Immortals in the Playground, Episode 1

[Sasaisen]

OoC Thread: Immortals in the Playground
Now Listening: "Lights", Journey

As the sun sets over 20XX San Fransokyo, the rebuilt and rechristened Tadashi Hamada Memorial Hall bustles with activity. It's one again time for the annual San Fransokyo Institute of Technology Science and Robotics Exhibition, a veritable cornucopia of progress and hope. No matter who you are, this event has something to offer.

For the public, it's an opportunity to behold the wonders of science. Old and young alike can marvel at how far human knowledge has come - and how far it continues to go. This is the cutting edge.

For prospective students, it's potentially the beginning of their future. Enrollment in SFIT virtually guarantees a bright career, and all it takes is one good idea to secure their place. They'll show the world what they have to offer.

For the discerning industrialist, it's a veritable banquet of talent. No one knows where and when the next breakthrough or revolution will happen, but with so much genius concentrated in a single place, the odds are good it will be here and now.

For the brilliant young minds enrolled here, it's a moment of pride. It's taken them months or years of struggle and studiousness to reach this point, and tonight is a milestone in their efforts, if not the outright culmination. Whether in a booth or on the stage, tonight they will shine.

For the school, it's a chance to polish the tarnish off its reputation. The loss of a beloved student and arrest of a renowned professor are still recent-in-mind, and tonight is the school at it's most visible. The best time to project a positive message is now.

For law enforcement personnel, it's a hassle. After the events of last year, and with a small but alarmingly persistent trend of techno-savvy criminals in Yokai's wake, San Fransokyo's finest are making their presence known this evening. Nothing will happen on their watch, if they can help it.

Where are you?

[ThreadOfFate]

She didn't like it here.

Kaylee didn't take long to come to that determination. It wasn't as though she was uninterested in what was going on - many of her classmates were showing off the fruits of their labors with varying degrees of success, and she was more than excited to come and see all of their projects now that the bugs were hopefully knocked out of them.

No, it was more that the only reason she was here was to see said demonstrations. Professor Shackford had decided to make class attendance of the expo mandatory, so they could go and support the graduating seniors, the ones currently proudly displaying their work (or worrying displaying their work, if they'd had to rush some aspects of it). He'd ticked Kaylee's name off as she entered and noted in his gravelly, history-lecture voice that she would have to stay for at least an hour.

Thus began a rather annoying hour of Kaylee's life.

Still, it wasn't all bad. There were enough bordering-on-magic distractions that she was able to entertain herself thoroughly, from the revolutionary approach to artificial limbs all the way up to 3D printed replacement organs for the general public and printable on demand. There were also the far more fun options, such as the neural interface VR visor that drew more than a few comparisons to certain anime that had come out years prior to now.

Or, that's what she heard. She wasn't much into that sort of stuff anyway. The limbs were honestly of the most interest to her, given her activity level - she wanted everyone to know the joy of running around on fully-functional legs.

Though the number of people unnerved her, and she was often only able to give a quiet "thank you" and "have a nice night" when one or two people waved at her in recognition, she was keeping her cool rather well, by her own assessment. No major panics, no serious anxiety issues, so she was doing okay despite the crowds. It helped that this was the christening for the building, and many of the people were gathered over by the buffet line and drinks, or seated at tables set up for this occasion and enjoying their food. The show floor, though occupied, was far from bustling.

A flash of bright purple hair caught her eye, and she recognized the form in an instant - Miki, her shorter-but-no-less-athletic running companion, was also here. Grateful to find someone she could listen to directly, and thus not look weird (as she was sure she did) wandering around by herself, she moved next to the girl, flashing her a warm smile tinged with very obvious "oh-thank-God-someone-I-recognize-and-can-be-around-without-feeling-terribly-awkward".

"H-hey, Miki. I'm glad to see you out here," Kaylee got out, folding her arms and trying to appear as small as possible as she stood next to Miki. Are you, um, enjoying the show?"

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby was in the corner of the hall, manning the little booth he'd set up, and he was in his element. The banner fluttering above his head read "microresonance speakers," and he had the booth set up as his own little DJ station. Anywhere within 20 or so feet of the booth, tiny unseen speakers erupted in energetic electronic music. Beyond that point, however, the sound dropped off suddenly. He grinned to himself. Destructive interference - gotta love it!

