Who Says The Best Ideas Come From Movies? [Open]

[bonnypiperlad]

Despite having traveled with the Doctor and having been awake on Stacy for however long now, there's still certain aspects of 'modern' life that Jamie often finds himself fascinated by - even if it's something he's experienced before. Watching the moving pictures in the media library is definitely one of those things. There's so many to choose from, he often doesn't know where to begin. Usually, he winds up picking something at random. This time around, it happens to be something called 'Back to the Future II'. During the movie, he can't help but wonder about what he's seeing. For instance, what would the Doctor or any of his other companions think of a time traveling DeLorean? Or a flux cap...capic...that 'y' shaped thing with the glowing lights? But what catches his interest the most is the hoverboard chase. Stacy's a big ship. Something like that would come in very handy, if they could figure out how to build it. The main problem, of course, is how to get started.

However, there's an easy solution for that, at least to Jamie's mind. All he needs to do is go down to the Sensoriums and imagine up one of those boards to test it out. Once he's done that, he can maybe see what would be needed to turn it into something more real. It doesn't really occur to him that a fictional technology might not translate so well - especially since he never really got a good look at the inside of the thing. All he knows is that it won't work over the water, so he's going to avoid that.

A short time after the movie ends, he can be found down in the Sensoriums, ready to try out his idea. Something that resembles a skateboard without wheels appears, floating slightly above the ground. It's pink. Very pink. Jamie quickly switches it to a much nicer red color before hopping up onto the board, fully expecting it to start right up. It wavers a bit but doesn't otherwise move. Frowning, he takes one foot off and pushes it against the air, like he saw in the picture. It continues to sit there, not doing much of everything, and Jamie scowls down at it. "Och, why isn't it working?"

Comments

[thewunderkind]

Lash had been meaning to get some training done, when she came in. The last thing she had expected was one(1) Scottish guy who happened to be the Ranger Leader doing, who-knew-what with that piece of floating technology, that, while cool, seemed unfitting to him.

"Uh, I always thought pink was more Kate's color," she offered.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Hey?" Jamie gives Lash a rather confused sort of look before glancing down at the board again. Sure enough, it's gone back to being pink again. With a sigh, he switches back to red.

"It was pink in the moving picture," he offers, by way of explanation. "At least, the one I saw the most of was. I must have been thinking of it that way again." He tries to get it started up once more, still with no luck, and there's another frown. "I don't know why it won't move, though."

[thewunderkind]

"What the heck is it?" she asks. "It looks like a piece of hovering plank or something. Does it have a g-diffuser inside?"

Since gutting Captain Falcon's machine, g-diffusers were the only type of hovering material Lash really knew about.

"Considering they aren't emitting anything like flames or gas..."

[morphitudinous]

Billy is unusually energetic as he enters---his mind's running a mile a minute, as usual, but it's fueled this time by nervous excitement about what he's just done. He needs some time to think about it all, and preferably a project to get his hands on and focus with. Luckily for him, a convenient appearance of Jamie in this particular Sensorium provides both.

He supposes he'll be breaking the news soon, but they'd best address Jamie's problem first. That thing---hoverboard, his knowledge of science fiction movies supplies---isn't going to make itself a reality. It's a tricky logistical situation, making a hoverboard, but it's bound to be possible: Billy's built a flying car, after all!

"Hey Jamie!" Billy's quite happy to see his friend practicing more advanced work. "How's your inventing going?"

[bonnypiperlad]

To be honest, he's not so much practicing work so much at the moment as he is standing on the board and making faces at it. Billy's arrival provides an excellent distraction, and he looks up, greeting his friend with a smile.

"Billy! It's...ah, er, well..."

The smile turns rather more rueful as Jamie glances back down at the board again, then he steps off it. "Not going much of anywhere. I must have not thought it up right."

[morphitudinous]

Billy shakes his head fondly. No need to frown, Jamie, they'll get it right. He'll see! Billy steps closer, squatting in front of the hoverboard.

"Where'd you hear about one of these? I haven't even tried this. For a board this flat to have enough power to boost someone off the ground, it would have to have powerful engines...or it could be hooked to an outside system that generated power. They're difficult, but it can be done."

See? Billy was already off on one of his inventing rambles.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"What are you doing?" Zouichi asked, glancing at the wheel-less skateboard. "...an antigravity device? I didn't know you were a boarder."

Zouichi has never seen Back to the Future II, but it's pretty obvious what Jamie's trying to do.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, well, Morgan showed me how to use one of those snowboard things a while back," he replies. Which doesn't make him a boarder by any stretch of the imagination, but he's at least not completely out of his element here.

Just mostly.

"I thought if we could figure a way to make these it could be useful to get around the ship a little easier. Or maybe go to the parts of the city we've not been to yet."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Aha. Testing out a new design, then." Zouichi frowned a little at the board. "Useful, but I'm not sure it'd work out for everyone, especially nonhumanoids... or just people with bad balance."

