He'd had some time to think, in the young lady's absence. Upon hearing the man's response, he was now pretty sure he knew what was going on here. He sighed a little bit, kicking himself internally. Tiger had always said, "If you're going to be big and brave like me, you have to know what you're about to do is dumb, and then suck it up and do it anyway."

Once again, Titan grabbed her around the wrist. As she turned to look at him, clearly shocked, he spoke calmly and clearly.

"Young lady, how much of this money is stolen?"

And before she could respond, he turned to the men and looked them up and down.

"I don't think you gentlemen are qualified to be prescribing medication, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong."

Jasper immediately burst into laughter. He returned the pills to his pocket. "Medication?" He seemed so dumbfounded by the word, all he could do anymore was laugh.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Tau, on the other hand, was not amused. She attempted to pull away from him, to no avail. But she didn't let up this time.

"What are you, the fucking morality police?"

Panic began to overtake her as she continued to pull against his grip. The laughter ceased as she clawed at his fingers, even trying to use her nails, but they were worn and blunt and did little damage.

"Let me go man, I'm not even joking this time."

She was going to be so, so late.

"You didn't even get my stuff, huh?"

With a start she realized Jasper and his buddy were nowhere to be found. Probably darted off into one of the access tunnels. She caused the perfect distraction while they took off, taking their drugs with them. Defeated, she stopped fighting.

"Of course it's stolen. It's all stolen. Look man, nobody gets by legit here. Not anymore. It's dog-eat-dog and I ain't tryna get et." If she had known he was going to be such a pain in the ass, she'd never have brought him along.

He watched the men walk away from the corner of his eye, but didn't take his focus off her as she struggled to free herself from his grasp. He made sure his grip wasn't tight enough to actually hurt her.

"No, young lady, I'm not a cop. Listen, is there a place where we can sit and talk?"

This time, Thrush's words came to mind. "No one is bad because they wanna be, dude. Help someone with a big problem, and hey. That might be all that was making them do that stuff in the first place."

Thrush was never as good at speeches as Tiger was, but Titan understood what she meant all the same.

At his question, a flurry of emotions flew across her face. She appeared to withdraw from him slightly, and her jaw tightened as she stiffened.

"Look I was just tryna apologize for snatching your wallet. But you ruined that. I don't wanna talk to you." She spat the word 'talk' as though it were foul. "I figured you could help me out with some really fuckin' easy shit, and you could walk away with spending money and some good shit for your fuck-ass vacation. If you tryna get something else, well then buddy, you're assed out."

She was leaning heavily to one side now, and her eyes struggled to focus. "Look, man. I got... I got a lot to do today."

He raised an eyebrow at the word 'vacation', but didn't comment on it. Noticing her grow unsteady on her feet, he blinked his left eye, almost like he was winking at her. The eye shuddered a bit, then looked her up and down, narrowing. It told him that her body was obviously going through withdrawal. He'd heard that the drug situation was out of control over here.

His eye also told him that she wasn't in danger of dying. A small line of steam trailed out from under the eyelid. He blinked it again briefly, then clasped his other hand on her shoulder gently.

"I know what you must think of me. I'm sorry I messed that up for you."

As she opened her mouth to retort, he let go of her shoulder and raised a finger in a quieting manner.

"If you don't want to talk, that's fine. But why not let me help you, like you said? I don't need anything out of it."

He released her wrist from his grasp, and raised his hands in a placating gesture.

She stared blankly at him. "What... the fuck was that, bro?" She stumbled backwards as he released her. It took an immense amount of effort to keep her composure.

"Look, whatever... fine... you can help me finish. And then you can fuck off." She shifted her backpack and the parcel-- the parcel!

"Fuck my life." She groaned, and looked at the underside of her wrist. The screen of a digital watch shimmered into existence on her skin. Rising panic. She began to hyperventilate. "I'm so fuckin' late because of you, you know that? You know why they even call me? Because I'm never! Fucking! Late!"

Dizzy now, she shoved past him and stormed off as quickly as she could, cussing the entire time. "Ruin my fuckin' goddamned day." It felt like she was wearing mittens as she fumbled with the pocket against her chest that held a small stash of blister packs. "Now he wants to fuckin' help." She stopped walking at the end of the corridor, just before heading out into the main public junction. "I don't need anything out of it," she said in a mocking voice as she was consumed in struggling to push the tiny blue pill through the foil,.

She stormed off, but he had no problem keeping up with her. A small droplet of blood meandered from below his eye, but he wiped it away while she wasn't looking. She was struggling with a pill. He ignored her attempts to mock him, and walked over. Quicker than she could react, he took the package from her, pushed the pill free, and handed both the pill and package back into her grasping hands.

He resisted the urge to use his eye again to see the effects the pill had on her body. What was it she wanted to do? Some kind of job, it seemed. His mind drifted back to the last man who he was now rather convinced had scammed him, and his 'job interview'.

