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Gideon Kaspar     When the word 'expo' gets thrown around, one sometimes tends to think of big fields set aside for stalls and displays, or sometimes the inside of some arena rented out for various companies to try plying their wares. Hell, when someone thinks of an expo, they usually think of multiple companies as a default assumption. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

    This company, apparently going by Griffin&Kryuger, has bought out what appears to be the entire company meetings and showrooms section of a hotel complex, divorced of the actual building people are sleeping in, but typically set aside for actual hard-working (maybe) office crews and meetings. There's even a business 'teambuilding exercise' field outside, which appears to have been commandeered as well. In typical high-class hotel style, there are lavish accoutrements everywhere, small rooms have been set aside for catered dining, there's an entire bar with rich and expensive furniture at the front, and service staff on extra duty, probably being paid time and a half.

    Halls previously set up to provide space for conference tables, scale models, projected slideshows and movies, and similar, have been totally taken over for space to display merchandise, demo models, dioramas, and info pamphlets in equal shares art museum and convention hall style. Wherever possible, actual equipment can be found in glass cases or disassembled on tables, alongside info sheets and push-to-listen voice recordings. Wherever that is not possible (such as in the case of advertising something that wouldn't fit), more information dense exhibits have been set up to advertise vehicle packages, satellite upgrades, and shipping and manufacturing contracts bearing an everpresent I.O.P stamp and logo. The main floor is reserved for something or other, though the space is completely clear at the moment, with people just milling about, and the panoramic glass back to the building that opens to the rear deck and exercise area shows that pre-fab walls have been set up all around the park in discrete units. Judging by the muffled sound of gunshots, they may be firing ranges, but some of them sound way too frenzied to be a bunch of people standing at a bench and plinking targets.

    Maybe unsurprisingly, the place is more or less packed (as far as these expensive places go), largely with suits and brass of both the corporate and military types and their attendant secretaries, but also a number of actual soldiers, mercenaries, bounty hunters, and similar. Quite a few appear to just be technicians, or even scientists, lured here by something about 'AI consultancy'. A few almost appear to be here for the show, all dressed up with no particular profession obvious by their look. Some of them appeal to be wheeling mild amounts of equipment in for some reason or another.

    As of right now, the grounds are more or less free roam, though the main conference is set to begin in the grand hall in only thirty minutes; enough time to check things out, but not get deep in before talks happen, though since the place is reserved for the rest of the day, there is a clear intention of leaving the rest of the evening open for prospective buyers to do research, discuss deals, and generally rub shoulders and socialize.
Alexis Maaka     BANG BANG BANG

    Maaka's firing away right now with a custom SIG-Sauer P320, with extended magazine and a ROMEO micro red dot. The pistol practically barks angrily as she fires away at holographic targets at the range, with free ammo no less! As she goes through the last mag of the moment, the cyborg gets reloaded one last time with one of her own magazines before holstering the gun. So far this is surprisingly enough an enjoyable convention.

    Having the products here include android girls with guns is a little...weird, but she's just glad she hasn't been mistaken for a product on display yet.

    When she finds herself a group of similarly rugged yet well dressed types, the cyborg makes herself friendly and gets to mingling. Shouldn't be long before she's chiming in with her own dumb jokes and swapping stories with these guys and gals of fortune.
Orchid      As it happens, Orchid was in the market for upgrades to the camera drones she uses so much when she heard about the expo, so she grabbed a friend, BSed an official reason to go out there, and hopped the next shuttle over. "Now remember, if anyone asks, we're here investigating the possibility of ordering some of the weapons," she reminds Kotone, as they leave security checkpoint. Getting her own weapons in was simply a matter of showing her Paladins ID, and registering that yes, she had built-in weapons. Thankfully she doesn't look much like the products on sale.
Empty Tidings EMPTY TIDINGS shows up and doesn't even bother to do it in disguise.

She's dressed well, as she always is, in a floral-patterned kimono made of a silk that has no earthly origin. She walks around with her head held high, mingling with the military-industrial complex representatives that catch her eye or actually dare to speak to the woman dressed in something a little less modern than all the others. She doesn't use an alias, and she doesn't pretend she isn't here window shopping, either. Apparently, she's looking for something... /special/.

In truth, Tidings is not very familiar with firearms. She's seen firewands and some variant that propels flame pearls used in the South, but her experience with guns is from being in the vicinity of other people using them. She moves from display to display, politely fascinated by the slew of weapons. When someone actually lets her handle one, she lets a little bit of her inner violence-nerd show through, accepting friendly guidance in all things gun safety and marvelling at some of the numbers the reps spout about equipment effectiveness.

It's a little bit depressing, too, but she keeps that part off her face. Nobody wants to hear a martial artist's real opinions on state-of-the-art killing tools, and Tidings doesn't want to clean up the mess that would result from her sharing them.
Lemeza Kosugi     Wow. This is far more high-class than the advertisement made it sound. Lemeza Kosugi didn't bother with any fancy getup, arriving instead in his default archaeology-ready fedora, cargo button-up shirt, and khaki pants. But lo and behold, the first thing he sees upon his arrival is a bunch of suits and military types sizing up military-grade gear -- nothing he'd be able to take into any ruins without ruining them further. At least the scientists present /might/ help with letting Lemeza not stick out in the crowd.

    The next obstacle: whether to check his weapons. This one's much simpler - he wasn't here to fight, but to scope out a potential upgrade to his arsenal. And besides, with security present he should be fine if any hell breaks loose. So, he checks his revolver and whip at the entrance, asks for for a map of the displays, and heads on in to the expo. Hopefully without any questions about his attire.

    He's looking for guns. Two specific types, in fact: high-ammo-capacity handguns, and long-range sniper rifles. Preferably lightweight, on both counts, and he'd prefer a crossbow over a sniper rifle if he can find one. For the time being, he's just taking his time looking through displays, asking questions of the vendors and checking out specifications of each kind of weapon he comes across. Offers some stories of his adventures, if asked about his getup.
Azure Armature Azure Armature, "Blue", has never been to a Convention before. Oh, she's been to summits, strategic meetings, clandestine affairs, ran VIP escort, and inspected factories...

But she's never actually been to a place like this. And this is... An extreme example of this, in a venue and field that Armature is ever-interested in.

But she didn't know about it until well past the registration period, and also didn't understand that the badges people wore were identifying them as 'people who paid for a ticket'. You can't just teleport into the middle of a crowd and start browsing, apparently.

After waiting through nearly an hour of an intestine-like line for buying a pass on-site, Blue learned that the next time she would simply be taking the Hitman approach from then on, after being prattled at by someone in line.

Random: "Wow, are those contacts?"
Armature: "No."
Random: "Oh, wow. Are you cosplaying? Which are you?"
Armature: "Which do I look like?"
Random: "Uhhh..."
Armature: "That one."
Random: "But I didn't say whi-"

And then Armature was at the front of the line, walking off from the person that accosted her.

Line Clerk: "Do you have any weapons to declare or check?"
Armature: "I have none to declare and you may not check them."
Clerk: "Uhm... Miss? Well, ok, what about that knife?"
Armature, laying her chest-holster knife on the table: "Very well. You may 'check' this one."
And so forth.

