Post by Vio on Nov 27, 2014 19:03:56 GMT -5
"Aaaand... Done!" A childish squeak bubbling with excitement could be heard throughout the laboratory, the petite form of a Doctor Josephine Rodin mopping her brow with a towel as she gazed upon her completed work, a cheerful grin and a deep look of satisfaction plastered upon her innocent visage. It had taken her the best part of three long years, but the scientist had finally completed what she desperately hoped to be the ultimate in law enforcement units. Scurrying across to the desk upon her little legs, she took a moment to down the remaining half-glass of creamy milk before stuffing no less than four jelly sweets into her mouth - two strawberry, one lime and one blackcurrant.
With such a trivial ritual over and done with, the miniature woman picked up her notebook and scrawled down a series of notes on the first empty page she came across, her hand rather tiny and difficult to read for anything but the trained eye. Now she turned to the dormant Den Den Mushi that rested upon the desk as well, huddled up among a variety of papers and bags full of sweets, clambering up onto the stool to provide herself with enough reach to grab the mollusc's shell and place it closer to her. Doing so, she took up the receiver and held it to her mouth, thumb hovering over the button on its side as she loudly chewed her way through the gelatinous sweets. Finally, her jaw now aching somewhat from the strenuous task of forceful munching, the diminutive doctor pressed her thumb on the button and began to speak into the receiver.
"This is Doctor Josephine Rodin, ID number 33172, Head of Project Pastor. I record this voice log as evidence of my scientific progress, by order of the World Government Science Division terms and conditions," rolling her eyes, Rodin shuffled around on her stool, casting her deep blue eyes towards the peculiar figure that lay upon a large steel workbench in the centre of the room. A series of large cables connected the unknown entity to a large device across the lab within which numerous pistons and gears rumbled and rolled to create a delicate backing track to the current workings. Taking a sharp breath, she continued, "Completion of the riot suppression and law enforcement unit, prototype model number ten was as scheduled. The artificial intelligence systems have been successfully 'uploaded', to coin a phrase, from the initial mainframe and into the... I shall henceforth refer to it as the central processing unit. The system is fully charged and ready to begin the initial inspection upon activation.
"From this point on, I shall record any and all additional information as I deem necessary... End," she finished, loosing her thumb from the receiver's button before placing it back upon the shell of the strange transponder snail; a type used solely for the recording of a person's voice and incapable of communicating with other Den Den Mushi. A peculiar breed, but a useful one all the same. The strangely youthful scientist grabbed a lollipop from the desk and pulled the wrapper off with due haste, slipping the orange-flavoured treat between her lips and teeth and allowing her mouth to hold it, the white stick protruding from the corner of her lips as she hopped down from her seat and scurried along the tiled floor. For a moment she stared at her creation; essentially nothing more than a hunk of steel and copper and a variety of other readily available metals with a few other materials incorporated - rubber, glass, etc. - and yet, despite all that, it was almost as spectacular as gazing upon the miracle that was life itself. Sucking on her lolly, the girl's lips spread into a wide grin, pleased with her work so far. This was the hardest part, however, and she removed the sweet from her mouth and cleared her throat before speaking. "PZ-zero-one-zero. Begin system boot."...
Running Preliminary Systems Diagnostic... Systems Operational... Power Remaining: 100 Percent... Bit by bit, the sounds of a gentle purring started to kick in, resonating softly about the relatively cramped conditions of the laboratory. It was otherwise silent. So quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Well, that was until the familiar sound of a certain scientist sucking on a lollipop resumed, accompanying the gentle orchestra of background noises as the mechanical entity on the bench gradually got used to what could only be described as... as being born! How unusual it must have been. Still, the Doctor herself simply watched and waited as her latest creation got used the the body it was laboured with. Eventually, after a good minute, Josephine's eyes narrowed as they captured a glimmer of hope. Or maybe a glimmer of life? The scientist herself smiled widely, pulling the lolly from her mouth once more and letting out a slight giggle.
