PILOT'S LOG 1.02 ✈ VIDEO; console

[merb]

[ Stork is using the Hotel's console for this broadcast, moving back a little from the screen so that the table in front of him is visible as well. On it are two blue crystals of a similar shade, each about the size of a golf ball. For anyone to whom he's talked about the crystals of his homeworld before, these will definitely match that description. It seems that he's gotten hold of some in Keeliai, and didn't waste any time in working with them. ]

There's a good reason we use crystals as the main power source in Atmos. These ones here are called "Floaters"-- I'm sure you can guess what they're going to do.

[ He produces a third crystal into view, this one a silvery pale colour and a little larger than the others, shaped like an elongated rhombus. He doesn't name this one, but as he holds it over the two Floaters, they begin to vibrate on the table. After a moment, they rise into the air, levitating. Stork touches one of the Floaters with one end of the silver crystal, and the other Floater with the opposite end, and the two begin to rotate one another on a horizontal plane. They spin faster, but keep to the same orbit.

All seems to be going well, except the blue Floaters keep increasing in speed. The orbit develops a bit of a wobble, and the merb's pleased expression melts into one that is clearly uh-oh. A second later, one of the Floaters goes supersonic and zooms out of the rotation, narrowly missing Stork by inches -- who yelps a "Yleeep!" and ducks off screen -- and embedding itself in the opposite wall of the lobby -- Sorry, Anton. The other Floater simply falls to the table and bounces away, and a moment later, long ears followed by a sheepish green face, peer up from the table's edge.

Ahem. Still working on getting the harmonization calibrator up to spec. I should have all the bugs worked out soon.

--

[OOC: Open to action at the Midnight Hotel's lobby too! ]

Comments

action;

[peacefullywreathed]

[As it happens, the first Floater zips practically past Solomon's nose while he's trying to find his way toward the kitchen door. He flinches back and the shadows pull up in a protective shield around him before he overhears Stork's sheepish explanation and makes the shadows drop to a pool around his feet.

[He takes a deep breath, and then another, to swallow the first curse, the second snap, and the third growl.]

It might be prudent to be experimenting with those somewhere there isn't a lot of traffic.

[Alright, it's still pretty snappish. He doesn't even know what almost hit him, except it felt a lot like an overlarge bullet.]

Re: action;

[merb]

[ Almost reflexively, Stork covers the microphone on the console. ]

Don't say those kinds of things, there could be kids listening to this transmission!

[ It completely doesn't matter that he had no idea what was actually said, but the tone was clear. ]

[peacefullywreathed]

[Really. Really. Solomon throws a disbelieving look somewhere about a foot off to Stork's side.]

You nearly shot me and that's your priority?

[His hand is still on the wall; he slides it along to try and find where the object hit. As it turns out, about two inches above his fingers. And it's chunky, whatever it is; it could've broken his whole hand. It's also buried pretty deeply in there, and unbroken. Chills run down Solomon's back, but he manages to keep the reaction off his face.]

You realise that firing lethal weapons is illegal here?

[merb]

I didn't nearly shoot anyone, it was a simple harmonization miscalcula--

[ But he's looking at Solomon because he does recognize him, but not quite in this state. The protest drops off in favour of muted surprise. ]

What happened to you?

[peacefullywreathed]

Magical item blew up in my face.

[Tersely. If he explains at a minimum and moves on quickly people won't linger on the 'blind' thing, right? Right?

[He puts his hand over the crystal and threads some shadows into the cracks, and they work it out of the wall with a little thunk. One arching blue-tinged tendril holds it triumphantly aloft; Solomon flicks his fingers and the shadow wriggles across the floor to hold it obligingly out in Stork's general direction.]

Whatever it was, it was moving fast. It could've killed someone if it had hit. You should be doing that in a lab.

[merb]

[ Stork sees the shadow... thing... slithering towards him and lets out a yelp, leaping backward and up onto a nearby high-backed chair, in exactly the same vein as a 50's housewife having just spotted a mouse. ]

I don't have a lab and what is that thing doing keep it away from me!

[peacefullywreathed]

[No, he's totally not smiling. Smirking, yes, of course.]

It's a shadow. It's giving your stone back.

[He twitches a finger, hidden by his side, and even makes the shadow wilt theatrically, like it's actually alive and sad Stork insulted it.]

[merb]

[ From seemingly nowhere, Stork whips out a spray can of something and aerosols the shadow thoroughly. The strong acidic scent suggests it's probably disinfectant, but likely not intended to be used in that level of concentration. ]

It's a crystal and I don't know where that thing could have been.

[peacefullywreathed]

[The shadow shakes it's 'head', which is really just a bulb with the crystal in toothless 'jaws'. The details are more defined by the time Stork leaves off the disinfectant. Now the jaws aren't toothless, and there's the implication of eyes somewhere at the top of the bulb.]

