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[HughYeman]

Cool!

You posted the 'phone' link, here's the regular one.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12964148/1/Dear-Faye

Oh yeah... never occurred to me that that might be a problem. Thanks. I modified the op.

[HughYeman]

I really liked that.  Describing what one feels is hard enough even when it's not across different plarforms...

And you seem to have captured Bubbles' voice quite well.  Nicely done!

High praise indeed! Thank you! If feels almost impossible to really nail Bubbles's voice, but making it sound authentic to her was my first priority.

[BenRG]

Fanfiction Hook - The Champions
An idea that has been slowly developing in my mind over the past few days.

What will Roko do now that she has quit being a cop? Well, after a while, she succumbs to May's continual instance that she become a private investigator. This mostly seems to be motivated by May's (and possibly Melon's) romantic TV-influenced view of PIs being the hard-bitten men and women who help those whom the 'system' won't help to find justice and to protect the innocent from The Big Men.

Of course, it isn't anything like that and Roko frankly despairs of the long list of 'I'm sure that my [$significant_other] is cheating on me! Prove it!' cases coming her way. Oh, they pay the bills but it's hardly helping out the poor and downtrodden, is it?

That's when she is asked to do some surveillance and dumpster diving by a android attorney, a female-identifying synthetic named Gooddeed Masque ('Please, call me Goody; I regret choosing that name every day of my life!'). It turns out that Masque and Bigbody are a pair of robot attorneys looking to give legal services to the poor, ethnic minorities and synthetics. They're idealists but Roko can't help but admire those ideals. Besides, having an attorney oversee her work makes it a lot easier to stay on the right side of the law.

About at this time a vigilante known only as the Hellion of Northampton has started beating up gangsters and petty crooks in the poorer areas of town, especially those groups with explicitly bigoted motives. I think that you can see where this going. Along the way, Roko is motivated to actually take action on a militant level against major organised crime and bigotry that the corrupt Northhampton authorities are ignoring. She's clever enough to do it in disguise and the legend of The Avenger, a heavily (if non-lethally)-armed vigilante who side-steps courts and juries by providing a punishment all of her own begins to grow in the area, even as far away as Boston.

Eventually, lots of the other lady synthetics get involved too.

Major Cast:
Gooddeed Masque/Hellion - A female-identifying synthetic attorney-at-law determined to bring the protection of the law to the poor, the minorities and the synthetic. Frustration at the level of official indifference and even hostility from the authorities led her to vigilantism, aided by her chassis's way-over civilian specification sensors and motor systems; she can see in the dark and has sonar/radar of sorts. She can react fast enough to dodge bullets or catch weapons mid-air! Momo suspects that she may have been augmented and programmed with combat software by someone at some point but Goody is very closed about her background so this is mostly a guess;

Foghorn Bigbody - A male-identifying synthetic (maybe looks a bit like Punchbot). He knows the Goody's secrets (she is an old friend) and continually tries to persuade her to stop putting on the mask;

Suzy Hobbes - Goody and Foggy's human PA/receptionist (the firm's 'token meatsack', she jokes - Goody usually tells her off for putting herself down at that point);

Roko Basilisk, P.I./The Avenger - An idealistic soul seeking to make a positive difference to society and Masque and Bigbody's favoured investigator; when she judges the need is there, she slips into her anti-heroic alter-ego, The Avenger. She uses a wide range of non-lethal electromagnetic (tesla rifles, concussion guns and the like) and chemical delivery weapons to tip the balances of force and terror against the guilty;

May/Dragongrrl - It turns out that, as implied by her improvised kata with one of Dale's prop knives, May is very good at oriental martial arts and, after saving Roko's life during one caper, decides to set herself up as a pseudo-ninja. When she isn't violating her parole terms, she is Roko's unofficial partner as certain sorts people are more likely to talk to an ex-con than an alleged ex-cop and gumshoe;

Arthur - Roko's admin guy. He's had enough of being Melon's house-husband and wants a career of his own; surprisingly, is pretty organised.

Momo/Thunderfist - Momo is strictly Roko and May's 'research girl'. Her access to the country's library networks via Smif College is good enough that there is no record that she can't find in time. However, she's a skilled martial artist too (she kept the software that came with her original Sony chassis) and has learned to use her tasers to enhance her attacks and block attacks in turn. As much as she despises violence, she won't let May get hurt. Besides, so many of these people are so... so... mean! She can't let them get away with it!

