ArchivedLogs:Field Test
| Field Test | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | 2013-07-14 ' |
| Location
<XS> Forest | |
Quiet and shady, the trees rise all around here high and thick. In stillness, woodland creatures make appearances, though sudden noises scare them back into the cover. Dappled sunlight filters down between the thick foliage, and the ground underfoot is heavily overgrown, though here and there paths have been worn, by deer or years of students wandering familiar trails. Peter is out in the woods shortly after class, entertaining his /own/ little experiment. Said experiment is -- unusual! -- to say the /least/. The boy's currently wearing a familiar white collared shirt, buttoned -- sleeves rolled up to expose his dark, chitin-clad arms -- and brown khaki shorts, exposing his similarly chitin-clad calves! He's also holding a tablet in hand, tapping away at it -- a cast-iron SLING-SHOT (with industrial strength rubber-band!) sitting nearby on a tree-stump. Up ahead is... a dummy. Kind of. The dummy is more or less just two or three watermelons stuffed into a funny-looking suit, left dangling from a tree branch by a delicate silver cord -- the suit is a dark scarlet, with an unusual honey-comb type pattern covering it. The sleeves and legs are dangling, left empty; the suit has a few unusual black 'plates' on it, each no larger than five inches -- a set on the shoulders, a set on the back, and another set on either side of the hips. The 'plates' have carefully contained fans on top -- and are currently whirring away, making a very quiet putter. Peter sets the tablet down, hefts up the slingshot -- sticks out his tongue, squints one eye -- and takes aim at the suit. With a glass marble. Stretching waaaaaaay back. "I'm not sure if I should be amused or disturbed..." A familiar voice comes from somewhere behind, and having announced her presence, Ember is stepping closer to Peter and his Experiment. The youth is dressed in an oversized fuzzy black hoodie, complete with plump bear ears perched atop said hood. And atop Ember's head, as she's currently tucked herself as firmly into the fuzzy warmth as she can manage. Her hands are stuffed into the pockets, revealing only the edges of grey fingerless gloves, and her lower half is clad in what appears to be double-layered pink flannel pajamas pants. Toss in some black fur-lined uggs, and we have an... outfit. Right? Warm, if nothing else. "I'm gonna go with both. What the hell're you doing?" "--oh, /oh/," Peter says, the slingshot RELEASING -- a sharp CLAK of glass as his aim is thrown off by the sound of a voice, smacking sharply against the base of the tree before bouncing off into oblivion! "--oh, uh, hi, um oh hi sorry I didn't--" He's swiveling around, jumping back a few feet as Ember approaches, offering her a crooked, meek grin. "--think anyone was--/wow/ you're dressed. Kind of warmly. Oh, uh, oh-right, this is," Peter /shoves/ the slingshot behind his back, as if he means to hide it -- a faint ebb of violet to his face -- before glancing toward the dangling target. "--just, uh. Testing -- armor. Scienceproject. Coolingsuit um, and bodyarmor it's just. Hobby." He starts nodding /very/ vigorously, as if to indicate the extent to which this is just a hobby. "Woah, woah, woah..." she's half-laughing as she watches him bounce away. Her own approach seems comparatively casual, and she's choosing a tree at least a yard or two away from the excitable Peter to prop a shoulder against. "Ain't gonna bite you or nothin'. And I already know my hair's white." She winks at the other teenager, bronze eyes glinting just a bit. Standing a good six inches shorter than the chitin-covered mutant, and currently dressed in a hoodie with /teddy bear ears/, it'd take some effort to see her as much threat. Then again, well... mutants and such. "Told you the other day, but seeing how all that went batshit right after... I'm Ember. I'll shake your hand, if you want, but I got this feeling you'll jump into a tree or somethin' if I reach for you." "--oh," Peter responds, and he /seems/ to be calming down a bit, now; he's always a little tense, but that immediate clench is melting away into just a kind-of-tense, mostly-excitable friendliness: "Ohright, /Ember/. I'm Peter. Um, I'm okay -- shaking hands. Ohyeah, with -- Ross is kind of -- I don't know." This prompts another crooked, hesitant grin; the slingshot is tossed -- with, perhaps, surprising dexterity! -- back to the tree stump. WHUMP! He steps forward, one hand moving to scratch the back of his head, the other extending for Ember: "I think she's okay, we took her to the med-lab and all, she was just. Freaking? But, yeah, I'm just, uh, running some tests