2011-03-09 - New Work Earth-side

A SHORT WHILE AGO:

"Sign here." Delivery man barely waited for Sinya to do as instructed before motioning several trailers, each capible of carrying either a small house or in this case what amounted to several mecha worth of parts started pulling up. This... promised to be something of a mess to sort out.

NOW:

Edward was whistling. Sure his accounts were about dry and he'd missed out on a fairly hefty payday on account of a family friend needing some hand holding but between work he's had, and a little pickup accounting he felt pretty good about how things would work out. He just wanted to drop by make sure his package was delivered. Oh sure the people he sent it through were all on the up and up, but one never knew.... he'd had most of his payment diferred in favor of salvage rights afterall so can't hurt to be carefull.

Luckily, large deliveries weren't exactly a rare thing for Leland Industries. Packages tended to be delivered at all hours of the day and night, at least when the owner/operator was actually at home. Thus, none of the locals even batted an eye when the trailers begin to pull up, although Sinya certainly manages a raised eyebrow as she accepts the shipping inventory, glancing over it. She's enthralled enough that she misses the driver's low comment about beastmen. When she does draw her eyes away, it's to call out a quick command, "Around the back, guys." Circling her finger in the air to indicate the back alleyway next to the warehouse.

It takes almost an hour to off-load most of the delivery, during which time the cat-girl only watches, rather than actually lending a hand. This earns her some grumbling from the couriers, who seem to have missed the fact that her leg is still partially braced, even if the rest of her seems to have healed from her encounter with one of the Frighteners. Once they have gone their own way, though, she is once again left to her own devices.

It's a few hours later, and what appears to be a MS-09 Dom unit has been hauled into the garage, leaning up against the wall next to a repaired Arius. The guymelef seems in far better shape than the last time it was seen, with new armor and without the scorch marks. The control unit has been gutted, with most of the contents having been removed, wires hanging down haphazardly, while a pile of bashed parts has been tossed into a bin for sorting later. Atop the Dom, Sinya is sitting just at the shoulder, legs straddling the armor as she welds a few pieces together, the head suspended perilously above her by a crane. Her face is half-hidden by a metal mask, hands adorned with gloves, but her tail sways back and forth, obviously enthralled with her work, as usual.

Edward Fawkes tried making noises to get her attention as he stepped in. An olive drab Haro buzzed along chirping merrily. "Maybe she's not heeeere." It kept bumping into this and that. "I mean look at this place. Just /LOOK/ at it."

"Oh she's here. She just seems to like the 'everything in it's own pile' motif.."

"If you say so boss..." Haro sounded doubtful but beeped when it heard welding. "Ooo what's that?" And off it zipped into the workroom."

With a sigh Ed followed. "Hold it! You don't now what she's doing back there!" He really didn't want the little guy to get pated. Beyond material costs he's had that one ever since they started selling Haro commercially and a friend of his put a good deal of work in keeping it updated.

The Haro is probably lucky that Sinya isn't all that easily distracted when she's doing something, otherwise it may just have ended up singed. Somehow, though, her spacial awareness seems to pick up on something nearby, so when she pulls the arc of the welding flame away, it isn't in the approaching bot's path. She lifts the mask, looking down at the repaired metal plate, and then switches off the power to the torch. It's only once everything is back in it's place that her ear twitches, head turning towards the little olive robot as she removes the welding gear.

"Um, hello?" She reaches out a clawed hand to poke lightly at the Haro's rounded metal casing, then tilts her head quizically. Apparently, while she'd avoided him with the welding torch, she hadn't actually been aware of his presence. "What exactly are you doing here? I don't remember a Haro listed on the inventory manifest." That, of course, is when her eyes scan beyond, into the relative darkness of the warehouse, catching the movement of Edward through the aisles of neatly organized parts. "Is he yours?" She calls, in a louder voice, ears perking. "You should warn him off of getting too close while I'm working."

Sinya pulls the bag of welding gear onto her shoulders, then slides down the unit's armor landing and swinging herself from various wires in a display of dexterity that would be far beyond that of most humans. However, the final landing on the ground, she trips forward a bit, her leg caught by the brace. "Erf." She mutters, regaining her balance. "I'll be glad when that's gone." With a sigh, she shifts the bag down, dropping it to the side of her work table. "Come to check on things?"

Edward Fawkes managed to catch up to the Haro when Sinya caught it's curiosity and shrugged as he scooped it up. "Sorry, guy who modded him made him a half step faster than me, and too curious for his own good.

"Says you!" Little voice piped cheerfully. "Lookit what i found! Lookitlookitlookit isn't shEEEewwwwblip" Aaaand before Haro can shove Ed's foot in his mouth for him it got turned off with a well practiced qick flip of the access pannle.

