![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithBased on an audience poll, this is the free epic for the May 4, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal. It is spillover from the April 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Communication" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"One of the Hardest Arguments to Refute"
[Saturday, April 2, 2016]
Halley was excited to attend
the Sensory Engineering conference
hosted by North Carolina State University
at Raleigh. The McKimmon Conference
and Training Center was spacious and
full of fascinating technical displays.
Room 1, which could be divided
into four subsections, currently held
the show hall with vendor booths
and institutional swag tables.
They had everything from
remote sensing arrays to
advanced prosthetic devices
to virtual reality equipment.
Room 2 for large presentations
was set up as theater seating,
with a list of lectures and films.
Rooms 3 to 6 were reserved
for panel discussions, which
would likely draw crowds.
Rooms 7 to 10 had been
designated as classrooms
for lessons and workshops
and in one, a robo-derby.
Rooms 11 to 16 were
computer labs, useful
for electronic activities.
The conference had
all kinds of interesting stuff
and people to discuss it with,
even if some of what Halley
worked with these days --
like the living metal -- was
nowhere near ready for
mainstream release yet.
"What's my first activity?"
Halley asked Watermark.
"You have a panel on
Lab Safety Monitoring in
ten minutes," said Watermark.
They had no trouble finding
Room 5, but as soon as they
stepped inside, Halley groaned.
"What's wrong?" said Watermark.
"That guy -- they must have changed
the schedule again," Halley said.
"That's my old professor from
Duke University. I'm supposed
to avoid him, but this is my panel."
"Shall I remove the problem, boss?"
the bodyguard said with a thin smile.
Halley looked at Professor Rutherford
and realized that he seemed smaller
than thon remembered, awkward
in his rumpled off-the-rack suit.
Expertly Halley checked the set
of thon's Dolce & Gabbana suit and
Apollo cockpit bow tie. The shirt
underneath was a lovely maybe-pink,
sort-of-orchid, almost-lilac shade.
"No ... there's not much he can do
in a room full of witnesses," Halley said.
"Indeed," said Watermark. "If you change
your mind, just give me the signal. I'll
be watching you from the front row."
If Halley was annoyed by the change,
then Professor Rutherford was
downright incensed by it --
and trying to hide that fact.
"Good morning," Halley said
as thon sat down behind
the printed tent card.
Professor Rutherford had
a blank tent with his name
hastily handwritten on it.
The panel did not go well.
Halley didn't have time to do
more than summarize thon's paper.
Professor Rutherford dominated
the presentation about equipment
for lab monitoring, even though
his information was out of date.
When Halley pointed that out,
he talked over thon's objections
and blustered a list of his degrees
(also out of date) instead of
updating the discussion.
Professor Rutherford also
showed favoritism in calling
on audience members who
had questions, several times
picking out people whom Halley
recognized as his own students.
Halley got angrier and angrier,
because thon could barely
get a word in edgewise,
and Watermark looked
more and more alert.
But Halley had spent
months surrounded by
suave Italians who held
a lot more power than
Professor Rutherford and
and had to keep the peace
with all those Sicilian tempers.
Real power didn't need to yell.
Suddenly calm, Halley leaned back
in the chair, folded thon's hands
behind thon's head, and waited.
It took Professor Rutherford
ten minutes to realize that Halley
wasn't trying to talk anymore.
It took another ten before he
realized this might be a problem,
while the audience became more
and more annoyed at the situation.
He clearly didn't care about the crowd --
he was used to a captive audience in
college classes -- but Halley's silence
was really starting to unnerve him.
When the panel finally ended,
Professor Rutherford rounded on
Halley. "What the hell was that about?"
Without a word, Halley picked up
thon's name tent and walked away.
Watermark fell into position at
Halley's elbow, not laughing,
but her eyes twinkled with
suppressed amusement.
Then they were mobbed by
attendees who had wanted
to hear from Halley during
the panel and hadn't gotten to.
