'To see what would happen' is generally a good reason for a Spark to do anything. Hell, it's this reason that Bella gets along with the Barrayaran Government
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Anything to do with DeLoreans appears to be Doc bait, even for those who have only peripherally heard of the car thanks to being kidnapped by Faeries long before they could complete the time machine. Anyway, Doc's attracted by the humming and the messing about with car engines. He wanders over to where Bella is and watches with interest. "Anything in particular you're trying to do there?"
Bella is working on taking the engine apart, bit by bit, "Ah, Hallo." She gives him a wave, behind it, now, "Disassembling it to find out how it works in comparison to the engines I know and have constructed myself."
"Aha." Doc can get on board with that plan. "Find anything interesting so far? Anything you didn't expect to find?" He leans over the engine a bit, examining what she's already done.
"For one thing, that it's made of mostly manufactured parts." This apparently makes her a little sad at this. Not making parts by hand anymore is just...
Yes. "But, despite this, it's given me a few ideas in terms or arrangement, in how to reduce the size of my engine designs a little."
About a third of the engine is disassembled, and most of that from the underside of it (which is why it's hanging on the rack).
Doc looks a bit confused. "Well -- yes. It's a car engine. They're designed for mass production. Making them by hand would take too long." Not that Doc doesn't have an appreciation for handmade stuff, he just understands efficiency concerns. "I take it they don't do that often where you're from."
Doc grins at that. "That's good then. Always nice to get new ideas." He looks down at the disassembled underside. "What do you plan to do with it once you've taken it completely apart?" 'Put it back together' would be the obvious answer, but you never know.
"True, but there's just something about an engine or a machine that's made by hand. The care that goes into the work of it." She shakes her head, "Most everything is made by hand, unless it's something like a really simple item." A one-shouldered shrug.
But his question makes her grin, "Oh, that's a good question."
"I am going to improve it." Because, you see, that is what a Spark does. She does not do this mere mortal thing of 'putting it back together', she makes it better.
Doc nods. "I know. There's nothing quite like home-made, is there? I've owned plenty of manufactured items, but I never really considered them 'mine' until I'd tinkered with them a bit." He smirks. "Broke more coffee-makers that way. . . ."
Doc grins back. He likes the way she thinks. He may not be an official Spark, but damn if he doesn't like his science. "Improve it?" he repeats, looking quite interested. "Make it better, faster?" He'd add a "stronger" there except "The Six Million Dollar Man" was after his time.
(OOC: I really gotta get me that T-shirt your icon's based off of. :D)
"I tended to stay on the more mechanically oriented side of things when I broke through, moving parts, mechanical engines, machinery." She flexes her mechanical hand a bit and shifts her weight to her right side slightly.
"But. Yes. Improve it." She'd miss the reference to the Six Million Dollar Man as well, "Make it faster, more powerful, more efficient than what it is."
"BECAUSE IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL." Her voice changes very slightly for a moment, grin a bit sharper as she eyes the engine, getting ideas.
((I saw it as a wallpaper on /wg/, and a lot of resizing later, we have that icon which is perfect for our sparky Ms. Fennix))
"Broke through?" Doc hasn't heard that term before. "I'm a mechanical sort of person myself. I've dabbled in just about everything, and I do like chemistry, but I always come back to the levers and pulleys and the like. Give me a good set of tools and some scrap metal and parts and I'll be happy."
Doc notes the voice change and lifts an eyebrow. Weird, but he thinks it's good weird. "I'm all for making things better than they are." So long as it doesn't involve sticking clockwork parts inside someone who doesn't want them. "And most manufactured stuff could use a bit of tweaking." He looks at the engine a bit disdainfully. "Another advantage of homemade -- you can really push the limits."
She clears her throat, slipping away from the MADNESS again, since she just glanced the edge of it, "I take it you haven't heard the term 'Spark', then, either?" She glances at him again for clarification.
"I like to work on engines in my spare time, and it's just fun to see the intricate dance of mechanics at work." She grins, "Not to mention that I agree, if it's manufactured, it could use improvement."
"Nope, afraid I haven't," Doc says with a small shrug, steam hissing out his elbows.
Doc grins back. "Oh yes. The way the parts all fit together, forming a cohesive whole. . .working in unison to fulfill some purpose. . . ." He sighs happily. Damn, he loves invention. "There's nothing like seeing something you created work for the first time, is there?"
"Ah, well." She's thoughtful a moment, "Well. I'm a Spark. The more impolite term back home is 'Mad Scientist', or a Madgirl."
She starts working on removing another part. "I broke through when I was sixteen, when I first went into the Madness Place--what drives me to do the things I do." A beat, "Ding, hand me that, would you?" She points, and the scorpion clank makes a clickinoise and skitters up the rack with the screwdriver.
"Ahh, I see. That's interesting," Doc says, intrigued. "I don't think we have quite the same thing in my world -- people we could call 'Sparks' or 'mad scientists,' but. . . ." He shrugs. "No voice changes or the like that I know of."
And then Ding skitters up and grabs Doc's attention. "Oh, that's a nice little robot! Did you make that?" He grins at Ding, giving him a thorough lookover.
"So I've noticed, most worlds don't have Sparks, the Wulfenbach Empire or any sign of it existing, or.. any of the things that make my life normal." As stated elsewhere, normal is relative.
"He's a Clank, but robot works just as well."