"Wanted to make sure everything got here. Biggest order I've sent. That and I'm trying to negociate a property deal around here," As in same hemesphere, "So Yea. Leg seems to be healing reasonably well."

"It's okay. They don't bother me too much. I just wouldn't want to break him. Those are parts I don't usually stock." Sinya replies easily, walking around her work bench to grab a pencil and 'x' out an area of an overly large blueprint that probably could have passed for a tablecloth. "You're actually pretty lucky. I just finished up a contract with the Ark Hammer and only got back yesterday." With her good leg, she hooks a rolling chair, spinning it in his direction rather than actually inviting him to sit. In the mean time, she looks at the blueprint, and then grabs up a tool belt with various wires and cutters in it, lacing it around her waist.

"The gumdam isn't in bad shape. Shouldn't take more than a few days to get it working again." She motions with her chin towards it, cinching the buckle in on her belt. "Although I'd want to take a hammer to whomever bashed up the controls like that. It's really a waste." Once armed with a new set of tools, she marches right on back over to the Dom, grabing a few handholds before scaling it without so much as a safety harness, managing to cover the distance back to the shoulder in a surprisingly short time.

It almost looks as if she'll just barrel right back into work, but somehow the catgirl does manage to multi-task a bit. "It's good timing, really. I needed some work to fill in the gaps. Although I think I'd still rather sell some of my stock than take on mercenary work." Pulling down a wire, she clips off the end before reaching down into the severed neck cavity, attaching it below so that her voice echos for a moment within the walls of the mech. "I passed on the contract with Crest, although I can't say I'm sad to see Acemos taken down a few pegs. Probably could have stayed on the Ark Hammer, but... I'd probably lose out on business if I tried to run things out of a Crusader ship." She seems to have missed the comment about her leg completely - focusing, of course, on work.

Edward Fawkes looked at the smashed up torsos and sighed. "did it out of spite I think. I'd disabled 'em. Crew I was wokingwith had their support gone and even though I'd made sure they got out physically in good shape they got humiliated pretty badly so I guess that was just a last spit in the eye before leaving."

He watched her for a moment as he considered the deal with Crest. "Seemed like a huge payay there but I can't blame you. Still healing and it's vile verses vile." He knew plenty that suddenly lose morals when they see that many zeroes with full repair and medical in the contract, but something about the whole situation smelled, and he wasn't sure how best to poke around without being so obvious you could see it from your planet of choice.

"Psh. You humans may have evolved from apes, but it's no reason to act like one when something doesn't go your way." Her opinions on humans are obviously a little bit biased, especially having lived and worked among them for most of her life. Then again, it wasn't as if she knew the origin story of her own kind - at least those like herself who were not the products of Lord Genome. "I'm sure I can get this one up and running, though. Do you want it sent back when I'm done, or sold, or what?" She asks, discarding one wire as she stands on tip-toes to run a new one from the head down into the neck. It seems like a long process, rethreading all of the wiring that used to connet the parts of the gundam.

Putting one of the wire cutters into her mouth, she nods slightly, murmuring her agreement with his comments about the contract with Crest. Then, as she retrieves it again for further use, words are able to come again. "I'm no trained soldier, so I try to avoid the fighting for hire thing. Besides, cleaning up after those fighting is far more lucrative." Her nimble fingers attach a few more replacement parts, already having been set out in wait for this stage of the process. "Still, I need to downsize operations a bit. We used to be able to do so much more business when Michael was still alive, but... not so much anymore. Besides, the rest of the clan is still on the Myst... on Earth." She once again almost slips into the Gaean way of calling the blue planet. "So it's just me up here. So, if you're looking for a place to purchase, I might be selling soon."

Edward Fawkes grunted noncomittal on the ape comment. "Might be, but some times sideline work just doens't cut it." Trouble is deciding which side to fall on, hence merc work. He patted a randomish part as he considered his options. "I'd actually considered opening an expense account. Since I don't have much in way of liquid assets Ifigured this might cover costs for awhile. Especially the Jenices since parts should be swappable fairly easily."

He squinted up at the dents and dings. "Though I might shouldve gone a bit easier on that one... " One of 'em looked like it got kicked by another suit.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Without much steady work lately, Sinya has largely jumped from job to job, which has served to give her a bit of a name for getting work done, but hasn't really done much for her wallet. "So far, I'm just barely making ends meet. Which is part of the reason for shutting up shop here for a while. I've been looking for some work earth-side." And almost as if on queue, there is a beep from the computer next to Edward, one that causes the catgirl's ear to perk. "Hrm." She reaches into the toolbelt and pulls out a small datapad, tapping on it distractedly.

