revivalproject | And in the morning?

Entry tags:

And in the morning?

WHO: Bucky and York
WHERE: The Diner
WHAT: Looking over an arm for maybe repairing
WHEN: Morning of April 12th
WARNINGS: N/A

After the fiasco of yesterday, York knew a lot more people than he really wanted to. He supposed it was inevitable, with the small community of people here. At least it wasn't all humans. But one he talked to yesterday… a metal arm. Robotic. Something like what he was. Prosthetic was what the man, Bucky, had called it. A text conversation had led to setting a meeting in the diner - a place York hadn't been to. He slipped in early, moving through the city before the sun was up. Usually he'd decline anything like this with a human, but the android was too intrigued. He wanted to know about this arm.

He was seated in a booth, with his eyes closed and his hoodie casting shadow over his face. The android looked like a sleeping human. There’s a kit on the table next to him with a one word, JERICHO, written in bold letterings.

One eye cracks open each time he hears the door open. Would the arm be obvious? Hm.

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Bucky realized he didn't really know who he was looking for as he stepped into the diner, but that in itself made York more or less obvious. The diner was rarely a bustling place, and there shouldn't be that many unfamiliar faces.

His eyes flicked around, getting himself a coffee before approaching the booth. He was wearing his gloves still, so the arm might not be obvious unless you were looking for signs.

"York?" he asked, eyes scanning the new arrival. He looked maybe slightly younger than he expected, but with an android he wasn't sure if that meant anything. Kid could be as old as he was.

York would never have come to the diner if Bucky hadn't suggested it. No digestive system, no alterations to have him mimic drinking or eating. No reason for York to go to this place. At least the booth was cushiony. Comfort wasn't a thing he needed, but York liked having it where he could sometimes.

The door opened and in came another stranger. The android didn't think anything of it, watching for a long moment as a coffee was ordered, obtained, and then - oh. York opened both eyes, the teal seemingly bright in the shadow thrown by the hood, and sat upright. Attentive.

"Bucky, I'm presuming." A surface level scan to see where the arm was and try to scan it deeper. No, no need for that. Bucky was going to show him anyways. Hopefully. "Is the delay worse or better or the same?"

He breathed out an amused snort through his nose and slid into his side of the booth, taking a sip of his coffee before he noted- "Somebody's eager."

Not that he could really blame him. It was rough on the newbies. Least he'd found something to be excited about.

"Same. But like I said, it's not really observable. I just feel the difference." He tugged the glove off of his left hand with his teeth, and set it down on the table between them, palm down, the black metal highlighted by occasional lines of gold.

"Shut up," but there wasn't nearly as much bite in the words. "I didn't there was anyone else remotely close to being like me here."

York moved his first aid kit, allowing for more space when Bucky laid down the arm between them. Immediately he's in awe, keeping his hands tucked away (as he said in the messages) to lean over and look. "Do many textures. Made to function like an arm but not blend in as one? I thought most prosthetics were supposed to mimic a human limb. Unless you're going for style. Humans do like to be flashy as fuck."

"It was meant to be a weapon," Bucky explained, though his tone implies he doesn't necessarily mean to use it that way. He's done being a weapon.

He could practically see York itching to touch it, and he nodded for him to- "Go ahead."

"I could make a joke about being armed and dangerous," which he literally just did, but Bucky's right. York's completely focused on the winding of dark metal and subtle gold. He is making good on his word, not touching at all. Just looking.

It's when the man nods to him that the android looks. A second confirmation is all he needs. But he’s not enthusiastically unhinged like a teenager would be. No, his hands are careful - cooler than a human's - when touching the arm. He had been told that he wouldn't be able to damage it but that didn't mean he should test that.

"Does it have nerve endings? To feel that my hands are touching?" Synthetic nails press and poke gently at where he thought seams were only to find nothing. Textured and yet seamless. "I've never seen anything like this."

Tap, tap. "Nothing like this material either."

