Routine Maintenance [IC]

[Electra]

Erin took her mug but didn't drink from it, running her free hand through her hair, then using it to rub her face. "Yeah, that's fair," she decided. "I... I like what we've been doing. Really a lot, actually. And I know you're going slow for my sake, and I appreciate that, and I would like to do, um, more, and stuff, but I just... it feels like there's a lot at stake, you know?" She waved a hand helplessly, trying to marshal thoughts that refused to be organized. "I don't want to make a mistake, or hurt you, or feel bad about it later."

[Gizmo]

Trevor clamped down tightly on a guileless grin, covering his mouth with the back of his hand briefly. "...sorry, trying not to look too pleased with myself," he apologized, his face darkening with his soot hued flush. "I don't want you to feel like there's a... schedule or a window here." Looking down into his mug, the young man admitted, "I do... want to. Just so that's clear. But I'm not going anywhere, period."

[Electra]

Erin's brow furrowed at Trevor's unexpected levity. She scooted up to sit on the arm of the chair, tucking her legs underneath her. "It's not that," she protested, then stopped. "Well, that's part of it. It's not always... easy to untangle the present and the future from the past. But I'm serious about the hurting you thing. And not like hurting your feelings, either." She took the spoon from her cocoa and held it up, studied it for a moment, then crumpled it with her fingers as though it were made of paper. When she opened and tilted her hand, a small wadded ball of stainless steel rolled out and thunked onto the floor. "I always have to be mindful, or bad things could happen."

[Gizmo]

Trevor regarded the crumpled silverware soberly, rubbing his free hand across his jawline. "Hhn. Point taken. Hadn't really... hmph." The young man was silent more several moments, his expression thoughtful. "Not sure what I can say. You know your abilities best. But... should know I trust you. Trust your judgment, reflexes. Have saved my life more than once." He considered reaching out for her hand but decided she'd probably backed up to the chair's arm for a reason. "Even if your never... if it's not something you can feel safe about, we'll think of something. We've, well, there are options."

[Electra]

"My control is usually really good," Erin told him, though there was doubt in her voice as they both looked at the crumpled bit of steel. "Even Mr. Archer admits how far I've come in the past year and a half. But at the same time, I don't want to risk it, and I don't know if that's my judgement or my paranoia talking." She ran her hand through her hair again, the firelight picking out the red colors in her now very disordered locks. "I was sort of thinking that maybe you had some kind of invention, but maybe that's just way too bizarre." Erin trailed off, blushing again.

[Gizmo]

Erin's distress bothered Trevor's far more than anything else, spurning him to legitimately consider potential options he likely would not have otherwise. "Invention. Ah... well, maybe? Personal forcefield is pretty simple, but, er. Might defeat the purpose," he qualified with an embarrassed cough. "There's... well, there's one thing. Potentially." The young man rolled one sleeve of his pal blue dress shirt up to his elbow absently, flexing slightly. "One time, Midnight - my grandfather, I mean - was fighting this electrical villain, or it could have been a weather thing, either way. Gramps ended up ionizing a cloud of midnight mist, made it denser, not solid, but... the mist has some weird properties like that." Trevor looked up from his arm to Erin. "My muscle tissue is saturated with mist. I haven't tried... I could, though."

[Electra]

"That might work," Erin said tentatively. She didn't really understand what exactly Trevor was suggesting, but she really hoped it was a good idea. They could really use a good idea or two, even if they were in service of something that still might be a really bad idea. And honestly, anything that could make Trevor tougher would be extremely reassuring to her in all sorts of situations, not just this. Much as she trusted his ability to plan, there was something to be said for being able to take a few punches. "Maybe you could, um, try it?"

[Gizmo]

"I... come on," Trevor told Erin, evidently reaching a decision. Placing his mug down once again and draping the afghan on the chair, he briefly ensured that the fireplace was closed safely before moving to an old grandfather clock in the corner of the room, largely concealed by shadow. Opening up the glass face, he nudged both hands on its face to point directly upward. A moment later, there was a faint click as the section of the floor retracted into the wall, pulling the clock backward and revealing a staircase downward. Offering Erin his hand, he led the way down in the Midnight Manor.

