taking care of business

[requiresssacrifice]

Who: Rex Lewis & Open
What: Getting business in order.
Where: Various.
When: Various times/dates this week.
Notes: Rex is due for some encounters with Alter Ego, Tadhg, Ana, Will...? ANYONE ELSE IS WELCOME, TOO. Just go ahead and start a thread at any location and any date this week, and I'll drop Rex in.
Warnings: None yet.

Now that the move from Griss Twist (which he will never, ever set foot in again... except, perhaps, to pass through to another location) to a new, two-bedroom apartment-- a proper apartment-- in Flyside has been completed, Rex is settling back into a routine. Work, work, more work, the occasional contract job, partner, sister, cat, research project... On the one hand, it's exhilarating, being busy again after so much idle time wasted in a cosmic prison, but he's finding it difficult to juggle his side projects with his obligations. For nearly two years, he suffered from an abundance of free time, and now he can hardly find enough hours in each day. Time management, it seems, is a skill that can indeed atrophy with disuse. Still, he manages as best he can.

With long hours, inconsistently scheduled shifts and only two days off each week, it doesn't leave much time for his research project into magic-- really, he can only devote one day a week to it, and beyond that, he just has to find gaps in his schedule where he can and work from there. As a result, it's moving slowly-- not that he expects expediency, not with how very little he knows about magic. It's still largely academic at this point, learning magical theories and hypothesizing, brainstorming. By now, Rex is no stranger to the University library. From time to time, there are minor experiments, generally conducted in his modest workshop in Brock Marsh, which he managed to find at a reasonable rate.

When he has a contract job for his budding side-business, Rex has to shift his other projects and commitments to the side and focus on hammering out whatever needs to be done-- repairs and upgrades to technology, mostly. Hardly stimulating, but whatever it takes to build up his reputation. It can be frustrating, trying to juggle these unexpected projects with his routine, but he's finding his groove now.

When he can, Rex shops around, trying to create something respectable out of his workshop. Proper equipment being as rare and expensive as it is, however, he's learning the fine art of, well, scavenging for discarded components and bargain-hunting. Sometimes, he simply explores... and winds up in strange or awkward places. Baedal's full of surprises like that.

Luckily, Rex doesn't have enough of a personal life to sacrifice at the altar of science. Ana and Iago aren't needy sorts, and Rex is accustomed to getting by on minimal sleep, so they find time with each other where they can, but it doesn't seem to be causing any sort of strain when Rex is occupied with his experiments and work for days on end.

Then again, if it is, he's hardly perceptive enough when it comes to the feelings of others to notice.

Depending on when one finds him and what he's doing, Rex can be found in varying states of dress and exhaustion. Bags under his eyes aren't an uncommon sight. When he's out making contacts, he's professional and polished, hair slicked back as he wears a suit. When he's scavenging or bargain-hunting, he's dressed down in jeans and tees, wearing hoodies for warmth, leaving his hair unruly, looking more the part of a poor college student than a brilliant engineer-slash-weapons-developer with megalomaniacal tendencies. Sometimes he's wearing scrubs, which are just a touch too big and make him look smaller than he really is. Work days. Which are practically every day.

Well, at least he can't complain about boredom now.

Comments

[phreak]

In one of the smaller scrap technology stores that specializes in unknown objects that appear through mirrors or the fog, Rex might come across a young woman chatting with the owner about arranging a bit of employment. It seems that provided she can keep her promise of being able to identify just about anything that comes into her hands, she's got the job.

To test it, the owner, Pwe'kek, calls out to Rex and asks him to bring over any three things in the store.

[requiresssacrifice]

Rex eyes the two of them with interest when he comes in-- a brief glance before turning his attention to the hodgepodge of technology (some he recognizes; others are as alien to him as his own technology must be to others) in the shop. He keeps his hands clasped behind his back as his eyes drift up and down the cluttered shelves. Some of the pieces are obviously broken, junk to some, but potential sources of opportunity to Rex. He reaches out to touch one eye-catching device in particular, a mechanical insectoid, vaguely resembling a larger version of his nanomites-- well, if they had wings-- and he can practically hear Iago scolding him already for wasting money on a broken little robot... He is, after all, on a budget, in Iago's words. Rex sees it as more of an allowance, personally. His mouth twists a little as he contemplates whether or not to pick it up.

And then a very real voice causes him to blink and look over his shoulder at the proprietor, who's motioning for him to bring a few devices over. Well, then. He furrows his brow slightly and glances between the xenian and the woman, then nods and picks up the broken mechanical insect. It's light in his hands-- lighter than it appears, actually. He picks up another device, something that looks a bit like a sonic screwdriver, although it's missing some paneling and the exposed insides have clearly been tampered with. Given the number of worlds and universes out there, Rex isn't certain that it's the same sort of device as what he'd encountered on the Barge, or if it's something else entirely. Hell, it could be a fancy lighter for all he knows. His eyes scan the shelves and settle on some kind of novelty... monkey thing.

...

Okay, Rex has to admit that it's baffling. So it'll do. He picks it up and carries them over to the two, arching his brow at the girl.

"Pop quiz?" he asks, his demeanor friendly enough for now.

[phreak]

"If I do well, I get a gold star," Alter says, stretching and cracking her fingers before starting to identify the various items. She seems to be work through a mix of touch, intuition, and a deft hand with a tiny screwdriver. After a moment of fussing and some gently whisper encouragement (or general tech-nerd mumbling) the insect's wings quiver and she nods before putting it aside and starting in on the other two.

"Got it. It's a piece of a hiveminded AI thing, search and recon, you don't wanna meet the rest of the family. The stickthing is weird as hell and won't do a damn bit of good until you've got the right sort of power," she says, looking it over but not entirely sure how to make it do whatever it's been built to do. "And the last one blows hot air."

[requiresssacrifice]

"Well, I'm rooting for you," Rex remarks idly, tilting his head slightly as he watches Alter work. He's not expecting any kind of grand show, but if she can lend some insight into the objects he picked up... (Well, okay, not the monkey. Rex doesn't really care about that one.)

When the mechanical wasp briefly flickers to life, Rex almost takes a step forward to get a better look at it, but he manages to stop himself, settling back on his heels. This is between the proprietor and the woman; he's not really a part of this little demonstration. The corner of his mouth twitches upward when she mentions the tiny robot's family, but he refrains from saying anything.

Hiveminded AI. Well, he knows what he's going to buy now. After staring at it for another beat, he fixes his attention back to Alter and the other two objects.

"Hot air? That's it? Who makes a monkey that blows hot air?"

Novelty nail dryers are a completely foreign concept to him, apparently.