| An Evening at Aurora Tech | ||
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| Summary: What is it that Zelan is working on there?   |
The front door opens, and in walks a very much not pregnant Raven! She also has no kids near her! It's a miracle! Sha hms a bit until she sees Zelan. "Hey!" she smiles. "What are you doing here so late? A cat-like ear flickers back towards Rave for a second before Zelan shuts off the welding spell she was using and turns to face Raven. She waves a hand and the disk of darkness vanishes as well, leaving her face much more clear, her smile fairly tired looking, though it fades fairly quickly. "Late? Oh, damnit, did I lose track of time again?" As someone who lives with a HUD on her face almost all the time, you'd think she'd be better at keeping track of time than that. Rave laughs a bit. "Yeah, you did. If it makes you feel any better I lose track of what day it is a lot." She says, peering over Zelan's shoulder. "What are you working on, anyway?" Zelan hrrms slightly as she turns back to the device, tapping a sextet of crystals, the largest of which is red in color. "Essentially... a long-range flamethrower. In theory, it should project a beam out up to, oh, I'd guess a kilometer and a half before it dissapates? If the beam comes in contact with anythign that's not mostly transparent, it should set off the spell, causing an eruption of fire." After a breif pause, Zelan adds, "I think it's likely to set off the eruption of fire if it hits its maximum range, as well." Rave raises a brow at that, looking the weapon over. "That... that's pretty arctic, actually. Nice job!" Zelan tilts her head and flicks an ear. "More the opposite, I'd think," she says with a slight smirk, then waves a hand over the device in a curved motion to outline a dome around it, causing a sphere of darkness to appear around it. The reason for this is quickly evident as she sets off her welding spell again and gets back to work. "I think I should have it ready for an initial test in, oh, fifteen minutes or so? With a proper test-fire rig, of course. One never fires an experimental weapon the first time by hand." Rave laughs a bit. "Sorry, it's slang from my world. Means cool or awesome or the equivalent. And if you're looking for a place to test, I got just the place." she grins. "Been meaning to try it out with something more than dummy rounds. Zelan says dryly with a grin, "Yeah, I figured, boss. And let me get these welds up to spec and snap together the parts and we should be go for a test... But that can still take, as I said, about fifteen minutes or so..." She frowns ever so slightly before asking, "So... How're the kids? I've barely seen them. Even barely seen the older ones since you guys all moved out." Rave chuckles. "They're good. Enjoying their studies, so they're definitely mine. The new twins are keeping me on my toes, but they're so frakin' cute I melt whenever I see them." She smiles. "Marque has the loft now. It's about five times as big as the apartment he had so he's happy. Zelan nods a bit absently. "Well, yeah, I've noticed Marque. Gone from the least I see to the most rather quickly, hasn't he?" She laughs once, then shakes her head. "Means I no longer have the 'But my boss and five of her kids live there' line to try to ease that one woman I was hoping to scan in here, though." Once again her expression shifts downward. "She was apparently experimented on. Not too fond of labs." Rave winces a little. "Yeah, that's... well, I'm sure Marque would let you use the space if you ask him. Make her feel more comfortable, you know? Plus the kids come in her and work on stuff, so it's not like we're not around. Zelan waves her free hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I doubt she's going to ever take me up on my offer, even with pay." She pauses a bit in her talking as she concentrates on her welding, though an ear is still pointed at Rave. Rave hops up on one of the workbenches and sits. "Well, if she ever changes her mind, you know the door's open." She takes her PDA out, going through some screens and tapping. "So you said it's a beam with a sort of delayed reaction spell? Zelan takes a moment to respond as she considers. "I wouldn't call it delayed reaction so much as the beam is the delivery method. It uses a light channel to pour the fire energy through, bound with a shadow matrix, then uses a water/earth binding gel to keep the fire from being little more than a ball of flames that does little more than singe the target." Rave nods as she listens. "I like it, I really do. Can't wait to see it in action. This is the first prototype, right? Zelan nods. "Of this particular design, yes. Another design team came up with what is essentially the same thing, but I never saw the design specs, and I kind of had to mentally reverse engineer it." She lets the two spells die off and takes a closer look at the end result. She nods and attaches the barrel to the thing, but keeps the outer shell off to the side as she picks it up. "Okay! I think it's ready for a test fire now!" Rave grins almost wickedly. "Alright! Follow me!" Rave