introductory mingle: CARNIVALE

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: overflow post for the Carnivale celebration
when: July 1st - July 9th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

This is not the Carnivale post. This is just a tribute.

Optional overflow post, since the Carnivale log has hit Captcha. If you don't mind Captcha, feel free to continue using the previous one, or put up a top-level on this one with links to your previous threads and continue here, free of being put to the robot test with every tag.

Comments

[franciscoramon]

Right now, I've got 'em so they block foreign neural signals, but not sound. Which I might have to change, if I hear about mind-control methods that rely on sound alone, but also I'm worried about what that'll do to usability. Ideally, I'll get them to guard against all kinds of telepathy, eventually. But for now they've at least, they should at least stop certain types from turning you into a puppet.

[ Cisco realizes belatedly that that last part might sound pretty damn ominous to someone without any context, so he leans in a little and adds: ]

Long story, but there was a gorilla that got affected by the particle accelerator who had a bad habit of mind-controlling innocent folks into doing some pretty terrible stuff.

[ Grodd isn't here, it's true, but Cisco has learned that when you live in a weird world, it is much better to be safe than it is to be sorry. ]

[buildsomething]

A mind-controlling gorilla. [It's sad a little flatly, but come on. That's a hell of a thing.

Then again, he's got a not-quite-android who can walk through walls back home, so what does Tony know?]

So they're basically just earbuds because that's an easier way to keep them on someone? [He considers that for a moment, then nods.] Makes sense. Apparently small electrical shocks can also disrupt psychic weirdness, but I think that has to be on the one doing the weirding.

[franciscoramon]

A mind-controlling, hyper-intelligent, giant, sewer-dwelling gorilla who's got beef against pretty much all of humankind, yep.

[ Cisco's expression and his equally flat tone of voice suggest that he is very keenly aware of how much of a Thing it really is. Metahuman criminals can be bad, but Grodd is just fucked up and terrifying on a whole other level, if he's honest. ]

Yeah, version 1.0 was a kind of headband, which did not go very well. At all. Doesn't matter much whether you got the tech working right if the damn thing gets knocked off a guy's head two minutes into the fight.

[ Cisco listens intently when Tony speaks, next. He's always on the lookout for things he can learn about all kinds of psychic weirdness and peoples' experiences of it, here and in their own worlds. If he wants to make the earbuds effective against a variety of mind control techniques, he needs to know what techniques exist, how they work, how they feel for the people underneath them, etcetera. ]

Huh. I didn't know that. Is it electricity specifically, or just anything that breaks concentration? Are we talking... joy buzzer small or like, taser small?

[ Not exactly what Cisco would choose to call 'small' himself but he's giving Tony a broad range to choose from here. ]

[buildsomething]

[Tony shrugs a little as he finally reaches for the bottle.]

Just disrupting concentration, far as I know. Only happened once and I don't think anyone wants to try testing it.

[Especially not with the way things were between him and Wanda. He wasn't even going to ask. Wasn't sure if there was even anyone else who could do what she did. Largely, he tries not to think about it.]

Earbuds are pretty easy to lose too, though. Unless you custom-make them for whoever's gonna be wearing them.

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco goes quiet, listening to Tony without interrupting. He thinks for a moment, and then decides to just be upfront: ]

So, I'm kinda getting a "it's personal, don't ask" vibe right now? I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. But I am trying to make these things work against all kinds of mind control, so if you ever feel like sharing deets... just lemme know.

[ Tony's point about earbuds isn't new to Cisco; other people have brought it up, and of course he'd thought of it himself. He nods as Tony is speaking: ]

Yeah, I'm still working on how to make them more secure. I thought about some kind of whole helmet situation but I'm kinda hoping for something that's a little more discreet.

[buildsomething]

[It makes him huff out a quiet laugh and shake his head.] It's just complicated. And involves someone here, so I'd rather not share without her permission, if it's all the same.

[And he doubts very highly she'd ever give it to him. The rest of it, though, makes him smile a little more genuinely.]

I'm probably not the right person to ask about discreet. [He gestures illustratively with the shiny red-and-gold gauntlet.] But what else are you working on?

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco's reaction to that is somewhat conflicted - Tony has just confirmed for Cisco what he'd been suspecting the whole time: that there are people here who have the ability to mind control others. It had seemed statistically probable, considering how many people in this place seem to have powers, but he'd never actually known for certain until right now. But, from the sound of it, even though this woman has used her powers to control Tony (or perhaps one or more of his friends, no way of knowing), Tony seems to want to protect her from scrutiny. Maybe it had been an accident? Cisco can certainly sympathize with that. Not like he has his own powers perfectly under control, either.

So he shrugs, and lets it go. For now, anyway. But he's going to remember that bit about tiny electric shocks, make no doubt about it. ]

I've been working on these sonic devices for the police department. They're pretty simple - just one-use grenades that emit a high-intensity sound pulse that'll stun a fleeing criminal or whatever. Nothing that exciting, but it's hell of a lot better than a gun, and less painful than a taser. Better range, too.

[ He's mostly just adapting the tech he'd given Laurel for her canary cry; it had seemed like a good idea, given how effective it proved for her in taking down bad guys. ]

And I'm also making these goggles that'll induce lucid dreaming, but that's kind of just a side project for fun.