TInkering Talk

January 17, 2017:

Kitty and Peter have a surprisingly civil conversation.

Shadowcrest Manor

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Shadowcrest can be quiet, or can be quite rowdy. Tonight? Its quiet. Rocket and Groot in the living room watching some show about Unfortunate Children. The TV a background noise in the rest of the lower floor.

Some of the houses denisins watch as well. The mummy and the severed griffon head watching the show along with the two Guardians.

In the other room sits Peter Quill. His back to the living room and bent over a table with a host of odd tools and mechanical devices. This concentration is directed towards what looks like…well…some kind of odd metalic hearing aid? A little curve of metal that Quill is going over. Two halves of the item open with different circuitry exposed. Its small, and complicated.

…but the fact that its /Quill/ that is going over this must mean its not that complicated.

—-

Add in an alien purple dragon, curled up around Groot's shoulders and that is the occupancy of the living room, riveted on the Netflix show. The phasing mutant after the ordeal out of the mansion, has yet to leave it. Instead, she moves down the stairwell, hair mussed and still in her pajamas. With no set schedule, her sleep has come and gone at random times. She blames it on the magic of the mansion.

Yawning, she moves into the room adjacent to the living room before realizing who it is occupies it. Then, she halts suddenly. Her eyes scan the machinery on the table sprawled out in front of him with a bit of interest, though she refuses to ask him about it immediately. "Where is everyone?" That's the proper question.

—-

"Watching TV. Something about kids and bad things. Groot and Rocket are obsessed with streaming movies. They say there isn't anything else to do around here." Comes Quill's reply as he turns slightly and peers towards her. As he sits up it becomes fairly obvious, there is a rudimentry bandage over his left leg.

Thankfully for them both he's still wearing pants.

"Did you just wake up?" He asks with a quirked eyebrow. "You get your beauty rest, Kitten?"

There are various other objects scattered about the table. An old walkman, battered and much loved. A pair of cassete tapes with hand written labels that are faded with age, and what might be a familiar card. Black and Gold with a stylized 'X' on it. Its peaking out from under the walkman it looks like.

—-

"A Series of Unfortunate Events?" Kitty raises an eyebrow. She knew the movie awhile ago and also read the books. Moving closer to the table, she leans a hip against it nearby where Peter is cleaning and fixing his parts. She studies them all, absently curious. "I can't really blame them. It's not like there are random magical creepy creatures out there stalking the energy of the gem that I was trapped inside. You know, boring stuff."

Smoothing her hair down, she shrugs. "Yeah, so? It's not like I've got classes to teach any more. I'm not leaving that gem if I can help it. I've been on sabbatical for awhile, I can keep it going." With a smirk, she gestures at Peter's general face and countenance. "I did. From the look of it you could use a lot more. Or…sorry, is that just your base set?"

Absently, she looks at the things on the table in front of him. Eyes brightening, she snatches at the walkman. "Oh man! A walkman! I had one of these! I loved it. Took it everywhere with me."

—-

"Hey! Careful with that!" For the first time since she's met him, Peter sounds actually serious. He reaches for the walkman suddenly, upsetting some of the tools as he grabs for it. "Its important!" He adds as she snatches it. "So don't break it, I can't get get a replacemt!"

Seriously serious. For the first time. Which is odd espicially over something so obviously old and…well…not spacy.

"Urgh. Who would want you to teach them anyway." He adds as she carries the walkman out of reach, the man trying to get up. "And my base set is pretty good for most everyone. I don't hear many damn complaints!"

He seems grumpy as he reaches for his tools again to try to recollect them. Of course his leg is wounded, so it might just be that. "Here I am, trying to help someone and you just mess up my whole thing…"

—-

There is, actually, a surprised look from Kitty as Peter grabs at the walkman. For her part, she doesn't attempt to keep it privatized, instead allowing him to easily yank it from her hands. "A walkman?" Kitty moves toward the table and pulls out a seat. "You know, I'm sure you could get one of those on Amazon within a day. I'm pretty sure Lockheed has Amazon Prime." She hasn't asked him, but the dragon seems very internet savvy.

