Two Handicapped Able [PV Ashley]

The town of Bellmuse was pretty busy that day, it was summer and lots of people were of vacation or something else. In theory, Jet was also on vacation, seeing as he was in his summer break from school, but he couldn’t really call that a break when Peri considered this as an opportunity to have him work full time at her workshop. She did ask him to do the fun stuff either, he was stuck with doing the inventory, routine maintenance of devices for clients and worst of all, customer service.

It was a thing to talk to people that didn’t know anything about technology when that person was willing to listen to your advices, but for some reason, every one of his customers tended to think that because he was a student, he certainly didn’t know much and would look down on him, not listen or worse, think they know better than him. If that was all, he’d play the game and even have fun with those people, but as an employee, he had to be overly kind to them… Peri had the reputation so everyone listened to her, but Jet couldn’t help but wonder if she would tolerate it if she were in his shoes. Who knows? Well she was his boss and if he wanted to keep his access to her materials and facilities, he had to be a good employee.

His lunch break was up at least so he got out and went to a café across the street. The girl behind the counter knew him so a simple “hey” and she went to prepare his food. As he was waiting, he stood on the terrace and looked around at the busy streets. “God this day sucks, if I get another idiot that thinks we can compress a rocket launcher to fit in his pocket I’m going to strangle him, I’m sure the police will understand my reasons when I explain.”

The food came pretty soon and Jet started eating. At least nothing would make this roast beef with extra cheese taste any bad, even the worst of days. For a second, the black haired guy got blinded. Or well, his sunglasses suddenly went dark to prevent the bright light to hurt his eyes. Looking around for the source of the light, he squinted a lot since his vision was very much impaired on this sunny day. Still, he spotted it. A droid? It wasn’t moving like a droid, it looked like it was searching something. As it got closer, Jet realized it wasn’t walking, it was floating. “How cool!”

Quickly finishing his sandwich, he left the money on the table and jumped over the terrace’s metal fence, this half drank coffee in one hand. He rushed after the floating … thing. It was an obviously intricate technological item, it looked like a droid but it had a very human feel to its admittedly few movements. If that was true, he was really curious about the AI in there. If it was a suit, then he was even more interested, since it was just that cool. Maybe the person inside would let him try it? Yeah, you can dream Jetty-boy.

Catching up to the person/robot, he tapped on the shoulder from behind. “Hello! Don’t be offended for me asking but is this a mechanical suit or are you a droid? Not that either would be bad, both would be pretty cool to be honest, but I’m a bit of a tech geek and I’d love to have a closer look at it. I mean, you’re probably here for a reason and maybe I can help with that but yeah, droid or suit, you just look so damn cool I couldn’t help wanting to see if you’d let me check it up. I’m no newby when it comes to tech stuff don’t worry, I work under the best engineer in town, Peri Scone, at her shop Scones n’ Drones.” Ok he knew he sounded like a kid fanboying there but he didn’t mind, it’s not like there’s a proper protocol for to ask these things.

For a moment, considering how his interlocutor was remaining silent through his whole thing, Jet started to think that it was indeed a droid. In a way, he wasn’t disappointed, cause that meant he might get a look at some pretty neat AI codes. Then, that thought was shattered as she removed her helmet. Well, he certainly wasn’t disappointed, she was a looker. His smile actually grew at that but he didn’t comment on it. Or well not on her looks. “Ooooh, nice, so it is a mechanical suit, that’s really cool. Well, you’ve certainly chosen the best place for what you need. I’m Jet, very nice to meet you Ashley. The shop is right there, let’s get inside so I can take a look.”

Taking the lead, Jet first unlocked the door since Peri was on vacation and locked it back after the brunette entered; he was still technically on lunch break. “Scones?” Jet pointed on the plate of scones on the counter before taking one for himself and taking a bite. “It’s thematic since the owner’s last name is Scone… they’re not bad at least.”

Turning back toward her, he started looking her up and down. Not in a creepy way, but the way a professional tailor would look at a client. Except in this case, the suit in question was a piece of flying technological marvel. Jet could feel the excitement bubbling thinking of all the cool stuff he could have this thing do… if he had free access to it, but it was hers so he’ll have to stick with suggesting it. “So, you mentioned your voice was distorted and that you might need a new microphone. It could also be the fault of the external speakers but considering how good a job you did patching up the exterior I’m assuming you’re not a novice either so you probably know what you’re talking about. For the frame I’ll need you to get out of the suit of course.” Jet wondered for a moment how she would get out. These suits tended to have complex mechanism to keep their structural integrity at the highest level, some of them couldn’t even be put on or removed by one person. Who knows, maybe she automated it within the suit itself? That could be awesome… and a good upgrade to suggest if she didn’t.

Jet shrugged as he ate his own scone, not everyone liked them. He used to find them pretty ordinary but working with a plate of them constantly at arm’s reach they became more and more appealing, so he developed a liking to the pastry. Jet nodded at her assessment for the sound problem. It could also be bad quality parts in general that made her sound so different, people tend to not pay as much attention to less important parts when building something on budget. Why spend hundreds of liens on something insignificant when a cheap part would do the job, allowing the money to be spent on better quality pieces for something much more vital? Well, they’d find out when they checked it out, microphone or speakers, maybe even both.

