Summary:Two tech heads meet. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Sometimes, Peter's day is actually normal. He studies for classes, works on projects…and, when working on new tech for his SPECIAL extracurricular activity, he can usually hide it as working on his own stuff.
Like today.
Peter takes out the drone, a four-helicopter-blade model. The tech for the drone is modern. The control system, though, is powered by software he wrote, and he is itching to try it out. He sets the drone on the table, switching it on. A green LED comes on in the frontof the drone.
And today's a day like every other day for Charlie. Sure, it's a day she has off from work, but there really isn't anything spectacularly special about it. In fact, it's a bit boring. It is why she's out here, her own drone in hand, looking around like she's trying to find someone. Or, rather, somewhere? It's hard to say but she's looking around, a little lost.
Her path eventually wanders past where Peter is sitting, muttering under her breath. God, times like this make her feel dumb!
Peter looks around. One aspect of his Spider-Sense is that he is becoming more aware of his surroundings. It's subtle, but he has documentation. He spots the drone in the woman's hand, smiling wryly.
The average guy with the short brown hair, intelligent brown eyes, and bundled-up clothing (puffy jacket, baggy jeans, hiking boots, gloves, and blue scarf) is waving to Charlie, beckoning her over. His drone is sitting on the picnic table, on of many in Central Park.
That is not something she was expecting. Grinning, Charlie looks to make sure Peter isn't waving to someone else, turning around in a full circle to do so, before pointing to herself. Of course, she knows by know that he does indeed mean her and she's soon approaching fully.
"Hello. Nice day, huh?" Of course, it probably isn't very nice, considering the time of year it is, but this is where small talk needs to be made with and she really isn't very good at it.
Peter chuckles. "Well, the snow is expected, temperature's just below freezing, humidity around 80 percent. But doing a little science experiment. I noticed you had a drone, too." He raises a hand in greeting. "Peter Parker."
Charlie smiles and holds up her own drown, grinning at the same time thanks to Peter's very detailed response to her greeting. The drone isn't exactly high tech and, in fact, looks a lot like it was made by her instead of from a fancy kit. "Charliene Fulbright, but you can call me Charlie." Glancing at the drone Peter has, she narrows her eyes, trying to get a good look at it. "Mind if I get a bit of a closer peek?" She won't move until given permission because she doesn't want to invade anyone's personal space uninvited.
Peter smiles. "Go ahead." He reaches for the drone, then unsnaps the cover and lifts it off, revealing the internal battery and the intricate wiring. The drone is one of those thirty-dollar jobbies you can get in toy stores. The rig is boringly set up within, mass-produced, uniform, cookie-cutter.
However, there is a tiny circuit board soldered into the main board that is decidedly non-cookie-cutter. It looks like an integrated circuit with a GPS chip added in.
"Oh hey, now that's not stock…" Charlie's talking about that chip. "Did you modify the drone yourself?" The hunk of flying plastic is set down next to his and she likewise opens it up. Like his, the internal bits all are pretty much stock stuff, without anything fancy to go with it save a camera that isn't attached to it at the moment.
Peter nods. "You've got a learned eyes, Charlie." He smiles thoughtfully. "I programmed some new software to piggyback on the current software. I am testing an auto-gyro stabilization plugin, as well as some new collision-avoidance software."
She can't help but to chuckle slightly. "Not as learned as a lot of people who have been taught about this stuff, but I like to think I know a bit more than the common layman." Sitting, she shoves her hands into the pockets of her jacket, her gloves back home where they were forgotten. "You know way more than I do," she adds with a whistful sigh. "Maybe I should go to school and learn about this stuff, try tomake a living out of it or something."
Peter raises an eyebrow. "You're not going to school?" He appraises her drone, tilting his head slightly. "How far have you gotten in school? And how do you make a living, if I'm not prying on your life?"
"I graduated high school," Charlie begins, "but then realized just how expensive college can be. I get by on retail work. Not exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it pays the rent-" on a very shoddy apartment in a not-so-good neighborhood, "- and pays the bills. What's left over goes towards my gear."
Peter frowned. "Oh. You have some skills, though. Ever thought of taking classes online and/or for a trade school?" He turns slightly to face her, a kid still on his first semester of high school, and he is…concerned for her welfare.
