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#Post#: 988--------------------------------------------------
Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Clarity Date: January 31, 2014, 1:08 pm
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2 jugs of milk, 3 blocks of caramel, a head of lettuce, 7
bananas, a jar of paprika, 3 pounds of baking soda, and a can of
jalapeno bean chili in one saddlebag, the other full of oats.
That's what Clarity brings with her on the way to Haywire's
workshop, the site of her securing of the resoundingly
successful speakers from the dance the previous night. Or at
least that's what she heard about them. Once she could hear
right again. Mostly. It would be another day or so before her
ears stopped ringing, but it was totally worth it. Even with
her hearing impaired, it had still been loud enough for her to
hear herself through it, and that was a triumph. And triumphs
deserved pay. She never really had discussed payment with the
green stallion, but there had been several notes on his machine
that talked about things he needed. Not that she remembered all
of them, or probably even got all of them right that she did
remember, but it's the thought that counts, right?
Speaking of thoughts, hers aren't entirely on the present when
she reaches the boundary of where those who know better fear to
tread for the certainly not that real/okay, maybe
possible/actually might be very probable danger of some lathe
gone wrong popping up from the ground and snagging their tails
before dragging them north 37 yards and then stopping, all to
the accompaniment of confetti. Some well-meaning mare calls out
to her to stop, then rushes forward to stop her when she
doesn't, but can't bring herself to cross the almost-visible
point of no return, instead turning and clearing the
certainly-doomed young yellow mare from her memory. The poor
soul.
It all escapes Clarity as she marches absentmindedly towards the
workshop, already planning on how her mechanical otter would
impress all her friends and win her a place as their superior,
the envy of all those snobs. And then they'd befriend Clair in
hopes of getting in her good graces, but she'd just smile down
on them and laugh. Laugh all day, every day, because that's the
best way to keep one's coat and skin shiny and young, and isn't
that the point of life? Really?
No, but it's fun to think of sometimes. She hardly realizes
when she almost walks past her destination, stopping when she's
passing by the platform she'd helped Haywire get down from
previously. It's surrounded by tools and parts strewn across
the ground (is that a toaster? What would a toaster do in a
machine? And if it's not a toaster, what is it?), several
panels missing, the holes in it surrounded by little notes.
Needs more power. says one. Underneath, another says Ignore the
first note. A few more are under that one. Ignore that note
instead. Just ignore all of these, look at a different set.
Definitely more power.
Clarity giggles and turns around, headed to the door of the
workshop where she gives it 4 firm knocks, humming under her
breath. And then she realizes she's eating one of the blocks of
caramel she'd brought with her. No, she was bringing it for- Oh
well, she's already bitten off half of it, and she had two mor-
No, just one. She's eaten one of them already. It's good
caramel.
#Post#: 997--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Haywire Date: January 31, 2014, 3:21 pm
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"No no no no no no no no no!" Haywire repeated over and over,
pulling levers and mashing buttons on a device almost as big as
he was and shaped sort of like an egg laying on its side where
the normal curve cut into a small flat area so as to keep it
from rolling around. The egg thing looked to be made of similar
materials as the Lifty machine that continued to pout outside of
the workshop, it having a rectangular shaped hatch on its side
with the control panel, covered in unnecessary blinking lights
of course, Haywire was frantically operating set next to it. A
small buzzy noise was coming from a particularly large red glowy
bulb at the top of the control panel, It serving as a warning
that the thing it was attached too was having a few... Problems.
"No no no no no no no!" Hay continued to say, watching as
several gauges on the face of the panel went rather nuts, their
needles darting this way and that like a confused pony trying to
pretend like he knew what he was talking about while giving
directions to another confused pony. A sharp whistle was
beginning to build and cone from somewhere on the machine, it
just making Hay's ears pin back both from the noise and the
meaning behind it. Nearby, perched above all of this at what was
probably as safe a distance as possible without abandoning the
workshop itself, Bubo watched with quick glances being casted
from over the tops of the mechanical wings he was hiding his
head behind, him preparing for the worse but ready to face
whatever crazy results may come from this malfunction alongside
his creator. "No no no... and... no?" He finished with a few
more button presses, the way he ended his sentence sounding like
a request more than an exclamation of things going wrong as he
waited to see if his egg thing would do him a solid and quiet
down.