Ding is a clank built largely like a scorpion of brass and mechanics. Looking largely like this. He's a gold brass color, with silver claws and the large single cyclopean eye. Ding blinks at Doc with a little tink of his eye-shutters, he tilts his body a bit, a motion describable as curious. And he makes a loud noise: DING! Followed by several sounds of mechanics clicking. This is apparently how the machine communicates.
"Heh, yeah. Infinite universes and all that," Doc says. "Though I suppose you'll have to get lucky eventually. I doubt there's just one world with Sparks."
"Oh. Clank, then," Doc says readily. Clank, robot -- same difference when it comes to interesting stuff like this. "Hello there," he says to it, holding out a finger toward it. "He looks pretty complex for such a small fellow."
"Indeed, although I sometimes wonder what sort of other world would have Sparks." She shrugs.
Ding makes a cheerful little clickynoise and peeeers at Doc's finger. Before reaching towards it and poking it with a claw. He makes a curious little click sound at this.
"I was wired on some sort of hypercaffinated tea when I made him." Bella explains while she removes another section of the engine before her, "The Clank brain was always something that gave me trouble to construct correctly. Something like a battle clank or a driven vehicle with clank-like characteristics? Easy. Making it think, even simplistic thoughts..." She shakes her head. It's what happens when her mun rolls a success die, and Bella hits twenty out of twenty. Nature warped itself for Ding's existence.
"And he is complex. I think several alarm clocks sacrificed their ever ticking lives for most of his mechanics and the bell inside him."
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Yes. "But, despite this, it's given me a few ideas in terms or arrangement, in how to reduce the size of my engine designs a little."
About a third of the engine is disassembled, and most of that from the underside of it (which is why it's hanging on the rack).
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Doc grins at that. "That's good then. Always nice to get new ideas." He looks down at the disassembled underside. "What do you plan to do with it once you've taken it completely apart?" 'Put it back together' would be the obvious answer, but you never know.
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But his question makes her grin, "Oh, that's a good question."
"I am going to improve it." Because, you see, that is what a Spark does. She does not do this mere mortal thing of 'putting it back together', she makes it better.
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Doc grins back. He likes the way she thinks. He may not be an official Spark, but damn if he doesn't like his science. "Improve it?" he repeats, looking quite interested. "Make it better, faster?" He'd add a "stronger" there except "The Six Million Dollar Man" was after his time.
(OOC: I really gotta get me that T-shirt your icon's based off of. :D)
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"But. Yes. Improve it." She'd miss the reference to the Six Million Dollar Man as well, "Make it faster, more powerful, more efficient than what it is."
"BECAUSE IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL." Her voice changes very slightly for a moment, grin a bit sharper as she eyes the engine, getting ideas.
((I saw it as a wallpaper on /wg/, and a lot of resizing later, we have that icon which is perfect for our sparky Ms. Fennix))
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Doc notes the voice change and lifts an eyebrow. Weird, but he thinks it's good weird. "I'm all for making things better than they are." So long as it doesn't involve sticking clockwork parts inside someone who doesn't want them. "And most manufactured stuff could use a bit of tweaking." He looks at the engine a bit disdainfully. "Another advantage of homemade -- you can really push the limits."
(Exactly. :D)
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"I like to work on engines in my spare time, and it's just fun to see the intricate dance of mechanics at work." She grins, "Not to mention that I agree, if it's manufactured, it could use improvement."
(( also))
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Doc grins back. "Oh yes. The way the parts all fit together, forming a cohesive whole. . .working in unison to fulfill some purpose. . . ." He sighs happily. Damn, he loves invention. "There's nothing like seeing something you created work for the first time, is there?"
(Oh, that's cool!)
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She starts working on removing another part. "I broke through when I was sixteen, when I first went into the Madness Place--what drives me to do the things I do." A beat, "Ding, hand me that, would you?" She points, and the scorpion clank makes a clickinoise and skitters up the rack with the screwdriver.
"That was what the voice change was."
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And then Ding skitters up and grabs Doc's attention. "Oh, that's a nice little robot! Did you make that?" He grins at Ding, giving him a thorough lookover.
Reply
"He's a Clank, but robot works just as well."
Ding is a clank built largely like a scorpion of brass and mechanics. Looking largely like this. He's a gold brass color, with silver claws and the large single cyclopean eye. Ding blinks at Doc with a little tink of his eye-shutters, he tilts his body a bit, a motion describable as curious. And he makes a loud noise: DING! Followed by several sounds of mechanics clicking. This is apparently how the machine communicates.
Reply
"Oh. Clank, then," Doc says readily. Clank, robot -- same difference when it comes to interesting stuff like this. "Hello there," he says to it, holding out a finger toward it. "He looks pretty complex for such a small fellow."
Reply
Ding makes a cheerful little clickynoise and peeeers at Doc's finger. Before reaching towards it and poking it with a claw. He makes a curious little click sound at this.
"I was wired on some sort of hypercaffinated tea when I made him." Bella explains while she removes another section of the engine before her, "The Clank brain was always something that gave me trouble to construct correctly. Something like a battle clank or a driven vehicle with clank-like characteristics? Easy. Making it think, even simplistic thoughts..." She shakes her head. It's what happens when her mun rolls a success die, and Bella hits twenty out of twenty. Nature warped itself for Ding's existence.
"And he is complex. I think several alarm clocks sacrificed their ever ticking lives for most of his mechanics and the bell inside him."
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