"...State Personal Identification," were the words first spoken, their origins clearly from a previous set of recordings that had been installed into the mechanical marvel. It was a broken, disjointed form of speech; each word expressed little more than a monotonous lack of personality backed by a slightly distorted and androgynous metallic twang. From afar, such a thing could easily be mistaken as some sort of foreign accent, but the thing itself was far more alien to the world. And, coincidentally, the world was oh so alien to it. From behind the glass panel a trace of blue light glowed, indicating to the doctor that the visual sensory system was up and running. It was akin to a Visual Den Den Mushi, albeit without the gastropod involved and condensed to a much smaller scale. A series of images taken in rapid succession, fed back to the central processing unit. Genius. Very nearly Vegapunk level genius, some would say.
"I am Doctor Josephine Rodin, ID number 33172, Head of Project Pastor," she recited, pausing momentarily and keeping a relatively straight face. She knew what the robot was doing. Recording the name, voice and facial capture of the small woman before it. Saving all that information into the diverse data banks within its form. It was amazing what she had achieved, all thanks to her years of engineering prowess and the peculiar power of her Devil Fruit, the Chima Chima no Mi. Looking at the mechanised marine nobody would expect that, contained within its steely shell, were a cluster of peculiar cubes and discs and spheres all connected by fine copper wires. In reality, each of the small building blocks that formed this entity's 'brain' were greater than the size of the robot itself and easily weighed near enough a tonne each. However, the Compact woman had done just that; compacted them. An entire laboratory's worth of sophisticated electronic equipment was now bundled into this law enforcement unit's head and body, taking up no more than ten cubic centimetres worth of space and weighing several pounds. A stark contrast to ten cubic metres and several tonnes.
"Identify yourself, if you'd please?" She blinked, placing the lollipop back into her mouth once more and sucking on it like a child while awaiting a response. It would take a few seconds for the robot to put together its response, that much she knew, and so the scientist remained patient and instead chose to admire her work. A quadrupedal creation approximately two metres in length and standing four feet at the shoulder, its body was currently covered by a series of white metal plates upon which were sets of black stripes, giving the being some sort of tiger-like appearance. Some found it it fearsome, but the slight scientist herself found it surprisingly cute.
"Riot Suppression And Law Enforcement Unit, Prototype Model Number Ten," barked the machine, defining every word as if it were starting a new sentence with each. This was good. It understood exactly what it was. At this point in time, the device would only have rather basic understandings of everything. More intelligent than a newborn, but still in need of a serious education. It was hard to think back to what it was like at that time. Heck, who could remember their earliest months in the world? Rodin certainly couldn't, and she was often praised for her memory. It made her curious as to what her 'child' was experiencing, but alas she could not exactly 'feel' it as she could with living beings. A robot had no spirit, no force of will, no emotion.
"Well! Now that introductions are settled, I would like to proceed with a preliminary examination," Josephine said, the lollipop stick protruding from between her teeth as she spoke, this time not bothering to remove the sweet from her mouth. Still, her speech was clear enough for the artificial intelligence to understand, though it did not return any immediate signal that it had done so. Rather, it just stood there upon the raised workbench, canid body suspended in place by a series of harnesses as it took in what it was currently experiencing. Regular images were being saved into the being's data banks, filed under 'environment' and steadily building a panoramic view of the laboratory in which it was currently contained. While the visual documentation system was not a perfect replacement for that of a Visual Den Den Mushi, it was still an effective system all the same. Moving its head, the robot looked down towards its compact creator, recording an additional image in order to compare height.
"...Preliminary Examination," the machine repeated, perhaps expressing a certain degree of curiosity as to what that meant for it. Surely it could find out for itself, for said words were likely programmed into its vocabulary. If not then, well, the minute machinist had apparently missed something. In the midst of her approach, the Doctor froze, eyes locking with the glass panel that covered the entity's own optical sensors and half-expecting it to continue its statement. It did not. She smiled at it, removing the candy stick from her mouth now that the head of the sweet itself had fallen off. She rolled it around in her mouth with her tongue, securing it in place between teeth and cheek.
