Summary:Roy stands up an appointment with Kelly for her to check over his prosthetic arm. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The SHIELD Lab most of the time was a pretty sterile environment that had people working on it fatigues, nice uniforms and such. The machinists shop is even kept tidy. So it may be out of place that a shock of bright red hair is working in one of the corners of the shop.
Sitting on one of the work benches, the SHIELD mesh cap - or trucker hat as it's been called is turned around with the bill facing backwards. A bluetooth speaker nearby is blaring out 'Gimmie Three Steps' by Lynard Skynard, and Roy's dressed in a ratty concert t-shirt and pair of blue-jeans. A pair of sunglasses cover his eyes as he hums along with the music, using a small propane welding torch on one of his arrow heads, his mechanical arm moving as he gets used to the feel of it.
You don't find Kelly in the machinists shop on the regular. Her work usually has her off in one of those sterile environments working on delicate electronics. But when she needs to go looking for a certain archer, well, she can be drug out of her natural habitat.
With long red hair twisted up out of her way and a white lab coat on, there's the soft tap tap tap of her heels as she enters the room. Roy isn't hard to find and she tries calling out to get his attention. Which doesn't do much given he's got his music turned up. A sigh as she heads towards him, calling out a second time. Finally, she's right up on him, chest expanding as she draws breath to try for the third. Damned. Time. "MISTER HARPER!"
"Oh, wait a minute, mister
I didn't even kiss her
Don't want no trouble with you
And I know you don't owe me
But I wish you'd let me
Ask one favor from you"
Roy's singing.. isn't /terrible/. But you know, you take it in doses. And he's singing along as he works on the arrowhead, right up until he hears the yell almost next to his ear. There's a yelp, and he nearly fumbles the torch out of his hand, but catches it with the mechanical arm, flipping it around to turn it off.
It may worry Kelly that he's so cavalier in the use of his arm, but he has to be able to get used to using the thing /somehow/. Turning around as he lifts his glasses, bright green eyes smile up at Kelly. "Hey Cherry Pie, how's it going?" he asks, setting aside the arrow. "Having to make a new taser arrow, one last night fizzled out taking down some drug runners."
Kelly’s eyes narrow at the nickname. Sure, it sounds like it’s all cutesy given her own red hair, a much darker shade than his own, but apparently she’s aware of… less cutesy meanings. You can’t get away from knowing when you’re a redhead.
“You had an appointment with me.” Kelly points out, with some annoyance in her tone. Roy’s batting 1000 today. One arm cradles a tablet computer, which she turns around for him to look at. It has her calendar on it and there, right at, oh, twenty minutes ago, was his appointment with her. “I understand you’re very enamored of your shaft, but if you want that arm to keep letting you play with it, you need to make time to check in with me.”
If it helps, Roy is very much a redhead himself. As he looks at the calendar, and then back up at her, he has the dignity and wherewithal to at least let Kelly think she's chagrined him. "Oh shit, that was today? Sorry, got caught up in the work and all that, and I forgot. I mean, it wasn't because of you - who'd want to miss out on time with that?"
Her comment draws a snicker, before he moves to rise to his feet. "Sure, I'm more than willing to take a break to visit with you for a bit. Maybe you can help me with the shaft and give me a good lube up."
She started it, after all.
Kelly gives a long-suffering exhale through her nose. She puts a hand on his shoulder and pushes him to sit back down on the stool. “Just… sit.” She says, setting her tablet down on his work table once she’s made some space for it, setting it so the screen angles where they can see it.
“Shirt off.” The redhead tells him as she pulls off her gloves. Most of his arm is already exposed, but where it meets his torso *is* under the sleeve. Apparently she doesn’t want to try to pull it out of the way.
Roy’s seen her silver hands before. You don’t get SHIELD clearance and hide something like that, and given she’s part of the team that put his arm together, he’s run into the short woman before. She’s admittedly seen more of him than he has of her. He was unconscious while getting that replacement arm so she’s seen him out cold.
Flopping back down onto the bench, Roy moves to take off his hat and glasses, exposing more of that vibrant red hair. Reaching down to pull off his shirt, he sets it to the side, exposing a frame that's seen better days, but he's still lean - perhaps too much so - a side-effect of the drug use, he hasn't started to put on healthy weight yet.
Setting his arm on the table for Kelly to access it better, he gives a little snort. "So, how's you and that imaginary boyfriend at your house?" he asks her teasingly. Of course he's asked her out before, and totally got told that she already had a boyfriend. So clearly he had to be imaginary. Right?
