Honey I Shrunk the Pups Plot

[run_barry]

It's been almost a week, and while Barry didn't feel he needed anything fancy, Cisco insisted, and so for the last couple of days Barry has been staying in a very tricked-out Castle Grayskull. It's set up on a table in the corner of the bar, and yes, there's a Battle Cat action figure standing guard outside.

Barry is not sleeping now, though, he's sitting at a table that probably belongs in some dollhouse, eating a Snickers. Or bits of one, anyways, pulled from the larger bar Cisco left sitting nearby.

Barry's metabolism has been up and down thanks to all the energy it takes just to get around the bar at this size, so Cisco thought it'd be best if Barry got a sugar and protein boost.

While he munches on the candy bar, Barry stares at the small children's chalkboard that's propped up outside his playset fortress, scribbled over in what looks to be a whole lot of very complicated formulas.

While Cisco is working on the tech end of solving this shrinking crisis, Barry is trying to lend a hand on the physics. So far, he hasn't made a whole lot of progress.

Comments

[sticktothemission]

Gabriel carefully picks his way around the edges of the bar, trying to avoid Knex bridges and watching his feet lest someone be under them. The castle's a pretty cool idea, though, so he swings by to get a close look. The chalkboard is real interesting, too.

And the tiny person.

"Barry? That you?"

[run_barry]

Barry is munching on a peanut and looks up, blinking a few times to bring the much larger man into focus. When he recognizes the face, Barry smiles.

"Hey, Gabriel. Yeah, it's me."

[sticktothemission]

"I'd ask how things went with your old man but it looks like you've got bigger problems. Smaller? Sorry."

He gives Barry a bewildered look. This is his first Milliways' weirdness and he appreciates Barry warning him about stuff like this when first they spoke.

"The fuck?"

[run_barry]

Barry cants his head, trying to recall the details of their last conversation. "With my old man?"

There are bigger-smaller concerns, though, and they do indeed take precedence.

"Oh, yeah, this uh... it's been a weird week." He's glad to see Gabriel escaped it, though.

[sticktothemission]

Gabriel waves a hand a little dismissively. "Yeah, hungover, crime scene, he's your boss. Figured it went okay." Given Milliways letting one cheat. He'd meant to use the situation as an easy way to bring a smile to Barry's face nexxt time they spoke and put him at ease but he's rather thrown with the size difference between them now.

"You okay? What happened?"

[run_barry]

"Oh yeah," Barry winces at the memory of that particular morning after, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, no, it was fine. I survived."

He gives a chuckle that turns into a bit of a helpless shrug.

"Aside from being tiny? Yeah, I'm fine. There was a shrink ray explosion and a bunch of people who were in the bar at the time got zapped."

[sticktothemission]

He shakes his head, making a conscious effort to loom as little as possible.

"Crazy. See someone set you up with some fancy digs," he grins a little at the castle, "but you need anything else? Another chalkboard? Your's seems kinda full."

That is some intense looking math.

[run_barry]

He glances back at the castle and laughs.

"My friend Cisco set me up. He kept his full-size so he's been trying to fix the machine and look out for me and the other shrunken people."

Barry makes a general gesture around the bar to indicate the bridges and ladders.

Looking at the chalkboard he considers a moment then nods. "Another board would be great, thanks. I haven't made as much progress as I would like to have, but I'd rather keep this stuff so I don't run over the same trails again, y'know?"

[sticktothemission]

"Oh, Cisco, I met him. Cool guy. Be right back." He carefully threads his way through the bridges to Bar and back again. He sets down another chalkboard, a tiny box of colored chalk (in case it helps like highlighters), and a tiny case of water bottles.

"Yeah, he mentioned looking into building a laser sword. You guys from the same world?"

[run_barry]

He steps aside as Gabriel puts stuff down and grins.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it." He'll get back to work in a bit, for now he sits on top of the table to talk to Gabe.

"A laser sword, for real?" Yeah, that sounds like Cisco. "It's cool that you met him. He is from my world, I brought him in and Milliways has been giving him doors since."