He noticed a couple familiar faces and waved with the hand that wasn't currently manipulating the mixer. "Hey, guys!" he called over the beat. "How's the expo going?

Spoiler: ooc

Show

gonna flashily lay the Aspect "A rockin' soundtrack" on the scene.

+6 rollto lay it down.

[Space Lawyer]

Miki

Miki walks along through the crowd, largely oblivious to the whirring and buzzing going on around her. Some of the projects were quite interesting, but Miki was simply off in her own mind as usual. It was one of the reasons she still wore glasses. It always seemed like people thought a distracted person wearing glasses must be thinking of something important. In truth, right now she was thinking of how her newly-dyed bright purple hair looked.

"H-hey, Miki. I'm glad to see you out here," Kaylee got out, folding her arms and trying to appear as small as possible as she stood next to Miki. Are you, um, enjoying the show?"

Miki's attention snaps back to the moment. She returns the awkward smile. It was nice to have someone beside her that she knew. Even if the pair didn't speak much on their runs, Kaylee was still the person Miki knew best here. You learned a lot about someone after a few hundred kilometers. "Oh, uhh, yeah, the show. It's really impressive. Lots of interesting projects. Some. . . less interesting ones too."

To punctuate the statement, a boxy device over to the left hisses, sparks, smokes, and lets out a puff of flame before dying a pitiful death covered in fire retardant spray.

[Held]

Dieter

Dieter had wanted to be on stage. He had wanted to stand there with his perfect AI: not one that perfectly behaved like a robot (as his first project had been), but one that had faults like a human, could understand emotion, and could learn from its experiences. An AI with personality. What a dream that would be!

But he wasn't ready. Dieter couldn't say, with confidence, that he was there. No, whoever's show this was, it wasn't Dieter's. He actually didn't want to be here. He wanted to be in his lab, far away from all these people with all their... friends. There was just something about people that rubbed Dieter the wrong way, although he wasn't able to put his finger on just why.

Maybe it was because he just didn't know them. Well, he knew some people. The guy blasting that music, yeah. He knew that guy. First person at SFIT that approached him and refused to be on his way. Dieter couldn't help but like the guy.

Somewhat. Don't get him wrong, machines were still better than people. Like the one on stage there: a robot that could perfectly take care of the ill. Absolutely no reason to be afraid it couldn't do it! Absolutely nothing to doubt about its motives. And best yet, if you somehow blundered socially, you could just reset it so it wouldn't remember.

He needed to remember that. Make it so you can reset your relationship with them. #10'd profit from it.

Dieter almost regretted his decision not to bring the AI, but he knew they'd just argue again: it had been six days since he completed #10, and each of those days he'd argued with the bot about whether or not he was weird. Dieter couldn't fault the AI: after all, the first thing Dieter asked was whether dying dogs were funny. But c'mon! Learn to let go! The bot was too stubborn in its beliefs.

Kinda human, come to think of it.

Dieter stared at Bobby's booth from just out of range of the music, and contemplated approaching. They were... sort of kind of friends, right? It wouldn't be weird, right?

[The_Admiral]

Lee was in her element, running from display to display, she was only a first year student, taking advantage of this day off from the lab to look at all the cool new things she could find. Shooting off unsolicited advice at every booth.

"Oooh, you use your own propellant mix?"

"What does that thing pack power wise?"

"I think a solid state drive would work better for your system here, hard drives wear down worse in these cases....."

Finally arriving at Bobby's booth, she asks, "Hey Beat, how's it going?" stopping in her tracks and turning her head to face him, smile on her face.

[Argentum]

Alan was enjoying himself.

It was always fun to see other student's projects, new inventions and breakthroughs were presented to the world here and it excited him to witness it. Some were still in their infancy, having odd glitches here and there, some were nearly complete, needing just that final touch to perfect it and make it ready to become part of everyday life.

