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 Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:22 pm
Get out of the base Aulus, go for a drive and wander around the city Aulus. What a perfect idea. Of course it had gone tits up. Something was wrong with his bike, with the radiator to be precise; the temperature had crept into the red and he hadn't even done anything exciting. He was going to kill the green-haired idiot in the garage who had assured him it was tuned beautifully and would take just about anything he could throw at it. Somewhere in the middle of Campheron, damned if he knew exactly where, he pulled over and asked some local fat arse with a can of larger where he could find a mechanic. To be fair the fat arse had been amiable, and helpful as far as was possible half smashed; the directions weren't perfect but after a couple of minutes of driving around (very slowly and carefully) Aulus spotted a landmark and made a left as instructed. So, just along here should be....
Oh that was just perfect.
Aulus braked to a halt, turned off the engine, flicked out the kickstand, and dismounted. Pulling off his helmet he treated the boarded up shop to a very dark glare indeed. This day was just getting better and better, wasn't it? Scowl twisting into a snarl Aulus detached his staff from the side of his bike, marched up to the boarded windows, and hammered on them with the length of wood. "Oi! Is there anyone in there or what?" The one day he'd had off in the last ten and this had to happen. Why did crap like this always have to happen to him?
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:44 pm
There was a yelp from inside as soon as Aulus started to bang on the particle board window, and then a silence that just dragged on and on. Front door cracked open, followed by the 'ding dong' of the door chime. There was a stick of a girl peeking out from behind the door, even though said door was glass and she was perfectly visible behind it. She looked more like she would be the mechanic's daughter than the actual owner of the shop.
"Y-yes?" Girl stared at Aulus with wide, fearful silver eyes. It had been a rough month for Izumi, and one that had not left her any more brave than she had been before, however it did cause her to become much more distrustful of the people in her neighborhood--A trait that Jerome would have probably said was a good thing.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:59 pm
...Hu. Not quite what he'd expected, and what the hell was with her arm?... That was actually pretty awesome, but anyway, he didn't have time for that right now. Turning to face the blue-haired woman Aulus swung his staff over his shoulder and glowered down at her.
"You know any places around here I can actually get my sodding bike fixed?" he snapped scornfully. "Or are you actually open, and if so can I talk to anyone who doesn't look like a terrified adolescent Lopunny by any chance?" Was it so much to ask to find somebody competent? What was she even trying to do, hiding behind a glass door like that? Was the world outside the base really even more full of shrinking pansy morons than he remembered? Ugh! He should just have stayed in his room or taken his pokemon to the beach or something.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:10 pm
"I-" Izumi recoiled from the angry man, "W-we're o-open... H-hold on..." The girl disappeared from the door and shortly after the garage door started to clamor open. The timid girl poked her head out, "B-bring your bike in here..." As much as she didn't want to, her shop had to be open, she had to make a living, and she had to earn money to repair things.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:34 pm
Ugh! Damn she startled easily. Still, if the place was open he wasn't going to complain. Stalking back to his bike Aulus returned his staff to its place for the time being, flicked the kickstand back up, and wheeled the poor machine inside... Into a mess. "What happened here?" Aulus asked with a scowl, looking this way and that to take in the detail of the disorderly place. "Looks like a sodding bomb hit it!" It was more than just a messy workshop - he'd seen a good few of those in his time - this was a real dump! Amongst the mess however there were also some interesting looking machines.
Curiosity piqued Aulus secured his bike again and sauntered over to a ruined something or other by another door. "What's this thing do, or maybe I should ask what did it do?" he asked with a glance over his shoulder at the metal-armed girl.... Metal armed girl. Lots of weird looking machines, some of the wrecked, and a lot of mess and trashed things in general. What exactly had he walked into here?
