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[Shaalira]

I'm not prone to posting private RP correspondence, but Seriphyn's player encouraged me to share an invented gift for Anette Inhonores.  The idea was a high-end toy for an 11-year-old girl, making full use of capsuleer technology (and wanton profligacy).  Ideas and terminology have been borrowed from T3 and PI materials.

The evemail reads as follows:

A package arrives at the Inhonores residence, addressed to 'Anette.' The return address is a temporary holding facility at the Inner Zone Shipping Storage station, Orvolle III-1. If inquiries are made, the facility would report the package was part of a bulk shipping contract overseen by the capsuleer organization Red Frog. As with many materials handled by capsuleers, the original shipment is almost untraceable.

The package contains a plain-looking white ball with, curiously, the CreoDron logo. The name 'Anette' has been similarly printed on the ball - a customized element.

An accompanying instruction manual has the following introduction.

Congratulations, Anette Inhonores, you are now the proud owner of a PlaySphere™, a flagship product of CreoDron's new line of gyrostabilizer-enhanced, AI-driven sports and outdoor equipment.

Though it may resemble an ordinary ball, the PlaySphere™ is wrapped in virtually untearable supertensile thermoplastic, and padded with adaptive polymer gel-composite. Both materials are layered with nanites, responsive to the central AI core - an intelligent friend who responds and learns from your voice commands! With a few simple programmable words, you can adjust the texture, size, resilience, malleability, and even the external dry friction resistance of the PlaySphere™.

And that's not all!

The AI Core of the PlaySphere™ is wedded to multi-directional omni-axis gyrostabilizer suite. In short, watch as the PlaySphere™ changes course in mid-air, rebounds off of nonexistent walls and rolls back in your direction at a simple voice command. Catch your own throws, practice your kicks, and even stimulate shots by your opponents with the PlaySphere™ adaptive AI! The PlaySphere™ core comes pre-loaded with over 1046 popular interstellar and regional sports, and GalNet compatibility allows you to download localization packages for the unique games of your own world, station or dome!

Following the introduction, the leaflet begins a rather detailed set of initialization and operation instructions. It appears this particular ball is already imprinted to recognize Anette's voice and DNA.

Aside from the leaflet and ball, the package contains a datapad containing nothing but a short note.

Dear Anette,

I'm sorry for not being around of late. I hope you're taking care of your father.

No matter what life throws at you, remember: Have fun!

Lira

[Louella Dougans]

looks cool

[Malcolm Khross]

 

I want one!

Man...being an adult sucks, never get anything cool...

[Ember Vykos]

Kid's toy or not Simca would totally dig one of those.

 Awesome.

[orange]

What the intro does not tell you is the PlaySphere is a by-product of a product developed for military training and combat use... 

[Akrasjel Lanate]

...PlaySphere™, a flagship product of CreoDron's ...

Does that even fit.

[Z.Sinraali]

It has an AI in it, so...yeah.

[Katrina Oniseki]

I think it's more of a stretch to call it one of CreoDrone's flagship products, than it is to associate the two.

That would be like Lockheed Martin or Boeing releasing a flying RC plane and calling it one of their flagship products. Not even close.

But... that is my opinion, and subject to being totally wrong.

[Shaalira]

Does that even fit.

As mentioned, it has an AI in it.  Chronicles mention that 'insect-like' drone cleaners are a common sight in space stations, and one engineer is described making small flying drone toys for his children.  If CreoDron is one of the foremost drone developers in the cluster, it's likely that the space combat drones and drone ships we're familiar with are only a small portion of its lineup - that relevant to capsuleers.

I think it's more of a stretch to call it one of CreoDrone's flagship products, than it is to associate the two.

That would be like Lockheed Martin or Boeing releasing a flying RC plane and calling it one of their flagship products. Not even close.

But... that is my opinion, and subject to being totally wrong.

The relevant line is "a flagship product of CreoDron's new line of gyrostabilizer-enhanced, AI-driven sports and outdoor equipment."  So it's a flagship product of that particular line of products, which is probably only a miniscule niche of the company's total product portfolio.

Don't take the intro too seriously - it's meant to be a tongue-in-cheek replica of the puffery in real-world advertisements and user manuals.

All that said, thanks for the feedback.  I'll see about posting something more substantive to the fiction section later.

[Katrina Oniseki]

As I told Seriphyn when he said the same thing to me, I was only teasing. I do that a lot.