RP Work's twice as hard, when it's honest

[WanTheFloof]

RP Date

Y42

RP Location

Kennewes

Kennewes was a well-known place for its scrapping industry. The many, many wars fought over it left a lot of that stuff, and there was always the more recent sweeping up after the Gang wars had torn through a place. It could be dangerous work, with unexploded bombs, not-quite-dead drones, sudden avalanches of metal, and hostile scavs who will shoot first, take your shit later. These dangers were why Egwene was happy that her armor came prebuilt with some offensive capabilities, even if it wasn't designed that way.

In one of the older battlefields, there was what looked to be a sort of skinless android. It was a full body suit of armour, and not immediately unnoticable as armour, but at the same time easily mistaken as a fully separate robot due to its humanoid construction that adhered to the human shape. And, the armour/robot, was talking to itself.
"If I can render down enough silcon to make the lenses, I might be able outfit my armour with some lasers. Welding and cutting design, but with auxiliary capabilities for fending off the undesirables. Ohh, maybe Laser-eyes! Wait, no, that is stupid. How would I see out of them? Pragmatic ergonomics would probably say shoulder mounted. Easily to use when flying and a good point all round"

 

[Wes]

In the murky swamp, beneath the rainbow patterns of a thin oil slick, the robot's eyes noticed upon a few pieces of abandoned military gear not far beneath the surface. There was a length of rope, several hand grenades, and a bayonet laying in the sunken remains of a rusting jeep-type vehicle that was covered in sand and muck. Perhaps the battery was salvageable, or maybe even the radio.

A dense fog began to roll into the area and in the distance a violent thunderstorm rumbled menacingly.

Nearby, a Nepleslian eagle tended to its nest in an ancient-looking, scarred Green Cedar tree.

 

[WanTheFloof]

"Ahh, nades~ TONY, set repulsor to 18/23m2" Egwene spoke. Sure, she could do it herself, but talking to TONY helped her feel human and dampened down the feelings of lonliness that she could feel in the fields. Lifting her hand and aiming at the hand grenades, she prepared for the shot. While they might be good salvage if you worked it right, the chance of them being worn and going off when you picked them up was too big, and she couldn't afford damage to her suit in such a careless manner.

Her repulsor set to the requisite force, Egwene shot the grenades one at a time. Each was hit with a punch of energy and went skittering off to explode away from the jeep. Degraded pin had been fully dislodged by the force, which meant her worries were well founded. From there, she stepped up to the jeep and modified her Repulsors. They had an air intake function that allowed the repulsors to travel better in an atmosphere, but that could be modified to create an air-blaster. Hardly enough to knock a person over, it was still great for cleaning prospective scrap, breaking up worn muck and hosing off the sand with a jet of air.

"Run volume dyametrics on the jeep. Want to know what thrust I will be at to pull it out of the ground"

 

[Whisper]

How long had he been sitting in this scrapyard, rust-proof components trying their best to rust anyways? He wasn't sure. Years? The answer was practically a glance away, but he'd been avoiding that for some time. It was easier to wonder, in this case, than know. At some point, he'd found a way to go into a kind of pseudo-sleep state and let the time go by.

The explosions, and the subsequent debris that they knocked off of his form, brought him back to.

"Ah, hello there!" he called, trying to turn to find the source of the explosions. A difficult affair, when you lacked everything from the torso down. He wasn't sure how he'd lost his waist and legs, but it had been more than a minor inconvenience. "I'm afraid I can't come out to see you, but if there's anyone nearby I'd appreciate a little help."

 

[WanTheFloof]

Suddenly, while Egwene was scanning the composition of the jeep, she heard a voice. Or, well, picked up a voice on her scanners, at least. Taking her own processor while TONY was still working away on his job, she would triangulate and pinpoint the source of the call, and then look over. She couldn't see anyone about but maybe they were behind something. She contemplated using echolocation to get a general shape, but just gave up on that in the end and went for the less subtle manner of jetting over, her suit activating it's thrusters and flying her over to the man.

Or at least, what was left of a man. Half a man, it seemed.
#Huh, and here I thought Halfman was just a name for a dwarf. Hi, what...how, did you get into this situation?#

 

[Whisper]

He blinked a few times as she flew over, coughing as some dust was blown his way. He didn't hold it against her.

"Halfman?" the android blinked a few times, thinking about it. It was as good a moniker as any, given his circumstances. He shrugged. "Honestly, I couldn't say. I remember serving in the Star Army. There was a mission...and then I was here. I suspect something wiped out a portion of my memory."

Another shrug. "I've come to terms with it. I can't quite say the same for walking around on my hands. That got old very fast, and then -" he motioned to some nearby debris, "- then, that fell on me. Been here since."

