[Sinopia DeStellanova]

There was a flickering light in the warehouse that was driving her crazy. It only flickered sometimes, which made it all the more difficult to track down and made her all the more irritated with it. A couple of hours ago it started flickering again, so that seemed like a good a time as any to try to look at it. Her arms hurt from all the work she had been doing lately, and the thought of having to stick to the roof made them ache, but she wanted to figure this out. Using a ladder would have made it easier, but there were people using the table underneath and she didn't want to disturb them. All she was going to do was use her semblance to get her hand in the ceiling and take a quick feel around. She could do all the proper fixing, or proper investigation if she needed it, later when no one was here. This was supposed to be a cursory look to see if there was anything obvious.

That was about one hour ago.

Every time she told herself it was time to stop, she felt something weird and continued investigating. So, she'd been hanging on the ceiling, hanging onto one of the chains of her grapples with one hand, the other stuck in the ceiling, putting uncomfortable pressure on her arm while she hung from it, all while keeping her torso and legs pressed up against the ceiling as to avoid bothering anyone from her legs potentially getting too low. Her arms were screaming at this point and her abdominal muscles hurt so badly she felt like she was going to throw up. Still, there was something here. Just a little more. Her body could hold out for five more minutes while she followed this wire with her fingers. Unfortunately, it was just a little bit out of her reach. If she could just get her arm a little bit further into the ceiling she could do it.

Normally, it wouldn't have been that difficult of a maneuver, but with her as tired as she was, she failed to reattach the grapple properly and fell, back first, onto the large table below. The fall didn't hurt too much thanks to her aura, but it knocked the wind out of her and bounced her high enough that the momentum from the fall made her roll off the side. The table itself was strong enough that it didn't immediately break under her, and long enough that her body only hit about half of it. The crash was deafening however, and sure to have all eyes in the warehouse on her for a moment. If the first and loudest one wasn't enough to get their attention, then the one of her hitting a chair, or the other when she hit the floor, might have. For a moment, she just layed on the floor, neither her arms nor her abdominal muscles wanting to do the work necessary to get her back on her feet. It wasn't until a tool from the table rolled off the side and onto her head that she coughed and decided to do something.

Forcing herself into a nearby chair, she adjusted her hood to make sure it was still in place after the fall, and took a look at the person that must have been using this and that she just interrupted in the dumbest way possible. Part of her wanted to sink into the floor and be done with it, but she supposed she should at least apologize first. Sighing, she handed the tool back the person handle first.

"Sorry about that."

That was when Red got a good look at what the person was actually doing. There was a spark of genuine interest in her eyes as a momentary sense of curiosity combined with how hard she hit her head, managed to override her usual sense of shame. She built her own weapons and was always curious about people that worked on their own. Customized anything were always interesting.

"Did you make your own weapons? What do they do?" she paused and started to slink back into the chair. "If you want to talk about it. Otherwise I'll just..." she gestured behind her with her fingers and started turning. "...go."

---

720/720

["Signet"]

In one of the more empty loading bays, Signet had set up her work station with her necessary tools and gear. The recently liberated warehouse was covered in dust from disuse, not to mention the debitage from the casual cracks and weathering along the walls that persisted throughout the rotten structure. She was no civil engineer but she did know a building code violation when she saw one. The team that she supposed she was now a part of, had done their best with what they had. A number of ex-tradesmen, apparently just out of work, had re-applied their skills to the place to make it livable which was a miracle in and of itself. She understood their plight, thinking it was a similar one to hers, and made her appreciation known, participating in the reconstruction with her own set of skills. They were but victims to the same injustices caused by the failures of the Mistrallian elites who served only themselves and made good people turn to desperation. She wasn't confident enough to ask directly, but she felt that they could be easily swayed to the cause, to vote for the Confederation in the up-and-coming election. The pieces were so obvious to see, the cause so clearly justified in her mind. Mistral had to change and it was going to, by the hands of people like her.

There was plenty of work to be done and once they had set upon repairs once again she would aid them at a moments notice. For now, in absence of any work, she had planned to upgrade her weapons.

Ire and Fire were the two electrified batons that she made her personal weapons. Electricity is a terrifying thing to be sure but one element that she was comfortable with working with. She had worked with such power before she became combat ready during her previous career as a welder. The transition from tool to weapon was simple enough in theory, but much harder in practice. While modern police forces did make use of similar weapons in the form of the taser, she had built up on the idea, subsequently leading to the dual batons before her.

Welders mask affixed to her face, she lit the brilliant spark at the end of her wall-socket powered electric welder, the one that was strictly for non-combat. Today she was experimenting with a new piece at the very tip of the weapons. Having an exposed current along the weapon subsequently meant there was excessive power loss through extended usage but with some modifications she could theoretically reduce the total power expenditure. The welder lit up the loading bay, the white light changing the shadows around her as she worked.

