HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[Recaiden]

Lucky Charm will have a lot of waiting to do. It isn't quick for Ginger Spice to use the more amazing parts of her abilities. Even if she doesn't mess up her focus and have to start over. Which she does, of course, several times. The catgirl's patience is a blessing.
And then there's lots of letting the machines collect signals, and listening to them beep, and then deciphering the patterns of beeping and mechanical screeching to realize that actually the implant isn't set up as badly as it could be.

"Actually kinda good news. It's not super-secure, probably so a little interference doesn't paralyze early."

"There's a wireless link, which can jam or break the transmitter whatever."
"And a magnetic link, really delicate but it's got some way to come off. Just gotta be precise." Ginger Spice explains, waving a hand vaguely.

[5a Violista]

"Oh! That is good," Lucky Charm says. She has grown bored over all this waiting, but didn't let it affect her too much. Just some looking at various things (keeping her head still) and tapping and getting lost in thoughts and a couple other things. "And if the magnetic part can be taken off safely, then the whole thing can be taken off; my last friend who helped me with this managed to remove the part that kept it magically stuck on."

"So..." speaking of good news, there's bound to be some bad news in there. That's just how this all works. "How long will it take to set up everything to deal with them?"

[Recaiden]

"One part's quick, but don't exactly have high-precision collar removing machine because-" Ginger Spice winces and pauses for a kinda long bit of time.
"uh, because those aren't a real thing. Have to work something up. Maybe a lathe thing along with onea the sampling machines...not the vacuum one." The foxgirl is mostly thinking aloud at this point.
Detecting the layout of magnetic sensors is one thing, but working out how to recreate what they're expecting is another.
"Not too many hours, I don't think." Scribbling some marks on a wax pad and leaving all the electrical machinery scattered around, Ginger Spice heads into one of the other labs, calling Lucky Charm to follow.
" ' can help me get it working, nah? There should be a sort of spinny platform in here, and some shiny cables?"
A single glance will tell you that obviously nothing in this workshop is where it's supposed to be. Simply finding the machinery Ginger Spice needs could be an adventure.

[5a Violista]

Lucky Charm knows what a lathe is. Hearing the aloud-thinking makes her very interested in seeing the machines in action.

She follows.
She looks around.
Spinny platform, shiny cables? Lucky Charm looks around and tries to spot where it seems like it would most likely be.
"After I find it, you want me to clean up in here?" she asks.
Actually, rather than looking in the place with the most number of things, she looks in the place that she could look through the most quickly. That way, she could eliminate that it's not there quickly. And then move on to the next place that she can look through quickly, and so on.

[Recaiden]

Well, in theory the shiny cables would be on that shelf. In practice that shelf is a jumble of spare lab coats, books for the blind, and partially disassembled toasters.
The spinny platform is easier; it's pretty big so you can find it easily right under the emergency shower.
"Clean up? Has everything where meant it to be." Sure, the organization may not be obvious to anyone besides Ginger Spice. And maybe she can't even always remember it. But it definitely exists, honest.
She's busy going through a small box of electronic components. Need to find exactly the right magnetometers for this. Oh, wait, those would be over by the miroscopes, ever since- yes, perfect, found them!

Lucky Charm will have been able to verify that there are no shiny cables on the shelves, nor on the tool rack, nor on the transmogrification table, nor the angel-charging nook. No, they must be in one of these unlabelled cardboard boxes.

[Purple Eagle]

[Library => Carlie's Room?]

Annaliese also stands, still carrying Manja. The face-booping suspended for now, she just supports the baby with one arm as she follows her friend in preparation to get ready. She'd probably demand that the teenage-vampire give her some space, knowing that said vampire's true form is an adult male little-person, being a shapeshifter like herself.

"Vunderbar! Get ready, zen ve'll go." She grins at the baby, flashing those fangs and forgetting the fact that Manja might decide the fangs are her new object of interest. "If ve don't buy anything, ve could at least window-shop."

[5a Violista]

[Off Tour]

"Okay," Lucky Charm says. In spite of what Ginger Spice says, she still thinks it should probably be tidied up better. At least, make sure everything that's kinda similar is put next to the other things like it.
But she's also glad that she doesn't have to clean it up. "That's good."

The catgirl, confident that she hasn't found it yet, moves over to the nearest cardboard box. She's got to find it eventually, right? She kneels down next to that box and starts sifting through it. If she doesn't find anything that might be it, she moves on to the next box. And so on.


[=> Harley's Room]

Once she's sure that the vampire has let her guard down, the baby takes advantage of this opportunity to strike. She reaches at her mouth again.

