ArchivedLogs:Create the Future

Create the Future
Dramatis Personae Aerin, Elli, Ghost, Sebastian
In Absentia	2014-03-27 '
Location <XS> Workshop
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/. Classes have ended for the day, and by now it's starting to get on towards evening time. Too early yet for dinner, though in here Sebastian has been eating anyway -- his meal is evidently just a large tupperware full of hunks of raw meat. Venison, from the scent of it. At the moment, though, his flesh-filled container is set to one side and the tiny blue teenager is, instead, focusing his attention down on something on the table in front of him in the machine shop. It looks -- mostly like a skateboard, in shape, though if skateboards came with electronic inner workings, because he's opened /up/ its halves to fiddle with the parts inside. There's a tablet out on the table beside him. Unlike most tablets he is paying very little attention to its /screen/ -- he doesn't /have/ to, because it is instead projecting a holographic display into the air next to him. A holographic display that, evidently, he can tangibly /interact/ with, as he looks from his skateboard(?) to a hovering terminal with a frown and then turns to just /paw/ the terminal window out of the air and pull up a set of diagrams instead, grabbing them with his hand and physically moving them over nearer him. There is, sitting on the table beside his tub of meat as though keeping watch over it, a cobalt blue metal dragonfly, still as a statue at the moment. Possibly it /is/ a statue. Sebastian's claws click in restless drumming against the table as he examines his project, gills opening and closing once alongside his neck. He is dressed rather blandly today -- a plain black sweatshirt over a plain white undershirt, blue jeans. Hiking boots. Aerin strolls into the workshop with a full size bow slung over her shoulder, the string pressing between her chest. Of course she isn't carrying around the quiver of arrows that goes along with it. She pauses as she sees the blue one, curious at the little tablet thingie. Moving over towards the tablet, she puts a hand out to try to 'grab' the hologram, red eyes peering at it. Upon failure, the other hand goes out too to give a continual grabbing motion, as if the hologram was something tangible and solid. "Wha're yae' doin' there Blue?" She asks, keeping her eyes on the hologram. It's now become more of a challenge than anything. "Is this one o' those fold out picturebooks ah've heard about?" Elli never looks bland. Her hair is a mess of colors, done up in little spikes of red and blue and black in a crazy mixed-up combination, and thickly gelled. A black bomber jacket hangs open, revealing the closely cut red V-neck underneath. Her pants are a bleach-lightened black jeans, with two ragged straps dangling down behind her legs, buckle knocking against her legs as she steps through the workshop door. She raises a hand in salute to the people already there as she carries a heavy piece of ducted metal, dirty chrome, over to a work table. "Yo. What's hanging?" she asks, dropping the metal down on the table with a loud clang. Elli grimaces and brushes the dirt marks off of her jacket with a hand. "Gross." She grabs for a shop towel and wipes herself down before turning to give the same treatment to the... thing in front of her. In a past life, perhaps, it was once part of a motorcycle oil system, though it has definitely seen better days. Ghost never looks bland either. She's colorful. Naturally! Purple skin and yellow eyes stand out, but her clothing is also a bit..colorful today, green jacket, blue jeans, gray scarf, no shoes. Who knows why she's in the workshop today, as she passes behind a couple minutes after Elli. "Greetings everyone!". A small grin, which slightly lessens as she spots Aerin, before she speaks over to Elli and Sebastian. "Hey, Sebastian. Whatcha doing today?". And then a large grin towards Elli. "Elli, what's up? Are you..building a time machine I have no idea what that is so I want to assume time machine.". A small grin as she begins looking towards the woodshop, moving a few steps towards it. "Woah hey --" Sebastian's eyes widen as Aerin starts touching the holograms, which do actually respond to the touch, shifting and moving as the girl starts to play with them. "Hey, um, I'm kind of working? Please don't -- /touch/ that." His nostrils flare, drawing in a deep breath of scent /before/ he bothers to look up and at the girl with a small puzzled frown. "Oh -- hello." His odd flat nose twitches again with New People arriving. He loks at the thing in Elli's hands, curious, /before/ he looks up