leads Zelan into the control chamber. "So! What would you like to shoot at? Any preferences?" she grins, booting up the system. Zelan carries the device not like a gun so much as she carries it like dangerous cargo, keeping her hands well away from the trigger assembly. It currently doesn't have any stock, and the only place it looks like it's designed to be held onto so far is the handgrip behind the trigger... but she did make sure to put in a trigger guard. "Well... for starters, I'm not looking at even testing its aim yet, so much as making a proof of concept test. So really... a fireproof wall will do just fine right now." Rave wrinkles her nose at that. "Aw, that's no fun..." Nevertheless, she punches a few things, and in the next room a cinderblock wall appears. A rather large one, just in case. Zelan smirks and looks at Rave. "I said it would do, not that it HAD to be just a wall." In the meantime, she starts setting the prototype weapon's insides up on a test-fire rig. "Regardless, I think we're just... about...." She flicks a switch, and the large red crystal starts to glow, causing her to jump backwards before backpedalling quickly. You know, just in case. "Ready! Do you want to do the honors or shall I?" she asks as she gets behind a barrier. Yes, she's a bit overly cautious around untested prototype weaponry. Rave whistles a bit. "As much as I'd like to, inventor gets first shot. House rules." she grins from inside the control chamber. "Safety protocols on, fire when ready!" Zelan nods and lifts up the remote activator for the artificial trigger-finger. "Cameras rolling, right?" she asks as she ducks below the barrier. She hits the button and the weapon goes off flawlessly, taking a half second to charge up before firing off a bright red beam at the concrete blocks. At this close range, it's hard to say how well the aim is calibrated, but where the beam hits erupts almost like a napalm bomb went off, coating the cinder blocks with a rouch circle about two feet in radius in flames, while the splash from it also spreads out on the floor in front of it. Zelan pokes her head up over the wall again to give barely a glance at the results on the wall (all she needs to see it worked at that end, really) before turning her attention to the gun itself, looking over it for any differences to how it looked /before/ firing. "Everything looks good." Rave whistles low again. "Very nice. Just need to check the calibration for the aim and make sure it's right. Otherwise, I like it!" she chuckles. Zelan keeps looking over the gun for another few seconds after Rave talks before nodding. "Right. Of course, we're going to need a longer space to properly test the aim. It's running a bit hot right now to fire handheld. I'm going to have to put in some better cooling before we can do a hand-fire test... Hrrrm. I'm going to have to redisign the shell for that, aren't I?" she says as much to herself as she does to Rave. Rave nods a bit. "A more of a heat resistant alloy. Maybe a liquid cooled system of some sort through the shell, small tubing. Zelan tilts her head. "Well, I was going to install a small spell-drive... actually, that could fit inside the stock, now that I think about it. Liquid cooling would help distribute the cooling spell's effects more efficiently, of course." She pauses a moment, then shrugs lightly. "It's already a heat resistant alloy. I knew it was going to run a little hot, it just turned out to run hotter than I expected. I might be able to tweak the systems themselves to have less waste heat, too. I'll have to go over the calculations again." She steps back over to the gun, motioning with her hands to cast a cooling spell over the device before switching the safety on and picking it up from the test-fire rig again. "Rig is singed but okay." Rave grins. "I like to think it's a successful test. Just a few tweaks and it should be good to go." she thinks a moment. "So... are you enjoying working here?" Zelan looks up at Raven again, looking almost surprised by the question. ".....Yes! I mean... I'm spending enough time here, aren't I? I'm able to just work on things from a hteoretical standpoint more, as opposed to building specific equipment or craft intended for a specific client or target demographic with oversight by committee... What's... not to enjoy?" she asks. Rave grins. "It was just a question. I mean, I haven't been able to really talk to you lately since I couldn't be in your area with the pregnancy and all. Zelan sighs and nods slightly. "Yeah, I guess. I've been hermitting a bit much these past... four months or so, haven't I?" Rave nods. "Just about. I want to really, really get back to work. More on the machining and building side. I just don't know what I want to make yet. Zelan pauses a moment, then shrugs. "Sky's the limit, right? And I mean that litterally. You could go into starship design. I certainly can give you pointers in that field." Rave hmms. "Maybe. Though I'm also debating going into upgrades. Creative upgrades, you know? Zelan carefully sets the device down on a counter, then pops out one of her mana