Moving Day

[isthisapidge]

Who| Pidge and Agent Washington
What| Washington, the lab assistant
Where| Science Lab
When| Before Tinker, Tailor, Hero, Spy

All these devices, all this potential, absolutely no way to move any of it.

Yet again, as in so many things, Pidge is far too short. And she doesn't have Hunk around to be her muscle right now. She could maybe bring herself to hope that someday that would be different, but that wish kind of depends on how well her new lab assistant does.

This is part of the deal. She trains with Wash and he helps her with her research. She wants to experiment with her own powers for a bit: boosting, suppressing, adjusting...just seeing what she can do. It's out of her expertise, sure, but it's exciting and challenging and she gets to play with the cool tech toys!

Of course, to play with the cool tech toys, she needs them in her lab space. And the meters can be picked up and carried around. Just not by her. It's a small space too, meaning a LOT of adjustments.

Comments

[isthisapidge]

Fine, fine, she can let it go for now. For now.

"OK...Stand over in the corner, and I'll hook you up."

[unrecovered]

He could not have heard that correctly. "Wait, what?"

[isthisapidge]

"You heard me. I want to make sure I can hook up all the monitors to someone without getting wires tangled or having to play Jenga with these expensive machines!"

The electrodes in her hand are like a bouquet of flowers, except science-y.

[unrecovered]

She's serious. She's absolutely serious.

In that split second, his demeanor changes, any exasperated good humor gone. When he speaks again, his tone is flat with an undercurrent of stone. He's done joking. "Pudge, I'm your lab assistant, not your lab rat. If that's what you're looking for, you can find someone else."

[isthisapidge]

"Wash...It was a joke."

Pidge may be young, but she's already in the big leagues when it comes to non-plussed facial expressions. "I promise, I'm not going to run any experiments on you. Calm down."

[unrecovered]

...well shit, he misjudged that.

There's a moment where he doesn't move, and then the tension drains out of him all at once and he heaves a frustrated sigh, burying his face in his palm. "I've known you for like two weeks and you're better at pushing my buttons than people I've known for years. How do you do that?" He's perplexed - a little frustrated at himself, yes, but mostly perplexed.

[isthisapidge]

"Heh. I think you and my instructors at the Garrison would have something to talk about."

She lowers the electrodes and sighs in relief. She's not sure how she would have handled it if that hadn't defused the atmosphere. "Why don't we take a break and come back to this later?"

[unrecovered]

Wash's first reaction is to wonder if Pidge's instructors drink heavily, because he can definitely see how she'd be a problem child in any form of military setting. It's inappropriate in multiple ways, so he shuts it down and moves on.

"No, we're already here - we might as well finish this." He lets his hand drop and looks at her. "Aside from electrode testing, what else needs to be done?"

[isthisapidge]

Wash has no idea that she joined the army more or less exclusively to steal state secrets, so she's kind of glad he drops it. She doesn't want to have to go into that, it'll give him an aneurysm.

She moves to the machines, examining them this way and that "Hmmm...well, I...I need to hook up my laptop to some of these machines and..."

She sighs. "My arms are too short to reach the hookups in back, so I need you to pull them out so I can plug it in."

[unrecovered]

Wash gives her a long-suffering look - this is the fourth time he's moved this particular machine, he's sure of it - and sets to work pulling the machine out. "What if we just put these on wheels? If the space future even believes in wheels anymore. It might be hover platforms. I don't know."

[isthisapidge]

"Well, I hope it's wheels. I don't want to put anything fragile on something that can run out of power and smash all over the ground." Simple things are normally simple for a reason.

"I didn't see any casters in the supplies." This plug here, that plug there, hook that up and give it time to upload. "But then again, I didn't search it top to bottom."

[unrecovered]

"We can ask where we can get wheels." He leans against a wall, watching Pidge do her thing and noting which plugs go where, just in case it's important later. "Or we can find an office supply store, or cannibalize a desk chair, or something."