ArchivedLogs:Working Lunch

Working Lunch
Dramatis Personae Kisha, Sebastian
In Absentia	2013-05-30 '
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/. It's lunchtime, and the bulk of the student body is probably very busily eating, in the great hall or out on the grounds with the sudden arrival of warm sunny weather to replace the previous chill grey. Between classes the workshop is quiet. Mostly quiet, anyway; over in the welding shop there is a sizzlinghiss of a handheld plasma cutter. One little blue sharkboy is dressed considerably less flamboyantly than his usual; slim black jeans and a plain white tee, wide dark goggles shielding his eyes. There is on the table beside him a -- something! Who knows. It is at the moment a conglomeration of metal bits, some boxy, some kind of /spindly/ -- articulated, like the joints of legs, though they're currently attached to nothing. The piece of metal he is currently /cutting/ has been neatly measured to complete the squat boxy body of -- whatever it is. A break in class, to the science cave! If there is one thing guaranteed to keep Kisha in good shape it's carting her special toolbox around. A backpack made from segmented chrome pannels that looks a little like a really big scarab. "Crap," she complains to herself. "I need to build a robot to carry my god damned bags." The petite teen is dressed for science, labcoat & goggles over her usual black pants and t-shirt combo, and heads straight for the largest empty workspace with eager bounding steps. "Oh! Oh, how heavy is that?" It's hard to tell whether Sebastian glances up or not; his hand doesn't move from its steady work but the combination of tinted protective goggles and no pupils means the direction of his eyes is not easily discernible. "I mean, I don't think it'd really be hard at all to -- I could -- mmm." There is a pause, as he continues his cutting, carefully along a neatly premeasured etching of path. "You'd have to take the elevator, weight plus legs is too much work to bother with for a metal bellhop." Kisha thwumps the backpack down on the bench, reaches around the back and pulls out telescoping struts, before opening the box of wonders. "Very," she says with dry amusement. "Solid metal case, mostly metal tools and the compressor for the industrial rivet gun." As the panels fold out it reveals not just a few tools, but an excess of them. "It is good to see you back at school... There was talk you might have quit, plus a somewhat less plausable theory you and your brother had accepted an offer to star in a live action Little Mermaid show." "/Me/ quit?" This does make Sebastian look up -- thankfully just as he finishes with his cutting, switching off the cutter as his head tips up towards Kisha. "That's -- I mean, /Shane/ was --" His head shakes. A quick smile flits across his lips. "Naw, but we were thinking of running off and joining the circus. No bones is great for contortionism." He sets down his cutter on a stand on the table, slipping around his counter to head towards Kisha instead. Examining her box contemplatively. "-- Would you want it doing anything else besides following you around carrying your stuff?" "Kill on demand would be nice," Kisha says with a grin. "To be honest I don't actually want it mobile. For my portable kit I've tried to keep as much as possible dumb and mechanical. Increases how long I can work for without downtime." She glances over at Bastians project. "What're you making, if you don't mind my asking?" "Don't need a robot for /that/," Sebastian says, but kind of under his breath. "It could be a separate unit. Load it up with your stuff when you want it, carry it by hand when you don't want it. Not actually part of the kit. Could use it for other things too." He glances back over at his table, and his smile flashes again, bright. "It's, uh. He's actually -- I guess he's a toy. S'my little brother's -- pet spider. He kind of drowned. Need to make him again, um. Better? He dies a lot of unfortunate deaths but each time it's like oh hey now I know what to fix /next/ time." Kisha ohs. "Perhaps you could use...." She digs her touchpad computer out of a labcoat pocket, taps at a few keys and brings up some insectile robot leg schematics. "These. You might need to scale them up a little as the originals are quite delicate. I also have some humanoid ones in here somewhere... I got them from Doctor Dooms expo, but I couldn't finish them because he distracted me by ordering the band to kill me. For some reason the teachers wouldn't let me attend the job interview he offered me..." Sebastian glances at the schematics, brows knitting together and curiosity growing in his expression the longer he studies them. "Oh -- oh!" he is dashing off, hurriedly, to his own station to collect one of the jointed disembodied legs and bring it back. "Oh, man, that's -- definitely an improvement on what I -- wait." He is looking down at the computer again, comparing the schematic to the piece in his hand, but now he looks up at Kisha with widening eyes. "-- Doctor Doom offered you a job?" His tone is kind of awed. "An interview," Kisha corrects matter-of-factly. "And he said if I didn't impress him I'd never leave. So technically he also threatened to murder me. It was a bit of a mixed trip and now I don't think the teachers want me to ever go anywhere near him again." She pouts. "A pet mechanical spider, what is it with everyone and spiders? Peter with his