on -- I want to see if it can deflect. Damage. And still operate," he says, slinging his gaze back toward the dangling suit. "What'd you stuff in there? It's... fatter than you'd be." Considering we're comparing a 'scrappy' teenage boy with a bunch of watermelons, it's a fair claim. Ember's drawing one hand free of the hoodie pocket long enough to shake Peter's, her own covered in knit gray gloves that cover her palms and loop over her thumb. Leaving her fingers free for that whole dexterity thing, but covering the rest. "What're you testing it.. against? Sling shots?" "They don't, um. Allow guns on campus," Peter admits, a /little/ meekly as he grins. "And even if they did I don't think they'd let /me/ use them. So yeah, slingshots, just with -- it's full of watermelons. Wrapped in wax-paper, so if they break, it won't be all gross and stuff." Peter's eyes drift back toward the suit as he squeezes Ember's hand. "Gonna find out how well it stands up to -- impact, I guess? And see if it still functions -- operates. There's a lot of tubing in it, for the cooling, and some electronic components..." Speaking of cooling, the pyro's hand is decidedly /warm/ within Peter's own. Like 'oh god fever' warm. "Why's it got a cooling system? Does it get hot in there?" Is that a hint of interest? Ember looks from Peter back to the watermelon suit, a white 'brow arching. "It looks... fancy." Peter /does/ notice the unusual warmth coming off of her hand, but he doesn't seem put off by it; he seems, actually, a little intrigued by it! It /might/ be possible Peter's met a number of mutants who run a little -- 'warm'. When he pulls his hand back, he's rubbing it, as if trying to 'shed' the heat off of his chitin. "--yeah a little," he says. "Actually uh the main problem is -- I don't /sweat/, so. I overheat. Kind of easy. Also," he says, grin cocking up higher, "I kind of want it to be able to. Survive in a /fire/." Really? The second 'brow goes up as she stares at the other youth, as if trying to gauge whether or not he's serious about this fire thing, before she's glancing toward Watermelon Suit. "I... uh. You want me to light it on fire?" She tips him a more dubious glance, and she's tucking her hand back into the warmth of the front hoodie pocket as she regards him. "If it ain't ready, you're just gonna have watermelon guts everywhere." A pause, and then a solemn reiteration, "/Everywhere/." "--waitwhat?" Peter stops, /peering/ at Ember, suddenly. "You can light it on /fire/? Oh, /oh/," he adds, eyebrows /leaping/ up toward his hairline: "Right! You said -- back when -- you called yourself an 'arson' I thought you were just being. You're a pyrokinetic?" Now Peter's /grinning/. "Um, maybe, I dunno that could be--" He looks back to the suit. "--yeah I would want to -- take the watermelons out, maybe? Um. Like. How dangerous is it when you -- do you /blow/ things up?" Red-painted lips curve into a smirk as she watches Peter put the pieces together, and her amusement lingers as he begins spouting the questions. "I'm a pyro, yeah. I don't actually /blow/ anything up, not really, it's just that... some things blow themselves up when they get too hot. Like watermelons." There's a soft snort, and she glances once more between suit and Peter. "Though I gotta point out, darlin'... if fire makes the watermelons blow up inside it, then... uh... a person inside it..." She doesn't finish that sentence. "Yeah." Peter comments, scratching his chin a moment at this -- stepping over besides Ember. Staring at the suit. "I mean, it's -- /insulated/? I used -- nomex for the outer layer. Stuff they use for firemen hoods. And there's a very thin layer of thermal insulation under /that/, before the body armor stuff. And then there's the coolant, and -- I don't know if it could handle --" Peter pauses, reaching for the tablet. Tap, tap. There's an application on it! Currently running! It's displaying the suit's interior temperature, /apparently/ derived via thermostat; it's currently cruising at a comfortable 30 degrees celsius. "--can you do maybe just -- set it a /tiny-bit/ -- on fire?" "A /tiny-bit/?" She echoes, still sounding amused. It's not the mocking sort of amused, but more the type that could turn to fondness, if guided properly. "I could, if you really want me to. But seriously, there's no goin' back on this one, you know? If it melts or somethin', I can't fix that. How 'bout I just... make it /really/ hot to start off?" There's a glance toward the tablet, then back to Peter. "Not /on/ fire, but like it was real close to one." "You can do that?" O-/ho/. Peter /peers/ at Ember more intently now: "Ohyeah no that would be -- yeah I mean, once something's on /fire/ it's kind of hard to -- stop