Quality Assurance and Training
Evaluation Staff
Ayaka Kisarigi & Catty Nebulart - Testers
Ms. Kisarigi is powerful psionic and the department's designated
metahuman capabilities restraint tester. She is also one of the three former
patients in the department. To be more precise I should say two former
patients as the third is still only a probationary member. But I digress
Not too long ago Ms. Kisarigi was an independent businesswoman running a
freelance exorcism company in Japan. She had talent for the profession and
employed a staff with a wide range of abilities who could handle every job
that came their way. Unfortunately what she couldn't handle was the financial
side of her company.
Money was squandered as fast as it came in and the company was almost
always teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. While Phantom Quest Corporation
managed to continue operating longer than anyone familiar with her splurge
until broke pattern expected it inevitably went bust thanks to the deepening
recession. To cut costs fewer and fewer companies were hiring supernatural
exterminators and instead just ordered staff to ignore weird events until they
changed from alarming visions to acts of hideous supernatural evil.
Oh yes, that still happens but a lot less frequently than the exorcism
profession would prefer to be known. Anyway there was still a market for
exorcists but it had shrunk and all the good jobs were snapped up by her
better known and more business savvy rival Reiko Mikami. So Ms. Kisarigi's
business became one more victim of the recession and she began suffering
severe depression. Not too long after that she was admitted to the
Institute as an involuntary admittal after her already heavy drinking got
completely out of hand. No, we don't specialise as a detox center but let's
just say a drunk with a psionically generated light saber is bad news and I
don't think the Betty Ford clinic would have withstood her DTs.
At any rate that was then, this is now. After she completed her therapy
she was clean, sober, on the verge of release and unemployed. This was the
same time that QuAT was setting up and a friendly nurse advised Ms. Kisarigi
to submit a resume. Her skills were undeniable and we needed someone with
paranormal capability to put restraints through the wringer so she was hired
and the rest is history. Which brings us to Catty Nebulart.
Contrary to what you might think Catty is hardly underaged. If I told
you just when she was born you'd never believe it so let's just say that I
guarantee she's way past the age of majority. She's not young, just short and
that's emphasised by Ayaka being so tall.
Because of her size Catty has become the department's mascot, or
"Squeaker" as they prefer to call her, and with her habit of sometimes
becoming a bit giddy and acting without thinking it's a role she fills well.
However her actual function in the department is subjecting restraints to a
dizzying array of technical testing. Her expertise is undeniable and she is
occasionally loaned to Technical Services to help with mecha maintenance.
Which is not to say she doesn't also participate in hands on testing as
she doesn't like to feel left out. She also hides a fiendishly devious mind
behind that cute exterior and is the acknowledged leader when it comes to
interdepartmental pranks.
Lei Fang & Shermie - Testers
We now come to our more general usage testers. Shermie provides the
"everywoman" perspective while Ms. Fang possesses excellent combat skills as
do many actual patients so she can give restraints a workout from this angle.
Ms. Fang is also this Department's second former patient. If you're
interested I think I have a picture from her days as an involuntary admittal.
Institute Archival Photo
Looks like she's enjoying herself doesn't it?
This was taken towards the end of her stay when she had had become a
co-operative patient. While initially hostile she had grown fond of the
Institute. Or perhaps of its restraints and we were beginning to suspect she
might not be willing to go quietly when we released her.
As a matter of fact I can justify that statement but I'll need to give
some background.
We now realise that she should probably not have been involuntarily
committed in the first place. At the time it had seemed an easy call, a
simple case of an obsessive martial artist stalking a fellow fighter. Given
his lack of interest in her romantic obsession and her skills in applied
violence we thought that it could all too easily become a real case of "Fatal
Attraction".
That was the situation as outlined by Jann Lee, the object of her
unwanted affections and our observations seemed to confirm that this was the
case. So Gold Team was dispatched and thanks to a well planned ambush brought
her in with minimal difficulty. Given her fighting skills and hostile
attitude Ms. Fang was suitably secured with the appropriate standard
restraints. Which are not what she's wearing in the picture but I'll get to
that.
It was when she began therapy for her obsessive-compulsive complex that
we received a big surprise. Despite all the visible evidence from our
observations of Ms. Fang while evaluating if committal was warranted and the
testimony of Mr. Lee her attraction to him was only skin deep. In fact when
she realised Jann Lee was responsible for her being committed rather than
trying to rationalise this to fit in with an obsessive belief in his love for
her she became furious. While she began angrily denouncing him almost
immediately we initially assumed that she was trying to manipulate us into
letting her go by hiding her true feelings. Once free she could resume
stalking him, this time forewarned to watch out for future attempts to commit
her.
