Awww~ A cute little mechaboy, decked out in his shorts. He looks all ready for the summer! Well, maybe not so little... actually he's much more like a giant robot at the height of sixty feet! Where did he come from? What can he do? Well...
Basic Data
Designation: Carmine (mk. II)
Height: ~60 ft
Weight: Unknown, but appears to be smaller than a proportionately large human.
Hair: Blue
Eyes: Yellow
Clothing: Generally loose cloth shorts and T-shirts. Also carries a backpack containing his weapons (ordinarily stored as folded-up "modules).
Update: Now wears a cute blue
randoseru, a gift from his oneechan
Skuld!
Carmine owes his creation, at the very heart of it, to a young otaku boy living in Shibuya. Cliched but true. Young Mitsure grew up surrounded by manga. Astro Boy, Gurren Lagann, every single Gundam, Megaman... he happily dove into every series, soon becoming a fully-fledged devotee of mecha. And, eventually, he decided to create his own, drawing up plan after plan... and then secretly submitting them to his father's company's main project computer. To his surprise, after checking over and correcting a few physically impossible situations, the computer ordered immediate processing and creation of this one-of-a-kind creation. And so, a year-long grounding and a fair amount of computer-guided work later, the framework was completed. Carmine's newly-made body lay still and asleep in the warehouse where he had been constructed, awaiting activation by the military that had taken charge of the project. However... the night of his completion, a young figure crept into the warehouse and wriggled his way down into the cockpit... the first to interface with the newly built mecha. After the long and fairly painful process of allowing his mind to be scanned, the sleeping Carmine's consciousness built slowly around the imprint of his creator's... the fearful Mitsure finally heard a soft voice in the back of his mind, as soft golden eyes opened.
"H-hi there..."
Nowadays, Carmine is a little bit older, though still less than a year has passed since his activation. His mind has been fully formed after a bit of work from that initial imprinting. Friendly and playful, the giant boy is a bit shy around the smaller, normal-sized folk inhabiting the land of Japan he's found himself in. Around other mecha, he's more friendly, and around kaiju he's ready for action, a military-built mecha here to save the city of Townsville! Er, Tokyo. Or Shibuya. Whichever happens to be under attack by Gojira's surprisingly numerous cousins.
"Seriously, how many times a day do we get attacked by giant sea-monsters?"
His revolutionary C.O.C (center of consciousness) system allows Carmine to be completely autonomous, needing no pilot to activate his full potential, somewhat like a larger-scale Reploid. He can be piloted, however, if so desired, handing over control to a more skilled combatant when his own abilities don't suffice. The interface consists of a helmet worn over the face, a translucent visor displaying the view from Carmine's eyes in real-time, and a slender needle inserted into the very base of the pilot's brainstem. This allows instantaneous information transfer on Carmine's various systems and weaponry on call. During piloting, Carmine's motor functions are entirely controlled by the pilot, and all vocal functions are supressed entirely, so this connection also allows telepathic communication between the muted mecha and his pilot.
"Y-you want to pilot me? Um, okay, but to get to the cockpit, well..." >///<
Oh, and the cockpit itself... well, it's located inside of his abdominal cavity, the most heavy and protected region of the mechako's body, naturally. But to preserve structural integrity, there is no hatch or panel that can open. So, how does one get in? Well... naturally, as he can talk, Carmine has a mouth. And a passageway from that mouth into his cockpit... so basically, if you want to get inside, he has to swallow you! The motion of his throat guarantees the pilot won't get stuck, and his inner stomach is padded with a very soft, gossamer-like synthetic silk to cushion their fall, as well as any bouncing around that might result from epic mecha combat! Of course, Carmine is well aware that what he does is essentially swallowing his pilot into his "stomach", and is understandably shy about, well, eating his friends, even for a while, so he's very shy about letting someone do so, offering very silly excuses to avoid it~
"A-all right... *glk* I'm at your command, Pilot..."
The mechaboy that pilots will find at their disposal is fairly impressive. Mitsure made sure in his initial plans to make his hypothetical creation very hard to destroy, not wanting Carmine to ever be taken away from him, and the computer was happy to edit his fantastic design to be physically possible. The mechaboy's frame is actually hollow metal, cross-braced at strategic points to keep him lightweight while not sacrificing too much of the integrity he would have with solid "bones". Covering this is a fairly thick layer of the same gossamer derivative that lines the inside of his cockpit, which serves as an excellent armor against bullets despite its softness. Covering over that is a simple synthetic skin, which despite its simplicity and lack of defensive value does an excellent job making Carmine keep his shape, instead of having all that silk unravel and make him look like the Terminator. It also feels almost exactly like real skin, and coupled with the soft silk layer beneath makes his body feel very much like actual flesh. Were someone his size to hug him, they'd have a hard time telling the difference!
Besides looking and feeling like a human, and being virtually bullet-proof thanks to the gossamer, Carmine is also outfitted with a decent arsenal. Rapid-fire vulcans are tucked away inside his shoulders, as are a pair of missile launchers, while that cute little backpack he holds actually contains several "modules"- compressed armaments that expand upon integration with contacts on the mechako's hands into their full size. Included with his normal setup are three different beam guns, a powerful blade, and an energy shield worn on the wrist. In addition, Carmine can be outfitted with wings, and a very special ultra-weapon...
All systems go... Armstrong Buster online... Okay! Let's chase this mean ol' kaiju right out of Kansai!
