, but it's got room for expansion. For starters, it's just got a small series of yes-or-no if-this-then-that questions it's gonna ask itself about anything we put in front of it. At the same time, I'm comin' at it sideways, and feeding it...well, everything on Wikipedia, but starting with the biophysics of the human brain, and all the philosophy related to 'ethics' or 'morality'. So at the same time it's learnin' HOW to think, it's also learnin' WHAT to think, get me? Also gonna teach it to play Fort Watch, 'cause, I mean, can't be ALL-business, gotta have hobbies, right? It's A LOT of info, like, if we printed it all out in books we could fill every building on campus kinda 'a lot', so the bigger a stream you can give me, the more boats I can pile boxes of books onto and send sailing down the river at once."

 

[Dariusprime]

On 10/25/2019 at 8:46 PM, Tiffany Korta said:

“Good, good, I look forward to seeing if we produce anything they could take to the ArchTech Expo.”

 

Nick looked over from his scrutiny of the whiteboard. At seeing Headmistress Summers, his perked up and waved to her. While he hadn't gotten on her bad side, yet anyway, she read as the sort of even-handed authority figure he could relate to.

 

At what she said, however, he turned thoughtful, looking over the designs once more. Once Micah explained the situation, Nick smiled. One, that his absence didn't cause offense, and two, that the design had a good cause in mind. He couldn't remember meeting a Danica, but hey, anything for a classmate and potential friend.

 

Funny thing though. "Heelies" meant nothing to Nick. The name though, plus the schematics, made deciphering the analogy simple enough. His smile widened.

 

Turning to Ms. Velásquez and Summers, he signed, his form quickly improving, "Expo? What requirements and timeline are we looking at?"

 

Yes, he still ignored the cubes and the wonders being wrought with them.

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Ben's furious typing stopped for a few moments as his mind wandered back to the sisters.

 

I should say something to Robot-Girl. It's not right to just leave her hangin' like that. I SAW that look in her eye. Can't play a player. She was SCARED. Big Sis can roll up like a bouncer in-person. But she can't step to an email.

 

He looked up Judy's email address on the campus directory and composed a message.

 

Judy-

 

Like I said, I know your secret, for real, no joke. I. Know. What. You. Are. I sniffed it out, like, LITERALLY. I wasn't TRYING to. I didn't go LOOKING for it. It's not like that. It's just...it's not something I can really turn OFF, know what I'm saying? Maybe they'll teach me that here?

 

I know what it's like to keep secrets. I got a couple big ones myself. It's HEAVY. Really drags ya down. If you wanna lighten the load a little, hit me up and you can talk my eye off about it. It's actually a topic I legit know a lot about (as I'm about to show everyone, but keep that on the D.L., no spoilers).

 

-Ben

 

He stared at his laptop screen for a few moments. Then he clicked "SEND".

 

[Ari]

"But where does it come from?" Leroy asked the universe at large, placing another whole, juicy tomato on the growing pile of them now cluttering the desk. Along with the heads of fresh lettuce, blocks of cheese and what looked like an entire pig's leg, the first two creations of his black crystal, two copies of the original sandwich, stood forlornly on a corner.

 

"I think, it creates. It needs only a suggestion of matter, a sample of energy, and it brings forth infinite iterations! Is it a portal to where whatever I envision is real? Have I been stealing food from some other world? Is the Skyfall leaving another Earth barren?"

 

Leroy leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and looking narrow-eyed at his silent little monolith. Under his breath, he murmured "If it needs only a little...just a hint..." 

 

His hand shot up as he swiveled to face the front of the room. "Ms. Vasquez? May I make a miniature and very temporary gravitational singularity? I shall to be very careful with it, Headmistress Summers."

