1760/Specifications

Specifications
Date of Scene:	08 March 2015
Location:	Neo Arcadia-00001
Synopsis:	Zarenna and Taro continue work on augmented shinki designs.
Cast of Characters:	276, 399

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Taro (399) has posed:
    On Kari's last visit, Taro sent home with her one of his access "keys" (more of a dongle, really) so that she and her master would have easier access to his lab in Neo Arcadia. All they need to is carry it along with them, and the elevator doors will open and whisk them up to the lobby without having to contend with security, guards or otherwise.
    As usual, the weather is sunny, and the floor-to-ceiling windows allow the sun to naturally brighten the lab. One of the larger alcoves has been reserved for his arriving guests, with a large holoworktable, a couple of human-sized rolling chairs, and two side tables - one holds a tea tray and some light refreshments, and the other with a shinki-sized chair and a couple of jelly cans. Some of his preliminary work is already splayed out on the holotable, while the files that Zarenna sent to him earlier is displayed on the wall-mounted vidscreens.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna arrives, not paying the automatically opening doors any mind, pulling along a small rolling case behind her. Today her hair seems to be green. Wasn't it purple before?
    Kari is tucked away in the breast pocket of Zarenna's lab coat, looking around at everything as Zarenna walks. The shinki spots Taro and waves, smiling brightly! "Hello Mister Taro! Master wanted to come this time!"

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro would remember Zarenna's hair color the last time they met - that it may be different now doesn't seem to faze him in the least. His pleasant tone of voice will hopefully make up for his lack of smile. "Welcome, Kari, Zarenna." A small bow is given as he greets them. "Please come in." After a moment, he adds with a hint of amusement, "You do not absolutely have to call me 'Mister', Kari. But it's your choice."
    He'll wave in the direction of a chair to offer it to Zarenna, though he himself remains standing. "I began sketching out some designs for body armor, though of course your input would be welcomed. While I have great experience in robotics design in general, you of course would know more about your new design than I do."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna hmms... "Well, thank you Taro. I actually brought a test frame, but I didn't have time to attach any myomer before I was assigned to work on a micro-hydraulics study." The woman glances at Kari, who seems to have hopped out of the pocket and is undoing the latches on the rolling case. "Kari, why are you...?"
    "I wanna help build my sister, Master!" She says cheerily as she gets the last latch undone and clumsily opens the top of the case. "This is important to you, so it should be important to me!" Kari adds with a smile.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The prototype frame does indeed lack the myomer muscles. And 'skin'. And a CMS. The frame is bulky compared to the shinki who opened the case, about twice the height. There seems to be space for two Neo-Arcadian power-cells in the torso, the kind that might power a beam sword like what Taro showed Zarenna.

Taro (399) has posed:
    The corners of Taro's eyes crinkle, and his lips upturn slightly. "I'm glad to see you're enthusiastic about this project, Kari. Your input is welcome to me as well. A moment." He'll stroll past them both, returning shortly afterwards with a rolling toolcase with a flat top. This he gently glides over to near the two side tables, then sets about opening drawers to draw out power cells and a few small tools. "Is the CMS blank, or...?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna shakes her head. "No, I've actually been having Kari remote control it and do the systems checks for me using an adapter. It seemed safer than subjecting a young AI to a frame that's not complete." She kneels down and removes the frame and its stand from the case. The frame's joints swing heavily and smoothly as the woman moves to set it on the workbench.
    Kari hops up onto the work table after her Howling armor manifests in a flash of light, mini-machines also coming out to steady the frame's arms and legs. "It can't move yet because it doesn't have any muscles or servos like me." Kari lifts up one of it's arms with her own paw-glove thing and makes it wave at Taro and Zarenna.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "Good. I agree. Attempting to function within an unfinished body can be...uncomfortable." Taro glances from the two ladies to the incomplete shell, then stoops down to open one of the lower drawers to find the finest gauge myomer fiber he has. "Based on my virtual model testing, I think this will work for the gross movement points. For the finer articulation, it may still be too coarse." To Kari, "How have the systems checks felt to you so far?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari ohs... "Well, it sees really good and it hears too! We found a broken wire once that was weird because I couldn't feel its legs until Master had replaced it. Oh and yeah, the hands move."
    Zarenna examines the myomer fiber. "The hands use standard servoes for fine dexterity, but there are attachment points for myomer because it'll help protect the delicate parts in the hands from damage." She says as she looks for the tools to work with the myomer. "Can this table project images onto objects on top, Taro?"