Carlie does go in to the room, to grab a couple things. Different shoes, things for the baby, more things for the baby, and a couple other things too. And she touches up her make-up.
"Okay," she says. "Ready."

She leads her to the teleport rings. "So I found out that this place actually has transportation directly to Mallside," she says. "Just stand right there, and...you're there. It's almost like magic."

[Recaiden]

The cables are, of course, in the lat place she looks.
Several boxes in, after going through sample trays and motors and batteries and all sorts of connectors, there's a bunch of shiny plasticy seems-like-they-should-be-translucent-but-aren't cables.

Ginger Spice has been busy attaching those sensors and wires to some of the clamps over the back of the spinny platform.
"Oh, found 'em? Good. Should be all needed. Just gotta get everything aligned perfectly right."
The foxgirl turns around as if she were looking for something, which of course she can't be.
"Did-? Well, anyway, for testing that it'll move right also need some laser. Fetch from the closet back in the first room? Thanks."

[5a Violista]

[Off Tour]

Why are things always in the last place you look? It's not fair.

Lucky Charm puts the thing on the table, to make it easy to grab. "Yup. Found them."

Did what? she wonders briefly. "Yes, of course," she says. "I'll go get that." The catgirl obediently leaves the room to go back to the first room, to get to the closet, so that she can look for lasers.

[Recaiden]

It's even worse when they're not in the last place you look, because then you must have found them and not noticed and kept looking.
Ginger Spice takes the shiny cables and hooks them up to the clamps above the platform, then takes them off and measures them again and has to cut one of them shorter before reattaching them.

The lasers should be downright straightforward to find.
"So, 'll take a while." Ginger Spice calls out apologetically.
"Gotta make sure move right the first time; only one Lucky Charm, yeah?"

[5a Violista]

Oh, that does sound awful. Possibly worse, even.

Lucky Charm is actually really glad that they were easy to find. She brings them right back and puts them on the table next to Ginger Spice.
"Oh." That's sad that it'll take a while. Still faster than earlier-today-her was expecting it to happen.

She laughs.
"Yeah. Guess you're right. There is only one of me."

[Purple Eagle]

[=> Harley's Room]

Once she's sure that the vampire has let her guard down, the baby takes advantage of this opportunity to strike. She reaches at her mouth again.

Carlie does go in to the room, to grab a couple things. Different shoes, things for the baby, more things for the baby, and a couple other things too. And she touches up her make-up.
"Okay," she says. "Ready."

She leads her to the teleport rings. "So I found out that this place actually has transportation directly to Mallside," she says. "Just stand right there, and...you're there. It's almost like magic."

[Harley's Room]

"Mmmph! Naughty baby!" Annaliese declares, as best as she can with Manja grabbing her mouth, anyway. She decides she won't let this go unpunished, and reaches at Manja's mouth in turn. Of course, she keeps away from the opening itself, in case the baby decides to turn Annaliese's hand into something to suck on.

This'll probably go on while they wait for Carlie to get ready. Once she announces her readiness, they go to the teleport rings, which Annaliese admires with a nod. "It is science, not magic." She says, making it clear such technology isn't new. Indeed, in the world Shuyoru comes from, portal technology is a thing, and it's kinda the same thing, isn't it?

Despite Manja's insistence that she play with Annaliese's nose and mouth, the vampire still wants to carry Manja around. At least it frees Carlie's hands up to carry the things she brought with her.

[5a Violista]

[Teleportation =>]

Manja doesn't stop, but she does start to get a little frustrated that the hand stays just out of reach of her mouth.


"Same thing, right?" Carlie replies.
She steps into the portal, and presses the button, and zoops to Mallside.

[Recaiden]

So for a while, Ginger Spice is just working on her contraption, testing that the little grips are moving, that the magnetic signals are getting fed back into the motion controls at the right speed, that the shiny cable really are the right length for cutting off a collar at the correct time, and so on. Making little adjustments and then starting again.
Until, right in the middle of tightening a cable, the foxgirl just collapses like a marionette with cut strings.

[5a Violista]

For that while, Lucky Charm is just watching.
Most people might find that boring, but she actually really likes watching her work with those tools and machines and everything. Watching, seeing how it works and if she can guess what'll happen next, and everything else.

But!
When the foxgirl suddenly collapses, the catgirl's eyes go wide and she's really worried.
She runs forward, to tap her shoulder, and to check her breathing, and also her heart-rate. "Are you alright?"

[Reinholdt]

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