Clint and Topaz | Science Meets Magic
May. 14th, 2018 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsClint and Topaz experiment with the effect magic has on technology.
Oh boy, was Topaz' only thought as she walked into the lab and saw a table covered in electronics. Barton was insisting on making her his go to for magic, for whatever reason, so she supposed she had to act like it. "All right," she said, looking at the man in question. "What's up?"
"So comms," Clint said, looking up with a smile. "I wanna do a couple experiments to get things really figured out, then work on improving the comms themselves. First, I need you to do some like, I dunno. Ambient testing? Put in each of the comm units, do some magical stuff that's not directed at them. Then I test them to see what, if anything, happened to them. Second, you actually magic them. Dunno how you might wanna do that, but you do you there. Then I'll test those."
Topaz tilted her head, actually genuinely interested in that. "In theory, magic shouldn't be interfering directly with devices unless it's meant to. We've got shielding all over this place, not to mention whatever Strange happens to be doing at any point in the day, and as far as I know there's never been a problem with cell phones. Different devices, different reactions, though. Worth testing out. You might want to talk to the spies too, whatever they use has to be magic proof. And chaos proof. And whatever Marie-Ange is proof."
"Good thought," Clint said, jotting down a note to himself. "I mostly just want to register frequencies and things. I'm hoping that you're right and nothing will actually happen. But I'm also planning on souping these up a lot -- waterproof, electric shock-proof... any other kinds of -proofs I can figure out and add. So getting all of that stuff -- oh hey. Wait. Shielding. You think you can do some kind of shielding on these?"
"More than likely." Topaz picked up a little bud, turning it over in her fingers. "Like I said, there are shields all over the place that have been up for years. The spell will need to be re-done every now and again, but that's easy enough. Like putting in new batteries."
"I like it," Clint said, grinning. "Okay, let's still do the tests I've prepped for today, but we'll expect the expected results. We can do stuff with your shielding and the like tomorrow or whenever you wanna come back."
"I've got nothing going on, so whenever you want." Topaz shrugged. "So just any spell?"
"Any spell," Clint confirmed. "They're not waterproofed yet, though, so don't like, make it rain or anything..."
"Right." Topaz tilted her head, thinking for a moment. Finally, she held out her hand, and several balls of light flickered to life, fluttering up and spinning around the room. "There's always little bits of magic going on around the mansion, between the shielding and all of us. There's basically ambient magical energy around us at all times. The lights, meanwhile, are active magic, and are giving off real energy, which has more of a chance of interfering with anything if it's going to."
"Okay, so let's modify the experiment a little," Clint said. "You keep doing the light thing over there with the earbuds. I'll monitor their receptivity and frequency clarity and stuff from over here with my laptop."
"Right." Topaz' eyes tracked the lights effortlessly as she watched them bounce around. She snapped her fingers and they moved obediently, spinning around the hand she was holding the ear bud in, but not letting them touch it. "Magic can short out device - I've broken a cell phone before. Decent shielding would protect them, but shields can be broken."
"Hm..." Clint hit several buttons in quick succession, recording the readings he was getting from the earbud in Topaz's hand. "So if we ran into another magic user or something like that, would they be able to detect the shielding and destroy it? Because I'd still rather have the shielding than not, but then we'd also need to figure out some way to protect the earbuds from magic users, too, or we'll do something ridiculous like get complacent and then be screwed when some dude zaps us with magic."
"If they were stronger than me, maybe," Topaz said thoughtfully, snapping her fingers. The lights disappeared. "It's not quite that simple, though. They can't just wave a hand and make the shielding going away unless they're, you know, all powerful or something." She rolled her eyes slightly, remembering the Ancient One. "It'd have to be a head on attack, and that's probably not worth the risk just to interrupt communication. Straight out killing the person wearing the earbud would take less time and make more sense." She paused. "Or that's how I'd go about it, anyways."
Clint tilted his head to the side as he considered that, then nodded his agreement. "Yeah, me too. That's what we did when we were getting Tasha back. But say somebody wants the information you've got in your brainmeats," he asked. "Like, they can't outright kill you, so they have to keep you from sending a distress sig -- wait. They just knock you unconscious. Nevermind. So maybe not worrying about the magic users so much, cause we'll either be unconscious or dead."
