[OPEN]

[mathemagier]

WHO: Hermann, Newton, StarkTech employees, & OPEN to anyone that might want to stop by!
WHERE: StarkTech
WHEN: All of November
WHAT: Nerds and science!!
WARNINGS: Swearing and biology stuff?
NOTES: Feel free to respond with prose if that's your preferred tagging method! Also let us know if you'd rather tag with only one of them, as they'll likely both be responding to a given thread by default.



[The biotech lab is divided by a line of bright yellow tape.

Equipment is divvied up with most of the medical-looking equipment to one side, and most of the computers on the other, as if the division heads simply couldn't reconcile their differences.

Large, imposing chalkboards stand as a strange centerpiece to the technological side, complete with a sliding ladder and numerous boxes of chalk stacked on a desk nearby. Equations litter the surface, complex formula with strings of variables written in lowercase, notations entirely capitalized.

To the right is a ten foot robot, with panels missing and wires exposed, hooked into a small set of monitors running streams of code and projections nearby. The left side of the chalkboards is an engineer's work space, with half-completed bits of tech, spare parts, tools, wiring, screws, and 3D displays strewn about in an organized clutter. Even a small collection of books on what looks to be a neatly maintained personal desk.

The biological side of the lab stands in stark contrast to the professional work environment cultivated on the far side of the tape.

It looks a bit like a college student moved in, complete with cheesy posters, various dinosaur and Godzilla toys decorating the shelves, and humorous science puns and memes that were printed off the internet for display. There are jars everywhere, labelled a bit overzealously with differently colored sticky notes and warnings about the contents.

Paperwork litters most desk surfaces in a disorganized array, backdropped by a large fluctuating holograph depicting lines of chemical readouts. A radio and keyboard stand nearby for no discernible reason, but are nevertheless surrounded by scientific charts and various graphs.

Woe betide anyone that attempts to restore order to the biological division, or disrupts the structure of the technological side.]

Comments

[matadorable]

Thrilled as he was to have been invited to De Chima to meet Gipsy Danger, Manolo was actually pretty relieved when Joaquin agreed to come along.

For one thing, it means less paperwork. For another, there's safety in numbers if they lose their way or run into some other roadblock. But more importantly, Manolo feels glad to have a familiar face with him. Having spent most of his life around the people of San Angel, he simply isn't as good at mingling with random strangers as Joaquin. (There's a reason Manolo tends to favor text while Joaquin seems to relish showing off that mustache every chance he gets.) The fact his friend is already familiar with the two gentlemen at StarkTech certainly doesn't hurt, either.

They do make quite an odd pair, though. Standing at about 5'3", Manolo's small stature is only exaggerated by Joaquin's impressive build. While they are both broad-shouldered, with strong arms that look capable of beating back bandits, Manolo has the lithe body of a dancer. And in place of swords, an asymmetrical guitar hangs from his back.

When they reach the biotech lab, Manolo's face immediately melts into a look of wonder, large eyes soaking in every detail. Chalkboards, tools, that robot, scattered papers, toys, and jars. So much of it is foreign to him, it almost overwhelms his senses, but not in a bad way. Despite the stark contrast of each side of the lab, Manolo can immediately tell both occupants are deeply passionate about their work.

"Wow," he breathes, mouth hanging open.

[medalsome]

Joaquin was deeply interested in seeing all the sciencey stuff Newt and Hermann were fond of telling him about anytime he asked. He knew he'd hardly understand how they managed to make it all happen but the results he could understand. Probably.

Manolo had recently been invited over and that made as good an excuse as any to visit. The StarkTech building itself was impressive, but there was a kind secretary that pointed them in the right direction. Then they just had to follow the sound of distant squabbling to find their way to the biotech areas.

Joaquin wasn't sure what he was expecting but a huge robot in the center of the room wasn't it. He started, taking a step back as Manolo wandered ahead. But his friend's expression of awe snapped him out of his momentary lapse in courtesy.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Manny," he said, stepping closer and touching his friend's shoulder. "At least let me introduce you first."

Then he called out to the men huddled around one corner of their lab. Smiling, he gave a wave. "Doctor! Newt! Come meet my friend, Manolo!"

[mathemagier]

"The wings will attach here and detect vibrations-"

Hermann turned from his workbench, where he had been showing Newton his latest model for their project, surprised to see two men standing in the middle of their lab- one of which he recognized, and the other he knew at least by name if not face.