Green eyes, similar to his own and yet, like her hair, a darker shade slide over and seem to pin him in place. Kelly closes her right hand into a fist and a several-inch long spike flows out from between her knuckles as her other hand comes to rest on his cybernetic arm near where it meets his torso and thumbs open an access port there. And then that spike is jammed into his arm. At least it doesn’t hurt, but it was done with a bit more force than necessary.
The fine silver striations that radiate from her pupil outwards amidst the sea of green irises expand a bit as Kelly connects up with the systems in his arm so she can run diagnostics on it. There’s an entirely *different* doctor that checks up on how his flesh-and-blood body is accepting it. Despite being busy with his arm, Kelly replies back flippantly, “Doing things you can only dream of.”
On the bench, Roy’s arm runs through some fine-motor actions without any direction from the archer. Hand opening and closing into a fist, thumb touching each of the fingertips in turn and the like.
"Man, that's some Terminator grade shit there." Roy says as he watches Kelly at work. "Ever stuck one of those things in someone's eye?" he asks with a curious lift of his brow. "Not that I'm volunteering." comes the quick addition. He watches the arm act of its own accord, sharing the data from it's combat usage the other night.
"Held up pretty well - fortunately the idiots we were fighting decided to take that super drug instead of you know, shooting at us. Didn't get a chance to use the arm that way. But it drew and released the bow string pretty naturally." He reaches down, using his real hand to itch at one of the junctures between real and cybernetic.
At the comment about what she's doing at home, he rolls his eyes and lets out a breath. "Well, I dunno, I have a pretty vivid imagination." he points out.
Kelly shoots Roy a look that’s a mix of startled and alarmed at the very thought of stabbing someone in the eye. “What? No!” It had actually never really occurred to her to do something like that. Probably because she hasn’t watched Robocop. “I don’t usually work in the field, mister Harper.” Unless they need her to look at something that can’t be moved, there’s generally no call for her to be.
“Perhaps ironically, the goal is for you not to notice it.” Kelly points out. The best design is 99% invisible. Her gaze dips to where he scratches at where Man meets Machine, and her tone softens a bit. “If it’s bothering you, make sure to mention it.” They won’t decide to remove it just because it’s bothering him, will they?
“Also, it’s not a bottle opener. Stop that.” Apparently Kelly got more than just the battle stats off of the thing. “Really? Compared to what?” She might be mocking his creativity.
His hand quickly withdraws. "Naw, don't bother me at all!" he's defensive and quick to that. He won't let them take it. "Only thing that makes me worth a damn." he mutters, bravado deflated for a moment. However, he flashes a smile at her quickly enough.
"But it does so well in a pinch." he offers with wink.
Kelly’s standing right next to Roy, and he’s kind of the focus of his attention. As he’s quick to reassure her that everything is fine she gives him a heavy Look. “You know I have a background in Psychology, right?” Along with Computer Science, and Engineering, and Mathematics and… well. A lot of stuff. SHIELD likes its best of the best of the best, sir!
“Also, your arm monitors your vitals and the spike’s a dead giveaway.” Kelly’s got all the information that she needs. The screen on her tablet that Roy can also see has stopped flipping through programs, a visual representation of what she sees in her head. “If it’s giving you a problem, we want to know sooner rather than later. If it kills you, it’s *not* a win.” She points out.
"It's not gonna kill me. Just itches now and again." And hurts, when he's not thinking on it - he feels the arm being ripped off again, but he's not going into that. He's not that close to the woman. "I feel /fine/." No, he doesn't want her in his head, either. And that nervousness does show.
"As long as it works, and lets me do my job, we're gonna be fine." The walls are going up. He's not ready to start admitting he needs help. He's had to do that enough as of late.
Kelly is still regarding him with some skepticism. But finally, she pulls her chromed hand away from his arm. The spike isn’t there anymore, but the angle is a bit awkward for Roy to see it’s still plugged into the port. She didn’t need to do the dramatic plug-in, usually she just puts her hand over the area and flows the liquid metal in.
Thumbing the access over closed and locking it down, Kelly leans forward to collect her tablet. She’s close enough his cybernetic arm registers the brush of her lab coat. The heat of her body. It’s not quite the same as getting sensory input from his own flesh. It’s like a book that someone’s annotated the hell out of, adding additional information like composition of the fabric and that she’s clocking in at a normal 98.6 degrees. Unlike the scent of lavender and mint that lingers about her.
