Chapter 2:

Components & Designs VS Budgets & Contests

The Chronicles Of Saint Joan's Robotics Club


The day after Jean Robinson joined the Club Lisa McClure sits at the Robotics Club Computer while she looks over the clubs budget and a message from Jean’s Brother John, Lisa scratches her head as she thinks “With the extra funding from Jean’s Brother we might be able to create 3 robots, but even if we only made 1 we’d never be able to compete in something like Robot Wars.”

While Lisa is busy trying to figure out a plan Alison walks over to her with a piece of paper and a blueprint container in hand before holding the piece of paper over Lisa’s head and with the front in full view of her face before Alison says “Prez, I was thinking we could get into this one, I even have a design proposal ready for it.”

Lisa looks closely at the piece of paper in complete surprise before grabbing hold of the paper and saying “A Logistics Robot Design Contest with a 3rd place prize of £50,000, 2nd place prize of £100,000 and 1st purchasing of the design plus 25% royalties for 10 years?”

As soon as she finishes reading the details of the contest Lisa turns around in the chair and looks directly at Alison ready to ask her just how serious she is about her proposal to enter the contest but can’t say a word for a moment seeing the dark circles under Alison’s eyes from her skipping sleep the night before.

After regaining her ability to speak Lisa raises her right hand with the palm up and says “Can I see what you have in the way of a design for this robot?”

Instead of placing the BluePrint in Lisa’s hand, Alison steps away toward a nearby display board used for displaying BluePrints and Designs before saying “It will be easier to just put it up here.”

Alison takes several magnets off of the nearby metal plate and places them on the Metal Display Board before taking out the BluePrint and using the Magnets to secure it as she says “I used the Ram as a basis so we can use that Chasis and included the new Modular Part System to make it easier for maintenance and repairs as well as improved adaptability and Flexibility.”

“Hmm, sounds like you put Alumni John’s gifts to good use.” Lisa replies as she looks over the design Alison spent the entire evening working on before looking at Alison and pointedly asking “But, are you sure it’s the best idea to implement the Modular System and reuse the Chassis from the Ram without Patenting the Modular System and renewing the one for the Chassis?”

Alison raises her fist to her own head and lightly taps it with a look like she only just realised the above was an issue before saying “I guess we’ll have to use those until we get that done.”

“Not to worry Alison.” Lisa states as she walks over to the desk where the computer is and pulls up a draft of the paperwork necessary for the Patent on the Modular Part System that just needs minor edits before submission to the UK Patent Office before saying “Alumni John sent us this and promised to cover the cost of the patent”

“The patent for the Chassis should also still be good for another few years, just need to submit this and we’re good.” Lisa explains as she steps away from the computer and looks back at the plans before saying “You’ve definitely still got your edge when it comes to design even low on sleep.”

“Hehehe, you think so!?” Alison replies with a slight redness to her cheeks before saying “I put a lot of thought into the functions and how to make it adaptable to give loading and collection jobs, though it took most of the night to finish.”

Lisa sighs heavily before looking at the tiredness in Alison’s eyes and says “You know that it isn’t healthy to be up so late on a regular basis and not make up the difference right?”

“Ehehehehe…” Alison replies clearly aware of just how concerned Lisa is about her before turning and walking toward the storage room as she says “I’ll just grab one of the sleeping bags from the storage room and make it up now, unless you think I should take up a bed in the nurse's office?”

“Nah, just sleep here.” Lisa replies calmly before explaining “I’m almost done with the paperwork for the Patent Application and Mary and Jean said they would be headed to check parts and materials costs at the vendors so you’re good.”

“Thank you prez…” Alison replies as she walks over to the storage room door showing signs she’s starting to let herself consciously feel how tired she actually is.

Meanwhile at RS Components Mary and Jean look through the selection of components available for purchase.

As Mary looks over the specs and prices of various parts including Motors, Pneumatic, Hydraulics system components and power supply options, Jean speaks to a staff member asking “Do you have anything of the specs I’ve described within my groups budget?”

The Staff member scratches his head as he thinks about the reply to Jean’s question before saying “We do have some of the Hydraulic and Pneumatic components you’ve asked about but for the sizes you need we’d need to special order some of the connectors.”

Jean looks at the man with a look of surprise and disappointment before saying “According to my Older Brother you stocked such small but strong parts when he used to shop for them here, has that changed?”

“Well, that was the case when during events like Robot Wars the Flipper type weapons were common.” The Staff member replies with a look of dismay before explaining “These days it’s mostly high strength Motors with high RPMs that are in demand since they’re used for Spinner weapons and fast drive systems.”

Jean looks at the man like she’s exasperated for a moment before letting out a heavy but understanding sigh before saying “I guess it can’t be helped if your superiors are nearsighted enough to pander to a trend so heavily, can you at least get them within budget?”

