multiversallogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Jay Nagai, Stephanie Brown
What: A date
Where: El Train, then off to work on Stephanie's bike
When: 5 p.m.
Notes: None
Warnings: N/A

The date promised to be interesting, Jay thought. The fact that he'd be working on a motorcycle definitely would help the date go smoothly, since that was something he'd actually know something about, and Stephanie seemed nice when he'd met her. For this reason, he was definitely looking forward to the date when he clocked out, making sure he left on time today instead of getting wrapped up in work and staying over.

He was wearing his usual work attire, which for this particular date would work well since it was made to get messy and work on trains, and would fill all the basic requirements for working on a bike as well. Once he went out into the main part of the train station, Jay began scanning the crowd for a familiar blonde head.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Steph is, surprisingly, a little nervous about the whole date... thing. Even though it's more just friends hanging out together. It's just been a while since she's gone on anything even remotely resembling a date, and it's hard not to get anxious. At least she doesn't have to worry about what she'll wear - there's no point getting dressed up if she's just gonna get dirty again working on the bike - so she's just in jeans, a black t-shirt and a leather jacket.

She gets there a little early, and looks for a spot to wait that'll give her a good vantage point. Which is how she ends up sitting on the shoulder of a statue in the main part of the station.

"Jay! Over here!" She calls out when she spots him, ignoring the other Baedalites that stare at her.

"Hey!" he calls back, waving as he makes his way over to her, so she knows he saw her. When he gets to the statue, he calls up, smiling as he does so, "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you up there. How's the vantage point?"

He had no problem with Stephanie climbing the statue, of course. Someone who was a little odd themselves was less likely to notice how weird Jay could be at times, after all.

"Pretty good," she grins and climbs down, "I didn't wanna spend twenty minutes wandering around looking for you, so I figured going up was the best option."

The edge of nerves she's feeling might be possible for Jay to see, but her smile is genuine and she's relaxing a bit now that they've met up. It'd been silly, but a part of her had been worried about being stood up.

Jay lacked the observation skills to notice the nervous edge to Stephanie's smile. He simply wasn't the sort to notice those subtle sorts of cues in the facial expression and body language of others.

"Makes sense to me. It definitely made it easy to spot you. And which way are we going again?"

If he'd wanted to, he could have memorized where she said she was staying, and he'd have known which train to take to get there, but that would have been a bit creepy. Besides, for all he knew she was keeping the motorcycle bits elsewhere for the time being.

"I was gonna bring a bright yellow sign with your name on it, but I thought that might be overkill," One day Steph will stop making ridiculous jokes, and it'll be the day she's replaced by a pod person.

"I managed to drag it home. I didn't wanna leave it at Tinker's Lot incase someone decided they wanted it." She'd managed to find it after doing a lot of digging through scrap, and wasn't gonna risk losing it, "So we're heading back to my place if that's cool?"

"Yeah, especially considering I know what you look like," he said, smiling so she'd know he wasn't taking her comment seriously. At least, he hoped it conveyed that, although he wasn't really sure. If she was better at reading emotion than him, she'd notice a bit of a nervous edge in him as well.

It made sense that she wouldn't want to leave her motorcycle at Tinker's Lot. Jay was from New York, and while he often worked on things at Tinker's Lot, the idea of leaving a project overnight and expecting it to be there the next day seemed bizarre to him. After all, in New York people would probably steal an air freshner if it was sitting out in the open, so something that potentially had real value wouldn't stand a chance.

"Yeah, that's fine. I wouldn't leave it either. I'm from New York, the idea of leaving anything where someone could take it goes against all my instincts."

"I hope you're not gonna hold the fact I'm from Jersey against me," She's already had one mock argument with Kate, and she doesn't mind that sort of friendly rivalry, but she has met New Yorkers who get seriously snobby about people from Jersey.

She makes a little shall we? gesture and as soon as Jay looks like he'll follow, she starts walking towards the platform that'll get them on a train back to Skulkford.

