6496/Summer Science Fair

Summer Science Fair
Date of Scene:	02 July 2021
Location:	Gymnasium - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	The Second Annual Happy Harbor Science Fair happens. Ants cause Chaos. Madison wins a Scholarship and Morrigan finds the end of her rope!
Cast of Characters:	Morrigan MacIntyre, J'onn J'onzz, Hank Pym, Madison Evans, Michael Hannigan, Colette O'Connail, Albert Rothstein

---

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Happy Harbor's Science Fair might be a little different than other High Schools fairs in the sense that some of the kids in the school are powered in some way or another. Whether it's being a Mutant, or some other thing. Good luck finding out who if it's not apparent though!

There are boothes set up for each student. The school made sure that everyone had a presentation space and power cords or whatever might be needed for them to set things up to present. Duncan's been making the rounds to make sure the little things that are left to do are done. Morrigan wanders in a few minutes later, dressed in black hospital scrubs with her hair pulled back into a braid. Her badge for Mount Sinai is still on and she looks like she's not seen sleep in a few days. There's a blissfully tall to go cup in her hands. It's probably coffee.

Probably.

"Nothing has caught fire yet...excellent." she smiles to that before she takes a sip of coffee.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
As the Science teacher, J'onn decided it was a good idea that he attend. Hank would make a fair better science teacher than he was, he covered the very basics of science, yet there he was.

At the mere mention of fire, a shudder runs through the martian. He wears a nice suit of charcoal, no tie, with a soft blue button front shirt, but he's himself, no mask to conceal himself.

"Let us all hope it remains that was Ms MacIntyre, I do not wish to remodel the gymnasium by going through that wall." He points to the chosen wall of his escape, just so it is generally known which one he will go through to escape any fires.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym looks a little disappointed. Fire is a good sign in a lot of processes. He leads Baudelaire the ant on a short leash, antennae waving at the unusual exhibitions. "Okay Bo. Stay with Madison. Guard. Be a good ant... do not chew up the table understand and no biting." He hands the leash to Madison.

"Absolutely no c-a-n-d-y or p-o-p-c-o-r-n." He take out a handkerchief and polishes a spot on the ant's head. "And stand up straight."

//Bo will guard. Oh it is little human with loud shrieks.//

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison is set up on one of the tables - with one of those classical, three panel presentation boards. On it, she has photos of ants in various sizes - from normal, to hamster, to house cat, to mastiff, to pony - each crushing pieces of wood in their jaws. In most of the photos, Madison herself is in the photo - to provide scale. She's not in the photo of the largest ant - as it is felling an entire tree with a single snap, and her mother insisted that, NO, it wouldn't be safe to stand in that photo!
    There's also words explaining her question, her results, and what exactly a 'pym particle' is and how it functions.
    Perhaps more interesting, however, is the little tablet playing through footage of her various experiments, with the ants biting down on a pressure gauge - or chomping down on bits of wood. And of course - here is her star attraction. "Oh, of course not, sir. Me and Bo here - we'll behave ourselves, //promise//. I think my mom's bringing a salad later - maybe I could share some of that?" she suggests. "I mean, not the dressing. //Ob//viously."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike is not participating in any of the festivities nor was he planning to. But, he found himself with an extended weekend off due to one concert being rescheduled for security reasons. He ended up coming here anyways. Officially clocked out from the Nick Drago stage persona. He is back to his usual street attire. Due to the summer heat, the hair is pulled back into a ponytail instead of being hidden under a knit cap.

With the last second decision to show up. The musician's arrival is a tad later than most with him just coming in through the door.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Will things explode? Will there be great destructions that shall lay waste to the school gym? Or at least unstable pepsi/mentos volcanos spewing froth on the ceiling and maglev demonstrations that accidentally double up as railguns? Happy Harbor's science fair has a reputation to live up to.

    Or live down from, depending on your perspective. Having missed last year's display, Colette O'Connail has no intention of missing this. Of course this means she's half expecting a damp squib; it's bound to be less fun if she doesn't miss it.

    Not that she actually /wants/ things to explode, of course. At least not too much. Or catch fire. She may not feel the pyrophobia to the extent that J'onn does, but it doesn't exactly make her happy.

    Colette makes a circuit of the exhibition, sipping a cup of coffee, and comes to a stop at Madison's display, examining it carefully before asking Madison, "So do you have a model for the scaling factor? Presumably the muscular acceleration decreases because that /type/ of muscle is not going to be as efficient with a higher mass mandible, so it's not going to be linear. Is there a size where the bite force starts to actually drop again as the inefficiencies mount up?"