He continued recording the information from the earbud now that Topaz had stopped the spell around them. "Let's discuss implanting subcutaneous trackers... or wearing them, I guess, like in an earring or a necklace or something. Or a button."
"I was about to say," Topaz said dryly, running through the list of harmless spells she knew to test out next. She finally settled on illusions and held out a hand. A black cat appeared on the floor in front of her, meowing loudly - very lifelike. "Something inconspicuous would be good. Maybe something the person has on them at all times anyways so there's no chance of it being forgotten." She reached beneath her shirt and pulled out her necklace, with the topaz stone dangling off the end, holding it up for Clint to see. "Like so. Might mean customizing a bit, but it's better than taking the risk of losing people completely."
"Exactly," Clint said, nodding. "I don't really have anything on me all the time. So I've got an implant." He shrugged. "But Tasha's got something I made for her a couple years ago, after getting her back. Customizing's not a problem." Recording the readings from the second earbud, he looked up with a half-smile. "Less trouble for us than for the teams with official uniforms, right? Nobody's gonna wonder about a piece of jewelry or a belt buckle if we're not all dressed alive. It won't stand out."
"A bunch of people running around in purple uniforms would stand out anyways." Topaz knelt down, and the fake cat moved forward, sniffing at her hand but careful not to actually touch it. "How's it looking?"
"Pretty much the way you said it would," Clint said, laughing a little. "There's some mild static sometimes, the closer the spell is to the earbud, but nothing that would actually impede communication. It's not cutting out or anything like that, either. And you're right about the purple uniforms standing out. It's not something I ever really thought about, since it's just how things worked at SHIELD and SWORD. Tasha had some cool, piping stuff that helped recharge her stingers. I'm told I had purple paneling on my ribs?" He shrugged. "Makes sense to be able to blend in with the masses, I guess, if we're in a situation where we need to fight. Element of surprise and all that."
"Probably mostly a problem for me, then," Topaz said thoughtfully. "And Stephen and Megan. Too bad we don't have a telepath to link us all together." Topaz snapped her fingers, and the cat poofed. "Yeah, my last interaction with SWORD had your boss almost getting us killed by a Frost Giant so I don't think I'm too eager to jump on anything they do."
"When did that happen?" Clint asked, brows shooting toward his hairline.
"Uh.... two years ago, I think?" Topaz frowned. "Time runs together. Something about the Avengers being mind-controlled and attacking SHIELD, and SWORD needed us to deal with the thing that caused it."
"I'll have to check the mission reports. I did a brief scan through, but I was tied up outside the States for so much of that time..." Clint shook his head, unable to believe he'd missed that. "Sorry you had to deal with it. Brand can be... yeah. Difficult." He let that thought hang there for a moment before blinking out of his thoughts and saying, "You're right about a telepath. That'd solve the problem with communications -- until somebody took out the telepath."
"Yeah I can't say I was huge fan of her," Topaz said dryly, standing back up. "Think the feeling was mutual, though. And a telepath would at least be a good back up if something went horribly wrong. Unfortunately I think they're all spoken for, and my telepathy extends about as far as I can read thoughts associated with really strong emotions."
"She had her moments," Clint murmured. Then he glanced up at Topaz and squinted hard. "What'm I thinking?"
"I'm guessing it's not a rousing chorus of my amazing abilities," Topaz replied. "Really strong emotions usually means life or death situations, not...." She frowned, probing gently for a moment. He had invited it after all, "desire or longing."
"But I really want some waffles," Clint said, laughing softly. "Anyway, let's try out the last earbud. I think I can miniaturize them more... it'd be really convenient to have them tapeable, actually. Y'know, ready for missions, just stick it behind your ear. Way less noticeable, too. In theory, anyway. Hm..." He had to know somebody who was working on that kind of thing. He'd check around later. "Anyway, last earbud. Once that's done, we should get waffles and talk about portable magical defense things, since I don't think either of us wants our people to get taken out by a spell or whatever when nobody else is looking."
