Applied Inventiontronics, Period 4 - Week 1

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"He-hello, class." He smiled sideways at the front of the class and the whole left of his face twitched visibly. "I'm, uh, let's see," he glanced at his notes, "Professor Ambrose? Yes. I'm Professor Ambrose, but you can call me Glitch if you like, heh." He smiled, both sides now.

Glitch set the notes down and fidgeted with his sleeves, then took a deep breath. "Welcome," a flourish, "to Applied Inventiontronics! Here, I'll do my very best to teach you about the intricacies, whys and how-tos of invention. Over the semester, you'll create an invention with the skills you learn in this class for a final grade. I'll provide the materials, if you need them, and answer any questions you have." He was getting into this whole 'teacher' thing.

"Now, uh, my first rule when setting out to invent something is to make sure that it will be helpful to the people around me. That means your first assignment, after everyone introduces themselves of course, is to figure out what someone needs! You can work alone or with a classmate or with a lot of classmates. I've found that it's really much better to bounce ideas like this off other people."

Then he put his hands on his hips and looked out at the class and let his mouth fall into a flat line made purely of seriousness. "Restrictions are, 1) No Weapons. The goal here is to make lives better, not worse. 2) No inventions can rely on hurting others to work." He pointed to his zipper solemnly, as if they'd understand what he meant. "Off limits. 3), uh, three..."

He looked back at his notes, a little panicked, and shuffled the papers around. "Three! Hah!" Glitch held up the notecard in a fist, pumped it into the air once or twice, and smiled triumphantly. "Three!" A pause. "Oh, three." He pulled his arm back and read the piece of paper. "Have... OH!" He brightened. "Have fun! Enjoy your inventions! Or I guess I fail you." He leaned forward on the desk, making the most serious face he could imagine (which only lasted a good fifteen seconds), then smirked. "Well? Get to work!"

[OOC: Please please please wait for the first OCD is up!]

Comments

Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

He might be taking notes so he'll remember who you are.

Re: Introductions!

[the_merriest]

Rikku swallowed hard, and then stood up. Might as well get this overwith right away, right?

"Hiya, I'm Rikku. I, uh, I love fiddling with machina, just taking things apart and putting them back together, although I usually have some pieces left over, so I'm not good at that yet. But it's still neat just getting your mind to understand what all the bits do, you know?" She bit her lip, and then blurted out, "A-and I don't agree with you. About weapons and them being bad or evil and ... I don't."

She hastily sat down again and hoped he wasn't going to be mad and wondered why she couldn't ever keep her mouth shut.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh. He gulped and chastised himself for already upsetting a student.

"Well, uhm, Rikku? I'm sure that there are good uses for them, and that they have their place. Just, not in this class."

He really hoped that would smooth things over a little.

Re: Introductions!

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Willow smiled. "My name is Willow Rosenberg and I like to play with computers and spells in order to make them better. Though not in an evil way because that would be bad and I can't stress enough how much I am into breathing and occasionally wearing fabrics that did not come directly from the skin of animals. I don't know that you could say I've made inventions before but the idea of inventions seems like it would be fun and possibly as though it could tie in to the whole computer/spell thing. And if not it can be fun and educational in its own right. Especially after I get my spreadsheets going."

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch quickly noted Magic, computers, red hair next to Willow's name on his copy of the roster.

"You can incorporate magic into your invention, you know." He felt that was important to add because he couldn't remember if he'd mentioned it yet already. "I'm not sure if it works the same way here as it does where I'm from, but if you need any materials that conduct magical energy I could send for some Moritainium from the O.Z."

Re: Introductions!

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"My name is Liir," he said, "but we've met already."

He looked to Glitch then.

"And I don't really have anything else to talk about."

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch smiled at Liir and nodded.

"Very good to see you again, though." He meant it.

Then he jotted down Shy, from the O.Z. past, met him at picnic and quietly thanked Ozma he had remembered that much from their first meeting.

Re: Introductions!

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Hey. Name's Anders, Sam Anders 00-Cylon," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm actually not much with machines, but I'd like to at least know my way around them, so that's why I'm here. Sports are my big thing, I sort of have an aversion to comic books since I got sucked into one for a week, and I'm from another planet."

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully, this class will be of some use for you then." Glitch smiled. He wasn't going to ask about the planet thing, or the comic book thing, but did put a note next to Anders' name to ask someone about it later on.

