Hi-Chew (D6, EM)

[Phoebe Wren]

His summary of Riza made her chuckle with some warmth. Her roommate was... an odd one, to be sure.

Still, she listened to his piece, nodding slightly. "Well... that's why we're here right? Because we do what we do? And hopefully learn to do better along the way, eh?" she pushed Axel's mighty bicep with a fist.

That's what guys did, or something. Right?

[Axel Ward]

"Yeah, I guess so." Axel said agreeably.

He looked down at Phoebe's fist, his expression amused, as he rose up, then connected with his bicep. It was solid, but he did shift a little.

Axel looked at Phoebe. "That your first time doing that?" His hand came up to cup his chin, exaggeratedly thoughtful. "I guess you did show me some stuff about fixing weapons. Maybe I could show you how to do a fist bump."

[Phoebe Wren]

"Hey, I know how to do it," she said with a small huff, drawing herself up to full height. Which wasn't much.

[Axel Ward]

"Yeah? Okay." Axel unlimbered himself from the wall. He didn't pull himself up to his full height, but of course he didn't need to be quite a bit higher than her.

"Let's see what you've got." He held out his fist. At about his own head level.

[Phoebe Wren]

Clencing her hand into a fist, Phoebe raised it and... touched Axel's knuckles with her own. And kind of just held it there.

"Bam."

[Axel Ward]

Axel's expression stayed totally neutral as their knuckles pressed together.

"Eh." He shrugged. "Not bad. I've had better. Four outta ten, maybe." His lips pressed together as he struggled to avoid smiling.

[Phoebe Wren]

"Alright, Fistbump Master," she frowned, with a touch of red in her face, "how is it done then?"

[Axel Ward]

"Alright, come on." Axel gave her a nod. "I'll show you. Hold up your fist."

Grunting, Axel cracked his knuckles. "Gotta get ready." He explained.

[Phoebe Wren]

She held up her hand as asked, but raised a suspicious eyebrow at his knuckle-cracking. "If you break my hand, you'll be eating adhesive goo."

[Axel Ward]

Snorting, Axel flashed her a quick smile. "Wouldn't have it any other way, Wren. I know you can dish it out."

He nodded again. "Okay, here we go." Raising his fist, he brought it against hers. It was perhaps a little more energetic than hers, and with more recoil."

"Bam!" He said. "There, y'see?"

[Phoebe Wren]

Her arm budged from the recoil, and she watched him silently for a few seconds.

"Not bad, Breaker. Not bad," she commented with a tone of appriciation to her voice.

[Axel Ward]

"And that's how you do it." Axel said.

He made a bit of a face at the nickname. "Hey, thanks. Bunny." He said, his tone amused.

He chuckled. "Say, you think you could show me some other stuff? Like, vibrostuff? I'd bet you could do something with the motor, or the generator, or..." Axel shrugged. Actually, he wasn't entirely sure how a vibrosword worked.

[Phoebe Wren]

The face didn't go unnoticed, but she didn't raise a question about it right away.

"Sure, I guess." Shrugging, she pulled the toolkit closer, taking out her personal tools that had been customized for working on vibroweapons specifically. "You've been walking around with that Czerhander all this time but don't know the first thing about how it works? Tsk. Do you even clean that thing? Who knows where it's been!"

[Axel Ward]

"Uh..." Axel rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I mean, I know the basics. It vibrates. Makes it cut better." He cleared his throat. Kriff, he sounded like an idiot.

"I mean, I clean the blade and everything. But I don't wanna just open up the other parts and just... scrub around, or whatever. That's bad." A beat. "Right?"

At the moment, he wasn't actually carrying the sword. He jerked a thread back the way he came. "Maybe I could go grab it real fast, and you could show me?"

[Phoebe Wren]

"Riiight," she sighed and rolled her eyes. Taking out a new pack of gum, Phoebe gave him a nod. "Sure, go get it, and I'll teach you vibro-weapons 101. Be grateful I give classes for free."

[Axel Ward]

Axel flushed a bit. Damnit, it wasn't his fault he'd never been taught this stuff. Or that he'd been hit in the head so many times. "I'll owe you one." He said as he beat a hasty retreat.

...

True to his word, he was only gone a few minutes, lugging his heavy vibrosword with him, edgeguard in place. Carefully, he set it down on the bench, pulling the covering away.

"Here." Axel grunted. The blade didn't look that bad. Clean, anyway. A few dings and dents; Axel had clearly used it on some pretty solid targets. But it was very well-made, with a customized grip and a mono-edge.

[Phoebe Wren]

Phoebe was popping her gum and listening to music as Axel returned, sitting on the workbench with her legs kicking back and forth like a bored kid.

"Right," she heaved herself off the bench to give room for Axel and the weapon. And she did give the sword an appriciative whistle. "Got some good upgrades on it there. Could probably do some upgrades on it too for better balance and cutting power. Anyway, that's for another day."

With the kit ready, she started to open up the hilt to check the energy cell and generator. "The reason why vibroblades are vibroblades is because of the vibration generator causing the ultrasonic vibrations along the edge. Means you need to check that the generator and the energy cell are in good working conditions." It was a simple process, like cleaning a rifle.

"See here," she held pointed out to the energy cell. "The isolators here are pretty vital, as they protect the cell from blowing up when you slap a droid too hard, and blowing off your hand. It's not a risk now, but we'll fix up the thermal protective layer there now since we're going through the thing."

In situations like this, the goo-gun and the kit were good tools to have on hand to apply the new layer and patch up little things.

[Axel Ward]

"Yeah." Axel rubbed the back of his head. "That makes sense." Well, it sorta made sense. Close enough that he felt like saying 'ultra-what now?' wouldn't add a lot to the conversation.

Still he did do his best to follow along. Axel leaned forward, his dark eyes narrowing as he followed her gesture. The inside bits were a little worse for the wear; while they'd clearly been maintained before, it just as clearly hadn't been for a while. Axel winced a little at the description. "And I did hit that droid pretty hard..." he murmured.

"So... how do we do that?" Axel grimaced. "Sorry, I just never learned this stuff."

[Phoebe Wren]

She snickered. "I'm surprised you still have your hand, Breaker, if that's how much you know. Anyway, let me show you instead of explaining it to you - you strike me as the visual type."

With the procedure, Phoebe made sure to go slow and to let Axel get a look at each tool she used so that he could remember the sight of them rather than memorizing each type by number.

"So... what's up with that funny face?"

[Axel Ward]

"Yeah, well..." Axel shrugged. "I've never been the best listener." It was still a little sheepish. He did do his best to follow along, sometimes asking to see things again.

Axel looked up, frowning. "Funny face? Is that your way of saying you don't like the way I look?" Axel shook his head. "Man, you really know how to kick a guy when he's down, huh?"

As usual, it was a little hard to tell if he was joking or not.