asking the right questions

[4thdimensional]

WHO: Doc Emmett Brown and his new allies and...enemies? aka YOU.
WHERE: Anywhere, though greatest likelihood is De Chima unless otherwise specified
WHEN: Throughout February
WHAT: Traveling hover car tour, grooving at the disco, and more! (aka catchall)
WARNINGS: May vary, will post per thread!

a. the grand hover-tech tour of 2016
For all his desire to keep the true extent of his abilities to himself, Emmett hasn't been shy at all about sharing the wonders of hover technology. He's already promised to drop by a few houses with blueprints and models, and miraculously he somehow has a few tiny things all put together! He's all too happy to invite people to meet him outside the house in De Chima during the day, otherwise he'll visit them at whatever city they happen to inhabit.

"Ah, good day! I'm Emmett Brown, I believe I spoke to you about a technology collaboration the other day? It took some chop-busting, but everything's prepared as promised."

b. disco fever
Welcome to the Boogie Nights Disco Joint, where the groove's always going and everything shines so bright it'll hurt your eyes if you aren't careful. If for some reason you're in the neighborhood to get your dance on, you'll find a rather odd DJ playing most nights---his shiny suit is only matched in outlandishness by his wild white hair.

And for some reason, the disco ball doesn't seem to be visibly attached to the ceiling. It's some kind of magnet system employed for 360 degree light coverage. Pointless application of tech? Yes, but it's kept him some semblance of satisfied in this odd job.

The Doc's line is always open for song requests and chitter chatter.

c. the wildcard
[Shoot a starter or ask me for one! Doc tends to motor around and stick his nose into everything, shouldn't be an issue.]

Comments

warping with the housemate (Qubit)

[4thdimensional]

All is fairly quiet at the De Chima residence where Doc's been assigned. The other occupants are either out of the house or else occupied in their own spaces, and that leaves Doc plenty of room to work. It's rude to take over the whole common space, of course, but he's hunched over his latest blueprint for an evacuation vehicle.

He's utterly lost in his work, sketching across the page in big sweeping gestures when his hair suddenly stands on end. There's been a disturbance! His pen also flies halfway across the room, though thankfully it avoids...whatever it is that's happening in the room.

[superposition]

A disturbance? Yeah, you could call it that. Qubit was out of the house, as he is more often than not, and he comes home in the manner to which he is accustomed. There's a sudden distinct whoosh, and a brief smell of ozone, as a bright blue portal appears in the common area and out he steps. He doesn't even see the flying pen, which bounces off something and disappears into the portal behind him just before it closes. HOPE YOU DIDN'T NEED THAT.

The startled look on Doc's face (and hair) catch his notice, of course. But he's already met this new tenant, so Qubit's not terribly surprised to see him in return, and he greets him casually. "Oh - sorry, didn't see you there."

[4thdimensional]

There are more pens waiting in one of Doc's trench coat pockets, thankfully. He slowly reaches for another one, though his eyes never leave that fading glow and the man who brought it.

"Of course you didn't, you weren't---your power's instantaneous teleportation?"

There's a tiny grin creeping onto his face. That's definitely one way to seize his attention.

[superposition]

Oh, so Doc hasn't seen him 'porting around before. Qubit doesn't really bother to remember who's seen it and who hasn't, it's not exactly a secret. But he likes that thinly veiled fascination, and his ego likes it even more.

"It's not a power," he says, with a sly smile of his own. "It's one of my inventions."

[4thdimensional]

"You invented a mechanism to open portals? I imagine the kinks must've taken quite a while to work out. So many ways a portal could open in the wrong place or destabilize...and it works well for you?"

Doc's leaning forward in his seat, giving Qubit his full attention. He tries to remind himself not to get too excited. He's trying not to delve into the time travel conversation, after all. But this is some fascinating stuff he can't resist!

[superposition]

"Oh, perfectly." He's unambiguously preening now. Whoops, what is being modest about his accomplishments. "If you think collision checking is a pain to simulate, try applying it in the real world. It was quite the interesting challenge, certainly, but nothing I couldn't handle."

Because I am the smartest is left unsaid. That'd just be juvenile.