Taro (399) has posed:
    "It can," Taro says with a nod. Then a glance to Zarenna. "Have you ever strung myomer fiber before? If not, I will show you..."
    The fiber itself is thin to the point of nearly translucent, like something more suitable for stringing jewelry than for robotics, yet if she tugs gently on it, it stretches without breaking.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna admits, "Nothing this fine, no. I've had to fix armatures in the labs that use myomer, but those were about the thickness of my finger." She hmms and furrows her brow as she tries to get the table to show an overlay of the myomer bundle patterns on the prototype frame. "I wasn't expecting it to be this small- I'll have trouble seeing it."
    Kari helpfully chimes in. "Maybe Mister Taro can help?" She's looking around at the lab. "There's probably something here he has that we can use to see that thread-stuff."

Taro (399) has posed:
    Ah, yes. Human vision can be keen, but not usually that keen...a factor that he had overlooked until they bring it to attention. "A moment...Zarenna, do you use corrective lenses? Contacts?" Once he has that answer, he'll step out again, bootsteps echoing faintly as he walks into one of the other labs.
    Meanwhile, the table itself is fairly intuitive - if they know hoe flick and swipe on a tablet, then pulling up the proper work program and getting it to display and design what she wants won't be terribly difficult.
    The android will return shortly with a pair of what appear to be unisex-framed safety glasses with slender buttons embedded in the arms. "Here," he says as he holds them out to Zarenna. "High-maginification glasses, human-compatible. I suggest not fiddling with the magnification until you're over the frame."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna says, "Ah, perfect vision. My parents opted for the standard genetic fixes when they conceived me, corrects all the childhood bug-bears like needing braces or glasses." Oh, there it goes. There's an overlay of the muscle groupings on the physical frame now. "This is much better than working with a standard projector." Zarenna comments.
    Kari blinks and pokes the holographic overlay and thinks for a moment before saying "Master! Can this be made into a TV?!"
    "No, we are not getting a holo-projection TV, Kari."
    "Awww... why?"
    "Because you already have the little holo-projector I got you for Christmas and you haven't even taken it out of the box."
    "Aw, but this could cover the whole living room!"
    "Kari, you already cover the living room with the cardboard fortresses you build..."
    Taro interrupts the mother-daughter-esque exchange and Zarenna smiles as Taro offers the glasses. "Thank you, Taro, I appreciate it." And she slides them on. She hasn't fiddled with the magnification yet.

Taro (399) has posed:
    They're just slightly heavier than a standard pair of glasses - if she were accustomed to wearing safety glasses at all, she might not even notice the weight after a while. Again, faily intuitive - the frontmost set of buttons will increase maginification, the center buttons decrease, and the rearmost as 'reset'. Each independently focusable.
    "Quite welcome." An aside to Kari, "It could be used as a holo-television, but rarely is anything being shown that's worth watching." At least in Taro's opinion. "I prefer more interactive entertainment."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna is most definitely used to wearing safety glasses. She starts applying the myomer in bundles to the left arm, adjusting and tweaking the glasses' magnification until she gets the hang of it. It's delicate work to be sure, but the glasses definitely make it much easier for her to patch in the myomer bundles to the attachment points.
    Kari says "But there would be these war movies in holograms that would be super neat to see, Mister Taro! And then there's giant monster movies! Watching King Zilla stomp around New Tokyo in the living room would be so awesome!"
    Finally, Zarenna gets to the hands and very very carefully bundles the fiber around the delicate looking joints.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro keeps an eye on Zarenna's work, but he does not hover, and he does not interfere. He's deemed her as competent, and so any mistakes she might make are the kind from which she should be able to learn. Though if he does catch her making a serious error, he will say something.
    "And yet in the Field of Trials, one can participate in the battle rather than merely observing," he counters. Then, a pause. "You enjoy kaiju movies?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari ums... "Yes. I mean... I'm this little thing and everybody around me is the size of a giant monster, so how can't I like giant monster films?" She explains. "It's pretty much how things are for shinki!"
    Zarenna works on putting the bundles on the shoulder and neck regions, thinking that Kari can test the range of motion on the arm and neck/head.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "Mm. Point taken," Taro says with a nod. He's still observing Zarenna, though so far she seems to be doing wll right. Not wishing to distract her directly, he continues the conversation with Kari. "Perhaps you should come along the next time Number Nine feels like having a Movie Night. The movies he usually picks all have terrible production values, most of the plots aren't much better, yet oddly enjoyable in their terribleness."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari scratches her head. "Mister Nine has movie night? He never said anything... "

