Dancing Like a Mad Man (Oliver)

[codynovak]

It'd taken him a little while, but he'd eventually managed to get the supplies he needed. He had to remind himself he'd had a harder time getting materials before, but even that hadn't helped his frustration. Why was it so difficult to build a simple set of coils in this school? It wasn't even going to be a full sized set. It would be a miniature set, just about his size. Running his hands along the smooth metal of his parts, a giddy laugh escaped him. How had he gone so long without this? It was a heady feeling, inventing things. Even if it was just rebuilding something he'd once made, it was still an adventure. So many things could go wrong. Yet that didn't deter him at all. It never had, had it? No amount of electrical burns, or lack of fingerprints on his left hand would ever stop him. While others may get a high off of drugs, or athletic accomplishment, it was science for Cody. When he built a machine and it worked, it never failed to make him feel like he was on top of the world. Like he was a god, if such a thing existed.

Working on putting the pieces together, anticipation filled him. His coils had always been one of his favorite 'toys'. They were so beautiful, how they made the electricity dance. It was something that he never thought he'd get tired of watching. It didn't scare him one bit, how it could shock and electrocute him. If you asked him, that'd be a pretty amazing death. To die as he'd lived, by electricity. His first death hadn't been so interesting, had it? He'd been alone, in a hotel, and it'd been his heart. It just failed on him. It wasn't very interesting. To die working, perfecting the sciences? That would be an interesting death, one forever remembered in history. And that was what he wanted. Everyone remembered Edison, the lying bastard. It was few that remembered the name of Nikola Tesla. But perhaps Cody Novak could be different. He had a second chance to leave his mark on the world, didn't he? And so he would.

Stepping away from the coils, a grin made it's way across his face. They were gorgeous. Setting up the wiring, he double checked that they'd been put together properly. Getting a safe distance away, he turned on his coils, a gleeful shout escaping him as they worked. Dancing around the room, his hands made their way into the air, waving back and forth. It worked. He never failed, did he? A victorious feeling had filled him, a rush that only came when he'd successfully made a great machine. And this was certainly a great machine. Stopping his dance, he slowly sat down, for once not thinking about potential germs. A sense of peace had filled him. Creating things like this, great works of science, it was what he did. Even if no one else would ever understand it. Blinking, he grabbed his notebook as an idea came to him. Beginning the sketches for a new machine, he barely noticed the electricity still dancing on his coils, and noticing another person entering the room was certainly out of the question. His mind was focused on the idea, not what was going on around him. It was lucky that he'd sat far enough away from the coils, as if he'd been much closer, he'd surely have been electrocuted. Sometimes it was just impossible to get him out of his own head, wasn't it? But he was an inventor, and that was how he always had been.

- tag : Oliver
- notes : This is Cody's first thread, yay! And finally, he's meeting Oliver!
- words : 609
- music : Waiting For The End by Linkin Park
- outfit : Coming soon! XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

The joy of creating was one that Oliver had had to put a hold on recently, what with all the breaches in security to RSOR, and it was driving Oliver crazy.

Darwin and Joan were currently using the dorm, and while he found comfort in the fact that nothing too particularly graphic would be happening within the walls of Dorm 220 (not with Joan as one of the two parties involved), the fact remained that he wanted to stay clear of Isabella with his devices for a while, owing to the fact that a loose spring from one of his last devices had given Isa a nasty nosebleed. She was the one who asked to see it before it was complete...

Needing a safe place, Oliver decided to check out the basement. Hardly anyone went down there. Worst case scenario would be finding the janitor, and the janitor telling him to run along back to his dorm. He'd decided to bring another RC car modified into an RC plane. He had other projects (a customizable coffee machine, for example), but those he couldn't work on in the basement. No, best to go with something mobile. Plus, he could fit this project into his backpack. A coffee machine? Not so much.

Oliver reached the bottom of the stairs to the basement, where he retrieved said RC car/plane hybrid (how's that for a hybrid car?) from his backpack. It was then he noticed quite a show happening out of his peripherals. He turned at once, curious. What he saw? The little vehicle in his hand fell to the ground instantly, his eyes wide.

Wilbur/Nate would be mad about that later, if the car sustained any damage, but Oliver's mind was far as could be from that. The electricity dancing along the coils, the figure dancing in the background - This was not normal. It was not often that Oliver came across a recruit this obvious. There was no regular high school student who was capable of doing something like this. Only a reincarnate. It had to be a reincarnate, yet...

