Tech Gremlin Initiation

Ivy grumbles, her eyes squinting as she turns the page. A light flickers in the corner of the lounge. The light flashes off of her still cold glaive, attracting her attention. She hoped whatever caused that flicker wasn't important, still tired from training. Her gaze returned back to her reading. But a moment later, it was staring at the door, footsteps pounding outside.

Mel goes racing through the halls of Big Base, skidding to an abrupt stop outside the door of the lounge. Impatiently pushing his messy hair out of his eyes, he barges inside, eyes lighting up as he sees Ivy reading.

"Ivy!" he calls, bouncing up and down on his toes. "Ivy, Ivy, okay--okay, so I was gonna wait for you, 'cause the magic stuff is your whole deal, and whatever, but I've been doing a lot of, um, late night stress engineering, and it was mostly my stuff left anyways, and I'm pretty sure I figured out the rest with your notes and also, like, trial and error, and basically--" he draws in a big breath and beams at her. "It's ready!"

Ivy's eyes go wide as Mel dumps all his thoughts on her. Her face slowly turns into a smile as he gets to the point. She closes her book and stands up, stating, "Let's go check it out then." Folding up her glaive, and stuffing it and the book in her bags, she turns back to Mel. Raising an eyebrow, she cheekily says, "If you're so sure you got it all working, that is," before grabbing her bag and walking towards the door.

"Hey, a little faith, please," Mel says. His protests fall flat considering he's still grinning. "I'm really good at this, remember?"

He's practically vibrating as he leads Ivy back towards the elevator, visibly restraining himself from running ahead. "I left Wingnut on babysitting duty," he says. "So hopefully we don't get back to find the workshop in flames. I don't *think* it should be able to turn itself on and set everything on fire all on its own," he adds hastily. "But, y'know, maybe it's a prodigy. Better safe than sorry, right?"

He jabs the elevator call button, taking a moment while they wait to link up with it. Checking in with it is a habit he's developed; the elevator at Big Base is the only one he knows likes him, and he prefers to keep it that way.

It's a quick ride down to the basement workshop, and Mel darts out of the elevator the moment the doors are wide enough to fit through. Ivy takes a more measured pace, following behind. Sitting on top of his cluttered workbench is Wingnut, who turns her baleful purple gaze on the two of them as they enter. She alights from the bench and settles on Mel's shoulder as he stops beside it and turns to face Ivy, still grinning.

"Tada!" he announces, waving his hands towards the bench. On top, there lays a serpent made of metal—shiny silver segments interlocked with each other to form it. Intricate designs, painted of a dark ink, streak down it, with a nebulous glow to them. The head of the snake lays flat against the table, eyes dark. Two long, sharp fangs show from it's slightly agape mouth, the designs twirling down them towards the point.

Towards the back of it, two larger sections have opened panels, metal canisters filled with the same dark ink from the designs. Slotted in, Ivy's eyes go bright as she clicks the panels shut. She then starts moving it, slowly and intricately examining the ink 'brands' painted on. Finding a gap, she frowns, saying, "Missed a spot," before grabbing the brushes on the table and fixing it.

Mel laughs. "That was a test. Y'know, just making sure you're on top of things," he jokes, eyes sparkling with excitement as he watches her examine the snake.

"This is," she pauses, eyebrows raised as she gives it one last glance, finishing with, "amazing." She turns to Mel with a grin, thinking before saying, "I never would've thought of this." Turning back, she looks into the serpent's eyes, asking, "Shall we, uh, *boot* her up?"

"*Hell* yeah!" he says, bounding over. "She should be able to mostly stay on, so you hopefully won't have to use it much, but the button's here. I figured it should be somewhere protected so villains don't, y'know, try to turn her off or whatever. Wingnut doesn't even have one, but I figured you'd want a way to turn her on that doesn't rely on my powers." He picks up the snake's head while rambling and turns his hand so the jaw falls open and Ivy can see a button set in the roof of its mouth. "You wanna do the honors?"

She steps forward, taking the snake's head from Mel. Reaching towards the button, she pauses for a moment, hesitant. What if she messed up the designs? With how much of her ink is linked to them, the whole workshop could be on fire in moments. She closes her eyes, composing herself. If she messed up the designs, she would just have to halt the magic before it reached them. She's got this, she's got this. Her finger sits on the button for just a moment before she presses it and quickly puts it down.

The eyes light up, a light blue glow emanating from them. The edges of the markings radiate a deep indigo, matching the same glow that grows in Ivy's eyes. Taking a step back, Ivy's arms retreat to her side, her fingers trembling as a sort of life springs forth in front of her. A link forms in her magic, a tendril of her own power snaking out to fuel the ink. Segments shifting, the serpent's head turns and raises. A quick glance at Mel, before staring into Ivy's own eyes.

Mel watches the snake light up with a mix of pride and awe in his eyes. "She's beautiful," he breathes, absently trailing a finger down Wingnut's head.

Wide-eyed, from both fear and excitement, Ivy stammers, "I-It, uhh, there, umm, w-what-", before stopping, her mouth slightly open, trying to form words. She freezes, shooting a quick glance at Mel, silently shouting 'What do I do, what do I do?'.

Mel looks up at Ivy and stifles a laugh at her stammering. He reaches over and elbows her lightly. "Go ahead, say hi. Look at her, she already knows you two are connected. Just pick her up."

Wingnut alights from Mel's shoulder and glides back down to the workbench. She lands beside the snake and looks up at Ivy, head cocked.

