Summary:Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! Time for the patient to bestir herself and get checked out by the doctor post-upgrades, before she can be released on her own recognizance. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"Doc' I think you've done it again. The new parts feel good as new," Ava remarks as stares at her hand while cycling through the different visions of her eye, curling and flexing each finger. Self-satisfied, her gaze lifts back to the doctor seated nearby and vision flips back to normal. "The rest of the body still feels kind a springy, but I'm gettin used to that. It feels like I got a wrinkle lift in places I didn't know I had wrinkles."
Veronica glances up from her tablet, finished entering some of the data gathered and examining other readings. "You'll have to explain that last one to me a bit. But I am glad everything seems to be testing out well. As a reminder, you will probably want to go in and turn off the targeting assist in the settings before you visit the range. I know you prefer to do it yourself, but it is in there and the default setting is active." Trust a woman who has known Ava for six years to know what she likes, and what she hates. "EMI test is good. Vision test is good, with no apparent mismatch to your old reflexes, which is great. You seem pretty happy with the improved augmented reality systems." She grins. "And I will admit, I am looking forward to your reaction after your first shower."
"How is Domino? What does she think?" Roni is well aware that Ava has not been lying in here all alone all these hours since the surgery.
"My skin just feels… tighter kind of, but not squeezed," the cyborg tries to explain as she raises her natural arm and shakes it, letting her joints flop loosely. "I think it's the mesh. It's a small thing, but loose parts like thighs I noticed it a bit when moving fast." One thing that she has learned over six years is Roni's appreciation for data. While it might not be in the shaved vet's nature to complain, she's come to terms with the fact that more intel is better for her doctor.
The question about Domino gets a furrowed brow and a puzzled look from two green eyes. "She likes it well enough. I think she's got a thing for your hardware; she might date it if you made a whole robot. But what's this, first Hank and now you? She's not my girlfriend or anything," the bionic woman protests lightly.
Veronica jots down more notes as Ava explains her sensations. "Mmm. You may be right. The mesh is woven through the substrate right between your subcutaneous fat layer and your skin. Given the number of nerve endings there, and the pressure it might exert, that could explain what you're feeling. If it becomes uncomfortable, please let me know. We won't stop it, but we may want to look into better ways to deploy this in the future." Roni has also learned how to position these things so that she's not asking Ava to whine, just to keep her informed for future revisions and improvements.
Veronica glances back up, titling her head just so as she regards Ava. "She's … not?" She looks genuinely lost and perplexed. The albino literally strolled into their briefing and kissed Ava quite soundly. And her agitation during the surgery certainly seemed to suggest an emotional investment in the outcome. But far be it for Roni to assume she understands relationships at all. "OK. I apologize for making an erroneous assumption."
Ava's hand comes up to wave off the brunette woman's concern. Roni's earned more than a little good grace. "It's fine. Sure we care that one another doesn't wind up dead and at this point we're kind a becoming squadmates, but you know she's not the first woman I've been with since getting blowed up and she won't be the last. You can have 'er if you're interested." A tease to the straight-laced doctor and ever professional? Just perhaps.
Veronica just … looks at Ava all non-plussed. "Uhm. OK. But honestly, I do not want her." Wow. That sounds so mean. But it's true! "I do not mind having her around, and she is every talented and useful, Ava. But I have no interest in her as a bedmate." Nor anyone else, apparently. She certainly has never mentioned anyone as cute, hot, sexy, or at all romantically or sexually interesting.
"I figured." Ava nods, not taking any slight in the rejection. "She'd be a little more attractive if she didn't lean on that luck of hers so much too," the cyborg gripes, and so much said about the Ukraine debacle. Realizing she may have overstepped her boundaries, the shaved woman glances aside and sighs. "Sorry, we got talking and it… brought back some memories for me. Or maybe it's just that time again. Anyway, what's next on the program?"
Veronica shrugs and looks down at her tablet; there is no better way to break that tension! "Mmmm. The last things on my list are fine motor control testing, and full-out running. But I would prefer the running to wait for tomorrow. One more day for the small wound in your abdomen to heal, since your core is so important." For fine motor control, Veronica pulls out a deck of playing cards and hands them to Ava. "Shuffle and deal, soldier."
