[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909715047918497815/1037211200871731300/Umbri_banner6.png[/img]


[img]https://i.imgur.com/4uuThLm.jpg[/img]


[url=https://youtu.be/6YpgOFS2-3c][i]“Oh, excuse me!”[/i][/url]

The third citizen to brush up against her apologised, and Umbri flinched just as she did the two times before them. She hobbled through the streets with a piece of wood she’d picked up, overwhelmed by the noise. It wasn’t that Northbridge didn’t have noise. She was used to the honking, the shouting, the techno buzz and robbery of a nail salon down the street. Shieldtown was loud, but with a different song despite its hard grey exterior. The streets were alive with laughter, commerce… comradery? The atmosphere light and[i] friendly.[/i] People still eyed her up as she struggled to walk past them - she looked like she'd crawled from a massacre and clearly didn't belong here after all - but something was different. She wasn't being hunted. They were concerned.

She didn’t trust it.

[color=#A4303F][b]“Did she take anything?”[/b][/color] She urged the eyes on the back of her head.

[color=DC091C][b]“No,”[/b][/color] Temujin replied, his flat tone tilted with the annoyance of repetition. [color=DC091C][b]“The Threshers keep everyone on their toes and out of each other’s pockets.”[/b][/color] He looked up, watching the skull of a tusked, thick-boned beast, mounted above an establishment coloured with smoke and drying meat. A green tone coloured Temujin’s next words, [color=DC091C][b]“The prosperity the monsters bring doesn’t hurt either.”[/b][/color]

Umbri nodded, eyed a party of people wearing armour made from monster leather and repurposed metal scraps, tried believing him, then cringed and frisked her pockets. [color=#A4303F][b]“Are you [i]sure?[/i] I felt a tug on my-”[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]“Small wonder that so many of the Collective call this place home. Fat, rich, cushy… an easy road to an easy life for wannabe heroes. PAH!”[/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“I’m going to check my bag.”[/b][/color]
 
Temujin turned his head, his attention diverted from another prolonged rant. [color=DC091C][b]“Huh? No offence, but is there anything worth stealing on you?”[/b][/color]

Umbri’s face went white. Her hands clenched around the items in her pockets. [color=#A4303F][b]“I have clat on me, dick.”[/b][/color] She shifted her eyes over her shoulder. [color=#A4303F][b]“Anyway, those thieves hit the jackpot in your guts back there, so maybe you should keep a better eye on these scavs. For yourself.”[/b][/color]

Temujin cringed. [color=DC091C][b]“Don’t remind me.”[/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Mm. Left or right up here?”[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]“...No idea. I can’t see shit.”[/b][/color]

Umbri sighed, rolled her eyes and turned in an exaggerated, swaying motion.

[color=DC091C][b]“Go left.”[/b][/color]

Umbri had already chaperoned Temujin through this unfamiliar, suspiciously chummy environment for about twenty minutes since getting off at the station. They’d fled the scene of the crime with Stake, slipping through the chaos of screaming passengers rushing out from the meat train and causing an uproar that would pretty soon be the talk of the entire town, probably. Fifty Rats blended into mince meat and a couple dead civilians was a hard miss, maybe enough to overshadow the missing cargo. Stake split up with Umbri and Temujin away not long after they arrived. [color=CD09DC][i][b]“Easier to keep the Corpos off our scent that way,”[/b][/i][/color] he suggested, though he made sure to gift Umbri’s hand with a parting kiss. She could feel his fangs against her knuckles. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

[color=DC091C][b]“Is this your first time out of Northbridge?”[/b][/color] Temujin suddenly asked, breaking up the quiet of a one-way road. The inclined path did not make her journey faster, or more comfortable. 

[color=#A4303F][b]“Not exactly,”[/b][/color] she mustered a reply, breathing deeply through the incline. [color=#A4303F][b]“I’ve got clients up-top, so I’ve seen the world out there, it’s just… I guess it’s the first time out with my body.”[/b][/color] She paused, feeling the answer left questions. [color=#A4303F][b]“Most of my work is holographic,”[/b][/color] she added.