Edited November 14, 2019 by Ari

[Dr Archeville]

He created this, yet does not know how it operates?  Cannot tell the difference between transmutation and conjuration?  Heroditus was being very careful in keeping his thoughts to himself as he worked on the optical communicator/translator, both out of general politeness and deference to Leroy's princely station.  Perhaps the Atlantis of Earth-2 is not as advanced as he touts it to be, if he is not sufficiently educated to recognize the difference.  Ah, but wait - if he does not know how it operates, how could he have created it?  Did he just recreate it by rote, feeding his energy into a pattern which had been drilled into him by instructors?  If so, then his device may well operate on a similar principal.  He glanced over at Benicio to check his progress, then focused back on his task.  On the other hand, if it is something he conjured -- if all the matter and items are something he conjures -- then the device may operate in a like manner.  Perhaps I can get some scans in while I work on connecting these.

 

He looked down at what he'd made, using pieces from the hologram-casting circlet and other components from his pouches.  It was a palm-sized dodecahdron, brass frame around crystal panes of various colors, some more transparent than others.  He waved a hand between Benicio's face and his laptop's monitor, and pointed to his device with the other.  "I think I am ready for a test.  Just direct your device's lights onto this pane, a beam of transmogrified energies shall come from this one, which I shall shine onto my memory crystal, which will then connect to Prince Leroy's cube."

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

"Man, look at you. H-Man really DID do this in a classroom with a box of scraps." Ben turned his laptop to line up its infrared data port with Heroditus's crystal contraption. "OK, just gotta check the Device Manager...yep, IrDA port's enabled...crank the data transfer rate up as far as it'll go...yeah, that's right, override ALL the limits..." He laced his fingers together, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles at the same time. "Where we're going..." He grinned, typed in one final command, then let his fingers hover over his laptop keyboard's "ENTER" key. "...We don't NEED roads." He punched the key, then leaned back and started tapping his fingers on his desk. Four series of five taps each, three from his left hand followed by two from his right. "That's one small step for a scientist, but one giant leap for SCIENCE!"

 

[KnightDisciple]

When Micah saw Nick's confusion at the term "Heelies", he smiled a bit.

 

"Hang on, let me look them up....here!"

 

He pulled up the official web page, showing some pictures and videos.

 

"See, the regular ones are just free-rolling wheels. That could help, but even a slight motor assistance would make a huge difference. Shoot, depending on how this goes maybe it could be adapted for people with limited motor skills/ability?"

 

Before he could say anything more, a voice rose up above the low-level din in the room. 

On 11/14/2019 at 1:35 PM, Ari said:

 

His hand shot up as he swiveled to face the front of the room. "Ms. Vasquez? May I make a miniature and very temporary gravitational singularity? I shall to be very careful with it, Headmistress Summers."

 

Micah's eyes widened and his head whipped around so fast it almost made a thunder-crack.

 

"Wait, you want to do what?"

 

His face paled as he realized he'd all but yelled that out. 

[Ari]

"Oh, it is not worth such concern Mr. Roebuck! I have been put in a box before for unsafe practices of manipulating space-time!" Leroy waved away the whole matter with a rueful laugh. "I was merely wondering, as singularities theoretically preserve all that goes into them, at least on the base level, what would happen should a singularity be created inside the space permeable to this," he tapped the dark crystal, "and I entered that same space, whereupon a third party attempted to retrieve me."

 

"It is outside the scope of this contest, admittedly, yet I feel the test would help answer many questions about the nature of singularities, life and how precisely these crystals function."

 

"May I please, Ms. Vasquez?" he asked, the smiling, shining picture of innocence and eager curiosity. 

[Dariusprime]

Nick hesitated but eventually turned his attention away from Summers and Ms. Vasquez. His smile remained, and he examined the website critically. After a moment or two, he nodded solemnly to Micah's question about adapting their design. He picked up his tablet to answer when Micah yelled.

 

He nearly jumped out of his seat. In fact steadying himself on the table became necessary. He sat there blinking at Micah and wondering why he yelled at him. Of course with his head turned, the obvious answer became that Micah wasn't yelling at him. He was looking at Leroy.

