Shannon
Esther's apartment door was normal as any other, save for the spider web décor on the door plaque, left up from Halloween last year. The call was a little out of the blue, but it had been months since they last talked, the both of them had been through a good bit in the mean time.

Esther had called Katie here for that exact reason. They were both slightly more experienced now, but more than that, they were more equipped, and now it was time to put their skills to work. All it would take would be a simple knock on the door now.
Christine
Katie was still a little groggy when she crawled out of bed this day. She had been up late tinkering with her forcefield projector and had ended up only getting four hours of sleep. The bus ride had given her a short time to nap but she still was tired by the time she reached her friend's apartment. It was made worse by the fact that she still had a few bruises from her scrap with Deadstar.

She sighed as she stepped up to the door and knocked lightly. She stood bleary eyed and hunched into herself as she waited for Esther. Her mind, despite the groggy fog, did flicker with eyes that she wanted to pitch to Esther.
Shannon
Of course, that wasn't who answered the door, no that'd be too simple. The door creaked open with the towering figure of a woman with a piercing gaze and focused expression, wearing a gothic dress with blue accents, her black eyeshadow making her seem more fierce than she likely intended to come off as.

It was Veronica! Esther's sister and guardian. Katie likely hadn't seen her since Esther left high school, almost enough time to get spooked by her unorthodox appearance, but this was par for the course for veronica. She plucked the needle and thread from her cobalt blue lips, tilting her head a little to the side as she opened the door a little wider.

"Katie. It's been too long."
Christine
Katie, in her surprise, looked like she nearly jumped out of her skin. Her hand going for her satchet for a brief moment before she calmed herself. She ran a hand through her hair with a huff to calm herself and looked back up to the woman. She, truth be told, did think Veronica was a rather pretty woman but she was often times didn't seem her for stretches of time that made it surprising to see her again.

The contrast between herself and Veronica was also something that she often thought about. Katie was dressed in a long brown skirt that stopped at the ankle, a chunky brown canvas jacket, a bright fruit baskets shirt, and a pair of black converse. She was shorter than Veronica and honestly felt a little intimidated by her.

"Hi, Veronica, it's been a while yeah. You look good, uhm, Is Esther home?"
Shannon
Veronica pulled back out of the way, opening the door a little wider for katie to step through. The apartment was somewhat small, but relatively normal all things considered. Well, mostly, the place was full of gothic ornaments and mannequins wearing rather well made dresses and suits. Veronica's work, she was a Surgical doctor, but she was also a damn good seamstress and tailor.

"They're in their room as usual. I take It the two of you are working on something of a project, together?" She shifted her focus to one of the many mannequins, this one with an unfinished lolita style dress. The thread and needle in her fingers was so precise, and her hands so nimble. "Just try to keep the noise down if you can, Lunch is in an hour."

And with that, Katie would be free to enter Esther's room.

It was a relatively.. Big room, compared to the apartment's livingroom. Enough space for a full sized bed, a large oak dresser, a walk in closet, and... Several desks and drawers. Shelves lined the walls as well, every nook and cranny of this space was being used to hold _something_, Be it anime and manga merchandise to model planets, telescopes, a computer, spare parts and scrap, an entire bookshelf filled with manga and textbooks on the same shelf. The blue hue of the room was nice and calming, with a little glow from the cieling above. Glow in the dark star stickers, still retaining a bit of their luminosity as the light from the one window of the room let the sun's rays in.

Esther could be seen with tools handy, taking apart _something_ from his main work desk.
Christine
"Won't cause too much trouble, thanks." She nodded in agreement as she stepped inside. She walked past the intimidating sister with a polite nod and began her short jaunt over to Esther room. She scanned the house as she walked, taking in the details she hasn't seen in quite some time, and quietly noted the state of the house. Her house was fairly neat, sure, but it was also covered in merchandise and the lights were never on. Not that she noticed.

She stepped into Esther room with a polite knock, peaking around the door. She took in the room around her with some amount of pride at the amount of anime jammed into the room. She slowly crossed the room to look over her friend's shoulder with a curious tilt of her head.

