Tinkering Around

Quite suddenly, Alva heard a knock on the door, followed by the bellowing of a familiar voice. Derry was back already? Alva looked at his suit in dismay as she felt as though she'd hardly even gotten a chance to make the adjustments she'd wanted to. So far, all she'd done was adjust the helmet's neck area, improve its climate resistance, extra maneuverability around the joints, and maybe two or three other things. She was hardly even ten percent done with all the improvements she'd been hoping to make! Oh, well. Maybe she could keep working on it while he was here? Or he'd just let her work more later. Either way, she stood up and cleared her throat.

"Come in!" she called out as she stood up and set down some of the tools she'd been using. Derry was, to be honest a little bit intimidating to Alva sometimes. Not that she was scared of him or anything, no sir. "You appear to be sweating quite heavily, would you like me to turn on the air conditioning and scent nullification systems?" Ted suddenly asked, and Alva shook her head. "No, go into silent mode!" she hastily commanded. As Ted went quiet, Alva got up and walked over to the door, opening it for her boss.

"You're back sooner than I expected!" she said to him, "I didn't quite finish all the modifications I was planning on, but you should at least find it a little more comfortable to go walking around in." Alva stepped aside to let Derry in, her eyes lingering on his cigarette. She was certainly fighting back an impulse to say that he shouldn't smoke. On the one hand, he was her boss, and also a crime boss, and probably would not appreciate being told what to do. On the other hand, smoking was very bad for you. Alva simply remained silent as she pondered this dilemma. 

TAGS: Derry

Alva, quite frankly, did not really need to hear bout Derry's rash problems. But she did note that that was something easily fixed. All it'd really take was some additional frictionless padding around the... Sensitive areas. That had worked well enough with Ted, at least. Though, she wasn't sure how much she could reasonably fit in there without it being too tight a squeeze for Derry, now that she thought about it. Oh, well, she'd just have to ask him for his body measurements at some point. "Well, I don't know if it looking great is much of a compliment if I haven't changed anything on the exterior," she joked back as Derry assessed her changes.

And he, unfortunately, had noticed her focusing rather heavily on the cigarette he was smoking. "Uh, no, I just forgot you smoke, is all," she replied. Alva would've been concerned about secondhand smoke if it weren't for the fact that Ted had a pretty decent air filtration and oxygen mechanism built into him. It even worked underwater for a little while! Alva wasn't all that willing to test if it worked in space, though. ...Yet. She was also surprised to hear about the new recruit as Derry brought them up - Alva certainly hadn't seen them around yet.

"No, I haven't met them," she replied, "Though hopefully they can pull their weight around here." Alva wasn't the biggest fan of all of her teammates, though she did at least like Derry. Even with his fascination with the color pink, he still somehow managed to be the least eccentric member of the Snakes. Except for Alva. She didn't consider herself all too eccentric, though, then again, she was a teenager who used a mechanical robot to walk around and blow things up. That wasn't exactly typical. "They impress you somehow? I didn't think we were too lacking on manpower or anything."

TAGS: Derry

Derry still found Alva's jokes hilarious, so that was good - even if he was being sarcastic. And as for the cigarette, well, "Yeah, well, I guess I just have a selective memory," she replied with a shrug. Derry had a point, though. Yangcong practically smoked two cigars at once sometimes, he was so addicted. Alva was pretty sure that at this point, the old Saiyan's lungs probably looked like a pair of shriveled up old raisins. Were Saiyans extra tolerant to that sort of thing or something? Alva was pretty confused about how alien biology worked. Humans were certainly quite a bit easier for her to understand, even if they were a lot more... Fragile.

Alva nodded along as Derry explained the interesting story of how he happened upon their latest recruit, though it was also kind of a confusing story. He... Arrested someone? And then coerced them back into joining the Snakes? How exactly did that work? "Uh, are you sure about this?" she asked with a frown. "I mean, you're a pretty good judge of character, but don't you think this person might have some kind of, oh, I don't know, a grudge against you for sending them off to jail? And they're seeing an opportunity to get back at you?"

Derry seemed a bit unusually gung-ho about this new recruit, if Alva was allowed to give her piece. And another Saiyan? One was already enough for Alva, and those guys were pretty notoriously prone to fits of anger and outbursts. "I'm just saying, maybe you ought to keep them on a tight leash for a while. I dunno how trustworthy they are."

