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LONG STORY SHORT:
Once upon a time… most of it really… there were Mutants. And those mutants were marginalized by a big cruel underdeveloped UN-special world (Kaleb's words, not the author's), and thus the need for a danger room to learn and grow one's abilities was made.
The Danger Room needed to be built to deal with the needs of its students though. Enter the power problem.
So the Mutants had a blueprint and no one to execute the wiring that the Kree requested until Kaleb went well I know a guy. He fixed my super broken coffee maker. And therein Kaleb reached out to Elmo at work and offered a job to go an evaluate a 'electrical issue' for a Mutant property.
Kaleb Miller was an ass with an ability to undersell a situation.
Haivng his driver pick them up the car pulled up to the secluded and palacial expance that was the Xavier Grounds. A Mutant property… sure…tiny palace was more like. But the always overdressed to impress Sonic strode around to where Julie was going to meet them to survey that part of the property that was out above teh Danger Room's location deep below the earth. "Dizzy, Elmo. Elmo, Ms. Dizzy. You may know one another. I dunno. You both do something with cars so… however that works. Welcome to'The Project'."
Elmo, dressed as usual in electric blue trousers, waistcoat, and tie, with a sunny yellow shirt, has been eyeing Kaleb's suit with a mixture of envy and appreciation. As they drive further upstate and finally get to the ridiculously huge palatial mansion and massive immaculate grounds, he inevitably gets anxious. So, fidgeting, he gets out, with his satchel full of electrician's secrets. Dizzy makes him light up when he sees her. "Diz! Yeah, we know each other, Kale…b." He hears Jay call him Kale so much, it's kind of rubbed off on him.
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 8
Julie is, meanwhile, sitting there kind of waiting by the library. She's got a stack of a few engineering reference books, big ones, some note pad on a clipboard, and on top of it, pencils and a slide rule. "Oh, hey, it's you. Kinda thought you might just turn up here sooner or later. Welcome to it. I think I figured out what kindsa cable we *want,* best I can figure based on our friend's, ah, vague specs. What we can *get,* well, I run down a couple options, ain't done looking yet, really. Been pretending I'm someone's secretary on the phone all morning."
Kaleb slide Elmo a side glance that made his usual resting asshole face just unhelpful for reading if that was even okay to be that familiar or not. Looking away saying nothing on it was of zero assurances one way or the other from Echo. There was the slightest grin on Echo's face regarding Julie's news like the world's youngest 50 year old business mogul he was, "You can be my secretery Julie. You are welcome to hang up on anyone I don't want to talk to in whatever fashion you like. It's a pretty good gig. Great for creativity. In any case, if we're going to run and test lines and a power supply? We wnat this guy on it." He looked to Elmo and arched an eyebrow "So before we get into specifics… you think you might be interested?"
"So, can I finally know what your powers are?" Elmo asks Dizzy, eagerness in his tone and in the lean of his body towards her. "Known you for how long and you been cagey about it the whole time. I know you got your reasons, but—you can tell me now right?" RIGHT?? He returns Kaleb's side-eye; he's not calling anybody his own age Mister, unless it's sarcastic. But at the question, his eyebrows drift up, definitely interested. "Think I might be. Diz is in on it, so it's gotta be good."
Julie laughs, a little. "Yeah, sure, you'll see it, I just kinda don't advertise in town, word of me being one of us getting around in the wrong places wouldn't be too helpful to anything, is all." She pulls a little clutch-bearing race out of her pocket, and holds it in two fingers, then, there's an almost subliminal 'Vrrrrr' sound as the inside of the bearing and the balls within start to spin and turn of their own accord, until they're something of a blur; she perches it on a fingertip, where it turns slowly there like a gyroscope frame. "Anyhow, it's kinda what we're doing that's maybe hush-hush, but we got the power *supply* in hand, it sounds like, we just gotta distribute a lot of it around a big space, basically we gotta get hold of cable or wire, highest conductivity, highest capacity, we can get hold of, basically. Kaleb's working on a design for the control room for all this, basically we put that where the mains for this thing go."
