Summary:Roy has Kelly meet him for some shooting practice and shows off his widgets. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The message from Roy came over the phone - mainly because he didn't think of simply touching his ear and getting Kelly's attention. 'Hey. After lunch, come down to the gun range. I got us some practice time.' And that's all he sent to her, as he headed off to take care of his own duties.
When she comes down to the range, he's dressed in his Arsenal garb, the black and reds, along with his bow and quiver. It may be the first time she's seen him in the full uniform. At the range, he's set out an Icer, a standard pistol, and a rifle. He's already got an extra pair of ear-protection, and he's getting in his own practice.
Not realizing that he's being approached, he's drawing arrows and firing them with precision. Even before the enhanced arm, he was an excellent shot, and each arrow he fires strikes the target. Not always true - he's still getting used to the arm. But he is a damn good shot.
Most of the time, it’s easy to forget Kelly is ‘there’ in his head. If he actually thinks about it, he can sense her presence but that’s about it. If he reaches for her he can start to pick up the sort of ‘background chatter’ of her thoughts, where it’s some impressions and noise but not much else. It’s kind of like a door to another room. If he looks up, the open door is always there. If he leans over, he can see through it to see her working. He hasn’t tried to cross the threshold on his own yet, though.
There wan’t any chastising or even teasing for Roy using his phone, and he even got a response the same way. It was admittedly just a thumbs-up emoji.
The costume isn’t something Kelly’s seen him in before, and she lingers in the doorway and watches him for a bit. Obviously enjoying his… skill. She waits until he hits a lull before interrupting. “So, I’ve seen a number of costumed archers out there and I gotta admit. I don’t get why you’d go for that over some kind of gun.” There’s some teasing there, but she’s actually wondered that.
Kelly is still wearing her lab coat. She’s got on jeans today to go with the sneakers, a blouse dressing it all up a bit so she’s got the long sleeves and of course her gloves. She waits for him to signal to approach, not wanting to do anything dumb in a dangerous area.
"One. I grew up on a Reservation. Learning to shoot a bow was part and parcel. Two. I'm really good at it. Three. You fire a bullet, it's gone forever. You fire an arrow, you can recycle it." Roy's responds as he notches another arrow. Maybe he knows that Kelly is admiring just a little.
"And four, can a bullet do this?" He fires off an arrow - as it flies, suddenly it expands at the tip and becomes a boxing glove. And smacks the target in the face.
Yes. He has one of those arrows. "Made it myself." he offers proudly.
“You’re using the Green defense? How Millenial of you.” Kelly says, lips pursing to keep from smirking at that part of his reply. She can’t really argue the first, she doesn’t know much about what goes on at Reservations and it certainly sounds plausible. Just like all Asians learn martial arts!
As the boxing-glove arrow ‘punches’ the target, there’s silence. Obviously she’s impressed, right?
“I’m going to be stuck in the field with a cartoon character.” OK. Maybe less than impressed. Then her face screws up a bit. “The engineering to make that work *actually* makes my head hur—there are so many easier ways to get that result!” Yes, she did just interrupt herself. And sort of complimented him and insulted him all at the same time.
"Oh come on, I haven't even hit you with my 'You're Despicable' act yet." Roy says with a smirk as he throws his hands up in the air. "And hey, ever watch the Walking Dead? Everyone uses arrows there!" There's a slight huff from the archer as he folds his arms over his chest.
"Oh honey, that's just the tip of the ice berg of the trick arrows I have." he points out to her, before shaking his head. "And I can't punch someone from fifty feet away - but I can with that!" he points to the arrow. He's proud of it - he's standing his ground on it too!
“Ew. No. Zombies.” Kelly makes a face as he asks her if she’s watched Walking Dead. Apparently, the answer is ‘no’. “Also, you’re following up your ‘It’s Green’ defense with ‘I’m preparing for the zombie apocalypse’? Mister Harper, you are *not* improving your case.”
