8445/Not Quite Fully Alive

Not Quite Fully Alive
Date of Scene:	26 October 2021
Location:	Lobby - GIRL Headquarters
Synopsis:	Demona confuses GIRL entrance scanners and Cyborg asks her out for coffee...eventually.
Cast of Characters:	Susan Sullivan, Victor Stone

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Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona has stopped for the preliminary sensors. The device she's been given will keep security from totally tripping the alarms, but she is still having some problems. "Would you step into the scanner, please, miss?" one of the guards on duty says. Demona walks to the scanner and lets the guards do their thing. "Have you been exposed to any unusual radiation or other phenomena recently, miss?" the guard asks.
    "No," Demona says. "Well, maybe. Why? What's wrong?"
    "Your readings don't match what we have on file for you."
    "That's going to happen," Demona says. "The...what did she call it...my qi changes depending on where I soak it up," she says, using words she knows to define these things as.
    "Please hold still for a complete scan," the security guard says.
    Demona rolls her eyes and huffs out a breath through tight lips, but waits for the scan to complete.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor Stone is coming out of the bank of elevators that leads back to the labs and meeting rooms. He stands out not only for being male in this place, but tall and large and, well, shiny and chrome. He grins in a friendly manner at security guards, and then actually stops to chat one up.

    "Hey, Mike, I've got this pool going--"

    Oh. Mike is busy. Checking someone new through security that Vic doesn't know.

    So then he stops, to give Demona a slightly sheepish look. "Uhh, sorry," he says. "It can wait. You new here?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona sighs out as the scanners keep scanning. It didn't take this long the first time. "Yeah," she says. She looks over the guy, then she furrows her brow a bit, considering him again. "Are you naked?" she asks.
    "Miss," the one that has been called Mike says toward Demona. "Please refrain from using any powers until the scan has completed."
    "I'm not!" Demona protests. "I'm just standing here!"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor blinks at Demona and then blinks down at himself. "I mean... I /guess/? Sort of?" He blinks again, rapidly. "...I guess I am. I hadn't thought of that." Nobody tell Gar. Or the rest of the Titans.

    "Sorry, uhh, what's the problem that just looking at someone is using powers?" His own badge, sitting on a lanyard around his neck, indicates that he has pretty much full access to the building, though his official rank would appear to be 'SCIENCE! Friend'

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Mike gestures at the computer. "Bio signs keep changing," he says toward cyborg.
    That seems to worry Demona more than anything else. She tightens up a bit. "What do you mean?" she asks.
    Looking between the two, the one called Mike says, "Well." He tries to figure out how to even understand the scanner enough to explain it. He's a security guard, and while he might be smarter than the average bear, he's not on the level of the GIRL members. "It might be a sensor glitch, but there is one heartbeat on file, your bio-electrical field keeps changing, and the scanner keeps starting over."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "I mean, that's weird, but..." Cyborg hesitates. He doesn't know this woman, and he doesn't run the place exactly. "What, uhh... no offense, but what's your deal? Are you a meta or...?"

    The question is asked without rancor or judgement. Almost everyone he knows these days is not-normal-human, between actual aliens and magical people and metagene bearers and those who use science to enhance their abilities.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "It's complicated," Demona says. She sidesteps out of the scanner. "Hey," she says to cyborg, "you wanna get coffee and talk about it? I was hoping to get in here and hang out, but the only reason I'm not setting off alarms is because of this device Nadia gave me that prevents that, I'm pretty sure." She shakes her head. "I'm not willing to compromise security, even if I am supposed to be here."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic grins. "Sure! Nadia's kind of, uhh... she's playing with ionic beams back there. It's really cool, but I think she's probably not paying attention if security called."

    He walks on through the outgoing security checkpoint, pulling off his badge and giving it to one of the guards. "I'll catch you next time about the football pool, Mike. Buy-in's only 20 dollars."

    Then he's out on the other side of the security cordon, ready to go get coffee.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona walks with him. She looks up at the cyborg Cyborg and says, "You are just about the coolest thing I've ever seen." She quickly adds, "and I mean that with all due respect to you as a person."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic blinks at Demona. "Uhh... thanks." And then, after a moment, "No, really, thanks. I still..." He smiles almost shyly. "Even after all my years as a Titan, and /knowing/ my friends are cool with me... it's still kinda..." He trails off, and shrugs.

    "Anyway, so... like I said, what's your deal? And I mean that with all due respect, y'know, you've met Nadia, all my friends have 'deals.'" He grins.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona glides along the floor, dragging her shoes before planting her feet in front of Cyborg and saying, "You're cute, you're hot, and you're really cool. Don't you dare be down on yourself, especially around me." Demona reaches up and clicks her mask off, pulling it off and revealing her less-than-normal face. "I'm Demona," she says. "I'm not a demon. I'm...complicated. I used to be a Jiangshi, but I rose above that. And...apparently weird stuff is happening with my body." She looks down at herself and doesn't look particularly pleased about not knowing what's happening. She looks back up at her new friend and extends her hand. "I'm very happy to meet you," she says with a genuine smile on her face.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Jiangshi... uhhh... Chinese?" Victor guesses. He knows >< much about magic and vampires and such, which is to say next to nothing. That's Raven's department.

