Twilight Talks (IC)

[Aoiroo]

It was official, hell had frozen over. Looking at the piece of paper than the door, the shadowy figure that was Silhouette had actually found her friends hideout on the first try. In fact, she probably got here much quicker than she thought because the sun was only halfway set and she had left her appartment window just as twilight started to take hold. Tapping her chin quietly she comtiplated the likeliness, she had found the place by accident the first time, though she was looking for a completely different warehouse. With Vance available she could just have him track Dragonfly's scent, that one time where she nearly fought Ironclad(nearly being the key word, she really rather doubted it would of led to anything good) that she was able to be led by her to Dragonfly's place as well. Reaching down she absently touched the top of the surprisingly still warm offbrand tuperware tubs which she brought with what was probably the first thing she had cooked that hadn't been previously frozen in a good while before shrugging her shoulders. It was probably just luck, after all she couldn't get the short stick all the time. Reaching up she knocked on the door and glanced up to find the glint of the camera facing her.

[Fox]

Dragonfly blinked, turning away from a shapeless framework nearly as tall as she was to glance at her main monitor and bring the outside camera up. Silhouette? - unexpected - visor, visor, visor - ah

Putting down her tools she grabbed her visor off a nearby shelf and put it on, not really bothering with the rest of the costume as she walked over to answer the door in her t-shirt and overalls. "Silhouette! Come in. Wasn't expecting...mmh. A little cluttered. More than usual, anyway. What did you need?"

[Aoiroo]

She smiled under her mask as she glanced at the girl who had probably been knee-deep in circuitry for the last few hours at least,

"You might of known I was coming if you ever answered your phone."

Walking past, she took a quick glance around the place, it was cluttered with coils of wire, a few spare parts sprayed around the area but nothing too bad.

"Anyway, don't need anything, well at least I don't need you to build anything. By the way, the mask still fantastic, didn't really get to chat about it at the poker night. The police scanning is useful for staying out of there way, I mean I'm okay with cops but it only takes one new guy who's seen too many old movies to think the figure in black's a burgular instead of the person who was convinently there to knock out all the drug dealers."

She started to move past and towards the kitchen where she set down the tupperware,

"Also, I brought chicken marsala, one of three recipes that I have failed to convert to being workable in a microwave."

[Fox]

Dragonfly snorted, closing the door behind the ninja. "Get busy sometimes. Turn my phone off. Better for concentration...don't get many phone calls anyway." telemarketers stop calling when you send back signals that disable their phone lines - word gets around? - very mysterious "Glad the mask works well. Still comfortable? Flexible circuitry...fun project."

[Aoiroo]

Setting the food down on the table she started to seperate the tubs, one had the actual chicken in it, the other had chopped up and fried potatoes to go with it.

"Yeah, it's fine, I wear my original mask under in case it ever get's damaged and starts to overheat. Also, so I don't sweat on it, I don't know whether you made it water proof or not, but not many electronics can hold up to a washing machine and I don't want it to smell like the inside of a gym sock."

Reaching down she carefully removed the mask to removed her mask with the hole cut for the mouth under it and setting it down on the table.

"It maintains it's flexibility pretty well though some shapes are set into the fabric like the bits around the neck it hasn't been a problem at all."

Glancing over, her eyes got a quick scope as she set her focus onto the large piece of machinary that she was probably working on,

"So, flight suite?"

[Fox]

"Sweat? Mmh. No, not a problem." She shook her head, brushing the thought away. "Not strictly water-vulnerable - didn't want you to get electrocuted when it rained. Wouldn't recommend the washing machine, no, harsh motion...but should stand up to gentle cleaning. Can always bring it in if you need it repaired...much easier to fix or replace parts than build."

Dragonfly made her way over to join Silhouette in the kitchen, caught somewhat between her grim amusement that everyone seemed to think she never ate...and the knowledge that she'd skipped two meals today while working. She blinked as Silhouette glanced past her, though, shaken out of her thoughts by the question. "Mmh? Ah. Not...strictly speaking. Still working on flight. Prototype armored suit. Iteration...mmh. Five? Depends on how you count. Won't be the last version...too big, bulky. For testing out engineering ideas."

[Aoiroo]

"Well there have been no problems so far, but I'll be sure to bring it over if it needs repairs."

Glancing around for a few seconds she looked at the kitchen,

Now if I were plates, where would I be?

