Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » The Clockwork Resistance (1x1)

Zylphia nodded tiredly as she spoke, but rose an eyebrow at her turn in demeanor. When her mind finally caught up with the gesture, both hands reached up to fail to stifle a giggle.

"Well I suppose, if you find it amusing!" It had been a time since she had watched this happen last, but it had been quite a sight and still put her in fits to recall. The stronger the booze, the easier to con it seemed.

Andrea smiled a bit before getting up and walking over to a younger looking man across the bar. She pointed over to their table somewhere between the fake giggles, touches on the arm, and hair flips. After a bit the man walked to the bar with a large smile on his face, like a tinkerer who ha just found a mostly intact clockwork man. The girl walked quickly over to her drinking companion and ushered her out of the inn quickly. Once they left she gave a little laugh.

The air outside had grown chill, and between the bite in the air and the booze in her belly, the mechanic found herself flush with excited giggles as the two tumbled into the alley.

"Where on earth did you pick up that skill, girl? And what did you say?!" She gasped, still laughing while they walked along hurriedly. It made her feel like a kid again to be fit with laughter and to have had a man be flirted into buying her drinks, even if she hadn't done it herself.

With a grin Andrea explained, "It's just something I figured out how to do when younger soldiers kept hitting on me, it was easy to manipulate them when they thought I knew less than I really did and I was able to send them away on whatever I came up with, nowadays I usually just dislocate something in their arm."

As they walked back towards camp she considered how to answer the ladies other question. "Lets just say that he wanted a kind of favor that I don't do, but he thought paying for our drinks would help." She rolled her eyes, "boys."

At the rest, the woman maintained her fit of giggles, likely appearing more intoxicated than she was. Finally regaining composure, she nodded. "Aye, boys can be rotten."

They walked on for a bit before she asked, "so where are we headed?"

"Well, to camp," she said. "Where else?" It was a rhetorical question she asked. It was late and she definately had things to do the next day. There was a large military mystery she felt needed solving, and she would need rest in order to solve it.

"Alright then, let me know if you ever need a hand!" After they said their goodnights and goodbyes, she found her way home to tidy up and to sleep. She didn't really dream anymore, and nights she worried she might ended up with her at the bar. Like tonight. Maybe it wasn't a glamorous way to live, but any night that ended with a smile was a victory in itself.

And who knows, she thought, maybe I'll end up on some new adventures.

Andrea finished her goodnight and goodbye and made a bee line straight to her and her brother's tent. He, of course, had waited up the whole time. He sat on his side, tapping his foot and cleaning one of his modified rifles for what was probably the fifth time.

"I told you not to wait up this time."

"You know you're my responsibility."

"Actually, I'm older. That makes you my responsibility."

Drew shot her a look and leaned his rifle against the wooden post that supported the tents peak. He shook his head and crawled under his sheets. "Doesn't mean I don't worry about the last of my family," he muttered. Andrea flinched but didn't say anything. She stripped off the dirty clothes and put on cleaner ones before following suit and climbing into her own bed on the opposite side. After Drew blew out the lantern she laid there and stared up at the white canvas ceiling, pondering the events of the day. These events were still on her mind when she was finally lulled to sleep by the chirping crickets.

---

In the morning she went to check on the prisoners. To her dismay, they were dead. Each and every one of them. Drew joined her and muttered a curse. Further inspection told Andrea just what happened. "Cyanide," she said. "They must have all carried it somehow." Her brother looked perplexed but nodded and went out to deliver the news to their captain.

Meanwhile Andrea left to try and find the engineer she had met the previous day, she had a job for her, and one that required a bit of tinkering.

Was it Sunday or Monday, and did questions like these really pertain to life as she knew it? Either way her thoughts were groggy and as slurred as her voice last night. Once she lugged herself off of her cot, she downed as much water as she could stomach and grabbed her pack to head out. The outer edges of the city, where she lived, had once been home to many an artisan in the world before this war. It made for an intriguing neighborhood; with tilting buildings, slanting roofs, and dirt-masked paint in formerly vivid hues. Really, it was maybe a street or two with a shady alley running through it, but the statues and architecture had clearly been a sight once. Plenty of repair work was needed in the area, which is how she came to live there, but every now and then the riff-raff was too gnarly to play house with. Today though, things were relatively calm.

Almost eerily so; she made her way down the block to the home of an old fortune teller, to make due on a trade she had with the woman. Zylphia smiled at the almost-memory of being drank under the table last week by this old lass, and an exaggerated promise to fix the gypsy's entire house. Though what was left of it probably wasn't considered a home by anyone else on the block. Seeing what shambles hung together she knew it was more than leaky pipes and an evening draft that needed repair...she'd end up rebuilding the entire place by the end of it. All the same, she stopped shaking her head and met the woman to discuss where to begin.

Her day was spent listening to the crone give polite, if frumpy, instruction on the three biggest problems in her daily life. With the cooler weather, these included broken windows, some missing boards, and a sizable hole in the roof. They agreed to work on temporary fixes until they could obtain better materials (or a better house). By the time the girl found her, she was still up top hammering a piece of wood into place.

"Heya," Andrea called out as she approached, waving to Zylphia. "Do you have a minute? It's kind of important." Andrea stopped and waited for any response at the bottom of the house. Having followed a trail of "She went that way", Andrea had almost had it with askig directions. She was ready to kick the next guy she needed to talk to until she saw Zylphia. She sighed a sigh of silent relief as she stood there.