at her. "I'm -- just -- I was just. Hi Ghost." A very small closed-lipped smile twitches across his lips. "We're all /in/ a time machine already, actually. It's just progressing forward very slowly." Aerin peers at Sebastian a moment "Isn' tha' jus' called th' normal passage o' time?" Then she's leaning over to try ti bite the hologram, before pulling her hands back to leave it alone. "Elli?" She looks between the purple, and the non-purple girl. Considering she's met Purple, it must be non-purple. "Yae'r Elli? Ah'm Aerin, yae'r new roomate." She peers down at the raw meat that Sebastian has in the container, considering grabbing a bite. Eyes play upon mischief a moment, but she seems to think better of it and even shoves her hands behind her back to curb the temptation. She then casts a glance towards Sebastian "So Sebastian is it?" "Hey Ghost. Keeping out of trouble?" Elli says, grinning at the purple girl and giving her a wink. "Shame on you, I taught you better." She glances up when she's addressed and gives Aerin a long look before she says something. "Heya. Aerin, is it?" Her grin is wide, and she winks as she says, "Somehow, I don't think you're a local, huh." It is not a question. Elli pats the hunk of metal. "A time machine? Psh. Don't be silly, Ghost. This is clearly a motorcycle." She pauses for a second, looking down at it and pursing her lips. "Well. Eventually. Right now, it's more like a piece of shit. Probably closer to part of a time machine than part of a bike. I've got to clean it and replate it, then weld some of it back together." "No, you're corrupted me and made me pure evil.". A grin from Ghost, as she nods to Sebastian. "We're going one second forward in time every second, it's true.". As Aerin states that she's Elli's new roommate, Ghost perks her head to the side, before speaking. "Huh. So you guys got paired together? I got..Kisha. This should be fun.". As Aerin casts her glance to Sebastian, Ghost begins to speak, "Actually I think-", before silencing herself. Ghost then turns to Elli with another grin and laugh. "Most beautiful motorcycle I've ever seen. I think you might even have Professor Logan's beat." "Ireland," Sebastian answers Elli's mention of Aerin being Not Local, "-- new this week, um." Now he just looks /puzzled/ as Aerin tries to bite the hologram -- it does not, at least, respond to biting the same way it responded to her hands; her teeth just go right through it harmlessly. "Kisha's fun," he agrees with Ghost. "She gave me a birthday present." He sounds quite /pleased/ by this fact. His hairless ridged brow creases into a small frown as he reaches over to restore his computer to its previous configuration after Aerin's fiddling, webbed hands working deftly with the softly glowing holograms. "Oh -- huh? Um. Yeah. Yes. Sebastian. Or just Bastian. -- You're going to have a hard time /riding/ that, Elli, it needs wheels." Among -- other parts. like the whole motorcycle. Aerin nods "Keady, Ireland. Small town there." She peers over at the motorcycle parts "Should yae' maybe clean 'em up first before fittin' 'im tae'gether? Dun' yae' have tae' register motorcycles wi' Harley Davidson or something if yae' do put one tae'gether.." Considering Blue..erm, Sebastian's point she adds "Yeah..wheels mi' be good..but yae' could proably find junk ones..faer' cheap?" She then looks over at Pur..erm, ghost. "Kisha? Haven' seen 'er yet..unless sh' th' one with the sunglasses and all th' readin'?" "Well, it needs some work." Elli eyes the metal and polishes at a section of it more vigorously. "Wheels, yeah, B, and a bunch more. The rest of it. But I'll take it one piece at a time, you know? Whatever's the right price, you got it." She grins at Aerin. "Besides, Harley's are for Professor Logan. I'm more of a Ninja girl, myself." Laughing, she reaches down to the drawers and rummages through it a moment before coming out with some sandpaper. "Bright green, I think, if I ever get it finished. Or maybe blue. Or red." She muses, scraping at a bit of rusted chrome insistently. "I don't know how I'll pick, considering I can't even pick one color for my hair." "Give it a billion colors. Rainbow vomit colored.". Ghost grins again, glancing over to Aerin. "I think..glasses? Were they red-tint? I think that's Ms. Sage. She's a teacher.". Ghost shrugs, before turning back to Sebastian. "What she get you? Jetpack? Nuclear device?". Ghost glances back to Elli. "Oh I think Ms. Sage has a Ninja or..something like it I'm not sure. Though Professor Logan's Harley is pretty neat, wonder if he built it himself." "She got me a blimp. Um a drone. Um, a mobile charging station?" Sebastian's cheeks flush