"I've been exploring a little of the City myself. You know, I'm surprised they haven't gotten a teleportation system set up to get around. It seems like that would be much more convenient than the tram."

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

If there was poking around to be done and other people's business to get into, well, Devlin was your kid.

And it looked like it had paid off for him, when he came into the sensorium to see Jamie standing on a very familiar device.

"A hoverboard? Sweet!"

[bonnypiperlad]

He turns a little too quickly at the sound of the new voice, and winds up wobbling slightly before managing to regain his balance. Perhaps it's for the best the hoverboard's not going anywhere just yet.

"Oh, you've seen them before?" It occurs to him this might be a good thing. If Devlin's familiar with them, maybe he can help him figure out what he's done wrong. "Do ye happen to know how they work, exactly?"

[newyorkbynight.livejournal.com]

"That depends on what you're trying to do," pointed out Elisa as she entered the sensoriums behind Jamie, giving the board a curious look. She'd seen the movie that had inspired the invention, but it had been a long time ago and she didn't make the connection. (The strange things that had started to occur in her everyday life after meeting the gargoyles tended to be enough for her, now. Even if she had time for fiction, it wouldn't be necessary.) "What are you trying to do?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Keep his balance, apparently, as he shifts position and winds up teetering on the board uncertainly for a few seconds before steadying himself. "I'm trying to make something called a hoverboard," he replies. "I thought it'd be a wee bit easier getting around the city with one of these."

Giving it up as a bad job for now, he steps off and back on to the grass he's imagined beneath it. "Och, well, I don't know what business I have trying to figure one of those out, anyway. Have ye been able to track down Goliath yet?"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate was stopping by for some practice herself, but couldn't help a laugh at the pink then red hoverboard.

"Probably because they were using movie special effects to make it look cool? The only working floating platforms I know of are either from psychokinesis or magic like Billy's. Uh, Billy from back home in my world, not our Billy." She forced her mind to chase away any sad thoughts on that since she suspected Wiccan was back in the pods.

[bonnypiperlad]

Hearing the laugh, Jamie turns towards the entrance with a frown. "Hey, what's the big...oh, hi, Kate." Seeing that its her and not someone actually going to poke fun at him - well, not too much fun at any rate - his expression quickly reverts back to normal.

As for her explanation? He hasn't met Billy from her world, but even without that he's fairly certain she hadn't meant their fellow teammate. Even putting aside any thoughts he might have once had about the morphers being magic, he still would have remembered if his best friend was suddenly using a floating platform. Although...the whole thing does bring up some interesting questions.

"What do ye mean, special effects? That's not like that psycho-whatsis, then?"

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

Megan really loves movies. When she was first on Earth she watched a LOT of them, and read a lot about them on Wikipedia, using them as a window into human life and how to live it. Admittedly that caused a lot of misunderstandings at first and she quickly picked up on documentaries as being more accurate portraits of humanity. But still, there are a lot of things from a lot of movies that she recognizes, and the Back to the Future series had been a particular favorite. (Doc Brown is always hilarious.)

"Oh cool! Are you trying to hoverboard?"

She's already hovering all on her own, sans board, but she seems fascinated and delighted nonetheless.

[bonnypiperlad]

There has to be some reason why this thing's not working, he thinks. Maybe he thought of a setting wrong or... With a start, he realises he's not alone in the sensoriums, and he looks up to see a lassie hovering nearby. He blinks a moment, not quite sure if he's seeing her correctly.

"Er, ah, yes." Admittedly, there's not really so much in the way of hoverboarding going on right now, but she seems taken by the idea nonetheless. "That is, I will be, once I've figured out why it's not working."

Glancing at her feet - which are still most definitely not touching the ground - he gives them a puzzled look. How's she managing to do that? Unless he did something to the gravity in here by mistake, maybe.

"Hey, I've not gone and turned off the wrong thing in here, have I?"

[sonicscreamer.livejournal.com]

"Goodness Jamie!" Victoria says as she comes into the sensoriums. She had been looking for him, and after following a paper trail (as in asking a few people), she finds him moving around on a strange hovering platform.

"What are you doing?" It looks like a device of some sort, but moving on its own...magic perhaps?

[bonnypiperlad]

Right at the moment she enters, he's leaning to the side, in a futile effort to see if shifting his weight will get the thing to start up. The board's tilting a little, but still refusing to go much of anywhere at all. He turns at the sound of her voice, some of the frustration he's feeling ebbing away when he sees who it is.

"Aye, well, I thought I'd have a go on one of these hoverboard things. I saw it in one of the moving pictures in the Media Library earlier." Shifting his weight back straightens the board back out, and he steps off of it onto a patch of grass. He's also imagined a park-like setting along with the hoverboard, with a little stream off to one side, some benches and trees. It's not like the movie, but he likes it well enough.

