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It was 12:28 AM when Lynx leaned up against the wall of her home to take a nap. 182 seconds passed before she actually fell asleep and according to the watch on her wrist it she had been out for just about another 200 before waking up again at 12:03. 3.33 minutes of sleep at once, that was just under her average of 3.4. Today had been especially noisy, the horrid scratching of Lilith's pencil against paper scraping the inside the legs of some oversized spider. The noise dragged on tortuously, each moment stretching on and on into ad infinitum. The girl was almost certainly not doing the homework she had been assigned by her adoptive guardian unless she had undergone some drastic change in personality while Lynx had been asleep. She was either practicing her drawing or working on a new short story or perhaps taking notes on one of the gadgets Lynx allowed her to think she had successfully stolen as they laid on her workbench in various states of disassembly. Honestly all three were good uses of her time, she had the chops to go professional in whichever she ended up preferring.

The Custodian pushed herself off the wall, hipping bumping a lamp off a low table as she walked over the kitchen. The rush of cold air from the freezer drowned out the cacophony from Lilith's room for a blessed fraction of a second before Lynx grabbed her frozen lunch and slammed it shut again. The plastic wrap crinkled and fell to the wayside, microwave activating with its trademark hum. 4 more minutes of peace, 240 more seconds of drawn out annoyance as opposed to more awful scratching.

The lamp was maybe a tenth of a second from making contact with the ground before she remembered to grab it, fingers wrapping around its body as porcelain barely kissed the floor. She could see the slight disturbance in the pattern of dust and crumbs as she lifted it back up, casting an eye over to the microwave. 3 minutes and 58 seconds until done. Plenty of time to spy on her neighbors.

The alien cast aside her mental blockers, wincing as the wall of sound crushed her. It was always like this, a droning roar that inched along, unstoppable and all-consuming. She was smothered by it for a few nightmarish milliseconds, struck dumb and deaf as her brain fought to process it all. 

[color=red]"Hey are you..."[/color] [color=dodgerblue]"no I said she...[/color] [color=lightgreen]"Shut up! You always..."[/color] [color=powderblue]"C'mon baby it'll be...[/color] [color=thistle]"Go to your room before..."[/color] Every syllable was backed by the electrical hum of the microwave even as the pencil continued to gnaw at her sanity, her senses driving her mad with all that she could hear and smell and see...

Until it clicked. Her brain managed to put the pieces together, analyzing the conversations to pick up on how the Tennersons next door couldn't remember when they were supposed to meet their friends and how little Leo across the street was still trying to convince his mom that his teacher had been lying about his bad behavior in class. His sister Ariadne was up in arms at their father because he wasn't letting her borrow the car while their neighbor Titus tried to convince his girlfriend to blow off studying and spend the weekend at his place. Humans were always so interesting, making snap decisions based off their emotions and what would feel good in the now as opposed to considering the long term effects. Lynx listened as they lied and fought and tried to get each other sabotage their own success, wondering how long it would take for it all to blow up in their faces.

She could handle the extreme discomfort when they presented her daily with such entertainment. Besides, they didn't complain too much about the noise from her mechanic's shop so she had no room to grumble about the sounds generated by their very existence.

[color=khaki]"Lynx, c'mere!"[/color]

The pencil had been put down, a small mercy that Lilith would never understand the importance of. Lynx crossed the living room and was at her charge's door before the second word even finished, peeking inside to see what was going on. [color=mediumslateblue]"What's going on?"[/color]

It was a courtesy question. The Custodian knew what happened the instant she had touched down outside the door, the low stream of clicks that just registered on her senses a dead giveaway. And sure enough the pale faced teen was staring at one of Lynx's recent projects. The light embedded in the obsidian cylinder was blinking at the speed of a hummingbird's wings, the alien watching it shut on and off in time with the clicks. [color=khaki]"Okay so I was working on those engines you told me to fix and when I cleaned up I accidentally swept this into my bag."[/color]

The bold-faced lie was less annoying than how long it took her to say, Lynx's patience nearly unbreakable after lifteimes of being trapped in slow motion hell. [color=mediumslateblue]"Right. And you touched it didn't you."[/color]

[color=khaki]"Only a little! I wanted to see how you put it together and then it just started blinking."[/color]

Sometimes Lynx forgot that most of what she heard went unnoticed by everyone else. No doubt if poor Lilith had been aware of the tick-tick-tickety she would have been more than nonplussed. The mechanic snatched up the device and tapped against it, fingers a blur that disguised the specific spits touched and gestures made. The clicks stopped, the machine soothed back to sleep. 