a little bit darker with this explanation. "For my bugs, it's -- pretty great." He turns his eyes back downwards, teeth sinking against his lips as he returns to tending the fiddly inner workings of his board. "Professor Summers has the best one, I think." He glances briefly back to Aerin, then back to his work. "Are you liking it here so far?" Aerin watches Elli "Yae' could make it gradient? Y'know, one color changes intae' another, intae' another.." She nods a moment to Ghost "Yae, red ah' think.." then looks back to Sebastian after she's addressed. "Well, seems okay after th' lil' spat earlier. Little nervous though. Yae' have sae' many people livin' on top o' eachother. Nae' sae' much room as ah'm used tae'. Ah've lived faer' a while as a wolf, and kind o' forgot mah' manners. Don' really feel threatened in th' school, but ah'm afraid o' what it's like out there in th' big city. Never been outside o' Keady. Sae' many sounds and movement and..really, ah' dun' know how yae' people do it all everyday.". She reaches above Sebastian's food, poking her fingers around it trying to 'manipulate the hologram'. "Mmmn, guess that one isn' computery eh?" "Rainbow vomit. I think my mom called my hair that once or twice," Elli says, grinning. She glances at Sebastian and raises an eyebrow. "Bugs? I think you've been spending too much time with Ivan," she says, laughing. "Though I don't think his bugs need a mobile charging station." As Aerin speaks, Elli looks up at her and tilts her head to one side. "Living as a wolf? Wicked." she says, grinning. "That should be my next hair color. Werewolf grey." She muses, rubbing her nose with a knuckle and smearing a bit of grey dust onto it. "It's a tradition of mine, you see. I wore purple when I moved in with this one over here," she says, thumbing a finger in the direction of Ghost. "And the one before that." "I wonder when Ivan's coming back. He's still in Russia, right?". Ghost's grin fades for a second before firing back up. "A blimp? Must be invisible, I haven't seen it around. Unless it's a tiny one, but with Kisha I assume she got you an actual massive blimp.". When Aerin talks about the spat, Ghost quirks her head. "Well, I think Shane kind of had a point with all that. We /do/ come here for safety from..bad people. And there's quite a bit of us from murderlabs that would probably freak out at what you said.". "Spat?" Sebastian looks puzzled, giving Aerin a small frown. His eyes turn to Ghost afterwards. "-- wait, /she's/ the girl who --" His mouth opens into a small O, his gills opening up to flutter rapidly at the sides of his neck. He backs /just/ a little bit away from Aerin, reaching to scoot his metal dragonfly and his bowl of meat closer to himself and farther from her, too. "Oh. Right. Um. Hi. Wolf, right. I just -- go in the lake when there's too many people. There's -- a /lot/ of woods, it's not hard to find space." His eyes drift back down to his work, and he takes the other half of the board to join it to the first, starting to seal it back up with all its machinery inside. "Ivan's still in Russia, yes. Um, it's kind of a --" His hands lift in front of him, extending a couple feet apart. "Drone-blimp. I mean, it only needs to be big enough to handle the bugs." He flashes a very small smile to Elli, tapping at the holographic controls of his tablet for a moment. The metal dragonfly on the table wakes up, spreading its wings with a small quiet hum as a faint light lights behind its eyes. Another tap at the controls and the bug lifts into the air. "Ivan wouldn't be able to control /my/ bugs anyway." He sounds -- /just/ slightly pleased at this. Aerin huffs a bit. "Ah' guess ah' didn' have that experince. Ah' was jus' tossed in with a bunch o' abused wolves n' left faer' dead. Ah' got tae' strike back at mae' tormentors..but ah' wasn' really in control. Ah' can turn intae' a wolf when ah'm angry, but ah' cannae'...turn back. Sae..some people have thier cages..tha' was mine. Stuck as a wolf, with wolf instincts, faer' six months or so." She peers at Sebastian, looking hurt a moment. "Are yae' pretendin' tae' be someone else? Are yae' not...are yae' tryin' tae' fool me? Are yae' tryin' tae' make mah' look stupid?" She frowns, slipping her hands behind her back out of sight on most, but her nails grow out slowly to about 4 inches long. "Ah' thought we had some kind o' gettin' o'er it agreement thing goin' on." Elli's eyes widen as she looks up at the sound of beating wings and a quiet hum. She blinks several times, tilting her head to one side as she studies the dragonfly. Her mouth opens, then closes. Blinking again, she lets out a low whistle. "Well, damn, Sebastian. I've