@RyuShura
The static in the air was a tangible thing, a not unfamiliar occurrence for the residents of the slums. After the fall of 26, the magistrates had seemed to make it a personal vendetta against these 'Witches'. Needless to say, life had gotten just a little bit harder in the Slums for the residents of it. Of course, if the difficulties of slum life were all one knew it wasn't much of a large change. Just keep your nose clean and out of the gaze of the magistrates and the Apothos system, you had nothing to worry about. Of course, there were a few foolhardy people that cared little for both the Magistrates and their rules, the System, or any of the recent events.
"Hmmm...need to re-adjust the calibration..." Cecilla was one such person. The door to her small home/workshop was shut firmly as a place in the slums could be shut. The rough metal door of her cramped two-room apartment was locked behind two large metal deadbolts, insuring at least some manner of privacy through the decrepit and old walls of the place. Not that she cared too much about privacy in the long run, she just didn't like being interrupted when she was concentrating on work.
The living space itself was largely dominated by gutted machines, various pieces of their scraped metal and parts littering the floor in a disorganized fashion. It was as well lit as a slum house could be, illuminating the interior of the room in a dim glow. A large worktable was bolted to the floor, nearly taking up the entire wall opposite of the door. On it rested various half-finished items and other pieces of tech, measuring equipment, tools, pliers...anything one might need to modify, repair, or otherwise tinker with various machinery.
Cecil herself was sitting in a well used chair, her goggles strapped firmly around her eyes as she tinkered with a spherical object in her hand.
"Adjust the sensor...annnnd..." Before she could finish though, the earth rumbled under the gait of a large mechanical beast at the command of the Magistrates, causing her hand to slip and the device to roll off the desk and onto the floor. Not a second later, a beeping started.
"Welp, that's bad." She bolted for the door, opening both of the locks easily and rushing outside, slamming shut the thin metal door behind her and leaning her back against it. The action received more than a few looks from a few onlookers who weren't well acquainted with her various mechanical shenanigans.
"Nothing to see here folks! move along, no dangerous explosives here at all, nope." Odd though, it should have went off by now. Did she mess up the timer? Or was it just a dud? She waited for a few seconds before carefully opening the door again and immediately regretted it, receiving a face full of acrid, black smelling smoke.
"Gah!" She grunted in surprise, coughing as the black smoke filled her lungs and stained her clothes and hair.
"Blegh, note to self. Arming the device before finishing it is a bad idea." She mused to herself, moving back into her home.
The smoke cleared rather quickly allowing her to observe any damage to her things. A few nicks and dings there to some scrap parts and the walls had been stained a bit black but nothing she couldn't repair with a little ingenuity. She knelt next to the remains of the device.
"Hmm...maybe something else. Burns your nose like sin but the smoke doesn't really linger...hm." The grenade had been an attempt to create some sort of smokebomb that doubled as something that could mess with a creatures nose. Throw off its sense of smell by overwhelming it with a sudden burst of scent. It wasn't a foolproof little object by far, as if
you were caught in it then it would be quite easy for any animal that tracked by scent to track you as well. That said, lob it somewhere else and if you weren't caught in it - it should cause some mild confusion.
Well, a thought for another time. She needed smoke that would hang around and still had a distinctive, strong smell to it. Would make it a good tool for escaping people or things that relied just on sight though...
"Cecil!" A voice from the doorway caught her attention as she looked over her shoulder.
"Oh hey, dad." She greeted the rough, scarred man in front of her. Brown hair, scars across almost every part of his face. She remembered him being a bit...larger last time she saw him though...but she wouldn't think about his illness or that. As much as she didn't care for most people, he was probably one of the very few fleshy human things she actually
did care about.
"If ya came a few seconds earlier, you would have seen something funny.""Oh you mean you running out of there like your ass was on fire?" He laughed.
"I saw every bit of that." He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him and scrunching his nose at the smell of the smoke.
