Artie and Forge: New synthesiser time
Mar. 31st, 2023 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsArtie asks Forge to repair the synthesiser that was broken during the powers swap.
Artie clapped loudly for attention at the door to Forge's lab as he swung the door open, his original knock having gone unnoticed.
Forge glanced over, saw Artie, then paused his really obnoxious music and saved his work before blanking the screen. "Hey." he said to his visitor. "Artie, right? What brings you to my lab?" he asked.
Artie gave a sardonic smile. "Remember how we all had powers fuckery last week?" The text hung in the air, golden and glowing lightly. "Well, you'll never guess how that went."
"Somewhere between totally awesome and massive suck, to hear it told." he said sourly, involuntarily flexing his artificial hand. "Let me guess. You have a piece of gear that fried, dissolved, or otherwise got majorly fucked-with and you want me to fix it?" he asked.
Artie laughed silently and held up an image of a dramatic re-recreation of events. He'd woken by shocking himself in his sleep. Pain and panic had led to lightning arcing out of his hands, scoring black trails across the walls and ceilings, a small fire in the curtains and most of the tech in the room shorting out in a shower of sparks as he'd fully woken.
"You crossed the streams." he said with a laugh. "Well, let's see what we can do for you." he said, opening a new tab and searching the Mansion archives for the schematics to Artie's talkbox. "You just want another one of what you had, or this is your chance to ask for upgrades." he said with a grin. "So - whaddya want?"
Artie drummed his fingers against the desk and shrugged. He held up a wireframe diagram of the existing device and zoomed in on the speaker before pairing it with an image of himself wearing it and projected text alongside. "This is too visible. It needs to be smaller and more easily concealed in my collar or somewhere. Also, best sound quality you can manage." He shifted the view and brought up the input device - "I don't really know how this works but it reads text I project against it and turns it into speech. It needs to be faster. it lags sometimes ruining the illusion. Better battery would be good. Better connection to the speaker would be good. Can it be more waterproof? And smaller? I keep it in my pocket most of the time so it's not seen when I'm talking." The image shifted again, showing the bulge in his pocket from the input.
Forge hrmmed as he stared at Artie's projections. "Doable." he said with a small frown. "Gonna take me some time to fabricate everything, but better battery life and quicker response I know I can do." he said. "Waterproofing should be pretty easy, just don't go scuba-diving with it." he said as he thought it over, mind and power both working through the math. "Size's gonna be the tetchy part but I'll do what I can for you. Ideally, what, we're talking about something the size of a deck of cards maybe?" he mused. "Wireless, faugh, I hate Bluetooth and rewrote a comparable stack. It'll still talk to anything bluetooth, but the protocol both sucks a lot less and is more secure against random eavesdroppers." he said. "Speakers, again, that's pretty easy. Shouldn't be a big deal. Between the design work and fab time, figure give me twenty-four hours and I'll have a little something for you." he promised.
80% of that made sense. Artie held up an image of a block about an inch longer and wider than a deck of cards. It morphed into a phone and back. "That big is fine. Anything phone size would work." He paused and pursed his lips. "Not urgent. I have work arounds. If there's things on your list that are urgent, do them first."
"Dude. Relax. I got you." he said with a small laugh. "Be good to build something now that the math is back and bitchy about being ignored for a few days." he said. "I'll rough out an example, send it to you for final approval before I start the fab. Then it'' go as fast as my 3D printers can make it go, then we trim things up and do final acceptance trials."
"I figured you might be busy." The next image Artie displayed was the chapel, waves of virus wafting out through the doors and windows.
"Can't talk about it, sorry." he said with an apologetic shrug. "Good of you to worry about my calendar but this slots in nicely." he said firmly. "C'mon, you're a spy, you should get confidentiality." he said with a joking grin. "Sooner I get started, sooner you'll have a design in your mailbox to comment upon and/or approve." he pointed out as his fingers tapped his keyboard, starting a new project file and also starting the search for the original talkbox.
"Can't talk about it, sorry." he said with an apologetic shrug. "Good of you to worry about my calendar but this slots in nicely." he said firmly. "C'mon, you're a spy, you should get confidentiality." he said with a joking grin. "Sooner I get started, sooner you'll have a design in your mailbox to comment upon and/or approve." he pointed out as his fingers tapped his keyboard, starting a new project file and also starting the search for the original talkbox.
He nodded pleasantly and smiled at the clear dismissal. "Thanks! Can't wait to get it." The text floated in front of Forge's monitor for a moment before fading and Artie left with a mental note to look into the upgrades to the Chapel.
