Next Step (Steiner/Khaana)

Since his failure involving the helicopter project that he had been working on, Steiner had been spending his days focusing on his work at the shop. A shop that was steadily increasing in work flow thanks to his powers and his father's keen business sense, it did also help that his father was well connected in the community, and people came by almost exclusively for his help in repairing all their mechanical issues. Most of the time it was kind of fun working with the old man. Talking shop and learning from a seasoned mechanic could at times make up for all of the time he felt he was wasting taking apart some knick-knack hand me down from before he was born. But still, there were times when Steiner longed to experiment, and craft things to expand his repertoire. Sometimes it could be harmless, but sometimes these crafting experiments turned out to be prone to explosive accidents.

Steiner had lost count of just how many times he had to help repair the attic that he called his room because he had flubbed something or made a miscalculation of some capacity, but needless to say patience was wearing thin. On this particular morning, after messing around with a combustion engine, he had on accident fed it too much power, which had resulted in a pretty substantial explosion. Sure, nothing in the shop had been damaged, but his parents had basically thrown him out on to the street, demanding that he do some odds and end errands while they cleaned things up. He believed that they were angry beyond belief at him, but deep down he was quite angry at himself. After all, for a guy who was seeking to become one of the greatest inventors to ever live? He sure as hell wasn't making anything of merit outside of a few explosions and some mundane items.

The list of errands was a pointless endeavor as his brain was already focused on trying to remedy the issues with his own experiments and solve the conundrum of what to do next. Truly, he was at an impasse in both regards. Sitting down in a particularly calm part of the local park located in the city, Steiner would begin to fidget around with a piece of metal in his hand, bending it around into different shapes with pure force of will as he frustratingly stared out over the almost completely empty park.

"I need to solve the engine issue. Perhaps something to help me gauge the level of spiritual energy I am imbuing into the engine?"

As if to answer his question, the metal in his hand began to morph into a gauge of some kind, not too dissimilar to the gauge on a water heater that would tell you just how hot the water was going to be. He had repaired a few with his father and he presumed it would be easy enough to mimic the gauge of a water heater to some degree to help him not overdo the energy output.

"Could work, but then what do I do when I miniaturize it?"

The gauge turned back into a shapeless mass of metal as Steiner let out a sigh, kind of caught in a sort of internal rock and a hard place scenario.

"Perhaps I need to just...start doing my own thing."

He said to himself again, looking at the shapeless metal in his hand. While experimenting with things that already existed was useful as practice to get down the intricate parts of design, he knew that just playing around with the same basic stuff over, and over again was getting him nowhere. Perhaps it was time for him to actually design something new and exciting, but for the life of him he just couldn't decide on what to do. He continued to stare holes into the metal in his hand, lost in thought, and trying to consider every possible scenario. The metal would continue to change, flipping through to different types of shapes as quickly and effortlessly as someone turning the page of a book.

Steiner was normally very careful when it came to messing around and experimenting with his powers, but on this particular day he had probably went a bit overboard, and by doing so had probably drawn some unwanted attention. Turning to face the source of this attention he was greeted by the sight of some girl dressed up like some gamer girl streamer, for a moment he evaluated her before simply nodding head. Really unsure on how to take it that someone would just walk up to someone in the middle of constructing a machine with just trace metals in the air. Most people would have probably panicked upon seeing something like this, but there were always the weird ones who tended to ask questions, and approach for their own inspection.

Not that he wasn't weird himself, but it still surprised him at how often it happened.

"I'm trying to perfect this helicopter. The frame is much better than the last one due to improved materials, but I'm afraid the result will be the same."

He spoke calmly to her, humoring her, but also trying his best to be polite. It wasn't like he minded sharing what he was doing with others, but it was also quite dangerous if other people got involved. After all there was always a chance that even with improved materials, more focus, and better comprehension that the thing could fall apart. Honestly he didn't want to be the reason anyone got hurt, wouldn't sit right with him if his little experiments ended with him injuring somebody. Still, he stopped what he was doing, and crossed his arms across his chest, taking his time to analyze the strange girl in front of him.

"Yes, this is mine, I'm sorry if my experiment is interrupting your jog."

He stated honestly as he continued to stare almost uncomfortably so at the young lady in his presence.

He glanced over at the young lady and blinked a few times, taking her question in stride. She hadn't been there when he had been attacked in that old amusement park and clearly didn't understand why he was doing it here or even why he was doing it at all in general. Still, it was an odd thrill to him, and not an unwelcome one at that, that he would have to explain his reasoning. Most of the time his parents condoned his actions and barely ever wanted to truly ask why he was doing what he was doing, but people who he had just met were fresh faces. Fresh faces meant possible new ideas and new directions to take his work. So, he took a few moments to think of a proper answer.

"The park is safer, well safer for me as it has defenses, and if a wild Hollow decides to come around the parts I'm sure somebody will take care of it. My last foray into the wild, an abandoned amusement park to be precise, nearly got me ate for my troubles. If I am to get better with my abilities, I need to hone them, and push my limits. Preferably somewhere with defenses or protection, relying on my own battle skills will not due, and my powers are not as quick or as potent as I would wish they would be."

He was honest and straight to the point about what he was doing making a helicopter, but he supposed he should take it a step further. He gave her a weak smile and then stopped working entirely to keep speaking.

"As for why a helicopter? It is a machine with a lot of moving parts... complex machines still give me quite a bit of trouble. I can make some simple stuff, but that isn't really going to change the world. Well maybe not in the way of making some great invention can...I don't know, maybe I'm hoping by making some complex machines something will click, an idea, or something."

Steiner wiped the sweat from his brow, shrugging his shoulders, and kind of felt good about himself about talking to someone he assumed was around his own age. In truth he had never done the whole peer bonding thing and in his school years had mostly kept to himself, so it was actually a tad bit refreshing to have someone to talk to at the least. Well more like explain things to.

"Sorry for ruining your jog. I am Steiner Halford by the way...when did you move into town? I know a lot of people in this place and you are new and I would definitely remember if I saw someone like you."

She seemed quite unusual and her question about his power being something as mundane and worthless as what she insinuated made Steiner kind of glare for a second. He didn't like the ridicule portion of this particular interaction and shook his head in disbelief. Still, she wasn't from around here, and didn't really know about the Halford family, so he buried the feeling that was swelling in him. Probably hurt pride at this point and then let out a rather large sigh.

"No, my power isn't something as dumb as being able to repair helicopters...though it can be used to do that. I believe the term that people use to describe people like me is, technomancer?"

He held out one hand toward the frame of the machine he had been constructing and decided to make something else. If she was feeling bored, perhaps he could entertain her a bit.

"What sort of business are you planning on doing here? Shopping? There is a nice little shop that sells crepes down the road from the flea market, pretty nice food for the price."

He said making small talk as portions of the helicopter began to fall off and almost slither across the ground, twisting, and contorting into new shapes than their original purpose. In his mind he tried to think of what to make, something that would entertain a modern gamer girl he supposed and in that moment inspiration struck. He decided to make a statue, a life like statue of one of his favorite characters from an old RPG game he had played on a refurbished gaming system he had helped restore. He did his best to make it as accurate as possible, pulling it together, and molding it to his whim. He breathed heavily as the effort he was putting in was beginning to tire him out, but he knew losing focus would only cause the creation to fail.

"This is one of my favorite characters, Cole McGrath from Infamous."

Steiner said as he kept working the statue, trying to keep his focus, but occasionally looking over to see if he was entertaining her even a little.