[color=DC091C][b]“...Huh.”[/b][/color] Temujin was silent again for a time, but he couldn’t hide the curiosity from his tone. [color=DC091C][b]“Holographic. You’d think your clients can just mess around with a computer program instead.” [/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Loses the human touch. No AI can replicate that.”[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]“‘The human touch’...”[/b][/color] Temujin’s voice and sight trailed off into the distance. [color=DC091C][b]“I wonder what that’s like.”[/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Well, pay me and I can show it to you.”[/b][/color] Umbri teased like second nature. She immediately shut her mouth and reviewed the words that had just come out of it. Now her head was hot. [color=#A4303F][b]"I don't want to talk about work anymore."[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]"That will be best,"[/b][/color] Temujin replied without missing a beat. He kept his eyes on their surroundings. Warm fires. Soft shades of sun-touched walls. The cooling embrace of morning mist. It almost escaped him that they were underground, and still beneath a false sky and sun. 

Five more minutes passed, and they approached the eastern side of the wall, adorned with dune-coloured buildings, roofs of tarps and wires, and a water wheel spinning in the corner. [color=DC091C][b]"Do you see it?"[/b][/color] Temujin asked. 'It' was horizontal in construction, with a half-opened roller door from which a chorus of hammer strikes, buzzing saws, and various mechanical cranks and squeaks came forth. A sign swayed clumsily just beneath the door, chiselled into the shape of an anvil, featuring a rustic serif font - "Black Iron Workshop." 

A woman emerged from beneath the roller door, carrying a box of scrap marked 'RECYCLE'. [url=https://imgur.com/a/Dxrl8RQ]Petite, with brown hair tied into a ponytail[/url], and a cap that repeated the workshop's logo. Dirt and grease clung to her face and the jumpsuit she wore by the waist. [color=#ffb561][b]"Hey, Ed? While you're out, can ya grab us a new case of oil? Yeah, we're down to the bottom of the tank,"[/b][/color] she exhaled, tossing the contents of the box to a bin just out of sight. [color=#ffb561][b]"No, I ain't forgotten, Strix's wired lance repairs are due tonight. I gave the job to Koba." [/b][/color]

The woman looked up as she noticed Umbri. She flashed a polite smile, but her eyes were wide and staring. She held a hand over her earpiece. [color=#ffb561][b]"Yeah. Uh huh. You too. Byeee."[/b][/color] And shut it off with a flick as she hastened her steps towards Umbri. [color=#ffb561][b]"Howdy… stranger!"[/b][/color] She stiffened straight, and tried her best not to stare at the dishevelled stranger before her. [color=#ffb561][b]"Welcome to the Black Iron Workshop, how can I help you- ohmygod are you okay??" [/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]"Ako? Is that you?"[/b][/color] Temujin spoke up. [color=#ffb561][b]"Huh?"[/b][/color] The woman quirked both her brows and leaned closer, tilting left, then right, to peek behind Umbri's back. [color=#ffb561][b]"Temujin! What happened?!”[/b][/color] She leaned back, her face paled with horror. [color=#ffb561][b]“I [i]just [/i]fixed ya two days ago!”[/b][/color]

Temujin grunted, [color=DC091C][b]"Look, there's no time! She was hit by a Thresher. Poison.”[/b][/color] Ako brought two hands to her temple. [color=#ffb561][b]“Okay! But I’m a mechanic, I fix machines, not people!”[/b][/color] She took a deep breath, shook her head, and beckoned them inside. [color=#ffb561][b]“Come in, I’ll make a call and you can sit down, at least.” [/b][/color]

Somewhere between their fussing around, Umbri’s vision started to blur. The familiarity between Temujin and this woman, and the workshop that looked just as he’d described, was drawing a cushion of safety around her. The safer she felt, the less strong her body had to be, until her mind was drifting and she was swaying on her feet.

[color=#A4303F][b]“Catch me,”[/b][/color] was all she managed before she collapsed forwards.