Artie clapped loudly for attention at the door to Forge's lab as he swung the door open, his original knock having gone unnoticed.
Forge glanced over, saw Artie, then paused his really obnoxious music and saved his work before blanking the screen. "Hey." he said to his visitor. "Artie, right? What brings you to my lab?" he asked.
Artie gave a sardonic smile. "Remember how we all had powers fuckery last week?" The text hung in the air, golden and glowing lightly. "Well, you'll never guess how that went."
"Somewhere between totally awesome and massive suck, to hear it told." he said sourly, involuntarily flexing his artificial hand. "Let me guess. You have a piece of gear that fried, dissolved, or otherwise got majorly fucked-with and you want me to fix it?" he asked.
Artie laughed silently and held up an image of a dramatic re-recreation of events. He'd woken by shocking himself in his sleep. Pain and panic had led to lightning arcing out of his hands, scoring black trails across the walls and ceilings, a small fire in the curtains and most of the tech in the room shorting out in a shower of sparks as he'd fully woken.
"You crossed the streams." he said with a laugh. "Well, let's see what we can do for you." he said, opening a new tab and searching the Mansion archives for the schematics to Artie's talkbox. "You just want another one of what you had, or this is your chance to ask for upgrades." he said with a grin. "So - whaddya want?"
Artie drummed his fingers against the desk and shrugged. He held up a wireframe diagram of the existing device and zoomed in on the speaker before pairing it with an image of himself wearing it and projected text alongside. "This is too visible. It needs to be smaller and more easily concealed in my collar or somewhere. Also, best sound quality you can manage." He shifted the view and brought up the input device - "I don't really know how this works but it reads text I project against it and turns it into speech. It needs to be faster. it lags sometimes ruining the illusion. Better battery would be good. Better connection to the speaker would be good. Can it be more waterproof? And smaller? I keep it in my pocket most of the time so it's not seen when I'm talking." The image shifted again, showing the bulge in his pocket from the input.
Forge hrmmed as he stared at Artie's projections. "Doable." he said with a small frown. "Gonna take me some time to fabricate everything, but better battery life and quicker response I know I can do." he said. "Waterproofing should be pretty easy, just don't go scuba-diving with it." he said as he thought it over, mind and power both working through the math. "Size's gonna be the tetchy part but I'll do what I can for you. Ideally, what, we're talking about something the size of a deck of cards maybe?" he mused. "Wireless, faugh, I hate Bluetooth and rewrote a comparable stack. It'll still talk to anything bluetooth, but the protocol both sucks a lot less and is more secure against random eavesdroppers." he said. "Speakers, again, that's pretty easy. Shouldn't be a big deal. Between the design work and fab time, figure give me twenty-four hours and I'll have a little something for you." he promised.
80% of that made sense. Artie held up an image of a block about an inch longer and wider than a deck of cards. It morphed into a phone and back. "That big is fine. Anything phone size would work." He paused and pursed his lips. "Not urgent. I have work arounds. If there's things on your list that are urgent, do them first."
"Dude. Relax. I got you." he said with a small laugh. "Be good to build something now that the math is back and bitchy about being ignored for a few days." he said. "I'll rough out an example, send it to you for final approval before I start the fab. Then it'' go as fast as my 3D printers can make it go, then we trim things up and do final acceptance trials."
"I figured you might be busy." The next image Artie displayed was the chapel, waves of virus wafting out through the doors and windows.
"Can't talk about it, sorry." he said with an apologetic shrug. "Good of you to worry about my calendar but this slots in nicely." he said firmly. "C'mon, you're a spy, you should get confidentiality." he said with a joking grin. "Sooner I get started, sooner you'll have a design in your mailbox to comment upon and/or approve." he pointed out as his fingers tapped his keyboard, starting a new project file and also starting the search for the original talkbox.
"Can't talk about it, sorry." he said with an apologetic shrug. "Good of you to worry about my calendar but this slots in nicely." he said firmly. "C'mon, you're a spy, you should get confidentiality." he said with a joking grin. "Sooner I get started, sooner you'll have a design in your mailbox to comment upon and/or approve." he pointed out as his fingers tapped his keyboard, starting a new project file and also starting the search for the original talkbox.
He nodded pleasantly and smiled at the clear dismissal. "Thanks! Can't wait to get it." The text floated in front of Forge's monitor for a moment before fading and Artie left with a mental note to look into the upgrades to the Chapel.
