Summary:Kelly and Roy spend a day in the park while Kelly works on her multitasking. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's warm today in New York, and it feels even warmer if you're out under the sun. Which Kelly and Roy are. It's a clear, cloudless day with a bit of a breeze out at Sheep's Meadow in Central Park. There's no event being held today, but there are a number of folks with blankets spread out to enjoy the sunshine.
Kelly is not really here to enjoy the sunshine. As a redhead she's prone to burning, which is why she has a wide-brimmed hat on as she sits on the blanket. She's also got long sleeves and gloves, which occasionally gets some confused looks before likely being chalked up to a medical condition. There's a cooler off to the side but arrayed around Kelly are a half-dozen little drones. Each about the size of a paperback book, Kelly inspects one carefully before it clicks on, little propellers whirring to life.
See. A trucker hat protects the head from those evil UV rays. Which is why Roy wears one. Okay, probably not. But he's prone to the same anger from the sungod that Kelly is as he arrives at the park. Setting down the picnic basket that he brought to share a lunch with her with, he moves to take a seat. "So, how are they queuing up?" he asks curiously as he takes a seat.
Opening the screens on his arm, he brings up a feed from the cameras on the drones as they make a wireless connection. But this isn't really about what his arm can do- it's more testing Kelly's abilities.
Kelly Dehaven looks over to Roy with a bright smile, one that he feels like sunshine on the inside for a moment. "Connections are fine, no strain there. We'll see how well I multi-task, hmm?" The first drone lifts off from her hands like a butterfly taking flight, heading up and up and up. The Meadow has a lot of open space, which was the reason for picking it and the camera's feed comes back to Roy's arm with a bird's eye view of them from above. A second drone starts up, and lifts into the air from the blanket while the first starts to do a slow circle of the area.
"You finalize your timeline for the trip?" Kelly tries to hide her trepidation over that one. It's a far cry from 'PhD student in a lab', even if Roy *does* keep her entirely out of the action.
"I don't know, you seem to hold focus pretty well." Roy grins, clearly teasing Kelly as he moves to open the basket to start to take out their lunch. Fried chicken, from the looks of it, with potato salad and baked beans with rolls and sweet tea. He probably bought it from somewhere to go. He watches the drone on his arm with a thought.
"Yeah, we're leaving at midnight tonight to make the trip - should be wheels down in Afghanistan by this time tomorrow afternoon." he comments as he watches her at work.
Kelly Dehaven hasn't really done anything like this before, so she's got her hands folded in her lap and there's a small furrow in her brow as she works on controlling the drones. She looks out over the meadow without really seeing anything, but he can tell she's still focused on him as well. Upsides to being able to peek into your girlfriend's head. A third drone takes off from the blanket.
Her gaze refocuses a bit as Kelly turns her head, looking over to Roy. "How long are we likely to be there? And do you know how far away from me you're going to be?" That concerns her. That he'll be out of her range. Sure, he'll have comms in and folks watching over them, but this is all very new to Kelly.
"Just a few days at most." Roy responds as he feels the worry from Kelly. He wants to reach out and physically touch her, but perhaps worried that would bring about a distraction, he doesn't. Instead he offers her a comforting feeling inside her head - well, his close approximation of one. "Depends on where we make contact. I can't really force you to go along on this - we can keep you on the Bus, if it helps?"
"Unless you know, you think you can handle a bigger drone?" he asks her curiously.
Picking on up Roy's concern that he might be a distraction, Kelly reaches out one gloved hand to rest on his leg and squeeze lightly though his attempt to send comforting vibes over their link gets a pleased sort of amusement. That's followed by a tilt of her head and a Look. "You're not forcing me to do anything. Even being 'assigned' doesn't force me to do anything." She assures him. "And put me wherever you think I'm likely to be the most *use*. I'll work it out." She emphasizes 'use' because she knows he'd rather keep her far, far away from things. Even if she might be useful.
Another drone lifts off, though this one wobbles a bit as it joins the others in the sky. "Well, the *size* shouldn't be an issue? It's all a matter of… mental bandwidth. Holding the link active with you, interacting normally, sending the little zipper around…"
"Just the amount. And then there's having me." Roy considers this for a moment as he watches Kelly, and covers her hand with his own. Then he releases it. When he does, he reaches up to his ear, and gives the small metallic cuff there a light squeeze, before he pulls it off, to break that momentary contact between himself and Kelly so that she may concentrate on the drones.