It made the hairs on her arms rise but she did not fear electrocution, simply too used to it's presence. It helped with the knowledge that her aura would be more than enough to protect her from a miscalculation. A simple current to the heart would be enough to kill or maim an average person but the fear had been lessened, if not reduced completely, since she had unlocked her aura, a most certainly useful tool for blue collar workers that held power tools that could turn against them if not used safely.

Too engrosed in her work, it came as a shock when someone fell from the ceiling, slamming into the table right next to her. It was more literal in Piroshka's case.

Her hand slipped and a yellow spark jumped from the superheated metal and landed on her leg. She yelled within her mask, immediately feeling pain. It was more of a surprise than anguish but it was agrivating to say the least. It would leave a burn through the fabric and a scar that aura would soon heal so it seemed that there were small mercies in this world.

The welding mask wearing woman would turn and face Red, electric torch in hand, still blindingly bright and white hot. Signet would hold her hands in front of her, the tool raised like a weapon. It was more instinct than any actual intent to attack.

In the few moments she would realize the base was not being raided and regain her faculties. The welding torch in hand was switched off and gently placed back on the table where it could hurt no one and she flipped open her visor.

"What?"

Piroshka blinked, adjusting her eyes to the light, and trying to take in the woman standing in front of her. She had something in her hand and was giving it to her to which Piroshka accepted awkwardly, gently taking it out of her hands.

"Uh, uh.... sure."

Piroshka was at a complete loss of words. While it would not be very hard to sneak up on her when she was working, she was a bit uncomfortable at being caught unawares. She wasn't sure where this one had come from. The woman had fallen... from the ceiling?

"I'm um... ah...I'm just not used to being snuck up on. Sorry." she appologized, not knowing where else to go from here.

Her hands still shook underneath her gloves, though it was starting to settle. Getting her nerves under control she extended a gloved hand to her fellow criminal, an awkward sign of peace between two nerve wracked women.

"I'm a bit disorriented now, sorry about that. But, ah, it's fine. It really is." Signet gave her a small smile. "You want to know about my weapons? I suppose that would be alright..."

"My two batons are called the Tonitrus Twins. That means thunder twins." said Signet with a real smile. "I did indeed make them myself actually, really they are inspired from my old line of work. Their real power comes into their electric shock, which, ah..." Piroshka looked to her dismantled weapons, dawning on the realization she was somewhat defenseless right now. "...I can't give you much of a demonstration right now but that's how they are supposed to work."

"I'm not sure if that is all that interesting..." Signet sighed nervously, worrying if that was enough to impress the other woman.

Word Count: 1024/1024
Piroshka Colour Hex: e61919
The Tonitrus Twins [E]
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red slunk down and raised her hands, trying to look as small and non-threatening as possible. Her eyes darted between the flame and the welder while she held her breath, up until the point the torch was no longer being pointed at her. She couldn't even be mad. Odds were, if she were in that situation she would have done the same thing. That said, she was completely prepared to phase her way through this chair, and through the floor, if it proved necessary. Fortunately, it wasn't.

After a moment's hesitation, Red took the woman's hand to shake it. It was politely firm, but not out to test any limits. For that moment, she half expected some kind of attack or other bad thing to happen, but when nothing came, she gradually lowered her other hand and started to relax a little. As much as the thoughts about how stupid and irresponsible all that was swarming her mind like angry bees would allow. Part of her was tempted to apologize again, but all that would really do was pressure of making her feel better on someone else, and she made a point to never apologize to make herself feel better.

Another part of her was tempted to excuse herself, and this part of her almost won. She was embarrassed, her body hurt, and she was pretty sure she was bothering this person. Not exactly the kind of situation she wanted to stay in. However, she knew that she had to get to know everyone at some point, and that was probably going to be really awkward no matter what she did. Her and Knight's coordination only worked as well as it did because they knew each other and could trust each other completely. The latter may never happen with these people, but the former was achievable. As long as the woman was indulging her, it was probably fine.

That said, the second the woman started seeming too irritated or like she just wanted to get back to work Red was going to bolt.

"Stun batons? Mine is similar."

She rarely took off her gloves. They didn't interfere with her manual dexterity too much, and they didn't look like weapons, so there wasn't much need to. Rather than launch one of the grappling hooks on them, she just pulled at one manually with her fingers. It was built to be disguised as a belt running along her wrist, where the buckle had microscopic hairs that would allow it to stick to surfaces. Once she pulled at it, the buckle came loose and the chain wrapped around the fake belt followed with it. Making sure she was carefully holding it so it wouldn't shock her, she flexed her fingers in a specific motion and a spark ran along the chain until she stopped. It wasn't very noticeable, but it did make a distinct buzzing noise. With another flex of her fingers, the chain retracted and she folded her arms.

It should be safe to show everyone here that she wore her weapons almost all the time and that they were very easily concealed. They'd learn eventually. As much as it made her feel uncomfortable revealing secrets like this, it was important that they knew what she was capable of too.

