Summary:Kelly tracks down Roy while he's having a late snack. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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People that don't deal a lot with technology don't realize how pervasive the internet has become. Not the web, where you post all your data to let the world know what you're doing but the internet itself. The connection of machine to machine and that it's watching you. All the time. Now, Roy probably knows that if SHIELD wants, they can track his shiny new arm. He probably doesn't think about the fact that it's tracking him *all* the time. So it knows where he goes. How fast he goes. How long he stays somewhere. He's got google maps Timeline on and can't turn it off.
It probably also doesn't occur to him that someone might be following that data. And able to tell that a) he's at the cafeteria reaaaaally late. The dinner rush was gone a while ago and the steamtables have already shut down. And b) that he's been there for quite some time.
As empty as it is, it's not hard to pick up the taptaptap of Kelly's heels. Which could be ignored when they were in the background, but they keep getting closer. She doesn't look surprised to find him, and indeed heads right over towards his table. She has a tall thermoflask that she puts on the table in front of him and sets down a few cups before sitting down herself.
She's not wearing her labcoat anymore, but she's got a longsleeved top and she's wearing her gloves again.
After the talk with Kelly, Roy retreated. There was long moments in his room - playing the guitar - that was one of the things the arm didn't immediately pick up. He's trying to fine tune the servos of the thing with guitar play. Instead of trying to play with his off hand. Then there was time in the target range. And finally. He made his way to the cafeteria.
He's got a couple of burgers on his plate, some chips, and a large bottle of water. He's busily chowing down when he suddenly finds himself no longer alone in his company and thoughts. Reaching up to pull out an earbud, there's a frown on Roy's face. "Didn't get enough earlier? I get it, arm's SHIELD property, you can take it back whenever you want." It's said sourly, before he's returning his attention to his meal, trying to build a wall of food between himself and the pretty girl across from him.
Kelly Dehaven was in the lab working, and as usual she was there well past quitting time. So she wasn't stalking Roy, but on impulse she checked back in on him (well, his arm), and tracked back through his day. She's something of an information whore, honestly.
The redhead unscrews the top of the thermoflask, and pours a measure of liquid into each. Steam rises faintly and she pushes one over towards him. "Did something I said earlier sound threatening to you?" She asks, managing a mild tone. She keeps her gaze on the tea and doesn't look up at him, recapping the flask and pulling her cup towards her with both gloved hands.
"Oh, just jacking into the arm, pulling data, you know. The reminder that Big Brother's always watching, even if it's in the form of a redhead with nice… eyes." Roy curbs himself as he takes a bite from his sandwich - that he's using his real hand for. He's not ready to try to eat or use the right hand yet for anything that requires motor skills that bring it close to him.
He glances at the tea, and frowns. "I'm still getting used to this. To a lot of things. You know the great thing about being a druggie? Noone gave a fuck about you. And you didn't give a damn about anyone." He's lying. Flat out lying. Anyone that read his dossier knows that. "So you know, when SHIELD uses me up and their grand experiment on my arm is done, you can have it back."
Now Kelly brings her gaze up, looking at him as he speaks, mostly unruffled despite his tone and the words left unspoken. She brings the tea up, elbows resting on the table and tea held in both hands as she sips, letting a moment pass before she tries to speak. "You realize it's still sort of experimental, right? That's why we're checking up on it. You had an engagement the other night, it's an important step to review how it performed. Not as any sort of threat or reminder."
There's another long, quiet moment that seems even longer and quieter given the emptiness of the cafeteria. "If you really felt like that, you wouldn't be there." Kelly points out. "And it seemed you didn't care for the idea that I might not give a fuck about you." The profanity stands out. She isn't prone to it. On *or* off the job.
There's an argument brewing there, he knows it, as Roy stuffs a bite of sandwich in his mouth. So he doesn't say something - it's to make him think. Then he snorts. "I'm just the expendable part of the experiment, right?" he asks her as he looks down at the arm, and gives it a frown. He was just about to say something more, when Kelly drops an 'f' bomb on the table.
He's never heard her say as much as a 'shit', much less one of the George Carlin infamous seven dirty wordies. "So. Yeah, you don't give a fuck about me. Cool. We're on the same page."
Kelly Dehaven points at the tea. "Drink." She tells him, in a tone that very much seems to make it an order. She stares at him, and again there's that protracted silence with her mouth pressed into a hard line. She sips at her own tea before taking a breath in, and then letting it out.
"Well. You're certainly in a mood, aren't you. I'll admit I don't really *know* you, but I don't consider you expendable. If I had to make the call between you or your arm coming home, even not knowing you? I'd. Choose. You." She leans forward a bit as she says it, moss-green eyes fixed on him intently. "But. That's not a consideration, and my job involves keeping that tool of yours in working order, so yes. It has my attention."
