hadriel | ✫ 004 [video]

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✫ 004 [video]

[It's been a while since Alphys was on the network just on her own- she doesn't tend to get on video in front of a bunch of people except for emergency situations (like when the Null flooded the city last year). But now the feed starts with her hands pressed over the camera as she arranges her phone, pulling back after a few seconds to show her more in frame. Seems she was still setting up the recording. She's sitting at her desk in the Lab, the chalkboard behind her blank, giving a little wave.]

So uh, h-hey there, Hadriel! This is Alphys. Or well, I'm Alphys. Dr. Alphys, but just Alphys is fine, uh--

[She pulls at some papers on her desk to try and make herself look busy. Why is doing announcements so hard?]

Anyway! So some of you might, uh, know me in that I run the lab here. Kind of. I help run it with a lot of people! But uh, m-my specialty is actually in mechanical engineering, and uh, more specifically robotics. And uh, I've noticed recently there are actually a lot of robots here? All of a sudden?

[She waves her hands in front of her, palms out from her chest.]

Not that it's a bad thing! And I, uh, totally want to help- I've done repairs on plenty of robots here before and I have some, uh, s-spare parts and stuff like that, but... I was wondering if anyone else has experience in, uh, that sort of thing? I used to know a couple of people, but I think, uh... just about everyone's gone home.

[Alphys looks down for just a moment, her head spines wilting, before she perks back up with her trademarked lopsided smile.]

So uh! If anyone knows anything or just wants to lend a hand or is a new robot and needs something just let me know!! I'm down at the lab! So! Yeah! Bye!!!

[And then there's a few more seconds of her grabbing her phone and just kind of squeezing it until the feed cuts. Might've been nice to know where the lab is, but. She tried.]

[ooc: Please feel free to put action prompts in here of characters coming down to see her as well!! Just trying to keep it all in one space.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I know a little about robots. I spent a lot of time in the Cybertronian clinic in the place I was before here.

[She won't say their names yet. It still stings to think too much about them.]

I helped sometimes. With things they needed small hands for. I think I'd like to do something like that again.

Cybertronian?

[That's not a word she knows. Obviously some sort of electronic thing- it's got cyber right there in it- but it's foreign to her.]

I mean, a-anything helps, really-- the more people with any kind of expertise, the better.

They're... aliens? [That word is a little foreign in her mouth - one she'd learned while in the Box, and one of the reasons she isn't openly staring at Alphys.]

Robots, the height of buildings sometimes. They weren't made by people, they-- [Ahh, what's that word...] ... developed that way, on their world.

[She smiles, small but genuine.]

Are you meeting people in the lab now, or only taking names?

[She nods, semi-understanding. She wouldn't consider herself an alien, but that is kind of what happens when people are from all kinds of other worlds.]

Oh, that's-- oh. An entirely cybernetic race?

[Probably thankfully, she gets taken out of her thoughts with the next question, since she could be on this all day with follow-ups.]

I mean, uh, I wasn't planning on like, i-interviews or anything! But I'm, uh, at the lab now if you want to come over.

[She nods. The things she could tell about that race! Including most of their laws and history, given the amount of reading material she'd been able to get her hands on. Natural curiosity had become very useful while she was befriending a group of people who could crush her with a misstep.

Perhaps it's good for Alphys that she's very willing to talk about them.]

I'd like to see what you're doing there. [And if there's anything she recognises. How much she'll have to learn.]

I'll come right now.

[She nods.]

Okay! O-Okay. If you've never been, it's by the Coliseum, uh, in the shops there? By the clinic. Just text me if you get lost.

I will. Thank you.

[She won't, because she's far too proud for that, but as luck would have it she doesn't get lost at all.

At least, that will be the story she sticks to.]

Hello..? [The young woman calls out on her way in, lingering by the door for a moment.]

[Listen, Alphys is gonna be the last person to call her out on it. Regardless, she's there when the other girl arrives, messing with her phone at a desk near the mid-back of the room. Her head perks up as Poison enters, squinting even with her glasses before recognizing her from the network and giving a wave.]

Hey! Welcome! Come in, i-it's okay.

[She hopes down from her chair, coming over to the door to greet her.]

Hey.

[Oh, no, she's actually kind of cute. Poison refrains from saying that she expected Alphys to be taller (Poison being fairly small herself, barely reaching two inches over five feet) and smiles slightly as she walks over.]

Thank you for inviting me. [Polite. Yes.] There's... a lot going on in here.

[Hey look Poison, you got a full foot on her with change. But she'll shuffle over, tail dragging behind, hands clasped in front of her.]

It can be, uh, I know. But this space is used by a lot of p-people? So it's not all for the same purpose. What I mean is, uh, you don't need to know how the whole thing works.

I think I'd like to, eventually. [Poison says with clear conviction, pushing her hands into her pockets and shrugging her slim shoulders. Learning never stops with her, there's always something more to be done.]

But where should I start?

Well, uhm...

[That's a good question. There's a lot around here.]

Maybe I can show you where I work? Since I'm, uhm, here. I can give you like, a tour, or s-something. Kind of.

I'd like that.