"I think I'm good on waffles." Topaz picked up the last earbud, turning it over for a moment. "Charms are... a thing, but I'd have to experiment some to make them usable by other people. I've got a book somewhere." Or Amanda did, but borrowing books from her was a bit hard at the moment. "I'm going to try a shield around it first to make sure that won't cut them off." There was no point in having them if the shields were going to interfere with communication. A small, golden bubble formed around earbud.
"Aaaaaand..." Clint kept an eye on the readings from the earbud. "Again with the really minor static, but no actual interference so far as cutting out or anything is concerned." Frowning a little, he leaned closer to his computer screen. "Nah, not even a full blip -- that kind of magic won't impact the wavelengths. Which is awesome."
The bubble popped, and Topaz frowned, trying to think of something else to try. "All right, hang on," she murmured, putting up a shield around herself. Magical energy crackled in the air, harmless to her, trapped within the bubble, and harmless to anything outside. Bolts of energy lashed out, cutting through the air.
"Whoa," Clint said, the hair on his arms suddenly standing on end. He glanced from Topaz down to his laptop and then back up, checking to see what the effects of the magic were for each little bolt of energy that came near or into contact with the earbud. "Yeah, that's causing some interference, but -- " Tipping his head to the side a bit, he fiddled with the earbud in his own ear, then said. "Right -- blips, but I'd still be able to get the gist of a message."
"Right." The energy faded, and Topaz dropped the dome. "Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we can't go test these in another dimension, and that's about as intense as I can get without breaking things. Different magics have different energy signatures, though, so get a couple of the others to test them out too. Take it into the city and let Amanda have a go at it, if she doesn't mess it up in New York, probably nothing will."
Humming softly to himself, Clint allowed the recording software to wind up its last little thing, then made sure he'd saved all the files he needed in the appropriate folder and closed the laptop. His mouth twisted a little at one corner as he considered her suggestion. "I'll see who else I can drag in here for similar tests. What you said about energy signatures is interesting, though. I think I've got enough now that I could theoretically work on figuring yours out -- would you mind coming in again, after I've figured out what I might actually need to measure your energy output and how it reads on different instruments?"
"Sure," Topaz said wryly. "I've always wanted to be a science experiment."
Oh boy, was Topaz' only thought as she walked into the lab and saw a table covered in electronics. Barton was insisting on making her his go to for magic, for whatever reason, so she supposed she had to act like it. "All right," she said, looking at the man in question. "What's up?"
"So comms," Clint said, looking up with a smile. "I wanna do a couple experiments to get things really figured out, then work on improving the comms themselves. First, I need you to do some like, I dunno. Ambient testing? Put in each of the comm units, do some magical stuff that's not directed at them. Then I test them to see what, if anything, happened to them. Second, you actually magic them. Dunno how you might wanna do that, but you do you there. Then I'll test those."
Topaz tilted her head, actually genuinely interested in that. "In theory, magic shouldn't be interfering directly with devices unless it's meant to. We've got shielding all over this place, not to mention whatever Strange happens to be doing at any point in the day, and as far as I know there's never been a problem with cell phones. Different devices, different reactions, though. Worth testing out. You might want to talk to the spies too, whatever they use has to be magic proof. And chaos proof. And whatever Marie-Ange is proof."
"Good thought," Clint said, jotting down a note to himself. "I mostly just want to register frequencies and things. I'm hoping that you're right and nothing will actually happen. But I'm also planning on souping these up a lot -- waterproof, electric shock-proof... any other kinds of -proofs I can figure out and add. So getting all of that stuff -- oh hey. Wait. Shielding. You think you can do some kind of shielding on these?"
"More than likely." Topaz picked up a little bud, turning it over in her fingers. "Like I said, there are shields all over the place that have been up for years. The spell will need to be re-done every now and again, but that's easy enough. Like putting in new batteries."
"I like it," Clint said, grinning. "Okay, let's still do the tests I've prepped for today, but we'll expect the expected results. We can do stuff with your shielding and the like tomorrow or whenever you wanna come back."
"I've got nothing going on, so whenever you want." Topaz shrugged. "So just any spell?"
"Any spell," Clint confirmed. "They're not waterproofed yet, though, so don't like, make it rain or anything..."
