Yang Xiao Long (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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genessia2017-10-02 08:01 pm
solar_flare) wrote in genessia2017-10-02 08:01 pm
Entry tags:
Hey Mercury, Can You Give Me a HAND?
WHO: Mercury Black, Yang Xiao Long
WHAT: Yang's hand falls right off, so she gives Mercury a call to learn about properautomail robot prosthetic maintenance. Then they go hunting a deranged serial killer because that's how normal people socialize, right?
WHEN: October 2nd, 2017
WHERE: Nova City
Well shoot.
She'd gone to open the shop door for the old lady, but her hand just sort of popped right off of her wrist socket without warning. Two bystanders gasped. The old lady fainted. A kid started to cry. And Yang's hand just dangled from the door handle, fingers still wrapped around the brass bar.
Yang slumped forward with a heavy sigh. Maybe it was a good thing she'd sought out Mercury just the other day, then, otherwise she'd have to make a severely awkward public announcement to seek out someone who could pop that puppy back on. "Eh heh...sorry about that, I'll just be going now..." She wedged the cold metal fingers loose and stuffed the errant hand into her jacket pocket, self-consciously tugging her right sleeve further down her wrist.
While she was glad she had an expert to turn to for just this sort of emergency, she still wished her arm would have had the decency to wait a little longer. She was still digesting their previous meeting and hadn't really made up her mind yet on how she felt about it. Maybe this was destiny's way of forcing her to hurry up and figure it out. Wrestling her communicator out of her pocket, she fumbled with the controls.
hey yu ined yor assss
Yang squinted at the screen. Texting with her left hand was definitely a no go, she'd have to go for the voice request instead. So after that confusing message popped up on Mercury's screen, it was quickly followed by a call.
"It's Yang. Sooooo remember when we talked about maintenance and all that? I...might need to take you up on that offer sooner than I thought."
WHAT: Yang's hand falls right off, so she gives Mercury a call to learn about proper
WHEN: October 2nd, 2017
WHERE: Nova City
Well shoot.
She'd gone to open the shop door for the old lady, but her hand just sort of popped right off of her wrist socket without warning. Two bystanders gasped. The old lady fainted. A kid started to cry. And Yang's hand just dangled from the door handle, fingers still wrapped around the brass bar.
Yang slumped forward with a heavy sigh. Maybe it was a good thing she'd sought out Mercury just the other day, then, otherwise she'd have to make a severely awkward public announcement to seek out someone who could pop that puppy back on. "Eh heh...sorry about that, I'll just be going now..." She wedged the cold metal fingers loose and stuffed the errant hand into her jacket pocket, self-consciously tugging her right sleeve further down her wrist.
While she was glad she had an expert to turn to for just this sort of emergency, she still wished her arm would have had the decency to wait a little longer. She was still digesting their previous meeting and hadn't really made up her mind yet on how she felt about it. Maybe this was destiny's way of forcing her to hurry up and figure it out. Wrestling her communicator out of her pocket, she fumbled with the controls.
hey yu ined yor assss
Yang squinted at the screen. Texting with her left hand was definitely a no go, she'd have to go for the voice request instead. So after that confusing message popped up on Mercury's screen, it was quickly followed by a call.
"It's Yang. Sooooo remember when we talked about maintenance and all that? I...might need to take you up on that offer sooner than I thought."
no subject
Is the nonchalant reply, his smirk much easier to spot as he focuses on getting back to work. Weird. Hadn't she said it would take her a while to even consider liking him? He's pretty sure he's coaxed a couple grins out of her already. Must be his natural charisma.
Yeah. That's it.
"This here," he remarks, pointing to a mechanism by her wrist with the tip of his screwdriver, "is the spring release that popped your hand off. By default it's pretty easy to trigger, but if a door was the last straw it's probably a bit too sensitive. I'll fix that - my knees have something pretty similar, it's not hard to customize."
He leans forward a bit to look closer as he works, shifting in his seat a bit to get a better angle. Yeah, that brings him closer. Yeah, he doesn't care.
"Em used to use it to pop my legs off in my sleep so I'd wake up without them. Had to install a few plates on my own to make it impossible to do that from the outside."
no subject
What really surprised her was that he told her where the similar function was located on his own prosthetics. Plates or not, that was a weakness. Did he really trust her that much to share such a thing with her? And was she being an idiot for seeing it as a good thing instead of being leery of a second double-cross?