"Whatcha doing?"
Shannon
Though his back was turned, Esther was keenly aware of Katie entering the room. Just as she asked, they side stepped to show their hand detached and unraveled amongst a mess of parts that seemed to come from utopia's own tech, one of her recon drones it seemed. Using his real flesh and blood hand, Esther strokes their imaginary bear with a smug look. On the table beside the project was a note that was written before hand.

'new project, was hoping to get help with some non lethal disruptive measures, based on your tech. Will show capabilities when done?'
Christine
She moved to get a better look at the project. Her eyes lit up at the parts and she pulled her own bag up to pull out her costume gloves and tinker parts. She looked over his pile of scraps and began to mentally take notes of what they were working with. This is not a small amount of tinker tech and she was excited.

"Based on mine? That's so cool. I was thinking of working on something to make it harder to fight against me. Did I mention I can't be blinded?"
Shannon
The look he gave her was one of shock, then of excitement. They stepped a little aside to give her some more room. Undeniably, he was impressed with the fact, and knowing what he did of her tech, he realized just where her mind was going. It was almost exactly the type of measure he wanted for this new project, only her result would be inherently more effective than anything he would implement. 

Still, as she laid her tech Infront of of them, Esther- Toy Maker, reached out and fiddled with the display embedded in their arm which appeared with a twist of their arm, the loose panel flipping before setting back into place.. The framework of the hand sprung to life on the table, the 'flesh' being dragged along as it scooted it's self with the fingers toward his end of the table. The palm was fitted with a camera lense and some kind of mechanism which was humming ever so slightly as the thing moved. Somehow, there was still a bit of empty space left within the palm. Toy Maker intended on making use of it.

`" It's fortunate that you are the kind of tinker you are, Heartthrob, Otherwise a power like that may seem a little underwhelming. I take it you plan to use your specialty with this boon in mind?"`
Christine
Mischief twinkled in her eye at the question. She would take a few of the pieces in her pile and put them next to each other before sliding a sketch from her bag. She slid onto the desk and rolled it out to show her friend. It was a rough schematic showing the placement of the glove rings and the flash bulbs. It was concealed even if it made putting the gloves on a little awkward.

"Let's me see in the dark too. But, really, my plan is that other people don't have that privilege. If someone were to, I dunno, set a flashbang off then everyone but me would be blinded."
Shannon
Quickly, as if starving for a look at them, Esther snatched the schematics with their free hand. The hand on the table was still crawling towards him as his eyes went wide at the prints of the design on the schematic. Had he the ability, he'd have applauded her genius then and there, Instead, he simply set the schematics down and reached her for pile greedily.

With some parts in hand, and his other still writhing on the table, Esther wasted no time hacking together something in _Minutes_. He didn't speak, he couldn't all his focus was turned to his work, only occasionally turning to Katie for approving nods, ones he didn't care if he received all too much. After a minute, The Toy maker's new toy was operational. 

The 'skin' as it were wasn't reapplied yet, but it didn't need to be. Using relays found in utopia's design, he managed to send the nerve impulses he worked into his prosthetic over range, It floated and flew with full dexterous movement and even came right up to Katie for a quick _BURST_ of light from the materials and inspiration she provided. It was a brilliant flash of high intensity light, enough maybe to blind and disorient for a minute to someone who wasn't Katie, to whom it may have seemed like nothing had happened, but indeed. Something had. In fact it took Esther a solid few minutes to re adjust from accidentally flashing himself in the same moment.

It would not be as impressive as her own capabilities with the tech, and never could be without her direct tinkering, but it would suffice for his purposes. It even assisted in the last function- the surveillance. An image was being transmitted to his arm communicator, not as clear as he'd like with the screen's small resolution, but serviceable most certainly. 

