Stark Industries | Saturday

[dollpocalypse]

"So," Topher said, swinging his arms. "I got putty and pudding to experiment with base-wise, but we're also going to need a bounce component and a blue component, obviously."

He turned to his partner in science, then back to the long, long row of moddable materials laid out across the counter. "Oh, and this," he added, reaching into a drawer to pass Ace a pair of goggles and some gloves. "For proper sciencing."

Lab coats had already been taken care of. Topher... maybe wore a lab coat whenever he was at work. It made him feel badass, okay?

"So... what do you want to start with?"

[[open shop! which may soon have some bouncy blue gel splattered on the floor, so if you stop by... be aware.]]

Comments

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

The lab coat mostly made Ace feel amused, but she still put it on, hanging her jacket over a ... something. It as metal and plastic and possibly had a camera in it that she'd just blocked off. Oh well.

"I got some blue Kool-Aid from the Quik-Stop," she offered, digging packets out of her now-hanging pockets. "Might be a bit gritty in a non-water base, though."

[dollpocalypse]

"But it'd screw up the traction in the other bots' wheels," Topher pointed out. "That's a plus."

He scooped a handful of putty out of one of the containers and held it out in gloved hands. "Let's try it."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

Gloves. Right. Ace should put those on.

"Plus," she added as she ripped open a packet, "Blueberry scented. Way nicer than what it ought to smell like from a real kid."

[dollpocalypse]

"There is that as well," Topher agreed. "It kind of helps make our bot seem all wimpy, like, 'oooh, those nerds made one shaped like a baby that smells like fruit, no challenge there.' And then bam. Their bots are bouncing off the ceiling."

Topher might have been underestimating their classmates' skepticism, but that was no surprise, because... Topher.

"We should make sure to add a corrosive, too," he mused. "Something that'll screw up most metals but not whatever we use."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

Ace took a break from frowning at the gritty, blueberry-scented putty mess to scan the room. "You've got something here that'll stand up to a corrosive?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Palladium is corrosion-resistant," Topher offered. "If you want a super weird silver-colored baby. Though I guess we could paint it."

He wasn't thinking of painting it an actual skin tone. More like a neon green or something.

"For the corrosive itself, we could just go with some kind of acid. Maybe a super-strength cleaning product."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Nothing that'll eat through the arena, though. Don't want to fail 'cos we disintegrated the classroom."

Just ignore that spark in Ace's eyes at the thought. It was a BAD thought. Bad, bad thought!

[dollpocalypse]

"I want to disintegrate the classroom so bad," Topher whined. "Alenko's evil."

Or concerned for students' safety... but probably evil.

"I mean, it's not like he could prove it was from our gel if the classroom just happened to get corroded..."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Nah, he's all right." Ace shook her head. "Bit of a fraidy-cat, but he took us to meet aliens and lets us build robots. He can't be evil."

Because nobody evil ever built robots, right? Oh, Ace.

[dollpocalypse]

"But he won't let us build interesting robots," Topher pointed out. "What kind of battle arena doesn't have any explosives? It's not like robots can wrestle. Or like anyone who likes building robots also likes watching wrestling."

Well, maybe... nope, no one.

Absently, he tore open a packet of something-or-other and sprinkled it over the newly-blue dip in his hands, then tossed it underhand across the room, where it splattered across the floor in a truly spectacular splash.

"...Got some bounce," he observed.

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"But will it make other stuff bounce?" Ace asked, then tested the question herself by tossing a coin into the puddle of blue goo. It slid impressively far, but not so much with the bouncing. "Hmm. Maybe it needs more...what was that?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Not sure," Topher said, peering at the label on the packet. "Oh. Little itty bitty fiberglass."

Maybe that would've been a good thing to check out before adding it at random, Topher.

"Think that's safe?"

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Any giant warning labels on the packet?" Not that Ace thought you could trust manufacturers to know how dangerous their own products were, much less tell you if they did, but plausible deniability and all that rot. "Long as it's not asbestos, we're probably safe, right? They put it in attics and speedboat hulls, after all."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher checked, and read aloud, "'A cancer warning label for biosoluble fiber glass insulation is no longer required under Federal or California law.' Huh. So that's good, then, right?"

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Lack of cancer, always a plus." Ace nodded. "So we've got colour, fibreglass, putty... what else is bouncy? Don't suppose they make liquid lycra..."

[dollpocalypse]

"Maybe if we boiled it," Topher suggested. "...Do you have any lycra?"

That was probably not the best solution, Topher.

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"...In my bra?" And her knickers, but traumatizing Topher with words was a delicate art and there was such a thing as going too far.

[dollpocalypse]

"There's that in those?" He wasn't traumatized by the word so much as distracted. "I thought that was just in those biker pants."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Why do you s'pose those bounce---oooh!" A distraction for a distraction. "Yeah, lots of lycra in bike shorts. Bet they've even got some blue ones in that bike shop out on the west end of the island."

'West' was kind of a vague thing when it came to Fandom, mostly a feeling that it was somewhere off to the left of something else, which was west enough for Ace.

[dollpocalypse]

"Wanna get us some?" Topher suggested. "I'd go with you, but I worry that being in an athletic store might cause me undue stress. Anyway, I was thinking of getting some blue Squishy from the grocery store to add for the corrosive factor. I think it killed a squirrel once."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"Poor thing." He could assume what he liked about whether she meant him or the squirrel. As it happened, it was both. "Remind me not to order the blue again. Or at least mix more green in next time."

Which would go a long way toward explaining Ace's...Aceness, if she hadn't already been Ace when she got to the island.

"Sure, I can get the shorts. I can probably melt 'em down, even." Wasn't that going to smell great?

[dollpocalypse]

"Meet back here in ten?" Topher suggested. Yeah, he was totally going to go outside in a lab coat and goggles. That would look really classy. "I'll get us some sandwiches too. What are your feelings on ham and peanut butter?"

Same sandwich.

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

"My feelings on ham are it's not bacon, but I guess it'll do. Unless there's bacon." Ace was not going out in a lab coat and goggles, because her jacket was warmer and had more pockets and she'd never put on the goggles in the first place.

[dollpocalypse]

"Bacon and peanut butter," Topher amended. "That'll... probably be a lot better, actually."

Uh, sure, Topher.

"See you in ten."

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

Considering the things that Ace had put on her bacon sandwiches in the past, peanut butter was nothing, aside from new. Once you've had Marmite...

Ten minutes later, Ace had three pair of bike shorts crammed into her pockets alongside the gaudiest cobalt blue string bikini -- one string of which had escaped and was dangling down her leg -- and a couple of Very Large Coffees in her hands as she elbowed open the door. "You'll never guess what I got for free and I didn't even have to nick it!"

Hint: not the coffee.