    She does English, not science. This is not Colette's business. Apparently she's just curious.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan gives a look to Jonn and there's a soft chuckle, "Could be going through my office window like some big hawk dude." she points out to him. "How have you been?" she asks him. There is a smile and a nod of greeting to Hank when he comes in with Bo and others. There is a wave to Mike when he comes in and then she looks to see who all is getting up to showing the guests their projects.

Declan and Delia are like the Weasley's, the two twins having set up a project about dry ice and how it makes things erupt. There's a quiet betting pool on if the gym gets flooded again like it did last year.

Duncan is playing tech support to a few of the freshmen that have been trying to get their computers to sync unto the network.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
Offering Morrigan a smile, J'onn doesn't appear nervous at all. He is simply prepared to leave as quickly as might be required of him.

"I am quite well, thank you for asking," he replies, looking over the various projects offered. He has $10 on the gym floor being flooded. "Quite a large collection of projects this year. Do you have a favorite?"

Hank is offered a nod of greeting, his eyes settling on Bo for a moment, before returning to Morrigan.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Well," Madison says thoughtfully, as she turns towards a graph glued to her display board. "Each successively larger ant does have a greater bite force," she points out. "But you can see here - I mean, the differences between the amount of force created for the smaller sizes of ants is larger - than the differences between the larger of the ants. It's a bit hard to know precisely though - because Henrietta accidentally broke the gauge, so we don't actually //know// how much force she could create. But things were complicated by the fact that we used Pym particles to change the sizes of the ants, and apparently that shunts mass into hyperspace when you're shrinking things - and you have to adjust the density of objects when you're increasing their size to accommodate, umm, the square-cube law and create an ants that can function, physically, at the increased size so- ... it really complicates the math //a lot//. Basically." She shrugs her shoulders as she adds, "It's a lot to explain." And her eyes had glazed over a little in some of the conversations she'd had with Doctor Pym about her findings. It was hard to follow.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym returns to his fellow staff. His handsfree insect com on his head. He greets them all in turns with a nod or handshake. Then he sidles over to Mike.

"You've been busy. Are you going heroic without your old uncle Hank?" he says quietly, though with a smile. "I'm figuring some mystical jiggery pokery... well if you need me I'm here and I am likely to show up with Jennifer. Throwing a tank is a talent you should not dismiss lightly."

He turns to Morrigan and asks with concern, "How have the rescued children been? And Tyler?"

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Catching a bit of movement to the side of his vision, the musician turns his head. Seeing Mo's hand up, he lift his up as well to return the greeting. He walks over, making note of the scrubs. The line of thought gets sidetracked as Hank moves alongside him asking about heroics. Thoughts drift to the ghost and demon attacking him in the dressing room and the group of friends who popped in afterwards to bail him out. "...I wouldn't say heroic." Mike allows, "Just getting by."

He pauses for a moment, "Oh the Gotham concert got rescheduled to after the holiday so I got an extended weekend out of it. So, I'll be able to make the cookout." As Hank turns his attention to Morrigan, his head turns as well, also interested in the status of the children.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
"Judges don't get favorites sadly." Morrigan tells Jonn with a wistful sigh. "And I've not had time to get around and see what everyone was doing prior to this due to the children from Malta and now a group of Mutants that were rescued." she frowns.

Her violet gaze goes to Hank when he asks her how the children are, "They are doing good. Most of them have been released to their parents. A few of them still need to have their parents come here to see about them and take them home. Tyler...still sleeps for now. We'll see how waking him up goes though sometime next week." she explains. "For now...just trying to keep up with the newest emergency that came in at the hospital." she admits. "I've got to go back after this. But it's nice to have the break...and not deal with a massacre." she chuckles dryly.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
A slight frown touches J'onn's lips, but it fades quickly as this is an event where the facility needed to appear at ease and happy, so that is what he will appear.

"I will take a walk around to look at the projects, I am merely grateful I am not a judge. We will talk more about Tyler and the others, in a better locale, later."

With that he offers Hank and Morrigan and nod, then starts making his way around the room to look at all of the projects.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette gives Madison a thoughtful nod. "Yes, if you just scaled up an ant to that size without some kind of density modification, its exoskeleton would not be able to support its own bodyweight. Increasing density of muscle fibres will impact their ability to contract rapidly. That's probably why you see the increase in bite force scaling in a non-linear fashion like that. It wouldn't be wise to simply model the decrease and try to extrapolate because there may be other factors involved. You'd probably need to test the functioning of the muscle fibers directly at different scaling factors..." she glances towards Hank and Bo. "But that might not be easy to manage."