    But he smiles and takes Demona's hand, shaking it firmly. He's got an unsurprisingly strong grip. "Victor Stone. Vic, to most people. And yeah, I'm Cyborg, with the Titans." Not like he can really hide it much. "Look, back when I first... when this first happened everyone was weird about it. Still shaking that off. But I should guess anyone who hangs out at GIRL would think the chrome is cool! And they'd be right. The chrome is cool." He grins.

    "So... what is a used-to-be-a-Jiangshi but now having weird stuff happen doing at GIRL? Are you a tech person, too?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I am," Demona says with a nod, her smile fading as she lets him hold her hand as long as he wants. Her brow furrows as she says, "I'm feeling a little out of my depth here, though. I reverse-engineered a knock-off arc reactor enough to install it in my van. I haven't really got the super-science the others I've seen here have."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Well, you'll get there," Vic says in a tone of confidence. "I mean, that's part of the point, right? Of, uhh, GIRL, I mean. Mentorships and things like that. I mean, hey, if you reverse-engineered an arc reactor on your own... that's pretty impressive. I do a lot of cool science stuff, but I've got financial backing from S.T.A.R. labs and that sort of thing."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks over Victor before her eyes return to his one organic-looking eye. "I assume your brain is still fully organic," she says. She looks down at his chest, reaching out to brush her fingers across the steel. "Can you feel anything at all?"

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Actually, there's cybernetics in my brain, too," Vic says, glancing down at his chest where Demona brushed her fingers against the chrome near the bright glow. "Well... more like the cybernetics are hooked into my brain. I don't feel things the same way I used to, on the chrome. I've set it up so I get pain feedback if it gets damaged, because that's just... pain's there as a warning, you know?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks him over. "So, you were built by Star Labs?" she asks. "Do they do all your maintenance, or do you sometimes need a bearing greased or a circuit checked by the girls here?" She adjusts her hat a bit, pulling it down over her ears a bit more. "I'm not trying to perv on you," she insists. "Just really kind of curious about how you work. I've always liked machines more than people, and you're...I don't know. You're confusing to my brain. It doesn't know where to file you."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor laughs. "I do most of the maintenance myself, at Titans Tower. STAR does some of it. The girls here mostly threaten to weld gems to the chrome and douse me in glitter." He says this good-naturedly, as if glitter and gems are just a thing one deals with in the day-to-day.

    "Nadia and I've been friends for a while now," he explains. "We share the labs at the Tower, so when she started this up she wanted me to at least be able to come around and look at things she's doing. As for how I work? I mean... I'm both! Man, machine... Cyborg. I guess you need a new file for that."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks him over again. "How much of you is man?" she asks as her eyes meet his again. "Is that coffee like me taking C-3PO along while I do stuff, or does it still have--" She crosses her arms in front of herself, leaning back and putting a smug expression on her face. She inclines her head and raises her eyebrows as she aims a very Joey, "How YOU doin'?" at Cyborg. Her expression and posture returns to normal as she continues, "--connotations?"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor laughs. "No, no, I... eat and drink a /lot/. All my major organs are still mine. The chrome is like... a life support system, almost? A walking life support system."

    He... frowns at that. He doesn't like thinking about it like that.

    After a moment, he says, "So, yeah, I can drink coffee just fine. I practically require it, actually."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona says, "because Cyborg, not robot," she concludes. She rubs the back of her neck. "I'm not doing very well at this," she admits. She drops her hands to her sides and squares off in front of Cyborg. "I'm attempting to ascertain if flirting with you is like akin to flirting with an iron lung." She slides backward along the floor just slightly. "I," she starts. She clears her throat. Her eyes drop to his feet. "I'm just making things awkward," she says. "I retract the question."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic... blinks. Oh. /Oh/. "Oh! You... oh. Oh, geez, I'm so sorry, I'm... not used to... flirting. Most of the girls and guys I know are, uhh... family, you know?" The Titans, he means.

    "Sorry. Damn. Now /I/ made it awkward. Uhhh. Okay, look, let's start over. Hi, I'm Vic, let's have coffee and get to know each other, I promise I'm a normal guy mostly except my dad put me in a walking machine... thing... no, no, that made it worse."

    He laughs again. "...I'm really not good at this. If it helps."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona giggles and smiles up at Victor. She moves to stand next to Cyborg and hooks her hand around his elbow, putting her other hand on his forearm. "I'd love to get coffee with you," she says with a nod.