Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Aug 18, 2022 12:32:44 GMT
Inventions of Celeste McCullough
With the character Celeste's imaginative engineering churning out another new invention from time to time, Nat's diary has begun to make more and more frequent use of a growing list of acronyms (a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, often combining to form a word itself; an initialism). For any regular readers, I figured it would be a good idea to list them all here for reference when a given acronym's meaning isn't remembered. As new inventions are created, I'll update the list!
MUTT: Mobile Utility Transport Tool
This started out as a goblin shredder rented by Nat when they first built their home on the rock spire in Turtle Bay. Celeste enjoyed using it so much, Nat bought it from the goblin she rented it from! Disliking the hideous goblin face in the middle of it, and with idea after idea after idea entering her head for even more tools than the shredder already possessed, Celeste removed the goblin face and rebuilt the shredder, converting the original machine into a flying shredder that also possessed a copy of Celeste's very long list of tools in the hands and arms, which are retractable. Other odds and ends, like a water pump, water storage device, and others are also built in to the interior of the machine.
MAD: MUTT Automated Defense
The MUTT's automated defense system can be activated to guard a site at need. It consists of lethal and non-lethal defense mechanisms.
TOAD: TOol and All-terrain Device
Celeste once wanted to use the MUTT to help in draining a bit of swamp in the Swamp of Sorrows as part of an expedition with the Explorer's League. To make it lighter, all extraneous tools were removed, the water pump enhanced, and the joints covered to prevent sludge getting in.
PIE: Perimeter Intrusion Electromagnet
The pie is a large metal disc that emits a steady electromagnetic pulse to repel metallic invaders. Celeste invented this to place in the middle of the campsite she and Nat set up once on Mechagon Island to help keep the site safe day and night.
FISH: Fully Integrated Underwater Helper
This odd device looks like a large mechanical spider attached to a modified deep-dive helmet. To the helmet, Celeste had attached two lights on each side, as well as a magnifying lens that could be moved via a small arm fixed to the side. A long slender metal fin crested the top of the helmet and extended several inches behind it. Two tubes, one larger than the other, snake down from the back if the helmet to a backpack. The larger tube was connected to a cylinder and the other to a Mechagnomish power cell encased in a waterproof enclosure. From the sides of the backpack, four mechanical arms extend. Various tools are fixed to these arms, including a circular saw blade, a gripping hand, and smaller tools like pliers and screwdrivers. Finally, the bottom of the backpack has a small retractable seat and a propeller underneath. Celeste explained that if you flipped the seat you could safely turn on the propeller and, holding the arms, move faster underwater. The crest on the helmet is used to help steer the propeller seat. When it's off, it it's folded back, the seat vertical, with the propeller aiming down.
The Dordy Bubble
Not an acronym, but I'll include it in the list of inventions so it's clear what it is. A bulletproof glass sphere with pedals inside that Dordy (their pet molten corgi, who has fire protection spells on him to prevent him burning everything in sight) has been trained to use. Outside are air tanks to serve as ballasts to make the Bubble rise and sink, and fish-like fins that help propel and maneuver the Bubble. Both the ballasts and the fins are controlled by the pedals.
COMPASS: COMpetition Penny-Actuated Supercharged Skimmer
The speedboat built for the Thousand Needles boat race with the goblins mentioned in diary entries of late August 2022 and onward, the COMPASS is built from the salvaged chassis of a racer found at the bottom of the basin in the Thousand Needles' flooded gnome/goblin racetrack combined with another racer pried from the cliff walls there that possessed two jet engines. Celeste salvaged the checkered flag banner that used to mark the finish line and is using it as wings to make it skim over the waves with even less drag than it already would have as designed. As an anti-theft precaution, the racer is built not only too small for anyone but someone the size of the Mechagnome friend of Celeste and Nat's, Penelope "Penny" Boltbucket, but its engines can also only be actuated by her, using a special tool built into her mechanical hands. Nicknamed the Penny Pincher as a play on words (due to it not only having been built for free by using salvaged components -- hence pinching pennies -- it also is small enough to pinch even little Penny, who fits in quite snugly).
COMPASS: COMpetition Penny-Actuated Supercharged Skimmer
The speedboat built for the Thousand Needles boat race with the goblins mentioned in diary entries of late August 2022 and onward, the COMPASS is built from the salvaged chassis of a racer found at the bottom of the basin in the Thousand Needles' flooded gnome/goblin racetrack combined with another racer pried from the cliff walls there that possessed two jet engines. Celeste salvaged the checkered flag banner that used to mark the finish line and is using it as wings to make it skim over the waves with even less drag than it already would have as designed. As an anti-theft precaution, the racer is built not only too small for anyone but someone the size of the Mechagnome friend of Celeste and Nat's, Penelope "Penny" Boltbucket, but its engines can also only be actuated by her, using a special tool built into her mechanical hands. Nicknamed the Penny Pincher as a play on words (due to it not only having been built for free by using salvaged components -- hence pinching pennies -- it also is small enough to pinch even little Penny, who fits in quite snugly).