11900/Totoro Blue

Totoro Blue
Date of Scene:	03 August 2020
Location:	Hank's Lab - X-Men Base
Synopsis:	Beast hangs out with Alice, Kitty and Shannon.
Cast of Characters:	Beast, Shadowcat, Nightingale, Red

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Beast has posed:
The lab is suspiciously orderly. As if the opposite of a whirlwind came through recently. It's clear the blue PhD has been keeping himself busy by organizing and whatnot. That's a good thing, because it will surely become filled with science materials in the near future. And also costuming stuff.

Hank is currently perched atop a chair, typing away on a computer. There are numerous images of the animated character Totoro visible on one monitor. On the other there's a 3D drafting program open and ready to go. On the desk nearby is a measuring tape and a few other odds and ends that may come in handy. "Oh my... this will be quite fun."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty's here because...she's any number of reasons. X-Man, boredom, checking in on Hank, chasing a Lockheed. Take your pick why, but the point is Kitty's in here too and unsure just what she's seen. "m, uh...what...what am I looking at? Hank. Please tell me you're okay and nobody hit you on the head?" she asks with mock concern in her voice. Striding over, Kitty looks around the lab and shakes her head. "You wanted my help, right. What did you need me to look att? That costume? I think...." she pauses and stares at the screen.

"I think it'll suit you if we pull it off right. Alright, let's get to it"

Nightingale has posed:
     Where there were big, blue, furry PhD's, there was likely -someone- who was forgetting to eat. Not only that, but when Alice messaged Shannon for help in the needle arts, somehow the winged healer in training knew it was going to be all hands on deck. That, plus her own recovery, was going to take fuel. So while yes, she does take her time coming down to the lab, it's not empty-handed. She does use a small cart to help, as her left arm is in a sling against her side, but when she arrives in the lab, it's bearing gifts. Carafes of coffee, a veggie and dip tray, crackers, cheese, and meats, and for Mr. McCoy--TWINKIES.

     "Mr. McCoy? What's this Alice is going on about? Something about a... Totoro costume? Seriously?" The winged teen can barely suppress a giggle in her voice, as she tries to picture Beast as Totoro.

Red has posed:
Alice trailed out from a corner as Shannon talks about Totoro, chuckling a little. "Comeon, He wanted to go all chrome Cylon! Totoro is much more loveable and you can help to turn our professor here into a 9 feet tall, cuddly cat-owl-rabbit-whatever-totoro." The redhead eyes the models, tapping her chin. "We need your expertise with pointy things and string!"

Beast has posed:
"Hello Kitty!" Hank greets the young woman warmly as he turns from his spot to look over at his friend. "There are plans in motion for me to become a huge, adorable monster to hide my identity and to amuse people of all ages. Part of me is concerned someone put a psychic impulse in my mind, but I feel like it's probably just all me right now."

As she says the magic words about getting to it Beast hops off the chair to let her have access to it and the computer.

Shannon is given a wave and a grin, "Hello, Shannon." The guys eyes widen at the sight of all the food and he heads in her direction, "Thank you again. You've kept me from starving to death at least twice this week."

Alice is nodded at, "Exactly that."

Nightingale has posed:
     "And you've patched me up how many times since I've come to the school Mr. McCoy? Wait, don't answer that." Shannon chuckles a little bit, wheeling the cart to a spot nearby the group and leaving it there. "Sorry, guys, the snacks are self-serve. I've only got one arm working and that's gonna have to do just for helping make this costume."

     As she settles down on one of the lab stools, reaching for some meat, cheese, and crackers, she sighs a little and smiles. "May the day come when none of us have to hide our identities. 'Till then there's... TOTORO!"

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty slides into the chair like she's done this before. Not /this/ per se. But she's used to computer-y stuff. And chairs. And chairs that go with computers too. Kitty hovers fingers over the keyboard in mid air, and studies the screen.

"Alright. What do you want me to start with?" she asks, reining in the idea to mess around too much with this. Kitty's responsible...sort of, and feels like she needs to set a good example to Shannon and Alice. Even if they are mature and responsible, mind...