He was rather impressed at her ability to continue swearing, both at him and in general, as she took the drug and made her way through the ass-end of the city. His stride was easily able to keep pace with hers, and he made a conscious effort to stay next to her where she could see him from the corner of her eye. He hoped maybe this would help to calm her down.

"Finally-- huh?" She blinked, suddenly seeing the pill free of its prison. Yet within the same moment she'd tossed it onto her tongue and swallowed it. That'll be kicking in soon. Tucking the blister pack back into her pocket, she quickly double-checked the time and heaved a heavy sigh. Maybe she'd make the weirdo explain to her client why his package was late.

It only took about fifteen minutes before she began to feel the pill's effects. She danced through the corridors, her pace never faltering. When they passed crowds of people, it seemed as though they parted for her, as deftly as she moved between them.

She led them back through the Marketplace, up many flights of stairs and through many doors. Some required passcodes, which Tau had no trouble inputting. It was a little nicer towards the outside of the Debris. Tau figured it was because you could see Earth if you went high enough.

And high enough they went. As they reached the client's level, natural light hit them. Tau inhaled sharply and ran to the end of the corridor, where a large viewing window was aimed directly at the planet below.

"I always... forget... that there's that big ol' rock out there." Her eyes glazed over and she looked a little sad.

Titan stepped up next to his new companion, looking at the Earth before them. It was a strange feeling. He'd grown up far away from the home planet, had never even seen it before coming here, and yet he still couldn't help but feel sad about the fate of it. He watched as one of the massive gray shapes on the planet's surface began to shift.

He absentmindedly covered his eye with his hand, and turned away. "Lead on. Didn't you say we were in a hurry, young lady?"

He walked on past the view, purposely avoiding looking at the planet again, and kept his stride short so that she could easily overtake him again.

"Oh shit!" She snapped back into action and darted after him, but they were only a few doors away. The Sundeck. A fitting name. Though the walls were made from the same material as the core, the usually dingy metal glinted in the natural lighting. Suite 42. She pressed the doorbell and unstrapped the package from her harnesses.

A clean-cut man answered the door. "Freedom rings!" she chirped as she handed him his parcel.

He looked between the two before he took it and set it just inside the door. "You guys are pretty late."

"And I apologize for that sir, it--"

"So you're not getting a tip." And he shut the door in their faces. A series of mechanical locks could be heard clicking into place.

Dumbfounded, Tau stared blankly at the door. There goes dinner.

Titan felt kind of bad, he was pretty sure he was largely responsible for her being late. He shuffled his feet a bit, then spoke up.

"Listen, I know what you must think of me, but I can see when I've messed up. If you want, we can go somewhere and talk,
and get something to eat."

He grabbed the wallet out of his pocket from under the stolen cash, and thumbed out a small silver chipper. The tiny card was oddly heavy today. His allowance must have been bigger than he expected.

She grimaced and stepped away from him, beginning to make the trek back through the Debris. Back to the darkness. "Nah man, for the last time, I don't wanna--" But when she looked to see why he wasn't following, her eyes grew wide as he pulled the tiny card out of his wallet. She was practically salivating. "What the fuck, Tall Guy? Who the fuck even are you?" She had never seen a chipper, though she had heard they existed. She didn't believe it until now. "How much money you hiding in a wallet you can't be fucked to secure? What are you even doing in this dump?"

Titan made a note to himself: chippers were incredibly rare around here. Probably best not to flash it around like that. He quickly stowed it away back in his pocket. He decided that perhaps this was a good opportunity.

"Like I said, free meal. All I want to do is talk. I'm really not as interesting as you're probably thinking I am, but I can tell you who I am and why I'm here if you wish."

He stepped forward, holding his hands up once more in a placating gesture.

"My name is Titan. I seriously just want to help, that's all."

She looked Titan up and down for a few long minutes.

"Name's Tau." She actually gave him a tiny, genuine smile. "Actually, uh..." Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out a small dispenser, and from that she took a miniscule round disc that popped open into a folded paper bird. "My card." And as she held it out to him, the smile morphed into a conspiratorial grin. "It's edible."

She spun on her heel and began trotting away again. "We can't talk here. The walls have ears. I'll get the meal, if you get the drinks!" she called back to him.

He took the 'card' and studied it intently for a moment. He couldn't make heads nor tails of it, so he placed it into his other pocket. 'Tau'.

He looked up as she called back to him, and grunted an affirmation, running a few steps to catch up with her. He mentally took stock as he did. He did genuinely want to help her, that much was true. She clearly had either some form of medical issue or just a more general drug problem. He was leaning towards the latter. This whole city (if you could even call it a city) seemed to be infested with drug-based crime.

He looked at his reflection in a mirrored window as they passed it. His left eye was starting to go bloodshot. He closed it to allow it to re-moisturize, but didn't slow his pace.

He hadn't been lying. He wasn't a cop. It certainly wouldn't be prudent to attempt to change singlehandedly what was arguably the cultural cornerstone of this entire area. So the question was, why did he care if this random person had a drug problem?

