How Em got the ‘Mechanic’ skill
Grateful to have some time off after several days of back-to-back intensity, Em goes back to her apartment and sleeps for what feels like days. The next morning, sunlight streaming through the window, Em pours herself some extra strong coffee – none of that soykaf drek when she wasn’t on the road. Colmbian novacoke, Columbian coffee, nobody does it better. She stands in front of the open window, enjoying the warmth of the sun, pretty high in the sky already, on her face.
A gentle sigh from the bed behind her startles her. Frak, he’s still here. She puts the cup of coffee down and walks to the sleeping… shirtless?… naked?… form of an orc, half under the blanket, peacefully snoring. She shakes him awake, somewhere between impatiently and roughly. He wakes up abruptly and groggily looks up at her, “Wha…? Huh…?”
“Heyyy…” Frak, what was his name “… you. Good morning. Hey listen, you need to go…”
“What…?”
“Yeah like right now”, pulls the covers off him. Shirtless. Ok, great, that’ll make things go quicker. She bends down and picks up his shirt off the floor. “That was fun, but you need to go. My boyfriend is on his way home.”
“Boyfriend?” The ork is still pretty groggy, but sitting up now, taking the shirt from her.
“Yeah, remember I said he was in Ares Black Ops?”
The ork is moving faster now. “What? No…frak, are you kidding? I didn’t know you had a boyfriend…”
“No I definitely told you but seriously you need to go, he’s super jealous…”
The ork practically jogs towards the door, with Em purposefully following. He stops to take Em’s face in his hand to kiss her. She recoils, “Mm, no, morning breath… go, I’ll call you”
“You don’t have my number”
“I’ll find you, bye…” and ushers him out the door, closing and latching it behind him. Exhaling loudly, and heading back to her coffee. I should stop bringing them here.
After a long, languorous shower, Em heads over to Stafford’s workshop to pick up her bike.
“Hey Stafford… Just here to pick up my bike. Thanks for letting me park it here.”
Em ambles into Stafford’s workshop, up to her bike, parked in the corner and under an unnecessarily plush bike cover. Carefully pulling it off, she lovingly runs her hands along the shiny black fuel tank. The paint has a multi-pearl finish that catches the light and shimmers.
“I’ve missed you,” she purrs softly. She looks up to see a plethora of tools and work benches and bike and other vehicle parts strewn all over. Some of it is clearly premium. Frak, why didn’t this occur to her before. She knew the best wheelman and mechanic on the west coast, and she was wasting that connection. “Hey… Stafford… so listen… I know you’ve probably got all kinds of things to do, but could I just like… hang out a bit and help you with your jobs?”
