compnetwork | [audio]

"What are you trying to wire to the network? I have some experience with electronics."

...
Myself.

[That's probably not enough explanation, people here might not have heard of a human-based chimera before, those aren't really common. They surely know what a chimera is, though, right?] I'm a chimera.

"I am unfamiliar with the term, but is that a form of AI or someone who has had nanotechnology implants to access data screams?"

A chimera is a reconstructed organism. In my case, my human base was heavily damaged when acquired and was repaired and upgraded with a number of cybernetics.

My cybernetics are running out of charge. I - I don't think I was reconstructed without some sort of backup so I wouldn't shut down if they did run out, but - [He sounds a bit more like he's trying to convince himself. He honestly doesn't know, and a lot of essential human bits like the heart were among those reconstructed.]

"I handle mecha and android repair. I can probably get something working for you. I'm Ruri. Hoshino Ruri. Captain of the Nadesico."

[There's a relieved noise from this end, though he cuts it off.] Where should I go? I'm in - Libra Ward right now.

My designation is Pigmask Commander. Nice to meet you. [Very nice, if only because his charge is at 7% and falling.]

"I'm in the park. Look for the large space battle cruiser."

The park he can find by now, and from there the Nadesico is... pretty visible. Larger than the Mother Porkship, which is impressive.

The Commander approaches with as much caution as someone in a hurry can have, which isn't all that much. Not really any leeway to be concerned now, anyway - trustworthy or not, if he runs out of charge and does shut down, it won't matter.

The ship is there, and the hangar ramp is down with some lights being seen inside. Ruri herself is over by the makeshift android repair bay she set up in the hangar booting up the systems.

The Commander slows down some once he's up the ramp, taking a quick glance around the hangar, then approaching Ruri. He can't be entirely sure this is the same person unless he hears their voice, but it does seem likely.

He stops and stands at attention a meter or two away, waiting for an instruction - that made it easier for the scientists at the Chimera Labs. ...or a 'who are you' if this isn't who he thinks it is.

Ruri peers over and looks at the newcomer.

"Are you the cyborg who needed help with his power systems, or are you here to use the onsen?"

The cyborg he knows is something a bit different. Still, close enough.

"I'm the chimera, yes."

She nods a bit.

"Do you have available schematics or will this be something done on the fly?"

"...in my head. I don't know if you can download them." Not if he can't find something similar enough to the stuff on the Nowhere Islands to charge himself - probably won't be compatible. Besides, he's not sure if Master Porky or Dr. Andonuts would approve if he went around giving them out willy-nilly. It's not actually his head either, but that's another matter.

The Commander's left eye flickers weirdly as his internals inform him he's down to 6 percent. His expression twists uneasily. "I-I can try drawing the relevant bits if you have anything to do that with."

Edited (what do you mean accidentally switching rp formats *shifty eyes*) 2013-09-05 22:29 (UTC)

She nods a bit.

"Anything would help, power type, input type, amps, volts. I'm not trained with medicine so I'm not entirely certain how the living bits would interface with the mechanical ones without schematics. If you have a wireless interface I can have Omoikane set up a link to download them."

The Commander shakes his head. "My biological portions won't be a problem. I've eaten. It's just the cybernetics - no, nothing wireless."

He closes his eyes for a second, then starts mechanically listing off any information he can find on his schematics that isn't a description of those themselves. Ruri might be getting some useless bits - he still has no idea what's important.

Once he's sure he's done with that, he opens his eyes and adds - "The charging port's on my back. Lower middle one," - before starting to rock back and forth on his feet nervously. The kid's jacket is covering his back, so Ruri won't actually be able to see it, but he's fine with taking it off. He's just used to waiting for the scientists to tell him what to do, and she hasn't instructed him with that yet.

"I'm going to need to see the port then. Most of what you gave me was information for other things and I'm not in the position to recreate your condition on someone else. We can just hope that I have a similar head or can rig something up."

"..." The Commander nods, turning around and pulling off his jacket and the shirt underneath it.

There's something that looks like a huge electrical socket on his back - two long, thin gaps just below his shoulder blades. They seem to be intended to attach something to his back rather than charge, though - the right port is the lower of the two circular ones in the middle, right in the center of his back and slightly larger than the upper one.

The Commander watches Ruri over his shoulder, clutching his clothes to his front. He thinks there's probably not going to be as much poking around in his cybernetics as there would be if he needed repairs instead, but he'd still very much prefer being in the Labs.

Several holographic screens appear around Ruri as she starts looking over all the modifications. Taking a voltage meter out of the repair area she starts to look for what kind of power and how much is used while on another screen the ship's scanners focus on the chimera and start trying to note what the mechanical parts are made of.

"Did your handlers ever tell you what was involved in recharge and repair in case you got separated from them?"

"I can do some repairs myself." Anything one can do that doesn't require going into stasis or more knowledge than just staring at the schematics and seeing how stuff is connected. He certainly can't make improvements, though - he got called into the Labs every month or two for those. "For anything serious I just went to see Dr. Andonuts." Or got carried by Pigmasks, though that didn't happen often.

