F*cking Pilgrims

<p>Astald didn't often go out into the city proper, at least not areas more frequented by <em>THOSE</em> kind of dragons. As was his usual practice he was in his shop tinkering on a few items as ideas came to him. This meant that he had about six different projects out and was bouncing between them. His small hands... well he was small in general, a gift from his Feydragon father whom he never knew and it never really dawned on him to look for some time now. His perfect Anubi form, so he had been told, with the exception of the small stature was something he was rather proud of as he was in rather good shape and athletic, when he wanted to be. Plus, it comes in handy when a 'dragon performed manual labor as his primary trade.</p>

<p>Since he was in the safety of his workshop and, often enough, home the mechanic did not wear his accustomed garment designed to conceal his discerning features to include his insect wings and his bright blue fronima-infused tattoos that seemed to flow from finger tip to finger tip taking a path that covered the upper half of his chest, around a in a couple of places ran slightly up his neck and over his shoulders and shoulder blades. They were even expertly placed where his wings met his body so that it almost seemed that the tattoos sprouted from the same place. Even with grease covering his hands the tattoos more often than not overcame the grime and showed through anyhow. To Astald, or more commonly called around these parts Lyts, they were a grand gift from a very odd Feydragon.</p>

<p>Most of this day he had been working on a pair of gloves, or gauntlets rather, that could amplify textures and other sensations to a perceptible level for nearly anyone. Well they would do this when he was done, for now they just shocked the ever-living.... well they would shock whatever they touched. Astald had discovered this when he touched his own arm and was out for an entire day. He'd been careful since.</p>

<p>The other things he'd gone off to in the middle of his working were a new coffee pot since he'd cannibalized the old one for a few parts in the timing circuits.</p>

<p><strong>Proprietary piece of garbage!</strong></p>

<p>He shouted when he tried to start the pot up afterward and it wouldn't work and the pieces didn't quite stick together right without everything there, so now instead of a nice neat little package that he had purchased when he got the place, it was now laying across half of one of his work benches. But it was brewing coffee and that made him infinitely more happy than having a whole work bench.</p>

<p>Next to that sat a half finished... thing... it was one of those projects that he woke up and started without having any idea what it was going to do. That's how his mechanical spider helpers had started.</p>

<p>Thinking about that had reminded him how a couple of those nuts outside had bashed the nuts and bolts out of two of his helpers that had been following him back here each with a load of parts. They had been shouting <strong>EVIL!</strong> and <strong>Abominations!</strong> as they destroyed his creations. He had grumbled about that as he hauled their remains and the loads they carried back to his shop... all six trips it took. But these two were going to be better... they had a new power source that was smaller and more efficient!</p>

<p>He had been doing this until his door slammed.</p>

<p><strong>Hmmm? </strong></p>

<p>He could have sworn he locked that. Lyts looked at his monitors and a whole mess of those 'cracked eggs' swarmed outside his workshop for a bit. He pressed a button by the monitors and the door clicked... loudly. It was more a soft clunk than anything. He grabbed a piece of scrap metal that conveniently was piece of concrete reinforcement bar that was about as long as one of his arms and he went into the small room that was his entry way/auxiliary workshop/completed project storage/bedroom when he forgot to go home.</p>

<p><strong>I swear by what ever you deem holy if you've broken anything...</strong></p>

<p>Not that anyone could tell what was broken, working, stored, or anything besides him of course. Lyts stopped and stared a moment at the nearly panting thill.</p>

<p><strong>Uh... do you realize you've successfully deposited several dozen of those cracked eggs on my doorstep? You'd better not be here to tell me the folly of my ways or how making things like this is attempting to set myself up as the Creator or some such rubbish.</strong></p>

<p>He looked and sounded particularly irritated could it be that his tattoos were a bit brighter as well? Lyts didn't notice he was more concerned with having to sweep up the pieces of his projects... most of which had buyers.<strong><br /></strong></p>

 

<p>He eyed her for a moment listening as she spoke. He chuckled and took note of her mismatched wings raising a brow. He sniffed once and lowered his weapon of opportunity tossing it to the side. Instead of it hitting something hard it landed on the cot in the corner that he slept on more than in his apartment above. He winced as it tore through the fabric and sighed,</p>

<p><b>Well, I suppose I'll have to find a new one of those sometime soon</b></p>

<p>Lyts' ears pirked up and rotated toward her as she spoke about the phone conversation.</p>

<p><b>Ahh, Alstrasz... mind controlled arms, yes. I remember. I also remember saying they might be expensive depending on what you require. A couple of things first.</b></p>

<p>He motioned for her to follow as he walked into the large garage/workshop. Vehicle lifts, chains, pulleys, cables, large pieces of scrap metal even a few vehicle frames and one item that looked like a motorcycle of sorts but with odd contraptions where the wheels should be. He walked over to a work bench incidently the one with the hastily made coffee brewing station. He gave a little hop up and sort of flited on top of a large steel drum and sat. He offered a stack of tires that was at the other side of work bench,</p>

<p><b>Please, sit. So, for starters... how many pairs of arms, are they going to be integrated... you know into the fleshy bits? Winged or standard? Extra features? Oh! I'm sorry! Care for some brew?</b></p>