Her eyes almost went instantly to the oven/stove area. Walking over, she opened a cabinet to search for some proper round eating surfaces.

"Sounds pretty useful, never could wear one of them myself, and not only because of my powers."

After finding her query she made her way back to the counter she had set the tupperware,

"It seems a bit of a liability that some villian is going to set off a large electromagnetic pulse that'll short it out and then I'd be trapped in a hunk of dead metal."

[Fox]

Dragonfly nodded, grimacing a little. "Have thought of that. Has actually happened...just as vulnerable now as I would be in a suit. More, even - unpowered, a suit is still metal. Offers some protection. Current outfit does not. But will at least design it so that I am not immobile from the weight if it loses power...sacrifice some protection for mobility. Always tradeoffs."

She frowned, looking back at the framework. In her mind's eye she pulled it apart, stripping things that wouldn't be in the final version, adding other things that would, filling in design details that didn't belong on a prototype. "Offers advantages. Inherent protection, better identity concealment. More room for special additions, better power sources...protection from environmental factors will be a bonus. Generally prefer not to freeze or suffocate. Might build in some strength multipliers...will see. Fun engineering project, regardless, and I can always return to smaller, individual creations if I dislike it."

[Aoiroo]

Taking off her gloves Sil pulled some plastic forks and started to distribute the food onto two plates.

"Well, the tradeoffs are always there. Girls aren't built to have a lot of meat on us, ideally about a fourth of our body mass is fat, though you wouldn't know it looking at tv where those chicks try to push it down to like maybe fifteen to ten percent, and really it's just not healthy."

Picking up the plates she walked over to the small table and set one down,

"Now, you, I'd say you're probably riding off a natural teenage metabolism combined with the regular excercise of knocking criminals on there butts, so probably about nineteen percent which is pretty normal for a lot of girls. In college I was pushing fifteen percent myself because I was always so busy that I'd end up skipping meals to make time."

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned, leaning against the counter at bit as she dredged up her scant biology knowledge. "Women have a propensity for lower muscle mass, but variance is too high. Widespread average body type breaks down when applied to individuals. Statistics...mmh. Even at a broader but local level. Am statistically about average height, but short compared to most people I meet. Gender may statistically predispose me toward lower muscle mass, but would still be less strong than many, and less strong than most heroes. Skip meals - usually an accident - and don't exercise much beyond fights. Not that concerned by it. Would be nice to be more fit, but would take too much time out of my schedule. Can make up the difference with technology."

[Aoiroo]

"Well genetics do factor in, but not as much as general culture. Beauty is viewed through a scope that thin and rediculously fit is the way to go for caucasion women, while it seems more culturally acceptable for latina and african american women to have more weight in general. The heroic build you specify is set as a standard only because the media likes to idealize heroes since well, no one loves heroes quite like Freedom does and because of this, it does get pretty exaugurated. Though I have to say, there are some pretty freaking hot heroines in Freedom, I mean I've only seen pictures of that Miss Americana, but damn. I sort of think somewhere along the lines that chick probably had some serious work done."

Pulling out a chair she grabbed a plastic knife and fork from the bag and started to cut her chicken,

"As for meal skipping, I'm not really that concerned."

Taking a bite she chewed it for a few seconds,

"I used to take gymnastics, so I've seen up close in personal girls with real problems with eating, you aren't even close. I just sort of thought if I was going to randomly drop in I should bring something. I mean, it's not like I could make something like a pair of coveralls for you to work in, I don't have you measurements."

[Fox]

Dragonfly sampled the food as Silhouette talked, making an appreciative noise but otherwise letting the woman speak. Finally she shook her head, dismissing a thought with the wave of one hand. "Not judging beauty. Said yourself - too subjective. Suspect society isn't as big a factor; likely mostly exercise, deliberate or incidental or power-fueled. Attractive traits - toned body, and so on. Miss Americana is...mmh." The engineer tilted her head, frowning. "Natural, as far as I can tell. Would have to be...beyond excellent work. Depressing thought either way."

She shook her head again, shrugging. "Not really what I meant, though. Physical fitness. Some overlap with beauty, but not my major concern. And, ah, gifts...would prefer not. Very...awkward? Don't mind having company now and again. Food is fine, you can enjoy that too. Clothing...mmh." She shifted a bit. "For special events, maybe. Christmas."

