Do Beer Goggles Come With Blueprints (King/Tim)

[Andi Markov]

[attr="class","Im"]

[attr="class","really"] [attr="class","exhausted"]How do you know you're not Superman [attr="class","rhythm"] ❝ Maybe you just need to try being a different way Andi was still having to come to terms with the fact she had been disowned. Disowned by her mother for...something that wasn't even in her fault. She'd been prepared for this to happen and had a building set aside and made with the earnings from the patents she had filed separately from the company. Financially, Andi would be fine. Emotionally not so much. She'd reacted to the experience of being disowned by locking herself in the gym. Working out like crazy, or just plain working. Alice had tried to help at first, but Andi had just felt like a failure. She'd sent a message to Alice saying that she was fine, and then had ignored any other messages. She wasn't fine, but she was fine enough. She'd recover. It wasn't the first time her mother had been an ass after all. Her doubt kept cropping up to tell her that everything had been understandable, and that Andi really was a failure of a child, which was fun. She was trying to take her mind off it by working on stuff. She had a glass of whiskey on one of the floor mats. Her rig was set up and she was working on a new prototype. One that she'd blueprinted very privately before now. An electronic suit of armour that worked better with her powers. Something that adapted with her when she was going to use something as a weapon. Something that gave her potent weapons to be worn. She could make anything a weapon, but some were better than others. In the case of actual weapons, Andi had figured out so far that her powers made her able to use the weapons even more effectively. Like she'd trained for years with them. She had to make use of that. She took another sip of her whiskey and tweaked the suit more. Then she heard the doors to the gym go. She'd put a closed sign so she didn't know what this was about. "Sorry we haven't had our grand opening yet. We're closed!" (tagged)⏤ Timothy Smith (notes)⏤ I hope you like this template!

MADE BY MIZO

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[Timothy Smith]

"Alice, I really don't know... Why did you need me to pick up this stuff and take it to your friend? Couldn't you just use a delivery service or something like that?"

"Tim. Shut the hell up and listen to me for once in your damn life. My friend is about to become your friend. You need more friends, they help keep you from falling into an obsessive, self-destructive spiral of excessive overworking and not nearly enough sleep. Adara has been fantastic for you, and I honestly think Seb and Ivan and the Stanes are the only reasons you hadn't already worked yourself to death before she came along. You need more friends. And Andi... she just went through... she needs a friend too. One that can be there, in the real world. And I can't, because I'm... well, me. Also she's turned off notifications for my messages and I'm trying to be good and not just force myself in there but God damn it I can have you bring her some food and components for her project. Ask her about it. Make a friend. Please."

Tim sighed as he pushed on the door of the gym in Haven. Alice really was right, and he hated to admit it. If it wasn't for his friends, all these people that were family in every sense of the word except for legally, he'd probably be dead by this point.

He adjusted several bags of various things that Alice had ordered and had him go pick up. There was some Chinese food, and Tim was pretty sure there were at least three dozen various computer components in the other bag he picked up from CompYouTers, the local tech store.

"Sorry we haven't had our grand opening yet. We're closed!"

Tim just about jumped out of his skin, surprised by the voice suddenly piercing the silence.

"Oh, um, uh, hi! I'm not here to work out or for a membership or anything. Are you Andi? Andi Markov? I'm Timothy Smith, you can call me Tim. I'm a friend-- well, sort of a friend, the relationship is complicated-- of Alice's. Actually I could almost be considered her father? It's weird. Yeah. Um. Alice got some stuff for you and wanted me to bring it to you."

Tim held up the bags. "There's some food and a bunch of computer components. Quite a bit of RAM, a few low profile heat-sinks..."

Tim shook his head as if to clear out the cobwebs. He was already making things weird and awkward. "Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. Nice to meet you. Alice talks a lot about you."

Andi Markov

[Andi Markov]

[attr="class","Im"]

[attr="class","really"] [attr="class","exhausted"]How do you know you're not Superman [attr="class","rhythm"] ❝ Maybe you just need to try being a different way So this was the guy who'd created Alice. Andi thought he seemed sort of...unassuming. Not the sort of person to be a public face for Aegis, in any case. Maybe she was just being too judgy though. He seemed like he was probably a good guy in any case. She heard him speak about what was in the bags, and then that Alice talks about her a lot. Andi grinned, getting up from her place adjusting the height of her project's stand. She walked over to him to say hi, the leg of her armoured suit in one hand. She was getting all sorts of feedback about how to use it as a weapon right now. It just flowed into her brain. She put a hand on her forehead briefly, hoping it wouldn't give her a headache. She peeked inside the bags and grinned. "Alllriiight Alice comes through once again. I'm gonna need the parts from those!" Then she realized she was being rude and looked up at Tim. "Oh. Right. Hi. Yes I'm Andi Markov. Although...well I got disowned so the last name doesn't really mean shit at this point." She shrugged. She was, for the most part, over it. But she was also trying to distract herself with a project and alcohol so it was all very debatable. "Good to meet you finally. I hear from Alice that you're a scientist. So..." She grinned, a look of mischief in her eyes as she took the bags from him and instead handed him the suit leg. "What do you think of this?" (tagged)⏤ Timothy Smith (notes)⏤ I hope you like this template!