Watermark was there to keep
an eye on the schedule, so
Halley didn't have to worry
about it as thon fielded
questions about lab safety.
By the time it ended, thon had
almost run out of business cards
and had a thick stack of them
from other people for networking.
Thon had also sold a lot of NannyCans.
Professor Rutherford had been
largely ignored, except for a few folks
scolding him for hogging the mike.
He shuffled off in defeat as they
headed toward the computer labs.
"That was a thing of beauty,"
the bodyguard remarked.
"Whatever gave you the idea?"
Halley gave a fey smile. "Silence is
one of the hardest arguments to refute."
* * *
Notes:
Watermark (Culaccino) (Vedette Fedele) -- She has light olive skin, brown eyes, and short straight brown hair with a wide stripe of bluish-breen. A blue-and-white tattoo of a wave wraps around the upper part of her left arm. She comes from the municipality of Cosoleto in the region of Calabria in Italy. Vedette is a soft butch lesbian, and prefers lovers of moderate to butch persuasion rather than femmes. Her personality is fluid, easily shaping itself to the current context around her. Skilled at reading people, she makes both friends and business contacts easily.
Watermark works as a bodyguard for the Marionettes, particularly in cases where raw physical violence is not ideal. She uses aikido and de-escalation skills, along with subtle touches of her Water Powers, to keep people safe. If provoked, though, she is entirely capable of making limbs swell to immobility or of filling someone's lungs with water. Her nickname comes not from the colored hair but from her habit of leaving dangerous opponents with a permanent spiral scar by distorting the water within skin cells, so that she and others can recognize them easily in the future.
Origin: When she was thirteen, she got swept away by a flood and presumed lost. She returned three days later with a broad aquamarine streak through her hair, and Water Powers.
Uniform: On duty, she wears a masculine business suit. Off duty, she wears fashionable masculine clothing, usually from Italian designers. For swimming, she likes turquoise and white striped swim trunks with a bareskin top.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Emotional Intelligence, Good (+2) Adaptable, Good (+2) Aikido, Good (+2) Bodyguard, Good (+2) Connecting with People, Good (+2) Dancer, Good (+2) De-escalation
Poor (-2) Worrywart
Powers: Average (0) Water Powers
Vulnerability: As a Water elemental, she takes double damage from Fire, whether superpowered or ordinary.
"We English speakers have tried our best to describe this phenomenon with the phrase “water mark,” but Italians have had this term on lock for quite some time. Whispering the word culaccino makes us want to sit back, relax and sip an ice-cold drink on a hot, lazy day -- and then we remember that it’s fall, and we want to hop on a plane ASAP."
-- Italian Words We Don't Have in English
Heinrich Rutherford -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short dark hair going white and also bald. He has a scruffy beard and mustache. Professor Rutherford works at Duke University where Halley spent a semester in Raleigh, North Carolina. He teaches physics and other topics. His students find him intimidating. He takes out his bigotry on everyone he considers lower rank than himself. As a hobby, Professor Rutherford enjoys building all kinds of models.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, Good (+2) Building Models, Good (+2) Intimidation, Good (+2) Physicist
Poor (-2) Bigot
* * *
"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."
– Josh Billings
Best Physics colleges in North Carolina for 2021
1. North Carolina State University at Raleigh
4. Duke University at Durham, NC
Best Electrical and Electronics Engineering colleges in North Carolina for 2021
1. North Carolina State University at Raleigh
2. Duke University at Durham, NC
McKimmon Conference & Training Center
Address: 1101 Gorman St., North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606
Area: West Raleigh/N.C. State Univ/PNC Arena
North Carolina Raleigh McKimmon Conference & Training Center Floor Plan
Room 5
Total Sq. Ft.:1,421
Width:29
Length:49
Height:14
Banquet Capacity:160
Classroom Capacity:68
Theater Capacity:110
This is a typical meeting room for panels and presentations.
Sensory Engineering spans a wide range of theories and applications, from robotics to monitoring systems.