"Pretty sure the arm can come but it's damn self - it's probably a Transformer on top of everything else." Roy responds bitterly, before he glances at the tea when she orders him to drink it. His lips pull into a thin line, and he moves to take a small drink from it before he verdant eyes move to glance to see what is on Kelly's plate, before going back to his meal.
Then he's glancing down at the mug and frowning at it. She's cowed him for the moment as she makes the declaration. "This isn't easy. I'm pretty screwed up. In every way. Don't even know why the big one-eye even felt like I needed the chance. I'm pretty sure at some point I'm gonna screw it up." he shrugs his shoulders. "But I'll make sure you get your data."
"If it were that awesome we'd talk to the arm and just let it drag you around." Kelly's lips quirk as she tries not to smirk at him.
It's technically a tisane, since it's herbal. No actual tea leaves involved. It has a bright, refreshing citrusy taste. There's no sweetener added to it. Kelly didn't bring a plate, just the tea and two cups.
"I bet it's not." Kelly agrees. "And I've never had to do it, so I can't really understand. Heck, even if I were going through the same thing, I wouldn't understand your struggle. That's always something unique. Personal. The same events and circumstances and temper one person and break another, so… no. I'm not going to try to rationalize away why it *should* be easy." Kelly sips at her tea again, taking her time it seems. The quiet seeps into the moment again.
She's let her hair down from earlier, deep red waves curling around her face and shoulders and down her back. "If you knew why, you probably wouldn't need the second chance." She notes with a small smile before shaking her head. "You be you, and do your thing, and let me worry about my data. I'm not afraid to track you down to get it when you stand me up."
Sighing, Roy reaches up and rubs the bridge of his nose, pinching it between two fingers. "Look. I'm not used to this. Some kind of lab animal, or whatever. I know you need your data. I know I'm being an ass." Blowing out a breath, he's not sure what else to say on the matter.
"The tea's nice." he says finally, before she continues.
"And I'll try not to stand you up in the future." he finally offers to her, pushing one of the sandwiches over. Ham and swiss on rye bread, with a hint of coarse brown mustard and dill pickle.
"You're not a lab animal, and anyone that tells you otherwise, you should punch." Kelly says calmly. "Preferably with your real hand, so the fallout isn't too bad. A lab animal doesn't get a say in what's done to it, and the data is more important than the animal. Do you need me to repeat myself?" She arches a brow at him. "I will if it makes you feel better. You're more important than the arm."
"I want the data because you'll get a better product. Yes. But I also want to make sure *it* doesn't *hurt you*." Kelly points out. "In order to get it to operate like one of your natural limbs we're linking it up to your brain." Which is why Kelly's involved. Some prosthetics work on picking up signals from the surrounding muscles, but that's not what they did with Roy. "Which means something could happen and mess up that delicate blob in that thick skull of yours."
She leans back a bit in her chair, gloved fingers toying with her mug. "I'm used to working with computers, they're even worse than you." She says when he acknowledges he's being an ass. Which isn't saying he's not being an ass. She nods as he compliments the tea and chuckles when he pushes the sandwich over. She looks from it to him before teasing, "Are you making this a dinner date, Mister Harper?"
There's a smirk. "If it were anyone else, this'd totally be a date." Roy responds with a hint of mischief in his eyes. "After all, you've been all plugged into me. I think for that, I owe you a little more than a sandwich in trade for a cup of tea, hmm?"
"Look, I know I'm.. hell, I'm a pain in the ass to myself. I don't trust easy. Ever since what happened with…" he shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. Just, hard to go - hey, yeah, come on in, my head space is completely messed up." He pops the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth. "But I ain't telling you anything you haven't already seen in my dossier."
Kelly sets aside her tea so she can pick up the sandwich and take a bite while he talks. She points at it with a gloved and as he finishes to compliment his taste. "Good choice."
There's a slight groan and she tries not to smirk over at him. "Please. No penetration jokes." Because she's heard those. Boy has she. Not that she 'plugs in' to most people. Roy's something of an exception to the rules.
When he brings up his dossier, she shakes her head. "Your dossier isn't you. Sure, there's a good chance it's got some insights but that's never a replacement for dealing with the person. It just gives you some expectations. Like the fact that someone might, on occasion, be an asshole to deflect that they're dealing with a lot of personal issues and maybe don't take it personally." She blinks those wide green eyes at him, brows arching up as though to say 'right'?
"Sorry, fair. I'll take that one off the table." Roy allows as he glanced down into the tea, as if he's trying to get a better read on it - and possibly her. "Is this you trying to get to know me as a doctor, or you trying to get to know me as a person? Because the answer I'll give will be wildly difference. If it's doctor to patient, then take it personal - I'm not one to share what happened with me easily. I mean, yeah, I do peer group - but those kids.. they're on the same path I was on."
