EVENT: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: October 24 - October 31
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The Transports return from their mission to find the island crawling with monsters.
Warnings: Violence, possibly injuries (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)

The Transports return from their mission to Medieval Russia, but the Initiative Hold is eerily deserted. Normally, their would be a number of Initiative personnel prepared to meet the Transports at the end of their mission for debriefing.

Instead, there is only silence.

That is, until a distant thumping sound can be heard. It is growing closer, and suddenly the beast is bursting into the room. It lets out a roar and charges. Within minutes, it is easily defeated, but damage has already been done -- it collided with the Transporter machine, which is now making a low fizzling sound and lets off a couple sparks. The commotion is enough to draw the attention of the few remaining Initiative personnel who still inhabit the Hold, who arrive immediately afterwards. They are able to tell the Transports two things: that the machine is broken and currently unable to sent anyone back in time, and that the island has been overrun with aggressive, mutated beasts sent by the United Earth. They have been under siege for months, with the island's population reduced to a mere fraction of what it had once been.

Comments

[getwrenched]

Winry finds the soldering gun in question, handing it over to a man she's not properly met. "Do you have enough light on the situation?"

For a young woman wearing protective gloves she's borrowed and an apron over a dress of all things, she seems remarkably at home in this situations. The machinery is different, and she's not a mechanic in general, but having an idea of how a system worked -- and being able to pick out and hand over the tools being asked for -- left her on firmer footing than she had been sitting in her apartment and wondering how many of the patients she'd seen still were alive.

[trustycrowbar]

He's not going to complain about the quality of her help, but he does wish she'd put some pants on. Wearing a dress in a lab is like asking to have your legs lasered off.

"Thanks, and yyyyyeah... no. How about a flashlight too?"

[getwrenched]

Bare legs, but hair firmly back and out of the way. Everyone had different priorities!

"One minute, I think I saw one over there."

Winry shifts and ducks down to look through a box filled with socket wrenches and a pick ax, grabbing the cylindrical handle she'd spotted earlier. She checked that the batteries worked, aiming the stream of light under the desk to check for brightness. It'd do. She'd prefer to find a smaller one, but for now...

"Here's this one. Do you want someone holding your light steady?"

[trustycrowbar]

He wriggles back out long enough to get a good look at his assistant. "Uh... sure." He was honestly expecting the soldiering gun to be thrown at him by some unseen, overworked and barely-compliant lab member. He's not used to getting this much help, and it shows.

"I don't think I caught your name before." The lanky man adds, turning to reach back into the sea of wires and graphite circuits.

[getwrenched]

Help shouldn't be that surprising. Winry raises her eyebrows when they're looking at each other, curious and focused on whatever task might be on hand. "I didn't get the chance to introduce myself. Winry Rockbell," she offered, peering into the mess Gordan was trying to put to rights. "Automail mechanic." To date those words hadn't meant anything paired together to anyone here, but a month wasn't all that much time, and mechanic seemed close to universal for "tool handy."

"What's your name, sir?" She moves until the flashlight's in a good situation, not cut off by his head or shoulders. No point in bringing light in if it wasn't shining where you needed to see.

[trustycrowbar]

She'd be right. The first word goes right over his head, but he's happy to see a mechanic of any shade willing to offer a wrench around here.

"Gordon Freeman. Member of the science team here. Thanks, that's good right there." He adds in reference to the light. Right. Just solder this in place, here...

"So what is automail, exactly?" He calls over his shoulder as he works.

[getwrenched]

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Freeman." She held still once he'd indicated she'd found the right position for the light, watching him work and piecing together what in particular he was soldering back on.

"The leading edge in prosthesis connected directly in to a patient's nervous system," she states, finding a familiar itching desire to do in her stomach. Winry wants to be back working in her specialty. The longer she spends here, both the further and closer that possibility appears to be. "At least in Amestris. Apparently leading edge for some other countries in other worlds too, for the way we're able to link right into the body's existing system and create connections that can recognize nerve impulses to manipulate constructed limbs."

[trustycrowbar]

Neural-interface robotic prosthesis. That's impressive.

[Very impressive. His world doesn't have that sort of tech yet. Well, they DO, but it's hardly a process anyone wants done to them. What he seems to be welding in place is a string of capacitors practically a mile long, studded with chips, crystal diodes and other strange operative decorations.]

I get the feeling you and Adam would have a lot to talk about. I'm pretty sure he's not the only cyborg walking around, either. How're you with full robotics? AI, that sort of thing?

[getwrenched]

( She has a pretty good guess for the specifics of what he's doing, but the frustrating part is not exactly knowing where this system is going to end, or what the right feedback loop will look like.

Oh, for a self contained nonsense with her own designs, working in her own shop, or in Rush Valley. )

Adam? I haven't met someone by the name of Adam yet. What's his full name?

( Easier to ask around for people with a full name. )

Nothing with full robotics. I didn't even know what an AI was until recently, and I'm still not sure I understand what I'm reading. ( Alchemists try to lay god and create life; scientists tr to do the same, and they get fully constructed beings with brains made of up mechanical parts.

It's utterly astounding -- imagining the system work is something that makes her eyes widen and almost has her smiling -- though it lacks that important human element of knowing what you did improved someone's quality of life in a permanent capacity.

Robotics seemed fascinating, but her interest was based in that assistance, given from person to person. )

Equius works with robotics, but I admit it was the first I ever heard of completely functional and interactive mechanical beings when I spoke with him. Is that last connection complete?

( The pattern in his string of to-be-welded bits and pieces doesn't quite fit perfectly with what came before. )

[trustycrowbar]

Adam... Jensen, I believe. He's a cop, or I figure he will be again soon. I don't think I've met Equius yet.

AIs are, uh, tricky. Huh? Oh, dammit, you're right. Hang on, relay, logic gate, focus crystal diode, heat conversion circuit, this thingamajig leads down into the entropy sink... [He retraces his steps.] --Yeah, I see what I did, just let me swap these two around... Oh. Good eye, by the way. [He adds over his shoulder.]