13617/Slugs and Snails and Puppydog Tails...

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Slugs and Snails and Puppydog Tails...
Date of Scene: 12 July 2021
Location: The Magic Box, Sunnydale
Synopsis: Mercy and Nikki meet each other. They and Sinister have a conversation about mechanics and robot engineering.
Cast of Characters: Sinister, Nikki Hawkins, Mercy Thompson




Sinister has posed:
Sunnydale is having a particularly nice day outside. Many slurpees have been sold, as have frappes and ice-creams for a particularly hot kind of day. Inside, one presumes things to be a little cooler, but you never know if old fashioned store keepers ever bothered with much more than a ceiling fan.

The door chimes, the tall figure of Sinister stepping inside, sans disguise. As himself; cloak dispensed with in favour of a cloak of feathers that sit tight-tight to his back. "It would be entirely inaccurate to say that it was hot as hell out there, but I'm going to go with stickier than I care for. Hello? Anyone about?" inside is at least darker than eyeblindingly bright sunshine, so that's something.

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
It is a nice and sunny day in Sunnydale, and Nikki is out roaming the town because she can be. At least today she's without her robot companion, because Squishy doesn't so well for long periods of time in hot weather. Did someone say slurpee? Nikki has one of those! Her's is a combination of colors/flavors because she can never decide on just one type. Then she wanders - as a Nikki does - until she finds the Magic Box, and since it's earlier in the day and she doesn't see anyone familiar outside, she walks up the steps and peeks inside.

She eyes the Feathered Man(tm) for a moment and then decidedly side-steps away from him and just begins walking around. Looking. Cause all in all she's a perfectly normal young adult who likes to shop around. And sip on a slurpee. It's not until she opens her mouth that she may prove otherwise.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
The chiming of the door has a way of getting attention. It might not be the attention that's being particularly sought out, but it's still attention. From out of the back room of the shop is where Mercy quietly steps, a mug of something steaming held in her left hand. A smile comes to tug at the corners of her lips, and she gives a small nod of greeting.

"Good afternoon, Nathaniel," Mercy offers, her smile easily returning. Her black hair is caught in her typical pigtails, though they seem a bit frayed simply from having been in for hours already. She wears a pair of blue jean shorts that, from their cut off edges, were once jeans. Her usual tan steel-toed boots are on her feet, and she wears a blue t-shirt with a cartoonish white VW beetle putt-putting across the front of it. "At least it's cooler and less sticky inside than being out there," she says, casting a glance towards the out doors. There's a glance given towards the young woman that she doesn't know, and her attention shifts back to Sinister. "Was there something that you needed?" she asks.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister casts a glance at the side-stepping slurpee Gurl <tm> "Sans Squishy, why do I know Squishy? Wait, do I know you?" the man frowns at the rather flippy memory in his mind's eye. "Shoes. The shoes /oh my giddy aunt/ the shoes!" He slaps his fist to his mouth, all bunched up and stares over the top of the knuckles at the young woman. "And the mudmonsters. Wait a minute, you're /real/?"

Bet that wasn't a reaction expected, right? Sinister looks to Mercy as the woman exits the back, gesturing open palmed across himself at Nikki. "She's there, right? With a icey drink? I am not having an archangel induced flashback?" He pauses, looks like he's just reset himself and squares shoulders, blinking. "Why in the world would it even matter? Ahh, hello Mercy... mostly escaping from the heat and regrouping thoughts, I think..." he glances at Nikki again.

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
When she hears the name 'Squishy', Nikki turns her attention towards the Feathered Man(tm) and upon seeing his face her eyes go wide. "Nikki was there! Nikki saw the mudmonster! Red-eyed Man(tm) was trying to squish things!" She exclaims, excitedly, and almost gives a little bounce. "After the mudmonsters appeared and he," she motions to Sinister, "was all crazy...Nikki and Squishy made an escape. It was weird."

Nikki takes another drink of her slurpee, and gives a little wiggle of form. "Nikki is real. She's right here. Why is he asking if she is real?" Then there's a pause and a consideration. "Is Red-Eyed Man alright now?" Glaring at him reeeeeeallllly close like it would make all the difference, and then she turns and gets momentarily distracted by something shiny.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
"Squishy? Who's Squishy?" Mercy asks, a touch of curiosity to her voice. "Or what? I suppose a Squishy could be a what," she adds, one of her eyebrows quirking slightly. She tilts her head a touch to one side, looking over towards the young woman with the Slurpee and then back to Sinister. "Umm... do I want to ask or know about the shoes?" she asks, a touch uncertainly. And she blinks. Wait... did he say... mudmonsters? "Mudmonsters?" It needs to be asked!

