This is definitely… weird. It’s definitely weird, but Dr. Octavius seems casual, receptive to his being here after the first big moment of surprise.
Robbie walks further into the room, setting the bag aside without looking away from her face. It isn’t suspicion– he trusts her, he considers her a friend –but he can’t help trying to get a feel for the room; she didn’t want him here. If he’s overstepping, he’d like to know.
The problem with that is, he’d also really like to know about the ports. He doesn’t want to be shooed away.
‘If you promise to keep it a secret I guess you can watch’ isn’t the dazzling invitation he’s hoping for, but it’s permission regardless. Curiosity has been given the reins against the best wishes of his nerves. He’s about to get annoying. He deserves to, after she took this project on the road without him and made all of these upgrades.
Dr. Octavius is hiding her back– He only got a glimpse of them, which means that Robbie has to ask, “How do the ports attach? Are they under your skin? Is there a plate, or are you only relying on the muscle?”
Wait-wait-wait– There’s a more pressing issue here.
“Are you sure this will even work? No offense, boss, but don’t you think getting four implants on an ‘I hope’ is jumping the gun?”
Maybe she shouldn’t tell him every single bit of information pertaining to how she got here, how she developed the neural interface with which she hoped to control the arms. No, she should keep her cards close to her chest until she can patent them- but, on the other hand, Robbie is just a kid, and she knows him pretty well.
Dr. Octavius thought it over very quickly and decided she could let him in on a few secrets- she’d tell him just enough to answer some of his questions. It was simply too hard to resist the urge to share this innovation.
“They’re primarily subcutaneous, yes, but the attachment is external. They work independently- in case something happened, I wouldn’t want all of them to be damaged just because one is. Especially since they’re attached to my spine.” Olivia gave a little laugh. “Indirectly, of course.”
It’d still hurt like hell if something ripped one of the arms out, but there’d be much less chance of a permanent spinal cord injury. That was a high priority for her, naturally. She really liked having a working nervous system.
“Reasonably,” she answered, bright and cheerful as ever as she readied the arms to attach to the cybernetic ports in her back. “If the outcome was certain it wouldn’t be an experiment.” She knew the tech was sound- she’d already staked her life on that and she’d survived. Everything was set to work like a charm. All that was left was to put it all together. Dr. Octavius’s eyes gleamed behind her glasses. “You ready? It’s time to make history.”