Tetsu had heard this dojo had an Engineering program for students. He was honestly curious about where the Phoenix were in their engineering as opposed to the Crab...plus it never hurt to get a refresher. Too many old farts had graduated long ago and had become set in their ways. Tetsu had promised himself that he would never fall into the same trap.

Plus, there was a chance for something:

The Robotics Club was actually an extension of the Heaven's Wing Dojo, a creations of both the students and locals to create a space for extra curricular activities involving robotics. The space allocated to them was a metal shed at the back of the dojo. There was a sign posted up that the metal shed was open from early afternoon to late evening or whenever there was samurai supervision there.

When Tetsu would arrival, the space was already in use by a few of the students in the area, working on their side projects of either upgrading their store-bought drones or making ones from scratch. There were several worktables with old tools donated by either the dojo or engineering department as well as some old computers for programming. Admittedly, there were some kids hanging around, just using the space to catch up on their favourite renga.

Chiruha was here, seemingly fishing through a box of various of projects that were left for the club to work on in their spare time.

The sight brings a quiet smile to Tetsu's face. There was something about all of this that just felt like home: the sounds of voices talking over each other in honest excitement, the sounds of frustration at projects that weren't quite going as planned and the whoop of triumph when something finally worked.

There's another older person, a Phoenix by her dress, going through a box of half finished projects.'

"Is there anything interesting?"

"Huh?" Chiruha said at first before she straightened from her search and turned to regard the other samurai speaking to her after brushing her hair back. There was a holoslate with what looked like a repair ticket.

"Oh! There are a few things here, the issue is just figuring out what to do first," she smirked and bowed in greeting. "I'm Asako Chiruha."

"Kaiu Tetsu of Fundai." He responds, returning the bow. "I heard that this school had an engineering program, and I was curious. Perhaps help out a bit."

Something seems to finally catch up with him. "Wait are you.... you know, Yasuki Nishida-san's new aquaintance? He mentioned you." Tetsu offers a gentle smile. "He seemed rather interested in the affair"

"You did hear right in that regard," she chuckled with a few nods. "I suppose in some ways I'm probably more engineer than a courtier and we take on such skills out of necessity around here, especially when we have so much technology that supplements our way of life on the colony. We need to repair and fix our own equipment than hope for an engineer to fly in from somewhere else."

"Please to meet you, Kaiu-san and yes...I did have the pleasure of meeting Yasuki Nishida-sama earlier. Interested is probably the right word for it," she smirked. "Brought his own tea set, which was something. Lugged that thing on his own."

Tetsu lets out a snicker, trying to hide it with a cough and a fist to his lips. "Yes, that does sound like him. I can picture it now." Tetsu holds the position for a few more beats, his sides shaking with restrained laughter. "I haven't known him for that long, but I can totally see that." He breaks the pose when he can finally restrain himself.


"I wish Crab considered scrapping a duty our courtiers. Of course, that would mean less work for me." Tetsu begins to rummage through the box. "What do we have here that needs fixing?"

When the laughter started, she was quick to explain herself, in case there was any misunderstanding. "Oh! I don't think it's a bad thing! I do very much appreciate the gesture, it came unexpected but maybe it's all part of the tea he shared with me. It was very flavourful and delicious. Maybe it wouldn't have the same effect if served in another tea set. Ancestral tea set for an ancestral tea blend, that would explain a lot."

The box itself was filled with a few gadgets and appliances, nothing of important. There was the water kettle from the sensei breakroom, a hair straightener and a vacuum cleaner, to name a few. Chiruha did pull out the largest item from the box, which looked like a dismantled tea-serving drone with a cylindrical body.

She gave the holoslate ticket a quick read. "This looks pretty interesting. Apparently, this one stopped working recently. We can fix it or scrap it for parts."

"Oh no no no, I didn't mean it as a bad thing at all. I can just see him being that proper." Tetsu's smile gains a hint of mischief. "I think you are a very fortunate lady Asako-san."

"Well, this looks like a promising project at least and it looks as if someone made it past the stage of "tried turning it off and on again. Let's see what's wrong with it"

[Inspecting the drone]

"Let's open her up and take a look..."

