8156/The Engineer, the Student and the Castle

The Engineer, the Student and the Castle
Date of Scene:	07 October 2021
Location:	Belvedere Castle
Synopsis:	Mairin learned about Demoona's van and invited her to show it off at the University.
Cast of Characters:	Mairin Moran, Susan Sullivan

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Mairin Moran has posed:
    The castle isn't very busy at this time on a weekday, and that's exactly why Mairin has picked it as a place to get away from her office and the labs. She has spread herself out under a tree near enough to the castle to use it for inspiration, and far enough away to avoid most of what few people there are. She has a blanket, a large Harry Potter affair, and upon it she has placed her lunch, including a thermos of tea, and several books, papers, notebooks, and binders.

    It's a perfect place to work, with plenty of shade, as long as you don't mind the occasional bee.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona is easy to spot. While she covers herself up, her choice of face covering is quite recognizable. As she walks past Mairin's little spot toward the castle, she seems to notice the nerdy blanket, staring at it. She looks at Mairin as she passes, stopping as she notices her. "Hey, you're the robotics lady!" the speaker in her gas mask relays, enthusiastically.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    The sound startles Mairin who, as always, was completely engrossed in her work. But when she looks up, it is with a smile. "Oh, hello again." There's absolutely no chance she would forget Demona, even if she failed to catch her name. She begins casually shifting a few slips of paper into binders and closing them. "Did you have a good tour of the Metelwaorking Lab?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Good enough," Demona says. "It's not the most up-to-date thing, and there's some equipment in there older than I am, but there's also the most amazing 3D CNC machine. I watched it cut a ball joint!" she gushes about the equipment. "Crazy!" she insists.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin laughs. "I've used that machine before. Be careful with it, it's fairly tempermental. Has a tendancy to want to just do its own thing unless you're very specific about what you want." She leans back, bracing herself with her hands behind her as she looks up at Demona. "Was it good enough to get you to apply?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona plops herself down across from Mairin just past the edge of her blanket. "Naw," she says. "I'd have to take math and english and stuff like that. I'm technically not a mutant, so any incentive the college is providing them don't apply to me; I'm a non-traditional student, since I'll be 30 in November; I do actually have people coming to me randomly and asking me to do machining and repair for them, so I'd have to figure out what's appropriate to use school equipment for and what I need to keep up my makerspace membership--" She shakes her head. "--it's just a big ol' hairy mess of stuff. I DO probably want to get a BS in Mechanical Engineering at some point, but as this semester's already started, I would be behind for anything serious like that."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Yes, there is the downside of having to take all of the classes you don't want to. Trust me, I didn't enjoy my English classes either." She shakes her head in obvious distaste, "But there are benifits that outweigh the negatives." She gestures to a QUantum Theory textbook next to her. "Still, I understand if you can't comit to it right now. I've always felt like it isn't worth it to do something halfway. Either put your full effort into it, or wait. Or maybe find something that you *can* put your full effort into." She pauses, her eyes taking Demona in, before asking the obvious question. "So why the mask?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Well, I mentioned that I'm not /technically/ a mutant," Demona reiterates. She reaches up and unclips the gas mask straps. She pulls it and her stocking cap off, revealing her complete lack of hair, her long, sharp, pointed ears, her pointed teeth, and her pale skin with the faint lines of her veins tracing through. She's still got beautiful features, but they're hidden almost like she's wearing makeup for a movie. "I'm not ashamed of my appearance," the woman says as a butterfly lands on her head. "Some people still have stronger reactions to my messed up face than they do to the mask."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin's only reaction to the reveal is a slight intensifying of look of curiosity she already wore. "It makes sense. I don't personally care. But I can see how other people would. I can't say why... People are people as far as I'm concerned. Some of us just have the benifit of *looking* like everyone else." She gives a rather conspiritorial smile. "Have you always looked this way? You say it's not a mutation... Is it natural in some way?" Her question, while possibly rude, are asked with complete innocent curiosity.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona begins putting her mask back on. "So, you know all the super villain stuff going on in the world?" she asks. Her mask goes over her face, and with a practiced movement of her hand, it's latched back in place. Her hands move her stocking cap, already vaguely where it should be. As she tugs it over her ears, she concludes, "I was attacked. I had to work hard to get back to looking /this/ normal," she confesses.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Who..." She starts to ask, but then a tiny voice in her head tells her that this is probably not polite and didn't we talk about this already? How we were supposed to stop pestering people with questions?

    Instead, she just shrugs and leans back again. She wasn't even aware she'd been leaning forward. "So Where are you living?" Ok. Not *as* nosey at least.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona ignores the almost-question and answers the latter. "I'm pretty mobile, actually," she says. "I've got everything I need in a van I converted to electric and put solar cells on. It's actually pretty badass. I even made my own mattress and stuffed it with rice. That one's unique to me. It's not particularly comfortable, but it helps me when I'm meditating."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Interesting. What kind of power transfer rate are you getting on the cells? And what kind of battaries are you using? You know, I would love to take a look at it, see if I could refine the design at all. Maybe get a little bit more efficiency out of the power system."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona shakes her head for some reason. "Nothing beyond normal off-the-shelf stuff. I burned all my savings to make it. I'd LOVE to have a house with a big solar farm and a hydrogen storage pool, but right now, it's just the same cells they use in priuses, albeit more of them. The van only goes 40, but it doesn't have a gas engine, so I feel pretty earth-friendly. If you want to look at it, it's a bit of a walk, but we could go check it out."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She looks around at her spread, obviously giving that serious thought. She hasn't had a chance to work on something like that in a long time. But in the end she shakes her head. "I better not. Not right now at any rate. Besides, I wouldn't have all the gear I need to do it justice." She pauses, "Tell you what though... Why don't you bring it by the University? I have a Circuits class I would love to show it to. And then I could really see how I could help you." She laughs, "You never know, I might be able to get it to go fifty."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Actually, it's probably pretty easy to get it to go faster," Demona says. "I'm using a motor I put in where the original engine was. It's even using the original transmission. If I had the money, I'd put in-hub motors in it. They're more efficient, I'd get more torque, and I would probably get it to go faster."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "That you would. But those are a little more difficult to work with. Getting the differntial right can be tricky." She shrugs, "But I'll be the first to admit I'm not much of a car person. Most of my designs are geared more toward... things with arms." She grins. "But a lot of the same masic mechanics are there." She pauses... "But I notice you didn't answer the question. Would you like to show off your homeade electric vehicle to some Freshman and Sophmores who think they're all that?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona smiles so broadly, her eyes show it off. "I would love to one up your sophomores," she says.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Excellent! Come by on Wednesday, at 1:30. To the Engineering building. The same one I took you to last time." She writes this down as she's saying it, in a planner that has so many sticky notes hanging out of it that it's hard to tell where the actual pages end. "Oh.. and what is your name?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Demona," Demona says, standing. She brushes grass bits off her bottom.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She jots this down as well. "Well, Demona. I look forward to it. Some of them in particular have been just impossible. Kids of other engineers are always the worst to teach." She holds out a hand, "And feel free to look me up at the University any time. I'm usually in one of the labs. Just ask any of the Engineering Professors for me."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Will do!" Demona says with a thumbs up. "It was nice seeing you again, professor!" she says, taking some steps back. "I'll see you on campus!" She moves toward the castle once more.