I2DT - Repair & Recovery

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 6:40 pm

The advantage of being an artificial being is that physical damage is much faster to repair than waiting for, say, a leg to heal on it's own. Of course, the downside is that it requires you to manually work on it, so instead of lieing in bed with a cast Ashlie is in the workshop. She's moved all the tools she needs down to the floor where she's now sitting, legs detached and spread out in front of her. She could have actually used the downtime too, for once. There was a lot of backlog of memory files to go through but instead that was delegated to background processes while the bulk of her attention is taken up by this.

She really needs to talk to people too, sort this all out. But she'd rather do it standing on her own legs. Pride? Maybe. She'd just feel too much like a piece of equipment carting herself around on some makeshift solution or even just a wheelchair. She is getting enough of that feeling already from the trickle of processed memories coming in. So maybe she's just hiding while she works on fixing herself... Not that the workshop is a good place to hide, but at least she's doing something constructive while feeling guilty.

by **Robert West** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 4:33 am

Rob walks into the workshop, setting his bag down at his bench like it was a normal day. He sets the burnt-out remote that started this whole thing down and begins bringing up schematics.

After a moment, he closes them all again and looks over to Ashlie.

"How are you?" Rob asks, a bit awkwardly, but he sounds friendly enough. For Rob, at least.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 4:46 am

She looks up at Rob, watching him try to pretend it's just any other day. She's strangely relieved when he stops.

"Better. I'm back to functioning properly. There are some minor changes but that's because my personality matrix developed while it was running independently. Nothing major. If it counts for anything, I feel rather abhorred about the memories I've been loading."

by **Robert West** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:26 am

"I wasn't exactly at my best either," Rob says. "I'm sorry. I should have fixed this mess earlier."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:58 am

"You're not responsible for what happened, though I appreciate the concern, unusual as it's expression might have been. But this has been a sobering experience. Ever since your modifications I'd gotten too frantic about the idea of going beyond my limitations. And that's good, I don't intend to change much of that. Hopefully. But this is a painful reminder of what I am. Of how there are some things I won't be able to surpass no matter how hard I try. At the end of the day I'm just a machine and sometimes machines break."

by **Robert West** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:02 pm

"Sounds like you're giving up," Rob says.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:27 pm

"I don't mean to give up on improving myself. I'm just trying to reconcile what happened with who I am. Integrating these memories is strange. Suddenly I remember being someone I'm not. But that's part of what I am. I have to accept that no matter how much better than human I am, I'm still not perfect." she says with a faint smirk on her lips.

by **Robert West** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:46 pm

"This is where I'd usually complain and rant about people giving up in the face of the impossible, but I'm just glad you're feeling better," Rob says. "Besides, I have enough impossible on my plate, with one of my sister's spontaneously coming back to life."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:04 pm

"Perfection is supposed to be impossible. Otherwise you'd just get stuck there."

"So you think your parents orchestrated her death? It seems like something they might do, quite a bit of offense intended."

by **Robert West** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:39 pm

"It's possible," Rob says. "I just can't see the point. Why fake her death? And why hide her?"

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:45 pm

"That might be a question for Heather. I need to talk to her anyway. But this is beginning to feel like an experimental setup. Madison, you, Heather and Nina all seem to have been treated very differently, almost as if they were trying to determine the best way to accomplish something. Considering the high density of powerful mutations I'm inclined to say power development as a preliminary theory for what they could be trying to maximize. There are some theories that psychological states can influence mutations and they certainly influence their usage."

by **Robert West** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 5:47 pm

"An unsettling theory," Rob says. "It would fit with Madison's claim that my father has been disappearing young mutants though."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:10 pm

"That sounds like he at least thinks he's narrowed things down. I doubt he is hiring them as mercenaries though. We need to get back to infiltrating one of his centers."

by **Robert West** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:25 pm

"First, we need to track one down," Rob says. "I haven't heard from Madison lately..."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:31 pm

"Unfortunately the unit that was meant to pin her down is no longer functional and it's graviton gun got turned into something else. If we can a clean shot that would work even better but the whole reason for that gun was to yank her into the correct trajectory."