Yet?

Oliver's duties, too, were pushed aside. Normally a prospect like this would have him grinning shortly before the nervousness set in, as Oliver realized he would actually have to approach someone. This time around, Oliver felt none of this. He vaguely considered how he might recruit the guy, breaching the subject of reincarnation, but any thoughts of that were quenched whenever a new spark of electricity danced in his vision. He was captivated.

The freshman approached the coils, keeping a safe distance away. His eyes bored into the scene, his eyes still as wide as they were upon first entry into the room. At first, this look portrayed an almost childish innocence. Before long, however, this look was replaced by a different look entirely. Oliver's eyes darted around at the coils excitedly. At this point, Oliver's expression crossed from that of a normal teenager into something else entirely. His mind was clearly going a hundred miles a minute as he tried to make sense of what was happening before him. A recruiting question probably should have followed, but instead what escaped was "How does it work?"[/color]

Word count: 545
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: Yay!

[codynovak]

It wasn't easy to rouse Cody from his thoughts once he got into them. And when you did, you had better had a good excuse, because if a thought escaped him, he would pout for days. His ideas and thoughts were more precious to him than anything else. It would only be natural that he was so protective of them, wasn't he?

He'd vaguely heard an object drop, but he was so far inside his own head by that time that a bomb could have gone off by his ear and he'd have only heard it partially. His mind rushed through it's usual processes, in Croatian as he usually thought best in his first language. It would take him a few minutes to go back to English when he was finally reminded of the real world. His mind was a very complex thing, and holding as many languages as it did, it took time for him to switch between them sometimes.

Hearing a voice, he was effectively brought back to reality. Looking around, he did speak Croatian rather than English, as he scrambled to his feet. "What? Who are you? Why are you here?" Moving over to the switch, he turned off his machine. How could he have been so stupid? Even if he wanted to be a great inventor again, he couldn't be acting like a mad man. That would only lead to him being ostracized and ignored like he had in his last life. He didn't want to be all alone again. He wanted friends, and people thinking he was insane would only hinder that.

Cody cleared his throat, hoping he'd be able to speak English easily. "Sorry... Um... What'd you ask?" It did come out in the proper language, much to his relief. Closing his notebook, he shoved it into his backpack, and just looked over at the other by. He wasn't familiar to him, but that didn't mean anything. He'd be the first to admit that he wasn't the most observant person around, especially when it came to his classmates.

Running a hand through his hair, he took a deep breath. He'd not expected anyone to find him yet, especially not another student. He'd thought he would have time, to make something more useful than just coils. That would be what he reintroduced himself with. He could make some kind of power converter, or a new kind of radio; something that would help humanity in some way. His coils were for his own selfish enjoyment. And, of course, practice. But that wasn't a good excuse, was it?

He'd go with it, though. He would ignore the fact that he wasn't ready to be known as an inventor again, and be ready anyway. Even if he didn't look like he used to, he was still Nikola Tesla. He had a second chance to live, and so he would do it right. He would invent, he would create, he would be Nikola Tesla once again. All would be as it was meant to be, and he would get the glory he deserved. And Edison could burn in a fiery hell.

Standing next to his coils, he gently ran a hand down one, as if he was petting it, like a cat or a dog. They had done what he'd intended, and given him a chance to invent once again. He couldn't ask for more from them. After all, they were inanimate objects that he'd put together for a specific purpose, that purpose being the honing of his skills. It's been so long since he'd built something like this. The wiring had baffled him for a few minutes, until he'd realized how it worked. It wasn't quite what he'd used the first time around, but it'd been easy enough to figure out. Looking over at the other teenager, he smiled sheepishly. "These are my coils. Er... Tesla Coils. They're a miniature set, but they worked." Hopefully he would be as curious as Cody was, and want to figure them out.

- tag : Oliver/Mandee
- notes : I just italicized the Croatian speaking, because using translators seemed like they'd be more of a waste of time than they were worth.
- words : 669
- music : Roll With The Wind by Alexander Rybak
- outfit : Still working on it. XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

The other student, a junior or senior by the looks of it, responded in a language that Oliver could not understand a lick of. Languages were never Oliver's strong point, if only because he never paid much mind to them. He'd taken Latin in high school, like most in his time, and was taking Spanish in high school this time, but he was far from fluent in either language. As such, he did not even recognize the language the older boy spoke in, and a look of confusion crossed his features.