[Had Poison not had her experiences in the Box, she would not be here at all. She would have found Hadriel difficult, been closed off and wary. But she grew and learned through her hardships there, and though it could have broken her entirely, she came out a little softer for it.

Her smile is small and reserved, but quite kind as she nods to Alphys.]

I'll follow you.

[She smiles, trying to let go of some of that tension in her shoulders. Thankfully, Poison looks to be as quiet as she is, which is making it easier to handle. Alphys waves her over to her table, currently full of scrap metal, scattered notes, and some precision tools. The computer is also pressed up next to it.]

Well, uhm... this is where I work! I uh, mostly I work on small-scale stuff here, or testing, so I can record my notes on the computer. If I'm examining someone or making a bigger piece, sometimes I'll just work on the ground, h-haha.

[Is that weird? It's probably weird. Oops. She points around the room as she speaks to each workstation in the open room.]

So, uh! Newt is over there, he does biology and studies the monsters here. Kaiba is over that way, and he's really great with technology. Barry's in t-that corner by the door, he does magic and a lot of really amazing testing and Door study. And then there's a kitchen and sideroom back there where people can rest and get away from work and stuff.

[Fairly quiet, until she needs to be loud, and with a tendency towards speaking her mind that may well lead her to clash with some of the people who frequent the labs at some point in the future. For now, though, she is content enough to follow the smaller individual around and privately bow to her expertise of the place.]

... I'd like to speak to Barry, I think. [She muses out loud. Technology appeals to her, but study of the Door appeals to her even more.]

And it's fine that I'm here?

[She nods with a smile.]

Yeah! Yeah, it's f-fine. Really, uhm... we all dabble in a bunch of stuff, and we really just don't have enough people as it is. So anything helps. Uh, I also have a lot of my research on the computer, if you want to read up on, uhm, s-some stuff we figured out already.

I'd like that. Would you show me?

[Computers would have been a mystery to her straight out of the marshes, or from the Hierophant's realm, but years of being around Cybertronians has shown her a thing or two. She thinks she can handle it.]

If you don't mind.

Yeah! Here, uhm-- do you know what a computer is? Or like-- well, I know you talked about k-knowing stuff about robots, but I know this one's kind of weird in comparison to, uhm, laptops and stuff.

[She heads over, assuming Poison is following, turning it on with a dial-up whir and series of beeps.]

Mm, I do. We don't have them at home, but I've learned about them.

[Like she learns about everything that she can possibly get her hands on. She watches the machine with clear interest, standing a foot or so behind Alphys to give her space to work.]

... There's a robot here that I know from before. His name's Starscream. He's Cybertronian. If he asks you for any information about what you're doing here, you should be careful about what you tell him.

[She brings her claws up, tapping her chin.]

Wait, is he the uhm... the r-really big robot? I mean, in comparison to most other people around here, not to me, everyone's kind of big to me, uh-- this is totally off topic, I think I met him? He was in the Lab around when a lot of people came in.

[... Wait. She suddenly looks a bit more nervous.]

Is... he bad?

The pointy one who always looks sort of like he's up to something even when he's not doing anything. [Maybe the second part of that is coloured by her previous experiences of him... but he's definitely pointy. Poison glances down at the small... (what is she, anyway?) person and presses her lips together slightly.]

He's a Decepticon. They're the 'bad guys'. But he's kind of... [She sighs.] I was somewhere else, before here, and he was there too. He doesn't remember. Starscream is... a pleaser. Mostly he wants to please his master. I'm not sure if he's here, too.

[She can't exactly relate- monsters don't tend to have bad guys, but she kind of knows how it feels to be someone who wants to please someone else.But master? That feels a little far.

Still, there's no reason for her to be lying, so Alphys nods.]

Okay. I'll, uhm, b-be careful. Which one is his master...? I can, uh, I can say he's the only really big robot I've seen come through here-- I don't really have, uh, a l-list or anything, but I think I've been in contact with every robot in the city. I think.

[Poison rarely lies outright. She may do so to keep herself safe, or to keep others safe, or if she needs to bluff her way through a situation, but a lie like this? No, she wouldn't. It would make Starscream's life difficult if she wasn't telling the truth, but he could make things more difficult for a lot of people if he got unlimited access to what they were doing here.]

His master's name is Megatron. There are others, too... but I'll let you know if I see any of them. [She smiles at Alphys, faint but with a certain warmth to it.]

Starscream can't really do much harm by himself, I think. Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him.

[She smiles back, certainly charmed and grateful.]

I appreciate it, uhm, r-really. And you know, if there's anything I can do to help, uhm, let me know.

[Alphys notes the name down in her mind, though. Megatron. It even sounds... well, it sure does sound like a robot name, since she has a robot bestie named Mettaton... maybe she should mention that.]

Oh, and uh, if you hear about a robot named Mettaton, t-that's not any of them. He's my friend. That I, uh, built.

[That sure makes it sound sadder than the reality, hm.]

[She nods. So far, she hasn't noticed Starscream making any trouble, and maybe he won't if he has no one at his back and no one pushing him to try to impress them.

Still, she'll be keeping an eye on him.]

You built him? How complex is he?

[A question that a Poison fresh out of the swamp would never have thought to ask, but she knows so much more now.]

✫ 004 [video]

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