501/Prototype Testing

Prototype Testing
Date of Scene:	25 September 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Heartstealer rifles are generally explained, practiced with, and handed out.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Norie Okana, Catra

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera has asked for volunteers to test a new weapon (and to get in good with the Death Busters and Obsidian as a whole by potentially bringing back Pure Hearts) - Catra and Norie both signed up, and to ease the process he's invited them both down at the same time. Besides, the vampire-girl and the cat-woman have never really interacted to Takashi's knowledge.

    So, at the appointed time, Takashi is standing in the reception-hall part of his area of Obsidian (the only part really in Obsidian's space) where he's moved some things around to set up a couple of targets, and on the counter there are three... very strange looking rifles. Two of them are in pink-purple with an odd glowing liquid, and one of them is in yellow and has nothing in it at all. He doesn't know if Catra's fired a rifle, and he's pretty sure Norie hasn't. So the two of them should be arriving at roughly the same time to see him standing behind that massive wooden desk.

    "Just a quick weapons purpose, use, and safety overview, and all that." Takashi says. "Then you can take your new toys and go hunting."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana wanted to get into good graces with people besides Takashi and this seemed like an easy job. You're pointing something and shooting and checking for something.

OKAY, so Norie Okana also wondered what a 'Pure Heart' was and also wanted to see how one tasted. She wondered if it was energy? Something she could hold...?

Could she hold one for later and drain it later? She didn't know.

She arrives and has with her, her messenger bag and is wearing her school uniform. She looks her usual neutral self, which may come off as delightfully bored. "I'm here, taka-senpai." she said softly.

Catra has posed:
     Catra arrives two minutes late; which is precisely on brand. She's a cat afterall, she arrives when she decides to, not when someone tells her to.

"Hey," she greets, all non-challant as she saunters in.

     The feline has absolutely no idea what a Pure Heart Stealing Gun is all about -- or even what a Pure Heart is supposed to be all about, really, other than someone who's cute and sweet and probably punchable -- but it's a gun, it oughta be good for hurting things, and basically why not. She glances at the guns on the table, then at Takashi, and then Norie who got here just before her.

     "So, questions," she starts off with. "What's a Pure Heart all about? ...Pretend you're talking to someone who's relatively recently arrived from an alternate dimsnion." She pauses, and ahems. "Actually, don't pretend."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's not something I think I've covered with either of you." Takashi says as Catra walks in late. Whatever, he didn't expect much different. At least she showed. "First, Catra, this is Norie, Norie, Catra. Catra's under me for the sake of administrative organization but usually she just does her own thing." he explains, shrugging. He knows the score. "Anyways. I don't know if you've fired guns or rifles, on your world, Catra? But I'd doubt Norie has. So we'll start from the top, one of these is for practice and fires basically simulation recoil, cause these rounds are a pain to make."

    "Pure heart crystals, linker cores, all the same thing. The concentrated magical energy, potential, purity, yada yada of a person." he begins. Takashi is not the best at presentations. He does, however, have a picture. "Long story short we're looking for these. They're concentrated sources of energy, they only lurk in people who have 'Pure Hearts' hence the imaginative name, and hence why you can't really go ripping them out of anybody in Obsidian. The purer the heart the brighter the crystal the more energy we can pull out the more it's worth." He picks up the yellow rifle.

    "Look down the sight, aim for the center mass of the target. You want to hit the torso." He explains, and pulls the trigger on the modified practice rifle. A foam sphere shoots out of it, and it smacks audiably into one of the dummies. "There's a little recoil, but it's really not important cause you only are gonna get the one shot. They can be reloaded but not quickly. Better to think of them as one-and-done. Shoot the rifle, grab the shiny crystal that comes out of the person, return for a reward."

    "In the event you shoot somebody who isn't pure they're probably just gonna go down like a sack of potatoes but there won't be any crystal to snag. I shot Ted with it and he just got to go home early. Otherwise I'd use him to demo. In the unlikely but possible event you shoot a crystal out and then the crystal becomes something else - mirrors, swords, tiny statues, pretty much changes from a crystal into anything else - stop -whatever- you're doing, grab it, call in an all aid response and half of Obsidian will be down there to cover you. Don't call for no reason, though. We can lose a crystal, we just can't lose a talisman or similar."

    "Sparkleskirts are gonna try to put the crystals back into people because having your mystical heart shot out of you is not super great for your health." He pats the rifle. "These aren't toys. They're not for the squeamish. We should be able to pull an immense amount of energy out of Pure Heart Crystals - but the person you shoot them out of will be harmed, they could possibly even die, depending on their magical strength, access to treatment, yadayada. So don't just aim at random people. Make sure it's somebody who you're alright walking away from. Think of it like a ballstic firearm in that sense. Aim carefully, shoot with purpose." Takashi is actually underselling the threat, even to his knowledge. But right now he doesn't know how likely the lethal side effects are. "If you're aiming at a viable target the rifle makes kind of an... electronic buzzing sound. You can't miss it."

    He puts the training rifle down on the desk. "Alright, can you both take some test shots? The yellow rifle is magically set to act like the real thing, it's a perfect training weapon."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana looks towards Catra. She blinks a little. "Hello." she says, like she's absolutely nonplused about meeting a catgirl. Maybe that's for the best. She doesn't think too hard about it. Else. She might become like someone else she knows that's constantly is asking questions. She shifts a bit in place as Takashi explains the strange guns.

She listens to how Ted got blasted. She snorts in a dumb way and places a hand to her lips. She covers her mouth and takes a breath.