He watched her back as she walked confidently in front of him, and he thought. She reminds me of Thrush a bit. Maybe that's what it is. And who knows? Maybe she'd know something about his brother. Unlikely, all things considered, but you never-

He nearly crashed into her before he realized she'd stopped.

The bird was constructed out of delicate, thin paper. It had Tau's name written in a few different languages on its long neck. On its wings, in glowing golden letters, was what seemed to be the name of her employer: "Freedom Lost And Found" with the cheesy tagline, "You want it, we'll get it!" along with a slew of ways to get in contact. It also smelled quite tasty and hummed strangely.

As she passed the large window, Tau took a last look at the planet below and heaved a heavy sigh. "Who knows when I'll be back up here." Probably not any time soon, since her client hadn't been very impressed. She was too tired now to be mad at Titan. They had a long way back. But if he did pay for drinks, it would help ease the sting of missing out on refilling her stash.

By the time they got to the Lucky Salt Tavern, Tau was spent. She groaned as she stopped suddenly near the entrance. The last person she wanted to deal with right now was Kaufmann.

She dipped her long fingers into her pocket, feeling around for the small bag without pulling it out. Maybe some of her special stuff would make the shithead a little more bearable.

Securing her pouch, she then turned around to Titan.  "Don't let Kaufmann talk you into the house brew. It's piss. And if you're hungry, make sure the Missus is around, unless you like mystery meat." She made a face. "The mystery is whether it's meat or not."

Taking a deep breath, she stepped up towards the doors, which opened automatically. She hadn't even fully entered the building before Kaufmann called out to her: "Well if it isn't the Debris' favorite little junkie! You're getting in the fucking box tonight, girl!" A large, greasy man shouted at Tau from behind the bar as he tended a customer. The customer looked up and leered at Tau.

"Up yours, you fat fuck," she muttered under her breath, avoiding eye contact and hurrying to an empty booth in the corner. She settled into the booth, back against the wall, fidgeting with the small plastic pouch in her pocket. So close, she could almost taste it...

Titan looked up at the building they'd stopped before. The "Lucky Salt Tavern", if the sign was to be believed. Tau turned around to speak to him, and he nodded at her in understanding. They stepped into the tavern, and Titan felt one of the bones in his left fingers tremble slightly. At least one person in here was armed.

Titan narrowed his eyes, but didn't react. He followed Tau, and nodded at the tavern-keep as their eyes met. He took note of the man at the counter especially. Titan didn't like the look of him. He followed Tau to a booth situated towards the back of the tavern, and sat in the seat facing the rest of the room, so he could keep an eye on the patrons.

Tau seemed to be rocking back and forth in her seat. Titan spoke up, "I want to be open and honest with you, because I know this tends to freak people out a bit. I'm a cyborg."

Okay, not the best way to start a conversation, but he didn't want her to feel like he'd been lying to her later.

"Fuck him," she muttered as they seated themselves. "Kaufmann's a genuine asshole but he did me a real solid back in the day, so he basically owns me." She made a face as though she had just sniffed garbage.

As he spoke, it took a moment before she registered what was being said, then-- "Oh yeah, what the fuck!" Her voice was hushed, but panicked. "With that freaky eye thing!" She had completely forgotten he had scanned her. "You got x-ray vision or something? Peeking through people's clothes, huh?" She folded her arms over her chest, irritated once again.

He stopped, baffled by what she said for a moment. Then he raised his hands, panicked. His face was completely flushed.

"Oh, no! No no! I didn't x-ray you. I can't do that, I don't think anyone can honestly."

He pointed to his left eye, which was still a little red but getting better.

"All I did was check your vitals, since you looked like you were physically distressed. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

He looked straight down, hoping that would clear up any misunderstandings. Clearing his throat, he looked up again.

"I forget sometimes that it's a bit rude to do that without asking. I promise I won't 'scan' you again without asking first."

Tau listened to his explanation, and, after scrutinizing Titan, seemed to accept it. Recalling the moment-- "Vitals...?" --she then spoke: "Oh, yeah." Grimacing, clearly very uncomfortable, she offered an explanation: "There's a lot of people in the Marketplace. It makes me nervous. I needed to keep my head clear. So I took... medication... to help me get through it." Tau folded her hands on the table; they were shaking. She averted her gaze in shame and chewed on her lip. "I took a different one for a more... energetic focus, after we left Freedom's to deliver the parcel." She began picking at some dead skin on her finger. "Usually I take a different one to get through... my shift," she said vaguely, casting a glance full of sadness towards the main bar, which was now empty of patrons. Kaufmann was nowhere to be found, probably in the basement preparing for the next onslaught of customers. "And," she whispered, "another to sleep..."

She slumped back into the seat, raising her eyes to him and preparing herself for negative reactions and judgement. He hadn't seem too accepting of the drug culture here so far, and she doubted her explanation would affect much change in his mind.