IKAG Inventor Draft

Between a combination of being pressed for progress on the reverse-engineered uniform production, and watching films like the series' equivalent of Young Frankenstein and reading scifi manga loaned from Amelia -- Conner gets back into being a mad scientist proper.

Each week or so for the time he's "in the mood", he creates a prototype invention and gives a presentation to some of his classmates. At first it's mostly the front row [his step-siblings, Amelia, and a bored Centaur] but the whole class takes an interest and thus the presentations get a little more elaborate (whiteboard and projector, or a table for the invention to sit on, rather than just a couple people huddled around Conner's desk).

Generally the prototype will have a issue Conner overlooked [Centaur asking if Conner knows the in-and-outs of the sweat-manipulation ability, and if not, is it safe to manufacture something based on what's essentially space-science or magic, as there could be unintended side-effects] - or the students will find a use that he didn't intend [Amelia asks if the cloth works with drawing water from peoples' clothes or underwear]. Some of the inventions may be intentionally modelled after pre-existing military or privatised tech, in order to try and articulate how a more household-friendly variant could work. Other inventions may just outright exist already [sometimes in more convenient formats], which Conner wasn't aware of; these are charitably written off as learning experiences.

Ideas for inventions [I need a bigger list]:
⦁	One of them is a cloth that uses tissue from a student with a sweat-manipulation ability, to draw the pure water from the wearer's sweat. Rick questions the legal quandry of using another person's genes as part of the invention, which Conner isn't full up to speed on. Pepper [who's part of the audience for the presentation because she wants to hang out] says the R&D branch of the military uses superhuman materials all the time. She cites herself as an example. After a protracted pause, Conner sits with a notepad to interview her about the process, derailing his own presentation. Even though she was cloned, Pepper doesn't have the ability to clone things herself.

⦁	Size-compression technology isn't considered feasible by the military, but Conner borrows tissue from a student able to shrink and grow, with a written consent slip. Conner does his level best as a teenager to understand the tissue and create a wearable form. The maximum and minimum heights are set so that the user doesn't pass out because of blood taking forever to circulate the body or the brain being too protracted to process and send tasks; Conner is able to shrink to the size of a house cat and grow until his head touches the ceiling even while crouching down. It seems very impressive - but what's the practical utility? [Audrey: "Why would you want a taller or smaller Conner?" Amelia: "No, no, wait on a minute."] Centaur is concerned with the number of prototypes that rely on human body samples until Rudy asks if the Newman particles created by people can be harnessed in any way. Conner thinks about the artificial-Newman uniform that he could have been working on all along and his soul leaves his body.

⦁	Since the council has to deal with complaints about the school facilities [bathrooms, closets, lockers, desks etc] as well as the club leaders' work, any inventions that can be used to clean or arrange things, or prevent messes [stuff that 'slips' off the surface of a table if it has an invention-cloth on top] would be very helpful from that POV. Different characters' POVs can help inform what they find useful in certain prototypes [makeup and organisation for Hayleigh, music and action for Rick or Gomez, mobility or conventional hobbies like dancing for Centaur, anything to avoid using psychic powers for Caitlyn, self-control for Dan and Lizard, helping keep up with modern trends for Audrey, etc]. Basically a lot of wiggle room here for extra gags and inventions

After a few weeks of these prototypes being rolled out, Conner seems to have lost what little enthusiasm he had left. The students apologise to Conner for basically shutting him down on everything he wanted to work on. Although he seems angry during each individual presentation, at the end of it all he takes it in his stride and says they shouldn't apologise - on the contrary, finding out these issues in the public beta test is much more helpful and less resource/time-consuming, compared to learning about them in the investment pitch or after mass-production has started rolling out. Rick and Caitlyn and the other students compliment Conner on his ingenuity and ability to create these machines, but he dismisses the machines as nothing special, talking up the stuff he's seen in the Mechanics Club with great enthusiasm that soon draws in the other students. It's a world away from the Conner the reader sees at the start of his journey.

The denouement involves Amelia working on the inventions in her spare time to work the kinks out, with Princess Daughter supervising.