    She tilts her head thoughtfully to one side for a moment, then gives Madison a smile. "Good work, Madison. I see Doctor Pym is being quite the inspiration around here."

    Colette drifts over to the congregation of teachers, still sipping her coffee, to listen in on the talk of the rescued children. "Well, from the sounds of it we won't have to worry about the Order of Saint Dumbass any more," she says with some satisfaction. "Good work, guys." She's a little more tanned than last time any of the other saw her. Must have been on vacation somewhere sunny while the others were fighting cultists on Malta.

    Malta is sunny this time of year...

    Colette glances sideways at Mike, smirking slightly. "There was Lego. It was fun. You missed the Lego," she says to him. "You must have been awake at the time." He's sure to understand.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison beams brightly at the praise. "It was really fun to do all this. And my friends back home - I mean, back in California. They were sooooo jealous." Which wasn't the point. ...wasn't the whole point. It was maybe part of the point.

Reaching down - she pats Bo firmly on the head. "I think my mom's bringing me an apple," she informs the ant. "Split it with you?"

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym begins walking the floor and examining the exhibits. Oh volcano. Oh sweet potato. Oh death ray... hang on there.

No fires but they are mere children. He casts a wary eye on the twins' booth but the dry ice seems to be under proper care. Dang. If Declan and Deliah can't spice things up...

Then Baudelaire decides to chew on a 2 by 4 holding up a banner. //Bo, nooooo! Let it alone!// Okay a little excitement.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike turns his head to look over to Colette as she talks of the battle in the dream realm. What on earth did mean by missing it? And of course he was awake. He was physically there fighting. Wasn't she there when he-

Time runs funny in dreams.

"Ah Well darn. Well, we can talk more about it once everything about that gets resolved."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Or alternatively never mention it again," Colette replies to Mike with a nod of her head. Don't worry, they probably don't know what they'retalking about either. Frankly /everything/ runs funny in dreams.

    "So are we short of super-science students this year?" she wonders aloud. "I was expecting more in the way of experimental powered body armor, miniature warp drives and quantum foam reification devices. I mean..." she lowers her voice so as not to be overheard by any students. "Did you see that magnet and iron filings thing? That's not even /trying/.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan gives a look over to Colette and there's a quirk of an eyebrow, "Hopefully we won't." she nods to that. "And thank all of you for your assistance." she dips her head to that. "And yes, we seem to be short a few this year. I think something came up with it falling so close to the fourth of July." she admits with a small frown.

There is a smile to them after a moment of thinking, "I'm going to take a lap and see who the stand outs are...then we'll get to picking a winner." she states. With that, Morrigan heads off, dressed in her black scrubs from work to look over things.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn decides to take the lap with Morrigan. He may have already just done a lap and looked, but he's interested to know what she thinks about the projects this year. So far there's been no flooding, looks like he'll be losing that ten dollars after all.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison's mom arrives - with effusive praise for her daughter's display, and a packed, home-cooked meal for the girl. There's the sort of embarrassing fussing that every highschool kid hates, as Madison's mother makes sure her daughter's hair is neat, and her clothing tucked in properly. And then, thankfully, the woman is off to see the other exhibits.
    "Here we go, Bo. Sliced apples, just like I promised," she announces, handing one to to ant.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
While Hank was distracted, Bo went back to chewing on that 2x4 because one, he's bored and two, he can. After a few moments of the omnomnom, the banner it was holding up goes down, covering a couple of parents and students as the wood itself strikes the water fountain. Just heavy enough to damage the spout, water starts shooting up into the air spraying the area and those around it. The wet floor instantly causes a student who shouldn't have been running to slide into a table of cupcakes, sending pastries everywhere, one of which strikes J'onn in the face then off his face and onto Morrigan's shoulder.

Bo, not even noticing what happened to the wood, turns to Madison and accepts the apple like nothing happened.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike gives a slight smile to the suggestion Colette brings up, "Could go with that. No one would believe us anyways." With everyone wandering off to look at the exhibits, he starts to wander as well.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette watches the chaos ensue as a result of Hungry Ant. Nobody seems to be in any real physical danger, and there's no way she's going to get wet trying to stop the fountain from fountaining, but she does at least help a parent free themselves from the banner.

    "Archimedes said 'give me a lever long enough and I will move the world', demonstrating humankind's discovery of the principle of ratios of force," Colette announces, looking sideways at Mo and J'onn in their newly cupcake-bedecked states. "Bo has discovered that if he chews a long enough lever he can move the cupcakes, an innovative example of formicidaean tool use that brings ants into the mechanical era."

