ArchivedLogs:Drones and the Rest of the World

Drones and the Rest of the World
Dramatis Personae Kisha, Rasa, Sebastian
In Absentia	2013-10-04 '
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. It's early, yet, classes not started for the day; in the mansion the students are waking up. Getting showered, eating breakfast, finishing last-minute homework before the first bell rings. With the weather still reasonably warm Sebastian has been spending few nights actually /in/ his dorm; it's hardly unusual, then, to find him out by the lakeside in the morning. He's already dressed, though -- pastel multicolored leggings with a design of a unicorn on them, a black ruffle-skirted dress with cap sleeves and PVC piping to detail it. Shiny purple Doc Martens. A wealth of black rubber bracelets at both his wrists. His backpack is on the ground a short distance from the water, but his attention is focused slightly up into the sky; his cellphone is in his hand, and he's swiping his finger across the screen without really looking at it. Above, there is a -- dragonfly, it seems, slender metal body, thin double set of wings, glowing circles in the ends of each of its wings and the bottoms of its feet. It is hovering over the pier, occasionally climbing higher or sinking lower. Rasa wanders out with a paper sack in one hand, with a thermos pressed up against the sheer fabric of hir overshirt, the chrome colored cap reflecting the mess of blues, greens, and whites that spatter crazily across the fabric. Underneath is a bright magenta tank top, a denim skirt wrapping hir thighs. Ze looks freshly damp and alert enough to have already completed hir morning run and shower. All that remains is breakfast in the cool morning air before heading in. Hir footsteps direct hir toward the lake and the pier consciously, hir amber eyes scanning the shoreline for hir roommate. Ze doesn't say much in greeting, but hefts the thermos upward, the handle jangling in hir grip when it reaches the top of its upward range. "Half hazelnut milk, half coffee, plenty of sugar." "Oh --" Sebastian's eyes rivet onto Rasa; there's a dark shadowing beneath them that suggests a lack of sleep, but his smile is immediate and bright. "Oh man you're a lifesaver wow thank you." He switches his phone into one hand, the robotic dragonfly hovering in place as he reaches for the thermos. "I think I might name hir Spice," he says with a nod towards the dragonfly. "Because of Sugar." Rasa reflects blandly the thoughts that come to mind, the same words written in a sunrise blush across the dark blue of hir skin this morning. Hir tail twitches right to left as ze settles the thermos in Sebastian's hands. "I want half of that," ze reminds him as ze settles into a sitting position on the grass next to Bastian. Ze pulls a stack of egg and ham breakfast sandwiches out of the bag, each wrapped in thin layers of wax paper. "Ze's pretty. Do you control the color of the glow from your phone?" "I spent a lot of time this summer watching how she moves, it helped so much with fine-tuning how to get everything working with --" Sebastian waves the thermos towards the hovering dragonfly as he settles down from standing to sitting position, beside Rasa. He opens the thermos, taking a small sip at first but then a larger one. He hands it off to Rasa, and tips the screen of the phone towards hir in indication, demonstrating as he brings the dragonfly closer to hover in front of them. "I control everything from my phone. I mean, from here I can control hir movement but there's also hir eyes," another tap of the screen and now a slightly shaky videocamera image of them is pulled up, zooming in for a close-up and then returning to the robot's vantage point, "or ears, or --" his voice echoes on a faint delay from the phone's tinny speaker, "I can track where ze is or how fast ze's moving or program hir to do things independently -- although that part I'm still working out the kinks of. Um." A slight flush creeps into his cheeks with the admission, "-- Also control the color of the glow." Which shifts to a blue-tinged one, now. "But those help hir fly. Blue looks good on you," he adds at the end of this. "Program hir independently? Oh, like a set of bug-like things to do when you are not actively giving hir instructions?" Rasa takes the thermos back and takes a sip of the coffee. The, it is settled on the grass between them. Ze peels the bread off of the top of the first sandwich ze unwraps and holds it toward Bastian, so he can take the guts if he wants. "That's got to be a headache. I mean, it isn't full 'AI,' but still, a pain." As the warm liquid settles in hir stomach, a fuzz of velvety hair grows on hir exposed skin, except at wear points, like hir knuckles and elbows. "Thanks. It's calm, steady, low energy... quiet. Nice. Reminds me