“I’m sorry to say but you may need to ask your superior for permission to go over budget if you want those specific components.” The Man explains, clearly sympathetic to Jean and Mary’s situation but unable to compromise.

“Mmm, it’s not like I don’t see where you’re coming from but our Club President won’t be able to just ‘OK’ that without haggling a little.” Jean replies while Mary listens in pretending to still be looking over Motors as the Man looks at Jean unable to do anything about her reasonable concerns.

The man takes a moment to think before letting out a sigh and says “I’m afraid I’m not authorised to haggle, if your ‘Club President’ wants to haggle I can refer you or them to my Manager for that.”

Mary stops pretending to look at the selection of Motors and turns toward the staff member before saying “Our Club President will handle the final decision on that, in the meantime can you put together a Quote for the parts you need to acquire specially and include those you already have?”

The man looks at her in surprise not realising she’d been listening in the entire time before saying “We’ll need to check our suppliers availability and costs for that, can we email the quote to your Club President?”

“Just send it to Saint Joan of Arc Secondary School’s Robotics Club, you should have it in your contact lists from repeat purchases in the past.” Mary replies calmly as she subtly gestures to Jean to follow her before turning toward the entrance and beginning to walk.

Seeing the ladies are about to walk out of the store the Staff Member looks at them seriously before saying “Please stay and browse while I go get my Manager!”

The moment the man says that Mary and Jean stop walking and turn to him with looks like this was exactly what they were aiming for.

While the employee goes to get his Manager, Mary pulls her phone from her pocket and calls Lisa.

Meanwhile back at the Robotics Club Workshop Lisa sits at the computer checking the details of the contest to design and Inventory Robot when suddenly her phone begins to vibrate.

As soon as the phone vibrates Lisa picks it up and sees the Caller ID and for Alison’s sake walks out of the door before taking the call and saying “So, how did the component shopping go?”

Lisa nods calmly while she listens to Mary explain the situation before saying “I’ll trust you to do the Haggling but try to get the price down on those hydraulic and pneumatic components, I’ll look into getting the rest made in house.”

“Of course I have a plan for that, Jean mentioned someone I plan to look into before doing anything rash.” Lisa replies calmly as she looks at the corridor in the direction of the way to the main building before saying “I’m pretty sure their club has permission to operate on Weekends like us crafting clubs do.”

Lisa uses her key to lock the Club Workshop door knowing Alison has her own so she’ll be able to sleep undisturbed while Lisa is away before saying “Once you’re done, return to the Workshop and get started on the parts we can make in house already.”

“I’ll try to be back before you but if I’m not then use your key to get in, just try to keep it down when you go in, Alison pulled an all nighter.” Lisa states before hanging up the phone and getting beginning to walk toward the main buildings adjoining corridor.

After passing the Janitors Office next to the corridor connecting the two buildings Lisa walks past the main door and up a large set of stairs to the main buildings main hallway admiring the fine glass paintings along the way depicting the schools previous incarnations history on one side and Saint Joan of Arc's legend on the opposite side thinking “Whoever it was who had these included must have cared a lot about this school.”

“It’s funny, I’ve read a lot about this building on FaceBook about how it’s an improved version of the original Schools Main Building.” Lisa thinks as she walks down the Ground/First Floor Hall right side noticing the large Art Studio followed by the Music Room barely able to hear a sound through all the sound proofing before noticing the smell of pine sawdust from near the end of the hallway presumably coming from the Technical/workshop Classroom before thinking “I wonder what it was like for Students of the original school when they lacked proper sound proofing of these rooms.”

After ascending the stairs Lisa turns to the left and walks along the long corridor passing several rooms on either side before coming to the Computer Room and stopping as she thinks “Hopefully this Ashiro that Jean mentioned is here today, it’ll be a real problem if she’s not around as Jean doesn’t know what class she’s in.”

Lisa raises her right hand to the door and loosely curls her fingers and knocks firmly on the door three times and calmly waits for an answer.

After a few seconds a girl comes to the door and opens it before looking at Lisa with a suspicious look before asking “What do you want?”

“I’m looking for someone who’s apparently part of this club, her name is Ashiro.” Lisa replies calmly and honestly trying to not give the girl any reasons to be suspicious of her than she already is.

“You’ll need to speak to our Club President about that.” The girl says as she turns around and closes the door with her foot.

Lisa stands there looking almost at a loss for a reaction for a moment before raising her hand again and knocking again.

After several minutes a boy comes to the door and looks Lisa over like he doesn’t know what to make of her before asking “What is it you want?”

“I’m looking to speak to your club president about a girl named Ashiro who’s supposedly part of your club.” Lisa replies calmly again taking into account what the girl said before rudley shutting the door on her.

