[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/344210191698493451/748276696385323108/Nadia_Kumara.png[/img]


"No, no. Nadia, the couch needs to be centered with the window [i]and[/i] the holoscreen!" 

"But- Obaasan, didn't you tell me you wanted it centered with the bar?" 

The old woman in question, Mrs. Saito,  put her hands on her hips, huffing as she stared incredulously at the young woman who was currently in the process of sliding a couch across her floor to the desired location. Or at least she would be if Mrs. Saito could [i]decide[/i] on a location. They'd been at this for nearly an hour and the old woman kept changing her mind about where precisely she wanted the couch. 'Put it next to the window.' 'No, put it next to the bar!' 'Actually no I want it centered with the bar.' 'Why did you put it there??' 

Nadia was beginning to get a little bit exacerbated with her neighbor but she was doing her best to hide it, lest she get another lecture about disrespecting her elders. Mrs. Saito was nice enough most of the time but lately had been getting a bit... touchy. Nadia wondered if maybe there was something going on with her personal life, or if maybe her mind was just getting worse. She hoped it wasn't dementia. Mrs. Saito was a good neighbor and Nadia would hate if anything happened to her. There were many advantages to having an old grandma live across the hall from you, some of which were the unending food, having someone to keep an eye on your place if you had to go somewhere, uninvited comments about your weight and/or hair, offers to set you up with their friend's grandson, unending food, occasionally actually good advice, hugs, food, you get the gist. They didn't exactly have the closest relationship but they were certainly on friendly terms. Nadia got her groceries, Mrs. Saito cooked her dinner. Nadia helped her move her furniture around, Mrs. Saito watered her plants while she was on a job. They helped each other out with the little domestic things and didn't get too involved with actual personal lives for the most part. Nadia was fine with that. She didn't really feel like explaining to the old woman that she spent most of her time as a hacker in the- 

Oh no. 

Nadia abruptly stopped pushing the couch brought up a clock in her eye display. 6:23PM. She was late. 

"Sorry Obaasan, I have to go. I'll help you later!" 

There were some sounds of protest that Nadia ignored as she dashed back to her side of the hall, grabbed a backpack with her gear in it, ran to the kitchen to stuff some chocolate and matcha cupcakes she'd made that morning into her preservative container, threw on her shoes, and ran outside the apartment building to start booking it towards Canton Canal. Thankfully she lived somewhat near Hibiscus Lane so it wouldn't take her too long to cut through that. Sure she'd be running straight through triad territory looking very suspicious with her panicked expression, but surely nothing bad would happen... right? There wasn't much time to worry about it anyway. 

It wasn't until she was a good ten minutes from her apartment that Nadia realized it was raining and she probably should have at least grabbed an umbrella or something, but it was too late for that now. She'd just have to grin and deal with it. Thank goodness cybernetics were waterproof. Nadia remembered this one report she'd read about a new cybernetics company that tried to start up, but they forgot to make the components waterproof, so the first time one of their models took a shower it completely fried their nervous system and killed them. It was a stupid, horrible mistake that was a once in a lifetime level of stupidity. But that didn't stop Nadia from having this nagging worry that her cybernetics were going to fry her brain. What if there was a component in there jangling around that was just waiting to make everything go up in flames? 

Nadia plotted a course to Suraiboshen as she ran through the crowded streets of New Malacca. There were shouts and curses as she bumped into a few people, tossing apologies over her shoulder before disappearing around corner and repeating the process as she weaved her way through Hibiscus Lane to Canton Canal. A few of the street merchants in their floating markets recognized her and waved, asking where she was headed off to. Nadia just waved back and kept going. Oh she was definitely not made for this. Sprinting was not her thing, much less running a friggin marathon across an entire keyzone. She was a hacker for the Deep's sake. She spent all day jacked into wires and screens, not running around of the streets doing backflips and parkour like some of these gang members she heard about. You could probably hear her huffing and puffing from five blocks away. Any other time she would have probably just said screw it and sat down for a minute, but the promise of 500,000 asyuan was too much. It was too much and could push her cause too far for her to just give up because she was tired and a little out of shape, so she pushed on despite the building ache in her legs and the burning in her lungs. This was going to hurt tomorrow, but it would be so worth it. 

Hopefully anyway. 

Eventually the restaurant in question came into view and Nadia slowed to a walk, taking the time to catch her breath, adjust her somewhat damp clothes and [i]very[/i] damp hair, and check her time. 6:58 PM. She wasn't horrifically late. She took off the jacket she'd been wearing since it was pretty much soaked, though her shirt was still alright. Her pants felt just as soaked as her jacket but thankfully they were black and as long as no one looked too close she could play it off like they were dry. 

"In a hurry. are we?" One of the guards asked with a raised eyebrow as she approached. 

"Hah..." She was still panting and catching her breath. "Got a bit caught up. How are you guys this evening?" 

They didn't respond to her small-talk. "We're going to have to search you. Any weapons we should know about?" 

"Two pistols," she replied, reaching down to unclip them from the holsters on her calves, which fit underneath her baggy pants, and showed them to the two guards. They looked them over and one of them frowned. 

"Are these semi-auto?" 

"Yes." 

The one looked her up and down with a raised eyebrow, and Nadia shrugged. "They're just for self defense, fellas. I don't intend on shooting anyone unless they shoot at me first." 

They deliberated with each other for a moment, apparently trying to judge whether or not she'd be a massive threat, and then gave one of the pistols back to her with a chip. "You can keep one, get the other on your way out. Do not abuse the generosity of this establishment and be responsible with your weapon. Failure to do so will result in hostile retaliation on our part." 

"Sounds good enough to me." They scanned her, checked her backpack, she clipped her pistol back in place, and then entered the restaurant to wait in the hall with the others as the guards instructed her in the midst of her scan. 

Wait, others? That hadn't been a part of the deal. 

As she entered the hallway, there were indeed several other people standing there. Some she recognized just from running in relatively similar circles, and while she'd never actually met them, she knew their faces. It was part of her job to know people's faces. There were others still that she didn't recognize in the slightest. Then one person in particular caught her eye, and Nadia's face immediately lit up. 

"Scrapper!" Nadia exclaimed, flinging herself at the woman in question to give her a hug- damp clothes and all. "I haven't seen you in so long!"