of people than mean a lot to me." "Buglike, maybe. Or just -- I don't know. I have a fish." Sebastian gestures towards the lake. "That can swim around and map out an area for me. There's all sorts of things you /could/ program hir to do." His claws grow longer, and he sets the phone into his lap, reaching instead to skewer ham out of the sandwich on two long claws. His attention returns above, as he eats the slices, eyes focusing on the robotic dragonfly hovering in front of them. "Search an area for people. Record things." He shrugs a shoulder, lips thinning. "Kill people. Her AI's not /quite/ where I'd like it, yet. Autonomous 3-D motion is a /lot/ trickier than --" He shrugs. "But I worked it out fine with my fishbot and navigating water independently is a whole /other/ trick. So I think I'll work out Spice's quirks alright." The explanation of Rasa's blue skin draws a smile from him, crooked and amused. "Yeah, Shane's pretty great, isn't it? Though I dunno if calm and quiet and low-energy are things I'd ever associate with him." It's as if the talk of AI has drawn Kisha forth from whatever dark place she has been lurking in (the workshops mostly). Or maybe she's just taking her latest robotics project out for a walk. The trundle of the tracked, boxy contraption can be heard long before she's come into view on the path. It's not entirely clear what her creation is actually supposed to do, but it sure is big. Almost the same size as a rideable lawnmower. "Shane is a good blue, but you're right. He's not exactly the person I think of as being calm, quiet, and low energy. He's more of a loud, attention grabbing point to center on when everything else is noisy and confusing." Ze opens hir mouth to say something else, but pauses when the background noise starts getting to be more distracting. Ze shakes hir head, grabs a different sandwich from the stack and rests the half Bastian is picking at on top. Ze then turns hir head to see what is creating the ruckus so early in the morning. Ze raises hir free hand to wave. "Shane is noisy and confusing." Bastian drops his hand to his lap, fiddling with the screen of his phone. "You like calm and quiet?" He doesn't look up, but his dragonfly swivels around, flitting just a little bit towards Kisha; on his screen, a video of Kisha and her robot approaching starts streaming. Another few taps, and the robot moves closer still, focusing on Kisha and the large contraption in turn. Where the dragonfly is elegant and graceful the robot Kisha is driving along is a big brute of a contraption, military style sloping metal plates and thick tank tracks. It does seem like it's not quite finished however, as the top has a large panel that's open to the elements. The girl herself has her hands shoved into the pockets of a black hoody and is wearing a big pair of aviator goggles that have a few circuits and wires attached. She pauses a slight way off to wave, then tilts her head as if asking permission to come closer. "Well, I'm dating Ivan," Rasa admit, one brow climbing hir forehead. "Then again, maybe we don't have the same definition of calm and quiet. Both Shane and Ivan have the unique value of low dissonance between what they say and what they think." Ze follows the dragonfly's progress when it zips past hir, heading over to Kisha and her creation. Ze lifts hir sandwich to bite into the layers of bread, egg, cheese, and meat, waving Kisha over when she lingers far away. "Yeah, you are." Sebastian's lips press together for a moment. He rolls up a bit of egg in his slice of ham, stuffing all of it into his mouth. The dragonfly is circling, now, slowly orbiting Kisha and her robot. "I think my definition of calm and quiet has been messed with, being around here. Basically if nobody's dying or getting kidnapped things seem pretty chill. What," he finally looks up to ask Kisha, "does that do?" "At the minute? It's a very expensive to run chair that isn't very nice to sit on... Although I guess it could tow one of those small two person city runabout cars," Kisha says with a smirk, adjusting something on her goggles and pulling out an earplug that seems wired into the goggles somewhere. "But I need to make sure the control link works before I can add the finishing touches. It's a homebrew version of those bomb disposal robots or at least it will be once I've finished work on the mechanical arm." She shrugs. "That's the really tricky bit, the base is just heavy duty engines and motors. Oh and a bluetooth remote thingy." "I can subscribe to that definition," Rasa agrees with Sebastian readily, a small smile pulling at the side of hir lips. "I like it when things are that kind of quiet and calm." Ze draws in a breath and moves to hir knees, tail tucking in close around hir as ze turns to face Kisha and Sebastian equally. "Bomb disposal? For