"C-Come again?"[/color] Oliver's stuttered response made him want to kick himself. He hated being caught off guard, because being caught off guard normally meant nervous tics like that. Really, though, how often did one address you in a language you most likely have never heard a word of in your life (well, either lives, in this case)? ...more often than Oliver wanted to admit, as an RSOR member. That said, this guy wasn't an RSOR member. Yet. The language slip-up was one huge mark in his favor.

Oliver's eyes darted back to the coils. "I asked how these work...they're impressive. Did you make them?"[/color] Oliver was sorely tempted to reach out and touch one, but he knew that would be dangerous. It was probably a good thing that there was electricity coursing through these coils, or else Oliver might very well have not been able to keep his hands off of them. His own nephew remarked that it was at times next to impossible to work with him, as he couldn't keep his hands off of what others were doing. As it was, he moved his fingers slightly, as if he was almost itching to touch one of the coils, to dissect it and discover all of it's secrets.

It was Oliver's turn to be brought out of his own musings when the other young man spoke to him. As such, he almost missed the 'my' in his sentence. Almost, but not quite. It registered, if only because Oliver's brain was wired at this point to pick up any hints a person may drop about RSOR. It only made the sentence stand out more when the boy corrected 'my' to 'Tesla'. Again, this would be a perfect time to start recruiting questions. This could be Oliver's easiest recruit yet (with the possible exception of his own past brother).

However, his next question was, once more, not a recruiting question. It seemed that any time Oliver was thrown a bone he'd almost catch it, but get distracted at the last possible moment. He couldn't help it. There was one thing that could draw Oliver away from anything else, and that was technology. And there was a whole lot of technology right before him. "What do they do?"[/color] Obviously channeled electricity, though Oliver wondered if there was anything else to them. If not, it didn't matter, but Oliver had a thirst for knowledge that he wanted quenched.

Word count: 518
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: Online translators are horrible. XD

[codynovak]

When the younger boy looked confused, a steady stream of curses, in various languages flowed through Cody's mind. Damn it, he'd caught his slip up. He really needed to start thinking in English, didn't he? But if he thought in English, then what if he accidentally wrote his notes in English? Then anyone could steal his notes, with his ideas, and they'd know exactly what he was working on. His inventions could be stolen. No, even if it did lead to difficulties, he'd have to stick to Croatian. No one would steal his ideas again.

Flushing a bit, Cody scuffed his shoe on the ground. Damn it, he'd had to ask. "I asked what you'd said, who you were, and why you were here. It's, um... Nervous habit." Yes, speaking Croatian was completely a nervous habit. It was the first language he'd ever known after all, and reverting to it was natural, right? He'd been startled by the appearance of the other student, especially since he'd been so deep in thought. His designs for a pilot-less air craft would have to be finished later.

Cody nodded, a proud smile coming over his face. Petting his coils once more, he moved away from them. "I did make them. Just from some stuff I found around... It took some time, but it came together pretty nicely. Anyway, it's pretty simple, because I just imitated the original design. They were invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891, and create alternating currents of electricity, basically. They were originally used for experiments, but now... They're used to make music or for educational displays." It disappointed him a bit that his beloved coils had become so obsolete. They'd always been a favorite toy of his. So much fun to show off, and everyone was always so afraid of them. It was quite amusing to him.

Hopefully the other student would be interested enough in the coils to not worry about why Cody knew so much about them. Maybe he could write it off as a simple fascination with electricity. That had always satisfied his parents, when he'd been caught taking apart the electrical fixtures back home. There had been many occasions that he was caught, elbow deep in wires, a gleeful light in his eyes as he dissected them. It was a wonder he hadn't electrocuted himself already. He'd been told that plenty of times by his parents, after all.

Grinning as another question was asked, he grabbed a screwdriver, and gestured to the coils. "I can show you, but basically, they make high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. And that's pretty much it. It's not too difficult to make them, as long as you can get the parts. That was the hardest part, actually." Offering the screwdriver to the other student, he picked up his own. "We can take it apart and rebuild it, if you want to. The wiring can be a little confusing too, if you're new to it." This could probably be fun, as long as the younger boy was a competent inventor.

- tag : Oliver/Mandee
- notes : Horrible, rotten things. XD And look! They're going to play with inventions!
- words : 513
- music : My Body by Young the Giant
- outfit : Still working on it. XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

Speaking in Croatian (though obviously Oliver did not recognize it as such) was a nervous habit? The freshman somehow doubted that. Nevertheless, he chose to ignore it for now. He knew it wouldn't do him much good to prod too much too fast, even if this guy was making it almost painfully easy.