It's a shadow, and it hasn't been anywhere.

[Solomon coughs a little and covers his nose. Blast. The shadow's probably going to carry that smell until he disperses it, too. He makes it trundled a little closer to Stork, at least as near as Solomon can tell without physical cues, and the shadow lifts the crystal hopefully.]

[merb]

[ Solomon can't see it, but Stork is scrambling back up now to the top of the highback, like a wet cat trying to escape another spritz. ]

Sit! Stay! Bad shadow! Drop it!

[peacefullywreathed]

[He can hear the chair rocking, though, and he grins to himself.]

Oh, I'm sorry. Would you prefer it to look like this?

[Solomon snaps his fingers and makes a gesture like one might see in a shadow-puppet show. The shadow dissolves into an amorphous blob with the crystal bobbing on its surface, and re-forms as a perfectly sculpted Irish Terrier--though one which is black with glowing blue highlights. It instantly puts its paws as high on the chair as it can reach to hold the crystal up at Stork, tail wagging madly.]

[merb]

[ That is... actually marginally less terrifying, if twice as strange. ]

Heh... heh...

[ He turns his head away partly, reaching down to pluck the crystal with a "eeek" like he's taking it from something far toothier than the happy puppy made of glowing blackness. ]

[peacefullywreathed]

[The happy puppy made of glowing blackness quite willingly releases the crystal, and proceeds to lick Stork's hand. If shadows could slobber, it would be.

[Solomon, meanwhile, is standing by the wall, staring into the far distance and grinning to himself while he listens for Stork's reactions.]

[video]

[bigdamnhiro]

Oh no, bad words! [Accompanied by a mock gasp of distress.] Think of the children.

Re: [video]

[merb]

[ Jabbing an accusatory finger at the video screen, while speaking at Solomon. ]

See!

[video]

[bigdamnhiro]

Dude, you ever been to a bot fight? Nobody watches their languge in a back alley. This is weak shit.

[NOW HE'S JUST DOING IT ON PURPOSE TO MESS WITH HIM -]

Re: [video]

[merb]

[ Stork's expression is appalled, half at Hiro and half at Solomon like a just wait a minute, but then Hiro's words sink in and suddenly the merb looks interested. ]

Bot fight?

[bigdamnhiro]

[Dude, no, you're supposed to like. Get more upset. But he supposes he can explain because you're the first person to care about bot fighting when he mentioned it, green kangaroo man.]

You build sick fighting robots to beat up other peoples' wimpier robots. It's cool, and sometimes if you win you get money, which is even cooler. Also illegal. But I'm not telling if you're not telling.

[merb]

You mean, like...

[ He ducks off screen for a moment -- it's about a minute and a half, and it's accompanied by the sound of tinkering off screen. Then suddenly he's back and plops down on the console desk a toy-sized metal construct that looks like a cross between a dragonfly and a saber-toothed tiger. Yeah, he just put that together in under two minutes with whatever he had in his toolkit. ]

... this?

[peacefullywreathed]

[Solomon has been sitting here and listening to all this with amusement, but at this point he's just going to roll his eyes and stand.]

Have fun, children.

[And off he goes.]

[bigdamnhiro]

[Okay, so at first he's confused, because who just disappears mid-sentence without explaining what they're doing? But tinkering noises are just familiar enough and he's curious, so he waits it out, unconsciously leaning forward like that'll help anything -

And his patience is rewarded. Hiro actually laughs, snapping his fingers and jumping back in his seat.]

Uh, exactly like that! Pretty sick - you think you could make it fly with those floaty crystal things?

[merb]

[ Hiro's reaction reminds Stork a lot of Finn, and he feels acutely aware for a moment that he hasn't seen his team in almost two months. But he likes having his work appreciated, and nods. ]

Yeah, but you wouldn't need Floaters this large to power something like that. You could just take some cut chips and encase them in a central gyro, and that'd be plenty of power for anything this size.

[bigdamnhiro]

[Both Hiro's eyebrows shoot up; okay, so color him impressed. He doesn't know how crystals as a power source works, but he can otherwise mostly follow what Stork's saying.]

Dude, if you could power that with just a couple pieces, how big of a thing could you power with the whole crystal?

[merb]

These two? They'd power any normal-draw skimmer.

[ a beat, and then because he's had to explain it to everyone else: ]

A flying motorcycle. We call them skimmers or sky rides in Atmos.

[bigdamnhiro]

[- Also cool. Wicked cool. Hiro bites his lip, grinning, and okay, maybe you can see the gears turning away as he has an idea -]

I don't suppose you could built one of those here, if you had the rest of the parts? I mean, just hypothetically speaking.

[Just hypothetically.]