Edited (Let me curse in peace autocorrect ) 2022-04-13 18:09 (UTC)

"Something like that," Bucky confirmed. He didn't know exactly how it worked, or how to describe it, but he could feel the touch. Not the same as with his flesh and blood one, but it wasn't a difference he could begin to explain.

His fingers twitched, plates shifting slightly, but he seemed unbothered by the examination.

"It's pretty rare. Last one was titanium. This one's holding up a lot better."

York watches with wide eyes as the plates shift with the movement. The answer for the nerve endings gets a nod. He knew that his and his brothers had a webbing network that worked as part of their synthskin, so Bucky's arm wasn't far from what he was familiar with back in Detroit.

"And this is a weapon? That checks out if it was made of titanium at some point. I imagine it's not cumbersome in the weight department either, since weapons need to be efficient and it's part of you. How does it hook up? Does it hurt to remove or reconnect? Wait, is pain a thing at all in this arm?"

It's all getting a bit personal, and Bucky's expression turned a bit guarded, but he gestured to his shoulder.

"The arm connects here," he explained, a bit more closed off than he'd started. "Pain's involved," he confirmed with a faint frown.

York doesn't realize he's treading into personal territory as he's so intrigued. He doesn't even notice the change in facial expression. His scanners are mapping out the textures, the form, so he can study it later before he goes into his stasis.

It's only when the other speaks again does the android pick up on the change. "Shit. Fuck, I'm sorry. Probably too many questions. Maybe too personal. Didn't mean to pry." He pulls his hands back, eyes looking from the arm to Bucky's face.

"Here. A trade, I guess." York pulled up his hoodie sleeve just past his elbow. At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than a normal arm. Closer inspection would show there were no trails or hints of veins hiding underneath the pristine skin. Nothing at the elbow, nothing at the wrist.

A soft noise, then the skin was receding like the wave of the ocean from the beach. It uncovered a white hand and arm, jointed like a doll's. After a brat, there was another series of noises: a soft hum as seams appeared to show their panel sections, then a low whirr as the panels pulled upward. The mechanics that moved his arm were on display now: an intricate maze of tubes, valves, and other things that helped him function. Through some of the clear tubes, a blue liquid flowed and pulsed with a glow in time with his thirium pump. His heart.

"This is why I thought you were an android. The way you were talking about it over text reminded me of how this body was made."

Woah. Bucky watched it all with interest and faint longing. There were so many times he wished he could hide his arm and pretend he was still whole.

His brow twitched, taking in the rhythmic flow. York had very literally opened up his veins to him; Bucky felt a bit guilty about his own reservations.

He sighed, draining his coffee and pushing to his feet. "Come with me," he instructed, nodding towards a backroom that was mostly used for storage. He could show off a bit more, but he didn't want anyone else seeing.

Quicker than it had been being exposed, the panels slid back into place to cover the inner workings, and then the skin reappeared. Human again. It was a risk, opening like that, but it felt like a trade after starting to push impolitely for information to sate his own curiosity. York quickly pulled his hoodie sleeve back down to cover the synthetic flesh. There had only been three humans outside of his immediate family that saw his inner workings like that.

Silently, York followed the taller and older man to the back room, but there was no eagerness now. York steadily became on edge and watched Bucky lead him to the storage room. "Wait, why. Why are we going in there?" Maybe he shouldn't have shown this man how he worked. Was there something part of York's system he wanted now?

Fuck, fuck, fuck, this was a bad idea—-

"You want to see the whole arm? I'm not stripping down out there," Bucky explained, looking back and arch a brow in question.

He paused, giving York the option to refuse.

There was plenty of reason not to trust him.

York did think. Weighed the options. Teal eyes attend Bucky down as he did so. How bad did he want to see this arm? Could the man be trusted? He had trusted York to look at the vibranium arm after all.

"Yeah of course I want to see it. But… fuck, how do I know I can trust you won't hurt me?"

"I could have hurt you out there too," Bucky noted with a casual shrug. Lucky for York, Bucky had no interest in harming him. But in a place with less than 40 people? Bucky really didn't need to worth about stealth.

