[PRP] Upgrade (fin)

[Gwennythe]

Oh good, the accidental pun was well received... She didn't have too much of a reason to think that Aulus might have taken issue with it but still, she'd felt rather bad about making a pun, even accidentally, until he responded with one of his own.

Tambrey smiled, relieved and listened, nodding as he asked about sonar...

"Yeees... Yes. Um. Well. You know how the sensors, and the processing, let you 'feel'? She straightened up and walked over to the notebook she'd previously been using, flipping it to the back page.
A moment later she was quickly sketching something.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah?" Aulus supplied, moving over to perch on the edge of Tam's bed while she sketched whatever she was sketching. While he waited he held the arm out in front of him, turning it this way and that to look at it from ever angle. "It looks kind of natural but not. Like... not boxy?" He shrugged. "I thought it might be boxy and clunky looking. I mean, the joints obviously aren't organic but the rest does a good job of mimicking my arm... my other arm? Yeah, my other arm." It was his, he'd been assured that it wouldn't be repossessed unless he was going to be terminated and he didn't plan on letting that happen!  

[Gwennythe]

"Mhm. It looks really good. Um. Very streamlined, kind of 'matching'... Suits you, really... For what it can do though, yes, um, it could have been more boxy than it is, I'd imagine; the design is remarkably good... There." Tambrey straightened up and wandered over to hand the pad toward Aulus.

<> Franklin was hovering, having a good look at the sketch as it was handed over.

"I, um, read up on this kind of things a few times. In some circles," She didn't specify which "certain implants are used to create, um, haptic feedback in the hand or fingers... There's also the idea of creating an imaging display for what it detects, but basically, um... With some tweaking you could 'feel' stuff that you can't see. If it has mass, it bounces soundwaves off of itself... You could emit a frequency and basically, uh, detect their return. Through your hand..."

The sketch turned out to be a stick-figure Aulus, holding up his robotic arm and 'detecting' a square and a circle at different distances in front of him, with a pose that looked like he was trying to 'use the force' and 'It's dark' written across the top.  

[TawnyAngel]

This made a whole lot more sense now than it has last time Tam had mentioned it, the picture helped! "Wooooah." Aulus lent towards the sketch a bit, his brows knitting. "So if I could get like... little speakers in it somewhere to emit a high frequency, and sensors implanted into the hand, then... wow. Awesome! Would the sensors be delicate do you think? Might need to keep them behind shutters like the touch screen." This was actually a thing that might be possible in future! Of course it all added to weight but he wasn't a small man, he could deal with it. "The metal arm is a little heavier than my normal arm, I might see if I can get... I don't know, a weighted something or other to do on that side so I'm balanced and don't throw my spine off." That'd be easy enough to get sewn into a vest or something right? Easier than making a damn mechanical arm that was for sure!  

[Gwennythe]

"Yep." She nodded. "Um. Well. At least, I'd think so. You'd basically have sensors mimicking a Zubat's ears, so pretty delicate, I'd think. But useful in the right situation. I mean, um, it'd be really hard for an invisible pokémon to hide from you unless it was a ghost... And, well, I'm not fully aware of just what Zoroark's capabilities are so you'd have to ask someone, but visual-only illusions wouldn't fool that system, I think..." She shrugged a little "Technology isn't really my, uh, thing, but I've dabbled in a little bit of... biohack research. For work," After all, the security 'mon system had utilised quite a fusion of tech, but also Tambrey was, again, a self proclaimed geek "and because it's, y'know... really really neat... I would imagine you could get something for balance fairly easily.. Maybe like a kind of harness or holster? Make it extra useful?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"It is neat," agreed Aulus, who wouldn't proclaim he was interested in geekery or nerding but rather was actually. "I can shoot now, I suppose a weighted holster would make sense. I'll have to work on smooth fast reloading now of course, Char and the other fingeredish ones on my team have been doing it until now." He didn't really like it but he felt that if he was going to be taken seriously as a field agent pro then he had to be able to use a gun and he did want to be taken seriously, he wanted to be noticed for promotion like Alex and Claire had been.

"Zoroark's illusions can cover sensation as well," Aulus continued, "but they have to focus on what they're trying to make. If they're not trying to fool sonar, then they won't... and I'm honestly not sure if they even can, we should do some tests with Lasi and Foxtrot when we have time?... I wonder if I could ask the techies to work something like this in? Faleen did this arm for me... I don't really want to bother her with asking for more. Or would she like that do you think?" Aulus looked back at Tam, his red eyes betraying uncertainty that he was prepared to reveal to less than a handful of people. "Would you? If you were her. Would you want to keep working on something or want to be left alone to get onto a new project?"  

[Gwennythe]

"I suspect you'll get it fast enough..." Tambrey glanced at the arm, clearly still impressed by it. "You might one day, um, be able to do it faster than you could with your original two hands... Neural relay and interfaces make huge leaps year after year, and we're always learning something new about how brain and body work together..."

She nodded eagerly. "I'd love that... I know Lasi would too. He could do with more time to train and play. We got a bit lax lately... Work and then missions and such..." She wouldn't think about the mission too much... "Still got lots of work but I'd say that was an important test to try..."

That was an interesting question to follow with...
"Um... Well, why do you think you'd be bothering her? With my work I, um, love working on things all the time. I have projects," Tambrey smiled "that have run years now... But new projects are exciting. I enjoy both."  

