lung, meet rewind

[msrewind]

She gets the note just before lunch. She's in the PHQ in less than twenty minutes, then she knocks on Piggot's door politely.

Comments

[mxglam]

"Okay, next's remote transmission, which could be either a video feed or a phone call."

[thinkering]

"Make sure," Lorica tells Rewind, "if it's either that you get to see or hear them react to something in real time."

[msrewind]

"Yeah, if it's a recording it's pretty useless."

[thinkering]

"But it could be a recording pretending to be a live feed, if you don't interact with it."

[msrewind]

"I won't let him trick me."

[mxglam]

"Okay, so, if it's a telephone conversation... I can't actually conjure anything through the phone that won't alert them."

[thinkering]

"What do you mean, 'that won't alert them'?"

[mxglam]

"Well, I can only conjure stuff if I can notice it's been conjured. Via video or in-person I can make a tiny locator somewhere they're not likely to be looking but which I can see, whereas via the phone it'd need to produce some noise loud enough for me to hear and then they'd hear it, too."

[msrewind]

"Wait, really? I didn't know that."

[mxglam]

"Eighty percent of power is appearances."

[thinkering]

"Okay, but would it have to be a particularly implicating noise? Make it sound like somebody pressed the 6 button by accident or like the Rewind copy coughed."

[mxglam]

"But... hmm... well, what could I conjure that's useful and would produce that kind of noise? Also there's the problem that I won't be seeing the other side, so whatever thugs that will be there might notice the thing I conjured wherever my power makes it appear."

[thinkering]

"A bot," says Lorica. "A little, mini bot, which can make noises and see. A camo model."

[mxglam]

"Where would I conjure it, that whoever's holding the phone wouldn't hear?"

[thinkering]

"Inside the casing? If you can get it small enough."

[mxglam]

"Hmmm... I probably can, but then it wouldn't really be able to see. Which, well, might not be necessary, if it's just a locator. Oh, your bots have night vision don't they?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah. And once it's there it'll be able to report to you if other bots appear in its vicinity."

[mxglam]

"Yes. I'm gonna need a video feed ready to receive its input, though, so I can in principle tell that it's inside the phone."

[msrewind]

"That's a really weird limitation."

[mxglam]

They spend the next hour or so in this vein, expanding the planning tree until they're all satisfied that it's the best they can do to save Rewind's parents.

"Can your bot produce, like, a summary of this? Or a report, or something? So we can show it to Piggot."

[thinkering]

"On it," says the bot.

[mxglam]

"Awesome. Alright, operation save-Rewind's-parents is on."

[msrewind]

"You know, it's kinda weird that you two call me Rewind even here."

[mxglam]

Blink. "Yeah, I'm kinda used to using Lorica's cape-name due to her not being out with her secret identity here and. Habit." Shrug.

[thinkering]

"I can stop if you want."