never seen anything like that before," she says, a little laugh of amazement working her way out at the end of the sentence. "That's some sci-fi shit right there. No way Ivan would be able to do shit with it." When Aerin's tone changes slightly, Elli turns her attention onto her new roommate. "What's going on?" she asks, glancing towards Ghost. "I think I'm missing something, here." She taps her fingers against the work table, then rolls the metal part onto the other side to start cleaning, slowly, eyes still on the two in front of her. Ghost ponders for a second, before turning to Aerin. "Uh, no, that's not Shane. That's Sebastian. They're..identical twins. You met Shane yesterday.". She's stepping back again, a kind of frown, as she turns to Elli. "Aerin..threatened to gut Shane. Called him a fish. It was..kind of scary, really. And insensitive.". Ghost makes a slow shudder, leaning closer towards the woodshop. "I think most of us have been through some stuff. World's not too kind to us if you're purple, or blue, or have tails, really." "{I'm sorry}," Sebastian answers Aerin's wolf-tale in quiet Vietnamese. "But I'm not sure if you think that earns you some kind of leeway. Everyone has things they deal with. Most of us deal with those things without threatening to cut other students open. And if you ever do that again at this school," he doesn't sound angry, just soft and level-calm, "it will end badly for you. They take that kind of thing pretty seriously -- did you guys," he asks Ghost with a small frown, "/tell/ any teachers? Someone should know. I'll take Shane tonight if you haven't. -- There's a lot of people here who've struggled with their powers and their instincts. And you can get help with that. But not if you don't treat everyone else with respect along the way. And no. I don't think he's /gotten over/ you threatening to open him up." He has been, this whole while, carefully bolting his board back together; once it is in place he flips it over right-way-up on the table, exhaling a slow contemplative breath as his hands run over it. Elli's amazement puts a small proud smile on his face. "His name's Blackberry," he tells Elli. And then, apparently, addresses the flying metal dragonfly itself: "Blackberry, go to Elli." He doesn't indicate /who/ Elli might be but the dragonfly seems to understand anyway, humming its way over to hover by the girl's shoulder. Aerin peers at Sebastian "Well..ah' s'pose ah' can buy that story, this one's faer' more civilized. Talks differently, and seems a'lot maer' brainy." She closes her eyes and takes several big long breaths, and her nails retract about an inch. "Look, ah'm sorry faer' that. Was a bad joke. He had a joke in bad taste how his mutancy was spreadin' and ah' was goin' tae' catch his mutancy. Is tha' in good taste? Because tha's a very real possibility faer' mae, jus' a big o' threat as ah' made tae' him. Ah' transformed intae' a wolf..if ah' would've fought, ah' could turn intae'..well, whatever it is..yae'r classified as. Ah'm sorry a'ight? It was a cruel joke, something ah' tried tae give back jus' as much cruelness as he displayed mae' with. Yae' grew up in a cage, huh? Well, ah've spent mae' time in one too. In mae' head, as a wolf, all muddled.". She dips down into a curtsy, beleive it or not, pulling out the sides of her dress. "Ah'm sorry faer' mae' behavior, isn' becomin' o' an Irish lady, but ah've always had a foot out th' door on that as it were tae' begin with. It's up tae' yae' tae' accept mae' apology or not, but if yae' really want tae' be enemies, then it won' be from malice on mae' part." "Hey, Shane's cool. He's not uncivilized." Elli says, frowning at Aerin. "He's... not Sebastian, even though he looks similar, but he's not a bad guy. Just... a bit rough around the edges, sometimes. No more than you are, certainly." She says, a playful tease in her voice. "We're all fucked up, and everyone hates on us. No need for us to make problems with each other, you know?" she says, glancing back and forth between Aerin and Sebastian, after sharing a wary glance with Ghost. When the dragonfly - Blackberry - heads her way, Elli is successfully distracted, gazing up at it in reverence. She holds out a hand carefully, as you might with a strange dog, holding it up a few inches away as a perch. "She's magnificent," Elli says, tilting her head to one side. "Just beautiful. Hi there, Blackberry," she croons, softly. "How are you doing?" "They're different people. They are twins, not clones, after all.". Ghost frowns again, and has trouble listening to Aerin's story. "/I/ was the one who talked about it spreading, not Shane. And