Summary:After coming to Earth, Nathaniel is found by Kelly, who takes him out to dinner Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Kelly Dehaven lives in the area, so when she drags (OK, leads) Nathaniel out of Central Park she knows the area. Including a nice Italian place to sooth the grumbly stomach that the time traveler has.
It's a fairly small restaurant, the walls and ceiling done in murals and the waitstaff is good. Meaning mostly unobtrusive. Kelly looks over the menu a moment and then looks over the top at Nathaniel. She's curious about how things have changed to his time, and figures that watching him react to the menu might give her a good idea. "So, you mentioned that you're stuck here. What happened?"
The restaurant is a surprise to the young man, as Nathaniel finaly remembers to release Kelly's hand so that he can look around, surprise reflecting in his brown eyes as he takes everything in. "Wow. I never though…" he shakes his head, better not to talk too much about things in the future, right? Especially one that he comes from as he moves to sit across from her once Kelly has settled.
Rubbing the back of his head, Nathaniel looks at the menu, and then back up, however, when he meets Kelly's eyes, he glances back down again. "So there was this guy. And he wanted me to do some bad things with my neuroarmor." he explains. "And when I said no, he tried to shove me into the time stream. I fought back, and in the process, we crossed the streams of dimension and time, and kinda.. scrambled things."
"Like, look at time as spaghetti. It's all jumbled up and twists around each other, each of the noodles being a different timeline or dimension. Sometimes they touch each other and you can pass through, but they're not exactly /mushed/ together, if that makes sense. All the sauce in between, that's the time ether that you transport through. Anyway, me and this guy - we broke through one of the noodles, into the marinara - time stream, and ended up in a different noodle, this one. When we destroyed the device that caused that to happen, he went back to his time and place - but I wasn't close enough to get pulled back in. So. Here I am."
"Well. You know what they say about crossing the streams." Kelly says oh-so-very seriously. Her green eyes are always a bit wide. It makes her look younger than she already is, which has been a point of frustration for someone who is already younger than people expect. If you look closely there are thin striations of silver that radiate through those green eyes, though nothing that most people are likely to notice just in passing.
She can't help but grin a bit at the food reference. Clearly, they still have spaghetti in the future. It can't be too bad, right? She shoves the smile away, trying to look very serious and nodding as he talks about getting pushed into the marinara. It *does* take off some of the seriousness out of his story. "You mentioned this past, it's not *your* past. It's different?"
Kelly's wearing cross trainers and yoga pants along with a fitted top with long sleeves. A little oddly, given the warming weather, she also wears gloves.
Nathaniel has tried not to stare too much in all this - she is a beautiful woman, and the way the clothes fit him are teasing, but his attention turns towards the breadsticks as they arrive at the table. He takes one of them and starts on eating it immediately, as he turns his attention to the basket, away from the alluring figure, and those eyes that demand that they be stared into and lost in the luminous green sea within the silver threads.
"Right. So. I was looking at your Earth.. you had a period called the Dark Ages, back in the 1400s. Where I'm from, that was the Enlightening Age - where the world made advances that would eventually lead to industrialization and forward towards the Great War." he explains, tearing off a piece of the breadstick to chew on. "This is really good. Food isn't this.. flavorful where I'm from. I mean, there's plenty, but it's all synthetic and bland, and not.. this is sooo good." He says again between bites, before wiping off his hands on a napkin, and glances towards her gloves.
"Were you planning on climbing later?" he asks her curiously.
Kelly Dehaven isn't used to be stared at which that kind of focus, and she fidgets a bit under it with one hand tucking back some of her long red hair and glancing away to look around the restaurant before coming back to Nathaniel.
Her lips purse a bit as she mulls over his words. "So, you've got network access and I'm guessing you've been going through the glut of information on the internet, to try to piece together what's going on here now so you can see about rebuilding the device so you can get back home?" His fascination with the bread gets a quick grin. "If you think the bread is good, wait until you get to the marinara." She teases.
When he looks at her gloves, she pulls her hands back, setting them down in her lap instead of resting on the table to put them out of sight. "No, no. I'm not much of a climber. I'm a science geek, so my outdoor pursuits are, well, almost nonexistant." She admits. Walking in the park doesn't count.
"Sorry.." Nathaniel manages when she flinches and pulls away. "Just. You're pretty. And I'm not exactly used to the attention. I'm pretty.. well, I'm nothing special where I'm from." he finally says with a rolling shrug of his shoulders. "I'm whats called a nerd, I think was the term." Not datable, not exactly someone a girl would want to be associated with, and he's reminding himself that she's probably only doing this as a charity case, or because of the timeline thing and curiosity.