"Quite a few people. I'm actually rather good at both computer programming and hardware issues. Like the one you seem to be having now. You're attaching the negative side of that to what is supposed to be the positive." There's a smirk as she looks to Peter. "You're hearing no complaints because the only people who know about it are watching a Netflix adaptation to a fantastic book series."

For the very brief moment, Kitty looks serious and interested. Perhaps it's the sleep deprivation. "Who are you trying to help?"

—-

"Not this one," Peter replies easily enough as he takes it back. He seems oddly careful with it, checking the case over carefully and making sure the connection is alright to the ancient set of headphones. Ones he has somehow managed to find almost pristine foam covers for the earpieces.

How he managed that is space is hard to tell.

But he did.

"And I'll have you know I've gotten out plenty of times, and there are plenty of people who like my face just the way I am." He adds with a smirk towards her. "Ive even been to dinner with people that were rather fond of it." He adds with a slowly growing grin.

At the last question though he shrugs just slightly. "Some girl I met, she was…a mutant? I think she said. I guess something like that. Like you maybe?" He shrugs. "Anyway, her mutant power prevented her from going dancing and that just seems a shame. A horrible shame. Espicially in how she looked in that outfit. So I figured I might can help her ou—and I was gonna change that damn circuit! Thats totally what I was doing."

Totally. Was.

—-

Kitty can clearly tell that the walkman actually means something to Peter. This is the man who cares little about grenades in the sofa, that tosses a magical gem around like it were made of plastic. However, an old walkman? He treats it like a museum piece. There's a curious expression on her face as she watches him with it.

There's a smirk at his defensiveness before she notices the black card with the yellow X that the walkman hid before. She blinks a few times, grabbing at that now - she's really quite Ms. Grabby tonight. "Where'd you get this?"

There's an eyebrow raise as he describes the mutant and her inability to dance. "And you were going to help her with that how?" She's starting to wonder if they might know the same woman.

—-

"Oh my god do you ever ask before grabbing things?" Peter's quick reply as he turns a glowering eye towards the X-woman. Then the glower goes away to be replaced with a smirk. "Hot party girl with a southern accent gave me it. Jealous?" He adds to smirk towards her. "Some one that I'm /trying/ to build this thing for."

A pause then before he shrugs and reaches up behind his ear to remove what looks to be a black and red earpiece. Very high tech, but it looks like just a simple communicaion system. "Take a look. Not that you know much of anything about space tech."

Not that he does either but he totally isn't gonna tell her that.

"My armor, works in a vacum, full enviromental and atmospheric shield. Generates its own air and does just about everything but windows." Now he gestures to the table. "I had an old busted one, figured if I can get it working at a low power setting it would do the trick."

—-

"I'm not sure, do you ever stop being a jerk?" Kitty's reply is just as quick, hand still managing to pick up the familiar card and flip it about in her hands. "Red hair? White streak?" The woman raises an eyebrow at him. "Can't touch anyone?" It certainly sounds like Rogue. "Jealous? Ha. I just want to know if I do know her so I can warn her not to waste her time."

She is, however, interested in the space tech. "Right, and you're a genius at it. Something tells me you let Rocket do most of your engineering." Though she rolls her eyes, she does study the ear piece intently. She's a curious woman and interested in technology. "Interesting, is there a tank? A certain amount of air it can hold? It has to have some form of tank or the like. I would think it's impossible to pull breathable air out of a vacuum."

—-

"Nope, its a gift." Peter shoots back. "Part of my sparkling personality." Leaning back he does fix her with a curious quirked brow. "…totally jealous." He finally decides. "But yeah. Thats her. Marie or something like that. She's got like eighteen names." A pause. "Who has like eighteen names!"

He gives a sigh, blown slowly out though his nose before he shakes his head. "Tanks are so terran. Takes the trapped air in the field and scrubs it via the forcefield and mask. I figure that her's wouldn't need most of that, less power requirements is good cause Terran power sources suck. So loose the mask, and some of the vacum protection, leave it air-permeable and that might work."

