[Technical details would be lost on him anyway. Eren's not much of a gearhead, really. He's just got plenty of enthusiasm for a good method of kicking ass.
So her demonstration (and her humoring his dumb questions) gets a pretty rarely seen sort of grin out of him.]
That's crazy. I've never seen anything like it.
[He'd like to see it in action sometime...though he's not in a hurry to get himself shocked, either. It does remind him, though—he reaches down to start unhooking his gear from the harness he's wearing.]
You still need something else to level the playing field?
[Even with something like that, she's still looking for ways to catch up to the "metalbenders" she'd mentioned before. He's not exactly sure what that means. But his kneejerk assumption isn't a particularly kind one. If you're trying to balance out power, there's usually a pretty shitty reason for it.]
[ Asami is nice enough to humor all sorts of things, dumb questions included. It's worth it to get a grin out of him, and she smiles back, her eyes crinkling at the corners. If she had her way, she'd convince everyone in the world to see the wonders of technology. ]
Maybe I can show it to you in action sometime. [ Even though that would mean... shocking the shit out of people, but whatever. She's already done plenty of that here; it feels like she can't escape trouble no matter where she goes.
When Eren starts taking off his gear, she takes a sudden interest in it, deeply focused on trying to figure out how everything seems to work together. He's wearing a bunch of complex-looking straps, which the gear appears to attach to—maybe to offset the weight? She gets to her feet and starts circling around him, her fingers tucked thoughtfully underneath her chin.
Ah, there's some other piece attached to the small of his back too, that she hadn't really noticed before. It looks like where the cables extend and retract, as well as some kind of vent. Which makes some sense, since those tubes connected to the boxes around his waist look like compressed air or gas.
Now she's starting to get a good idea of how this all works. ]
That would be nice. [ It comes out distractedly; her attention is already elsewhere. ] So the cables extend from here, [ she points to the reels at each side of his waist ] and then you retract them to propel yourself forward. [ Now she points to the vent thing, though he probably can't see it behind his back. ] Then you release some sort of compressed gas from here to give yourself more maneuverability?
All they have to do is find some people who have it coming nbd. We'll make an open log of it. "Come get electrocuted with eren and asami." Honestly Eren is always an option, whatever.
The point is, they're talking tech. Asami's got the right of it, and rapidly. Seems like she was telling the truth about knowing her stuff. He nods once, then stops what he's doing to fish a trigger grip out from under his jacket for her to see. The thing has a sensitive switch or two, finely tuned and personalized to the user. And a place to fit a blade.]
Momentum isn't always enough to keep you going. You control the grapples and the gas with this.
[And, because he can't not—her attention is on the mechanics, his is on the motivation—]
Is there a war going on?
[She wants to level the playing field. This is the obvious assumption, right?]
When he explains it that way, she makes a sound to the effect of aha!, her eyes gleaming as she takes in the trigger mechanism. The slots for the blades, stored along with the gas canisters, are fairly straightforward, though she has to wonder how these crazy long boxcutter-looking swords are necessary. he doesn't... use these in battle or something, does he? To defend himself? Against people?
Even though Eren can't be that much younger than her, by her estimation, she still ends up wondering who decided to let a teenage kid have this kind of weaponry, and frowns. (He has to be what, sixteen at most? He wouldn't have a blade like that if he wasn't expected to use it.)
Then he asks about war and she glances down at him, her frown deepening briefly before she steps back to give him more room to take off his gear. She thinks she understands what kind of world he must come from. ]
Nothing like that. [ She shrugs her shoulders, then crosses her arms over her chest—she's... never really had to explain this before. It's new. ] In my world, there are benders, people who can manipulate one of the elements—earth, air, water, and fire. And some other things too, like metal and lightning, if it's related to their element.
But then there are also nonbenders. Like me. [ She smiles, as if to tell him it's not a bad thing. Of course, Asami's had her moments where she's felt insanely jealous of benders and all the power they had—who wouldn't?—but she's content with being a nonbender. It's never stood in her way before. She won't let it. ]
When I said leveling the playing field, that's what I meant. [ She waves her hand, palm up, at his gear. ] This kind of technology could be used by everybody, not just benders.
[Of course he uses them in battle. What else would you do with a weapon? It's not like wearing a set of 3DMG is any less dangerous than being able to start a fire with a snap of your fingers, or send a boulder flying with a stomp of your foot. Or electrocuting someone with a glove.