A robo-derby typically features demolition combat, but sometimes obstacle challenges, even multiple challenges. See videos of demolition and obstacle course robotics.
Halley wears a Dolce & Gabbana blue suit with a pinkish shirt and a blue Apollo cockpit tie.
dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Communication" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."One of the Hardest Arguments to Refute"
[Saturday, April 2, 2016]
Halley was excited to attend
the Sensory Engineering conference
hosted by North Carolina State University
at Raleigh. The McKimmon Conference
and Training Center was spacious and
full of fascinating technical displays.
Room 1, which could be divided
into four subsections, currently held
the show hall with vendor booths
and institutional swag tables.
They had everything from
remote sensing arrays to
advanced prosthetic devices
to virtual reality equipment.
Room 2 for large presentations
was set up as theater seating,
with a list of lectures and films.
Rooms 3 to 6 were reserved
for panel discussions, which
would likely draw crowds.
Rooms 7 to 10 had been
designated as classrooms
for lessons and workshops
and in one, a robo-derby.
Rooms 11 to 16 were
computer labs, useful
for electronic activities.
The conference had
all kinds of interesting stuff
and people to discuss it with,
even if some of what Halley
worked with these days --
like the living metal -- was
nowhere near ready for
mainstream release yet.
"What's my first activity?"
Halley asked Watermark.
"You have a panel on
Lab Safety Monitoring in
ten minutes," said Watermark.
They had no trouble finding
Room 5, but as soon as they
stepped inside, Halley groaned.
"What's wrong?" said Watermark.
"That guy -- they must have changed
the schedule again," Halley said.
"That's my old professor from
Duke University. I'm supposed
to avoid him, but this is my panel."
"Shall I remove the problem, boss?"
the bodyguard said with a thin smile.
Halley looked at Professor Rutherford
and realized that he seemed smaller
than thon remembered, awkward
in his rumpled off-the-rack suit.
Expertly Halley checked the set
of thon's Dolce & Gabbana suit and
Apollo cockpit bow tie. The shirt
underneath was a lovely maybe-pink,
sort-of-orchid, almost-lilac shade.
"No ... there's not much he can do
in a room full of witnesses," Halley said.
"Indeed," said Watermark. "If you change
your mind, just give me the signal. I'll
be watching you from the front row."
If Halley was annoyed by the change,
then Professor Rutherford was
downright incensed by it --
and trying to hide that fact.
"Good morning," Halley said
as thon sat down behind
the printed tent card.
Professor Rutherford had
a blank tent with his name
hastily handwritten on it.
The panel did not go well.
Halley didn't have time to do
more than summarize thon's paper.
Professor Rutherford dominated
the presentation about equipment
for lab monitoring, even though
his information was out of date.
When Halley pointed that out,
he talked over thon's objections
and blustered a list of his degrees
(also out of date) instead of
updating the discussion.
Professor Rutherford also
showed favoritism in calling
on audience members who
had questions, several times
picking out people whom Halley
recognized as his own students.
Halley got angrier and angrier,
because thon could barely
get a word in edgewise,
and Watermark looked
more and more alert.
But Halley had spent
months surrounded by
suave Italians who held
a lot more power than
Professor Rutherford and
and had to keep the peace
with all those Sicilian tempers.
Real power didn't need to yell.
Suddenly calm, Halley leaned back
in the chair, folded thon's hands
behind thon's head, and waited.
It took Professor Rutherford
ten minutes to realize that Halley
wasn't trying to talk anymore.
It took another ten before he
realized this might be a problem,
while the audience became more
and more annoyed at the situation.
He clearly didn't care about the crowd --
he was used to a captive audience in
college classes -- but Halley's silence
was really starting to unnerve him.
When the panel finally ended,
Professor Rutherford rounded on
Halley. "What the hell was that about?"
Without a word, Halley picked up
thon's name tent and walked away.
Watermark fell into position at
Halley's elbow, not laughing,
but her eyes twinkled with
suppressed amusement.
