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Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.



It's hard not to relax a little in this kind of casual opulence. Until the PA system chimes in again over the clinically dead background tune that seems to permeate office lobbies. By now, it's difficult not to hum along.

"Sac-Nicte wishes you and your family the best for your chosen holiday celebrations, regardless of what form they take, but reminds you of the statistical likelihood that only twelve shopping days remain! A pre-order card for the new Communications Player PRO is the gift that will bring joy to any demographic. Contact staff today."

If you weren't here to get a free beta version of the thing, you'd have run screaming by now.


_________________



Theme: Summer Goddess

FEATURING...


_________________




Corporate Hive, I Can See Your House From Here

It's a nice evening to be on the 18th floor. A light snowfall has drifted in from the east, dusting the city below. It makes the city look tiny and toy-like. You can only imagine what it looks like on the floors above.

After the wait in the downstairs lobby, where you're handed a small clipboard with some forms to fill out, as well as a standard NDA and some feedback cards, you're ushered up to the 18th floor to... well, a smaller, more compact version of the opulence downstairs. Your nameless suited chaperones gesture for you to be seated again, and you're left to stare down the receptionist and resume your busy schedule of waiting around for something to happen. Man, this new COMP better be amazing.




Her name is Maki, according to the nameplate on her desk. She hasn't said anything at your arrival. She looks thrilled.


You've been waiting for at least twenty minutes, and likely to wait at least a few minutes more judging by Maki's face. How have you been passing the time?

Character sheets sans fluff in the first post, please! OOC Thread over here.

Destrado fucked around with this message at 16:50 on May 27, 2014

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Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot

This may sound strange, but Jodie doesn't have that much experience killing time. There was always wood that needed chopping or dishes that needed cleaning, something that could at least keep her hands busy. Here, there's nothing. Maybe a pamphlet if you're lucky. Her bag has plenty of things she could fiddle with, but not much that she could just pull out in an office. She's losing enough time as it is without having to explain to security why she's sitting in the corner twirling a knife.

That is why Jodie has disassembled and reassembled this ballpoint pen ten times in the last twenty minutes. She's almost made it into an art at this point. Unscrew the tip, remove the ink, remove the spring, take out the clicker, reverse, click in, click out, repeat. Unscrew the tip, remove the ink, remove the spring, take out the clicker, reverse, click in, click out, repeat. It's not the best way she could be killing time, but it's a hell of a lot better than making small talk.

quote:

Jodie Vessot


High Concept: Paranoid Survivalist’s Daughter

Trouble: Never Been To The City Before

Drive: The Search For Susan

Aspect: The Truth Is Out There

Aspect: TBD

Approaches:
Careful +3
Clever +2
Flashy +0
Forceful +1
Quick +1
Sneaky +2

Stunts:
CQC Basics: Because Dad taught you some things when you were younger, when you succeed with style when carefully defending, create a situation aspect instead of a boost.
Always Pack A Spare: Because you know the first rule of proper planning, once per scene you can pull out one small bit of survival gear you could reasonably have in your pack.
It All Makes Sense Now!: The strangest things can make a seemingly unsolvable mystery come together and make sense - to appear utterly simple, even. When you make a Clever roll to Overcome an obstacle and roll a natural +3 or +4 on the dice, automatically receive a clue based on the facts you know concerning a matter of your choice, as if you had spent a Fate Point.

Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Uri Ott

Waiting was so much easier when he had forms to amuse himself with and, maybe moreso, an idea of why he was waiting. But to be made to wait again in an entirely new location was just so...pointless? More accurately, the point remained unseen and that annoyed him--not even a clue as to why they'd been moved, but Ms. Maki's gaze made him think twice about asking for a direct answer.

He'd tried to distract himself with his phone, opening up a custom-built terminal and sshing into his network so he could continue work on his new automated messaging program, but quickly found the present environment too distracting. How many times is she going to do that? he thought, eye twitching slightly as he yet again heard the pen click, signaling another successful re-assembly. At first he'd thought it cute and not at all dissimilar to something he might do upon first seeing a pen, but to repeat the act...was it eight times so far? Nine. Yes, we get it, you're bored, he nearly sighed, putting his phone away for good. It was such a useless activity, even if he couldn't blame her for the boredom. That, and it was at least better than Ms. Lotteminde's obvious cry for attention.

Perhaps he would break the silence? He considered it, asking Ms. Maki directly that is, but wouldn't that just look foolish? Why wait until now to ask, would be what the others might wonder. The answer was simple--he was reaching his breaking point, the point at which he could no longer stand to be left in the dark--but that didn't make it any less foolish. But...perhaps he need not ask her at all.

