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That was not an answer. And also completely not reassuring. Kirin sighed, but wasn't really the prying type - the last thing he wanted was people prying back, after all.

"Alright, let's get this laptop working," he said instead. He stood and followed after Jada. It sounded like most of her problems would be fixed by getting a(nother?) job, and if she needed files off her laptop for that, then that seemed like the most Kirin could do for her right now.

Kirin nodded at the offer of CDs. "I have a thumbdrive with me, but if worse comes to worst, we may need CDs to burn your data off the drive before replacing or reformatting anything."

Not that Kirin really expected most of that to make a lick of sense to Jada, but talking out his plan of attack helped Kirin to think of what to try next, or to see any gaping holes in his plan.

Kirin obligingly took in the view as the glass elevator (really? really!?) went up. It was a lovely view - designed entirely to be so, and to show off the wealth of the hotel and its guests. It tarnished Kirin's enjoyment of the sight - or was that just his jaded side showing?

His lips twitched as Jada edged away from the glass, all but hugging the door. "How do you love heights while hating the view?" he asked, trying to hide his amusement. It sounded like a fear of heights from where he stood - which was leaning back against the glass without a worry in the world, hi Jada.

The elevator arrived and Kirin was being tugged out. He allowed himself to be distracted from teasing Jada, going along with the subject change. "Sixteen gig on a thumbdrive," he said. Kirin couldn't remember if he'd packed a proper external hard drive or not. Still, the thumbdrive should be able to get the photos Jada needed. He hoped. If she was anything with a camera like she was with shoes and clothes, maybe they'd be in a spot of bother...

That was... some very disturbing reasons to fear elevators. Kirin was a little worried for Jada. "If you ever tire of the rich, socialite life, you may have a future in writing horror movies."

Thankfully the conversation changed back to familiar, tech-y ground. "Depends on how big you saved the photos," Kirin replied. He had a sinking feeling that Jada had simply left her camera on the default settings. For the love of all that was holy, he prayed that the default of her camera model wasn't 'RAW'.

"No allergies." Fresh air wasn't a bad idea, either. Now Jada had him slightly worried over the safety of that damn glass elevator.

"Mrrr? Mrrr?" a tiger-striped ball at Kirin's feet asked.

Kirin eyed the cat. Was that a greeting, or a 'get the ******** away from my human, interloper'? Bending over, he held a hand out to the cat. He softly said, "Hi, kitty kitty."

Kirin glanced up at Jada from he crouched next to Castor-kitty. His mouth dropped open. Jada... really thought that was what he meant by size? Oh god, and he'd thought 'purple' as the type of laptop had been bad. Could she really be that clueless? She had to have noticed if she was running out of hard drive space if the files had been too large... Most people did know how to check file sizes.

Opening his mouth (possibly to say something cutting), whatever Kirin had been about to say was replaced by a shriek as fangs pierced his hand. Castor let go almost immediately, readying himself for another bite, no doubt. Kirin leapt back up to his feet, hands out of range. Jada thankfully intervened at this point.

"I am so sorry. He is normally a ladies man," Jada explained.

Kirin eyed the furball warily. The cat seemed to glare back. It was a good thing cats couldn't talk. Forcing a smile, Kirin said, "Maybe he just smells another male on my clothes, or something. And yeah, I'll be fine. Assuming he's up on his shots?" Please don't let him need a tetnus shot from that.

The small puncture marks on his hand weren't bleeding badly. Just a drop or two welling up around a small patch of redness. It was nothing to worry over (if the cat didn't have rabies).

"So, laptop?" Might as well get back to the reason for the visit.

"Maybe a bandaid," Kirin turned down the offer of peroxide, but accepted that it might not be the best idea to be bleeding into the guts of an already-broken laptop. He kept a wary eye on the lounging toyger. Who happened to be between Kirin and the bathroom. "I'll, uh, let you grab that while I take a look at your computer."

He was not running away from a cat. Kirin was simply prioritising. He'd come here to do a favour for a friend, and he was going to do that. The man-hating guard-cat had nothing to do with it.

Taking a seat, Kirin turned the laptop over and ran a quick check over the exposed connectors before plugging the battery back in. He doubted it would work, but he still tried powering it on to try and boot to BIOS.

No such luck. Jada would have heard a very familiar pfffffffffffffffffbbbbzzzzzzzt sound. Kirin blew a raspberry straight back at it.

"The good news is that it isn't the power supply, or we wouldn't get even this far," he said. It didn't matter if Jada was actually in hearing range or not, Kirin tended to talk aloud to his computers. Shut up. "No beeping, which makes me think this is a case of a loose or damaged card... or some horrible motherboard failure."

Only one way to find out. Powering the laptop back down, Kirin removed the battery and the power cable. From his bag, he drew out a small pouch that opened several ways to reveal a variety of strange, tiny tools - something like a miniature handyman kit. Kirin selected a small screwdriver and began the process of opening up the laptop's casing.