"Mr. Mondragon," he greeted, stepping away to approach their guests. It was good to see Joaquin without a mask, although the eye patch hinted that the eye may not have been part of his costume. He shook hands with both, and turned his attention to Manolo, who was much shorter than he'd imagined. Even Newton was a good few inches taller.

"I'm Dr. Hermann Gottlieb, and this is my friend and colleague, Dr. Newton Geiszler. I'm glad you could find the time to visit us."

[driftsintobuffetline]

Oh good. Visitors. He was going a little cross-eyed looking at and discussing schematics.

Newt followed over to greet them, giving Joaquin a sort of nod hello when Hermann addressed him, then turning his attention on Manolo as those introductions were underway. Wow, he had to be a good three...four inches shorter than Newt. A lot broader, of course, but it was pretty impressive to look DOWN at someone who wasn't, like, prepubescent for once. Was this what it was like to be Hermann and Pentecost and Joaquin? Kind of nice. Newt had the feeling he'd spoken to the guy before, though. That hair...

"You're the skeleton! Oh, man. You're gonna have to show me that in person one of these days. It was pretty gnarly." He laughed. "But what's this? Trying to set up a double-date, dude?" he asked Joaquin. "Because I've got to tell you, Manolo's a cute kid and all, but-- Is that a guitar?"

[matadorable]

Okay, yeah, they probably needed to swap introductions before Manolo went around ogling whatever projects these men were working on. "Uh, hello," he greeted with a grin as they exchanged handshakes, his own grasp lasting a beat longer than most people's.

"My name is Manolo Sanchez," he politely added. "It's very nice to meet you, Dr. Gottlieb, Dr. Geiszler." His pronunciation was pretty accented, but Manolo still tried his very best to say their names correctly. They were friendly acquaintances of Joaquin's, after all, and he wanted to make a good impression.

Unfortunately, he saw the skeleton comment coming a mile away, especially once he realized he'd spoken with Newton over the network before. That still didn't make him wince any less, though.

"Ah, yes!" Manolo replied with a nervous laugh. "You caught me. I'm still trying to get used to my powers, but sure! I'd be willing to, uh, show you, hahah..." As Manolo spoke, his eyes subtly wandered over to Joaquin, anxious to see if there was any kind of reaction, but he didn't draw attention to his friend otherwise.

He was so preoccupied that the double-date comment flew over his head. But the word "guitar" always grabbed Manolo's attention, and this time was no exception. "Yeah! I'm a...guitarrista, actually."

The fact he could freely identify himself as such suddenly dawned on him, and Manolo's entire face lit up, looking every bit as pleased and grateful as he felt at that moment.

[medalsome]

"A pleasure, as always, Doctor," Joaquin replied. He returned Newt's nod in turn, noticing his face was getting a little scruffy. What a cute attempt. But instead of commenting on that, he continued, "We're glad to have been invited to stop by."

And then Newton had to open his big mouth. The smile on Joaquin's face froze and his hands gripped into fists at his side. He felt that craving turn on and had to force himself to not dwell on it. Manolo was alive and he was here. Right in front of him...

But the date comment allowed him to latch onto something new and he gave Newton a smug half-smile. "Oh, as nice as Manolo is I'm afraid he's out of your league."

Already it seemed they were getting way off track. Joaquin cleared his throat and turned his gaze back to Hermann. "I'm sure they'd love to hear your music, Manolo, but aren't we here to see their projects today?"

[mathemagier]

Hermann grimaced, because of course Newton knew already and decided mentioning the man's death was appropriate for conversation. He was on the verge of an apology, but both of them seemed to rally in their own ways. No need to stretch out the tension by bringing it up again; he'd just lecture Newton about it later.

"Ah yes, Mr. Sanchez came to see Gipsy Danger, I believe." Hermann gestured toward the very obvious robot in the room and led them over to her for a closer look. "Newton's brief show of her over the network could hardly do her justice of course, but this is our friend Mako Mori's model of her Jaeger. A Mark-3 American Jaeger, launched in mid-2017 and ultimately credited with nine Kaiju kills over her active years in service. She has quite the history."

[driftsintobuffetline]

He could feel Hermann's embarrassment and subsequent annoyance radiating through the connection and that--more than any other reaction in the room--told Newt he had put his foot in his mouth this time. Ah, oops.

