2017-09-28: A Shot In The ARM

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  • Log: A Shot In The ARM
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Shalune Amira, Emma Hetfield
  • Where: November City - Adventurer's Guildhall
  • Date: September 28th 2017
  • Summary: Josie stops in to chat with Shalune about the ARM they're working on together; a chance encounter has allowed her to run into Emma, so the famous ARMs Meister is added into the mix.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

In the end, the original plan had been readjusted a smidge. Rather than attempt to create an ARM ex novo, Shalune and she had settled on using an existing ARM as a core and structuring around it, if only because there was always the distant possibility that the alloy would fail if overly worked.
Or possibly explode.

So, as a result of that, she's been -- when not preparing 'other plans' -- been looking for the parts (and tools) she'll need. At least the problem about a workshop was resolved.

The heat is off -- or at least, so it seems. And if it isn't, well, that's yet another bridge Josie will handle when she comes to it. For now, she's been enjoying being able to browse the 'spare parts' market in November City -- among other things.
It had sort of been a shame -- one of the largest cities around these parts and she'd had to largely avoid it for some time, just because of a misunderstanding about a horse. Sure, she had 'borrowed' it, but nobody's perfect.

Anyway, that rather long setup aside, she had asked Shalune to meet up here at the Adventurer's Guild to talk about the next steps after picking up a very important part from a 'helpful merchant'.

She'd even run into someone again in the process.

Which is why, by the time Josie's come walking into the Guild, she's not alone.

"Hey, kiddo! Hope we didn't keep you waiting too long!" she calls out, waving a bit stiffly with her right hand.
Oh, and Penelope is here too. Waiting, as is her general mode, in an uneasy perch on Josie's left shoulder.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

Even here, Shalune has found herself abruptly doing work - after all, there's something about a tiny pink-haired girl and her twelve-foot Golem that kind of captures the imagination, and more than a few of the Drifters have come to know her as someone who can do reasonably quick ARMswork for a dirt-low price. Which probably explains why her pot is sat on a corner table, the dim neon light kind of brightening the walls around her as she concentrates.

The glow ends quickly - kind of an indicator that she's just doing an easy job as opposed to a more difficult one - and then she's carefully placed the new spring she's just crafted into the midst of the open, half-disassembled ARM, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrates.

Only when she's done does she look up, her face set in a bright smile as she greets Josephine with a nod. "Um, one sec! --here you go," she adds to the man sat next to her who's been doing his best to follow her work. "All good - but you should fire it a few times before you use it in any kind of fight, okay? It's gonna take a bit for the parts to properly settle again, and until then the trigger might feel a little sticky," she lectures quickly, before scooping up her pot to clip it back at her belt and move forward to meet Josephine and her companion.

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

Emma Hetfield, master of the ARM, is here. There is no need to fear. (Yes there is, Emma brings death and horror in her wake.)

She adjusts her glasses as Josie waves to the --

"Shalala! What a remarkable surprise! I love it," Emma says, approaching towards the presentation of an ARM with all its neon glowing glory. She doesn't interfere as Shalune Amira speaks to her customer, one hand going onto her hip and then advancing to give a big-sisterly hug to the Other Lunie, firm and squeezy and just slightly too forward.

"We should talk about my other dark ambitions involving a long tube of seamen," she tells Shalune, at which point she takes a deep breath and lets it out. "So! I'm told that we're here to 'see a man about a horse,' which is a euphemism for what we're actually doing, which is examining -" Voice lowers hugely, "an arm. "

"Josie darling, can you show me what you have so far?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

It's a pretty interesting thing, that pot of Shalune's. It's yet another thing that Josie would love to know what makes it tick, but also yet another thing that she's unlikely to get to do so with.
Also pointedly on that list: Lunata's little cube friend.

"Take your time!" is Josie's response, her attention admittedly elsewhere as she joins the little crowd that's haphazardly gathered here to watch the younger girl finish her work. "Not a bad choice. That one's a little fickle, aiming-wise, but as long as you're aware of it, there's compensations," she comments on the Drifter's ARM-of-choice idlely. Her gaze flickers over to the pot as its glow fades, as if this time she would be able to work out its secrets, but...

At any rate, she's somehow able to be patient for a change.

