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."

[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?"

[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.

[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]

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.

[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."

[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?"

[bonnypiperlad]

An outside system...? Hey, that sounds familiar! "Oh! Aye, there was one that had these wee little engines on it, like ye would see on a flying beastie. Er, an aeroplane, I mean. And the others hooked their boards up to it so they could get over the water."

While this particular explanation of his might eventually help with trying to figure out how to work out how to build a hoverboard, it completely ignores Billy's original question. Jamie realizes this, a bit belatedly, and adds, "Ah, it did that in the moving picture I saw, anyway. I'd not be able to tell ye if that would work if we built it here or not, though. But if we could, I'd say it'd be useful."

[morphitudinous]

"Right. We can add those and see if it'll work!" Billy conjures one of his own and makes the modifications in his head. "They might be too big and heavy, though." He'll probably have to tweak it.

Ah, so it came from a film. "Films don't tend to conform to the rules of physics all too closely, but there's a grain of a good idea there. Maybe we can make it work!"

He starts jotting notes as he studies his creation, giving the engine just a little more kick. "How about this one?"

[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."

[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?"

[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.

[at-a-peak.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, hang on a second!"

Devlin set down the backpack he'd been keeping most of his "not getting myself into trouble, honest!" stuff in and unzipped it. He was forced to remove a couple of things--beads and souveniers from Happy Happy Fun Land, a light-up ball and metallic glove, and some specially formulated fish food he'd made himself (it was peanut butter-based)--before he could finally pull out his beloved hoverboard.

He switched it on and set it next to him, allowing it to hover in midair. "Trying to figure out how to ride one?"

[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..."

[bonnypiperlad]

"That board was different," he says, conjuring an image of Griff Tannen's 'Pit Bull' hoverboard, which is primarily black with serrated edges and two small rocket nacelles, one on either side. It also has three towing straps that could presumably be used by other passengers. "Like this, see? Although I don't know as if you'd need to have the straps on or not if ye wanted all of them to have the engines."

It looks like a fairly cosmetic thing to him, and after a moment's consideration, he unthinks that part of the board. He leaves the rest up so Billy can see it.

"How would ye power engines that small, though?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, well, when ye first saw the board there were these handlebars on the front ye could hang on to, but they were taken off." So there are options, at least for the people with bad balance. Non-humans, however, could be tricky, and he's not really sure how to compensate for that. "I suppose ye have a point, though."

While he had clearly hasn't considered the idea of teleportation devices before, judging by the expression on his face, not only is something that's very appealing, it's something he's marginally more familiar with. Marginally. "Hey, yes! That would be a good idea if ye could set it up. The problem is, how would ye go about building such a thing?"

[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?"

[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?"

[bonnypiperlad]

While Jamie looks at some of the things with interest - the light up ball, specifically - his eyes widen when Devlin pulls out the board. He had assumed that there was another reason for the hunt through the backpack, not that the lad would have a hoverboard of his own with him.

"Hey, would ye look at that!" he exclaims, moving closer so he can get a better look at the thing and only just barely managing to restrain himself from poking at it with a finger. Glancing up, he nods. "Aye. To start, anyway. Maybe see if it's possible to make one. I'd not realised anyone here had a real one, though."

[bonnypiperlad]

"A g-what?" asks Jamie, still with that all-too-familiar confused expression on his face. He shakes his head after a moment. "No, it's supposed to be something called a hoverboard, and ye can use it to go places. It's like one of those skate-y-boards, but without the wheels."

He's only got a slightly better grasp on those, so hopefully Lash won't ask too many questions about what they're like.

"There was another type that did, with wee little engines on it. I guess it was supposed to be powered differently. I can show ye that one, if ye like."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi blinked. "First saw it where? So this was originally a... scooter?" Strange. Why would anyone want to make it less stable?

"I'm not sure, but weren't there teleportation devices on use during the Lirath battle? I believe Infrastructure was involved in setting that up. There might also be some texts on the basic principles in the Media Library..." Zouichi was all up for learning about technology his own world didn't have access to. It could come in handy sometime.

[morphitudinous]

Billy paces back and forth, comparing the boards. Bulky, smooth, straps, no straps... there were so many decisions to make. He was determined to hit the right one.

"We have incredibly small power cells. I powered the RADBUG with some of them, actually. I couldn't build it until after I became a Ranger, because that opened access to technologies I'd never seen before. Used properly, the cells could fix this."

He imagined his proposed modifications and folded his arms, wondering.

[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.