(no subject)

[evilontheloose]

Outside.

Evil Genius, Jordan Kennedy, in tank top, overalls and workboots, wearing a toolbelt and protective goggles.

Custodian Unit Mk-IV, a.k.a. 'Desmond'. It looks like a mix of spider and octopus, a round central body with four articulated legs and four tentacle-like arms with multifunction pincers/claws at the end.

Loads of electronic equipment, six large trunks surrounding an apparatus that is about the size of a large motorcycle.

...

Well, it all looks like Jordan is using the outside area of the End of the Universe to build something, maybe for testing. The something is mostly cannon-like, which is... ominous?

Someone might want to check exactly what she is up to...

Comments

[margolotta]

It looks, well, interesting.

Margolotta is watching from the shadows.

[evilontheloose]

Plug wires, connect frame parts, fit components... yes, it mostly looks like a cannon, but it has this odd bulb or globe of metal and glass at the end...

"Three-seventeen wrench." The custodian retrieves the tool and hands it to the short girl, who is securing a metal cover over some electronics. "And start the first-step transformer."

[margolotta]

There are no cannons on Margolotta's world.

"That is one very cunning artifice," she says.

[evilontheloose]

Jordan looks up from her work, eying the shadows where Margolotta is.

Oh, look, that is a gauntlet of some wort, or... her left forearm is a mechanical replacement. "Which one?"

[margolotta]

The poor thing apparently hadn't had an Igor handy when she'd have needed one.-

"The metal spider," Margolotta says.

[evilontheloose]

"Desmond." She nods. "He is a Custodian. A robot I can program for different tasks." And it is a big thing too, the main body a good two feet in diameter.

[margolotta]

"Impressive," Margolotta says. "Did you build it?"

The way she is building that new thing.

[evilontheloose]

"I invented him and the other five." She nods again. "You can not find a better worker anywhere."

[margolotta]

"You haven't met a golem, then," Margolotta says.

[evilontheloose]

"Custodians never tire, never sleep, never eat, and they come with their own tools." Jordan smirks. "I've heard about golems, my robots are made to be better."

[margolotta]

"Sounds exactly like golems," Margolotta smiles.

[evilontheloose]

"Oh, yeah? How smart a golem is?" Because you know, she is not letting magic come on top again.

[margolotta]

"So far, smart enough for anything you told them to do," Margolotta says.

Including 'make sure that Moist von Lipwig doesn't desert his duty', which was one of the harder tasks. Pump 19, later known as Gladys, had been admirably up to it, various sources from Ankh-Morpork had told her.

[tesla_bot]

"You know, I really hope that's a telescope," says Robo by way of greating, "I just got a room here for a more permanent office."

[evilontheloose]

Jordan blinks, looking up from her work. "Oh, hi."

"Nope. This is the Ultimate Weapon." Modesty? No.

[tesla_bot]

There are times when Robo wishes he had a nose so he could pinch it.

"I know I'm gonna regret this. What does an Ultimate Weapon do when you pull the trigger?"

[evilontheloose]

"Well, it fires a particle beam." She indicates the main gun-body. "Into a portal generator." Jordan indicates the globe at the end. "The portal absorbs the beam, and releases it out the other end, and with enough coordinate data, I can put the other end anywhere."

Particle beam out of nowhere.

A weapon you can not defend against.

[tesla_bot]

Well, not until you figure out how to jam the portals. Which means it has issues in some of the universe more stocked with capes than Jordan's.

"What's the transit time on the portal?"

Robo may have a selection of stupid portal tricks at home.

[evilontheloose]

"Instant." She grins a bit. "I invented the Death Ray."

[tesla_bot]

You reinvented the Death Ray Jordan. Remember Robo's last name?

"Nice. I don't suppose it handles anything that you need to come through as more than a loose collection of electrons and protons."

Transit faster than the speed of light is allowed as long as it can't contain information. So if the output is random Robo only has to rewrite some of the laws of physics he knows, instead of basically all of them.

[evilontheloose]

Details. "The output is your usual coherent particle beam. Superheated plasma or something else."

[tesla_bot]

"Figured," says Robo with a nod. "I don't suppose you have a target in mind for this, or was it just for the exercise?"

[evilontheloose]

"Hm. Not really. I just wanted to know if it would work." And it's not very often she works a project to the end without being paid for it.

[tesla_bot]

It is indeed rare.

"Personally I would have picked a place where the dimensions looked less like someone left a toddler in a yarn basket, but that's just me."

[evilontheloose]

"If it works here, it works in more stable environments." Jordan... is really planning to stress-test her Death Ray.

Scary? Or reassuring?