fandomtownies | Syndulla Scrap; Friday [08/14].

Entry tags:

Syndulla Scrap; Friday [08/14].

Summer had definitely wound up on some sort of manic roller coaster of a week, and the ride was definitely not over yet. Because she had dedicated herself to the idea of doing some honestly overdue maintenence on the ship in the off chance that a cute boy (and she'd already built herself up to the idea that he probably wouldn't, because, ha ha, why would he??) might stop by to check it out.

Either way, she was there at the scrapyard where she kept the ship and had access to some of Hera's old tools, feeling super cute and cas by rocking the whole mechanic vibe (what? You think she was going to change the oil on her spaceship wearing white pants? Come on now), and getting all up under her ultra-modified and very, very bright pink (with pink and white flames on the side!) VCX-series auxiliary starfighter to get to work. Work that very quickly sucked her right in, especially since she made a goal for herself to try to do as much as possible without having to consult the manual (it had been a while) and it was actually a really nice distraction from....everything, to just have something in front of her that was logical and made sense, where pieces could be put together easily and everything was orderly and maybe she could do something to boost the speed next time, and oh wait! Since she didn't have to worry so much any more about being subtle (you know, subtle, in her ultra-pink spaceship), she should really look into reinstalling some guns on the front end of the ship to up the fighting power again, which meant eventually rolling out from under the ship to relocate to the front to have a look at the mounts to see what they were working with and wondering where she could get her hands on some nice frontal ship laser cannons...

Something lightweight, obviously, and then there was keeping in mind that she wanted to eventually add a some sort of portal port, which would clearly need to go here, but then she'd have to rework a little bit of the mechanics here...

And then the fact that she really only marginally knew what she was doing and was sort of just guessing...

But it was kind of nice, having her mind actually focusing on (relatively speaking) just one thing for a change.

[[ and it's open! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Barry has spent a lot of time yesterday at the store thinking and re-thinking how he would approach today’s encounter with Summer. It turns out the approach was being over prepared.

He wasn’t wearing a jumpsuit but it was clean jeans and a Space Battles t-shirt that he did not mind getting dirty or destroyed. It may not look it but he did spend two hours thinking about said outfit. He also had two large toolboxes and a giant backpack full of diagnostic equipment just in case it was needed. Truth be told he probably didn’t need it but he spent most of the day yesterday thinking about exactly what might be needed and then brought more than that.

He then realized that he never asked Summer what her ship looked like so he spent 30 minutes walking through the scrapyard until he spotted a spaceship. A very pink spaceship. He chuckled a bit and just headed in that direction.

He took a moment to look over the ship from a technical standpoint and let out a long appreciative whistle. “She’s a beauty,” he said starting a slow walk around the ship. “Seriously, I can tell you put in a lot of fucking time into this. How fast can she go?”

Yeah. Summer's ship was pretty hard to miss.

She was mostly just glad she was pretty deep into the mounts so that no one could really have seen the look on her face when she heard that whistle, wholly unprepared for literally the thing they had talked about, because that's what convincing yourself it wasn't going to even happen would do to a person. So there was a pause, a moment that made an attempt to wrangle in some sense of composure, before Summer lifted her head, tossed it back a little in an attempt to clear away the one strand of hair that seemed to escape from her ponytail in only very specific circumstances, and located Barry with a grin.

"Faster than you'd think," she said. "We rigged her up some extra power just in case any Imperials decided to get all up on my tail. I could definitely show you, though, once I get this all wrapped up."

Ugh, really, Summer, jumping right to that, huh?

“Well that’s what I’m here for, right?” Barry said putting the toolboxes down and starting to take off his backpack.

Wait. Did that make it sound like he was going to get up on her tail or that he was going to check out her engine?

No matter. Push on, Barry. Don’t freak out.

“You got a punch list on what needs to be done? After all I’m that’s why I’m here right?”