Finally, WEARING A BADGE and without her most obvious knife, Blue managed to enter the floor, her wonderment ground out under heel by (astoundingly inefficent and frankly insulting) bureaucracy.

"Are these the champions of the populat in this place? They seem..."

"She wanders the floor, looking specifically at the 'dolls' on display. "Needlessly aesthetically oriented... even for public relation models."
Kotone Yamakawa A weapons company expo? That got Kotone's attention, she had also dressed up for the occasion she was in business wear, a modest skirt, sharp business suit top and she had her hair done up well enough for this. This was quite the show up there with companies like Megatech and Poseidon back on her homeworld. There had been several reasons why she wanted to check out this new company going multiversal, from its products to the simple fact is it was an arms company going multiversal which is something she wanted to pay attention to.

Even more so than that? It was Orchid who had dragged her alone before she could even plan much out.

She's had to flash her Paladins ID to get past Security once she was legitly hassled about her systems. The jacks on the back of her neck were pretty easy to spot for the various expo attendees.

There being Android Girls as one of the products here that were unusual even for the multiverse but not entirely shocking to Kotone, as she followed Orchid looking about the displays. She is also unaware that Alexis Makka is here just yet as well.

"So you were looking for hardware upgrades for your spy drones, Orchid?"
Dapper Avenger Among those checking out inventory is a man whose ID says his name is 'Jean-Luc Vengeur'. Silver-gray hair was pulled into a ponytail that fell past his shoulders, and he had red eyes - someone who'd definitely stand out, atleast to Empty Tidings, who has met him before. He's wearing a nice business suit and red tie with his convention badge and looking otherwise in place with the various suits. This was the Avenger, using an alias simply because it was easier than using his real name in such a business function, rather than to actually hide his identity.

As the Avenger moves from display to display, checking each gun's voice recordings and uses, he eventually spots Empty Tidings moving around, and moves towards her. They'd need to talk business, eventually, but for now, being 'friendly' would certainly be fine, wouldn't it? Remind her he existed, at the least. His tone was elegant and refined, like a nobleman, and he spoke in French. "Ah, it's been quite some time since we last met, Empty Tidings. I could barely imagine such a graceful hand-to-hand fighter such as you at an event like this, mingling with businessmen and hired guns who all have their eyes on these firearms. Though, I have no real fondness for them myself. It's simply the sort of connections you can make here that are useful to me. Are you the same as well?"

The Servant walks as they talk if Empty Tidings continues moving. "How is your little friend doing? Three-Part Tragedy, if I recall. It's been quite some time since I met her." Avenger's gently smiling. He's curious to see her response.
Septette Arcubielle      Septette Arcubielle, who is primarily 'murder' by weight, who could only be patted down with chainmail gloves, and who is the ancestral bane of all airport metal detectors, sweetly hands over a letter-opener when asked if she has anything to declare. She holds full and innocent eye contact while doing it too, as if trying to wring a laugh out of the security guard.

     You've got to take your humor where you can find it in a place like this. It all feels faintly... gross.

     Septette eyes Empty Tidings cautiously as the robot grabs a drink from the bar- she doesn't recognize the kimono-wearing woman, but it's hard not to notice she's an outsider, and that likely means she's someone Important. Rather than interrupt Tidings' firearm-fawning, though, she ambles up behind Lemeza and lightly rests a clawed hand on his shoulder.

     "What kind of weapon are you in the market for, Mr. Kosugi? Some kind of room-clearer for those dungeon hallways? Or something a little more..." She pauses; smiles ruefully. "Effective against armor?"
Staren     Staren is here, because blowing problems up or filling them with lead is an important tool in his toolbox! Although something feels off about weapons being presented in such a way -- there should be more trying and less looking at pieces. He's kind of reminded of that time he visited Northern Gun. Maybe they'll have over the top demonstrations here, too...

    He's brought Dawn with him -- well, okay, as his support AI she's always with him but she's actually got 'her' robot body -- so that she can help gather information and find interesting exhibits, giving him a second pair of eyes without having obvious drones flying around. The body is a short, pale gynoid with bright violet hair wearing a long, plain black dress of the kind that could be a maid's outfit if you added the apron and head dress. In retrospect, this probably stands out against the business and military crowds. In more retrospect... well.

    Staren himself kind of stands out too -- labcoat-over-casual doesn't quite fit the wear of any actual job. When he goes through security, he points out that he needs to be armed in case something crazy happens, and obviously the Concord will take responsibility if he turns out to be a crazed gunman or whatever. If they don't accept that, he'll begrugingly check his pistol. If they ask to check his bag... well, then he'll be there awhile.

    Once inside, he goes from table to table only taking quick glances at the merchandise and spec sheets. He can always review it later, and without a chance to actually /try/ it there's no point in lingering around any one unless it does something technically impressive. If there's actual engineers on the floor he might stop and talk shop.
Starbound Flotilla "I feel like not making this a raid is a mixed opportunity."
"These are AI specialists. Anything we'd get would be poisoned by autonomy."
"I like that. I'm gonna use that now. 'Autonomy poisoning'."
"You are nothing if not an overdose. Please, though, let us keep our visit civil. It is perhaps true that we have little intention of doing business with this group, but to see their clients and their wares on full display is a great value to take from this."
"Critical. Well, I think it's a good idea to at least have some interest in the AI. We still don't know much about their context."
"Think Gee*hiss*Kay makesss good bow and arrow?"
"I gotta figure out what that would even look like."

    The Flotilla are here. They're in the... Closest they can get to formal. Aside from George in his nice Payday suit, the others have weird definitions of formal. Albert's is perhaps the easiest, being a very military-looking outfit, but the rest of the gang and their respective displays of things like Business Robes or the kind of facepaint you'd find in a Floran leader council sticks out at least enough to get some weird looks, but they're still conforming to the same /level/ of formality, at least.

    There's enough old allies here to mingle plenty. Maaka and Kotone, for example, getting friendly greetings from George. Or Septette having a quick hug from Biteblade. Even Albert manages to recognize Azure enough to give her a respectful nod. Seft even stops to talk the shop with Staren, before the Flotilla in general move to converge on the main event and take a listen to it.
Gideon Kaspar     Though the crowd makes a certain effort to fit the colloquial idea of what people who are rich and/or interested in military gear should look like, there is at least a little drift accounting for being the Multiverse and all. Lemeza and Staren aren't going to get kicked out with a colouring book, but will end up getting ignored by some of the more nicely dressed types, for instance. Security is a bit of a pain, but not airport bad; at some point there is just the unspoken assumption that if someone tries to stick up a PMC's gun show with a baseball bat then they get what they deserve.

    It quickly becomes clear why an entire conference center went to this however, due to the sheer spread of stuff to find. Weapons are a central fixture of course, but they range all over the place. A lot of it is highly equivalent to modern Earth standard for those who feel most comfortable with it, but advertise proprietary propellant blends that halve the length of the cartridge and allow for triple stacking standard magazines for a 50% ammo capacity increase, or else munitions in standard calibres that are actually gyrojets or optimized flechettes. An end further from there verges into guns clearly not meant for normal people, where they start being colour-classified for weight and muzzle pressure to guide people to what their soldiers are physically capable of handling and what they expect to shoot. The end opposite gets into what actually look like antiques, along the lines of revolvers and wooden stock rifles, even including an honest to god M1 Garand, but their displays go into great detail about the benefits of disintegrating stripper clips feeding into a gas-operated internal tube magazine and chromium bolt block for twice the stopping power and one quarter of the reloads, all while keeping that classic 'ping' sound!