"Hope you don't mind," Josie says, paired with a grin that suggests it might be too late to mind, "But we crossed paths while shopping and I thought, now this is a chance, so here we are." The archaeologist gestures towards Emma, again with her right hand. "I'm sure you've heard of Emma Hetfield?"

A brief pause follows. "You've still got the sketches, right? I found the part we needed. And--"

A pack is deposited on a nearby table. Some rummaging -- and a lot of displaced objects (spare bits of clothing, a few jars, apparent junk, small rocks and other assorted debris) -- later, she eventually retrieves the core of a very stripped down sidearm.

"Well, we haven't synthesized the important parts yet. But here's the starting mods," she says, setting down flat on the table the ARM which is probably about... a conservative third of what it will be. But hey, progress.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"--wah, Miss Hetfield!" blurts Shalune, immediately answering Josephine's question implicitly; it's very possible she doesn't know the meaning of the words 'slightly too forward', at least from an innocent perspective - so she beams as she latches back onto the scientist, her eyebrows raised as she peppers questions. "Ah, you got here safely! Didja talk to Mrs Croze, how's she doing? The CaraKin's holding up through thick and thin, we've got it set up here if you wanna take a look later--" she motormouths, but does at least shut up when Josephine starts to speak, her eyebrows raised high.

Mention of 'sketches' gets her pulling a ratty notepad out of her pocket, a familiar sight if you've worked with her for any length of time. She thumbs it open to a page, where true enough there's a sketch for-- what appears to be an extremely-sawn-off shotgun, along with another sketch that includes a significantly reshaped grip and stock.

"I brought a buncha parts myself - including some shocks that I'm pretty sure you could use as dampeners, and some compensators. I still think if you want somethin' you can fire with one hand, you're probably looking at havin' to deal with that first, y'know?"
You have changed your password.

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

"Oh I'm sure she doesn't mind at all," Emma answers Josephine even as she moves to plop down and start inspecting the core, picking it up and weighing it in her hand. This invovles a lot of fiddling, fondling, and wobbling. It seems at least kind of scientific.

"Oh please, Shalala," Emma tells Shalune while she's doing this. "You can call me Emmers, Professor, Professor McCuteypie... Actually, perhaps just Emma. Yes," a twirl in the empty trigger guard, "that seems right. She purses her lips and says, glancing back at Shalune, "Meredin's fine, darling. She referred me to you for access to the... why did I want to do that again...?"

Emma trails off for a moment and admires the sketching.

"I think I wanted to go onto 'That Ship,' the one with the handsome cyclopes for a pirate, I mean captain. You understand me? I just don't remember just why. Maybe it's to see if I can obtain the ultimate weapon for my theories of deterrence..."

"Your big problem here," Emma says, after looking at the sketches for a few seconds, "is that you're going to break your wrist if this is supposed to be real hunter's shot. Hmmm."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

A brief glance is traded between the other two women here as they discuss... well, the Yggdrasil, Josie supposes. "Oh, those guys? Hmm, I'm sure introductions can be made..."

But out come the sketches, which occupy -- as Emma takes ahold of the stripped down core (Josie can do that part, even with a bum hand, herself -- the other elements are more of a problem) -- the bulk of Josie's attention. "Right, right. It'll need to be adjusted for left-handed use -- oh, you already did! Great, good work, Shalune. You have no idea how many people forget..."

As if blearily, Penelope blinks, then similarly squints at the paper. Only to fluff up a bit as she hunches up further.

It's an interesting concept -- based on an ARM she'd once seen someone else carrying. Though, it does have one major issue.

As Emma details further.

"Yeah..." Josie murmurs, brow crinkling as her lips twist into a sort of semi-pout. "Breaking my wrist would be a problem, right? Then I'd be down two hands instead of just one." In spite of that issue and the puzzler of preventing it before her, she grins. "There's no helping it, though. I need something smaller, and I can only use my right hand so much anyway." She falls silent for a moment as if thinking. "Hopefully, the alloy's properties will help dampen it, too. I think if it's counterbalanced here," she points, "and dampened here..."

She looks over at Emma, perhaps a little eagerly. It's not every day you get to tap the brains of a leader in the field. "So, what do you think?"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

Shalune grins brightly at Emma, steadfast as ever when she says: "Aww, but you're Miss Hetfield! I can't call you somethin' else," she pouts, same as she ever does when this topic comes up. Somehow, Meredin and Emma both warrant this behaviour, as if something fundamental within Shalune won't let her do otherwise. But then, Aunt Hilda is in good company, at least.