She wasn't really sure.
Her eyes moved to his face, then the top of his head as he moved closer to her. Yang didn't tense up, nor did she blush. She was used to people. It seemed he was too. It was just...kind of curious, she thought, that he could be so comfortable around her after their conversation just a few days ago. She looked back at her hand when he gestured with the screwdriver.
"You guys are pretty tight, aren't you," she remarked, glancing back at Mercury's face. Because the story was weirdly charming, all things considered. It served to remind her that despite everything that had happened, those two were still teenagers. And they still did the same stupid teenage things that Yang and her friends did.
no subject
One, when there was an implied threat, and simply put he's not afraid of her.
Two, when there are implied feelings, and those remain pretty goddamn absent.
One might argue for a third case involving physical attraction, but that's never been a deterrent for him in any way whatsoever regardless.
"She knows me better than anyone, yeah. Vice versa, too." He lifts a finger, as if to stop a question he predicts might be coming. "And no, it's not anything like that. If anything we know each other way too well for that kind of thing to ever work."
Not scared?! I saw the t-shirt!
"Not what I was going to ask, but I appreciate the heads up anyway," she remarked. "I'm guessing other people ask that a lot, though." Honestly she assumed they were a thing, which was why she wasn't going to pursue confirmation.
If only things were like they used to be, she would have perked right up after hearing he was single. Now? Nothing. She was just glad he was fixing her arm and not, like, freezing the middle finger in place to permanently flip off the world.
"I was just gonna ask how long you guys had been working together, that's all." It would give her a frame of reference as to how long Cinder's plans had been put into motion too. She wasn't going to let herself get curious about him.
At least, that was the intention, but things changed...
he averted her wrath! no fear!!
He wasn't sure if Yang knew Emerald was his roommate - though it wasn't exactly a super secret, either, so it didn't matter terribly. He keeps making little adjustments to a few screws in her arm, tightening springs, testing wire tension. An arm and a leg don't look the same on the inside but the similarities in the mechanisms inside are pretty strong. He can handle this.
"About a year or so before we wound up at Beacon. She didn't like me at all on day one. Can't say I made a great first impression."
His tone was casual, flippant, and he figures Yang will assume he's just referring to his usual charming demeanor and sharp tongue. She doesn't need to know Emerald first met him under circumstances of patricide.
"I need to do the other side. Turn your arm over."
He's still on probation, he's not safe yet!
Just how lonely had they been before Cinder found them...?
Yang gave her head a short shake, ridding the thought before it could take root. It was just something to keep in mind and be aware of. Even if she did develop sympathy, she was pretty sure neither of them would want it from Yang.
Obediently she pivoted her arm to press her metal palm against the table, fingers slightly spread apart.
"Have you ever made a good first impression on someone?" she teased with a mischievous grin. Honestly she couldn't imagine anyone who cared less about first impressions, save for her
drunkleuncle.Safe enough, he ain't scurred
For better or worse.
"It happens sometimes." Cinder, for one, had been thrilled at what she discovered. "And technically--" he continues, twirling his screwdriver to point it at Yang's nose, "--you didn't hate my guts at all on day one, if memory serves."
Not that his first impression upon her had been a fully genuine one. But.
YOU WILL BE. Yoouuuu wiiillll beeeeeeee. +_+
Her finger gave the tip of the screwdriver a little push to angle it away from her face.
"Once you said you hated chick flicks, our relationship was pretty much doomed."
At least he left a strong enough impression that she would remember their first conversation after his arrival.
he will surely shiver in his highly weaponized boots
Thaaaaaaaat's our Mercury!
He twirls the screwdriver again to return to the task at hand, nudging two of her fingers a little further apart to adjust a specific coil between them. That's the problem with something as intricate as a hand - if you adjust one thing, you need to adjust a dozen other things or it'll be completely out of whack and fall apart anyway.
"So if this Metal Head guy beat you once, what's your game plan now? Unless you've figured out some flawless tactic to take him down, it's just going to be the same thing again."
no subject
Mention of the bounty hunter was a good way to bring her back down to earth, though, and she sat up a little straighter as her face went serious. "Well, the first thing that came to mind was just hitting him with a truck, but that's not gonna work if he's hiding out where I think he is."