 

[WanTheFloof]

The flight suit's helmet slid up to reveal Egwene's face, from which her eyes sort of spun around a bit and changed colour, followed by a smile on her face.

"Well, if you want I can always take you home and plug you in. Memory deletion is rarely complete, and more fragments the data system and pushes it into an inaccessible part of the drive to overwritten in time. You can get deleted stuff back if you know what you are doing. Though the waist and legs will be more difficult. I'm not really flushed with cash to buy them and making them takes a while"

 

[Whisper]

He nodded, seemingly unfazed by her inability to get him new parts. "Anywhere other than the scrapyard would be appreciated. If only to get cleaned up a little." The android smiled charmingly, though his state of disrepair and overall mess ruined the effect.

"As for the power.." he began, not entirely understanding what she had been suggesting. She was likely just a well informed scrapper of some kind, after all. A kind one, yes, but not one that he would expect could do any sort of repairs to his mental state.

He made a motion with his hand. A hard light construct appeared in the air, showing a handful of vitals. He was in surprisingly good shape, power included. If a sizable chunk of him wasn't missing, it would seem as though nothing were wrong at all. "I'm fine in that regard. Tell me, rescuer, what do you call yourself?"

 

[WanTheFloof]

"Aight" Egwene said, turning her back on him and having the back of the armour open up to reveal prehensile metal tendrils that scooped up the Android and attached him to her back. He seemed to misunderstand what she meant by plugging him in, but she'd explain that back at her place.

"I'm Doctor Tai. I am a Reclamation Agent foe Ken-TEC and work part time at the University. So don't worry, I'm not a grunter poking you with a stick" Egwene told him, sliding her faceplate back on.

#Hold on tight# she would then blast off into the sky with her Repulsors, soaring like a majestic eagle.

 

[Whisper]

The android was not sure how he felt about the whole "get picked up and hauled off through the air" thing, but it wasn't like he was in a position to argue. A part of him - the scientist and engineer part, he thought? - was very curious about what other toys this 'Doctor Tai' had managed to shove into her body.

The feeling of the wind through his hair was a pleasant one, so whatever dislike he had been holding onto faded quickly enough. He tried to talk despite all of the wind, feeling a bit awkward just flapping around on the woman's back.

"A Reclamation Agent, you said?" It was more a yell than a question, but you work with what you're given. "It seems like I lucked out more than I realized!"

 

[WanTheFloof]

Not wanting to yell over the roar of the wind, she simply picked up the pace and cruised subsonic till she got back to her home and slid indoors, carrying the guy on her back until she could deposit him on a seat and step out of her armour. She seemed very decidedly human, with the skin and the hair and the chest so lovingly renditioned it was hard to see it was fake.

"Sorry about the ride. Yes, I recover scrap and send it off to be processed. I buy some back at a discount to help me work on things like the suit of armour I brought you here in" she would then pick up a wireless jack and aim to plug it into the Android to get working. "So, while I sexually carress the inside of your noggin, what's your name?"

 

[Whisper]

The android ran a hand through its messy black hair, trying to remember. "Yusha? Tank? Something like that. Halfman is also fine, at least until I get a new set of legs." He nearly tilted over from the motion and caught himself with his free hand.

He didn't resist as she went to plug him in. The data she'd find on the other side was... a mess. It looked like a significant chunk of his memory had been hastily rewritten at some point. Most of the code appeared to be nonsense at first glance, but deeper inspection showed that it all had some odd purpose. Functions nestled in functions, massive internal monitoring changes, and more all hinted that something was very off about the amicable android.

If she dug deep enough, and spent adequate time, she'd find that the whole thing seemed to be setup to resist and contain some sort of powerful, external influence on the android's systems that seemed to be active even now. The code shifted and changed itself in response to changes in this influence, which seemed to be originating from somewhere in his chest cavity.

"You know," he said, giving her an appraising look, "whoever did the work on you did a very nice job. 'Noticing things' is something I'm rather good at and I had to look twice."

 

[WanTheFloof]

Tapping away on a keyboard - she wasn't so dumb as to hook herself up to something like this - she went through the code she got and shook her head. Whoever did this needed a slap. Thricely. Though, it seemed as she went it, the code was less programming and more like digital guerrilla warfare against something in the guy's chest. Looking over to him, she frowned gently and stepped over to him, crouching down so she could give him a deep multi-spectrum scan.