landmines?" "We live in a dangerous time," is Sebastian's bland comment with regards to bomb disposal. He returns his attention to his screen; the dragonfly wings back over, lighting on the ground in front of him and Rasa with the lights in its wings powering down. "How do you think it'd do with -- exploding drones?" Kisha wanders a little nearer, her robot following along behind. "Not landmines no, but I could fit a chain flail of some kind if I thought I'd need the capacity?" she notes. "I'd mainly intended on using it like a mobile, small scale version of an industrial robotics arm. It'd be able to do the heavy lifting when I'm working on bigger projects... As a general rule I'd like to keep well away from any actual /bombs/." She hops up on the robots back and perches. "Depends on the type of drone. If it flys then this won't be much good.... Why do you ask?" There is a slight pause then she winces. "Also belatedly hi. How are you both today?" "Because we live in dangerous times," Rasa repeats Sebastian's words for Kisha, in case she missed them the first time around. If she did hear it, it's full of dry and solemn agreement. "I think we all would do well to avoid bombs, but some of haven't been very lucky. Are you building something big as well, that the arm can help..." Ze pauses, Kisha's final question sinks in. "Oh. I'm okay. Sleepy. Days are getting shorter again." "Bombs don't always keep away from us," Sebastian agrees with Rasa. He picks up his open-faced half a sandwich, starting to eat the rest of the egg off of the bread. "We should probably put a robotics arm in the workshop. I didn't notice how much I needed one until starting to do more work here again and less work -- well, at work." His nose wrinkles. "Which spoiled me. -- Um." His brow creases for a moment. "It flies. I have a drone. I don't -- really need to dispose of it. I was just curious." "With an overhead cross beam arrangement we could mount it on the ceiling and allow it to move to any point within the workshop," Kisha suggests with an eager disregard for price structural engineering like that costs. "That'd be pretty cool. Especially if we fitted a cutting laser of some kind." Her eyes linger on the dragonfly. "Is this the one which I briefly saw the designs for?" she wonders. "It looks pretty good. Spydrone only? Or does it have a payload capability? But anyway regarding the times I don't honestly believe they are any better or worse than any other time. We could have had the crusades or the black death to deal with." Rasa's eyebrows dart upward in surprise, the words 'she hasn't left the school in quite some time' scrawl across hir chest in inky black. "Ahh. Well, I guess there's a good deal of badness involved simultaneous plague death and soldiers going off to pointless wars in a feudalistic government structure, but I am not fully sure that means we're living in... average times." There is a bright yellow line that weaves its way down hir right arm, spelling out 'at least I hope this is not average' in cursive against blue skin. "You do know that other times being dangerous doesn't mean /this/ one isn't, right?" Sebastian's eyebrows raise up higher. "I mean, I didn't exactly say we live in the worst of all possible times. Also it's -- kind of a lot safer for /you/ than for /us/." His tone is bland and quiet, and he snags a second sandwich though this one he actually just takes a bite of rather than dismember it for its insides. "It spies, it shoots, it explodes. I don't mean this drone. One from Oscorp. I -- guess I have a lot of drones actually." His brows crease at this. "Newer model than before although -- maybe not as new as the ones reported in Harlem. I don't really know what they've been doing since summer." A tap of his phone brings the dragonfly back to life. "/This/ one's just for surveillance. It could carry a payload but about all the weight it can handle right now is taken up with advanced imaging equipment. I'd have to -- make it stronger or slim down a lot of its current gear." Kisha grins. "I haven't left the school since... The start of Summer come to think of it. There isn't really a lot out there which interests me. As for it being dangerous, I didn't say otherwise. I said it's about the same as it's always been. The world is a horrible place where life is cheap. It's why I intend on leaving eventually." She shrugs, tapping her foot on her tank-like drone. "Can I take a look at the Oscorp drone some time? I'd love to study the control systems in detail, see if I can jury rig something that'll knock them out." "I see." Rasa turns hir attention back to hir sandwich. Ze glances over at Sebastian, expression curious and perhaps a little concerned. "Ah. You still have that. I hope you guys don't try to power it up and get it working without lots of precautions." Ze