"Right," said Summer, her grin softening a bit with a little reminder that this probably was way more about the ship than anything, and a realization that the promise to show off a ship without taking it out, too, was pretty much defeating the whole point, and, god, you'd think this was her first time showing a boy her spaceship...

Well, to be fair, it was kind of the first time she was showing it to a boy who was actually interested in the spaceship itself.

And at least with no AI in this one, the likelihood of it traumatizing him was way down, too.

Summer took a moment to wipe her hands on her jumpsuit and tuck that stray hair back in place. "I've sort of already covered the undercarraige," she said, "changed the oil, but then I got distracted by the gun mounts here," she closed the panel firmly, set to attaching it, "when I realized I don't have to keep all my artillery hidden so much anymore, you know? Anyway, let's maybe just get to the good stuff and I'll show you the engine? You can tell me if any of the tech looks familiar."

"By all means," Barry said looking over the gun mounts. "Whatever you want to show me. And... uh. If you're looking for some firepower I have some spare ion cannons back in my dimension. I'd be happy to help you with that if you want."

Because who wouldn't offer a devastating weapon to someone you've talked to at least three times?

"I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with your ship," Barry said following Summer wherever she wanted to lead him. "Where did you learn to put one together?"

Hey, Summer was totally good for it! Her eyebrows did go up a little in surprise at the offer, but it was fleeting, taken over quickly by the complete rush of the thrill that followed.

"Ohmygod," she said, "yes, please, those sound amazing. And would save me a ton of trouble."

And let's face it, she had enough of that already.

"I mean," she added a moment later, "if you don't really mind..."

But before her brain could focus too much on that turned, she turned to focus on unscrewing the access panel for the real guts of the ship.

"I can't take too much credit," she answered. "This sucker had some good bones when we kicked him up, and most of what I learned I got from my friends Hera and Kanan. Hera used to run this place, so it was great, good access.tonscrap and supplies because money was also pretty tight for me back then. They're not here anymore, though..." The endless stream slowed down marginally there, but picked eight back up to speed, like a little hiccup in the clutch. "They're actually involved in that whole rebellion thing I mentioned, I was gathering intel and supplies for their faction before I...well..."

She finally loosened the panel and peeled it off.

"And there she is!" she announced proudly. "One of a kind Syndulla-Smith scrap speciality. She looks a little bit like a bad art student's final art project, but she runs like a dream."

"I don't mind at all. Universe can be a shitty place. Can't fly around without some sort of protection," Barry said as he watched her open up the access panel. As soon as the engine was revealed his face went up into concentration.

"Niiiice. Don't sell yourself too short. You wouldn't know this thing was put together from spare parts," he said earnestly. "Some of the best shit I ever put together was the stuff I had on hand. I once built a space telescope from an old Atari 2600."

He took a closer look at the engine. "Uhhh. What kind of power fuel are you using for this? Consolidated dark matter?"

Summer, at this point, was mostly just glad Barry was good and distracted by the engine so he couldn't really see the beaming, blushing look on her face right then. Sure, he was probably just being nice about the whole thing, but even if that were the case...he was just being so nice about the whole thing.

"An Atari?" she asked, with a jaunty tone she would regret in two seconds because, god, Summer, nerd jokes, really? "That is pretty good, but could you still play Pong on it?"

Regret settling in in three, two...

Ugghhhhhh.

"And it's just good old rocket fuel, mostly," she added, hopefully to pretend anything else had been said. "Gasoline in a pinch, but that's.always rough on her. She's mostly just for short jaunts and transporting goods, so she's never needed much more. Around here, Portalocity does most of the heavy lifting anyway."

Oh, shit, that was right! Portals!

"Oh, hey!" Summer leaned a little on the side of her shil. "That reminds me, I meant to ask you something the other day."

Before it got, y'know, awkward af.

"How are you with reverse engineering? Like, if I were to being you something, are you the type to be able to break it down to know how it was lut together?"

Summer, he was obviously super smart. He knew what 'reverse engineering' meant.

Okay, first of all Barry is a fucking nerd. So he chuckled appreciatively at the Pong joke.

