InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "it was me, Dio!"

Ganesh (itsticking) wrote in we_float,
@ 2010-06-12 21:19:00

Who: Matt Cavanaugh and Ganesh Surendar
When: Saturday, June 12, evening
Where: Ganesh's room, Anhalt Building
What: It's a mystery.
Status: Closed; complete

It was a loud clatter when he dropped the metal band that he was trying to fasten around the second tunnel that led to the drop that would trigger the lever below. Ganesh groaned as it hit his toe, stumbling before he kicked it. The Rube Goldberg machine was almost completed, a ball placed neatly in a socket just over the door. Any motion of the handle would roll the ball down, beginning a series of mechanical events that would end in a simple flick of the light switch.

He hadn't yet thought it through completely--it was simply something to do, to take his mind off of all the things that he'd seen over the past week. Picking up his wrench, he gave up on the band for a moment, leaning over to turn a bolt near his window.

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palehorses
2010-06-13 04:42 am UTC (link)

It sounded like destruction, and Matt was always fine with that.

Well, that wasn't strictly fucking true. It didn't sound like significant destruction, though. On the other hand, it was in a room that he would've sworn was unoccupied, and he couldn't quite place it, so he knocked on the door. He was, he could admit, pretty much hoping that the rolling sound was something awesome.

He didn't really expect the door to actually open.

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itsticking
2010-06-13 04:56 am UTC (link)

"Oh, bugger-" Ganesh swore as he saw the ball drop. It fell neatly into the pocket of the ramp, tipping it down until it hit a bell. A slight ringing noise echoed before it plinked onto a longer ramp. A mechanical leg kicked the ball precisely as it hit the trigger, jolting it up into the car of a small toy train as another lever flipped a switch. The whistle blew as the train began to chug down another portion of the wall.

And promptly derailed onto the floor.

Ganesh looked down at it, clearly disappointed.

"I guess it wouldn't've worked." He reached up and plucked the car from the tracks from which it was dangling. "You must be Matt. I haven't met you yet."

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palehorses
2010-06-13 05:02 am UTC (link)

"Holy shit," Matt said, reverently. "I don't remember you, man, but I want to be your best friend. This is what you do for fun?"

He took that as invitation and stepped in, taking a look at the train track where the derailment had occurred. "You might have, like, a fucking, I don't know, bit where the wall's settled weird? Not sure. Reroute, or redesign, what are you thinking of?"

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	itsticking 2010-06-13 05:11 am UTC (link)
	"Ganesh." He offered Matt the train in lieu of a handshake. "Well, the bloody problem is that-and I cannot believe I just realized it-the train can go forward but not back. See, the car tips at a certain point and the ball drops, but the whole trick... it only works once." Ganesh smiled slightly. "Metaphorical, isn't it?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	palehorses 2010-06-14 04:01 am UTC (link)
	"Literal, I'd say," Matt said absently, looking back at the car. It was a side-dumper, and Ganesh was right. "Don't suppose you could rig something up to tilt the car back up and drop in another ball ... no, you'd need to send the car all the way back to fucking start before that mattered. What do you want it to do?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	itsticking 2010-06-14 05:26 am UTC (link)
	"Distract me," Ganesh admitted. "Not anything more than that." He shrugged. "I build things when I'm stressed." Flopping back down on the bed, he added, "Probably the easiest thing is to take out the train and build more ramps but I liked the trains. It's impressive." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	palehorses 2010-06-14 05:47 am UTC (link)
	"So," Matt said, looking around the room, "I'm gonna guess that you've been stressed out since you, like, turned that key in the fucking doorknob. All just the weird-ass situation we find ourselves in, or what?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	itsticking 2010-06-14 05:49 am UTC (link)
	"That's most of it. My parents were jokers- I don't feel comfortable just sitting here waiting for orders that never come." The words cut the air, sharp at each breath. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-06-14 05:52 am UTC (link)

"So make your own," Matt said, but it wasn't said condescendingly. "I mean, yeah, we don't know what we're here for entirely, or what - if anything - we're supposed to do. I guess that means we've got a lot of fucking freedom, if you want to look at it that way. Or is it more that, you know, like, you'd be the only one off Supermanning at the world, and the rest of us are bickering like married people or what?"

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	itsticking 2010-06-14 05:57 am UTC (link)
	"I wouldn't put it quite like that-there's been little direction. Nor am I sure what we can do." He leaned back. "They stopped discrimination in this country through legislation and now they've just started again. Is it hopeless?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-06-14 06:04 am UTC (link)

Matt turned and looked at him, leaning against an empty-ish patch of wall. "The pessimist in me says yes," he finally said. "But the optimist in me points out that I haven't headed for Canada yet. I don't know, man. I really don't. I want to think that it's not hopeless, but some of me just isn't convinced. Are you asking for an outside opinion, or are you asking because you really haven't made up your own mind yet?"

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