"Yeah but there are windows. Someone could have walked in," he shoots back with a pointed look. He takes another long moment to think and finish considering the odds.

"I do… doubt you'll try to go to me what Beck did to that other Tony here, so… lead on. And don't strip for fuck's sake, that's a felony or something." Not that there was a judicial system in place, as he learned from Jon during that meeting. The android smirked at his own joke as he started towards the back-room as Bucky initially intended.

"If we had laws I'm not sure they'd apply to you," Bucky shot back with his own smirk.

Once back there he shrugged off his jacket, and out of half of his shirt, fully exposing his arm and the place at his chest and shoulder where it met flesh. For all his smirking earlier he looked uncomfortable, clearly not something he showed off regularly, but it only seemed fair.

The remark gets a dark look, but the smirk shows it's just a little playful jab. This guy didn't know just how spot on that remark was. It made York's blue blood boil through his system at the thought.

Once they were secluded, the android focused on his chest pump for a long moment to cool off. It gave Bucky time to get his arm exposed, along with a section of his upper chest. There's a distance maintained to let Bucky get acclimated to being exposed like that. "For what it's worth. I don't plan on hurting you." He goes to sit next to the man, legs crossed but not going for the arm yet. They were back here on his terms, not York's.

"When you told me the arm wasn't working right, all I could think was that you were like other androids back home. Needing repairs but unable to get them."

"That a common thing?" Bucky asked, arching a brow. "Only really know the one back home. I think he's a synthezoid, actually, but more or less the same thing. Maybe Ultron was one? I honestly don't really know the difference," he offered with a vaguely apologetic look.

Robots. Androids. Synthezoids. They were all more or less the same to him.

York is silent for a long moment, eyes seeming to study the seam between flesh and metal Bucky's exposed to him. Then he gets to his feet, disappearing from the room before returning with the kit he had brought. "Androids are created in droves where I'm from. All manufactured to mimic the look of a human while doing what they're programmed. There's Cyberlife models, and then there's me and two other Stark Technologies models. My dad's founded and become a competitor to Cyberlife based on parts that are more affordable, with places to do repairs that both fix and improve the android."

He sits back down, the kit in his lap, fiddling with the clasps of it. "There's a revolution going on. We're trying to have the humans recognize that we're people just much as they are. But humans are cruel and don't take to change well."

This time he looks up to Bucky, fingers still toying with the kit. "Before I came here, they raided our home. Killed any android that didn't comply with a bullet to the head. Then they blew it all up."

That was...a lot more than Bucky expected, and he felt like entirely the wrong person for the kid to have opened up to, nodding with a thoughtful frown, but not really sure what to offer.

"...They don't take to change well, you're right," he agreed, "Never have."

Oh no, there's far more than York is letting on. But York knows that not all Earths are the same now, and he seems to be the only one from a version that has a massive android population. But this was a human, so he didn't get all of the information that York kept much closer.

Change of topic. The android gestures to the arm, but not touching again. "Did you want me to look at that delay or just admire the craftsmanship? Either way I'm good. It really does look hella cool, Bucky."

Wasn't there a vintage toothpaste or something with a beaver mascot of the same name? York deletes the task of looking that up. It's not important.

"Have a look," he offers with a shrug. Without Shuri here he's got to be willing to branch out. Stark might not always be here, it'd be good to know there was another mechanically inclined person to go to if things went south.

The mascot's popularity was thankfully during a time Bucky was mostly on ice.

"The Wakandans do good work."

York scoots a little closer, the kit in his lap. It's only when Bucky gives him permission again does he carefully touch again. The man was obviously a human, but there was something in his expression that seemed like he was discomforted maybe. Maybe York's programming was making shit up. Could it do that now? He hoped now.

It took a few minutes to get the right section open. It wasn't like his own panels, where an outsider could press them down with enough pressure to open the holders.

"Wakandans? Never heard of them," he responds, eyes fixated on the wiring within. "Are they specific for your earth I guess? Like Cyberlife is for mine."