finishes half of hir sandwich in two bites and chews quietly. "It is working," Sebastian admits quietly. "It's been in my apartment for a couple months now. Except when I took it to work. He's mostly been living in -- a Faraday cage, he at least won't be contacting anyone outside very easily. Had a lot of time to look at it, though. It's -- really neat," his words, slow, expression thoughtful as he muses uncertainly, "-- but we could do better. What's in here that interests you?" Kisha adjusts something on her goggles. "Large amount of raw materials, consistent electrical supply, access to chemicals which are hard to buy when you're our age and there's an internet connection. Oh I guess they also provide food and some of the lessons aren't a total waste of time. I'd leave if I could find an unsupervised work environment with the same access to resources." Rasa reaches out for the coffee and drinks down a fair portion, pausing to absorb the information that the drone is up and running. Ze draws in a deep breath, 'remember, I am not an expert on this' appearing and disappearing in different places on hir skin like a flickering, red neon sign. Ze gives a firm nod in Sebastian's direction when he finishes, finishing hir sandwich. "Not sure I like the idea of a better murderdrone, but I know you guys have to be smarter than Normi...Norman. Mr. Osborn." "I have a lot less supervision at Stark than here. And /they/ pay me. Plus have way better resources." Sebastian shrugs a shoulder, eyes tipping up towards the sky. "You'd probably be there, too." His lips twitch slightly. "If you got out more." He snags the coffee, gulping down most of the rest and then turning the thermos back to Rasa. "N... ormi, um. I don't know about smarter but we're probably a lot less creepy. Also I don't want it to murder anyone. But it could be really useful with a little alteration. -- Oh. Shoot." He squints at the sky a little bit longer. "There'll be class. I should wake up Shane. See if he -- actually plans on um. Going." He turns off the dragonfly again, tucking his cellphone back into his pocket and turning his back to Rasa, gesturing at his dress. "Can you unzip me?" "I doubt I am old enough for their hiring policy," Kisha points out sullenly. "And it's likely irrelevant how smart we are compared with Norman Osborn, I would imagine he has an entire department working on his drone projects. If not for the no weapons rule I would build some kind of flak cannon to deal with them." "Yeah, sorry, sometimes that still comes out. It's not like he's still in here, but he makes a hell of a first impression." Rasa flushes pink around the face as ze reaches for hir second sandwich and the puts it down, moving back to hir knees to get better purchase on Sebastian's zipper. "Bah. Don't sell yourself short, Kisha. Some people are smarter than whole departments." Ze lays hir hands on Sebastian's shoulders carefully, so as to not touch his skin and moves the zipper down quickly so he can get out of the dress. "I keep notes for him either way, but going to class is better." "Yes," Sebastian points out mildly, "and I have an entire department to pitch in on my ideas, too. And I don't think me or Peter were exactly the norm for their hiring, either. They're -- pretty strange with their practices. You know, if you spent a /little/ bit more time actually listening to people and a little bit less thinking you already know everything, you might get farther than --" He looks around the school grounds for a moment. "Well, nowhere at all. I guess the workshop is nice /enough/, though." He squeezes at Rasa's shoulder. "Thanks." Standing up, he sheds his dress, folding it neatly. He sets it back down on his backpack along with the dragonfly and its remote, shimmying out of his leggings to to strip down rather unabashedly to just his underwear. "Yeah that -- sounds like. The kind of person that'd leave a mark. I'll see you in class." He gives the others a quick smile, and then heads out to the edge of the pier, leaving his clothes behind and dropping his briefs at the edge of the stone, too, in the moment before he dives into the lake and vanishes. Kisha grins at Rasa. "Well, yes but one doesn't like to brag," she glances at Bastian. "I probably do know everything worth knowing. I just haven't figured out how to get access to it all yet, just a matter of time though. Besides there is a certain satisfaction in /not/ mooching off Tony Stark. Anyway I better go too, before I run out of juice and have to try haul a generator out to recharge it." And at that the drone begins a rather smooth turn on the spot before trundling off down the path. Rasa waves to the others and cleans up breakfast quietly, taking the remaining food and drink into hir arms to return some of it to the kitchen for cleaning before class.