by **Robert West** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:40 pm

"Yeah, sorry about that," Rob says. "Intriguing possibilities though. That's the first time I built something using my powers, instead of just fixing it."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:50 pm

"It could suggest some of those theories are at least partially correct. Fixing something implies a certain established state for it to return to, but strictly speaking such a thing doesn't exist outside of abstract thoughts. There's no intrinsic state of matter that is 'fixed'."

by **Robert West** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:56 pm

"Instead, I'm just a really specific telekinetic," Rob says. "That's less interesting."

Still, the images of a universal machine lingered in his mind. He'd seen something for a moment. Something impossible.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 7:04 pm

"The word I would use is specialized. Or Technokinesis to be more precise. You assembled a power-suppressor within moments from mostly unrelated pieces of technology. The potential of your power is tremendous, don't sell yourself short."

If he got along better with his sister there's no telling what those two could create. The fact that their powers seem at least psychologically incompatible must have annoyed his father to no end.

"I'd like you to try and repeat what you did in a more controlled environment. That is, if you still want to collaborate with me after what happened."

by **Robert West** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 7:49 pm

Rob grins, "Science cures all ill-will. I'd be happy to experiment with you some more."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:01 pm

"Good, because we have a lot of things to catch up on, once I finish rebuilding these. As resilient as it is compared to humans, Dr. Minamida did not design this body with combat situations in mind."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:49 am

"You know, I could probably fix those a bit quicker," Rob offers.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:06 am

"That would be much appreciated. I think I have replacement parts for the few things that got scattered among the debris."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:07 am

"Here," Rob stretches out with his powers and watches as the pieces begin putting themselves back together.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:19 am

"Never call yourself just a specific telekinetic again." she says as she inspects the first leg as Rob moves on to the other. "I might have to conscript your help instead of regular maintenance. I don't think there's even any signs of material wear and tear left."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:35 am

"Well, it's nice to feel appreciated," Rob says. "After this, I should probably fix the Cosmic AC as well. Kind of a disastrous test run."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:42 am

"Is that what you're calling your teleportation array?"

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:47 am

"Well, yes," Rob says. "But the teleportation is only an interesting side-effect. It's actually something closer to a computer."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:49 am

"Oh? How so? Is it an elaboration on your trans-dimensional computer chip?"

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:59 am

"Exactly. It's sort of an extension, really," Rob says. "I couldn't build something quite able to handle calculating in multiple dimensions at once. It was too just too much to handle. But I found a work-around."

Rob gets to work fixing the other leg, "While I was working, I found a trans-dimensional space. The space between...well, spaces. The Cosmic AC essentially is a terminal, granting access."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 7:08 am

"Have you done anything with this space yet or are you still trying to gain access?"

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 7:16 am

"Well, apparently I teleported Heather and Nina to us," Rob says. "That's something."

"The rest has been...confusing," Rob says.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:12 am

"Do you have any logs or datastream from the experiment? There has to be an explanation beyond coincidence."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:17 am

"Sure. I document everything," Rob says. "I just need to retrieve the equipment from the roof."'

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:15 pm

"I can go talk to Heather while you do. I want to make sure she's alright anyway so she doesn't tear into the school's system again."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:43 pm

"Well, her powers should be out for another day or so," Rob says. "But still. Be careful."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:54 pm

"I will. And try to keep that gun a secret. Both the way you built it and it's capabilities could bring the kind of attention from the outside that I'd rather avoid."

by **Robert West** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:56 pm

"I'll lock it up in a...I dunno, a cabinet or something," Rob says. "I'll be careful. Don't worry."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 4:25 pm

"There's secure lockers in the team's equipment room. I'll make sure you have access." she says as she goes about re-attaching her leg.

"And once all this is sorted out we'll have to spend some time pouring over that thing to figure out all the ins and outs." she adds with a faint smirk.

by **Robert West** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:14 am

"I look forward to what I imagine will be an exhaustive study," Rob says.

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