Ava takes the cards with a nod, happy to get her mind back on track. "Roger, doc," she replies with a bit of a smile. Even after so many years, the chair-bound doctor's manners tickle her. Looking over the pack for a moment, the cyborg shifts them to her new carbon-black hand and takes a light squeeze, feeling the ghostly 'touch' against her plates - not quite true to life, but enough. Pinching about half the pack with her other hand, she starts with a basic overhand shuffle and soon lifts her eyes back to Veronica.
Working some comfort into the motion, the bionic woman splits and folds the cards a little awkwardly, then flicks the stack whimsically with a finger before beginning to fan out four places in front of her.
Veronica observes the movements carefully, even recording them and their telemetry as Ava works on shuffling the cards. "The hand is remaining pretty synchronus to the earlier profile. Is it easy for you? Or are you adjusting your thoughts more than normal?" Yep. This is how it goes. But it's the last exercise for this checkup, so all's well as it were.
"Close to normal - I give it 90%," Ava measures, consciously keeping her attention on Roni's face while her hands deal blindly, making herself work by touch. "The new limb feels quick sometimes — there, like that — but that's just lack of suit on the human half. I get that feeling any time I'm out of it," the cyborg assures before allowing herself to glance briefly back down to check her own work. The piles aren't quite perfect, but they're serviceable. A dry chuckle escapes the young woman as she critiques them, ever her own worst critic. "I guess I should be glad I didn't unlearn all of that in a month."
Veronica grimaces and jots down more notes. She was aiming for 95%, and she does not like missing her goal, leaving Ava less than as capable as Roni believes she can and should be. She considers it a missed opportunity; not a failure, like the slaughter in Ukraine; but still not good. "Alright. We'll work on tuning that up. But I think you're operational. After tomorrow's tests, I'm prepared to clear you for active duty."
The chief of security nods thoughtfully to the news. "I'm eager to get back in my suit and the eye's not bothering me like I expected." Considering that, she smiles as she reaches the bottom of the 52 cards. "Funny how quickly you got me used to being a whole body again."
"I actually have something else I would like to try. We won't be able to put it through all of it's paces until tomorrow. But." Veronica turns her chair, and points towards the black suit hanging up on a hangar on the wall. "This is yours. I know it looks a tiny bit small, but it will stretch. It should fit perfectly, and do so under normal outerwear. It will operate on many of the same principles as your cybersuit, but without the actual armor and augmentation components. It will replace the g-suit you currently wear, and should enable you to approach or even exceed your previous records for speed and agility."
"I wondered what that was about," Ava admits before her brow lifts high in surprise at the simple-looking garment's features. Quickly her attention returns to Veronica with the sharpness that betrays her interest. "That's got the same controls as my suit, and it squeezes? That's a nice upgrade…"
"Why the speed and agility increase?" she asks curiously.
Veronica meets that sharp gaze with her own and shrugs. "We were trying to improve matters. So we did. The communication bandwidth and transmission speed with the new communications hub and the fiberoptic links means there is actual potential for faster actions and reactions. And so I designed the limbs to be capable of actually keeping up with or slightly exceeding those new limits." Because of course Roni would do that.
Just in case.
"The stimulation suit does not have the armor capacity of the cyber suit, obviously. But it reduces layers, and will actually fit under normal civilian outerwear, and should thusly be quite safe inside the holographic field, once that has been configured." Veronica explains.
A smile creeps across the cyborg's lips, not one of cheer so much as excitement. Ava's getting ideas.
"That sounds like I could have some fun with it. Once this incision heals we'll *need* to run that through a course." Tipping her head slightly to one side, the tawny woman asks, "What makes it a ''stimulation suit''?"
"Because like the cyber suit, it can stimulate your muscles and cyberlimbs directly, bypassing your normal tension. Or it can be switched into a mode that will do exercise stimulations of muscles without you ever moving. Or it can override your muscle stimulation, so you can go through a full-action sim, thinking through every move, without your body ever going anywhere." Veronica answers. "So, the way you can overclock yourself with the cybersuit? You can do that with this." And much more.
It takes a lot for the stoic former sergeant to forget her bearing but the way she's staring at Roni in naked surprise reveals she's just about done it. "That… is one seriously high-speed suit. You sure I can't walk out in that today, doc?" she asks eagerly.
