| Beautiful SCIENCE | |||||
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| What: A charity event for the advancement of science, Peter Parker meets Sasha Brightwall. | |||||
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ONE UN New York hotel this evening was hosting a charity benefit for American Association for the Advancement of Science. The newly revamped and posh hotel ballroom floor was host to all sorts of science types. Many booths are set up representing different companies and projects. Among the guest list are highly successful businessmen and women, scientists, and a couple of politicians (wanting to look smart).
Peter Parker is also in attendance as the Daily Bugle's representing photographer. He was dressed in a nice dark red suit with a black suit and tie. It was probably his nicest outfit, next to his plain job interview suit. He had a decent digital camera about his neck as he was taking shots everywhere about the event, and trying not to geek out over the guests and technology present.
Unfortunately -- for her anyway -- Sasha Brightwall had been all but dragged kicking and screaming from her workshop back home and stuffed into a black and purple dress that did wonders for her figure, though she didn't actually seem to care. She was standing off to the side of the ballroom floor, peering at the various scientists, business representitives, and politicians with a look of mixed suspicion and general standoffishness.
Of course, it wasn't so much that she didn't like these people... it was more that she had other things that she'd rather be doing than parading around in a formal dress in the middle of a crowd of strangers, not the least of which involved putting the finishing touches on one of her own projects -- one that she hadn't bothered to bring to the event because of it's current state of... incompleteness.
Instead, Sasha had brought with her a small chromed device that she left on a small table belonging to 'Brightwall Industries' the company that she owned -- at least on paper. It came with an attached, handwritten card that simply said 'Security Drone'... it was decidedly less professional than the official display that the company had put up... something about a blender that apparently used sonic waves to mix things. Nothing too impressive on their end!
Most of the displays at this shindig had all sorts of professional signage, gathered crowds, and loads of smiling pretty people who would love to tell you about their product and quickly moved onto the money stage.
It was all a bit tacky for Peter's taste. But some of the tech was pretty coolwhen he could actually get a shot. Too often people would ignore the man with the camera and would step into his shot. Rude!
He stepped to the side and was checking over the photos he had so far, with a bit of a frown. Hopefully something in this was useable or else he had new loud lecture from Jonah waiting for him. Delightful.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught the super cute girl with purple hair. Then noticed the simple display. The device looked interesting enough. Since there wasn't a crowd he was easily able to step in and gave her a lop-sided grin, "Brightwall Industries...OH Ms. Brightwall! Uhm, hi. Peter Parker, Daily Bugle. Could I get a photo?"
"Eh...?" Sasha blinked once and looked up and towards Peter with a blank look for a moment. Then, as if to check to make sure there wasn't ANOTHER Ms. Brightwall hanging around that she wasn't immediately aware of, she looks around her immediate area, then back at Peter again. "Ah... sure. I guess." She stood up a little straighter, "Do I... smile? Pose? Sorry, I don't do this sort of thing often." She rubs the back of her head a little sheepishly.
Meanwhile, on the stage, yet another businessman had gotten up to demonstrate some new sort of cellular device... probably a phone, but Sasha certainly wasn't paying much attention to the details. She already had a phone. A nice one. She didn't NEED another one. Luckily, those rude people who ignored peter were too engrossed in the speech and demonstration of the little handheld device to get in the way of Peter and Sasha's -- albiet forced -- conversation.
"Don't need to pose. Just a smile will do it." He took a well framed shot, that displayed this device as much as the company head and nodded once, "Nailed it!"
He looked up to take one quick picture of the new cellular device, which didn't particularly catch Peter's attention either. His main interest was the device on her table, "Hmm a Security Drone. I like your table, no flash all tech. Can I see a demonstration?"
Sasha nods once and gives a slightly strained smile, which she attempts to make a bit more believable in short order before it faded again, and she looked back at her little drone on the table. "W-well... it wasn't really supposed to be here." She chuckles nervously, "I sort of snuck it in at the last minute, it doesn't actually have to do with the company or anything." She reaches down to pick up the drone and then flips a switch on the back of the chrome object, before releasing it.
The little machine hovers unsteadily for a moment before spinning in place and righting itself in mid-air, a single green light blinking once... twice... Then with a crackle of electricity, a bright yellow, holographic image of a miniature Anti-Aircraft gun formed around the small chrome core.
"It's not meant to be a lethal weapon or anything... but intruders tend to think twice when they see something that looks like a gun." Sasha explains with a larger, more convincing smile, "It does however pack a punch. Fires off a mini energy pulse that creates a concussive explosion on impact. Usually that's enough to incapacitate an unarmored target... Most home invaders don't keep bodyarmor under their clothes, so it does the trick... and if it doesn't, well, it follows the rule of Trespassers will be shot, and survivors will be shot again. Except that the second shot tends to be more like a taser aimed at the face, so it's a bit more unpleasant... I'd show it off, but I think people would get mad if I suddenly started having the drone shoot at the guests."
Most people probably would have ducked for cover with this gizmo suddenly busting out a lethal gun, but thankfully Peter wasn't most people. He simply smiled as she looked about it. First taking a few snap shots and then looking with his own eyes. His Spider-Sense didn't go off, so he wasn't surprised when she gave the explanation.
