[-][L-A][P-1x1] ⊰~мαи-мα∂є ωιиɢs~⊱

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

It actually took Armando a moment to recognize the man's comment as sarcasm. Of course he wasn't here just to look at Armando, that would be rather... well, odd to say the least. Though the way the young man's keen brown eyes rolled over him might suggest that that really was the reason he was here. Armando straightened subconsciously, a little glad that he was at least taller than his potential assistant.
Potential. He'd almost forgotten that he had no idea if the young man had any mechanical skills to speak of. One might assume that if a person was apply for a job as his assistant he would have some experience with airships or cars, but it was still surprising the number of people who did not. Armando hoped that this man would have what he needed in an assistant, if only because he was not sure he would be able to make it through the rest of the summer without one.
"Right," Armando said, reaching for his abandoned apron, which lay draped over the counter. He continued to wipe his hands on it as he thought, with extra care to the joints of his mechanical right hand. If he didn't get the worst of the grease off now, it would be hell to clean later that night. "A test...Ah."
Armando crossed to the car he'd been working on, patting the side of the vehicle affectionately as he reached it, like it hadn't just been causing him a good deal of frustration only moments ago.
"What's wrong with this car?"

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis watched Armando clean off his hands, caught by surprise at the sight of the mechanical hand. Though he liked to be sarcastic, he knew better to joke about something like that. Losing an appendage wasn't the nicest experience after all, and Travis had come close to it many times.
Travis waited, tapping his foot lightly, for Armando to finish cleaning his hands of grease. Here it comes... thought Travis as Armando affectionately patted the green little car that he had been working on before.
"What's wrong with this car?"
Travis raised one eyebrow. Was this some trick or something? That was such a simple task that Travis actually had to suppress an incredulous "that's all?" Rather, he said, "Pah. Child's play," then set to work.
Travis rolled underneath the car, checked around the car, within it, above it, and whatever else he needed to do. At one point, he just leaned his ear on the back pipe and just closed his eyes. He then knocked on a couple of places and then just left to sit across the room and stare at the car.
Eventually, he returned and started fixing something within the hood. With a satisfied smirk, he reemerged, his hands very greasy. Travis pulled out a towel that was hooked on one of his two belts and wiped his hands. "I think it should start now." He stepped away to let Armando try.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

He stood back to asses the man's work, hands on his hips, grateful for the break. He wasn't sure if he was even going about hiring someone the right way. His last assistant, Bert, was someone Armando's old mentor had recomended and had been with him since the opening of his shop, four years ago.
Watching the young man work was like nothing Armando had ever seen before. He did not know anyone who went about things in this seemingly roundabout manner, and he'd been in the business eight years. At first, Armando could not make sense of it, and even as he began to wrap up what he was doing, Armando did not understand how he'd fixed the car. If he had fixed the car. From the assurance in which he carried out the action, the mechanic assumed that there was some method to the apparent madness.
Seeing that he was done, Armando walked over to the counter. There were dozens of tiny drawers set into the space beneath it, each with a tiny label and a customer's name. Running a wooden finger over them, Armando opened a drawer and extracted a set of brass keys.
After closing the hood, Armando vaulted himself into the driver's seat.
"Alright, let's see how she runs," He stuck the keys into ignition, waiting for half a second before twisting them sideways. The engine rumbled gently to life, growling as it waited for the command to move forward. Armando grinned.
"Wonderful!" he called, shutting down the engine. He pulled out the keys and began clambering out of the car, talking the all the while. "Fantastic job! You're hired. When can you start? Tomorrow? Today? Oh, what are you called?" It had taken Armando that long to realize he still didn't know the name of his new assistant.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis's expression didn't change much as he heard Armando exclaim his pleasant surprise. After all, it had already been set in a smug smirk from the moment he had finished. From that time, he had known that it would work if Armando tried.
"Oh, what are you called?"
Travis looked up. "Now you ask? Sheesh." He leaned lazily against the front of the car. "Travis. Travis Dyer. Middle names aren't important."
He straightened back up and jerked a thumb behind him towards the door. "And by my great skills at deduction and analysis, I'm going to take a far-fetched gander that your name is Armando."
He took a fake glance down at his watch—a curious, wide faced thing consisting of many small buckles and straps—and muttered, "I start whenever I want to, Mandy," he glanced back outside at the sun, "And I happen to be available today." To make his point, he strapped his towel back into one of his belts and picked up a wrench with his smudged hands. He stood, silhouetted by the light streaming in through the door, flipping the wrench up and down.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