In the expansive cavern below, a number of worktables were covered in what were clearly half completed gadgets and tools. Unbuttoning his shirt, Trevor tossed it on a nearby chair and moved to a boxy apparatus with a number of trailing wires. Each ended in a circular electrode which he began fixing to his torso, spaced out evenly. "Oh, there's a landline built into the console there," he told Erin absently as he began carefully adjusting a range of dials on the main device. "There's a pretty good chance this may induce cardiac arrest or burst a vessel in my brain, so." Without further warning, he flipped a switch, grunting loudly as electrical current coursed into his flesh.

[Electra]

Erin's mouth dropped open when Trevor said the part about stopping his heart, but before she could say anything, he'd flipped the switch and started anyway. "What the hell!" she demanded, half panicky, half-indignant as she scrambled to pull the Young Freedom communicator out of her pocket. "Trevor, stop! Can you hear me?" She could've shattered the machine into a million pieces in a second, but who knew what that would do to him? All she could do was watch and silently panic as her idiot genius of a boyfriend electrocuted himself for her.

[Gizmo]

Doubling over with a tight grimace, Trevor grabbed the corner of the workbench in a death grip, keeping himself upright. "Hrgh, hahn..." For a moment it was difficult to breath as his muscles spasmed in sequence, and he dimly reflected that this perhaps hadn't been quite as good an idea as it had seemed a minute ago. "Hkk, hahh, ha..." Straightening abruptly, Trevor squared his shoulders as air rushed back into his lungs and he felt oddly warm in the cool dimness of the Manor. As Erin watched, the flesh below his pale skin took on a pitch black colour, the same shade he occasionally blushed, spreading out from the electrodes to cover his exposed torso. Within moments, he stood looking down at his hands as he removed the equipment, looking the part of an onyx carving. "Ha. Wow." His lips pulled back reflexively in a humorless grin, exposing white teeth that shone in comparison. "That's something."

[Electra]

In contrast to Trevor, Erin was bone white, her eyes huge as she watched yet another transformation overtake him. When her color came back, it came back all at once, along with her animation. "You idiot!" she shouted at him. "How could you do that? That was so... so stupid! You could've killed yourself just for some half-baked experiment! What was I supposed to do if you died?" Her voice broke at the last, so instead of continuing, she just glared at him, seeming unimpressed by his new patina.

[Gizmo]

Trevor balked at the outburst, placing a newly dark hand on the back oh his neck and wincing. "It wasn't... I'd been kinda toying with the idea for a while, and, ah. It was more like three-quarters baked. " Seeing she clearly wasn't impressed he slumped his shoulders. "Erin, I'm sorry. I just... you almost never ask me for anything, really, and the last time..." Reflexively he looked over to the spot in the Manor where they'd been standing while monitoring the outbreak of zombies month before. "Last time I couldn't do it. So, I just wanted..." The young man trailed off, more than a little embarrassed by his stunt now that he'd taken time to think it through.

[Electra]

Erin pursed her lips and fell silent, following his gaze over to the row of monitors. He obviously remembered as well as she did the last time she'd let her own fear get in the way of his pragmatism. Maybe he just had a much higher tolerance for risk than she did. In any case, the past wasn't anywhere she wanted to dwell right now. She took a deep breath, deliberately schooling her face into calmer lines. "So did it work?" she asked him. "You look... different."

[Gizmo]

"Do look different," Trevor agreed, turning his hands over in front of himself. "Didn't expect that, but I should be able to just expel the mist normally to reverse it. Feels... hmn." He clenched and unclenched his fist experimentally. He didn't feel stronger, per se, but there was a definite change. "Not sure how to test it. Uhm... if you're still upset, this'd probably be a really good opportunity to slap me, I suppose."

[Electra]

Typically Erin was not someone who let her violent impulses control her, at least not when it came to anything living. This time, though, he did ask. In the blink of an eye, she backhanded him across the face, the sound of the smack reverberating in the still air. She'd pulled her slap considerably, just to be on the safe side, but it was still hard enough that it should've knocked him back a ways. The fact that he'd barely rocked back on his heels was a good sign, she hoped. "You okay?"

