Summary:Nathaniel and Kelly talk over his plans now that he's stuck in the primitive past. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
  |
Kelly Dehaven's apartment has the look of someone that doesn't spend a lot of time there. It's neat, clean and… really rather devoid of any personality. Were he to look in the 'fridge, it has some drinks and old take-out. The single-serving coffee maker looks like it gets a decent amount of use, though.
"Let me get some fresh sheets for you. I don't have many guests over so they're probably all musty…" Kelly heads over to the hall closet to find some linens for Nathaniel. "So what's the plan? Are you trapped here or can you rebuild the device that brought you here to get home?"
"Going back home would let him find me again. I have to lay low and figure out what to do next." Nathaniel responds as he's looking around the apartment. "…reminds me of my place back home. I mean. Not a lot of decoration. Oh wow, is that.. is that LCD? I saw one of those in a museum once!" he says of the modern TV in Kelly's apartment as he's immediately exploring things.
Sure, they had that shared download, but these are things he has never seen in the real. Just in simulations and museums as he looks around, stealing a glance at Kelly. "I can sleep on the couch, or you know, if you want me to leave.." he shrugs. Taking off the belt, he sets it to the side. "I'll see if I can get Jonas to stop us from.. connecting every time we touch when I have it on."
"We should take you to an *actual* museum, then you can see super-old stuff." Kelly's teasing him a bit. Her stuff isn't old, damnit! "I don't spend a lot of time here." She admits while she rummages around in the closet. "I don't really have friends that I hang out with or a lot of hobbies so I'm at the lab a lot."
When Kelly comes over with a stack of sheets, pillow cases, towels and such, she gives him a confused look. "Why would you sleep on the couch when I have a guest room? Why would you think I wanted you to leave?" The one thing she'll agree with is finding a way for them to not inadvertently connect. "You know, I think I'm actually connecting to *Jonas*, who is connected to you. And then he's all over-eager and trying to Share All The Things."
"I agree." Nathaniel says to Kelly's thesis on what Jonas is doing. "He's always connected to me when I'm wearing the belt, so.." And then he realizes that she asked him why he thought she'd want him to leave.
"I dunno. Figured you had a boyfriend or something.." he shrugs his shoulders as he glances down at the floor. "I have a lot to learn about this world if I want to fit in. Especially since it seems I'm going to be here for a while.
Not sure what to do with his hands, he finally holds them out to take the linens offered to him. He glances at the towels, and then frowns. "I'll have to figure out a change of clothes. I mean, the belt has a hologram function, but that'd be totally weird."
"But when you're not wearing the belt, you're… more Joe Normal, right?" Kelly strips off her gloves, setting them on a side table near the door along with her keys and datapad. The latter has a spot to sit on so it can wirelessly charge back up.
The redhead shoots Nathaniel a Look. "I didn't think that our connection was one-way. And even if I *did* have a boyfriend, he doesn't get to tell me I can't have a houseguest." She purses her lips as he muses over learning how to fit in. "The best way might be shadowing some people and watching them. Sitting and watching at a distance doesn't get you any of the day-to-day." She gives him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry you're trapped here."
"Guess you're going to have a shadow for a couple of days." It's said in a teasing way, before Nathaniel sits on the couch, and sets down the linens. He considers what she said, and lowers his head. Because after a few moments, he gives a shuddering shake of a sigh.
Maybe for the first time, he's realizing he's truly trapped here - and that he has no way of going to return.
"I might have trouble getting you past the security at work." Kelly replies, teasing back. She looks considering. "Though… I might be able to let you ride shotgun, as it were…" She's till mulling that over as he sits down and his shoulders drop a bit.
Kelly moves to join him on the couch, reaching out to place her hand over his. "I wish saying sorry could at all help. I can't even begin to relate. I mean, I moved here away from my family but everything is still familiar." She leans against him, trying to offer support.