Mercy glances towards the young woman and then back to Sinister. "Mmhmm, she's really there, and with an icey drink. Why would you think that you're having an archangel induced flashback?" she asks with more than just a bit of curiosity. She lifts her mug of tea to take a sip of it. "You're more than welcome to come in and have a seat, escape from the heat for as long as you like," Mercy says, giving a small nod to him.

Sinister has posed:
"Yeeees, I think so. I mean, I'm not obsessed with anything unusual and ..." Nathaniel trails off, hmmmnfs. "I'm asking because the last encounter was less than normal and you might have been a figment of my imagination, which can get quite strange at times." This is explained to Nikki. "But you're not. No more mud monsters for now, they dissipated when the police opened fire."

Right. Just a moment. He holds up a hand to Mercy, pinching the bridge of his nose and pressing at his eyes with the other. "Long and short of it, drank too much Archangel, got a bit high and vibed on shoes. A rather old romanian magician made mud monster golems, but the police got called, because..." He gestures at himself in all his glory "...and not the other ordinary face. Got shot. I think miss Nikki fled and there was a tiny rolly robot called Squishy. Hers. Did I get that all correct, more or less?"

He drifts further in taking a seat and turning it about that he might straddle it, arms over the back in a criss-cross. He lets the wings relax then; they shuffle as they unfurl enough to LOOK like wings and settle.

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki tilts her head one way and then the other before giving a nod of her head and then she's distracted by something shiny. When she hears Nathaniel speak again, she looks back up and seems to look confused. "Nikki doesn't remember the cops. Nikki and Squishy must have left before they came." She offers before looking to the Pigtail Lady(tm).

"Squishy is Nikki's robot. He doesn't do well in the heat, so Nikki left him at home today. But most people who meet Nikki meet Squishy too. Nikki'll bring him by sometime so Pigtail Lady can meet him!" She offers, still with that seemingly youthful energy and emotion. Another slurp of her icey drink is taken as she walks around, careful not to touch anything, just looking for the moment.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
There's a curious look towards the young woman with the frosty drink, and then Mercy turns her gaze back to Sinister. And she blinks, caught a touch off guard by something he says. "That was... that night? I heard a brief mention on the news about... something. They didn't give details, but the reporter mentioned that shots had been fired," she says softly.

"Would you like a mug of tea? Or perhaps something cold to drink?" Mercy offers. The cold drink might be more welcome on a day like today. She gives a slower sort of nod at the explanation that he offers to encompass the mudmonsters and other occurrences of the same night. "That rather sounds like quite the night of things to happen," she says with a bit of surprise, then tilts her head a touch to one side before adding, "That hurts, the being shot part." She's been shot before, so she can sort of relate to it. If she didn't know about his healing ability then she'd have been concerned about him getting shot.

Mercy's attention shifts to Nikki at the explanation about Squishy. "A robot? That's cool. It sounds like he could maybe benefit from some type of improved cooling system, if the heat is a problem. But that's just a guess on my part," she says, a thoughtful tone to her voice. Then a smile tugs at the corners of her lips. "I'm Mercy Thompson. You can call me Mercy, if you like," she offers with a bit of a nod.

Sinister has posed:
"I guess yes, that was that night. Shots fired," Sinister snorts at that, watching Mercy interact with NIkki now, studying the pair of women. Multiple shots, shot multiple times. But there we go. "I would love a cup of tea, though. But you know, I can do that myself..." glancing over toward the back of the shop, the sound of the kettle being filled can be heard, then the tattle tale switch of it turning on. A clunk has him wincing, "...too hard on the counter."

REgarding squishy: "Just needs a little compressor."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"Squishy just complains when it's hot. Maybe he needs a cooling system. Nikki needs to find more parts so she can make adjustments to Squishy." Nikki offers then as she shifts away from the bubbles and bobbles that is rocks and herbs for magick stuff. Still sipping on her slurpee, she then manages her way to where some books are in shelves and she busies herself with looking those over for a moment.

