Good Cop Bad Cop: Chapter One

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One week. Asher has to be mean, Kay has to be nice. Whoever gives up first has to write a story for the winner. Should be... interesting.

Kay nodded and went to get a towel, bringing it back and setting it on the bed beside James. [I'm sure at some point we can find you some new skin.] Man that sounded weird. [At least you can do that.] He subconciously clenched and unclenched his burned hand, sure it was healed but it was still stiff and awkward.

James nodded. "Someday that would be nice." He smiled at Kay, "You tried talking to Sawna? Supposedly those guys are good at making scars less nasty."

Asher busily removed damaged parts from James' hand, neatly arranging them on the towel while Kay and James talked.

[She already healed as much as I believe she can. I don't want to trouble her, it's fine, really. ] Yeah it didn't look fine, but then, the depth of the burns had been pretty much full thickness. Silver was apparently absolutely caustic in contact with his skin, it was beyond allergy. But he didn't like the idea of getting someone to expend their energy making him slightly more comfortable. Scars were a fact of life, using magic to remove them felt like... a cheat. He looked at the twisted finger. [You really managed to mangle that didn't you?] He smiled softly.

"Fair enough," James smiled at Kay. Hey, he'd gotten mad at Shane for nagging Kaliyani about it, so he'd be a hypocrite to do the same thing. He tried to turn his arm to look at his hand, but Asher tightened his grip, forcing James to hold still. "Yeah, hard surfaces versus lightweight metal? Doesn't go so well. At least it can be fixed though!"

"And if your finger snaps from metal fatigue, I'm not making you a new part," Asher said sternly as he took the metal piece and started bending it back into shape.

Kay smiled at Asher's grumpiness, it amused him.
He nodded to James. [It's very useful, and substantially less messy than organic repairs.] He looked like he approved, oddly. [ Some of the officers who came through our doors had prosthetics similar to the way your hand is constructed. Though without the synthetic skin to make them look more natural. Looking natural is... something that doesn't seem to appeal to the pragmatic side of Imperium designers. I suspect a lot of it comes down to people taking a degree of perverse pride in their more horrific war wounds. If you lose a limb or an eye and survive, you MUST be a hero, or something. ] He shook his head, he didn't look like he much believed it.

James snorted. "Man, those guys sure are crazy about combat and bravery and stuff. Still, its kind of a good idea to not bother with the skin. Stupid stuff just gets damaged, after all. And it's sooo expensive to manufacture. All those hairs. Ugh." He looked amused.

Asher finished bending the finger 'bone' into shape, and began the process of reassembling James' hand. He was still kind of startled that Kay didn't seem bothered by robot insides. He was so used to the idea of them being something wrong and disturbing, that only robots should see. This was odd.

[You have to admire the artistry of it though, the attention to detail is astounding. It can't be easy to mass produce.] Kay glanced to Asher and smiled softly, trying to look reassuring. This was weird, but he'd seen prosthetics, they weren't that different. Now maybe if this was fixing James' face he'd be more horrified.
There was something very unsettling about removing the skin on a person's face, even when that person was a robot.

James snickered. "SO much detail, oh my gosh."

Asher gave him a warning look.

James grinned sheepishly. "I didn't say anything."

"Good," Asher finished wiring everything in again, and started replacing the skin.

Kay looked slightly awkward at that remark. Ahem.
Thanks James.
He looked away.

James forced himself to not laugh somehow. He didn't want Asher to kick him out before his hand was fixed.

Asher got his momentary embarrassment under control. "No more jousting," he told James, "Unless you use modern armor, not medieval stuff. You can't make a habit of damaging yourself when we have no access to replacement parts!" Easiest to change the subject right now. And it was a chance to live up to his bad cop reputation!

Kay looked faintly grateful at Asher, then back to amused by his attempt to be stern. [Next time we stop somewhere that sells parts, we'll see about picking some up. Just in case. ] Hey with this many androids on board now, they were bound to need this stuff sooner or later. Bah.

Asher nodded. "But a supply of parts isn't an excuse for irresponsible behavior," he said sternly to James, "So don't take our supply restocking as an invitation to be an idiot."

James blinked, looking slightly amused, but puzzled. "Are you okay, bro?"

Kay was trying so hard to keep a straight face. [He's fine James, just fine. Go, enjoy the rest of your day. In fact, make sure Luka isn't up and about, she's supposed to be resting.]

Hand fully repaired now, James got up and picked up the tool box. He gave Asher a suspicious look, then shrugged. "My big bro is weird," he told Kay. "Thanks guys!" He headed off to check on Luka.