"I'm Oliver. I came down here to test out one of my brother and I's fly...er, remote control planes."[/color] Now Oliver was doing it, and it wasn't even intentional. It was just damn hard to concentrate with a set of Tesla coils sitting before him. He'd heard of Tesla coils before, yes, but to see them first hand...they were stunning. Watching the physically older male 'pet' the coils, Oliver stretched out a hand, letting it linger just inches away from the coils. He knew well enough to know that it might be dangerous to just touch the coils willy nilly. It didn't look as though they carried a charge any longer, but Oliver had no way of telling, and he didn't want the lunch special for the next day to be Fried Oliver.

Oliver did not fail to detect a hint of disappointment in the other student's voice at what the coils were used for in the present. Chalk down another classic sign of reincarnation to the list. Three already, and they were still in the infancy of their conversation!

The freshman already had a good idea of why this senior knew so much about the coils. There wasn't enough to go on just yet, not so early, but this wasn't Michelangelo, or that one Asian girl he'd tried to recruit earlier in the year. He still had not a clue who that girl turned out to be, though Petra had managed to recruit her. This was a subject that suited his interests. This was also a guy who made only feeble attempts to disguise what and who he was (much like Oliver himself prior to joining RSOR, really) and who, rather than intimidate Oliver, intrigued him.

Oliver scarcely followed the explanation that Cody provided him with, his focus zeroing in at once on 'I can show you'. "So they generate electricity?"[/color] Oliver commented, to show that he was at least trying to pay attention, but his eyes did not leave the coils until he noted something moving toward him - A screwdriver. Oliver had plenty of his own, but as he did not feel like digging through his backpack at this moment in time, he was perfectly content with accepting Cody's offer. "Thank you."[/color] Oliver twirled the screwdriver around in his hands, neither of which were free from injury. On his left hand, there were the scars from the sulfuric acid burn that resulted from a careless accident by another student, as well as a row of dots that, if one knew the story, they would know resulted from a fork in his hand. These injuries were beyond his control.

The ones on his right hand, though? His dominant hand? If one looked closely, there were several scars that looked to mostly come from nicks and cuts. There were also some fresh ones. It was clear by looking at this hand that Oliver did a lot of working with his hands. Oliver didn't need telling twice when Cody suggested that the two of them could take the device apart. "Just tell me where I should go."[/color] He could figure the rest out himself. It wasn't like this was his first time with a screwdriver, or even taking something apart. He'd had countless adventures with both in both lives. He just didn't want to mess up something. Not something like this.



Word count: 640
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: Yay! I can hear them both squeeing in my head. XD

[codynovak]

Being completely unaware that there were other reincarnates, Cody didn't even realize how easy he was making things for Oliver. He was acting as he always did, as awkward and stuck inside his own head as usual. It wasn't anything abnormal to him, though it may seem odd to others. Of course, most of what he did could be considered odd by others.

"I'm Cody. Cody Novak. It's a little obvious what I was doing down here, I guess..." He didn't even catch the other's slip up, as he began thinking of ways to modify the remote control plane. What if he could make it wind or solar powered? Oh, to get his hands on that remote control plane... "Remote control plane? Is it a simple design, or a more difficult one?" Air crafts had always been something he enjoyed, as they were just fun to play with. Well, as long as one was careful. And Cody wasn't always careful, but he was fairly smart, wasn't he? Actually, he was a genius, despite his tendency to do idiotic things. Still touching the coils, the thought of them possibly holding a charge still didn't even occur to Cody. And if it had, it wouldn't concern him. After all, he was used to electrical burns, and had yet to electrocute himself. When he electrocuted himself, then he'd be concerned. Until that happened? He'd carry on as always.

Cody wondered if Oliver had any questions about why he knew so much about the coils. If he didn't say anything, though, he wouldn't bring it up. That'd be throwing himself into a mess, wouldn't it? And if Cody hated anything, it was messes. And while he knew that acting like this could be bad, he couldn't care. What were the chances of Oliver figuring out that he was Tesla reborn? It wasn't like it was something common, that happened to a lot of people. As far as he knew, he was the only one that had ever been reincarnated. If he knew of any others, though, he'd probably be more cautious. Then again, Cody was pretty far inside his own head, and barely noticed the existence of other students.

