[ 002 | VOICE/VIDEO ] late at night

[spah]

Howdy, folks.

[It's fairly late at night. You may have heard that drawl around. Or maybe you heard about a guy with a Texan accent setting fire to a pile of lingerie in a sex shop by accident. Either or.]

So. This ain't my first time around alien technology. Last extraterrestrials I met wrecked my property and tried to kill me. Then me and some other fellas stole their guns and forcefed 'em beer until they crashed.

[nOW WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT--]

But these folks are alright by my standards. And all this... cybernetic enhancement and augmentation business has me curious:

Anybody here got something similar in 'em? Prosthetics, bionics, cybernetic enhancements... anything along them lines. And since it wouldn't be fair if I didn't meet ya'll halfway--

[Video comes on. It's a downward shot of Engineer sitting at a desk chair, his device's camera pointed at his skeleton-like metal hand. He open and closes the fist, splays fingers out, turns them over - and wiggles them.]

This here's the Gunslinger. Pretty as you please. Designed by my grandfather, built by me. Oh, and there's my heart too, but... can't exactly pop that open for y'all. Heheh.

Anyway, I'm just curious. I been thinkin' about how different places come up with different ways to fix the parts we've either lost... or wanna improve on. One way or another.

[And, after a pause--]

While I'm at it... can anyone tell me a decent area to buy garage space? [Prismagram is: Now Looking For Recommendations.]

Comments

video:

[pidgeypidge]

[That's really...

a lot to try to process in a short span of time. But Pidge is honestly just interested in one thing.]

That hand is beautiful! You really built it?

[There's no reason for him to be lying about it, and indeed, her tone is more awed than distrustful.]

How'd you lose it?

[Yes, she really did just ask that.]

video

[cadeuces]

( Angela's seen the hand before, that's nothing new or interesting (sorry, Dell); what she hasn't heard or seen was that apparently his heart is also mechanical??? SIR??? Her brows pinch and she's glancing up at the camera, clearly comfortable in... not her home, with someone shuffling around just off to the side, the sounds of a kitchen being bustled through. )

Mr. Conagher, would you care to run that by me again? The bit about your heart?

—Regardless, I know we'd had this conversation before, so I don't have much else to add I'm afraid.

( She's just gonna snoop on any answers he gets because she's curious as well. )

permavoice

[spah]

That's alright, doc. I reckon anyone who chimes in might give you somethin' interesting, though.

My heart, though, was, uh... upgraded, by a co-worker of mine. Different guy besides Spy. He was our Medic, and we did all types of experiments together.

The heart was all him, though.

permavoice

[spah]

Sure did. Appreciate it, miss. The design is mostly my grandfather's - but I took a few improvements to it while I was at it.

[As for the next question... hm. He doesn't mind telling it, it just gets hard to gauge what kind of reaction he'll get.]

It was less of a "loss" and more of a... voluntary replacement.

permavideo;

[pidgeypidge]

Nice, nice. That might be the coolest hand I've ever seen.

[Shiro's didn't count because it wasn't the same. And it was his entire arm.]

What kind of improvements?

[Pidge was no stranger to how cruel the world could be sometimes, so she was fully expecting some kind of horror story about how he'd lost it. What she got, though, was almost a relief to hear? Maybe.]

Whoa! You just decided to replace it one day?

video;

[hopefanatic]

That's very impressive craftsmanship. It's a shame that one of my classmates isn't here, the two of you would get along. He built me this.

[He waves his left hand to show a prosthetic of his own.]

Is your entire heart cybernetically enhanced, or do you just have something similar to a pacemaker?

[spah]

Much obliged, mister. That's a hell of a hand you got on you, yourself. You happen to know what that's made of?

[Asking in case the classmates would know better than him.]

Well... technically, it's a baboon heart. With a high-voltage pacemaker attached to it, if a pacemaker could make your whole body bulletproof in the right circumstances.

The fella who did it could probably explain it better than me, though. It's mainly his work.

[spah]

Why, thank you kindly. [He chuckles.] Here-and-there sorta things. Some of it was basic mechanical improvements - he drafted 'er up almost sixty years ago now - but I also set myself up somethin' of a keypad on the cuff. Lets keep an eye on my machines out on the field a lot easier.

Yes ma'am. Right after I found all his old blueprints. Heck of an upgrade.

[hopefanatic]

Unfortunately I'm not very mechanically-inclined myself, so I'm not the right person to ask. Some kind of metal, but anything more specific than that I can't answer for sure. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.