webshooters and so very secret identity. Only a matter of time before he wants help rebuilding them I suppose." "We had Jerusalem /way/ before Peter came to this school," Sebastian says with a shrug, "I don't know. My brother likes spiders. I'm actually trying to give /him/ webshooters -- well, the /webshooter/ part is easy, its training him to use them with any kind of finesse that gets a little more tricky." One hand rubs at the side of his neck, pressing down against his gills. "I can't -- imagine why um. I mean, I don't know, it'd be /awesome/ seeing more of his tech but maybe not if you're dead." His eyes light again, though, at the mention of rebuilding -- "/Actually/ I've already been -- well. Peter kind of /gave/ us two pairs of earlier prototypes except Shane's were /gloves/ and that's kind of pointless for us so I was remaking them but then I mean why just remake them why not make them /better/ -- but anyway now that his got lost anyway I figured I might as well just make /more/ so. I've kind of already been working on -- a better pair. I guess the cops still have the ones you made him." Tilting her head Kisha makes a few more keystrokes. "You have a school email yes?" she asks, loading her email account up. "I'll forward you all the webshooter notes I made. Some of it you won't be able to replicate unless you use 3D printer plastic, but I don't know if that will be strong enough. But I made a few innovations like a little system which can flush the nozzle with vinegar." Email sent Kisha begins to set out all the tools she needs. "I'm currently back to my aerial drone project. I've been doing a lot of blimp based drones lately to get the control system and sensors functional, but now I intend on making something a lot faster. Maybe include a stealth coating and something to take advantage of the web cartridge I received as payment for my work." "Yeah, it's bholland," Sebastian answers offhand, about his email. "Did you, um. Yesterday, there was -- the teachers went -- I don't know. There was a thing. Flying. Before the teachers went off to find freakish death-ants. Was that you?" His nose crinkles. "Not the ants, the flying thing." "Oh, no that was nothing to do with me. My drones are.... I should just show you," Kisha replies, grabbing something from the toolbox and plugging it in. "Projector for the win." She aims it over at the wall and begins playing footage of various incarnations of blimp drones flying about. All tagged as incarnations of the Mini Hindenburg. "The last version was a super high altitude one with a long range camera. I based the design on a weather balloon." Sebastian leans back against the table, one elbow propping on its edge as he watches the footage. His fingers toy with the spider-leg in his hands, distracted and restless as the drones fly. "-- What are you thinking for the faster models?" he wants to know. "I mean, for stealth models there's so many different /types/ of detection to take into -- wait." He squints at Kisha. "Where are you sending these?" Kisha blinks. "Where am I sending them?" she asks, perplexed. "The drones you mean? I fly them around the woods on a leash. Except for the high altitude one. That had a ground teather and only went directly up with the camera switched off except for a few tests. I submitted flight plans and sent all the flight logs to the teachers." She flicks the touchpad and brings up schematics of a fixed wing drone, much like a World War Two Spitfire. "I was thinking something simple to begin with, just to get used to controlling something that moves quickly. So I picked a fairly archiac fighter plane design." "-- Well, I mean. Depending on where they're /going/ you'd need better -- but," Sebastian exhales a breath; it's kind of like a laugh though it mostly just sounds relieved rather than amused, "if they're flying around the woods on a leash they won't need as much --" His claws tap rattly against the tabletop for a moment. "... with stealth they'd be pretty useful, though. I mean, stealth and the long-range cameras. Jerusalem is pretty good at snooping but he doesn't /fly/." "Well... They can fly against the wind unless there is a storm," Kisha admits with a wave of her hand. "But I mean I don't actually have a great need for spying on anyone at the minute. I considered sending out it when everyone went missing, but I thought it seemed a little futile compared with using the tracker app. Which worked surprisingly well all things considered." She smiles. "The blimp drones are already fairly stealthy. They make almost no noise, can fly high enough people don't tend to look at them and best of all are mostly plastic. So have very little that shows up on mechanical sensors. Why... did you call it Jerusalem? It seems an odd name for a spider." "When he's put together his eyes are red and green," Bastian answers with a touch of distraction. "It's after a comic book character." His nose crinkles slightly. "I guess I should thank you for, uh. The trackers and -- I mean. That was a pretty good idea." He looks back down at Kisha's tablet thoughtfully, then straightens. "Sometimes there's good need for being really stealthy. -- I should, uh. Actually get some of this /finished/ before lunch is over," he suddenly remembers the piece in his hands, squeezing the spiderleg a little sheepishly. One more glance at her screen, and then he trots off back to his own station, leaving Kisha to her work as he returns to his.