Which Barry is really glad for. Especially now when they need a tech genius to fix things.

[sticktothemission]

"Galaxy far, far away style, yeah." Gabriel grins. "Since I'm basically fighting a droid army we thought it might be useful if I get into melee range." Plus wicked cool looking.

"Guess a shrinking machine is right up his alley. Would his lab have a use for tech like that?"

[run_barry]

"A lightsaber? Huh." He and Cisco may have to talk about that one.

"I seriously doubt we'd need a shrink ray. After almost a week like this I wouldn't want to fool around with one. And the tech itself is apparently from the eighties. I'm sure he'll learn a few things from it, but mostly it's just Milliways weirdness I'd rather leave here."

[sticktothemission]

'We'? Huh. Maybe STAR labs is where Barry sends his forensics. Gabriel takes a seat so he doesn't have to turn his head down so far.

"Man, a week?" it hasn't been that long his side of the door, weird because he usually goes faster. "You've been eating more than Snickers, right?"

[childofrebellion]

Cassian hasn't been sleeping well since the size change and after helping Cisco, he's been looking for Barry.

When he spots the castle, he makes his way over and waves to Barry, "This is nice."

[run_barry]

Barry gives a shrug and a bemused expression. "Cisco's idea. After the first couple of days he thought I should have somewhere better to stay then an overturned box."

[childofrebellion]

"He told me about it. I've been up on a shelf, I feel safer on higher ground. What are you eating?"

He can tell its a bar of some sort but he's not sure what kind.

[run_barry]

"I can see that," he says with a nod. It seems a few people have taken to higher ground during this.

Looking down at the large hunk of chocolate and caramel he has in his hand, Barry replies, "Oh, uh, a Snickers? It's a candy bar from earth."

He points to the rest of the bar sitting near the castle.

"Lots of sugar and protein in it."

[childofrebellion]

"It looks filling. Cisco mentioned that you were keeping busy. What are you working on?"

The equations are interesting but Cassian doesn't know what they're for.

[run_barry]

"It's pretty good. You can have some if you want." It's a big bar, and Barry probably won't finish the whole thing.

Looking over at the board, Barry shrugs. "I was trying to work out some scientific equations that would maybe help Cisco. If we can solve how exactly the miniaturization was accomplished, then we could work out the formula for reversing it."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian takes a piece about the size of his hand, the caramel is stickier than he expected, "Where do you start with that?"

Understanding the whys of how the galaxy works has always interested Cassian but he knows his education has been limited and focused on piloting and taking down the Empire.

[run_barry]

"A hypothesis." Barry stands up, walking over to the board.

"The working theory is that the most probable way to achieve shrinking would be to decrease the space between atoms." He shows Cassian the sections of the board that illustrate the idea.

"But, there are certain physical forces that would have to be overcome in order for that to work. Generally if you were to compress an atom the result would be an explosion, not making things tiny, so there has to be something working to stabilize and compensate for those forces and reactions in order for the process to work."

[childofrebellion]

"I can see that. Explosions seem to always be the aftereffects of too many things gone wrong or right. Does the machine give any ideas to what's keeping that from happening?"

[run_barry]

"Yeah, well dealing with atoms is always tricky." And they of course still have plenty of unknowns about them.

Having another piece of chocolate, he shakes his head. "Not in any kind of detail. It seems like a device that was pretty parsed together, and I don't think the inventor had much of a scientific process going in. It's all hand drawn sketches and notes that were done on it, and I'm betting a lot of the thought processes were kept and worked out in his head."

[childofrebellion]

"That seems to be the way with the ones with good ideas. I've known mechanics that can do amazing things with ships but can't tell you how or what exactly,"

It gets frustrating for those times when he can't understand how a repair was done or trying to make sense of notes from the Empire.

[run_barry]

"Yeah. It's driving Cisco nuts. He's gotten some help from people in the bar, though, and I think they've made quite a bit of progress."

The last chicken that Cisco zapped didn't even explode. Of course, it didn't do what it was supposed to, either, but at least some kind of progress has been made.

"They might even find a solution before I can work all of this out," he says and waves at the board.