Not that he considered how she may /react/ to this. He was just trying to be helpful.
Kelly Dehaven's fingers interlink with his when he places his hand over hers, but lets it slide away when he reaches up to his ear. She's used to him touching the cuff, as much to reassure himself of her presence as to get her attention so she's quite surprised when he pulls it free and that space in her head that she's gotten used to him being is just… empty.
She's told him repeatedly that if he needs space, he can take it off. But he never has and that sudden lack is something of a shock. The drones start to drop out of the sky and only the frightened squawks from those below watching them gets her attention to pull them back up into the air where they hover. She looks uncertain. "Roy?"
When the drones dip and then recover, Roy takes a moment. He runs his finger over the smooth steel that is part of her, when she speaks up. "Hmm?" he says, and then ohs. "I.. well, I didn't want you distracted between me and your work." he offers to her quietly. He can't feel her abscence as keenly as she feels his, but at the same time, it's noticable.
His eyes lift to study hers. But despite her fears, perhaps, it doesn't look like he's coming out of a thrall. "I was just realizing how nice your smile really is." Maybe the feelings are his own, after all.
The idea that he could be a distraction touches her features with surprise. And some relief that he wasn't suddenly just wanting her out of his head. "You're not a distraction. Well. Maybe if you were singing Pirates of Penzance or something. But not having you there is at least as distracting. Something's obviously missing."
His words have her eyes dropping down, and she does that 'trying-not-to-smile' bit that makes her dimples show. He can't feel that trickle of relief. If he says that when she's not in his head, she's not influencing him, right?
Unless you know, it's a lingering effect. Neither of them could know for sure as he reaches up with his flesh hand to caress the side of Kelly's face, and Roy grins. "I really want to kiss you right now, but that may distract the drones more." he teases, before he pulls back, looking at the small ear cuff she gave to him. "Do you want this back, or want me to put it back on?" he asks her.
His arm continues to monitor the drones for the pair, pinging off their location and sharing the feed between the two of them. "And.. you know. We can talk about things outside the mission, if you want."
"Kissing me would *definitely* distract me." Kelly admits, tilting her head into his touch. Not that she wouldn't enjoy it. She could probably be convinced to put her testing on hold for kisses, though.
The question about the 'jewelry' gets a mischievous smirk and she leans in like she might risk kissing him anyway. "Leave that up to me and I'd change it to something that doesn't come off." She teases, her answer pretty clear.
"If you think I've got everything I need. I guess I feel like I'm cramming for a test and trying to get all the information in before stuff happens. But we can totally talk about how you keep putting the toilet paper the wrong way on the holder.." Kelly's grin is bright and teasing, her eyes crinkling at the outside edges with her mirth.
"No, no, if you need to practice longer.." And while Kelly's lips are deliciously close, he doesn't make a move on them. She's working, after all. Then Roy smirks. "Hey! At least I /replace/ it! I mean, it's an improvement." he points out with a roll of his eyes and a chuckle.
"You've got the slightly polished version of me. Still very rough on the edges, still you know.. a lot of work to do. But I'm trying.." He looks down, feeling that little piece of her in his hand. "…I'm willing to try. For you. Us." he shrugs. "How permament we talking?" he asks her with a smirk.
"I mean, ideally I should be able to kiss you *and* still run all the drones." Deep green eyes glitter. "I suppose we'll just have to practice." She's not really working, this is more part of her hobby. And, well, finding out just what she's capable of. The initial transformation of flesh to psisteel was actually pretty traumatic, and she hasn't really stretched her limits before.
The choice of phrasing has Kelly trying not to smirk at him again. "So what you're saying is, you want me to… polish you?"
She leans in a bit at the slightly teasing question, and now she can't help but smirk back. "I told you I don't have any plans to let you go, right?"
"The best laid plans…" Roy says quietly. Perhaps in that sense of worry - not that she can feel it. He's always had something good get yanked away from him. He expects it to happen any day now with Kelly.
And it will probably be his fault. Slipping the little cuff back onto his ear to feel the connection between them, and then at her comment about polishing him, there's a snort and a laugh. "I'm not sure I'll ever be what someone would consider you know.. better half material."