"Ah, the Yggdrasil? Umm... I mean, Miss Croze was helping out there while she recovers. The Rephaim's spendin' most of its time there, too, while we figure out what to do with it and patch it up best as we can. And there's--" she pauses, and bites at her lip for a moment. "Um, there's Diablo, too. Kinda my pet project, but if you wanna look, go for it. We're missing a bunch of golem parts to actually get it moving, though, and I've only found a couple replacements thus far."

She doesn't immediately mention her worries over whether she even should get Diablo moving again, but she's always been terrible at hiding things. Sado's assault on the Temple was kind of an education, especially after Riesenlied's lecture. "Also, uh, it's a real safe place in general, I reckon? Maybe Miss Croze was just worried for you!"

... ... she leaves that hanging in the air, not even a little embarrassed about it.

"I might-- um. When I was first learning to fight, I modified my staff so it'd have some shock absorbers. Somethin' like that might help, but I'm worried it'll hurt the integrity of the whole thing. ... guess there's nothing to do but prototype it and see how it goes, though," she muses.

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

Whatever secrets Josephine is hiding, Emma accepts in thoughtful ease. "It's true. You could brace it against your shoulder - oh? The alloy might be shock absorptive, but if it's really doing more than spreading it out, that's quite an accomplishment! Hmmmm~~."

Shalune raises a good point, but Emma switches gears back to her main topic. Heh heh. Get it? Gears? "Oh I just need to consult on some things, I'm developing a tool that will end war forever. And if Miss Hetfield is what you feel fondly in your heart, then... call me that, without regrets!"

A beat passes. "Shock absorbers, hmmm? That could work out. Especially if you put them here, where the main line of impact is going to come -" Emma points with a slim fingertip. "You see? Even if we just spread out the impact, lengthening the time it takes will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes. You know, we're all constantly being pressed upon by a little over fourteen pounds of air... If all that force was put into a single needle of relic steel, it would go straight into our brains!"

OK, Emma.

"Would she really have been worried about me?" Emma muses then, looking at Josephine. "I mean, I've only been nearly killed by gangsters once!"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

The conversation between the other two doesn't immediately concern her, so Josie's content to let it bob and drift around her as she inspects the draft schematics. Even the grip's been altered to compensate... Not bad.
She might actually be learning a few new tricks in design just by looking at it.

Damn, even the drawing makes her fall in love with the yet-to-be-completed ARM, a little. Just a little. A little faintly, she smiles.

Speaking of Diablo, actually... There's a name that drags Josie up out of her ARM-besotted reverie.

"Hey, did you ever get that crystal cleared up? Did sunlight do the trick? ...Though you might need something more intense than that, huh," Josie muses, as if thoughtful. "But I'm not sure if I have the time to sit around and hold the spell active for as long as it'd need. Still, if strong sunlight's the answer, out in the desert's the place."

Then there's just the matter of all the other parts, of course.

"Hmm, maybe? I was hoping to have something a little more..." She waves a hand, vaguely, as if to suggest a mid-level-type piece of weaponry. "You know. More than just a sidearm, but not as restrictive as a longarm in terms of space I need? Something with a loooot of stopping power."

A hell of a lot would be ideal, given the speed things are going.

Spread force is diminished force. It's the basics everyone learns about a certain field of applied mechanics. Josie tilts her head to one side nonetheless, as if contemplating the subject of pressure, dispersal, and -- more importantly -- just how much air pressure rests now over their very heads. "Oh, really? Heh heh, now imagine if we could put that kind of force behind the barrel of an ARM... But, anyway..."

Ever so slightly, she gnaws on her lower lip, mulling the matter over. "Yeah. I'm not sure how it'll play out. If it can channel any of that shielding capability, it might work! But I guess it could blow up in our face too~" She shrugs, an expensive and over-acted motion that prompts Penelope to jerk upright out of her semi-rest as if affronted. "Well, we'll just have to play it by ear--"

A comment that ends up being cut short as Penelope takes off like a shot across the Guildhall. Right off for the... bar?