<p>He motioned to the coffee pot, with his most plesant smile. The one he always got with the prospect of a new project. As he moved his hand toward his notepad it almost seemed to meet him halfway. He pulled the pencil out of the top of the spiral binding and prepared to write.</p>

 

<p>He nodded slowly and jotted down the information he was given and then looked up and blinked quickly. One second Yin had been sitting on the tires the next she was standing there. It didn't help that his mind went off on a tangent as ideas began flooding his mind. He did manage a smile and settled relatively quickly as he focused on her and then the phone examining the file,</p>

<p><strong>Yeesh! Poor guy. I don't normally do wetwork. But what I can do is put aside the parts for say </strong>he thought for a moment<strong> two size adjustments after the initial product is finished and just include it in the initial cost?</strong></p>

<p>Astald looked back down to his page and the entire time they had been talking he had been doing some basic sketches of gears and hinges, some basic construction of individual digits.</p>

<p><strong>For these arms I could make them really light weight and strong. I recently acquired a stock of some material... I think they use it on space launch craft or some such thing. But I would suggest replacing the shoulder blades as well. One cohesive unit. I've seen problems with piecemeal jobs.</strong></p>

<p>He shuddered slightly and hopped down to refill his mug and swiveled an ear toward her as she accepted the offer of coffee and grabbed a spare mug from a little higher and filled her mug handing it to here</p>

<p><strong>Sorry no sugar or cream... I don't use it. As for the cot no worries. I have an apartment above here. I actually the building.</strong></p>

<p>The small mechanic smiled rather proud of the fact. Not many knew he had been an orphan but to go from that to owning a building and a workshop well to him it was quite something.</p>

<p><strong>Speaking of rooms. I do have some extra space if you needed. To be honest I wouldn't stay is most of the joints around here. Those cracked eggs are EVERYWHERE and they drive me right up the wall. Oh, no charge by the way since you are her on business. I can even patch in a monitor to the camera outside the door and code the keypad separately. It's probably the most secure place you'll see in these parts.</strong></p>

 

<p>He shook his head slowly, <strong>"I don't mind. There's a button outside she can press to get my attention and I'll unlock the door,"</strong> He said motioning to an entire workbench that was stacked with screens of different sizes that displayed a number of different camera angles. <strong>"It would take a good amount of fire power to get through my door and a good amount of working knowledge to brain it open. They could guess my code I suppose but it's pretty long," </strong>he said grinning, <strong>"It wouldn't be extra security it would just be rekeying a few things so you could come and go as you pleased and get into your room without needing me to let you in every time."</strong></p>

<p>He leaned against the bench and looked over his notes and took a long drink of coffee and sighed at the mention of the pilgrims, <strong>"They got worse after that whole funky fronima thing... but I got TONS of business before things settled down wanting modifications to all sorts of things so they didn't use majicka. Believe it or not they've gotten a bit better. I have some hoods and the sort I wear when going out into public, you could borrow one if you wish to avoid attention."</strong></p>

<p>Lyts was in thought when she mention the security and cooking and nearly choked on his coffee. After sputtering a bit he wiped his mouth on his arm and looked up, <strong>"Oh, you don't have to cook. I rarely go upstairs... come to think of it I often forget to eat,"</strong> almost as a verification his stomach lerched and growled and the small 'dragon smirked sheepishly, <strong>"I get working on things and well, I can get pretty single minded. Besides the rooms are just going to waste. Your assistant can of course stay also." </strong>he scratched the back of one ear a little with a sort of half smirk. He would never admit it out loud that having someone do something for him other than pay for his services made him a little uncomfortable. He tried not to let anyone get into a position where he would depend on them for obvious reasons.</p>

 

<p><em>OOC - It's ok I understand. Work's kept me pretty busy so I know how you feel.</em></p>

<p>Lyts chuckled and shook his head a little, "<strong>Well there are plenty of places around for doing that," </strong>he continued and smirked and finally nodded slowly. <strong>"Ok, ok... I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to eat more regularly."</strong> He looked over his notes and began to scribble various things out and make new notes and seemingly random lines here and there.</p>

<p>He only looked up when he noticed the thill move and begin to tap at something. He watched her send the message and raised a brow slightly, <strong>"Well I see you've put that extra finger to good use," </strong>he smiled, <strong>"I bet every teenage girl would love to have your level of proficiency with that."</strong> he motioned to her phone and jumped when there was a knock looking over at his monitors, <strong>"That was sure quick..."</strong> he pressed a button near a mic and the door would make a loud <em>"THUNK"</em> and <em>"buzzzzzzz"</em> softly until it was opened and closed again or for about fifteen seconds, whichever came first.</p>

<p>Turning to Yin he grinned,<strong> "You must be one harsh taskmaster for him to be so.... prompt."</strong> he said obviously joking. Just then his eyes lit up and he half ran half flitted over to the bench with a saucer shaped pot and tinkered with a few things before tapping a combination of buttons and it sprouted six legs and stood about as tall as he did. He stepped back and it followed the short distance staying about two feet a way with a soft, <em>"tick-it-a tick-it-a"</em> as it walked. <strong>"There we go!"</strong> he said triumphantly and thought a moment, <strong>"oh yes... the hood..."</strong> he darted off again and searched through a rather larger upright locker.</p>