"Workin' on something new?""Oh you know, just tinkering as usual. Haad a little accident when them armored guys were walkin' their pet." She walked over to her workbench, hopping up onto it and taking a seat and resting her artificial limb on one of her legs.
"So what'cha up to?""Nothin' as exciting as you are." He replied rather carefully, taking a quickly look around the walls and lowering his voice.
"Cecil...a friend of mine told me you might be heading to the Zone again.""Ah...ha?" This was a rare time Cecil wished she was a good liar.
"Me? do something Illegal? You didn't raise me like that." She joked with a bright grin.
"Cecil you and I both know you're a terrible liar.""Pfft, it's not a lie. It's only illegal if they find me.""Cecil!""Okay, okay," Cecil sighed, hopping off the desk and looking over to a clock that was hanging on a wall.
"I miiiight be heading out soon.""...Look, I've been in a number of dives in my day and this has fishy written all over it.""Technically, my entire occupation is legally defined as 'fishy'""Cecil.""Yeeees?" He gave her a pointed look as she walked over to where a thick, brown coat was thrown over a nearby pile of scrap. "...I'll be careful, dad, promise." She turned back with a small smile.
"It's not my first trip into the Zone. I can handle myself." She walked over to a small sectioned off corner of the room where she kept her more personal items and where her bed was.
"'Sides, I could use some time away from the city. It's getting a bit...crowded recently, what, with everyone freaking out over the whole District 26 stuff.""Well, I doubt I can convince you to stay put or get licensed officially as a diver." He sighed, rubbing the side of his face.
"Nope, ya can't." She replied with a light laugh as she pulled over the jacket. It was a typical brown trench coat that covered most of her body, though heavily modified. A few metal plates had been riveted into it, notably on the right arm and the back making it a bit heavier and adding a bit of a layer of protection. The left sleeve had been entirely cut off though, letting her access her arm-jack easily. It was well worn, and offered fairly decent protection against the elements. She walked back into the main work area, grabbing a bag from under the worktable.
"Hey hey, I'll be back soon. Won't get lost out there for a month like last time promise! Sides, you can have my place yourself while I'm gone.""Alright, alright, enough of that. Just watch yourself, Cecil. Things have gotten crazy lately.""I will, I will! See ya dad!" With that, Cecil left her home with her things in tow.
Cecil moved swiftly through the crowded, neon lit streets of the sprawling outer ring. Mostly, she stuck to the alleyways and less traveled paths. Easier that way, less chance of getting interrupted on the way to her destination. Less chance of getting caught with her hands on some more illegal tech, too. The only challenge was getting past the checkpoints...of which she could never get past with a couple of items on her. All needed for her diving exploits. Thankfully to those privy to some information could easily move between areas easily enough, so long as you were careful and didn't get caught. Narrow hallways, crouching through a few maintenance areas between buildings - it was a small adventure in and of itself.
After moving through a few flights of floors and evading the checkpoints, she finally reached her destination and immediately noticed how well kept this particular section was.
"Huh." She whistled quietly to herself. She had never seen a place quiet so well kept, not even her own small workshop, though the second room where she kept most of her illegal stuff hidden was a bit more well kept. There also seemed to be a lot less people here, in fact - it seemed nearly entirely devoid of all people. Weird, she had only seen this sort of abandonment in the Zone. Maybe she she should move here? Less people, meant less interruptions and less distractions.
"Eeeh? This is the place, right?" She frowned slightly, fiddling lightly with the settings on her left arm.
"Huhm." It made sense that the meeting place would be fairly remote, or at least low-key. She did however, notice a boy and his...robot? Well, seemed like she was the second one here, then! But wasn't he a bit young?...
"Heyo Kiddo!" Cecil called over to him, jumping once and waving energetically at him.
"What'cha doing down here, eh? Up to no good?" She giggled.
Xaltwind,
datadogie,
TruthHurts,
Yankee,
Renose,
BabyKaiju,
Double,
Crusader Lord,
Savo,
Dragonfly 9