"Right." Topaz tilted her head, thinking for a moment. Finally, she held out her hand, and several balls of light flickered to life, fluttering up and spinning around the room. "There's always little bits of magic going on around the mansion, between the shielding and all of us. There's basically ambient magical energy around us at all times. The lights, meanwhile, are active magic, and are giving off real energy, which has more of a chance of interfering with anything if it's going to."
"Okay, so let's modify the experiment a little," Clint said. "You keep doing the light thing over there with the earbuds. I'll monitor their receptivity and frequency clarity and stuff from over here with my laptop."
"Right." Topaz' eyes tracked the lights effortlessly as she watched them bounce around. She snapped her fingers and they moved obediently, spinning around the hand she was holding the ear bud in, but not letting them touch it. "Magic can short out device - I've broken a cell phone before. Decent shielding would protect them, but shields can be broken."
"Hm..." Clint hit several buttons in quick succession, recording the readings he was getting from the earbud in Topaz's hand. "So if we ran into another magic user or something like that, would they be able to detect the shielding and destroy it? Because I'd still rather have the shielding than not, but then we'd also need to figure out some way to protect the earbuds from magic users, too, or we'll do something ridiculous like get complacent and then be screwed when some dude zaps us with magic."
"If they were stronger than me, maybe," Topaz said thoughtfully, snapping her fingers. The lights disappeared. "It's not quite that simple, though. They can't just wave a hand and make the shielding going away unless they're, you know, all powerful or something." She rolled her eyes slightly, remembering the Ancient One. "It'd have to be a head on attack, and that's probably not worth the risk just to interrupt communication. Straight out killing the person wearing the earbud would take less time and make more sense." She paused. "Or that's how I'd go about it, anyways."
Clint tilted his head to the side as he considered that, then nodded his agreement. "Yeah, me too. That's what we did when we were getting Tasha back. But say somebody wants the information you've got in your brainmeats," he asked. "Like, they can't outright kill you, so they have to keep you from sending a distress sig -- wait. They just knock you unconscious. Nevermind. So maybe not worrying about the magic users so much, cause we'll either be unconscious or dead."
He continued recording the information from the earbud now that Topaz had stopped the spell around them. "Let's discuss implanting subcutaneous trackers... or wearing them, I guess, like in an earring or a necklace or something. Or a button."
"I was about to say," Topaz said dryly, running through the list of harmless spells she knew to test out next. She finally settled on illusions and held out a hand. A black cat appeared on the floor in front of her, meowing loudly - very lifelike. "Something inconspicuous would be good. Maybe something the person has on them at all times anyways so there's no chance of it being forgotten." She reached beneath her shirt and pulled out her necklace, with the topaz stone dangling off the end, holding it up for Clint to see. "Like so. Might mean customizing a bit, but it's better than taking the risk of losing people completely."
"Exactly," Clint said, nodding. "I don't really have anything on me all the time. So I've got an implant." He shrugged. "But Tasha's got something I made for her a couple years ago, after getting her back. Customizing's not a problem." Recording the readings from the second earbud, he looked up with a half-smile. "Less trouble for us than for the teams with official uniforms, right? Nobody's gonna wonder about a piece of jewelry or a belt buckle if we're not all dressed alive. It won't stand out."
"A bunch of people running around in purple uniforms would stand out anyways." Topaz knelt down, and the fake cat moved forward, sniffing at her hand but careful not to actually touch it. "How's it looking?"
"Pretty much the way you said it would," Clint said, laughing a little. "There's some mild static sometimes, the closer the spell is to the earbud, but nothing that would actually impede communication. It's not cutting out or anything like that, either. And you're right about the purple uniforms standing out. It's not something I ever really thought about, since it's just how things worked at SHIELD and SWORD. Tasha had some cool, piping stuff that helped recharge her stingers. I'm told I had purple paneling on my ribs?" He shrugged. "Makes sense to be able to blend in with the masses, I guess, if we're in a situation where we need to fight. Element of surprise and all that."