There's a small smile at her teasing joke. "Is that what you would recommend?" he asks her finally. "I mean, you're.. well.. you're deciding. I figured you'd have an idea of what to have?" he asks her quietly. She's pulling away from him, and he makes some of that artifical distance himself as he sits up on the chair further.
Kelly Dehaven shakes her head, the motion a bit exaggerated. The bit of hair she just tucked back comes free again to slip across her cheek. "No, no. It's fine." Her cheeks color and she looks down at her lap as he compliments her. She spends so much of her time around much older people, most of whom are much more focused on her age than her appearance.
After fidgeting a bit she finally looks back up and brings her hands back on the table. "You already know…" She peels back her glove a bit, to show him her skin underneath, but doesn't take them off. At least, it should be her skin. Instead there's a chrome-like surface where her hand should be.
When she offers her hands, and presents her wrists to him, Nathaniel considers for a moment. Then he reaches across the table. His hands hover over hers, but he doesn't touch her yet. "May I?" he asks her quietly.
Yes, they held hands, but that was when she was wearing the gloves, and he hasn't felt the metallic flesh beneath. And it seems personal to her, so he's being extremely careful with it. "What, it's fine being a nerd? Yeah, I had that pounded into me a few times." he comments with a dry tone. See, he can be sarcastic too!
Kelly Dehaven scoots her chair around the table so she's closer to him and pulls off the gloves while keeping an eye on the servers so she can put them out of sight if they come over. "No, I meant you didn't need to be sorry. And yes, I do think it's fine being a nerd, given that I am one too." She winces with some sympathy that he apparently got beat up over it. "I didn't spend a lot of time with people my age, so I got to avoid the whole getting beat up part."
It doesn't really feel like flesh. It feels more like metal, except that it has the give of flesh and is mobile. Touching it might put his personal network in direct contact with hers, skipping the datapad interface. Normally she doesn't need to worry about what she touches. To get into a person's head, she needs to be close to their brain. To get into a computer, she needs an I/O port.
His fingers touch the metallic flesh of her wrist, and in that moment, the two of them are linked for the briefest of moments. And Kelly can see everything. The bully, the bully that was about to slit open Nathaniel's throat, just before a mysterious figure arrives and he puts on a harness. That momentary glimpse of a possible future, where he - not the figure in the armor - but himself, in the armor, fighting the Avengers, execpt he's older. The direct denial of that possible future, and the ripping of a pair of time streams that force the two into this world.
And the fight of those that helped him escape the older man - and then meeting her, and that momentary skip of a heart as he realized how attractive she was.
The touch was only a couple of seconds long, but when he breaks away, his eyes are wide open.
Kelly Dehaven's jerk back is reflexive more than frightened. She really wasn't expecting that. She stares at him, green eyes so-very-wide, both that that happened and from what she saw. "That wasn't just someone bullying you. They were trying to kill you." She says, voice so very soft.
She shakes herself out of staring him a moment later, but her mind is still whirling at what she saw. While she's processing it, she feels the need to explain. "That doesn't normally happen." She says, tone apologetic. Contrite. "I can read thoughts, but not just by touching someone. All the thinking parts are up in the head and so touching them just anywhere doesn't work, I need to be able to get close enough to the psychic consciousness…" OK. She's babbling. She's a lot more comfortable with her understanding of machine interface than how her telepathy works.
He looks away from her, down at the table. "I was trying to stand up to him." Nathaniel says quietly. Trying, and failing. "I think that your natural abilities and my.. armor are on some kind of synchonization. Maybe it's because they're so alien to each other, trying to figure out things, speaking and talking in a way that we understand - even if we're trying to figure it out ourselves." he frowns a little. As much as he wants to touch that warm skin again, he keeps himself from doing it.
"Okay, so we may be a little.. dangerous to each other." He worries on his lip at that. "I mean.. I don't want to cause you harm, or anything, just." there's a shrug of his shoulders, and a fidget as he finds himself close to her again, his eyes on hers, but he's the first to break contact, retreating from her again. "So. Dinner. Right?"
"Well. He was trying to kill you and he didn't so, point goes to you, I think." Kelly says, trying to reassure him a bit. She's not going to lie to him and say he would have won.
"I'd need to see some of the details of your augmentations to get a better idea." Kelly admits. "To connect to people, I need access to their brain. To connect to a device, I need that access port." Apparently, Nathaniel is one big port, and communicates in a very different manner than the devices of a millennia (for him) past.
