Description: Tropical Paradise becomes a working vacation as the hired shinobi Kasumi is called in to help recover a deceased Illuminati operative.
Only a few minutes ago, Kasumi received an urgent message, as follows.
'Hey doll,
RT went and blew an operation, and now the eggheads are saying he needs some TLC. Pick up a care package from the gentleman (ha, as if) who runs the docks out there, and follow the GPS tracker in it to RT's body. (That's the magic little screen.) It's easy to use; just set the little gray box on his body and push the button. Oh, and when he wakes up, make him eat that cookie.
And buy a bra, would you?
Ciao-ciao,
KG'
To say that Robo-Tran needs a little TLC is... an understatement. The 'man' is lying in the jungle maybe a two minute walk from the edge of the still-ongoing party where he met Angel, his arms rigidly locked at his sides. Bruises cover his body, and the side of his neck is bulging outwards like something has broken inside. Blood has pooled under his head, where it has since stopped seeping from the massive shard of glass embedded in his face, bisecting his entire right eye socket, the eyeball visibly split in half. There's also a huge smear of blood across his right knee, although there is no visible wound.
Most notably, however, he is completely nude, and apparently was defeated in a state of some... excitement. Far worse than that, however, is that his manhood (robothood?) has been snapped halfway along the length.
And to think, it's still almost a month until Kasumi's birthday!
Even to this day, Kasumi barely has any idea who she is even working for. No one tells her anything outside of the parameters of whatever operation she's sent on. The only times she ever gets to go to one of the super secret hidden bunker bases is when Urien wants to hit on her while giving her some new target to spy on or harass. But the pay is great and having a mysterious employer is better than her previous career path of 'living in a collapsing ruin', so she hasn't complained any.
Of course, it does mean getting strange interruptions at times. Having left the party to tour the island while the rest of it would be the least crowded, the recklessly carefree Exile has procurred a pink sundress with a floral pattern and a white gradiant toward the short sleeved top of it. At the time of the message, she was just in the process of trying on hats in the company of a small camera crew and young man narrating her every action as she gives the different headpieces a try.
Phone checked, message read, careful to hold the device to keep the text from getting caught on camera, Kasumi's hand starts to reach toward her chest as she gets to the last line, feeling more self-conscious than she has in a while. Stowing her phone, she exchanges the appropriate quantity of $Z for the straw sunhat in her left hand at the time, and sets off. Dodging the camera crew is trivial though other cameras will pick her from a distance: visiting the docks where she engages in conversation with the operator and recoiling from him on more than one occasion; wandering toward the jungle staring at something in her hands that looks like like it was crafted out of the case of the original Game Boy.
As she circles in on the location, however, the mercenary kunoichi proves to be a lot more careful. Taking her time, she pauses often, listening for sounds of others present over the beat of the late running party. One by one, the cameras covering this section of the thick jungle go dark as she passes by each one, plucking their batteries out in passing, all without ever being caught on film.
And finally, she moves into what must have been the field of an incredible battle that maybe no one will ever know about if the network censors have their way. The sight is gruesome and one look at the damaged operative. Watching her step, Kasumi drops down next to the one and only Robo-Tran and shakes her head. Was he fighting a person or a tiger?
Her instructions where clear enough. Put the device on his body: check - Kasumi rests the package on Robo-Tran's naked, bruised chest.
Push the button: check - Expecting the worst mental acuity imaginable from their field operatives, they did keep it simple. There appears to only BE one button. It gets pressed.
"Hang in there. This will... help?"
Truth be told, the look on her face suggests that she has no idea what to expect from this. Robo-Tran looks far beyond the help of a 1980's portable gaming device that only has a single button. How are you even suppost to play that?
Sweeping her hat off, she wipes her forehead, frequently glancing around the site, clearly suspicious that whoever was responsible for this could still be around. And what if someone wanders over from the party? Couldn't he have gotten destroyed somewhere more discrete?
When Kasumi presses the button on what is, in fact, basically an Atari joystick with no joystick...
... nothing happens.
At least for about ten seconds; then the little metal square suddenly splits open, and out swarm hundreds and hundreds of miniscule metallic bugs. They swarm across the fallen robot's flesh, and where they cross bruised and broken flesh, they burrow into it, the synthetic skin splitting open and then resealing, whatever's underneath it bulging upwards grotesquely.
The air fills with miniscule pops and cracks, like small firecrackers going off. The glass shard embedded in Robo-Tran's face slides out and flops onto the ground next to his head as his eye and face are stitched back together.
The whole thing is capped off with one final, notably loud snap as Robo-Tran's 'business' is repaired, and then the swarm retreats back into the box lying on his chest, which slides closed again silently.
And then the robot's entire body spasms wildly, small arcs of electricity leaping across his naked body. The surge ends, and Robo-Tran suddenly sits bolt upright, his eyes snapping open and the box on his chest tumbles into his lap.
