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Stark Industries, Wednesday, Oct. 2

Victor's first customer at Stark today was a woman who had burnt out the motor on her "personal massage unit" and wanted to know how quickly they could fix it.

This wasn't necessarily unusual; what was unusual was that the second customer was in the same situation. So was the third. And the fourth -- well, Victor wasn't sure he even wanted to know exactly what that device was or how the owner had been using it.

But it was good to be busy. It kept Victor's mind from less wholesome pursuits, such as what would happen if he interfaced his circuitry directly with a Japanese dating sim. That particular project could wait until he got home.

[OOC: Open shop, no OCD.]

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Not to worry, Victor - Gert had no personal massage unit to speak of. Just a whole lot of boredom and absolutely zero desire to be cooped up with Old Lace right now. For her own sanity.

So, she decided to stop by Stark's. "Hey," she said, sticking her head in the door. "Any interest in half a bag of fries and some company?"

"That sounds like a complete relief," Victor said, waving her in. "Hey. We've been getting the most bizarre repair requests today."

She tossed the bag on the counter, waving a hand to indicate that Victor could help himself.

"Let me guess," she said. "Judging by radio, I'm gonna say lots of mechanical Dite's ware?"

"I dunno, never been in there," Victor said, taking a handful of fries. "If they have a lot of things with tentacles like the thing I had to fix this morning, I'm going to stay away."

With his dating sims, but everyone needed hobbies.

"Ew." Gert made a face. "Yeah, pass. That's way weirder than I was expecting. They give that stuff to you clean, right?"

"I think so, but I still wore gloves to handle all of them," Victor said, making a face right back. "And I'm, like, blitzing through our Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer."

He pointed a fry at Gert. "Share my misery. Anything kinky going on at the diner?"

Edited 2013-10-02 16:11 (UTC)

"Nothing that weird," she said, "but I think the kitchen staff have hooked up in pretty much every conceivable combination now. So the hygeine conditions probably aren't awesome there either." She plucked a fry from the bag, feeling relieved that she'd gone with Mooby Land for lunch rather than Luke's.

"Are your teachers, like, herding you all into tactile situations, or is that just my classes?"

"Not so far," Victor said, also grateful the fries weren't from Luke's. That place sounded like a perfect STD transmission experiment.

"Doom showed us a movie, and history was talking about making up a government. Maybe Batman will be all touchy-feely."

"On the other hand, Batman, so maybe not." That was a weird visual. "Ew, now I'm thinking of him getting all flustered by the pollen."

Yeah." A pause, then -- because it was never going to get out of Victor's head if he didn't say what he was thinking -- "Do you think he takes the mask off?"

"Oh, ew." She had no one to blame for that but herself, though. "I guess he probably doesn't. And he probably speaks in that put-on voice while he's doing it, too."

Mostly Maddie needed to complain, and to be away from the dorms for a little while, and Victor got to be the lucky person who got whined at. Plus at least Maddie could look at pretty.

"Can this week be over yet?" she asked in lieu of hello.

"And maybe he makes matching costumes for his girlfriends," Victor said. "Or boyfriends, which ... he does seem to be overcompensating for something."

"Will that mean I won't have to repair the island's entire stock of personal massagers?" Victor wondered. "Because I am all for that. Hey."

If his palms were a tiny bit sweaty and his voice had a weird high edge to it ... okay, so Maddie was cute, which was far more important this week than it normally was.

"Hi. People actually ask you to fix those?" she asked. "That's a little... personal."

"See, now I have to wonder who on the faculty he might be boyfriends with," Gert said. "Skywalker, maybe?"

God, they'd both better hope that radio was extra light on the details of this conversation.

"They do have the cape thing in common," Victor said, snorting back a laugh. "Oh! Or that creepy teacher who hangs out with Pinkie Pie. Hale, right? He seems like he might be Batman's type."

This was not a conversation that covered either of them with glory, no.

"Desperate people care less?" Victor guessed. "Maybe Dite's isn't open yet and they can't wait for a new one. Don't ask me, I just fix the motors."

"I mean, what are they doing to break them?" And then she really thought about it. "Forget I asked that."

"Forgotten," Victor said, cheeks tinting pink. "Uh. Maybe we could find something else to talk about? Like ... ducks."

He'd spotted one through the window. Ducks seemed simple.

"Okay," Maddie said, trying not to look amused. "What about ducks?"

"Well," Victor said, chewing on a cuticle, "They're white. And they have feathers. And I think this is the time of year they migrate, right? Except not the ones at the park with the flamingos, 'cause those dudes seem to hang out there pretty much all the time. And ... how do you feel about ducks?"

"Most laconic relationship ever," Gert judged. "I bet they wouldn't even talk, just leave out empty milk containers and half-full laundry baskets."

"They're cute and look like they're probably really soft?" Clearly Maddie had never put any real thought into ducks before.

"Right, and every so often they'd just be intense and stare at each other until they made out."

This was turning into Batman/Derek Hale fanfic.

Edited 2013-10-02 20:10 (UTC)

"But I bet they bite," Victor contributed. "The beaks look mean."

He reached miserably for a basket of wires that needed organizing, mostly to have something to do with his hands.

Edited 2013-10-02 20:12 (UTC)

"I'm pretty sure they don't have teeth," she said, finding herself watching his hands maybe more than she should. Seriously, this week.

"Yeah, but beaks are hard," Victor argued. "They can pinch."

He noticed she was watching and -- now he was going to get self-conscious and drop the wires.

And now she had to look back at him, which was a little more awkward now. "Right," she said, clearing her throat. "And pinching is bad. No one wants that."

"Of course not," Victor said, a bit frantically as he realized this conversation was getting more and more awkward. "I'm just saying, they look all fluffy and cute, and then ... pinch. And not the fun kind. it's a menace."

"Not the fun kind," Maddie repeated, and tried to shake that off. "I mean, you're right, ducks are terrible." Or something.

"Completely," Victor said, and sighed, and realized he had nothing more to say about either wires or ducks, and -

"Look, I know this not a sexy way to ask this, but should we just make out or would that be too weird?"

"I think it might actually improve things," Maddie admitted. Because she was all about brain fog and thinking ducks might be evil now.

"Can't be any worse than talking about ducks and biting," Victor agreed, weird quaver in his voice gone now that he had a plan of action. "Hang on --"

He went around the counter, locked the door, and turned the sign to Closed before offering a hand to Maddie. "Come with me to the fantastic Stark Industries break room?"

Which wasn't all that fantastic, in truth. But it had a couch and Jarvis's speakers could be muted in there. It would work.

Honestly, it felt kind of fitting to get makeout time in a Stark building. It really did.

"Lead the way," she smiled, taking his hand.

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Stark Industries, Wednesday, Oct. 2

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