—-

There's a snort from Kitty at his response. "Yeah, if you want to call it that." It's hard to tell whether she is responding to his 'sparking personality' or 'his gift'. Safe bet is both together. The snort shifts easily into a roll of her eyes. "Yes, I am so incredibly jealous of one of my old classmates. Believe me, if she was truly interested in you, I would worry for her taste, but tell her to have at."

Rolling the little communication device about in her fingers, she smirks. "Aren't you Terran? Unless you truly are from Planet Colorado." Because there is totally a Planet Colorado somewhere. "So, with a few tweaks, this'll allow Rogue to touch people?"

—-

"This is the first time I've been back here in nearly twenty years," Quill replies as he reaches for one of the more delicate tools. "So I don't quite think I'm Terran anymore. Being raised by Reavers gives you a whole new perspective on life." A pause. "Plus it turns out I'm half not-Terran. Couldn't tell you what the other half /is/, but…" He shrugs. "…Xandarians thought it explained a few things."

He pokes at the internal working of the device on the table. Trying to coax it to life. "…damn power cell is burn out…" He grumbles quietly. "…getting a new one isn't gonna be easy. Or figuring something that'll double for it." A glance up towards her then. "Are you gonna hover there all night or you gonna sit down and get outta my light?"

A longer pause.

"Planet Colorado sucks. Its all desert and angry people." A pause. "Second though maybe you would fit right in!"

He just can't keep his mouth shut can he?

—-

"I mean, I think you're always kind of a Terran." Kitty moves to the table and then drops into a chair opposite of Peter Quill. She starts moving just a tick before he snarks at her, so she smirks back with a pleased smile that she's doing something of her own volition rather than due to him. Leaning back in the seat, she studies him curiously. "You're half alien? Huh. What would that explain? Do you have weird body parts you're hiding? A second heart? Ken Doll anatomy?" The questions she asks get more ridiculous, her grin grows.

"So, like Arizona? Or Texas?" There's a roll of her eyes. "I'm from Illinois. I'm more used to the cold than the desert." Watching him work, she shakes her head. "You're using the wrong screwdriver for that. You want the other one."

—-

"No, no, and defintally not but you can check if you like," He shoots back with a smirk as she pokes fun at him. "But anyway, explained why I survived in space without a suit for a few minuites and why I could hold an Invinity Stone without imploding in on myself. Yeah, mom was human. Dad was…something else."

A shrug.

"Not that I know what, since I never met the guy." It doesn't seem to bother him that much really. He's adjusted to it fairly well. Well as well as he's adjusted to anything.

"And I knew that!" He reaches for the other screwdriver though, the one she pointed out. "So you and Rogue went to the same school? What kinda school was that? Must have been pretty sepctular, since she can fling trees and drain souls and you can…do…" He waves a hand. "…what you do."

—-

"Blech," Kitty rolls her eyes at his offer, sticking her tongue out to show her disgust at the idea. It's one she assumed he would make anyway. She pretty much knows his quips by now.

"An Invinity Stone?" That's something that catches her ear. "Do people just randomly hand you gems all the time? What does an Invinity Stone do?"

To hear that Peter never met his father is something that certainly makes its way into her mind, however, she doesn't comment on it. Not yet. Her own family situation is different, if the end result is similar.

"Sure you did," she snorts at his defensive retort. "Yeah. It's a place called Xavier's. It's in Westchester. That's, actually, where I was a teacher before…you know." Her hand waves generally in the direction where they've hidden the stone for now.

—-

"Infinity Stone," Peter corrects as he glances over towards her. "Condenced power from the beginning of the universe. Its heavy stuff, guy wanted to blow up a planet with it." He says it all so casually. "But he was an asshole, so we stopped him." A pause. "And blew him up." A grin. "With his own stone. Was pretty good times."

He sounds like he's being honest about that. Which is possibily crazy. He doesn't actually sound like he expects her to believe it either.

