Physically speaking, Glitch was okay. The plating on the forearm was trashed, but the wires and gizmos underneath remained intact. She could still use the arm, and it was the least of her worries.

However, she still struggled to process the previous night's events. Seeing the stranger fall victim to a feral personality aggravated her distress over her own family's situation in one of the worst ways possible. Even though the Doc Prof insisted that she rest, the robot girl couldn't sleep one bit. She'd spent the night plugged in, but wide awake.

Glitch sat quietly on a bed in the infirmary, her damaged plates already removed and in hand. This was where the Doc Prof said to meet the metal worker. He'd be hard to miss. Not many people had pink hair.

Cafas was almost tempted not to see Doc Prof. He considered it while dropping Adder off at his room. He just wasn't getting beat up when he trained with the shifter, he couldn't afford to turn the safeties off like he usually did.

Still, if he didn't at least drop in, the old man would probably end up running down to the Danger Room to make sure he hadn't finally managed to get himself killed. It didn't seem fair to do that to him.

It's not like it'll take long anyway.

The metal manipulator swung into the all too familiar infirmary, humming a tune that had been stuck in his head all day. He didn't seem to be able to remember anything but the chorus. Maybe a few words here and there, but even those he couldn't be sure of. The reception nurse was notably absent, the Doc was probably in his office, though his door was closed.

I shouldn't interupt him.

The room was all but empty. Just one other person... Robot? That appeared to be missing some casing from its arm. Cafas had no idea the Doc was into robotics. He was almost tempted to go over and have a closer look. He stopped, however, when he noticed the robot looking back at him.

Mutant? I suppose Gina was a gargoyle... Not literally stone though. Stop staring, you'll embarrass them. Never thought I'd be getting caught off guard by a mutation.

"Uh, hi. Have you seen the Doc?

Glitch was about to nod off when she saw the head of pink hair. “He's on the phone,” she replied quietly. Most likely seeking advice for the wolf mutant, she figured. From what she knew, his mental state was bad, and it warranted the Doc Prof's attention. Besides, there wasn't anything the doctor could do to help her out.

Good thing the Doc Prof knew people. “You're Cafas, right? He said you'd be able fix these.”

She showed him the plates, which had a deep set of canine bite marks. Her efforts to clean them off were not very successful, so dried blood dotted the punctured metal. She hoped he didn't notice, or at least didn't question it. The inhuman noises, the wild eyes, the blood... Those images and the ones from the past keep popping up. Glitch couldn't get them out of her head.

“He's on the phone,”

Ah, that could take a while. Cafas had been in enough to know that much. Medical records took hours of calls, consultancy even longer. It was all super expensive too, Cafas had seen the bills in the office. He'd come back later, hopefully catch him at a better time.

“You're Cafas, right? He said you'd be able fix these.”

He'd almost turned to leave. That stopped him though. The X-man looked over at the robot. She (He assumed she, with the skirt and all) was holding out a set of metal plates for him. Steel, though coloured somehow. He could feel them thrumming within his metal sense. They thrummed like steel.

Is thrum the right word? I don't know, it just is steel. I can tell.

"I am, and I should be able to. Mind if I take a look?" He'd have lifted them with his power, but the sheer mass of metal that comprised the girl's skin was making it very hard to distinguish the edges of the panels. There was also the issue that he was far more practiced with launching things at mach speed than gently lifting it. Instead, he approached and picked up the top plate from the stack.

"Ouch, that's a heck of a bite force." The plate was punctured. Actually punctured. Steel. It boggled the mind, though it explained the blood. Punctures were easy though. Heat was where you really developed issues. It didn't feel brittle to him though, at least, no more brittle than the rest of her.

Well, I can do this.

"You're in luck." Cafas ran his hand along the plate, happy to be working the metal through physical touch. The metal moved, the holes welded, the plate was good as new. He held it up for her to look. "How's that?" Cafas smiled, meeting the girl's red eyes. For a brief shining moment, he understood a little bit of how Doc Prof felt.

