Private Cyber Therapy

[Eliz Krayt]

This was the place. Or, well. The ship. Eliz idly clenched and unclenched his fist, the motors and wiring within whining softly at the movement. He'd gotten most of a grip on how to use the new cybernetics, but he didn't.. Understanding how to use it and having to accept that he'd lost his forearm were two different things entirely. It was something he was struggling with, but that's not why he was here. The Chissalorian was dressed in common clothing. Jeans, tshirt. He looked nothing like a Mandalorian like this, but he kept his heavy charric on his hip.

His reason here was simple. Shai Maji sent him. Alora Vizsla was someone the Wardog trusted and spoke pretty highly of when it came to Shai's own cybernetics. And, well. If he was going to be stuck using a cybernetic for the rest of his life, he might as well make it something worthwhile. He reached out, clicking on the intercom by the entrance. "Hey uh. Shai sent me? Cybernetic stuff. Uh. Eliz." He frowned. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, lost my arm. Metal friend said you were good at fixing it.' didn't seem right.

So he just stood there. Awkwardly fiddling with his mechanical fingers as he hoped this Alora person was home.

 

[Alora Vizsla]

The sound of a jetpack rapidly grew louder after Eliz knocked on the Gambit's door. If they looked for the source, they'd find a gunmetal-silver Mandalorian with violet accents draw up short several feet off the ground. A glowing, violet visor regarded the visitor for a moment before the pack lowered its wearer to the ground.

"Shai sent you?" Alora's synth voice asked just before her gloved hands reached up to pluck the helmet off her head. A quick shake of her violet-highlighted hair came with literally a breath of fresh, chilled air. The young Mandalorian woman leaned a bit to the side with her honey brown eyes focused on the shut ramp, "Hey, Gambit, stop being such a gatekeeper. Open up!" With a mechanical click and hiss the ramp began to lower that led in to the mechanic bay in the belly of the ship.

"Sorry about that," Alora chirped as she strode forward, helmet nested against one side, to extend the hand that'd let Eliz shake using their still organic limb. "Gambit's always a bit protective. I'm Alora Vizsla. Nice to meet you, Eliz. You, uh, want something to drink?"

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

Eliz turned his head towards the approaching sound, red eyes blinking. Oh. That must be Alora Vizsla then. .. Or there were more Mandalorians on this ship? Na, don't overthink it. He gave a small wave from his mechanical hand, though it swiftly lowered as he remembered what it was. All too easy for the young man to forget. He pushed that aside, giving a brief smile. "Yeah."

Gambit, though? He turned to the ship, watching the ramp lower down. He half expected to see someone on the other side, but there was no one. A brow raised as he turned his gaze back towards Alora. And to her hand. He hesitated for a moment before realizing it was his still living arm to shake. So he shook her hand. "Jac'Eli'Zirem. Uh, sure. Might as well have a drink. Er.. Who's Gambit?"

He couldn't hide his curiosity as he turned his gaze back towards the ship, still thinking he'd see someone on board. "And, um.. How's this all work?"

 

[Alora Vizsla]

"Great," Alora cried with a big grin. Soon as the ramp was down she bounced up it and into the bay. The female Mandalorian crossed over the plating with deftness and speed as though she weren't even wearing armor. Naturally, being Shai's friend, Alora just assumed Eliz wanted some hot chocolate and set to work brewing up a few mugs.

"I am Gambit," a masculine voice boomed in the bay from overhead with barely concealed impatience.

Quiet laughter bubbled over the brew from Alora. She turned her head enough to look back at Eliz and gave a slight shrug. "Don't mind him, he's always a bit touchy about that. Gambit's the ship. He's..." Alora paused for a second before a head bob followed some line of thought. "He's an Electronic Intelligence integrated with the entire ship. Can do practically everything on board."

"I can do everything," the voice corrected.

"Oh yeah?" Alora shook a spoon up at the ceiling. "Then why don't you make me hot chocolate?"

"You are a grown woman capable of making her own beverages."

Alora harrumphed before she turned around long enough to grab the cups. A pair of chairs unfolded out of the flooring for them to take a seat in the center of the chamber. "Here you go," she announced as one of the steaming brews was extended out for Eliz to take. A nice, rich blend Alora had spared no expense purchasing. "So, what can I do for you, Eliz? Or are you just running around trying to see how many of Shai's friends are trouble?" Alora gave him a quick wink.

