For nearly TO’s entire life, they had been under observation. From the cameras and recorders in the training center and the ship, to the prying eyes of every other synth and civilian around them. Constant observation had been the norm. They always had to be careful, and even now when they could to be a little more free, could be themselves among the insurgents, they still had to be careful and make sure the Arkanian authorities did not catch them out in the open.
Still, because of their lifetime of observation, The sensation of being watched in this moment was more one of familiarity rather than one of discomfort. The certainty of eyes on them crept up their neck as they watched the others while they struggled with the broken trap. They stood up, stretched, and twisted their body as though working a kink out of their spine while they looked about. Of course, there were plenty of people hiding in the shell of the old building, but most of them were busy trying to stay out of sight. The exception came when TO’s eyes landed on two young children watching them from behind an old dumpster.
Children. Shouldn’t they be safely underground? Wait, no. The children in the underground were only those pulled from the tunnels; presumably a small percentage. Of course there would be other children in the Outer Ring, children who weren’t preparing to leave the planet in a matter of days.
Children who would be here when the synth fleet came.
When it became obvious that TO was watching them, they quickly ducked back behind the dumpster and despite the cap covering TO’s ears they could still clearly hear the quick, panicked chatter. Of course, they couldn’t make out what they were saying, and they were too far away for the translator in their ear to do its job.
After a few more minutes in which TO wondered if maybe they should investigate, or at least let Tham know about the kids, one of them snuck out from behind the dumpster. The kids were Nagarajin; their coloration dull and speckled, their scales running up in scattered patches along their skin. They wore old, loose T-shirts that were clearly far too big for them. cinched in the center with a short length of rope. The larger of the two led the way, their chest puffed up, their eyes narrowed and their lips pursed. The other followed behind trying to hide from TO’s sight.
Although they were only children, TO still stiffened, their wings puffing around their arms slightly. They were children, yes, but even children could cause damage. Did they have a weapon? Were they leading the authorities to them? The determined way the larger one walked towards them could only be the stride of someone on a mission. As they approached, TO corrected their posture and drew themself to their proper height. The smaller Nagarajin stopped and backed away, but the larger one only slowed slightly before squaring their shoulders and continuing until they were only a few feet away from TO.
“Hoy.” The larger once said as they approached. “My brother and I wanna trade with you.”
“Trade?” TO’s wings and shoulders dropped, their ears relaxed. These kids wanted to trade? The big one looked so serious and the younger one so scared that TO thought for sure they were coming to start a problem with them!
“Yeah, trade.” the big one said, jutting his chin towards the wagon. “For one of your traps.” The kid glanced over at the others who were still struggling with the one broken trap. “We’ve been watchin’ you. You got lots of traps. You can trade one for something better, right?” He looked behind at the kid cowering behind him, “Mik, show ‘em the bag.”
“But… I’m scared, Gro.” The smaller one–Mik apparently–said. “I think they’re-”
“Just show ‘em the bag!”
Mik flinched, then came out from behind their brother and crept up to TO. Once they were close enough, they opened a bag and held it before them, stretching their arms wide so that they could keep as much distance from TO as possible.
“Oh. Uh…” TO glanced over at the others, thinking that maybe they should ask Tham first if they could give the kids one of their traps, but after a moment they figured that it really didn’t matter. They’d be gone in a few days and wouldn’t need the traps, anyway. Even if they could come back later, they had plenty of traps. “You can just have one.” TO said as they turned to the wagon, “It’s no problem-”
“We don’t want your pity.” Gro snapped, “This is good shit here. You worked hard on your traps, and we worked hard to get all this! We trade.”
“Gro, if they’re just gonna give us the trap-” The younger brother’s words faded off, and he quickly withered under his brother's glare.
“We trade, or nothing.”
Mik glanced up at TO, their eyes flicking away as soon as they made eye contact, and then held the bag up higher for TO to see.
“Just… pick anything.” They said, “None of it’s stolen. We promise.”