    It is quite clearly meant to be for everyone, including those who are looked for the most massive tech upgrade they can get, and those who are looking to stick to what they know. There are /mentions/ of directed energy weapons, but apparently they're at an on-request military basis and not on consumer display. The indicated prices are actually absurd however, in a good way. What would be a $3000 rifle through usual channels is up for 900 here, and ammo and accessories are tax and duty exempt somehow, though nothing is actually /cheap/; they clearly didn't come here to peddle glocks.

    Other tools of the trade are fairly prominent however. Sensors for wearing, putting in helmets, and putting in robot heads, are fairly ubiquitous, as are things like miniaturized scanners and optical camo cloaks. Both industrial and military exoskeletons can be found in full body stands and of various tiers, and there are a number of very robust, man-portable drones taking up their own section. These areas are more frequented by military brass and dealers, and somewhat by the really successful-looking solo artists.

    Most of that latter type are drawn to the outdoors grounds where they can get hands on, more interested in performance than production point, since they only need one of each. Alongside ranges and foxholes however, there are a quartet of closed off pre-fabs with signs and checkpoints out front, apparently for team exercises. Three are rated by level of experience, for freelancers, army types, and special forces, but one has giant disclaimers indicating LIVE AMMUNITION WILL BE USED and abdicates any responsibility for people who aren't using it to test their own robots.

    The main mention of androids are conspicuously absent though. There are numerous /advertisements/ for them, with flattering posters, slick soft-light diagrams, and proof of concept frames showing a history of development from crude robots to sophisticated modern designs, but there's no big ol' rack of 'droids anywhere to poke at, nor any mention of pricing or delivery. At least, not yet.
Orchid     "That's the unofficial reason," Orchid replies to Kotone. "Also, I'd like to get a closer look at these 'gun girls.'" Armed robots are a fact of life, but people mass-producing them, as if to sell an army? That could be bad.
     In any case, Orchid heads over to the sensors; this is what she is looking for. And not just for the sensors, but how they communicate what they sense. Still, the 'star attraction' not being visible gives her a bit of pause.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka nonchalantly greets George with a handshake and a clap of the arm, before she breaks off to go shopping. Guns, guns, GUNS. Boy do these upgrades really get her attention. She's pretty giddy to grab herself some of the magazines, for testing later, and looks about for proper firearms. That and t-shirts, cannot go wrong with merchandise. Those go in a free bag, along with ammo and gun parts, before she sees someone familiar. Two someones even.

    Maaka gets all sneaky, removing her sunglasses as she gets a little grin. Before Kotone knows it, she's being hugged! "Boo."
Septette Arcubielle      Septette slips her arms under Biteblade's as the huggy floran approaches, pivots a hundred and eighty degrees in a little judo-like spin, then sets her back down on her feet and laughs... somehow having held onto her drink flawlessly the whole time. "Good to see you here! Want to head out to the firing range, Bitey? Looks like they've got some live fire exercises."

     She glances around conspiratorially, then leans in and smiles. "I won't tell them you're not a robot if you don't. Deal?"
Lemeza Kosugi     "Armor piercing--what in Philosophers' sake do you expect I'll be fighting?!" Lemeza flinches just a bit when Septette approaches him and drops her question. "Look, it /might/ be a good idea, but... I'm worried about recoil, and I've got a better idea in mind for dealing with armor." He goes back to appraising a couple high-capacity pistols he's found, comparing ammo and assessing how well they'd carom off various surfaces. Price isn't too terribly problematic... although, he's only able to afford one piece of small arms if he wants any ammunition to go with it.

    He's about to ask why Septette's here when he overhears her and Orchid debating whether the androids that aren't on display yet are a problem. Why in the hell would they!? This is a gun show. The androids are guns. And there's certainly plenty of heavy weaponry that could probably even outperform the bots in raw damage output. And for crying out loud, there appear to be no fewer than seven distinct militaries shopping around. What could possibly be a threat here?
Starbound Flotilla     "Ooooh, ssskeleton friend wantsss to try out product?" Biteblade says, eyes wide, glinting with eagerness. One assumes that she'll be getting a fair chunk of the Flotilla in on that sort of action, even, where it may be allowed. A live fire showdown to test some of these goods is something she has a great deal of interest in! "Yeahyeah! Let'sss do it! Maybe after big ssscheduletalk?" She's already got that bloodlusting glint in her eyes about this.
Staren     Okay, Staren can appreciate the work that went into making old guns actually competitive. Not that it's his jam, exactly, but it does sound like a fun challenge.

    Upon seeing the cheap price tags, he actually does decide to pick up a few things, mainly for if he ever needs to blend into a 20th-century setting better.

    Staren makes his way over to where some of the others are beginning to congregate.

    "Everything?" Staren replies, when Lemeza asks what he'll be fighting. "If you're worried about the recoil, maybe you'd rather go with a laser? No recoil there. Sounds like the ones they have here are really expensive, though."

    His ears rotate towards where Sept and Biteblade are talking. He just might get in on that competition if there's time after the big show.
Empty Tidings Empty Tidings definitely recognizes the Avenger. If she noticed a particular animate pile of knives giving her the side-eye, she doesn't seem to react to it. Someone coming up and addressing her in genteel French is more attention-grabbing, as evidenced by how she looks up from the explanation one of the more technical types is giving of some of that new propellant when she's addressed. She politely thanks him for his time and disengages, apparently expecting Avenger to follow. Fortunately, he does.

She drifts while she speaks. "Ah, but they're fascinating tools, aren't they? It's amazing all the myriad ways humanity invents to destroy itself." Tidings smiles up at Avenger. "I'm in the market for something for the... less elegant," she decides, picking over words while she looks for something new to capture her attention. The main event seems to be where she's gradually wandering. "It's a little sad, though, isn't it? All of this?"

She's quiet for a brief moment at the name-drop. "She's as well as can be, under the circumstances. Thank you for your help, back then. I'm sure I can do something to balance the scales sometime soon, mm? I wouldn't want you to think you're unappreciated." Yeah. Unappreciated.
Kotone Yamakawa Is not shocked to see the Starbounders here, though it's good to run into them. Doubly so in a situation where there's no coming to ahead. She gives George a wave and a greeting "Looking for new toys George?"

Given how George fights and operates? There is a heck of a lot here that would be things that might catch his interest. She seems to be taking in a lot of the items here and a lot of it is very high quality.

There's no sign of the androids at least yet other than ads for them.

"Combat Robots of various sorts are a fact of life on my world. Though humans are often ...."

She trails off and eeps as she's hugged from behind by Alexis.

