2015.01.28 - Girl Robots Don't Swoon

A woman, not dressed in a lot of clothing, is moving along on bare feet. If she was on normal streets that might be odd, but she might be the least odd person here. Many of her sensors are picking up things that shouldn't be happening, and so she's turned off almost all of them except her normal vision. She moves, to the observant, in a very precise and methodical fashion. To many others, it'd just look like she was graceful. At every shop, Katherine stops, looks inside through the window, and then turns and continues moving along.

Sure, the weather in New York may be below freezing, but that hasn't stopped the peculiar people who frequently hang out on Danny the Street from throwing their customary pre-dinner party. It's not quite a 'parade', but there is definitely a large group of people of various levels of drunkenness wandering around in small groups.

Gambit is not part of any particular group, but he's definitely 'gone native.' He's thrown a pink scarf over his trademark trench coat and a pair of heart-shaped glasses over his trademark eyes. It makes him come close to fitting in with the general vibe.

Sitting outside one of the shops, he's set up a small card table from which he deals from a Tarot deck. Across from him, a middle-aged woman listens to her fortune.

"Oh, that's good. The cards say that you'll meet a handsome stranger very soon. Possibly one with a distinctive accent and great taste in overcoats..." He intones suggestively, as he flips over another tarot card, much to the woman's amusement.

The tarot card wielder gets more attention than the drunken folks out in the streets. Coming to a place like this, after weeks of researching locations for magical sorts, Katherine is, out of sorts. She is scanning and analyzing as much as she can with the use of the sensors she still has on and listens to the tarot reader. To the woman who's standing in front of him, she watches as well, for a moment before she approaches.

"Excuse me, would you mind reading me my fortune?" Katherine smiles and looks to the woman next to her, lifting up her sunglasses and letting them rest on her perfect hair she smiles like the woman is before turning back to Gambit. "I'm Katherine. By the way, I'm very interested in Tarot, other magic, that sort of thing. I'm here on research, it'd be great if you could help."

The middle-aged woman looks a bit put out by the intrusion, but she quickly writes something on a piece of paper and folds it up inside a twenty dollar bill. She slides the bill across the table to Gambit, giving him a smile as she stands up to leave. Gambit picks it up with seeming carelessness, but quickly puts the note in a safe pocket inside his coat. The bill he deposits in a hat next to him.

"Absolutely, Cher. Channeling the mystic forces through the ancient Tarot deck is my special gift. Of course, the mystic forces are most favorable to those with a generous spirit..." Gambit looks at the upturned hat on the table right next to him. Within the hat is a rather impressive collection of bills. Either he's been out here all day, or he's quite the salesman.

His heart-shaped glasses do a good job of covering up his obviously-mutant eyes, but also of enabling him to check the woman out without appearing to ogle. Sure, lots of weird stuff can be seen on the street tonight, but she might just take the cake. "Interesting." Katherine mentions, as she looks at all facets of the exchange, and then she takes a seat across the way, as the other woman gets up. She looks over the table, and then across the way. "Can I ask you a few questions, before we get started?" She looks to the upturned hat, and the money inside, analyzes the language being used and she keeps her smile on, "For instance, what's your name? I'm Katherine."

She takes her hands and runs them along the sides of her seat, and then places them on the table. Running fingers along the material she watches it for a moment, and then she lifts up her eyes, unconcerned whether or not Gambit gets to see where she's looking. She does run her vision over him as well, and analyzes various abnormalities, to identify anything that might be concealed or an inability to actually determine what is hidden also a note worthy thing. "Do all women tend to respond to you that way? Your physical stature seems to match up with the desires of most women, but your accent some would find tantalizing and others would think you are a menace. The coat is... well, not well received in online polls very well. I do not have a way to translate demeanor, however, into a crowd sourced response."