"I'm always interested in seeing what people build. A custom built weapon can say a lot about someone. I'm not used to seeing something so..." she paused for a moment, "Non-lethal?"

---

579/1299

["Signet"]

Piroshka gave a quick look over Red's strange weapons, chains that when unravelled could shock an opponent at a moment's notice but otherwise remained fairly well concealed within her sleeves. There was some surprise that Piroshka would meet someone that had the same bright idea to create an electricity based weapon. While she knew there were other hunter types that combined dust with their weapons, she though her shock batons would be novel and strange enough to give her an advantage in a fight but apparently it was less rare than she thought.

"How novel. I can only imagine it is well insulated if you are going to be wearing them. Can you replace the chains if any links break?" Piroshka ponders, trying to wrap her head around how she would approach maintenance with this kind of weapon.

"I take it, with a weapon with an irregular form like these, you are quite dexterious," Piroshka says, raising an eyebrow. "Perhaps you can give me a bit of insight into your own fighting style? Chains are unusual but I take it you find them reliable enough to get the job done."

Piroshka is remarkedly lax throughout the conversation which is a bit unusual for her. It seems Red had caught her at a good time and after all, Red seemed to be the most normal out of her coworkers with the man who calls himself Pyre being her only frame of reference. Plus, Piroshka was not especially concerned about revealing this kind of knowledge. In fact, it was preferable to her co-workers becoming too curious in what Piroshka did when she was off work. Until she knew she could trust them with her rightous cause, she would be tight lipped about her aspirations for a revolution within Mistral.

"Non-lethal... I mean, I suppose you might be right about that," Piroshka mumbles, "I suppose I was relying on the electricity being more useful for intimidation purposes than for leaving mortal wounds. I had assumed that people would see that and force them to be more cautious around me. I mean, most sane people would want to avoid being electrocuted, wouldn't they?"

For a normal person, electrocution was as sure as danger as getting hit by a car would be. Getting struck by lightning was understandibly deadly but would a person with aura fall for the same thing?

Piroshka gives Red a sideways glance out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not blood thirsty if that is what you are asking,"

"I'd like to avoid it unless I decide it is necessary. If I can convince someone to see my side or stay out of the way of my goals, that is preferable. Unless you prefer the lethal approach with those chains of yours," Piroshka says, silently assuming Red was asking that question because she was the kind of person to resort to such methods.

"That being said..." Piroshka picks up one of the batons, Ire, of the table and held the base downward. A red cartridge popped out and fell into her hand followed by a yellow one of the same size.

"I have other ways to make a fight end in my favor. A couple of clips of electricity dust and fire dust give me an edge," Piroshka smiled, believing her technological advantage was that good. "While certainly expensive, my connections enable me to have a ready supply of dust for personal use..."

"Dust really is the future. While we have employed it throughout history it has only been primitive, cautious applications. It is only quite recently that we have been using it's full potential..." Piroshka examines the fire dust cartridge in the light, admiring it's potenial. "I believe that with enough dust in the right persons hands any problem can be solved, in our line of work and in greater society."

Word Count 642
Total Word Count: 1666
Piroshka Colour Hex: e61919
The Tonitrus Twins [E]
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]
Piroshka Colour Hex: e54343

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

"Yes, fairly easily even," she nodded. "Fixing the wiring after is a pain, but I wouldn't say it's difficult. They come apart easily so they're easy to clean as well."

She retracted the chain and tugged at the fingers of the glove to pull it off. Even with it off her hands it looked like a fairly standard, if a bit well worn, goatskin glove. At most it was slightly thicker due to the metal plates in the fingers and the insulation running through them, but that was uniform throughout the glove and there were no parts that were bulkier than the others. That was not easy to pull off given she wanted to have different, stiffer materials around her fingers and knuckles.

After fiddling with the fake belt around the wrist for a moment, it started to unwind and then opened up. It took some work to get it open, but that was necessary to prevent it from accidentally opening while in use. The chain was thin enough to wrap around her wrist several times without overlapping any other piece of chain, and rolled in such a way that if someone pulled hard on it in the wrong direction, or she was left dangling from her wrist at any point, the chain would hold tight and wouldn't potentially cut off her hand. It wouldn't even cut off her circulation too badly. She couldn't remove the chain entirely without cutting the tiny wires running through them, but even this much made it pretty easy to clean.

The base of the chain went through the fake belt and into the bottom of the glove at the point where her wrist met her palm. It connected to a mechanism inside, between the goatskin on the outside of the glove and the inner layer her hand rested against, that handled all its other functions. Because it was wrapped inside the glove, she couldn't show that part off, but she could still talk about it.

