Biding her time and Biting her nails [Open!]

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.

Yoshimi has been camping out in Engineering, tentatively fiddling with tools while she waits for someone with Authority to show up, but somehow, nobody has proven helpful.

At all.



It's a simple question, she thinks, one that should have a fairly simple answer -- as in "yes" or "no", but evidently it's so much more complex that everyone that's shown up has to leave her hanging. Or... something.

Okay.

Not the point.

The point is that she fully intends to not stutter at the next person who walks in, because dammit, she want to join Engineering.

Comments

[morphitudinous]

Is it Billy, or is there a somewhat irritated person prowling about the lab today? He watches for just a moment before entering for his shift.

"Hello?" he called out tentatively. It was, after all, unwise to provoke a person with obviously breakable equipment in their vicinity. "Can I help you?"

((I do hope I have this right---if she's not looking for the department but the other thing called Engineering, lemme know and I'll delete.))

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

Yoshimi pauses, one foot in the air, eyes sliding to the side. Unfortunately, the man with the voice isn't on that side of her head, so she has to take a deep breath and put her foot down and turn around slooowly and stare at him and try her best to smile.

"Hi! Hi. Uh... hello, I'm Yoshimi Ito and I've spent all my time in my room since I got here, but now I'm motivated, and I was wondering if I could possibly, uh, work. In here. With, uh... with the other... engineers." She pauses longer, eyes dancing away, shifting her weight between feet.

"I used to build cars and robots based off a, uh, twentieth century mechanics scheme. I was pretty alright at it. I think."

[morphitudinous]

She seems worried. Billy empathizes, knowing quite well how it felt to fear judgment from people you hardly knew. His expression is mostly neutral, shifting into his usual friendly look as she talks.

"Hey," he says with a smile. "I'm Billy Cranston, and I help run the Engineering department. Don't worry, you're in the right place."

Quickly, so as not to prolong her nervousness, he adds: "And of course you can join! We're always in need of more mechanics. I'm from the late twentieth century myself, and while there are others more advanced than us, some skills are applicable hundreds of years later."

Ah, too-trusting Billy. "We definitely have some vehicle and robot work you can join up with. I'll give you a contact list of the other engineers, and when they arrive you can coordinate with them. Do you want me to show you anything right now?"

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

She swallows, opening her mouth before she can think.

"I just meant that what I'm particularly good at is derived from the mechanics of the 1900s. I'm actually from the end of the twenty-first century, and, uh, I guess you could say I'm not too eager to involve myself in that kind of work, but I've dismembered and otherwise incapacitated enough hi-tech to know how nanotechnology and biotechnology works. So... I can do more than just build cars."

Well, that was more than she's spoken to anyone (Dustin aside) in about three years... And now that she's good and blush-stained, his earlier words finally sink in.

"Oh, really? I don't have to, you know, prove myself or something?" She stops, mouth still half-open until her eyes flash a shade of murderous, and she growls something about kicking "that scruffy jackass's scruffy ass into next week".

And then she's looking shifty again, hands only a little bit more clenched than they were before.

"Ah, I don't... I don't know..."

[morphitudinous]

"I see," he nodded. "Then your experience is even more valuable. If you prefer older technology, though, you're welcome to stick to that. Most of our crew focuses on the newer items."

Yoshimi gets a headshake and a confused look. "We might ask about your skills, but there's no proof of skill standard needed to be accepted into the department. Even if you were a beginner in mechanics, we'd accept your help. We run a training program for anyone who's interested."

That shiftiness concerns him, and he might incline his head slightly closer. "Are you all right? Something about this seems to bother you."

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

She nods, musing that it'd be nice to work with dated equipment. She so much more enjoys things that make sense when you look at them.

"Oh. Well. That makes things easy, I guess." He gets an awkward smile from the pink-haired Japanese woman as she relaxes a bit.

Blinking, it takes Yoshimi a second to realize that she'd done something weird, and she shakes her head rapidly. "I'm fine, I'm fine. My, uh, my... well... yeah, I'm just bad with people."

[morphitudinous]

"Don't worry about it," he reassures immediately. "You're definitely not the only one on the ship, and social skills aren't among the job requirements. You'll be fine."

Billy has most definitely been there before.

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

She snorts, rolling her eyes. A certain crazy-haired bastard drifts through her mind as she says, "Don't I know it."

Clearing her throat, she looks at Billy again, looking quite enthusiastic under all those nerves. "So... I can start whenever? Or do I need to, like, talk to more people?"

[morphitudinous]

"You can start whenever you're ready. I'll be leaving notice that you're a department member and authorized to work here, so the others don't become alarmed and attempt to throw you out, but I don't think they'll have a problem with you."

He pauses, thinking about how best to ease her nerves, and asks another question. "Would it help if I worked here for a while while some of the others arrived for their shifts? I could start introducing you to the team if you felt more comfortable that way."

[slainrobots.livejournal.com]

She pauses midway through a genuine grin of gratitude and a nod to consider whether or not she needs that much help socializing. Back in the olden days of sophomore year, she'd been pretty capable of speaking in public, but as her reclusiveness had become more and more necessary, her desire to talk to people, let alone her ability, had faded. Now, though... well, it'd be pretty nice to have someone other than Dustin to talk to, and left to her own devices, she knows that she'd end up sitting in a corner, ignoring everyone and staring stupidly if they tried talking to her.

So, mouth open and ready to instinctively deny the offer, she decides that, no, he's offering--quite nicely, in fact--and wouldn't have done so if he was going to be in any way inconvenienced, and she nods again, looking sheepish, and says, "That'd be great, actually."