He himself had given a short presentation earlier, using an older model of his particle rings, a larger and bulkier device that looked like a small black box. Controlling the box remotely with a laptop, Alan had shown the world static hard-light holograms for the first time, showing multiple presets, from a hard wood table to a soft and fluffy bed to a walk-in wardrobe. One small, light box and you'd have any furniture you wanted, furniture manufacturers would wish death on him if he commercialized it, that was for sure.

Currently, he was just walking around, marveling at the other inventions when his ears was suddenly filled with electronic music. Confused, he looked around and saw the words "Microresonance Speakers", a DJ station set up in the booth and a guy from the SFIT that he'd seen occasionally. There was no way that he'd have missed music playing, unless there was something preventing the sound from reaching him.

Curiously, Alan took a few steps backwards and found his theory confirmed when the music disappeared. Grinning, he walked back towards the booth intent on giving the DJ his compliments and satisfying his curiosity when he saw a short, black haired girl walk up and talk to him. Shrugging, he decided that he could just wait and enjoy the music for now.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby saw Dieter hesitating at the edge of his mini-club and gave the kid a wave, gesturing him over. "Hey, Dietz! How're you doin', man?"

A familiar voice caused Bobby's grin to widen. "Hey, Legs!" He said, turning and smiling at the girl. "I think you need to stop, drop, and roll, 'cuz you are on fire today.!"

And he grinned that special grin that doesn't realize it just sounded like an idiot.

[ThreadOfFate]

"Oh, uhh, yeah, the show. It's really impressive. Lots of interesting projects. Some. . . less interesting ones too."

The malfunctioning device next to them punctuated Miki's declaration, as if the universe itself decided to have a little fun. Kaylee jumped just slightly at the sparking, not as situationally aware here as she normally was. This was no basketball court, though she was 90% sure she'd seen Lee running around like a kid in a candy store. Then again, this place was a bit of a candy store to most attendees. Maybe not San Fransokyo's finest, though, who were doing their best to appear nonchalant.

"Well, let's hope they don't-" She stopped herself, about to make a comment about how she hoped they wouldn't burn the building down, but what happened last time to this place was now forefront in her mind. She instead cleared her throat, tensing up, and trying to erase the memory of something that never happened. "I, um, never mind. It's- I'm- your hair looks nice!"

The last statement was blurted out, part as an attempt to mask her nervousness, part because Miki did look pretty cute in her new color. Sighing, she rubbed her face with her hands. All these people probably heard her, and now she was surely surrounded by dozens of judgmental looks and people whispering things about her.

"Sorry. Too many people. I didn't mean that. I mean, I did, your hair does look nice, you look really cute in it, I'm-" Again, she cut herself off, taking a deep, steadying breath. Chemical formulas. Recite them, drill them, focus on something else. "Can...can we just pretend I never said anything?"

That would suit Kaylee just fine. It was their normal modus operandi, anyway, and it would give her a chance to keep quiet about all of this.

[Space Lawyer]

Miki & Kaylee
Presentation Hall

"I, um, never mind. It's- I'm- your hair looks nice!"

Miki blushes a deep red, but makes little other response before Kaylee continues.

"Sorry. Too many people. I didn't mean that. I mean, I did, your hair does look nice, you look really cute in it, I'm-"

Miki smiles up at her friend. "Thanks Kaylee! I'm really glad . . ."

"Can...can we just pretend I never said anything?"

Miki looks down and to the side, hands clasped in front of her. "Oh, uh, sure, yeah, we can do that. She had actually appreciated it when Kaylee had commented on her hair. Miki did make some unusual fashion choices, and it was nice when someone had a compliment about it instead of a snide comment. It was especially nice coming from Kaylee.

After a few awkward moments of silence, Miki says "So, anything interesting progress that K-stance adhesive you were working on?"

[The_Admiral]

"Yeah I am! I MEAN LOOK AT ALL THIS STUFF! SO AWESOME!" Lee gushes, flailing and pointing wildly around her at seemingly random directions. The attempt at flirtation flying over her over-exited head.

[ThreadOfFate]

Miki's redness only increased Kaylee's, turning what had started as a mutual friendly greeting into a terrifically awkward conversation and now into a mutually destructive feedback loop of discomfort, ending only when the universe would eventually explode.

