fandomhigh | Applied Inventiontronics, Period 4

The desks were paired off again, each with a set of tools, and there was a crate full of ~~completely modable~~ spare parts.

Yes, kids, it is project time again, and Glitch was standing at the front of the class looking very delighted by the whole thing. Really, this was probably his favorite kind of class to teach.

"Alright, class," he said with a smile. "Today, you're going to build something out of nothing. Pick up some parts and start to put them together. Don't worry if you can't get it to work or don't have a set design for it. It doesn't even have to have a real function, if you can't find one, heh. The point of this is for you to get an idea of what it's like to start building something with these materials."

There may or may not have been a moment or two where he bounced ever so slightly, but those moments should be ignored.

"And don't forget that after next weeks break, you'll need to be ready to bring in your preliminary designs for your final projects."

Nothing like ending the lecture on something to strike fear into the hearts of his students, though that wasn't entirely intended.

[ooc: The OCD is ~~a work in progress~~ up!]

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Sokka started by picking up a few circuit boards and a battery, and wiring them all together randomly. Partly because he had very little idea how electronics worked (and thus they were fun), and partly because there were limits to what one could do with clockwork (or so he thought, having never seen Ozian clockwork).

"What do you think?" he asked Liir, displaying his handiwork proudly.

He looked at it for a moment before poking at the random wiring.

"How about something like this?" he offered, taking a pair of cogworks and setting them against one another.

"Awesome!" Sokka said, with a grin. He found a frame to house the cogs, and a motor to drive them, and connected it all up to his circuit board assembly. "Now we're starting to get somewhere!"

Exactly where, he had no idea.

He looked at the mechanism.

"But what will it do? Perhaps a power cell? Like I put in for the--"

He tilted his head and looked at the connections on the circuit board.

"Why'd you hook them up like this?"

Several answers went through Sokka's head -- "I dunno"; "It seemed like a good idea at the time"; "why, do you have a better way to do it?"

But what actually left his lips was "In order to modulate the dilithium phase inversion."

Thank you, Galaxy Quest, for increasing the power of bullshit.

Liir looked sideways at him.

"There isn't any dilithium in this thing."

He might not know what he was doing, but he did know materials rather well. He'd done plenty of research on it.

Sokka made a big show out of examining the as-yet-small contraption closely. "Hmmm... hmmm... uh-huh... You know, you're right!" He patted Liir on the back and handed the thing to him. "Why don't you have a go at connecting it up, then?"

He snorted.

"I don't have the first idea. Well," he reconsidered. "What did you end up doing when we did the Milltown repairs? Only--"

He quirked.

"We're going to need a power cell, I'd think. Something to make it move if we're using this level of ticktock. Don't you think?"

Edited 2008-02-18 20:44 (UTC)

Sokka looked at the tiny little nine-volt he'd snagged. "Hmmm. You're probably right. Something REALLY powerful."

He pulled a water gun and an articulated robot arm out of the crate and started trying to add them on.

He looked at the pieces for a moment before looking down into the bin and pulling out something that looked like what he'd used for the ticktock man in Milltown.

"This might work," he offered."

"Ooooooh, yes, that's nice!" Sokka exclaimed. He wired it into the contraption, along with a large piston and a rubber boot. "What do you think we should name it?"

"It looks very, er, confused."

"Then we shall name it ConfuZord!!!" Sokka decreed. "And ConfuZord will be the envy of everyone else's projects!"

He added a few more gears and motors and stapled a feather to the side.

Liir tried not to look horrified.

Tried. So hard.

"Right."

The Sahara could take notes on sounding more dry.

"You know, you're not really carrying your weight, here," Sokka admonished, as he added on half a telephone and the chassis of a remote-controlled car. "You're making ConfuZord sad."

Liir resolutely didn't laugh.

"Well..." and he added a couple of dials, three legs, and something the spun.

Sokka grinned. "Awesome." He added a couple more random parts, and then stuck an anemometer on top. Just because.

"I dunno," he said. "How do you think it looks?"

"Like a ticktock about to vomit."

Beat.

"Good. Good, I'd say."

"Vomit, huh?" Sokka asked, affixing an elaborately carved Bavarian cuckoo clock face to the front of the monstrosity. "See, I was sort of thinking it looked more like... Ohhh.... I dunno. ...Like you forgetting about your green face for a few minutes?"

He grinned. "Wanna switch it on and watch it fail to work?"

He looked over at Sokka.

"You made this monstrosity in an effort to cheer me up?"

Sokka grinned. "Well, actually, mostly I was just having fun, but yeah, that was part of it."

He switched the contraption on, and it miraculously staggered forward a few steps while playing "Für Elise".

"What's your name?" he asked suddenly. "I don't think I caught it earlier. Or at the store."

Edited 2008-02-18 22:21 (UTC)

"Sokka," he said with a grin, pointing both index fingers at Liir and grinning. "That's my name, and don't you forget it. You can tell it's me, because I'm awesome."

ConfuZord chimed and the cuckoo popped out of the clock, hitting Sokka in the back of the head.

Liir ducked to avoid being hit by anything else.

"Liir. At the moment, you can tell because I'm green. Usually because I'm awkward."

Applied Inventiontronics, Period 4 - Week 7

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