Applied Inventiontronics, Period 4 - Week 2

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

As students walk into class, they'd see Glitch standing behind his desk with notes in hand. They were mostly in his hands because the desk had a pile of Papay fruit on it next to the sign in sheet, free for the taking.

"Hello!" He seemed a lot less visibly nervous this time, which was probably a good thing. "Today's lesson is about power sources for inventions. A big part of even thinking up what you'll invent is deciding on how to make it go, and, well, there are a lot of options here."

Glitch looked down at his notes, then back at the class.

"One of my favorites to start with is wind-ups and clockwork. You turn the key or lever on the outside, and it winds a thin piece of metal, storing energy. When it un-winds, it turns gears that turn other gears that make a part of it move. There's also things that are powered by steam and heat, with turbine or piston engines, but they're a lot more difficult. And bigger, too. Using the force from water or wind to turn the gears can work on something big or small."

Another glance at his notes.

"Uhm, let's see... Electricity is a good one, so long as you take care to wire everything properly. Grounding yourself when you test it is a good idea, too." There might have been a slight shudder then, at the memory of some very unwelcome electric shock. "You can also use chemical reactions to power something, like that little drinking bird shaped doohickey. Wouldn't recommend that one unless you're already familiar with them. Chemicals, I mean." The clarification threw him off for a moment. Where was he? Oh, yes. "The last one I'll mention is magic. If there's a safe way you can find a way to make your invention work with that, then you're free to do so."

It took a few moments of shuffling the papers before Glitch got to the one he needed.

"Now, I know that a lot of people here come from different worlds, so today I'd like you to do two things. First, if there's a power source from where you come from that wasn't mentioned, share a little about it with the rest of the class and answer each other's questions about them. Second, make note of which ones you think you'd like to use in your invention. If you don't have an idea for that yet, then just take note of the ones that interest you."

He sat down at his Papay fruit covered desk and waited for the discussion to begin.

[ooc: Wait for the OCD is up, as usual!]

Comments

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

In his hands was the book on Ozian history that Glitch had given him the other day.

"I was just wondering, as I was reading, that is... do you still have the Oziad? When you're from?"

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"Oziad?"

Glitch took a few moments to think about it. "Yes. Big piece of literature, too, if I'm remembering it correctly."

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I've only heard bits and pieces of it" he admitted. "Some of the men down at the barracks had parts memorized. One of them would sing a few verses whenever he was nervous."

Having so many quirks himself, he tended to note them in others if he noticed them at all.

"But you mentioned hearing some of the stories. I was just curious, as I was reading and thinking on it."

He hadn't gotten to his section in "history" yet, thank goodness.

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "Are you enjoying it so far?"

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I am," he said. "I... it's nice to know these things. The things other people learned."

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"There are other books," Glitch offered. "Not history ones, but books, that I sent for. Inventiontronics, theory, clockworks. Things like that. They should be here with the rest tomorrow."

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"That sounds interesting," he said, never thinking Glitch might lend or share these books. One book as a gift (and a whimsical gift, considering their differing locations in the timeline) was quite more than he'd ever expected. "Though I'm surprised tick-tockism survived so long. Things are sort of very Unionist now."

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"You can borrow them. I'm going to make them available to the whole class once they get here." He thought for a moment about the 'tick-tockism' before his synapses gave an answer for it. "There were times when it wasn't popular at all. Eventually, though, I think people realized that it was something useful that could be developed." Glitch shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure."

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Religion doesn't make much sense to me," he said. "Also, I was wondering, about my invention?"

He quirked his lips.

"Do you think I'm going to have to use magic to make it work?"

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"Well, probably."

Glitch took a few moments to think about it. "Unless you can find a way to access them directly that isn't, you know," he let the statement trail off as he nodded his head, indicating the zipper.

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shuddered as well as shook his head.

"Accessing them is easy enough," he said with a shake of his head. "It's drawing them into something suitable--"

He paused.

"I figured out that there's nothing you can really do to stop someone from taking them," he said, looking rather apologetically. "But if you could have some sort of storage device, something to keep them in if you needed to replace them, you could safeguard them."

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

Glitch nodded at the mention of preventing it in the first place. He knew, he had tried.

He smiled, though, at Liir's idea. "That should be able to work. You'll have to be careful to copy the memories, and maybe a failsafe in case it got into the wrong hands?" That last part was very important to Glitch.

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I suppose. I hadn't really thought of that, but it would probably be necessary."

He leaned against the desk for a moment before realizing how bad that looked.

"I think that I won't get this done if I focus on how to get memories that are already made--"

Ooh.

"What if it was something you kept on you so that when you made the memories, it could pick up on it? It wouldn't work for things that've already become memories, but it could be useful."

He looked up at Glitch.

"Do you think?"

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

He was nodding. "Like a recorder!"

The broad smile on Glitch's face was probably evidence enough that he thought it was a good idea.

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir hoped so.

"The only problem is that I can't think of something that can hold memory as well as a person."

He smiled at his professor.

"But that's more than I had before talking to you."

He felt the need to let Glitch know that.

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"You've got time to figure it out."

Glitch might have beamed, just a little, with pride. Not much, and not over the idea itself, but more who had come up with it.

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir smiled.

"Thank you, Professor Ambrose."

He moved to trot off before pausing.

"Could I come and look at some of those books tomorrow? If you don't mind, of course."

Re: After Class 1/14

[a-no-brainer.livejournal.com]

"Of course you can." Glitch couldn't think of a reason for him not to, and not for lack of properly functioning synapses.

"You can even take one with you if you want to study it. I'll be in my office all day."

Re: After Class 1/14

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"See you tomorrow, then."

At which point he gave him a smile, a nod, and after a moment of thought, he walked out of the room.