Kelly pulls her gloves back on, and her hands get set in her lap again, where they're hopefully safer. The tips of her ears flush again. "I'm so sorry. I… yeah. Maybe." She admits. "At least until we an figure out how to not have them connect accidentally.
She's staring back at him when he reminds her about dinner. "Oh! Right. Let's feed you." When the server comes around, she orders a caprese salad, pollo limone and spaghetti al pomodoro. Of course there was spaghetti! He might need it as a visual aid if the timey wimey stuff comes up again.
"What she said." Nathaniel says with a chuckle, and then grins at Kelly as he considers. "And for my armor, you're one high speed connection to get everything it can to get up to speed. And I don't want to hurt you." he admits quietly.
"But I'm not sure if I want you digging around in the armor.. I mean, what if you come across something that.." Nathaniel frowns. She's seen some of his innermost thoughts, he's scared of her being allowed to get much further within that as he lets out a breath. "I guess kissing is right out the window with that." It's said teasingly. He's at least trying to make light of the situation.
"I think you might be overestimating my capabilities." Kelly says with a chuckle. Something she honestly *doesn't* say much. "There's this *huge* crush of _data_. I'm still digging into that little bit that I got from you. I mean, I'm generally considered maybe a decade ahead of my peers, but I'm like a thousand years behind you. Mind you, I'm up for the challenge." It just… might take a while. Not to mention all of the stuff she'll need to learn to understand the stuff she learns! If he lets her.
"Something that wrecks the timestream?" Because Kelly isn't thinking about embarrassing moments. But then she's never had her self-confidence stomped into the ground quite so hard as Nathaniel.
Her lips purse again as she tries not to laugh at his levity. Because outright laughter might be taken badly. She clears her throat, teasing back. "It's always a bad idea to kiss on first dates."
"Well, I'm going to trust you on the rules of dates thing." Nathaniel shrugs, before he finally moves to get a sip from the water - okay, so it's more like a chug as he drinks deeply from the glass. Mainly to center himself, and keep things light. He uses the time to focus and resettle his thoughts as he sets down the glass.
"…well, I've told you a lot about me. I don't know much about you. Where are you from? You keep talking about being around older people.. do you work with a think tank or something similar?" he asks her. "How old were you when.. that happened?" he asks, gesturing to her arms.
That Kelly is hereby the authority on dating gets small snicker from her. That wasn't something that made the cut when she was younger. "Well you're the fish out of water, so you're *much* more interesting." Kelly points out.
The caprese salad comes out, fresh mozzarella with basil and tomato slices finished with salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Now with her gloves safely hiding her hands again, Kelly dishes some onto his plate and then her own.
"I do." She replies about her job. "I grew up out on the West Coast, and ended up in accelerated schooling so the people I was in classes with were always much older than me. I'm starting in towards puberty while my peers are starting to drink. It was… awkward."
When he nods to her hands, there's that reflexive motion to put them out of sight again and he can tell by the way her gaze shifts away it's not a great story. "About two years ago. I was working on my Doctoral project and I was *convinced* I'd cracked it and there was no way I could wait for everyone else to dig into it and tell me where I was wrong just because they were jealous so I… tried it on myself." Her mouth presses into a hard line. "It worked… obviously. Just not quite as intended." She was supposed to have little touchports on her fingertips. Not have her flesh painfully transformed.
.~{:--------------:}~.
"Yes, well, if I wasn't the fish out of water, you'd be bored to tears." Nathaniel points out with a soft chuckle, as he listens to her go on with her story. He had heard it before. "I was in advanced courses in schools. Made me a target." he shakes his head. But he was going to start to say more, when she speaks of the experiment that made her who she is.
"I'm sorry." he finally says, in sympathy, not responsibility. Reaching down, his hand takes hers, again holding it. "It still feels nice." he offers to her, as if that would help the situation, but then the food is there, and he's aware of his own hunger.
Releasing her hand, he starts to tuck into his own salad, taking the first bite. His eyes widen, and he leans back with a sigh. "Oh goodness." he murmurs. "By the Benefactor, that's delicious."
Kelly Dehaven lifts a hand to wave off the idea she'd be bored to tears. "You wouldn't need to be from the future to be interesting. The whole 'picking up on my network' kinda put you on my radar. But don't worry, if we're talking about not-future things and I feel the urge to cry, I'll warn you so we can swap over to future-talk." She nods sagely at him, even as she tries not to grin.
There's a brief tension as he takes her gloved hand, that they might have another 'incident', but then it passes safely and she squeezes his hand in reply. "I'm lucky it *feels*. I'm not really sure how it works. When I went to install it, it's like it completely mutated into something else and none of the tests I've managed to do have been very insightful."
