When it's not enough to do the math. [Open]

[vaudevil]

Date & Time: Tuesday during the day
Location: On top of the Initiative hold building.
Characters: Lee Chaolan and YOU!!
Summary: Building a vortex concussion cannon Phase 1: There is a lot of math involved in building a kite that is needed to calculate distance.
Warnings: Probably some weirdness.

Lee spent a better part of the day in his room cutting and stitching material to a collapsible frame that he constructed. The kite appeared nothing more than just a kite but the light aluminum frame suggested something that this wasn't just some ordinary recreational gadget.

With his notes started on the build and how high it could go, the math alone was astounding. His legs were crossed on the bed as he continued his work.

----

An hour had passed and after a good meal to keep up his strength and a harness to keep himself from going off the edge of the roof, the kite was airborne. It took a great deal of strength in his arms to keep the kite from being torn out of his hands the higher he sent it up. "Okay, you're getting a little heavy now." He grunted through the pull.

He wrapped his arm around the heavy cable of nylon rope that had knots to determine distance. "Shit, this is massive." Despite the cool weather, he was beginning to sweat. Thankfully, he had the foresight to wear gloves otherwise he would have lost his grip and the whole project would have to start all over again.

He counted the knots as the kite took more tether. Since it required both arms to keep it in the air, Lee knew what he was getting into.

Comments

[ghostling]

Ghost was doing her usual wandering around thing. Her connection to the Nether allowed her to know when anyone was close by and typically she would go the opposite direction but this was the roof so curiosity got the best of her. The sight of Lee and his kite made her pause.

"What...are you doing?" She was wearing her uniform and mask, big surprise.

[vaudevil]

"Flying a kite." Lee winced from the pressure caused by the line. He recognized that voice but turning around now would break his concentration. The harness that held him was tight. With his feet planted firm, his body was almost at a complete lay-back position with his torso at an angle.

"It's a lot harder than it looks." Another twist to give the kite more line, "That's two thousand feet and it's still not in. This could take a while."

[ghostling]

"I see that." She took a few steps toward him, gaze turning up toward the kite. "Would you like assistance?"

[vaudevil]

"Yeah, this is really starting to hurt. Could you cut the lines when I say to? It's going to be about another-WHOA!" He suddenly felt the line slacken and the kite shifted in direction. He wasn't expecting that and there was no way to stop it.

"No, no, no!! It's getting away!" The only chance he had to save it was to bring in the lines and fast. "Help me bring in the lines!" His hands desperately worked the lines. This wasn't going according to plan.

[ghostling]

Ghost had been about to respond when his kite shifted on him. She quickly moved forward and took hold of the lines. She began pulling them in as easily as one would pull in regular sized kite. Although it was an effort that was causing quite a bit of strain on her. Hopefully she'd be able to make it through before she completely lost her grip on her arms.

[vaudevil]

The fall the kite would suffer would be catastrophic. He was caught on the harness and there was no way of running to get it lest he wants to take a flying lesson that he obviously studied gravity for it to work. Like Ghost, he was desperate to keep it airborne. The wind caught it again and this time it jerked in his hand with enough force to nearly rip the palm of his gloves.

"Whew, that was close. Thanks." The color coded knots told him they were right back in the five hundred feet range which made him sigh. His arms were already hurting from the constant pressure and he winced again.

"What brings you up to the roof? There isn't much to see, you know." He managed to stabilize the kite once again.

[ghostling]

She waited until she was sure he had the kite back under control before releasing her grip on it. Just in time too, her arms flickered and nearly vanished but she somehow managed to keep her hold.

"Can't leave any stone unturned. Figured I might as well see all there is to see." It was close enough to the truth. She was actually looking for good places where she could just be alone and relax if she wanted. So far she wasn't finding that many.

"So, you're doing more than just flying kite. What is it exactly?"

[vaudevil]

The welts on his arms from the line was starting to burn again but he needed to keep that hold. Again, he wrapped his arms in the lines the same way he had before. They proved effective in steady flight for stunt flying when he used to do this at the beach back home. He never attempted to fly one this high before and it had to be large. The kite was nearly the size of a small car.

"Measuring cloud distance. Once the kite vanishes, it's better to cut it loose. I won't be able to recover it from that distance. Anyway," he grunted from the pain, "I'm in the process of building a vortex concussion cannon and in order to do that, I have to check for distance. Otherwise, it would be a useless and noisy thing."

[ghostling]

"Vortex concussion cannon..." Beneath her mask Ghost raised a brow and frowned a bit. She had no idea what that was. While the words were obvious to her sometimes you could never be sure what exactly something would do, no matter what name it was given. Of course, that was something she learned from a technopath that liked to give her creations the most ridiculous names.

"I see." The young woman paced back and forth as she watched him. She remained close enough that she could cut the lines when he told her to. "So what exactly does this cannon do?"

[hisokathemagician]

Hisoka leapt lightly onto the roof. His eyes followed the kite string skyward, then returned to Lee; his expression was one of mild curiosity and a kind of vague amusement, though from what source this latter sprang from was not immediately clear.

"A kite? Did you make it yourself?" The rope certainly looked heavy-duty enough. And it looked like keeping the thing aloft was something of a strain on Lee, but he didn't approach closely enough to offer the man a hand. That wasn't the sort of labor one would engage in just for fun, was it?

[vaudevil]

Lee couldn't turn to face the new voice just yet. It took a great deal of effort to just keep the kite from ripping out of his grip. "Yes. Ironically, I used to fly stunt and sport kites back home."

It wouldn't be something that Lee would ask for help on. If it was offered, that's a different matter. The higher the kite flew, the harder the pressure. Gloved hands kept their tight grip on the lines.