"Well. As long as the shit I'm looking at isn't magic, I'm probably the fucking guy to do it," Barry said giving her a smile. "And as for the space telescope the only game that fucking worked after that was the stupid Meta-For E.T. game which was total shit anyway."

He took a moment to look at the engine a bit longer. "Also if you're happy with the engine and the short jaunt stuff, that's cool. But I also have an alternative energy source that could probably turn this into a longer range vessel. Unless you're really into dealing with gnomes."

"Okay, first off," said Summer, once her smile managed to make it to grin status after a slight flutter delay, "I know we're just getting to know each other and all, but if I ever say no to giving something more power, please grab some magnets and try to fuck me up with them because there's a good chance I was replaced by a hyper-realistic robot again.

"And secondly," because they didn't really need to dwell on that, did they, "it's funny you should put it that way, because the thing I need reverse engineered is because dealing with those gnomes fucking suuuucks sometimes."

"Ugh. Hyper-realistic robots never fucking work out," Barry agreed. "I gave them up in elementary school as my duplicate always went haywire if they ate glue."

And because they didn't need to dwell on that. "And I seriously hate those fucking gnomes. Who gave them the fucking right to have a monopoly on dimensional travel? I don't pay those turds shit for something I can do on my own. So what is it you need to reverse engineer? Some dimensional transport device?"

So Summer just needed the tiniest moment to revel in fucking delight over the fact that Barry didn't even seem to blink an eye over any of that. She always wanted to feel like, well, duh, this was Fandom, and yet this was the first time any of this felt so completely normal.

Which wasn't to say it was, by any margin, but it was all pretty subjective, right?

"Exactly," she grinned, but it transitioned.quickly into an eye roll. "My grampa thinks he's totally hot shit because he's the only person in our dimension to master portal travel, and he's got this gun that he's super possessive about. You'd think any normal grampa would be all, 'oh, you have a friend who's trapped in a different universe and you want to help her get home? Sure thing, sweetie, take it for the weekend,' but not my grampa. Oh, no. Not Rick Sanchez. For him it's more like, 'hey, fuck you, Summer, eat shit and die, Summer, you bitch.'"

Not a direct quote, obvs, but it was close.

And now Summer was seething a little with her arms folded in front of her. "Ugh.

"So," she added casually, "I want to steal the gun from him again and see if anyone here can just help me make my own."

Edited 2020-08-14 16:21 (UTC)

Okay, normally Barry might have a little reservation about helping someone with bits of technology but let's be real: Summer obviously had dealt with this type of shit before. Plus...

"Your grandfather sounds like a complete fucking asshole," Barry said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Fuck. I was using portals when I was eleven. What gives him the fucking right to bogart the technology? Fuck that shit."

He then went over to his pack and started to rummage through it. "Yeah, I can reverse engineer his portal gun or whatever. Or I can build one for you from scratch if you want."

"You don't even know the half of it, Barry!" Summer complained emphatically, unable to hold back another roll of her eyes, arms flying in the air for added emphasis.

"But now I'm torn," she admitted, "because obviously cutting Rick out of the picture is ideal, but there's a real missed opportunity to rub it in his face when I show up one day with his design in my hands...

"But you know," she added, taking a cautious nudge into coyness, "obviously improved."

"Fuck yeah, it'll be improved!"

Yeah, Barry might be feeling a little superior at the moment. "Hey, if you want to rub it in that old fucker's face, I'm game. Your grandfather might be a fucking genius but there's no reason to be a shit about it."

It's at this point in his rummaging that he pulled out a device about the size of a deck of cards. "Anyway. This thing here? Solar power collector. It can power a city for ten years. I figure it'll extend the range of your ship and get you off of fossil fuels."

Okay, yeah, so, hi, this? Right here? Right now? Summer was absolutely fucking loving this. If she wasn't careful, she might totally just throw up.

"So it's better for the environment, too!" she gushed. "That's brilliant! Yes. Perfect. What do you need to hook it up? Does it need to, like, charge and shit? Do you usually just walk around with solar power collectors in your backpack?"