"Ah, Travis," Armando said happily, the heat of the day already forgotten. He hurried to file away the key back in the drawer. He'd have to contact the woman soon to tell her that her car was ready, and sooner than he'd expected.
"And by my great skills at deduction and analysis, I'm going to take a far-fetched gander that your name is Armando." Armando's head shot up, curls bouncing, once again having missed the sarcasm in Travis' voice.
"I am. Raúl Armando at your service." Though really, he supposed it should have been Travis in his service, not the other way around. Armando crossed to a different corner of the shop, pulling things off the wall as he went, and missing the charming new nickname he had earned.
The shop opens at eight and we close ten, except on Sundays, when we are only open from noon to five. You have all major holidays off and an additional day off every month, sick days not included. Pay starts at, lets say... eight hundred crownes a month? " If he'd heard Travis' quip of starting when he wanted to, Armando did not act like it. He held an apron, a pair of safety googles, a set of thick gloves bundled in his arms by the time he glanced back at his new assistant. Armando watched him for a moment, the wide grin he'd been wearing softening into something more relaxed, as his eyes followed the quick flick of Travis' wrist that sent the wrench spinning through the air and how he managed to catch the tool every time.
" Don't drop that on your foot. " He said finally.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis thought about what Armando said as he said it. The shop hours seemed perfectly reasonable, and the days that he had off seemed great compared to the jobs that he had started off with, where he either worked very little or all the time. And the pay was quite good also. Travis had come in expecting something along the lines of 400 crownes a month. What Armando offered was almost double.
"Don't drop that on your foot."
"My foot is perfectly well taken care of. Thank you for caring," he retorted, standing up from his leaning position at the counter. He approached the car that sat behind the one he had just fixed and took a look at it. "This one finished too?" He figured that if Armando wasn't going to assign him to something, he would fix whatever he felt like... And if Armando did assign him to something, he'd still fix whatever he felt like fixing.
Travis ran his hand along the leather of the seat absentmindedly while he examined its craftsmanship.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o


"Hm? Oh, yes, I suppose that would be good. " Armando said absently, setting the items in his arms on the countertop. He began to fold the apron as neatly as he could manage without getting any more motor oil on the garment than there already was. It was his old assistant's gear, but he figured it would fit Travis well enough. " These are yours as well. If you're going to do any welding, please use the goggles. That's what they are there for."
He set the folded apron on the counter along with everything else. He leaned against it for a moment, trying to think if there was anything he'd forgotten about the job.
When it came down to it, if you knew what you were doing with your mechanics, the job was fairly simple. There was no special set of manners you had to learn when dealing with cars, and customers only really required basic politeness. There was no uniform you had to wear to work on an engine. That was definitely a plus about the job for Armando. It was hard enough to learn the slightly different Skadian set of manners when he was a child, he didn't think he'd be able to learn all the social protocols it took to become someone other than an artisan. In a way, mechanics was more of an art than a science.
Snapping back to himself, Armando came to look over Travis' shoulder. He still found the man's method rather unusual, though he was convinced that Travis really did know what he was doing.
"Who did you learn from? " Armando asked curiously.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis murmured quietly to himself as he worked. "Problem's in the wheel," he muttered as he stared intently at the leather in the back seat. He scratched at the leather, then sniffed. "Eh." He continued his examination, moving to the side of the chassis. He took out his wrench and held it level at about one inch from the top of the door. He squinted at it through one eye. "Curious." He did the same thing to various other parts of the car with no apparent order at all. "The wheel..." he kept muttering.
He didn't even glance up when Armando placed the items down on the counter. He usually focused on one thing and one thing only, and it usually was fixing whatever was in front of him.
However, Travis did look up when Armando asked about who he learned from. "I didn't learn from someone. Was never an apprentice. All master artisans are too... happy and forgiving." He scowled, returning to his work. He finally rounded upon the wheel that he was muttering about and completely walked past it, deciding to measure the door handle instead.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o


"You taught yourself. " Armando prompted. The idea that he should actually take advantage of the extra set of hands and get started on the third and final vehicle in his shop, seemed much less appealing when he could be interrogating his new assistant. Interrogate was perhaps a bit too strong a word for what Armando was trying to accomplish.
"How long did it take you to learn how to do this? " By "this", Armando meant the odd series of motions Travis was performing on the car. He looked more like a doctor prodding his patient than a mechanic.
It made sense Travis taught himself this mad way of fixing things. He couldn't think of any other way someone might dream up this sort of method. Armando himself went about things the way he'd been taught. It there was something wrong with the engine, he went to the engine, if something wrong with the wheels, he went to the wheels. It was a way that made sense.
Leaving Travis alone for a moment, Armando went to fetch the tall, three-legged stool that sat somewhere behind the counter and in front of the coatroom. He dragged it back to where Travis was still working and sank onto it with a sigh, continuing to watch him from his new perch.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis finally came upon the wheel once again, and this time, he sat down in front of it and started fiddling with something behind it. Eventually, he crawled under the car and started fixing the problem. Something had been dislodged and now jammed the axle. It could be a big problem or little one, depending on what it was that was jamming the axle—from the inside.
"You taught yourself."
How much more obvious could that have been? "No, I just picked up a wrench yesterday and magically became so good after I met a mechanical fairy," he muttered sarcastically from his position underneath the car. It came out a little muffled because it had been so quiet in the first place. Just an automatic reply that he didn't really think Armando would hear anyways.
"How long did it take you to learn how to do this?" Travis slid out from under the car. He paused a little as he saw Armando sitting on a stool in front of the only car left. The car that probably needed fixing. "Don't you have anything better to do? I don't know, like, fixing something?" Once again, there was the obvious sarcastic tone to his voice.
Travis stood up and trod quickly to the other side. Once again, he went under. But before he did, he replied, "It took me as long as it takes anyone." As unhelpful as always.
This b*****d sure is inquisitive. Might be a tough one.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

