recolle | Tachikomatic Days [Open]

Tachikomatic Days [Open]

WHO: Togusa and a new friend!
WHERE: All over the city.
WHEN: Starting on the 12th.
WHAT: Retrospec finally sent Togusa the one thing he was dreading: the intelligent spider-tank.
WARNINGS: None

It all started when Togusa got that damn ticket in the mail. He hadn't seen one in a while, so he was starting to think that he was getting passed over, or maybe even out of things to get.

And then of course the ticket had the words he had been dreading: "a blue, multi-ped, artificially intelligent tank."

Dread and despair and denial all filtered into one word, "Nooo."

So here he is! Because what was he going to do, just leave the poor thing in the mailbox? Togusa is slowly walking down the sidewalk on his usual patrol with a tank about the size of an car rolling merrily away behind him. Although it has spider-legs, each one ends in a wheel that it can smoothly roll on. The front has two almost hand-like appendages that end in three-pronged claws for gripping things. And rather than a faceplate, its 'face' is a round sphere inside of a socket that can roll in 360 degrees, with a few small dots that seem to indicate the direction it is looking in. Its rear side is a large pod, presumably where someone could ride (or drive?) from.

Please meet the Tachikoma.

Its voice closely emulates a young female child. The center almost bowling-ball sphere rolls around and around, indicating the tachikoma looking at everything around it. It's like having a five year-old and a puppy at once. But one big enough to accidentally squash anything it would come across.

"Um, Mister Togusa?"

A deep sigh, but Togusa keeps on walking. "Yeah?"

"You haven't given mission parameters yet! What is it that we're doing out here?" A little excited gesture with its claw-hands as it asks.

Togusa turns to fully regard the Tachikoma. "You really do want to be useful, don't you?"

"Uh-hunh uh-hunh!" Its nod is almost a rocking of its entire body up and down on the joints of the spider-legs.

Togusa's look turns profoundly sad. Why does he always feel so sad when he thinks about these things? It's sadder when he has one right in front of him. "You were a surprise. So I'm not sure yet."

"..Oh." The Tachikoma's sphere swivels to look down, and its entire front half looks like it sags.

Why does he feel worse about disappointing it? It's a machine, right? "But! Uh. We can figure something out! I'm sure!"

"Okay!" The Tachikoma perks up and gives as close to a salute as it can, even though its claw doesn't have the range to get to its head.

The look on Togusa's face is even more guilty when he turns to resume his walk. What the hell is he going to do with this thing!?

[OOC: Feel free to come up with your own thing if you don't like the prompts!]

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Problem 1 is actually the most obvious. It doesn't fit up the narrow staircase to his apartment. The two of them are standing outside of Togusa's apartment looking at the door dubiously, and then the Tachikoma actually sags and its claw-hands come together in an awkward twiddling motion. Is it- looking guilty?

No no, something must be done about this. So Togusa is pulling out his phone. "I'll. I'll figure out something, I promise!"

Have you happened upon this scene, or did Togusa desperately call you to try to solve this problem of where to store a frigging tank?

As if Tatsuo could turn down seeing this thing.

The moment he gets Togusa's call, he comes right over, even though he's not too sure himself where they're going to be able to stash it.

"Oh. My. God. They really sent you one!"

Sorry Togusa, Tatsuo is still enamored by the idea of a small, personal tank.

Togusa is a particularly eloquent person, for his background. But even all his attempts to describe the Tachikoma fall short in the face of it actually standing here.

It awkwardly turns around, one spider-leg moving one spider-leg at a time, until the spherical 'face' is looking at Tatsuo. The claw hands raise up in a wave.

"Oh! Hello!" Even the high-pitched child-like voice couldn't be explained properly. "I am a Tachikoma! It is a pleasure to meet you!"

Togusa, for his part, looks absolutely sheepish, and he gestures out to the sides with his hands. Ta-da. "They sent me one."

It waved at him. It actually waved at him.

Tatsuo just stares for a moment, a stunned expression on his face. Then he grins, and gives the Tachikoma a small wave back.

"Hello, my name's Tatsuo. Nice to meet you, too."

Tatsuo looks over at Togusa.

"I'm guessing your building doesn't have enough parking spaces to just... stow it in an out of the way corner? The people off the app would probably just take it for a parked vehicle."