It was a natural assumption and she was put under observation to watch
for the flaws in her acting. Unfortunately we instead became increasingly
convinced that she wasn't acting, that she truly has absolutely no desire to
having anything further to do with him. We had greatly overestimated how
fixated on him she was and while her personality did have some obsessive
elements these had been redirected by residing at the Institute.
During the observation period I mentioned we had noticed a change in Ms.
Fang's attitude. While she continued to struggle she no longer seemed focused
on breaking free. If you asked her she would freely admit to long having had
a fondness for fetishistic leather and latex outfits. Some of which she wore
during combat. However she had not been restrained prior to arrival in the
Institute but she had obviously become increasingly fond of it. So much so
that when she had a chance to talk she begged the Orderly attending her for
a straitjacket more to her tastes. While Orderlies are forbidden to downgrade
or upgrade patient restraints without medical approval (barring emergency
situations) this one rationalised that so long as the replacement was as
strong as the standard jacket Ms Fang was wearing that there was no harm in
it. This is a bit debatable but since the Orderly followed all our safety
guidelines in transferring Ms. Fang from her old jacket to this new one she
didn't receive any demerits. Besides it certainly seemed to be enhancing Ms.
Fang's quality of life and we prefer our patients to be content with their
lot.
Of course all good things must come to an end and it came time for Ms.
Fang to be released. However just before that could happen our Ms. Polecat
dropped by to visit her.
Tasha had heard of Ms. Fang's case and felt that if properly directed her
enthusiasm could be useful to the just formed QuAT department. Tasha offered
her employment upon her release which she accepted and announced as soon she
was handed her release papers so she never actually left the building.
Her friend Shermie came to us by a very different route. Once a popular
musician (along with her friends Yashiro and Chris) in both her native France
and throughout Europe thanks to a wide ranging tour itinerary she is now
virtually forgotten. Which is the way she wants it and why I won't identify
her any further. I'd prefer it if you didn't say much about her in your
article. It could attract the wrong sort of attention.
It'll take a little digressing to explain what I mean.
Things started going wrong for Shermie when Yashiro forced her and
(apparently) Chris to accompany him to the King of Fighters martial arts
tournament. Actually they had begun going wrong the day she met Yashiro as
she didn't suspect then that it hadn't been coincidence and that he had been
intending to manipulate her all along. Unknown to her the three of them had
a common genetic link to the energy source (and possibly entity) known as the
Orochi power. This could be awakened by fierce combat which was why Yashiro
forced Shermie and Chris to enter the tournament with him as under the name of
New Face Team.
Surprisingly Shermie found she had a natural talent for fighting and
began to enjoy herself. She was unaware of the price those of the Orochi
bloodline had to pay for their innate strength and skills. She found out all
too soon when she had developed enough to generate sufficent energy for her
Orochi genetic imperative to channel almost all her life force to Chris. The
same thing happened to Yashiro and Chris became the awakened Orochi. Shermie
barely survived the power drain, Yashiro didn't and despite the strength he
had taken from them Chris encountered even more powerful opponents and did not
survive the tournament.
With her closest friends dead, the band reduced to her and the fighting
skills she had magically developed sucked away Shermie found herself at rock
bottom. She no longer had a life to go back to and if she did her celebrity
could attract unwanted attention. What if there were others of the Orochi
bloodline out there who would want to consume whatever meager scraps of energy
she had left? Living off her accumulated royalties she drifted around with
no idea of where she was going or what to do next. At last she decided that
she needed advice and the only ones qualified given the unusual circumstances
were the people she had met at the tournament.
She decided that Mai (who had been attending the tournament while on her
annual vacation) was the best choice and gave her a call. Having had her own
share of weird experiences Mai was willing to listen and invited her to visit
her at the Institute to discuss things face to face.
Shermie was evidently impressed by the Institute which struck her as
the ultimate safe haven but she didn't have grounds to do more than visit.
The best she could hope for was to temporarily sign herself in to the Open
Ward but lacking psychological difficulties she would be discharged as soon as
the observation period was up. With patient status out that left finding a
staff position but she had no medical training and all her fighting skills had
vanished with the Orochi power so Nursing, Security and the Orderlies were out.
As was Technical Services and every other department she could think of trying.
She again asked Mai for help and Mai told her that a new department was being
formed which required equipment testers for a wide range of backgrounds but
exactly what they were looking for she didn't know. It wasn't much to go on
but Shermie asked Mai to please arrange an interview with the head of
Quality Assurance and Mai agreed to set the wheels in motion.
Exactly what Tasha saw in Shermie during that interview she hasn't said
beyond saying that she has great potential. Whatever it was it was sufficent
for her to hire Shermie as a Tester and she has never indicated that she
regrets that decision.