"I guess you could say that. I don't fight very much, and prefer to avoid it entirely when I can. My skills are better suited to sabotage, espionage, and burglary than combat," saying that so easily in this context was uncomfortable enough that she slunk down in her chair a little, but otherwise kept going after a slight pause "so I built something easily concealable to help me move around."

She pulled on the buckle again and firmly pressed it into the lower part of her shirt. From there, she pulled on the chain to lift her shirt slightly. Even though the buckle was neither going through her shirt, nor wrapped around it, the buckle stuck and she was easily able to lift her shirt. Given her shirt was far too big for her and went about half way down her thighs, there was plenty to lift without being indecent. The grappling hook was more than enough to carry well over double her weight despite its appearance. It was rare she got to talk about all the thought she put into her weapons and all the engineering challenges she faced while doing so. As uneasy as she felt about being threatened with a blow torch and being part of Asche in general, that enthusiasm still came through.

"This'll stick to just about anything and it's really strong. Easily strong enough for me to grapple to high places. While carrying someone even. It doesn't cause damage to the surface either," she paused. "Well, I guess if I shot it into something like glass the force of the impact might damage that, but that's something else entirely. The point is that if I'm careful, it won't even leave a trace that I was ever there and can safely be used on people. I got the idea from watching geckos climb walls. It uses the same principles.

"They're combat capabilities are just...less interesting. I reinforced the knuckles so if I really need to I can just punch someone. Or use the electricity running through it like a stun gun," she shrugged.

Because she worked with someone like Knight, there wasn't much point in trying to fight. She wouldn't do much more than slow Knight down and get in the way when it came down to it. So, she focused on finding ways to help instead. Mobility was one of Red's greatest strengths, and one of Knight's greatest weaknesses. It made sense to emphasize that. Now Knight could get caught in a trap, or a hole, or whatever else might try immobilize her friend and she could just pull her out. Knight could fight just about anyone head to head, so she focused on finding the people she needed to fight, making sure she could get to that fight, and preventing their enemies from being able to run away easily. They were a team. And while she did have regular worries about holding Knight back or being in the way, she knew they were just because of her on anxiety and not based in any kind of objective reality.

The enthusiasm around talking about how their weapons worked drained quickly when the woman started talking about hers. When Red thought 'stun baton' she was thinking about something like her own weapons. They were not suited to killing, or even seriously injuring, someone at all. Even the stun function in the grapple was more there to take advantage of electrostatic forces rather than meant to actually be used on people. And even if she did use it on a person, it wouldn't be any stronger than the average taser. If she really wanted to kill someone, it'd be more effective to just wrap the chain around their neck and --

That train of thought was getting very uncomfortable, so she stopped it there. Electrocution just didn't cross her mind when she was thinking about how those kinds of weapons would be used. It probably should have. She was clearly not used to being in a criminal syndicate like this. The Dust made her slink down in her chair a little more and push herself back, like she was trying to meld with the chair itself. That was a lot of Dust. Was this person always carrying that much Dust? That would definitely cause some damage she supposed.

"No, I didn't mean to imply that you were bloodthirsty," she raised her hands in a placating gesture. "That might lightning dust would certainly...be very obvious and would make people think twice about fighting. It's a good strategy."

For most of her life no matter where she went, Red felt out of place. For the first time in her life she was actually okay with that.

---

1118/2417

["Signet"]

Piroshka gave a nod to Red, satisfied that her point about dust got across to her. She didn't miss the pause in speech, evidently the woman had reached that same realization that Piroshka had the potential to be a bigger threat with all this dust she possessed. There was some satisfaction in that, proof that her decision to maintain dominance through dust abundance was sound in theory at the very least. That being said, the knowledge of Piroshka's arsenal was not a secret, especially not after the warehouse mission so it would no longer be so much of a surprise among the current batch of Asche employees.

"Ideally, I would keep some around as a weapon enhancement and another set as a ranged option perhaps," Piroshka continued on. "Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to obtaining such. I'd rather my fire dust be in a throwable form, perhaps a pack of detonators, but for now they are just a few other melee attachments to my arsenal."

"I would certainly recommend getting your hands on dust for your personal arsenal. While Asche was charitable enough to provide us with small amounts of dust last time it will greatly serve you to maintain your own supply." Signet finished, confident in her own advice.

She rolls the fire dust clip over her knuckles before sliding it into her pocket for ease of access.

"Hmm, I don't think I've greeted you personally. I must have forgotten over that talk on weapons and dust,"

"You might have caught my name during the mission but for the sake of politeness, please call me Signet." She pauses for a moment before saying. "No nicknames please. and never "Sigs.""

---

Word Count: 286
Total Word Count: 1952
Piroshka Colour Hex: ff3350
The Tonitrus Twins [E]
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

"Dust is really expensive though. I'm not sure if I can make that happen. My current weapons only cost about 35 lien, and that's only if I splurge on good materials."

