[Social] 127.0.0.1 Sweet 127.0.0.1

[Acala]

"Mine don't. Do you need an example of more efficient batteries to emulate?"

[Will Stanton]

"I'm...fairly sure I've seen more advanced batteries than you have to offer, anyway. I worked at a super-school in the future, remember?"

[Acala]

"And you learned nothing about those batteries, it seems."

[Will Stanton]

"Maybe I need more than a couple Duracell to function," she burbled from her tank. "I'm very complex, after all.

And tired. I think I'm going to try to get some rest here, if you don't mind."

[Acala]

"Okay!"

"Good luck with your batteries."

[Will Stanton]

A hand popped out of the tub to give a thumbs up, before collapsing back in as Will tried to get some rest.

[Acala]

Acala spends some time watching Will in the tub but soon grows bored of the churning mass. Instead she hovers over to her work area in a bobbing and weaving motion. She unfolds her protective plates and brings out her nanite tendrils to gather up materials and components. Will needs better batteries and she's supposed to set an example. Plus it's an interesting puzzle. She can't construct an organic battery, but she has data on neural interfaces thanks to Natalie and Panopticon and that's just electricity at the end of the day. It would have to be a distributed system though, considering Will's shifting and adaptive because it's mental exhaustion. Who knows what happens when organic beings sleep, but an acceleration of the process must be possible.

Distributed computing. It's what she does after all, the network of nanites is flexible, picking up computational load from surrounding nanites. Whatever sleep and dreams are, she could apply the same to a distributed battery system serving as... dream accelerators. Nanites begin assembling filaments of carbon and lithium so thin they're invisible to the naked eye, only showing as a vague metallic shimmer as they accumulate over several hours of work.

And when Acala hovers over the Tub-O-Will and unfolds to deliver the sophisticated battery accelerate it looks like a dusting of glimmering dust.

[Will Stanton]

Acala turned on the mixing and kneading function of Tosh's tank as she sprinkled the battery-dust onto Will's amorphous form. Quickly, the paddles started kneading and working the clay, mixing the accelerate in as well as it could.

For a second, just as Acala activated the machine, there was some stirring in the clay itself, as Will recognized that something was happening, but the paddles quickly took over, and any movement from Will was suppressed.

After a few moments, the (relatively) efficient machine had worked the Will-dough fairly well, and the clay mass was a bit more silvery and shimmery, reflecting the light from the various workstations as it turned and folded in on itself.

[Acala]

After a while Acala turns the tub's mixers back off and waits for Will to reconstitute.

"Upgrade complete." she chirps cheerfully.

[Will Stanton]

After a few minutes -- an eternity for the poor nanoprobes! -- a hand reached out and grabbed the side of the tank, followed quickly by the rest of Will.

He shimmered in the light, well be-freckled with battery accelerate. His eyes, too, sparkled as flecks of them created a mottled effect in his normally green eyes. He blinked, trying to get everything straight in his head.

"Acala What Woah is is everything that going is you on slow!"

He blinked several times, reaching to stabilize himself as he wobbled a bit.

[Acala]

"I produced a battery matrix that should accelerate your charge time and augment your cerebral recuperation while asleep."

"There appear to be some side-effects."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, Why I'm no are super- kidding. you jittery. Is talking Is this so that supposed slowly, some to anyway? sort be of some side sort effect? of case mod?"

...He asked, not at all confusingly.

[Acala]

"It might require some calibrating. Try taking a nap so it knows what kind of neural activity to modulate."

[Will Stanton]

"But A It's what nap? more the But than heck I'm a IS not little this even itchy, stuff, tired! Acala. anyway? Quite I'm I've the not never opposite, made seen if of anything anything. computer. like it."

This was getting tiresome.

[Acala]

"It appears you are multi-threading processes."

"But it's three, which makes no sense."

"Will, you need to stop thinking three things at once."

[Will Stanton]

"That's How You like the can't saying hell just you would think want I of to even someone's stop go mind thinking about in about doing computer pink that? terms! elephants. You I'm You'll think too think what different of you for nothing think your but expertise that to from apply! that point on."

[Acala]

"This is tedious for my language matrix to unscramble. Stop."

"But the pink elephant is a good idea. Thinking the same thing might realign the system."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, Yeah, But sure uh, why, just I a stop. have pink Not no elephant? like idea Pink's you're how more the I of one would a who go Robin caused about thing, this doing you in that. know? the first place."

...he complained, grousing at Acala. He finished clambering out of his tank, eyes focusing and defocusing as he looked around rapidly.

[Acala]

"You're being uncooperative and combative." she says before extending one of her little manipulator arms and discharging a weak arc of electricity into Will.

[Will Stanton]

The electric shock was weak enough not to disable Will -- because I mean, that would be a jerk move, right? -- but it had a couple interesting effects.

First of all, physically, it caused a brief spasm which sent ripples and waves through Will's clay, which was kind of soothing in a weird lava lamp sort of way.

Secondly, the bits of battery accumulate that were visible on skin (clay?) level sparkled and shined more as she jolted him, apparently absorbing some of the electricity to, well, charge.

And thirdly, his eyes really, really started glowing, to the point where they were practically illumination sources themselves, flickering on and off green.

He staggered back a little bit, catching himself on the edge of his tub.

[Acala]

"There, how's that?"

[Will Stanton]

What came out of Will's mouth next was too fast to be understood, more just a string of sounds rather than words itself.

I mean, at least it wasn't three voices at once? Maybe?

[Acala]

"Could you repeat that? I have to record it to slow it down."

[Will Stanton]

"ThatwasreallystrangeI'mchalkfullofenergynowlikeIcoulddoatrillionjumpingjackseverythingisgoingsoslowwhyisitakingyousolongtoreplytomewhatisthisclassesalreadytakeforeverthisisgoingtobeterriblestillwaitingforyourreply
comeoncomeoncomeon."

[Acala]

"Hmm. This appears to be an unintended side-effect." she says, speeding up her voice to accommodate Will.

"They're not speeding up your REM patterns but all neural signals."

"Should have taken a nap like I told you. Now they aligned with the wrong signal patterns."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm not a computer," Will said, still speaking as fast as before but now with spaces between the words to make it that much easier to understand. "I don't have a freaking sleep mode button."

[Acala]

"Well, the good news is that you'll have to sleep eventually and the system should recalibrate at that point."

"The bad news is that it's intended to work as a battery, so you might have to burn through that before you get tired."

[Will Stanton]

"And how much juice did you put INTO me?"

[Acala]

"Hard to tell without usage statistics, but I would estimate a good 48 hours worth."

[Will Stanton]

"I have to stay up for 48 hours? Isn't there something you can do to help me out here?"

[Acala]

"You could speed up the process by exhausting yourself."

[Will Stanton]

"You're telling me to go kick sand, or run laps or somethin? Pfft. It's after curfew; I could get busted for that!"

[Acala]

"If only you had some way to disguise yourself or blend into your surroundings."

[Will Stanton]

"Yes, because so many objects sparkle and flash; that's definitely the way to stay unnoticed."

[Acala]

"You'll figure it out. I believe in you!"

[Will Stanton]

Will shot Acala a look as his eyes continued to flash like status LEDs, and then grumbled his way towards the door.