Robo-Tran just sits there for a moment, staring straight ahead, and then slowly turns to stare at Kasumi.
"I am repaired," he says, slowly and uncertainly, his voice a monotone.
When the box first splits, she's paying close attention to it. The swarm looks almost like a thick fluid at first, until the incredibly small devices start to spread out over his entire body and Kasumi recoils up to her feet, taking a step back in wide-eyed alarm. Whatever she expected to see from the little miracle device, apparently repair bugs was not high on the list.
She watches from a distance, glancing around on occasion. If someone stumbled across this it would be hard to offer any explanation that would sound more probable than it simply being a tryst into the jungle between two of the stunningly attractive people drawn to Zack Island until they got close enough to see the male of the couple was being operated on by millions of tiny metal bugs. Fortunately, the coast remains clear. She glances back at him at the audible snap of The Hammer being repaired at last, a faint blush crossing the cheeks of the runaway shinobi as she averts her eyes to the side.
Finally, the swarm goes back to whatever technomagic nest they came from inside the box and it seals itself shut, but Kasumi is only given further encouragement to keep her distance as electricity begins forking over his powerfully built if short body. Just when she was beginning to wonder if maybe something had gone even more catastrophically wrong, he suddenly sits up, the repair box tumbling off his scuplted chest.
"So it seems. Do you remember what happened to you? Do you need any-" She snaps her right finger and moves closer to him, cautious to watch how he reacts. "Here, use this until I can figure out where all your clothes ended up," she murmurs, slipping her straw sunhat to drop it into his lap to give him temporary makeshift modesty.
"Also, you're supposed to eat a cookie." From the shoulder tote bag she purchased earlier, she pulls the care package she got from the docks out and puts it down to inspect it for cookies. "Who did this to you? Will they come back?" She frowns a little, then shakes her head, "Sorry for so many questions, I'm probably not even supposed to know," she admits with a faint laugh. She's not really sure why she's trying to talk a robot out of a post-traumatic breakdown in the first place. He's probably not even programmed for shock given the state she found him in.
Robo-Tran says nothing to Kasumi's initial fretting, slowly removing the box from his lap and setting it aside. It's quickly replaced by a straw hat, which earns Kasumi a puzzled look from the robot.
It isn't hard to find Robo-Tran's clothing, at least; his pair of dark blue board shorts are lying at the foot of a nearby tree, along with the remains of what can only generously be called a black leather bikini. Also surrounding the pile of fallen clothes; the remains of a shattered glass bottle, and a stretch of damp earth that smells stronly of alcohol, and a little like fish.
When Kasumi looks up from retrieving the next item from her tote, Robo-Tran is just finishing rising to his feet. Luckily for her, the straw hat she put on his lap is staying there, hanging in front of his groin.
Wow, really, still? What a trooper.
He accepts the care package with stiff, mechanical movements, and only once he's certain she's finished asking her questions does he respond, in precisely proper order.
"I suffered system failure during battle with the assassin known as 'Angel.' I seduced her, lured her away from the party, and after lowering her guard by engaging in sexual intercourse with her, I attempted to eliminate her."
"I doubt she will return to the scene," he assures Kasumi. "In the moments before my shutdown, I struck her with a fireman's carry knee lift and broke her nose. She is a vain woman and will likely get it repaired before any new public appearances are made."
"The extent of your knowledge of my operations are of no concern to me. However, based on the results of the past hour, I believe any further attempts at eliminating any of the Deck should be made as a coordinated effort."
"Except for the Other," he adds, after a beat.
Having handed off the package to him, Kasumi has taken to moving about the area, coming up with his shorts after a brief moment. She's listening though, trying to process the scenario in her mind as he recounts it. The name 'Angel' is noted. An assassin? Well, there are likely to be many dangerous people on this island... Zack's swarm of invitations were pretty wide spread. Who knows what kind of people got their hands on them. Some killers might be here trying to enjoy their vacation. Others might be here specifically after a mark. Hayabusa's warning about this very danger to hear earlier in the evening feels especially warranted now.
It's his next line that has her a little confused though. Seduced her? Talking so matter of factly? What kind woman was it that was lured away from the party with that monotone voice? Or did he just gesture toward his endowment and let it do the seducing? "S-so it's not just cosmetic," she stammers, not meaning to say that out loud but finding herself more than surprised at the thoroughness of his engineering.
The shorts are offered before she turns around. For a robot, he has a pretty indepth personality analysis on his target. But at his suggestion, the young shinobi nods her head slowly. "I do want to help, but..." she leans her head from one side to the other, her back still toward him, arms folded beneath her chest, "Well, I need to know what we are going up against... why they need to be eliminated. Taking a life is a solemn decision to make... it has to be to protect those important to you."
She'd turn once she was confident he was dressed. "We better be careful though. If Angel has allies, they could attack you back at any time. I doubt they know about me though, I'm just the hired help," she finishes with a faint smile. The words would be accompanied by a cursory inspection of Robo-Tran's condition at this point. That he exists at all is a marvel in and of itself.