Oooooor maybe Kaylee was just freaking out internally over something that didn't need to be freaked out over, as she was wont to do.

"Oh, uh, sure, yeah, we can do that."

Kaylee's unintentional shutdown of Miki's acceptance absolutely drained her of good cheer, for now it was possible Miki had thought she wanted to take her compliment back when nothing could have been further from the truth because she really did look great with the hair and Miki so rarely got compliments, Kaylee was sure, so she wanted to make sure the girl knew how cute she looked and now it had all gone horribly wrong and-

It was right then that Kaylee's lungs protested to her unintentional holding of a breath, and she slowly, quietly let it out, using that to try and come down from this panicked high. It was okay. They had a few moments of silence, moments Kaylee used to try and think of a way to reopen the dialogue, but nothing came to her. That's okay. She would wait until Miki did it.

Kayle ran through dozens of potential openings that Miki could use, trying to catalog each one in her head and a perfect response. Socializing was so difficult. How did people do it? How did they manage to just know what to say? She did, sometimes, when people were in trouble or down or needed a pick-up but aside from that it just...escaped her. In the background, she could hear Lee jabbering loudly - unnaturally loudly, like she was in the middle of a music concert, talking over the noise.

So, anything interesting progress that K-stance adhesive you were working on?"

Oh, thank God, an opening.

"Yes! Thank you for asking, it's...erm, yeah. It's going well. I've found a few uses for it aside from just something sticky that sticks to...everything, I can turn it into a gel, like a sealant, and a more brittle form like, um, like a...a foam? A really hard foam." At that Kaylee ran out of steam, but her redness was under control, and what had happened before was behind them.

Time to try again. She had to make sure Miki knew. Taking back compliments was just rude.

"Your hair really does look cute." And there was the blush, but no time to stop now. Full steam ahead. "What about, um, you? You're physics, right? Worked on anything cool recently?"

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby chuckles, having too much fun to let his failed attempt at flirtation bother him. He pauses to turn to the crowd and call out "What do you guys say we turn it up, huh?!" At the resulting cheer, he transitioned into an even more energetic dance tune, then set his computer to autocycle so that he could talk with Lee and some of the other folks standing around the booth.

He turns back to Lee. "I've been pretty busy, but I took a quick look around. There's plenty of awesome stuff out there. Did you see the guy with the fishbowl? Or that kid with the self-repairing wiring?"

[Held]

Dieter

No one can say no to a greeting. Well, Dieter couldn't. He raised his hand, puffed up his chest a bit. 'I'll do it! A cool greeting, like everyone else!'

"Uh, h- hey! Bobby, bro!" he started shakily. "How ya do-oin', ma─nevermind," going from his very best, to flat, and ending in a dejected, "H, hey, Bobby."

That sort of stuff, yeah. It made him uncomfortable. He really just didn't feel good doing it. That was everyone else's thing. His was to be, well, himself. For better or worse. Better, in his opinion. But probably worse to everyone else. He had no idea what made them tick. What'd they all think of him? Negative stuff, probably. Dour Dieter. Depressing Dieter. Dee for Dumb. Nothing good, in any case. If you asked him about his failures, Dieter could name a few. He could name a list. But his good qualities? ... Yeah. He could build AI. Whoopteedoo. Anyone with half a brain could do that.

Why couldn't he be bright and bubbly, like what's-her-face? That girl Bobby was always looking to. She was a student, so probably some kind of genius, but Dieter couldn't see it. He envied her, but only just a little! He was always thinking, while she... She looked completely... oblivious. To everything. Like a porcelain princess, not a care in the world despite how precious and vulnerable one's footing might be.

'Great, now I'm getting poetic.' The boy slapped his palm to his face and groaned, just as Bobby popped the question to... what's-her-face. Realising the unfortunate timing, Dieter quickly said, "I- I don't mean... I'm not... um, I liked the wiring!" Scratching his neck and looking away, he added, "S- sorry, nevermind me."

[The_Admiral]

"Yeah, nanotech, siphons power from the cable, gives me an idea though........Naaah, I'll need a better power source." she mused aloud.