Then they were mobbed by
attendees who had wanted
to hear from Halley during
the panel and hadn't gotten to.
Watermark was there to keep
an eye on the schedule, so
Halley didn't have to worry
about it as thon fielded
questions about lab safety.
By the time it ended, thon had
almost run out of business cards
and had a thick stack of them
from other people for networking.
Thon had also sold a lot of NannyCans.
Professor Rutherford had been
largely ignored, except for a few folks
scolding him for hogging the mike.
He shuffled off in defeat as they
headed toward the computer labs.
"That was a thing of beauty,"
the bodyguard remarked.
"Whatever gave you the idea?"
Halley gave a fey smile. "Silence is
one of the hardest arguments to refute."
* * *
Notes:
Watermark (Culaccino) (Vedette Fedele) -- She has light olive skin, brown eyes, and short straight brown hair with a wide stripe of bluish-breen. A blue-and-white tattoo of a wave wraps around the upper part of her left arm. She comes from the municipality of Cosoleto in the region of Calabria in Italy. Vedette is a soft butch lesbian, and prefers lovers of moderate to butch persuasion rather than femmes. Her personality is fluid, easily shaping itself to the current context around her. Skilled at reading people, she makes both friends and business contacts easily.
Watermark works as a bodyguard for the Marionettes, particularly in cases where raw physical violence is not ideal. She uses aikido and de-escalation skills, along with subtle touches of her Water Powers, to keep people safe. If provoked, though, she is entirely capable of making limbs swell to immobility or of filling someone's lungs with water. Her nickname comes not from the colored hair but from her habit of leaving dangerous opponents with a permanent spiral scar by distorting the water within skin cells, so that she and others can recognize them easily in the future.
Origin: When she was thirteen, she got swept away by a flood and presumed lost. She returned three days later with a broad aquamarine streak through her hair, and Water Powers.
Uniform: On duty, she wears a masculine business suit. Off duty, she wears fashionable masculine clothing, usually from Italian designers. For swimming, she likes turquoise and white striped swim trunks with a bareskin top.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Emotional Intelligence, Good (+2) Adaptable, Good (+2) Aikido, Good (+2) Bodyguard, Good (+2) Connecting with People, Good (+2) Dancer, Good (+2) De-escalation
Poor (-2) Worrywart
Powers: Average (0) Water Powers
Vulnerability: As a Water elemental, she takes double damage from Fire, whether superpowered or ordinary.
"We English speakers have tried our best to describe this phenomenon with the phrase “water mark,” but Italians have had this term on lock for quite some time. Whispering the word culaccino makes us want to sit back, relax and sip an ice-cold drink on a hot, lazy day -- and then we remember that it’s fall, and we want to hop on a plane ASAP."
-- Italian Words We Don't Have in English
Heinrich Rutherford -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short dark hair going white and also bald. He has a scruffy beard and mustache. Professor Rutherford works at Duke University where Halley spent a semester in Raleigh, North Carolina. He teaches physics and other topics. His students find him intimidating. He takes out his bigotry on everyone he considers lower rank than himself. As a hobby, Professor Rutherford enjoys building all kinds of models.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, Good (+2) Building Models, Good (+2) Intimidation, Good (+2) Physicist
Poor (-2) Bigot
* * *
"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."
– Josh Billings
Best Physics colleges in North Carolina for 2021
1. North Carolina State University at Raleigh
4. Duke University at Durham, NC
Best Electrical and Electronics Engineering colleges in North Carolina for 2021
1. North Carolina State University at Raleigh
2. Duke University at Durham, NC
McKimmon Conference & Training Center
Address: 1101 Gorman St., North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606
Area: West Raleigh/N.C. State Univ/PNC Arena
North Carolina Raleigh McKimmon Conference & Training Center Floor Plan
Room 5
Total Sq. Ft.:1,421
Width:29
Length:49
Height:14
Banquet Capacity:160
Classroom Capacity:68
Theater Capacity:110
This is a typical meeting room for panels and presentations.