Re: Introductions!

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

"My name's Zack, I like making things...they usually work and don't hurt people."

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "That's a good thing for things to be. Working and not hurting people."

Glitch wrote Some experience with inventions next to Zack's name.

Re: Introductions!

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew stood up and waved at the class. "My name is Andrew. I thought this class sounded really cool. I, um, can't say that I've invented a lot of things on my own, but I've worked with my friends back home on some cool stuff. They always say that I'm an integral part of the conceptualization and design phases," he said, totally making all this up. "I'm pretty good with anything involving language, tonal harmonies, plasma mechanics, game theory, vexillology, and, ah, nuclear physics. So keep me in mind for any and all collaborative efforts."

He nodded and sat down.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch blinked, a little, at all the unfamiliar words. He picked the ones he knew and said, "Conceptualization and design are important phases in invention."

Re: Introductions!

[slr-mercury.livejournal.com]

Ami blushed slightly and then spoke. "I am Ami Mizuno. Hello." She waved a little and face-palmed inwardly. Lamest introduction EVER.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

If it was lame, Glitch didn't notice. "Hello!" That didn't give him much to write down, so, "Do you, uhm, enjoy inventions?"

Re: Introductions!

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"My name is Sokka, and I've done some inventing in my time, but the tech on my home world is just a little bit" -- he held up thumb and forefinger a millimeter or two apart, to emphasize exactly how badly he was lying -- "behind what we've got here, so I might need a little help."

As an afterthought, he added "If we promise not to use it as a weapon, can we invent something that explodes?"

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"I'm always available for you if you have any questions."

Wait, explodes?

"And no, probably not. Nothing that explodes."

Re: Introductions!

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Um, so," A.J. shrugged his shoulders a little as he stood up to introduce himself. "I'm A.J. I'm, uh, an artist, but I'm also a little bit of a mechanic. I like tinkering with stuff, kinda figured this class would be pretty good for stuff like that, right? I, uh, think that's it? Yeah. Cool."

There was a lot of gesturing and shifting in all of that; excessive fidgeting. It tended to feed off of itself.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch grinned and wrinkled his nose a little. He was very familiar with fidgety.

"You know, inventiontronics is an art. Well, a kind of art. It takes a lot of creativity to invent things." Glitch was very convinced of this.

He jotted Artist, fidgety, will probably do well in his notes.

Re: Introductions!

[im-fullmetal.livejournal.com]

Ed stood up, the look on his face just daring people to make a comment. "I'm Edward Elric. I'm an alchemist, and I like working with machines to make them work better." He shrugged. Yeah, that was about it.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Alchemist?

He swallowed, hard, and looked at Ed a little nervously. He reminded himself that things here weren't like the O.Z., so he asked for a little clarification.

"What kind of alchemist?"

Ok, a lot of clarification. His hands fidgeted a little and he resisted the urge to touch his zipper in front of the class.

Re: Introductions!

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

"I'm Rodney McKay and I'm a scientist," Rodney said importantly. "I'm planning to specialize in astrophysics, but I also think it's important to have a thorough understanding of mechanical engineering. The most annoying people are scientists who know theory but have no practical skills," he huffed. "Well, maybe not the most annoying," he allowed, "but you get what I mean."

Rodney hesitated slightly before continuing. "I built a working model of an atomic bomb for my grade six science fair. But I only wanted to show how it functioned, not to hurt anyone," he quickly added.

Re: Introductions!

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch didn't know what an atomic bomb was, but he got the general idea.

"That's fine, I won't hold it against you." He smiled a little, "And yes, it does get difficult to work on a project if no one wants to get their hands dirty. Hopefully, this class will get you the practical skills you mentioned."

The words Very advanced and Check his plans to make sure it won't explode accidentally were written next to his name.

Re: Introductions!

[solo_sword]

"My name's Jaina, and I've been working on machines for almost as long as I can remember," she said. "I'm a pilot, so mostly it's ship maintenance now, but I like to work on other things when I get bored."

Re: Introductions!

[honoraryphd.livejournal.com]

"Doctor Doom. The armor I wear is of my own design and combines the best of science and mysticism. The others in this class are amateurs compared to my brilliance."

If anyone ever called Doom modest, he would declare himself to be by far the most humble man to ever live.