Do him a solid it did, much to his relief, as the whistling
began to fade and the glowing bulb at the top of the panel
started to dim, the buzz it was giving off falling silent as the
inventor relaxed and sat down to breath a sigh of relief. Once
sure everything was back under control, he looked up to the
metal bird above him, Bubo folding back his wings and staring at
the egg with what Haywire could only assume was suspicion over
whether it would act up again so soon. "See?" He said with a
smile, standing up and putting his hoof onto the handle for the
eggs hatch, "no problem. Just had to remind it that exploding
wasn't what it was built for." With a short chuckle, the earth
pony gave the handle a tug, only to end up jerking his body
forward as it refused to budge. Giving a couple more pulls, the
last few assisted by his other hoof, Haywire groaned then
scrunched his face up at the stubborn thing, him trying to guess
how long this could take as Bubo dropped down from his perch and
tried to land on his creators shoulder, the mechanical bird
missing his mark almost completely as he suffered a spasm and
instead crashed on the ground nearby.
Meanwhile, outside, the visitor at Haywire's door would be
greeted with a small cube next to the entrance opening up with a
small puff of confetti, a party horn being blown out with a thin
length of segmented metal rolling put and locking itself into a
straight line to keep the horn from rolling back into a ball. At
the end was attached a small piece of fabric with "Hi! Be with
you in a sec!" Sewn into it along with a small smiley face set
below the words grinning happily at the pony knocking.
"Oh!" Hay exclaimed at the sound of knocking at his door, Bubo
recovering at around this time and fluttering up to his shoulder
after a few failed attempts to get off of the ground, "We got
company! Awesome! Somepony came to visit!" He almost cheered,
Bubo giving a flutter of his mechanical wings in response as
they both did so enjoy having company given how rare individuals
were to venture to the workshop in the middle of this small
"danger zone" of the city.
"One moment, be right there!" He called out, giving his egg one
more quick look over to make sure it would stay calm before
bounding off towards the door, Bubo almost losing his balance
and falling off as the small green stallion hurried to greet his
visitor. Swinging his front door open with enthusiasm, Haywire's
already present grin only widened when he saw who it was
outside, "Oh, hi, Clarity!" He greeted, noticing the caramel she
was eating and suddenly starting to think about desserts himself
as Bubo gave a short cry as a "hello" of his own, "what's up?"
#Post#: 1003--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Clarity Date: January 31, 2014, 11:55 pm
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Clarity hops backward from the festive automated greeting with a
small "Eek!" almost dropping her caramel, fumbling for it. It
doesn't hit the ground, and she sighs in relief as she takes
another bite. Why did caramel run out so quickly? She hadn't
bought nearly enough, and she'd almost lost the rest she dared
eat. She peers at the popout greeting closely, chewing
thoughtfully. Well that's a neat little touch. Smart with
style, that's the kind of pony this one clearly is. Definitely
relationship material, and friendzone material even if he wasn't
interested. How old is he? Not too much older, is he?
No time for that now, he's coming out. "Hey, Hay," she says
around the tasty mass in her mouth, giving a little wave to
Haywire and giggling at her joke again. Gee, that's really
gold, isn't it? "How'd you put this thing together? And is it
much of a bother to refill? If you get a lot of visitors...Oh,
right," she says, not waiting for an answer. The rest of the
caramel goes into her mouth, and she gestures to her saddlebags.
"I brough' fum fpuff av pehmen' foe" She swallows. "We didn't
discuss payment for using your speakers, so I brought some stuff
for you. They were covered in sticky notes, so I just took some
inspiration from those. I'm not sure I remembered everything
right, and I'm not sure if that note said caramel, carmel, or
camel, but whatever. Have some stuff."
"Oh, by the way, I heard they were absolutely great. Sorry I
didn't stick around, but J-Mom said that was some real quality
sound! She'd know, too, she's a performer."
#Post#: 1016--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Haywire Date: February 1, 2014, 5:51 pm
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Hay's mouth had opened so as to immediately answer Clarity's
question regarding the little gizmo that had greeted her, but it
closed back up when she continued without said answer having a
chance to be given. Tilting his head a little to the side as her
words were muffled by delicious, the inventor lightly brushed
his hoof up the outer side of his door frame, him finding the
party horn without taking his eyes away from the folly as he
multitasked trying to decipher what she was saying and giving
the small thin length of metal a tug in the correct way needed
to let it roll back up, the horn doing just that as it balled
its way back into the small cube it inhabited, the little door
for it closing itself in preparation for the next visitor.
