2020-09-17: You're the Madwoman to Make My Idea Real
| You're the Madwoman to Make My Idea Real | |
|---|---|
| Vic brings a project idea to Astra | |
| IC Date | September 17th, 2020 |
| IC Time | Early evening |
| Players | Astra and Vic Rasmussen |
| Location | Astra's Apartment |
| Spheres | Traditions |
| Theme Song | Wierd Science by Oingo Boingo[1] |
Early evening on the 17th of September finds Vic on the Express back to Prospect City. She's studiously ignoring her fellow passengers, fully embracing the idea of keeping one's nose to themselves. In her case she is specifically keeping her eyes on her smartphone into which she is typing a message to her friend Astra.
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Astra's tinkering back in the small guest room that passes for a workshop when her phone beeps.
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She puts away her soldering iron and dashes out to the living room, straightening and tidying up the remains of last night's take-out. There's still a scent of ozone in the air when Vic arives.
Even the Express isn't instantaneous. Plus there's the hike from drop off to Astra's place. She has plenty of time to clean up before the V-Dept arrives. And arrive Vic does, using her key (hey, she never did actually return that did she!) to let herself in without knocking. "Astra!" she calls out as she steps inside only to find that the place hasn't changed... other than any possible signs of projects on the sofa she used to sleep on potentially. "I picked up some gormet chocolate covered expresso beans on my way over," she says as a way of both further greeting and potential bribe for the request she's going to be asking.
Astra smiles brightly when Vic steps inside, She doesn't seem surprised since she never actually asked for the key back. "Chocolate covered espresso beans are an excellent way to get into my good graces!" She beams and gives Vic a tight hug. "Can I get you anything to drink while you tell me about this insane idea of yours?"
"Sure! Got any Code Red in stock?" she answers and asks as she makes room for herself on the sofa and sets her bag down on the floor next to her feet. "So, I gotta start off by asking you how much you know about the Digital Web... if anything?" As she waits for an answer she pulls out her laptop and her smartphone and begins setting up, connecting both to Astra's WiFi and establishing a connection to the large screen TV that is central to the room's entertainment center.
Astra makes her way into the kitchen and returns a moment later with a code red and some sort of bottled iced tea from a local organic grocery store for herself. "This stuff is bad for you." She states as she sets the bottle down in front of Vic, though she doesn't bother to explain why she has it on hand in the first place. "I think I've heard the Digital Web mentioned at the basement meetings a couple times?" She offers as she takes a seat on the couch, "All I know fore sure is it's not the internet or the Darknet.. some sort of hypertech Internet maybe?" She ask with excitement in her voice as she watches you set your equipment up.
"Its basically an Umbral representation of the Internet," Vic says as she cracks open the bottle, apparently not being bothered by the obvious hypocrisy of Astra having the soda and her comment. "Are you aware of what the Umbra is at least?" she asks as she finishes the hookup between her electronics and Astra's.
Astra's grin widens at the explanation, "The internet has a spiritual reflection? That is *awesome*! ...and it feels like I should have known that already." She beams before nodding, "But yes, I know what the Umbra is, I usually call it the Astral Plane out of habit and I actually have a gadget that lets me see it. It was sort of a mistake though, I was trying to use it to contact aliens." She says like this is a perfectly normal thing and sighs. "Anyway.. you're looking for help in trying to access this Digital Web? Is that was Rufus always seems to secretive about?"
Vic smiles back at Astra, nodding about the Astral Vision device comment and then shrugging about the Rufus question. "Yeah, I have no idea, Rufus isn't that secretive with me," she says. "I know how to access it... but I need the right device to let me do it. I think you could make me one if I describe it." She then waves at the laptop and towards the big screen on the apartment wall and adds, "I have a PowerPoint."
"Well you have that V-Dept Camaraderie thing going on. Or maybe he just like pretending he's a spy.. don't tell him I said that." Astra says with a guilty note in her voice, trying not to smile as she turns her attention to the TV. "Did they have PowerPoint in your timeline? Was there much of a difference? I'll shut up now."
"Its different than in my world, seems major divergences started in the late eighties or early ninteys... other than the obvious old fact that San Diego doesn't exist here!" Vic says. "The icon's different, some of the features work differently or are in different places in the menus," she explains, "So there was some learning curve, but the help file still works!" She doesn't seem to mind and then, regarding Rufus, she says, "Yeah, I won't don't worry - he might take it to his head."
