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Richard was perched. He was rather happily perched. He was sitting on the second floor of a coffee shop contentedly sipping a large cup of coffee. He savored faint aftertaste of caramel on his tongue as after each sip. It was a good day. He arrived just as it had started to rain, not the heavy torrential downpours but the light misty overcast rain that has stirred and stimulated the muse of authors since time immemorial. Richard was doodling. On the table in front of him were sketches of robots, quad copters, mechanisms, something that resembled an artichoke, piece of code, and logic…… Richard came here to brainstorm. Somewhere to get out of the office. He was staring out the window lost in thought when he realized that someone was approaching.

As the garage doors finished torturing the air around them, Richard looked around apologetically as if to say "Opps!" and hoped to high heaven that nobody had noticed. No such luck apparently, as a tall Caucasian male with blue eyes charged across the room to rescue him?

Before Richard could order the cleaning bots to stand down, Cheeky lashed out a finger of blue lightening at the male. Correction, mutant, possibly wind related powers? Richard knew the weight of Cheeky, and as the emotional side of him wondered if Cheeky would survive, the scientist in him was judging Cheeky's velocity and estimating the force of the wind.

When the cacophony finally died down. Richard hurried over to apologize. As he made his way there Cheeky warbled. Apparently it was undamaged. He turned to Cheeky and the trio, "Stand Down, Reset, Resume." At that command the bots dispersed and went back to studiously trying to clean, accompanied by warbles.

"Sorry about that, are you injured?" Richard said apologetically, he really should modify the defense protocols as there were more and more people turning up all the time and they seemed to harbor less ill will towards his cleaning robots. "They are mine, they, um are helping me clean, they also serve as sentries if necessary." Said Richard as Cheeky backed itself into a slot and drove forward with a cleaning attachment.

"I am Richard by the way." Richard held out a rather grimy hand, examined it and promptly settled for a sort of wave. "I have been trying to get this place running again, I mean the machine shop and garage. But it is a bigger project than I thought."

The new source of natural illumination almost served to accentuate his words. They revealed the source of the muck covering a large portion of the garage floor. In the corner there was, were some drums of grease and engine lubricant that had started leaking sometime ago. The grease and lubricant had joined forces and promptly spend the remainder of their fludic life on a Genghis Kan conquest to take over the floor.

Richard surveyed this and sighed.

The machine shop was certainly looking better. What with Cheeky and now his two younger brothers vigorously scouring the grease and muck caked and stained floor within an inch of its life, most of the machine shop, about a quarter of the garage looked respectable. You could actually see the floor instead of slip-sliding your way onto your backside with every step. Not to say that the work was anywhere near finished. There was still much to be done. Richard had only managed to get the vertical Mill working, it was supposed to be a fancy CNC Mill, but for now just the mill part was working, no CNC. He was also particularly proud as he had just coaxed the lathe to life. it was a spluttering, coughing filled life, but life none the less.

Richard stood surveying his handiwork. One working computer in the corner, 1 working welder, 1 manual (for now) verticle mill, one (barely working) lathe, 1 partially disassembled school bus (not sure how that got there), a pickup that needed some love and other vage shadow-y shapes in the corner that Richard had not reached yet. It was time for some sunlight. Richard hit the button for the garrage door opener. He regreted that discision almost immediately. A horrendous, nails on chalkboard (though thousand times worse), teeth-on-edge, groan-squeek-wailing filled the air as the garrage door tortured its way open. If anyone opened the door to the garrage at this point they would probably be so overcome that they would slip abnd fall. Which would be a mistake as all three industrial cleaning roombas were fitted with tasers, Cheeky's brothers were equiped with the short rangfe kind, but Cheeky, was armed with two taser guns, that were perched on it a little like SAM towers. Richard wasw tired of his cleaning bots getting kicked about when they went to charge, so he had installed... deterents. Charge to quickly at them and.. well.. it would not be pleasent. Of course nobody is perfect so Richard had never perogramed for the contigancy that someone would slip towards his robots

Richard arrived at the airport. Driving there involved sitting, sitting did not involve much work. At this time in the morning the roads were clear, hence driving did not involve alot of thinking, and instead involved the liberal imbibing of coffee.