Was this some tradition in the Outer ring that you had to trade for stuff? Or, was it just a matter of pride for the older sibling? With a sigh, TO glanced in the bag. They didn’t expect to see much of any value, and they weren’t surprised. It looked like the kids had been picking about the streets, grabbing any old tools or scraps of metal. There were old batteries, bits of wire carefully wrapped and tied up, and large scraps of plastic. TO was about to grab just anything; something that looked mostly worthless so the kids could use other stuff to trade later on, but then they saw something actually useful. They nearly overlooked it at first as It looked like a solid rod of worn metal, small enough to fit in the palm of someone’s hand. It was filthy, and there was rust caught in every crevice. Still, as TO took off their sunglasses to get a better look, they could see the telltale numbers written in such a familiar language, and could even locate the button on the bottom.
Where did these kids get a synth tool? It was clearly a pocket welder, used for emergency repairs on small ships and shipping vessels. It shouldn’t have been on Arkane, and definitely shouldn’t have been in the hands of civilian children.
“This.” TO said as they plucked the tool out of the bag. “But it’s worth a lot more than just one trap. You can take two.”
Mik’s eyes widened, the tip of their tail lashed about as they turned around to see what Gro thought of that. Their elder sibling appeared to be considering the offer, making a big show of scratching their smooth, rounded chin and humming as though in thought, but TO could see the tip of their tail flicking about as well.
“Alright.” Gro said, nodding, “Sounds good. Mik, get the traps!”
“I’ll help with that.” TO said as they turned to the wagon. They’d be a lot more worried about the kids taking them all by themself, but the empty traps were light at least.
“Thank you.” Mik said, their voice so quiet and timid. “And uh… sorry.”
TO set the two traps down on the ground before the small Nagarajin. “Sorry?” They asked, “For what?”
“Yeah, for wha?” Gro asked as they came over to the traps, “We didn’t do nothing bad.”
Mik glanced at the ground, then at the traps before looking back up at TO. “Uh… For laughing at you that time.” When TO’s face showed no comprehension as to what they were talking about, Mik cleared their throat and continued, “You know… With the bugs? When you were out with your partner? I think they were your partner, anyway…”
TO knew they had heard their voices before. Their eyes widened. “You! You’re those kids!”
“You’re that winged richy!” Gro took a step back, “Oh shit, you really are!” They grabbed the other trap and backed away, “Look, sorry, we didn’t-”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
TO held up a hand, taking a step back from them. “It.. it’s ok.” They said, ignoring how their ears warmed under their cap. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“What the heck are you doing here?” Gro said, putting the traps behind them as though TO was about to change their mind and take them back, “You had on all of them fancy clothes last time, and you obviously weren’t coming here to find a room! You ain’t from here!”
“Well… I’m from here now.” TO said as they glanced over at DH. “My… partner and I. We live here now.”
“Why?” Gro frowned, their brows knitting as though this was a complicated issue that needed an answer. “You lot don’t just end up here.”
“Well... We did.” TO said. “Things didn’t go as we planned.”
Though the kids still kept their distance, that phrase seemed to calm them. “I know lots of people from the outer circles who came here because things didn't go as planned.” They said, “Never saw it happen to someone who dressed like you a lot. You know; from the inner circles.”
TO shrugged, “terrible luck, I suppose.”
“Were your wings real?” Mik asked, “Or were they the fake ones.”
“Oh… they’re real.” TO said. They glanced around, checking for a sign of a drone or anything that might spy them from the holes in the ceiling, but when they say nothing they shifted their cloak out of the way and showed the kids their unscarred wing.
“Woah… Cool.” Gro said as they inched forward. “Can I touch it? Does it feel like plastic?”
“It feels like skin?” TO said, unsure how to respond to that. They had never considered how the membrane of their wing felt before. “You can touch it if you want?”
Gro came closer and held out their hand as though they were about to pet some dangerous animal. Finally, they let their fingertips graze the membrane as though they were touching something very fragile.
“Shit… it’s just skin.” They said before touching it again. “Cool.”
“It’s stretchy.” TO said, smirking a little as they spread their wing just enough to make the membrane stretch.
“Cool.” Gro said again before turning to his brother, “Mik, check it out!”