Veronica tilts her head. "Well, I was thinking you could try it on today. But I do not want you overclocking in it until at least tomorrow, after we're sure your abdominal wall is knitting sufficiently from your endoscopic surgery."
Ava nods to her doctor's advice and stands up from the exam table while already reaching for the hems of her clothes to undress. "Sure, I can take it easy until you give me a green light. And no muscle training mode until then, or just no ab training?" she asks to be clear while forming a pile on the table she just left.
"I would prefer you use it in 'isolation' mode for now." Veronica offers, as she turns her chair and then raises her grab bar - another interesting feature of her chair most do not have - then locks it in place and pulls herself up with it to grab the hanger with the suit. Then she drops back down and turns to offer the suit to the mostly undressed Ava. "That will allow you to experiment, with no risks on your incision. We'll do another exam tomorrow morning. Assuming that the knitting is up to snuff, we can step up to other exercises."
"Roger that," Ava smiles, already down to underwear in her haste. Alone with her doctor of six trying, life-changing years, her excitement is open and evident - a glimpse, perhaps, at the norm of a younger Ava from a less guarded time.
"I saw you use the fancy spray on me so I'll bet I'll be fine in another wake-up. Not even a scar to go with my tattoo collection, huh?" she guesses while finishing the process of disrobing and opening the suit to slip it on. "And this opens all the way around the bottom right?" It might seem a small feature but with everyday wear bathroom use matters.
"All the way around to the top of the hip bone in back." Veronica answers. "You'll also find it is exceptionally soft and very breathable. It is, by itself, not fully rated for sub-arctic temperatures, but it should regulate safely down to arctic cold and up to high desert heat." It's no Fremen stillsuit, but it'll be darned handy. "When zipping it back up from the back, go slowly and carefully, so the fabric layers have a chance to realign."
"You're pullin my leg. That's regulation as good as my cyber-suit," Ava chuckles, shaking her head in disbelief as she stretches the black garment up over her shoulders and bends over to tug at the seam at the back, doing just as the doctor suggests and starting slow. "How's it wash?" Because with all those features it's getting worn *constantly*.
"It should be fine for hand washing. I do not recommend dry cleaning, given the electronics and the chemicals in those processes. I suspect it would be OK for machine wash on gentle cycle, but I'm really not sure, and I would rather not risk the prototype on that. I would rather make another suit and test it, and if it falls apart, you're not out a suit." Veronica answers.
That does earn a moment's hesitation in the cyborg's excitement and she cringes at the thought of handwashing the entire suit she's now donning. "I'll ask Toni about at least making a drying chamber for it then. Are we talking 'sponge bath' kind of hand wash or can I soak it in cleaner as long as I don't pummel it?"
"Soak in cleanser, scrub by hand against itself, rinse by hand, and hang to drip dry." Veronica explains. She won't get into the physics of how it is that it will drip dry incredibly quickly. But it will. "But you are welcome to discuss options with Toni." As always, she will take whatever input and help she can from anyone with the proper know-how. "I understand you will want an easier way. But until we can build another suit and test it against machine washing, I really would rather you not take the chance. We cannot exactly afford for it to short and feedback dangerously."
"Right, prototype," Ava nods at the reminder. After working the zipper up to her neck, the bionic woman shakes her arms loose and lets them drop by her sides before closing her eyes. Taking soft, calming breaths in her nose and out her mouth, her hands slowly raise wrist-first then fall back at her sides, swinging like pendulums. The white-haired cyborg coaxes them into their natural rhythm as they rise again, adding just enough force to keep the swing going and raise it another couple inches.
After several swings that build halfway to shoulder height, Ava reopens her eyes and her arms freeze as they come back under her conscious control towards a new task, stretching to the left, and then to the right as she tests the flex and fit of the black suit. "I like the feel of this. It really is like the old suit, but lighter. It's kind a weird not having the squeeze, but I like it."
"It will adjust and adapt the squeeze effect based on ambient barometric pressures and perceived speeds. You can also override that control if you know in advance that you will need the g-force resistances." Veronica explains.
"And that's where it plays pressure suit," the cyborg infers while bouncing in place a few times. The brief demo earns a smile of approval. "I'll take it, 'Doc. Same time tomorrow for the next exam?" Ava asks before turning to put her clothes back on over the new garment.
Veronica nods. "Yes. That will do nicely, Ava. Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow? Let me know if you have any questions or issues."