The kit gets opened and York pulls out a little pack of medical grade putty and tweezers. "You said through text that you can feel it. Did that mean you can feel where the problem might be? Or just in general that something's wrong?" This wasn't entirely like working on his brethren back home, but it felt familiar at least. If he ignored how it was attached to a human for now.

Bucky pointedly fixes his attention else where, mentally grounding himself so he doesn't slip back into a less pleasant time his arm was being attended to.

"They're a people. A country in Africa. Their tech is decades ahead of the rest of the world."

He shakes his head then. "Just in general with this," he answers, fingers flexing lightly.

Country in Africa. A data scan from what he still had loaded into his programming - yeah Wakandans weren't from his Earth. He slipped the tweezers in, then pulled back to look at the older man.

"Hey. If anything hurts. Tell me. I'll stop." He let the words linger for a long moment between them before moving again. "It might take a few minutes to find the right spot."

But he was at least careful and precise, tracing pieces that looked to connect to the top side of the hand. "Wakandans didn't come up in a search for me, so I'm going to wager that they're not in my world. But if this tech is an example of what they're capable of, I might not mind meeting some of them."

He works with a hyperfocus as the interior of the arm is mapped out to study later. "So what's your earth like then?"

"Mm," Bucky nodded to confirm, but his definition of hurt might be a little different than others.

"I'm sure Shuri would like to get a look at you too."

He paused to consider. How the hell did you sum up their Earth.

"...Lotta bad. Just enough good to try and keep things in check. Lotta people with powers or abilities...aliens are a thing now."

"I bet she would, but I won't let her. I don't let humans look at my mechanisms up close." His mind tried to supply memories of Bryant Park, but York shut them down immediately. "The only one allowed that close is my brother Duncan."

He glances up to Bucky, then back down where he's working. "Powers an abilities. Sounds like maybe my world with a revolution isn't so bad. Just androids and humans. No super powers, no aliens." York scowled a little at a tiny section, closing one eye to zoom in with the other to get a better look. He had to shift the arm to get a better light in it, then his hands worked again.

Once he was done, he drew back. Eyes reset to standard mode. "Not one-hundred percent sure, but try that. If not exact, I think I might be close."

"What's up close?" Bucky countered, considering he'd gotten a bit of a look. Maybe that was just surface level though.

Bucky turned his hand and flexed his fingers in consideration, before shifting so he had the space to twist the limb in a full rotation to help reset the connection.

"Not bad," he acknowledged.

Edited (oops) 2022-05-03 13:02 (UTC)

"Being able to touch. Wanting me to open up more." Whether that meant physically or mentally, York wasn't going to say. He pulled back so Bucky could test out the arm. "You got to look, but not inspect. And I want to keep it that way. With anyone, not just you." This human wasn't that special. Just the arm. The arm was like York.

He leaned back at the full rotation to get it locked into place. "I learned from my brother, Duncan. I'd help him down in the workshop with androids that had a lot of damage." Memories flickered past his eyes, almost in a glitching manner. He blinked them away with a frown. "But does that feel better? Less of a delay or gone? The tech isn't the same as where I'm from, but there's only so many different ways one can construct an appendage like this."

"Mm. It's better." Not perfect, but far less distracting of a disconnect.

He quickly shrugged his shirt back on, feeling exposed now that the work was done.

"And I'm familiar with the sentiment," he assured with a guarded smirk, "Thank you, though."

"Good." York put his little tools away and closed up the kit before getting to his feet. He put on his usual scowl before the hoodie came back up to shadow his face. "Scram before rumors start that we're friends or some bullshit. I've got a reputation that I'm trying to fucking build here." A reputation of being a vile mouthed menace that hated humans apparently.

"But my device is open if you need help with it again." He doesn't know if Bucky sees the android glance to him and quickly away again before heading towards the door. "And you're welcome."

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And in the morning?

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York is absolutely FASCINATED and not being a little shit for once

lol

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