"So, I wonder. Do most women you meet respond that well to you? I'm attempting to decide how I should respond, and that is difficult without more accurate data sets." Katherine concludes, and then adds, "I also do not have any money. Which may turn you away from reading my fortune, but I am seeking magical skills, for very important work. Which, if you can help with, I can compensate through an online bank transaction, for instance if you have PayPal?"

For a minute, Gambit watched the woman talk with a sense of smug self-satisfaction. But by the time she's done talking, his mouth is hanging slightly open and he appears to be both confused and uncomfortable.

"Damn girl... I think somebody spiked your drink. You should know better than to leave your drink out in public, but it's cool. Ol' Gambit'll call you a taxi." Sure enough, he seems less interested in reading her cards now that he knows she has no money, and conquests are no fun when they've been drugged.

Of course, if only her vast research abilities could be used to look up the actual rules of Tarot, she'd easily see that the cards Gambit uses are of American origin, possibly from a department store.

The images catch her eyes, and she starts piecing them together, even while Gambit is talking about being drugged up. "I can tell you for sure that I am not drunk. I am not drugged. I will assume your name then, is Gambit?" Katherine smiles, offering no change in her demeanor presently despite Gambit looking at her like she has been spiked, or drugged, or some other format. "Your cards. You got them likely from, by the wear and tear on them, and the images displayed, a chain of game stores call Fantastique Dice."

Waiting for a moment longer she hmms, "Which would tell me that your special gift is not, indeed, reading the future. Which would have been rather useful, but it means it is not any longer useful. Though I still am attempting to fill in the gaps for the data set missing about how women respond to you?" Katherine tilts her head a little bit, and it doesn't seem like she's leaving. "Maybe I can assess you a bit."

Looking over the man again she mentions, "You do not mind wearing protective gear in public, but you hold yourself in a very well thought out fashion. There's a sense of self aesthetics, since you merely added on glasses and a scarf to your, what I would wager is rather normal ensemble, than you have great confidence in yourself. I can appreciate that. You are in a place filled with magic, and yet lying about having magical talents, that's rather bold... from the money in the hat, I would have to assess that you are quite good at such bold things." A pause as she looks, reaching up to tap her chin. "Which all would match up with your namesake, a series of planned moves, usually to gain an advantage. Gambit." She isn't saying it with confidence, or lack there of, just voicing her observations. She's not being smug in her tone or presentation, she's just very very perceptive... and cheats since she's a computer and can analyze all of these things so quickly.

Once again, all that Gambit is able to respond with, at least at first, is "Damn girl..."

A bit sheepishly, he pushes his sunglasses back up on his nose and absently shuffles the tarot deck a few times. He adds a few fancy flourishes to the shuffle before placing the deck back on the table, but he almost seems to do it reflexively rather than from a desire to show off.

"Guess I'm busted. You must know how to work the Google. Ever since they invented that stupid thing it's been tougher for guys like me to make an honest living." It's likely that 'that stupid thing' refers to computers in general, rather than the Google search engine specifically. Though he's far from a caveman, Gambit can't help but be a bit peeved at technological advances for 'ruining' many of his favorite con games.

"Tell you what. The way I see it you can either make a stink and tell people I'm a fake. Or...." His voice lowers, and his face breaks out into a sinister grin. "... you can help me out, and I'll give you a cut of the profits. Then maybe afterwards I'll show you some of my tricks for making women respond?" There's a pause and Katherine listens, and then she watches the flourish of the cards. And she thinks aloud, "Work, the Google." The smile that creeps on to her lips is small, but she can't help but chuckle after a few moments. "You are priceless. Genuinely so." Katherine comments and then states, "I'm not telling you about the cards in order to elicit some sort of threat, nor partnership." She shakes her head just a little bit and then adds, "I do not share in your fascination over money. Quite frankly, I have no need for profits, since I can buy anything I want that is through an online store, if I so desired. Nor do I care that you take advantage of the weakness of other biologicals, so long as you are not harming them physically it is not really my place to stop you. And I'm no good at being dishonest in that way, I lack that skill, it is a difficult thing for me."

