2020-03-14: And Your Little Dog Too

And Your Little Dog Too
Technomancer Meetup on the Digital Web
IC Date	March 14, 2020
IC Time	11 AM-1 PM
Players	Arumi, Joel, Kaede, Luke, Mikaela, Xiu
Location	Stella Nova
Prp/Tp	N/A
Spheres	Mage/Sorcerer/Traditions

Sceneset:

The almost aggressively bright space that was designed by a Virtual Adept with tastes pulled from the end credits of 'Saved by the Bell' meets 'Robocop' has been set up for a party. His taste in music (very markedly not the tinkling classical sounds of the previous meeting's soundtrack) is at play, with hard rock still playing rather than fading away. The Go Board has been cleared of its counters, and Joel has grabbed a chair from it to turn around to face the sofas.

The AI bartender is currently rattling off its list of drinks, in case anyone can't choose which they'll have. Given that it's been programmed to 'everything you can find on the internet,' the list is rather mindbogglingly long, but can be stopped at any moment by placing an order. Synthetic 'food' that tastes like uncooked tofu to those not entering with some sense of alternate reality has been set up along the tables at the couches, and the Adept -- in full glittery, bright iconography, almost painfully cheesy to look at -- is waiting for new arrivals.

Next to him at the Go Board? Xiu. Xiu in a familiar long, pointy hat. It's black. Black robes too. Slightly green-tinged skin. It's Xiu as the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. She doesn't look at all pleased about it, but at least she seems to have forgotten her broom!

Oh, Xiu has her grumpy face on. Her eyes are narrowed, GREEN cheeks raised, as she places a black stone slowly. Though in honesty, her eyes are really more set on Joel than the board. "Once we are back at your apartment..." she say, slowly, trying to imply all sorts of pain and misery into the tone of her voice alone. Then her eyes flick to the board, and back up. Then to the AI, before she gives it a sign. "Moscow Mule." she orders. Because she knows Joel has that recipe DOWN.

Arumi is here in the crudest of capacities. No VR. Just... on a computer. A very nice computer, in her lab. So a two dimensional, simply animated (just a few frames) avatar comes in.

The blonde hair Scientist more or less 'flickers' into being, dressed in a purple leather coat, black denim and some serious looking boots. Once her form completely 'fills' out, she goes to sit at the AI bar. But alas, she totally does NOT order anything. She simply looks around and seems to be rather amused to see 'The Wicked Witch of the West' here. Or it maybe curiosity? Perhaps surprise?

There had been complications for Luke in building his Virtual Reality Stereopticon rig. Getting the images to show themselves for him had been easy. Getting HIS image to show itself into the .. other .. reality? That had been harder. In the end, he could not get his math to work out, so he just let the rig produce a default image. In this case, it would be the image of the item that makes sure images are produced for him. Its a floating geodesic crystal, perfect in shape with each angle changing in all the colours of the spectrum. It looks like a floating disco-ball. The thing floats in slowly to then come to a stop. Is it Luke? Well, as his voice is produced, there can be little dispute it is him. Its his voice, but it sounds like it comes from an old phonograph device. To which the thing speaks, "Mr Whateley, reporting in. So, this is it?"

"Dude, they're going to think we're totally screwing if you say things like that." White stone to counter Xiu's black, but he is focused less on the game -- or on his Verbena friend -- than on the new entrants. "You can't do better than that?" he wonders of Arumi, and then offers Mikaela a wave. The AI is stopped in its tracks, whipping up that Moscow Mule for Xiu. Joel is preoccupied for a second or two. First, by something that might suggest he's doing something in meatspace for a second or two, from the way his icon fades out slightly. Then, once he pops back in, by the prismatic crystalline form that maes its way in. His glittery eyes narrow suspiciously, and there's a slight hinge of leather and chrome as he leans forward. The music grows louder for just a second, defensively, until Luke speaks. "Oh. Good. What the hell are you doing, man? You're /never/ gonna be able to get a drink like that."