"Before you jumped in a soul gem and got a huge mystical target stuck on your forehead?" He asks as he glances up towards her with a grin. "How is that working out for you anyway? Any more attacks? Rocket, Groot, and I ran into a bunch of them when we were out." A pause. "If you shoot the smaller ones enough they stop regenerating."

—-

"Huh. Never heard of it," Kitty tells Peter with a raised eyebrow. It's clear she doesn't believe him and thinks he's bragging about something just to try and show his heroism. For whatever that's worth. "You blew someone up with a gem? One that could have exploded a planet? I'm assuming you don't let Rocket keep that thing in his mouth." There's a dry sort of humor there, one of her humoring what she believes to be his delusions.

With a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders, she nods. "I didn't jump into a soul gem. I accidentally stumbled into one." As for how it's working out of her, she shrugs. "So far so good. I don't really like to be too far from it, so I haven't really been leaving the mansion. Constantine's ritual seems to be doing the trick. Either that or those things are crazy susceptible to the Knockturn Alley Harry Potter horror magic at the front gate." There's a raised eyebrow. "What qualifies as 'enough'?"

—-

Quill seems to ponder that question. Finally he comes up with a very scientific reply. "Until they stopped moving." He pauses just a moment. "I mean hell I wasn't exactly in a position to count the blasts it took, a little busy getting my leg chewed on and then convincing Rocket and Groot that I didn't have the T-Virus."

A shake of his head.

"I wish Lockheed had never showed them how to get on Netflix!" He blows out a sigh before glancing back up towards her. "What did ya teach anyway? With the little knife…" He knows its a sword, but not calling it a sword might get a rise out of her. And the man seems to live for things like that. "…I'm not picturing you an an english teacher type, you don't exactly give off the librian or teacher vibe either."

Who knows why the man reaches for any red button he can find on a person he's talking too. Perhaps he gets bored easy. Maybe its just part of what makes him Peter Quill, the ability to tapdace across someones raw nerves. Maybe its deeper than that, not that anyone seems to stick around to figure it out.

—-

"Your leg got chewed on?" Kitty's eyebrows raise at that. "And you don't have magic rabies? That's good, I guess. Good to know it doesn't have transmittable diseases." It looks like Quill may be good for something after all!

"Yes, well, Lockheed has a mind of his own and it is addicted to Netflix shows." There is no apology in her voice. In fact, she finds the situation quite amusing. With the Guardians, she seems to like Rocket and Groot far more than Peter Quill. "It's a katana," she rolls her eyes. "And, no, I don't teach young children how to wield deadly weapons. I was a computer science teacher. I taught them code." It's not exactly a librarian, but it certainly doesn't also jive with 'katana wielding angry woman' that it seems Peter has in his head.

"I'm afraid to ask, but what in the world did you picture me teaching?"

—-

"No," Peter drawls. "I just wear bloody bandages on my ankle for funsies." Sure enough there is an in-expertly wrapped bandage on his leg. Might be why he's sitting down. Who knows. He goes back to looking at the little device, tweaking one of the panels to get it to light up just a little bit before it goes dim again. "…what the hell is a Knockturn Alley or a Harry Potter anyway?" He adds as he works, the words half under his breath.

…and entirely truthful. He has no clue.

He hardly looks up as she explains. "I don't know, how to shout at people that don't deserve it?" A pause. "I guess you skew more towards sexy librarian than ninja teacher." He leans back just slightly before turning his attention to her, a smirk tugging on the edges of his lips. "So. You really /are/ a nerd huh?"

—-

Oh right, the bandage. Kitty did notice that upon entering, but didn't comment or think about it. Why would she? "Huh. You sure it's not infected?" If he's going to tease her about her career, she's going to suggest he's infected.

"…it's…wow. You really are an alien. It's a book series about magic and witches. It was the most popular series of the past ten years. You know what, I think Groot would like it. I'll have to tell Lockheed to get it on Amazon."

Theres' a smirk there. Then, she snorts. "Sexy librarian, huh? I thought I was too annoying to be sexy." She rolls her eyes. "And you have always deserved it when I've yelled at you." After a moment, she sighs. "I can't believe you don't know what Harry Potter is, but you still think I'm a nerd."