"So Pigtail Lady is Mercy. Nikki is Nikki. The Red-Eyed Man hasn't given Nikki a name yet...and then there's been someone else who was sitting on the stoop. Nikki calls him Stoop Man. Oh! And Romanian Man too. He helped Nikki get some stuff out of a dumpster once." She offers, joyfully. "She's met all sorts of people here. It's why she likes it and keeps coming back. But this is her first time inside..."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
The woman-coyote was about to turn about to head towards the back room when he mentioned that he'd make the tea himself. One of her eyebrows quirks up as she turns back to face him, studying him for a moment before giving a nod. "You can, that's true... but it's still polite to offer," she says, quirking a smile. The clunk has her turning her head to look in the direction of the back room, but since it does't sound like anything broke, her attention returns back to him. And to the young woman.

Mercy gives a nod. "A compressor would work. And a cooling system would be a good idea for him, if he minds the heat. Then he could keep you company even when it's hot out. It'll get hotter, later in the summer," she comments, her tone thoughtful. Then she tilts her head a touch to one side. "What kind of parts do you need?" she asks, curiosity returned easily to her voice. She lifts her mug, taking a sip of her tea and stepping closer to where Sinister has settled, drawing out a seat to settle into. One that gives her a vantage of the shop. "It's good to meet you, Nikki," she adds. She isn't entirely sure who the others are that Nikki has met, given the unusual names that she gives them.

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, yes, I do beg your pardon, I was out of my head when we met," Sinister looks at Mercy with an incline of his head, "polite but unnecessary, just this once..." and back to Nikki. "Doctor Nathaniel Essex, although the red-eyed man is an adequate moniker most of the time." He stretches his neck to the side, the wing on that side mirroring the move to get out whatever kink is there. The kettle whistles to boiling and clicks, the sound of pouring water follows and a cup floats out from the kitchenette, steaming as it floats on in to settle infront of him.

"If you could get your hands on anything to improve your little friend, what would it be, I wonder?" he asks. "ANd speaking of little friends, that same goes for you, Mercy. If there's a hard to source part, please -do- let me know."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki continues to look over the books for a moment longer before she gives a shrug of her shoulders. "Nikki thinks Mercy is right. Squishy needs a cooling system. Nikki hasn't found a good cooling system. They're really expensive even at market costs. Nikki might get one after her next tournament." She offers while pulling a book off the shelf. Something titled 'Magick for Beginners', which she flips through a little bit. She totally misses the floating cup that comes from the kitchen to Sinister.

"Red-Eyed Man is a Doctor? Red-Eyed man is also Nathaniel. Nikki will try to remember that but sometimes she's bad at remembering real names which is why she gives nicknames." She explains and then puts the book back on the shelf. "She needs a lot of different parts cause she's always working on robots, but most the time the robots go boom and she has to start all over again. It's fun. But she's running out of pieces to make go boom."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
A warm smile comes to her features as she gives a nod to Nathaniel, and Mercy settles a touch more comfortably in the seat she'd chosen. She lifts her tea to take a sip of it, then glances towards the tea as it floats over to come to rest in front of him. "That's still very cool to see done, by the way," she comments, a smile quirking at the corners of her lips.

One of her eyebrows raises, and then she gives a nod, her chin ducking a touch. "I'll definitely do that, thank you, Nathaniel. There's been a higher amount of drop-in work at the garage last week, so the work on the engine for the Rabbit hasn't gone as quickly as what I'd expected, but it's getting there," she says, a smile returning to her features. Her attention turns to Nikki, and she gives a small nod. "What would be a good cooling system for your robot friend? Would something like an air conditioning system from a vehicle be able to be modified to fit and work?" she asks, curious.

Sinister has posed:
"Compressor. Miniature one, from the higher end Beemers and Mercs ought to do it, modified with some work. Might need to load a cannister of freon, but that's the poor man's conditioning," Sinister murmurs, sipping the piping hot tea as he lifts it with his hands. A sidelong look is shot to Mercy and he inclines his head oh-so-gently, sipping again. "I had begun to wonder. Worry actually, given I'm... actually looking forward to the challenge of helping you fix, though with the application of all my gifts and not just the one. It felt good to confess, Mercy."

Looking over at the books selected, there's a very faint chuckle, even as they're put back. "Yes and yes. I..." no, this isn't the time to brag "...am a doctor." Pause. "I know a thing or two about robotics." Another pause "What kind of systems are you using?"

