fandomtownies | The Junkyard, Wednesday

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The Junkyard, Wednesday

So. Michael was rather liking it here so far. Yeah, alright, so he had to worry about Max and Isobel back home, but what else was new? And now he didn't have to have them hovering around worrying about him anymore. And he wasn't constantly looking around thinking about how that was the spot he used to park the truck when it got cold at night. Or that was where he and Alex hooked up when they skipped class so no one would see them.

And that wasn't even starting on all the interesting people and things around here for him to learn about.

He had an idea, inspired by some of Connor's work on his "anomalies". He just needed to find some supplies, a bit of wire, an old catalytic converter. . . . Good thing he was living in a junkyard, huh? He was pulling aside an old bumper when it seemed to get caught on something. He gave it a few experimental tugs -- and he could swear it was like something tugged back --

"Jesus fu -- the hell is that?!"

The chomper he'd unearthed snapped irritatedly at him and he scrambled backward.

. . . Okay. So he'd just . . . get back to that pile.

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"They haven't been intact in years," Michael said dryly, showing his twisted and scarred left hand. "But yeah, everything's copacetic."

Connor did his best not to stare but yeah that was not pretty.

"Well, as long as I don't have to go all stabby on the Chompy on your behalf," Connor said with a side glance at the angry snapping ball.

"My knight in shining armor," Michael teased. "I promise to let you know if you have to defend my honor."

Hey! He had fended off raptors, tyrannosaurus, and even a baby mossasour before. He wasn't going to be pushed around by a Chompy. In theory at least.

Connor gave a somewhat crooked grin. "Gotta take care of your people right?"

. . . Um, okay, body, you'd only known this dude for a couple weeks, you should maybe not be feeling fluttery about him declaring you "his people" yet.

"Fair enough," he said, doing his best not to let that reaction show (no need to go all in that fast, Mikey, you've been burned before!). He poked the chomper. "And what technique would you use against this sucker?"

Eh, when you were as bad at the whole flirting thing as Connor was it was a usual mix of half the time wanting to and not knowing how, and then unintentionally doing it subconsciously. So, chances were he wouldn't notice... yet.

"Well," Connor said, pulling his gaze from Michael to the still very annoyed chomper. "If the whole ignore it and hope it leaves you alone approach doesn't work.... maybe just throw scrap pieces at it and pray it likes chomping on metal more?"

Michael nodded. "Those are very sensible options."

And -- kept poking at it with rebar.

What? It was fascinating! And no one had ever accused Michael of being sensible.

Connor could have some good ideas now and then.... it was just his own lack of self-preservation and/or street smart that usually made it all a moot point in the end. As demonstrated by the experimental poke he gave with the pipe he still held.

"Oh, before I forget...I got a couple of things for ya..." he said somewhat absentmindedly as he poked at the chomper again. "They're over by your trailer."

Edited 2022-10-05 20:49 (UTC)

"Oh yeah?" Michael asked. The chomper had latched onto the rebar, and he let his whole arm wobble as it tried to pull it out of his grip. "Not often anyone brings me presents."

"Eh nothing too fancy, but I think ya might like it," Connor said with a small grin. "Though I admit, this guy is pretty fascinating... I can always come back later..." he teased.

"Bite your tongue," Michael said idly. He let go of the rebar -- and had to jump back when the chomper thing sent it swinging wildly in its delight. He rubbed his hands together. "Let's see what you got!"

Connor took a step back too before sticking the pipe into the ground a little ways away from the chomper. He watched it for a moment and shook his head, continuing to back away slowly before risking turning his back on it.

"Got two boxes here," Connor said when they got to the spot where he had left them. "Got some tech here for ya," he said with a grin as he picked up the first box and handed it to Michael. "I fixed up one of the anomaly detectors so we can share readings and whatnot back and forth more easily."

"Sweet!" Micheal took the book, immediately peering into it. "You had extras, huh?"

"Yeah, and it was easy enough to rig them to work kinda like glorified walkie-talkies in a way. We can send readings and such back and forth. And with a little more time and work I should be able to rig a console or something that will let us record the data and organize things more easily."

Connor looked at Michael with a pleased grin, and for once not feeling overly worried about needing to apologize for going too 'geeky' with his explanations and ramblings.

"Well, sure, they're already built to pick up radio," Michael agreed. "This is awesome, man, thanks!" He grinned at Connor. "And hey, you're here! Wanna check out the alien glass?"

"You better believe it!" Connor said with a huge grin as he bent down to get the other box.

"Got a couple non-techy things in here for ya whenever," Connor said as he started following after Michael.

Michael laughed. "Tech first. Can't argue with your priorities."

He led the way into his trailer, nudging aside some empties -- beer and nail polish remover -- he hadn't picked up off the floor yet. He reached into one of his cabinets and carefully pulled out a piece of glass a little larger than a dinner plate, that glimmered orange and purple and turquoise as he held it.

"Here it is."

If Connor's eyes had gone big before, finding out about the whole being an alien thing, that was dwarfed by the look he had as he stared at the glass.

"That is... wow... that's bloody amazing.." he said as he stared at it, watching the colors shift and glimmer. It sort of reminded him of the colorful shine you could see in an oil puddle at times. Only, ya know a heck of a lot prettier and a hell of a lot cooler!

"This is from your ship?" Connor finally managed to as she glanced at Michael, only to have his eyes fall back to the shimmering glass almost immediately.

"Near as I can tell, yeah," Michael said. "I've found a lot more. When you get it close to a piece it came off of, it'll fuse itself back together. I've almost managed to put together a whole console."

"This is so cool..." Connor said as he leaned a little closer to the glass and looked at the symbols on it. His fingers were itching to reach out and touch it.

“It doesn’t really do a lot by itself,” Michael said. “You know, other than what it’s doing now, with the colors and all. I’m still working out how my, uh, my people must use it.”

"You said it can fuze itself together? That... Almost sounds like something organic."

“Guess so, yeah. Stark — have you met Stark? Runs around in a metal half-mask? He says his ship is biomechanical. Gotta wonder if ours was, too.”

"Not spoken to him much but yeah, I know him," Connor said. "And that would make sense... a biomechanical ship, special connection to the passengers... It would make things like stasis and space-time manipulation easier. In theory, I mean."

Connor studied the glass for a bit, getting that 'I'm doing science' look on his face as he did.

"I wonder if... you said this was a piece that didn't seem to fit with anything you had back home? I wonder... maybe there was more than one ship? Or more than one control panel in the ship itself?"

“Huh.” Michael tilted his head. “Stories only list one ship. I always assumed they used the same stuff to build a lot of the parts. Like using titanium or aluminum to build things on Earth.”

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