2007-11-12: Knight in Shining Armor

Starring:

Trina_icon.gif Knight_icon.gif

Summary: Just when Trina's started wondering what the hell she should be doing, she gets offered a job.

Date It Happened: November 12, 2007

Knight in Shining Armor


Midtown, NYC - Midtown East - In front of the Prestige Apartments

Hey, not even a snide comment about girls working on cars. +2 points. Trina ducks her head a little as she makes her approach towards the car, a little more timid perhaps than she would normally be. Her Southern cadence is reined in for the benefit of the stranger in front of her, leaving a fairly neutral North American accent to rule in its stead. "How long's it been since she started last? Sometimes these old girls just don't like you forgettin' about 'em."

The man's accent is as neutral as one can get. However he has a well pitched voice, and a easy enough smile. He sighs slightly and shakes his head. "…that's just it. I have no idea. I just bought this one and wanted to get it home before going into the office… Of course, the thing died on me on my way back. Teach me to trust someone that says its easy to drive off the lot. Looked alright when I checked it out, but something might have gotten knocked loose." He shrugs slightly. "Seems that she did just forgotten about, so I decided to rescue her."

Not having to worry about hot car parts, Trina simply ducks her head right underneath the hood. Her fingers immediately go for the battery and wiggle the connectors. "Sounded like your battery. These are a little loose. Might not be gettin' the full juice off it." She moves to hold down the wires against the block, and then casts her blue eyes to Knight. "Wanna give it a try while I'm holding these?"

"…lovely, I thought I checked those…" Knight replies with a shake of his head. He pauses a moment, a slight moment of 'Your not going to hurt yourself are you?' kind of concern flickering across his features before he shakes his head slightly and nods. "Sure, I'll give it a try." He replies as he slides back out of sight behind the open hood. "The name is Knight by the way," He adds as he turns the car over. "Alexander Knight." He adds as he tries the key. The power flickers, the car almost turns over…but not quite. "…well…that was part of it…"

There's a slew of quiet curses that escape Trina's lips at the failure, and as soon as the engine stops trying to turn, she's waist deep under the hood. Her slender fingers are feeling down along cables and wires, head twisting to give herself greater reach down into the belly of the beast. Not as stable as she's been in months past, her other hand clings desperately to the grill to keep herself from falling over. While her blue eyes are looking upwards to the hood's interior, she gives a tiny yawn and then her introduction. "'m Trina. Nice to meetcha. So. Home, huh? You got an apartment here, then?"

"…I can do that if you want to try the starter next time, I think I have longer arms," Alex offers as he comes back around the hood and finds some strange, if cute, woman neck deep in his new car. "Nice to meet you too…and no, home is a bit away. The guy I bought it from lives around here though." A pause and he shakes his head. "Next time I'll get someone to move it."

"Gotcha. I'm a bit of a grease monkey, though, so I don't mind, you know." Pulling her arm back out, Trina starts shrugging off her coat and, one she's free of it, drapes it over the part of the hood where she's now leaning in. The cold doesn't seem so bad now, even with just her beat up Def Leppard tee on, now that she's got beautiful steel to distract her. It's only a few moments into her next survey of parts that the brunette straightens and looks more squarely at Alex. "Un… Unless you want to do it yourself." A hand reaches up to scratch sheepishly at the back of her neck. "I'm sorry."

This would be when Knight just raises one eyebrow as he admires Trina's…um…skills…while her eyes are firmly distracted by the inner workings of the engine. He laughs though at the sheepish look and apology, waving the latter off as he leans against the side of the car. "Oh no, I know exactly how you feel. I'm a bit of a mechanic myself so I know how it goes. By all means go right ahead and try to see if you can figure it out, you might catch something I missed."