"Don't worry, I won't." In fact, it wouldn't have even occurred to him, since that was really more of a human and...well, more socially based creature thing to worry about. While he was a human snake and did gain some of the personality traits of a human rather than cobra, disliking someone because they were from a rival region was not one of them.

However, he obviously wasn't going to get into all of that at this moment in time, so he merely went along with her, walking to the platform that the proper train would be stopping at.

"So what is your motorcycle going to run on? Back home the answer wouldn't have many choices, but since we are in Baedal..."

"Good to know, otherwise I'd have to kick your ass," she says it with a grin to show she's joking; ass kicking is reserved for people she is better friends with.

"I'm thinking electricity," she pauses, frowning a bit before adding, "or whatever the hell it is that comes out of the power sockets here, it could be magic for all I know." Seriously, fucking Baedal. But the fridge in her apartment works, and she figures she can charge a battery from the same power source, "Whatever it is, as long as I can put it in a decent battery, then I can use it to power a bike."

Most electric motorbikes aren't very powerful, but Steph figures between herself and Babs, she can make something that goes nice and fast.

He nodded. "Yeah, that would probably work. Maybe we could use lighter weight materials for the body, at least on the parts where we can, so it can go faster even though it's electric. I mean, it's not like there are that many cars around here, so a wreck is less likely."

Because of course, he was also aware that most electric powered things were less powerful than their gasoline powered counterparts, although strides were being made back in his world in that area, in Baedal, he was starting from scratch.

"It is interesting reinventing things from scratch that existed back in our world."

"That's a good idea, I was planning to just use what I can find, but specifically searching for lightweight stuff can't hurt," She won't comment on the wrecks being unlikely, because they totally are. It's her after all, but hopefully she can find a way to avoid dying.

A train comes then, and Steph doesn't respond to the latter part of what Jay said until they've gotten on, "It's definitely interesting, but I have a feeling it's gonna get frustrating sooner rather than later."

Jay followed her onto the train. "Yeah, but I look forward to a challenge. I mean, adjusting to the old fashioned tech was a little bit of a challenge when doing the maintenance and repairs and stuff on the trains, but this will be a little bit more interesting, and have way more of a point than a pigeon trap."

Something...probably only he'd have any use for, since he was the only one who had issues regarding birds.

"Don't ask about the pigeon trap."

"What sort of tech are you working with for the trains?" She's never given it much thought before -- the trains just work and she's more focused on getting from A to B than giving the how much consideration.

She'd totally opened her mouth to ask about the pigeon trap, but she just ives Jay a bit of an odd look instead, "Right, I won't ask about the pigeon trap."

"It's really interesting. There's a mix of tech from different eras all cobbled together into one train, like a lot of steampunky gears and levers and very mechanical stuff running it, but ultimately it uses electricity and runs on a rail like a normal modern train. And then, of course, I'm throwing even more of the mash up type stuff in, since if I have to make and replace a part I do it based on the tech I'm used to."

"Wow," that sounds super complicated, "It must be hell trying to make all that stuff work together. I'm impressed you haven't quit in frustration yet, I probably would have."

Sometimes Steph isn't very good at sticking with things.

"Not really. It's fun having a challenge."

Which if she thought he'd quit with that, it gave him hope that he'd find working with her bike far less frustrating in the long run than she thought. Then the train slowed to a stop.

"Isn't this our stop?"

"There's fun challenges, and there's 'tear your hair out 'cause they're so frustrating' challenges." She likes the fun kind of challenges, especially if they involve something she enjoys, like punching people.

She'd already gotten ready to move when the train was slowing, "Yeah, this is us." Once the doors open, she gets off the train and starts heading in the direction of her apartment.

"Yeah, but I definitely classify the train under fun challenges."

Although to be fair, other challenges that she may enjoy would probably be pull his hair out frustrating for him, like navigating social situations. Or, though he was unaware of this being a hobby of hers, punching people. Jay nodded and followed her off the train.

"I actually find strange machinery far less confusing than people, to be honest."