She started tugging at her fingers, then reassembling her glove so she could put it back on. They really were dirt cheap and it meant she didn't have to worry about losing or damaging them. Plus, she made them pretty early on in her career, before she and Knight had a fair amount of money. She might be able to incooperate more Dust into her fighting style at this point, but she wasn't sure she saw the point. Her current methods were effective for what she did, and she didn't do much fighting to begin with. It was better to focus their resources on Knight.

Still, it was an interesting subject so her mind couldn't help but wander down what she might do with Dust, or how to actually build what this woman was describing with her weapons. At least until she remembered that Signet was probably talking about murder. Like literal murder. At least, Red wasn't sure how else to take her initial response to the question on whether her batons were non-lethal. It was like she hadn't even considered it.

Red had a great deal of appreciation for Dust and its uses. It was what made modern life modern. She could spend hours in a library or online just reading about new techniques or just seeing what people built with it. She couldn't build any of the super advanced stuff, and didn't actually understand a lot of the theories well enough to explain them to other people, but she could follow them well enough. Big trains were about the only exception because she had a weird obsession with them when she was younger. One of her long term goals was actually to figure out how to apply gravity dust to her car so it'd be easier to use her semblance on. She still had to figure out what to do about cargo it was carrying, so it hadn't been that much of a priority, but it still sounded really cool.

It's not like she considered herself bloodless or anything. She was more than willing to help Knight maintain or modify weapons and helped her track down some of those people. But all of that felt so different. They weren't out to kill people, they were out to save people from dangerous people the government wouldn't deal with. It was about correcting a deficiency the current authority had, and making sure people didn't suffer because of that deficiency. Would this really be the same? Going from figuring out whether they'd even go after a target to basically talking about making bombs with Dust? Red was disturbed at how well the skillsets transferred.

"Red. It's nice to meet you Signet," she nodded. There was no reason not to be polite. "I guess I don't mind nicknames. I'm just...not really sure what you would use? I mean Red is already pretty short." After a moment of looking to the side and tapping her fingers, she shook her head at the useless tangent. "Well, if you do upgrade your weapons...I'd be interested in knowing how you decided to accomplish that. It sounds...interesting?"

In any other circumstance she would have offered to help, but helping in this one was too far outside her comfort zone. Still, she could put in a little effort to be friendly enough to make sure everyone liked her well enough and that was an obvious way to connect with Signet. Just hearing about it shouldn't be enough to get her to hate herself more than she already did for all this. Well, probably.

---

626/3043

["Signet"]

>> Signet could only raise an eyebrow at Red's description of her weapons. 35 lien wasn't very much for a weapon even accounting for the woman doing her own maintenance. While she could respect the frugalality of that choice, a weapon was not something to cut corners on.

She had to wonder about that decision but wasn't about to bring it up. She understood that wealth could be a sensitive topic and that people did not like to be reminded that they were less than middle class. However she assumed that they were being paid the same rate at least, neither having seniority as they had pressumably joined the Asche around the same time. If Signet could afford her complex set-up, why couldn't Red do the same? Perhaps their pay packages were different? Was Red being paid less that Signet? While she had no way of telling that, Signet chided herself for being insensitive.

"That is understandable. If your desired weapon specifications involve something cheap and convenient then dust won't always be such a saving grace," Signet sighed.

"However, if you are in need of maintenance or cheap parts for repair you can come to me," she said, and turned back to her work station, pulling open a shelf with assorted wires and metal plates. "I did find some spare parts when they were cleaning up the warehouse and still haven't decided on how to put them to use. Feel free to pick up parts from my workstation. Just remember to return the tools."

This was comfortable enough. Signet did enjoy her peace and quiet but it was nice having someone to talk shop with.

"If you are... still interested in talking about weapons any input would be appreciated," Signet said, giving Red permission to look over her plans for the Tontritus Twins.

She wasn't certain if this conversation was going well, after all that talk about lethal force. It was all just theoretical but indeed somewhat disturbing, recognizing the consequences of being a regular person prepared to pick up a deadly weapon and fight. But in this current state of Mistral people just had to steel their nerves and ask themselves what they were willing to do.

"I was indeed thinking of upgrading my weapons. If I wanted to continue using electricity I might change the batteries to an electric motor," Signet says as she looks over a construction and hardware catalogue. "Although the issue I am having is that most common dust generators aren't necessarily portable which would make travel more difficult."

Signet points to a picture of a fire dust powered generator about the size of a suitcase. "I could take one of the atlessian models apart and try to reduce the size but I don't think it is possible without reducing efficiency. I am stuck between chosing something more powerful but clumsy and might not even work or to continue to use a my current set-up." <<

---

Word Count: 489
Total Word Count: 2441
Piroshka Colour Hex: ff3350
The Tonitrus Twins [E]
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

The thought of spending money on herself was still strange. She did sometimes, but more often than not, her remaining money after expenses went to a vast hoard she was saving until she knew what to do with it. Dipping into that to better equip herself when she was already perfectly fine at what she did and was generally resourceful seemed strange. Plus, until recently her life wasn't exactly stable and it was hard to say when she'd be able to get more. However, there were times where some wind dust in her boots to propel her upwards and through ceilings would have been useful, among other things. Maybe it was worth thinking about, but it was hard to imagine spending that much money just to make life a little bit easier. Especially when almost all of their offensive power was concentrated in Knight.

