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Ben Skywalker ([personal profile] momslilassassin) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2014-05-06 10:01 am
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Practical Mechanics [Tuesday, May 6, 2014]

A redheaded young man with a neatly trimmed beard, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, sat on the desk in the front of the classroom and let his legs swing as he waited for the class to arrive.

"Hey," he said with a slightly nervous smile. "I'm Ben Skywalker and this is Practical Mechanics. I graduated from Fandom two years ago, so I know that the experience in this class can range from 'we use carts and oxen at home, what's a car?' to 'I accidentally blew up a small moon and that's why I got sent to this stupid school', so I'm only going to base my critiques of your stuff on your own level of skill, not anyone else's." He glanced around the room. "Please don't use this class to try to blow up a moon. I've seen that sort of device before, so I'll recognize it and trust me when I say that you don't want to go to this particular principal or dean to explain."

He chewed on his lower lip. "I worked for two years at Stark's while I was here, I build droids--tiny and not so tiny robots--in my spare time when I'm not working on schematics for my own spaceship. I've also been stranded on a world where I had to use spare parts of a couple crashed ships to escape, so trust me when I say I know the value of practical mechanics. We'll get to the good stuff in a few weeks--there will be explosions, just not planet destroying ones--but today we're gonna start out small." He pointed to the first student on his left. "Okay, let's do the introduction thing: name, age, and the coolest thing you ever built."

He waved his hand at the piles of cardboard, compasses, exacto knives, pencils, wooden skewers, tape and mousetraps in the center of the room. "Today we're gonna build a better mousetrap...car. These are powered soley by the snap of power you get when the trap releases, so those of you who aren't familiar with how electricity works aren't at a disadvantage. You have a half-hour to conceptualize and build your cars, and then we'll race 'em against each other." He grinned. "It'll be astral."

Re: Introductions!

[identity profile] fly-so-serious.livejournal.com 2014-05-06 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Jeff Moreau, 17. You can call me Joker, though. The coolest thing I ever built was a deep-space probe that picked up and decoded 200-year-old radio waves. It was really just an omnitool in a box, but it took me months to get it working right. Calculated its distance from earth, cross-referenced that against archives of TV Guide, and Bam! The original broadcasts of Adam West's Ratman, right on my viewscreen. ...And first prize in the science fair, but I'm starting to think maybe that's 'cause the competition was thin."

Re: Introductions!

[identity profile] fly-so-serious.livejournal.com 2014-05-06 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Or they were impressed that a few hundred credits and a lot of elbow grease could do the work of million-credit hardware," Joker pointed out. "But I borrowed a lot from stuff I found online, so it's not like I'm some actual inventor, you know? 'Course, I'm also not the guy who brought in a baking soda and vinegar volcano."

Re: Introductions!

[identity profile] fly-so-serious.livejournal.com 2014-05-07 05:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, hell no," Joker answered. "Did anyone ever? But participation was required, not quality. Guy failed physics anyway, but it wasn't 'cause he didn't do the science fair."