Astra takes a breath as she nods, "I could ask questions about what's different all day, but maybe you'd better show me what your working on before I loose focus and start talking about alternate timelines!" She grins, "I love a good build project, let's see what you've got?"
Vic grins and nods. "Sure thing!" Vic says excitedly and double clicks a mouse button on her computer causing a slide to appear on the screen. The image on the slide is an XKCD[2] level stick figure of a woman sitting at a table at a computer. Beneath the picture are the words 'Can you connect to the D-Web on a laptop?' and then a moment later 'Yes, but that is boring! (and harder)' slides in also and Vic leans back from the computer and says, "So... while it is possible but its boring so I want a full fledged VR-Rig and I don't have the mechanical acumen to build what I'm invisioning for this."
Astra squints a little at the slide and raises her hand, "Okay I already feel like this presentation was put together for someone less competent, however I already have a question, 'Can *I* connect to the digital web on a laptop?' And, I'm going to guess that an Occulus Rift isn't going to cut it in this case?" She smirks.
"Oh yeah, I don't know if you can or not," Vic says. "And I'm not an artist, sue me." She taps her smartphone screen and the slide changes to a picture of a woman in a wetsuit covered in copper and gold circuitry lines that appear to have been hand drawn with PaintShop or the like. She's suspended from a frame of pipes by a harness... all from different pictures than the woman and quite obviously forced into a composite picture. Next to that image are pictures of a headphone with a microphone and VR goggles. "So... I kludged this picture together to approximate the idea," Vic says, "Basically a suit that can though induction provide physical stimulation to reinforce the VR experience even if I don't actually astrally project into the D-Web." She looks at Astra and asks, "Does that look doable?" and then adds, "Oh, and in addition to the frame being strong enough to hold me a few inches off the floor, I'd like it easily collapsible and portable in a duffel or something like that."
Astra chews on her lip as the gears in her head start to turn, "sensing input is easy. I'm going to have to do some research on tactile responses via induction, but doing things via electromagnetic induction is absolutely up my alley!" She grins. "The suit ought to end up pretty flexible, folding it into a duffel bag should be no problem." She says as she runs a finger along her chin. "I'd also like to recommend adding a neural interface. It's not as complicated as it sounds. and it would let you do some things hands free, like say, throwing a fireball by just thinking about it instead of having to move your hands around."
Astra adds, "Oh yeah, the frame will be a little trickier, the bottom's probably going to have to have to be weighted, fitting it into a duffel bag won't be a problem, but it'll be heavy. I'm open to other stability options too."
Vic ponders and, after a moment, asks, "How heavy is heavy, Astra?" She's not a weakling but she's also not buff. This is an obvious truth about the woman from another world.
Astra says, “Well it depends on how much you move around, though as I think about it maybe not as much as I thought, a pyramid shaped fame would help keep you stable without having to have a huge weight, maybe 20 pounds at each of the corners? Hoping a three sides pyramid will be stable enough."”
"We could go with a non-portable VR-Rig, cause it can always be broken down and moved even if not technically portable but..." Vic trails off and says, "I'm still feeling like I'm a visitor where ever I'm hanging my bag for the night, y'know?"
Astra smiles, "I'm still thinking.. I think there's a way we have make this work via leverage and geometry to keep the weight down, and if worse comes to worse, I could uh... I swear I'm not making this up, I could build a sort of primitive artificial gravity generator to make the feet weigh more when needed. Or we could just go with magnets and hope for a metal floor." She smirks.
"We can't always count on metallic floors so tell me more about the artificial gravity generator, Astra," Vic says.
Astra pulls her tablet out and starts tapping at it, "Lemme see if there's something I can use to get an idea of how we can keep this thing stable.." After a couple minutes of furrowing her brow in concentration she suddenly starts blushing a little, "Okay Uh... I just found exactly what we need. I was making too big a deal out of this.. the suit's probably gonna weigh more than the frame!"
Astra adds, "Electrons and gravitons are the same particle, the right kind of layered metal alloy resonating at a high enough frequency will kick some of it;s free electrons up into a higher energy state, that is, gravitons. Generating anti-gravitons that don't melt my gravity plates down is where I'm stuck though." She sighs.