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"Squishy has a modified AI core, dual processor with a hundred and twenty four bits of RAM. There's the hydrolic system that makes him move..." And Nikki rattles off a few more mid-range parts and systems that make a robot like Squishy...a robot like Squishy. Seems she really knows her stuff, even if she comes off sounding like she's not got a lot of brains in her head. "Currently I'm trying to make a single processing system that runs like Squishy's does, but with less work. The mainframe can't handle the intake though, and only processes like five commands a second which isn't something Nikki wants. If Nikki is going to impress anyone, she wants it to be perfect..." She offers then. "A mini compressor would work, but Nikki doesn't wanna use freon. Stuff is dangerous... could try installing a liquid cooling system...like a water coolant..."

She then sits, likely in a chair between Sinister and Mercy, still sipping at whatever remains of her slushy drink. "An intake coolant system with an outburst of water pressure would be better cause then the carbon footprint remains low. Nikki just doesn't have the means to do all of that. Yet. She's working on it though..." Yes, make the woman hyperfocus on something. It all starts coming together into more cohesive sentences.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
There's a thoughtful expression that creeps to Mercy's features at Sinister's mention of where the compressor might be sourced from, and she finds herself giving a slow nod. "I think I have one in a box of parts at the garage. Compressor, that is," she says in a thoughtful tone. She ducks her chin slightly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you any sort of worry over the matter. I would have let you know the last time that I saw you, but I became a bit... distracted, at the time," she says, raising an eyebrow just a touch.

She studies him for a moment, and then she gives a small nod. "They say that the truth will set you free. Perhaps they're not wrong," she says softly. She has her own truths to tell that she's been keeping secret, or that she thinks she's been keeping secret, at any rate. Her gaze lingers on him for a moment, and then she looks over to Nikki, studying the young woman. "A water cooling system could work. Similar to a radiator in a vehicle, sort of," she muses, a thoughtful tone to her voice.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister opens his mouth, closes it several times, the speech he might have given cut short by second thoughts. He looks to both women with this though, the one that hides things that he's at least partially aware of and the enthusiastic roboteer and ends up frowning to the point of it almost being a scowl.

His forehead is rubbed, his tea covetted whilst he works his way through whatever this is. He looks annoyed, though not at them, more some nebulous thing that might be himself.

Well, they're both mechanics. Dammit. Clicking his fingers a circle of electricity manifests beside him as it is want to do and a metallic tentacle dips in, setting a cube on the table of the magic shop. He taps it and it goes through a series of contortions along a pythagorean configuration, folding smaller and smaller into a different shape, until he has a heavy wrench. He gestures at it, for Mercy's benefit. He then taps it again and it unfolds, then breaks apart into tiny triangles. "Quantum processors, with fractal nano technology." He says, with a sigh.

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki looks between the two for a moment before figuring her icey drink is a bit more interesting than the topic of conversation that she's not really a part of anyway. She's just a normal human, there's nothing about her that can sense anything, or feel anything, or has any sort of way to know that someone is a little on the irritated side. Even social cues fail her but that's because she's got a mental disorder that she's never been tested for.

So when Sinister does that thing with a circle of electricity and pulls out some cube with a metallic tentacle, her eyes go wide and she skitters from the table. Her chair knocks over and she almost looses her slushie. "Nikki doesn't understand what's happening. What's the doctor doing?!" Flat on her ass, icey drink in hand, and she's just staring at the table, bug-eyed and terrified.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
There's a significant moment whilst Nathaniel is doing a goldfish impression in which Mercy waits for the words to come from him. And then they don't. She tilts her head a touch to one side, and she lifts her mug of tea to take a sip from it. She watches him, and watches his expression shift from frown to near scowl. She shifts her position slightly, crossing one of her legs over the other at the knee. Perhaps a touch wary, but annoyed powerful males tend to invoke that sort of thing.

One of her eyebrows quirks up as the ring of electricity manifests, and there's the mechanical tentacle that comes out of it. Her attention is caught by that, secured on it, and then once it's gone, her gaze slips to the cube. "Fractal nano tech?" Mercy asks, tilting her head to one side and looking to him. "It becomes whatever you want or need it to, doesn't it?" she asks, curious. She looks to Nikki, and a smile touches her lips. "It's okay, everything's fine, Nikki," she says. Then she looks back to Nathaniel. "This could upgrade Squishy in a pretty significant way, and that's without understanding the how it works behind it."

