A grease smeared grin greeted the siblings in the alleyway, a wrench tucked into the tool belt around her waist. She stuck out a hand in greeting, pushing the goggles higher up over her face to get a better look.
Circuit didn't hesitate to reach for it, giving it a firm shake. A human! Those were always neat, weren't they? "Hello! My name is Circuit, a product of Walter Robotics and--oh! Your grip is very strong!"
Coil watched them closely before interrupting with an awkward handshake of her own. She wasn't one to be left out, of course. "I'm Coil. Why have you been hangin' around? Haven't got anyone better ro bother?"
The lady laughed, a surprisingly foreign but not unpleasant sound as she watched them both. She carefully moved her hands into a pattern of shapes and motions neither understood with any significance. What was she...?
"Nat!" She tapped her own chest and laughed again. "Robots? Love!" Her hands moved quickly as she spoke, and both bots watched, entranced.
The both attempted to mimic what she did, and to their surprise she seemed to only pick up enthusiasm. She pressed a business card into their hand, and by the time they looked up from it, she had disappeared.
Natalie Pierce, Mechanic For Hire
They flipped the card to the backside, looking it over like children who'd been given a puzzle without instructions.
Hello! I'm Nat, and this card is to tell you I am profoundly deaf. I'm proficient at lip reading, and am fluent in ASL. This doesn't effect my work as a mechanic, but might make communication more difficult.
"Deaf?" Circuit flipped the card between front and back several times while Coil considered the new information.
"It means she can't hear. Profound is at all." She sat down on the crate that served as her chair, mulling over their options. They'd needed a mechanic, and that kid looked pretty eager. She'd been around a few times before, but never said anything until today.
"Oh. What's ASL then? I can guess what lip reading is, I think." Circuit squatted beside her, placing the business card reverently with their other belongings.
"Sign language--the American version. It's what she was doing with her hands." A plume of smoke belched from her furnace as she leaned back against the wall, crossing one leg over the other. "If we wanna keep her we've gotta learn."
"Let's do it! We'll go find her soon." The pair grinned at one another.
Nat Pierce, eh? Welcome to the team.