She then picks up the gun and looks it over carefully. She's used a Super Soaker before. Last summer. When she could still have 'fun'. This. Isn't a super soaker.

She fires off a shot and the blast makes her flinch heavily as she tenses, eyes closing some tightly.

"W..wow." she says, breathlessly a moment.

Catra has posed:
     "I'm trained in lots of weapons," Catra acknowledges, "Including guns, and I've fired them before." Well, mostly a stun gun, but what's the difference really? Definitely Catra prefers melee weaponry (and her claws) but she's not about to let on to that right now. Afterall, she wants to shoot the gun; particularly, she wants to shoot it at someone. It sounds like great stress relief.

     "I'll definitely take the practice shots though. So, basically we're just looking for regular people with good magic potential, so we can go ahead and shoot it out of them? Then grab it and get lost before anyone can get upset?" She quirks an eyebrow upwards. "And if other stuff comes out, call for backup. Got it."

     The feline watches Norie, the one who seems to have a lousy attitude towards cat girls -- an attitude that gets palpably returned -- take her shot and flinch. "Here," she says, holding out her hand. "My turn."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Pretty much. These are prototypes - hence the whole one shot and bring it back for a complicated reloading effort. All of the dangerous parts should be well worked out of them so I just need you to make sure the big black sphere consistently goes into someone, heart crystal comes out. It's sort of... we're at the field testing stage. Beyond all of the laboratory/make sure it doesn't explode in your hands stages. Please don't leave them anywhere, though. Bring them back. Last thing we need is the sparkleskirts figuring out what we're up to or how it works. Also... speaking of. I have no idea if it'll work on someone in henshin. It's not what you're heading out to test." he adds.

    "But yeah. I don't think this will be the longest session of standing around taking demo shots ever or anything. I just wanted to go over all of this, get you a little acquainted. Once you're using it in the field you can tell me if I should make adjustments to the training, or to usability, or whatever. But... it's a gun. Shoot bang get crystal." he says, shrugging.

    "Oh, yeah, it's a little bulky and rifle may give you the idea that you can shoot this from far away but you really can't, Maybe a hundred feet? Anything past that and the magic shot starts to lose cohesion. Working on that, too."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana hands the rifle over to Catra for her to take a few shots. The girl doesn't seem too thrilled about anything in particular.

"Right. So. If. That.." she says. "Comes out. Bring it here. But. if anything else comes out... call for. Backup." she says. She shifts a bit.

"I wonder what one tastes like..." she wonders aloud and says. "I mean..."

"One of these crystals not..."

"The gun..."

Catra has posed:
     Catra takes the rifle, and aims down the sites. While Norie is busy wondering what a crystal tastes like, the feline is busy aiming; but she takes the time to shrug. "Eat one," she suggests. Yeah, that's right; see what happens.

     Catra doesn't take overly long to aim before she fire. She has the rifle couched nice and tight into her shoulder, and fired when she was at just the right point of exhaling. It's not a bullseye, but it's not too far off either.

     She didn't flinch at the report or the flash either, but one could argue she'd already seen it and knew what to prepare for. Probably Catra would argue that she's just good. Who can say?

"Maybe don't want to do this right in the middle of a crowded street, either," she suggests, already looking down the sights once more. "Can my disguise conceal this, too?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi watches both of them take practice shots. Mostly he just didn't want their first experience with the recoil and report of the gun to be in the field. But they have good questions. Well... mostly. "I mean, I wouldn't eat it. They're sharp and pointy. Assuming that matters. I mean if you get one, feel free to lick it. For Science." he says, shrugging.

    "I suspect not. We didn't have anything like this in mind during the disguise point. Although... you do bring up a good point. It's a little bulky for you to be carrying around." he says, thinking. "Probably want to take the rooftops with it. Not like you wouldn't benefit from the height advantage anyways." he offers. "When we can compress them I'll have to do something carryable like a suitcase." he notes. "A basic question and a good one, but not one that came up during development. That's what field testing is for." he adds.

    "Oh, Catra. You're still wanting that sword, yeah? What kind of sword though? Sword is like... a pretty broad category" he asks. "I've been sourcing materials." he notes. Then turns. "I'd offer to make you a sword if you want one too Okana-san, but I suspect your native abilities serve you better and you're not regularly hunting down other sword-wielding types from other worlds with weird powers." At least he doesn't think so. People keep surprising him.

Catra has posed:
     "I'll give it a try," Catra, affirms, picking up one of the real rifles. "Rooftops are easy for me to get to. I'll go out at night, find a good target, and shoot 'em so we can see what happens."

     The feline rests the rifle on her shoulder, and hmmms about the sword.

     "Something curved," she answers. "I need something to counter Adora's sword, which is straight. Give me something with as powerful a cut as you can come up with. I want to be able to cut through... I don't know, steel, concrete, princesses, you get the idea." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "Two handed, curved, I leave the rest of it up to you. I don't know this world's swords all that well yet."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi takes into account what Catra says. A curved sword and she wants to hack through other swords? Well, the 'extra bonus features' he has in mind will help with that... presuming she can find her anger and hated and drag it out to do its part of the job. "Noted. Some people are picky. Or cats, I suppose. But you'll have a two handed curved sword."

    "You two just tell me how the rifles perform in the field. If we get lucky you can bring back a crystal and really be in the energy income, but honestly, field testing is all I ask at this point. We'll make it better over time and then it'll be more likely to bring you success." he notes as he gives both of the ladies one of the cumbersome weapons. "Oh, and have fun. Or something. I think." he adds.