"Beat, is he your friend?" she asks, gesturing towards Dieter.

Spoiler

Show

The idea was too much of that cyberpunk spiderman cartoon.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby nods. "Yep. Name's Dieter. Dietz, this is Legs - Lee, I mean." He corrects himself, and mostly manages to hide the slight blush.

[Held]

Dieter

Oh, great! He introduced them! Dieter wanted to run away, but he knew he couldn't. Or wouldn't, rather: Bobby'd think him a total freak and Dieter'd lose the only thing he had that even remotely resembled a flesh and blood friend.

"Err, yeah, p- pleased to meet'cha, Legs Leeyameen. It's um, Dieter. Please don't say Dietz."

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby blinked. "Dude, I've been calling you that for a year. Why didn't you tell me you didn't like it?"

[Held]

Dieter

"W- well, it's okay if you do it, it's just... uh..." ... it's just that I'd feel awkward if people I just met acted all friendly and close to me!

He left that thought unfinished and just pretended to be busy surveying the exposition. Really, he just didn't want to meet eyes. For some reason, staring someone in the eyes always made him incredibly uncomfortable.

[Argentum]

Alan raised an eyebrow as the music changed to something even more energetic, he wondered what everyone outside the music's range was thinking, looking at the booth they were in. A bunch of people cheering and dancing to an unheard beat, come to think of it, that'd get even more people to wander in and find out why everyone was acting like they were in a club, wouldn't it?

He took a look at his phone, tapping his foot to the beat as he scrolled through some random articles on the web, he'd give it a little bit before he went over to the DJ.

A short while later, Alan glanced at where he had last seen the DJ, noticing that he was talking to a rather awkward teen. The girl that was talking to him before was still around, but they weren't talking and he figured that this would probably be as good of a chance he'd get before the DJ started mingling with the rest of the crowd. Shrugging to himself, he pocketed his phone and walked toward the DJ, waving at him to get his attention.

"Hi there," Alan greeted casually. "This is really impressive, how in the world did you manage to keep the sound from spreading to the rest of the exhibition?" He didn't quite gush, but he was obviously excited, genuine praise and curiosity was clear in his voice.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby shrugs, looking a bit bewildered. "Well, okay," he says, trading a glance with Lee.

He's distracted by the approach of Alan, and grins as the other man's compliment of his tech. "Hey, thanks! It's not really too complicated - sound's made up of waves, right? Well, the thing about waves is that they can cancel each other out if one's at its highest point while another one is at an equal low point. Well, I've got a bunch of microspeakers set up -" And here he fishes in his pocket and pulls out a little disc, about an inch wide by half an inch deep "- Around the area. They've got microphones attached that can hear the sound, then the speaker puts out another sound that's the exact opposite, and boom. One plus one equals zero." He grins, looking around proudly. "Pretty good gig, if I say so myself."

[Argentum]

Alan grins at the explanation, "Damn, it sounds simple in theory, but I'm sure that it must be pretty hard to nail the exact frequency needed to cancel out music. How long did it take you to build this?" He could understand being able to cancel out a couple of precise sounds, like saving the exact opposite frequency of a car honk, but being able to adapt to any sound whatsoever and completely nullify it was incredible. Well, he assumed it could adapt to any sound, with it canceling out ridiculously high paced music right now.

"Right, I forgot to introduce myself. Name's Alan, what about you?" He raises a hand up for a friendly handshake.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby shrugs with one shoulder. "Took a couple of years to hammer the algorithms out, but once that was done it was just a matter of getting the hardware sensitive and powerful enough to do the job, then making sure the things could get the timing right."

He grins and shakes the other man's hand. "Bobby." He thumbs over to his companions. "These are Dieter and Lee."

[Argentum]

Alan nodded, "What else can it do? Is it limited to silencing only the sounds that it makes, or could you get it to work so that no one could hear a single thing that I'm saying?" He was always curious to see the limits of new inventions, it was always interesting.

He waves to the two beside Bobby, "Hi, nice to meet you guys."

[Space Lawyer]

Miki and Kaylee
Presentation Hall

"Your hair really does look cute. What about, um, you? You're physics, right? Worked on anything cool recently?"