Taro (399) has posed:
    "He and I have been helping Sir Integra Hellsing and her organization with their vampire problems," Taro explains, if in a roundabout way. "While he's not from her world, the time period is close enough to his own, and he's been trying to also assist me in better understanding human culture in his own way." Which apparently involves bad 20th century movies and television.
    Then, he risks an interruption at Zarenna, when she is not in the middle of stringing one of the myomer bundles. "How is it going?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari ohs... "Is working with Master helping you understand people too?" she says quietly to Taro.
    Zarenna stretches. "I've done enough that we can test now. Kari, please get ready." The technician pulls a small object that resembles a shinki's CMS, but it has a small stubby antenna fin sticking out of it, and plugs it into the hole where the CMS would normally go. She nods to Kari, who puts away her drones and (uncharacteristically for her) lies down on her stomach and props her head up with her paw gauntlet things, watching the prototype frame. Then Zarenna carefully hooks in the power cells that Taro provided earlier.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "It is," Taro acknowledges. Though just how...well, he's interrupted by Zarenna before he can say anything further, and really the work is more important than this discussion.
    He watches Kari as she settles herself into what he assumes is a comfortable position, then shifts his gaze to Zarenna to watch her at work. "Is that a standard shinki device, or something you invented yourself?" he asks in honest curiosity.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna hms? "Oh, I had to make it. It's based on the recievers that Kari's drones have. It's a pretty dangerous piece of technology, to shinki at least. Imagine how people would feel about remotely-controlled shinki. I mean, yeah, I made it, but it's meant to be used to test shinki frames. Like if Kari, Fuki, or another Confederate shinki was heavily damaged, we can get telemetry from the body to figure out if there's anything we missed. I made sure it has a short range of about two feet."
    Kari giggles. "It powered on, Master. It's reading the muscle things and figuring out which ones are hooked up now. Oh, there it goes."
    "Take it slow, Kari, we don't know how strong it is." Zarenna cautions.
    "Okay!" Kari says. She waves her left arm and flexes the 'fingers' on the gauntlet, and the testbed's left arm slowly rises and touches where the nose would be on the final product.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "Mm. I see...a useful device, but I do see your point of its potential misuse."
    The android's attention then turns to the partially constructed shell as Kari tests the newly string 'muscles'. "Hm...progress," he says in pleased tones. "How does moving the arm feel? Is there too much resistance, or too little?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari umms... "I dunno. It's weird because it's... bigger? I don't even have words, Mister Taro. It's like it wants to jump around when I tell it to move. Um... it wants to pull really hard but I'm not letting it."
    Zarenna nods. "That means the signal regulators are working right." She explains to Taro. "I got the idea that maybe not all of the myomer fibers needed to be triggered at once during movement, so the signal regulators work with the kinesthetic processor to figure out how many fibers to contract and relax."