Bubbles/Steel - Another reluctant recruit who is only really interested in protecting the local community but falls in with the group largely by accident when Roko helps her prove her innocence after she has to use force to protect Faye from a homophobic/synthephobic attack after a date (the cops call her a 'runaway unit' and, until Roko and May dig up the evidence, no-one is willing to believe it was self-defence). She's fantastically tough (functionally bullet-proof) and strong, so she's very much the group's tank. She and Momo have a party-piece where Momo uses her supercharged punch on the palm of Bubbles' hand creating a wide-area EMP and concussion wave  that can clear a whole room of hostiles!

SpookyBot - May or may not be behind Goody's off-the-books modifications as well as May's new chassis (which appears after May gets involved for the first time); what is their agenda?

Beatrice Chatham/The Queen of Crime - The shadowy figure behind the corruption in Massachusetts, or so it seems. Will the team ultimately be the ones to bring her down?

[Carl-E]

When I see Suzy Hobbes, all I can think of is...

[BenRG]

I freely admit that, when I was sketching out my idea, I thought of 'Hobbes' as a surname and immediately thought of a certain little girl. It just seemed right to me.

[shanejayell]

For Beatrice, we'd need a motive for her being a super criminal. Other than her just being generally evil of course. 
Possibly just basic boredom. She's beaten everyone in business, there's nothing there to challenge her anymore... so why not crime?

[Gyrre]

I suppose this would just be a small exercise, but.....

I was thinking of using that doll maker to do up a version of Durian, Kiwi, and Peach (the winners of last week's poll). Since each of the fruit sisters seems to have some sort of quick (physical, behavioral or psychological), does anyone have any suggestions for them? Suggestions for fashion would also be appreciated.

While logical, Durian smelling bad feels kind of mean to do.

[Shremedy]

I want to see an actual in-the-flesh meeting between Melon and Freefall's Florence Ambrose, because I strongly suspect that she, possibly alone of all QC robots, would have the natural (Helix-esque) reaction of throwing her hands in the air and responding "DOGGY!" 

Well, that's not true.  Spookybot would know the "proper" way to greet a Bowman's Wolf, and would do so with supreme irony, because they would also know that Helix coined it, and that Helix is (as robots go) otnay-ootay-ightbray.  Not his fault, the early versions of Bowman's algorithm were a little on the aggressive side when it came to the neural pruning phase.

But what would be REALLY funny, upon meeting Spookybot, for Florence to throw her hands in the air and reply with "Yay!  Newfriend!"  because she would have possibly know that name from either her own knowledge of AI's or being told by the Savage Chicken's AI.

[Gyrre]

An older man in his mid fifties with a medium olive skin tone, and steely grey hair silvering at the temples enters the firing room. He's wearing what's clearly a military officer's dress uniform under the labcoat he has over it. He's finisjing up a phone call on his cell phone.

COLONEL: "No, no. They just need to be self-guided, not sentient. I don't know which would keep me up more, a missile suddenly having a moral and existential crisis midflight, or one that wanted to blow things up.... Uh huh... I'm glad we agree on that....Well thank you for your time, Mx Tilly. And give that old coot and that bastard boyfriend of yours my regards. I miss 'em both."
He chuckles to himself softly as he hangs up.

BEEPATRICE: looking surprised "Colonel Brockherd! Our meeting wasn't for another hour."

COLONEL BROCKHERD: strolling past Beeps and extending a friendly handshake to Claire
"So you're our new hire, eh? Glad to have you aboard! Are you excited to join our R&D team?"
He turns to Beepatrice. "Have you gotten her the nondisclosure forms yet?

BEEPATRICE: hands up in protest "But sir, I-"

COLONEL BROCKHERD: scowling slightly and raising one hand "Look, I know you hate paperwork, but you've got to get around to it eventually. Please just go get ger the NDA."

BEEPATRICE: [somewhat frazzled] "Y-yes sir." She salutes a bit awkwardly and leaves the room, trading a nervous glance with Claire before exiting.

COLONEL: big warm welcoming smile "Now then, I'm sure you're excited to see what this whole thing is a front for, but that will have to wait for a bit. I'm Col. Brockherd I doubt you've heard of me, but that's okay."