Kasumi's waxing poetic about the weight of taking a life earns her a look from Robo-Tran like she was just opening her mouth and letting bees spill out.
"Angel is an assassin in the long-term employ of the organization NESTS. If morality is your concern, rest assured that she is considered by our resident psychologist team a high-functioning sociopath and has killed, to date, an estimate two and three dozen targets whose deaths are categorized unnecessary."
"As regards my sexual functions," he continues, without hesitation, "I am capable of a full range of human-like functions to enable seamless integration into all possible social settings. I find it distasteful, but it is, on occasion, the best way to approach an objective. I am mathematically perfectly aesthetically pleasing, within the confines of-- of my appearance." He rolls smoothly over the hitch, but it's noticable. A glitch?
Only then does he seem to remember he's holding a box; he looks down and it, and mechanically opens it with his other hand. After a moment, he looks up at Kasumi, and says, "I do not wish to consume this cookie."
Kasumi's right arm drops down against her side, left arm draped across her stomach, hand closed over her right forearm. She listens to the clinical analysis of who it was Robo-Tran was attempting to eliminate and offers a slight nod of acknowledgement, mouth curling into a faint frown. When it comes to NESTS and those who readily further the cause of that vile cartel, the limits of who she is willing to pursue with lethal intent seem to flex a little. She's seen their handiwork in more than one damaged soul.
"All right, I can... I can help deal with NESTS. Did you pursue her here or did you just take the first chance-" She never gets through her question as he transitions topics into a thorough explanation about what his body is capable of, bringing back that faint blush of hers. "Right." She is looking at him a bit curiously following the hesitation in his vocal programming.
But all thoughts regarding the previous topics go out of mind as he expresses a desire to not eat the cookie. The instructions she received were really quite clear on the subject of consuming the cookie. "W-what? Why not? I'm afraid you really need to eat that cookie. I'm sure it will be good for you." Faint frown. "Unlike most cookies. I-it's probably a special cookie. So..." she looks at him hopefully, lifting her hands to press them together in front of her as she waits. The last thing she wants to do is not follow through on the details and raise questions about her competency!
Robo-Tran looks down at the cookie in the box, and then up at Kasumi again, and then back down at the cookie. He will find an escape from the loop, he tells himself. It is only a delay.
Carefully and deliberately, Robo-Tran withdraws the cookie from the box and raises it to his mouth. As he eats it, he locks eyes with Kasumi. It is a weird combination of unnerving and erotic.
As he finishes the cookie, he swallows exaggeratedly, closing his eyes... and then opens them again, and tells Kasumi, voice still monotone, "Okay, we got him back. That glass fucked up the inhibition chip we put on him... the way he is about Dick, that could have gone south fast."
"All better now, though. -- uh, KG is saying to tell you it's okay if you want to... what? Okay, specifically, she says, 'do you want to use it, or do you just want to stare at it all day.' I think she means, uh... sorry," he adds, after a beat.
Each time he looks up, she's still waiting hopefully, giving him a supportive smile though her eyes betray a sense of some doubt. Why in the world is he supposed to eat a cookie? He's a robot. That just got repaired to perfection as best she can tell. Carbs and sugars don't really seem like they'd be a high priority right now. But orders are orders.
She maintains that gaze, only blinking on occasion, as she watches him eat it at last. When he finally swallows, she inhales then exhales with relief, "There, that wasn't so-" Only to stop short as he speaks up again. The sound is the same as when he first rebooted and addressed her, but the voice is not his.
"Huh?" Her hand lifts to rub at her cheek, the girl leaning to the side a little, looking at Robo-Tran with renewed curiosity, as if expecting someone extremely short to step out from behind him all the sudden.
It clicks that she's talking to his handlers then and seems to stiffen up a little - a touch nervous every time she has any encounters with the people behind the organization she's ostensibly working for. Is she going to be given new orders? Is she going to be thanked for her help?
No... not exactly, though the curvy ninja is given an offer of another sort, at least? "What? N-no. That's..." she shakes her head. It was easy to forget that he wasn't a real person even with his monotone voice. But speaking to the people behind the robot strips away that illusion in a completely unsettling way.
"Um. Let me know if I can be of any further help." she mumbles out the last bit, running her hand through her chestnut hair. She takes a step back then, offering one more glance around the battleground, before adding, "I imagine someone will be along soon to fix all the cameras... I'm going to make sure to not be around when they do."
Another step back before she turns to the side, looks toward the constructed psuedo-life over one more time, finding the cookie-inflicted change to be nothing short of unsettling. "I'll see you around then, RT." A lift of her hand to offer a short wave with a parting smile before Kasumi slips away at last.
Log created on 03:14:54 02/01/2015 by Kasumi, and last modified on 11:56:38 02/04/2015.