Said communicator spoke with implied conviction and pride `"Behold, you're looking at the Hand Flash Drone Augmentation for my trademark prosthetic arm! Or, HFDA for short. The drone Utopia provided me alone would have likely sufficed for an upgrade, the reconnaissance capabilities alone make it an invaluable asset, but I was struck by inspiration seeking your design for the gloves, and now I have but one more tool at H A N D to help in what ever situation I may find myself in."`

They held out their flesh hand to let the prosthetic fall into, and set to sleeving it up with the skin once more. `"Oh"` That electric voice rang out in exclaimation. Esther paused and turned head to grant Katie a big smile `"I haven't forgotten about you either. I plan on helping with the gloves, I noticed your design seemed a little bulky, and compromises your theme a little too much. My synthetic skin should be a great basis for making a sleeker, cleaner design, if you're interested in that."`
Christine
Katie would dig into the pile with the same fervor as she began to pull the bits and pieces apart from everything. It was like she stopped thinking and her body took over. She went quiet as she sifted through the pile and pulled out the pieces she needed. Her eyes glazed over as her hands moved, not really listening to him.

She snapped out of it when she was directly addressed. Her hand was filled with various metal pieces while the other held the pair of gloves. She looked a little embarrassed, as if she forgot her partner in tinkering was there. She finally spoke up, signing messily as she did "Sorry, what were you saying? You could help?"
Shannon
Quickly, Esther set to re-gloving (like degloving, but in reverse) their mechanical hand. The new sectioned skin as accommodating for both the canon augment and the hand drone augment. Once it was re attached, Esther then guided her eyes with his hand and a free carpenters pencil laying on the table, drawing up a rough idea of better fitting, slimmer gloves that would help camouflaged the bulk and mechanics of her gloves using the same type of synthetic material on his arm.

The bright smile on his face was one of support and care, shining blue eyes staring at her for approval as he reached for some loose prosthetic skin.
Christine
She smiled brightly, no pun intended, at him as watched their idea unfold on paper. She watched their pencil and shook his shoulder. She signed a quick 'Thank You' before going to work. She began to work on the rings first. Creating small metal rings designed to be easy to slide the fingers into. Batteries were built into each ring with various wires running closely to connect them.
Shannon
There was quite the smile on Esther's face when he saw her sign the gratitude. 

Still, he quickly turned his focus to helping Katie work on these glove in full, now that his tech was practically finished. His insights and designs would help camouflage the more obviously 'tech' of the design she created, work to ensure her secret is kept that way just a little longer.

By the time their involvement was done, they were just sitting on the sidelines, watching her tinker with enamored interest.
Christine
Her nimble fingers crafted each metal ring and looped them carefully into the gloves while connecting each to a central pad built into the palm of the glove. Her eyes flicked back and forth along it as she carefully laid out the wiring to avoid any sparks. It was surprisingly how quick she was at building but it seems like she was fully into the fugue for the moment. She seemed to mess around with the inside as she lined it with tiny bulbs from the inside. 

"I think. I should be done? I need to, program the poses I think?"

She slipped one of the gloves on with delicate movements and flexed her fingers to feel out the inside. It was remarkably well concealed because of Esther.
Shannon
The tiny nerd was geeking out over the gloves actually, admiring his own work, sure, but just thinking about how it would look with the entire outfit. In an attempt to show their enthusiasm, Esther struck a pose!

They stood at a strong slant, back pulled backwards while their legs were more put forward, making a sudden and energetic point towards katie, encouraging her with a smile to do the same for practice and programing her gloves.
Christine
She began to strike a few poses with her gloves. It was alot of the classic anime girl poses like the peace sign salute and a heart shape in addition to dumb poses like finger guns. She seemed extremely energized by the actions and grinned at him like a fool. She signed 'Thank you alot! This was fun' Before going back to posing. She twirled around and flexed her fingers in the gloves, taking on some of her cape persona. 'Not too uncomfortable, for once.'
Shannon
_And this would be how they continued, working together to test their tech with one another, and work out the kinks between both of the designs, Growing closer on a levle beyond just theri civilian friendship. It'd been so long since Esther really bonded with someone like this- It felt so warm and comforting to have someone unlike his sister that he could confide this side of them in.

Smiles were had all around._

-end-