milliways_bar | (no subject)

Bonzo shows up, wearing his Salamander Army uniform...in no small part out of the utility of it (all else being equal, it doubles as a pretty standard flight suit), but in large part because it looks cool. And for something like this, 'cool' doesn't hurt.

"Alright, since you're the expert here...tell me what I'll need to do."

He's...oddly business-like today, but then again they are planning to fly a glider made of ice off the roof of the Bar.

"Step one: get to the roof. You want to ride up on an ice slide with me, or do you want to try getting up on your own?"

Bobby's wearing...jeans, sneakers and a tank top. It didn't occur to him to wear his uniform since this isn't exactly a mission.

It's not a mission, but it's also a little cool for a tank top as far as he's concerned.

Bonzo thinks for a moment. "Let's do the ice slide." How you'd go up one has him a little lost, though.

For Bonzo's comfort, he stays in human form.

"Okay. Just stand behind me, and put your hands on my shoulders. Let your feet slide, but I'll just be building new ice under them, and that'll propel us along. I'll go up in a spiral, like a spiral staircase."

He lays down an initial patch of rough ice for them to stand on as a starting point.

Bonzo nods and complies, though the "rough" ice still nearly makes him slip. Once he's balanced and his hands are on Bobby's shoulders, he smiles. "Ready."

"Just don't fall off, and you'll be fine."

Bobby starts off a lot slower than if he was just transporting himself. The spiral is about six feet in diameter, and their ascent is fairly quick.

"That bar is a lot taller than it looks from the ground."

It's mostly just an observation, and not said out of fear. He reaches the top and makes a short bridge so that they don't have to jump from slide to rooftop. The view is pretty spectacular over the lake and forest.

"Everything's taller from when you're on top." Bonzo replies...only to find that, Milliways being Milliways, there's even more distortion than usual here.

Beat.

"I see what you mean."

The view is impressive, but the height isn't so extreme that it rattles Bonzo.

"So...I did a little reading on gliders, and watched a couple of videos. It seems pretty basic."

*Read: He has made little to no preparation for this.*

"I just need to make the ice super hard and as thin as possible where they fabric part would normally be, and thicker for the support areas where the poles would normally be."

That gets a nod, perhaps a bit uneasy at the subtext.

"Ok, what do I need to do?"

"Mostly, help me with making sure it's all even on both sides and getting it ready to fly. The wing span is supposed to be pretty wide, and for a rigid wing glider, I have to hang a few feet beneath it. I'll need help sorting that out."

He produces a tape measure from where it was hooked to his belt and tosses it at Bonzo.

"Instead of the harness thingy, I'll just encase my feet in ice and stick it to the underside."

Bonzo's feeling is just getting worse and worse about this with every line Bobby says. He grabs the tape measure and nods.

"You sure about this, Bobby?" Beat. "I don't exactly have any scales up here to check the weight with or anything."

"I'm pretty good at judging that sort of thing; part of the mutant package, I guess. From what I read, these things usually weigh about eighty pounds. I think I can get it pretty close to that, but it might take a try or two."

Okay, so maybe he has SOME knowledge, but Bonzo is probably right worry a little about the advisability of this idea.

Bonzo nods and pulls out the tape measure. "Tell me what the measurements are and I'll check them for you."

"The total wingspan should be about forty feet."

He pauses to run some numbers in his head (something he excels at). He rattles off some numbers, and makes a mark with ice where he wants Bonzo to begin measuring.

"I'll make the poles out of ice first, then fill in the spaces where the thinner material could go after the frame is done and I know how much weight we're looking at. It could take a couple of tries to get them the right size."

Bonzo nods and starts measuring where shown to...

"That's a big glider."

"That's what I thought, too."

He pulls a paper out of his back pocket and shows it to Bonzo.

"I printed that off of the internet for a reference. You see, it doesn't need to be all that complicated."

Bonzo takes a peek at the drawing and nods. "Yeah, not too complicated."

Bobby looks please at this, and begins pacing the rooftop, looking at the angles and beginning to make long rods of ice of varying lengths and widths, testing them for approximate weight while Bonzo finishes measuring.

When he feels like he has the right width and ice density for the poles, Bobby picks up one of them and slams it hard into the ground. When it doesn't break, he nods with satisfaction.

"Did that fancy uniform you're wearing come with gloves?"

Bonzo shakes his head. "Nope. The station was always climate controlled within a few degrees, I think." Not that he'd ever checked, you know.

"Hmmm. That's going to be a problem, because for me to make the ice hard enough, it might burn your hands to hold onto for long."

He thinks for a moment, then shrugs.

"If worse comes to worst, one of us can go down to the bar for a pair. For now, I'm going to make the frame pieces, and we can set them in place so that we can see how it's going to line up before I join them together. You can nudge them around with your boots, if you need to."

He begins making poles of super-hard ice. They are slightly lumpy and crystalized in places, but still straight. They steam a bit as they lay on the roof where he places them.

"I'll grab some if it becomes an issue." Which it might, but Bonzo will worry about that if/when it comes to that. "So, tell me where you want each piece."

Bobby picks up a couple of the ice poles he's made and sets them in a rough shape to resemble the one in the picture he gave Bonzo.

"We'll want it to be symmetrical, so lets start with one side and then make the other match it. Measure out and make sure we've got enough room for both sides."

"Symmetrical glider. Who'd have thought."

Smirk.

Bonzo starts measuring out equal distances to place the poles from a center point.

Bobby throws a snowball at him, without really aiming.

"Smartass."

He begins making poles in graduating sizes, to fit in between the longer poles, testing each by smacking them hard against the ground.

"If this works, are you going to give it a try? It might even work better for you, since you have powers to help smooth things over if you get wobbly."

Snowball, meet face. Face, meet snowball. Bonzo laughs as he wipes the snowball off his face...and clumps the soggy, slushy mess together and tosses it right back at Bobby.

And then there's a serious question. Bonzo pauses and thinks for a moment. "Can you freeze me in like you could yourself? Or will I need to grab some equipment for that?"