"Wonder what's taking so long," he posed to the room, rather than to Ms. Maki in particular. He predicted shrugs, maybe some 'I dunno'-s, but if he was lucky somebody would know.

quote:



Uri Ott

High Concept: Open Knowledge is Open Power

Trouble: Show Me State of Mind

Drive: The Educated Differ From the Uneducated

Aspect: The Things You Own End Up Owning You

Aspect: Enemy of the World Eaters


Approaches:
Good: Clever
Fair: Sneaky, Quick
Average: Flashy, Careful
Mediocre: Forceful

Stunts:
Analyze Functions
Knowledge is Power

Decus fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Feb 8, 2014

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

She tapped her foot impatiently. This was supposed to be only a quick stop on her itinerary for the day! Ugh, she was supposed to be at the recording studio in less than an hour! She was working on a brand new album to send her blazing to the top of the charts.

Finally, the incessant *click, click, click* of Jodie's tinkering got to her, "What is taking so long!? You should know I have a schedule to keep! Hurry it UP already!" While not quite a shriek, Keiko's yelling was certainly unpleasant.

OmegaGoo posted:



Keiko "Red" Iwatori




High Concept: Sizzling Songstress

Trouble: I Want It NOW!

Drive: Daddy's Little Perfectionist

Free: Sugary Smile, Syrupy Sweet

Free: Rising Phoenix

Approaches:
+3: Forceful
+2: Quick, Flashy
+1: Clever, Sneaky
+0: Careful

Stunts:

Manufactured Persona: Because Keiko is a pop idol persona, she gains +2 to Clever rolls whenever she is lying about herself.

Famous Diva: Because Keiko is a talented diva, once per scene she may place the aspect "All Eyes on Me!" on the scene after any successful Flashy roll.

Too Hot to Handle: Because Keiko has a fiery personality, she gains +2 to forcefully Overcome social obstacles.

Refresh: 3

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku


Souji was mostly allowing himself to be absorbed in thought, switching back and forth between doing nothing and playing with his phone, right up until the others begin to snap, leading him to walk over to Jodie.

"Hey, could you stop doing the pen thing?"

Then, he turns towards Maki.

"Excuse me. Do you know how much longer we're going to be here?"

quote:

High Concept: Manga Hero in the Making
Trouble: Hot Blooded Impatience
Drive: I Must Protect Others
Aspect: The One He Lost
Aspect: Just Some Highschooler

Approaches:
Careful: +0
Clever: +2
Flashy: +2
Forceful: +3
Quick: +1
Sneaky: +1

Refresh: 3

Stunts:
Protagonist Spotlight: People notice a hero. When Souji invokes Manga Hero in the Making, he can optionally also declare that all NPC interactions, positive or negative, become oriented on him.
Lead By Example: NPCs gain an additional +1 when using a boost Souji creates by succeeding with style.
SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS: Despite his current reserved nature, Souji is (somehow) excellent at making and keeping friends, and gains +2 to actions regarding such.

ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 15:24 on May 10, 2014

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot

"I could."

*click*

"Don't have anything else to do, but I could."

Jodie begins unscrewing the tip... But no. She can't be that much of an rear end in a top hat. Not to a stranger she doesn't have any particular gripes with, at least. She'll just have to figure something else out. Like counting ceiling tiles.

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

Eleanor Lotteminde

Well, somebody just stormed up to Maki's desk in a flash of skirts and sparkly bits and scowling, clutching...(what's that, a pair of letters or mail printouts or something? Really?) in an angry death grip. "You work for the one in charge of this...this outfit, don't you? Well, let me tell you something, missy! Eleanor. Lotteminde. E-l-e-a-n-o-r-l-o-t-t-e-m-i-n-d-e. I can't believe you people misspelled my name! Twice! I mean, how can you not know who I am?! I-is this some pitiful attempt at making fun of me? Hnf, peasants...." And then she turns away.

How does Eleanor spend the time after that? Oh, golly, I'm glad you asked. So glad you asked!

Eleanor sinks, falls back into a chair with all the melodramatic flair of a secondary-school Juliet after a pull of green Koolaid from a fancy glass, and lets out this terrrrrrribly weary sigh.

...and another, exactly five minutes later, followed by a furtive glance around to see if anyone noticed her ~distress~. Why, if she keeps this up, you can probably set your watch to her!

quote:


High Concept: Poker Face Princess
Trouble: I Never Met A Bet I Didn't Like
Drive: I Want To Be The Best, Like No One Ever Was
Aspect: Lick My Boots And Call Me Princess
Aspect: Grace De Coup

Approaches
Careful: +0
Clever: +2
Flashy: +3
Forceful: +2
Quick: +1
Sneaky: +1

Stunts:
My Crown's So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades: When Flashily distracting others or drawing attention to herself (with actions or eye-catching clothing/royal bling/solid gold carriages pulled along by horses also made of solid gold/??? or otherwise), allies get +2 (I can change this to +1 if +2 is too high?) to Sneakily evade them or take action they'd otherwise notice.
????rest to be determined

Refresh: 3

(Sorry for posting so late, sort of frazzled 'cos RL trouble.)

