Work Text:
Gloved fingers lifted the object from the box, a white cloth wrapped carefully around it. It was tilted just a little bit from side to side before being gingerly placed down on the table. “Unknown firearm. Place of origin: Rebel camp on colony planet Dodoulian. Manufacturer: Deceased. Deemed safe to test.”
Tomie’s foot jiggled in anticipation as he sat back on the testing bench, hands in his lap. There was a full table full of unknown weaponry next to him and today was a day booked full of tests, tests, maybe a lunch break, and then MORE tests. As much as he liked to complain about days like this all cooped up in the research and development rooms, he liked it. Ohhh, he loved it.
The scienstiffs took a few more measurements of the object, noting it's size, weight, length and - well, Tomie can't tell you what else they did. It was difficult for his mind to focus on their words, not when he was enraptured with the thoughts of a new restaurant to visit. But that's fine - soon enough they made their little marks on their holo boards and then they picked it up to open it up! That's enough to get him to snap to attention. The object was unwrapped with a careful attention to keep it level and he watched the scienstiffs closely as they lifted up the gun to the light. Rubber covered fingers touched and prodded and something in the back of his head made him want to rush forward to do the same. He was excited! This was what he was trained for, this is what he was good at and he just wanted to go ahead and pick it up and impress them already and show them the ins and outs and the tiny little hidden easter eggs of every little nook and cranny of that gun. But he had to be patient! Patience, patience, patience. He could do this. He inhaled deep as they continued to take their notes, eye fixated on the gun in the scienstiffs' hands. He could feel his focii almost vibrate on his ear, the little psionic amplifier picking up on how wired he was.
Then: “Rinoca. Please step forward.”
Tomie was almost embarrassed with how quickly he jumped to his feet, but he recovered it nicely with a slow, languid walk on over to the table. Nothing like a little confident swagger to hide his energy. The scientists were still tapping away at their own notepads and he leaned up against the table to sneak a peek. One of the scientists glanced up at the blueblood when he did so and gave him a playful little smile.
“Curious, aren’t you?” She asked and he gave her an infectious smile back.
“When aren’t I?” Tomie drawled, and he tilted his head to read when she offered the tablet at him. Most of it was just science talk and he skimmed over the bulk of it. Yadda yadda yadda… nothing of interest to him. None of it really had much affect on what he was there to do today - but it'd be rude not to knowingly nod his head along like he did actually understand some of it. God, he hoped she didn't try to ask him questions about it.
At least his pretend nodding helped kill a little bit of time! Just enough until the head scientist finally motioned for Tomie to come and pick up the gun. Which he did, with enthusiasm.
“So Tomie," the first scientist said, her fingers furiously tapping on her pad as his hands slotted around the metal casing. His fingertip augments scraped quietly over it as he felt around the base, fingernails catching at every little crevice and dip. Handmade, he mused at the rough edges, hefting it up and keeping it pointed down. So much information began to hum through his fingers and up to his skull! It fizzled and made his hair stand on end and it called for him to marvel at it, to make him pause and enjoy the feeling of his psionics wiggling every detail out of this gun and planting it in his head - but he didn’t. He couldn't - his psionics would slip out of his grasp the moment he tried to grip at what they were saying. No, he had to play coy. Tomie had to pretend he wasn't interested in that information for it to draw out and dangle more of them in the corner of his, well, metaphorical eyes. Instead, he looked over at the scienstiff as she continued to speak. "What did you do for the weekend?”
Tomie’s face split wide into a grin at her question and he leaned up on his robotic leg as his fingers flipped up every little hinge and button on the gun. Hidden pockets, really, and a coin popped out of one of them. It was worn with use and etched with something on the face but he just handed it on over to the eager assistant next to him. “Oh you know,” he started off, rocking his head from side to side as he thought. “Just the usual! I’ve been textin’ Lahlah a lot - I told you who she is right? I think I did,” The case snapped apart after a clever set of presses of key buttons, and he casually started to set it off to the side. “We’ve been discussin’ maybe meetin’ up again when she comes back around to the planet. Her battery is mostly here anyway so like, she’s got plenty of chances to come around and I’m tellin’ YOU I’ll be stealin her for at LEAST A WEEK.”
There was a hiss and a central core was revealed and pulsed in front of all of them. It was stable too, he realized with mild surprise, as the scienstiffs buzzed around you with alarm. That's certainly new - energy cores are rarely stable in handmade guns. They all started to talk a step back from Tomie and the gun but he didn’t even blink before he stuck his fingers deep where the core was and then, - click, pop, click - pulled it out. The core cooled and dimmed in the palm of his hand and he rolled it about his fingers before he set it down on the table.
“I found a great boba place the other day though!” He said cheerfully as the other trolls inched back closer. Their mouths were agape but the assistant recovered the quickest as he hesitantly reached for the core. “It’s delicious - like they even got pastries to go with them. Cute little macarons and the like, shaped like puppies and seashells and lemme tell you, I just can’t wait to start takin’ people there.” The Canary’s fingers don’t stop roaming for a second as he blathered on and by the time he’s gone from the subject of boba, to Nanako, to the pen cap he found in his shoe that one time he was napping, the gun was fully disassembled in front of all of them.
Each piece was accounted for, every screw was laid out in neat little rows and the casing was laid out flat - flat enough that the scienstiffs could see the manufacturer's number hand etched on the inside. Tomie nudged at that casing piece as he leaned forward over the table, his face expectant as he looked at the scienstiffs. There were some soft murmurs of delight and surprise as they poked around and he beamed at all of them. Then, they had him step on over to the next device all wrapped in white.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat.
By the time the last weapon sat in front of him in pieces, Tomie had gone through at least three dozen separate topics, at least one defused core that had been improperly mounted into the gun and he had the lot of them all cracking grins and chuckling. A good day, he had to admit as he stood at the end of the table, looking at all of his work in front of him with pride. Eight weapons! Wow, they had a good haul busting those rebels.
They dismissed the Canary then, letting him scurry back on over to his corner as they did their documenting. Lots and lots of pictures, lots of murmuring and writing and scribbling and inspecting - all of that was stuff he didn’t have to worry about. Nah, he started to squirm on the bench as he waited for them to finish, handhusk up to his face as he lied flat on his back and propped his leg up against the wall. There's nothing to do and nothing to see, so it's time to immerse yourself into the wild world of the internet! There's games to play, chatrooms to talk in and - Ooh, shit, did Nanako finally send you the link to that chat? Oh fucking awesome.
This day was going to be great.