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:07 pm
"U-um..." What was wrong with this guy? He was so... mean... "I-it got broken in to... and um... metagross..." Izumi slowly approached the man's bike. "W-what seems to be the problem... with your bike..." She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, and bent down to get a quick look at things. This was her element, if she just focused on machines, she would be fine. Don't worry about the angry judgmental man.
She looked up from the bike when Aulus asked her about one of her machines. "I-its a defense turret. T-the Griffs- um... people who broke in... broke it..."
It certainly looked like Aulus had walked into something very strange, perhaps even dangerous. How had the girl lost her arm, for example? Why was she so easily spooked? Where was the owner? So many questions.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 3:21 pm
"Oh." s**t. Aulus deflated almost visible, his scowl fading somewhat and his posture becoming less hostile. "Uh.... Sorry to hear that." Well now he felt like an arsehole. Defence turret. Once again he was left wondering what exactly he'd walked into here. Who were the Griffs anyway? He'd probably look like an idiot if he asked. "Uh, oh, right, the bike." Did she work here alone? She looked far too young to own the place for sure, but she'd asked the question confidently so she must at least work here right?
"Something's up with the radiator, I had it tuned by somebody who ought to be reputable the other day but it started overheating a little while after I got into town.... Is it just you working here? Doesn't seem that bright if your place just got smashed up." Probably not the most reassuring thing to say Aulus. Oh well, it was done now. "Oh, you can call me Aulus by the way." He probably ought to give her his name at least, a bit of common decency was in order after he'd sneered at her shop that had recently been broken into. Ugh. Why did he have to be such an unthinking arse so often, and why could he never apologise for it when he was?
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 3:40 pm
"Um... t-thanks..." It wasn't his fault the shop got broken in to--actually, it wasn't Izumi's fault either, but the sympathy, which she assumed he was trying to convey, was welcome.
"Radiator, huh?" She turned back to the bike, bending down to take a look at the front end of the bike, where the grating of the radiator was. "I wouldn't recommend taking your bike back to them..." She spoke into the bike, "I don't think they know a radiator from a lent collector..." The girl took on a whole different air of confidence when she was talking about mechanics.
She pulled herself away from the bike, seeing all she could see without taking it apart, and stood, turning back to the man who was poking around. "Y-yeah... I-its just me. Its... um... my shop... I-I'm Izumi." She was always the only one there- she didn't have the money to hire other people, and honestly she wouldn't want to. All she needed were her pokemon. One of whom, the metang, was stationed at the corner of the garage, watching the human carefully. The others were nowhere to be seen.
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:42 am
"Oh believe me I won't," Aulus snarled, his expression darkening again. "I'm going to go back and find that wanker and kick him in the balls so hard he.... Anyway," he blew a sharp breath out through his nose and tried to banish his aggression once more, "can you fix it? Today I mean, I'd kind of like to get home tonight." He did have Red of course, but he was loathe to leave his bike behind and he wasn't sure that he or the inexperienced bird were quite up to such a long flight yet in any case.
Humm, anyway though; she owned the place herself. She looked about his own age he supposed, so how come she owned her own business? "Pretty impressive at your age," he commented, and on realising that she hadn't heard his thoughts he added; "I mean owning this place, you can't be more than twenty-five, right? Can't say I know many people that young who run their own business. Make that any, actually, but perhaps I just hang out with the wrong kinds of people." Looking around the room again Aulus took in a Metang this time, and made a mental note to be wary as he noted its rather intense focus on him. Supposed he couldn't blame it really if its mistress' shop had been trashed recently.
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:17 pm
"Oh- t-thanks... Um. I-I worked hard..." Izumi had spent most of her young life working on her skills, and had saved up every penny to buy the little slice of mud she called home.
The girl giggled with a smile, "Yeah. I can fix it today. I'll need to get in there to see what needs tinkering with exactly..." She'd have to take the front tire off to start to get in there. Izumi didn't waste any time, leaving the bike's side to find her tools.
"U-um. There are... um... chairs and things by the front door... Or you can come back later..."