[hisokathemagician]

Hisoka touched a slender fingertip to his temple. "What an unusual skill. I can see why you'd want to keep it up. ♦"

Not why Lee would have developed the skill in the first place, of course, but there were all kinds.

[vaudevil]

Lee winced from the tightening of the rope but it didn't stop him from his mission. Unusual or not, this had a purpose. Without having the powers to fly, nor did he want to risk sending anyone up into a potentially toxic cloud cover, at the very least he could measure the distance for the build of the cannons.

He couldn't help but manage a soft chuckle. "It certainly came in handy this time. Actually, it was more of a hobby than a skill. Same goes for hang gliding and para-sailing." Both of those would come in handy too one of these days. He wasn't about to mention the base-jumping just yet.

[hisokathemagician]

Hisoka pulled out his deck of solitaire cards, shooting them in a wide arc from his right hand to his left, then back again. The motion was effortless.

"It doesn't look as though there's much opportunity for parasailing at the moment."

[vaudevil]

Silver eyes took a quick gander at the display and a small but soon waning smile graced his face for a brief moment. It was true that nothing like that would happen here for a while, he would simply have to wait. Leisurely activities were hard to come by these days and all it did now was become a tool for work.

"True. Nice trick." He grunted briefly from the pull and allowed more slack to be given to the kite and another knot was soon released. He still had a long way to go.

"Perhaps someday, but not this soon." He had barely begun his work and he hoped that the cannons he would build would offer a lot more than just a little sun. There was a lot left that he could do and nothing about it was play.

[hisokathemagician]

"Thank you," said Hisoka. He didn't pause in his motion. "It took a lot of practice. ♥"

"You know, 'someday' is such a vague term. Come to think of it, the Initiative wasn't very specific about a lot of things about their plan."

[vaudevil]

"I bet it did." There was nothing mocking in his tone. In fact, it was the opposite. While Lee's expertise was mostly in robotics and invention, he certainly valued his entertainment when he had the time for it. Since the Initiative made things unbearable for some to live here without giving them a solid purpose, Lee felt like they were all part of some twisted social experiment in and of itself.

At the address of the vaugeness of his words, he couldn't help but grin as he loosed more line for the kite. "They weren't exactly straight with us from the beginning, but I would rather not cause waves over a conjecture that would probably be turned around. It's my hope."

In all actuality, if he could make an impact here that could turn the world around here for the better, he then had a chance back home to do the same. It would only be a matter of time.

[oncearanger]

Billy took a detour to the roof after his daily training, just to get a clearer view of his surroundings. He hoped to pair the view from the top with the map and get a better lay of the land, but something more interesting soon grabbed his attention.

That kite was catching some powerful wing. Billy noted all the tethering required to keep its owner in place, watching as the equally spaced knots rose into the sky. Given the weather conditions and the clear amount of careful preparation, he guessed that this wasn't for leisure.

"That's some dedication to flying a kite," Billy noted, admiring what he could see of the structure.

[vaudevil]

Lee released another knot that would send the kit up just a bit higher. He had managed to cover about a third of the distance between the roof and the base of the cloud cover. Upon hearing Billy's voice, he glanced over but just quick enough to see his face before he had to return his attention back to the kite.

"Thanks. I wish I could say that this is for fun but sadly it's not." Lee's response was calm despite the pain he was starting to feel in his arms.

[oncearanger]

"I didn't think it was. You're too dedicated to a heavy-duty kite in inclement weather for that," Billy observed, watching him fly the kite with some concern. It sure didn't look easy.

"Then you're attempting to measure something, I'd guess?"

[vaudevil]

"Distance. Eventually, I would brave another attempt for an atmospheric sample." Lee's response was just as calm despite his situation. It was all for the sake of an unproven science in the effort to improve their conditions.

"I will use what I learned here to create a vortex concussion cannon. I'm hoping that you might have at lease heard a little bit about them before." So far, everyone he had spoken to didn't know what he was talking about. "It's commonly known as a hail cannon."

If he could manage it and proved successful, Exsilium would see some very vital improvements. The lack of sunlight was starting to affect people in some negative ways.

[oncearanger]

"I see," Billy said, nodding his approval. Yes, he was beginning to understand how this would all fit together.

"I've heard of hail cannons," he agreed. "They're used to create a disturbance in clouds and change the effects of a storm, right? I did some weather-related research at home."

[vaudevil]

"Yes they are." Lee was glad to hear that someone actually knew what one was. He nodded his head and reined in the kite now that he could feel the pull that much harder.

"Fifty-two hundred feet." He said aloud which made him remember the number.

"I doubt we'll see it but at the very least, it would keep the hail away if it doesn't work in punching through the clouds. I'm curious. Do you have any ideas that could work toward this goal? We need the sunlight, not the rain. I think the ground is saturated enough that the water table is now mere centimeters than feet."

[oncearanger]

Billy dove deep into his thoughts for an answer. What could he provide?

"But there are still gases to tap into. If they can be distilled, we'll have the fuel for an explosion. I can investigate at the library if we need a broader range of ideas as well."

[vaudevil]

He kept pulling on the lines to bring it down slowly. It was proving a challenge with each tug. There was a nod from Lee and a smile of approval as he listened. "That would be a wonderful idea. It would certainly save on some trial and error issues. Currently, I'm a little tied up in tasks. If you can find the methods that would aid this and bring in the schematics, I would be most appreciative and build the distiller. This will be a meaningful project."

Having more than one mind working on this would be perfect. He could feel the need to keep it going and there was no stopping either of them.