Grinning over at Oliver, he nodded. "To put it simply, yes." There were more detailed explanations he could give, but he didn't think now was the time. Right now, they had screwdrivers and a machine to take a part. He had a feeling that would be enough of a distraction to stop conversation for a bit. Using his own screwdriver to begin his work, he didn't really notice the injuries on the other student's hands. Even if he had, it wouldn't seem odd to him. There were just as many scars on his own hands- not to mention the burnt off finger prints on his left hand. Scars on someone else's hands wouldn't phase him in the slightest, especially another person who seemed interested in his coils. It would only make sense that there were scars on his hands, right? In his mind, it would be more odd for there to not be scars.

Unscrewing the top of the first coil, he didn't even blink as there was a slight charge of electricity as he pulled it off. He simply set it on the ground, and continued his working. Looking over at Cody, he shrugged. "Just don't touch any wires, and don't panic if there are charges from it. They're mostly harmless. Watch out for your fingerprints, though." A mistake with wiring had been how he'd burnt his off, after all. And that had hurt just a bit. It'd been more difficult to explain than painful, really. Continuing to dismantle his machine, he was quiet as he worked with a steady intensity. He carefully organized the pieces as he removed them, keeping them in an almost obsessive order. This was rather fun, even if he didn't show any external signs of enjoying himself.

- tag : Oliver/Mandee
- notes : I can too. XD This is either going to go really well, or really badly.
- words : 658
- music : Science is Real by They Might Be Giants
- outfit : Still working on it. XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

Oliver simply nodded as the other male introduced himself, the information a side detail that he would store away for later. Store away for later because this guy was asking about his planes. Not his real planes, mind you, but...the closest he'd been able to get to real planes in this life, other than riding them as a passenger. Oh how he looked forward to college!

That in itself was a bit odd, as Oliver had not even graduated high school in his past life. Part of that was in protest to what his school did, however. Instead of taking the required junior level classes, Orville had opted to take college preparatory courses. Apparently taking more advanced classes than you were supposed to meant you wouldn't graduate on time. Go figure.

It just went to show how different the 21st century was. A youth of today couldn't dream of going anywhere without a college degree. There was no way he could follow his chosen career path (aerospace) without a degree. Well, there was...but there would be a lot of jumping through hoops, and a lot of backyard tinkering. Not that Oliver entirely minded backyard tinkering...

"Depends on your definition of difficult. I find that my definitions are a bit skewed from the average person when it comes to the subject."[/color] Oliver grinned sheepishly, still recalling when he quoted a parody of Top Gun that translated 'I feel the need for speed' into a more complex explanation of what exactly created that speed in an aircraft. He understood the explanation with ease. Joan, on the other hand, acted as if he were speaking Greek. Then again, this was a man who, along with his brother, performed his own tests using a wind tunnel (that he'd made himself with parts that were laying around) on various miniature wing shapes to create tables that they could actually use for their large-scale experiments. What was normal to him would be complicated for someone else.

"We're still messing around with the designs. It started off as an RC car originally, but we fiddled around with it until we could get it into the air. It's one of several."[/color] And Oliver wished he could mess around with something bigger. Who would let an 'untrained' fifteen year old anywhere near an airplane, though? Oh, if they only knew.

Oliver would have asked for more of an explanation from Cody, but he didn't figure that one was really needed. Not when they were going to dissect the machine. Oliver learned better through hands on interaction anyway. He followed Cody's lead and began to unscrew the top of another coil. There was a look of deliberation in his face as he undid the screw. Not as used to working with electricity, Oliver did give a jolt as the slight charge went through his body, and he had to take a few seconds to recover. He jumped right back in, though. It would take a lot more than a simple shock to keep Orville Wright from tinkering.

"May already be too late for my left hand...which I suppose means I should take extra care with my right hand."[/color] He grinned a little, then continued to work.

Word count: 558
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: I felt tempted to list all of the injuries Oliver's sustained in this life...and I realized how much I abuse the poor guy. Most of it's not even through tinkering! XDDDDDD

[codynovak]

Cody was quickly coming to realize that the other student wasn't like most others. Most other students would have seen his coils and ran for an adult, or used them against him, as blackmail. But Oliver was curious about them, and how they worked. That was a feeling that Cody himself was familiar with, though he wasn't used to seeing it in others. Could Oliver be an inventor like him? He'd wanted someone that he could work on inventions with, and discuss ideas with. If they were both inventors, they could possibly work together. He was still wary of his ideas being stolen, but really, even if the idea was taken, the schematics tended to stay in his mind. Besides, it was lonely working on his own, having to hide it from the world. A friend, a fellow inventor, would be nice to have around. After all, Cody couldn't work alone forever. He'd eventually have to go back to laboratory, and then he'd have lab assistants and partners and the like. Getting used to it now would be beneficial for the future, wouldn't it? Though, he wasn't sure how to go about becoming friends. It'd been a fairly long time since he'd done so, and times had certainly changed.