"That is correct. I assume you wish to know what that means?" she questioned, stepping closer to the workbench as she slipped the empty lollipop stick into her lab coat's breast pocket. Following this, the inorganic eye of the entity staring at her as she did so, Josephine wrapped her hands around a lever beside it. The switch itself was nearly as tall as she was, though that really wasn't saying all that much about the vertically challenged woman. She pulled at the lever, struggling slightly as it resisted her strength before it eventually gave in to her persistence. A loud series of thunks filled the room, provoking the law enforcement unit into a strange tilt of the head as if were searching for the source of the sound.
Unidentified Noise Detected... Cannot Compare To Existing Language... Identified: Non-Human... Sophisticated sensors taking in the clunking like the receiver of a transponder snail would a person's voice, the lack of feedback from the entity's extensive data banks confirmed that such a sound was not of human origin. A sound borne from the natural (or unnatural) environment, in this case. That allowed the synthetic being to dismiss such noises as none of its concern, and instead it focused on translating the scientist's question and putting together an answer. A second or two passed in silence, the robot diverting some of its memory to understanding the environmental changes that were beginning to occur around it. It found itself descending steadily towards the floor of the laboratory, the workbench beneath it gradually folding down into the floor and allowing the metal paws of the beast to rest upon a now flat expanse. How peculiar, but the robot now stood beside its mother, shoulders easily reaching up to her own.
"...Affirmative," it said, watching carefully as the petite woman unlocked simple steel catches on the floor whilst strafing about the robot, eventually entering his area of vision again on his right. With one strained tug, she pulled free the series of harnesses that had previously kept the entity from falling from the workbench. A mass of belts now rolled up in her arms, she watched for a moment as her creation adjusted to being 'free', starting with its very first steps. Tentatively it moved a steel paw forward, extending its forelimb before pressing it down upon the tiled floor with a clack. After a second or two, it repeated the process with its other leg. Then again. Then again! Eventually the riot suppression robot was walking a steady circle about the rather compact laboratory. It was most fascinating to the Doctor as she watched, for she had not even asked or ordered it to do anything. Free thought and experimentation? That was a useful tool to have. It made her curious as to whether or not she had surpassed Vegapunk, but she quickly dismissed such thoughts and focused on the present.
"Intriguing. You seem eager to learn... In that case, if you'd please wait a moment," Rodin stated, having now rolled up the mass of belts into a sort of ball and holding it between her hands. For a moment, she seemed to strain, her brow furrowed slightly and the muscles in her arms tensing as she squeezed the ball from opposing sides. The prototype itself simply stood and watched with an innate interest, following the order it had been given of 'wait a moment'. But what was a moment? Well, it had had to look up the definition and had thus defined it as; an unspecified period of time. Combining that with the rest of the sentence, the artificial intelligent assumed that the Doctor had meant for it to wait until given further orders. However, it still found what it was seeing quite fascinating; Dr Rodin's delicate hands began to glow a strange and eerie blue, the light they radiated seemingly being absorbed by the bundle of belts in her hands. Sure enough, within a couple of seconds, what had been a relatively massive jumble of straps was now little more than a light brown ball, two centimetres in diameter....
"W-Well then, Ten, as you seemed so eager to begin moving I-I believe it's time for you to d-demonstrate what you can do," Doctor Rodin said, the two of them now standing in a more open area of the Grand Steel Flotilla. A hallway of interesting length, it seemed to have been installed for testing more than anything else. Not that the riot suppression unit understood that at all. To it, all this was was an expanse of floor, wall and ceiling with no particular features to it. The mechanised marine turned its head to face the scientist, who was now accompanied by no less than three men in similar white lab coats. Each of them stood at least eighteen inches above the woman, dwarfing her by a substantial margin. Regardless, the most fascinating feature was that the smaller scientist was crammed between the taller, clutching a clipboard to her chest while chewing viciously on some sort of sweet edible substance.To be continued...