Closing her eyes once again, she calms herself, before opening them and looking at the eyes staring back. Slowly, she raises her right arm, reaching her hand forward. The snake doesn't hesitate to move towards it, sliding overtop the hand before wrapping around her arm. Reaching her shoulder, it moves behind the neck before perching the front of her body on the left shoulder. Turning her head, she now looks towards Ivy, inches from her face.

Almost frozen, Ivy watches the movements as her new friend moves closer. Trickling through the magical connection, hints of different emotions reach her mind. Now inches apart, she opens her mouth before closing it, thinking, before bursting out, "Uhh, hi?" A moment passes, the snake turning her head and blinking. A sunny emotion plays through Ivy's magic, a happy response. Turning, the serpent looks down at Wingnut, and then at Mel.

Wingnut tilts her head first one way, then the other, then takes off and settles back on Mel's shoulder. She begins preening his hair, evidently thoroughly content. Mel, meanwhile, starts bouncing on his toes again. "What'd I tell you?" he says. "You'll get along great!"

He cocks his head to the side, eerily reminiscent of Wingnut. "Do you have a name in mind?"

Ivy reaches out a finger, stroking the top of the serpent's head, before they boop her fingertip with their nose. Ivy turns her head, mimicked in short order, before saying, "I was thinking of calling her Missive. You know, like, Cypher and Missive. It makes sense, right?" A warm feeling radiates through Ivy, Missive darting into her hair before moving on top of her head. "Hey, hey, don't mess up the hair," she says lightly, before looking at Mel. "Seems we have two pets tangling with our hair," she jokes, Missive looking forward above Ivy's eyes.

"Hmmm," Mel hums, tapping his chin pretending to think. "Well, it's no 'Wingnut', but…" He breaks out into a smile again, unable to hold it for long. "I like it! It fits you both. Hi, Missive," he says, speaking directly to the snake. "Welcome to Big Team. You've got a great partner to show you the ropes."

He laughs and brushes his hair out of his eyes again, disrupting Wingnut and getting a light, disgruntled peck for his trouble. "You get used to it," he says. "I have to brush my hair way more than I ever used to, but it's worth it, y'know? Even when she's mean to me and trying to take my hand off for sassing her." He winces as Wingnut pecks him again. "See what I mean?" he asks, laughing. "I bet your robot is nicer than mine." He belies his teasing by holding up an arm for Wingnut to hop onto and holding her close to his chest, lightly running his fingers down her head and back, avoiding her myriad sharp edges with the ease of long practice.

Ivy's eyes narrow, thinking, before asking, "Did we wanna try out the flying? The designs looked good for that." Her mind races as she thinks about how much magic—and ink—it requires to keep a metal snake floating in midair.

"Oh! Hell yeah! I wanna see it!" Mel hops up to sit on his workbench, kicking his feet. He gestures imperiously at Ivy with the hand not holding Wingnut. "Do it, do the magic thing."

"Okay," she says, trailing it out. She reaches up and taps Missive, before pressing her fingers down on her. The faint designs on Ivy's own arm light up, magic trailing down her until it reaches Missive. A streak along the top of Missive's head glows purple, cascading down the rest of the ink as magic wraps around her.

With a pulse in the air, Missive's body starts radiating, and soon is more floating than laying on Ivy. Leaping off her head, the rest of her body whipping off Ivy's shoulder, Missive is soon loosely coiled in the air.

Mel claps his hands together, dislodging Wingnut who flutters down to the bench beside him. "Fuck yeah! Look at you go, little dude! It totally works!"

He hops down from the workbench and steps closer, circling Missive to inspect her without touching. "This is so fucking awesome. I can't believe we actually got the magic stuff to work. I mean, obviously I can believe it, because we're both awesome, but *still*! This is so cool!"

He turns to Ivy, grinning. "Dude, you have a magic robot now! Like, for real!" He reaches out lightly nudges her shoulder with his knuckles. "You're officially a tech gremlin now! I mean, you already were, obviously, but now it's *official*."

Ivy laughs, turning her head at the nudge. Watching as Missive slinks through the air, Ivy raises her arm. Returning to her, Missive slithers back up on Ivy's shoulders, clicking her mouth together a couple times. Given a signal, the magic fades, dropping Missive's weight back down, which startles Ivy for a moment.

"Careful with flying too much, only so much ink," she says, rubbing Missive's head with her fingers. Looking back to Mel, raising an eyebrow, she replies, "Since that's the case, I guess I'm forced to join." Her expression softening, she turns and says, "Thank you, for all this." Shyly opening her arms, she offers a hug.

Mel happily throws his arms around her and gives her a tight hug. "Of course!" he says. "Anything. Seriously." He pulls back and gives her a smaller, less manic smile. "I have a very small pool of very specific skills, but if you ever need anything machine related, I'm on it. And for anything else, I'll try my best," he adds with a laugh. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Ivy responds, smiling. Grabbing the few things she left in the workshop, Missive peering from behind her neck, she turns back towards Mel, asking, "Hey, you wanna stop by Philosotea? I've got some time to spare."

Mel glances at his still-cluttered workbenches, then turns his back on it with a grin. "Yeah! That sounds like fun. We can start showing Missive stuff. You should've seen the first time Wingnut saw boba, it was *hilarious*."

He continues chattering on as Wingnut flies to his shoulder and he leads Ivy back into the elevator and up into the base, leaving the darkened, empty workshop behind them.