[X] Make small talk about dinner plans, how her day went... What sort of project she's been working on? Tinkers like when someone's interested in their work, right?

You weren't unaware of how tinkers worked.

You've had contact with tinkers in the past, had employed tinkers even.

They had this thing, you know, where they would get focused on their toys, and of how they would show them all and so on.

For a moment, you're lost in your memories of Professor Psycho and the way she had laughed as she used her somatic devices to drive her victims mad with fear so that they would flee her or outright surrender without needing to fight.

As such, it was only common courtesy to ask how her day went, and of the current project she was working on. After all, tinkers liked it when someone was interested in their work or wanted to know more. It wasn't just the villainous tinkers, really... you knew that most capes had that moment after triggering... it's just with tinkers, that mania tended to stay with them.

As such, you find yourself smiling at her as you hand her the flowers you had gotten for her. "How has your day been?"

There was a replying smile from her as she placed the flowers in a glass bottle and filled it with water. "So, so... the project I've been working on isn't progressing as fast as I would like it to."

"Oh?"

She shrugged. "I'm good within my specialty, and it really does help that I was studying engineering before my trigger. But there's only so much I can do alone."

You had to nod at her statement. Because when it came down to it, there was only so much any single cape could do unless they had some kind of bullshit selection of powers, and even then... it was better to work in a team. This went double for a tinker, they could build bullshit technology, but without infrastructure, there was only so much they could do. Which was why Toybox, the Protectorate and the Guild were generally good for tinkers who wanted and needed the resources to hit the big time.

The conversation continued along the lines of how parts and materials were difficult to get, at least without rising red flags all over the place. Even the underground market could only do so much.

You nod politely now and then and make the normal sympathetic comments, because really it was an on-going issue that every single non-heroic or rogue cape had to experience.

Eventually, it led to you being shown the project she had been working on.