"I certainly could do some work for you on expense, some of the parts could be sold pretty easily once they're fixed up..." She holds the last word out a bit longer than normal, then bites at her lower lip. "Although that may have to wait." Grabbing on to one of the nearby wires, she swings down, doing another acrobatic display before landing on the ground, approaching her work bench. "Actually, it looks like I might end up a bit busier than I'd hoped for a while." She offers the datapad out to Edward, the mail clearly showing the transmission from Archangel, with it's attached work offer at the Raven's Nest.

"Seems like good work for anyone willing." As a Trailer, it isn't that unusual to offer out a good deal, and it is possible that there is something needed that could be beneficial for him as well. "I'll finish up the work on this guy, but then I'll probably have to look into moving a bit earlier than I planned." She pulls her own chair over, starting to tap her claws onto the keyboard quickly.

Edward Fawkes starts to nod when his Haro starts beeping along with a phone at his hip. Pausing a moment to look through his phone Ed snorts. "Yea, seems to be work for the asking right now with this whole Crest thing." He shook his head as he slid the phone back in it's holster. "I'll have to see who they have chasing the money side of things if nothing else." Work he could do anywhere... so why not ask? Fear for one. Rejection #1 is expected and working relationship can still be mantained. Rejection #2 means cut bait walk away. Erogo. "How about if I hold the lease on the place till you make up your mind? I think I can find a few people who can keep an eye on shop till anything left over is taken care of one way or another." He made a slow circle with his head, causing his neck to pop loudly. "Ah there we go, Plus It'd give me an excuse to do some nosing on the Mars angle of this mining mess I still haven't de-tangled."

"I don't have any great ties to Crest, or even to most of the Ravens to be honest, but work is work. Besides, it isn't often that I get offered a good contract that doesn't involve being a mercenary for hire." As her fingers fly over the keyboard, a series of offered freighters appear along with shipping prices. She's shopping for flights. Eventually she tags one, and then lets it process through, looking over towards Edward once her travel arrangements are taken care of. Ahh, a true Trailer - offered good money, will travel on short notice.

"Well, I'm not planning on selling the place just yet. It'll take me forever to get rid of my stock." Her head motions towards the stacks of parts inside the warehouse, not to mention the racks of larger peices outside. "On the plus side, working out of the Nest means that I'll have a better chance clearing it out. Win-win situation for me." There is a hint of a smile that spreads on her lips, the kind when someone knows they are going to be set for a while.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out a keycard, setting it down on the table. "I've got a couple of locals who do shipments and keep track of things for me, but if you need a place to crash on Mars..." She nudges the key card towards him. "Take hallway behind the front office and up the stairs. You're welcome to the loft until I get back, or sell the place. Whichever comes first."

Edward Fawkes snags the card and manbages to hide most of the puzzlement from his face. "Anything i should keep an eye out for. People that try jacking stock, protection rackets... people out to play kick the kitty?"

"Oh, you won't need to do much. Like I said, I've got a couple of workers who take care of things for me." Of course, her staff are actually Enders that she picked up along the way, mostly people with families - wives and kids - strong ties to Mars and little chance of trying to rip her off as long as they are paid and treated well. "I pay better than the going wage around here, so it's not in their interest to steal from me."

As she pushes up from the chair, the catgirl catches the briefest of that puzzled look, head-tilting in response. "You said you were looking for property, so I figured you needed a place to stay." She shrugs her fuzzy shoulders, "It's got a bed, a shower, tv. So long as you don't mind that some of my stuff is in the closets." Without pushing that issue further, she makes her way back over to the gundam, looking it over. "You're going to be a late night if I want to get on that freighter tomorrow." Didn't she say earlier that it was going to be a few days to finish? "Is there anything else you needed, Edward? I mean, other than checking in on things?" She asks, peeking over her shoulder for a moment before scaling up the mech once more.

Edward Fawkes shook his head, not quite sure how to take things. He almost didn't want to tell her the reason he was looking was to open an arcade, but in the moe immediate term he did need a place to crash till he figuredo ut if he wanted in on the crest business. "Get goin." He turned. Too many things were bouncing around his haro back on and scootched him so he'd head to the front door. "Go keep an eye out for anything. I'll be back here."

Something about the different bits of mahinery he wandered through tugged at the same parts of his head that felt scrambled.

As single-minded as ever, Sinya sets herself back to her task, not paying all that much attention to what Edward ends up actually doing. Not being human, there were certainly some things about people that she still isn't quite able to understand. "Why do you get quiet like that sometimes?" She asks to herself, out of the blue. Her hands and eyes continue to be focused on her work, even as it seems that her social side can somewhat function. "It's a little disconcerting." There is a spark, and a sound like an engine powering up as a few more wires are snapped into place.