Reiko was cut off almost before she began by her oldest sister, Naomi, calling out "Mom! Have you seen Reiko? I need her!" The frantic sounds of someone standing up and searching through disorganized clutter carried from Naomi's room down the hall to the kitchen, followed by the heavy foot falls of someone rushing through the hall. Naomi burst into the kitchen, and saw both of them. A look of excited relief washed over her face. "Oh, good, you're here! I need your help!" Naomi was her oldest sister, 17 years old, and about 66 feet (20m) tall. This meant that Mom only came up to her shoulders.
Mom closed her eyes and hung her head as she sighed. Her voice was steady but slightly chilly as she said "Naomi, how many times have I told you not to shout in the house?"
Despite being a full head taller, Naomi was clearly reminded of her place. "Sorry Mom..." She said softly, turning her head to avoid looking Mom in the eyes.
"Don't apologize to me. I'm not the one who's going to get hearing damage from your carelessness!" It was always surreal to see Mom flip from being happy-go-lucky and loving to the strict, chiding parent. Reiko was thankful that she hadn't had many occasions to be on her Mom's bad side.
"Sorry Reiko..." Naomi said even quieter.
Reiko's ears still heart - the shouting was similar in intensity to a nearby siren starting up, if less grating. "I'll get over it, what's up?"
"I was working on my robotics project when my computer screen went dead. I'm guessing something came loose, but I can't see what. Could you take a look at it?"
Reiko had guessed it would be something like this. She'd had to be tech support for Naomi a few times over the last few years. It's not that Naomi was clueless about computers - far from it! She was preparing to study electrical engineering, had taken several online IT and programming courses, and was frequently found tinkering with whatever electronics she could get her hands on. It was just that the "get her hands on" part was the problem. Her hands were simply too big to handle most electronics directly.
"Sure, I'll help," Reiko said, standing up from the table. Naomi's hand was quickly laid down in front of her, ready to give her a ride to the incompacitated computer.
Moments later Reiko found herself in front of Naomi's computer setup. They don't exactly make off-the-shelf components for giantesses to use, so Naomi had needed to get creative. Her monitor was the easiest part to source - it was a recycled digital billboard, 12 feet (3.65m) high by 24 feet (7.32m) wide. To control it Naomi had build her own mechanical keyboard, with keys 6 inches (0.15m) wide. Reiko didn't know or care what techniques went into making the keyboard work, just that Naomi had decided to make it wireless just so she wouldn't have to deal with connector issues. The computer didn't have a mouse, in part because Naomi was indecisive on how she wanted to build one, and in part because she knew how to use the keyboard to do everything she wanted.
It was what sat next to the computer that was interesting to Reiko. On one side was a super sized controller, the kind with a single joystick. The controller was taller than she was. As for what it was suppose to control, the industrial robot arm sitting on the other side of the keyboard was a pretty good guess. It had some sort of gripper and camera attached to it.
"If I can get this robot arm to work, I can use it to plug in connectors and what not for me," Naomi explained. Then she chuckled. "The company that makes these robot arms advertises them for big, heavy duty tasks, but I'm over here trying to get it to do the daintiest things. The durability is a perk though, I don't want to break it on accident. Anyway..." Naomi reached across 50 feet (15.25m) of desk and lifted over a box that was just taller than Reiko herself, setting it down in front of her. The side of the box had a label: "Special IT Support". Naomi flipped it open, and inside was a large widescreen TV (a little bigger than the one Kimmy's family had), a headband for Reiko to wear with a mounted flashlight, GoPro style camera, and a microphone, and finally a 3 foot (0.91m) ear piece so Naomi could hear what Reiko said.
The kit was familiar, and Reiko put on her headband and powered it up without issue, but the "Special" IT label brought back Reiko's frustration with Mom all over again. At least she'd have time to think about what to say while she helped out.
Reiko climbed a ladder under on the base of the monitor, and opened a panel on the bottom side of it, and pulled herself inside. It was hot inside, but thankfully she didn't need to go far. Right next to the entrance was was an off the shelf desktop computer, connected to the billboard display by a standard cable that lead off somewhere else. It was also connected to a massive power button on the outside the monitor, so Naomi could turn the computer off and on again herself. Right now, the computer was off, with none of the usual lights blinking or staying on.
"OK, let me try the power button again," Naomi said. She didn't have a microphone to speak into - why would she? Her voice always carried just fine (or too loud) to wherever her "Special" IT helper was. The ground beneath Reiko shook slightly as the whole monitor swayed with the massive exterior power button being pressed, but the computer stayed off.
"No luck," Reiko said into her microphone.
"OK, can you check the power cable in the back?" Naomi asked. "Actually, just make sure all the cables are pushed in all the way."
Reiko dutifully went to the back and pushed everything in, looking at each cable as she went to make sure Naomi could see if anything looked out of place.
"Power switch is OK... I guess we open up the case and check if the power button is still connected." Naomi instructed. Reiko followed her instructions and got the side of the case off, then followed the wires from the giantess sized power button to the motherboard on the computer. Sure enough, one of the two connectors had wiggled it's way loose. Reiko pushed them in tight and Naomi sighed in relief as the computer turned on.
"Thanks sis, I owe you one!" Naomi said, putting her gear back in the "Special IT Support" box.
Reiko thought about what kind of favor she'd ask for from her oldest sister, when an odd idea came to her. "I think I know what I'd want, but it's going to sound a bit weird," Reiko said.
"Go ahead, tell me!" Naomi said, bringing her face close to Reiko, surprised and interested that her little sister already had an idea how to return the favor.
"Well... could you make something like this," Reiko said, pointing to the "Special IT Support" box, "that works in reverse? Where I get to see what you see, and guide you around? I... I want to know what it's like to... to be..."
Reiko couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence, but it didn't matter. Naomi was already leaning back and talking to herself while she puzzled out how she would make something like that work. "FPV is easy... could add stereoscopic... oh, EMG feedback! But... no, that's... yes... yeah! Yeah!" Naomi smiled down at Reiko, clearly excited by the prospect of this new project. "Just let me finish setting up my robot arm first, I'll need it to work on your project. In the meantime, could you ask Sophia if she still has those EMG bands around? I know she ordered a bunch to improve her workouts, but I don't know if she kept them or not."
Reiko was a little surprised with how casually Naomi accepted, but she just nodded while Naomi eagerly got back to her tinkering, trying to get the robot arm working quickly so she could start a new project. Reiko was about to ask for a ride back to the kitchen, but she was so curious to see what Naomi could come up with that she didn't want to interrupt her. Instead, she took the 30 foot (9.15m) long ladder attached to one leg of the desk back down to the floor. Once at floor level, she stuck to the edge of hall near the wall - a safety habit she'd been taught to make sure her Mom or sisters didn't accidently step on her.
After a walking for 190 feet (58m) down the hall, Reiko was finally back at the kitchen. She paused for a moment, trying to decide what she wanted to do next.
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