Better Boards [Research]

[Hirosame]

Hiro got right to work, cleaning up the Alchemical Garage that he and Midori had created when they bought Buckingham Palace for the guild. It was an incredibly large purchase, but the usefulness of the place would no doubt prove its worth. Hiro began by dusting off all the machines and tables that he used, as well as the tables, glasses, beakers, tubes, and everything else that Midori would have used for her own research. Having this place in their own guild home was something that Hiro was incredibly proud of, and felt it wonderful to work on things in here. He felt that it would be a feeling that only a few people would be able to understand, and someone else was soon going to be here to work on a project that he had mentioned beforehand. Hence why Hiro was cleaning so rapidly. He wanted the place to be well maintained, and have the ease of access that one could have if it was their own workshop or something. That kind of nice, homey feel that one gets from working on something in their own back yard. It just feels less complicated, and much more relaxed.

The person whom Hiro had invited over this day, Scoria, wasn't necessarily a friend of Hiro's, but more of a good acquaintance. He chuckled at the thought, as he did consider Scoria as a friend, though it seemed like the stalwart Druid wasn't a fan of having a lot of people flock to him at once. Hiro wasn't the kind of guy to do something like that, though, but he'd stop by and say hi for a few minutes. Despite this, though, he figured it'd be best to just let the man do his own thing, and not intrude as much as possible. He recalled having attempted to run through the dungeon in Windsor with him, along with other members of Apocrypha, but it didn't get along as quickly or well as they thought it would. Two of the group ended up calling it quits before it got too deep inside the dungeon, so the rest of the group just kind of up and left as well. Three people, no matter how high of a level Hiro was at the time, wouldn't be able to clear it all on their own, more than likely. Though, he did remember how fun the dungeon was. Maybe he'd make a joke about it with Scoria, it being a fungeon. Although, he didn't want Scoria to leave as soon as he had arrived, what with Hiro's crappy humor.

Hiro picked up a broom and started to sweep the ground, making sure to get all the little nooks and crannies he could. It asn't very dusty, as Hiro tried to keep the place as clean and fresh as he could, but dust accumulates over time in this large mansion. He was just glad that the grass was actually very slow to grow in this world, or else he'd be forced to have to take care of that nightmare, as well. Thankful for what he had, and what he didn't have to do, Hiro finished up with the sweeping, and looked at the in-game clock, just to check the time. Closing the interface, he walked over to the large door of the garage, and began to pull it up and open. He had installed the shutters for the sake of keeping the wandering bandit out of his research, but since it was daylight out, he didn't need to worry. Besides, he and Scoria were going to be in there for a while, more than likely. Hiro had sent a message to Scoria, telling him to just show up through the garage door, so they could do all the setting up they would need to do in a short amount of time. Hiro pulled up a chair to one of the mechanic desks on the far side of the room, and started to look over some plans that he had for some things for later down the road. Airships were still in the works, but this hot air balloon idea of his... It just might work, given all the resources.

[701 Words]

[Scoria]

Scoria shook the dust off his shoulders and carted his wheelbarrow off towards Buckingham Palace. Damn, someone was rich. Scoria walked forward as his supplies clattered and clanked in his wheelbarrow, alchemy tools in the cart and scribe junk tucked under his arm and tied to random places. The Druid nodded at the message he got from Hiro and headed over to the garage area, stepping carefully and thinking. Hiro was... he was a strange fellow. Sociable, optimistic, and sometimes a little annoying. Then again, wasn't everybody? All in all, he was a good guy and reliable in a pinch. Kind of why Scoria was involved with him right now. Their encounter at Windsor had been a bit of an odd one, and while they had run into each other here and there since... Well, he wouldn't go so far as to call Hiro a friend. He was a good guy and Scoria figured that he should limit his interactions with the good guy types.

Soon enough, the druid spotted the monk and nodded his head at the other. He rolled his rather silly-looking wheelbarrow over to the side and plopped it down, dropping his scribe stuff on top. The former scribe walked over to Hiro, a few rolled up scrolls under his arm, and stuck out a hand. It was generally a good idea to start a project with a firm handshake, was it not? "Good to see you in good health." Scoria's stern expression, burning orbs, and unfriendly tone probably made it seem like he wasn't being sincere. Probably. Whether or not Hiro took Scoria's hand to shake, the druid spread out Crystal Dreams. It was basically a holoprojector with limited height, but Scoria was a much higher leveled Druid than he was when he first made this.