TAGS: Derry

Well, whoever this Saiyan was, Alva knew they were probably going to be a handful. If Derry wanted to stick his neck out for them for whatever reason, that was fine, but Alva could only hope he didn't come crying to her or anyone else if that neck ended up getting broken. ...Well, she supposed it wasn't like he could cry even if he wanted to if he had a broken neck. But he was tough, for a human, and Alva had little doubt he'd end up fine. He was crafty - or crazy - enough to get himself out of most situations. 

"I guess you're just one of those people who has a thing for Saiyans, huh? I think I still prefer Herans, personally, when it comes to the warmongering races. But either of them is better than having to deal with an Arcosian. I'm glad it wasn't one of those that you took a fancy to." Alva didn't want to be racist, of course, it was just that she'd quite literally never met an Arcosian that didn't have either a superiority or inferiority complex. It was always one of the two. 

But then, something stuck out to Alva in Derry's spiel. "I'm sorry, did you say their name was Kon?" Alva hoped she had misheard him, but she kind of knew that she hadn't. That was hardly something she felt like delving into right now, though. "Uhh, can't you ask Yangcong to head out with her instead? He is a Saiyan too, after all. I think he'd be the best choice, yep yep!" She had a feeling Derry was too astute not to be suspicious about her sudden tone shift, but hey, she could dream, right? 

TAGS:  Derry

Well, at least Derry agreed with Alva that Arcosians were, generally, a bunch of assholes. Alva had only met a couple in person, and they were real pieces of work. She was glad that not all of them were planet-conquering bastards, though. If they ever all set their sights on taking over Earth, it'd be hard to stop them without there being massive casualties worldwide. Then again, that was pretty much true of any alien race - compared to the galaxy at large, humans were quite frail. It was a good thing they were quite smart, as well. 

And as for Kon... Well, that was its own whole can of worms. Alva remembered her encounters with the girl - if it indeed was the same Kon - back when they were both in elementary school, and they weren't exactly pleasant ones. When it came to her disability, Alva was hardly the most self conscious about it, but Kon had pushed the bullying over their differences to an extreme. They weren't really the sort of memories that Alva particularly enjoyed digging up, to say the least. And she sure as hell didn't want to be working together with Kon on a solo mission right out the gate. But she also didn't want to reveal anything about herself to Derry, so...

"Oh, you know, I just..." What was a valid excuse? "...I just hate those Saiyans. Big, nasty and smelly, with those weird furry tails and all that. And talk about dull-witted, whew!" Okay, apparently feigning racism was going to be her avenue out of this. Alva didn't really have anything against Saiyans, but if it'd get her out of meeting with Kon, she could pretend. "You don't want someone as bigoted as me to go on a solo mission with a Saiyan right off the bat, do you? I'd drive her right away from the Snakes! I just can't keep a lid on it hen I'm alone with one. I'm sure you've heard Yangcong complain about my conduct around him." 

She'd actually acted perfectly pleasant around Yangcong, but she supposed she didn't mind being a little meaner towards him in the future if it'd help sell this more.

TAGS: Derry

Derry was sharp as a tack. Annoyingly so, if Alva could say so herself. This was the one instance in which she'd been hoping that someone had been bad mouthing her behind her back, yet here she was finding out that the other Snakes apparently only had kind things to say about her to Derry. That was nice, in a way, she supposed, but it did make her story, understandably, quite hard to believe. "Well, I haven't been working with him for that long," Alva replied, though Derry's point had been made. If Alva had foreseen Kon joining them, maybe she would've been a little bit meaner to Yangcong. Although, she wasn't sure the old man really deserved that, so... Oh, well.

"...Alright, fine," Alva replied with a sigh. She knew she couldn't wriggle her way out of meeting with the rowdy Saiyan forever, especially given that she was going to be on the team. "And no, I don't know this 'Kon', I just got a bad vibe from how you described them, is all," was her quick and not all that particularly brilliant excuse for her odd behavior about the situation, but she wasn't about to just outright admit how and why she knew Kon. That'd almost make it too easy for someone to link Kon back to her. 

Alva sighed. This was going to make working with the Snakes much harder, wasn't it? She already struggled to balance all this stuff with her schoolwork, and now this. She'd have to cut back on one of the two at some point, and right now, focusing on her grades seemed to be the more preferable option, even if it as the more boring. "Well, I'll uh, fix up the rest of your suit later, if you don't mind," she stated. "I think I need to go and... Recharge."

TAGS: Derry