"Yeah? They're the best things ever, ain't they?" Back Trina goes, under the hood, although this time, she's casually draping her whole slender body over the length of the engine to wiggle and toggle away at the back of the block. All of the world seems to dissipate, save the beautiful bit of stalled power beneath her. That is, however, until she can't see anymore. "Hey, you ain't got a light handy, do you? Just wanna make sure all your connections are tight back here.
"
"I wouldn't say ever but they are fun to work on," Knight replies with a slight smirk. Now, the wiggling and toggling is doing all kinds of interesting things to her figure, isn't it? Shaking his head though and with a slightly amused smirk on his lips Knight pauses a moment at the question. "Yeah just a second," He replies before reaching into the car. Now the car is nice but old, his clothes are nice but comfortable, the light he comes back with is some top-of-the-line tech. A fully positionable LED snakelight with a magnet that he clips onto the underside of the hood. "…there you go."

Trina glances upwards to look at it, and then a wide grin breaks out across her lips. "That's awesome." Oh, hey, and there she disappears again. "Did you see this corrosion back here? I don't think it's the cause of your problem, but y'might wanna think about replacing a couple of these bits. in' dealerships." She's still running a visual over the engine when she whistles, low. "Is this a first gen?"

"I try," Knight quips back before he frowns slightly and his own jacket comes back, casually thrown in the drivers side seat as he makes his way over next to the grease girl to poke his head back into the inner workings of the engine. "…I saw that but thought it could wait till I got it back to a proper garage. They never tell you things like that though, and even if they do they just use words like. 'Vintage' instead of damn well corroded." He nods though as he leans his elbows on the front of the car. "That's one of the reasons I got it, I think I should be able to restore the thing."
GAME: Save complete.

Belts are intact. Hoses seem to be secure. Trina's eyes narrow as she continues to pour her careful attention over the metallic wonder that sprawls before her. More jiggling and wiggling and poking and prodding. Then, then her blue eyes fall on the alternator. Turning that dark head back to look at Knight, she doesn't even blink at his proximity. Seriously, it's his car. She'd be all up on anyone with their dirty fingers on Baby, making sure they behaved themselves. "Did you check the alternator?"

His eyes go over the engine with the same attention to detail that her's do, but he frowns slightly at the last question to pass her lips. "…wonderful. That's one thing I didn't check. I thought for sure that if it started it would at least get me home. Apparently not. Lemme grab my bag and I'll see if that's it."

"Sometimes the belt'll get loose on the alternator; I think that's the problem. It'll start the once, but then it won't charge the battery. Seems there's a few loose parts in here. I think everything just pulled too much juice and killed the battery." Pulling back, Trina slides her thin hands into her back pockets to let the man check out his own car's alternator.

Nodding once, Knight pulls out a tool kit that would be the envy of any mechanic. All the tools all in their right spots, but all of them looking like they get used quite often. He sets too with a will, attacking the inner workings of the engine with what it looks like to be a deft and easy skill. A grunt of mild annoyance before he nods once and pulling his hands back out of the mass of the engine. "…looks like that was it. I think I can get it running again now." He grins slightly towards her. "Thanks again for the help though."

"Not a problem." Slipping an arm past Knight, Trina moves to grab her coat. As she starts to shrug it back on, she's nothing but warm smiles. "If you need a jump, I can get my car out of parking. It would just take a couple minutes."

Shaking his head Knight grins. "I got a second battery in the back, I thought the battery might be dead and I was about to try that when you offered the help. I can get the thing started…" He pauses a moment though, considering something. "…look…you were really nice to stop, not many people would do something like that. You need a ride somewhere? I'll have you back by midnight." He holds up too fingers with a grin. "Scout's honor."

Trina chuckles. She can't help it. "Midnight, huh? Where would you be takin' me? Jersey?" Looking around, she shrugs. Why not take him up on that hospitality. "If you don't mind dropping me off at the corner grocery a few blocks down, that would be fantastic."

"Only if you wanted to go," Knight replies with grin before he ducks into the back seat of the old car and pulls out a fresh battery. "Be done in a second…" He calls after he works on replacing it. He pops his head up to wink towards her. "Grocery store is a lot easier to do though." Then he sets his sights on fixing the battery.

