logah | Tutoring Sollux @ The Corner Cafe (open to Nepeta and Kanaya)

Dirk had arrived at the cafe early and settled in at his regular table. He had a bunch of tools and supplies scattered over the table, as well as a cup of coffee, and another box of things on the floor next to him. He was seriously behind on his commissions, both for his robots and smuppets, and he was using this extra bit of time to catch up. (Why the hell someone wanted a custom smuppet made of vinyl was beyond him, but he didn't question his customers. Vinyl was a bitch to sew, though, and he was considering taking it off the list of available materials. He'd already pricked his fingers one too many times.)

He also had Jane's birthday gift to finish, and he didn't want that to be a rush job. Most of the physical body was done, at least, he just needed to fine tune some of the coding. (He wasn't going to let Jane end up with another abomination like Lil' Hal.)

He dropped the finished smuppet in the box on the floor, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes under his shades. Maybe not sleeping was finally starting to catch up with him... He downed the rest of his coffee. No time for a break. He needed to finish at least one more order before Sollux arrived for his tutoring.

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Dirk watched silently while Sollux pulled out the device and demonstrated what was wrong with it. That was some weird fucking glitch it had going on, but it was probably just a loose wire or connection somewhere.

He told Sollux as much as he took the device. "Should be a pretty easy fix, dude."

He popped open the back panel of the device and poked around inside a little, shoving the wires out of the way with nimble, calloused fingers. After a few minutes of digging, he still couldn't find anything that had come loose or was wrongly connected, so he snapped the panel back into place and strapped the device to his own wrist.

The device powered up quickly like it had for Sollux, but this time the reading came up normal, showing a green light and and the line that represented his steady heartbeat. That... didn't really make sense. But maybe he'd bumped the loose connection while he'd been digging.

He shrugged and held his wrist out to Sollux to show him the screen. "It looks alright to me."

"The fuck," Sollux said. He disconnected the device from Dirk's skin, careful not to touch him more than necessary, and then snapped it on his own.

Nope, still flipping out. He pushed his hand forward to show Dirk, then thought for a second.

Okay, was it really messed up, or was it just messing up for himself in particular? They needed more test subjects. But, it wasn't like he could just walk up to the cashiers and ask them whether they could strap a strange device to their wrist. Like... he had enough money to leave a huge tip in the jar if they did, but adding bribery to the mix would just make it more suspicious.

"Here," he said, dropping the bracelet back in Dirk's hand. "Would you put it on again? Without messing with it first. I want to see if it just doesn't like me or something."

Dirk's brow furrowed as he looked down at the device, still freaking out as soon as Sollux put it on. That was... interesting.

He obligingly took the device back and once again strapped it to his wrist. Same as before, it lit up and correctly displayed his heart beat.

"You got something on you that could be messing it up? Some of that magnetic shit people think helps with their balance? Or a pace maker or something, dude?"

"Um," Sollux said, and thought for a second. He shook his head, coming up empty. "No, nothing."

He reached out and touched just a fingertip to the side of the bracelet. It went haywire again. He pulled his finger back. Normal.

"Uh."

Okay, so... Sollux groaned in frustration, took off his 3D glasses and wiped them clean on his skirt, as if it was all just a trick of smudged plastic.

"Well it... works. Mostly."

Huh. It reacted that way every time Sollux touched it, even if someone else was wearing it? That was interesting.

"You've gotta have some sort of electrical interference on you, dude." He explained as he removed the device from his wrist. "You have a problem with static a lot? Shocking yourself or anyone else?"

"Um," Sollux said, slowly turning red as he realized what was wrong.

It was his stupid telekinesis and eye powers. It had to be. He regarded Dirk, not sure how to explain what he'd just figured out or if he really should. Dirk seemed like a cool guy, yeah, but Sollux was realizing for the first time that superheroes kept their powers secret. 'Cuz people would like turn you into the government to be tested and stuff.

Or, worse, to Crocker Corp. Sollux shuddered. If they found out that he could do like, magic (okay maybe that wasn't the word but it was the best he had), then they'd stop vetting him just for his tech abilities. He was pretty sure that if they knew he could do this, they'd just flat out kidnap him, contract with his brother be damned. The entire corporation was shady as fuck.

"Uh," Sollux said, scrambling for an answer. Dirk was just sitting there impassively, cool as a cucumber. Oh God, that was such a nerdy thing to think. He hoped Dirk couldn't tell on his face that he just thought something that lame. He probably could. Jesus.

"Yes! Definitely. I shock things. And people. And -" Sollux cut himself off before he could say 'furries' or 'demon children'. "Yeah, that's probably it. Definitely it. I just hold a lot of static electricity.

"My sister, Torple, calls me the Sock Shocker. Because I can't walk across the carpet with socks on without zapping someone. Heh." Sollux laughed nervously, and stomped on his own foot as punishment for bringing up Torple.

Christ.

Dirk watched impassively from behind his shades. Sollux was clearly having some sort of internal conflict, but he didn't have the time or energy to devote to figuring out what was going on. One thing was sure, though. Sollux was an even worse liar than Jane.

"Sure." He replied simply.

They were practically strangers, so it made some sense that Sollux would lie to him. But still, he wondered. Did Sollux have something to hide? Or was he just nervous around new people?

He'd look into it later, maybe. Right now, he had more work to do.

"You could put an insulator on the device for when you're wearing it. Might help with your static problem and give you a more accurate reading. Probably mess with anyone else's reading, though."

He started to gather up his supplies, dumping them into the box at his feet.

"Are we done here? I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't have much time."

Sollux jumped a little, feeling guilty for taking up Dirk's time. He'd seen a list of the orders history while he was fucking with his site - he had a lot to do. And Sol had just taken up his time for a problem that neither of them could do anything to fix.

"Yeah, shit, sorry," Sollux said, ducking his head and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. He got to his feet, stumbling a little bit over his backpack when he forgot it was there. He shoved the bracelet into his backpack. "I'll just turn it in as is, it will work on the professor and that's what matters."

Sollux held out his hand awkwardly to Dirk, realizing a half beat too late that Dirk's hands were busy doing other things. Shit. He didn't pull back though, figuring that an aborted gesture would be even more awkward.

"If um... you ever need help with some coding," Sollux said, hand starting to waver from being extended too long, wanting to offer something in trade even though this whole thing had started as Dirk trading to him. "I'd be willing to do it. My classes aren't that time consuming."

Edited 2016-04-07 16:26 (UTC)

Dirk's hands stilled on the table, and he lifted his head to eye the hand Sollux was offering. After a moment, he wiped his hands off on his jeans and stood to shake Sollux's hand. He noticed he didn't get shocked when they touched, further confirming that Sollux had been lying to him. Interesting.

"No problem, dude." He answered, shrugging. "It'd be pretty sweet if you could keep Lil' Hal off my site, but I won't get my hopes up. That little fucker is crafty."

"Yeah, I'll do my best," Sollux said, pumping Dirk's hand vigorously and then regretting it. At least he hadn't spilled anything, or thrown up. His track record was improving. "He'll probably crack through continuously, so it'll be a challenge."

Sollux grinned thinking about it, and pulled his hand back. "It was really cool to meet you, dude. Tell Hal I said hi."

Clutching his backpack to his chest, Sollux skedaddled before he could do anything else weird.

He wasn't quite sure he had gotten away with his lies, and as soon as he got home he was going to vent on tumblr about it. About everything. But mostly the powers thing.

It wasn't like he had any powers anyways.

Tutoring Sollux @ The Corner Cafe (open to Nepeta and Kanaya)

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