"Payment?" He echoed, thinking back to when they'd discussed her
using of his sound system for her dance, "... Huh... I guess we
didn't..." Hmm... Actually, thinking back, Haywire suspected
that he, at the time, probably saw the chance of showing off his
sound system as payment enough, but he couldn't recall if he'd
ever mentioned that to the filly. And wait a second... Haywire
didn't remember any sticky notes on his sound system. Silly
filly, Haywire was certain he never put sticky notes on his
inventions. Meanwhile, Bubo had distracted himself from the twos
conversation by trying his best to peck as a small slip of paper
tapped to his back apparently meant to remind a certain stallion
that he needed to take a look at the mechanical birds wings
soon.
Then suddenly Hays brain decided to translate Clarity's "I
brought some stuff for you" as "presents! Presents for you!"
Then her "have some stuff" as "dude, did you not hear how I
brought you presents!" "Oh!" Hay said with hos grin wider,
giving almost a small bounce on his hooves in excitment, Bubo
flapping his wings to steady himself once more as he was pulled
from his vain quest to remove the note from hos back, "What did
you bring?" Hearing the next few things mentioned, Hay sat down
and nodded. "Yeah, she and I spoke when you disappeared. She was
really nice, helped me with tearing the system down when I was
taking it back apart. I'm happy it worked out so well. Also,
I've been wondering, where'd you go to after we got the system
working? I don't think I saw you at all for the rest of the
dance."
#Post#: 1020--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Clarity Date: February 1, 2014, 9:19 pm
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Clarity gives...Bubble? Was that its name? Whatever. She
gives it a curious glance. "I don't suppose that thing eats or
anything, does it? It's not like a real bird, is- Oh, right,
your stuff. Could I come in? Is there somewhere I can put this
down?" She steps into the workshop and past Haywire, looking
for some kind of fridge or something to put the perishables in.
"Got you some milk, a treat, salad fixins, um..." Is paprika a
spice or an herb? "...a jar of stuff, baking soda, and some
spicy chili. Also some oats, if you're into those. And really,
who..." She trails off as she catches sight of the egg-shaped
contraption in the center of the room. "...isn't..." It's in
the center of the room. That means it's important, right? This
she has to see.
She takes off her saddlebags and places them onto the floor next
to...something, standing up and rectangular, and that's what a
fridge is, right? Right. "I had to leave because J-Mom made me
go to the hospital after I got a headache. Big waste of time,
if you ask me. I mean, like, you were right next to it and
you're fine. I'll just have some ringing in my ears for a
while, nothing big, and also? So. Worth it. That was the best
reveal I've ever heard." She grins as she distractedly walks
over to and around the eggy thing in the center of the room.
"So what's this? Some kind of food-maker? Looks like it may be
a bit hard-boiled. It's not supposed to be food itself, is it?
Oh, wouldn't that be so cool? Something that makes food but you
can also eat it?" She shakes her head in disbelief. "Where do
you get these ideas?"
#Post#: 1026--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Haywire Date: February 2, 2014, 11:15 am
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Hay happily nodded at Clarity's request, him stepping back and
holding his hoof out in a welcoming gesture for her to coke
inside and make herself comfortable. "Sure, anywhere is fine,"
he answered her before taking a breath to explain his birds
stance when it came to being fed... the inventor then stopping
short and casting a glance up at the bird on his shoulder with a
slightly confused look in time to catch the mechanical avian's
head's own tilt of confusion back at him, both seeming to ask
the other if they actually knew the answer to that question
before being forced to side step the query for now as they would
need to look into it later.
Hearing what the young mare had brought him as payment for the
use of his sound system, Haywire furrowed his brow in confusion
again. He was quite happy to hear the gift was a bundle of
perishables for him to enjoy, especially since he only now
realized that he'd forgotten to eat anything for that day again,
and even more especially at the mention of something being
considered a "treat", his mind jumping back to the caramel shed
been eating moments ago (or could it possibly even be a B.2?