If it took Travis "as long as it takes anyone" to learn to fix vehicles the way he did, than he must have either started young, or done absolutely nothing but work with cars and 'ships for the last few years... or both. It made Armando wonder exactly how old Travis was. He placed the man a few years younger than himself, but he wasn't always the best judge of age. He hoped that he had not accidently hired a teenager. It was legal for those under eighteen to hold jobs, yes, but Armando did not like the idea of a child doing a man's job, it made him uneasy. Still, it was an unlikely thought, and Travis was good enough that Armando would keep him on even if he were underage.
"Don't you have anything better to do? I don't know, like, fixing something?"
"This is more fun, though." Armando said, unperturbed by Travis' attempts to brush him aside. "Besides, the owner isn't coming to pick that little guy up until next week. He's on honeymoon in Valeria, so he didn't need it." Armando sighed dramatically, stretching out his back, which had gotten stiff from sitting hunched over on the stool.
"A honeymoon in Valeria-isn't that romantic?" He didn't really expect much of an answer from Travis, but was beginning to enjoy his new assistant's bitter sort of humor. While some employers might find it rude, Armando just found it refreshing. His las assistant had not possessed a sense of humor.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Damn. Why did the owner have to be enjoying himself so? If there was a little more of a deadline on that car, then Armando probably wouldn't be talking to him and working on the car instead. Well, Armando probably would still be talking, but at least from further away. Travis just felt like he was being interrogated.
"A honeymoon in Valeria—isn't that romantic?"
Travis did think that a honeymoon in Valeria was romantic, but he didn't care much about it. Not like he would ever have a honeymoon anyways, though if he did, Valeria would be the place.
Travis growled from underneath the car. "As romantic as going to the dentist," he muttered loudly, just so that Armando could hear despite the muffling effect of his position. Actually, it's as romantic as going to Inner Workings. And in Travis's case, that was true. He loved clocks.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

"I suppose there could be something rather sensual about having a strange man touching the inside of you mouth." Armando said with a perfectly straight face, scratching his chin as he turned the thought over, then shrugged. " If that's what you're into."
Armando glanced over at the open garage doors, a little surprised to find that the light had changed. A good portion of the afternoon had slipped away under his very nose again. The remaining sunshine made big rectangles of light on the floor and the car Travis continued to work on, while throwing the rest of the shop into relative shadow.
Armando clambered off the stool and made his way over to a shelf set into the far wall. There was the kerosene lamp, right where he'd left it last night. He fumbled for a moment, his stiff wooden fingers unable to turn the tiny metal knob that would light it. Switching hands, Armando turned the lamp on with his left hand, bathing the area around him in a soft glow. He carried it back to where Travis was working, keeping a hold of it while he seated himself back on the stool.

T h e M e c h a n i c

 

[Lady Sherlock]

T r a v i s - D y e r


Travis finished his repairs and pulled out from under the car with a smug expression. He patted the chassis for extra measure and stood up, not even bothering to check the car. The owner or Armando could do that when they wanted to. His job had been done, and he would do no more.
Travis wiped his hands on his towel and brushed away some sweat with the back of his arm.
"... If that's what you're into."
Travis looked up just in time to see Armando stand up. He blushed a dark crimson, not wanting to think about exactly where that could actually lead to, though his mind was feeling awfully graphic today—or most any other day. Though he usually could ignore it.
"b*****d," he muttered as Armando returned with the lamp. Travis turned around and walked off to explore the items that Armando had on the counter for him. He figured that the dark lighting there would hide his blush enough.

A s s i s t a n t - M e c h a n i c

 

[After Midnight Blue]

R a ú l A r m a n d o

"Aw, that's no way to talk to your boss." Armando chided him, sounding absolutely delighted. He set the lamp down on the hood of the car and busied himself putting the stool back and pulling down the garage doors. This involved standing on tiptoe to grab onto the handle that would unroll the rest of the large metal sheet. He did not even wince at the grating noise they made, having grown far too used to the sound over the past few winters when he had to open and close the doors every couple hours to let cars in and out. He could not keep them open all the time then, as he was doing now, or they would probably get hypothermia.
Retrieving the lamp, Armando paused to look at the car. Travis had managed to finish it so quickly, he almost wondered if it was really quality work. He dismissed the thought. The first car had started up beautifully, he should not doubt that this one would do the same.

"What do you think?" Armando asked, coming up behind Travis with the lamp. "I know it's all used, and if it really bothers you I can get you new things. I don't want people saying I'm a skinflint, after all."

T h e M e c h a n i c