The moment he hears what Lisa says he turns away before kicking the door shut with his foot, saying “Send our Club President an Email.”

Lisa stands there looking half exasperated/half ready to scream before pulling out her phone and uses her schools instant messenger app to message the president of the Computer Club stating “Open this door now while I still have some patience or explain to the teachers why I kicked it in… 👿👿👿”

A few moments later Lisa hears someone shouting at the two people who rudely shut the door on her before coming over and opening the door, looking Lisa over and asking “What business brought you to my club's door?”

Lisa sighs having Finally gotten the person she needed to talk to in front of her before saying “I’m looking for someone named Ashiro, she’s supposedly one of your club’s members, if she’s here can I speak to her?”

The Club President looks at Lisa suspiciously knowing full well what club she’s from before asking “Might I first ask who it was that told you about her and that she is a part of this club?”

Lisa looks at the Club President seemingly calmly on the surface but beneath her poker face thinking “The plot is thickening and I’d prefer the smell of baking from the Home Economics Classroom down stairs to this scent.”

Lisa looks the Computer Club President in the eye and notices she’s not looking directly at Lisa but instead at the reflection on the door window and sees a girl with striking Red Haired almost as red as blood worn in twintails sitting at a computer playing the Overwatch Character Mei as Lisa thinks “So that might be this Ashiro, quite the shade of red hair, she must be quite recognisable.”

As Lisa stands there she watches the Mei Character standing atop a wall of ice while spraying a short man with a limp with something blue that suddenly stops him moving before a red skull flashes over the screen followed by several red flashes around the mans feet as he slumps over before the Computer Club President says “If you have nothing to say then why are you wasting my time?”

Lisa looks her directly in the eye before saying “You seem oddly suspicious of me, yet this Ashiro person supposedly likes Overwatch and wants to be part of your Clubs Overwatch Esports Team.”

“We have no such team, we play other games professionally but there’s not enough of us to form an Overwatch Esports Team.” The Computer club president replies calmly with her arms folded before looking at Lisa directly and saying “If you want to speak to one of our members, do it during regular school hours, we have a strictly no chit chat with outsiders during club activities rule.”

Lisa looks at the Computer Club President sceptically before saying “We’ll see about that at a more advantageous time then.”

After saying that Lisa turns toward the left and walks down the hall in the direction of the Staff Room and Science Lab not saying another word to the Computer Club President.

Lisa keeps walking calmly as she keeps from giving away that she knows the Club President hasn’t gone back inside the Computer Room as she thinks “I don’t know what their deal is but that club president is oddly guarded about her.”

The moment she reaches the corridor between the Staff Room and the Stationary Supply Room/Auxiliary Staff Room Lisa checks to be sure the President isn’t following her before stopping to look around at the walls checking the photos on both walls for people that look like Ashiro before spotting someone with similarly striking hair in the Iona Units Photos.

Lisa walks over and takes a closer look at the photo and notices it’s just a wig in a Halloween Party Picture before thinking “If she’d been in the Iona Unit that’d explain why she’s such a ghost, that unit is for the special needs students but she strikes me more as excentric from what I’ve heard.”

Suddenly Lisa hears the sound of someone coming down the hall before hurrying to walk down the stairs as she thinks “This Ashiro person has gotta be in one of the regular classes if she’s not in the Iona Unit.”

The moment she exits the room at the bottom of the stairwells Lisa notices a picture next to the Student Council Room door of someone with Striking Blood Red Hair in Twintails among the members of Class 3B holding up the school's Green Flag and thinks “It can’t be this easy…”

Lisa walks over to the picture for a closer look and notices the girl has hazel eyes and an figure to kill for as well as her hair tied with the same hair ties as the girl from the computer room before thinking “I may be wrong but this girl looks a lot like what Jean described, but if it’s her I might be able to contact her during regular school hours.”

Lisa quickly takes out her phone and takes a picture of the girl in the picture with it before sending it to Jean on whatsapp asking “Is this the Ashiro you were talking about yesterday?”

As soon as Jean reads the message she quickly replies to Lisa’s question saying “That’s her, why a picture of a picture rather than the real person though?”

“Because the Computer Club President is against me speaking to her for some reason.” Lisa replies via whatsapp as she continues to walk back to the Robotics Club Room passing the student store at the top of the stairs of the corridor connecting the main building to the Club Workshop Building in the West Wing.

“Keep your wits about you.” Jean replies ominously before explaining “We’ll be back in a few minutes but that Computer Club President isn’t someone you can take lightly, I don’t know what she’s up to but there’s something sketchy about her club.”

“Thanks, I got that impression from the way everyone was acting with me, reminds me of those TV Drug Dealer types who don’t test their own product.” Lisa replies before putting away the phone as she reaches the bottom of the stairs and pretends not to notice when she hears the hallway security camera turning toward her away from the main door as she thinks “Either that camera has been reprogrammed to be motion sensitive or I’ve touched a nerve.”