He looks at her cuiously as she gives him a little more context of the bender-nonbending dichotomy. After a few months here, he can imagine people with power like that. Magic. Like Bolin, Sakura...Michel and his plots of vengeance and his blotting out the sun. He can imagine all too easily how something like that can be abused. And how much of a disadvantage it is, when you're faced with some enemy that just plain has more power than you do.]
Not just everybody. [Frankly. It doesn't work like that, either.] It's not that easy.
[The learning curve is steep, and dangerous. But he leans the boxy sheathes down against the wall and leaves the harness on, but sets the main mechanism on the room's desk table for her to get a look at. That is, after all, why he's here. Leveling the playing field—even if it's not necessarily easy.]
[ The difference is... well, bending can be used for so many things besides violence. Her glove? That's nonlethal, at least. But a sword like his... there's only one use for something like that, and Asami can't help but notice that it's being put in the hands of a kid. And it must be for a reason—necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes.
Regardless, she looks surprised by his answer, her head tipping curiously. ]
What do you mean? Is it difficult to use?
[ But she's easily distracted again with watching him unpack all of the pieces of his gear. She finds herself having to resist jumping right on the main mechanism, which he sets on the desk—she grabs her tools first, which form a very small, pitiful collection compared to the ones she has at home, out of the desk drawer and takes a seat.
She picks up the screwdriver first, and immediately sets to opening up the mechanism, her eyes gleaming again. He already gave her permission to poke around so... it's fine. There's no stopping her now anyway. ]
[Done, he perches on the edge of the nearby bed and watches like a hawk as Asami takes a screwdriver to his equipment. She's proven to be pretty smart. Probably knows more about this kind of thing than he does. But, you know.]
Training takes three years.
[So yeah, it's hard. And that sword was put in his hands a long time ago.]
Plenty of people don't make it.
[They wash out. ...Or they die. Finishing is an accomplishment—it means something. That you'd gone through three years of hell and made it out stronger for it.]
[ Three years... that's a long time, but it doesn't sound far-fetched to her. This kind of complicated machinery... it's probably difficult to master, just like driving a satomobile or flying a plane. Except with this kind of gear, your body is doing a lot of the work—her guess is that you have to be in pretty good shape to handle it. ]
What kind of training? Military?
[ It's an idle question. Most of her attention is fixed on methodically taking apart the mechanism—she's almost obsessively organized about it, setting aside each piece she removes in mirror image. The casing sits on its back like a turtle shell, with each nut and bolt lying next to the hole she took it from. (Is it just her, or does everything feel a lot lighter than she was expecting?)
Opening the whole thing up confirms a lot of her suspicions as to how it works, but also manages to surprise her too... somehow. Idk... let's pretend I know what I'm talking about... and she does a bunch of nerd stuff. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
you're welcome for the suggestion
So her demonstration (and her humoring his dumb questions) gets a pretty rarely seen sort of grin out of him.]
That's crazy. I've never seen anything like it.
[He'd like to see it in action sometime...though he's not in a hurry to get himself shocked, either. It does remind him, though—he reaches down to start unhooking his gear from the harness he's wearing.]
You still need something else to level the playing field?
[Even with something like that, she's still looking for ways to catch up to the "metalbenders" she'd mentioned before. He's not exactly sure what that means. But his kneejerk assumption isn't a particularly kind one. If you're trying to balance out power, there's usually a pretty shitty reason for it.]
no subject
Maybe I can show it to you in action sometime. [ Even though that would mean... shocking the shit out of people, but whatever. She's already done plenty of that here; it feels like she can't escape trouble no matter where she goes.
When Eren starts taking off his gear, she takes a sudden interest in it, deeply focused on trying to figure out how everything seems to work together. He's wearing a bunch of complex-looking straps, which the gear appears to attach to—maybe to offset the weight? She gets to her feet and starts circling around him, her fingers tucked thoughtfully underneath her chin.
Ah, there's some other piece attached to the small of his back too, that she hadn't really noticed before. It looks like where the cables extend and retract, as well as some kind of vent. Which makes some sense, since those tubes connected to the boxes around his waist look like compressed air or gas.