MADE BY MIZO

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[Timothy Smith]

So that's what Alice was alluding to when she said Andi had just gone through something. Tim very much valued the family he had lost, so he could empathize a little bit.

"Good to meet you too. I'm sorry that happened, but I'm glad that it finally got us to meet."

He took the leg from her and began to look it over. "Yeah, I do a bunch of science stuff at Aegis, got a few degrees under my belt. Stopped just short of a doctorate for... personal reasons. Oh, this is a powered exoskeleton. Must be original to you, I haven't seen anything like it before. Nice composition choice for the armor, lightweight but can take a hit, enough room on the inside for sufficient padding, looks like you're having issues sustaining power to the joints. I wonder if... that could be..."

Tim carefully pried off a panel and began tinkering with wires while he muttered, fully distracted and engaged by the project placed in his hands.

"Now if this actuator is routed through that microcircuit then... Oh here's the issue. Yeah, just like I thought. Got the polarity reversed on some of the secondary diodes in there. Let me just..."

Holding the leg in one hand, he pointed his finger with the other, extending a beam of light into a makeshift soldering iron, and began to work. He was done in a few moments, put the panel back into place, and demonstrated the functioning leg. "There ya go."

Tim and Andi's phones chirped at the same time. Tim looked at his, then rolled his eyes. "Looks like Alice made a point to get enough food for two people so I'd stay and help you out, or at least just be someone to be there for you. She really cares for you."

He chuckled, extending the leg back to her. "Looks like I'm stuck here for the time being."

Andi Markov

[Andi Markov]

[attr="class","Im"]

[attr="class","really"] [attr="class","exhausted"]How do you know you're not Superman [attr="class","rhythm"] ❝ Maybe you just need to try being a different way Andi heard him extend his sympathy for being disowned and she just gave a short nod to acknowledge it. And then he looked over the leg, mentioning he did science stuff at Aegis, and had a few degrees. Stopped short of a doctorate too. "Yeah I'll be honest I took inspiration from comics and figured out how to make it. It interfaces properly with my powers too, making both things more powerful." She'd just been planning on inventing a more powerful battery to solve the joint power problem, but then he muttered to himself and fooled around with a few things, soldering with his fucking FINGER. And then demonstrated it. Her eyes widened. "Well. I guess that those degrees do matter. I don't have any myself, I just learned by tinkering with things, trial and error and learning first hand from people my parents hired. Kinda just learning with my actions. No degrees really." She shrugged. Then their phones both chirped. He looked at his, she looked at hers. Hers said something to the effect of 'here make a friend'. Which...was fair. Alice was one of her only friends. The other one was Rosemary who...well suffice to say considering what Rosemary was like, Andi would rather Alice was her only friend at the moment. In the good way. Andi grinned at Tim. "Awesome. Food for two. And yeah, Alice would be my best friend. I...was probably worrying her by not answering my texts. Now that I think about it, the last time I did that I had been kidnapped. Shit, that makes me a bad friend doesn't it?" The last sentence was muttered under her breath. She took the leg off of him and moved back towards the suit, attaching. It was made so it hooked on and stayed on. A click kind of thing to make it easier to put on. "I have alcohol if you want some. It'd probably be better if I wasn't drinking alone." She nodded her head towards the rather large bottle of whiskey. "If whiskey's not your thing, I probably have some beer, vodka or scotch somewhere in my cupboards. I make sure to stay well stocked." (tagged)⏤ Timothy Smith (notes)⏤ I hope you like this template!

MADE BY MIZO

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[Timothy Smith]

Tim shrugged "It doesn't necessarily make you a bad friend. Alice can... fret a little."

Tim looked at the bottle, weighing his options. It had been... three years? Four? Something like that, since he'd last drank. It's not a coincidence that that was when Alice was, for lack of a better term, "born." But thinking about all he'd been through, he figured he could use something to numb life up a little bit. Taking the nod as an invitation, he picked up the bottle, found a glass that looked decently clean, and poured himself a glass, continuing to muse about Alice as he did so.

"She gets frustrated at not being able to do things physically. I think... somehow, she gets that from me. I hate it when there's nothing I can do to help solve a problem. She runs into that more often that most people do. I've come up with a couple drones for her to manipulate things with, but she doesn't seem satisfied with that. She wants to be able to do more."

