Welcome to Gaia! ::

The arrival of another familiar face brought a sigh of relief to the Burmilla and she turned gladly to greet *********, a smile spreading over her face.

"*********! Oh, I'm glad you came." She straightened up proudly, a sly little smile on her face. "I don't think it'll need fingers, but I think we can cover anything pretty well between the two of us if it does, hmm?"

She hadn't seen the Manx since the last time she'd been working on the senshi phones... she probably hadn't hurt that Ash had reached her own human state yet. The grey cat was tempted to show off a bit, but at the same time... this was supposed to be Snowball's show... it would probably be rude to go popping into human form and drawing all eyes to her.

"My name is Ash." She said as she straightened up, hearing introductions going around. "I'm the one that called you all here, but it was Snowball's idea to make this particular bit of technology available to you all."

She resisted the urge to bat a few of the pieces back into line, a sense of possessiveness creeping up her spine at so many eyes looking and taking an interest. She straightened up as Snowball nudged her, sitting primly as she gave a sniff. Yes, she could do this... there was no need to get ruffled over it. This was to help everyone.

"This isn't everyone I know... Hmm... We're missing Cora and Horatio, and there is a Derpraline listed in the Primer." Mental note, update the primer with these new cats she had met. Mmm, yes. It might actually be a good time to update the whole of it, actually. It had been a while. Ash nudged Snowball, her tail twitching. "We could probably get started though... catch people up if they arrive. Why don't you start things off, since it was your idea?"

Liryn blinked as post the ginger mauvian's appearance first Ash and then ********* introduced themselves. Had he missed some sort of introduction session? After all come to think on it that hairless cat had introduced himself too. "I'm Liryn for those of you who haven't met me before" he said cheerfully once ********* had finished talking although he didn't leave his settled spot.

He'd seen the name Derpraline listed in the primer too, although he had never met a mauvian with that name. Come to think of it the names Ballard and Tomlin had also been listed in the primer and so had Zirconia, but with both Ballard and Tomlin here and with the exception of Derpraline it meant that he'd pretty much come across those mauvians listed in the primer in one way or another.

********* offer of snacks wasn't one that he was particularly interested in, although he recognised it as a kind one. It wasn't that he had anything against snacks per se and he liked the odd one as much as the next feline he guessed, however right now he just wanted to get down to the device building - snacks could always come after.

Arthur was late, but given that he never once stepped paw into HQ, that was predicted. The fact he also sat down the road from the entrance debating if he should even go in for an hour was also another point. He didn't know what the other cats that did his job did (probably MUCH better than him as he tended to not actually do it) and what it was that warranted them to have an HQ and meetings. He really hadn't met too many cats like him and felt awkward talking to anyone when it wasn't a meow. If it hadn't been for a senshi asking him if he was going to the meeting when he passed by them in the China Town area of Destiny, he wouldn't even know any of this. It was even sadder when said senshi had to escort him here which meant that he really had no reason to slip away under the excuse he couldn't find it.

Sighing, he licked himself as clean as he could, scratched at the fleas behind one ear, adjusted his glasses, and then slinked inside. The place was rather packed, and he felt nervous with even a small group of cats around. Many cats usually meant a gang and gangs on the street meant he usually wound up with claws on his person. Hunched, he stayed in the back and hoped that by just taking up space, he would do whatever duties it was that cats like him did at meetings. Attendance was at least good enough for him - and he was already thinking of slipping out early.

He did notice a small scotich fold he had met once before and was glad she was at least here.

Arthur stood up straighter as the young lady came over, feeling as if he might be called out for not following some procedure for meetings. Frankly, if she said he had to go then that was his justification to avoid them again. instead, she introduced herself and he relaxed just slightly.

"It's..a pleasure to meet a young lady such as yourself, Yumi." He said, trying to remain polite. "I'm Arthur. Am I…doing all this right?" He asked, not sure of if he was even sitting in the right area.