Kaleb motioned for Elmo to follow with a tilt of his head as he started walking into- really he had an office? Well he had to grade papers somewhere. At least everything was first floor with a really nice view of the side garden. "So you are awake and thus you have heard of the Pengali incident and the Kree that addressed the United Nations. Long story short we have a Kree designed laser..grid of some nature that's going to be powered by some Kree-built mainframe. That's great buuuuut we are lacking the actual infrastructure to support it. This is the basic design there," He flipped, where his drafting table stood with mylar sheets taped in such a way they flip down and layer over one another, "and where the lines are going to need to run to. SO. We need to test what we have, see what load it's capable of sustaining, and what we need to distribute this without shorting out or burning the whole place to the ground."
Elmo watches Dizzy spin the race, eyebrows going higher in delight. "Look at that! That why you're called Dizzy? You're gevaldik, Diz." He grins at her, sharing the good parts of being a mutant: doing badass things. Then listens keenly to what she thinks they'll need. "I can make stuff conduct better, too. We might not need the highest-end stuff, if I can rig it up right. I'd like to have it, too, but if we can't find it, I'll do what I gotta." He falls into talking shop with her, effortlessly. Kaleb's almost unwelcome as a distraction when he motions to follow, but Elmo does, because Kaleb's the man with the paycheck. "Boss, I was there, when that Accuser guy came. Kai and me, we saw that happen. And I still don't think we oughta go hunting down people because they only look human and underneath are some kinda green aliens. Jews have heard way too much of that mishegoss." And he's totally lifted scraps of Kree tech, but he's not telling. His eye is magnetically drawn to the schematics and he beelines for them, looking them over, flipping the mylar sheets up and then down to see the layers of detail. "Wow," he mutters to himself. "Okay."
Julie says, "Yeah, it's really something else, but I kinda think if we put all the talents around here together, it won't be too hard," she winks. "You mean you can change conductivity so it stays that way? This stuff's gonna have to hold up to a lot for who knows how long, I mean, the Kree stuff, any number of powers, maybe sometimes someone blocking em, things like that.""
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 16
Kaleb commented idly to Elmo, "Yeah but the Jews aren't actually plotting against Earth and trying to take it over and use it as a hunting ground to subjugate us and build an army." He paused and wobbled his head, "I got to talk to a Skrull. That… is pretty much a truth turns out. Our-reality Kree? Eh not much better but at least they're more systematic about these things and can thus be reasoned with."
He fell silent while they continued to talk the mechanical detail and held back with a studious attentiveness that broke somewhat into some actual genuine expression nodding, "Well… thanks. My first big project I've gotten to design. It'll help us so ….Look I'm good at two things and that's pretty much being an asshole and being overly detail oriented." See suit without a wrinkle in it and all of his creases aligned for details.
"This can really help a lot of people. Now… cabling? If you can tell me exactly what would optimize this and how much we need… My um…" He weirdly looked… not humbled but significantly less proud for reasons that were his own, "My family's company deals in large industrial construction. I can go through Capstone and take care of using suppliers for us to gt what we need. I figure they're good enough to build the damn Pentagon and a couple of air fields and shit they know where to find stuff." It wasn't name dropping, it was just the livelihood he knew. "Can't say it'll be quick but I'm pretty sure I can see about handling getting you what you need. I just don't… you know…" Know how to operate a damn coffee pot without killing it.
