[AoS]Happy time adventures with Seyta and friends

Rebecca was not a very social creature anymore, but even the strong silent types needed to be around people every now and then. The Pit was a perfect place for someone like her; there were plenty of people around watching the battles, and no one was there for polite conversation. She could find herself lost in a crowd, lost in the post-apocalyptic entertainment of gladiator battles.

She caught her fill of the show and even flirted her way into a pint and a quick snack, but as the day turned into night, it was time for Rebecca to get off Liberty Island and back to the metal pillars waiting for her on the mainland.

Rebecca was waiting in for the ferry, passing the time by scanning the metal in the area; it was always surprising to see people who still kept luxuries like jewelry or coins in a time of necessity.

Rebecca could feel a metallic presence nearby, but something was amiss. She could sense the shapes, but it was as though her sense was trying not to register them. To make matters more worrisome, one metal object was around waist-level and larger than most jewelry... maybe a knife?

Rebecca was not a "regular" at The Pit, but she had been there enough to remember one or two of the popular fighters. There was one female combatant she was always intrigued by, whose mutation somehow made her difficult for her opponents to even notice.

Going on a hunch, Rebecca casually took a few steps to her right, sliding in between two large men. She reached the area with the metal that did not want to be noticed and extended an arm, with her hand making contact with some unnoticeable body part. "Aren't you supposed to be in the Pit?" she asked, her voice flat and her expression blank.

>> "Possibly, but I feel like going out for a bit..."

So apparently the older woman was sneaking away for a reprieve. Rebecca always got the impression that the Pit was somewhat restrictive to the gladiators it employed. The redhead could appreciate the desire to get away.

>> "You however aren't going to tell anyone are you?"

Was that a threat? Rebecca had no intention of interfering in the woman's business, but she was not a fan of being threatened. The woman was visible to Rebecca now, as was the knife she pulled from her belt.

>> "I wouldn't mind if you went back to the city with me... Up to you of course."

It was a fair deal, and Rebecca kept her hand on the woman, assuming that was the entire reason she could see her. "That all sounds good to me. Ah can keep you company." Rebecca used her magnetic manipulation to take the ka-bar out of the woman's hand and back to its spot on her belt. "But Ah dornt like being threatened, especially with metal things."

Rebecca wrapped an arm around the woman's waist to keep her close. "Ah'm Rebecca, by the way."

>> "Telepath? Not a bad trick to have around here."

Rebecca shook her head; telekinesis would be more broadly useful than what she had, and telepathy would be almost overpowered in a world filled with so many secrets. "Ah'm jist magnet-kinetic... yeah, that's probably the phrase for it." It probably was not, but it got the message across.

>> "Names Seyta, and you can't blame me for wanting to keep things quiet can you?"

Rebecca understood the desire for someone who was kept on site all the time to get out into the world for a while. As someone who wandered the world not tied down to anything, (not even her husband,) she did not envy Seyta. "No, I cannae. Luckily, you seem to do silent well." If Rebecca was going to sneak around, being gifted with innate stealthiness would help.

With things squared away, the two women had a minute or two to kill. For someone Rebecca just met, she was certainly being open to a fair amount of friendly contact thanks to Seyta's mutation drawback. "Y'know, normally a gal has tae buy me a drink or two 'afore Ah wrap my arms 'round them," she joked. It would be an awkward situation, but Rebecca had developed an immunity to awkwardness sometime after the world ended.

>> "I might be able to arrange that, but I'm not likely to go there. Booze is valuable when you need to trade, almost as good as meds."

Apparently the pit fighters were as familiar with the world trading system as anyone else, or at least Seyta was. Rebecca had, in a drunken stupor, considered signing up as a gladiator. Maybe she was missing the taste of the limelight that being an X-Man provided her. When she sobered up, she decided against it, choosing instead to postpone her Pit debut until she had no reason not to wager her life. It was only a matter of time anyway.

”Depends on where you look,” she teased. ”Dornt you know there’s a bar somewhere in the sky?” It would sound like absurd daydreaming if Rebecca had not devoted her patronage to the Zephlin once before.