[color=khaki]"What is that anyway?"[/color] 

[color=mediumslateblue]"A small scale perputual motion engine. I"m trying to take the garage off the main grid without need bulky panels or generators."[/color]

Lilith took the reveal in stride, no longer surprised by her mentor's extremely cause treatment of the laws of physics. 

[color=khaki]"I didn't break it did I?"[/color] 

[color=mediumslateblue]"No, but you probably will if you mess with it again."[/color]

[color=khaki]"Is it dangerous if it breaks?"[/color] 

[color=mediumslateblue]"Hmmm... fifty-fifty on whether nothing happens or if you trigger a small scale heat death."[/color] Things always got finicking when she tinkered with realithy and this was the first time she had worked with perpetual motion on this small a scale. A meltdown could be catastrophic or merely annoying. In either case she didn't want her project being ruined. [color=mediumslateblue]"I'm heading out. Do you work before you call friends, meatloaf's in the microwave."[/color]

She had an obligation to go the games, it was her students on stage after all. Lilith was left to her devices as Coyote walked to her own room, tugging on duster, hat and holsters before tossing the engine at the bed. She was out the door before it hit her pillow, leaving a dust trail in her wake. 

It was 12:32 when she dropped into her seat in the back row, watching Nika's display with curiosity. It was always nice to see a student who had practical knowledge of physical matter instead of relying on cheap magic tricks. She'd take magnesium over arcane energy any time. 

That was most likely going to be her favorite part of the show. All music was pretty awful when your perception of time dragged out each note unbearably but the kids didn't need to know that. Lynx was going sit there and act proud like the good teacher she was. 

The smell of magic hit her before the effects did, the scent fittingly sharp for the jolt she received. The girl with the axe-guitar thing that caused it, Lilith was a fan of hers right? The one with the horns was definitely a musician, one of the Sangrey brats they paraded around. 

[i][color=mediumslateblue]"Well that's round one lost then."[/color][/i] Gilgamesha was going to be pissed.

Now thoroughly uninterested in the oncoming blowout Lyxn tried to tune into something else besides the music. Nothing of note was going on in the audience but there was conversation still going on in other places.

"[color=turquoise]Wait for the Bishop's signal. Bishop, commence on my mark.[/color]" 

Well that sounded odd for a security guard to say. 

Lynx slipped out of her seat and into the belly of the colosseum, tapping out a message to dear old Rin. 

[i][color=mediumslateblue]"Something up at the Games, I hear multiple intruders.[/color][/i]

The response came 13 seconds later, Lynx checking her phone as she was forced to drag herself along at a normal human's walking speed. [i][color=brown]"Fuck stay safe I got people on the way. No hero play, ur not in Reich now."[/color][/i]

Of course the cop was telling her not to get involved. And Lynx had no intention to! But if she stumbled upon some terrorist cell while she was looking for a quiet place to smoke then she couldn't exactly be blamed for defending herself.

Finally she managed to reach the hallways, nose twitching as she caught a familiar scent. Her eyes narrowed, course changing as she stalked towards the bathroom. It was diluted somehow but still undeniably there, different from the thousands of humans crowded into the arena and much too similiar to Lynx's own for her to be happy.

Another Custodian had stumbled in looking to manipulate humans for their own gain, some misguided Repentant or scheming Collectivist and it didn't matter which. Neither were welcome on her planet. 

"My name is Alto Ganze, I’m actually 53, and I’ve studied under both Marduk and Ishtar back when it was allowed decades ago."

Yep. Fucking Custodians, always trying to ruin her favorite species and take away what made them so interesting. The cops could handle whatever the guard had been talking about, this was personal.

Lynx checked her weapons as she walked, feeling much more prepared with her knife and pistols tucked at her belt. The door was nudged open with her boot, alien-hunter making her presence known with the clack of her heels against tile. Before the door shut behind her she had already verified her target. The black haired one was human but the blond? Oh he REEKED of alien now that she was up close and personal and the smell was only pissing her off. The trash can was shoved under the door handle, ensuring no sunrise guests could make it in without her say-so.

[color=mediumslateblue]"I'm going to ask you this once and once only Custodian: Collective or Repentance?"[/color] A hand had already drifted to rest on one of the guns hidden under her coat, Lynx knowing her kind well enough to expect trouble. 

The gunslinger made sure to keep an eye on the pawn or rival or whoever the other was, motioning with her head for him to step away. [color=mediumslateblue]"Whatever he told you kid, it's bullshit." [/color]

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