Dorm Roof, Lunchtime, Friday

[ultron_junior]

Okay. So Victor had managed to tweak his programming and reset some hardware in a way that meant Maglev flight should be a cinch. And the theory had worked perfectly when he'd tested it from the ground; he hadn't gone very high, but he'd zipped around the trees in the preserve with ease (and only a few crashes

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[spin_kick_snap]

From the way Kathy was bundled up, you'd think they were in the middle of a blizzard. They weren't; she'd just made the mistake of checking LA's weather and had wrapped herself in a million layers almost as a form of protest.

Maryland in November was not LA in November. Let's just leave it at that.

"Oh, hey!" she said when she saw Victor on the edge of the roof. "Hi! It's been--err, are you okay?"

Because he was on the edge of the roof and while they weren't skyscraper-high, they were still high enough for someone who wasn't thinking clearly...

[ultron_junior]

Victor jerked a bit in surprise, then steadied himself with his hands before blinking up at Kathy.

"Hi, yeah, I'm fine," he said, not quite understanding the question. "Just trying to figure something out."

Which probably didn't entirely put Kathy's mind to rest.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, not really.

"You want to walk about it?" she said, dropping her hand back to her side. It had come up of its own volition when Victor had started, like she'd expected to be able to snatch him out of thin air if he'd fallen or something. "I mean, I know we don't really know one another, but I'm really good at listening. And if you'd prefer not to talk to me, I'm sure you have lots of other friends who would!"

You were liked, Victor! People were here for you!

[ultron_junior]

"Huh?" Victor stared at her as if she'd suddenly stared speaking Urdu, then pushed himself back from the ledge when he finally put together what she meant. "No, no, no it's not like that. I was just going to check if I could fly."

Victor might have forgotten how to talk to people who hadn't been in Fandom forever.

[spin_kick_snap]

Because, yeah, that also wasn't helping Kathy's state of mind.

"You were...going to check...if you could fly." That was a look she was giving you now, Victor. It was a look that suggested you might have been better off going with her original thought. "Is that something that happens to you sometimes? The ability to fly?"

[ultron_junior]

"Well, no, but I've been tweaking a couple things and the ground test worked, so --"

Victor stopped himself there.

"So I should probably start from the beginning," he said. "Um, hi. I'm ... not exactly human."

(Still weird to say, three years in. He felt human.)

[spin_kick_snap]

"You're not?"

Kathy felt like she should be sitting down for this. Was that okay? If she just sat down? Heavily? Right where she was?

She didn't mean to make a big deal of this, didn't want to make a big deal of this, but it was still pretty hard for her to just blithely accept someone saying they weren't human. Especially if she, well, thought they were.

"Are you like an alien or something?" she asked. And then, trying to make a joke she added feebly, "if you have multiple hearts, I'm so going to be your companion on your space-time adventures."

Wait. Was that rude? If he were an alien, would he think she was making fun of him? Oh god, was she some kind of non-human bigot? She didn't mean to be, really!

[ultron_junior]

"If I get to go on any space-time adventures that don't seem like they're going to suck, I'll take you along," Victor said, blushing a bit at her surprise. "But no, not alien. I really am from L.A.. I'm just -- sort of half-robot."

There really wasn't any way to tell someone who wasn't used to meeting not-humans yet without making it sound like a big deal, and Victor was bracing himself for the questions.

[spin_kick_snap]

And lo, the barrage came.

"You mean like an android?" Kathy asked. "Or, well, a cyborg, really, since you have biological parts. Or--wait, that is what you meant by half, right?"

Was his skin just really awesome synthetic material?

"Are you from the future?" She ducked her head. "Err, I mean for real, not in any kind of setup for a meta-forTerminator joke kind of way. Do you get those a lot? Oh man, that's gotta suck." She paused there, a little out of breath.

[ultron_junior]

"I like android better than cyborg, but yeah, that's about the idea," Victor said. "It's human DNA and nanotechnology. The DNA came from my mom."

He always felt that was important to establish. He ran a hand through his hair, watching her reactions carefully as he continued.

"I'm from now. My world's just ahead on technology in a couple ways -- more geniuses or something. But even there, I'm pretty unique. And I don't get enough meta Terminator jokes to bitch about you making one."

He frowned a bit, feeling like he'd gotten off-track "Anyhow, so, I've never been able to fly, but a couple things in my science class made me realize adjusting things so I could would be pretty easy. And that's how I ended up on the roof."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Android, not cyborg. Good to know." Because even if she thought he was technically a cyborg, she was going to call him what he wanted to be called. Because to do otherwise would make her an ass, and Kathy would feel horrible about being an ass, especially to someone as nice as Victor was.

She wanted to ask him more about how he was made, but she was pretty sure that would also put her firmly in the 'ass' category. She was just going to assume his mom was some kind of awesome scientist who used her own cells to make a kid and leave it at that.

"Well, I really wasn't going to make one," she promised. "I just wasn't sure if maybe you were from the way future, where there were lots of androids or something. That would be pretty cool. As would being able to fly!"

Because that was clearly where he was bringing the conversation around to. "I'd ask how you did it, but I don't know enough about nanotech to understand your answer. Do you mind if I watch and cheer you on when you do instead?"

[Niiiight!]

[ultron_junior]

Victor knew the technical definition of cyborg was closer to what he was; it just sounded like an evil alien to him. Hence android.

"i could use somebody to cheer me on," he nodded. "... And possibly to call Tony Stark if I fail miserably."

Joke. Kind of. He swung his legs over the side of the dorm again and took a deep breath.

[spin_kick_snap]

And she respected his identity choices!

"I can do that!" Kathy nodded. "...Is Tony Stark a student here? I might need his number."

She might be a little worried.

[ultron_junior]

"He graduated in the spring," Victor said, realizing for the first time that might pose a problem. He pulled out his phone and offered itto Kathy. Probably it was better not to try to fly carrying the thing, anyhow.

"Topher Brink might be better. Number's in the phone. Just ... don't let him have too much fun."

He looked down again. Six stories had somehow gotten higher up while he'd been talking.

"Okay. I'm going before I psych myself out."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Topher Brink, no fun, no problem."

She gave Victor a nervous smile and a V for Victory sign.

"You can do it!" she cheered. "Wooo!"

[ultron_junior]

"Right," Victor said, and pushed himself off the ledge, and ...

Did not plunge to death or something like it.

He hung there in the air out of surprise for a moment before remembering the theory behind all of this, and adjusted his arms and legs to push himself forward. It was like floating in water, if you didn't need to breathe.

It was like flying.

He moved slowly for a bit, making sure he had the hang of it, and then zipped off to curve out around the building and out over the school grounds. A faint blue electrical field surrounded him as he flew.