POYO! Eliz Krayt

 

[Eliz Krayt]

Eliz followed Alora Vizsla on board, though jumped at the voice. Only briefly though. An AI? His red eyes looked around in almost wonder. He'd never actually interacted with an AI before. He kept searching for some kind of source for Gambit, though he did figure there wouldn't be. He was the ship. And.. Apparently a damn good ship. And sassy. He snickered softly to himself.

Kinda reminded him of Mini, now that he thought about it. That little droid had about the same kind of sass.

Though, hot chocolate? He blinked. That was the drink in mind? He took it up regardless, taking a seat as it.. Came into existence. The kid was fascinated. Chiss had all sorts of high tech, but it wasn't like this. "Huh?" He blinked. Oh, right. Conversation.

"Oh, I mean. Anyone who's a friend of Shai's is trouble in some way, right?" He flashed a brief smile before taking a sip of the drink. ... This had to be expensive. He stared down at the steaming liquid in almost disbelief. Or, really, just to distract himself from the conversation on why he was there.

"Shai said you helped out with her cybernetics. Said you could help me. I uh." He lifted the metal arm. "This is new. I can pay, but I'd like it to be.. Something good. Or at least helpful."

 

[Alora Vizsla]

Alora stared at Eliz for a second before she flashed him a big grin. "Pretty much. Shai's always on the move so you have to keep up, which means you end up in trouble too!" Or you came to care for the big woman Shai Maji with a planet-sized blindspot for her own well-being. The young woman settled into her own seat and took a slow sip of her own hot chocolate.

Time slowly ticked away until Eliz spoke again. Alora was a talkative person, but Eliz needed to come to terms with why they were there. Already seemed self-evident given the arm and the man's behavior. Shai knew Alora could be trusted to handle the matter discretely and respectfully. Every detail hadn't been shared, but the Wardog was the only one that even knew the nature of the thing Alora, herself, didn't talk about.

"Something new. Something helpful," Alora echoed with a nod as she set the mug aside. "No problem. I build my own stuff with the highest end equipment credits can buy. You won't need to worry about it breaking in a month because someone found something in a scrap pile." And yes there were Cyberdocs that did that, and it was atrocious.

Slowly Alora leaned forward, elbows resting atop her knees, as her honeyed eyes regarded the man. "So, why don't you tell me all about yourself. Where you came from, what you do, and what you hope to do with a fancy arm." A smile slid back into place. Eliz had her complete attention. If he wanted the best he'd need to give her some detail to make it fit; otherwise he could end up with a flame thrower when he worked on Mustafar for a living -- can you say useless?

As for whether Eliz knew how to use his new limb, well Alora would get to that in time. For the moment she was trying to help the man open up. If talking about features and utilitarian purpose might distract from 'oh, hey, you lost an arm' they could circle back around to that later. Establish trust first; delve into a person's wounds later.

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

"Shai didn't say much, then?" Eliz was kinda surprised. Or.. No, wait. He wasn't. He snickered a bit as he sipped his drink again. His gaze eventually drifted down to his arm. Not because he was thinking about him having lost an arm. Just wondering what exactly he did want. "Csilla, technically. I'm not sure what'd be good for the arm once Shai finishes reforging my Beskar'gam. But, I plan to keep hunting. Fighting Sith and the like."

He flexed his fingers, humming. He knew pretty little about cybernetics. The very reason he took up Shai's offer to meet with Alora Vizsla in the first place. Weapons? Gadgets? Wouldn't they be incompatible with his armor then?

"What can you put in it? Doesn't it need all the space it can so it functions right?"

 

[Alora Vizsla]

Well, at least Eliz wasn't planning to go on some kind of quest for vengeance or whatever. Sure, fighting Sith could lead to that, but every Mandalorian these days said 'fighting Sith' when asked what their future plans were. Every. One. Especially the ones that had no idea why the Sith invading Mandalore was such a big deal.

Alora smiled patiently while Eliz wrestled with some thoughts. "Depends. If you got a mantis blade installed in your arm it'd need tons of space to open and unfold or extend the blade out. There are some suit designs where that'd work, but certainly none of the Full Metal ones." Armor like Alora's didn't appreciate separating into different pieces. The fact Alora got the tolerances down so tight it could more as freely as it did despite being a full metal suit had taken time and skill; it just wasn't doable with extend-o-blades. Tolerances on top of tolerances with even the slightest alignment problem preventing full sealing and... Well, just a bad idea.

