hadriel | three ❀ video

[It looks like Adam has taken one of the mopeds to pieces. There are engine bits carefully arranged around him, his hands still have traces of grease on them, and there are tools nearby. He generally doesn't use the network much, but - this seemed relevant.]

I guess these are the vehicles we were promised. They seem all right - probably won't go more than 25, but it's not like there's a real need for speed here. They run pretty well, though they're electric, so they'll need charging. And they're not too complicated, so if something breaks it should be easy to fix - I'd be fine showing anyone who wants to learn.

[He pauses for a moment, shrugs.]

Or doing it for you, I guess. But there's some... weird stuff.

[Adam picks up the carburetor, unscrews part of the covering, and pulls it off. Rather than what would be expected to be inside - normal moped parts, necessary to running it - out pops a spring-loaded, fake-looking snake, like something you'd hide in a can for a shitty prank.

Expecting this, Adam does not seem surprised, only vaguely tired and maybe a tiny bit amused.]

All the ones I looked at have something like this. They run fine, though.

[And, totally deadpan, as a service to those who might be unfamiliar with this kind of thing:]

They really shouldn't.

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There's other parts... the rest of it is all normal.

[He tries to be reassuring. He's not too good at it.]

It still works okay?

So there are... p-plenty of other parts in there to make it run. Except. T-They all also have toys crammed inside.

[This is so confusing she has to take one apart right now.]

Yeah, apparently. Maybe you can find one that's normal, though.

[He doubts it, but she sounds so upset...]

I mean, there's probably a reason. I can most l-likely figure it out, at least.

[Aka ohmygosh she's so excited to science something right now. Hopefully the gods don't get mad at more than one of their mopeds getting taken apart in the name of discovery.]

Are you, uhm, I mean, d-do you just take stuff apart to see how it works?

I'm interested in how things work, yeah. But I don't know that much about anything but engines. Cars and that kind of thing. I was a mechanic back home.

[And also a student - at 18, he really hasn't had time to become much more of a scientist.]

Do you do that?

[She doesn't know much about cars, at least in practice, considering there's incredibly few of them in the Underground. There's just not a big enough space to warrant needing them.]

Well, uhm, s-sort of. I've got, uh, a PhD in e-engineering, but uhm, most of my expertise is in robotics.

That's a lot more advanced than anything I've done.

[He sounds amused, and pretty impressed.]

I was considering studying engineering. What kind of things do you do? Build robots?

Well, uhm, a-all sorts of things! Back home I was the uhm, Royal Scientist to the King, so, uhm, m-mostly stuff he wants. But I got hired for building a, uhm, fully functioning entertainment robot named Mettaton. I wrote a-all the code and built his body myself.

[And also kind of cheated by pretending to create a SOUL when, uh, she stuck a ghost in there. But HEY, details. It sounds way more impressive like this.]

Wow. That sounds very complicated. I've done a little bit of robotics at school, as part of an elective, but that's about as much as I know.

[Adam always respects that kind of knowledge.]

What does an 'entertainment robot' do?

H-Heh, yeah. My PhD proper is in e-engineering, but robotics is my specialty.

[And what she's probably best at making. But she perks up at the chance to talk about her 'greatest creation'.]

Oh, well... he's k-kind of a pop star? He sings, and dances, and h-hosts TV shows. He's uh, b-basically a fully functional AI, seeing as I, uh, made his SOUL. So uhm, it's all code. I was studying the fusion of magic and robotics and he was the c-culmination of that work.

That seems really advanced. Is that common where you're from? Combining magic and technology? I've sort of seen that kind of thing, but it's not something there's much of in my world.

Well... k-kind of? Every monster has magic, which inevitably gets i-integrated into daily use and common tech, but uhm, the c-creation of magical technology as a singular thing hasn't been t-too heavily studied.

[It's one of the (very, very) few things she's proud of.]

But obviously it's s-still pretty new territory and everything.

Technology is a lot more common than magic in my world. You must be from a pretty remarkable place.

[And frankly, he finds the idea of that very interesting.]

Do you think you'll be able to do it here?

Well, uhm...

[What she wants to say is 'yes', but she's really not the most magically inclined monster. Putting magic into tech takes a lot, and she's... not the best. But he seems excited, and gosh, she doesn't want to let anyone down.]

Yeah! P-Probably. It sort of uh, depends what you want done.

Nothing in particular. I mean - unless you have any skill with medical technology. The clinic can always use more equipment.

[And magic or science, it doesn't really matter.]

Mostly I'm just interested in how you'd combine those things.

Oh, uh, n-no, not really. Monsters don't uh, g-get sick like humans do, so uhm. Yeah. I'm not really that kind of doctor.

[Monsters tend not to get long term illnesses, unless they're Boss Monsters and even then it usually just ends up in them Falling Down. The common cold would give her a heart attack.]

Well, it's, uh... sort of about imbuing them with magic, k-kind of? Like, a layer of magic over the t-technology that would enable it to work with other magical items or generators.

Maybe you could show me sometime, if you can figure out how to do it here. I'm sure my magic doesn't work that way, but I'd love to see it.

Well, uh... I c-could try!! Once uh, this place is back to normal and uh, everything.

[She doesn't wanna let anybody down, and... hey! Maybe it'll work out and she won't have to worry about like, crushing disappointment or whatever.]

Yeah, no rush. There's always some kind of crazy distraction here.

[And so Adam tries to distract himself with less crazy things, when he can.]

Anyway, it was nice to meet you.

Heh, yeah. You can just, uh, t-text me, or, whatever!

And uhm, n-nice to meet you too.

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