Elmo grumbles. "Yeah well, tell that to those whackos on the corner of 73rd who pass out those pamphlets." Jews, Illuminati, the New World Order, Skrulls and Kree—it all fits, man, don't you see?! No. If Jews run the world, nobody's ever told Elmo. He sighs, though. "Okay. I get the point. So…listen, I'm not gonna lie. I never worked on anything this big. Just never had space, you know? But," he looks back at Diz and Kaleb, tearing his eyes away from the schematics, "I can do this. I know I can. And it's gorgeous, boss. It's a work of art. I'd be honored to work on 'er." He quirks an eyebrow at Diz, cocky. "Well, good news is, don't look like I'll need to do so much to the cabling. I can, though. I do it at home all the time. Picking wire out of cars, makin' it run a lot hotter, and mostly it don't explode." He offers both of them a long half-smile, wry. "With higher quality stuff? I can't wait to get my hands on it. It'll be perfect."
Julie hrms, thinking, "I guess let's check out what you can do, maybe show you around the place. Obviously all this stuff we're doing's pretty hush-hush and all." She considers, writing some of her notes over to a fresh piece of paper. "You really think you can get hold of high-grade military stuff without them knowing where it's going?" she says to Kaleb. "I woulda thought that same family would be keeping an eye on what you do that way, and all." She does hand over a piece of paper. "Kind of a generous estimate of what we need, length-wise, but something that runs power to big microwave radar or antennas is probably the best we could get all around. Kinda wish the Captain coulda been more specific, I guess."
Kaleb looked to Julie and cracked a grin, "They are, but I have my own holdings and projects in the company. Which is why it's not being delivered here and it'll be delivered to one of the projects I'm currently working on. As for military grade? Well… yeah we build bunkers and skyscrapers and shit and government instillations of all sorts. That's why I had to go sit in with that UN thing."
He sighed and admitted, "It's a huge pain in the ass but if I go, Kellan doesn't have to and Maximus finds it amusing as hell so at least I'm never running without backup. It works out. Short answer? Yeah. It's one of the few things I actually can do." After a pause he shrugged and repeated, "Again, I didn't say easy, but totally possible." He considered and looked the blueprint over and looked to Elmo, "We're not going to build a power station in the back yard, but if you both can tell me like what the stuff is normally used for? Well I'll have it delivered to one of those sites and then we'll worry about offloading it. No one will miss it as it won't actually be for those projects but also not look weird or out of the question."
Elmo says, entirely seriously, "Why not build a power station in the back yard? It'd suit yer purpose real well. With all this space ya got? May as well use it for something, right?" Because clearly the best use of all those majestic lawns is building mad engineering project on it. "But, eh, you're payin', we'll do it your way."
Julie ahs, to Kaleb, "Oh, this? I'm thinking radar stations, or TV broadcast towers, …they want something without a lotta lossage and hopefully the resistance'll be low enough for what the Captain had in mind. Best grade they can get, you could say it's for maybe some kinda high-fidelity broadcast stuff, talking to satellites, big of touchy computer, ah, cabinets, whatever you call em, that sorta thing. Captain didn't say how big a current he was talking, so, let's go pretty big," Ah, the frustration of dealing with those that just want 'The best,' …but best for what, being the question to those doing the implementation. "Buncha butt donnectors to go with… I think I got a line on some splitter blocks and a big cartoon switch to shut it down if we have to." She winks.
Kaleb nodded slowly taking amental inventory. Then something happened and there rose a wry grin and a laugh that ruined the perfectly serious expression he always wore looking between them, "They seriously called butt connecters? Who names this stuff?"
"Big as possible," Elmo agrees, getting a dreamy faraway look in his eyes. "Big enough you could run the city on it. …For a couple of hours, anyway. Is that practical? Ah, who cares if it's practical." Not him! He cares only for how epic he's going to be allowed to get. He laughs at Kaleb. "Engineers. We're bored and horny." True facts.
Julie laughs, a bit. "Oh, we get a lotta that in auto mechanics, too, believe me. Anyway, the Captain said the whole thing'll draw about as much power as the rest of the mansion, plus a bit more. I figure split, what, a couple dozen ways? this stuff ought to do the job a number of times over. Kinda hoping it's not too damn big, actually. Might even make sense to run some smaller stuff alongside, the parts that go in the walls and all, that is, and let him pick which to use."