"Yeah. I didn't really have much of a family, back there." Nathaniel admits as he feels the hand on his and he squeezes hers in return, before just letting them rest there. With the belt off, there's none of that data exchange, just the pair of them holding hands. "I'm going to have to figure out what to do - I was going to try to find help, and got a gun in my face." he shakes his head at that.
Before she leans against him, and he freezes, unsure what to do. Earlier, he returned the motion, and she pulled back, as if he did something wrong. Apparently that's weighing in, because he doesn't move towards, or away, just letting Kelly lean against him as he closes his eyes. It feels nice, admittedly.
"Well. We can see about other help." Kelly says, sounding firm. She likes goals. They give her something to move towards. "SHIELD probably has a list somewhere with people like you if they're out there. Temporal or dimensional refugees. I'm… not sure if it'd be a good idea to just wander up and talk to them, though. I have no idea if they'd want to try to make you disappear." She likes to think of SHIELD as the good guys, but you never know what factions might have ulterior motives.
"I'm pretty sure I don't want to disappear. And I worry that the more I show myself in the past, the more that the future may realize where I am." Nathaniel considers. "And anything that's done would reflect in the future. I don't know. I didn't really think it through.. I just had to get away." Finally, his arm moves, loosely settling around her back, giving her something similar to a side hug - awkward reach around is a go.
That gets Kelly thinking. Because she's a Thinker. "So, what you need is an identity here that's not recognizable from the one that your future won't recognize. You called yourself.. Iron Lad?" Her lips twitch a bit, trying not to smirk. "You're an Iron Man fan, aren't you?" His armor does look a bit like Iron Man's, after all.
Kelly turns a bit so she can settle more comfortably against his side, her fingertips idly stroking his hand as she turns over the problem in her head.
"There's a lot of stories about the Avengers in the future. I mean, and he was a robot. Or a guy in a robot suit. His AI was the basis for me to start my own work…" Nathaniel responds, yes, he's just a little bit of a fan. As Kelly gets comfortable, he blushes, and then realizes that he's probably not in the best of shape for cuddling, but he doesn't want to move.
His hand moves, turning over in hers so that they're fingers are comfortable together in thought. "I've already looked, there's currently sixty-two people in this country that have the name Nathaniel Richards. So it's not neccesarily a common name, but it's not one that will stand out. As long as he didn't get to stay here long enough to pin-point where I am.." he turns his head, and can smell the shampoo in her hair, before he turns back away.
Kelly Dehaven *will* probably remind him of a shower before sending him off to bed. But it's not that bad. Her hair smells of the lavender scent of her own shampoo, and her hand in his is… odd. It's warm and gives but it's definitely not skin. "And were you a hero in the future? So the knew what you looked like and your moniker?" The future probably also has some dynamite facial recognition so she's also thinking how to throw that off from all of the image-capturing devices that are common these days.
"I'm surprised there's only 62. Seems like pretty common names…" Kelly muses.
"I was no hero. Never was. Not even really one today.. just reacted." Nathaniel admits, glancing down to where their hands are joined, the soft metal of hers, and the warmth it gives off. His fingers twine with hers, squeezing her gently as the two share in the light exploration. "I knew what he looked like because it was the first thought I could pull into my head - and I'd look pretty silly as a metallic Thor." comes the response. A hint of a smile is there.
"I haven't had a chance to explore everything that Jonas can do.. he just seems to be able to read my mind and react to what I'm doing. Sometimes even before I'm ocgnitive of what I'm doing. It's pretty weird. Like earlier.." he shrugs. "When it pushed me closer to you. I mean, I thought about it - but not in that moment.. it was like a second later."
Kelly Dehaven chuckles and nods. "It's circumventing your natural filter." She surmises. "It pops into your head and Jonas is already acting on it before you can decide what you want to do with the impulse." She gives him a smile that purses her lips. "I think you need to have a long talk with him."
As to his identity, "Well, even if you weren't a hero. Would anyone looking for you in the future be looking for hits on 'Iron Lad' or what you look like when the armor is on?"