Yang had worked out the type of victim he pursued and the areas he would watch for his prey, enough that she could lure him out by acting as bait. What she hadn't been prepared for was the sheer amount of armor he'd been wearing, or how huge and physically tough he'd prove to be. For someone to withstand Yang's punches, that was pretty rare, especially in Attleton where the locals didn't have things like aura or magic. Apparently punching someone's ultra-hard reinforced steel head over and over made her fist fall off later, who knew?
"If I can get my hands on some fire or ice Dust, though, I think I'll have a better chance of taking him down. Either of those applied to metal armor is going to force him to take it off, or at least make him so uncomfortable that I can get through his defenses."
no subject
"Or a big enough magnet," he offered 'helpfully', lifting his screwdriver from the inside of her hand to set it down on the table. "Hell, why not go for lightning dust and just make a bug zapper out of the guy?"
...
"Does the bounty specify dead or alive? In hindsight, I should have asked that first."
...
"Kidding."
Was he?!
no subject
Sure would be convenient if there was a junkyard close by, though. It would make sense, actually. ...She'd have to pull up a map and check because that was actually a really good idea as long as her arm didn't get caught too.
And the idea of using electricity as a means of stunning the culprit was also pretty clever. For all of Mercury's flaws, he definitely wasn't stupid, and he had a knack for instinctively knowing how to discern an opponent's weakness.
"I guess it didn't really say..." she hedged. But she didn't plan on killing him, especially since that would put her pay at risk. Taking him alive, when wanted dead, was something the authorities could remedy easily enough.
Yang tilted her head, and the smirk spread into a grin. "You sound pretty invested. Did you want to take a crack at him too?"
no subject
He sat up straight, arms folding over his chest as he stretched his neck, rolled his shoulders. Being hunched over like this wasn't exactly ideal posture, after all.
"But I thought your big return to form would be an explosive debut, not a comedy of errors that ended with you literally falling apart."
It remains astonishing that so many people don't like him, really.
"Honestly, I think the embarrassment would literally kill you if you failed so miserably again. As a Guardian, I probably shouldn't let that happen."
no subject
...'As Guardian'? Attleton wasn't even his city. Yang leaned forward, squinting at him suspiciously.
"Are you worried about me?"
The very notion was preposterous, she knew good and well he probably just wanted a piece of the action. But he'd been needling her this whole time, and successfully at that. Maybe she could provoke the same kind of reaction, just once.
1/2
You would think that he wouldn't be ready to go full 120% sass on the girl he'd had a very tense, very uncomfortable talk with last time they were face-to-face, but this is how he copes. This is how he moves forward - his way, at his stomping pace, without looking back so long as he can help it.
"I'm not ready to confess all of these deep feelings I have towards you, so please! Spare me, until my heart is prepared!"
2/2
"Also, I'm bored."
no subject
Seeing as he wasn't messing around with the screwdriver anymore, Yang stood up and flexed her fingers a few times. The joints moved as smooth as silk. She curled her fingers into a fist and took a few whiffs at the air with a series of quick jabs followed by one swift uppercut. Nothing fell off or made alarming grinding noises.
"Hey, good as new! You really do know your stuff." Yang guided her chair back to its proper place and faced him with a grin, settling her hands on her hips. "Well, since you put in all that work to fix up my arm, I guess it makes sense for you to be there to help test it out."
She'd told him before she wasn't sure she'd be comfortable to have him at her back, but Mercury been the one to suggest a truce with the maintenance. This could be an olive branch from her in return, as well as a way to test out his sincerity.
"Split the reward fifty-fifty?"
no subject
But it's too tempting to pass up - he really needs something to do, and some guy in way too much armor sounded like someone he could let loose on, go all-out. There are only so many ways for a guy to relieve the kind of tension that came from too much inaction, and he seriously doubted she was up for the other kind, so bloodletting it is.
"Oh, right." Ahem. "But please don't die, I'd be suuuuuuuper upset."
no subject
She reached for the door and turned the knob. When her hand didn't fall off, she flashed a triumphant
shit-eatinggrin at Mercury before stepping into the hallway. "I'll give you one guess where a serial killer would hide out when he needs access to a lot of molten metal that he can't make with supernatural or magical means."Because that was their biggest clue right there.
[TO BE CONTINUED...]