A small burst of laughter escapes her as she watches Nathaniel eat his salad. "I love balsamic vinegar. It's got great flavor. And the cheese mellows it out." She pauses to chew and then admits with a bit of guilt, "I'd put on cooking shows while I worked sometimes."
"Are you good at it? Cooking I mean." Nathaniel asks her in return as he continues to eat - yes he felt her squeeze his hand in return, but right now, his stomach is overruling his heart as is eating like he hasn't had a meal in a few days. Which really, he hasn't. As he considers her words, he waves the fork at her in thought.
"It sounds like you made yourself an evolving network and interface. And the more it evolves, the more it's trying to adapt you to it - changing you so that you're optimal for what you need to have your best possible connection." he finally responds.
"Not that I'm sure I would want it to expand too far. I.. sort of like what I see. Even without the whole interfacing with each other.. I mean.. just, you and stuff." he shrugs, his cheeks darkening as he shoves a piece of cheese into his mouth to shut himself up.
Kelly Dehaven's laugh is a sudden, sharp sound that draws a few looks and she blushes, looking around guiltily as she covers her mouth. "Sorry!" She says, waving her other hand at folks until they turn back to their meals.
Shaking her head, bringing her red hair sliding over her shoulders. "No. No, in fact I'm pretty awful at it. The fire alarm can be going off and here's me going 'no! we can't take it off yet! The instructions said 10 minutes!'"
When Nathaniel gives his estimation of what's going on, she nods slowly. She can follow him, but it makes her think. Which ties up her brain and gives her a bit of a distracted manner until he's getting all blushy again and she chuckles, leaning over to nudge her shoulder against his. "You haven't done much dating, have you?" Not that she has either, really. But especially since finishing up her Doctorate, she's had some guys ask her out and, flattered, she said yes."
Most of them were just… OK.
That brings a bark of a laugh from Nathaniel. "Me. Date?" he shakes his head. "I was always working on a robotics project or something.. I don't think most anyone would notice me. The only person that paid me any attention was the guy that tried to cut my throat. Not exactly romantic." There's a smirk at that as he finishes off his part of the salad.
"You're so young to be a doctor." he says finally. "I mean, I understand, you graduated young.. but I know you're probably older than me, if just a little." he admits with a shrug. "Not that it matters." Because they're clearly not on a date.
In a demonstration that the waitstaff is excellent, as Nathaniel's finishing his salad the entrees come out. Kelly asks for a pair of extra plates so they can split the dishes, that way Nathaniel can try them both.
"Twenty two." Kelly says, revealing her age. "And if you're much younger than me, I'm certainly not going to be dating you." She teases. There's that whole 'consenting adult' bit. "I only started dating in the last year or so. I was way too busy with my projects as well. And it's a PhD, not an M.D. Those require a lot of on-the-job hours. You can't just skip over stuff by being really smart most of the time." There are a few M.D.s at her age, and she's giving them extra props for managing it.
"What was it that… caused him to try that?" The idea that someone tried to kill Nathaniel is still just mindboggling, and bringing it up gets her a flash of that shared memory, sending a shiver down her back.
"I'm eighteen. So, I hope that I count." Nathaniel says with a laugh. There's a grateful smile as the plates arrive at the table, and he draws in a breath as he takes in the scent of it all. "I'd like to work with you." Though he couldn't technically go to school - he doesn't exist in this timeline.
As she asks about what happened, Nathaniel shakes his head. "His name was Morgan." he explains. "He's bullied me most of my life. And I had finally had enough. I had just made a small AI drone, I called it a council-bot. He took it from me, said that he was going to use it as his science project. I demanded it back. He said no, and I hit him.. and that made him angry."
Kelly Dehaven holds up one gloved hand, finger and forefinger a scant distance apart. "By *that* much." She says, lips pressed into a smile again.
The plates arrive and Kelly dishes out portions, more going on Nathaniel's plate than her own. Teenage boys seem to be bottomless pits when it comes to food, and he's obviously starving.
Green eyes look up to him as she finishes portioning out the food, looking curious. "It wouldn't bore you to tears? I mean, if I was stuck back at like 1000 AD I'd be bored out of my mind working on… I don't even know what they were working on at that time. Uhm. Making torches burn longer? I work on Brain-Computer Interface but it looks like you've got that all figured out." She points out. And while she'd *really* like to know how it works, she can also see that turning that loose to her employers might not be the best idea.
Kelly folds her hands in her lap again, looking concerned as he explains and shakes her head. "Something was wrong with him, right? Or do people attack others like that in the future?"