[4thdimensional]

Doc's more enthralled by the second. "I can hardly imagine the duration of those tests, the expense of the effort...but what a reward! It's a technology most of us have only dreamed of."

And something he should really put some more effort into. If the time machine had had collision avoidance there were so many near-misses that could've been stopped.

[superposition]

Yeah, but on the plus side, getting run over by a flaming time machine would be a fairly awesome way to go, don't ya think?

Qubit leans on the edge of an armchair. At the moment he only knows Emmett as a hovercar mechanic and disco DJ (which, by the way, raises the question of why disco is still a thing in any 2015), so he's unconsciously assuming the finer points of quantum mechanics will go over the guy's head. But hey, even if they're not collaborating, at least there's plenty of room to impress.

"The technology's just the beginning. The real rewards are in the doors it opens. The limitless opportunity - there are entire worlds out there, Emmett, far beyond anything you or I can dream. Believe me, I've seen them. Weird landscapes, alien civilizations... technologies so advanced even I hadn't conceived of them." (Which he went ahead and borrowed, naturally. Sometimes he even had permission.)

There's a fire in his eyes as he goes on, his hands gesticulating almost of their own accord. Good job, Doc, you just had to go and get him started.

[4thdimensional]

Doc recognizes that fire from a job well done. He's felt it himself, and that just draws him further into this web.

"How far advanced are we talking? Thought transmission? Cross-dimensional warps? Terraforming? Ah...jet packs?"

He's had a few off the wall ideas over the years.

[superposition]

"All those and more," says Qubit, nodding enthusiastically. "Well, the cross-dimensional warps are how you get there in the first place. Actually, I'd been working on something like that here - another Porter, one we'd actually have control over."

It's already out of his mouth before he realizes what the obvious next question is. So how's that working out for you? "There've been... a few hurdles," he adds reluctantly.

[4thdimensional]

"Which hurdles? The nature of them would point to the root of the problem, suggesting a possible solution..." His mind's already racing along and making guesses. It's a critical sort of project, one he'd certainly like to see completed.

[superposition]

"Oh, no, I know what the problem is," Qubit says quickly. He's only been troubleshooting it for like six months. "The problem is the Porter in Cape Canaveral. It gives off - basically, it emits a unique form of radiation that, among its other, incompletely defined effects, appears to cause a subtle but unpredictable interference pattern at the subatomic level. I mean, we're talking about differences in electron spin alignment, and on a smaller scale it's not enough to cause problems, but at interdimensional proportions the effects begin to aggregate, causing ..."

Abruptly, he remembers his audience. Right - he's a hovercar mechanic, Qubit, not a theoretical quantum physicist. Use your layman words.

"... It keeps the portal from stabilizing, essentially," he adds, though he's a bit reluctant to drop the jargon. The jargon makes the continuing, bitter failure sound less like his own fault.

[4thdimensional]

"And due to that interference, it remains impossible for the portal to be opened in a static location and held there?" Doc can't resist taking just the slightest interest in the project.

"Would this radiation also be responsible for the alterations of our abilities?"

[superposition]

"Essentially. I mean, it still works at relatively short distances, but interdimensionally..." He shrugs. Of course, "relatively short" here means "on Earth," but he can go to Thailand with his watch, so that's still less than he was shooting for.

The shift in topic catches him a little off balance, but not too much. "Could be. We're still not sure how the power bestowal thing works, though. Or, for that matter, why not everyone is affected. My power wasn't altered at all, for instance, and I'm sure I'm not the only one."

[4thdimensional]

"I was, as far as I know, an entirely ordinary human before portal exposure. That's no longer the case. I'd like to learn more about that particular phenomena and the alterations."

He'll delve right into that sooner or later. "But portals need to open in precise locations to prevent painful issues with positioning, so you'd need to get to the root of the radiation, account for it, and convert the coordinates to a stable form..."

He shakes his head. "A conundrum indeed."

[superposition]

"Quite." And getting to the root of the radiation isn't as straightforward as it sounds. Theoretically, he could just 'port himself down to the lab where they keep the Porter, except that the interference is even stronger there, to the point where he can't get a bead on it.

