The Mech Touch

　　He even thought about making the Aspect of Rationality available as well for a much greater fee, but he deemed it too much of a risk. Who knew what people might get up to when they were stripped of all emotions and only retained their cold, hard logic.

　　Naturally, he did not spend a moment of thought on presenting the Aspect of Transcendence. Exploding heads was not a good way to earn a good review for his symposium.

　　He checked the time. Thousands of guests were making their way past the exhibits so that they could enter one of Dawn City's main attractions, the Theater of Joy.

　　While it was not as large as Twilight City's mech arena, the Theater of Joy could comfortably seat thousands of guests. It could fit hundreds of thousands more individuals through the use of floating seats.

　　Right now, those floating seats were necessary in order to accommodate the growing number of outsiders who came for the main event.

　　"It's almost time."

　　He originally wanted to invite more speakers to address the audience, but there were precious few people in the clan who were qualified to lecture about craftsmanship.

　　Aside from Ves and Gloriana, Ketis came close, but she was obviously not suited for these occasions.

　　He even thought about inviting Professor Benedict to hold a lecture. Having a Senior Mech Designer speak at his event would cause others to take it much more seriously.

　　The Cross Clan's head designer didn't stand out as an excellent craftsman, though. He didn't excel in creating masterwork mechs and he was much more interested in the research and design aspects of his profession.

　　In the end, Ves had little choice but to present two speakers today.

　　He would go last as his lecture was the most important. This was his best opportunity to appeal to the members of the Murphy Family that were tuning in to the broadcast today.

　　In comparison, Gloriana's speech was much less important. Ves just wanted her to speak in order to add a bit more meat to his symposium.

　　He also gave her the chance to appear on stage because he knew she would nag and complain at him if he denied her this opportunity.

　　After all, if her husband was qualified to lecture about craftsmanship, then why would she be any different? They possessed the exact same number of masterwork certificates!

　　Soon enough, Gloriana arrived in the backstage area of the Theater of Joy.

　　She carried Aurelia in one arm and hung her overpriced puelmer leather Hoenbach handbag on her other arm.

　　"Where have you been?"

　　"I've been entertaining a couple of ladies and taking care of our daughter. What have you been doing, hm? You must have spent all this time overlooking your domain while feeling satisfied that you managed to convince so many people to pay money to attend this hasty event."

　　"At least I managed to earn back the money you spent on that stupid handbag and more!"

　　"It's not a stupid purchase, Ves. You should have seen how those important women reacted to my strategic asset. They became a lot warmer towards me once I showed that I exist at the same level as them. That is worth more than the 120 MTA credits that I paid for this bag."

　　Ves rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say. It's almost time for you to hold your lecture. Please make sure you stay within your time limit. The people over there have short attention spans and aren't interested in revisiting their school days. Fifteen minutes and no more, okay?"

　　That elicited an ugly reaction from his wife.

　　"I can hardly say anything of substance in so little time! How dare you call this event a symposium when you want to keep our lectures short?! Do you think so little of your audience?"

　　"We are trying to fulfill multiple goals, today. In another circumstance, I might agree with you, but this time is special. We need to rally and motivate the more receptive members of the Murphy Family, and we won't be able to do that by boring them all to sleep by speaking for three hours straight!"

　　"Can't you at least extend my speaking time by another 15 minutes? I can fit a lot more substance in my lecture that way."

　　"Absolutely not!"

　　Ves had to threaten to cut off Gloriana's speech transmission in order to get her to accept the time limit.

　　"Fine then! Here, take care of Aurelia and my handbag for me. I will go out and speak whatever common sense about product development I can fit in 15 minutes. They'll need it in order to digest whatever nonsense you plan to say after my turn."

　　Ves eagerly received their daughter but was much less enthused about holding his wife's favorite article.

　　"Muuuu…. guuuwaguaawwwuuuu…"

　　Aurelia happily gurgled as she tried to reach out towards the handbag.

　　"Really, dear?" Ves questioned.

　　"Baawuubuaa baaaa…"

　　"Ugh, what has your mother been teaching you? You have poor taste, do you know that?"

　　"Hihihihi!"

　　While Ves tried to persuade Aurelia that Gloriana's handbag was not a toy, his wife underwent a few final preparations to ready herself for her first public performance since entering the Red Ocean.

　　Despite her contempt about how much the Larkinsons rushed this symposium, she still valued the opportunity to make a name for herself. She had witnessed her husband earning a lot of fame over the years and deriving plenty of benefits from it. Why couldn't she become famous as well? Her contributions mattered just as much!

　　After a makeup bot touched up her appearance, she went over her truncated speech one last time before she was ready to make her appearance.

　　"Good luck, madame."

　　Gloriana nodded to the people around her before she lifted off her feet and floated through the entrance that brought her to the main stage of the Theater of Joy.

