memeboxing

[fe_male]

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[nyktelios]

Smart, but identity compromising is a really bad idea. [ Terrible, really, in her experience. But the hall of armor she has noticed, and is kind of quietly eyeing inbetween glancing over her own files. Questions, questions. Glancing up at that last bit with narrowed eyes. ]

Oh yeah?

[fe_male]

[ That is the smallest of small beats while he works and then everything's back to normal. ] Tell me about it.

[ She can ask questions, but he's not actually looking at her enough to notice she has them. He does gesture to the workshop a little bit at her last sentence. ] Weird is the form of currency here.

[nyktelios]

[ She pauses a moment herself, some sort of blip almost registering, but shakes it off as she glances over. ] Regret it already?

Figures I'd wind up somewhere like that. [ Abandoning the files to start wandering around, touching things with what looks like relative abandon unless you look closely enough to realize she's being quite selective about what she actually touches. ] How long have you known her?

[fe_male]

[ He's falling back into old habits, because they clearly don't know each other that well, and the smile he flashes at her matches the brief hiccup in shielding. ] 'Course not. Being a superhero? Best thing ever, c'mon.

[ That part he picks up on a little better - he's starting to notice just how observant she's being. ] Uh. Little over half a year? Maybe.

[nyktelios]

[ A glance sideways, momentarily arrested because something's itching, but she doesn't know him well enough to know what. ] Well, it's not bad. Actually yeah, it's pretty great, but there's downsides.

[ Observation is the name of her game right now. It's a very important game. ] And she must have been unbonded then already.

[fe_male]

[ Nnnn he doesn't know what to do with these bond questionssssss ]

I really don't know much about that, sorry. Neither one of us actually talks that much. We basically graduated jointly from the Anti-Hemingway School of Oration, where you learn to put in a million times as many words as necessary and remove all the things they could mean in the process.

[nyktelios]

[ it's important to her. kind of really important. ]

That doesn't sound like me at all. [ Well. No, okay, it sounds kind of like her when she's got something to hide or is trying to pretend she doesn't have a problem. Just not all the time. ] So you don't know what happened with - never mind. I guess I'll have a decade to find out.

[fe_male]

[ He's not totally sure what to say to that. ] I didn't act like this when i was a kid. People change, even you.

[nyktelios]

I'm not a kid. [ Shrugging, and oh hey she likes that car, this warrants a more thorough examination. ] I'm pretty settled, actually.

[fe_male]

[ Yeah, you're probably not a kid. He wasn't one at your age anymore either. ]

Poke around anything that looks interesting. Except the Ford there. [ pointing ] That one's my baby. If anything else doesn't need to be touched, it'll let you know.

[nyktelios]

[ It's less of a true statement than she thinks it is, but in general she's fairly mature and set in her ways for her age. ]

So you just let me have free reign of your workshop? Seriously?

[fe_male]

Well I'm not leaving you here by yourself or anything, I'm not crazy, I don't leave anyone here by themselves, I'll sic Butterfingers and You on you.

[nyktelios]

[ Looking up from her investigation with confusion on her face. ] Butterfingers and You are?

[fe_male]

[ Without looking up he points - ] and [ - points at the other. ] And that [ - pointing again - ] is Dummy.

[nyktelios]

[ Glancing at them with interest, because if he's talking about them like they're people, then there's always a change. ] Are they AI's?

[fe_male]

Ssssort of. They're AIs in that they have some leeway in what they choose to do, but they're somewhat limited in scope. And breadth. And... Well, I don't want my babies to hear the word that means impaired but, sometimes... [ Theatrically significant trailing off. But he's still working, even after he shrugs to finish the show. ]

[nyktelios]

[ Okay, that gets a laugh out of her, amused. Even in the middle of whatever mess this is, she can't lose her sense of humor. ] They're cute, though. [ Still poking around, but now she's circling back towards the suits. ] So what are you? What's this armor for?

[fe_male]

[ Good. He'd be doing it really wrong if he couldn't get her to laugh even a little bit after a while. ] Me. It helps if you're flying around to be encased in a suit of armor. You know, sometimes you get hit by an F16, sometimes you need to tackle some bad guy, it's just how it goes.

[nyktelios]

[ Max at any age likes laughing, and the younger she is the less she's surprised at laughing at any given moment. ] You can fly in that? [ color her very very interested. ] That's not subtle enough for vigilante. Superhero, I guess?

[fe_male]

Hey, check-it, got it in one. I can totally fly in that. I can fly everywhere in that. [ Idle tap of the reactor casing through his shirt. That's what makes him fly everywhere. ] I am Iron Man. A superhero.

[nyktelios]

[ Glancing at the reactor and filing that away on the list of things to consider asking about. It still looks interesting. Cybernetics? ] Iron Man, huh? A suit that big - [ wait no this is not a time to actually make terrible jokes. She trails off with a grin and ducks her head. ] So what's she do, if you're off flying?

[fe_male]

[ What ] While I'm out? I mean, her independence isn't dependent entirely on me. [ Pause. ]
I don't know.

[nyktelios]

Well, yeah, of course not, I'm just curious - [ well that's not any help at all. ] Does she still have a night job?

that's a perfectly reasonable thing to be annoyed by

[fe_male]

When she feels like it, yeah. As far as I know. Normally we don't really like it when the other one goes off by themselves.

yes i agree

[nyktelios]

[ Seriously she can't figure out what the hell sort of arrangement future her and this guy have and on top of the dissonance of having nobody on the other side of her bond it's starting to drive her crazy. She just wants to understand what's going on here. ] Protective instinct, but that's.

I'm confused. Like, really confused. I can't figure this out.