Had he been home, in his own universe, dealing with sticky jetpack wings would have been a piece of cake. Here in Vallo? Well, it was a little harder to just go into his stash of lubricating jetpack fluid.
So, Sam found himself in a shop recommended by a few of the members of this world, with his wings hanging off one arm.
“Hey,” he said, approaching the main desk with a warm smile. “Was wondering if I can get some help looking for something?” At least he hoped he’d be able to find what he was looking for here. While he didn’t have to worry just yet about another Thanos coming through the skies, Sam was pretty protective over his wings, and wanted to keep them in the best shape possible.
Besides, he heard there was plenty of other craziness to come through in this world so best to be ready at all times.
Knowing she'd eventually need to hire someone to work the front office, Brigitte was actually there today, going over plans for the month and reviewing the custom work requests. She was well ahead of schedule, of course, and was proud of what she'd accomplished so far - including remembering to take breaks to eat! Mostly pie, sure, but it counted.
She'd heard someone come in and waved without looking, pencil between her teeth as she stared over her notes, she perked up when she heard his voice. Instead of responding immediately, she just felt a sudden urge and leapt to her feet before rounding the desk. She was barely taller than him, maybe an inch?, so she just looked him right in the eyes with a huge smile as she leaned in for a huge hug followed by, "Mm, you smell nice!"
He had started to at least greet her appropriately when within the next minute, there was a flash of red from her hair and her arms going around him. “Well, that’s some customer service,” he mumbled, a little stunned to do anything else. But after a brief pause, his only free arm not holding the wings went around her shoulder and he squeezed back, slightly.
“I lucked out then, choosing to shower before I went out. Can you, uh, help me with my wings?”
Brigitte held the hug just a little bit longer before stepping back and leaning against the desk to take in what he was carrying. "Looks like carbon fiber? That's good for small arms fire, you must expect a lot of action up in the air! Powered by some type of thruster, I imagine. Hm. Yeah, I can absolutely help you with your wings. What do you need?"
Polite and friendly to a fault (provided you were, in turn, a decent person), Brigitte was happy enough to lend a hand even if she wasn't sure exactly why she jumped up and hugged this guy. Must be a Vallo thing.
Sam placed the wings on her counter carefully, so not to disturb whatever she had on there. The wings themselves could handle a whole lot already. “Army-provided! They expect us to fly into a lot of action in the air.” He didn’t want to specify that he borrowed the wings without a prior heads-up and then… never returned it. It sounded a lot better than I stole it from a secure government facility. Whatever, technically, he had been on the run anyway.
“Getting a little rusty, could use lubricating fluid that you might have for this material. My equipment at home decided not to come through to Vallo just yet.”
"Rusty? What kind of material are they using if it rusts?" answered Brigitte, frowning. "That is definitely something we'll have to improve. And I'll be sure to send you home with some oil for them in the meantime. Do they burn fuel, too? I can see about some microfusion generators to get around that, if needed."
Oh, there was nothing like an engineering challenge to get Brigitte's interest and this jetpack wing contraption was certainly getting her interest. Which reminded her, she still needed to go see Leo's flying machine!
“Not literally rusty,” Sam started, realizing he should probably say words he actually meant, especially considering people from other worlds. Slang would probably end up even more confusing. “Just a little squeak. Gotta be prepared for any craziness that Vallo throws at us, you know. It’s pretty clean energy already.” He tilted her head at her curiously. “Would I have to leave them here with you for some time? I can kinda tell they’d be trustworthy hands.”
"Ah, well that's less of an issue, but leaving them would depend on how much you'd like me to do with them. If you just want some oil, you don't have to leave anything. If you want me to give them any kind of real maintenance or even an overhaul, that could add on a bit of time. Less so if you have any existing blueprints that I can look over, otherwise I could create blueprints based off of some investigative work, but that would take some time, too." Brigitte's gestures and expressions were clearly excited and interested as she spilled all of that out, largely letting her curiosity get the better of her.
Sam found he could hardly mind the string of words coming out of her mouth, and he listened carefully till a strong want overcame him. “Why do I want to hug you so bad right now?” He said, before he actually decided to move in and wrap her in his arms. As he did it, he still blinked in confusion, but gave it a moment or two before he pushed back. “That… that was what you felt too when I came in?”
Brigitte blushed a bit and let her arms drop when he stepped away. "Uhm. I think so? Maybe. I don't mind, though. Hugs are pretty nice. Doesn't get you a discount, though!" she answered, wagging a finger and smirking. "Man kan inte både äta kakan och ha kakan kvar. Ah, that means you can't have your cookie and eat it, too." She leaned back against the counter again and forcibly turned her eyes back to Sam's pack.