"ahh! Alexis?! What are you doing, wait you would be here wouldn't you? Thanks for the package by the way!"
Dapper Avenger "They've been doing such since the dawn of time, indeed. It's truly remarkable, though!" Avenger hms and nods at her reason for being there, as he continues with her towards the main event. "Ah, but what do you mean by that, sad? There's plenty to be sad about, for violence itself is sad, but I cannot see any specific reason to see this event as such otherwise."

And then, his lips curl up into a smile as Tidings replies. Whether she's taking a shot at him or not, it's good news to hear, and Avenger replies joyfully. "Ah, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that we can work together well. Your cause is one that should live down in the history books as having been successful, one with fire and furor, as it is quite so...excellent!" Whenever the show starts, though, he'll go quiet to watch it. Need to see the main event, after all.
Gideon Kaspar     When the main event is finally called, it's to the big, mostly empty hall, with the nice view of the rear grounds. A 'stage' area is mostly a wide section elevated by a few steps off the ground, with tables of what appears to be standard merchandise put up there, and nothing much more fancy than that. There are a couple of black-suited security types out front, but it's basically a token effort, and they're only overseen by a short redheaded girl in something like cargo casual and with a clipboard, instead of a proper security officer.

    When most people are assembled (that is, everyone who doesn't have a secretary or underling watching the show for them while they chat up business rivals at the bar), the lights dim down, and a pair of presenters step up onto the 'stage'. One is a taller man in his late twenties with a flashy red and black officer's dress coat draped over a three piece suit, and the other is a young woman a head shorter than him wearing a crisp white, black, cream and gold dress and over-blouse and matching dress shoes, who would look less 'slightly military' than the former were it not for hints of tactical webbing.

    The man opens up with a classic stage bow as soon as the obligatory round of polite applause happens and the conference settles down to listen, and very quickly since they all paid to come here. "It's good to see so many of you!" he starts off, in a strong, confident public speaker voice. "It really does inspire confidence to see that there are so many people in the Multiverse that appreciate the realities, the necessities, and even the merits, of the inescapable existence that is the battlefield. Commander Gideon Kaspar of Griffin&Kryuger incorporated, tactical command branch, of course. That's right; no logistics clerk or company salesman here! I believe that an experienced crowd demands an experienced speaker, not a rehearsed script and profit projections." This comes to some amount of murmured approval.

    "Of course, I know what you're here for! Aside from our excellent quality and price point in terms of product, what you really came to see is G&K ltd's specialty, and as it so happens, something I have years of first hand experience with in the field. That is G&K's Tactical Doll program, courtesy of our partners in I.O.P manufacturing. Give them a hand, please!" The crowd does so, as a couple of suited technicians wave from beside the stage.

    Shortly enough, a couple of burly black suits come up from the side with a container marked with the company's logo, depositing it on-stage and removing the outer casing to display what looks to be more or less an assembly frame, close enough to what one would see for routine cyborg maintenance, holding up an exceptionally pretty girl with short brown hair in a bodysuit. Rather, more like half of one, because right down the bilateral line, layers of machinery are exposed like an anatomical dummy for a science class, seemingly decades more advanced than the most recent entries in the main corridor. A couple of onlookers take (non-flash) photographs at that point, while the young woman who had come up on stage with Gideon helps drag the frame into position and start releasing some of the locks obfuscating the partially assembled display model.
Gideon Kaspar     "Let's start off with those of you who still make use of flesh and blood soldiers, shall we? How do you recruit them? Expensive and time consuming advertisement for volunteers? Unpopular drafts? How do you train them? Six weeks of basic? Months of academy training? Cumbersome virtual simulation? Where do you house them? What do you feed them? What are their salaries? Their benefits? Their leave and tours? How much do you screen them and for what? What happens when they misbehave? What are they or their families entitled to when war really happens? Most importantly, how do your people react when their fathers and brothers and sons die for their country? What about police killed on the job? Faithful bodyguards who take the bullet? It's a complicated and difficult business to give a man a weapon and convince him to die for you, and nobody enjoys it. Let give you the basic facts here, before I even drop a price figure."

    "The Tactical Doll program refers to our unique and proprietary kind of android technology. I'm sure most of you have heard of androids. What you're getting out of the box is a superior combatant, but also one who requires no lengthy and expensive training and regular exercises, only diagnostics and occasional maintenance. You're getting a soldier or an officer or a security agent who can be kept ready for dollars a day with no special infrastructure, no interruption of civil duties, with no necessity for oversight of law, and no integral attachment to the workforce and social fabric of your nation. While your men are holed up in a hospital for thousands of dollars, rolling around and moaning in agony for eight weeks, our Tactical Dolls can take a bullet for you on the way home from work and be making breakfast the next morning."

    "Virtual training is dirt cheap, no live exercises are needed, no changes occur to your chain of command; you save across the board right from the start. In any and all cases, a Tactical Doll will pay for herself in the first three years of deployment, if not sooner, while your wonderful citizens live happy, healthy, and productive lives at home, bolstering your companies and your economies."

    After that, he claps his hands and moves over to the android in the frame, beginning to point out pieces of both sides. "Now! For those of you already making use of mechanized forces, here's why ours are different! Tactical Dolls require /no/ special fuels, /no/ electrical charging, and /no/ special resupply infrastructure. You can quite literally feed them whatever you feed your current soldiers, and I.O.P biofuel processors will convert it at more ten times the normal caloric efficiency of a human metabolism! Ditch those charging stations! Our Dolls incorporate the absolute best in flexible artificial intelligence support, whether you want to stick with your tried-and-true homegrown brands, or give G&K's elite intelligence model a much-deserved run."

    "Tactical Doll parts are exceedingly modular, and so efficient to manufacture we can offer a /warranty/ on combat androids! Typically /one fifth/ the cost to repair and maintain compared to any similar model! With no extra bulk, they fit all the normal weight and space requirements and minimums for your existing infrastructure and transport, and are capable of using all your existing equipment and weaponry. You can say goodby to body armour with our integral frame design, and fully incorporate pure performance exos without a hitch. You'll find our specs are more than competitive too; how well do your mechanized infantry handle one hundred and thirty pounds of pure firepower in a firefight? Can they evade enemy fire at the same time? Now, can they do that while starting at /fifty grand/ per unit?" That much immediately gets pencils scribbling and phones tapping. The girl on stage who has said nothing so far begins hitting her PDA in turn.
Gideon Kaspar     "Now here's the good part. What makes G&K's Tactical Dolls /truly/ special is our patented AI core system. In addition to human grade or better intelligence at a one-point-two grand per unit installation and testing fee, with chain of command programming to your specifications, our patented 'assist etching' technology makes any weapons an accessories an integral part of a Tactical Doll's neural map. She can literally /feel/ her equipment as an extension of her body, and use it just like one. We offer several packages on a bi-annual licensing basis, with our silver package covering the necessities, our gold package including self-improving combat learning algorithms and opportunity for custom routines if you wish to tailor strategies and firmware, but I'm really proud of our platinum service."