"My definitions can be a bit skewed as well. But I was curious if it was a basic machine, or more specialized? Have you modified the original design? Or did you come up with the design?" If he'd come up with the design, or modified it, Cody knew that they would have to become friends. Anyone with that kind of talent and skill would certainly be useful as a lab partner. Besides, they could discuss ideas about modifications or new designs for air crafts. He'd been wishing for someone to bounce his ideas off of, hadn't he? If Oliver could pass this little test, as they took apart the coils to rebuild them, then Cody would be sure that they'd get along. After all, tinkering with a machine was the best way to get to know it, and someone else. At least in his mind, though there were surely others who disagreed.

Nodding, Cody hummed in acknowledgment. "That sounds pretty interesting... What does it run on? How high up can it fly? For what distances can it go? How many have you made?" When he finished the designs for his new air craft, he wanted to build a prototype. If Oliver had skill in that area, he'd be a good partner to have, wouldn't he? As far as Cody knew, he could be brilliant with planes, and could have suggestions for improvements. That'd be incredibly helpful, wouldn't it?

Grinning as he saw Oliver get right back into his work after a charge hit him, he unscrewed another panel. Good. Clearly it wouldn't be easy to scare him off of working on something. That definitely scored him points in Cody's mind. He liked bravery, especially when it came to technology. If no one ever tried new things, then nothing new would ever be discovered. It seemed to him that Oliver was as fond of discovering things as he was. Stacking his parts neatly, he paused to look at the coils. Even now, as they were being temporarily dismantled, they were gorgeous, weren't they? Works of art, if you asked him. Some people may call them stupid, but he loved them.

"It's too late for my left hand too. Though, my right isn't perfect either. Where do your injuries come from?" Maybe it was a male thing, or maybe it was an inventor thing, but Cody saw all his scars as healed battle wounds. Comparing them seemed right, at least to him.

- tag : Oliver/Mandee
- notes : Pretty much all of Cody's come from tinkering. XD He's not very smart about learning from mistakes.
- words : 618
- music : LOTR soundtrack
- outfit : Still working on it. XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

While Oliver did have plans to tell someone about Cody's coils, it was not because he wanted to use them for blackmail, or to get the other student in trouble. No, he wanted to recruit the guy. That wasn't so bad, although Cody obviously did not know of Oliver's role within RSOR as of yet.

There were only two other people in the school that he could discuss this subject candidly with, and he wasn't all that close to Skylar. No one would ever replace Wilbur as Oliver's number one go to guy for such discussions, but he certainly had nothing against making a friend who was just as interested in technology as he was.

"We modified the designs. We've come up with designs of our own as well, but this one was just a modification."[/color] Both large and small designs, though Oliver had enough sense to keep that to himself at this moment in time. While he was almost positive that this young man was a fellow reincarnate, he wasn't past that shadow of a doubt yet. He was so close he could almost taste it, however.

Next the young man asked about the specifications of the RC plane. "Oh, it has a small engine inside of it."[/color] He thought about offering to show Cody the RC plane after they were done with the coils (if they weren't at that all night...and who knew, with these two?). "I'm not sure exactly how high this one can fly. We haven't performed that many tests on it. One of our machines crashed through a third story window, though, from ground level. We've talked about installing miniature altimeters to measure exact height..."[/color] The next question was a little easier to answer. "The farthest one of these has gone is nearly two miles."[/color] Finally, the last part, which Oliver answered with an odd sort of smile that anyone in RSOR would recognize. "Oh, when you've been doing this as long as I have you tend to lose count."[/color]

To Oliver, it didn't even come down to bravery. It came down to the fact that he was far more interested in finding out how things worked than to let a little shock stop him. If he'd been hurt more seriously, that might be a different story but...even then, no, not really.

Oliver might be self conscious about his scars around people such as his parents, but when it came to other guys, even other RSOR members, he had no problem discussing them. He held up his left hand, acid burn scars still evident even though the incident in question had occurred several months before. He was a tad surprised that Cody hadn't heard about that one. "I made a skateboard for Hayden Callaghan. He tested it out indoors, in one of the science hallways. He ran into a cart carrying acid. He has similar burns to this on his stomach..."[/color] As annoying as that burn was, he was happy he'd only gotten it on his hand (and his non-dominant one at that) and not on his stomach.

