Ellie (_endure_survive) wrote in freedomtownic, @ 2019-03-08 09:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | ellie williams (_endure_survive), katarina (miss_fixit) |
New Friends!
Who: Ellie and Kat
Where: Stark Tower
When: Not long after their network posts here
What: Making a new friend!
Rating: Low
After speaking to Kat on the network, Ellie had arranged to meet her at Stark Tower. She'd been given permission to enter the building (tight security) and made her way upstairs in an express elevator ('Whoa! Still not getting used to this' she muttered to herself, having only been introduced to elevators on her arrival to Galador). After less than thirty seconds she stepped out of the elevator, steps a little wobbly as she walked into what can only be described as a futuristic workshop. Half of the stuff lying around she'd only ever seen in comics!
"Holy crap," she muttered, eyes wide. She shook her head, dazed, and walked around on unsteady feet. This. Was. Amazeballs. She swung her arms as she walked along, eager to touch things but wise not to. "Helllllooooo?" She called out in the vast space. "Olly olly oxen freeeeee?"
"Right here, babe!" Kat called out, talking hilariously like Rocket again (who called everyone "dude", "babe", "kid", or something similar), before walking out from the back of the lab, holding what looked to be some sort of metallic-looking rope. She had a happy pep to her step, and looked adorable in the denim coveralls and oversized work goggles she wore. "Welcome! My dad and his friend are nice enough to let me tinker in here, so... best behavior."
Ellie crossed an 'x' over her heart. "Promise. You don't need to worry about me." Ellie herself was dressed in denim cutoffs, converse sneakers and a tight black tee with a long-sleeved rainbow thermal shirt underneath (more an attempt to cover her bite scar than any attempt to ward off the cold). "I'm Ellie, by the way."
"Katarina. But you can call me Kat." She replied, giving a cheeky grin and holding her hand out. This girl was adorable, Kat couldn't help but notice. "Hey... check this out." She wrapped the rope she carried around her waist like a makeshift belt. "Now... imagine you're walking, and someone attacks you.... you got no weapon, right? Not if you're wearing this belt..." Kat quickly whipped the rope off of her waist, as it stiffened immediately into a long staff. "Now you can whoop some ass."
Ellie shook Kat's hand. It was important to her to remember social niceties like that. When Kat demonstrated her belt/staff, Ellie's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa! You could totally brain someone with that thing!" Ellie had an appreciation for weapons, clearly. "Is it heavy? It looks heavy."
"It's like holding a tin can. Check it out." She tossed it to Ellie, as sure enough, it was lighter than even a plastic, toy staff. "I've been working on this for about a month. I would've had it done sooner, but I took some time off to build a gift for my girlfriend."
Ellie caught the staff easily enough and was amazed by how light it was. She twirled it in her hands, showing proficiency. Joel had been teaching her. Ellie's eyes flicked over to Kat when she mentioned a girlfriend. She'd never really had someone to talk to about relationships before. Not for... Well, best not to think about it. "What did you build for her?"
"Check it." Kat said, an adorably proud tone to her voice, "I made her this really pretty bracelet... that's made of vibranium. Now, that's literally the second toughest metal in existence. Well, I tinkered around and figured out how to infuse it with unstable molecules, to make it malleable. So all she has to do is touch it a certain way, and it morphs into a small shield. Touch it a different way, and it wraps around her fist like a big-ass metal boxing glove."
"Nice!" Ellie replied, impressed. She gave Kat the staff back, lest she continue fiddling with it (she wasn't the kind of person who liked to stand still). "How did you even come up with something like that?" Her own weapons building was very rudimentary by comparison.
"Well, my dad is a big-time inventor and mechanic. And he taught me from the time I was a baby, so... I kinda naturally look at things and immediately wonder how I can make a weapon out of it." Was it a little psycho-sounding? Probably. But as her bullying in school proved, Kat wasn't the best at watching the things that came out of her mouth.
That actually was impressive. "Okay, that's way too cool. My weapons back home were mostly bricks and broken bottles. My favorite was the switchblade." That sentence there said a lot about the world that she'd lived in. She peered at something on a work table nearby, again making sure not to touch. "We didn't exactly have high technology back home."
"You're a survivor." Kat said, sounding both impressed and a bit sympathetic. "My mom and dad were stuck in a world for a while where that was all there was to do. Survive. I'm sorry you had to live like that."
Ellie shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do, right?" She swung her arms as she walked around. God help us if someone ever gives her sugar. She'd practically be bouncing off of the walls. "What else do you like?" She asked, genuinely taking an interest.
"Well... I like rock music, reading, (obviously) building things..." Poor Kat. She had so little in the way of hobbies that she had to really, seriously think about it. "And really, just hanging around with my friends. And now Tori as well."
Ellie shrunk a little at the mention of friends. She hadn't really made any of those. Apart from Bea. But she was at least trying to work on that now. She found herself a seat and was so short that her feet dangled off of the ground. She kicked her feet about. "What's Tori like? Is she super smart like you?"
Having caught that reaction (between Six and Rocket, she learned to read people's body language at a very young age), she grinned and made sure to add. "That includes you now, by the way. We're totally friends, if you wanna be. As for Tori? She's very smart. In different ways from me, which is nice, because we can help each other. And more than anything? She's brave, loyal, protective... she's just everything I could want."
Ellie's face lit up like a damn Christmas tree. "Really? That'd be great!" While she loved Sawyer and Juliet, it was kind of important for Ellie to have friends her own age. Sam was great, Riley too... but they'd died. Almost everyone died. Kat seemed pretty resilient, though, so there was that. "So... what made you think 'this is my person'?"
"You kidding me? I can count on one hand the number of times I felt this happy hanging out with someone right off the bat." She told Ellie with another big grin. "And......... really? I don't even know. I'm sorta ridiculous when I like someone. I get clingy, I get a little.... pushy, that kinda stuff. And I'd just gotten my heart broken by a girl I really fell hard for. Not her fault at ALL... she was honest from the beginning and said she wasn't sure how she felt, but I kept pushing and pushing.... anyway - when I met Tori, I didn't even think anything but friendship. She's so d'ast beautiful, how could she ever notice a girl like me, right? But SHE put the moves on ME. And she was so flarkin' protective of me, and it just touched every part of me in exactly the way I'd always wanted."
"That sounds horribly romantic," Ellie replied, part teasing and part... maybe a little envious. Ever since Riley... well; she hadn't really thought about anyone in that way. Too scared of loving them and losing them. Ellie had a lot of issues, okay? "Okay, okay. So maybe I'm jealous. That actually sounds really nice." Once she let her walls down some she was a sweetie, wasn't she? "Good for you for getting a little happy."
"I see no way in this WORLD that someone isn't gonna fall for you and fast." Kat admitted, laughing. "If I was single I'd be flirting up a storm.with you right now, because you're REALLY cute."
Ellie wrinkled her nose cutely, practically illustrating Kat's point. She was also blushing. Just a little. "Well, gee. Thanks." Being complimented on her looks was such an alien thing to her she sputtered for what to say for a good minute. "I guess I just... need to get out more, maybe?"
"Well, stick with me then." Kat told her, giving a bright smile that showed just how pretty she could be when she wasn't looking sullen or moody. "I'll make sure I get you out a lot. I think we'd have a blast together."
"I think so too," Ellie replied with a beaming grin. "Okay!" She hopped out of her seat again. "You gotta tell me what this thing does..."