But anyway... Qubit folds his arms. "By the way, what power did you end up with? I don't think I asked before."

[4thdimensional]

Doc tends to believe that demonstration is more effective than explanation. He casually extends his hand in front of himself, concentrates on it, and forms a crackling lightning ball hovering above his fingertips.

"Electricity generation. I can extend this around my person with enough concentration, though I've largely been using this as a jump-starter."

[superposition]

Well. That ... certainly is a development. Not because it's unusual - this is familiar ground, he's known several people with similar powers. But there was one he knew best, worked with for years, and then unknowingly sent to his death. It's been over a year, subjectively speaking, and objectively speaking he knows it wasn't entirely his fault - no one could have known (even if maybe he should have known) - but there's still that sting, and it dims his enthusiasm somewhat. It's funny, almost, how it's the little reminders that keep catching him off guard.

Qubit shifts a bit, uncomfortable, but then catches himself and forces a more appropriate reaction. A smile, an intrigued tilt of the head, a hand to his chin. That's better. Don't go opening the baggage.

"Interesting - I've seen that a few times before. What kind of charge can you get out of it, do you know? Maximum, minimum..." He doesn't bother asking for specific units, considering that the average Joe doesn't know an amp from a watt from a coulomb.

[4thdimensional]

Doc notices and wonders. Maybe he's a little afraid of lightning? But that's unusual for an inventor. Not impossible, but he'll keep the shock-slinging to a minimum just in case.

"It's measuring around 20 volts. I can comfortably jump-start most batteries with a little controlled application, though I'd prefer to be reaching a gigawatt."

Maybe someday.

[superposition]

That gets both eyebrows raised. A gigawatt is roughly the output rate of a nuclear power plant - at such a low voltage he'd need to be pushing fifty million amps a second, and there's virtually no material in the universe that kind of current wouldn't melt. So yeah, until he can increase the voltage significantly, that's a ways off.

"A gigawatt?" Qubit repeats, incredulous. Not because he's never worked on that order of magnitude - his teleportals draw a lot of power themselves, despite frequent efficiency improvements to push the number down - but because short of said teleportals, he can think of only a handful of things that would require that kind of power. "That's pretty ambitious. Why that high?"

[4thdimensional]

Well, he's gone and revealed too much. Doc has to laugh to cover his tracks, flexing his fingers. "Only for those enormously impractical flights-of-fancy I sometimes favor when I've had too much time to think. Teleportation, for one example, but you've clearly made do with something far more efficient.

[superposition]

It's too late to backpedal, Doc. Qubit's starting to think there may be a little bit of a kindred spirit here. His smile's more genuine this time.

"Oh, don't be so quick to dismiss those impractical flights of fancy. What do you think my portals started out as?" For the first time, he acknowledges the blueprints Doc was working on, pointing in their general direction. "Is one of those what you were working on there?"

[4thdimensional]

So it's come to this. Doc's always a bit coy about his plans, but he supposes he'll have to unveil at least one.

"I've become interested in the potential of magnetic fields, particularly as a shield---whether against energy attacks, physical penetration, or mental invasion. I've a few tentative sketches of each."

B

[monge]

It was only a matter of time before Komasan took a day...night off to see what this disco thing was all about. Doc said he'd take him, and Komasan wasn't about to be rude and stand him up. The thing is, he wasn't exactly sure just what to expect.

Needless to say, he was caught by surprise.

The flashing lights, the floating disco ball, the music, the outfits. Komasan is immediately overwhelmed and takes a deep breath, which can only mean he's about to scream.

"MONGEE!!"

[4thdimensional]

Doc's just about to queue up the next record when he hears a cry that's quickly becoming familiar to him. His head shoots up, and soon after that he's sliding the record on the player and leaving his post, headset hanging around his neck.

There's a familiar small creature on the edge of the dance floor. Doc strides over to greet him.

"Komasan, are you all right?"

future partners in crime? (chloe)

[4thdimensional]

Doc's new inventing digs aren't exactly as spacious as his old garage-based lab. He's only got the one room in this one heavily guarded De Chima home, but by absolutely minimizing his sleeping space he's somehow made it work. Fortunately, his housemates seem to be largely okay with some use of the common areas.