batteries. "...Upgrades," she says a bit idley in the process, but then she turns to look at Rave again. "Actually, I'm not following what you're talking about at all." Rave leans back agains the wall, crossing her arms. "Honestly, I'm not sure either. I'm.. trying to figure out my direction now, you know? Zelan turns around fully and leans back against the counter with a tilted head as she asks, "Well... What are you thinking about upgrading, then? Let's try and narrow things down, yeah?" Rave wrinkles her nose again. "That's just it, I don't know. Maybe.. more compatibility? Magic from every world works differently, right? So in a way does tech. I don't know. I'm feeling a bit off, you know? Zelan sighs and looks down. "Yeah, I know what you mean by feeling off..." She shakes her head. "But I'm finding a lot less differences in tech than I am in magic. The non-magic laws of physics don't really change much between universes, as far as I can tell... The differences are more in... well, the level of technology. The level of advancement." Rave nods a little, sighing. "Sorry, I tend to get this way getting back to work after being off for having kids. I feel like I've been out of the game a bit too long, you know? Zelan raises an eyebrow as she looks back up to Rave. "You know I'm like... twelve times your age or something around there, right? My planned trip to the Sol system wasn't going to be my first multi-year sabatical, you know. Back when my first grandchild showed up, I took a decade off." Rave smirks a bit. "Well, for one, let me say you look amazing for being a grandma. Well, a decade for someone with a longer life honestly isn't much. Granted, I now have that sort of long life, but I'm not used to it now. So months off is a huge deal for me. Zelan puts a hand on her cheek and moves it around in an exagerated manner that suggests she's using shapeshifting while doing so. "I've had some amazing facelifts," she says before cracking a smile. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're right. I'm actually one of the oldest in my family... we're kind of a sub-species, really. Other sidrans don't live much longer than humans do, typically. The Darkflowers that have this gene or sets of genes as dominant... we're the lucky old coots." She crosses her arms and looks upward for a moment, then shrugs again while dropping her gaze to Rave again. Rave chuckles. "One benefit of being the daughter of a totem goddess you think would be long life. I did not get that." she smirks "But it's been taken care of, so I'll look like this for quite some time." she thinks a moment. "Well, I guess I just need some time to get my groove back, as it were. But on the up side, no more kids for me for quite some time. Zelan chuckles and nods. "You've got five living under your roof at a time. I never went past three. That.... was a bit much for me even then. But yes!" She stands up straight from leaning on the counter again. "How should we go about facilitating you getting your groove back?" Rave blinks, and seems to stammer for a minute. "I really honestly don't know. I just don't want to go into the funk again. Zelan steps over and pats Rave's shoulder. "Well, I guess we just need to put you to work to get your juices flowing again, don't we? Why don't you help me out with a few of the things I'm working on, and then that might get you back on track?" Rave nods a little. "That sounds like a plan. I appreciate it. Zelan retreives her and and steps back to the counter, picking up the rifle core again. "Right. So step one will be something I told someone I'd work on but have managed not to get around to. How do you feel about making a computer interface a pony can use?" Rave hmms. "Well, I can do the external hardware, make it pony-friendly. But for the actual electronics part, that's Ari's expertise. Zelan looks like she's about to set the prototype on her shoulder, then thinks better of it and returns to holding it carefully, even with the power source removed. "It's a starting point, though, right? Something to get yours hands on and get your mind set back into engineering mode." Rave smiles a little. "Yeah. And it does sound like a challenge. I imagine some sort of hoof sized track pad." she chuckles. "The keyboard is going to be the issue. Zelan nods. "My thought exactly. Trying to find that precision... Not something I had figured out yet." She starts walking back out towards the workshop. "I can't say if they've found a way around it by now... I think Twilight, the one I actually spoke to, could just use magic on a keyboard, frankly. Still... It could have further applications possibly for amputees and otherwise disabled people, as well, if it's made right, wouldn't it?" Rave wrinkles her nose, thinking. "Well, maybe if it was voice activated, but there has to be a tactile input.. maybe holographic? Zelan nods. "Easily enough done... but relying on just essentially a mouse can be rough... We could make a basic interface out of that fairly easily, but they're still going to lose some precision when relying heavily on voice." | |
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