January Intro Log

[rekindlemods]

Who: Everyone
Where: The Welcome Center
When: 12th December, early afternoon
Summary: The new arrivals, freshly pulled from their worlds or others, awaken in a strange place...
Warnings: Inbox death may occur. System overload at own risk. NPC responses may be slow.

It's a shuddering breath, a sensation of being pulled to elsewhere and finding oneself pressed against something on the soft and some place cozy. However, before one can fully stir, there is and odd, warm stirring sensation that lifts you up from wherever you've been dropped, when you begin to drift off once more.

'I'm sorry for this... but we need your help.'

Yet the feeling -and the voice - pass quickly, and when you awaken, you begin to realize your surroundings. It's a small room with what some might recognize as something akin to a Far Eastern theme when it comes to decor, from the walls to the sofa (or bed) you find yourself on. Illumination is provided by carefully crafted lamps, and even a red candle flickering on a nearby desk. The doors are made from paper and wood, with a thin frame; through them it's easy to hear other people stirring, talking, or coming to.

You are not alone...

On a small table beside you, there rests a note atop a manilla envelope (that oddly enough is enscribed with your name). Unfolding the note will reveal some answers in the form of a letter addressed to all arrivals.

Inside the manilla envelope , you will find: a ring with a key and apartment number on it, some kind of cash card, a map and informational guide to the city, and a second letter folded neatly on the top.

Odd... Neither were written in your own language, and yet you find it easily understandable. Soon enough, if you don't make an exit on your own, there's a gentle knocking on the door as someone comes from downstairs to usher you along.

"Welcome to Saeng Seong! I know you must be confused or upset as to what's going on, but we promise to explain further once you've had a chance to stretch your legs!"

Whether you go downstairs immediately or linger a little longer, eventually you must come on down to leave the small space, and sooner rather than later would probably be better. You'll find yourself in a well-lit lobby, filled with comfortable-looking couches and chairs. Along one wall are refreshment tables, loaded with all sorts of warm and filling food and drink, including some you probably aren't familiar with. It's just as well they're in good supply, as rain is pouring outside with no sign of relenting. During this time of the year, it's definitely something to leave a chill in the bones. Perhaps picking up a rain coat by the desks on the other side of the room might be a good idea. Who knows? You may just find something suspiciously in your size!

Speaking of those desks, two ladies seem eager to answer any questions you may have, names and positions conveniently written on signs on their desk.

Irene, General Assistance
Andi, Technological Assistance

Outside, and through the heavy rain and translucent glass you can see a banner hanging from the tiled roof of the building across the street. The deep autumnal colors on it match the welcoming (though rather damp) atmosphere as the letters proclaim:

WELCOME TO SAENG SEONG
(ENJOY YOUR STAY!)

Comments

B

[shadowsgambit]

Fortuna always came to the welcome center, even with who knows what risks that entailed. Maybe someone she recognized would appear one day.

But not this time, it seemed. Instead, the only new face she could pick out belonged to...to...what was that thing? Those looked like cameras where its eyes should be, so, a robot?

"Uh...can't say I've ever seen a robot that looks so soft."

[tadashiishere]

Baymax looked up as the woman addressed him. She was one of the more humanoid of the non-humans he'd seen around here, the only really unusual thing being the horns. He casually scaned her into his medical database as he responded to her comment.

"Tadashi wanted me to have a non-threatening, huggable design," he explained. "He believed that it would be helpful in my function."

infodump for his scans, sorry for the tl;dr!

[shadowsgambit]

His scans would find this woman was certainly more unusual than her horns. While recognizably human enough to have compatible blood (AB-), his scans would reveal her skin was thicker than a normal human with calcium deposits scattered throughout just under it, her height-to-weight ratio was nothing like she looked (weight being about 410 pounds at approximately eight feet; bone density seemed to account for most of the extra weight), and perhaps strangest of all was that part of her skull, at the back, had been replaced with high-strength plastic-based prosthetic plates - and the skull's integrity was not at all compromised; it was perfectly fused to the surrounding bone like it belonged. This prosthesis was to make way for a metal implant behind her ear which appeared to be a data port, wired directly into her brain.

She was completely unaware of the scan, of course, as she looked Baymax over again.

"Makes you look like a marshmallow," she commented jokingly. "So this Tadashi guy, what'd he build you for then?"

LOL sokay. X3 Though Baymax being Baymax, he's def gonna comment on it. XD

[tadashiishere]

Now these scans were definitely interesting. Human enough to have a recognizable blood type, unlike the other non-human's he'd scanned, but with many other, less obvious physical differences. Not to mention the unusual prosthesis.

Still, she had asked him a question, so he replied before commenting on her scan data. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion," he said. "Tadashi programmed me to heal the sick and injured. I have been programmed with over 10,000 medical procedures."

"Your scan data is highly unusual," he said, introduction now out of the way. "Unlike the other non-humans I've scanned since my arrival, you have a recognizable human blood type. But your bone density is much greater, among other physical differences. I am also curious as to the nature of your unusual prosthesis; I have never seen an organic being with an implanted dataport."

It wouldn't be good RPing at all if I didn't think he might!

[shadowsgambit]

Her personal healthcare companion? Probably not - sounds like a bot like this should be mass-produced. What a nice world, or just a nice creator..

"Wait a minute, you got all that just by looking at me?"

[tadashiishere]

Hey if she needed a personal healthcare companion, Baymax would gladly provide, for as long as needed. But yes, Tadashi was a very nice creator.