Sinister has posed:
Ahh, there we go, the terror and the gut reactions. This seems to be a familiar thing to Sinister as he swings his head over toward Nikki, fixing her with that solid red regard for a moment or two, then away. Well, Mercy will sense he bristles, but contains it and bites it down. Odd.

But odder perhaps is not treating this as a situation where someone won't understand. "I have an electropathic connection with several gestahlt columns and privately owned satellites around the globe, arranged specifically to create a booster signal from my mind to various wormhole gates. It takes a lot of energy, but I've mastered the power of quantum singularity and Tony Stark did wonders for zero-point energy. That's been around elsewhere for a while. What that allows me to do, is by the electric signals of my brain, I can activate wormhole gates to create teleport holes from the location of my installations, to where I currently am, punching through by creating molecular symmetry between this ring here and that ring there, opening a hole. Quantum nanotech is adaptive and can be whatever you instruct it to be. THe processors however..."

Here he separates 12 little triangles from their net construction and pushes them over the table, toward the downed Nikki "....can process dodeca to the power of a regular dual processor in parallel. They end up being triple parallel, because of the design and will greatly enhance your ability to instill commands in Squishy. Have fun figuring them out."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki blinks again, looking over to Mercy who tells her everything is alright and so she stands, but then she listens to Sinister as he explains what he's doing. She tilts her head for a moment, taking in all that he's saying, and the name that he drops. "Except what Nathaniel did should be entirely impossible..." She offers, taking another sip of her slurpee. "The brain isn't able to conduct electric signals outside of itself. It should be blocked by the skull and the flesh. Tony Stark manipulates things with his arc reactor..." Or that was the last thing she ever studied up on him.

Those little triangles are pushed towards the chair Nikki toppled over. A chair which she stands back up and slowly sits back down on. She reaches for one of the triangles and picks it up, looking it over a bit. "Nano-tech will be difficult to implement into Squishy. He'd need a lot of upgrades. But Nikki might try it on a different robot she's been working on..." A glance to Nathaniel then. She's still way totally freaked out, yet similarly compelled by the tech. "Thanks Nathaniel."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
It isn't really that odd to her, that bristling that she senses in him. He's different. And different isn't always accepted. And not being accepted can do that to a person. To Nathaniel, she smiles, something understanding and reassuring in the expression. She lifts her tea, and she takes a sip of it, as calm as one might please.

She shifts her weight slightly, sitting forward a bit, intrigued and curious. "Electropathic... part electric and part telepathic. That's pretty incredible," she says softly, after he's explained, a bit of wonder in her voice. It's an amazing thing to see. "That would make some pretty amazing stuff possible," she says, giving a small nod to him. It's kind of a combination of technology and mechanics, to the way her brain sees it, which may or may not be entirely accurate.

She watches the triangles separate before they're pushed towards Nikki. "So once they're installed in Squishy, then Squishy can process a lot more commands," she says softly. "And probably be more responsive, too," she adds after a moment of consideration. Her attention shifts to Nikki, and she gives a small shake of her head. "I don't really believe that things are exactly impossible, especially when you consider all of the unique abilities that people can have," Mercy says softly, lifting her tea to take a sip of it.

Sinister has posed:
And lo and behold, there's a little smile from Sin. A fleeting thing, born of gratitude, but still weighted down with bristle, so that it's shelf life isn't nearly as long as it should've been.

"Exactly what about me is possible, in the grand scheme of things? I have functional wings, I can make shoes dance, squish trashcans at range, and I'm the colour of a bleached A-4 peice of paper. If you're going to react, my dear, at least react unilaterally." The whole of that was muttered into his teacup though as he finishes his brew, setting the cup to float off back to the sink for a rinse and rest on the drainage board. "You're welcome," that to Nikki. "Least I could do after the shoe fiasco mud-man drama," he looks to Mercy, caught between explaining a bit further or at least expounding on what she just said, but he doesn't, he looks away. "Suffice it to say that I am an exceptionally clever fellow and I might be inclined to applying a wicked little brain to achieving impossible things before breakfast. Lovely girl Alice was, met her over tea."

He rises though, as something in all of this has left him feeling the sting of altruism and it's got a funny afterfeel, all fuzzy in the cockles. Most of the nanotech is snatched up, but he does poke a single triangle of it toward Mercy, too. Just in case she wants to fiddle with making Herbie a smart car. He then heads out without a further word.