6th Screw [Action/Video] - Backdated to the 9th

[all_wound_up]

[Action - Ichiban Market, Virgo District]

[It's been a few days since the market from home appeared in Hinoto-Ri, and Nano's taking full advantage of the convenience and familiarity of the location.  She spends a good few hours shopping around for various ingredients and household necessities, filling up her shopping bags with soy sauce, daikon radish, leeks, miso, rice, and all sorts of other ingredients common to traditional Japanese meals.  Feeling very at ease here in a place that's almost second nature to her, she hums cheerily to herself while she's collecting everything.

Unfortunately, after she's paid for everything and is carrying everything out in a large brown paper bag, her nice casual shopping trip takes a turn for the worse.  Right after emerging from the store, and completely without warning, Nano's left arm falls completely limp.  She lets out a surprised yell as the grocery bag goes tumbling from her arms, its contents spilling out all over the sidewalk.  Immediately recognizing something as deeply wrong, Nano glances around quickly and starts to scramble to pick everything up with her one good arm.]

[Video]

[Eventually Nano makes it home, and after no small amount of privately worrying and panicking, she turns on the COMP to reach out for some help.  It's not help she particularly wants to ask for, but she has no idea what's wrong or how to fix it on her own.  She's doing her best to hide the fact that one arm is completely out of commission, aiming the shot at her face only.]

U-um... I hate to impose, but is there anyone out there who knows a lot about fixing things?  My, um...

[She glances around the room briefly before returning her gaze to the camera.]

My television is broken!

Comments

Action

[electricyousei]

Some 40 minutes or so later there is a knock on the door.

Action

[all_wound_up]

I-it's open...

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri comes in holding a largish package and peers around.

"Where is the broken TV?"

Action

[all_wound_up]

[Nano's sitting at the kitchen table, utterly unable to hide the fear and panic on her face. She has one fist balled up and resting in her lap, as her other arm hangs at her side. It's a few moments before she can even respond, eyes closed tightly as she steels herself for the conversation ahead.]

It's actually not a television that's broken. I'm sorry, I misled you.

Re: Action

[electricyousei]

"I see."

Ruri looks over her and sees her expression, letting out a breath and setting her tools on the table she stares at her blankly.

"Is it something else that needs fixing, or were you just lonely?"

Action

[all_wound_up]

N-no, it's not that...

[Nano takes a deep breath, letting it out again slowly before rubbing at her bad arm.]

I can't move my arm.

Action

[electricyousei]

"I see. Would you like me to call a doctor then?"

Action

[all_wound_up]

Doctors won't be able to fix it.

[Oh god, every sentence she has to speak is just killing her inside.]

Action

[electricyousei]

"Are you an artificial intelligence? If that is the case this is my specialty then."

Action

[all_wound_up]

[Nano still has problems admitting this sort of thing out loud, so instead she just nods slowly. She can't bring herself to look Ruri in the eye yet.]

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri just stares her blank deadpan stare.

"I see. Show me the system that isn't working properly."

Action

[all_wound_up]

...It's my arm. It just... stopped moving earlier.

[She keeps rubbing at it, forcing herself to remain calm.]

Action

[electricyousei]

"I'm going to have to see your access port then. Possibly run a diagnostic of your operating system to see if its hardware or software based."

Action

[all_wound_up]

Um, do you mean with a USB connection, or...

[Because Nano actually knows very little about computers.]

Action

[electricyousei]

"Something like that will be a start."

Action

[all_wound_up]

...All right.

[Nano slowly leans down to remove one of her socks, folding it up and placing it on the table next to her before leaning back down. Taking her big toe between her fingers, she wiggles it back and forth a bit before it comes off with a click to reveal a USB port.]

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri rummages around in her bag and pulls out a USB connection cord and hooks it to her laptop, booting up a simple mecha diagnostic program.

"Please plug that in."

Action

[all_wound_up]

A-all right.

[With a nod, she sets her toe aside before taking the cord and plugging it into the port. She's not used to this sort of thing, so she looks a little nervous.]

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri nods and looks at her trying to sound reassuring, but probably failing due to the deadpan.

"I'm going to see if I can access your diagnostics systems now. I just want to warn you in case you feel odd in any way."

Action

[all_wound_up]

[Just a nod over here. Too nervous for much else.]

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri will then begin trying to access Nano's systems, trying to see what language she's programed in, if the neural net is a downloaded copy of a person's, and generally try to gauge just what sort of system she's looking at.

"I'm going to guess by your reaction that your creator didn't do much check up work?"

Action

[all_wound_up]

She always did it while I was asleep... I didn't even think of it when I came here, but I haven't had any regular maintenance at all.

[And now she's looking a little ashamed. The problem, incidentally, appears to be a bad connection in her upper arm, causing everything distal to that point to stop responding as well.

As far as Nano's personality, it appears to have been programmed in from the ground up. Her physical workings appear to be similar to a sophisticated engine - movements run primarily on clockwork gears, but centrally controlled by her computerized brain.]

Action

[electricyousei]

"It looks like a bad connection in the upper arm. Is there an access port there so I can reattach the systems or do you use a nanomachine repair system?"

Ruri ponders a bit and taps a few more things into her machine.

"Also if you'd like to set up a night to sleep at the Nadesico every so often so I could look you over I don't mind."

Action

[all_wound_up]

Yes, hold on...

[Nano nods, opening up a small port in her arm for Ruri to look into. It's second nature to her since she obviously knows how she's constructed at least from the outside, but the integration into the sophisticated polymer that serves as her 'skin' is quite remarkable. The average person would never even notice it was there.]

Could you? I would really appreciate it.

Action

[electricyousei]

Ruri nods and puts on her goggles, looking over the port and looking for the loose connector.

"Certainly. You should see how badly Omoikane complains when its diagnostic night for him. Its just something that needs to happen with everyone. AI and biological."