Now she's starting to get a good idea of how this all works. ]
That would be nice. [ It comes out distractedly; her attention is already elsewhere. ] So the cables extend from here, [ she points to the reels at each side of his waist ] and then you retract them to propel yourself forward. [ Now she points to the vent thing, though he probably can't see it behind his back. ] Then you release some sort of compressed gas from here to give yourself more maneuverability?
no subject
All they have to do is find some people who have it coming nbd. We'll make an open log of it. "Come get electrocuted with eren and asami." Honestly Eren is always an option, whatever.
The point is, they're talking tech. Asami's got the right of it, and rapidly. Seems like she was telling the truth about knowing her stuff. He nods once, then stops what he's doing to fish a trigger grip out from under his jacket for her to see. The thing has a sensitive switch or two, finely tuned and personalized to the user. And a place to fit a blade.]
Momentum isn't always enough to keep you going. You control the grapples and the gas with this.
[And, because he can't not—her attention is on the mechanics, his is on the motivation—]
Is there a war going on?
[She wants to level the playing field. This is the obvious assumption, right?]
no subject
When he explains it that way, she makes a sound to the effect of aha!, her eyes gleaming as she takes in the trigger mechanism. The slots for the blades, stored along with the gas canisters, are fairly straightforward, though she has to wonder how these crazy long boxcutter-looking swords are necessary. he doesn't... use these in battle or something, does he? To defend himself? Against people?
Even though Eren can't be that much younger than her, by her estimation, she still ends up wondering who decided to let a teenage kid have this kind of weaponry, and frowns. (He has to be what, sixteen at most? He wouldn't have a blade like that if he wasn't expected to use it.)
Then he asks about war and she glances down at him, her frown deepening briefly before she steps back to give him more room to take off his gear. She thinks she understands what kind of world he must come from. ]
Nothing like that. [ She shrugs her shoulders, then crosses her arms over her chest—she's... never really had to explain this before. It's new. ] In my world, there are benders, people who can manipulate one of the elements—earth, air, water, and fire. And some other things too, like metal and lightning, if it's related to their element.
But then there are also nonbenders. Like me. [ She smiles, as if to tell him it's not a bad thing. Of course, Asami's had her moments where she's felt insanely jealous of benders and all the power they had—who wouldn't?—but she's content with being a nonbender. It's never stood in her way before. She won't let it. ]
When I said leveling the playing field, that's what I meant. [ She waves her hand, palm up, at his gear. ] This kind of technology could be used by everybody, not just benders.
no subject
He looks at her cuiously as she gives him a little more context of the bender-nonbending dichotomy. After a few months here, he can imagine people with power like that. Magic. Like Bolin, Sakura...Michel and his plots of vengeance and his blotting out the sun. He can imagine all too easily how something like that can be abused. And how much of a disadvantage it is, when you're faced with some enemy that just plain has more power than you do.]
Not just everybody. [Frankly. It doesn't work like that, either.] It's not that easy.
[The learning curve is steep, and dangerous. But he leans the boxy sheathes down against the wall and leaves the harness on, but sets the main mechanism on the room's desk table for her to get a look at. That is, after all, why he's here. Leveling the playing field—even if it's not necessarily easy.]
no subject
Regardless, she looks surprised by his answer, her head tipping curiously. ]
What do you mean? Is it difficult to use?
[ But she's easily distracted again with watching him unpack all of the pieces of his gear. She finds herself having to resist jumping right on the main mechanism, which he sets on the desk—she grabs her tools first, which form a very small, pitiful collection compared to the ones she has at home, out of the desk drawer and takes a seat.
She picks up the screwdriver first, and immediately sets to opening up the mechanism, her eyes gleaming again. He already gave her permission to poke around so... it's fine. There's no stopping her now anyway. ]
no subject
Training takes three years.
[So yeah, it's hard. And that sword was put in his hands a long time ago.]
Plenty of people don't make it.
[They wash out. ...Or they die. Finishing is an accomplishment—it means something. That you'd gone through three years of hell and made it out stronger for it.]
no subject
What kind of training? Military?
[ It's an idle question. Most of her attention is fixed on methodically taking apart the mechanism—she's almost obsessively organized about it, setting aside each piece she removes in mirror image. The casing sits on its back like a turtle shell, with each nut and bolt lying next to the hole she took it from. (Is it just her, or does everything feel a lot lighter than she was expecting?)
Opening the whole thing up confirms a lot of her suspicions as to how it works, but also manages to surprise her too... somehow. Idk... let's pretend I know what I'm talking about... and she does a bunch of nerd stuff. ]