It may have been several months since Glitch's mutation showed up, but having to take herself apart for repairs still felt alien. Part of her arm was detached, but it was treated as casually as removing her shoes. It was weird as long as she thought about it.

She gave a weak shrug in response. “It didn't hurt.” In fact, the attacked was the one who felt the pain. Cafas was right, though. It wasn't just the bite; the wolf man was very strong, able to throw people off of him with ease. Her mutation likely saved her arm, maybe even her life.

As the puncture marks closed, Glitch perked up, her eyes wide with amazement. “Holy crap, that was quick,” she remarked. Worlds faster than she'd expected. “When he said you worked with metals, I'd thought job, not mutation.”

"No sensation? Rough." It would have to be. Anything puncturing steel would have hurt someone with any degree of physical sensation, as best Cafas could tell. It was only an assumption though, which was a dangerous thing to make with mutations.

I should probably know better.

The reaction was... Well, he appreciated it. The X-man's face lit up with an appreciative smile, and the robot girl endeared herself to Cafas quite a lot. "Both, actually. Gotta say, in a world where people throw fireballs, or summon storms, it's not often someone's actually impressed by my mutation." It wasn't the showiest thing, really. The most notable things were the boiling and melting point, and even that rarely got remarked upon.

He moved on to the next plate, more confident in his work. It just wasn't the same, working on a person rather than an object. It came with a whole new level of uncertainty knowing that your work was going to be integral to somebody's bodily structure. Then again, he was just welding a steel plate back together and ensuring the tempering was even. If he thought of it like that...

Then it's still a nerve wracking process for all its simplicity.

The second plate was over in a heart beat, but for Cafas it felt like an age of uncertainty. The steel was left with no outward sign of the damage, and the structure, as best he could tell, was consistent. He extended that one back to the robot girl too. "So, mind if I ask your name?" Because he was at a definite social disadvantage as it stood. Plus, it didn't feel right constantly calling her robot girl in his head. He was sure she wouldn't like being identified purely by her mutation.

“I guess...” Little things, like tasting food and feeling a kitten's soft fur as she pet it, were missed a lot. But Cafas didn't need to hear all about that. He was nice enough to repair her, and no one liked a complainer.

“Really? I won't lie, the flashy, combat-y powers are cool, but that looks pretty handy.” Unlike her own, Cafas' mutation sounded like something that would be useful on a day to day basis. Probably helped him with his job, too. “Plus, I'm metal. I have the type disadvantage,” she said with a weak laugh. Seriously. She didn't know the scope of his powers, but she was glad she wasn't fighting him.

She accepted the plate and compared it alongside its left arm counterpart. Good as new, as far as she could tell. Which wasn't saying much, as she was no expert on the matter. She looked back up and replied, “Everyone calls me Glitch.”

"Admittedly it is." Cafas offered a smile. He was pretty useful in a fight too, admittedly. "I'm part of why nothing metal around here stays broken long." The metal manipulator looked between the steel plates and the robot girl's eyes with a chuckle and eyebrows raised in amusement. "Including you I suppose." He had a habit of just fixing any broken metal object he passed. It was kind of easy when you could simply enforce your will on the materials.

"So, Glitch huh? Nice to meet you. Sounds like you've played some Pokemon. Man, I haven't played in years." Gold edition, probably. He knew bits and pieces from newer ones, but he'd never played them. He'd moved on to other games and never really looked back. then there was the blacksmithing, and the martial training... Maybe he should try again? Seemed a little pointless though, plus he was in his mid twenties, probably a bit late to be getting into pokemon again.

“Sounds like this place keeps you super busy.” Kind of a “repairman” mutation, now that she thought about it. She'd tell herself “don't get broken,” but that was a given already.

“Yep.” Among many other things. Genre and developer were no restriction. “The new mobile app's popular. I'm playing it. It's kind of tricky because these aren't good for touchscreens,” she said, wiggling her mechanical fingers.