At the hiss from the bedroom, Kirin paused in taking out a tiny screw. His eyes slid to one side, head slowly turning to peer over his shoulder. The evil-cat-who-knew-the-truth remained on the bed. Kirin warily turned back to continue removing the case, hoping that his unprotected back was safe.

When Jada closed the door behind her on her way back out, Kirin sighed, shoulder's relaxing. "As offended as I probably should be to be lumped in with your mother," after all Kirin had heard about the woman, "it's fine. I probably have a weird smell on me, maybe something he's smelled on guys he doesn't like before."

There was nothing wrong with the cat, Kirin knew, apart from it being a rabid man-hater and apparently having the nose to tell genders apart. (Maybe he needed to invest in some perfume?) There was no sense in holding a grudge against-

"Wait, did you say... Castor?" Kirin boggled at the name. He smothered the laugh that rose in his throat. He'd have to pass this on to Pollux later - the other senshi would love the idea that his idiot brother was someone's p***y.

Thankfully Jada distracted Kirin with an order to hold out his hand. Switching the tiny screwdriver to the other hand, he held out the 'injured' one. This was quickly followed by a flat look at Jada. "I am not licking my hand. No one is licking my hand," he tacked on, in case Jada got any more weird ideas.

"Don't lose them. Please," Kirin half-begged Jada. It shouldn't be a problem normally - once the laptop was back together, he doubted Jada cared enough to take it apart on her own. "You can possibly buy more, but it's a hassle."

Manufacturers were dicks. Each brand liked to use their own specially-different ones so you couldn't swap them. Sometimes even a difference in models, still from the same company, meant the screws couldn't be shared. Kirin did not need to be chasing up an extra screw for Jada while trying to replace broken parts as well.

The idea that his hands were less than clean had Kirin rolling his eyes. Jada had woken him up this morning - just when did she think he had time to get his hands into the guts of a computer between then and now? Still, with a disgustingly cute butterfly bandaid over his 'war wound' (Kirin shot a glare over his shoulder at the closed door), Kirin was back to work.

At last the cover came off. Kirin eyed the miniaturised innards of the laptop. Slowly, Kirin began detaching and lifting out several pieces, checking them over for errors (and occasionally blowing on them to check that dust build-up wasn't the problem). "You want a cat and a dog in a hotel room?" Kirin asked while he worked. "That seems kind of cruel. And what if they fight?"

The idea of a cat being allergic to a dog made Kirin pause. Mental reboot needed. Though if any cat was high-maintenance enough for that, he supposed the evil thing locked in the bedroom would be it.

Shaking his head, Kirin finished checking the last of the computer cards. Then everything went straight back in. "Time to check if it was just a loose connection somewhere," he explained.

The cover remained off. Kirin plugged the power cable back in and hit the power button.

Pfffffffffffffffffbbbbzzzzzzzt, said the laptop.

Kirin made a face. "So we have a broken part. Time to see if any of my spares will fit, and if that then fixes the problem."

Jada's breath in his ear made Kirin shiver and jerk away. He gave her a startled look, which settled down into a vague 'you are a crazy woman but for some unknown reason I put up with you' expression when Jada moved away again. Kirin straightened his shoulders and got back to work.

Digging through his bag, he pulled out a small drive and something flat and still in its original packaging. "I have a spare hard drive that should fit, a RAM card that definitely will, and a CPU that might, if we're lucky," he told Jada as he tore into the plastic. "We'll try the RAM first, since we're hoping your data is fine."

Kirin really hoped it would be. The prospect of losing even a tiny portion of their data sent most people into raving hysterics. He didn't need to be trapped in a hotel room with a panicking Jada and her vicious attack-cat. The problem was that ASUS wasn't a brand he was familiar with - he couldn't be sure that the usual beep codes or BIOS tests applied. Short of taking it to a brand expert, he'd just have to try everything.

Carefully, Kirin inserted two fingers and pushed at catch-tabs on either side of a smallish white rectangle near the center of the laptop. He increased pressure until the chip popped up with a dull click. The RAM card was removed and carefully placed to one side. Taking the newly unwrapped card, Kirin pressed it into place, firm but gentle until the plastic catches locked back down on the new chip.

"Here we go again," he said to Jada. The cover went back on, the tiny screws half in - just by hand, Kirin not bothering to tighten anything when he didn't know if he'd just be undoing it all again. Kirin flipped the laptop right-side up, re-connected the cable and hit the power button.

Kirin braced himself as a screen with error text appeared... but the pzzt sound was not forthcoming. Kirin smirked, checked the error and hit a few buttons. "Just need to enter some details about the new memory," he said as he entered the BIOS and began playing with settings. "Aaaaaand hopefully..."

F10 accept, F10 accept. Exit. And there went the incredibly familiar tones of Windows starting up. Voila.