Togusa puts a hand to his chin and ponders. "I guess I could just rent out a second parking space in the garage-"

He doesn't even get to finish that sentence before the Tachikoma is letting out the precise kind of childish whine that someone would expect out of a two year-old, not a giant battle-ready tank. "You wouldn't leave me out there all alone, would you!? Who knows what would happen? And I'd be so bored!"

Togusa's mouth drops open in disbelief, and he has to look to Tatsuo for confirmation. "This is actually happening. I'm getting whined at by a tank."

"Not just a tank, mister!"

"Now I'm getting sassed by a tank."

Tatsuo's mouth twitches slightly at the absurdity of it all. They're trying to hide a small tank the size of a car. And the tank thinks it'll get bored.

"Well, I think you insulted it by calling it a tank."

"That's right!" One claw-hand goes up. "I'm not a machine that relies on a human operator! I can function independently!"

Togusa turns back to the Tachikoma, hands out to his sides in exasperation. "Look. You have a lot of heavy ordinance. Stuff that will help out every so often, but it's a lot more dangerous than we need most of the time."

"But you're my main operator, so if you don't need my guns, you can change them out! But don't just put me in a garage because of my weaponry!"

"It's not just the weaponry," Tatsuo adds. "The level of technology you represent is a bit advanced for where we are."

Not to mention when they are.

"We're concerned you might draw some attention. Not to mention, you do need a place to... do tachikomas sleep or recharge?"

The question is posed half to the tachikoma and half to Togusa.

"And frankly you wouldn't fit in Hitori's apartment."

The Tachikoma's whole front half droops with a noise of dejected disappointment. "I do need to hook up to electricity to recharge."

Togusa's tone turns a little absent, while he looks at the Tachikoma in a studying manner. Talking out loud as he remembers. "They- sync up. When there's more than one of them, they all plugged in to the same data center every so often to synchronize their data." He gives an amused huff of laughter. "Memory consolidation, the machine version of dreaming, hunh?"

"Oh, so even if the different units recorded different data, they then share it all. That's handy. They're basically their own back up."

The fact the tachikoma does need to to plug in presents its own problems.

"We'll have to find someplace that has the right specs so you can recharge. Unless 13 amps is enough?"

Electric cars can manage with 13 amps, maybe a tachikoma could as well?

The Tachikoma bobs up and down, nodding with its whole body. "Yeah! I mean, it'll take a while, but that should be enough!"

Togusa sees what Tatsuo is getting at. "Not a house current, but the current on a car charger." He tilts his head at the Tachikoma. "There's one at the Department for the hybrid squad cars."

"That might just work."

Of course, Tatsuo is predicting it now, that all the NPCs will think Togusa has a sweet new ride whenever they see the Tachikoma charging.

"So, we've got a place to charge it, but I dunno if we can leave it in the police garage the whole time. Then again, it'd probably fit right in with the SWAT van."

"Oh boy! I can come to work with you?"

A deep, begrudging sigh. "Apparently. You're going to have to."

"Yay!" Both claw hands go in the air, and the Tachikoma rocks up, the best expression of joy it can manage.

"But you can't just stay there all the time!" Togusa tries to object. Nope, too late, he's doomed. The Tachikoma is still too joyous about the idea of going to the Department.

Tatsuo reaches over and pats Togusa's shoulder. He gets the impression taking care of this Tachikoma is going to be like taking care of a small child. Only the small child is the size of a car and has a grenade launcher.

"Should we take it over there now or when its less likely to attract attention?"

"I guess we should," Togusa sighs.

"Yippee! Woohoo!" The Tachikoma will cheer and make happy humming noises the entire way as Togusa begrudgingly leads the way up the street. At least he doesn't live too far from work?

What a sight they make, with Togusa slumped and mouth forming a thin line, and a car-sized tank bobbing along behind him, hands gesturing happily. So much for attracting attention.

"Don't look so glum, Hitori," Tatsuo says, trying not to smile too much over his friend's difficulty. "This guy could end up being really handy to have around."

"I don't know, it's-" Togusa waves a hand in the air. The Tachikoma are a difficult situation, and it's so hard to split out his own feeling and the other Togusa's.

"Handy, sure. But should it just be looked at as a tool? But what else should it be seen as?" Togusa scratches at the back of his neck. "It's all more confusing than I'd like it to be-"

Togusa is cut off by a squeal of joy from the Tachikoma. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Mister Togusa! Mister Togusa!" A claw is pointing behind the building. "What are those!?"