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...
Kenji Omura

Oh, please. Is there nobody here that

Kenji looks up from the message he's typing on his now painfully last-generation smartphone. A look of plain contempt is written across his face. (Or is it simply boredom? Or perhaps both.) Is there no one else here that can handle a simple waiting room? This kind of thing should not be so surprising, if Testing is so under-staffed that they would resort to getting outside help for beta-testing. After all, as everybody clearly knows, a customer service department that actually runs well is just asking to be downsized until their response times are merely tolerable. But apparently a simple fact simply flies past people like this.

"You..." the manager puts his phone back in his pocket, "do realize this kind of wait is normal, right? Have all of you never dealt with a real place of business before?"

These kids are probably screwed if they ever try to apply for a loan...

Takanago posted:


Kenji Omura

High Concept: Cutthroat Businessman
Trouble: Waist-Deep in S-N Intrigue
Drive: Clearly, Nobody Can Handle My Awesome Intellect
Aspect: Expensive is Beautiful
Aspect: Take No Chances

Approaches
Careful: +3
Clever: +2
Flashy: +2
Forceful: +0
Quick: +1
Sneaky: +1

Stunts:
Buy-In: When you roll Careful to Create an Advantage based on lying and succeed, your target will believe anything reasonable you say that does not conflict with facts he knows to be true until you exhaust the free invokes on your created Aspect or exit the scene.
The Smartest Man In The Room: Once per scene, you can spend a Fate Point and roll Clever against a difficulty of Mediocre, generating a number of Aspects and/or free invokes equal to your result, to a minimum of 1. However, you also place the Aspect 'Insufferable Ego' on yourself for the remainder of the scene, with one free invoke for others to use.
Used To The Competition: In a sea of mediocrity, you stand out like a star. Whenever someone rolls to oppose you using the same approach you did, gain a +2 bonus to your roll.

Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Uri Ott

"What makes it so normal? I'm afraid I rarely deal with business like this in person," he asked, ignoring the slight within Mr. Omura's statement, purely curious. Outside of ordering food or dropping in on his friend's shop, he did most things online after all. It was his, perhaps false, assumption that since they'd been scheduled to test the product they'd promptly have the product ready for testing.

"Though I guess you would know that it is, in fact, normal," he added, nodding in approval after noticing that the businessman didn't seem quite as visibly impatient as any of the rest of them. Likely a good sign, and truly a sign of 'normality', as he'd otherwise expect a man as busy as Mr. Omura to be quite flustered by the wait.

And, at the very least, Mr. Tunoku had gotten the clicking to stop.

Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.
Maki

Maki lets out a sigh that lasts three full seconds before Souji has even finished his question. "I dunno. No-one tells me anything. Soon, I guess? Maybe not. I'd offer you coffee or something, but we're fresh out." She sips at her mug curtly.

She weathers Eleanor's outburst like someone who probably deals with office tantrums on a daily basis. "Oh. Our apologies" she intones, deadpan. She glances upwards. "I wouldn't worry about that. It's non-diegetic, anyway."

Another sip.

Destrado fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Feb 8, 2014

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

"Wha... you... DON'T IGNORE ME!" She practically screamed at the top of her lungs. She was already losing it. Not a good sign.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku

Souji winces and starts to realize he liked her far more when he just heard her music.

"H-hey, it's easy, don't worry, Iwatori-san. I'm sure we won't be here any longer. Hey, I heard you've been on tour in the US, what was that like?"

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

She spun to face the person who had addressed her, ready to begin another tirade. Instead, she saw the startled flinch of a man who just wanted her to calm down. Oops.

Dammit, appearances you dolt!

Keiko's anger melted instantaneously, and a practiced smile eased gently onto her face as her volume returned to something approaching normal. "Oh, it was fantastic! Though I must say it was a bit confusing. Everything's so different over there. Although I'll admit the crowds are a bit more lively. I'm not sure that's a good thing, though."

She smiled her sweetest smile and turned to the lady behind the desk, "I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone and wait patiently over here."

Keiko nearly dragged the guy over to a corner of the room, "So, I don't think I've met you before. Are you a fan? You seem to know me!" She held out her hand, "But let's get introduced! I'm Keiko Iwatori. A lot of people call me Red, which is funny, because I dye my hair this bluish purple to offset my stage attire. And you are?"

Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.
And then, just as you might all get to know each other...

The double doors you came through come crashing open, as a booming voice behind a cardboard box comes waddling though.

Dr. Wolfram Canek

Sac-Nicte Chief Engineer, ???

"See? They're still here. It's fine." The voice's owner dumps the box on Maki's desk unceremoniously. Maki rolls back in her chair slightly. Just before the doors slam back, another figure quickly slides between them.

Irene Zinaida

Sac-Nicte Chief of Security, ???

