[b][i]Ruben Tarblatt[/i][/b] --- If you’re going to make a simulation, the first thing you have to start with is a setting. Constructs. Building blocks. Ruben already had a few basic environments programmed into the Limbo, but he decided he should build upon an environment that Academy’s students were already comfortable with – the Academy itself. After his talk with Henry, the pleasantly civilized man-lizard, Ruben activated the onboard geometric scanning device in his Brainvault’s monitor lens – something he constructed a while ago to help build on his memory of areas and implement them in his work. A map wouldn’t cut it, being only two-dimensional. And if he was going to take a walk, he might as well get something out of it besides social interactions – he had a feeling he wouldn’t be talking to anyone besides Henry anyway. Ruben started rotating his head back and forth as he walked about. Like an owl. Or a young lady possessed by Satan. The scanner emitted a thin, barely visible array of red lasers, the lines in between them mapping out every geometric detail of the Academy grounds. He started with the West Wing, the cafeteria specifically. He mapped it out and moved on to the nearby Plaza. He, of course, got the occasional look from onlookers wondering what the hell a mummy wearing Sputnik on his head was doing shooting rave lights everywhere, but for the most part, they didn’t stop him. Once he got a good radial scan of the area, he moved on to the Shop. At this point, he found that ground scans weren’t going to get him most of the island’s geometry in one sweep. So, after he made a quick run through the interior, he did what any avid man of science would. He climbed. The gauze around Ruben’s arms began to unravel as they extended, forming two elongated, muscly appendages, each tipped with a random assortment of claws and hooks made out of keratin. He planted one on the side of the building, then the second, and he pulled himself up as subtly as he could. [i]This[/i] caught the attention of a few more people, but no one seemed to care enough to yell at him to get down or throw stuff at him. His Brainvault darted left and right between directions, scanning every square inch of the building, constructing the virtual representation with his mind, compiling everything. Once he rounded the exterior walls, he climbed up onto the roof of the building, getting one good sweep across, finishing the Shop. He paused for a moment, looking around, at the expanse surrounding him. The Academy astounded him with its beauty and constructions, the interweaving of modern architecture and nature into one seamless spectacle. He gazed at the walls, surrounding the grounds in their entirety. They’d do well to help him set up a perimeter in the simulated version. That way he wouldn’t have to bother setting up an invisible boundary, so physically and thematically obstructive. He wondered of it all, how meta-humans could work so well together, making something like this for the benefit of their own kind. Ruben wanted to contribute to that effort. The Limbo would provide a safe, victimless, injury-free environment for cerebrals – and perhaps in the future, other classes as well – to improve and adapt their abilities, and maybe even develop new ones altogether. All that was wishful thinking, though. He had to start with the more important issue; trust. From both the students and the staff. If he was going to get any project of his off the ground, he had to build up to it. Talk. Learn. Observe. He turned his vision towards the Garden. That’d be a nice place to scan next – see all the specimens the Academy had grown there. He scaled his way down the side of the Shop, strolling on over to the immense glass dome. The gauze around his arms flew freely in the breeze, unraveled. He seemed to have forgotten about them. He saw the dome from a distance, awed by its size. There was a greenhouse back at his old university but, this? This trumped it on many more levels. He approached the entranceway to the Garden and stopped to think – would it be more logical to start with the interior and get a scan of just the flora, section by section… or scale the dome and get a radial scan of the entire thing in a quarter of the time? He opted for the latter option and re-extended his arms. The gauze tape around his legs began to unravel as the fleshy, sinewy slurry beneath them expanded, molding them together to create one single appendage to keep a good grip on the glass. Ruben, now taking on the shape of some kind of tripod creature, made his way up the exterior Garden wall and then the glass. He stared at the interior, marveling it its beauty and variety. The higher he climbed, the more he saw. All of that was marred, however, when he reached further upward and began to hear the telltale signs of… conflict. As he climbed higher and higher, he got a good vantage point from above to view an instance occurring within the Garden interior, in a small clearing. An altercation between three students, none of which he knew, nor the matter behind the conflict itself. Ruben’s habit of observation and analysis kicked in. He didn't bother intervening, he just… watched. As the ground turned to sand and one of them transformed into a large, scorpion-like creature. "Detected. Abilities." He began to speak to himself, "Transformation. Into pseudo. Arthropod. Order. Scorpiones. Class. Arachnida. Mental link. With granular. Rock and mineral. Particles..." He trailed off as he watched the conflict progress.