caughtinanetwork | 003

[Ever since Bro arrived in Vatheon, he's been impressed by the amount of skilled techies. People are going around building robot dogs like it's no big deal and his younger alternate self was seen beating the shit out of a pretty goddamn amazing strifebot. This is the sort of thing that had always caught his interest when he was younger, even if he never made a real hobby out of it. It still catches his interest now.

So he decides to take the plunge and rekindle that old passion. It's never too late to gain more skills, especially when you know this is kinda your last chance to do so. He's got the perfect project in mind to get him started, too.]

so we got a lotta techies here right? the folks with the l33t skills and way too much free time on their hands. put down your screwdrivers and start reading.

in my world theres legend of a kickass device. born in the dark recesses of a hollywood directors mind and shaped by cheap special effects. it doesnt exist for real but boy howdy do fanboys cream their pants at the prospect of it being a thing. santa still gets like five hundred requests a year for these rad toys and he has to disappoint every single hopeful sap who asks. people have been trying to build this thing for decades but gravitys keeping them down. literally.

its called a hoverboard. not a rocketboard. not a skateboard. definitely not a surfboard. doesnt work over water anyway. its gotta hover like 10 inches above the ground.

but were not on my world anymore and i think the brilliant minds here can make a legit hoverboard. and show me how the fuck youre making the hovering work because ive got nothing.

so what say you?

[...]

p.s. if you use magic to make it hover youre disqualified. were defying laws of nature with science here so wizards need not apply.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

yeah. portable and light is kinda vital for a hoverboard. were probably better off with some kinda battery.

Maybe something solar powered, or that can harness the wind. [pauses] It probably needs to do that anyway to work without being heavy.

well. thing is.

its gotta work in the bubble too. real sunlights pretty damn minimal down there and its the same for wind. unless it takes the power and stores it somewhere that kinda clean energy is a no go.

I didn't think about that. Not used to the whole bubble thing yet.

Most of what I've made runs on wind, magic fuel, wind up mechanisms and steam power. Us demigods are really into clean energy.

wow. youre a demigod. ok. thats cool i guess.

steams out. wind up sounds like a pain for hoverboards. you wanna avoid running outta juice and crashing.

It has its perks.

I'm not talking about those dinky little wind-up toys, dude. Full on clockwork mechanisms. With the right set-up the power could last quite awhile.

yeah? so how big would the mechanism be? cause im picturing cogs the size of a manhole cover.

[He's never had to explain demigod technology to anyone before.]

I know, you'd think so, right? But I work with this stuff called celestial bronze. It's mined from Mount Olympus which makes it kind of magical, but not like abracadabra magical.

So you have to have skill to make things with it. Because of it's elemental awesomeness it's able to do some cool things. Festus, the 60 ton celestial bronze dragon I repaired was huge, could fly, breathe fire and fold himself up into a rolling suitcase. It still weighed the same, but it got compact.

Festus is on the high end of the scale. Now Buford is a steam powered table and he's able to walk around, fly and store things in his drawer. He's not very big, but he could probably support my weight if I flew on him.

So if I were to come up with the right design and had access to celestial bronze, I could definitely make a clockwork hover board without huge cogs. And it could probably fold up and fit in my pocket.

[What. Bro's vaguely wondering if this kid is messing with him, now. Those anecdotes are odd even by his standards.]

really. a bronze dragon that folds itself into a suitcase. steam powered tables that can fly.

uh.

ok assuming all this is legit. can you get celestial bronze from the nostalgia nook? or is that shit gonna be hella expensive?

Dirk said I might be able to get some there. Gotta get some dinero for it first. I don't think it would be too expensive. My dad, Hephaestus, tends to throw out huge chunks of it when something he makes doesn't turn out how he wants. I found some in the Great Salt Lake once.

And if you don't believe me, you can come over and meet Buford for yourself. He's here with me.

no man. ill take your word for it. if you say theres a flying table. theres a goddamn flying table.

so good luck getting enough dough to pay for the bronze. i dunno what the best way is to go about that. some kinda job i guess. or maybe cheat at the casino.

Thanks, bro. [No, he does not know that's his name.] I'll come up with some way to get some. See you at the collab party.

yeah. see you there.

ill be the tall guy with the badass shades and the impressive cheese whiz title.

Cool. I'll be the short kid with the awesome tool belt.

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