Katherine adds, while holding her hands up, "I did not mean to disrespect. It isn't that it's difficult because of some morale obligation toward honesty. Not at all. I simply lack the skill, and it's not one that someone like me can pick up on very easily. I'm actually a little envious of it. And, oh, but no. I did not actually find out from Google. I connected directly to the inventory systems of all nearby stores within range, and any that were connected to the internet in a circle pattern. I then searched for the pictures I saw on the cards within their inventory databases of tarot cards, cross referenced the two and estimated the length of time you've been here from the hat and how much money is in it, minus some because all good street performers seed the tip jar, as it were. And that, led me to the assumption. I didn't use Google once."

"Don't like money..." Gambit is far more confused by this than he ever was by her choice of 'winter clothing.' But it's clear that he's both bemused and impressed. Or at least he seems to be appraising her for entirely different reasons now.

"You seem to have me all figured out. It takes some women years to get the kind of insight you got in a couple of seconds. Me, on the other hand, I'm usually a pretty quick study. But trying to figure you out makes my head hurt."

He leans across the table, putting the deck back inside its box and placing it inside his coat. "Please tell me that you're just a real big Kraftwerk fan, and not a real robot. Because I don't know if I'm prepared to admit that I tried unsuccessfully to run game on some sort of super-hot Robo Girl."

"I'm a real big Kraftwerk fan." Katherine states it with some sort of dry tone, before she smirks, "See. I just can't do the lying part that well." And then she holds up a hand, "But it isn't really that I'm a robot. I'm actually just 'inside' of a robot. More than actually 'am' a robot." She throws up bunny ears twice in that sentence, with both of her fingers doing their thing next to her head.

"And yeah, I don't like, nor really need money. The obsession with money that this era has is partially due to the relative peaceful existence you are all able to live. Hopefully that sustains for some time. It's quaint." Katherine smiles before adding, "You see, though, you figured me out. A super hot Robo Girl. I should be, I spent a large amount of processing time attempting to crowd source this Earth's most attractive avatars and then merging various traits." A pause, "Do you do anything except for street performing?"

"Yeah, my momma always said if it looks too good to be true, it's probably a highly-sophisticated artificial intelligence housed inside a Japanese sex robot." Gambit drawls his words, almost as if he'd have trouble saying some of them if he didn't take it very slow. "Course, I can think of a couple of conventions where something like you would be all kinds of popular. You should really rethink that whole 'money is quaint' thing, for my sake if nothing else." He leans back on his stool, visions of thick stacks of cash floating past his eyes. "After all, man's gotta eat, even if you don't."

"If you think that there is a way in which I can help you, I will attempt to do so in my best possible way. I would ask for an exchange, however. I am looking for technologies, of the very small. Nanites, to be precise, and information on the smallest, most efficient kinds of them. Ideally, a magic user who also is well versed in technology would be best. Do you think that you could help me find such technology?" Katherine asks, smiling and staying in her chair, "It is the reason why I came to this person. So that I could find, some such help."

"I could..." Gambit always finds a way to be non-commital with his answers, no matter how mundane. But this time, he seems to be laying it on especially thick. "But that sounds like an awful lot of work to do for a robot girl that don't believe in money." He rubs his scruffy chin, the rough hairs making an audible 'scritch' sound that can probably be heard all the way across the table even by people without robot ears.

"Tell you what. You leave me your number, and maybe I'll keep my ear to the ground, see what I can dig up for you?"

"Okay!" Katherine says excitedly, grinning in your direction. "I can tell, we could be very good friends." And then she wonders, "Do you have a phone on you? I am sort of my own phone... how about this... just get any phone, and with your accent as it is, and the recordings I've made of your voice. Just turn a phone on, dial any number and say, 'Katherine I found something for you.' That complete sentence... and I'll pick up." She continues to grin, "Or at least, one of me will. But, you get the idea. Okay? If you need to get into somewhere secure for the information, tell me, I can usually make my way into anywhere."