[Aoiroo]

Cutting off a piece of chicken and rubbing it in the sauce she let Dragonfly talk while she took a bite,

"That's another thing that's subjective, to you getting gifts is awkward, to me giving gifts is natural. Than again, I have a large extended family, and younger relatives who love getting gifts. I'd ask about your family, but I suspect that there's no pleasant story behind that question."

Taking the fork she stabbed some potatoe bits and chewed it for a few seconds,

"Now, for something a little less awkward, how are you and Jill doing? You too are pretty cute together and it's nice to know you don't spend all your time working on things like suites of armor or over at the big lab they made. Looked pretty fancy in the press conference pictures, though I don't think I'd ever visit there. I don't want to be caught in some localized camera feed it might ruin the reputation that I might just be an urban legend."

[Fox]

She blushed a little, ducking her head down a bit and using the food as an excuse to recover from the unexpected question. may have to get used to that - mmh - well worth it "We're...good," she said, and she meant it - her normally relatively flat voice had some happy color to it as she talked. "Having to...learn as I go, but...we're good. Enjoying things. At our own pace."

Dragonfly gestured at the chicken, tilting her head. "S'good. Have the recipe?"

[Aoiroo]

She just smiled at the little awkward display, Dragonfly just really cute sometimes, and potientially incredably scary. Though the cute was winning out this time around.Taking another bite with one hand she left the fork hanging in her mouth as she reached down and pulled open one of the velcro pockets. Slipping in a hand she pulled a piece of folded paper and flicked it across the table.

"Got it off line forever ago and I found it in my oven under my costume."

Looking down at the food for a few seconds, she scooted back the chair,

"Bit dry though, where do you keep the soda again?"

[Fox]

"Mmh." Dragonfly reached out to grab the paper, fork hanging out of her mouth, and pointed over toward the refrigerator. "Bottom," she said around her food. "On their side. Bottles." flour - chicken - mushrooms - pepper - Marsala - mmh - don't keep that around - not fond of fortified wine - would have to get a bottle

She blinked, looking up from the paper as something caught up with her. "Found it in your oven, under your costume?"

[Aoiroo]

Walking over to the fridge she opened it up and kneeled down to take a look.

"Well yeah, my oven broke down like a few months after I moved in. So instead of getting it fixed, because I really couldn't afford to, I cleaned it out and use it for storage. Mostly some pots and pans."

Closing the door she had a coke in each hand and headed back to the table putting one of them in front of Dragonfly,

"Almost all my meals made by myself are microwaved and stove based. This I made on the stove, there's instructions for it at the bottom of the page."

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned around her fork, picking up one of the sodas and opening it, glancing over at her own microwave and oven, which probably didn't get as much use as they deserved. "Could fix that for you," she offered, after swallowing her food. "Fairly simple machine. Deny you storage, but...working oven. Would promise not to...improve it," she grudgingly added while trying to shove various schematics out of her head. "Too much. Wouldn't want to frighten whoever had the oven after you. Unfortunate. Pilot lights and electric coils...very versatile."

[Aoiroo]

Sitting down she opened her coke and took a swig before smiling over at the thought of the possible super oven Dragonfly was invisioning.

"Sorry, there is a fundemental flaw in that logic, and that is to fix my oven you would have to visit my appartment, which unlike your warehouse, has a public lease in my real name. Plus you know, I have pictures, and a million other things. I know it sounds rude, but a secret is far easier to keep the less people know."

Taking a bite she chewed it down and said very casually,

"Knowledge like names and faces under a mask gives the knower a certian amount of power over that person, and I really just sort of don't like having that sort of power over others or others having that power over me. Your friend Ironclad made things awkward removing her helmet like that, and..."

She stopped as she heard a little thump, and she glanced back to see the little rolling computer ball buzzing into the counter which made Sil smile.

"Heh, glad to see that's still working. I was sort of worried that it might wander into your testing zone at the wrong time and get torn to shreds."

[Fox]

The corner of Dragonfly's mouth tugged into a ghost of a smile, glancing over at Puppy. "No. Danger avoidance is the most developed part of the AI. Usually avoids anything that could do serious damage. Would feel bad if it got hurt. Testing zone isn't...as haphazard as it looks, anyway. Multiple safeties. Automatically stops tests if it detects anomalies like extra or moving mass."

She shook her head, returning to the topic at hand. "Ironclad...public identity. No power from unmasking that a Google search wouldn't grant. Understand, however. Knowledge is power, power is dangerous. Didn't consider implications of private space... apologies."