it. From burning. And I don't even have a fire-extinguisher -- yeah just. Turning up the temperature /around/ it while I -- one sec I'm gonna make sure..." Tap, tap, tap. There are some unusual displays on Peter's screen; what looks like -- code? -- "--everything's running full force uh. Okay, yeah. Try to -- make everything around it really hot? And I can see if -- how well it counterbalances the temperature change." Ember's eyes drift back to the tablet as he returns to tap-tap-tapping, and three's a half-smothered smirk as he mentions fire extinguishers. Quaking in her uggs. "Gonna start slow," she half-warns and half-assures, and after a last glance toward Peter, she's turning her attention back to the suit. There's no visible change when it starts, but if that tablet is at all accurate in reading exterior temperatures, he'd see the temperature surrounding the suit creeping steadily upward. 2 degrees, 5, 7, 10... she pauses there, looking sidelong at Peter. "Keep going?" "...ohwow," Peter responds. The external thermometers do, in fact, keep track of the temperature on the outside of the suit -- and Peter's eyes widen as it begins to climb! Like he is beholding some manner of /magic/ trick. And, at first, this temperature change has little to no impact on the /interior/ of the suit's temperature -- until Ember hits the +10 degree mark. Then, suddenly, as if sluggishly remembering it's supposed to be getting hot -- the internal temperature ticks up by one. Then, by another one. Then... back down. And then back up. "...yeah, uh. I think it's actually -- /working/ yeah keep going," Peter responds, "do it /fast/ though? I mean -- it's designed to /respond/ so if it's just a slow uptick, the peltier plates can just -- keep up with you." "Just remember you said that," Ember offers dryly, before looking back to the suit. It would seem the initial ramping was borderline baby-proofed from the pyro, for the subsequent climb would leave any temperature-sensitive creature screaming. Paused at 40 C, the transition to 50, then 60, 80, 100, 120, 140 C... all in a matter of seconds. The air around the suit is starting to shimmer. "More?" Things start happening /very/ rapidly when Ember's heat reaches the 80 mark. The suit suddenly makes a delicate beeping sound; so does the tablet Peter's holding. At once, there's an unusual sound from /within/ the suit -- and the internal temperature begins to spike. Going from a comfortable 32 to -- 43 -- 45 -- 48 -- 60 -- in parallel to the spike Ember's causing. Peter's eyes /bolt/ open wide, and: "OhcrapohCRAP the coolant's--"
It stops. Just as quickly as she'd ramped the temperature, the heat is gone. Not just fading, but gone. The suit is 32 degrees again, and Ember is wincing at the sparks that have begun to fly. "Shit..." She doesn't outright apologize, but her grimace is apologetic as she looks between the steaming suit and the teenager at her side. "That... wasn't even half of what fire would've been." Peter's brief foray into the realm of /horror/ has seemingly dissipiated all at once! Suddenly, he is bringing a hand down -- to clamp! Maybe a little /rudely/ -- on Ember's shoulder. Grinning: "You /boiled/ the /coolant/!" he announces, as if this was some amazing accomplishment. "That was /awesome/ oh man, it's probably gonna have to take a bit to repair, though I dunno it depends if -- the tubes are /pretty/ robust as far as high temperatures go, but I haven't tested them -- I'll need some sort of -- system? To vent steam in case of boiling temperatures but you /basically/ turned the thing into a tiny little steam oven. If I had been in that thing," and now Peter's tone shifts from /excited/ to a little -- hesitant: "Um. If I had been in that thing, I'd be a steamed potato. The watermelons are probably -- kind of mushy, now." Ember is tensing sharply at the clap to her shoulder, but fortunate for Peter, he's grinning before the pyro decides that she's in some sort of danger. Because now we've seen what can happen when a pyro decides to... dabble. Perhaps we shouldn't /frighten/ her? "Yeah... I... am not gonna do that if you're ever /in/ that suit." Just in case he got any ideas. "Like... ever." There's a visible grimace, and with her hands tucked together into that front pocket, she manages to more-or-less tighten her arms around herself. "Can it get... wet and stuff? You may want to take it to the lake or something to get all the juice and stuff out." "--ohyeah I don't even know -- if it's machine washable," Peter admits with a /little/ frown. "Probably have to disassemble the layers and clean them individually -- or something. Uh. But yeah it's /probably/ -- a good idea not to test it. While I'm in it," he says, grinning. | |