Richard still had access to contractor parking so did not have to hunt around for a space. It was times like this he was thankful for the diverse clients of Firebird Industries.



He had just gotten in line when he spotted a familiar head of chestnut brown hair passing through the other security check point. Richard did his best to be sneaky and not be seen. He was almost spotted when Margo looked around after clearing the security checkpoint but managed to hide behind a tour group just in time.



He waited patiently until Margo started texting... then pounced. He grabbed her in a bear hug and did a little spin, all the while smiling like a Cheshire cat.



"Sis, it has been far too long. I have missed you so." Said Richard when he finally put Margo down.

Richard was exhausted, it had been a long few weeks? No. Months? That sounded more like it. It had been one crazy project after. Installing, debugging and tuning a super-computing cluster at Jagger Worldwide, upgrading security systems at LaGurdia Airport, the list went on and on.

He was overdue a holiday. Throughout all of this madness, the occasional text conversations with Margo were there to brighten up his day. Working this hard tended to put a damper on ones social life. Not that Richard had much of one. Work friends tended to be just that. Margo had been busy with school and the few friends he had this side of the pond were either in other states with work or MIA due to life events like marriage, having kids, etc. So when Margo had suggested that they go on a trip together, Richard a literally jumped at the chance. He had enough holiday accrued for a nice long trip.

Thus it was with grogginess and grumpiness that accompanied waking too early whilst getting far too little sleep, mixed with jubilant excitement and anticipation that Richard grabbed his bags and tiredly yet excitedly skipped to his car and turned towards the airport. It had been far too long since they last saw each other. Richard was mortified that as an older brother he had let it go that long.

Margo was gone like a flash, Richard fancied that that it would a very very good day indeed. Margo returned sooner than he expected, so perhaps females in general could take fast showers if needed. She flew into the room, proceeded by her still drying hair flying out behind her.

>"You're looking... dapper. Debonair?" Siad Margo as he saw her gaze eye his attier up and down then turn to their ride. He was earning a good salary but this would put a sizable dent in it. But then again if one could not spoil ones own sister what was the use of having money in the first place.Then they got closer. It was an interesting contrast, a well dressed, dapper asian gentleman and a younger caucasion female with still drying hair in casual attire.

>"I would say you're the best, but we both already know it. I would say it suits us rather well, but I look like a wet rat at the moment. No cigar there, my brother."

Richard had to smile at the words.He did have a cigar in his top pocket. It was good to be loved by his sister. He opened the door for her and helped her in. "Well then my dear sister, off to the Mansion first then lunch?" This said he set the stereo going and off they went.

[OCC for reference here is the story behind the car]

Unaware that he was being evaluated in a slightly cool and calculating way and rather happy to receive praise for his work. Richard very much fell for the pleading look. He was, some would say naive and innocent, happy to openly talk to anyone about his powers. "Well my powers are two fold, the first part allows me to touch something and... well sort of see how it is built, why it was built and what it was meant for, also increasingly I am getting to see the durability of something, say where or when or how it might break." He paused for a breath searching Syn's face for a hint of boredom. He had bored people before.

"The second part is the more energy consuming, is where, with certain materials, I can, well shape them, mold them. For instance this drill press here is working but some the internal wiring is frayed and brittle and work hardened and is close to breaking. At this point I could either choose to nudge those copper particles apart and break the cable entirely or I could "push" them in the other direction to ensure that the drill keeps on running."

What would she think of that?
>“Ah, so you’re new here. Well then, welcome to New York City. What jobs have you applied for and what would be your dream job if you could have it?”

Richard bowed slightly. "Why thank you madam. I must confess I came here on a whim and so applied for the whole gambit of jobs. I would love a job that allows me to create and build solutions to problems. To create, to dream and build and be multi-disciplinary and not be restricted to optimizing mass produced products for the masses."

After the words left his mouth he belatedly realized how, loft and pie-in-the-sky-ish they sounded. But one could dream, right? Perhaps he should come back to reality.