What popped up was a couple designs for how a hoverboard might work. One of them was like a waveboard, with the rotating middle part as a key component to its motion. Another was a flat board with one wind source at the front and back, so it would act much more like a snowboard, but on air. The final option was something similar to a regular skateboard or longboard, except all four wheels were replaced by the air spheres. It would be more stable, but the turns wouldn't be nearly as tight. With those three options, Scoria thought he had considered most possible and logical variants sort of... well a hoverboard unicycle combo. The big catches were that the air spheres ("Wind Spheres", technically) needed a pocket so their output would be directed and the entire structure needed some sort of housing for the IO Regulator. Speaking of those two, Scoria pulled out the IO Regulator and set it on the table. After shuffling through several oddly colored elemental spheres, the Druid pulled out his Wind Sphere and set that down too. "Feel free to adjust the schematic. Mana and your touch are all you need. Don't rip the paper." The projector was useful, as it skipped a lot of the time spent drawing and so on or making models. Just in case, Scoria fished out his Sorcerer's Ink and a quill. "If it suits you better, a 3-d writing quill." Yup. Being a former scribe had its benefits.

Alchemist

Hirosame

Some bold features spans/mouse-over text

[Hirosame]

Hiro heard a rattling heading his way, and looked over to see that Scoria was walking right over, carting around a wheelbarrow full of supplies and other necessities. His eyebrow raised for a few moments, but the feeling went away pretty shortly afterwards. As Scoria put the wheelbarrow off to the side, and walked up, offering his hand to him, Hiro went ahead and took the offer. Shaking his hand, and giving a nod to the Druid, he responded. "I'm glad you could make it. Nice to see you're well, too." A smile formed on his face, as he watched the druid put up a few things, one of which being a projector of sorts. Hiro sat down, and looked over the plans that were on the hologram projector. Hiro found himself being rather impressed by the products that were shown to him, and actually got him thinking already. He looked over to the other side of the room, where the skateboards he had made beforehand were sitting, and wondered if they might be usable as some kind of a base unit to work off of. He'd ask about that in a bit.

Hiro walked over closer to the projection, and decided to look things over a bit better. Channeling a small amount of mana into his finger, he began to turn and observe the projects, wondering which of the group would end up being the best in performance. Hiro's own personal thought was that the second design might give the best results when it came to such things, though it didn't hurt to give the other two a good try, either. After examining them for a little while, he turned around to Scoria, pointing over towards the skateboards. "If push comes to shove, I have a large number of wheels that we could use for trial and error. I can quickly craft up multiple boards in these designs, should you want to experiment." Having offered that suggestion, Hiro figured that he would do well to let the Druid take some time to think about it. It would be a collaboration on both their parts, so it would require both his own opinion as well as Scoria's. Being open minded to the suggestions and thoughts of others was something that he knew was needed in order to make any good project come to life, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Make everybody happy, basically.

Hiro began to think about the designs, and how they would differ from performing very much like a skateboard. He walked over to one of the blank boards on the work bench that he had stacked up, having plenty of spares made for just such an occasion. He then brought it back over, and started lining it up to the designs that were shown, thinking about how they would work. For sure, the first design would promote a larger amount of turning capacity. The second was perhaps the most balanced between speed and turning, but might be difficult to work off of, in the field of it being the most difficult to ride around on. However, since there weren't any wheels, the impact from making a jump or something wouldn't be painful, unless it was a really big jump. The last one was probably the most stable and had the most speed possible out of the others, but didn't provide quick enough turning. One would need to have a wide birth to make a turn, but even that would be difficult to do. It would serve to their benefit to try all of them out, and have multiples of both, and see how they worked. Luckily enough, there's a large enough space behind Buckingham Palace for them to mess around in. Hiro had thought about making it into a skate park, just for the fun of it, though it likely wouldn't happen for a while. Instead, Hiro waited for Scoria's opinion on things.

[657 Words]