When still working on getting strength back from two months in a coma, always work smarter, not harder. For Trina, this might be a little more of a challenge than for many others, but she sure as heck is not gonna turn down a free ride. "Hey. It'd be rude not to let you pay me back," she jests, sitting herself down on the curb. Resting her hands on the sidewalk behind her, the motorhead kicks her legs out in front of her and crosses them at the ankle. Looking comfortable, she allows her head to loll back a little as she watches the older man work.

"And you wouldn't want to be rude to someone you just met right?" Knight replies with a touch of laughter in his voice. "There, all done." He adds after a moment, detaching the light and setting the battery down on the street. The light goes into his jacket, the battery into the back seat. His work was well done, efficient with very little in the way of wasted energy. He glances towards her though and smirks as he opens the passenger side door. "Your chariot awaits."

The door's …opened for her. Well, well, well! Ain't Knight just little Mister Manners? The girl on the curb can't help but look a little surprised. With how things have been with her boyfriend, she can't help but be a little tickled at the gesture. Trina slowly pulls herself to her feet and then brushes off her rear end as she makes her way towards the car. She slips inside with a reserved sort of smile, and then pulls her legs in behind her. "Thank you."

It must come with the name. The man himself though just crosses behind the car and slides into the drivers seat. Closing the door behind him. One turn of the key and it seems the thing starts right up, the purr of the engine slightly off key but that's only to be expected really. "A few blocks up right?" He asks as he glances back on the lookout for oncoming cars. He pulls into the flow of vehicles with a practiced ease that comes from years of driving in the city. On the way there though he pauses, rummaging around in his coat pockets for his wallet that he pulls out.

"Mm-hmm. It's right on the corner," Trina confirms as she glances about the cabin of the car before fixing her eyes on the road ahead of them. That doesn't last long either, as she then lets her head fall back onto the seat and she just briefly closes her eyes. A little too trusting? Perhaps, but right now she's not thinking about anything save the experience of a new driver and a new car. How a man handles his car says a great deal about him in her own mind, after all, and the purr of the engine is enough to lull the thin thing into a momentary stupor. Pretty pony power.

A little too trusting yes, but if she should open those pretty blue eyes she wouldn't notice anything wrong at all. He handles the car well, no hesitation in his driving style. Aggressive but not frightening. He seems to know where he's going and very intent on getting there the best way possible. It doesn't take all that long before they are pulling into a parking spot and Knight lets the car drift down to idle as he pops the door. "There we go." He says easily as he fishes a small business card out of his wallet. He looks at her for a moment, then at the card. His hand extends to offer it towards her. "Here," He says with a slight smirk. "I'm always looking for a good mechanic or two, I'm sure you already have a job but if you need one just give me a call."

On the card is a stylized Crusader helmet with the name 'White Knight Arms' emblazoned in red under it.

"I haven't been to mechanic's school." That doesn't stop Trina from taking the card, however, once she opens her eyes. Because… a job. She could have a job again. With the accident and then the whole mess with Jack, it's been months. Good, honest work could be just the thing to get her back to herself again. Make her strong and independent again, less of a burden on Jack. Maybe that would make things better. It's more tempting than the man probably knows.

Knight smirks slightly before he shrugs. "…neither have I," He replies easily. "And little things like that never stopped me." He shrugs slightly. "Go ahead and take it, think about it. I know you already know your way around a car…besides. I think I can put in a good word or two with the boss."

"I… I'll think about it," Trina replies, biting her lower lip. She's already thinking about it. She pushes the card deep into her jacket pocket and then offers another smile to Knight. Sliding out of the car, she plants both hands on the roof so that she can lean her head back inside with a faux-masculinity that really translates into a very simple 'Tomboy'. "Thanks again for the ride. I appreciate it."

"Was not a problem," Alex replies as he smirks towards her. "Now go on, off with your shopping. I'm already late and though your a pretty excuse I don't think the people I'm meeting will be all that understanding." He says with a charming smile as he pulls back. "See you around Trina, give me a call if you feel like a job." With that, he lets he close the door before he pulls the car easily back into the street and soon enough disappears around a corner.

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