"Probably mostly a problem for me, then," Topaz said thoughtfully. "And Stephen and Megan. Too bad we don't have a telepath to link us all together." Topaz snapped her fingers, and the cat poofed. "Yeah, my last interaction with SWORD had your boss almost getting us killed by a Frost Giant so I don't think I'm too eager to jump on anything they do."
"When did that happen?" Clint asked, brows shooting toward his hairline.
"Uh.... two years ago, I think?" Topaz frowned. "Time runs together. Something about the Avengers being mind-controlled and attacking SHIELD, and SWORD needed us to deal with the thing that caused it."
"I'll have to check the mission reports. I did a brief scan through, but I was tied up outside the States for so much of that time..." Clint shook his head, unable to believe he'd missed that. "Sorry you had to deal with it. Brand can be... yeah. Difficult." He let that thought hang there for a moment before blinking out of his thoughts and saying, "You're right about a telepath. That'd solve the problem with communications -- until somebody took out the telepath."
"Yeah I can't say I was huge fan of her," Topaz said dryly, standing back up. "Think the feeling was mutual, though. And a telepath would at least be a good back up if something went horribly wrong. Unfortunately I think they're all spoken for, and my telepathy extends about as far as I can read thoughts associated with really strong emotions."
"She had her moments," Clint murmured. Then he glanced up at Topaz and squinted hard. "What'm I thinking?"
"I'm guessing it's not a rousing chorus of my amazing abilities," Topaz replied. "Really strong emotions usually means life or death situations, not...." She frowned, probing gently for a moment. He had invited it after all, "desire or longing."
"But I really want some waffles," Clint said, laughing softly. "Anyway, let's try out the last earbud. I think I can miniaturize them more... it'd be really convenient to have them tapeable, actually. Y'know, ready for missions, just stick it behind your ear. Way less noticeable, too. In theory, anyway. Hm..." He had to know somebody who was working on that kind of thing. He'd check around later. "Anyway, last earbud. Once that's done, we should get waffles and talk about portable magical defense things, since I don't think either of us wants our people to get taken out by a spell or whatever when nobody else is looking."
"I think I'm good on waffles." Topaz picked up the last earbud, turning it over for a moment. "Charms are... a thing, but I'd have to experiment some to make them usable by other people. I've got a book somewhere." Or Amanda did, but borrowing books from her was a bit hard at the moment. "I'm going to try a shield around it first to make sure that won't cut them off." There was no point in having them if the shields were going to interfere with communication. A small, golden bubble formed around earbud.
"Aaaaaand..." Clint kept an eye on the readings from the earbud. "Again with the really minor static, but no actual interference so far as cutting out or anything is concerned." Frowning a little, he leaned closer to his computer screen. "Nah, not even a full blip -- that kind of magic won't impact the wavelengths. Which is awesome."
The bubble popped, and Topaz frowned, trying to think of something else to try. "All right, hang on," she murmured, putting up a shield around herself. Magical energy crackled in the air, harmless to her, trapped within the bubble, and harmless to anything outside. Bolts of energy lashed out, cutting through the air.
"Whoa," Clint said, the hair on his arms suddenly standing on end. He glanced from Topaz down to his laptop and then back up, checking to see what the effects of the magic were for each little bolt of energy that came near or into contact with the earbud. "Yeah, that's causing some interference, but -- " Tipping his head to the side a bit, he fiddled with the earbud in his own ear, then said. "Right -- blips, but I'd still be able to get the gist of a message."
"Right." The energy faded, and Topaz dropped the dome. "Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we can't go test these in another dimension, and that's about as intense as I can get without breaking things. Different magics have different energy signatures, though, so get a couple of the others to test them out too. Take it into the city and let Amanda have a go at it, if she doesn't mess it up in New York, probably nothing will."
Humming softly to himself, Clint allowed the recording software to wind up its last little thing, then made sure he'd saved all the files he needed in the appropriate folder and closed the laptop. His mouth twisted a little at one corner as he considered her suggestion. "I'll see who else I can drag in here for similar tests. What you said about energy signatures is interesting, though. I think I've got enough now that I could theoretically work on figuring yours out -- would you mind coming in again, after I've figured out what I might actually need to measure your energy output and how it reads on different instruments?"
"Sure," Topaz said wryly. "I've always wanted to be a science experiment."
