The dull roar of hundreds of people talking at once washed over Mari once she’d picked up her badge and made her way deeper into the convention center. Unofficially referred to as the ‘Big Boy Science Fair’ by Spork, the Pittsburgh Area Science and Technology Conference (or PASTC for not much shorter) was a gathering of some of the most brilliant minds in the area, each displaying various technological advancements in their respective fields. While the official title did include ‘Pittsburgh Area’, that moreso referred to the area the conference was held in rather than where its attendees and presenters hailed from.
This was Mari’s fourth year attending. She’d never been a presenter, and had long ago decided she never would be. This was due to practical reasons as, much like an artist, every tinkerer or inventor has a unique style to their work. For example, Auraliese’s creations looked like the mechanical equivalent of a child creating a “potion” on the playground. It would take Mari twice as long to convert something to a different style, and even then there would always be the chance that someone could connect it to Kitsune and Nine Tails.
So she instead attended these conferences for a couple of other reasons. The first was to see what the competition could be carrying. Nine Tails was far from the only group willing to perform less than savory acts at a competitive price, and while Mari may have been smart enough to keep her own technology out of the public eye, there could be others that weren’t quite so careful.
The second reason was less charitable: plagiarism.
Again, a term taken from Spork but one that actually fit the situation at hand. Sometimes innovation required inspiration, and sometimes that inspiration was from seeing the horribly inefficient way that someone was generating a laser and attempting to amplify it through a set of no less than thirteen highly precise lenses that could only handle five short bursts of approximately 720 milliseconds before at least one of those lenses needed to be changed. Honestly, someone creates a basic ray gun and everyone loses their mind over the fact that it’s just a more advanced version of using a magnifying glass to burn ants.
No, of course Kitsune’s signature weaponry didn’t come from a desire to improve upon a terrible design. That would be nonsense.
Spite was also involved.
Regardless, Mari began to wander the artificial aisles of the convention, her gaze passing from one booth to the next. The problem with gathering a bunch of brilliant people and asking them to show off their work was that none of them had social skills. So when she saw a bright-eyed young woman eagerly explaining what was going on at her booth, Mari stopped and listened, curious as to what was going on.
This is one of Venus’ favorite events. The PAST-C science fair is just so cool! There’s so much to see, and she’s nearly done with the requisite two hours of presenting! She just has to pitch her mom’s project to one last group, and then she can go see everyone’s cool projects.
Not that her mom’s project isn’t cool, but Venus has spent the last several weeks helping her prepare it (and the past two hours running through some variation of the same script) so she’s ready to see something new.
But first, the presentation. Since this will be her last before her mom takes over, she takes a sip of water and adjusts the stand one final time, making sure everything is perfect. This is the second year her mom has let her do half of the talking at her booth, and Venus has gotten even more business cards than last year. This is a great place to get investors.
“Have you ever broken a bone?” She calls into the crowd, her voice pitched to reach the latest group of people wandering by their booth. “It takes forever to heal, right? And casts are so unwieldy and inconvenient!”
She catches the eye of one of the women in the group, her smile growing broader when she sees the glint of interest there. “With Maria Votticelli’s latest invention, bone cement, you’ll cut the healing and hassle in half! This is the future of medical technology, folks.”
That should draw them in. She lingers just so by the side of her mother’s booth, close enough to the table that they’ll have to enter her orbit to talk to her. And then she can get their business cards, hand out her own, and answer questions. It’s the perfect scheme, because it’s not a scheme at all! It’s science!
Interesting. While biochemistry and medical science weren’t her forte, Mari certainly could appreciate the advances made in the field. Spork would disagree, but Spork also agreed to let her experiment on them and attach things to their spine, so they weren’t really the best point of reference for what her areas of expertise were. This bone cement could certainly be handy for them, though.
Spork had broken several bones before Mari had even started Nine Tails, and with their recklessness, combined with her occasional fuckups in the augmentation department, that number had almost certainly hit double digits. Wrangling a Spork who couldn’t move a part of themself or get it wet was truly an endeavor. More than once while enduring this, Mari considered asking Sisyphus for his boulder, just to take a break.
The crowd murmured after the girl’s speech was concluded, a wave of people forming an unruly line to ask questions and exchange business cards. Mari kept a handful that she’d taken from various booths, intending to properly research the companies later. Some of them had little holes stabbed through them with a pen. These were for her targets. They’d get extra research later on.
Mari waited until the majority of the crowd had moved on before making herself known and stepping up to the younger woman presenting. She seemed the bubbly sort, not someone Mari would usually expect to see in these conventions, let alone presenting.
“Good afternoon,” Mari said, putting on her business smile. “I have to admit, I’m very intrigued by the applications of bone cement. Do you know if or when Dr. Voticelli intends to release it for public use? I would certainly be interested.” She extended her hand for the girl to take.