[He hadn't asked too many questions at the time anyway. It was better than what he had it's place previously, and that was all he cared about.]

And there wasn't any problem with your body rejecting the heart belonging to a different species? Fascinating.

[spah]

That's alright. Still looks like damn good craftsmanship. Function about the same as a regular hand? Or do you got... "upgrades"?

Nope. Same fella's always had a fancy for shoving animals parts into people. Think he figured out tissue rejection a long time ago.

[hopefanatic]

Oh no, nothing fancy! He was really pushing for a rocket-powered fist, but we were a little pressed for time.

[And there was frankly no way he was letting him go that overboard with the whole thing. Putting extra weird bits in the hand could have lead to even more issues in the long run, after all.]

"Always"? That's an odd thing to have a habit for, but I guess I don't have any right to judge! [he definitely doesn't given what he's done to his own body.] That's truly amazing, though! I'm really surrounded by such talented people here!

[spah]

Shame. Functioning hand's still a functioning hand, no argument there. But somethin' extra never hurts. That's the fun of it.

You're right, you don't.

[Have a right to judge, he means. It's said fairly neutrally. Not annoyed, just stating facts. Says a man who chopped his own hand off for fun and forcefed beer to aliens. He chuckles anyway.]

Said fella's not here, but you ain't lyin' about talented people.

[hopefanatic]

[Nagito doesn't seem at all deterred, seemingly more than contented to be distracted with the topic of talent. That's definitely one of his trigger words, so now he's in ramble mode.]

It's really such an honor. The thought of how inspiring everyone here is makes me get all jittery!

[pidgeypidge]

You're welcome. [He wasn't even the first person she'd run into here that did this sort of thing, but he was the first who'd apparently willingly opted in to replace a part of themselves.]

I'm not sure if I'd be that brave, but I think it's great!

[spah]

That excited, huh?

[spah]

Heh. You'd be one of the few.

[Meaning he usually just get strange looks over it.]

It really ain't that hard, though. Then again I had some... [Oop. He pauses as he catches himself.] Sorry. I'm a nitty-gritty details kinda man sometimes. Usually ain't a problem, but I'm not always in mixed company.

[cadeuces]

Anything I need to know in case you happen into my care, in the future? Avoid the electromagnets?

[hopefanatic]

Of course, how could I not be!?

Not that I wasn't already surrounded by amazing people back home of course, but here it's almost overwhelming! I only hope that I can be of use to everyone, you know? It's almost hard to know where to start.

[spah]

I can't tell if you're upset or not, miss.

But, uh... not really. It's a baboon heart. With a high-voltage pulse device on top of the right atrium.

You don't gotta worry about that part either, 'less you wanna figure out how to make me bulletproof again.

[spah]

Think most people are pretty well taken care of in place like this. Reckon you don't gotta worry of bein' "of use" to anyone. If you're tryin' to figure out what to do around here, though, I'd say start with what ya like.

[hopefanatic]

Well I like being of use, it's the most someone like me can do. And if I can help anyone work towards a brighter hope together that would be even better.

[spah]

So do you have like...

Anything specific in mind, or.

[cadeuces]

( Her carefully neutral demeanor can only last so long— he says he can't tell if she's upset or not and he'll see the quiet bounce of a huffed bit of amusement when she begins to murmur some reply about that remains to be seen, and then the confusion sink in when... baboon. It just sort of escalates from there. )

...A baboon heart. With a pulse device. ( ?????????? ) Why...?

And what do you mean bulletproof again?

( She's definitely squinting. )

[spah]

[... You know what. He better start over.]

The fella I told you about, Medic? He came up with a way to make an entire human body invulnerable to just about anything. Bullets, fire, rockets... only lasts about 80 seconds, but it's a lifesaver in a lot of cases.

[Most of those cases being warzone-related.]

He calls it an ÜberCharge. Now, I ain't gonna pretend I got a perfect understanding of biology... but from what I knew working with him, it had to start in the heart. But most human hearts can't withstand the kinda charge the Über devices put on ya. Kinda makes 'em explode.

So, long story short, mega baboon hearts can.

[hopefanatic]

Hmm... Maybe! But it's hard to plan too much without still really understanding why we're here, you know? They claim that it's a mystery to them, but doesn't that just seem a little too convenient?

[He chuckles.]

I mean if they really do just like having all of us around for moonlacing I'm more than happy to help anyone with that, but if there's something else they need us for I'd like them to just tell us. It's hard to be useful without direction. [Not that he doesn't have some plans of his own.]