[Gizmo]

Regaining his balance, Trevor worked his jaw back and forth in his hand. "Heh. Still felt it, but... doesn't really sting." He probed his face a little more carefully with his fingers. "Don't think it's even going to bruise. It... I think it worked. Ha." He couldn't help grinning again, filled with the rush of a successful experiment, an idea pressed into reality despite potential risk. Experimentally he tried pounding his chest a few times, oblivious to how silly he must have looked.

[Electra]

Erin helped out by poking a finger into his toughened chest. "Never, ever, ever do anything like that again, okay?" she implored. "You took a couple of years off my life right there." With the adrenaline surge and its accompanying anger abating, she was finally able to catch her breath and clear her mind. She leaned in and hugged him. "Anyway, I'm glad it worked, and that you didn't hurt yourself."

[Gizmo]

Wrapping his bare arms around Erin tightly, Trevor rested his chin on the top of her head and closed his eyes for a moment. "Sorry, love. Promise." Between her past and her powers, he'd known that his girlfriend tended toward concern about his safety, but on some level he supposed he'd regarded those feelings as needless worrying. He wasn't invincible, he knew, however, and the idea of leaving Erin on her own but the issue in dramatic perspective, sending a chill through him and causing him to hold her just a little closer. "...me too."

[Electra]

It was a probably a sign of Erin's distraction that it took her at least half a minute to remember that Trevor, despite the change in his skin coloration, was still half-naked. The thought didn't make her pull away, but it did make her a lot more aware of the feel of her cheek against his shoulder, her hands on his back. She'd have thought maybe covering himself with the mist would at least make his skin clammy, but he was very warm to the touch. She slid her hands up his back, pulling away just far enough to look up at him. "It's definitely an interesting camouflage look for you," she noted.

[Gizmo]

Trevor looked downward, though his ruby irises, standing out even more now that they were set above dusky onyx cheeks, seemed to focus on Erin more than his own flesh. "Hrm. Didn't expect that, but it makes sense." The touch of her hands sliding up across his back confirmed that the added durability below his skin hadn't affected his sensitivity. "Super saturated tissues... nng, must look strange." The young man's thin lips twisted slightly in a suppressed grimace.

[Electra]

Erin's lips curved. "Little bit," she admitted candidly, "but not bad." She drew back, lay her hand flat against the center of his chest, her skin looking even whiter against the darkness of his. "Still feels the same," she observed. "Shows off the muscle definition pretty well, too." Color was creeping back into her skin now, or at least pink into her cheeks. "You, ah... do you think you'd be able to do this again without electrocuting yourself to do it?"

[Gizmo]

Erin's hand felt cool against Trevor's chest, making him more aware of his heartbeat against it, still accelerated from the shock. "Actually... think so. Take some practice, but know what I'm trying for now." With the electricity ionizing the mist inside him, he could examine the sensation first hand, and was reasonably confident he could recreate it on his own. He blinked twice, his mind feeling a little fuzzy as he tried to keep everything organized in the face of sensory overload. "Shows off...?"

[Electra]

Erin curled her fingers into a loose fist and knocked lightly against one of his pectoral muscles, giving him a crooked smile. "You've been working out," she observed. "The different colors makes, I dunno, the light reflect differently. You look kind of like a museum statue, and it shows off how you've gotten cut this past few months." She shrugged, a little embarrassed to even be talking like that. "Looks good on you."

[Gizmo]

"Oh. Heh," Any resemblance to a carved sculpture was somewhat marred by Trevor's small grin and slightly embarrassed posture. "I, ah... I wasn't sure if you'd noticed. Not that that why I've been working out, but..." The young man's smile broadened and if his skin hadn't already been supersaturated with mist, his cheeks would have likely coloured as he adopted a tone of exaggerated mock bravado. "Good to know, good to know."

[Electra]

"And here I thought that was why you keep taking your shirt off." She chuckled, even as the color on her cheeks grew a bit darker. She ran the tip of one finger up from his chest, over his collarbone and up to his shoulder, wondering who she was going to torture more if she kept doing that. She was definitely playing with fire now, but it was harder than it ought to have been to tell herself to stop. All the reasons that seemed very important when she was alone and thinking clearly now rang much more hollow.