Chiruha was more than happy to bring it to a free work bench and flicked on some lights so that they could take a look at the drone together. From the outside, it didn't look like there was anything wrong with it, it was intact with all of the parts still there. It just couldn't turn on for whatever reason.

(Roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN25 with +3 cooperative bonus)

"Hmmm..." Tetsu taps his finger on the workbench, going for a voltmeter. "If all of the parts are in place, it's usually a bit of bad wiring. Everything can look fine, and one little short and pzzzt! No more buffer feed" It's a painstaking process, and one not particularly fancy, but Tetsu is confident that he will find something if it's there.

___
Radar Dish Love-Engineering/Intelligence+3-TN 25: 5d10o10k4+3 29

Once they removed the casing of the drone, they found the expected compartment for water and tea leaves. While the drone had hot water, it could only go through two routes and would be mixed with the tea along the way after it boiled. This portion of the drone were elementary appliance parts. After those parts were lifted, they got to the core of its circuitry and machinery.

As it turns out, Tetsu was right regarding the loose wire, which found itself disconnected. Perhaps it suffered some impact that might have jostled the internal components.

Vrrrrt! The drone powered up after it was fixed and put together again.

"Hey, you did it! Kaiu-san!" Chiruha exclaimed in success. "Nice work!"

"Excellent!" Tetsu beams, wiping his brow where sweat had beaded. "Checking for shorts is one of the first lessons they give out to the new students and graduates. It's excruciating to go through them all, but that's the point. Sometimes, the solution isn't a sexy bit of equipment or a dynamic new technique, but doing the simple things right"

He looks over at Chiruha. "What else do they have?"

"A lot of repairs and maintenance isn't exactly exciting but they are a necessity. I think somewhere earlier in this colony we've taken to making do with what we have and repairing everything, a lot of things are a few decades old." She gave an almost affectionate pat atop the drones head. "I'm sure like drone-san here. And we've been doing just that ever since."

She hefted up the drone and set it on the ground, allowing it to run its pre-installed programming to wander the area to serve tea. This did draw attention to some of the younger samurai in the area who were hoping to snag a cup of tea but unfortunately, its reservoirs were emptied out previously. "Looks like we can probably return this one back to duty. As for anything else...you've really done a lot already, Kaiu-san. Especially, as a guest here."

She looked to the chest of various items where she was at earlier with a bemused smirk. "Kind of unfair to ask you to fix Orihime-san's hair straightener for the 17th time..."

Tsukiko arrives, slightly late and out of breath, but still smiling. The weather was already quite hot and humid and the ikebana event previously really didn't help things.

"Hey, Tetsu-san! You called? Well, messaged, but it's the same thing really."

---

(ooc: apologies for the late response, some personal family issues came up. i should be good to go now though)

Chiruha perked up when another visitor approached the area designated for the Robotics Club. She gave a glance to Tetsu, seeing that he was familiar with her, then smiled softly and bowed in greeting. "Good evening and welcome! I'm Asako Chiruha...and this is the Robotics Club," she gestured to the surrounding area with an open palm.

Tetsu can't help but positively beam as Tsukiko arrives. "You made it! Asako-san, this is Bayushi Tsukiko-san, one of the best computer nerds I've had the chance to meet. By which, I mean "nerd" in the best way possible. I'm a nerd."

Tetsu coughs to reset. "Anyway, I think we are through fixing things. Do you guys want to try for a bigger project, something to give the students a target to aspire to?"

"Pleased to meet you, Bayushi-san," she said with a welcoming smile. "I think you'll find yourself at home here. Admittedly, we are more of a nuts and bolts kind of hang out here but drones also need their programming. It's not so simple when you're doing things from scratch. I know that some of the 'senior' members, including myself, are trying to work out the kinks on a few things before the Robotics Rally."

She looked hopefully at the two. "Can I count on you two to participate in a few days?"

"For me? Defintely." He tries to exchange looks with Tsukiko. "I have heard about it, but I realize that I have no idea of what exactly it entails"

Chiruha looked hesitant about for a moment before speaking. "I probably shouldn't talk too much about it but it's certainly an opportunity for our guests here to see some of our home project, a bit of stress-testing with an obstacle course that almost spans across the city. Kind of a small scale racing rally with a twist. Of course, visitors will get to participate too with their creations."