Xiu's eyes narrow more as Joel does something SUSPICIOUS there. Her nostrils flare just a bit as he leans forward, and she lifts a finger, about to say something..when people make it into the place! Her grumpy expression turns into a light smile as she peers over towards the bar. "Greetings, Mikaela." she says and gives a light wave, before she glances over at..pixel..flat...thing. And she keeps on looking for a long moment, trying to discern just who that is. "And..greetings to you!" she says, just leaving the name out. And finally, Mr. Crystal, and the witchypoo smirks. "Greetings, Mr. Whateley. Looking sharp." Ba-dum-tss.

Arumi floats, flipping between two animations, and coming somewhere into the room. She did set up a microphone, and says "Hi, Dr. Arumi Hanada."

The Geodesic Shape does not give off any emotions. No expressions. Nothing like that. It does shift in colours though! A nice, lovely glittering effect as it slowly turns in the air. The disembodied voice of Luke with the phonographic quality to it speaks, "Oh, rest assured, Mr Joel, that I have made sure that I am adequately hydrated. I have tea and, if the situation calls for it, I am not far from getting for myself a glass of sherry."

Using VR gear with some non-standard programming upgrades, Kaede rezzes in looking like a shadowy version of herself like she is composed of smoke and darkness. More 'real' than your usual VR user, not as real as what Cyberjocks pull off with the proper spatial procedures. "Greetings... sorry for being late," she says in a voice that has a high-quality mic, rich in the sotto soprano tones, and yet quietly whispering with the static of electronic sound. Mikaela turns to look towards Kaede and smiles with some amusement, "I believe the phrase is... fashionably late." She winks playfully, "1K." She then furrows her brow, contemplating, "Or should we make that K-1?" She pauses again, "Though, I suppose that would then lead us to the conundrum if the ninth representation of K is not a dog, do we still call him or her K-9?"

Xiu's eyes flick back and forth for a moment at..something, before she smirks and greets Kaede with a wave. "Huh. I see your nefarous plot, Joel. You're trying to get all the asian girls under one roof." she remarks, and lets out a soft chuckle, before she she stands and walks to the bar to get her prepared digitial Moscow Mule...and can't help but eyeing downwards every so often as she walks in the witch dress. Which is absolutely not a thing she is used to, even in the cases she is wearing clothes. A mutter leaves her. But the rush of grump gets washed away by the sip of Moscow Mule on her way back. As she walks, she lifts a hand. "Oh yes, for those that haven't met me yet, Xiu ("sheoo" Tong. Verbena. Don't ask."

Joel waves Arumi to take a seat wherever she might, and offers Kaede a careless wave at her lateness. "Glad you're here. Getting Mr. Whateley onto the Digital Web was point number one." A glance at the geodesic shape. "Still working on that part, I bet." The AI clunks the mug of Moscow Mule onto the bar for Xiu. "Getting you introduced to the other Technomancers and assorted friends was point number two." A gesture at the small gathering around them. "I just want a waifu, Xiu. What can I say?" he deadpans, before pointing back towards Kaede. "Kaede Minamoto. My Consor, loosely associated but under the guidance and protection of the Virtual Adepts." A beat. "If she doesn't fuck up," he adds, giving the newcomer a wink.

Arumi doesn't need to sit. "Hi everyone. Sorry I don't have better equipment." Working her touchpad to look around the room at everyone, the hovering sprite spinning around. "So I am curious. Is this purely social or is there business too?"

The geodesic shape that is Luke can not sit. Instead, the floating shape starts to hoover over to the bar where it sort of situates itself over one of the stools. The disembodied voice of Luke then speaks, "Am I over the chair? Centred ok?" he wonders, the shape slowly continuing its spinning, "I do believe that I have met most in here, already. Minus the newest arrival, of course."

Out of habit, Kaede does in fact bow to the others with the timing of a culturally raised Japanese woman. She smiles as she says, "A pleasure to meet you all. Oh gee," responds Kaede as she rolls her eyes to Joel, but simultaneously gives him a grin that shows very white electric snow teeth against the shadow-washed darkness of her features, "Your vote of confidence warms my heart, Joel. Good to see you again. And you as well," she inclines her head to Mikaela.

"Ohhh, what? You have an apprentice?" Xiu says, intentionally ignoring the difference between that and consor. She settles down opposite of Joel at the Go board and looks at Kaede, lifting the copper-seeming mug of cocktail she is holding ."My condolences. If he ever asks you to cosplay for him, find me in the woods south of Prospect. I'll handle it." She smirks, giving Joel a brattish glance from the corner of her eyes before she takes another sip, and then glances at Arumi. "Don't ask me, I'm totally just here in a social fashion. I'm the type to chant weird things and cut other things, not a tinkerer."

