Enchiladas pollo con chile verde y queso. Arc had absolutely no fragging idea what all that meant, but all she could conclude is that it was fragging delicious as drek. More often than not she had caught herself having been posed a question from either Bettina, Henri, or either of the two girls with a mouthful of the cheesy goodness stuffed in her maw, forcing her to either chew quickly or risk choking. Luckily for her, Jaime was able to step in for a good solid number of the questions, answering for her with a matter of fact smile.
The questions...this family was sure creative with asking them, Tessa not catching any repeats from her first visit. The whole family was very inquisitive about her...asking if her augmentations hurt, if her work sees any strange cases, what kind of schooling she had before getting a job, and so on and so forth. The human was very happy to answer them...as much as she was willing to share, at least.
"Ahh....the eyes don't hurt that much at all anymore. The arm and the rig still itch at the joining points, but Jaime says that's null sweat, and expected."
"Sometimes, yeah, actually. Ever wondered what happens to a dwarf-sized Honda's roof when a troll tries to squeeze in? Lemme tell ya, it ain't pretty..."
"Ah...most of my training was on the job. Always surrounded by engines, so I just sorta picked it up, yknow?"
Arc had to be honest with herself for a lot of those questions, as she wanted to avoid the difficult answers. Yes, while the eyes don't burn anymore since she was given these alphas, the arm definitely still has some pain to it, and the sensations of the neuroreceptors just aren't the same as real touch. A lot of her jobs were for gang-related work, and fixing up after such a thing....Bettina may understand the abundance of such a need in the Barrens, but Tessa wouldn't dare bring that up in front of Henri if she had any say in it...and especially not with little ones that were staring at her with wonder and....adoration?
The schooling one hit home a bit...subconsciously she caught herself biting her lip with that answer, as it made her realize just how little education she probably got compared to Henri. In truth, she didn't doubt that Angelina would surpass her in years of schooling in a couple years or so...a hard fact to swallow, but the mechanic reminded herself of one thing: even without the schooling, she found the skills to cement herself with a modest, legitimate living.
A living that I'm doing aside from running illegal drek for a good cause
She shook herself out of that mindset. No. Not here. Here was Eth, here was family. The job could wait till tomorrow, a point she reminded herself as she was served a second helping, the questions flurrying and her answers coming back almost as fast. Angelina and Maya took the lead with questions this time, asking things like what games she used to play as a kid, if she watches any trid, if she is on the Matrix playing some games ("You gotta try the SpaceFighter Epsilon Squad beta with me sometime, it's super wiz! I'm working on my flying skills, but I could use someone in my gunner seat you could totally do it!"), and things like that kids would ask.
Dinner passed, dessert came and went, and the kids retreated to get a head start on their homework for the weekend, leaving Tessa with her Vrukart, Henri and Bettina with Little J, full and content again, lounging in the living room. The rigger was leaning up against Jaime almost lazily, head plopped on his shoulder as she gave a little, quiet sigh only he could hear, a gentle smile on her face. Bettina, who seemed to be able to read Tessa like some book, gave some nod of recognition and understand to the younger girl as Little J rested on her lap, but it was Henri who eventually broke the silence, bringing back up the modification ideas for her arm.
"Been thinkin' about it some more, Tessa...that servos idea you had to increase the speed and motion might actually work, yeah. But hear me out..what if in addition to putting in servo motivators, we boosted the response rate using some kinda magnetic system? Like those hyper-trains all over Neo-Tokyo. The concept would work with your Mitsuhama arm, I'd think...just lay in a track along the wiring, run some semiconduction current through it, and bam. Electronic response speeds. I can work out the schematics with you sometime?"
Suppressing a yawn, the girl gave a small nod, her grin returning as her curiosity got piqued. "Uwah....that...that could actually work, but I'd imagine the tracks would need to be light...and then there's still the friction issue to deal with...as good as it sounds, I'm hoping we can work out a solution that doesn't involve carrying a can of oil for the arm every day, ya heard?" Winking, she flexed her right arm a bit to make her point, mimicking creaking sounds which caused bouts of laughter, and this time not at the Zzz's printed to her head.