Kelly Dehaven inwardly lets out the held mental breath she didn't realize she was holding as Roy reconnects the link. She might be developing her own sort of dependencies. Outwardly, she does the physical equivalent of what she does mentally so often and closes the short distance between them and pushes him down onto the blanket and climbs over him. She puts the drones in a hover mode so she can corner him for that kiss he's been teasing her with. "« In a good partnership, there's no 'better' to the halves. Just 'different'. »" She says across the re-established mental link, giving her own opinion on the matter.
Feeling that connection and the sigh of her breath mentally - he swears he smells lavender and mint in his mind, before Kelly's pinning him down. When she kisses him, his hands move to play in her hair, pulling gently at the base of her skull as he sighs against her mouth. And while he can't be quite put his thoughts into words like she can in his head, he shares his own feelings on the matter - he wants her there. He wants to be kept. And he wants to keep her. But there's that underlying fear. Always there. Always worried. Always guilty.
Kelly Dehaven's hat gets bumped about, as does Roy's, the former tumbling down onto the blanket. That's OK, she can handle a few minutes of the harsh sunlight. Kissing Roy is definitely worth the risk.
Being able to feel Roy's feelings for her is its own kind of rush, even though she can taste that worry beneath, like the dregs at the bottom of a cup of good coffee. "« I'm not going to leave you, so I'll just need to work on being resilient enough to be at your side. »" So even if the idea of field work makes her nervous, she'll do it. And work at getting good at it. Because that's where he is, and she'd rather help keep him safe than have to wait for him on the sidelines.
"I'm not leaving you either, Kelly." Roy admits, pulling back from her so that their eyes meet. As intimate as the connection in their minds may be, there's something about looking in her eyes that does it for him. Letting out his breath finally, he grins. "We'll just have to get you more training to make sure you're ready." he points out to her.
There's those three words. She feels it. But it seems they're locked. As if he's scared that if he says anything on his feelings, the moment.. and her, would be lost, just like a snap.
"I found some really cute boots to wear on this whole mission-thing." Kelly says that with a bit of Valley Girl lilt that likely means she's kidding. Maybe. She *might* have bought some boots to wear, given most of her attire is business casual and some sneakers.
The redheaded scientist seems perfectly content to lay on Roy, chin resting on her hands so she can stare at him from inches away. She rolls her eyes a little, but she's got a small smile as she does so. "Yes, yes, I know. Don't worry, I'm used to hard work." Admittedly, a very different kind of 'work'. But the dedication, she's got down.
Kelly's picked up on those words, lurking just under the surface, and she doesn't try to coax them forward. She doesn't need to hear the words when she can see his heart, but knows that saying them is important to Roy. And he will if, or hopefully when, his desire to do so eclipses his worry of loosing it all.
"Oooh. I'll have to see what they look like on you.. with nothing else." Of course he'd make that joke. Roy gives a playful grin to his girlfriend. "Alright, I'm distracting you from your experiment. So, experiment. Food, then we'll go home and see what trouble we can get into." he offers to her as he touches the side of her face with his real hand. "I don't know what clover I tripped over to find you, but I'm gonna find it and thank it for you."
"Why Roy, I didn't realize you had a shoe fetish." Kelly teases as she reaches over to get her hat, and plonks it back on her head without getting up from where she's lying on Roy. "Oh, I'm pretty sure I can do my experiments from right here." As though to prove her words, another of the little drones lifts off from the blanket beside them.
Mental multitasking really is something that Kelly seems to have a gift for. Roy can pick up on the mental background noise of her controlling the little drones. If he 'looked' closer, he could even pick up on some of the video feed she gets in her head, just like he does through his arm. "Aren't you supposed to be turning over a new leaf and *not* getting into trouble these days?"
"Well. Depends on the type of trouble involved." Roy responds with a roll of his eyes. "It may be more of a Kelly fetish." he admits to her with a wink as he rests his hands on her back as she rests over him. He watches her work with a hint of curiosity, but he's not probing further yet - perhaps it's his own worries of going further down the rabbit hole that is his girlfriend's mind.
"And well, we still have a lot of fetishes to stil figure out, hmm?" he asks her playfully, before kissing her wordlessly again.
Kelly Dehaven makes a soft sound of amusement at Roy's teasing. When he kisses her this time though, she manages not to drop the drones.