"I mean, I thought announcing a consor was business," Joel states lightly. He doesn't bother to assist Luke with the 'seating' of his geodesic self, and then adds, "Yeah, an apprentice. Such as it is. Just so people who /should/ know, /do/ know. I don't want people thinking you're running around without a scouting badge, if you get me, Kaede. But now that you're officially kitted up and all that crap, these are some more people you should know. You already got to this space, and I've given you a hall pass to come in any time you want. Everyone but Elphaba here," Xiu, "has the same hall pass, and she'd get one if she gave a shit about the Digital Web. But the other three are Etherites of various sorts. Victoriana, chemistry, and rocket sciences." Luke, Mikaela, and Arumi, in turn, from the finger he jabs at each in turn. "There is some legit business at hand, though. My next move, now that I've got this place, is to shore it up against attack. If anyone's got anything that could help on that front, considering it's kind of your space too, that'd be cool. I wanna put in a pipeline from the computer room in the Nexus, and another space people were talking about having in the city."

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Kaeda. Even if it is not evident, I am currently offering a courteous bow in greeting." says the disembodied voice of Luke that comes from the floating geodesic shape. A brief pause, "Attack?" asks Luke, "Is there something we should know and be worried about? Apart from the normal routine, that is."

Mikaela pauses for a moment, "I wouldn't say Chemistry. I would say progressive science. Chemistry is included in that, but I'm involved in many of the Sciences." She wrinkles her nose, "Though, my self-sustaining arc reactor is on a temporary hold until I can produce radioactive material on my own. Otherwise, questions will get raised. Questions I don't want answered." She then looks to Joel, "And while computers, themselves, is not really my thing. I should be able to help with computing cryptography algorithms, so that there line is encrypted and safe from hacking."

Arumi taps at her keyboard some, the sounds coming from her sprite in the room. The keyboard is a substnatial one, no little modern clickiness. "I do rocketry and satellites by day. My personal research, of the kind that is more fortean and interesting, is focused on space travel. And by extension, I've started researching hyperdimensional drive. Maybe I could project something here, even. Just a... side hop from the Sidereal, I gather."

"I'll be sure to let you know, if he does try to get me to cosplay," says Kaede with a laugh. "Mmmm. I'm working on a number of new coding projects. One would be to give me a stronger presence here... another would be for security. But I do already have a piece of code I use to shore up my rig that might work out here... though I'm not sure. It's intended to enhance the efficiency and security of a single device, this place exists more in the virtual space created by a juxtaposition of numerous devices, yes?" You can see the whites of her eyes very starkly with her shadowy face as they widen at the research scope Arumi speaks of.

Xiu doesn't even bring up that she's totally out when it comes to bolstering the defenses of the place. She takes another sip of her cocktail and grins at Kaede, though does not interrupt her explanations. "Personally I'm just riding along. This place is..." she says and tilts her head, before she reaches up to stabilize that ridiculous witch hat. "..fancy. And Joel managed to get a good Moscow Mule going. But it also stuffs me into this outfit, which means it shall have an eternal love/hate relationship with me."

"Talk to me about about any changes to Stella Nova first, before putting in willworking stuff that's not to and from Traditions-owned locations. I don't want a huge arrow pointing this place out to anyone or anything that's floating through space. And nah, nothing to worry about other than my own usual charming brand of paranoia," Joel states, before he looks back towards Mikaela, giving her a thumbs-up. "Sounds like a plan, Stan. I thought you had asked for help with all that shit. If you can't store it a college dorm, I got a place RLside, but it's just an apartment in Carlsbad. Still, if you think it'd help, you can shove it in the sanctum I got set up there." He moves another white stone on the Go board, hardly looking at the game, before he lifts a shoulder at Kaede. "It's hard to describe. Not so much the devices themselves as the potential they can hold. The ability of people to be whoever they can be on the Digital Web. Me, I'm Neal Stephenson's wet dream," he states a little crudely, before adding to Xiu, "I can change it. For Guinness."