[Aoiroo]

Glancing down at the little ball she smiled to before looking up at Dragonfly,

"It's not your fault, you were just trying to be nice, besides it's part of your personality that you do constant troubleshooting. You see a problem, even a small one, you try to fix it in the most practical and effient way possible. It's why all your gear is such high quality, you test and see any and all problems and make sure they're fixed before you move onto anything else."

Reaching down she took another drink,

"That's not really how I operate, if a problem arrises, unless I absolutely have to, I don't really fix it, I just work around it. The oven thing for example, I don't cook in the oven very often to be honest, it takes a while and I live by myself so it's not like I ever need to make a meal big enough to justify a larger cooking space. So, I use it for storage for things like pots and pans which I do use for cooking as well as my costume because, well the inside of the oven is already black, it'd be hard to find if you weren't looking for it, and lets be honest, would you ever look for anything like this, or really anything other than food in an oven?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly raised her eyebrows, but nodded. "True. Wouldn't expect anything in an oven. Might even search for loose floorboards first. Testing is...mmh. Mostly true. Tend to have multiple projects at once, but don't consider them complete until they work as they should. Perfectionist, maybe. Useful quality when bending space. Otherwise...working with or around problems likely works well. Better under time constraints, certainly. Useful, pragmatic solutions, too - oven becomes convenient storage. Clever."

She glanced around her warehouse, pulling a face. "Running out of storage, myself. May end up having to build a store room that's bigger on the inside. Or acquire a second warehouse. Expensive, though. Abandoned or not, warehouses require funds. And renovation."

[Aoiroo]

"Go with the former, I don't want to try and remember the way to two warehouses."

She let out a light laugh before finishing off her chicken. Taking another drink of soda to wash it down she moved to the trash can to toss the plastic fork and knife than moved towards the sink and started to rinse off her dish.

"It sounds alright if you say it, but for everyday life, it makes you both a slob and a procrastinator. Though the advantages of living alone is that no one really cares if your either."

Setting the dish in the sink she sat down at the table and put an elbow up while she sat her chin onto the palm of her hand.

"Now, time for the real reason I'm here, I've got a question for you, and I want you to properly consider it before outright rejecting it."

Taking in a breath,

"This side of town is quite frankly, a s#!t hole. The amount of crime that goes under the radar simply because it's not high profile enough, or that it doesn't effect enough people is attrocious, and while some heroes take pride in protecting 'their' parts of town,"

She sat up for the air quotations,

"There is still far to much for any single hero to handle on their own. So, I want to make a team, that covers the areas that don't get the attention or protection it needs even with the Freedom League and the Interceptors flying around, and I want you to be a part of it."

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned, and opened her mouth to reply...until noting that she'd been asked to properly consider it. So she did, the end of the fork twirling in front of her face as she mulled it over. "....no," she finally said, pulling the fork out of her mouth. "Suspect you came as a...phrase. 'Long shot', anyway. But no...don't really...mmh. Not a 'team' person. Even the Lab isn't...mmh. Either not a team, or a special exception. Depending on perspective."

She shook her head, looking a bit apologetic. "Will help if you ever need help, but only as much as I would or wouldn't help anyone I know and like. No teams. ....sorry."

[Aoiroo]

Taking a second to look over Dragonfly's reaction, she heard the answer shrugged her shoulders and leaned back in her chair.

"Okay,"

She didn't know what had expected, but this was probably pretty close to it. Dragonfly was a fairly private person all and all, a nice person, but there's just something to be said about a teenager who lives by herself in a warehouse in the middle of the worse part of the city who spent a good chunk of her time bending the laws of physics. She didn't really know what would be said about that either, since it was a fairly uncommon scenario, but it didn't scream well developed social behavior or someone who associated with a primary group.

"Was worth a shot, ohh well."

Tilting her chair back she glanced up towards the ceiling,

"I'll need to ask a few more people, but damn, I don't really know that many heroes. I'll ask Creature of course, he'll probably jump at it. He's convinced that since he has powers he has to do something good with them, and I don't really feel like putting any counter logic into that, because it would be a pain fighting him if he went evil. I mean, you haven't seen this, but he can turn into a freaking hydra with little trouble except maybe the fact that he's not so good at not arguing with all those heads."

Letting the chair fall forwards with a thump she looked over,

"I'm thinking of using a name he came up with too, I sort of like it. The Strangers, definitely sounds like the sort of heroes who roam this side of town."