milliways_bar | (no subject)

Funny how one little thing can throw a wrench in your plans for the entire day.

Alyx was planning to spend the day canning some her family's share of the harvest so it will last through the winter. It was a daunting task, but with the aid of the Mister Handy unit that Ellen Park gave her as a wedding present, Alyx anticipated getting through the entire process in one day with time to spare.

What she didn't anticipate was the effect that a boiling brine and vinegar solution would have on a Mister Handy unit... particularly when a few gallons of said solution was spilled directly onto its chassis. Needless to say, the entire day was shot to hell after that.

It could have been much, much worse. Robots are fixable; other members of the Vance-Freeman household are considerably less so. Still, anyone who comes upon Alyx and the partially-disassembled butler-bot she's trying to coax back to life should tread very carefully. She is not in a good mood.

[ooc: Open for tags until it falls off the page.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Greetings, Alyx Vance!"

That is Teja, walking up to her table, followed by four cats and a fox cub, all of them sniffing the air curiously.

Alyx responds with an inarticulate grunt, still focused on the bowels of the Mister Handy.

The small grey cat and the fox cub slink closer to Alyx' chair as if to investigate with that thing there is.

"What happened with you droid?" Teja asks.

"A pot of pickling solution 'happened,' all over his chassis," says Alyx wearily. "And now he won't even boot up."

"Then the solution happened inside, also, and shorted something on his boards?" Teja says.

He has a droid himself, and knows what these are made of, by now.

The fox cub stands up by a chair leg and sniffs.

"Something like that, yeah."

The fox cub gets a curious look.

The fox cub looks back at her, curious and friendly.

"Is there any thing I may provide to help? Teja asks. "At least a metal casing that will keep it safe in the future."

"I can handle that myself, thanks," says Alyx. "This is what I get for assuming that someone else's droid was built properly."

"Who built that droid?" Teja asks.

"Someone in Ellen Park's world. She gave him to me as a wedding present." Alyx extracts a vinegar-soaked piece of something-or-other from the droid's innards and lays it on the dropcloth.

"For simply drying things out, there is that substance some people use to soak noxious liquids and wetness that makes things not function," Teja says. "But if the solution damaged the electronics, I would not know how to help."

The fox cub, by now, is sniffing at Alyx' knee.

"Puppy," Teja says to the little creature, "do not bother her -- she is working on something difficult."

The fox cub looks at him innocently.

"Yeahhh, that stuff isn't so great for anything other than water," says Alyx. She gently nudges the fox cub away from anything potentially breakable.

Teja picks up the fox cub, who squirms. "The parts that Alyx Vance works with are very delicate," he explains.

The little grey cat is a little more discreet, staring with great curiosity from a foot or two away.

Alyx is the mother of twin toddlers, she knows a thing or two about keeping small inquisitive creatures away from her work.

"Dammit. I hope these parts are fixable, replacements aren't gonna be easy to come by..."

"You might ask the bar," Teja says. "Which is a cheap solution, I admit, if one wants to build a thing oneself."

Teja even burns his own charcoal for smelting.

"Says the guy who runs his own business out of Milliways," says Alyx. "I don't really have a source of income like that."

"Then you need spare parts from Ellen Park's world," Teja says, "in exchange, maybe, for some of that weapon grade vinegar?"

"It's just regular vinegar, smartass," says Alyx. "You try getting a pot of boiling anything dumped in your lap and see how well you're doing afterward."

"I think I have never been called that," Teja says. "And indeed, I would not wish for it -- I might ask for a clean death and start over."

Alyx makes a noncommittal noise as she tugs a vacuum tube out of its socket. It looks like the contacts are still working...

"Is there anything that I may help you with, or am I distracting you from your work?" Teja asks.

"I think I'm good for now," says Alyx. "But thanks for offering."

"Then I wish you good success with your work," Teja says, nodding his head in farewell, and taking himself and his fox baby away.

The cats follow them, tails waving casually like palm-fronds in a breeze.-