"You brought food?" kitty asks with a thankful look to Shannon and agenuine smile.

Red has posed:
"Well, first stepin costume making is planning what it should look like. Totoro is 9 feet including ears, about 6 feet in diameter. Rather Peary... you see the general shape on the screen. To keep the shape but keep him cuddly, we should look into something like... rings or something to keep the fabric out, maybe a honeycomb pattern. And then you need to design an apperature to carry the costume and the cooling and such. You think you can do that, Kitty?"

Turning to Shannon, she sighs a little. "You and your arms. Ok, you know fabric better than me. What do we need for the right look? I might manage to connect the pieces by molding the edges together if we need to. If we are fast enough, we might make the ComiKet!"

Beast has posed:
"I'm not hiding the secondary mutations. I'm hiding the famous scientist this time. I imagine there's a lot of cross over between science fans and science fiction fans out there," Hank says with a chuckle before he begins fixing himself something to eat.

Looking over at Kitty he says, "I'm taking my cues from Alice. We'll need to build a structure to support the nine feet tall costume that will be able to bend at my waist so that I can get through doors. It'll be a balancing act, especially since we'll need to put a portable air conditioner and a battery sufficient to last all day in it."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty nods taking all this in. "Alright. Let me see what I can do with this"

It's not kicking bad guy butt. Nah. it's more, well, it's more helping out a friend in...apparent...need of costume ideas. Kitty recruited Alice. This one's on her for sheer weirdness/nerdiness factor...but hey, she's enjoying it too much to care.

"Alright, what" Kitty says, "Do you think if we use the space provided by the honeycomb to provide a frame for mounting things?" kitty asks. Oh, she's torn. On the one hand. Call Forge.

On the other. No. o. He doesn't need to know about this. nope nope nope, he'd fly up here and think we're all nuts, and have a talk with us all...Kitty's determined to avoi dthat.

"I can, aside from our resident tech support, who else is good at mechanical things and won't ask questions?" Kitty asks.

Nightingale has posed:
     "As far as rings go, Alice, well... you could take a cue from historical dress and look at women's petticoats from days of yore." Shannon raises her hand to forestall any comments about gender and dress, then nibbles on some of her snack.

     "Hear me out on this one, m'kay? Under all those petticoats, you needed something for structure. There was this layer called a 'farthingale', and in the Tudor era, you'd run into a couple different styles. If you look at paintings of Catherine of Aragorn, you'll see the skirt of her gown comes out from the hips more gradually. That'd be more of a Spanish farthingale. Some paintings of Elizabeth I have her skirts coming out from the waist at more of a straight drop, sort of like there was a big circle coming out from the waist and then bam, the skirt drops off like from the edge of a cliff. That'd be a French farthingale. But the basic idea is the structure beneath, and room could be left to keep Mr. McCoy cool. Plus, if we play our cards right, maybe we could keep the weight of the costume down overall. The basic structure's the same. Rings held suspended by ribbons between them. And you can imagine the ladies then had the same concern about getting through doorways as would happen with this costume--but they managed. So why not take a page out of the history books here?"

Red has posed:
Alice says, "Well, if you use honeycomb to push the fuzz out or rings to keep it streched between, or these dresses that give you a bee ass or triple-shulder-wide-hips, in either case there's a lot of air and possibly space for a mounting frame. The trick is all, getting it stretched out, light, and able to get in and out without needing to sew him in. I mean, we don't want to repeat Archduke Franz Ferdinand or something." Alice notes with a nod, gesturing to the screen.

"Can you put a model of him inside Totoro and see what we got to play with? And, if you could, some... sort of military carying harness? To attatch the lower edge to, and possibly a water backpack. And then... some kinda rigging to hold up the head... uh... anyone got an idea for that? To get the weight to the shoulders?""

Beast has posed:
As everyone starts talking about dressing him up Hank smiles contentedly and chews on some of the snacks. "We can use the CNC machine to help up build the structural parts," he says to Kitty with a nod. "I can assemble them once they're shaped."