That last one might have been sort of an afterthought that hitched on as she was making her way through the others.

"Well what's the point of making a solar power collector this size if you don't carry it around?" Barry said shrugging and trying to make that sound really cool.

It also was not about trying to impress Summer at all. Nope, absolutely not.

He stooped down to take a closer look at the engine. "All we have to do is change out the leads here which go to power the switch and connect them to the collector. Should take about five minutes to charge up in direct sunlight. It's sensitive enough to pull power from local suns and starlight so you shouldn't get stranded anywhere. We'll also add a manual switch to move to gas in the even you get stranded in some kind of bullshit void or something."

Okay. Maybe it was a little bit about trying to impress Summer.

Well. It was working.

Trash talking her grampa had helped significantly, too.

"That's awesome," said Summer, who then looked up ~~the weather report~~ at the sky and frowned. "Kinda cloudy, though."

Oh, noooooo, they might have to wait longer for it to charge before trying it oooouuuttt, whatever would they dooooo? Soooo tragic.

Barry looked up and gave the sky a look and then back at Summer.

"Uh. That's a fucking shame," he said looking a little nervous. "I mean,I guess we'd have to take a test trip some time later. Make it like a... um. A date. Or something. Close to that. Maybe."

Summer looked back at Barry and was about to protest the whole idea of postponing, but that was just because the rest of what he said hadn't caught up with her yet.

And then it did.

She blinked.

"I mean," she said, "yeah, sure, I guess we could do that."

How did one possibly go about buying a drink for the sky? Because she was feeling right then that she owed the clouds one big time.

"I know a few good places."

Edited 2020-08-14 19:02 (UTC)

Barry took a few moments to let that sink in. For once his giant brain shut down and he literally stopped thinking for about two seconds.

Also his ears were bright red.

"Cool," he stammered out. "Yeah. Um. I've got free McMooby coupons if you like that shit."

Barry immediately winced. "Or. You know. Something better than that."

And, in those two seconds, Summer started to feel some of that uncertain awkwardness creep into her stomach, but she had no intention of letting it stay this time.

Especially not after Barry seemed to start back up again and she could dismiss the thought that she might need to go find some magnets to fuck him up with.

"Anything is better than that," she said with a light snort. "How about...since you provided the power source, I'll handle the details." Details that were kind of a blank right now, but you couldn't honestly expect her to think right now, could you? "When would be a good time for you?"

She threw another glance up to the sky, which was supposed to be all cool and nonchalant, but wound up with a big stupid grin on it instead.

"Weather permitting, anyway."

And if you don't think Barry got that smile, Summer, you're fooling yourself.

He let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I'm sure the weather will be fine," Barry said still grinning like an idiot. "And I should be back in town on Monday. So any day next week is good for me. You know. When you're not working a thousand jobs."

"It's only the three!" Summer insisted, but with a laugh, and maybe she was okay with the grin sticking around a little bit after all. "How's..."

Her eyes shifted a little as she considered her schedule, and....okay, okay, the critiques were totally valid.

"...Tuesday sound?"

Honestly, the sooner it got out of her system, the better, for herself, and for everyone around her.

Barry laughed. “Tuesday is great,” he said. “Just tell me where and I’ll be there. In the meantime...”

He gestured to the engine. “You still up for converting this to solar?”

"Just meet me here," Summer decided. "Around five. And we'll go from there."

Leaning in on the mystery and intrigue and excitement? Or just buying herself some time to figure out something really good?

...yes?

"And duh," she added, grinning widely and about to hate everything about to come out of her mouth right now, "obvs. Let's solar the hell out of this ship!"

And solar the hell out of the ship they did. It was a long technical process which we won’t go into detail here but it involved a lot of swearing, smiles and Barry ruining his favorite Space Battles t-shirt with an oil spill.

But given the events of the day? He didn’t give a shit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Syndulla Scrap; Friday [08/14].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject