10398/Upgrades For Brad

Upgrades For Brad
Date of Scene:	11 December 2019
Location:	Wellness Office - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Kitty makes some upgrades for Brad's backpack, and finds he's dealing with his power in other ways. An appointment for an eye doctor is made.
Cast of Characters:	Shadowcat, Haunt

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Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty's been burning the candle at both ends of late. Though that's not anything new. She's been doing it for the latter half of 2027, but takes enough time off to herself to preserve her sanity, apparently.

One of the things on her to do list has been to go over the schematics for the power nullifier which is largely the work of Hank. Kitty is so far outstripped by Hank's knowledge of biology and mutant powers that she is scarce worth a mention in that area. However, when it comes to improving on processing hardware within the device, Kitty and Forge are probably the two people at the school best suited for the job.

So she's spent a few nights going over the original plans and working on some upgrades. The fabrication and testing has finished, and so Kitty sent out a message to Brad to arrange a time they could try switching out the new components for the ones he's currently using.

Haunt has posed:
"Hi," Brad greets from the doorway. The backpack is present: floating along loosely, with one strap tilted up and angled, clearly the load-bearing strap for the backpack as the invisible student carries it in front of him by the strap. Brad is entirely invisible otherwise: and obviously the backpack is not currently in an 'on' position. A coil of cord for charging it shows from the side of the pack, looped around Brad's wrist while he carries it in. He pauses, unsure who is in the Wellness office.

"I have a meeting with Ms. Pryde?" Brad asks. He can't detect who Kitty is.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty has the different parts set out carefully on a cart that she rolled up, anti-static protectors making sure none of the parts short out from a stray touch while the winter air has a low humidity that facilitates unintentional minor shocks. She's sitting over in a chair, sipping a cup of coffee. It's good and hot, and the scent of it might be noticeable to Brad even over the usual anti-septic clean scent of the Wellness Office.

"Brad, over here," Kitty says, sitting up and putting the coffee mug aside on a desk. "Glad you could make it. I was second-guessing sending Hambone with the message. But I bribed him that I'd let him have my pre-order equipment bundle from the new Revengers video game that's coming out at Christmas," she says. "So figured that might assure it actually making it to you."

Kitty rises from the chair. "I've fabricated a few new circuit boards for your backup. Should be a lower power draw. Won't heat up as much either so we can go with some lighter heat sinks. And it'll be more pleasant in summer for that matter," she says.

She moves over to the cart. "Want to set your pack down there and I'll start installing the parts? And how's it been working for you? Both, is it functioning technically, and... are you finding it's helping your quality of life?"

Haunt has posed:
"He gave word to my roommate, I don't know," Brad answers. "Most people can't find me. The invisibility thing." Brad's rueful, his tone a little closed from emotion for that moment, but it's hard to tell from just a disembodied voice.

A shudder rolls through the wellness office in a more evident way: there had been a mild breeze at the start just as Brad checked inside, but now it's stronger, more evident that he's taking in the room and how it's arranged.

"I'm actually here to give it back to you," Brad answers. He doesn't know where she wants him to put it down, so he just puts it down where he is on the nearest surface.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty turns back from the cart, her face that Brad can't see taking on a surprised look. Though it probably can be picked up from her voice by someone who probably listens for tone even more than most. "Oh? I haven't had a chance to see how it has been going with you. Have you been having issues because of it?" she asks, her tone also showing concern.

Kitty walks over to help Brad with setting the pack down, just making sure nothing else is in the way. Her expression is a little troubled as her mind races through a few thoughts, trying to think of what could lead to him giving up the pack.

Haunt has posed:
"Yeah, it is really horrible to have my telekinetic senses shut off. It's like being blind AND deaf," Brad explains. There wasn't anything in the way: Brad has a sense of object placement. He steps back a little so that Kitty doesn't bump into him - not that it will be apparent, since he's invisible. "But mostly that Ms. Braddock is working with me to shut my invisibility off on my own, so - I don't need the thing." There's a secretive little self-pride in it, and suddenly Brad is visible. There's no graceful fade-in or anything like that, he's just suddenly THERE, like someone edited some footage and the teenager is just jarringly present.

Brad is clearly about sixteen, his light brown faux-hawk lightly gelled, dressed in a long-sleeved tee, snug jeans, and socks, no shoes. He reacts automatically to the light in the Wellness office as if he were suddenly walking out of a tunnel into a glaringly bright outdoor area, so he's squinty and uncomfortable, but still wearing a victorious, if a little shy, smile.

"See."

Shadowcat has posed:
The brunette had a few moments between hearing of Betsy's help, and Brad appearing to be at least a little prepared for Brad to suddenly appear, if still not having quite expected it. "Oh, that's such great news!" she says, lighting up. "I hadn't realized you'd managed to make any kind of progress like that. I agree, so much better if you can control it all and access each of your abilities still."