Dare we dream!?). However, the confusion came from whether he
needed the food or not, Haywire glancing off in the direction of
the room closest to being considered a "kitchen" the door
leasing to it on the far side of this bigger main room of his
workshop being cracked open just enough for him to see the wide
open cupboards on the other side, the rather bare naked sight of
them causing him to blink as he could only barely see the
colorful wrapping of a few packages of instant noodles waiting
for him.... Now that he thought about it, Hay couldn't even
remember the last time he'd gone grocery shopping...
Learning the reason behind Clarity's disappearance during the
dance, Hays ears drooped in worry and, once he put the pieces
together, guilt. Did... his sound system send her to the
hospital? Haywire dropped his gaze to the floor, him then
staring at his hooves as he started to feel really bad about
what his invention had done, the idea of causing others harm
being the worst possible thing in Hay's mind. Clarity's claim
that shed been fine and that the trip had been a waste of time,
as well as her believing that the ringing plaguing her was worth
it for the systems quality, did some to help, but Haywire still
found it a little difficult to look back up at her.
"Hm?" He hums in response to her interest in his egg thingie,
him looking up at the invention but not her then trying to use
it as a distraction from how he was feeling, "oh, that? I'm not
sure what it wants to be yet from how its been behaving. First I
thought it was going to do well in acting as a refrigeration
unit or possibly for flash freezing whatever was put inside to
make packaging and preparing stuff for transport easier, but its
also been going a bit nuts to mess with me by doing the exact
opposite of what I want, instead starting to act more like an
oven. Still useful in its own way, and I'd be happy to call it
an oven with how good it is at evenly distributing heat, but it
needs to decide on one of these paths first before I can move on
in its development." He walked up to the egg, him glancing over
the control panel before hooking his hoof around the handle of
its hatch and giving it another tug, it still refusing to budge
despite the small stallions efforts. "Nope..." He said with a
grunt, letting go and stepping back to give the entire invention
a once over, "still frozen... I was able to flip it back to cold
before you came by, but it decided to apparently freeze its own
insides and jam the hatch shut. So now I need to either wait or
fond a way to thaw it from this side." At her last question, he
just smiled and shrugged.
#Post#: 1041--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Clarity Date: February 3, 2014, 5:35 pm
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"Frozen shut? That's no good! Here, let me try." Clarity
grabs the hatch herself and sets a hind hoof against the
indecisive machine, then pulls against it. It doesn't budge.
She sets the other hind hoof against it with the other and pulls
again. "Graaaagafragginack!" she grunts in exertion as she
pulls, getting nowhere. Why did she think she'd be able to open
it, again? "Nope," she pants out to Haywire as she stands back
down on the floor. "That thing's stuck tighter than my Delaney
doll when I got superglue in her mane." She wipes some sweat
from her brow and then begins circling it, looking it over.
"Shame. If you could get it to decide, which one would you
want? Or!" she grins at Hay and rubs her hooves together.
"What if you could get it to do both? Not both at once, of
course, but what if you could use it to freeze some food, then
when you were ready to eat it, it would cook it, too? Like some
kind of a..." She taps the side of her head, thinking.
"...Refrovenator? Ovedge? Zappy Fradgemast- Okay, I'm out of
ideas."
She gives another absent-minded pull to the hatch before sighing
and leaning against it. "But if it freezes like this every time
if you want to use it and you need to wait for it to thaw, I
can't really see that being an awesome thing. How long will it
take for however much freeze is-" Her eyes widen as she looks
to the door...or near it, anyway. "Say, didn't you say that
thing there sometimes shoots flames out? Could we use that to
unfreeze it?"
#Post#: 1046--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Haywire Date: February 4, 2014, 12:02 am
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Haywire watched as the young mare tried to encourage his
currently internally frozen egg to open up by giving it a few
tugs of her own, the egg remaining stubborn however as it seemed
to not budge in the slightest, probably also giggling to itself
as it enjoyed not only Hay's failure to best it but now also the
young ante who'd made the mistake of underestimating its steely
endurance by thinking she stood a chance. Ha! Meanwhile, Hay was
quite certain now that he would never be able to open that thing
using his bare hooves, him thinking back to how Clarity had been
able to jump from the street outside all the way up to a roof
and figuring that meant she was much much stronger than he. If
it couldn't be opened the regular way, they'd need to get
creative...