A couple of the people nearby did notice, and exclaimed in surprise, "Just a hologram people! Nothing to worry about."
As he tore his attention away from the device, his attention was focused back on Sasha, "It's really cool, did you make this? Wow. Does it have any sort of armor itself, in case someone else wants to fire at it? But I'd bet this thing has a better reaction time. You look amazing by the way-er. It looks amazing. And you do...too. Points all around."
So smooth Parker.
Sasha waves at the surprised party-goers in a way that she hopes conveys that there is no real danger.... then she nods at Peter, "I did, yeah. I build a lot of my own stuff these days. Plenty of time on my hands and all."
She smiles a little at the other questions, seemingly all too happy to answer, "Well, part of the magic of the whole hologram thing is that it LOOKS a lot larger then it actually is, so if someone does shoot at it, there's a good chance they'll miss the actual drone. That being said though... it's made of a metal alloy that's pretty well resistant to small arms fire... so unless someone is packing military grade weapons, the drone should be able to hold it's own. Reaction time is currently a bit lacking, and the energy pulse is fairly short range... it'll only go about twenty feet before the energy field disperses. But this one is still a prototype anyway.. I'm hoping to get all the bugs worked out eventually and put it to work in my house at least... even if it never gets distributed to the public."
Sasha blinks a little and her cheeks go slightly pink at the compliment, both to her and the drone itself, "W-well thanks~ I err... And my drone... I try to keep things, looking decent at least." She doesn't seem too sure of what she's saying, "Though, you'd never ever see me looking like this at home, I'm afraid~ This is special just for these events."
His lopsided grin becomes a bit less awkard and more charming as he peers over his camera, "What and hog this little beauty all to yourself? So you've come to this thing to say this is all yours no one can have it! Ms Brightwall I do believe you've missed the point of this thing."
He let out a laugh and rubbed at the back of his neck, placing the camera back down onto his chest. "I know what you mean. Suit's are nothing like walking in heels, I'd imagine, but it just reminds me of how awkward and completely non-fashionable I am. I did this fashion show a few weeks ago and...yeah. Felt like I was going to get picked on like high school all over again."
Mentally he smacked at his head, don't tell girls you just met your baggage. Act cool! "It's sleek, but maybe if you incorporated some sort of flash bang or loud noise it could add to the surprise factor."
Sasha laughs a bit, making an attempt to hide it behind one hand before shaking her head, "I might have, maybe. But hey, I'm not saying it'll NEVER be out to the public... but Brightwall industries doesn't do so much in the way of home defense and weapons." She glances at their display and sighs, "They work with... uh... sonic blenders... or something." She points lazily.
With a shake of her head, Sasha offered a bright smile to Peter, "You'd be right~ Heels are murder, especially when you're used to wearing sneakers all the time... What fashion show did you d-- Oh wait, you went as a photographer? I had assumed you were in it for a second."
She blinks and tilts her head, "Mmn... Maybe I could have it do something like that, or incorporate that into another system entirely." Sasha is suddenly lost in thought, trying to imagine different ways to incorporate a system that surprised an intruder, and let the drone get in close to stun them. "Mmn, I'll have to think about it for a while, I guess."
He looked towards the Brightwall Industries main booth, which looked exceedingly less interesting. Even if it had fancy signage and blenders. His blender at home made smoothies just fine, didn't need much innovation there. But security drones with holo-guns? Much more Peter's style. However if Jonah was nearby he'd be barking for Peter to get back to work.
He blushed very slightly and was quick to check his camera's settings suddenly, "Oh gosh really? No. Heh, no could you imagine? Some of the fashionistas were really friendly though. 'Fashionista' that word is ridiculous spoken out loud."
He placed a finger to his lower lip as he considered her idea, drawing up rough blueprints in his head already, "What if it worked on a two drone system? Have one that's flashy and make the surprise, while the other sneaks in to make the stun smaller and quicker. Could work, potentially. But man I'm taking all of your time here."
Sasha grins, "I could consider that too, I suppose~" She gives a little nod, then shrugs a little, "Honestly... I'm just here to shake hands with people and look pretty... so I'm bored out of my mind." She leans against her little table, "Buuuut, you're clearly here to do a job, so you probably should go and get it done. It was nice meeting you anyway, Mr. Parker~" She gives a little wink, "Maybe we'll see each other again, the next time I'm dragged out of my house."
She pushes away from the table again, and gives Peter a little wave before her attention is suddenly pulled away by someone else who has questions about the various displays -- this time more about the blender than her security drone... which she of course gives the standard response about, the one that she was forced to study flashcards for, for the last few hours before arriving here...
Peter holds up a finger as he had something to point out but her attention was quickly pulled away. He reached into his pockets and pulled out his business card, Peter Parker-Daily Bugle Photographer and Stark Global Intern with his contact information. Peter really didn't have a lot of chances to pass this out, and this seemed like a good time to do so.
On the back he wrote, "You looked very pretty tonight, very pretty and even more talented.-Peter"
He slid this underneath the drone and with a smile to the back of her head he went back into the crowd eager to get some good shots.