As you saw Shermie has become close friends with Lei Fang. I understand
Shermie is trying to talk her into joining a new band, The Chainsmaids, that
she's trying to organise in-house. I know that Ms. Fang is teaching her Tai
Chi so that she'll have a few fighting skills that aren't magically both
bestowed and lost. Shermie's the only one she's teaching those particular
skills to but she's not her only student in the martial arts. Ms. Fang does
twice weekly classes in the gym of the slowed down version of Tai Chi used
for stress relief, focus and general physical fitness.
Why isn't she teaching the more combat orientated version? Because she's
still a student herself and we have no shortage of advanced self defense
programs taught by more qualified instructors. But with Shermie being back to
square one when it comes to fighting she needs to learn the basics first and
Lei Fang is qualified to teach her.
Which she is happy to do. After all, a friend in need ...
Excuse me?
Have we met all the testers yet? Hardly, we're only halfway but you've
met the senior testers. The remaining four were not among the initial staff
when we formed the department. We'll go through them in order of seniority.
The fifth member of the department was the Grinch.
Excuse me, pet name. Please don't tell her I said it.
Erika Slate - Tester
You're right, Ms. Slate, excuse me, Doctor Slate, does look very ticked
off. Hardly surprising as unlike the other members of QuAT this wasn't what
she originally signed up for. Her doctorate is in Computer Science with a
major in Artificial Intelligence Studies and until recently she was a key
researcher at Quark Industries. While her brilliance in her field was
unquestioned after the economic downturn lead to the termination of the
"Rusty" Experiment her skills became redundant and she was one of the many
victims of the subsequent downsizing. Seeking a new venue to work with
Artificial Intelligence systems she accepted an offer by Dr. Akagi to join our
Technical Services Mecha Division. Unfortunately while she is an expert in
the field she had a noticeable disdain for everything about the Institute that
wasn't related to robotics. She didn't trouble to hide this attitude to any
great extent but unlike her previous employer Dr. Akagi was more than bright
enough to pick up on her sarcasm. While she didn't want to lose Dr. Slate's
skills Dr. Akagi couldn't help noticing that her attitude was grating on her
co-workers nerves and poisoning the working environment. So Dr. Akagi decided
to take action.
Dr. Slate received a lateral transfer to QuAT ostentatiously to study
Tesse and her personality development. Specifically Tesse's growing interest
in restraint techniques and in order to most effectively study this Dr. Slate
was reassigned as a Tester for the duration of her stay. Off the record I
suspect Dr. Akagi made it clear to her that she can return to the Mecha
Division once she shows a bit of enthusiasm for something here at the Institute
other than robotics. Or at least learns to put up a good facade. Until then
she's stuck here until Ms. Polecat or Tesse reports that she's not just going
through the motions.
Unfortunately Dr. Slate is stubborn and seems to be sticking to her guns
with increased fervour. However while she might not like her current duties
and could always resign she doesn't want to lose access to the Sabers,
Armitage and Dorothy. So (appropriately as she's a Tester) she's caught in a
real bind. I suppose it hasn't helped her attitude that, in an effort to make
the best of the situation, the QuaT staff declaring that the department has
two mascots; Catty, the cute one and Erika, the grumpy one. So it's become a
departmental mission to cheer up Dr. Slate but outside of Tesse's morphing
into tickle mode they haven't had much luck. At the present time only
inverted suspension can turn that frown upside down.
That leaves five testers, most of whom are scheduled to work today. In
fact as I recall we should be just in time to see Ms. Lockheart's Demo if we
hurry down this corridor. That'll also be where we'll find the two newest
members of the Quality Assurance Testing Division. But if you've had seen
enough of this area and would rather see what else this Department has to
offer there are alternatives.
Would you like to take a closer look at the Labs or the Demonstration
Arena where our Testers work?
If not then that's about it for this Department. Would you like another
word with the Teachers or QuAT's Administrators?
In that case it's time to move on. Who or what would you like to visit
next?
Perhaps you'd like to meet the Support Staff members Quality Assurance and
Training is responsible for tutouring in our latest innovations?
Or the Medical Staff who will be perscribing these techniques and
technologies?
If you prefer we can arrange an interview with a member of our involuntary
patient acquisition team.
Perhaps you'd like to meet our Physical Trainers and see the Gym
Or I could give you the scoop on our advances in humane capture technology
Alternately some visitors have been fascinated by the specifics of our patient
restraint and control equipment
Others have wanted to hear all about our use of robotics
Then there are those who were more interested in the human interest angle of
our friendly staff rivalries
If you insist we could take a look at our underground high security storage
7facility
Of course you can always return to the Open Wards
Finally there's one more option. The place most everyone wants to see.
Do you still want to see the Grimbor Ward?
Or we can end the tour