Pursing his lips together for a second, he sneaks a glance over at Victoria. He liked the movie too, but he would have liked it that much more if she had been able to go with him. Casually, he adds, "Couldn't find ye earlier, or I would have asked if ye wanted to go along and have a look for yourself."

[caringcassie.livejournal.com]

Cassie didn't tend to frequent the Sensoriums much, but she did come on occasion when she had something that she wanted to see. As she wandered in though, she was surprised to find that someone else had beat her to the room. That wasn't an uncommon occurrence in truth as the Sensoriums tended to be quite popular, but she hadn't thought that anyone else would be here at this time of day. She was even more surprised when she who was currently occupying the room, but she was also pleased.

"Jamie!" she called out as she walked towards him, hesitating though when she saw the look on his face. "Is everything okay?" Worried that her presence might be an unwelcome interruption, she took a step back. "I'm sorry. I hope that I'm not bothering you."

[bonnypiperlad]

"Cassie!" He starts to greet her with a smile - he hasn't seen her since the end of the mission they had been on, so he's happy to do so now. However, it fades a bit when she steps back, his brow knitting slightly in confusion for a few seconds before he catches on.

"Oh! Och, no. I was just trying to see if I could get this hoverboard thing to work." He steps down onto the grass of the park-like setting he's thought up, along with the board. "Something's not right with it, though. I can get it to hover but not go anywhere. I don't suppose ye know a bit about them, do ye?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Kaya was, by far, in one of the happiest moods she'd been in awhile. She was no longer cramming nurse knowledge into her head, she had Nokosi had consummated their relationship, and for the time being? Nothing to terribly horrible was happening lately! She decided she would celebrate this by hopping down to the Sensorium and having a nice workout session, putting her hair up in a pony tail and jogging there.

Just her luck though, it was not only occupied, but by an all to familiar person.

"Jamie? Why are you trying to ride the air on a piece of wood?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"I'll have ye know it's called a hoverboard," Jamie replies, turning to glance at Kaya over his shoulder at the comment. "Not just some old piece of wood."

He steps down off the board, leaving it hovering there in mid-air for a moment before picking it up and turning it over so she can see the metal circles on the bottom. "Besides, it's got these circle-things here that I think are what makes it float like that."

Letting it go again, the board quickly resumes its position a few inches off the ground, and Jamie pulls a bit of a face. "It's supposed to move around so ye can from place to place on it, but all I can manage is to get it to do that. Aye well, suppose it'd not have worked out anyway. Ye seem cheerful, Kaya. What have ye been up to?"

[makeherblue]

"Have you tried some jiggery-pokery?"

The Doctor pokes his head into the sensorium. He never could resist a snoop and today isn't any different. Jamie has what looks suspiciously like a hoverboard, only this quite frankly ridiculous shade of red that looks like it would be pink if only Jamie would let it, hovering in pace and not doing much else. It'd make a lovely doorstop.

He invites himself in, the Doctor taking one leggy step and then two and three until he reaches his Scot and extracts the board out from under him, turning it up in the light until he can see the problem: the problem is quite obvious. There is a definite lack of proper jiggery-pokery. He supposed Jamie's work with Kaylee hasn't quite gotten to that stage then. Right! He isn't sure what Jamie wants with a hoverboard but it's not going to do much good having a stationary hover, now is it? Without asking, the Doctor has pried loose a panel and there's an alarming number of wires sticking out before Jamie can get a word in, the Time Lord glancing up at the human over the hoverboard.

"Thankfully you didn't start kicking it. Humans like to do that sometimes," the Doctor says fondly. "So, hoverboards and you. New hobby? Perhaps hovering meditation! Now there's an idea!"

What a brilliant idea, Jamie McCrimmon! Now why hadn't he thought of that?

[bonnypiperlad]

Said Scot's eyes widen a bit as the board is unceremoniously yanked out from underneath without so much as a how-do-you-do, and he promptly finds himself scrambling to try and keep from falling to the ground. He's not entirely successful at stopping it, although he doesn't look hurt, just irritated.

"Oh, aye, that's just what I need," comments Jamie with more a faint hint of exasperation in his tone. "Falling asleep on something that's floating mid-air. Ye might have let me actually step down off the thing rather than just take it, ye know."

Picking himself back up off the ground, he brushes off his dignity - and his kilt - before crossing his arms off his chest. "I'll have ye know I saw it in one of those moving pictures ye can see in the Media Library and thought it might be good to use for getting around the ship if we could build one that works."

The operative word being 'works', here, which Jamie is suspecting isn't going to be the case. He walks back over to where the Doctor is fiddling with the board, leaning over the Time Lords shoulder so he can get a better look at what's being done to the thing. "Look, I don't know if you'll be able to fix something in here if ye don't know what it's made of."