Signet's offer took her by surprise though. Her weapons were pretty low maintenance, so she wasn't sure how much she was going to need, but it was still generous. After all the talk of electrocuting people it felt weird to hear something like that from the same person's mouth. As terrifying as this person was, at least she didn't seem inclined to direct any of that towards Red. If anything, Signet seemed happy she was here. Given she was trying to keep everyone happy for the time being, she supposed this was mission accomplished.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

Red had nothing to offer herself, other than her brain it seemed. Thinking about using it in this context was still very uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure if she could just say no and leave after that. Wouldn't it look bad? Selfish? Greedy? Would it undo everything she accomplished during this conversation? Weapons were meant to kill. That was their purpose. She knew this, why was she acting so surprised when confronted with it? Her own weapons barely even qualified as such because of how she built and used them. They were unusual. Strange. There was no reason to think that anyone else would want weapons like hers. Despite that, she still had an interest in weapons in general. The way they were put together was interesting to her. The technology was interesting to her. The effects, maybe not so much, but when looking at them for the sake of intellectual curiosity it was easy to focus on how they were built rather than how they were used. Every time a weapon's true purpose was shoved in her face again she felt guilty for thinking they were interesting in the first place. But she shouldn't be thrusting her own problems and mental hangups on other people.

It wouldn't hurt to take a look at the plans right?

Stiffly, Red rose out of her chair and walked over to the blueprints to get a good look at them. The logic was pretty easy to follow, and it was well thought out. Though it might be hard for her to offer any kind of insight. It already seemed pretty self-contained. She started tapping the fingers on her free hand against her leg.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish with this upgrade?"

She regretted asking the question the moment the words left her mouth and got a bit stiffer again. At the very least, she could try to change the subject to something that would hopefully not result in the deaths of random people.

"Actually, I'm curious. You said you were very interested in Dust right? Have you built anything else with it?"

---

595/3638

["Signet"]

** Piroshka set down the catalogue, unable to make a decision today. The upgrade would have to wait until she obtained the proper funds for what she needed anyway so no rush to start a new project.

Red was unable to provide any insight into the question of an electricity generator which was disappointing but not unexpected. While both used electricity in some form the contrasts in their weapons likely meant they encountered different engineering problems during the design process. Those chains of hers likely required less power that the Tontritus Twins so there was no need to develop a greater power supply. And, in a similar way to Signet's weapons, they both shared an engineering obstacle, namely that of design efficiency. If one were to improving the weapon's power output it would subsequently require increasing the overall weight and size of the weapon body.

From a glance she judged that Red wouldn't be able to swing the chains effectively if they weighed like dumbells nor conceal them if their size was noticable underneath the jacket. There were costs to attack power if she choose to focus on her mobility which logically influenced the kind of weapon she wielded.

Raising an eyebrow at Red's sudden change of topic, she does try to answer the question. While it was true that Signet was interested in dust, she only worked with a few types. She thought for a second and shrugged.

"There isn't much to say. Previously my main career was in welding and construction and the like. I was not an engineer or mechanic by trade but I did ended up becoming a generalized trade worker." Picking up Ire, the most intact of the Twins, Signet begins to fit the pieces back together.

"As for projects, nothing especially complex. As a welder I spent a lot of time with electricity and fire dust depending on what we were working on. I worked on a few of the industrial buildings you see around this area, or the newer ones at least. I also had a short career at a car assembly line putting together the frames of cars," says Signet with a look of disinterest. "Smell wasn't great but it was bearable and the pay was half-decent"

"A couple of years ago I had a job with the Schnee Dust Company in the Mistral branch. They were building these large cargo containers used to transport dust. I was sent in to make sure they were up to code and wouldn't fall apart and go boom before they got sold." With that memory the edges of her mouth quirk up. "Pay was great. It was a shame that they had such a high turnover rate."

"Most recent job I had was at a restaurant in the Cloud District. They wanted a walk-in freezer and had some ice dust distribution systems installed. A quick and easy job. Didn't get to try their food though so can't recommend," she adds as a last thought as though either of them could visit that kind of establish as a paying customer.

Signet snaps the last piece back on to Ire and closes the circuitry within the handle. While the soldering was half-assed, having been interrupted part-way during maintenance, it just wasn't pretty but it would still work. She hadn't altered the conducting wires that lead to the barrel so it shouldn't discharge on accident. However she did pry open the battery compartment to evaluate what changes she could afford to make so it was still suspect at the moment but Signet was willing to take the chance.