"Thanks. It took me a few years to get it all down. Was quite the mental work out, but it does seem to have gone nicely. I'm not dead or mad, after all"

 

[Whisper]

"I'm glad you had such a good outcome!" He nodded, sagely. He felt like there was more to what she had said. Something about it implied that she had done the work herself, maybe even to herself? Not such a big deal if she had started an android, but -

Ah.

"Were you organic originally, then? From how you talk, I'm guessing you didn't use a Soul Transfer to place yourself into that body?"

He felt a little awkward with her staring at him so, but it wasn't the most egregious thing that had been done to him recently. Once again, he tolerated it, knowing that she likely had good intentions.

The source of his ailment shown brightly across numerous spectrums; there was both heat and energy aplenty radiating out from his chest. It seemed to spread through his body like lightning bolts - or nerves? - right up to his head. Occasionally, the pathways shifted and seemed to meet some kind of resistance before returning to their original location. If she were familiar with his make and model, it would be safe to assume that the source was at or near his power generator.

 

[WanTheFloof]

"Mmm, I was organic originally, yes. It was a nightmare. I was wracked with constant pain and my body was slowly wasting away. I don't know why, I never looked into why precisely. I just, fixed my issues. Made a body, transferred my consciousness into it and boom. Technically I did sort of kill myself for a few minutes before the robotic body accepted the neutron core I had installed and everything started working. But it was worth it for peace. And mechanical bodies are convenient"

She would hold up a finger and open the skin, withdrawing a small blade that she used for more precise sculpting requirements. This blade was taken to the man's skin to cut him open and check out what was going on. Who'd build code designed to fight their power core?

 

[Whisper]

"They're certainly more durable than organic bodies, though healing can be a challenge. I had been considering a built-in repair system before.. well," he motioned at his body, "all of that happened."

The answer to her question was apparent immediately, first as a strange scar on his chest and then prominent once she began to cut. Haphazardly shoved into his internal fusion generator was a large chunk of some diamond-like crystal. It had completely encrusted the generator itself and, judging by her sensors, begun to spread through the rest of the body. The crystal pulsed in some strange way, carrying both energy and data along its crystalline veins. If her blade touched it, she could feel resistance when she tried to pull it away, as though the crystal were trying to attach the blade to itself.

He watched her as she worked, not quite able to see what she was messing with. The android felt like he should be able to remember what she was fussing at, but it just wasn't coming to him. He decided to continue the small talk. "Did you look like this originally, or was this something you decided for yourself?"

 

[WanTheFloof]

"I've got an built-in repair system. Monotask nanogenus. It's not really crazy complicated but at the same time it's not something to rely on in a firefight" she commented, before staring at the crystals. She'd take a few pictures then run a subroutine through her processor to see if she had ever picked up anything like this. While doing that, she tasked TONY to queue up remote downloads from Kenewess University's databanks for the same.

"Y...ea" She'd pull the blade back into her finger and cock her head softly. "I wanted to keep living my life after I solved my biological issues, so looking different would screw that over pretty terribly. So I made this look as close to how I should have looked as possible. Without the whole, terribly haggard nearly cadaverous thing I had going by the end of it"

 

[Whisper]

The crystal had never been encountered by Nepleslia, though Yamatai had some history with it. The crystal's exact properties had not been ascertained, however, and so the thing in his chest was essentially a complete unknown.

The android considered her for a moment, thinking about her words. "Well, the results speak for themselves. You came out just lovely. Do you find that your peers have trouble with your new form?"

Once her knife had been removed, the area around the crystal began to close itself up. It seemed more of a defensive measure than any kind of self healing- which the android had said he didn't possess. After a minute or so, all that was left was the same scar as before.

 

[WanTheFloof]

This crystal trying to eat her blade had never been encountered by Nepleslia and Yamatai had yet to ascertain the properties. That was dangerous. Like, really dangerous. So she sent an alert to Ken-TEC to send a quarantine team in to pick up this android and take him somewhere he couldn't spread that crystal further and screw with the planet. Still, they'd take a minute or two to arrive, so she'd have to talk to him and keep him calm while they did.

"Heh, well, there was that awkward moment when I was spotted just after the transfer. Some robotic doppelganger doing a dance around a woman's corpse was not exactly a great sight. But, after we got that sorted out, I am realistic enough that people can often forget my mechanical parts"

 

[Whisper]

Another nod. "I'm glad to hear that. Some people might see you as dangerous or different, and want to shun you for it. Not a pretty thing, being disliked just for being different. Still, you seem kind and I'm glad your experience has been better for the change."

He leaned back and folded his arms, careful not to slide out of the chair. "So, what's your verdict? You've had a chance to look around inside my head, my chest, and get to know me a little. Back to the scrapheap or can we talk about how I might get a fresh set of limbs?"