2013.04.20 - Stealthy is as stealthy does

Dragnet is....actually Frederick Jaeger for once. Through methods only the quick and the vagrant do practice, he is currently unarmored and taking notes on a series of textbooks in one of the thousand coffeeshops located near campus. How did he get ahold of them, you ask? Well apparently if you look the part, you can get a lot of people to loan you various textbooks. Refraction, metallurgy, its a hodge podge of the physical sciences. He takes notes as he sips a cup of coffee obtained not ten minutes ago. Its a rare luxury, and he's careful to parcel out each sip in time with scribble after scribble.
Sue Storm is travelling incognito herself for a change, her blonde hair mostly covered by one of those trendy knit hats that people wear more for style than warmth, a smoke grey wool peacoat obscuring most of her attire and a pair of generic sunglasses and earphones to complete her attempt at a disguise. The books and binder tucked into the crook of one arm make her as not noteworthy as any other student in the area. Why is she here? She's been reading up on medical terminology and the like as she has time, so that she doesn't feel completely like a rube when she volunteers at the Hell's Kitchen Clinic.
After claiming a simple cup of coffee she turns to claim a vacant table she'd seen on her way in, but of course it's not vacant anymore. Her shoulders droop a bit as she sighs.
Incog-neaaat-o. Yes. He is that lost in thought that he finds it funny, continuing to jot down notes. Basically, Fred is trying to create a stronger variant of the armor for when he has to run around in New York City or Metropolis. Small arms fire resistance is good, but he seems to be drawn all across the seaboard and at this rate, holes are going to be punched. He needs resistance, but also to maintain the camouflage that makes him so able to operate in the first place. Sacrifices might need to be made...hmmm. He jots down a few more notes, doodles a bit. Nothing incriminating, but it might hint he is playing at extracurricular activities.
It's true that she could very easily make her own table and chair out of force fields if she really wanted to, but that kind of defeats the purpose of playing the part of simple student. So she walks slowly through the patio seating of the cafe, hoping to find even an empty chair at an already occupied table that she can request. She stops a bit away from Frederick's table and asks in a hopefully suitably timid voice, "Excuse me, is that chair taken?"
Frederick looks up from his impromptu book fort, studies Sue for a moment. Maybe a bit more shrewdly than one might expect from one their age, but the younger fellow gestures amiably enough. "Sure. Free country and all." He manages, not curt, just...formal. Maybe tinged in a bit of uncertainty. Why? Who is she? All questions running through the back of his mind as he reclines backwards.
"Thanks." Sue smiles and moves to sit, promptly setting her coffee down and cracking her books, pulling a pencil from its place in the binder to start jotting notes in the margin of the text. Her own sips of coffee -- wait, it's a black tea not coffee -- are as infrequent as Frederick's own, though they seem more absent-minded.
Frederick makes a few more cursory lines, than erases them just as quickly. No, that would imbalance the armor, over-favor the left side. The full stealth effect would be delayed critical seconds. Maybe he had to tolerate a reduction in the field to gain that protection? "So, what are you studying?" He asks generally. One of those safe questions that all people of their age asks.
Sue Storm answers rather absently, as if the vast majority of her attention is on her books. Which it actually probably is. "Medical transcription." She takes another sip of her tea and didn't even look up at the younger man whose table she's sharing.
 
Ah yes, studying, pondering. He makes a few notations, rolls shoulders back. "Ah. I'm....playing with multi-spectrum light." It seems like the sort of thing a student would say, yes? Since they are both pretending. Frederick looks over her idly once more before writing again. No, still not quite right. That needs to bend /away/
Sue Storm puts her few acting lessons to use, tilting her sunglasses up onto her forehead but not looking up at Frederick again. "Like, lasers or something?" She finishes the notes she's jotting, then, finally, looks at the younger man across from her.
 
"Curving, bending, all of that jazz." Frederick says offhandedly. He looks at the sketch thoughtfully, then erases it. He's no actor, but he keeps it in general terms. Keeps things closer to the vest. "More....the everyday." He says after some level of thought.
Sue Storm looks at Frederick oddly, but still takes a sip of her tea. "Wait, you mean, like, making things invisible?"
 