Her teasing is followed by her peering at him as he’s mentioning his trick arrows. “Why does that suddenly sound dirty, hmm?” She shakes her head, holding up her hands. “It’s OK, it’s OK. You’re the subject matter expert, not me.” Though that does get her thinking. “If you could use them to attach my psisteel to their heads, I might actually be helpful. But I’d insist on the recycling bit.” She would really not want to leave bits of herself lying around.
"There's nothing dirty about it. I mean I have explosives, ice, bolo, taser.." he starts ticking off the list when Roy realizes that he's perhaps bragging too much. Reaching up, he rubs at that little piece of her that's with him.
"I was doing this before it was hip to be green, and zombies were in black and white." There may be just a slight mope in his tone, before he shakes it off. "Anyway, this is supposed to be about you getting in some target practice, not about you picking on my choice of weapons. And then I have another plan."
When Roy rubs the psisteel cuff on his ear, there’s that odd/new sensation of just ‘knowing’ that more of her attention turns his way with it.
Stepping over to join Roy when he lets her know it’s safe she just gives him that little smirk as he starts to tick off his weapons. “I can see you’ve put a lot of time and effort into this. How old were you when you started?” Yes, she’s teasing him because a lot of it seems like a kid’s fanciful idea of how to fight crime. But, as she admitted earlier, he’s the expert. He’s made it work.
She’s still gonna tease him a bit. As he mopes she does glance around briefly before going up on her toes to kiss the corner of his mouth. “You’re totally amazing.” She assures him with a straight face. “I’ll ask for your autograph later.”
Amusement turns to a wary sort of skepticism when he says he has another plan. It feels like she should worry when he plans…
"I was about… 10? When I was found." Roy ponders that for a moment. "So yeah. Maybe a little corny. But I didn't want arrows that killed people." he admits with a shrug of his shoulders. He realizes now that was foolish for a younger him. But he still is a little bit of a dreamer.
He feels that touch of her, that caress, and he considers it for a moment as he returns her kiss. "Kelly?" he decides to ask quietly, lowering his hands as he sets them to his sides. And then he lets out a breath. "This connection.." Reaching up, he touches the cuff. "I mean, I know it's a direct link. Is it.. I mean, is it having an affect on your feelings for me?"
"I don't want you to think that I want.. you know.." he fidgets. "I mean, you know I have feelings."
"Well, I can't really find fault with *that*." Kelly says, her manner still light and easy as he explains why on earth he has a boxing-glove arrow. There's a tiny pause after she says that where her moss-green gaze settles on him, realizing he might take her statement badly given the memory he had shared previously. She doesn't need the insight into his head to know he might be a bit fragile when old wounds crop up. She doesn't bring it up herself though, just watches in case her words prick him.
Kelly drops back down onto her heels as his tone turns to that quiet question, and if she's reading his mind the slight furrow to her brow as she waits makes her a damned good actor. His question has her lips pursing as she suddenly looks thoughtful. "Yes. But." She says, before he can start to worry. "Because it means I've got more insight into you. I'm not having to guess at your meanings and intentions. Basically, I'm cheating. I think your real question is, is it influencing me. And I'm going to say 'I don't think so'." Again she's trying to preempt any guilty reaction. "Before you start to worry, I'm going to point out that I'm a scientist and I don't like absolutes. Also… I haven't really done this before. Keeping an extended link up. So I don't have the data to prove that it doesn't." She reaches out to squeeze his hand. "I do know you have feelings. So do I, and I'm pretty sure they're all mine."
"So you're experimenting on me in more ways than one." The interpentation of that is going to be left in the air, as Roy considers her. Feeling her hand in his, his fingers brush over her knuckles - yes, it's steel that can morph, but it feels just as natural as the rest of her does. He closes his eyes and considers.
"I'm an addict. You know this. And once I have something that I know I like, I tend to hold onto it tightly. Perhaps too much so."