    She pauses a moment for dramatic effect.

    "I say first prize should go to the ant."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Bo!" Madison hisses as ant-based chaos errupts. She was supposed to keep him out of trouble. "Get- get over here and eat your apples," she chastizes quickly - her cheeks only going redder when Colette draws more attention to her and Bo.
    "I'm sure he didn't mind to cause any trouble. He's really a very good ant and he never even removes any limbs, even though he could."

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan watches things play out in slow motion almost. Her emotions were teetering on a thread as it was and this...this was the LITERAL icing on the cupcake. "BAUDELAIRE!" she shouts, her voice echoing over the gym. And Morrigan usually never raised her voice. She then goes goes slipping across the floor to see if there is a turn off for the broken water fountain.

"Duncan, get maintenance please. Everyone, please steer clear. of this area for now..." she states as she looks to the kid that slipped. "Oh damn, are you alright?" she asks. That causes her to move her hands from the spouting water and she gets a face full. All of the joy that was in her eyes drains out, "Just stay calm..." she tells herself.

"If I can have everyones attention...while we're having a small crisis. Our science fair winner is Miss Madison Evans!" she calls out. "She'll be getting a fifty thousand dollar scholarship to the college of her choice." she gives a thumbs up in Madisons direction, only to get watered in the face again.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
It's funny how timing works out. Mike's back had been turned for much of the process that led to the cupcake in face, but upon the shouts of Bo's name, he turns around to look.

The pastery on J'onn's face is the final straw as the musician starts laughing.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison goes from dying with embarrassment as Morrigan shouts out the name of the ant - to freezing with a shocked look on her face. She did not just hear that right.
    But the shriek of shock and excitement from her mother seems to confirm it.
    Did she really hear that right?
    "I... I... I think I'm going to college, Bo," she murmurs quietly. How did that happen so suddenly? She's not even really a Sophmore yet!

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn accepts the cupcake to the face like a trooper, and blinks once. White frosting, green face, perfect compliment. The corner of his mouth quarks into a half smile over the antics of the ant, then he watches the cupcake hit Morrigan and that erases the smile. time to get serious.

Moving toward the fountain as well, he uses his telekinesis to aim the water back into it's own little drain for now. "No need to stress yourself Ms MacIntyre, this is easily taken care off," he offers calmly, already starting to gather the puddle up as well. Telekinses was a handy tool to have.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette raises an eyebrow slightly when the prize is announced - not because of the winner, but because of the size of the prize. She claps for the winner along with everyone else - even numerous parents who are fuming at the notion that their precious offspring were robbed of the valuable prize despite little Johnny's colored sugar crystals being /clearly/ the most scientific.

    When the cheering dies down she leans towards Madison and offers her congratulations. "Well done. Don't spend it all at one college. I still say it would have been fun if she'd given it to Bo though. Obviously your work is better, but just imagine the consternation amongst college admission boards that would be caused by a giant ant with a scholarship."

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein was planning on being here on time, really he was. The big man comes walking in, his dress shirt not tucked in the back, hands pulling his hair back into a pony tail as he walks through the door. There is a bit of a soot smudge on one of his cheeks, and if someone gets close to him, they may notice he smells of smoke. He looks about the room, and will try to get towards one of the walls and watch the rest of the goings on. They will believe the seven and a half foot tall red headed man was here the whole time, yea sure they will.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "That's //soooo// much money though," Madison whispers in a shocked voice. "And- and I broke the- oh gosh, I guess I can pay him back for the pressure gauge now. I mean, it seems silly to say I- I can't afford a little pressure gauge after I just won- gosh. Oh //gosh//. Did she really say the number right? Is she sure I one? Maybe- maybe she meant someone else's- I mean... I mean..."
    Yeah. We broke the Madison a little. Bo tries to boot her back up by bumping her repeatedly with his head. That's how you reboot people, right?

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn continues to contain the water until the crew gets there to turn the water off to the fountain itself, then he uses his abilities to just collect all the water up and floats it outside to water a large place in the lawn. Returning once that is done, he makes his way to Madison's project.

"Congratulations, Madison," he offers, hoping that his greenness does not upset her parents. "It is a very good project."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Having gotten his share of laughter out of the way, Mike walks over towards Madison. "Congrats Madison."