"Fair enough. At least you're enjoying your work, a lot of people don't," she imagines that's amplified in Baedal, where there must be a limitied number of employment opportunities.

She smiles in response to that, a little amused, "I have friends like that, except it's computers instead of strange machinery, but I think the principle's the same. I can understand it, at least a little. People can be pretty confusing."

Steph gets people on a surface level, but making proper friends is a bit harder. She's aware that some of her personality traits are a little abrasive and that she can be kind of judgemental and choosy about who she makes friends with.

"Yeah. Engineering's a good field to be interested in, though, since almost any place is going to need engineers, so no matter where I end up I'll probably find some work I enjoy. Then again, I'd have said the same for people needing computer skills, but I guess that isn't the case here."

Really, he felt bad for any hackers that might find themselves in a place like this without internet. It was jarring for him, but it had to be far worse for someone whose training and interests lied solely in what they could no longer have. He paused, thinking about what he'd said, though, and imagined if he went back. It wouldn't be bad if it happened right then, but he thought that after a while, it might outright be bad for him if he were to return home, once years had passed. After all, while people may always want engineers, they wouldn't want one who got his degree, then managed to get no references or any jobs since then, at least none he could point to.

"Although I've realized about the job thing...once you're here for like a year, even if you did find a way out, you couldn't really leave, could you? I mean, now there'd be a huge hole in your experience, and while you really were getting more experience and learning more, it wouldn't be anything you could tell anyone about."

"Computers are relatively new," at least in compared to a lot of other things, "Engineering goes back pretty much.... as far as people go back. It's good you've got marketable skills."

She notices that he seems to be planning to say more, so she waits for that as they walk. She has to pay a bit of attention to her surroundings, as well, just to make sure she doesn't get lost, but they're approaching her place.

What he says makes her frown, though, "I don't know... I mean, sure, you'd have to start again in terms of recognizable experience, but you'd still actually have the skills. And I'd rather deal with that, than have to be stuck here without my friends and family."

He nodded, following alongside her. "The hard part about getting a job back in the real world isn't having those skills, though, it's having the ability to convince anyone that you do have those skills when all you have to explain yourself are a cover letter and resume. I don't know, I think losing my career would be worse."

That might be because back home he was too socially awkward to have friends, and he hadn't expected to check back with his family too much after he moved out, anyway.

That gets a sad look from Steph, she can't imagine choosing a career over the people she cares about and it makes her wonder what Jay's situation is like at home if he would.

"My mom would kill me," if she picked a career in Baedal over going home, "I'd just have to start in shitty jobs until I got up the recognized real world experience."

"Really? She'd manage to do that while your in Baedal and she's...I'm guessing in Jersey? Impressive." His tone was teasing, before he continued, more seriously. "I don't think I could stand going back to shitty jobs after working my way up one time around."

"She would. Physics isn't gonna stop her from kicking my ass for disappearing on her," Again. But she won't say that last bit out loud because it's a hard situation to explain.

"I guess I can understand that... But I've worked by up from the bottom plenty of times and it hasn't killed me yet."

"Yeah, it it would be so much effort, so much wasted energy. I definitely wouldn't like it." As they walked, they headed out of the train station, hitting a cool, stiff breeze once they stepped outside. Jay hissed under his breath, pulling his coat tighter. He never did like the cold.

"Maybe that's part of their plan. Get us working to build up experience and skills, so we're reluctant to leave and lose that." She frowns a little at that, wondering if she's just being paranoid.

The cold doesn't bother her that much, running around in Gotham winters in naught but spandex will do that to a girl, but she notices Jay pulling his coat tigther, "We haven't go too far to go and my place is heated."

"Maybe." He nodded in response to the comment that they were close to her place and picked up speed. "I don't take the cold well."

Steph raises an eyebrow, wondering if the susceptibilty to the cold is part of the whole snake, "You should invest in thermals or something, Baedal seems to get pretty cold."

One day she's probably gonna have to confront Jay abou the snake thing.

He nodded, deciding the wait to say anymore until they got inside.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only