"If it's personal, Kelly? I don't know." he finally admits. "My track record with any kind of relationship is really fubared. I mean, I had a kid with someone that tried to kill me once." he points out as he lets out a breath. It was that mission that first blushed him with SHIELD. "Pretty sure she will kill me after what happened." he admits. "I don't blame her for it either. I'm not some bad boy project that's gonna be an easy fix. I'm a whole knot of conflict, anger, and wanting to slip backwards every time I take a step forward." He's trying to give her every reason to run, even as he sips his tea.
"I finished my workday oh, five hours ago." Kelly points out. Not that that keeps her from working well past it. "And also, I'm not on staff to be your shrink. I'm a BCI specialist. Your arm is kinda more my patient than you. If it makes you feel better I can ask it probing questions about it's childhood." Her tone is deadpan, even though her mouth curls into a faint smile.
"So definitely personal. But I'm not asking you to share what happened. You can do that when you're ready. I'm here because you're a person that looks like you could use some company and I don't mind providing it. Maybe I'll get something out of it, but that's a bonus. Like hey! Sandwich." Kelly winks at him, that faint smile becoming a bit more prominent before fading some. Because his story is rather heartbreaking.
"If you wanna talk, talk. If you don't? Hey. Tea. Sandwich. Quiet company. Or we could talk about stuff that's got nothing to do with work or the stuff that clutters up our heads." Kelly waits a bit as she continues to eat the (formerly Roy's) sandwich. "Like, you play bass, don't you?"
Roy shoots a look at his arm. "Traitor." he says with a slight smirk. "Yeah. Bass and Drums. Back in my younger days.. five or six years ago. I was in a band. Called Great Frog. We never really did go anywhere. But I keep practicing, just because it allows me to you know.. figure out limits and such with this thing. And you all said I should test it as much as I could."
"How about you? Got any hobbies outside this place? Talents, hobbies, things like that? Other than the music stuff, I tinker. A lot." Which is evident by the multitude of trick arrows, and that he's always working on a motorcycle that he rarely rides. Or just hanging around the machine shop.
"Bass and piano." That gets another of those teasing smirks from Kelly, probably figuring to surprise him. "The piano lessons came first. Have a gifted kid? Get 'em into piano because music enhances intelligence yada yada yada. I picked up bass later. I was, I dunno. Looking for something 'cooler' than piano. I never had the time or friends to do anything like a band though."
"And you should. Keep practicing. With my scientist hat, because fine motor skills are the tricksy ones and are likely to require the most support on our end to make sure it's performing well. With my 'hello, fellow coworker, how is your day' hat on…" There's a flash of a friendly grin there. "You should because it's something you enjoy. And finding some moments of happiness are important."
As to other hobbies? She looks a bit guilty on that front. "Most of my hobbies are other science-y stuff." She admits. "I'm kinda one-note if you count 'science' as one thing." She just has a much broader scope of science than most other scientists.
"It wasn't friends, as much as a group of us were stoned and bored, and decided to try it to pick up chicks." Roy admits with a self-depreciating smirks, though the surprise is on his face. "Can totally see you in an elegant dress though, playing piano. I mean.. you're .. he waves a hand. You. Pretty and all." he shuts up after a moment. "But cool, bass. We can play sometime if you want."
"Moments of happiness are rare these days, Kelly. Real upbeat there, right?" he asks her with a laugh as he sets aside the small cup she offered him earlier. "I mean, you say sciency, but there's a lot of sciency stuff. Any particular things? " Is he actually making an effort here?
Kelly gives him one of those Looks. She seems to have a lot of speaking looks. "You had things in common, you spent time together… sounds like the definition of 'friend'. Now, I'm not saying you guys had any deep connection but still. Sounds like they were nominally friends."
Her cheeks dimple a bit as she tries not to smirk as he paints a picture of one of her recitals. "You don't need to tell me I'm pretty." Kelly assures him. "I'm not going to be insulted if you don't stoke my vanity. And I think I'd enjoy that. I've never gotten to play with anyone before." She gives a long exhale through her nose. "It's been a long time since I've played, now that I think about it…"
Kelly shakes her head, warding off her own melancholy thoughts. "I can understand that they might be rare these days. All the more important to make time for them."
She arches a brow as he asks after her educational background. "As you're aware, my specialty is in BCI. Brain-Computer Interface. They don't exactly teach that as its own thing though, so neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics…" She ticks them off on her fingers in an off-hand manner. "Those are the major ones, anyhow."
"Welp. Officially out of my league." Roy says with a laugh. "And I wasn't saying your pretty to stroke your ego. I was saying it because you're a gorgeous woman that I wouldn't mind knowing, I mean, more than we are now." he shrugs his shoulders. "I mean, you can already read me like a book, might as well not hide that - unless you know, that was you offering me an out into the friendzone."