"It was easy to charge in any industrialized portion of the Nowhere Islands, though. I don't think anyone thought I'd end up stuck somewhere off them." And as of yet he still doesn't know it's possible to return, and certainly not how.

"And they didn't provide you with a charger when you came here. Brainstorm usually is in charge of that, perhaps he was feeling suriler than usual when you came here."

She starts probing his power node with a few tools, trying to get a reading on how much energy they can take and how fast.

"Any charger from the Nowhere Islands would likely be about as compatible with this city's electric grid as my port on its own. ...Brainstorm?"

He forces himself not to wince; the majority of his cybernetics don't actually have the sensation of touch, with the exception of his arm and his eye, but he can feel stuff happening, pressure transferring through them. It doesn't exactly hurt, but he'd almost prefer pain to the uneasiness.

"I think I can probably rig something together. At least set up a battery pack till something more permanent is done. Still the systems are very complicated and I'm not certain I could repair them if something happened."

"I would be very grateful if you could manage something portable. Or something I could set up in my apartment. ...I'll just have to avoid serious damage, then."

He assumes right away that some form of repayment is going to be required, whether or not Ruri was planning on saying something. He segues into that without much warning. "I don't have many material possessions or resources in this city, but I can repay you with..." - he pauses for a moment to consider. "...my design is intended for combat." As Ruri might have noticed. "Besides that, I am proficient in the use of PSI." If mostly offensively as well. "I am willing to do unskilled labour if there is no use for those."

His charge level slowly inches down to 5%, but he makes himself stay calm, in case there'll be bargaining ahead. He doesn't really care about an amount of work - he can't really go without a way to charge - but he's worried about other things.

"Portable would take a few days. If you can get the resources for me I can construct it though. Why Don't I plug you in here and we can discuss payment when you have a full charge. I find it bad practice to hold someone random while dealing with them."

She offers an array of several dozen adapters to him while she starts stringing a cable from one of the mecha berths.

"Pick whichever adapter you are most comfortable with and I'll plug you in. Honestly, I'd rather just help than extort people but I don't have the resources to build one right now."

The Commander hesitates for a bit, then nods - technically, already charging would put him in a position of lower bargaining power, but he doesn't have elsewhere to charge, so it's an illusory advantage even if doesn't. He scans over the adapters, picking one out in a few seconds and pointing to it.

"...what kind of resources?" If it's something that can be bought in Hinoto-Ri - he doesn't have funds for much, just the city's allowance for Visitors, but he can ration food for a while and buy with what's left over. He won't be operating at peak efficiency, but less food and charge is better than food and no charge. If it's something expensive, or more complicated to obtain - well, one step at a time here. It's inefficient to start planning for a problem without understanding all the parameters.

"A generator, wire, things needed to build a charging machine. I know there are jobs we can take for funds, but I assume you do not want to be reliant on coming here every time you run low on power."

"...if you give me a list I will try to obtain everything. Until then..." Well, he guesses he will have to keep coming back, unless Ruri's about to offer something else. And there's still repayment to speak of.

...maybe he should try to find some employment.

"I can have a print up of parts ready in an hour or so. I'm not certain how long your batteries will take to recharge though."

"From my current charge..." he counts it up in his head. "Five hours." Which isn't bad at all considering he can last for a week with normal usage on full charge, and even longer with conservative usage.

It's a bit boring to sit around for five hours, but he usually made sure charging time coincided with sleeping time when he had that option.

...

[Lucas debates whether or not he ought to say anything. The Masked Man will get nothing but awkward light breathing for a little while instead.]

[By this point the Commander's had a response, and at least some hope. In case it doesn't work out, though, he's still paying attention to his COMP while heading to the park. Not that he's sure he'll have the time to get to another place if Ruri can't or won't help, but...]

[Breathing. He can't recognize someone just from that, but then he doesn't expect to recognize anybody on the network.]
...
Yes?

Edited 2013-09-06 02:31 (UTC)

[Oh no had he been breathing loud enough to be noticeable
Lucas immediately stops breathing

...
...
...

A minute later there is a light gasp, a few heavy inhale-exhales, and then the breathing stops ag --

No this was stupid Lucas clears his throat.]

...

Is something wrong?

[Oh. Pork.]

[The Commander freezes in place for a moment with one foot raised, flashing back to 'Designation Claus recognized' - no no no shut up that was just a stupid glitch not recognized not recognized he's got something way more important to deal with now - and checking his charge level is enough to get him back on track.]

[...Luca - the boy being able to access the network wasn't something he expected, somehow. He'd always felt like Luca... fine, Lucas - was the sort to avoid technology. And it'd be a monumentally horrible idea to tell him of any weakness, but he's pretty sure Lucas can figure it out from the original audio. That's bad.]

[On the other hand, even if Lucas is definitely wrong about the Commander being - that name, he's a chimera, not someone's br... - anyway. Even if Lucas is wrong, he thinks he's right. Maybe that'll make him want to help, and if Lucas has any ideas...]