It was their time to get on the ferry. The guards watched Rebecca sternly, and she focused on keeping her composure. ”One, sirs.” She held her breath waiting to see if they passed the judgment.

>> "Yeah, but I can't fly. Not too good at paying for things either."

Seyta was a thief, but that was not a surprise. Why wouldn't she be? She could sneak up to people completely unnoticed. Morals were in short supply everywhere, so even the oldest, most timid priest would steal your food if he could not get caught.

The two women were given passage into the ferry, so apparently the charade worked. They were on their way to the mainland where they would search and scavenge. "If Ah can find a large enough piece of flat metal, Ah can probably fly us 'round." It had been a long time since she had to carry herself magnetically using an external object, but Seyta did not have metal piped through her body like Rebecca did.

Rebecca found a spot on the crowded ferry to take a seat on, leaving just enough room for Seyta to sit. (Hopefully no one would sit on her...) Looking at the hand she kept on Seyta to maintain contact, she wondered what it was like living with a power like that. "Sae... dae you enjoy being invisible?"

>> "Scavenging is easier from the ground. But if we get a good load maybe we can find a way up to that flying bar afterwards. Maybe they can even make a decent martini there."

It was a valid point; when Rebecca was floating around, she probably had a tendency to absentmindedly pass up plenty of items she would have noticed if she remained ground level. Upon further reflection, she realized she might actually be a mediocre scavenger, but walking was so much more tedious than floating around.

"Fine, Ah'll keep grounded, bit if the Zephlin flies overhead, we're takin' off. My treat," she joked, unsure if she would really want to pay another person's way into the bar. "Nae much of a martini girl, though." Too dry. Give Rebecca something with strawberry in it, or something tropical. Drinking was the one stereotypically girly thing she had left.

>> "Well i'm not actually invisible. I have a range, about twenty-five feet. Anyone inside there just won't notice me, outside and I'm like everyone else. I suppose I do though, sometimes. Before all this s***, I use to have some real problems 'cause of it. I can't turn it off so I never could get well...close to anyone. Now though, well you've seen me fight I'm guessing. Best mutation I could ever have."

The way Seyta described her power put her battles in the Pit into context. Everyone in the audience could see her, and the enemy could see her too while they were out of range, but the moment they entered her bubble, she was gone. She was right; it was the perfect evasive mutation for a Pit gladiator.

As for the downside... "Give me the option of a useful power or the chance to be close tae people, and Ah'll choose power any day."

The ferry churned and they were off, which meant a short ride to land. Rebecca could have hovered across on her own, but supposedly, unwanted objects in the sky were not trusted and dealt with accordingly. Rebecca liked her privacy, but she liked not dodging bullets more. "Is there e'en a point tae getting close with people these days?"

>> "Probably not, but a few years ago when life was a little less exciting it would have been fun to not walk home alone."

There was a faint stirring of sympathy deep within a hidden, ignored spot of Rebecca's heart. It was one thing to choose a lifestyle of isolation and independence, but it was another to have her body force her into that life. Rebecca had someone beside her for a while, and if she remembered correctly, she was happy. Seyta never had that; she also never had to deal with loving someone and watching them leave, but out of respect, Rebecca kept it to herself.

>> "So, any ideas on where we might find something worth while? I think it's best to have a plan before we reach shore to save time."

It was nice to be talking to someone who put some thought into preparation. Rebecca was a fan of being meticulous if it meant survival, and since Seyta appeared level-headed enough to confer with, she shared a piece of information she had acquired in her travels. "Well, Ah'm nae sure what you're looking for, bit Ah dae know of a scrapyard nae too far from the docks..."

There was, of course, a catch. "Ah mean, the Amazons kinda frequent it, bit t'day is supposedly nae one of the days they take th' trip." She had to share that part of her intel, because there were plenty of people who understandably had no interest in crossing the Amazons, and if her partner was of that mindset, Rebecca had no interest in dragging her there.