Kaleb let the half grin hang and shrugged to Elmo, "Hey, architects I suppose are just as guilty. Had to spend an entire class once comparing-" His arms unfolded and a hand lifted slightly, "Ya know what? Not important right now. So oooo… Elmo's in. Look the rundown is this, people live here. Kids. Mutants all of us. A lot of these kids don't have anywhere else to go and letting word get out that this place exists? Well… you watch the news. First hand I'll tell you the things they do to our kind? It is terrible. So we don't talk about this not even in Mutant Town. Not everyone's ready to understand this sort of thing. Dangerous for them, you, us, others. End of lecture. If I didn't trust you in this we'd not be having this talk so. Any questions?"
"Granularity, always useful," Elmo says, pointing at Dizzy in solidarity. "Give 'em options." He folds his own arms, watching and listening to Kaleb with a sharpened intensity, coming back from the wonderful land of his daydreams about how big a power plant he could build on those lawns. He grimaces, nods. "Okay. Don't talk about it to no one. You got it, boss." Hesitates a moment, before venturing, "I do got a question, actually. Did Jay tell you about me? Is that why you got in touch?"
Julie nods to what Kaleb says. "Yeah. But, well, we teach here. There's rumors around, but it's best people don't know for sure. We help out in Mutant Town when we can, though, a lot of us. She thinks, "Well, there's a few folks in the know that I know you've met. "
Kaleb arched an eyebrow to Elmo and said plainly, "It wasn't though public channels if that's what you're asking." Looking back to Julie he considered, "You know end of the month we got a couple of em graduating. We should take em out or something. There's only like three of em. Logistics wouldn't be bad."
Elmo is absolutely terrible at translating this sort of nuance, so he just accepts Kaleb's answer. "Yeah, I get yer drift," he says, even though he doesn't, like, at all. "So you guys both teach here? Like professors 'n all?"
Julie laughs, "Well, I dunno if I rate as a professor, …I teach shop. Guess we could say 'Professor of Vrooomology," she jokes. Taps the books. "Kinda doing college level here, too, could be worth something, someday."
Kaleb took a deep breatha nd looked around but instead of sighing both eyebrows arched, "It's…something. I get to do focused independant study. pursue knowledges that I want to learn. In return pass on the things we excel at. I still live downtown though." He chuckled and shook his head, "Higher math and… Next semester seems like I'll be helping ROgue with Poly-Sci. That'll be fun." He fell silent and looked up to Julie with a nod, "I like Vroomology. Why do they call it shop class? You don't sell anything.
"Shop class was always my favorite," Elmo says to Diz, with a grin. "Teachers weren't too fond of me. Always messing with the machines. I broke the metal lathe, tryin' to make it go faster." Apparently, a mere 3000rpm wasn't enough for him. "I fixed it, but did I get any thanks?" He rolls his eyes. Nobody appreciates his genius! Looking up at the mansion, he says thoughtfully, "Don't think I could live here. Anyway, I got my own stuff going on in Mutant Town."
Julie gives Kaleb a bemused look, and says to Elmo. "It's all about the balance, that way, ain't it?" Winks. "I guess in this case, maybe heat. Speaking of shops, though, how you guys been getting along at the garage? I kinda meant to drop in more often, but ain't caught you."
Kaleb looked between them blinking and finally shrugging. "Only form of shop class was business econ and investments. I have honestly no idea what you are talking about." Following Julie's train of thought he looked to Elmo and boggled, "My god man how many of these jobs do you have?"
"Great!" Elmo says enthusiastically to Julie. "We got the place runningmaybe not so smoothly, but runningand we're takin some customers, now. We're busy." He actually looks sheepish, glancing at Kaleb. "Uh. Too damn many, to be real honest. And I keep gettin' more all the time. Like this one. Don't worry, okay? I got it under control." Maybe so, maybe not, but there's no way on God's green earth he's going to give up this job.