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro arches an eyebrow at that, sounding genuinely impressed. "Really. That it works on this small scale...interesting." A ause, before confirming, "It is a sound idea and used in reploid design, but I had not believed..." A faint, lopsided smirk is given to his fellow roboticist. "What is the saying...if you do not know you cannot do something..."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna watches Kari operate the prototype. "The regulators monitor tension in the frame and myomers and the kinesthetic processor determines how to compensate for the tension. Pulling one way or another results in myomers being tensioned to conterbalance the pull." She explains, "It can be scaled up too, I think..."
    Kari makes the frame poke and prod itself, the head moving as well.
    Zarenna breathes a sigh of relief. "So now a question of armor designs, right? What ideas did you have in mind?" She says, turning to Taro.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Rest assured he'll be looking at that design concept in greater detail later. For now, though, he takes partial control of the holotable with a wave of his gloved hand. "Between my own reading and that magazine subscription that Kari kindly gave me for the holidays, I've been taking a closer look at the 'typical' shinki armor layout. While they do seem suited for the arena-style combat for which they were designed, I feel that for the kind of actual combat we see with the Union, something more robust is called for."
    Some images blur by as he rifles through his files, before settling on a 3-D rendering of full-body combat armor, somewhat bulky but not to the point of looking cumbersome, and notably taking some cues from reploid combat armor. "I think some of the plastics that Fuki found for the Shinki Ride Armor would be suitable for this," he goes on to explain. "It meets the weight to protection ratio, at least. Most of the weapons and any flight-related gear would be powered through the dedicated power cells here." He flicks the design around with a finger to show the heavier backpacklike area on the back.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna nods to Kari, who gets up and pulls the remote plug from the frame, letting it go limp again.
    Zarenna hmms. "Looks too bulky to really store in the slipway without additional power requirements though... Maybe they could operate as remote drones like Kari's mini-machines?" She says, helping Kari into her breast pocket so the shinki can see what her Master is looking at easily.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "It's an idea," Taro agrees with a nod. "Many of the drones that I've designed for surveilance are this size, if not smaller. Still, my chief concern when I began this basic design was protecting the one wearing it. I've seen Fuki return from battle with her shell all but destroyed too many times, and I believe you've had your share of near disasters as well, Kari.
    "The other concern I had was versitility," he continues, rotating the design again to enlarge the left arm. "One common thing I noticed both with shinki and with reploid design is the sheer variety. So, we can expand from this design to include additional myomer bundles to increase physical strength, or additional weapons points for lasers or vibroweapons."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna nods and pats Kari on the head.
    "That's why Master made me new armor." She says with a childish smile.
    Zarenna examines the armor on display, adding her own tweaks to it, shaping it into something resembling a rabbit-themed armor with limited anti-grav and thrusters. "Hmm... I guess she could use a weapon..." and adds a rifle.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro allows Zarenna to 'drive' so to speak, watching the work and her as she works, and making the occasional 'mm' that means approval. When she adds the thrusters, however, he offers the countersuggestion, "Repulsorlifts would weigh less but have nearly the same effect." And he pulls up an eample to place side by side with her design. "We use these in practially all of our hoverdrone designs. It scales extremely well, from hand-held up through personal vehicle sizes."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna is about to say something when Kari says "Maybe she could run along walls and ceilings, Master? She looks really fast and it'd be cooler if she did that, like one of the super heroes on TV!"
    Zarenna uhs and glances at Taro, not sure how to respond to Kari. "I-I'm sorry Kari, I don't know how to do that."

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro makes a thoughtful sound. "Perhaps...Hm." His eyes close as he gives Kari's possibly hare-brained idea serious consideration. "While it would not be truly running..."
    Though he doesn't open his eyes or otherwise move, another holoimage pops up - a new sketch of the leg amor, which he's rendering on the fly to incorporate additional repulsorlifts. "This would not work with one of my size. However, her weight would be light enough that she could hover at greater heights with this."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Zarenna and Kari both have the same question and they talk over each other trying to get it out, but it boils down to: High for a person or high for a shinki?

Taro (399) has posed:
    "High for a shinki," is Taro's answer. His voice doesn't raise, but it's delivered in that attention-getting tone that clergy are known to use in their sermons. "Perhaps an example is on order..."
    Another section of the holotable is taken over, this time by a security holovid of a certain well-known (at least here) reploid clad in red armor and long blond ponytail that's scaling what may be an elevator shaft by bouncing between the two walls. This, followed by a cruder wire-frame image of the armor designed thus far, performing much the same act. "Is this the sort of ability we're looking for?"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari ums and thinks for a moment. "Yeah!" She says brightly.

Taro (399) has posed:
    "Very well then." Taro's eyes slide open, and what's probably an unnecessary wave of his hand saves the design. "With your permission, Zarenna, I will go ahead and flesh out this design and run it through virtual testing."
    Which isn't to say there's anything stopping him from doing so without her permission, but there are certain nicities that he likes to observe.
    Then, he closes the files he had opened with another wave of his hand. "I must take my leave for now, as I do have other projects needing my attention. But please, feel free to stay and continue working. If you should need me, please call." With that, he bows, and steps away toward his private office.