“I’m not your enemy.” Kelly notes, her words a soft murmur as she hugs the tablet back to her chest.
"Never said you were, Doc." Roy responds, cutting his eyes away for her. The scent of the woman is a calming effect, but he's trying not to look. He smells - not bad. Gun oil, the acetylene from the torch - just a hint of sweat. Hints of sandalwood from the soap he uses.
"But you know, at least ask a guy to dinner first before shoving things into him." he offers, trying to lighten the mood.
“I make you nervous.” Kelly points out. To both his answer, and his statement. It’s something she’s used to. Even before she ended up with the ‘metal’ arms, she put people off by being Way Too Damned Smart. She’s grown into that big brain of hers a bit now, and also learned how to be a bit more subtle, but then she spends all day working at SHIELD with people that know about her differences. While most of them are easy going about it, it can still make people… nervous.
Kelly looks down at her tablet, and tap/swipes at it a bit, even though she really doesn't need to. It’s a habit she’s developed to well, make people less nervous. “Is the motorcycle going to be a regular thing? It puts a lot of vibrational stress on the system and probably the connection as well. That might be why it’s bothering you.”
"Haven't ridden the bike since the accident." comes the admission from Roy. He's sat on it. He's idled and revved it. But taken it riding? He can't bring himself to do it yet. There's too much there. "Thought about selling it. I mean, living here is great and all, but the food's terrible." he shrugs his shoulders. "And people complain when I get to banging the skins."
"Yeah. You make me nervous. Way smarter than I'll ever be, you make redheads look even better, and when you're not smirking at me, you're cute." he smirks, and then lifts his gaze to her. "And since you won't ask me, maybe I'll ask you to dinner. If your boyfriend's okay with it."
There's a shrug from him as he returns his attention to his arm. "There. How's that for honesty?"
Kelly gives him another long look with those moss-green eyes. They flick down briefly to the screen that Roy can’t see now. Of course, that arm of his probably relays all sorts of data back to SHIELD, like a permanent lojack. Along with other things.
“You *should* get out.” She suggests, not unkindly. “Everyone needs a break once in a while. Get a chance to decompress.” That psychology background is gonna be really nice for the supportive advice or really annoying for the insight. “Living here should be a short-term solution and it looks like you’re out of the danger zone that we’d need to keep you close.”
The tablet gets hugged against her chest again, and does that uncute thing. She smirks at him. “Why should my being smart make you nervous? I don’t think my ability to recite Pi to a hundred digits is in any way a threat to you.” The not-quite-offer gets a chuckle. “My boyfriend gets to be okay with whatever I want to do.” The smirk shifts down into a slight frown at his honesty. She’s always assumed that the suggestion was all joking flirtation. Now she’s stuck between trusting he’s being honest, which means the interest is real, or continuing to take the interest as a joke. Which means his ‘honesty’ is part of the joke.
"Yeah, well. Not like I have much else to go. My apartment's a dumpster fire, literally." And he leaves it at that. His daughter was in that apartment. "I'm past 30 days clean - I'm trying to get things turned around. It's not easy. Totally do not blame you for wanting to stay far far away. It's all cool."
Since she's disconnected, he turns to take up the arrow he was working on. He turns it around in his hands, studying it, before he pushes it into the quiver. "So, anything else you need, or is this where I get to gather what little dignity I have left.." he holds his fingers up a very small distance apart. "And walk out of here with my tail between my legs?"
Kelly’s brow furrows a bit in confusion, blinking those wide green eyes at him. The silver striations have gone back to being all but imperceptible. You’d need to get really close, or have the light hit them just so to pick them up when it’s dormant like that.
“Why… I’m not sure I understand why you think you’ve lost any dignity.” She honestly seems confused why he’d say that. Pursing her lips, she continues. “But I have everything I need, yes…” She trails off a bit awkwardly. Like she’s pretty sure the social cues are there for her to do something, but she’s failing to interpret them right.
Sometimes being smart makes you really dumb.
Rolling his eyes, Roy can't even think of a good comeback as Kelly just watches what he said go over her head. "I'll see you around, Doc." he mutters. At least he didn't call her Cherry Pie? Lifting the quiver to set over his shoulder, he sets the bow to his side to head off - and leaves the question he asked on the table.
Just easier that way.