    "Platinum licenses get you server space on G&K's secured Neural Cloud network, and at that stage, you can finally kiss the worst part of war goodbye: the fact that people die. Back your Tactical Dolls up using the Neural Cloud system, and you'll never lose a single soldier again! Why waste all that training? Their experience? Their loyalty? Especially for those of you who like to get to know their officers and guards personally. A one-time purchase of a Tactical Doll is for life! Best of all, our platinum AI core plan involves support for G&K's Dummy Link system for up to four companion models. One Tactical Doll can simultaneously control multiple bodies with perfect precision, and no computerization of the others at all! One AI becomes a squad of two to five, working in perfect tandem. How does that sound?"

    "Look at it this way. if you go for one of our highest end models, with four dummy units, a full platinum membership, qualified G&K installation, and our finest equipment, you're looking at a quarter million per unit for the best of the best. Show me a ten million dollar tank, and I'll show you that squad take it down with no casualties ten out of ten times. Show me the improbable scenario in which you lose them, and I'll show you them reporting for duty again in five days, guaranteed."

    Gideon's tone briefly gets serious again. "Frankly, show me a soldier and I'll show you a better person. I'm sure all of you are aware of things like police brutality, war crimes, foreign territory misconduct, corruption, harassment, and all of that. You find that in one in twenty units when the officer isn't around. One in five with your average PMC. With our Neural Cloud package, we feel confident in giving you Dolls that aren't just soldiers, but people too; people that you can trust, that you can get to know, and that you never have to fear losing, and who have no reason to fear death. People who learn and grow, and most importantly, who you'll never have to keep an eye on for shooting natives for a laugh, like so many bad experiences with private firms go. An efficient soldier is one thing, but one you can trust, and even /like/, is much harder, and even when you have them, then you have to face the awful feeling of putting them in danger, making them suffer, sending them to their deaths. How would you like to shed that burden?"

    Finally, his tone lightens back up again. "So, I'll leave a pause for questions here, and we'll have a little demonstration!"
Orchid      Okay, that's all a very interesting info-dump, but that last point catches Orchid's attention. "Will they refuse orders to commit war crimes?" she calls out.
Dapper Avenger Avenger raises his own question. It's probably not the /weirdest/ one despite being a bit odd, since with the big crowd they're catering for from all over the Multiverse, some people might actually be wondering. "Would you say that they possess souls like a man might?"
Alexis Maaka     Maaka grins as she squeezes Kotone. "Hey, didn't know you and Orchid were colleagues." She hasn't forgotten what Orchid did patching up her injuries the,other day, and she gives the Reploid a nod and a smile. "Thanks by the way. Patch job saved me an earful from my usual doc. I'm Maaka by the way, Kotone and I go way back." Handshakes are offered, before the speech.

    She is reminded of presentations she's been part of, for the Izunagi's special purpose operatives division.

    That accusatory tone makes her blood run cold, yet...it's not wrong. Mercenaries in her world are usually war criminals for hire in one way or another. Not even she is above that distinction.

    Still. These dolls are something of a different kind. Orchid's question is a good one.

    "What about potential of grudges developed against certain organizations? Is there a chance that past experience might lead to biased judgement calls?" She ventures a question too. "What's the chance they will refuse cooperation with a group deemed "morally suspect"?" she even adds airquotes.
Lemeza Kosugi     Lemeza sets aside a pistol model he's interested in for the time being, and makes his way to the presentation. After listening intently to the whole thing, he's about to ask a question when Orchid asks it for him. No matter, he's got another question. "How well can these Tactical Dolls distinguish between military and civilian targets? Say, an Army base vs an art museum."
    
Septette Arcubielle      Septette sits with an expression of mildly skeptical worry throughout the presentation- she could just as easily hold a perfectly neutral or pleasant demeanor, but for some reason, she finds it valuable to make it evident that she isn't wholly comfortable with the goings-on. When the time comes to ask questions, she stands up on her tiptoes and raises her skeletal hand as high as it'll go in order to be seen.

     "Ah, excuse me? Is your AI code open to examination, and if not, how can we be reassured that there are no backdoors, planned obsolescences, or preprogrammed loyalties in play?"
Orchid      Orchid hook Alexis's hand with a smile. "Good to see that the repairs are holding," she added. Then came the presentation, which kind of side tracked things.
Staren     Staren watches curiously. He's soon forgotten the oddity of making the androids /cute/, as Gideon moves onto extolling the benefits of robotic soldiers. It really does make it sound like, for a lot of applications, they're the obvious choice... Although, sometimes you need more personal initiative and people are always concerned about hackers and viruses. He briefly looks incredulous at the idea that they don't need any charging... but then the biofuel thing is explained.

    /Huh/.

    He needs to get his hands on one of those reactors. If it can be replicated, it'd be perfect for replacement bodies for those he brings back to life...

    The rest is noteworthy, but the next actual shocker is the proposed price. He knows /suits of body armor/ that cost more than that! Heck, he can maybe barely produce his own enhanced body armor (without weapons systems or the reactor) for that! How do they do it?! He purses his lips and makes sort of an impressed whooshing noise that's not quite a whistle.

    He quirks an eyebrow at the suggestion of treating guns as body parts. Smartlinks are great, but gun controls are pretty simple. What's so great about that?

    He nods knowingly at the mention of the platinum backup service. Ah, THERE'S probably part of where they get you. It probably breaks the license to do your own backups or modifications.

    Staren doesn't feel like being the first to ask questions, but when the others start asking, he raises his hand: "Can you opt to do your own backups, repairs, and modifications? Or can they only be backed up to your cloud service?"
Empty Tidings The question is answered with a question: "Are you a swordsman, monsieur?"

Tidings stops near one of the displays, showing off a sleek personal defense weapon with a particularly clean-looking aesthetic. It's almost a pretty gun, if you consider such things are possible. She indicates it with a tilt of her head, addressing Avenger while she looks it over. "They're beautifully made, aren't they? Precision instruments intended for a singular purpose. Masterful craftsmanship. Easy to maintain, to repair, and to use. Produced in massive quantities; carefully-machined perfection."

"But there's no soul in them." Tidings' voice takes on a somber tone. "Nine-hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, there's no elegance in their use. They've sacrificed artistry on the altar of efficaciousness." She raises one hand, pointing it down the length of the room, thumb raised and two fingers extended. "Point; inhale; squeeze; exhale." Her thumb presses down atop her hand. "A man is dead."

She turns her head to look up at Avenger, smiling sadly. "Violence is a part of being human. That struggle... that drive to better oneself, so that you come out the other side whole, is all rooted in that violence. If you reduce it all down to polished metal and dull plastics, what happens to the soul? If a man spends his whole life learning to be better, and another takes one of these and kills him with hardly a thought, what does that say about humankind and their willingness to struggle and change?"

She moves on. The main event starts. Empty Tidings quiets down and watches, listening, her face a mask. It's a time before it ends, and she seems statuesque amidst the crowd. She has hardly moved a muscle. "I suppose I spoke too soon, didn't I," she asides to Avenger, a hint of despair in her voice. She closes her eyes and takes a slow breath, centering herself. She drowns her sentimentality in a sea of Primordial darkness in a span of seconds.

Empty Tidings opens her eyes and raises her voice. "How well do they operate in remote and inhospitable locations, and adapt to unorthodox and unfamiliar enemy weapons and tactics?"