"There's still clearances to get, we don't have guards in place in case anyone tries to run with Sac-Nicte property... what, you think Maki frisked everyone? That one girl's duffel probably has ten bombs in it."

Canek waves his hands imperiously. "It's fine, it's fine. Look, half of them work for us anyway, it's not a security issue. Or are you afraid of being taken out by a pop idol? We need to get this testing done so we can launch early in the New Year."

"We needed it before the Christmas shopping season. Maybe you should get them to test those pre-order cards, in order to adequately gauge consumer disappointment."

"The COMP Pro will be done when it's done. The rest is a problem for Marketing, those useless shitb..."

Canek stops at a sudden choking sound behind him. Maki is frantically gesturing an elbow at Kenji while trying not to further inhale her coffee. He sighs and starts rummaging around in the box, throwing balls of tape and already-popped bubblewrap to the floor.

"Anyway, hello, I'm Dr. Canek. But you can call me Dr. Canek. Here are the test kits you'll be using today. They've been expertly tailored to your individual preferences through extensive research and close attention to your preliminary feedback."

He throws a series of boxes out to everyone present, not entirely lightly. They can't have taken up more than an eighth of the space inside that box. They're otherwise fairly standard cardboard boxes, with "COMP Pro! Test Kit" hastily scrawled in sharpie on each one. Each has a small printed label.

Keiki Iwatoni

Soijin Tunaku

Ori Utt

Kinji Yomura

Eleanor Lotteminde
(this one seems to have restuck labels a couple of layers deep)

Julie Vessit

Maki Makiyama


Which would be bad enough, if Ori Uri and Kinji Kenji hadn't gotten each others, or Eleanor and Keiko's hadn't been swapped.

"Go ahead and try them on!" Canek beams. "Your preferences have been painstakingly catered for, and you'll find each is custom made to fit you like a glove. For, uh, your eyes, I suppose."

Dr. Wolfram Canek

Sac-Nicte Chief Engineer, Kind of a Dick

Destrado fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Feb 9, 2014

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...
Kenji Omura

"Well you see, it's normal because-"

Kenji stops his explanation as soon as the two chiefs burst into the room. "Ah, Wolfram, Irene, nice to see you're taking the time to deliver these things yourselves. I almost thought with all these delays, you'd be too busy to do something like this."

He looks down at the new box in his hands, before tossing it to Uri. "I think this one's yours."

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot

Of course she's the one who's going to suicide bomb a goddamn office building. Didn't this lady's parents teach her any tact? It's not like she's some paranoid psycho, she just lived with one... who sent them too many letters to count under his actual name... and probably mentioned her once or twice... and now that she thinks about it, she did kind of explicitly tell them that she has no ties to this town in the first place...

Okay, so she is kind of the most suspicious person here. Doesn't mean you should just say so in front of everyone.

Then again, they're expecting Julie Vessit, so Jodie Vessot's in the clear! Christ, and to think that Dad thought that these people controlled the government.

Still, no matter how much she wants to complain about these people, Jodie does have things to do. With one last roll of her eyes, she pops open the box and takes a good long look at the COMP Pro.

Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Ori Utt

Oh well, whatever Mr. Omura was going to say pretty much said itself--the two who'd entered were the cause of the delay.

"I would imagine," he replied, tossing Kinji his own box, "'Through extensive research and close attention to your preliminary feedback', huh." And yet they got their names wrong. This did not bode well for the test products themselves, but still, he'd be lying to say his excitement had entirely diminished. In fact, it may have increased, albeit in an odd direction.

So, still interested enough to see, at the very least, what else their 'expert research' had screwed up he got the thing out of the box and examined it closely, not yet wanting to put it on until after he'd figured out the exact external differences between the old COMP model and the PRO model.

Decus fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Feb 10, 2014

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku

The highschooler blinks!

"Er, yeah. I mean, sort of a fan, I'm not one of those scary guys or anything. It's kinda hard not to know of you. I'm Souji Tunoku. Well, uh-"

...And is (thankfully) cut off by the new arrival! Souji stares at the box dubiously.

"...Hand crafted just for us, right? Is that why you got our names wrong?"

Frowning, Souji tries putting his on anyways.

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

"What? Why would you be a scary guy? You seem pretty cool! And--" The rest of the sentence was cut off by the arrival of Zinaida and some other guy. (Of course she knew head of security. Not that she ever really liked the woman.)

---

"You can't be serious. You're mixing me up with her? I'm not saying that she's not pretty fantastic, but she's most certainly not me." Keiko marched up to the only other lady in the room and angrily snatched the box out of her hand, "This one seems to be mine. Here, have yours."

Now holding 'her' box, Keiko just glared at it. Under her breath, she muttered, "If you can't spell my name, you could've used my nickname. Even a first grader could spell that."

She then turned her glare on the man who seemed to be responsible for this grave transgression.