As soon as Lisa gets back to the Club Workshop Lisa sees Alison is awake and standing next to the computer staring at it in confusion and asks “You’re up, is there something interesting with the computer?”

Alison turns her head toward Lisa with a look of surprise and replies “Do you know what’s going on with the computer?”

“What’s happening with the computer?” Lisa asks with a worried note as she hurries over to the computer to see what’s happening.

As soon as Lisa reaches the computer Alison points to a Messenger system from the company that made Overwatch as with a Message addressed specifically to Lisa as well as an App on the computer that wasn’t there before and says “You didn’t know about these strange apps?”

“First time I’ve seen them.” Lisa replies before taking a closer look at the app with the message addressed to her and saying “I do know where this messenger app is from though, it’s from that company that made Overwatch.”

Lisa looks at the messenger app and reads the message that reads “Lisa McClure, I overheard your conversation with the club president and guessed what you wanted based on my research on your club for unrelated purposes.
I’ve installed this app so I can get a message to you without the Club President noticing.
I installed a special app I wrote for 3D Printers on your club computer, the security on the school’s network is decent but painfully primitive compared to what my Aunt works with.
I preprogrammed the app to provide proof I am the one who installed it and that you can 3D print just about anything with the correct materials with the software.
I’ll be in touch about what you wanted to talk about soon, focus on your immediate issues first.
Ashiro Anzu Shirakaze”

After reading the message Lisa looks at the app before looking at Alison and explaining “This app is exactly what we need right now, we can worry about recruiting this girl later.”

Alison looks over at the 3D printer and asks “Should I turn on the 3D printer and see how well this software works?”

“Do it, I’ll get things going on this end.” Lisa replies excitedly as she opens up the app before noticing there’s a design queued up and ready to print but notices a marker that says the specified materials do not match those loaded in the 3D Printer leading to Lisa clicking her tongue and saying “It requires materials we don’t have right now to do this demo.”

Suddenly Jean and Mary walk into the room with Jean carrying a box of Parts from the Shop they were at and Mary carrying a box with Amazon markings on it before Mary says “When we got to the schools front door there was a Delivery Driver with a Delivery for the club, did you order something while we were away?”

Lisa looks at them in surprise not knowing what to make of the box at first before asking “What’s the name on the Package?”

Mary looks at her totally puzzled before reading the name out loud “It says ‘Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou’ on the label, you didn’t recruit someone new did you?”

Suddenly Jean starts to giggle like she gets someone’s joke that no one else in the room has caught onto before Lisa looks at the title of the queued up design on the app before looking back at Mary and saying “Please take it over to the 3D printer and open it up, if it’s what I think it is you’ll know what to do next.”

Mary looks at her in confusion for a moment before doing as Lisa asked and to her surprise finds materials for the 3D printer and looks right at Lisa and asks “Mind letting me in on whatever it is Jean finds so funny?”

Suddenly Jean bursts out laughing before getting a handle on herself and saying “Mei-Ling Zhou is the full name of the Overwatch Character Mei, Ashiro Anzu Shirakaze’s favourite character, this is clearly her doing!”

Mary and Alison quickly unload the existing materials from the 3D Printer and Loads the new materials into it before Lisa pushes the button on the app to print the demo design.

After a few minutes of working the 3D printer produces a figurine of Mei shrieking while encased in ice at the sight of something that looks like a ghost hovering next to her leaving everyone in awe at the sheer detail as well as the cuteness of the figurine.

After removing the Figurine and moving it to the main table everyone looks at it for several minutes wondering how Ashiro got the design so lifelike and accurate down to the smallest details.

As Lisa looks over the details noticing the slight subtleties of how her eyes are coloured, how the tiny loose hairs that are out of place are ones that would reasonably come loose in such a situation and how even the subtle muscle shifts in her cheeks line up perfectly with how a real face would move as she thinks “I don’t care what that club’s secrets are, I’m recruiting this girl.”

After a few more minutes of admiring the Figurine Lisa decides they’ve spent enough time looking at it before saying “Alright everyone, get the components we purchased unpacked and get started on the components we need to make ourselves.”

Mary and Alison nod before going about their tasks as part of making the parts and components for the Robot as Jean looks at Lisa and says “Before I get to work on the Body Work and large components we got a good deal on the components we bought, both those we brought with us and those we’re having delivered.”

“Good work, try to keep everything within the budget as you can, the more leeway we have the more spare parts we can have just in case.” Lisa replies before she heads over to the Computer and queuing up a few designs for parts according to the instructions in the app.

To Be Continued

Ochroleucous
icon-reaction-1