Logs:Workshopping Future Chaos

Workshopping Future Chaos
Dramatis Personae Avi, Sriyani, Tok	2024-05-17 "-- part of the fun is finding out."
Location <XAV> Workshop - Xs Grounds
A large barn-like building situated at the far end of the gardens from the mansion proper, this makerspace functions as a classroom for many of the more hands-on classes. An expanse of workshop space, it is subdivided into smaller segments for the different types of activities: Woodshop, Welding shop, Machine shop, Electronics, Bike shop, Screen Printing and Photography, Fabric Arts, and the Rapid Prototyping Lab with a trio of 3D printers. The space comes complete with a large host of tools available for use, although many of the more dangerous require prior clearance from administration to use -- students with appropriate clearance to use them can gain access to locked equipment with their student IDs. From sanders to MIG/TIG welders to soldering stations to industrial sewing machines to its own darkroom, though, this space is well equipped for teaching students how to make. With school just-recently-let-out on a Friday, the workshop is populated if not quite as busy as it is many other weekday afternoons, plenty of students already fleeing campus eager to get a jumpstart on the weekend. Sriyani is often one of the first to flee campus at the end of the week but is, at the moment, off in the screen printing section. The chubby brown-skinned student is dressed in bright color-blocked rainbow sweatshirt over top of a blue tee (it's got an image printed on it of a to-go coffee cup, a flaming rag coming out of the top, text reading COFFEE WITH A COP around the molotov coff-tail), loose-fit jeans. They're humming bright and enthusiastic -- Ryan Black's "Rogga" easily recognizable. Kind of bopping along to the earbuds in their ears as they pull another set of canvas patches out of the machine, Our voice will shatter hearts of stone in text around a drawing of an anatomically-shaped heart cracking open to reveal a rainbowy raised fist inside. In the cooler seasons of the year Avi is usually rushing home quick once the Friday bell has rung, but with summertime just around the corner he's got many hours yet until Shabbat. Right now he's just finishing cleaning up where he'd been working in the bike shop on tuning up someone else's bike, dutifully making sure his station is clean and things are put in their appropriate places (he double-checks the clipboard checklist, here) before he wanders off. Taking an ambling detour path to exchange a couple words with a kid in the woodshop, fist-bump a pair of his teammates going over some 3-D printing design, before he passes near Sriyani. These days he kind of looms over the shorter teenager, but he's taking a seat on a stool to make the contrast less stark. He's put a few scattered beads crimping his short locs, here and there, warm gold against his dark hair and dark skin. There's still a little bit of bike grease on his jeans, his bold purple button-down (open over also bold green tee) -- and on his hands, too, which leads him to check himself as he reaches for one of the fresh patches. "Yooo Sriyani. These look dope, you selling 'em or can I cop one." Tok enters the workshop by poking their head in first before fully entering the building. Their eyes light up upon taking in the machines and the noise and the everything going on. They’re immediately drawn to the 3D printers, watching each layer go by with their long fluffy tail waving back and forth in tandem. They probably poke at the print with their claw and cause a little mark on it before they layer had time to cool, which has them hastily moving away from that particular location. Then they’re snooping in on the other students projects, looking over their shoulders for as long as they can before they’re spotted and they quickly skedaddle away. They probably watch the welding section for a little too long, the bright flares attracting their attention like a moth to a flame. Eventually they’re skedaddling by the screen printing section, slowing down once they see Sriyani and Avi. They approach curiously from behind, ears perked up as they hop a little to catch a glimpse at what they’re working on. Tok is wearing some oversized shirt that only emphasizes their 4’11” stature, with some cargo pants that are sporting some holes. The pockets of the cargo pants look heavy, like they’re maybe filled with rocks. Their hair, wild as always, doesn’t do much to hide the horns or long pointed ears sticking out of their head, or the bright prominent veins traced across their body. Upon seeing the patches, Tok gasps excitedly, “WHOA! How’d you make those!!” "I'm selling them and you can cop. I have to cure them first though." Sriyani plucks an earbud out of their ear when Avi sits down; Ryan's music can still be heard faintly tinny through it when they set it on the table. "I didn't draw it but it is a cool wooooooah." The woah might not be about their patches; it comes with a startled-squeak and a small jump as Tok approaches. "Oh new kid hi! You have horns --" They're blushing as soon as they've said this, just a slight warmer flush to their brown skin. "I mean obviously you know you have horns. Do they give you a headache, because the one time I tried growing my hair long, it gave me headaches. -- Oh um well a friend drew the design but I'm just inking it we're going to sell them at the protests. I think a lot of Ryan Black fans will want to shell out money and they might as well contribute something if they're really just there for the free concert, you know?" "Sweet. And hell, yeah, if humans wanna front like allies they can pay up." Avi is dutifully Not Touching the uncured patches, though he does lean a little closer to inspect the machine Sriyani's been using to make them. He startles just a little, too, but doesn't squeak -- just pivots on his stool, looking first considerably above Tok's head but quickly enough dropping his eyes downward. "Oh yo. What was it -- Tok or sum'n? They been saying we got a new one." He's offering out his fist to the new student for a bump. "I'm Avi. Sriyani," a jerk of his thumb towards the person in question, "all kindsa crafty." Tok flashes an amused, sharp tooth grin when they jump. “Heh heh-Yeah guess I’m the new one!” They share the fist bump with Avi, probably punching just shy too hard in their excitement. At Sriyani’s questions, they gasp dramatically and grab at their horns, “I HAVE HORNS?! When did that happen?? HA! Just kidding. YEAH I got horns!! They gave me a headache when I first got’em? And occasionally