Sensory Engineering spans a wide range of theories and applications, from robotics to monitoring systems.
A robo-derby typically features demolition combat, but sometimes obstacle challenges, even multiple challenges. See videos of demolition and obstacle course robotics.
Halley wears a Dolce & Gabbana blue suit with a pinkish shirt and a blue Apollo cockpit tie.
Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 03:37 am (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 03:49 am (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 03:51 am (UTC)Thon is developing confidence and social skills differently than thon would in the US, and will be a DIFFERENT kind of powerhouse than either parent, or thon's uncles.
When or if thon starts mentoring younger kids, it's going to be a thing of beauty.
Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 04:01 am (UTC)I agree.
>> Thon is developing confidence and social skills differently than thon would in the US, and will be a DIFFERENT kind of powerhouse than either parent, or thon's uncles. <<
Growing up under a world leader will do that. ;)
>> When or if thon starts mentoring younger kids, it's going to be a thing of beauty. <<
Halley has volunteered at Soup to Nuts and, like Drew, written some of the materials there. So I expect thon is also mentoring younger kids in Italy, probably the rescues.
Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 04:21 am (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 04:58 am (UTC)You can't always do that; the one time I've seen a panel hog get shut down expeditiously, the hog was _blind_, .... so our intrepid moderator - the same one who got played by John Watson down Waxahatchie-way a few years back, sipping iced tea - waited for a gap in the flood of self-aggrandizement, said, "well, thank you for that!" and proceeded *briskly* on as if nothing had happened.
I don't think the hog said another word the whole hour. :D
Still. The true ones make some of the BEST stories. <3
Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 04:40 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 06:36 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 06:45 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 06:48 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 08:42 pm (UTC)Re: Squee!
Date: 2021-05-15 06:32 pm (UTC)* Count the number of people on the panel.
* Check the amount of time the panel runs.
* Divide the time by the number of panelists. No one person should talk longer than that fraction of minutes.
That's the easiest version. A couple of extras:
* If one person is the star and others the backup, it's okay for them to talk a little more, but neither a star nor a moderator should hog the mike.
* It's good to include a question time before the panel closes, usually at least 5 minutes. Smaller panels might have more than larger ones. Subtract that time from total time before dividing into shares.
This is why panels shouldn't be too big. On a 3-person panel, you each get 20 minutes of an hour. On a 6-person panel, you get 10. On a 10-person panel, you only get 6.
Here is a good general resource for moderators, which is also enlightening for panelists.
http://40.orycon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Convention-Panel-Moderator.pdf
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-15 05:00 am (UTC)(I nearly clocked Watermark for enby.... I s'pect she wouldn't be offended?)
Well ...
Date: 2021-05-20 09:39 am (UTC)Both now, but it started with the Finn side.
>> (I nearly clocked Watermark for enby.... I s'pect she wouldn't be offended?) <<
Watermark is a butch, female body but masculine personality. The ones who are all the way trans tend to blend into their destination sex/gender, but the ones in between can sometimes still be clocked. I suppose nonbinary is a reasonable description of someone who isn't one of the standard presentations, but it's not quite the same as being agender, ambigender, or off the spectrum.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-05-20 05:53 pm (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-05-20 06:42 pm (UTC)That's true.
>> (And I know at least one person who is clearly genderfluid but still uses she/her.... it's a personal choice.) <<
Yeah. The butches generally use she/her and identify as "masculine women," although there are variations.
Me, I haven't found a pronoun that I like enough to be worth the constant hassle of convincing people to use it. She is fine because I'm lazy. He is fine because I lean masculine. They and other alternatives are fine because they aren't inaccurate.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-05-20 08:54 pm (UTC)On the other hand, hassle-factor around NVs tends to be less of a factor than around "normals"... witness V Vself amongst the Lacuna...
O HAI. This is a Thing: https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Main_Page