Bubo fluttered off of Hay's shoulder and over to the handle of
the hatch on the egg, him landing on it and using it as a good
spot for keeping an eye on both of the ponies, as well as
discouraging them from trying to pull it open again through
brute strength and possibly harking themselves. "I usually let
my inventions decide on what direction they want to go in on
their own," Hay answered as he walked closer to the egg, "I
often just start throwing stuff together as ideas come to me and
work out the details as I go, so I'd be happy with either the
hot or cold path... Both?" He echoed, giving the egg a curious
look as he wondered if it could be possible to perform such hot
and cold sorcery through science, "hmm.. now there's an idea...
Maybe that's what it wants?" He questioned, giving the egg a tap
of his hoof and smiljg a little, "maybe it just wants to be able
to do both... A chilling hot box. A chillot box, maybe... Heh.
"Huh?" He replied at the mention of hos invention near the door,
"oh, yeah! Good thinking! That might at least be a good thing to
start with." The little green stallion rounded about to the
other side of the egg with a few bounds of hos hooves, him then
eagerly pressing both of hos front hooves against its side and
pushing with all of his strength, the egg... not budging in the
least as it remained unimpressed. Meanwhile, Bubo looked to be
preening his wings while casting the occasional glance Hay's way
to check on him. Whether or not the preening was actually doing
anything for his mechanical wings or if it was just something
Bubo did for its own amusement was hard to say.
#Post#: 1056--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Clarity Date: February 4, 2014, 12:59 pm
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Let it choose for itself? Is he listening to what he's saying?
Hah. Imagine if their fridge could choose one day to be a
furnace. Why, that's about as preposterous as...
Her eyes fall on Bribble. About as far-fetched as a mechanical
bird that seems to have personality. Though that could just as
easily be a golem or something, but making it with just wires,
metal, and power? Nonsense. Yeah, it must be something like
that. Maybe she could get J- or T-mom to scan it or something
sometime.
"Here, let me help with that." She hops over it onto the other
side with him, the tip of her hoof contacting it and nearly
sending her faceplanting when she lands. "Garglefrabbit!" she
pseudo-swears, rubbing her hoof. "This fraggin'
egg-freezesplosion thingie." Grumbling and grunting, she sets
her shoulder against it and begins pushing, sliding it across
the floor towards the flame-breathing apparatus. "Oh, you
missed a spot there, Bubsie."
#Post#: 1064--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tech Tock, Would You Look at the Time?
By: Haywire Date: February 4, 2014, 7:16 pm
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Haywire, at Clarity's offer of assistance, paused his vain
shoving of the egg-a-thing, him sighing and stepping back to
allow her a chance to try. When she nearly fell after her jump
though, Hay gasped a little, his face showing concern as he
reached out a hoof to help steady he'd but having it be for
nothing after she was able to recover on her own. Sighing again,
this time out of relief that he hadn't gotten the young mare
hurt again, something that seemed to be a bit of a pattern
actually if he thought about it, he just scuffed his hoof on the
floor for a moment as he watched her have a much better time
moving his own invention. Hmm... maybe he could design some kind
of exoskeleton that would let him be as strong as other bigger
ponies... Would really help a lot around here given how heavy
the materials he used always were. Meh. He always found a way to
manage, so that wasn't something he needed to have as a
priority. At least not right now. Maybe he'd start brainstorming
ok it next week or something.
"Bubsie?" Hay echoed in confusion, Bubo from his hatch handle
looking up from his wing and tilting his head in equal confusion
at the mare. Both he and Haywire then glanced about for a few
seconds wondering if sued brought somepony with her or
something, and that that somepony also just happened to be a
ninja and possibly a ghost. Bubo then shut down, him locking up
and then falling forward where he bounced off of the egg and
fell past Clarity and onto the floor. "Thanks you for the help,"
Haywire spoke up as they journeyed across the room, the
invention they sought on the other side giving off a kind of
hiss of anticipation while the egg remained stoic and not
intimidated in the least, "this would have probably taken me
forever on my own. Or at least as long as it would have taken to
develop that exoskeleton thing in my brain. If you keep showing
up and helping out around here, I might just have to start
trying to find ways to pay you back." He chuckled, noting how
the only two times shed been to his workshop she had also been
somehow roped into helping him with something.
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