"I scanned you," Baymax said, projecting the scan data he'd collected as a visual display. There, next to a picture of Fortuna were a readout of all her vital stats, everything from height and weight to blood type, cholesterol levels, and any allergies she might have. The readout was labeled simply, 'Patient', as Baymax didn't know the woman's name, yet. "I am programmed to assess everyone's healthcare needs."

[shadowsgambit]

"That's..."

Kind of creepy, actually. But it was also certainly convenient for, well, what he was designed for.

"...Uh, anyway. Right, you had questions. For the blood thing, it's because I'm still the same species, just a different metatype. I'm a troll. Regular humans are homo sapiens sapiens, we're homo sapiens ingentis." She figures that stuff would be of interest to a medical robot. Maybe. "Not sure what any of it actually means, though. I know we learned it in school but seventh grade wasn't the best year for me, you know?"

[tadashiishere]

Yes that would definitely be something that would need some minor tweaks if/when Baymax's model officially went into production. But though a little creepy, it was still innocent. And as noted, sometimes very useful.

He processed this new data. "'Ingentis', meaning 'frightful' in Latin," Baymax replied helpfully. Or so he thought anyway, given that she said she didn't understand it. "I have not heard of such a metatype before, so it is unlikely that other 'trolls' exist where I am from."

"What was the original cause of the emergence of the metatype?", he asked. Because he knew that two subspecies of homo sapiens evolving along side each other and both surviving into modern times was highly unlikely.

[shadowsgambit]

Frightful. Really.

Well, she can't say she's too surprised.

"Magic," she responds simply, before remembering pre-Awakened worlds don't realize that's a thing. "No, really. The world Awakened - to magic, that is - and some people did too. Elves and dwarves started being born and...well. Some people found out they were really orks or trolls."

She'd thrown herself into learning about what had happened to her when she'd goblinized, and had become comfortable with sharing that information, but having recently been returned to her human-appearing child state...well, it made her realize she hadn't overcome it as much as she'd thought. Sharing what she learned was now an uncomfortable reminder of why she'd learned it.

[tadashiishere]

Baymax just... blinks at that. Mostly because that's all the facial expression he can really offer, but also because... magic. What. No seriously, what. Does not compute. And the dictionary definition in his language database really isn't much help.

But then, many types of scientific phenomena had once been classed as 'magic' before they were properly understood. Perhaps this was similar. And a little understood phenomenon that apparently caused widespread mutation of the human genome could easily be termed 'magic'.

Which means he's going to go that route cause it's the only one that makes any sense to him. "Dwarfism is a known medical condition in my world," he said. "However, I have never heard of 'elves' or 'orks' outside of works of fiction. The same was true for 'trolls' before I met you."

[shadowsgambit]

She shakes her head. "No, dwarves aren't the same as little people. They've got thermal vision like us trolls-" weirdly enough, her eyes indicate she can see into the infrared part of the spectrum, at least, but whether or not that translates to seeing heat isn't obvious, "-and their proportions are different. The height's mostly in the legs."

She guesses a dwarf could have dwarfism, though. That would be inconvenient.

[tadashiishere]

Probably inconvenient, yes. Baymax makes note of the differences, though, for future reference. "I noted that your visual range extends into the infrared, yes," Baymax said. "This must be highly useful for certain fields of work." He could easily name about a half-dozen jobs where that ability could come in handy, especially when combined with her relative sturdiness.

[shadowsgambit]

"Right? Troll security guards could be more common than they are. But people mostly see us as thugs. We're big and we're...kinda scary-looking, so I guess it's hard to get over that."

She's glad troll security isn't more common, but she knows better than to say that. Trolls have a reputation for being stupid but it sure as hell isn't true.

[tadashiishere]

Baymax nodded. "Your abilities would also be useful in fields related to search and rescue," he said. "But I imagine that you would have difficulty finding employment in that field for the same reasons that you just mentioned." He'd never really understand the human tendency to judge people and things based on appearances, even when they knew for a fact that such impressions were seldom wholly accurate.

[shadowsgambit]

"Only job I've seen trolls in more often than not is as a bouncer." In any case, she's been talking about things a little too close to home for too long. So she decides to change the subject to something a little less personal.

"Anyway, you wanted to know about my datajack. It's, well...it's a dataport. The brain really is just a big computer, you know. People who have them use them for all kinds of different things. Most common is accessing a network without a trode net. Faster connection and all."

[tadashiishere]

Baymax seems quite content with the change of subject if the interested tilt of his head as Fortuna talks about her implant is any indication. "Interesting," he says. "I am capable of wirelessly accessing variety of networks via my own internal uplinking capabilities, but was not aware that organic beings could be modified with similar capabilities. Is it a common procedure?"

[shadowsgambit]

"Depends on which circles you ask. Surgery's expensive and most people don't want to deal with the recovery time or getting a hole in their skulls in the first place, so not really for the average joe."

She realized as she spoke that the only concrete examples she could come up with would make it very obvious she was either with security or else often pitted against them. So quickly, she came up with a generalization. "Most people who get them are professionals who need the fastest reaction time they can get out of their machine and our brains are the best there is."

[tadashiishere]

Baymax nods. "Yes, any procedure that involves cutting into the skull would require extensive recovery time," he says. "And yes, the human brain is an exceedingly complex organic computer. Allowing it to uplink with a network would increase its capabilities exponentially."

"I assume precautions have been taken to prevent the brains of those uplinked from being attacked by malware?" Because any computer, organic or otherwise, that's connected to a a network needs to have decent firewalls.