[TawnyAngel]

That was kind of reassuring; Aulus relaxed a bit. "Yeah, and even if she doesn't fancy it somebody will right? It's something to go on your resume." Everyone wanted to climb that pyramid right? You had to try, always, every day to do a bit more than the rest did in order to take another step up. He didn't fancy the idea of executive but elite? Yeah, and these days... well these days he actually felt like he could do it, at least once he was used to this arm.

"We'll arrange some more training dates then," Aulus continued, after a brief pause, offering a smile and a nod to Tam. "I've picked up some new team members who'd benefit from experience with battling your team. Juno is far too cocky, she needs a slap down that doesn't come from within you know?"

Tam was right too, the metal arm could be much better than a real arm in a lot of ways he hadn't even considered. Being able to move even a fraction of a second faster than somebody else could make all the difference. It could make all the difference. It might make him stand out more, or at least be another sting to his bow as it were.  

[Gwennythe]

"Exactly, plus it's interesting and useful. Depending on what you can successfully, um, equip... that could become one of the most useful projects the organization has, um," okay, this time she couldn't resist "a hand in. And, um, currently you're the only one, I think, with any experience of using such a thing..."

She grinned.
"Ooh. Lasi does love demonstrating how, uh, good he is now... He could probably do with the same lesson sometimes though... Pygi's very well behaved though. Oh, and, um, on the subject of training... I wanted to ask about mega evolution... From, um, a practical point of view..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hehe, hand." Aulus grinned. "I think there's that exec with a prosthetic leg buuut, not really the same thing right?" He could be interesting, useful, unique? Damn right! Right?

Okay, enough self questioning and stuff.

"Either of them would do great I'm sure," Aulus nodded, "but what about mega evolution did you want to ask? Don't consider myself expert but I'll do my best to answer, or to find it if I don't have it."  

[Gwennythe]

"I remember." Tambrey nodded, remembering attending the meeting, in a wheelchair, and taking specific note of the woman with the prosthetic leg...
"No, not the same. Um. What your arm is, now, is basically an attached multi-tool with sensory processing that, well, um, I can't think of anyone else by name with something like it..." She pondered if someone found themselves in a similar situation, with similar tech, whether Aulus would find himself doing yet another kind of teaching and training.

"Ah. Um..." Back to her desk, to a drawer this time. "I, um, studied it for ages. Now, though, uh... I want to use it. With Ella." In one hand was a mega stone, in the other a key stone. "What... was it like when Char first, uh, did it? How should I, well.. introduce this to her?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oooh, awesome!" Aulus' eyes lit up and he lent in to study the mega stone, taking in the differences and similarities between it and Char's stone. "It was...." Aulus paused to think and then backtracked a little. "Well pretty much as soon as I got it I went down to the training rooms with him and gave it to him to hold. He spent a while sniffing it and poking it and all that while some of the others trained together. I guess he'd been there with it about and hour when we decided to test it out, I matched him up against Phaeth so nobody was going to get accidentally burned to a crisp. To activate the keystone, well you touch it obviously, and I tried to sort of..." Aulus waved his left hand vaguely, the right remained still and forgotten as he tried to puzzle out what he was saying. "Tried to reach? Uh. I don't know, it sounds a bit silly and I don't know if it actually affected it. Anyway, Char's stone reacted and there was this big whoosh and a flash of light and bam, Mega Charizard type Y."

Aulus paused then and scratched his ear, mulling the incident and what he had learned about it later over carefully. "Char says it feels like evolving but faster and hotter, and he's not sure what he means by hotter. They say you have to have a close bond with your pokemon for them to Mega Evolve but I don't know how the stones know, I guess they tap into," he waggled his fingers spookily, all ten of them this time, "mysssstical. Or somehow they pick up brainwaves despite being nowhere near your head? Or something from your skin? I think I've seen people use them gloved though so that shoots that idea in the foot."  

[Gwennythe]

"Huh... Hm. Would you mind... coming with when I test, um, this?" She wasn't sure who she had that could take down Ella or subdue most of her attacks... Ella was one of her most well trained and, thus, powerful...
"I think," Tambrey weighed her words, trying to find the ones that were right for what she meant "that, as far as bonds go... Ella and I are, um, close enough for it. From what I can tell, the stones act kind of like a psychic conductor, or, um... You know walky-talkies work? You have to be in range and on the same channel, but as long as you are, you can talk to each other? From what I can tell, it's kind of like that but for a kind of psychic, or, um, maybe... spiritual... I guess.. connection... That sounds really unscientific, I know, but these things are kind of, um, ridiculous when you try to study them properly scientifically." She shrugged and half-smiled, half-frowned as she lifted the mega stone slightly.
"But, yes... Maybe you and Char could be there when we test this, if you wouldn't mind?" The idea of 'using them gloved' was poking her in the brain and suddenly she couldn't help but ask. "So. If you don't need skin contact, you could have a stone in your new arm..?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Of course, I'd love to!" Aulus replied early with a grin and a nod. "Mega Aggron is amazing, Ella's going to look awesome and kick all kinds of arse!"

As he pondered the rest of what Tam had said Aulus flexed the fingers of the metal arm, studying it thoughtfully. "I don't see why not. I could have my keystone set into it somewhere, that way," he started to grin, "that way I'd always have it handy, right?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Thanks," Tambrey replied, apparently pleased, or maybe relieved, to hear the response "it's one thing, um, trying to study it and everything, but to finally take it into a training room and test it... I'm sure she will be amazing but I'm a tiny bit nervous about it."

She smirked.
"We've really got to get a 'hand'le on these puns..."