CLAIRE: nervously shakes his hand. "Uhm... Claire Augustus. I'm trained as a librarian."

COLONEL BROCKHERD: raises his eyebrows and leans back slightly. "Ahh! More on the research side of things, that's good. You don't look like a Ranger, but I bet you get that a lot. Some of our paperwork's a bit more disorganized than I'd like, but Beeps," jerks thumb back towards the door, "Beeps is a good kid. A bit spacey sometimes but a hell of a fine researcher."

CLAIRE: "Well, that's ...good."

Beepatrice returns with a stack of papers and nervously hands them to the colonel. The colonel starts flipping through them and scribbling his signature and initials on various pages.

COLONEL BROCKHERD: still flipping through pages. "Say, that name sounds familiar. Augustus... Augustus....hmmmm."
Handing over the stack of papers he starts indicating signature and initial lines to Claire. "We'll need you to sign here, here, initial here here and here. Sign here and here. And here. This is legal documentation, so please do read it before signing. It's important. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them."

Claire looks up at the colonel, then to Beepatrice behind him. Beepatrice shrugs. Claire takes the papers and a deep breath before starting to read through and sign.

CLAIRE: [very faintly] "What if you've mistaken me for someone else and I'm not supposed to be reading this?"

COLONEL BROCKHERD: "I'm sorry, if you said something O didn't catch it. I am hard of hearing." He snaps his fingers. "I know where I know your name from now!"

Claire and Beepatrice both look at him in surprise

CLAIRE AND BEEPS: [in unison] "You do?"

COLONEL BROCKHERD: points excitedly at Claire. "Scuttlebutt has it that one of my former soldiers is living you. How's Bubbles doing, anyway? I heard about what happened to her squad."

CLAIRE: "Um... Well she's doing pretty great. She's started a repairshop for sythetics with one of our other rommates. But business is a bit slow."

COLONEL BROCKHERD: "That's great! I'll have to swing by some time and catch up. Might have to see if she can give my leg a better tine-up than the VA."

There's a knock at the door and a generic looking AI chassis peeks in.

INTERN AI: "there you are, Ms. Beepatrice. You're 10 o'clock is here for orientation."

BEEPATRICE: [Very nervously] "Th-thank you."

The colonel turns to Beepatrice with a raised eyebrow. Claire looks up from the page she's half through reading about a third of the way through the stack.

COLONEL: eyes narrowing [sternly] "Beepatrice, is there something you need to tell me?"

BEEPATRICE: wringing her hands anxiously [panicking] "I'm so sorry, sir! i tried to tell you, but then you told me to go get the paperwork- and then I thought 'He needs to sign it anyway when the new hire gets here. It'll save him some time later.' And then you handed her the stack andhadherstartreading!!!"

COLONEL: shoulders hunched, face palms and -_-

CLAIRE: "I was too nervous to say anything and I really need a job. And I panicked. I'll forget everything I read! I swear!"

COLONEL BROCKHERD: raising his hands to try to calm them both "Ladies, ladies. A moment, please." He waits for them to both stop. "Now Beepatrice, this is largely my fault for making assumptions and being excited that we'd finally get this project under way. I steamrolled over your objections without thinking. Please put your foot down next time. You're not a soldier, afterall." Turning to Claire. "Now Ms Augustus, Bubbles is one of the best soldiers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Damned bright and a good read on people. If she's willing to vouch for you, then I have two new hires. We needed two for this job anyways. And if you're a trained librarian, you're probably more than qualified for what we need yoy for. Please submit your resume ASAP. I will need to to sign a different NDA since you were actually reading what was in the first one. You've got to be sworn to secrecy on that."

CLAIRE: looking surprised but a bit calmer "I-I... Thank you, sir."

BEEPATRICE: still a bit frazzled "I'll go get the form sir. Form 223B-00P5I3?"

COLONEL BROCKHERD: nodding "Yes, the Oopsie form." Turning to Claire with a somewhat fatherly smile. "Don't mention it." He winks at her.


Had to get this short thing out otherwise I wasn't getting any sleep. It's basically my 5AM, so I'm already screwed.

EDIT: I've been reading this comic pretty much since Claire was introduced, you'd think I'd be able to write her better. I'll blame the mental fatgue.
BTW, no idea where the name 'Brockherd' came from. May or may not be a pun.

[Pilchard123]

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-02-07