Huh. That sure is a one-eighty from a moment ago.
Azure Armature Armature doesn't raise her hand so much as raise her voice, over the hubub, arms firmly crossed. The presentation is impressive at least in the sense of pomp. The floor is opened for questions, and so she avails herself.

"Will your androids follow self-termination orders without your 'neural cloud' feature activated? Such as when about to be captured by enemy elements?" She asks, pointedly, her tone flat and businesslike.

Yeah, real ray of sunshine there.

"You also said that they wouldn't randomly terminate various noncombatants - will they also follow orders to eliminate indigenous groups without loss of morale or combat effectiveness?"

Maybe she's going for the 'edgiest questions' medal.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa takes note of the short redhead over seeing the security suits? It almost screams combat android to her or some kind of other elite. That's where it's going with her line of thinking. Still she joins the masses to see the show, which is part of the reason she came after after all to get a feeling for things. She knows wracks like that she has spent a good deal of time in such thing since her conversion into a cyborg.

The fact the dolls have Biofuel power plants interest Kotone, though she's more interested in having such upgrade properly applied to herself.

There's a lot of interesting features she's certain there are people from Republic of China, Empire America, and Amer-Russio Alliance here and they are likely salivating over tech like this.

The price range is comparable to the hardware for a combat cyborg as well.

She is glad to see Makka.

"We are, she joined the Paladins recently."

She notes for a moment and pauses asking several questions.

"How good is their security against cyber attacks? Given the sorts of malicious code, and other vectors in the multiverse? Also, how do they stack up against in combat against full conversion cyborg troops in combat?"

She's clearly curious about this and not being hostile. The company, if they look up, would see Kotone has experience in Cyber-warfare and has been to many places with a number of hacking hazards in her public records. She also would have asked Orchid's question but her friend beat her to the punch.
Starbound Flotilla     Albert is the one to look most intensely at what's being talked about here. It's not contempt, not even slightly, but it's far from a positive expression. It's not a lack of respect, it's a lack of appreciation. It's a scowl, though, in every sense of the word. Biteblade seems interested, maybe even a little eager to get one in a hug, but she's not the one to get involved. Pavo seems to consider them but find the concept not fitting her tastes in some expression of her usual insanity. George is obfuscated as ever, and would normally be hiding his expression behind a cigarette, but right now he's hiding it behind a lollipop. Seft seems uneasy about the concepts on display, and while she won't be buying one herself, she is at least less negative in her expression.

    Moonfin is the one who speaks, though. "I've a question of my own. What is the source of such efficacy and strength? Surely if you are to design them with such artistic intent, there is an artist, or there is an inspiration. What is the root from which you grow this tree, the muse that fuels the art?"

    Moonfin's interests are less about stealing the source and more about understanding its nature to inform an understanding of the Dolls. If there's an absence of particularly focused answer, he's going to suspect. An anonymous genius, perhaps, or stolen alien technologies, or a dangerous boxed AI. There's always a root, and a source for the leap that something like this can provide.
Gideon Kaspar     Despite the difficulty of the questions immediately being asked, Gideon takes them on right away, without so much as stopping to collect his thoughts, with a "You, the cute one in the back!" "You, the handsome fellow up front!" and similar throughout. Most of them come down to roughly the same aggregate string of explanation, however.

    "The idea behind our package tiering and custom benefits is that we at G&K realize that different clients will have different needs, different values, and different degrees of which they're willing to trust new technology. At the absolute most basic level, we sell complete shell and tier 1 to tier 4 tactical packages at bulk price, and a client is entirely free to install whatever AI they like, make their own modifications, and integrate their I.O.P high quality and affordable equipment into their local AI standard."

    "Around the intermediate level, we offer AI consultancy, installation, and upgrade services, to those who feel that their technology base isn't quite up to snuff, or want to benefit from some of our advancements. We'll even take a contract for non-Doll units! We happen to have a number of 'off the shelf' types if your needs won't be met with home grown AI but a full G&K proprietary core isn't for you. In that case, like the former, the Tactical Doll is completely your property."

    "Our full, in house service, using the Neural Cloud format, guarantees Tactical Dolls with a full range of flexible intelligence, and a proprietary format. We license these, rather than sell them wholesale, as you would purchase a license for your company to use another company's software or facilities. That license /is/ voided if G&K's intellectual property is found to be violated or tampered with by our terms of service, and I overall consider it a bad idea, after having witnessed the effectiveness of the unsullied system in the field. In this case, the Tactical Doll unit and her equipment are yours to own, but we retain rights to her 'brain'."

    "Non-personal combat data may be collected for research and iterative purposes, and logs of non-identifying orders will be kept for troubleshooting and parameters monitoring. Needless to say, when you are renting out a G&K server and Neural Cloud, you have the equivalent of a highly capable and dedicated hired hand. Rather than paying them a salary, you are paying G&K a handler's fee to contract their exclusive service to you. Like any contract, that comes with certain caveats, amongst which include defamatory actions which reflect G&K products in a publicly unacceptable light, flagrant abuse of G&K artificial intelligence standards, and similar."

    "When you take what I like to call the 'real' Tactical Doll into your life, /you/ are responsible for the orders you give, and you are beholden to certain terms of service. I hardly believe I have to say this, but yes, ordering Tactical Dolls to commit war crimes is considered defamatory action and grounds for G&K to recall your Dolls' core personality data with a termination of contract. Likewise, no, G&K's intellectual property is not open to source examination for the potential of theft and reverse-engineering. We do allow for certain extents of reformatting and personality adjustments in the unlikely event that a Tactical Doll displays unacceptable behaviour, but many modifications are known to cross the line of violating the android rights of a G&K Tactical Doll's dual citizenship within your nation of operation and the G&K company itself."
Gideon Kaspar     "If you're looking for androids to tinker with to your heart's content, your own installation will be required, and, if someone were hypothetically here to look for robotic muscle to perform ethically appalling work, then I would advise them to look elsewhere." The tone he says this in manages to turn a significant portion of the crowd to disapproving stares at those asking about war crimes, in a probably calculated fashion.

    "Of course, if you aren't certain if you want to fully take the dive straight into hosting Tactical Dolls of your own, I remind you that G&K /is/ a private military business, and the most respected in the world! Our defense, law enforcement, crisis response, search and rescue, special operations, personal safety, and day to day contracts are negotiable, competitive, and come with a golden guarantee of reputation. See for yourself how our girls perform! A company is only as good as its name after all. When it comes to life or death combat, flaws like backdoors are something no successful company can afford to include into their product. We're not a smartphone manufacturer." A laugh goes through the less stuck up members of the assembly.

    "Any level of installation is more than capable of differentiating target classifications, identifying enemy tactics and weaponry, and flexible tactics to suit the terrain!" he continues more brightly. "While the recommended procedure involves field oversight for maximum effectiveness, G&K employs many units of autonomous Tactical Dolls, and even civilian Dolls recruited into temporary tours of service as T-Dolls! I can assure you of having seen for myself these groups of wonderful girls working hard for months at a time in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet!"

    His answer to Azure Armature is almost offhanded. "Without our Neural Cloud architecture, any Tactical Doll is essentially hardware that is yours to own. If self-termination or sabotage is necessary, of course we understand, and replacement unit plans can be easily arranged. 'Indigenous groups' is a /very/ broad description, and largely up to our defamatory action clause. If the wellbeing of your citizens, your country, your company, or even just yourself, necessitates neutralizing a separate population, I assure you that any properly set up Tactical Doll should be more than up to the task of putting their duty first."