"I wouldn't mind hearing you play sometime. I mean, if you want." he glances absently at the apple on his plate and grabs it to take a bite from it. "Normally I'd say something about making beautiful music together, but I get the feeling you'd take that literally."
"We won't go into my hobbies. Just. You know. Plain." he shrugs.
Kelly reaches over and uncaps the thermoflask, pouring out more tea for both of them before setting it aside. "It's not a competition." She points out when he says she's out of his league. "I've seen what you do in the field, and I could never compete with that. Doesn't that put you out of my league?"
"Well, you don't need to tell me I'm pretty to let me know you'd like to get to know me better." Kelly grimaces a bit at 'friendzone'. "That's a terrible term. Unless what you mean by 'knowing' is 'having sex with'. Personally? I don't have a lot of interest in having sex with someone that isn't in my 'friendzone'. As in, someone I consider a friend."
A wry smile plays over Kelly's features. It's not just her lips, it's the way it makes her eyes crinkle a bit at the outside corners and lifts her cheeks. "Is the flirting just a habit, or are you actually trolling for a hookup?" Her teasing tone is a bit dry. She lets the question of his hobbies lie for now, since they're a bit of a minefield.
"One of the things I learned in my life is not to try to 'hookup' with someone that handles something very important to me. So no, I'm not looking for a one night stand." Roy blows out a breath at that, ruffling the crop of redhair on his forehead as he considers her. "The flirting's a habit. Just how it is that I did things. I guess I shouldn't be asking. I mean."
He shrugs, he doesn't go chasing after it. "Anyway, I seem to be stepping in all the wrong places, so yeah. I'm gonna shush while I'm ahead." He waves off the offer of more tea. "I've had my limit." he says in a teasing lit before stretching out languidly. "I should probably grab some shut eye and see what tomorrow brings. Maybe by then, you'll forget how horrible I am at this."
"I don't mind the flirting if we're on the same page. Where you're just joking around and I don't take it seriously." Kelly says, wrapping her hands around her mug again. She can't feel the heat so much through the gloves. It's her own habit, the reassuring presence of tea.
The quasi-apology gets a light laugh from Kelly. "You are all over the assumptions." The chastising is teasing, but her manner turns more serious, if still with a smile. "You're being honest. And I value that a lot more than tact."
Kelly glances to the clock on the wall and then grimaces. "How does it always get so late without me noticing?" She looks back over to Roy and there's shadows of concern in her moss-green eyes as she says softly, "Sweet dreams, Roy." That might be the first time she's called him by his first name.
That causes Roy a pause as he turns to look back at her. "..that's totally an invitation to flirt. For serious." he points out to her with a wink. His hand - his real one, brushes over her metallic one - feeling the psuedo-flesh with his real fingers for the first time. "..it's warm." he comments. "But it doesn't feel weird at all. I mean, sorta, I expected it to feel like metal. Just not so natural, like your own skin."
Kelly's head wobbles back and forth a bit as she considers. "It's more… permission to flirt." Her lips purse to try to keep from grinning, but even that small smile makes the corners of her eyes crinkle with mirth.
The redhead goes still as he brushes her own 'metal' appendage. He has his open wounds. So does she. It would take a close inspection to see how perfectly it mimics the flesh it replaced, down to simulated pores, creases in the flesh, fine hairs.
When she speaks, it's softly. Even though there's no one else around. "Some of the other scientists keep watching me, trying to figure out how to convince me to let them turn me into a guinea pig. So… I sympathize with you feeling like a lab animal." She still hasn't really moved under his touch, the line of her shoulders a bit tight. She hasn't looked up at him either, instead looking down at the table. Very pointedly not where his hand touches her.
Has hand withdraws. "Sorry, was curious. But.. it felt nice." Roy offers a faint smile towards her, even if his own sea-green eyes can't meet hers at the moment. "And you're a good analogy. Cute enough to be a guinea pig. I'm more like a lab rat." There's a grin at her, before he moves to rise to his feet.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Kelly. Maybe we can do something." he says finally. "Sweet dreams to you too."
Kelly shakes her head, and then gives herself a small shake as well. "No, no. I'm sorry. People don't uh, touch me much. Them? much?" She gives a small laugh that's edged in nervousness. Her head tilts up enough to look at him through her lashes, some of her hair providing cover as well. "Mine don't really detach or anything so I still usually consider them 'me'…" Her mouth presses into a hard line, making herself stop, well, babbling.
One hand folds over the other, gripping tightly. Of course, there are no white knuckles to give that away. She pushes her nervousness, her issues down enough to offer Roy a smile as he gets to his feet. "I'd call you 'rat' as a nickname, but I don't want to get called 'pig'."
When he accepts her wishes of good dreams, even though she's sure he's haunted by nightmares, her smile eases and she nods. She'll wait until he's gone to get up herself. She could use a few minutes.