[ 002 | VOICE/VIDEO ] late at night

[spah]

Howdy, folks.

[It's fairly late at night. You may have heard that drawl around. Or maybe you heard about a guy with a Texan accent setting fire to a pile of lingerie in a sex shop by accident. Either or.]

So. This ain't my first time around alien technology. Last extraterrestrials I met wrecked my property and tried to kill me. Then me and some other fellas stole their guns and forcefed 'em beer until they crashed.

[nOW WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT--]

But these folks are alright by my standards. And all this... cybernetic enhancement and augmentation business has me curious:

Anybody here got something similar in 'em? Prosthetics, bionics, cybernetic enhancements... anything along them lines. And since it wouldn't be fair if I didn't meet ya'll halfway--

[Video comes on. It's a downward shot of Engineer sitting at a desk chair, his device's camera pointed at his skeleton-like metal hand. He open and closes the fist, splays fingers out, turns them over - and wiggles them.]

This here's the Gunslinger. Pretty as you please. Designed by my grandfather, built by me. Oh, and there's my heart too, but... can't exactly pop that open for y'all. Heheh.

Anyway, I'm just curious. I been thinkin' about how different places come up with different ways to fix the parts we've either lost... or wanna improve on. One way or another.

[And, after a pause--]

While I'm at it... can anyone tell me a decent area to buy garage space? [Prismagram is: Now Looking For Recommendations.]

Comments

video:

[pidgeypidge]

[That's really...

a lot to try to process in a short span of time. But Pidge is honestly just interested in one thing.]

That hand is beautiful! You really built it?

[There's no reason for him to be lying about it, and indeed, her tone is more awed than distrustful.]

How'd you lose it?

[Yes, she really did just ask that.]

permavoice

[spah]

Sure did. Appreciate it, miss. The design is mostly my grandfather's - but I took a few improvements to it while I was at it.

[As for the next question... hm. He doesn't mind telling it, it just gets hard to gauge what kind of reaction he'll get.]

It was less of a "loss" and more of a... voluntary replacement.

permavideo;

[pidgeypidge]

Nice, nice. That might be the coolest hand I've ever seen.

[Shiro's didn't count because it wasn't the same. And it was his entire arm.]

What kind of improvements?

[Pidge was no stranger to how cruel the world could be sometimes, so she was fully expecting some kind of horror story about how he'd lost it. What she got, though, was almost a relief to hear? Maybe.]

Whoa! You just decided to replace it one day?

[spah]

Why, thank you kindly. [He chuckles.] Here-and-there sorta things. Some of it was basic mechanical improvements - he drafted 'er up almost sixty years ago now - but I also set myself up somethin' of a keypad on the cuff. Lets keep an eye on my machines out on the field a lot easier.

Yes ma'am. Right after I found all his old blueprints. Heck of an upgrade.

[pidgeypidge]

You're welcome. [He wasn't even the first person she'd run into here that did this sort of thing, but he was the first who'd apparently willingly opted in to replace a part of themselves.]

I'm not sure if I'd be that brave, but I think it's great!

[spah]

Heh. You'd be one of the few.

[Meaning he usually just get strange looks over it.]

It really ain't that hard, though. Then again I had some... [Oop. He pauses as he catches himself.] Sorry. I'm a nitty-gritty details kinda man sometimes. Usually ain't a problem, but I'm not always in mixed company.

[pidgeypidge]

I've seen weirder. Trust me.

[She wasn't going into a whole lot of detail there, but a mechanical hand was probably one of the tamest things she'd seen in a long time.]

I feel like it'd take some getting used to. Was it hard to adjust? Did it take a long time? [Don't mind her, she just had literally a million questions.] You're fine! I've probably heard worse.

[spah]

After this place? I'll believe it.

[Even if it wasn't for Prismatica, though, he's sure he's not the only one who's been through some bizarre shit.]

Whoa, whoah. One question at a time. [He laughs.] Buildin' it took a while, sure. And I never exactly... replaced any parts of myself before, either. Took a lot of perfecting and planning to make sure I had it right before I did the dang thing.

[pidgeypidge]

This place. Sure.

[Except this place was like a weird vacation compared to everything else.]

Ahaha, sorry! [Except she wasn't particularly sorry. Oops. She was, however, trying to fight the urge to ask why he'd felt the need to replace a hand at random. Aside from just having the blueprints around, which she could almost justify.]

I don't think I know anyone who has, so I can't even imagine what kind of adjustment that would be! Not that I'm judging. I just think... Well, I'm pretty sure my mom would wring my neck if I did that. Hah.

[spah]

So would mine. Part of the reason I usually wear my work gloves.

She found out anyway.

[pidgeypidge]

Yea, I haven't seen mine in a while...

But she'd absolutely notice!

[Colleen Holt was many things. Unobservant was not one of them.]

[spah]

I'd believe it. Mamas are usually pretty dang sharp.

[pidgeypidge]

Pretty sure it's in the job description.

[There was a pause, and then:]

Do you ever miss your hand?

[spah]

Hm. [He has to think about that.] Not no more, really. The lack of feeling took some getting used to... but that was on purpose. This hand won't flinch, even if I stick it in a blast furnace. You can't beat it for welding work.

Long story short, it took a lot of gettin' used to, but... I think of it as an upgrade. Human body can always be improved on, one way or the other, and a little help from Mother Science can always give 'er a kickstart.

[pidgeypidge]

That's fair. [Maybe some people just weren't as attached to their hands as others. She'd certainly seen weirder things.] Do you do a lot of welding?

[She could see where it'd be useful for something like that, but maybe it was just the thought of willingly replacing her hand that she couldn't wrap her head around.] That's a good way of looking at it.

So it's just the hand and the heart, then?

[spah]

Sure do. Comes with bein' an engineer.

So far, yep.

[pidgeypidge]

Ahaha, touche~

[Not that she'd done a lot of it lately, herself.]

Looking forward to replacing something else~?

[Pidge, why?]

[spah]

Uh?

[pidgeypidge]

Maybe the other hand or something?

[It'd occurred to her, how odd that probably sounded, but she was really just curious about how many more upgrades he was going to make.]

An arm?