But that was quickly set aside as Joaquin teased him. Out of my league, huh? That says just as much about your thoughts on Manolo as it does about Manolo himself, Newt thought in a moment of self-awareness, his gaze wandering from assessing the guitarrista to Hermann as the tour continued.

"I just wanted to see his guitar, not get in his pants," he playfully assured Joaquin. And speaking of the guitar, he'd have to hit Manolo up later, see if he was open to a jam session. Maybe they could start a band, though it'd be an interesting challenge melding whatever 1930s small-town Mexican guitar music was with Newt's preferred punk rock sound. He guessed he could always just teach him Wonderwall. Who didn't need that one in their arsenal, right?

"She was also the last Jaeger and the one to go through the Breach and close it." Newt wasn't exactly dissatisfied with the explanation. Hermann always explained the Jaeger well, but he explained it like a man who was speaking to the well-informed. Unless Hermann gave them a Jaeger rundown when Newt wasn't looking, there was a lot that probably didn't make a lot of sense. He picked up a yardstick and attempted to use it to extend his reach up the model. "Her core was located in the chest. That would have been what powered her, similar to a car's engine or the fire in a furnace. The cockpit would have been in the head compartment. It's detachable and lowered onto the body before the Jaeger is deployed into battle. Normally the Jaeger takes two pilots, though Beckett, Mako's co-pilot, famously solo-piloted the Jaeger very briefly to bring the damaged unit ashore--" Oh. Death of a brother. Probably not a good topic right now. But Newt had a good enough diversion. "Gipsy's first Kaiju kill was Yamarashi," Newt pointed to the monster tattooed on his left forearm. "Busted through Los Angeles only a few months after Gipsy was first launched. Also one of the first Kaiju I worked on while serving the PPDC. Very awesome badboy. ...Or girl. You know, we never really determined the sex of any of them."

[matadorable]

Although a lot of the exchange about dating had gone unnoticed by Manolo, he did happen to catch the out of your league and get in his pants comments.

"Wait, whaaat...?" he muttered while looking at the two of them with raised eyebrows. Thankfully, Joaquin smoothly redirected his attention before he could accidentally derail the conversation again.

Even though there was a lot to their explanation he didn't quite get, Manolo still did his best to listen to every word. Joaquin had given him a very basic rundown before coming here, but it mostly boiled down to the fact Kaiju were aliens who nearly wiped out humanity, and the breach was sort of like the Porter. It sounded like there was so, so much more to everything, though (not to mention those tattoos). In fact, he found himself as interested in the pilots themselves as he was in the robot, but Manolo had enough sense not to pry into that for now.

"Gipsy Danger -- ay, she is incredible," he said with the same sort of quiet reverence normally reserved for icons like the Virgin of Guadalupe, his eyes practically drinking every detail. To think something like this could actually exist -- designed and made by humans, even! He could scarcely imagine the blood, sweat, and tears that must have gone into her creation.

[medalsome]

Joaquin shook his head at Newton's comment. That man was shameless in a way that surpassed Joaquin at times. But enough about that. With a nod of his head, he prompted Manolo to refocus on the model jeager.

Joaquin had less experience with robots than Manolo but he knew enough from the snippets he had heard to understand this creation was hardly simple. And to hear it took down nine creatures while in service did seem impressive. But then the facts began to spiral down and Joaquin felt something akin to dread ripple through him.

"Wait, wait! So, these things--this jeager--had to fit two people inside it? And just in the head?" And if this model was true to scale then... He floundered, stuttering as he stepped back and really looked at it. "How big is this thing actually supposed to be?"

And if it was all that huge, then how big were those monsters, the kaiju?

[mathemagier]

Hermann chuckled quiet amusement and circled around to the computers Gipsy was attached to, where he busied himself with a few dozen keystrokes while he spoke.

"I believe I've mentioned this is just a model. The Jaegers were built to scale of the Kaiju when they first emerged from the Breach." Before they got even bigger. "The Jaegers stand about 300 feet, or 91 kilometers tall. Gipsy Danger was 260 feet, so this model is something of a 1/26th scale version. Now unfortunately, I don't have a good reference prepared, but imagine only coming up to her ankle joint for a sense of how massive these machines are."

After inputting a few more lines of command, Hermann entered the feed and Gipsy's head turned sharply in the opposite direction. He smiled something triumphant at the computer screen a moment, then shrugged. "Limited functionality as I said, and still a work in progress, but I expect Miss Mori will be pleased if she returns."