OmegaGoo fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Feb 11, 2014

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

Eleanor

There Eleanor was, having a nice time sighing and eyerolling and trying to tune out the other girl's *screams* (what is *with* her?) and looking terribly forlorn and grudgingly, eventually bothering to accept the box, when--

What?

Suddenly, that girl was upon Eleanor, yanking her COMP right out of her hands! Ooooh, that got the princess' blood boiling~

Eleanor stormed over, seething and scowling, and came to a stop right in front of Keiko! (So mad.)

"Hey, aah..." She makes a big show of checking the label on the box, and then peers back up! "...Keiki, or whoever you are, didn't your parents teach you not to take things that don't belong to you?" (a whole lot of scowl and a dash of sneer.) "It's rude. I mean....jeez, what are commoners teaching children these days, anyways?" (less scowl, more sneer, she's enjooooooying this~)

"Now, you'll give me back *my* COMP, won't you? There's a good girl." She offers 'Keiki's' COMP in one hand, holds out the other, expectant.

Ningyou fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Feb 11, 2014

Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.
Dr. Canek

Canek's nostrils flare slightly before he responds to Kenji. "We appreciate that your own department could spare you from what I can only assume was vitally important work in order to assist with our flagship product. Of course, it's the personal touch that drives each further Sac-Nicte corporate success. I wouldn't dream of offloading something so important to a subordinate."

Then he raises his hands in apology to Souji and Keiko "I apologise for these cosmetic mistakes, I will have... the intern... responsible fired immediately. It will not affect the integrity of the final product, but your feedback is valuable. And of course I would not forget you, Miss Iwatori. Especially after I spent so long... well, you'll see."

Maki

"What the hell is this?" comes a voice behind the desk.

Canek turns. "Oh, I thought an extra tester couldn't hurt. Plus, a small thanks for all your hard work this season!" He turns to Irene slightly "what does she do here again?"

"You thought my name was Maki Makiyama?"

"...I thought it meant Mountain of Maki."

"Maki Makiyama is the stupidest name I've ever heard."

Maki Akiyama

Don't Ask Me, I Just Pretend To Work Here

She flips her new COMPro on in a huff. Everyone seems to have gotten their own variant on the design.




_______

Better Living Through Optometry

Uri and Jodie's close inspection doesn't reveal a whole lot. Outside of the custom designs, there doesn't seem to be a lot externally different to the COMPs many of those present are already wearing: twin LED projectors mostly hidden on the outside of the frame, earbuds tucked away inside the glasses arms... oh wait, they've changed the charging adaptor again. Time to throw away and rebuy all your old cables, I guess.

Canek notices their inspection: "The hardware upgrades allow us to incorporate COMP technology into a wider range of designs, as well as fixing some ongoing issues with resolution and latency. The real revolution is in the software, however!"

Those already wearing the new glasses are still waiting to see exactly how:

S-N COMPro Interface 0.89b Tumbling Terradon loading...



WELCOME TO THE NEW COMPro, <valued client>!

LOADING AND CONFIGURING USER PREFERENCES, PLEASE STAND BY:


Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Uri Ott

"Makes sense," he shrugged, ignoring the princess and the pop star's childish squabble as he put his own COMP PRO on to see the revolution for himself.



What awaited him was a boot screen full of stock animations, one of which rather obnoxiously contained pointlessly repeated code, as if to mock him. Or were the others seeing it too?

Decus fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Feb 13, 2014

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

Keiko let her glare drop. It wasn't worth it. Also, the man brown nosed just well enough that she supposed she could forgive him this time. She opened the box she was holding.



"Oh. OOOOOOOOOH!" She squealed with delight, "It goes so perfectly with my hair!"

She immediately put them on her face.

"Haha! The loading icon is pretty funny!"

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot



So this is it. The COMP Pro. The next generation in AR technology. Time to enter the 21st century.

...

Okay, maybe if she just waves her hand a bit in front of the camera...

"Uh, how long do these things usually take to start up?"

Lurks With Wolves fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Feb 12, 2014

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...
Kenji Omura

"Oh yes," Kenji replies. "I'm sure the few people who will rush out to the stores after they've emptied their wallets for Christmas will appreciate that personal touch. It's a good thing you didn't just hire some more staff and made them do it. They might have released it too early."

Pulling out an elaborately decorated pocket knife, the manager makes short work of the tape on the packaging unboxes his COMP Pro.



"Well, this actually does look nice. I'm actually impressed." He wastes little time putting the glasses on and booting software. "So, what are the new features on this thing? And what, exactly, needs to be tested?

Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.
Personality Rights Are The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

Canek shrugs. "Oh, roughly about..."

The beta COMPs suddenly chime in unison.



"Oh. About that long, then. Interesting." Canek makes a note. A tiny voice speaks into everyone's ears simultaneously.


COMPro 0.89b posted:

"Yooooosh~! Welcome to the new COMPro!"