Asher looked proud as James left. "How am I doing!" He asked.

Kay smiled at him. [Beautifully. ] He helped tidy things away. [But it's easy to be rude to brothers, they usually deserve it.]

"Aww, i guess you're right," Asher looked momentarily disappointed. "He's good for practice at least. You're good at being nice to him."

Kay smiled softly. [I like James, He's a good guy.]

"He's got issues, but I wouldn't want any other brother instead," Asher said proudly.

Kay nodded [Family is family, no matter how stupid and irritating they can be.]

At which point Matt hurried in with Esk reluctantly in tow. Esk had a cloth held to his hand which was soaked with black.
He looked annoyed.

Matt looked a bit panicked. "Uh... so... so it wasn't my fault!"

Esk raised an eyebrow "it was entirely your fault." He replied calmly.

Kay's eyes widened. [You're bleeding!]

"Oh you noticed?" Esk snapped.

[What happened!?]

"I dropped a bottle." Matt looked sheepish.

"He was juggling bottles and managed to fling one at me." Esk corrected him. "I told him I could deal with it myself but no, he insists we have to come here and bleed all over your floor too." He sounded really unimpressed.

Asher looked at the new arrivals, startled. Well, this was quite a busy week! "I'll check the injury," he said, heading over to Esk. He'd get to scolding in a bit.

Esk huffed and let Asher look, glaring at Matt the whole time.
Kay gathered things yet again. Man, it was a busy week. He was starting to think they just should never put things away, they seemed to need them again almost immediately.

Esk's hand was pretty badly cut, which was evidenced by how much of that black ink-like blood of his had soaked into the cloth. It was deep.

Kay hissed softly, yeah that would need stitches.

Esk rolled his eyes. "I can do it myself."

"You're not using a sewing needle to stitch your hand!" Matt protested.

"Why not? We had a needle, we had vodka, we had thread." Esk protested.

Kay tried so... so hard not to let himself frown. Every time Matt opened his mouth he found one eye started twitching. Oh dear.

"You're nuts!" Matt told Esk.

"no, i'm used to having to deal with my own injuries because nobody can touch me Matt. " Esk told him cooly.

Matt looked awkward. "but... well.. you don't have to now! and a sewing needle and random thread isn't appropriate for stitching wounds! right? right Kay?" He looked to his brother.

Kay stared at him, bit his lip hard to stop himself from smirking or anything and raised both hands, shaking his head. Not getting involved.

Matt looked a bit crestfallen at that.

"you're not going to lecture him about juggling bottles?" Esk asked, he'd noticed the twitch and with a smirk added. "hey matt, you told him you and Thalia's other news yet?"

Matt looked confused.

Kay's twitch got worse.

Asher looked at the injury, then frowned up at Esk. "Since I'm not affected by your magic, there's absolutely no reason to stitch yourself up," he said firmly. He glanced at Kay, noticing his twitch, oh my, Kay was mad. He smiled slightly.
"I'll talk to you once I'm done with Esk," he told Matt sternly.

Matt looked glumly at the floor.

Kay tried to distract himself by mopping up the trail of blood on the floor.

Esk looked pleased with himself and stared into Asher's face critically. "still playing your game? "

"Wait... game?" Matt asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Asher said, getting to work cleaning the wound so he could stitch it.

Esk snickered, doing a remarkably good job of not flinching too much as Asher's cleaned the wound.

"You know.. I can do that.." Matt offered to take the mop.

Kay shot him a warning look, then immediately tried to soften it and shook his head. No no, it was fine, absolutely fine... this... was.. .a distraction.. twitch... twitch.

Matt looked worried. "Uh.. are you okay?"

"He's about 3 minutes off beating your head against that desk Matt. Man, if i'd known i'd get a show if I got injured i'd have taken less care earlier." Esk smirked.

Kay gripped the mop handle tighter.

Asher tried very hard to not look amused. Kay was so close to the breaking point, and it was both terrifying and funny. He got to work stitching Esk's cut once it was clean.

Esk kept his hand as still as possible and honestly was pretty grateful for the distraction of his irate brother. This hurt like hell.
He hissed softly and grit his teeth.

Kay finished mopping and cleared up.

Matt looked awkward and quite unsettled, clearly waiting for a lecture that hadn't yet come and wondering when the storm was going to hit.

Kay took quiet satisfaction in how upset and scared Matt looked, though it didn't help ease his annoyance. He wanted to know why he'd been juggling, but he knew if he found that out he'd just be angrier.