Vic ahs. "So its easier to make something that pulls down harder than to reproduce the jumping belts of the original Buck Rogers[3] then?" More proof that this world and hers actually do share some common history ... or so she hopes by her hopeful expression while she waits for Astra to confirm it or shatter her hopes by asking who that is.
Astra grins, "You know maybe I should shoot for something like that first. I've been aiming to lift a mid-sized car off the ground but I'm not out of the proof of concept stage yet. I can lift about 10 pounds for a few seconds and then I'm left with some some really cool looking scrap metal."
Vic nods slowly and asks, "Are you using the right materials? Perhaps something more exotic would work better for you?" quickly adding, "Especially if you want to make it something that you're wearing you'll not want it exploding even a little bit, right?"
Astra folds her arms and leans back, "Well, the actual problem is that while I've figured out how to flip electrons over into positrons, positrons are sort of.. anti-matter, and that's the source of the melting problem." She sighs, "But the aliens figured it out..." She adds offhandedly. "I'm not sure if the answers in the materials or in the vibrational frequencies..." She pauses a moment and then add, "This is something I've been struggling with for a while though, designing a VR rig will help me get my mind off it." She says hopefully.
Vic nods excitedly and says, "Awesome," and then remembers something else, "So, I used a wetsuit more as an example. Maybe more rubberized spandex with a non-conductive zipper up the front so its not so hard to put on," and asks, "Have you ever tried to put on a wetsuit quickly?"
Astra nods in agreement, "You want something breathable if you're going to be wearing it for hours on end. Spandex is honestly a good choice. Non-conductive zipper that runs from the waist to the neck ought to let you step into it and zip in right up in a few seconds once you get some practice in." She says thoughtfully, "I'm already getting excited about making this thing!"
Vic grins at Astra as their excitement is seemingly feeding off each other. "So... the huge question becomes this... how expensive will it be?" Vic's excitement looks like its waning in preparation to retreat into its shell like a threatened turtle.
Astra chews on her lip. "It's not gonna be cheap.. I really won't know for sure until we'd got a design solidified but I'd put a rough estimate at around three to five thousand dollars?" She winces. "Sorry.. we'll find a way to make this happen, we just need some friends with money."
Vic nods. "I have a couple at least who were practically offering to throw their wallets at me," Vic says, "So... write up a project proposal in case they want one and I'll check back with Hector and Rufus and see what sort of budget they are asking for." She pauses and asks, "There's the other budget also, I'd like a good idea on the weight cause I may need to start working out harder to increase my strength."
Astra snickers, "Well now that I know the sex industry has already solved the biggest engineering problem I think it's safe to say that the whole thing will be under 30 pounds, You shouldn't have too much trouble with it."
"Oh!" exclaims Vic, "Yeah, that'll be easy... well, I mean... its a heft, I wouldn't want to parkour with it... but I don't do so with my bag here either," she taps her bag to illustrate this further.
Astra nods with a grin, "Good. Portable or not I imagine you want to be in a safe place before you go diving into VR. And one Of these days I'll fully crack antigravity and start making hover-pads for you guys!"
Vic chuckles. "Well, of course, but having it in your residence and taking it to the Nexus or for a sleep over at a friends'... portable is good," she says and then the excitement cranks up to eleven as she says, "Wait, hover boards like those that actually should have been out in 2015 but wasn't? Is that what you mean by hover pads?!"
Astra smirks, "Okay maybe I should have said Levitation pad, but same principal yes. just flip the thing over and you've got a hoverboard. Whatever I come up with will be a more elegant design though, don't worry! Jumping belts are a possibility too!"
- ↑ Editor's Note from user:nerdvana: Fun fact! Oingo Boingo was formed by Danny Elfman. This makes him almost seem like the John Williams of fandom movies and TV!
- ↑ Editor's Note from user:nerdvana: If you aren't familiar with XKCD you should be. <tongue in cheek> Shame! </tongue in cheek>
- ↑ Editorial Note from user:nerdvana: Buck Rogers dates back to a novella published in 1928. He appeared in comic strips that ran from 1929 to 1967. There were numerous movie adaptations and a very well known television series that started in 1979 and ran though 1981.