He decided to ignore the faint wound from where Leila Washman (formerly known as Elizabeth Bathory) stabbed him in the hand. That could blend in as part of the burn wound anyway, and that was one scar that Oliver wasn't too pleased about. It was too bad Bathory hadn't found herself on the receiving end of Joan's sword at the wax museum...

Ahem.

Next, Oliver referred to his other hand. "Most of these are just from accidental screwdriver pokes."[/color] He pointed to various nicks and cuts on that hand, some which looked new, and some which looked much older. He pointed to a scar on his nose and chuckled. "I built a miniature version of our fly...RC plane, and a gust of wind sent it on a cross course toward my face."[/color] Miniature RC plane? He'd been about to say 'miniature version of our flyer', but...did he want to take that final leap yet? Oliver bit down on his lip as he continued to fiddle with the coils.


Word count: 727
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: My feet...are asleep. Just thought you'd like to know. XD

[codynovak]

Continuing with his dismantling of his current coil, Cody was completely unaware that there was anything on Oliver's mind beyond the machine. He had heard of the RSOR, but had never thought too much on it; his mind was generally occupied with other things. Hell, if the name wasn't uttered so often by other students, it was unlikely he'd even know that. One of his biggest flaws was that he often retreated into his own thoughts, missing what was going on in the real world. It wasn't that it didn't interest him, or that he didn't want to know what was going on. He just started thinking, and when he started thinking, he tended to miss things. Not important things, like where he was, or if something big was happening, but he didn't notice details. He didn't know most of his classmates, or what most of them even looked like. With his avoidance of hair and jewelry, he often ignored those details on others. It led to him being quite clueless about them all.

Looking up at Oliver, he grinned. Modifications were almost as much fun as original designs. Especially when they were done well. "Modified to make it smaller, or run better, or what? Have you tried building some of your own designs?" If he had, then Cody would definitely want to see. And, if it was functioning well, then he'd want to show Oliver his designs. He wanted to build a prototype, to see if it work, but he wasn't sure if it was a feasible design. Bouncing his ideas off someone else would help make sure that he'd not missed anything.

Waving his hand, and cursing softly in Croatian, Cody set down his screwdriver for a moment. Damn it, he'd touched damaged wires, and they had shocked him pretty good. He'd have to fix that, wouldn't he? Getting duct tape out of his bag, he taped over the wires, ignoring the small shocks he got this time. "What does the engine run on? Electricity? Gasoline? Batteries? Water or solar power?" His designs for his air craft included a solar powered engine, and he'd have to design the paneling to get the power as well. He was curious about Oliver's plane, though. "It crashed through a third story window from ground floor? Have you tried going higher than that? Have you started designing the altimeters?" A wide smile came over his face, and he picked up his screwdriver again. "Two miles? That's pretty good... How well does the remote work with distances like that?" He was curious, and wanted to try to find out as much as he could about these inventions of Oliver's. "How long have you been doing this? I've been playing with wires and building machines for as long as I can remember." Well, mostly. He wasn't including his childhood in his first life, even though he'd played with some machinery then too. It wasn't until his adulthood in his first life, and all of his second, that he'd done it as much as he wanted.

Cody wasn't brave by any means either. He was just curious, and stubborn. He refused to stop trying to explore and create when there was no reason for him to stop. Even if he was hurt seriously, he'd continue. It was what he enjoyed doing, and he knew that he'd go mad if he didn't do it. His mind couldn't stop working, and he refused to as well. As long as he was able, he'd invent. Despite the scars that were left on his hands from electrical burns, and the potential for serious injury, he didn't care. At least he'd have an interesting conversation starter, wouldn't he? 'Hi, I'm Cody Novak. Oh, my left finger prints? I accidentally burned them off with electricity.' No one would be able to beat that. Looking over at Oliver, he frowned. "You got acid burns on your hand? And he got burns on his stomach? What kind of acid?" How had he not heard about this? Was he really that clueless? He'd have thought that he'd have heard at least something. But no, he hadn't. This was the first he'd heard about it. It was clear that he'd have to pay more attention to others.