She flips Ire upside down and slides it into her side holster.

"That is much better." Signet turns and faces Red with an placated smile. "Well Red you seem rather interested in mechanical things. I saw you have those chains of yours but have you any other projects? Even if they don't require dust." **

---

Word Count: 653
Total Word Count: 3094
Piroshka Colour Hex: ff3350
The Tonitrus Twins [E] (Ire)
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

When she asked about other projects she wasn't expecting to get a complete work history. Red shifted her weight to her other leg, then set Signet's plans down if only to have something to do with her hands. She hoped that Signet didn't expect such a complete response because most of her work history was not something she could talk about in detail. Not as long as Knight and her wanted to keep their identities even somewhat hidden or ambiguous, and not as long as she wanted to keep her faunus identity a secret. She was never sure how old she looked, or how old people thought she was, but hopefully she looked young enough that Signet wouldn't find it strange that she didn't say that much about her work history. Or failing that, hoped that talking about some of the topics brought up would be enough of a distraction.

It made her realize that, when it came to work history she could put on a resume, she didn't have that much less than someone nearly twice her age. She was still ten when she first joined the military during the Faunus Revolution and served for nearly the entire duration of the war. After the war, she lived in Menagerie, where she got a part time job working for her uncle's company while she went to school that she held until the last year she was there. Until her uncle basically fired her for having bad grades, as though that was somehow relevant to the job itself. Then she spend the past year bounty hunting with Knight in Vacuo, something she started before she even turned 18. A little more than a year actually. So around eight or nine years of work experience, most of which were very dangerous jobs, and she hadn't even turned 20. She wouldn't be surprised if Signet was talking about the same length of time, despite seeming a lot older than Red was. It was a sobering thought. One that made her remember that she didn't get to have a real childhood. But she was never one to dwell on it.

"Oh, so it's only something you do for work? Not for fun?"

Thinking about it, she wasn't sure whether a lot of what she worked on was for work or for fun. Outside of her job on Menagerie, they overlapped quite a bit. That was the upside of having a useful and practical hobby she supposed.

"It sounds like you've seen a lot though. Even if it's always exciting, that's a lot of varied experience you can apply to other projects right? With jobs like that...do you get a chance to look at the buildings you helped build? That sounds like it'd be satisfying to be able to do." She paused for a moment, tapping her fingers against her leg. "My history's less interesting. I worked as a mechanic for a few years and spent a lot of time taking apart my family's appliances. That's about it. Right now, I've working on my car. I wouldn't say it does anything special, but I've spent a lot of time optimizing it. I was living out of it for awhile, so keeping it fast and comfortable has been important. It feels good being able to use the things I built though, you know?"

Anyone that had seen her car might find that she actually cared about it surprising. The frame was a really beat up older model with scratched and flaking paint and several dents. Any time she left it on the side of the road somewhere it didn't stand out because it was entirely reasonable to assume that someone would have abandoned a vehicle like that. However, the tinted windows hid how nice the interior was, and the frame hid all the work and care that went into getting it to run as well as it did.

---

652/4290

["Signet"]

** Piroshka shrugged. “I’m not into making toys. Everything has a use, a purpose and I can find enough satisfaction in that. I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t at least a little interested in my area work.”

To Piroshka, work was something that was intended to be fulfilling in and of itself. People were meant to become productive members of society and find meaning in their ability to contribute to their community. That’s just how things were done in Mistral’s work culture at least in her experience. That being said, that sense of fulfillment was something missing in her life which was painful to think about. She hadn’t managed to find new employment after her last boss fired her after it was discovered that she frequently associated with members of the Solidarity group for workers fighting for unionization.

It was a blow to her pride when she was not able to continue in her field of expertise and it saddened her to think that she would not be able to return to her old career. She had gone to school, acquired the necessary skills and experience that should have been valuable in the job market but despite her effort, she had found herself wanting for employment. It seemed unfair. Despite her willingness to be useful she was discarded, abandoned for reasons out of her control.

Here in Asche, those job skills were not useful for the majority of the missions they were sent and it sometimes felt as though those past years of her life didn’t mean anything. She was not a fighter in her past life but now she was playing soldier for a criminal organization. It was not ideal in the slightest but there were no more options for someone like her.

Red still seemed mildly impressed by her work to which Signet nodded appreciatively. “I have worked on a number of the buildings around the ground district but I don’t get to see much of it usually. I did feel proud whenever we completed a job but generally after a project is finished I just want to move on to the next thing. Though I do hope I can apply my experience to other things soon. If Asche decides to start a project I will likely be joining.”

“Appliance repair? I can only imagine it’s given you a lot to work with. There are so many brands out there today with their own unique issues and you need to figure out your own solutions with what little info you know and whatever tools you have at hand,” observes Signet, commending Red’s work which might one day compliment Piroshka’s own mechanical expertise.