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:54 am
Was there anything nearby he could wander off to do? He was pretty sure the answer to that was no, and so he he gave his answer to Izumi by sauntering over to one of the indicated chairs and flopping down in it. Once he was settled he stretched out his left leg; apparently having not ridden for a while and then having taken a fairly long drive had stiffened it up. Oh well, looked like he had a while here to relax.
"Damn shame it got smashed up after all that then," Aulus said after a brief pause, "you got insurance at least?" Judging by the quality of the buildings around here she might well not, heck by the look of this place she might not even pay tax or anything. Plenty slipped under the radar where the police didn't really want to venture, he imagined. "Mind if I let one of me pokemon out?" he added after another short pause. "She's an Absol, well behaved, just hates pokeballs."
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:42 pm
"U-um... sure." As long as it wasn't a fire type he let out, she didn't mind at all. "I-I do, but..." Izumi came back to the bike with her toolbox, "It isn't much..." Besides, the deductible on the insurance was almost enough to put her out of business itself, but it was all the insurance she could afford.
The mechanic grabbed a torque wrench from the box and started removing the front tire.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:07 am
He usually didn’t watch people work on his bike. Much as it was kind of interesting for some reason it was also vaguely disturbing, like watching major surgery.... You knew you were too attached to a machine when you thought things like that. Shaking his head internally Aulus reached into his pocket and retrieved Tortie’s pokeball, letting her out before pocketing the ball again.
“Sit down and behave, there’s a girl,” his said in gruffly affectionate tones, ruffling the dark type’s soft fluffy mane as she complied with a soft huff and a curious glance around the room. “Shame,” Aulus went on after a moment, “looks to me like you’re pretty good at what you do... and that would be an understatement.” Of course he knew of equally weird and wonderful things on base, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that. Still, no point sticking around such a depressing subject, think of something else.
It didn’t take long to find a topic; as the skittish girl worked Aulus’ eyes caught once again on her arm; compared to that even her weird and wonderful tattoos seemed pretty commonplace. “So it looks like you can use that metal arm just like a normal one,” he commented, watching the movements of the fingers thoughtfully. “Who made it? How does it even work, I mean it can’t have nerves and that right?” Nerves, muscles, tendons, all that kind of stuff that bodies just did that machines struggled to replicate. Usually struggled to replicate make that, the evidence that it was possible to make things like that was right before his eyes.... Would Team Rocket be interested in knowing about this girl? He wasn’t sure if they had that kind of thing or not, and given the dangerous lives field agents lives it would be extremely useful to be able to make mechanical limbs.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:09 pm
"T-thank you..." Izumi continued working on the innards of the bike while Aulus talked. And then he brought up her arm. Thankfully, he asked the right questions.
"Ah- Y-yes." She put down her wrench for a second, to turn and look at Aulus, "I-its from Kaiba Corp. Um there are a mix of hydraulics and electronics that make it work... It- um, it simulates nerve endings... it is wired to my, um... real... part... and nerves work with electric signals... so, they sort of... work well together... and it has pressure sensitivity... It just... doesn't pick up temperatures well... at all..." It was a rare piece of equipment--equally because of the infrequency of which people lost their limbs as from the advanced nature of the device--But it was by no means unavailable to those with the need and the means. At least Izumi had a sort of oven mit at all times.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:47 pm
"I'm not going to pretend I really understood that," Aulus said with a sharp bark of laughter, "but it sounds cool." It looked cool too, and along with the kind of circuit-boardesque tattoos she had it gave her a certain kind of weird charm. Still, all that mattered about her really was that she fixed his bike and didn't charge too much.... Actually, let her charge what she wanted, he'd get the cash back from the d**k who'd 'fixed' it for him to being with when he got back to base.
"So what did you do to deserve getting your shop smashed up?" Aulus, master of tact, went on after a couple of moments. "You seem pretty inoffensive to me. Competition or what?"
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