snowblindrpg | [network] @hotstud_xxx; afternoon of day 53; video [open]

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[network] @hotstud_xxx; afternoon of day 53; video [open]

[The video feed opens to a shot of the first floor of the hospital, pointed down at a small vent that has had its cover unscrewed and pulled off. House's voice comes from off camera.]

It's coming through? Good. Hello, citizens of Snowhell!

[He's cut off by an ungodly - yet familiar - shriek right up next to the tablet.]

Yeah, yeah, I was getting to you. As no one came to claim him and this asshole kept me up all night, I thought he could do with some community service. It builds character.

[There's an annoyed voice; though, the words aren't clear.]

I'm not hurting it, kid. Although I'm really surprised he hasn't blown up, yet. It's almost like somebody was lying about that. Oh, well! I'm sure it's just that he doesn't feel threatened. So, WALL-E here's going to get us a nice view of the ducts around here.

[Dumpy screams as he and the tablet are lowered down into the dark vent. There's a screech of metal on metal after a moment, then the camera jerks up and down a few times, showing off the vent. The robot continues to wail and the echoes reverberate.]

I'm trying to get him out. He's stuck! [There's an annoyed snort.] The only thing I've got is hand-santizer and that won't- Would you shut up? [The camera shakes again and there's a raised angry voice that isn't House's.]

Oh, stop. It's a robot. They've probably got some sort of lubricant upstairs in the pharmacy. Come on, kid. Two eyes are better than one and you can move faster than me if you really care that much to get back down here.

[Dumpy's cries continue for a while, perhaps a solid minute or two before a large group of tiny, too-quick-to-record-smoothly things with multiple legs and glittery eyes appear in the vents. They rush toward Dumpy as the robot screeches, reaching the tablet and-

The feed ends abruptly.]

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Pretty sure we could've done something way more useful with it.

[ You have ruined his robot dreams. :c ]

Send it this way if it comes back.

Planning on it. No more shoving Dumpy in vents unless we've got something tied to him.

[It's said sarcastically, but actually that might not be a bad idea.]

You're into bots, too, then?

[ That's really not a bad idea; Jim nods thoughtfully at it. ]

If they're breaking him down before they drag him off, a rope's not going to help much. I'm more of a mechanic than an inventor, though; we've got robots where I'm from but they're not really my specialty.

If there were something around here with an engine...

Engines? Now you're speaking my language, bro. What kinds of rigs are you into? I do monster truck rallies with a buddy of mine back home, and I've been looking at upgrading from my convertible to a bike for months. Just gotta find the right one.

Solar surfer. I started building them out of scrap because we couldn't afford to buy one, and then it just kind of snowballed. You can't get the same kind of results if you don't build them yourself.

What's a monster truck?

[ What Jim is picturing is probably cooler than an actual monster truck. ]

I really hate that I even have to ask a question this ridiculous, but is that a sun-powered surfboard, or...?

A monster truck's what it sounds like. Trucks on steroids. Get a nice steel-framed rig from a junk yard, find the biggest wheels you can find, pimp it out with anything you can get your hands of to weld in, throw in a really nice turbo diesel engine, and you're ready for the rally. People do tricks with them, have matches. Hell of a lot of fun to watch. Never got to build my own, full-scale, but I did miniatures when I was a kid.

Here, just a sec.

[ There's a pause while Jim finds a pencil and a scrap of paper. He talks while he draws. ]

-That sounds amazing. Matches as in - people fight them? Like Hiro's bots? [ Jim's not really sure what a truck is, either, but he's getting the gist. ]

[ After a few minutes, he produces several passable technical sketches of this thing. It does indeed appear to be the child of a surf board and a wind surfing rig with a sail helpfully labeled 'solar cloth' and a thruster strapped on the back.]

That is a solar surfer. Or at least it's mine.

Edited 2015-11-17 09:23 (UTC)

Never got into windsurfing, but that's a wicked ride, dude.

[It will be a moment, but House will return a sketch of a monster truck rig in ballpoint pen.]

This is Bigfoot. 38,000 pounds of pure steel and rubber, 15 feet 6 inches high, 20 feet 5 inches across. Set the world record in 2002 for the world's tallest, widest, and heaviest monster truck. Some people do wreck-'em-up battles, try to turn each other over, but there's racing and long jumps across lines of cars, airliners. You name it, somebody's probably tried jumping it in one of these puppies.

Taking it your surfer's more for racing. What's the max speed you can get on that thing?

Holy - [ Jim's got a good head for scale; he can picture exactly how massive something like that's got to be. The skiffs on the Legacy - the largest things Jim's ever driven - don't even compare. There are hearts in his eyes. ] I have got to build me one of those. I could probably take the whole canyon back home in something like that.

A surfer's a lot smaller, but the speed's more determined by what you can handle than anything else. You have to be able to direct it with your body, and if you don't have the strength... [ Jim shrugs, unwilling to go into detail on the time he broke two arms and a leg when he was thirteen. House can probably get the picture. ] I think the top speed I ever got up to was maybe 65 knots? Something like that.

[ He whistles. That's more than a little surprising, actually. Just from what he'd gathered of Jim on the network. It bumps him up in House's estimation for the moment. ] Damn, kid. Speed adrenaline junkie, huh? Cool.

What do you actually need to build one of those? if we can ever make it to downtown, might be able to find something more than just whatever the houses have to offer. More tech if the Admin's feeling generous enough to leave it lying around.

Yeah, you could say that. [ His tone of voice says 'yes this is absolutely a fact.' ] Not a lot else to do where I'm from. I keep hoping we'll find a garage that I can replicate my setup back home with, but nothing so far.

[ He sends over a list of parts and tools needed; some of them are what House might perceive as sci-fi bullshit, but most of them are ordinary machining supplies. For almost every item there's a parenthesis detailing a more common substitute, something that would do 'in a pinch.' This is a guy used to working out of a junkyard. ]

[ Interesting. And good to know the kid knows how to think on his feet and cobble together where he needs to. Necessity being the mother of invention. And if you have a need for speed... you figure it out. ]

I'll send this over to my username, too. I'm not actually @determination. That's the half-pint.

[ He turns the tablet slightly to show Frisk. ]

The space age stuff's probably out, but the rest looks workable. You live near a junkyard back home, or something?

[ Jim gives Frisk a tentative wave, aware that they're not exactly pleased with House at the moment. Sorry, Frisk.]

It's across town, but the guy at the junkyard lets me help out in exchange for stuff on my days off as long as I can haul it back myself.

What's "space age" about that stuff? It's all pretty basic.

[ Jim doesn't actually get what 'space age' means anyway. ]

[ House lists off some of the more obviously sci-fi bullshit items. ]

We haven't gotten humans to the next planet over in my time and world, kid. The tablets here are more advanced than anything we've got on the commercial market. Same for the robots.

Oh, you're one of those guys.

[ No judgement, just a little bafflement that so many people here come from far enough in the past that space travel isn't a thing. ]

I'm hoping the tablets being so advanced means they've got other stuff I need, too.

I wouldn't know what half this stuff is supposed to look like. But if I find anything hi-tech, I'll send a vid for you an Double-H to pick through what's useful. You find any medical supplies that aren't hi-tech or medicines, I can return the favor.

Edited 2015-11-29 20:15 (UTC)

[ Wait, he's actually a doctor?! Jim thought the 'doctor' part of the name was just as much of a joke as the rest of it; he can't exactly picture this guy as a serious practitioner of medicine. ]

Yeah, no problem.

Catch you later, then, kid. I've got irritating people I need to sneer at.

[ Like a professional and serious practitioner of medicine. ]

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