An uncomfortable pause followed. The conversation had been helping her distract herself, but what she said made her kind of depressed. Like other little things, to feel sad about it felt stupid, shallow. People like her mother and the wolf man had mutations that were putting them through worse.

She scrambled for her words. “Anyways, yeah, it's popular, even with adults. You'd have no problem jumping back in.” The cheerfulness in her voice was rather forced.

The metal manipulator shook his head. "Nah, I just fix anything I see when I'm going here or there. I'm not sure if people even know." He didn't really make a big deal out of it. IT was easy enough. Certainly took him less time and effort than someone doing it manually. A dent flattened, bend straightened, or hole sealed was just a small flex of his mutation away.

Probably would make a good handyman like that.

Right, yeah. Cafas could see how metal hands would make using a touchscreen difficult. Maya had difficulty just because her hands were cold (and because she couldn't even read the screen with air vision). Glitch probably had even less luck. Mutation had its downsides, evidently.

"Maybe I could. I don't know where I'd find time though. I'm pretty much booked solid most days as it is." A fact he was constantly aware of. Ragnarok spying was taking up more time than he'd expected. If he could somehow get out of that... But it was no good, he'd committed. They'd never get another spy in if he left.

Cafas cast a glance over Glitch. Her mention of type advantage, as well as his repair of her arm plates, had seeded a thought. It was perhaps a crazy thought, more than a little dicey to even ask. Still, it might just be something Glitch was interested in. "So, have you ever considered modifications? Because, you know, if there was something metal that you wanted added, I could probably do that." What would she even want though? Maybe it was silly, but if he could do something to improve her life, he would. She really didn't seem happy with what she'd lost to her mutation.

With only one panel left to be reworked, Glitch started putting them back into place. Remembering the correct order was always quite the chore. She really needed to get around to labeling them.

She flexed her wrist, then her elbow, testing the repairs. “Modifications? Maybe not put that way, but yeah.” Machines did get improvements. If changes could be made to make up for her mutation's downsides, she sure as hell was going to take advantage of them.

“I don't know about metal. What I could really use is something to help keep me from breaking things on accident.” The combination of lacking touch and being comprised of a hard material was a troublesome one. Gripping items too hard and damaging them was a good chunk of the problem. Several split pencils and the game controller in the living room that she'd duct taped back together could attest to that.

Touch sensitive stuff? That was well above his pay grade. Cafas fixed up the final plate with a tiny frown, and handed it back. He just didn't see a way to do it off the top of his head. Maybe by making hr hands softer, but that wouldn't really fix the lack of sensation, and soft materials were still perfectly capable of breaking things with enough force behind them. Either that, or breaking themselves.

Lost some glasses to my grip strength with just fleshy hands.

"Huh. Not sure if I could do that. I mean, sure we could try putting softer materials on your hands, but honestly the issue seems like it would be your sense of touch." Not that she really needed him to tell her that. Still, it would be a start. Maybe leather instead of metal on the palms of her hands? But that would get damaged easily.

Less easily than skin, but it won't heal...

"Don't suppose you could feel the metal in your arm bending? I know that's probably a bit of a sensitive topic, but I might be able to help somewhat if you could." A combination of increasing the malleability and elasticity of the metal might work if she could feel the bending. It would still be vulnerable to damage, but it might be worth the trade off.

Glitch shook her head. “No, I can't. I know what my arms and legs and such are doing, and that's it.” If whatever Cafas had in mind relied on that, it would be no use. It stunk, but reality was reality. “Don't worry about it. I've been experimenting with gloves. Wrist warmers came kind of close.” If only they weren't so hard to slide on without snagging them inside of her knuckle joints.

She fumbled trying to screw on the last panel. Unlike the rest, it wasn't going into place. The puncture marks were fixed, but the force of the wolf man's jaws left the panel warped. “Err... Could you take another look at this? The bite really messed that one up. If it helps, I could take off the one on the other arm. It's the same, except, you know, reversed.”