At her request for a chair with wheels and a pole, Jet raised an eyebrow. That was a strange request but hey, she’s the customer. “Eh… sure? Hold on we probably have something like that…” Going in the back of the store, he spotted Peri’s office, which was locked. Shrugging, Jet used his semblance to unlock it; it was a regular metal key lock so it was easy for him. Inside, he picked up her chair, the kind you see in fancy offices with lots of padding and, as requested, wheels. The pole was as easy as reaching to the side and grab the first long and thin object he saw which just so happened to be a meter long barreled rifle – unloaded of course. “Will the barrel for that do? I don’t know what it’s for but I probably have a broom somewhere in the workshop behind if the rifle won’t do, I could go search for it.”

Jet had intended to actually remove the barrel itself but if the whole gun was good enough then it was fine. He observed with no lack of interest the mech suit lower down to the ground fluidly, wondering for now what was the propulsion engine used for it. He doubted it was an actual combustible, it would run out too fast to make floating around constantly to be viable, so most probably some sort of renewable energy?

The Tech major student couldn’t ponder more as the suit opened in the back and the girl came out. Jet would have loved to say the first thing he thought was how she didn’t seem to be able to use her legs, but unfortunately, the skin tight bodysuit over a most definitely appealing female body was what caught his eye first… It was the color… yeaaaah, the color always catches the eye fast… That being said, he still noticed her physical condition. He was actually about to go help her out when she sat on the chair with the ease of someone who had repeated this move often, which she probably had. The rifle’s use became evident at that point and Jet couldn’t help the chuckle at the sight of the pretty girl in his boss’ chair using a modified S338 Long Nose to push herself around. He’d take a picture if he didn’t think it would be improper. “Well, this is certainly a more peaceful use that what it was intended for. Glad it works.”

Once he got the go ahead from Ashley, Jet started looking inside the suit. It looked like it was made to be comfortable for long uses, considering her condition it was understandable. Placing a hand on the mech, he let his aura seep through every crack and metal pieces, getting a rough idea of the structure. As she said, the frame itself was damaged. Focusing on specific parts, he could tell most of the articulations had dents preventing full mobility. Left leg has to be replaced completely, it was twisted beyond conventional repair and Jet would say Ash’s leg being in it probably prevented it from getting completely bent out of shape. Torso region seemed the least bad, some regions with sizeable dents that would make it far less comfortable for the pilot. Removing his hand, Jet turned to the girl. “Well, joints will need some work, left leg can’t be salvaged, but other than that it’s mostly superficial dents that can be worked back in shape easily enough with the equipment. Some electronics might need replacement too but I didn’t see anything bad. Oh! Yeah, my semblance is metal manipulation, but I can also detect metal with my aura with quite a bit of precision, pretty useful to diagnose stuff without actually opening it. In this case though, we do need to dismantle it.” Jet, aided by his semblance, got the suit on a work table and used his semblance to detach pieces, setting them neatly beside their respective position so it was easy to tell where anything went. “Let’s remove the plating and expose the frame. I don’t mind doing everything but if you’re anything like me, waiting and doing nothing would probably bore you, so feel free to use the tools around you, there’s pretty much anything you would need. I’ll start working on the left leg the moment it’s freed since it will need the most work.”

(OOC : So I took some liberties in what would be damaged and how. If you want me to change anything tell me, and if you want to add more stuff you can mention it in your post or something :P We can also timeskip to after most or all the work is done ^^ Up to you!)

Jet had just freed the whole left leg as she finished voicing her answer to his invitation, electing to let him do the work. He didn’t mind doing the work, it’s never boring when it’s on something interesting. “Suit yourself. Feel free to browse if you get bored, this could take a while.”

The engineer assistant took a look at the leg, trying to see if some parts could be salvageable. It wasn’t really. Bending it back in shape would weaken the metal. Some parts were actually thorn and broken off so really, it would be easier to just cut a new piece. Thankfully, they had the machinery for that right here. Taking measures was quick, working off of the other mostly intact leg, and entering those measures in the computer wasn’t much longer either. The computer guided laser cutter would carve out the pieces itself now, letting Jet work on the rest of the mech suit.

“So… You mentioned a hunt so I feel safe to assume you’re a student at Syne. I haven’t seen you around yet, so you must be relatively new? I feel I would remember you if I had crossed your path. You kind of stand out a bit.” As he talked, the right arm’s plating came of remotely, Jet not even needing hand movements or anything to guide it, collecting a few tools at the nearby desk instead. It spoke volume about his level of control over his semblance, though in a fight or stressful situation he wouldn’t be able to do it that easily. He looked up at the girl with a smile, trying to show he was genuinely curious not just talking to talk, but he didn’t stop working, starting to work on the kinks and small deformations of the frame pieces of the arm. It was mostly forcing the metal back in shape, sometimes applying heat to make the metal more malleable but not too much, he doesn’t want to weaken it in anyway.