A strikingly familiar computer-generated mascot comes swimming into everyone's field of vision. She strikes a pose.

COMPro 0.89 posted:



"I'm your host, Red-chan! Let's get started! Ikuzo!"

Dr. Canek makes a point of staring forwards into the middle distance and certainly not anywhere near Keiko. Irene stifles a smirk behind the back of her hand. Canek merely coughs.

"If you could just follow the tutorial, restore your COMPnet profile or create a new one as appropriate, we can move on to the feature test. Your profile should include any customisations or apps you're already familiar with. Please note any glitches or difficulties you encounter, though there shouldn't be any at this early stage."

He glances at his watch. "And if you could be prompt, please. We need to quickly move on to the next phase."

Irene quirks an eyebrow. "What, you need to be somewhere all of a sudden?"

Red-chan smoothly navigates you through the setup process with only slightly more exclamations than necessary. There's a lot of debug code floating around just out of the edge of your vision, though.

COMPro 0.89b posted:



"Yatta! Okay! Now to begin our first test of the new contextual AR features of the COMPro. Tell little sis, where would you most like to be right now?"

Wow, all this proprietary closed-source stuff is patronising. It'd be probably trivial to start poking around to try and find the real dev environment behind all the saccharine. Would it be worth a fate point to someone who, say, believed Open Knowledge Is Open Power?

Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Uri Ott

Was that debug code, just outside of his field of vision? He could make out its existence, but not its meaning...it was possible it was the same as the obviously 'art' over 'function' start-up animation, but on the other hand maybe they actually gave them dev units? They did sign an NDA, so perhaps S-N saw no harm in it.

After blowing through the setup, linking it to his already established COMPnet profile rather than creating a new one, he decided to see just what he could access. Sure, it was almost a certainty that they'd be monitoring all of his input, but if they'd given them dev units they must've accepted the consequences from the beginning, right? It wasn't like he planned to leak anything, per se, at least not until his NDA was over and he had the commercial unit on-hand to tinker with--call it pure curiosity.

Ah, but Red-Chan would surely pester him until he answered her question, so he decided to see to that first, typing:
pre:
in my room, by my workstation
A joke, really--he'd always thought those who believed S-N monitored everything and everybody to be less than sane, but wouldn't it be funny if they were right regardless?

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot

When suddenly confronted by a tiny animated version of a person they are sharing a room with, some people would recoil in shock. Some people would laugh. Jodie? Jodie just stares. She doesn't smile. She doesn't frown. She doesn't even glance at the real life version of this AI construct. Doing any of those would require her to actually think about what she's getting into. That she's going to have an animated idol strapped to her face for at least the rest of the day. That she...

Actually, Canek's got a point. She really does have other things she needs to do. Things other than being baffled by a tutorial.

COMPro 0.89 posted:


"Yatta! Okay! Now to begin our first test of the new contextual AR features of the COMPro. Tell little sis, where would you most like to be right now?"

Well that's one hell of a question. Jodie isn't really sure she wants to be anywhere at the moment. She doesn't want to go back to the cabin. Too much death and paranoia there for her to really want to be there. Sunrise has been nothing but a pain in the rear end the whole time she's been here. And her sister... Well, she doesn't want to confront her sister, she just needs to. Still, Jodie wouldn't tell all that to her actual sister, let alone some CGI doll who calls herself her sister. There's only one real answer she'd give this thing.

"Not here. Next question."

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku



Souji watches the loadup somewhat bored...then tries desperately to stop himself from laughing when the mini-Red appears. It doesn't take too long for him to make the profile, though it does take a bit longer to get used to the typing. Finally...

quote:

Where would you most like to be right now?

Souji just stares for a moment and tries to think of a good response, before shrugging, thinking about the latest issue of Shonen Leap, and typing "In the middle of a heroic battle."

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

...

...

...

"SQUEE!"

"Holy crap! That is the cutest thing ever! Hahaha!"

If Canek couldn't tell, pretty much everything had been forgiven at that point.

"Is this everyone's avatar? Or just mine? Oh man, this is awesome! Hahaha!"

COMPro 0.89 posted:


"Yatta! Okay! Now to begin our first test of the new contextual AR features of the COMPro. Tell little sis, where would you most like to be right now?"

Keiko's face suddenly fell, "OH poo poo! I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT IN 20 MINUTES! I gotta go!"

Keiko began dashing toward the door.

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...
Kenji Omura

Ah, yes. There she is. The centerpiece of Sac-Nicte's latest marketing strategy, in it's purest form. Engineered carefully to both be popular with the all-important tech-savvy youthful demographic... and yet somehow it also seems to grab a bit of an older one as well. Older than should rightfully care about cute, virtual assistant idol girls.

Oh well, it all works out. If they want to give us money, that's fine with us.

But still, Kenji can't help but stare wearily at the display in front of him. It all seems really childish when you look at it.