"Probably. Though it wasn't exactly /wrong/ in what it wanted me to do." Nathaniel admits with a small laugh - perhaps tipping his hand a little too much, though he doesn't seem to be showing any movement at the moment. "With a name like Iron Lad, do you think anyone would really look?" he asks her, a moment of amusement in his eyes. "Yes, even to me, it sounds a little dorky. But it is what it is. Not like I copywrited it, just you know - it's there now. And if I try to change it now, people will be like 'wait, aren't you Iron Lad', and then I'd have to spend all that time explaining."
Kelly Dehaven turns her head so she can look up at him, arching her brows. "Oh? Did you go putting out an advertisement and everything?" Yes, she's teasing him. "But if you think that using that name and being out in the armor isn't likely to have them spot you, then that's one less thing to worry about. Hmm. Since you're all sci-fi futuristic, can you write a script that crawls through the internet and blurs out your face in images so they won't be able to find you that way?"
With another squeeze of his hand, Kelly stands up and pulls him to his feet as well. "C'mon. You should get a shower and I'll find something for you to wear to bed." It will give her a few minutes to think, as well.
As she pulls him to his feet, Nathaniel shows a moment of impulse. Stepping up, he kisses her suddenly. On the side of her mouth, or cheek. He wasn't really aiming. And Nathaniel pulls away suddenly, blushing red enough that the tips of his ears are aflame. "Sorry. Thank you." he says suddenly. "I mean that's not how we say thank you in the future, just.. you know. Thank you." And he's pulling away from her if she lets him so that he can retreat - before she throws him out for what he just did.
Kelly Dehaven's cheeks flush as well as she bites her lower lip and her gaze drops to the floor. "Well. Can't blame *that* one on Jonas." She says with a nervous laugh. As he tries to pull away from her, her hands… melt might be a good descriptor, turning into a fluid appendage that winds up the lower portion of his arm to keep from pulling too far away. Then she grimaces a bit as she realizes what she did and then *she's* the one pulling back a bit, the fluid metal pulling back and reshaping into a normal arm. Well. As normal as a chromed metal arm can be.
Kept and pulled back towards her, Nathaniel looks confused as she in turn starts to pull away, and the two of them seem to be stuck on a course of action. "Kelly.." Nathaniel finally manages. "I've never had a girlfriend.." And he's going to leave it at that. He has /no/ clue of what to do, but just instinct was to kiss her. And he did. And it's all 'now what'. Though he glances down in surprise at her arms, his hands dropping down. They caress the metallic part of her arm and hand, tracing it. "That's amazing." he says. "I mean, you're amazing, but that.. wow. You have full control over it."
Kelly Dehaven scrunches up her nose a bit as his touch slides over the smooth metal. "I know, it's creepy and weird and sometimes it's unconscious. It doesn't usually happen when I have my gloves on. I can keep them on next time so it doesn't do… that." While he sees it as amazing, she's clearly got some hangups about it. Not too surprising, considering she needs to keep it hidden all the time.
When he explains about not having had a girlfriend she tilts her head to the side a bit, brow furrowing some. Her mouth presses into a thin line and she walks towards him, her her hand coming up to his chest and pushing him until his back hits the wall, unless he puts up some resistance. "I know you're… attracted to me." She's seen glimpses from those shared thoughts, feeling the pound of his pulse. Also, the kiss was a pretty dead giveaway. "I like you too." She tells him, manner reassuring. "And if I want you to stop doing something, I'll tell you. So you don't need to apologize." Her lips press into a smile and her cheeks flush a bit again. "It was nice."
Thumping against the wall, Nathaniel is taken off guard when Kelly takes charge, but he doesn't resist. There's a swallow of breath as she shares her own feelings with him. But perhaps it's what she said earlier that has him stopping instead of kissing her again. "I should get that shower." he says, blushing, as he manages to disentangle himself, but not before one more kiss as he goes to grab a towel and head off towards the shower. Before things get more awkward. Who knows how awkard- just shower. Thoughts. Change to clear the head and consider this.