After some clearance with the housemates, everything is ready. Doc's there to greet her at the door, looking a bit more like his usual self---he's found a bright luau shirt at long last and the goggles are strapped to his head, as ever.

"Good morning, Chloe! I hope you're prepared for some action. If all or most of this endeavor goes as planned, we'll be moving right to field testing today!" He's...very, very eager to get it together, it seems.

The world is doomed.

[helladoomed]

Chloe was humming to herself as she strode up to the house, a mostly-finished cigarette between her lips, and she took a last puff before crushing it out under her shoe and finish the last jog up to him.

"Hey!" He really was Doc Brown. Holy shit, she needed a second. OKay. she was done gaping, whew. And what had he said?

"Wait you mean you already have one almost built?!" She couldn't hide the shock in her voice, because...wow. Wow.

but they're gonna doom it *in style*

[4thdimensional]

Ah, did his new fashion choice surprise her? He kept up that pleasant grin and nodded, stepping aside to let her in.

"You'd be amazed with how much restless energy you can accumulate when you're spinning disco records all night," he laughed. "It's been coming along fairly easily, the main component just needs stabilizing, then some styling and ensuring the shell's strong enough to withstand magnetic forces."

Babbling already? Of course he was. He led her to the living room, where two round discs about large enough to hold her feet sat atop a blueprint. A basic frame surrounded them, wrapped in a clear plastic case that would clearly need some refining to get a sleek shape.

"Please excuse the crudity of this model---I wanted to ask for your input before finalizing a few things."

[helladoomed]

Yes. It was his fashion choice she was staring at. Whew.

"I feel that. I know all about restless energy escapes." You didn't hang out in a junkyard and develop a pot-habit because you were already too mellow, after all.

She followed after him, peering around at everything they passed. Hmm. So these houses could be different after all...

"Hey, it looks sweet to me." She said as they stopped, peering down at the discs. "I mean, what matters is the hovering, not the paint, right?"

[4thdimensional]

"Right, but I've always been a proponent of an invention of this quality looking as good as it feels. And I'll gladly put in the energy for that." There was an odd glow of pride as he discussed this. He still missed his precious time machine, it's clear.

"So tell me how you'd like it. Sharp angles, rounded? Favorite color?"

[helladoomed]

"Hmm," Chloe picked up the prototype and turned it over in her hands a few times. "Blue. Smooth edges. Like a skateboard."

"Like in the uh..." A beat. "Okay, in the movie. Except I think that one was pink?"

[4thdimensional]

"It was. Marty's always had the oddest luck with these things---I think he'd appreciate the repaint if given the chance."

But Doc shoves that thought aside. Marty's gone from his life forever, isn't he? He'll have to do the repaint on his own once his other self sends him back. And hopefully he'll have the sense not to take joyrides around 1985 with it...

Back to the present. He smiles again at Chloe. "Blue's a good fit. And I can certainly model it on a skateboard...it'll need a surface with fair friction for keeping balance..."

He furiously scribbles a few notes. "And I've been told about an innovation that would allow it to work over water. That's my next step."

[helladoomed]

"I can't imagine why an insecure dude wouldn't want a pink hoverboard." She just grinned at that, poking at the board lightly as Doc scribbled down his notes.

"So...you're seriously just going to give this to me for helping you?"

She wasn't complaining, she just still didn't quite believe it.

[4thdimensional]

"I don't see why not," Doc shrugs. "Believe it or not, I'm getting by with my work at the disco, and I've always wanted to try my hand at one of these. I'd like to see it go to someone who will use it well."

And he can see it clearly: he knows she will. More than enough for him, he thinks with a broad smile.

[helladoomed]

"Well, I'm not gonna argue." She grinned.

"But don't worry, I won't run off or anything once it's done. Working with you sounds fantastic. My friend Max is going to be hella jealous."

[4thdimensional]

"I'd be happy to continue the arrangement," Doc agreed happily. "This likely won't be the last of our successes."

He was already altering the blueprint. No, it wouldn't be long now. As for this friend of hers? "You're welcome to bring this Max along whenever you'd like. There's always room for another set of hands!"