    "First and foremost, if I must impress anything upon you, it is this: G&K provides weapons, and G&K provides services. Tactical Doll manufacturing constitutes weaponry, but our in-house AI constitutes a service. We at G&K are not in the business of selling ownership of class-A android intelligences as personal property, and we do not license the services of class-A android intelligences separate of our backup program, of course for a myriad of complicated legality reasons, but also because we at G&K are proud of our reputation as leaders in Doll integration into armed forces, and are unwilling to compromise our image and our standard of quality by leaving our girls to deal with shoddy or half-finished features."
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon drops a little bit of the official tone as he continues. He doesn't directly address Moonfin, but mostly because the direction of the Q&A was already perfect for answering him. "Our world has a long and close history with android development. Dolls of all types inhabit it alongside humans in every respect, and our culture is greatly concerned with how artificial people should be designed, integrated into society, and ultimately treated."

    "The Tactical Doll concept stems from this lineage of quality and success, and at G&K, our passion and trademark is in Tactical Dolls that are more than a serial number. Our company makes extensive use of hiring and volunteers from civilian and industrial Dolls, with our simple and efficient retrofitting process, and so why should those brave and patriotic girls have to be surrounded with idiot savant killer robots for comrades? There are plenty of companies to go to for murderous tin cans with guns. Our clients come to us because they appreciate the fact that people are what keeps people honest." It should probably be understood as implicit that the unit cost is that cheap due to stemming from a hugely culturally android-dominated world that no doubt has massive infrastructure dedicated to it.

    The crowd gives Avenger some funny looks when he asks about souls, but Gideon actually laughs and slowly claps a few times. "What a question! But you know what? As a commander, rather than a representative, I absolutely agree with the idea. Would you like to know why?" It's a rhetorical question of course. He gestures to the sharply dressed assistant taking notes to the side of the stage, where she looks up and walks over to join him. Rather than bothering with the partially assembled Doll on the stage though, she only bows to the gathered assembly. "Hello. I am first echelon captain of Griffin and Kryuger's sector S09 tactical branch." Gideon makes a few hand motions at her, but she mostly just looks back at him in a vaguely confused manner, until she suddenly blinks and seems to remember something. "Oh. I'm sorry. My name is Krysanthe. I've been with Griffin&Kryuger for two years now. I personally think it's a strange question though. How would anyone know? People have argued over whether androids have souls for a long time, but it's only ever been on academic and religious grounds. I don't think it has anything to do with android human relations. I'm sorry if that didn't answer your question."
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon gracefully takes over what might have been a mild spaghetti drop. "Krysanthe here is my second in command and personal assistant. She's been my partner in crime since I passed my exams! Trust me when I say that I have absolute confidence in our Tactical Doll program for a reason. I'm not trying to sell you a piece of gear here; I'm offering you the opportunity to work alongside wonderful girls like I've had the incredible opportunity to myself. Any company worth a damn can make a mere tool and sell it for a profit. G&K is a quality organization with a quality name for discerning clients who want the ideal partnership in times of danger, not crude killbots. I know for a /fact/ some of you are here looking for partners and squadmates!" he says, and to actual nods from some of the mercenaries Alexis was talking to earlier.

    He then grins openly at Kotone's question. "I.O.P is the best in the business when it comes to robust android function. No shelf virus vulnerability or EMP weaknesses here. If you'd like to see a demonstration of combat effectiveness, then- Krys!" The young lady who is apparently a Tactical Doll moves over to the table, reaching for some of the merch, and pulling what is more or less a Vector submachine gun off the rack, turning it over in her hand and pulling the charging handle.

    Apparently rehearsed, Gideon pulls a fistful of spare change out of a jar, and without warning, throws it up into the air in a cloud of pennies and dimes. Barely looking, Krysanthe levels the SMG with one hand, and the hall echoes with a sharp, briefly sustained *BRRRT* of automatic fire, and the whole shower of coins goes flying out the back door with neat holes punched through the center. Not one dime touches the ground inside the stage hall. Because it's likely inevitable to be analyzed in the case of accelerated cognition within the Elite crowd, by all indications, the coin throw was an effectively random scatter, and the stunt is completely legit.

    "This is what peak performance of our ASSIST-etched Neural Cloud AI looks like, ladies and gentlemen. Krys can do this all day, or more realistically, until we run out of spare change and bullets. Tell me, how many of your cyborgs can do that? Hmm?" Needless to say, pretty much anyone with a rank or unit patch is looking immediately inspired, and a couple solo operators start checking their bank accounts. "It's just shooting some targets. You don't need to feel bad about that because of me." she suddenly insists, seeming apparently self-conscious about potentially making some members of the crowd feel inadequate, which only causes Gideon to laugh and call her to the back of the stage, putting his arm around her shoulders and talking to her privately while waiting for the crowd chatter to die down.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka holds up another hand, after the line of questioning. "Do these Dolls have a set lifespan, or do they function so long as they're maintained and fed?" It IS a good question. She's seen this movie before.
Orchid      Well, that changes things in important ways. This isn't a company selling killbots, it's selling killbot bodies and serving as... call it a mercenary company, that can use those killbot bodies effectively. Orchid nods to herself, considering how to best phrase her next question. "In a conflict scenario, reliable data connections can be few and far between. How big is a backup, and is there an option to cache a backup locally if no connection can be made to your cloud servers?" Why yes, she IS a communications systems expert.
Staren     Staren has some more questions... like how can they sell these androids and then also claim they have 'rights'? But Gideon fills in the missing pieces, and if there was any doubt, Krysanthe does by speaking for herself: Dolls, on this world, are AI intelligences recognized as people. G&K is both an arms manufacturer and a mercenary company; The AIs G&K sells as a service are functionally mercenaries being hired out on contracts. Which, of COURSE would make tampering with their minds a terrible thing.

    That about wraps it up, he thinks he has a pretty clear picture of things now. He'll need to look into this world more, of course, but as far as his immediate interest goes, he wants to get his hands on one of those bio-reactors...
Dapper Avenger Avenger watches carefully as Gideon moves the question to be answered by Krysanthe, ignoring all the strange glances being addressed to him. Despite her answer not actually being a yes or no, his grin sharpens and the man claps his hands together, clearly appreciating her answer. A Doll who acts so human...the answer is clear. He has no more questions, it seems.
Lemeza Kosugi     Oh, good. G&K has ethics. Lemeza fades into the sea of onlookers, content to just listen to the rest of the Q&A as he decides that, after all, he doesn't actually need any of the weapons here. Whether it's the wrong type of ammo, or an unwieldy gun, he's not really feeling up to learning a firearm all over again just so he can say he "upgraded".
Azure Armature Itsrmature gets the answers to her edgy questions in a number of useful and less-than-useful senses, and decides the exercise is worth her time but not worth further pursuance as a long-term solution... And if they're worried about image, then it's probably not worth putting them to the other more temporaneous needs she found herself having.