"I thought she was too young to drink," Josie comments, absently, tilting her head at the sight.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

Shalune blinks for a long, long moment at Emma's response; that she's building a tool that will end war forever. Fortunately, Shalune's had kind of a string of long days, recently, so she's not immediately able to realize that statement could apply to a great many things both good and bad - instead, she places her hands together with a bright sort of smile, her eyebrows hitching upwards. "Oh, that sounds really amazing! I've gotta admit, we-- the Caravan got caught in the middle of all that Kislev and Aveh stuff for a while. It was pretty terrible... it really sucked to see a Golem being used like that," she mumbles for a moment.

She shakes the funk away just as quickly as it arrived, though, with a dedicated effort that speaks to a very sort of 'deal and move on' kind of mentality; sucking in a breath, she looks to the plans laid out in front of them, furrowing her brow as she moves her concentration elsewhere. "I mean, any way I cut it this thing's probably going to be hecka inaccurate," she muses with a shrug of one shoulder. "You'd need a much longer barrel to make sure all the shrapnel goes in the direction you'd want? But it seems like it'd still be pretty good for close-range stuff, or even just covering the area in front of you. I mean, I know I wouldn't wanna get anywhere close if you had somethin' like this around," she comments as she scratches at her head.

"Oh-- um, actually, I didn't try the whole thing yet. I did some tests, and it seemed to work, but-- yeah, I haven't really had time to work on it just yet, y'know?"

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

"Well ideally we're going to test fire it from a stand or something once or twice, just for funsies," Emma says brightly. "Unless that won't work? I don't know it exactly that well, but I don't see any of the usual ARM security components that suggest it won't fire at ALL without being in your hot little hand."

She sets it down then, perhaps to let Josephine reclaim it, or just to get better eyes on it. The sight of the pigeon departing makes Emma muse, "Is there such a thing as a drinking age for birds?"

Then to Shalune, she says, "That was horrific, it's true. I had a horrible bastard of a time there, even if I did get to encounter the Gods and try to sell them on supporting my plan. I don't think they bought it, but I don't think they hated it, either." After this she takes in a deep breath.

"Oh, yes, accuracy. Hmm! Yes, barrel length and accuracy DO get negatively correlated, although shot spread would be a factor there. Really, it depends on your personal goals - at the range of about ten yards, a shot shell is honestly probably a better call."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

A slight -- if sympathetic -- nod ensues, as Shalune and Emma catch up a touch.
Some of this, Shalune had spoke to with Josie, back when they were first reconnecting and talking schematics about the ARM she had in mind. Apparently even Jay -- about as steady a person as Josie can imagine, and someone she likes in spite of (or because of?!) that quality -- had been down after their experience.

But the Caravan members seem nothing if not resilient. Even Jay had seemed well on the up and up the last time she'd crossed paths with the merchant.

"To be honest, inaccuracy's fine, I think. Sometimes, you don't really want to be accurate, you just want to stop whatever's coming at you. You know what I mean?" She gestures, vaguely, as if to outline the form of a large -- very large -- figure. "Some of the monsters around here are getting a touch on the big side, for one." And for the other, well.
She has enough tact not to talk about it in front of Shalune, apparently.

"We'll definitely be doing a few test runs," she says, reaching to pick the stripped down ARM off the table, which she hefts loosely for a moment in her left hand, as if re-ascertaining the weight. "It's no good if you get in trouble out in the wastes and it explodes in your hand. I can't afford that again. ...So to speak," she adds, with a lopsided smile.

Josie glances at Emma, as she comments on the subject of the pigeon drinking age. As Penelope lands at the bar, to the bemusement of the bartender.
And her shoulders slouch, as if dejected. "Aww," she breathes out, her weird little joke in apparent tatters.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"M-mm... actually, that's true," Shalune muses as the peers at the ARM, struck by Emma's comment about its components. "Probably means it's pretty old, or else pretty junky, but we can fix both those things with a little refurbishment," the indefatigable mechanic grins, her smile lighting up the room. She doesn't mean to snub Josie's pigeon joke, it just happens naturally thanks to a rather laser-focus around fixing stuff up.

Still, Emma's comment about the Guardians does make her visibly pause, and even shuffle her feet slightly. "... m-mm... well, um. From what I've seen of them, that's probably about the best you could hope for," she wonders, not exactly possessed of the greatest hope in a Guardian's power. She does at least scratch at her hair, though. "I'll admit, it-- made me wonder if I really ought to fix up Diablo. But then I figured, we can't learn more about how to use Golems properly without knowing more about Golems in general, right?"