"If I assume you get a standard beskar'gam design, we could tweak it so the suit seals just before the elbow or after the shoulder," Alora thought aloud as her eyes slid over the man's cybernetic appendage. "Then the bodyglove or armorweave could be segmented and the forearm piece slides out of the way revealing a blade or blaster, all without compromising the suit's integrity of vacuum seal -- if you're into that."

"What's your favorite weapon, or favorite thing to hunt? I mean, we can totally do beskar plating so you can use your arm as a last-ditch defense against a saber. Could even line it with cortosis to mess with their heads," Alora added with light laughter afterward.

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

Ah, crap. Maybe he shoulda figured out his arm before he had Shai mess with his armor. Ah well, at this point. "Charrics, mostly. I use this for the most part." Eliz patted the Heavy Charric on his hip. Thinking about it, though.. The Hybrid shook his head. "The defensive option might be the best. Would be nice to keep myself from loosing my arm. Again." That's when he grimaced. Right. His arm. He stared at it for far longer than he needed to.

"I take it you deal with this a lot. .. Is this something.. Does it get easier?" He lifted his eyes, a much more somber expression taking over as he looked back towards Alora Vizsla .

 

[Alora Vizsla]

Alora looked at the Heavy Charric Eliz carried with him. Wow, now that was a pistol. Almost as bad as getting hit with a disruptor (but probably more legal). A few ideas sprang to mind already with that nugget of information. For instance, hand-eye coordination. Like, why did you need to aim down the weapon if you could plot the spatial location of your hand, that of the target, and the path needed for a bolt or slug to take to get there? It was simple maths at that point! Oh, but he didn't have a cybernetic eye did he? Little trickier, but still possible.

Before they got into that, however, the unavoidable sithspawn in the room came up.

"Yes." Alora slowly rose from her chair and knelt down beside Eliz on his organic side to draw his attention away from the cybernetic limb. She reached out to take his hand in hers with a smile. "It's going to take time to get used to it. We'll do plenty of physical rehabilitation exercises so you learn how to perform delicate and precision manipulations. After we get you the new model. There'll be lots of changes between them, so you can learn the feel for the interface, but let's save the hard work for later, okay?" Alora paused to smile once more. "And I'll be here any time you need me. Long as you need until you're comfortable with it."

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

Alora Vizsla was good. Eliz hadn't even realized what the woman was doing, just turning his head to watch her as she moved beside him. He didn't stop her from taking his hand, though that did have him raise a brow curiously as to why she would. It certainly pulled his mind away from his cybernetics at least. Though, maybe it was as simple as Vod protect Vod.

".. Alright. So, then.. What happens next?"

 

[Alora Vizsla]

"Well," Alora smiled, "I'll need to take a few measurements -- you wouldn't want to be dragging your knuckles on the ground after all. If you'll come with me, I'll show you my cybernetics shop. It's pretty cool." The young woman stood to her feet and offered her hand to Eliz to guide him to the room if he liked.

The door was just behind him though. Single chamber full of equipment and shelves. Well organized and quite sterile with a single cyber-operational chair in the center of the room. "I have a scanner that can take a full body image so we can get a perfect match," she explained. "Then I'll draw up a design, build it, and we can schedule time for you to pop back in to get it fitted. Won't take long at all. What do you say?"

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

"As funny as that sounds, naw. Don't think that'd be a good fit." He chuckled none the less at the idea. Elongated arms. Actually, that reminded him of one of the.. Allies(?) he had before in a hunt. The laughter stopped at he instead looked way more mortified at the idea. Funny to think about, horrifying to see in person. He cleared his throat and his mind before nodding to Alora Vizsla . He walked with her, though he didn't take her hand.

His gaze shifted over the room once they entered it. The equipment was fast to pull his attention. Gwyneira Vizsla would love this. He smiled softly at the thought of her, drifting over to one of the various instruments he had no clue how to operate. "That does sound pretty simple. How long does it take to make?" He paused, blinking.

"Oh, and, how much does this all cost? Credits aren't an issue, just, wanna make sure I know."

 

[Alora Vizsla]

"Take?" Alora turned to look at Eliz with wide eyes. Her honey brown eyes lifted up to one side for a moment with a thoughtful, throaty hum. "Measuring only takes a second. Building the arm depends on the design and if I have all the parts." The violet haired woman started to walk around the lab with a peek into a storage bin or two. "Probably build the arm in a day." After supplying a radiant smile, Alora added, "Got plenty of schematics already tucked away up here," she tapped on her head.

