that’s about as ‘techie’ as his talk actually gets. mostly it’s–
‘the blue wire connects to the wiggly bit and that shorts out the blasty thing’.
he knows how to fiddle with the parts, had been shown how to do it by a trader passing through the junkyard a while back… and had successfully pulled it off – once – before. only for the little ball of potential murder to fizzle out and die from a critical hardware failure about a week later.
he finally gives to the teasing nudge with a slight wrinkle of his nose - mostly at the memory of the rather intense stench that he’d only just about managed to wash off.
❝ – goo from a heap of decomposing ferals. about the worst kind of goo… unless you count the glowy puddles left after a plasma blast… ❞
setting the plate into place and making a small motion for her to hold it in place, he takes up a little soldering iron, cherry hot at one end, ready to make the last spots on the circuit board and – probably – hope for the best. there is a small pause though, the slight arch of a brow, turning slightly sidelong to glance at his helpful guest –
❝ – primm, huh??? picked up a job from the express myself a while back – ❞
just a shrug. tending not to give away much more detail than that. the fate of couriers one through seven… barring six… hadn’t ended at all well. and he doesn’t exactly need another target on his back. nope. nuhuh.
❝ – okay, hang on to your hat - crunch time. ❞
fingers of the hand not poised with the solder curl around the wooden grip of the hammer, just in case. – there’s a small ‘beep’ then a whirr. the sound of a system reboot crunching through dusty circuits. another rattle as the little ball tries to push up off the ground, gaining a couple of inches - jericho dropping the solder and pushing one hand on top before it makes a sound like a small sigh and thunks back to the dirt.
❝ that’s… not as bad as i was expecting. ❞
“Goo? Fuckin’ cool,” Vera breathed, her grin widening. She’d grown up in the wastes. “Personally, I hate the ash piles left after laser rifles. Like...that’s...a human that was made into literal dust. Like. What the fuck?” She paused, thinking for a moment. “Actually, you know what? Fuck the plasma goo too. Who the fuck back in the old world thought turning other humans into ash and goo was a good idea? Who the fuck cleaned that shit up back then?”
The more upset she got, the more she cursed. Her mom used to ground her for shit stuff like that.
“Yeah! Primm! I fixed up most of that stuff, though. The shit that happened...Ah, you don’t want to hear about that. It’s boring. Either way.” Vera was much the same. Last time she gave away too much info, she got shot in the head.
Vera legitimately held on to her hat. “All right. Go for it, darlin’.” She crossed her ankles and bounced in her seat, smiling. Then, she leaned forward, practically hunching over Jericho, her free hand on his shoulder, squeezing.
“I’m nervous,” she breathed just before he booted up the robot. And then...!
It hovered harmlessly before plopping into the dirt. “Well. At least we’re not dead. Or shot. Or horribly maimed. Or dead. Did I say that already? I’m really glad we’re not dead. Yet.”