Signet hadn’t gotten a good look at Red’s vehicle but she had seen it around the warehouse a few times and she was rather astonished that someone willingly drove around in that scrapbox. “Your car… That’s-hmm. Interesting. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or not,” Signet says with a small frown.

Again Red seemed to choose a lower end model than to have something decent. Her simple chain weapons were at least something she could respect in their unique design and how they suited a more cautious fighting style. That car… well it didn’t look out of place in the ground district but it was a bit of a sad sight to watch it putter down the streets.

In her head she imagined an impoverished Red with only a poor excuse of a car to call home, huddled in a packed car full of all her worldly belongings, what little worth it amounted to, struggling to find sleep with only a worn out blanket and a makeshift bed too small to stretch her legs out...

“Right. And you do your own maintenance and repair. That’s… quite innovative of you,” Signet said, doing her part to be polite. While not stated out loud, she had to wonder how much effort was it worth to keep something like that on the road?

“Again, I just want to offer my help if you need help with your car repairs. We can figure something out,” says Piroshka almost pleadingly. From all she’s learned from this conversation she can’t help but think that Red was in desperate need of help. **

Word Count: 710
Total Word Count: 3804
Piroshka Colour Hex: ff3350
The Tonitrus Twins [E] (Ire)
Exotic Martial Arts [E]
Electric Dust [E]
Fire Dust [F]

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

She was a little disappointed that working on something for fun was dismissed as 'toys,' when it could be just as useful as anything else, but opted not to comment on it. This was probably more like math was to most people: useful, but not exactly something most people could get excited about for its own sake. That was the part that made her a little bit sad, because she thought both math and mechanics were fun in their own right, and she would keep it in mind for the future. For now, it was more important to focus on the topic at hand, if only because she was pretty sure there was something she wasn't understanding.

"Innovative?"

Red scratched the back of her head and looked down as she tried to piece together what Signet meant. She had the skills to fix her own car, so why wouldn't she? There wasn't much point in hiring someone to do it when she was perfectly capable unless she was seriously pressed for time and needed to be doing something else. It was thinking back over how Signet thought she did appliance repair that it finally clicked how poorly she explained everything. She certainly could fix appliances, but she was far more familiar with vehicles. It was a small misconception, but one she wanted to clear up because she really didn't want someone else touching her car. She didn't even like it when Knight tried to clean it, and it wasn't just because her partner had a tendency to track sand everywhere, only creating more work for her instead.

"Oh, my experience isn't with appliances. I worked for a logistics company and mostly worked on large ground-based transports and ships. I took apart appliances for fun when I was 14. I tried to put them back together, but I'm afraid not all of them survived." She laughed awkwardly and looked down. "So, don't worry, I can handle my car just fine. It's pretty straightforward compared to some of the vehicles I worked on in the past."

There was also this other look that she was a bit more familiar with. Somehow, Red doubted she was very concerned for the car she drove and how horrible it must be for the poor thing to have someone so inexperienced working on it. Even if the car didn't look like complete shit on the outside already, Signet didn't seem sentimental enough to care that much about inanimate objects. No, it was probably her Signet was worried about. She didn't dress as flashily as Knight did, and none of her clothes could ever fit right if she wanted to have any hope of hiding her tail. Granted, she preferred looser clothing, just not quite this loose, but it was necessary if she didn't want to keep her tail frozen in place all day. She had already worn holes in the knees of her jeans, something she kept telling herself she'd fix eventually but never seemed to get around to, and, while she wasn't trying to be misleading about how she lived, she could understand how a few of her comments could be taken out of context to make her seem worse off than she was. Sure, some of the habits she had were from when she did actually live like that, but money hadn't been an issue for quite some time. Knight even bought a nice little two story house for them to live in while they were here, and they probably could have afforded something bigger if they weren't trying to be discrete. Unlike the last misconception, she saw no reason to correct this one. Signet might find out on her own, which was fine, but in the mean time it was a perfectly plausible motive for her to be in Asche and was awkward enough to try to broach that it might avoid any awkward conversations about why she was here. All that was fine by her, even though she really hated looks like this.

However, she didn't want to completely rebuke Signet's generosity, as having a degree of support from the members in Asche would be useful, and keeping positive relations with everyone would reduce the odds that she got beat up or something. Having one of them actually worried about her felt strange though. Red disliked having people worry about her in general, but having someone that was able to talk about electrocution and killing so casually worrying about her made her stomach roll. It was different when Knight did it. She knew Knight. She didn't know any of these people. Clasping her hands so she wouldn't fidget, she looked back up at Signet with a soft smile on her face, and made sure to keep her voice perfectly level despite her unease.

"But I wouldn't mind your help on other projects. I'm still inexperienced, so I'm sure I could learn a lot from your expertise."

---

824/5114

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Red: 51

240 + 51 = 291

Signet: 38

174 + 38 = 212