A slight shrug then followed Eliz's question about credits. "Shai's friends get steep discounts. I mean, it isn't going to be caf-cheap, but you won't pay retail. And before you start getting worried, don't. I make plenty of credits doing off-the-book gigs." Why have a stealth ship if you didn't use it right? Alora still used it even after hooking up with the Enclave. Though it was a lot more of a challenge since she was also hooked up with Kranak's Crew. Pleasant challenges for a modern Mandalorian woman!

"Alright, so if you could just stand over here," Alora ushered the man to stand over by the cyberchair, "we'll have Gambit take a quick scan to get your dimensions." The process actually took five seconds with a soft light passing over the length of Eliz's body.

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

Wait, a day? He blinked in surprise. That alone showed how little he actually knew about cybernetics. Eliz never thought he'd have to learn, though. Maybe that was his mistake. He gave a nod to Alora Vizsla before standing pretty still. Like, seriously trying not to move. He'd been in one of these things before. Moving would make things hard to rea- it was already over?

He blinked again, glancing down to his arm, then to himself.

How long had technology been at this level? .. Maybe he really should try something more than Chiss technology. They had better guns, but maybe they were lagging behind in other aspects.

"That's.. Surprising. This is a lot easier than I figured it would be."

 

[Alora Vizsla]

Alora looked up from a pad she'd picked up to examine the results when Eliz expressed surprise. "Hm? Oh that was just a simple body image. I mean, if you like I could do a deep genetic scan, or an ultra deep molecular imaging; but I don't think you came here looking for a Replica Droid," she exclaimed followed by a soft laugh. "Just needed surface level detail so I can make sure to watch arm length with body proportion. Never hurts to have more than one source of comparison."

With a few taps, Alora circled around to show Eliz the pad data with it zoomed in on the arm with various measurements were displayed. "See? With this assembling an arm will be a piece of cake. Though if we use beskar to reinforce," Alora tapped on the screen, "it might take a little longer. I bet Shai could get the pieces made fast. Could always visit one of the off-world forges I know, but Shai's are closer. Plus, I bet she'd help us out, right?" Alora gave Eliz a wink.

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

"Replica droid?" That sounded.. Ominous. Judging by how she mentioned a deep scan, a perfect replica, but as a droid? Eliz tucked that idea in the back of his mind as he turned his gaze towards the datapad. There were a lot of measurements to this, far more than he expected. Shai wasn't kidding when she said Alora Vizsla knew what she was doing. He nodded slowly, still distracted by just how much detail there was for his arm.

"Right.. Oh. Oh! Yeah, I don't see why not. I can get Shai to show me how to make it too, so that's a win in my book."

 

[Alora Vizsla]

"You haven't heard of Replica Droids before?" Alora shrugged slightly. "They're usually banned because of paranoia someone will make a droid to replace a real person in power. They're also incredibly difficult to design. The personality matrix alone would confound even most super computers. At least that's what I've read about them."

A quick smile and an energetic nod followed Eliz's idea. "You like making things too, huh? That's great! I could always pass a few designs your way time to time." With a few taps the young Mandalorian added some features and made some adjustments to the inner workings of the arm design on the pad. "Mm, yeah, I can get this over to her for the framework. You bring it back here and I'll help get it hooked up. Sounds good, right?"

POYO! Eliz Krayt​

 

[Eliz Krayt]

"Other than corpses I haven't been able to make anything. I think it'd be nice to have something else I can do." It was stated calmly, which to literally anyone else would be disconcerting. But that's what it was to be Mandalorian. To be warriors. Eliz seemed plenty relaxed at this point, even looking over his mechanical arm again. Not in a distant memory of what was lost, but what could be had. What was going to be had.

"I'd keep sending them to Shai or whoever else you have till she teaches me how to use the Forge, though. I wouldn't know where to start." He chuckled, lifting his eyes back to Alora Vizsla . "Not that I'm denying a contract. Once I get things set up I'll probably take you up on it."

 

[Alora Vizsla]

"That's a healthy choice. Nothing wrong with being a great fighter, but variety will help keep the mind sharp. Think of things in a different way. Maybe learn new things that you'll find a surprising use for even in battle. Like the temperature necessary to set certain metals on fire creating an insane incendiary no one will have an extinguisher for!" Alora grinned. "But, really, I fully support a little artistry in your life. Focuses the mind and expresses deep feeling you might not be conscious aware of."

Alora paused to smile for a moment. "Speaking of new things, did you like the hot chocolate?"

Eliz Krayt