COMPro 0.89 posted:


"Yatta! Okay! Now to begin our first test of the new contextual AR features of the COMPro. Tell little sis, where would you most like to be right now?"

'Tell little sis'? Really? Maybe we should consider changing this dialogue. Or giving people the option to. Or maybe detecting the age of the user and changing things depending on that. Or...

A multitude of possible changes run through Kenji's head, before he looks again at the virtual assistant that just asked him a question.

"Where would I like to be... huh?" Tough question. Kenji mentally goes through the list of possible answers to that. He could be back in his own department, trying to actually market a product that exists. Or he could go bigger than that, and be where he would really like to be working -- at the very top of this company. Does that count for an answer, though? Or does it just want a location? Would it just place me in the President's office, being asked why I'm even there?

Might as well get an answer. "Behind the President's desk."

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

Eleanor

Eleanor seethed, she seethed and scowled and sulked for exactly as long as it took her to unbox her prize, and then all was forgotten! The little spat with whatsername might as well have been a decade ago, because she had...



...that. (And her face just lit up at the sight.~)

Mind you, just as soon as it lit up, her face went sour again. Her? Really? Uuuuugh, why does it have to be a tinier, clo...cloying...er...whatever it is, why does it have to be *her*? Why can't it be a tiny, cute butler or something?

Eleanor waited through the startup process, desperately trying to ignore the skincrawly feeling she got when that tiny, insufferable whateveritwas called her its elder sister an--

COMPro 0.89 posted:


"Yatta! Okay! Now to begin our first test of the new contextual AR features of the COMPro. Tell little sis, where would you most like to be right now?"

Well, jeeeez, that's easy enough to answer. Eleanor doesn't miss a beat, typing out:

"In a palace."

...oh dear, oh wait, what if 'little sis' gets the wrong idea and it all turns into a big mess? She should probably be more specific--

"That I own."

....is that specific enough?

"Because I'm a princess."

Wait, wait, what if--

"And not one of those dingy abandoned palaces teeming with archaeologists or mummies or once-an-hour tours or anything like that, either!"

"...do mummies actually exist?"

Ningyou fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Feb 20, 2014

Destrado
Feb 9, 2001

I thought, What a nice little city, it suits me fine. It suited me fine so I started to change it.
Wherever You Go, There You Aren't


Yatta! Message received, away we go~!

____


Souji

quote:

"In the middle of a heroic battle."



Souji can hear the village burning before he turns to see it, the orange glow lighting the grim faces of what's left of the town militia dragging themselves to their feet. The VR can't render the crushing heat, or the cloying smell of woodsmoke, but the mind can fill it in just as well. The sound of hoofbeats comes across the night air as the raiders turn for another charge.

Ragged, weary, one of the militamen turns to Souji. "What do we do, captain?"


____

Uri

quote:

in my room, by my workstation



Home sweet home. Almost.

It's not exact. Of course AR can't capture the right textures, giving everything that slightly cartoony feel. But it's more than that. Most of his stuff is here, but it's not in the right place. His desk is on the opposite wall. His workstation is missing a couple of things. The carpet's the wrong colour. In general, it's missing the scraps of paper and tiny knick-knacks that make a workroom look active, lived in.

But, strangely, everything's mostly here. It's like someone got handed a list of his possessions and the blueprints to his house and tried to puzzle it together in a way that made sense. It's familiar enough for Uri to get to work, if he wanted to.

____

Eleanor

quote:

"In a palace."

"That I own."

"Because I'm a princess."



Now this is more like it. I mean the tray of dazzling iced cupcakes aren't going to taste like anything, and the cushions only really have the appearance of comfort rather than honest butt-bolstering softness, but it's finally the kind of ostentatious display of wealth that Eleanor feels she deserves. I mean, check that sweet harp. And that view of the garden! ...The garden full of a bedraggled mob full of angry peasants, actually. One of them steps on a flamingo that's too slow to move as they cross the water feature. They look rather aggrieved. Oh, bother.

____

Jodie

quote:

"Not here. Next question."



Well that's definitely Not Here, I guess. It's Not Anywhere. Blank VR construct. Jodie has a few long moments to contemplate the existence of nothingness. It's very edifying.

Then part of the wall hinges open, and a part of Red-chan's face pops out shyly.


"Umm... sorry to bother you, but you have a friend request. Your first friend on your new profile, yay! She claps her hands excitedly for a moment, then stops herself when she realises she's ruining the solemnity of the moment.



____

Keiko

quote:

"OH poo poo! I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT IN 20 MINUTES! I gotta go!"


Easy peasy! Let's just take a tour of the integrated day planner and appointment reminder overlay...



Suddenly, most of Keiko's vision is taken up by a giant, monolithic diary. Red-chan floats over today's date, pixie-like. She's holding a fountain pen that is roughly her entire height.

So that was <in twenty minutes> is that correct? Who shall I record the meeting with?