[Well. He actually doesn't really see a downside. If Lucas does want to attack him while he's low on charge, there's probably not much difference between it running out or being destroyed. So, after what might have been a bit of a long pause and one or two harsh breaths, he starts talking curtly.] My cybernetics are almost out of charge. A number of my internals are cybernetic. [Lucas should be able to figure out the rest himself. Meanwhile, he'll get moving again.]

[If the Masked Man is expecting practical help, Lucas probably ranked near the bottom of the list of people who could do anything about cybernetic charges. ...He probably didn't even know what a charge was. If he wanted generalized sympathy, though, Lucas wasn't a bad place to go for that, even if there was a part of him still bemoaning something about abominations and travesties of nature.]

Cybernetics...

[Lucas was at least clever enough to understand that he meant his robot parts, anyway.]

And you... need them? To, um. Well.

[An absurd question, but from a thirteen year old technological dunce's perspective, maybe letting the robot bits die would make him human again.]

[...maybe not, then. Lucas doesn't sound very sure about the Commander needing them, and he most certainly does.]

...
Without charge, my right arm and left eye would deactivate. I would not be able to use my jetpack or the Shield Killer. More importantly, a number of my organs were repaired during my reconstruction, and my heart is entirely artificial. Yes, I need them.

[...pork, now he's getting himself scared again. He forces himself to focus on the street in front of him steadfastly - what was he even thinking about Lucas helping? Something about - a controlled PK Thunder, maybe, but he's not sure it can be controlled, and besides... it was Lucas's companion who knew that, wasn't it?]

[Great. The Masked Man knew he was reconstructed from a dying body but he couldn't recognize which body it had been even when staring his twin in the face. ...Now probably isn't the best time to bring that up again, though. When Lucas speaks again, his voice is slightly unsteady.]

I-I see. You mean you would die.

[And Claus aside, he had had enough death to last him a lifetime. Even, at the very end, Porky... He had been glad he had chosen another way out.]

You need a chimera doctor. Someone like Dr. Andonuts.

[Although... He had seen chimeras casting Lifeup before, hadn't he? Did they have 'cybernetics' as well? Who knew?]

[It's more that he's not even letting himself think about it. He's always thought of his programming as stable, but whenever he's faced with that idea, it suddenly feels painfully fragile. He can handle the name by itself, probably, but all the details he's supposed to know and sort of feels like maybe he does - no. He needs his programming.]

...yes.

I would need Dr. Andonuts or another scientist for repairs. [Like after Chupichupyoi.] Right now I need charging. I have not found any compatible chargers here, and just plugging in would likely do damage to my cybernetics - electricity needs to be controlled.

[Though if one of the scientists were here, they could probably make an adapter easily. The Commander wishes he'd been instructed in how to do things like that, but - that wasn't his purpose, his purpose was fighting, so he hadn't been.]

[What was the use of technology and science if his brother needed to be a mass of iron and steel and plugged into a wall to live? Not for the first time, Lucas feels a faint surge of general distemper, undirected at anyone in particular, but simply at the fates that had allowed such a situation to come to pass. Worse, there was the knowledge that there was absolutely nothing of any use he could do to help. He didn't even know any scientists.]

How much more time do you have?

[At full charge, if he doesn't overextend himself by, say, flying everywhere, he can last several days. Like this... well, he's getting really low.] A few hours.

...
I might have found something to help. [He's not sure why he's volunteering that information, but there it is. And - there's the park, too, he's nearing it. The Commander hesitates, though still moving, unsure about whether he should turn off his COMP or not now. Probably. He feels like he should say something before he does, but at the same time he has no idea what, and neither does he know why he kept talking to Lucas once he decided there wouldn't be any help from that direction.]

['A few hours', Lucas wants to cry, but panicking has never accomplished much of anything to his knowledge. Least of all in front of somebody like the Masked Man. There is the sound of a choked swallow before he continues on quickly.]

What is it? Do you need help getting there? I can... come. I'd like to come.

[He hadn't planned on saying that last bit, but it wasn't as if it weren't true, after all.]

[Now this he knows is a bad idea. Lucas searching for him to attack him while he's weak is one thing, he'd probably get to Ruri before then, and if that didn't work out then it'd be bad Lucas or not. If Lucas knows where he's headed, though - this could all be a trick and the Commander's chances might be smashed. This way there is a risk.]

[He still almost wants to say yes, especially after that noise over the COMP. What did Lucas do, earlier...]

No. [To everything.]

...
I'm almost there. I'll tell you if it did work once it's done. [There. That's almost a parting message, right? He disconnects, only realizing seconds later that what he's done is basically promised to contact Lucas again.]

But --

[Lucas continues to talk into the speaker for a few moments after disconnection given that he knows zilch about how these communication devices work. Eventually, he exhales slowly and presses the button to disconnect on his end as well.

There is nothing to do now but to wait.]

[audio]

Voice,

Voice,

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Re: Voice,

Voice,

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Voice -> action?

action;

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/quietly slides this into timeskip in other thread timing wise?

Works for me!

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