Generally, Carmine is a bit on the shy side. However, his consciousness being derived from a copy of his creator Mitsure's, he is also playful, and of course has inherited his creator's love of mecha. He realizes that he was brought into this world purely because Mitsure wanted to give life to the beings he saw on screen... to him... and is perfectly content being a created, mechanical being. Despite a fairly rough relationship with his military builders that sometimes leads to outright conflict, normally Carmine is just happy to wander the cities of Japan, usually staying in his home prefecture of Kanto but occasionally drifting off even as far as Hokkaido. He's extremely gentle with anyone smaller than him, humans in particular, his hands soft and very,
very careful should he pick one up. Which he is fairly apt to do, once he's sure the poor little guy won't panic...
"Hi! I'm Carmine! Wanna chat? ^^"
Accessing... Access granted. Transmitting data from LETRA Corp. mainframe.
Mecha-otoko "Carmine mk-II", Detailed specs readout
(Technical specs, for those that want 'em.)
General App.
Body-type that of a boy in early teens, wearing shorts, T-shirt, and backpack. (Backpack contains modules for all armaments except Nova Barrier.)
Hair blue and shoulder-length, messy like that of a child refusing to have a haircut. Eyes golden yellow and slightly thinned; skin tone roughly halfway between Caucasian and Asian.
Structural
Innermost framework composed of diverse metals, mostly alloyed aluminum shell and titanium reinforcement. "Bones" hollow and cross-braced to reduce weight at minimal cost to structural integrity. Surfaces angled to further disperse impacts.
Major damping layers composed of synthetic fiber "sheath". Fibers based on gossamer (spider silk) and chemically engineered to improve strength. Layered carefully to a thickness of several inches to produce a layer capable of resisting all known solid munitions. (Possibly can be penetrated at extreme close range by high-penetration rounds.) Extremely soft and yielding to the touch, both directly and through "skin".
Sheath given shape and held together by high-tension polymer "skin". Highly realistic to the touch, feeling much like real human's skin. In combination with the sheath, pressing on the skin feels similar to the feeling of flesh. Skin also holds a network of thin gold wires running through just beneath the surface; these are set to act as a Faraday cage, dispelling all EMP and electric-based attacks directed at the mecha.
Cockpit
Located within abdominal cavity. Walls are highly padded with gossamer sheath to prevent injury during entry. Lit from within for the pilot's convenience.
Pilot-mecha interface gives pilot full control over mecha's movements and display of Carmine's optical-views on helmet visor. Mecha's speech functions suppressed during interface, however simple neural connection (wire inserted into base of brainstem) allows telepathic communications between pilot and mecha only.
Head
Lightweight aluminum casing for structure, housing major processing units and C.O.C. system.
Low-intensity sodium emission generator mounted in each eye; produces yellow light (~5900 A) due to atomic excitation, responsible for eye-color. Intensity can be briefly and highly increased via mass injection and focused to create a paired short-pulse laser burst.
Torso
Similar casing and sheath as that on the head, plus extra layer of titanium reinforcement around the cockpit area.
Shoulder-mounted .50 caliber vulcan cannons, recessed into the joints while not in use. Capable of being loaded with armor-piercing rounds.
Shoulder-mounted "krak" missile launchers, recessed into the blades while not in use. Consists of two linked charges that can be detonated simultaneously or in sequence; first charge is highly concentrated, designed to create small holes in armor for delivery of more explosive second charge.
Limbs
Legs further reinforced to take the heavy strain of jumping and running at top speed; second-heaviest region of Carmine's structure.
Arms more lightweight, designed to be able to move weaponry very quickly; capable through electronic contacts of interfacing with any weapon in his armament, and adaptable given time to captured weaponry from other mecha.
Armament
Pulse Shot- Standard beam weapon manufactured for use by large-scale mecha. Adjusted specifically for size and recoil to Carmine's frame; as a result is slightly less powerful than normal but can fire more rapidly due to decreased recoil and capacitor charging time.
Pinpoint Blaster- Modified beam rifle with a high-accuracy scope capable of variable magnification. Scope uses Cassegrain (two-mirror telescope) mounting, with mirror surfaces created by mercury in centrifuge; altering centrifuge rate changes mirror shape. Mirrors are also capable of reflecting and firing eye-mounted laser, but at cost of slight dispersion (and thus lower intensity).
Armstrong Buster- The most powerful beam cannon available, named after the famous Armstrong cannon used in the 1800's. Takes time to integrate with the weapon, as well as deploy the necessary bracing to support the extreme recoil. If fired without this bracing secured, severe structural damage will be sustained.
Hermes Rapier-
In development.
Icarus Wing-
Under reconstruction.
Wave Shield- Small shield, dimensions roughly equal to that of a buckler (of proportionate size). Generates a wide energy shock that bends the path of incident energy weapons, effectively deflecting beam armaments. Does not surround Carmine, however, and must be moved about to deflect shots fired from widely dispersed angles. Deflection is most effective closer to the center of the shock.
Nova Barrier- Somewhat of a desperation technique, this piece of armament is not normally carried by or equipped to Carmine. It is instead deployed when called for from an orbiting satellite. Taking the form of a levitating, orbiting ring around Carmine, it projects a barrier that absorbs all energy-based weapons and generates an energy reaction on the center, focused around Carmine's body. While within, Carmine is limited to use of solid munitions. When the barrier's strength is overcome by the attacks absorbed, the ring shatters and releases a wide-radius blast of pure energy, equal in strength to the energy reaction generated during the barrier's integrity. The blast is indiscriminate in what it damages and is thus used only as a last resort; however, considering it is composed of energies that collectively destroyed the original barrier, it will overcome most enemy shielding.