Frederick shrugs. "Why not?" There is a pause as he jots down notes. "Sight is not our strongest sense, but we trust it implicitly. even when scent and taste are tied so strongly to memory for example." He leans forward, draws a few more lines. "There are invisible materials, but materials that can defeat some level of invisible light and detection methods exist. I am just playing around to see what could be done still further. For fun."
Sue Storm raises her eyebrows. "For fun? Must be nice." She returns her attention to her own books.
 
Frederick cocks his head. "Hmmm? Have I said something wrong?" He asks. After all, did she not come asking him for the space? "I mean, I'm sure it has a few practical applications, but it feels more like I am chasing someone elses work. Improving on something that came before. Its a little frustrating." He admits, even as a few more lines take shape.
Sue Storm pauses in her note-taking again to look at Frederick one more time. "Isn't all innovation just taking something that's been done before and doing something new with it?"
Frederick laughs slightly at that. His fingers steeple as he sets aside the notes. He then leans over slightly, glancing at her own. There is a shift of weight, a bounce on his feet as he looks about them for a moment. "Perhaps. We'll see. In the event that it comes to fruition, I will let you know if you were right. I may end up going back to the drawing board again."
Sue Storm looks at Frederick for a moment as if trying to figure out a puzzle. Her notes are neatly written in the margins of the book, mostly phrased as small reminders to accompany the information they're referencing. "Wait, are you doing this for fun, or to make something?"
Frederick looks at the diagrams, the notes he has made. "Trying to solve a problem for a friend of mine. He's trying to create...well, I suppose you could call it an invisible steel. He has seen it work in fabrics, in street level body armor. Now he wants to see if it can be made more resilient without impacting the effect on his original material." He says after some consideration. A purse of lips as he draws another line, a scribble of math. It was harder when he first started out. Now, he may actually have learned the foundation of genius.
Sue Storm blinks a few times. "Oh." And, she keeps trying to play the student card. "I've never heard of stuff like that, except maybe on a Star Trek movie. Transparent aluminum?" Here there be whales?
 
Frederick seems to be catching on to her interest, but precisely why or the nature of it keeps him on his guard. "More like a bulletproof vest. Kevlar would be the closest analogue." He says, continuing to make notations. All very vague, nothing too terribly fascinating. No whales, but perhaps vigilantes, if Sue has a very, very specific interest in street vigilantes.
Sue Storm really only knows about the unstable molecule fabric Reed made, and with that stuff there's just no need for invisible steel. But still. If this kid is randomly thinking up unusual substances like that, maybe Reed would want to tap him to fill the intern spot that Ben Reilly's sort of promotion has opened. Of course, she can't really mention any of that out loud. So instead, while resuming her note-writing, she asks seemingly idly, "So, you working on a chemistry degree, then? Or physics or something?"
 
There is a slight stretch of his arms, a faint yawn from time spent stretching. Of course, its no unstable molecule fabric, but it is pragmatic for other things. Particularly if it can be broken down to the molecular level and sewn into the pre-existing fabric. The idea of plating really doesn't sit well with Frederick, but it just might have to be. He looks at her casually. "Nah, just a community college graduate. I dabble in a bit of everything. Just a fresh pair of eyes, is all." He says looking up from the growing skein of formula and diagram.
Sue ohs faintly. She starts to take a sip of her tea, then frowns at it and puts the cup back down unfinished. "Sounds like kind of heady stuff for community college." Spoken with haughtiness of a true Ivy League alumni. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out an entirely ordinary looking cell phone to check the time. "Well, thanks for letting me invade your space here," she says as she puts the phone away and starts packing up her books.
 
Frederick's tolerance for academia seems high, at least for the moment. "Its a good friend. If he thinks I can be of use, I will do my utmost." He says, even as she dismisses him with that haughty tone. He nods as she packs up. "Indeed. No trouble at all." He offers.
Sue reaches to pick up her cup, the remains of the tea gone cold and bitter. Before she goes on her way, though, she pauses and looks at Frederick. "I hope you figure out how to make your invisible steel stuff. It sounds like it'd be useful." She makes her way out of the patio area and walks in the vague direction of the closest college campus. However, anyone really paying attention will notice that she simply disappears.
Category:Log