maskormenace | 01

[It’s been a while since Pym’s been seen around the city. A combination of all-too-justified paranoia and a general lack of knowledge on the surrounding geography has contributed to that. The scant knowledge he has availed himself to isn’t all that comforting, considering his colleagues at the university seemed to know him before he even introduced himself, and the work left for him was already half-completed under his own name. An algorithm based on his own work on quantification of emotions has led him to discard the possibility of his previous stay being an impostor, and while that would be unsettling for most people, when you’ve gone through as many breakdowns and fugue states as Dr. Hank Pym, it becomes terrifying. The only question is, what did he do while he was here?]

Ah. Hello. This is Hank. Hank Pym.

I’ve already been filled in on the fact that somebody—err, that I was here for a while. I was wondering if somebody could fill me in on the details on what I did during that time.

[His not-so-subtle way of asking what he screwed up this time.]

Oh, also, I apologize if anyone has noticed an increase in ants around the dorms lately. I don’t really keep them in an enclosed space, so they seem to have scattered off while I was missing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Microbots?

[Of course that's the part that gets the former Ant-Man's attention. He's made robots that he then turned small, but he's never actually created any robots of that size the hard way.]

I've actually never heard of those. Do you mind if I ask how they work?

[ To be fair, Hiro calls them "micro"and really means bots that are a couple centimeters long. But he's working on something smaller ... ]

well they swarm like i said. and you chain them together to make em do whatever you want. thats where the neuro-cranial transmitter comes in - you use it to make them form whatever shape you can think of.

You know, that actually sounds like my helmet, although focused on delivering signals to robots rather than ants. Having them link up like that and remain structurally sound sounds like a challenge, though. Do you use magnetism for that?

yep, magnetic bearings. they swivel a lot and they have clasps on either end that can connect up pretty good

whats your helmet?? you can talk to ANTS? dude you didnt tell me that last time

I didn't?

[Up until this moment, Hank was afraid he was just covering stuff Hiro had already heard about. The fact that he doesn't know about the Ant-Man technology is as pleasant as it is surprising.]

'Talking' is simplifying it a bit, although it's functionally the same thing. Ants use olfaction to communicate with each other, so when you tap into their sense of smell, you can give them commands as easily as you would a computer.

...Granted, not quite as reliably.

well yeah their ants

not gonna be on the same level of computers

but dude thats super cool you have to show me now

As it turns out, they brought me in with my cowl. Let me just turn on the camera...

[Hank switches the conversation to video. And proceeds to look absolutely confused.]

Wait. What age are you?

[ That sure is a kid staring back across the comm at him. Short, skinny, looks more like he's twelve than he is... ]

Fifteen. [ A beat. ] Is that a problem?

[ He's unfortunately used to this question. Part of why he rarely uses anything but text on the network. ]

01 - video

Sorry for the delay! First day of rounds.

np np

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video

video until noted otherwise