Keiko could swear she saw that door before. I mean it was right there.

____

Kenji

quote:

"Behind the President's desk."



Kenji had always heard about this, but had never actually seen it. I mean there was the public office that the President used downstairs for meetings, but this must be the private office. Where she actually did the work. When Kenji tries to look around to spot any sensitive information, though, his line of vision doesn't move. Irritating. The resolution of the AR is good, though. Almost perfectly realistic.

It's about then he sees a feminine hand from below his eyesight rummage around in the desk and pull out a small handmirror. When the mirror turns back to Kenji, though it's... it's...

President Kalinda

Sac-Nicte CEO, All The Time In The World, No Time For This poo poo

Kenji is seeing a direct feed from Kalinda's COMP itself. God, he hopes she doesn't realise tha-

"Oh, you must be one of the testers. What a fool Canek can be." She adjusts her hair. "Still, a curious burst of initiative. I wonder which one you are? I grant you the boon of the next five seconds of my attention. Believe me when I say that is a scarce resource."

Four seconds and counting, Kenji.

Destrado fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Feb 20, 2014

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

"Daisuke Kito! Ugh, he's gonna kill me if I'm late! Now bring back the door!"

Keiko holds her arms out in front of her and gropes for the door.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku

Souji's eyes light up and he lifts a clenched fist!

"Right then! Follow my lead, and we-"

Someone had begun awkwardly patting his arm and - are they holding his fist? Are they trying to turn his fist? What?

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

"Found it!"

Keiko turns the doorknob and pushes against it with most of her weight in an attempt to open the door. When it gives way, she runs past the door.

... and immediately runs into the door.

"Oof! What the hell? Why are there two doors here?"

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Souji Tunoku

Souji feels someone suddenly throw his arm forward, sending him spiraling to the floor.

"Hey, what sort of messed up - "

*WHAM*

"Uh, what was - "

Almost directly after being knocked over and hearing the sound of someone slamming into the door, something steps on one leg and stumbles over the other.

OmegaGoo
Nov 25, 2011

Mediocrity: the standard of survival!
Keiko

"Whagh!" Something under her feet wasn't actually ground. It was... round. And bony.

Whump!

Keiko found herself sprawled on the floor with her COMP askew. Now that she could see a bit of what was going on, she looked down at what she was laying on.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you ok?"

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Jodie Vessot

"Huh. AR's better than I expected... Ugh." Jodie grimaces as the virtual idol sticks her head into the digital landscape her COMP has constructed. Still, a random friend request is probably worth getting alerted to. Let's just open that and



Oh. Oh.

This is... not good. Not necessarily bad, but definitely not good. Too personal to be automated, but too fast to be anyone who hasn't been keeping an eye on her. Let's just... accept that friend request. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer, keep your threateningly cryptic stalkers somewhere you can watch them without actually interacting with them. Yeah, that's how you do it.

Now, the question. Jodie is honestly a bit insulted by that question. Why are these the only two options, of all things? Becoming her father or treating her sister like her father? There's got to be another way. She can't go down the same path Dad did, and she can't prop up another person's psyche. She just can't. Although, now that she's thinking about it... Okay, definitely need to respond now.

pre:
Will you be your father's daughter, or your sister's keeper?
----------
Can't say. Times change, people change, not enough facts to see if those are the only paths.

Question for a question. Why would I need to keep my sister?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Decus
Feb 24, 2013
Uri Ott

Yes, they were definitely still of questionable sanity. Sure, the room appeared close to his own and, upon testing it, the workstation appeared to be his own, minus a few missing things, but who was he to say the 'replica' room he was in was created via spying? Surely their spies or, perhaps more accurately, their cameras could do better, if they existed, though he also recalled the mix-up with the boxes and their names just moments earlier, so who really knew?

"Oh well," he shrugged, turning on bluetooth to connect the 'workstation' to his own before he started digging into it. Transferring what he could would be his top priority, though if any of it actually appeared on his true workstation at home after the testing was over, he'd be more than amazed. What manner of technology allowed them to reproduce his room with such...questionable, but still frightening accuracy? Or was his room just so plain and normal that anything could be close to it? Did they foresee such an answer and study his personality to craft a room around it? Would anything he did in the 'replica' room carry over to the real on--actually, if he was just in VR, even if a more advanced VR than any he'd ever experienced, his geo-location data should still indicate that he was in S-N headquarters, right?

Before he 'dug in', as it were, he used the COMP to look up his current geo-location. His mind was racing with potential answers to how what he was seeing and experiencing was made possible, but, beyond checking into what he could of the source code and studying it for hours and hours, figuring out whether or not he was, in fact, still in that office within S-N would eliminate the largest swath of wrong answers. Step two would be using every door he could until he was out of his house and on the streets of Sunrise, but he could do that with one eye and one hand digging around in the COMP--how much of the city could they have replicated?

Decus fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Feb 20, 2014

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