When the conversation turns to rings and farthingale the blue fellow merely nods along, absorbing the information. It sounds like just what is needed at this time. "We might be able to get by with just a couple of little fans if we can leave all that room inside for me."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty shrugs looking over to Alice then Hank, "You say that like Alice isn't here. She's good at working with plastics too, and we've all got good points. I was going to go a little more adanced and make it a cool suit, or pump cooled water through it to keep you from melting, but..." Kitty shrugs sliding a model of Hank onto the screen. "That might be too complex. Alright, I'll move the model around so tell me when you think I've found a good spot. Rings? No I was thinking of having it like an internal harness and made to fit your frame" Kitty nods

Nightingale has posed:
     "Well, a shoulder harness could work, couldn't it? I don't know, I've never designed a costume like this. Mostly I picked up sewing so I could re-work clothes to work with my wings, or just sew my own. This is a whole other kettle of fish." Shannon shrugs, and chuckles softly, peering over at the screen and the 3D model, then back at Mr. McCoy. She bursts out in a fit of giggles, shaking her head. "Sorry, I have about as hard a time at picturing you in this getup as I do Captain Rogers before he took up the shield."

Red has posed:
"WAsn't that when my great great grandfather fought in the trenches of Flanders?" Alice notes about the time of Captain Rogers picking up the shield. "But anyway, how do you think we should do the vision? I mean, we could sew on the whole face and hide a camera in an eye or something, or we make the mouth a hidden visor..."

Beast has posed:
"I don't want to make Alice do all the work when she's the subject matter expert already," Hank says with a chuckle. Shannon's laughter gets more out of him, Beast nodding his head, "I decided to do something fun that would help me blend in in the crowd." Looking at Alice he nods, "Either way would be fine. We could hide a couple of cameras in the suit, probably. Make sure that I have some degree of peripheral vision."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty's clicking away and seeing just what she comes up with. Looking over to Alice, Shannon and Hank, Kitty turns and twirls a little in the seat.

"Alright, so cameras or a visor, rigging. Alright" Kitty says having put everyone's ideas into the model on the screen. So. Shulder harness, cameras, rings, rigging, if it's been suggested, it's on the model.

"So, what" Kitty asks, "Can we keep, what can we cut out?"

Nightingale has posed:
     In between fits of giggles, Shannon manages to reply to Alice, "World War II. And I think his words were, 'a bag of bird bones that didn't know when to stand down'." She tries to stop giggling, but looking at Mr. McCoy, it starts all over again. "This is going to be so much fun..."

Red has posed:
"I certainly have the expertise for the inenr grid, not the fabric. I mean, I could fudge something to work, but I am not going to sew." The last word is stressed, making clear it's not just something she says.

"Just turned up for the Electric Boogaloo? I could have sworn... nah, anyway, back to the costume. I don't think we need to add a cooling vest, but there might be enough space"

Beast has posed:
Hank just listens to his friends talk, winking at Shannon when she giggles at him. He grabs another stool from somewhere and sits down on it to take some weight off. The snacks continue getting munched on. They are quite tasty, after all.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty's not gone for the food yet. She's still clicking around and making little 'hrm' noises at her...creation's a good word to call it. If anything, Kitty's dangerous with a mouse as with her powers. Kitty, if anything, hacker extroidinaire, Kitty is, well, Kitty is trouble.

She grins and looks to Shannon, then Alice, then Hank again.

"So. What" Kitty asks. "Is best. Simple and easy to make, or horribly convoluted?" she asks with a look that has michief all over her face.

Nightingale has posed:
     "Simplest would probably be a harness with some type of farthingale setup, so Mr. McCoy won't need as much to keep him cool in the costume. Plus, he'd have the flexibility to get through doorways. We'll just have to leave a little play in the outer fabric so the hoops can flip up enough for him to get through a door sideways." Shannon shrugs, chowing down on some of the meat and cheese, and then some more. "What do you think, Alice? Mr. McCoy?"