Taking a quick look at Oliver's hands, he nodded. "I've got a lot from electrical burns." Showing him his left hand, it was obvious when you looked at his fingers that there were no fingerprints. "I burnt my fingerprints off on accident. My mom was furious when she found out." Looking at where Oliver was pointing, he laughed as well. "I've never had anything come flying at my face." Which was something he was grateful for. In fact, he was incredibly grateful that the extent of his injuries were electrical burns. It'd never been him who got hurt badly when an experiment went wrong, even in his past life. He couldn't say the same for his former assistants, though.

- tag : Oliver/Mandee
- notes : I hate it when that happens. XD And sorry for taking so long!
- words : 831
- music : The Voice by Celtic Woman
- outfit : Still working on it. XD
- credit : template brought to you by The_Actress. lyrics from RIVER by LIGHTS!

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

The truth was, though Oliver's mind would stray back to RSOR and his recruiting duties, it would always zip back to the discussion of machines. Recruiting was simply something he did for RSOR because he had a good eye for spotting things that people did that pinpointed them as reincarnates. Machinery and inventing was a part of who he was. He'd skipped school in kindergarten in his past life so that he could play with his best friend's parents' sewing machine instead. The incident resulted in his being homeschooled until second grade, but it also went to show just how far back Oliver's interests went back.

"We wanted to make it run better. The engine runs on batteries...which is to say electricity in it's own way."[/color] Batteries were simply storage containers for electricity, after all. Another strange grin came across Oliver's face. "We've definitely tried some original designs."[/color] It was of note that whenever it came to the subject of these RC planes (and, though Oliver was not saying it, real planes), he always used 'we'. The RC planes were a joint effort by both brothers, as were the real planes that they'd created together in their past lives.

Oliver didn't mind that he was being bombarded with questions by Cody. In fact, he enjoyed having another person to be able to discuss the qualities of his creations with. If this guy wasn't a reincarnate it would be severely disappointing, as Oliver would have to watch his mouth. Something that he was having an incredibly hard time doing when machinery dominated the conversation.

"Yes, we've tried higher than that. Much higher."[/color] Another odd grin, with a hint of 'I know something you don't know' thrown in for good measure. "We've done a bit of work with altimeters, though not on our more recent models."[/color] Anyone who knew that Oliver was referring to Nate would realize that something was up straight away, as Nate had only met Oliver in this life when the two were paired up as roommates. Of course, they went much further back than that, having been siblings in their past lives. Not just any siblings, of course, and that was part of what scared Oliver about the Anti-RSOR - They already associated him with Orville Wright, even if they didn't realize that he was Orville Wright. If they made the connection between Nate and Oliver...that had the potential to put RSOR in more danger than Oliver wanted.

"The remote? That's the reason it didn't go further than two miles. It started to fall out of the range of the remote."[/color] Which was something that needed to either be improved upon...or meant that he and Wilbur needed to move on to bigger models. Oliver wanted that anyway, but bigger models meant that they'd have to be a lot more careful. They certainly couldn't tinker to the extent that they had in their past life, for the simple fact that it would look just a tad strange to see a physically 17 year old boy and physically 15 year old boy make an airplane from scratch. Anyone in RSOR would shrug it off, but the public wouldn't take it so easily.

Oliver smiled at the senior's next question. "A long time. Longer than you'd expect. Somehow I have a feeling that's the case with you too."[/color] The first recruiting question that Oliver had actually tossed in Cody's direction, which was a tad sad considering Oliver was fairly certain this guy was more than worthy of investigation. It just went to show where his priorities were in this case...

The freshman continued to take apart the coils as he answered Cody's next question. "Sulfuric acid. Surprised you didn't hear about it..."[/color] He actually was. He wasn't the most social person either, but he usually didn't miss out on events that happened around the school. That and, well, he was biased about this event. It affected him. Of course it was noteworthy to him.

Oliver looked up when he saw that Cody was moving to show him his hand. He noted the lack of fingerprints, and let out a short laugh when Cody mentioned his mother's reaction. "I've gotten that one more than once."[/color] Again, in both lives, though Oliver was blessed enough in his first life to have a mother with similar interests, who actually built small appliances around the house for herself. While he loved Judy, his mother in this life, he just couldn't bond with her in the same way he'd bonded with Susan Wright. Judy would never understand him fully. It was just a fact of life.

"Consider yourself lucky. Though in our line of work...I wouldn't talk too soon."[/color] Oliver let out another chuckle and began to unscrew another piece, narrowly avoiding a few wires.

Word count: 852
To: Emily/Cody
Notes: It wasn't too bad. ^^ Don't worry about it. =)