She perks up again, and nods at Josephine's statement. "Yeah, um. I mean, you've already got some longer-range ARMs, right? I think I saw them before. So this can just be-- I dunno, filling in the gaps. Literally, if you're talkin' the air around you." She pauses, and places her hands together. "Oh, um, test fires are no problem. After people started askin' me to fix ARMs up again, I thought I'd knock up some suitable targets. I even got this box that can record how much pressure you push against something with, to check that you're gettin' enough power behind a shot."

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

Josie's needs are nodded at thoughtfully. "Exactly! Stopping power is a key part of the ARM," Emma concurs, pursing her lips. "You could in fact build it like a shotgun then, and use custom shells in order to address different needs. Will that be a big burden for you?"

Shalune then gets a laser-intense look.

"Shalune, did they tell you to stop doing that? Because I think that they aren't really together fully. They may want to discourage you from just blowing up sections of Filgaia, but I think they were pre-occupied with the Metal Demon attacks and everything." She reaches over to put a hand on Shalune's, if possible: "If god tells you not to follow your dreams, and those dreams are not 'murder everyone and eat babies,' then God is being a butthead."

After this theological segue, Emma wrinkles her nose. "Ooh I want to see that." Then back to Josephine, Emma says cheerfully, "I just had an EXCITING INSPIRATION on how we can get around the recoil!"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Shotgun-like... that could be pretty handy," Josie muses, only to briefly crack a grin as if in semi-private amusement. "As long as I can shoot it left-handed. There's some things I can do with this hand. It doesn't slow me down," and she stiffly waggles the fingers of her right, "But it's better to keep things simple and easy, you know."
The less she has to use it routinely for a shot, beyond steadying the ARM, the better.

"I agree," says Josie, briefly elbowing her way into that discussion. "How will you know what you're dealing with otherwise? Besides, who's even to say those Golems were the only ones? Let's say someone else pops up with one, and they're not fixing to play nice. It would sure be good to know how to take one down. Right?"

But then, an archaeologist with a penchant with ARMs technology probably has her own Opinions on the topic.

"Besides," she says, finally consigning the ARM core to the depths of her apparently horribly-packed bag, "Who's to say they didn't have their own goals? Heh heh, not that there's anything wrong with that," she says, grinning. "But you should chase your dream, if you have one. That's what I think." That smile she bears dims just a touch. Wistful, if anything.

And then Emma interjects, cheerfully, that she has an IDEA.

"Oh, do you? Do tell!"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"Aw-- nah, that wasn't the Guardians that told me to do that, actually. Um, no-one did - it's just somethin' I was thinking as I watched Sado tear up the desert, y'know? Miss Riese had asked me what I'd do with Diablo when I fixed it, and my only answer was 'I dunno', but then I saw that thing - it just made me wonder what I should be doing, and whether Diablo would be the same way, and it took me a while to really come to any kind of answer."

She dithers for a moment, then bites at her lip. Emma is an old friend and family member, after all. "The Guardians just told me they needed my help, but they also said I wasn't good enough and would just have to do. So, if you ask me, that kinda makes them a bit of a butthead anyways," she pouts, her cheeks puffed out solidly.

It might be the most dented she's actually looked, clearly somewhat genuinely annoyed by the way in which the events in the Temple went down - but she shakes it away once more, veering back towards Josephine. "Mm... I just wanna be careful things don't keep escalating, I guess. I mean, I'm not expectin' to save the world, or anything. It'd just be nice not to have to worry about it so much," she grins apologetically, but then beams in Emma's direction as a change of topic comes along. "Oh, oh?"

<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.

"What we do, darling," Emma says to Josie, "is make it so that the gunpowder charge just makes the actual round go phoot! out of the barrel and then ignites the rocket motor, which does the actual work. Almost no recoil! I suppose it's going to be tricky to aim."

She then muses, "I suppose it would make sense that there were more eight weapons for a global war."

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

Shalune squints very hard for a moment, then opens her mouth. And closes it again. ... that seems to be all she's got.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

This is... questionable idea, for various reasons.

Nevertheless, Josie being Josie, her response is to nod, obviously intrigued, and say, "Go on, go on."

Somewhere in the background, the bartender has begun to back away from the counter where the bird still sits.
It is a mystery.