Charlie shrugs a bit. "Oh. Yeah, I did, but I would need some serious cash, especially if I went and applied for a trade school. Those suckers… what they charge someone so they can get certified is highway robbery!" Glancing sidewards, she asks Peter quietly, "I get being curious about someone, but that was a pretty forward question to ask." Pause. "Well, maybe not as forwar as some people can be, but still. Why did you ask?"
Peter smiles wryly. "You sounded like you needed help. I like to help people if they need help, if I can." He regards Charlie, then says, "Listen…how do you feel about showing me what you can do? I have a work-study job at Kane Industries. Maybe if you can put together a 'portfolio' of your work, and it makes the grade…maybe I can try to get you a deal of some kind."
The makeshift drone gets closed up and Charlie stands, pulling out her phone from a pocket that would've been too tight to remove it from otherwise. She sits back down and powers it up, her fingers deftly hitting the keys. "I can give you a little demo now, if you'd like." A self-coded app is switched on and suddenly the drone's props buzz to life, sounding like a little plastic bumble bee buzzing into action. She has it lift into a hover a few inches off of the table top. Considering his offer, she adds quietly, "Far be it for me to turn down help. If you can make that happen, I'll owe you big time."
Peter sits back, observing with a wry smile. "If I can get you a job, you can pay me back by getting a degree or a trade certification and to a great job at whatever we can get. You do that, and I'll consider us square."
Charlie nods slowly. "Fair enough," she says, a hand jutted out towards Peter, a sign that it is a deal she is willing to make. "But I can't consider us really square unless I pay you back somehow. So maybe a couple slices of pizza somewhere?"
Peter stands, then shakes Charlie's hand. it is almost formal the way he does it. "Okay…but I don't cash in unless I actually follow through. And right now, it's all talk. But getting things moving…you can pay me back with pizza from your first paycheck. Fair?"
"Yeah. Fair." Charlie powers down the drone again after letting it come to a gentle landing. Not an impressive show of what it can do (when it's working properly) but at least Peter knows the thing is functional. "And you can show me how your drone works, yeah?" Peter can decide as to whether or not he'd like to show off now or wait until later.
Peter smiles wryly. "Sure. I need to see if the new code works." He steps back, then dusts off the snow on the bench so Charlie doesn't have to sit on wet snow. He then presses on the back of the left glove with a fingertip, and his drone rises into the air. It lists to the left for a few feet, then steadies itself. It hovers in place, then lists to the right to drift to a point above the table again before hovering in place, waiting patiently.
"Wow… nice." Charlie's genuinely impressed and she does nothing to hide that she is. "Looks like the gryo works, huh? Impressive. I need to take some lessons from you, have you teach me your wizard ways, Harry." Hah. Yes, she just called Peter Harry, after the boy who lived. She is such a dork.
Harry Potter. Except his parents disappeared, unlike Harry's. He'd like to think they'd be proud of him.
But he DOES have his Voldemorts. Some more monstrous than others.
"It helps having a lab in your basement and access to the right tools. I think you'd flourish as well, if you had the same support."
He pulls out a tablet, opening it up to see the camera-eye view from the drone. "Okay. Collision avoidance." He taps out a route along the treeline. "If it works, it should navigate through those trees and come back here."
Charlie leans in to look at what's on Peter's tablet. Curious as a cat is definitely something that canb e said about her. "I don't know, Peter," she eventually confesses, "I'm good but I don't know…" Wow, self-doubt, much? Sighing, she looks down at her hands, shaking her head. "Sorry. Just… yeah."
Peter looks to Charlie as the view is of the treeline twenty yards away, Peter's head in the lower-left corner. "Charlie…I learned a long time ago that intellect is power. And it carries with it a serious responsibility to use it for the good of others. Don't sell yourself short without exercising your true worth."
And like that, Charlie snaps out of whatever she was struggling with. "You're right." Standing, she looks at her watch and wrinkles her nose, realizing that she just might wind up late for work. "Hey, I got to go. But here." She gives Peter her contect info before she has to rush off. "Thanks for the boost of confidence."
Peter nods. "Take care, Charlie." He taps the tablet, and the drone runs off.
The drone dodges the first, second, third, and fourth tree on the route. And then plows into the fifth one at flank speed.
Peter winces. "Back to the drawing board, Mis-ter Pot-ter…"