The young lady was, if anything, well defined and had a soft, gray coat with an elaborate butterfly collar. She must have had a great owner who loved her dearly to go to such an expense which meant she was a good person in turn to garner that love.

There was also talk about something dealing which phones, which he never had and then grew even more uneasy at the mention of having his own phone. Weren't those things – complicated with buttons and lots of numbers to memorize? Elanor had been rather against anything referencing cell phones and had stuck to her home phone just fine. She always stated that if anyone needed her that badly, they could come over, and that there wasn't anything else she needed that her wall phone couldn't provide. Even he learned to use that phone, but a cell phone? It just seemed, weird and strange.

Concerned, he whispered back to Yumi. "So how does the phone go around your tooth? My dentures might get bothered by that."

Arthur was a great name. She beamed at that and nodded at his question, quite happily. "There's no real doing it wrong, honestly." Yumi's voice pitched a little, trying to put him at ease as she sat there, tail flicking, listening to the conversations going on. "Honestly it's my first time here. I had no idea there were this many of us. So you're not the only one not sure of what to do."

She trailed off after that and her head tilted further before he mentioned dentures. Those were fake teeth. Her head swiveled to look at him again and she blinked. "I... use my paws?" Holding them up it was very easy to tell she had tiny paws, so the buttons were more easy to deal with. "I'm sure we can ask if they can be voice activated for emergency purposes?"

Then Ash had concepts up on the screens and she tilted her head to the side, to stare at them a bit. Assembling her own phone was out of the question unless she wanted to to literally blow up in her face.

"Oh, yes. I was wondering if we could have them be voice activated? We do tend to find ourselves chased. Or... I do, and I don't really have times to fiddle with buttons and what not if I need to call a senshi if my own isn't with me..." It would also help Arthur out without actually calling him out.

Carmen noticed that some cats had opened side conversations during the explanation, but she had not. She maintained a careful focus, fascinated by the description of what was planned. A voice-activated, customizable gadget with all the features of the senshi phones and possibly more... it almost sounded too good to be true. She stared at the computer displays for a moment, and then padded over to the pile of gizmos to pick out some parts. Unfortunately, by the time she had picked out everything, she had forgotten where to start. There was a partly-finished product in front of her, but she couldn't just mash things together till she got something that looked like Ash's creation. "Excuse me," she called out to Ash. "Can you please start over from the beginning? Just walk me through how to start again, please. My apologies for my short memory."

Tomlin felt eyes on him. Another mauvian was staring up at him with intense dual-coloured eyes. He didn’t recognise the fluffy grey cat, didn’t know his name, but he felt for a moment that he ought to. The vertigo sensation of a gap where a memory ought to be took him by surprise. Tomlin turned away from the uncomfortable, unplaceable glare, twisting to groom his shoulder in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner.

When he glanced back, the small grey mauvian was puffed up and tail swishing, but no longer focusing on him. The other cat did look familiar, in a distant kind of way – he couldn’t remember where he had seen him before, let alone what he could have done to earn that reaction. He shook off the mystery with an effort, forcing his attention back to the discussion.

Derpraline’s name in proximity to the suggestion of snacks brought to mind a past gathering of feline technological invention, and he seized on the memory that was solid and real, though it seemed like a long time ago. “No waffles,” he said, though it was more to himself than to the room.

The specs for the communication devices flashed on the screens around him when Ash woke up the computers, and he examined the displays while she talked. It looked well-thought-out, though ambitious with all the functions. Was video chat really necessary, or were Snowball and Ash just showing off? Either way, it would be impressive if they got it up and running, and even if only half the functions worked it would be a huge improvement over borrowing bulky phones. Touchscreens were not suitable to clawed paws. He liked the idea that it would only work for cats, too – he could imagine himself losing it somewhere, and it would be bad news if any random could pick up a working device.

He jumped down from the computer bank and snagged a few likely components from the array, settling where he could watch both Ash’s fast-flying paws and Snowball’s slower assembly. He wasn’t worried about keeping up so much as understanding how the bits would work together. He'd played with radio guts before, this couldn't be that different.