—-

"You're a teacher, you tell me." Peter's reply comes as he starts to pull he leg out from under the table. Thankfully for himself and Kitty and likely most of the room he doesn't start to disrobe so she can see, just starts to pull the pantleg up.

A roll of his eyes then. "I /told/ you I'm not from around here. The most current events I know is like…E.T. came out, and Pac-Man was cool."

And aparently the Sony Walkman was the cutting edge music tech.

He wasn't even around for the rise of the Internet.

"Well you /are/ a nerd. I guess though so am I, according to Rogue at least." A pause. "Who apparently calls everything from space, 'nerds'." He is totally not a nerd. "Anyway, though sexy can trump annoying. In /most/ cases." A meaningful pause as he angles his gaze towards her. "Most."

There is a pause as he continues to watch her, though one hand gropes vaguely for a drink he had on the table. Fingers closing around the plastic cup to drag it towards him. "So what now, like what are we going to do about this gem? Since it looks like we're stuck with it."

—-

"I'm not a medical student!" Kitty protests as Peter pulls his leg up and starts to pull up the leg of his pants. "You realize there are different branches of educational study, right?" There's a quick look away and wrinkle of her nose at the thought of having to deal with Peter's badly bandaged ankle.

"Oh, so you're a hipster. Got it." It's an insult that may not exactly land, but it feels good for her to say it. "Well, hate to break it to you, but you're a nerd, too. Fixing space gear? Giving it to people? That's something a nerd would do." She glances back to see if his foot is finally back under the table. "Generally, I would find nerds sexy." Mimicking his own tone, she gives him an annoyed look and adds, "Most nerds."

The question is met with a bit of a surprised look. That's a serious topic of conversation. From Peter Quill. That wasn't something she was expecting. "We? You mean me. I'm the one that was stuck in that thing. I'm the one that's stuck with it. I'm sure you could just leave it with me. I'll take care of it." This is not her being flippant, she's being sincere in this moment. "It clearly didn't mean anything to you. I'll make sure it gets where it needs to go."

—-

"I am not a hipster!" Peter seems to know on instinct that its bad. Though he does slowly peer towards her as he rolls his pantleg back down. "I have no idea what it is, but if you say it like that I know its gotta be bad." The man thrusts his leg back under the table before leaning the chair he's in back on two legs. At least his wound doesn't seem to impede his balance.

"Anyway, I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. That doesn't make me a nerd." He steadfastly refuses that brand. "Besides, if I didn't know how to fix this stuff I'd be dead by now. ALSO NOT NERD-LIKE."

He says it without batting an eye. Since in a very real sense his life did depend on his little toys and his ability to keep them all in working order. It wasn't like the Ravangers really were big into teamwork.

You had to pay for your engineer teams man.

He shrugs again, eyes lazly looking back towards her as he sets his drink down with a soft thunk. "No, I mean we. I'm tangled up in this too, unless you forgot the monsters tried to get the both of us. Its not its claws into Rocket at least too, so more reason for me to fix it." A pause. "You don't want to see Rocket on the loose, he develops guns that can crack moons." Again that dead seriousness. Because Rocket /does/. "Thor would be pretty upset too, and I want him off my back." Yeah. Totally not entirely out of the goodness of his own heart. "Besides all that, I'm an asshole, but I'm not a total dick. Else I would have let Xandar just blow up and fly to the other end of the universe to chill out for awhile."

—-

"You can't know you're not if you don't know what it is," Kitty tells Peter smugly. "It may be bad, but you don't know why. So, you'll just have to find out." She's truly hoping that now Peter will ask other people what a hipster is and realize that he can actually fall into the category only because of the period of knowledge he holds dearest.

"The goodness of your heart. Right." Kitty snorts and leans back in her chair a little. "Because you have no interest in trying to put Rogue between your sheets." Kitty knows Marie is an attractive woman and she has no qualms about teasing Peter about it. "I'm sure this is being done for merely humanitarian reasons and not just so you can actually be able to touch her without having your life energy sucked out." She knows Rogue's powers and just how dangerous they are.