Miki perks up. The hair had been a pain to get the right shade, and it was nice to know somebody appreciated it. As for her projects, it wasn't something she talked about often, but now seemed like a good time to open up. They were in the middle of a presentation of everybody's work, after all, and keeping the conversation going was a priority.

"Yeah, I specialize in gravitational physics, dimensional theory mathematics, and string theory. It, uh, sound cooler than it is most of the time honestly. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where all the gravity goes. There just doesn't seem to be enough of it, and it works too fast to exist in a single dimension , and . . ." No, don't talk about all the gravity sneaking off into other dimensions before popping back into this one. Don't talk about the possibility of the Grand Unified Theory. Nobody actually wanted to hear about that.

"I, uh, sorta made something that might test out what I've been working on. Most of what I do is theoretical, and thought experiments, but I wanted to see if it actually worked. I, uh," she looks around, seeing if anyone is listening. "I might have made gravitational control possible."

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby pulls the disc out again, taps it against a little mobile phone/tablet, and taps some instructions onto the screen, then holds up the disc and, after a moment's pause for presentation, sticks it gently to Alan's forehead.

He then steps back and grins. "Let's see!"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Gonna Flashily lay the Aspect "--------" on Alan, then Compel it to say that any sound he makes is immediately deadened (Until the scene ends or I remove the disc, whichever comes first).

(4d3-6)[-1]

[Argentum]

Alan quirked an eyebrow in amusement as Bobby stuck a disk to his forehead. "So does this work or am I just speaking really really softly?" He asked, pretending to stage-whisper to Bobby.

It definitely did, seeing as Alan couldn't hear even a hint of his own voice. "I should have seen this one coming." He said bemusedly, a wry grin covering his face.

[ThreadOfFate]

"Yeah, I specialize in gravitational physics, dimensional theory mathematics, and string theory. It, uh, sounds cooler than it is most of the time honestly. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where all the gravity goes. There just doesn't seem to be enough of it, and it works too fast to exist in a single dimension , and . . ."

Miki seemed to trail off, much like Kaylee had done. Kaylee gave her an encouraging smile, rubbing the back of her head, trying to shrug off and rub out as much of the awkward that had permeated their interactions until now. Being at SFIT, Kaylee shared the passion for learning that all students here did, regardless of area of expertise. She had no real interest in going too far into a path that wasn't inorganic chemistry, but she certainly had a passing appreciation for the crazy sciences like physics. She had a feeling that the equations Miki used on a daily basis would make her brain explode. "Have you checked under the couch cushions?" She quipped, feeling proud of herself for that one.

"I, uh, sorta made something that might test out what I've been working on. Most of what I do is theoretical, and thought experiments, but I wanted to see if it actually worked. I, uh, I might have made gravitational control possible."

Okay, that was news.

"You WHAT?!" came the whispered, excited reply. Kaylee glanced around conspiratorially, as Miki had done, before leaning down to get closer to the girl, her words low but full of energy. "Holy ****, Miki, that's...did you really do that?!"

And here she was screwing around with sticky liquids and gels, when her cute friend with purple hair was busy making a major scientific breakthrough. It did put it all into perspective, but she was delighted at Miki for this. The girl was smart, athletic, gorgeous...she'd have no problems getting places in life, at anything she wanted to do.

"That's incredible. Do you have a prototype? Can I see it?"

[The_Admiral]

Smiling at Dieter, Lee says, Nice to meet you guys, you two have any projects I could look at?

[Held]

Dieter

Yeah, Bobby was amazing. Dieter knew he did something with music, but the full capabilities of it were... always lost on him. His head was full of AI, there was hardly any space for musical theories and sound waves and resonances and whatnot. But this... amazing! Silencing someone just like that... Why wasn't Bobby putting that on display? How many people'd be delighted to shut someone up?

"Ah? Eh, my own project is... It's AI. Artificial Intelligence," Dieter replies to Lee. "I- It's not done yet, though. I'm trying to make an AI that... one that's human. Won't be flawless. Learns new things. Anticipates emotions. Experiences emotions..." A bit glumly, he adds, "Nowhere near done yet, though. They keep having some critical flaw."