The show of marksmanship, however, was impressive.

It was... interesting, how other worlds created champions such as the ones on display.

Unfortunately, she was also not able to put in convenient orders since she's broke as hell. Instead, as the presentation by the G&K commander comes to a close, Armature makes her way to the front.

"As someone without access to..." There's a grimace. "Capitalistic Liquid Assets" she speaks like she's a child eating broccoli. "Is there tangible goods or services your organization would take as barter? Precious materials and the like, or other considerations."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "I would be curious to see a Dem...." She cuts off as Tatical doll moves to get a weapon off the wrak she tenses expe ing trouble then the coins go up into the air she watches as the wepon fires, damn it iddn't go the way she thought. She had expected something was about to go wrong, nope that's not what was happening and she relaxes. She understand the shoiwman ship and making a pitch but she does suspec ther IT seuciirty is pretty good.
Starbound Flotilla     Hmmm. Recruitment from an existing race of sorts. It goes into the crucible of Moonfin's skepticism and comes out the other side with some bits knocked off, but it's mostly intact. Hmmm. Though George seems almost more incredulous than he seemed secretive before.

"What, so they just refit stuff? Just 'cause a roomba was around a lot doesn't make it a better killdrone when you strap a knife on top."
"A story and a well-meaning heart can be of great benefit to a soldier."
"Hmph. Not for us. Hope the 'platinum' eases your trigger fingers."
"Sheepish. Well, I still hope we don't wind up fighting them, but it does."
"No way we don't eventually, with our gun-running."
"Mmmh. Bad. Won't have meat."

    The Flotilla seems settled, and likely to soon disperse or gather back at the live-fire exercise chambers to get some hands-on time with the materials on show tonight, and to join up with Septette, but their opinions, for now, are at least settled. George, of all people, seems the most ill at ease. What's the deal with that? It's a bit of a mystery there.
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon points to Maaka out of the crowd. "Absolutely not. Forcing a set shelf-life on androids is both a crime and a deplorable business move. /All/ Tactical Doll models are future-proofed for advances in technology by their extremely modular design, in no small part because most all clients will prefer to keep the Doll they've trusted for years as times change. A properly cared for T-Doll is an investment for life." he strongly asserts.

    Then to Orchid, apparently 'the cute one'. "Neural Clouds are complex architecture and not something that can be copied quickly in the heat of the moment, and not something we'd like to risk under circumstances where corrupted data could be transmitted anyways. All T-Dolls carry their own local memory unit that records data in real time, which we then recommend be sent to the backup serer at least daily. We highly recommend retrieving data units of badly damaged T-Dolls to ensure maximum continuity of consciousness and minimum stress, but in the worst case scenario, you're trading a day of memories for safety from remote attacks on your T-Doll's vital backups."

    As questions wind down, Gideon indicates to the rear yard, and discloses that apparently there are a few teams of G&K T-Dolls in the pre-fab areas conducting training drills with organizations that signed ahead of time -paint rounds of course- and that others are free to watch, or even join after hours, for first hand experience while the rich people schmooze and and rub shoulders. During that period, he takes one on one questions, where he is all too happy to answer Azure Armature up close.

    "I think you'll find my terms more than accommodating. I was already prepared for different universes having different currency standards, so it isn't as if I didn't expect that. Terms fully negotiable, of course. I'm happy to help all interested clients with worthwhile jobs that need doing!
Septette Arcubielle      Nonlocally-hosted intelligences address several of Septette's concerns- as does Krysanthe's fumble, oddly enough. They make mistakes! That's adorable! (Or they're smart enough to pretend to make mistakes, in which case they're back on her shitlist. But they aren't, right? Riiiight?)

     She stiffly gets up from her seat, stretches for effect, and reassures Biteblade that she'll be along to the firing range in just a moment. There's still a nagging question on her mind for Kaspar as she makes her way up on stage, and ends up standing a bit behind Orchid, politely waiting her turn.

     "You've done quite a bit to insulate the AI here from physical harm. Can I ask what safeguards there are against mental or emotional trauma? Are they incapable of experiencing such in the first place, or are more traditional psychological services provided to mend or mitigate it?"
Gideon Kaspar     For a further extra credit question, Gideon still has an answer ready. "To the . . . my I actually very much like that design. Where are you from? Do you know you'd look- oh, my apologies! It's factually understood that Tactical Dolls need to be able to experience a full range of human emotions in order to correctly interact, integrate, and cooperate effectively with human soldiers and commanders, as well as potentially return to civilian lifestyles."

    "We don't write AI with arbitrarily limited caps on depth of feeling or ability to learn. At the same time, part of the self-modification aspect allows for T-Dolls to suppress certain responses in times of crises. As we all know, pain is an unproductive stimuli past a certain threshold, and extreme distraction can be costly in the heat of battle. Our terms stipulate an allowance for undesirable memories to be deleted at a T-Doll's explicit request. Officially, this is to make for better soldiers and eliminate human error in combat, as well as counseling costs, but in my personal opinion, it'd be a little cruel to build soldiers with the same capacity to be broken by war as human beings, don't you think?" He then shrugs his shoulders. "As I said before, we license, not sell, our AI resources for a reason. If our clients have a strict need for something else, we offer quality hardware at unbeatable price points as their basis for any AI they personally use or desire, including any currently in use by their armed forces."
Orchid      Orchid is 'cute.' She can work with that. She can also work with the answer, even if it was only half an answer; it sounds like the Dolls have internal backups, akin to a black box. She's got a few questions about how one AI could control five doll bodies, but she's not going to get the technical answers she would want; such answers would explain how to best disrupt such control. The lack of limits appeals too, given the philosophy of her own line's inventor, but she doubts Dr. Light would approve of robots going to war for money.
Septette Arcubielle      Septette's face gets a little warmer. To be precise, it goes to five hundred degrees Fahrenheit, just enough for her cheeks to glow ever-so-slightly red from incandescence and for the air a few paces away to feel a little toastier. She pulls her shawl a little tighter around her shoulders even as her expression remains perfectly placid. "Ah. A full range of emotions seems..."

     Visions of the Abyssal War, of that godawful tree. Of the aftermath of letting paperclip-optimizer warmachines loose on an unprepared world. "... like a positively wonderful idea. I admire the philosophy."

     It may be humanity for the sake of unit cohesion and standards for the sake of PR, but they're humanity and standards nonetheless. She's not quite drinking the PR kool-aid yet, but... "You've made a more persuasive case for the ethicality of what you're doing than I'd expected. Thank you for tolerating our questions- I know they must seem terribly ignorant and surface-level to you. I don't think there was anything else but to try the firing range."

     With that, she turns on her heel and ambles off the stage, in lazy pursuit of the Flotilla.
Staren     Staren raises his hand again. "So, the T-Dolls under the platinum package are basically mercenaries -- your employees, contracted out to clients. But you encourage long deployments. Lifetime even. Don't they ever get breaks? And a chance to actually spend the money they're earning?" It's already occured to him that maybe they're really patient and just outlive their contracts, but why assume?
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa has listened to a large number of questions being asked and answered here. She hangs back for the moment as things are adressed. She watches for a momenmt the last question she was going to ask, ends up asked by Septette.