　　The majority of guests had already taken their seats by this time. While more were still pouring in, she was pretty happy with the attendance level.

　　She was aware that a lot more people were tuning in to the remote broadcast. This boosted her confidence as she reached the center of the stage.

　　She raised her finger, causing a projection of a familiar mech to appear above her head.

　　"The Quint."

　　She twirled her finger.

　　"The Little Angel."

　　"The Amaranto."

　　"The Shield of Samar."

　　"The Everchanger."

　　She paused, allowing everyone in the audience to process her opening.

　　"Before I begin, let me say that I understand your skepticism. I am a young mother and a Journeyman. I am at least fifty years younger than other mech designers that have managed to produce masterwork mechs in their lifetime. I believe that many fellow colleagues in the mech industry are wondering how I have been able to succeed not just once, but five times in only the span of a few years. There may even be people among you who think they know this field so well that they question the legitimacy of my achievements."

　　Her lips curled into a smirk. "You are free to doubt my accomplishments, but if you insist on questioning the insights on craftsmanship that I am willing to share to you today, then you better be qualified to speak about this topic. I will only take you seriously if you are a Master Mech Designer or have made more masterworks than myself. Have I made myself clear? Very well, then. Let's begin."

　　She waved her hand, causing the impressive array of projections to fade away. She did not need them any longer to command the attention of the audience.

　　"Those who are familiar with my work and specialty should know that my Class I design philosophy is registered as Perfect Vessel. What this exactly means is outside of the scope of my lecture, but I am willing to share a few lessons that I have learned over the course of making five masterwork mechs."

　　She raised her arms, ruffling the wavy sleeves of her blue-and-black dress that was decorated with hexagonal patterns. "Take my dress, for example. It has been designed and tailored to fit my body to a fantastic degree. The tailors who made it not only accounted for my physical dimensions, but also studied other relevant aspects. My motion. My gait. My sitting posture. My habit of holding my daughter in my arms. All of this and more dictate the most ideal properties of my dress. This is the bespoke experience that is quite common in higher-end product design."

　　Gloriana slowly lowered her arms. "The benefits of using a product that is tailored to you and you alone are well-known and acknowledged. With the technology and expertise that humanity wields to this day, it is possible for anyone who hasn't fallen in abject poverty to acquire a decent collection of bespoke products. Yet… why do people in the mech community not try as hard to provide custom-fitted mechs to their individual mech pilots?"

　　This was indeed a good question, and plenty of people already had answers ready.

　　"Is it economics?" She asked. "I can accept that answer, but it is not entirely valid. While it is currently not realistic to design complete custom mechs for every single mech pilot in human society, we can still incorporate a lot more customization without imposing too many burdens. Mechs can be designed to be easy to adapt during the production. They can also be altered after they have been made. Yet why does this not happen at a wide enough scale?"

　　Gloriana paused for a few seconds before supplying another possible answer. "Is it lack of manpower? All of this customization work is fairly intricate, I admit. Only mech designers can fully account for all of the variables and generate the most appropriate solutions. Still, if there is one thing our industry doesn't lack, it is an abundance of mech designers! Instead of forcing the majority of unsuccessful mech designers into other engineering trajectories, why do we not make better use of their skills, hm?"

　　"This is a sad state of affairs." She dramatically sighed and shook her head. "It is absolutely worth it to design a mech that is customized for single mech pilots. Whatever downsides or compromises you must accept to obtain them is nothing compared to the victories you'll be able to achieve in battle. If you do not believe me, then let me show you my most recently completed work. It may not be a masterwork, but it is highly reflective of my current level of work."

　　A mech descended from a hidden entrance on the ceiling of the Theater of Joy.

　　As the machine slowly descended, many of the people in the audience became impressed by its sculpted form and its masculine glow.

　　The men among them felt particularly attracted by the custom mech and what it represented!

　　Even the less technically-versed individuals were able to recognize that this was not a normal mech!

　　"Meet the B-Man." Gloriana announced. "It's not the name I would have chosen for this custom mech, but it is a mech that completely compliments my client. This mech encapsulated my vision for mechs the best. A splendid hybrid mech like this wouldn't exist if custom mechs provided no added value. Wouldn't the mech community be a lot more dull if that was the case?"

　　A lot of heads started nodding.

　　"I am glad to see supporters among you. Custom mechs may not be appropriate in every case, but they should be much more widespread than they are today. Currently, the vast majority of mechs are mass-produced in manufacturing complexes where efficiency is the name of the game. Too many of these places are antithetical to what I stand for. The workers making the mechs are not allowed to deviate from their work. Craftsmanship is entirely absent. How can humans take pride in our mechs if we treat them as commodities instead of individual works? If we want to take mechs to the next level, we cannot reduce the intrinsic value of mechs any further. They deserve better treatment if we wish to continue to rely on them to fight our battles."