"So I'm trying to pace myself. It may an exercise in futility. Because I know I have my own feelings. And even without this link between us, you'd probably realize it because I'm transparent as mud sometimes." he admits with a lift of a brow.
Lifting her hand, he kisses her knuckles lightly. "And I know, I'm not the only one that has things to work though in this. So.. when you're ready. And not a moment before." For what? He's not even sure himself, but in his head, it felt like the right thing to say.
Kelly Dehaven gives a huff of amusement as he points out she's experimenting on him. "I haven't heard any complaints…" Her teasing is a little washed out, because he's still pretty serious. Especially when he closes his eyes to think for a moment. It takes no small amount of willpower not to jump the fence and go reading his thoughts, since she *can* and that's not usually an option even if she's flagged as a telepath.
Now it's Kelly's turn to be quiet and consider. She knows on paper that he's an addict, but what she understands of that has mostly come from movies and TV, which are geared towards happy endings. She's seen his file to know how it's wrecked his life but here he stands pulling of 'functioning adult'. She's glimpsed those dark, awful moments but the most visceral connection to it she has so far was that anger when Sarah brought up treating the current drug case like heroin. "You do seem to just jump into things with both feet." She says, trying to keep it light, because the subject is actually damned heavy. "I suppose if you hold me too tightly, I could squeak?"
"I was halfway expecting you to squeak now." Roy says with a little laugh. He's trying to keep his mind off of her. Trying damned hard. But when she's near and close like this -when the scent of laevnder and mint isn't just a tickle on his memory. Bringing himself back around, his hand squeezes hers one more time, and then releases it. The next move will be on hers.
"So. Did you want to try shooting?" he asks her. A change of subject. A return to the reason to be here. Not to get lost in those moss green eyes. To know the warmth of her touch and smile. Even her teasing of him makes him feel just a little more light. Because she would rather try to match up to him then run from him.
"I'm not much of a fighter, more of a bug squasher, but I'm also not much of a runner." Kelly informs him with a teasing curve of her lips. "I'm the one that dragged you back to my place on our first quasi-date and invited you to move in. Though I'll still defend myself. I offered you my guest room." She points out. "So if anything, *I'm* rushing you."
Shooting. Right. Kelly turns to look back down the range and digs in a pocket for an elastic before pulling her hair back so she can tie it into a messy ponytail. "So do you shoot with a gun as you do with the bow?" Her curious question comes as she looks down at the weapons laid out.
"I'm the one that decided to move into your bedroom." Roy points out with a smirk, though there's little fight in his voice. Instead, as she pulls her hair back, he gives her a smirk. "Damn right I am." he offers with no qualms about it. "I'd been considering trying to add one to my arm. You know.. like a holdout weapon?" he asks her curiously.
"But I think my doctor would get mad if I started fiddling with her project to figure out how it works." he says with a teasing smile.
Kelly Dehaven grins in reply as he points out his room choice, her gaze still going over the hardware laid out. Her gaze slides over to him briefly and she flashes him a grin. "Oooo, hubris." His jacket also had his marksmanship down but she didn't pay so much attention to that.
The consideration to adding a weapon to his own hardware has her pursing her lips, her brain automatically starting to list pros and cons. "The concealed carry license probably wouldn't be too bad, but anything that's checking for weapons is going to flag you." She points out. "Well. Maybe if you go with something that's not a traditional firearmmmm." She trails off as he mentions fiddling and then turns to look at him with wide eyes with a spark of fire. "Oh no! Nonono. No 'fiddling'! That arm is fully of very delicate hardware, Mister Harper!" She warns him.
"You know, that only makes me curious about it. I mean I'm totally already curious. After all, my girlfriend's a genius. And she made my arm. So you know, if I can undress her…" Okay, now Roy is totally teasing her as he gives her a sly smile as he shifts the arm, just to get it in a better position, but not before giving Kelly a gentle brush against her side. They're together. And they'll figure it out. Even they don't agree on it.