TO stretched the wing towards the smaller sibling, who crept up and gingerly poked the membrane.
“I’ve never seen real wings before.” Mik whispered. “Not this close. And most of the ones I have seen were like, all feathered and stuff. These are like synth wings!”
TO’s wing retracted involuntarily as the limbs tightened around their arms. “I suppose.” They said with a laugh. “I suppose I never thought of that.” They hated their cap, but they were glad that their ears were covered so that their sudden anxiety wasn’t so obvious, their lie so clearly signaled.
“Man, don’t talk about those things.” Gro said, elbowing their brother in the ribs, “They were out here only days ago, remember? Everyone’s all freaked out over it.”
“Yes.” TO said, pointedly looking at the pocket welder, making a show if examining it. “It was surprising.”
“Surprising? More like terrifying.” Gro muttered. They shrugged, “Anyway… thanks for the trade.” They turned around to leave, then stopped, “Oh. If you’re afraid of bugs though, why are you out here? There’re bugs all over the place.” TO prove their point, they kicked away a nearby rusted slat of metal which lay on the ground nearby, and several long creatures with too many legs and long prongs on the back ends of them scurried away, moving far too fast as they disappeared into the cracks in the cement. In the seconds that they were visible TO stumbled backwards, putting the wagon between them and the bugs.
“Yeah. like that.” Gro said, “I mean, they’re harmless, but they’re all over the place, so why are you out here scavenging?”
TO pulled their cloak around them as though that could protect them from any other strange bugs. “Not much choice.” They said, “I wasn’t going to let my friends, my family come out and do all the work while I hid away.”
Gro nodded, pursing his lips as though savoring the taste of TO’s words. “Fair.” He finally said. “Do what you gotta do, right?”
“Gotta do what you gotta do.” TO hadn’t noticed Tham approaching from the side, and his quickly spoken words startled TO as he echoed the child’s sentiment. “Do you kids need anything?” He asked as he looked the kids up and down.
“Nah, just making a little trade.” Gro pointed to the traps, “Headin’ off now.”
“You know how to use those traps?”
“Yup.”
“And you can kill and clean a big cocopod?”
“Of course. We’re not stupid kids.”
TO was about to point out that they were, in fact, children, but Tham only chuckled and went back to the wagon. He pulled the tarp off of the cage, and as TO looked away he pulled out one of the writhing cocopods and brought it over to the traps the kids had.
“Here then.” He said as he dropped one in. “You won’t catch anything in ‘em until tonight. You gotta leave the traps out overnight.”
“Yeah. Thanks!” Gro said, now eying the bug inside. “We’ll cook it up good!”
“Good.” Tham said as he closed up the cage again, “Now go on. Don't forget to get some bait before it gets too dark.”
The kids were already running off, shouting to one another as Tham offered his advice. With a sigh, he turned away from them.
“Why’d you give them traps?” Tham asked.
“Well, I figured we wouldn’t need them if we’re leaving soon.” TO said with a dip of their head. Maybe they should have asked first.
“Fair enough.” Tham said, “They didn’t steal anything, did they?”
“Steal anything?” To frowned, “Why would they-”
“Because we have a pile of food on a wagon, and they’re hungry kids.” Tham said as he checked the other bag. “... Looks fine though. I think. Your memory is better than mine; is everything in here?”
TO looked into the bag, their heart racing at the idea that the kids might have tricked them. Their anxiety faded though they looked through their supplies and found everything they had gotten so far.
“Everything’s here.” TO said with a sigh of relief.
“Good.” Tham said. “I came over to check on them, to be an extra set of eyes in case someone was trying to sneak up on you here.” they looked back in the direction that the kids had run in. “Maybe they figured since you gave them the traps that they didn’t need to rob you.”
“Or maybe they weren’t going to at all.” TO said. They tightened their fingers around the pocket wielder. “They actually came up to me to-”
A deafening snap rang through the area, followed by a sudden scream. It was a sound unlike one TO had ever heard before, but one they recognized immediately. They’d recognize their mate’s voice anywhere, regardless of if they were laughing, crying, or screaming.