living in a cage is..really no excuse for saying that /at all/.". Ghost frowns deeper, before turning to Sebastian. "No, I just went back to my room. I might need to write another article though. Or reprint my last one. Not sure if the library still has any left.". Ghost shrugs. "I /think/ it's a he. Though it's totally beautiful. Sebastian's probably going to create the future.". Ghost grins at this, a grin over to Sebastian as well. "Thank you. For the apology. Though you owe it to my brother, not to me. But you might try an apology that /doesn't/ act like you were the victim there. /He/ said frostbite and /you/ threatened to cut him open. These two things are /not/ equal." Sebastian's lips twitch at Elli's defense of Shane. "He's actually way more brilliant than I am, too. People just get really quick to shut their brains off if they hear the f-word." The dragonfly hums forward, perching itself on Elli's outstretched hand. "I've got kind of a fleet of them," he admits a little more shyly, a blush creeping into his cheeks as he watches Elli's reverence. "During the zombies they, um, patrolled the grounds a lot as an early-warning system." The blush deepens sharply when Ghost says he's going to create the future. He moves his board off the table and onto the ground, moving to stand on it like a skateboard though -- it has no /wheels/. The reason /why/ it has no wheels is evident when he toes at something in its tail, and with a humming not unlike the dragonfly's, /it/ lifts off the ground, hovering just about half a foot there -- kind of /wobbly/ in the air. Sebastian wobbles along with it. His smile widens. "-- I'm sure going to try." Aerin scratches at her arm with her hand, leaving a couple of minor cut marks by doing so. "Ah was th' aggressor..Ah'm nae' real good at fess'n up, but it was mae' who said it. Ah' knew he wasn' goin' tae' spread tae' mae', ah' was jus' tryin' tae' one-up him, but ah' went tae' far.". She turns to watch the metal..bug? Probably thinking about biting at it? She lets out a long languid sigh as she slips the bow off of her body, and quietly (for once) begins to leave. Elli smiles at the dragonfly as it perches on her hand, and she balances it carefully on it. "Amazing. You're amazing, little guy," she says, reaching and scratching behind a wing with one finger. She looks up and eyes Sebastian on his hovercraft. It takes a few seconds for it to sink in before she breaks out in a huge grin. "If I make the body and the engines, can you make my motorcycle not need wheels?" she asks, excitedly. When she sees Aerin moving off, Elli waves her hand. "I'll see you tonight, Aerin. Welcome to Xavier's," she calls, waving the hand that is not cradling Blackberry. "I'll try not to wake you up when I come in." "Hover motorcycles. Can you make me like, a jetpack, or maybe jetboots? Oh man, what about a flying car that would be amazing.". Ghost's eyes light up at all the possibilities of FUTURE. "Have a good night, then.". Ghost tips her head towards Aerin, pondering for a second. SEEMS SHE FORGOT WHY SHE WAS HERE. And then she's glancing back at the woodshop, before taking a few steps towards it. Not gone yet, wants to know if Sebastian can build her THE FUTURE. /This/ time Aerin's words actually draw Sebastian's eyes to her slow and curious. For a long moment he just looks /pensive/, listening quite seriously to what she says but then nods, with a very small smile. "Hey." He nudges his Tupperware of (raw bloody) meat a little nearer Aerin. "Do you like deer? Could have some for. The road." Though as he leans forward, nudging the container towards Aerin, his hoverboard teeter-rocks precariously and spills him off the (thankfully very short) distance to the ground. He smiles a little sheepishly at the requests. "Jetpacks maybe. Jetboots -- might require lots of other accessories to properly balance you but also-maybe? I, um, might have a /ways/ to go before we're in flying car territory. I'm still working on making the hoverboard hold up /people/ properly. But, um, once I have that down? I'll see what I can do." His blush has deepened again, his voice mostly /amused/ at the thought of building flying cars. Aerin stops, wolven ears perking straight up. She moves over to take one of the peices of meat. "Thank Yae." she offers softly. She slips the meat into her mouth and chews, her cainines incredibly present. She watches a moment, but looks rather defeated. Moving to leave again, she leans towards Elli "Ah' hear everything, all a'once. It's al'right though. If yae' talk Tae' Sebastian, he could probably re-engineer yae'r motorcycle tae' function with less parts since he's all brainy n' futurey."