they grow a bit more and then they hurt. S’probably easier than hair since they’re just there.” They come closer, leaning on the table to take a look at the patches “HECK YEAH make’em pay!” They look between Avi and Sriyani, “You guys been to those protest thingies? School let you or you guys sneak out for’em?” Sriyani's eyes go wide at Tok's dramatic reaction. They're laughing a moment later, a little relieved. "Oh -- oh I mean, weirder things have happened around here than spontaneous horns I think. -- Yeah! I've been at them a lot. You're allowed to go you just gotta remember to sign out and to mind the curfew. I am pretty good at sneaking out but we're totally allowed to leave campus and at least a couple of our teachers are down there a lot -- especially Mr. Jax." They don't offer any particular explanation of which one Mr. Jax is, probably figuring that even if Tok is too new to have run into Jackson at school, the art teacher is well more than famous enough in The Wider World to require little introduction. "But like, less cool teachers too." "Weirder things happen 'round you on the daily, Mx Meerkats." Avi shakes his hand exaggeratedly after the fist bump, seeming more amused than upset. "Got a real slug there, damn. You interested in going down? Plenty of students pop in and out, better to go with a group, that shit gets wild down there. Sriyani underselling it, they a solid person to know you wanna get anywhere quick and quiet." Tok huffs and smacks the table with their palm, “I FUCKN hope weirder things happen. Some people acting like I’m the crazy one for havin’ claws or whatever. Thought it was a boring ass mutant school not a boring ass human school.” They begin to fidget with the fur on the end of their tail, which has some patchy spots. Their left ear flicks at the use of Mx and they stare at Sriyani for a prolonged moment, a small slanted smile making its way onto their face, before quickly tearing their eyes away. “Uh-Yeah yeah I’d go! Oooo you got access to like, secret tunnels under the city or something?? OHOH or can you turn Invisible?? Can you turn me invisible?” They ask excitedly. "Did you choose the claws? I feel crazy doesn't make a lot of sense for something that just grew on you like woah am I crazy because --" Sriyani is cutting themselves off here to idly poke at their own belly with a finger, deciding, amused, a moment later: "Okay that's a bad example because lots of people make all kinds of gross fatphobic statements but you know." They're looking towards Tok's tail as the (smaller! what a novelty!) teen fidgets with it, and their eyes fix back on Tok through her stare. Their nose is wrinkling a moment later, a bright smile on their face. "There are secret tunnels under the city but I'm so not invited. We have a friend down there, though. Um probably..." they're considering this for a moment with earnest thought, reaching for something at the tip of their brain but then giving up and saying instead of whoever they were trying to think about: "Quentin could make you invisible, I think. If he's not in A Mood." "Lots of people kinda garbage," Avi is saying amiably, "you ain't crazy for how you look, you just crazy-crazy." He's turning to Tok, mouth twisting slightly to one side before he shrugs. "School's school, y'feel me? I bet you go to some boring-ass art school the kids gonna be making some artist hierarchy. We gonna rocket out into space and find a boring-ass alien school where they side-eying you with five eyes if your skin purple and not green. People'll get over it. Probably." “Nah didnt choose the claws- WAIT! There’s actually secret tunnels under the city?!” They hop up, tail curling back and forth. “And there’s people down there?! And you know them?? I wanna meet them! Pleasepleaseplease. I wanna meet the tunnel person so bad.” They make some finger guns at Avi, “And alright GOOD point, MAYBE It’s not the claws why they’re lookin at me crazy.” They say with a grin, “Man, still all boring though! We should spice things up. You guys think the tunnels go under the school? What if there’s like….secret catacombs under the school?” They squat down and knock on the ground, contorting their body to allow them to place their ear against the floor, “Do either of you happen to have the ability to move through solid concrete?” They ask hopefully. "I'm not sure think the tunnel people want to meet you," Sriyani is saying, but then rethinks this a little bit as they look at Tok: "Probably. Also that's way downtown anyway, you'd have to walk for ever in a tunnel to get there. Also like I said I'm not invited oh but plenty of them have been at the protests. Are there catacombs under the school?" They're looking down to their feet with this question as if they could see for themselves. "Roscoe would know if there were, probably. -- there's so many weird catacombs all over the world though. Sometimes I find new ones I think nobody's explored in forever." "I can't do no moving through concrete but one my boys here -- Wait, what?" Avi has been idly kicking one heel against the rung of the stool and letting his attention drift back to Sriyani's handiwork, but now his eyes are snapping forward to rivet back on the other kids. "You can just go whole new places with that? Like not ones you know -- I wanna see some brand-new-secret-tunnel, howzat even work?" His eyes are shifting away to a supply cabinet door with a sudden interest surely disproportionate to the cache of printing inks it holds inside. Tok is also, very interested. “Wait wait what do you mean?? What does he mean? You can go places?! Can you teleport?!” They’re back up to standing and hopping excitedly, “Is that what you guys were talking about when you said you could get places quick and quiet?? Is this your THING? Can I see?” "Oh yeah," Sriyani offers with a brightening of their eyes, "I can go anywhere, probably. I don't know. It's way way easier if I know where I'm going but sometimes you just want to go somewhere new, right? I don't always know where it's gonna go but --" They are fully abandoning their work -- probably it'll still be here later and maybe they will clean it up then. But for now they're trotting to the cabinet Avi is eying, face scrunching up in intent concentration as they put a hand on the door handle. When they pull it open, there's -- no shelves inside, no stash of inks. Just an old and rocky set of stairs descending into blackness, a very faint musty-cool waft of air coming from below. They pull their phone out of their pocket, flicking the flashlight on. "-- part of the fun is finding out."