 

Seems his tuning out of the cubes and those dealing with them meant he missed something important. Multiple important things really, but he didn't know that. Although on a tangent, he realized that for the first time in a long time he was able to tune out individual sound sources. That made him quirk his head in thought.

 

Which matched his curiosity over what had been the source of Micah's alarm. His face fell at Leroy's explanation. Matter of fact, his scowl said it all: Are you insane!?

 

Glancing around the room, he judged the others' reactions. He stopped upon spotting Micah's pale, mortified expression. Nick reached over and squeezed his shoulder in solidarity. He couldn't smile, not in a situation like this, but he gave Micah a reassuring look.

[Semi-Autogyro]

Claude sighed as today was apparently all about doubling down. He cleared his throat before piping up at Leroy and Ben. "Yanno, I'm all for the Tim Taylor school of tinkerin'. But there's this little thing called collateral damage you might want to be concerned about here, pally. It's fine if you're okay with meltin' your own face off or turnin' your own insides to gravy, but the rest of us didn't come here expectin' to have to deal with that happenin'.  Especially, showin' off like you are and then asking for permission. You're excited, I get that, but try an tone it down a bit instead of going from zero to Von Neumann device. This ain't a popularity or a tech measurin' contest, after all."

 

Apparently done, the Bostonian turned back to his groups whiteboard and started drawing a circuit diagram. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Semi-Autogyro

[KnightDisciple]

Ashley, the Headmistress, and perhaps Claude would be the first to notice Micah's reaction, because the first thing he did was go very still. His eyes narrowed slightly, and his knuckles went white. For those with an eye for body language and human behavior, his sudden stillness was a warning sign. 

Nick suddenly felt...it wasn't quite a shock, but it was a sensation similar to holding a set of hair trimmers that shook a bit too much, yet with more energy. It was likely a new sensation for the young energy manipulator, and thankfully it was in no way harmful. 

 

"No."

 

Benico Wang would suddenly pick up a whiff of ozone. If he turned to look at Micah, his eyes would pick up the same thing that Nick would just barely be seeing, as well. Tiny, almost microscopic lightning bolts sparking over Micah's skin. 

Nick and Judy would hear the sudden song that Micah was singing in the electromagnetic spectrum. Electricity, ionization, picosecond-long bursts of trace x-ray radiation (barely upticking from the normal background on Earth). All of it singing a soft, frantic song of agitation. 

 

"No, Mister Ransom-Conte. I will  not be so casually dismissed. Not when you are playing with one of the most fundamental, destructive forces in existence. This is not the environment to create a small black hole in. That you speak of it so casually shows your disregard for the safety of others. To what end, Mister Ransom-Conte? To show off for your lady love?"

 

Micah's voice was calm, almost still. He spoke smoothly, without the choppy enunciation angry people sometimes produce. But those with an ear for such things knew this was the still air before a storm struck.

 

"You even admit to failing at this sort of thing in the past, but you still wish to put us at risk? You don't get to blow me off about this, Leroy. I'm not some servant you can order around. Maybe go back to playing with your first toy before you make a new one?"

 

Micah Roebuck smiled, and it did not reach his eyes. 

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

Headmistress Summers didn’t say anything to the poor new intern, obviously waiting to see what Valeria would do next. With an intake of breath of sooth her nerves she quickly scanned around to see what they had in mind, she was after all a skilled gadgeteer herself.

 

“Let’s not go and create a singularity of wither kind on the first day, that’s more a second lesson kind of thing! And we have better laboratories to handle potential problems, the schools been blown up enough already without us helping!” she gave a little nervous grin at her bad joke

 

“Give me an assessment of the facilities you’ll need to do your projects safely and we’ll see what we can do. With the Headmistress around...”

 

As she said that she just knew that she’d disappeared from the room, which seemed to be a family tradition.