He took a big sip, and winced at the taste. "Gah! It's been... yeah. A while. Wait hold on. You said you were kidnapped? I assume you're okay now."

He started looking at the suit, taking a smaller sip of his drink. "Don't tell anyone, but I get most of my inspiration for the stuff I make for Aegis from comic books too. Working on a personal force field generator right now. It's getting there, keeps overheating at a certain point. This is fantastic, very well designed. You said you had powers? What kind of powers? I've been branching out into superhuman biology, studying how people with powers do the things they do and how to synthesize similar effects."

He could already feel the alcohol hitting his bloodstream. He was starting to ramble. It wouldn't be long before he started to find something to tinker with to keep his hands busy too.

Andi Markov

[Andi Markov]

[attr="class","Im"]

[attr="class","really"] [attr="class","exhausted"]How do you know you're not Superman [attr="class","rhythm"] ❝ Maybe you just need to try being a different way Andi heard him talk about how Alice could fret a little and while she understood the sentiment she nevertheless felt like she shouldn't have completely ignored Alice...but she HAD sent a text saying she was fine. Sometimes she'd need space. Maybe she should have just said she needed a bit of space though. Although whenever someone told her that she always felt like they were saying they needed space away from her specifically and she never wanted Alice to feel like that. Ever. But perhaps she'd done something worse. Well in any case that was a thought for another day. She watched Tim find a glass and pour himself a glass. She may be disowned, but she still had an excellent taste in alcohol. Funny how that particular vice was never focused on by her dear mother. She supposed her mother would have been a gigantic hypocrite if it had. Andi listened to Tim's words and sighed. [break][break] "I think everyone on some level can feel frustrated if there's nothing they can do in a situation. That's why friends are so important. Another perspective on the problem, and also someone to just talk to if there really is nothing you can do. That way you aren't...alone with your thoughts forever. I know Alice wants to make a body. Actually my suit is a step in that direction. I figured a test drive by making a suit of armour for myself would allow me to make many patents that would serve to help us get a leg up and a step forward towards her particular problem." She laughed when he winced at the taste. And then he commented about the kidnapping and Andi shrugged. [break][break] "Yeah the alcohol's an acquired taste but once you acquire it oooh it's so good. And yeah, my brother kidnapped me and injected me with a bunch of some sort of street drug. Thought if he couldn't be in line to inherit, neither could I. And that injecting me with drugs would change my status. He was right, unfortunately. Hence the whole disowned bit." Perhaps she'd had a bit too much of her acquired taste if she was telling this much to someone she'd just met. But it wasn't like the whole thing was a secret or anything. Her mother had disowned her quite publically after all. She heard Tim comment on how he took inspiration from comics too and she chuckled. Then he said about his personal project. [break][break] "Well if it's overheating I have a blueprint for an upgraded heatsink we could try sometime. Of course it would just be a test. Purely. And we'd need a contact so I'd know you wouldn't leak the secrets. Nothing personal of course, just my mother is bound to try and get her greedy paws on my patents now she doesn't have me. Alice has sent you so of course you've got my okay." She grinned easily, and then he asked about her powers and...she picked her glass up and took a sip herself. [break][break] "Everytime I pick something up I get feedback in my mind about how to turn it into a weapon. And if I select one of the options, my body adapts to make it a weapon in the best way possible. Makes me able to make snap decisions on how to use something most effectively as a weapon. It is...taking some getting used to to say the least." (tagged)⏤ Timothy Smith (notes)⏤ I hope you like this template!

MADE BY MIZO

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[Timothy Smith]

Tim winced as she explained what happened to her. That was an asshole move, and he'd have to keep an eye out for this street drug. "I'm really sorry that happened, but I'm glad you're okay. I'd love to try your heatsink, and I'm sure we can figure out some mutually beneficial arrangement."

He finished his glass and poured himself another. It was a bad idea, but he was already getting sloshed and his judgement was starting to go out the window.

"Yer... your powersh... powers are asta... astouu... pretty awesome. I'd like to see a demonstration sometime when everything's less fuzzy."

He picked up another part of the suit Andi was working on and examined it carefully. Alcohol did something to his brain, more cylinders were firing when he was drunk. Things clicked differently.

"This... this right here, this sensor package... if we took that and then put it in a head for Alice and... lemmie see a keyboard..."

He took another big gulp, then staggered over to Andi's laptop and opened a new notepad file and began typing. "Alice talks about controlling things like she's riding them, not that she is them but if we did this for an interface with that sensor package..."

He finished typing and showed Andi his work. "It should integrate her perceptions with the sensors closer. I think. 'm pretty sure I'm drunk. Last time I was drunk, Alice happened."

Andi Markov