Kitty sighs. "You're only tied up in this because you went drinking on Asgard. Seriously, maybe they attacked Rocket, but most likely because they might think he had the gem. He doesn't. I'm sure he's fine now. Honestly, I don't see why you care so much. It's clear you didn't give a damn about it before. Just continue on that frame of mind. I'll take care of it, you just keep going about not caring about things."

—-

There is so much squinting from Peter as he peers towards Kitty. So much. His eyes narrow, his mouth draws into a line before he finally just gives a sigh. "I won't give you the satisfaction!" He totally is going to look it up anyway, but he just won't tell her. SO THERE.

Totally mature operation right there.

He goes grin though. "She's easy on the eyes, I'm not gonna deny it. She knows it too. Thats why not being able to do anything with anyone must suck." His eyes slide shut as his lips twist into a smirk. "Being alone sucks. And Rogue? She's alone a lot I'm guessing."

One leg, his good one is hooked around the leg of the table to keep him from tumbling over backwards as she sighs at him. An eyebrow quirkes up, though his eyes remin closed for a few heartbeats. "You listen here Kitten." He finally says as he turns his attention back towards her. "That thing, and whatever is behind it attacked my crew. The Guardians." He pauses a moment, as if that should say it all. "I might not have given a good god damn about it before, but its a danger to the Guardians. So that makes it my business. So I don't give a damn what you think I might care about or not, but I'm putting paid on that rock. So. Get used to me."

Peter Quill might care about a very short list of things in the Galaxy. But the Guardians are on that list. And all they have are each other, so /something/ is going to get its teath kicked in for trying to put its magical fangs all up in his buisinessd.

—-

Kitty snorts. "That's not how that works. You just are, you have to accept it." Yeah, that response is not from a guy she would trust with an object that held her captive and also supposedly holds thousands of souls. All assumptions and viewpoints till now are totally in alignment.

Then, however, she gives him little bit of a look when he has some insight into Rogue's frame of mind. It's strange to see him react to something with empathy. That's not part of her assessment. "Yes," she responds. "Sometimes. There's a lot of people at Xavier's. But, I imagine it's hard to not touch anyone. Ever."

More than that, he actually sounds passionate about something: the Guardians. Her assumption about his apathy hit a nerve and for some reason and that startles her. As far as she was concerned, Peter cared about nothing, but now it seems there are things he is wiling to fight about. And the gem is a part of that. It's a hard image to reconcile with the inconsiderate and flippant man she has known the past few weeks. "It's Kitty," she tells him again, with less teeth in the correction. It's the only thing that can put her on solid reasoned ground again. "Well. As far as we know they only went after you because you were the last people who had it. If I take it, I'm sure you and your Guardians will be safe." Before, she was contemptuous. Now, she sounds almost assuring. She's attempting to alleviate him of duty.

—-

"Life has taught me that I don't have to accept a thing without a fight," Comes the propt reply. Again more of what she might expect from him. He rights himself, the chair coming back to all fours with a hollow thunk. "Otherwise I'd of ended up in a stewpot."

He shakes his head again as he glances towards her. Possibily for the first time she might see the glimmer of something resembling responsibility. Just a glimmer. "Doesn't work that way, Kitty" Did he say her name right? "Kat." Nope. He didn't. "We don't like starting serious trouble." A lie they start it all the time. "But I'm not gonna leave something unfinished that might come back to bite em in the ass." Then there is a smirk as the responsibility starts to burn off in favor of a familiar look of recklessness.

"Besides. Who wants to be safe. Safe is boring, and the last thing you ever want Groot and Rocket and I to be is bored. We start doing…" A pause as he gestures vaguely. "…things. Like making bombs, or stealing sofas, or making shield-tech to get in your schoolfriend's pants."

….annnnd now back to familiar territory.

But she's seen it now. Its out of the bag. Peter isn't /just/ a 10 year old with a space ship. There is an occasional glimmer of something else under all that.

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