Kitty had a pair of sunglasses at hand, having thought that much in advance at least though expecting they might be used while testing out the pack. She reaches for them and offers them to Brad when she sees him squinting at the light. "How is it going with it so far? Are you able to maintain it for very long?" she asks.

Haunt has posed:
Brad doesn't seem aware of the glasses at first, then he picks up on it, a little delayed. He leaves his eyes shut while they partially adjust to the change of lighting from absolute darkness to the lighting of the wellness office. He accepts the sunglasses, sorting them out by touch to get them turned right-side up, and puts them on.

"I can do about an hour before the headaches just kill. A bit longer with breaks, or medicine to help with the headache," Brad reports. He's smiling, though, clearly pleased. "It has to do with the light, or my vision. Everything's pretty blurry but I got some glasses that are helping. Not sunglasses, but normal ones, for bad eyes. I can see more than blobby shapes with those - I didn't think to bring them. But it's bright in those. I need like, prescription sunglasses maybe," Brad considers aloud.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty crosses her arms and leans back against the counter where the backpack is. "Sounds like they would help," she agrees of prescription sunglasses. "We can do the eye exam here and send out for some for you, no problem," she suggests. Kitty's smile grows and she says, "I'm really happy for you Brad. Have had a lot of friends who have had to work through the sort of... well, social impacting effects. Or just, affecting how you live your life sorts. So I'm really happy to see you're working through yours like this."

Kitty glances at the backpack and comments, "I'll probably try the new hardware out anyway, and we can stow it away then in case another student could use it," she says, before turning back to him. "Are you going to be seeing your family over the holidays? Show them your progress?" she asks.

Haunt has posed:
"I was able to sort of flicker during Thanksgiving," Brad says, hesitantly. Something is very, very wrong abruptly with his mood around his family. "They? didn't act like I hoped. It's all right. I mean. I'm okay. They're dumb," Brad says, a little sharply, with clear teenage rebellion building in his voice. He also visibly flickers: invisible, visible, and lifts one hand to rub one eye under the side of the sunglasses.

"So we can do an eye test here? Can I schedule that today?" Brad asks, hopeful.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty picks up the backpack and moves it over nearer to the cart, but then leaves it for later as she turns back to Brad. "I like your hair like that, looks good," she compliments him on a physical appearance people don't usually get to see. "Hopefully they'll adjust," she says. "Every family can react to things differently, that's for sure. And, even if a family is absolutely embracing about someone's mutation? There's /still/ the regular family issues that every family has. I don't think those ever go away."

Kitty walks over nearer again and says, "Yep, we can do the eye test here. Image inducers don't really work well with eye exams. But we have a program in the Danger Room to create all the equipment, and we have a friend of the school who is an ophthalmologist we can get to come by. I don't imagine today, but we can probably shoot for end of the week hopefully." Kitty pulls out her phone and starts tapping away on it, making the appointment on the spot. "By the way, hopefully it won't be an issue soon enough. But, if you like I can work up a purely audio and touch-based communication device for you. There's no reason, even when you're power is fully active, that you can't be in touch, or people not be able to reach you."

Haunt has posed:
"I have voice commands on my mobile phone but I hate it, I don't like feeling like the weirdo talking to myself and it's clunky," Brad chuckles, and abruptly turns invisible. The sunglasses are there, though, floating, and reveal exactly where Brad is. He leaves them on, shifts his weight a little bit, but does not reappear.

"You can do touch based? Like, even a device with refreshing braille? I know there's computer screens that exist for braille use, but I haven't gotten to use one," Brad asks, suddenly very, very interested. That's extremely exciting to him. "I can read and write in braille fluently, is that an option or would that be too small for a mobile thing?" he wonders, trying to suppress his hope.

"Also, what is the 'Danger Room'? Because I don't think I want to be in a room named that. Can we do it in the 'safe room'?"

Shadowcat has posed:
"Let me give it some thought and see what I can work up," Kitty replies. "It could be a mix, some amount of changing texture, along with audio to an earbud so just you are hearing it. And, might be able to come up with something even smarter after giving it a little thought." She smiles to him and says, "In the short term can probably get you a phone quick that has the 30 or so most common things you'd do on it, and let it read things to you through the earbud, while I consider other options."

Kitty goes to get her coffee, taking a sip before it gets cold. "Really glad for your progress though. When you get up to three hours without any problem, we'll have to schedule a trip to a game in the city. Or play if you'd prefer Broadway," she says. "The Danger Room is a simulation environment. We can use holographic light to form solid objects. It's a training room, but also we run various classes there for people learning their powers. Even social simulations."