They've come on a special day, apparently. The mounted division is unloading their birds from the carriers. Since these are things provided by Retrospec, the chocobos are a stark contrast of full detail in a world of less resolution.

It's clear to Tatsuo that the Tachikoma is a bit more than a tool. It has a personality for one, much more sophisticated than any of the AIs that have been demonstrated on their world. As the Tachikoma enthuses over the chocobos, Tatsuo holds back a laugh.

"Those are chocobos. They're kind of like horses, only avian."

Clearly the Tachikoma doesn't share Togusa's dislike of the animals.

The Tachikoma tilts its whole body to the side to imitate a head-tilt. "Horses?"

Although Togusa's dislike is slowly going down (mostly thanks to omg baby chocobos how can you not like baby chocobos), he still sighs and shakes his head. "Go on. Not like I can stop you."

"Yahoo!" The Tachikoma lumbers over to the chocobos and waves a claw. "Hello!"

Kweh?? The birds blink their big eyes at the Tachikoma. So slowly, one of them bends down. Peck. Tink.

(This is true, baby chocobos are precious balls of fluff and anyone who dislikes baby chocobos has a problem.)

Tatsuo leans over to Togusa.

"Do they not have horses anymore? Or is it just not a subject a weaponized spider-tank should know about?"

Tatsuo hopes it's just the later.

Togusa has to scratch at his head. "I'm betting it's non-essential information? But they can learn about anything they come across, I know that."

His brow furrows tightly as he watches bird and machine discover each other. "I remember there was a big thing about them learning too much, with Section 9. But. There's no way that's a problem here."

There is a sudden deep feeling of responsibility when he looks at the Tachikoma. "Could it be- possible... I mean, instead of taking it into combat and making it fight things, could it learn to do something different?"

The Tachikoma has moved on from excitedly speaking to trying to imitate the bird sounds, to see if that will communicate better. "Kweh?" It still comes out with a mechanical twang, and startles the bird a little.

Tatsuo thinks he's following Togusa's train of though.

"If it's capable of learning, I don't see why it couldn't learn a new primary function. With how strong it is and its amiable personality, there are probably endless non-combat tasks it could perform. I'll bet its software is leaps and bounds ahead of anything we have right now."

And then he can't help but crack up at the Tachikoma trying to speak chocobo.

Togusa's brow furrows a little as he nods. "On one hand, I know it's just a machine. But on the other, it's almost like us, isn't it? Apparently necessary in the world that it comes from, the world that the other Togusa lives in. But it's found itself in this world. One that doesn't need it."

"I tell us to focus on our lives of this world, why shouldn't it do the same?"

The Tachikoma comes rolling back over excitedly. "Mister Togusa! I've collected a lot of data on the chocobos! But I still can't determine their primary function?"

"It'd be pretty interesting, seeing what it might decide to pursue."

Tatsuo sincerely hopes it's first wish is to be a dinosaur. Or a chocobo.

"A chocobo's primary function? That is a good question. This group in particular, their primary function is transportation."

The Tachikoma's bowling ball 'eye' swivels around. "Transportation? But for transportation, wouldn't machines be more efficient? These are living organisms, so they might not always be ready to transport people."

"Not always, no," Togusa admits. "But they can go places that machines can't. And, well, they're enjoyable to ride." For some people.

"Even though it's not the most efficient, people would choose to use them anyway?" A look back at Tatsuo for clarification.

"Hmmmm... I suppose it's because they feel a connection with their chocobo," Tatsuo muses. He can't really say for sure himself, but he suspects it might be a little similar to how he feels about Yujirou.

"The officers spend a lot of time with their mounts, so they know the chocobo's personality and habits. They might bring special treats just for their mount. That way, they have a close bond, and when they work together, they know what to expect of each other."

The Tachikoma wanted a mission parameter? Oh, they found one.

Walking across the city, more of those bugs started to descend on one of the buildings, threatening to chomp-chomp away on the data and destroy a part of the city. The Tachikoma is walking Togusa through removing the safety lock on its front 'snout' and revealing a gatling gun waiting there instead.

"Whoa!"

"All right!" The Tachikoma crows. "Now I can show you what I can really do!"

The back pod opens up, unfolds to show the best equivalent of a seat? The Tachikoma lowers itself and offers the spot to Togusa.

"Get in, sir!"

Togusa absolutely freezes. Get..in? How to explain to the Tachikoma that he doesn't remember how to drive this thing!?

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