He reaches over to pat Bo on the head. "Did you enjoy doing the research?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison's mother has returned by now, and it hugging the ever loving crap out of her daughter in her excitement, which has prompted Madison to go from being shocked - right back into embarrassment. "Mom," she complains quietly - but as J'onn and Mike approaches, she adds a more insistant, "Moooooom," she finally gets her released. "Oh, umm, thank you," she says to both J'onn and Michael. "We, umm - we all had a blast. Me, and the ants, and everybody. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a //lot//. I had to do a bunch of math, and practice a lot of computer skills to make the displays and everything... It kept me busy."
    Madison's mother, for her part, doesn't seem put off by the green skin. When you have a daughter who thinks she's a Jedi, and you choose a school like this for her? Everything's relative. She just beams happily at the well wishers, a hand placed proudly on her daughter's shoulder. "We'll have to call your father when we get home," she suggests.
    "He'll be glad he doesn't have to pay for school."
    "Madison..."

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Maintenance finally gets the water to the fountain turned off. So Morrigan and Jonn aren't getting showers any more. Now there is just a growing puddle of water to be dealt with. Duncan heads over to Madison's table, "No, I'm pretty sure she said the name right." Morrigan's assistant tells her. "We'll get paperwork set up for you and things. So don't worry too much on things." he smiles.

"I've got a few more prizes to deliver, so you guys have a good time!" the tall man states with a little wave before he goes to visit Declan and Delia and others.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will head over towards Morrigan, avoiding any of the water that might still be on the floor "Um, sorry I was late, had a bit of an incident on the way over. He notices his shirt needs tucked in and he does so, was that red spandex under his shirt. "Got here as quick as I could but could not just ignore it you know?"

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"I think anyone would be glad not to have to have to worry about paying for college. It can be expensive." Mike points out. "It can be pretty expens-" He pauses, sniffing, "Was someone burning something?" He glances around looking towards the exhibits he'd yet to see.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "That's certainly true," Gladys replies with a friendly smile. Though she's quite sure that's not the only thing her teenage daughter meant by the comment.
    "I... well, Madison, I'm just delighted for you. I'm so excited. But I'm going to leave you to finish up here. And we'll- tomorrow, we'll go out to eat. Anywhere you like. We'll celebrate."
    Madison is left staring in her mother's wake. Anywhere she likes? "Did you hear that, Bo? I could even pick fast food if I wanted! She never lets me do that!"

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
Someone mentioned smelling burning, so J'onn is trying /not/ to look around, which means he is focused entirely on Madison because she is not on fire. The last thing he needs is to go through a wall, and he will, it's not exactly something he can control.

"I would suggest White Castle, they have delightful little burgers, Madison, that is if your mother will permit."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Well Natalie was wandering from exhibit to exhibit with her little coterie doing her normal School Bitch Queen act and there were a few sick burns, but that's probably not what you meant," Colette Says to Michael.

    She sniffs the air and looks around, her eyes falling on Albert. "Actually I think it might just be Tormund Giantsbane over there. Probably slacking off somewhere for a smoke."

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan gives a look to Albert, "It's alright, but good to see you." she tells him. The mention of smoke makes the woman raise a hand to rub at her face. Then she looks to Duncan, "Please...please have people calmly start getting stuff together. We'll need to clean this stuff up and make sure there isn't an actual fire anywhere." she tells him. Then she takes her soaked self towards the exit. Because she's not going to scream in the gym. She'll do that somewhere else.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein looks to Morrigan and says "Smoke is probably me." He admits. "Was a fire at an apartment building a few miles away and they needed help with some of the higher up apartments getting people out." He then turns and says "Looks like we had a good turn out. Nodding to Morrigan as she heads to get hetself cleaned up he figures.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I went to White Castle!" Madison declares eagerly. "With Spider-man!" There's a huge grin on her features at this admission. She leans in to stage-whisper, "He told me he thinks that people who have gifts, should use them to help others. That it's our obligation. Man - he's a pretty nice guy, don't you think? Saying stuff like that."

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn notes Albert's words and seems to relax, at least on the inside, on the outside nothing ever changed other than looiking at Madison for a very long time.

"Spider Man is correct," he offers to Madison, since he did start a conversation with her. "Those of us with the ability to aid others should do just that, thus why there are times when I cannot be at the school. I still serve as an active member of the Justice League."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As Albert fesses up to being the source of the smell, Mike looks over to him. "Helping out. Good reason for being late." He looks over to Madison. "The thing is everyone's got some type of gift. It's just a number don't seem to recognize them."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison looks over her shoulder towards her mother, then back to Michael and J'onn, shrugging her shoulder helplessly. "I just don't know that my mom much wants me, umm, using my gifts to help others. Like that. She doesn't want me getting hurt, you know? //Moms//." Like that says it all.
    It does say a lot.