Starkhaven (Lux & Primal Things)

[Lux]

A dark cloud loomed over the lower districts, Syndicate guards patrolling the top of the walls with large guns attached to their hips. The giant walls that separated the districts were a thick metal colored with a condemned shade of gray. The walls, once known as beacon of hope, were now seen as the inferior districts’ oppressors. Although life outside Starkhaven’s walls was worse than living in poverty, many dreamed of the orange tinted, radiation infused sands of freedom. Because of the high level of toxicity outside the city, those who tried to escape were shot to avoid any radioactive diseases or poisoning to find a way into the city.





Inigo found a strange comfort in the dangers of the outer district and never lusted after the freedom of the wasteland. His brother always told him that it was Sydnicate propaganda and that the radiation wasn’t nearly as toxic as they would have the population believe, but Inigo didn’t care. He spent most of his time working in the Red Ice, smuggling drugs and weapons between the outer and fourth district. He had created secret compartments in his backpack that were untraceable at the transfer gate, but today his load was heavier than usual.





His footsteps slapped across the cracked pavement as he ventured closer to the transfer gate, stopping at the scanner. The syndicate solider held his hand up to signal Inigo forward. The soldier’s armor was a thick, yet incredibly light, bulletproof shell. The plates were a deep black color with a large red S branded on the chest plate. They wore masks with voice changers to protect their identity, making the soldiers appear intimidating.





The solider searched Inigo quickly, then scanned his ID and waved him through. Inigo loved the rush that his job brought him, knowing that he could be caught at any moment. He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and decoded the message; the Red Ice always wrote their messages in code and was meant to be decoded once you were past the transfer gate. It was a useful system, although you never really knew what your mission was until you read the note. After decoding the note, Inigo pulled his lighter out from his pocket and lit the note on fire. He dropped the decoded message on the pavement and let it burn.





He made his way across the district to the Jade Plaza, the home base for the Iron flesh. The Iron Flesh was the Red Ice’s rivaling company; they controlled all the drug deals in district four while the Red Ice supplied them with weapons. However, The Red Ice had been smuggling drugs in underneath the Iron Flesh’s gaze for years.





Jade Plaza was a rundown warehouse that the Iron Flesh had converted into a bar. The beams barely kept the building together and the top looked like it would collapse at any given moment. Once inside, the bar was filled with shady characters hiding in the shadowy corners. The note that Inigo had received had instructed him to meet his contact in the alley behind the Plaza. Waiting by the back door, Inigo rolled up the sleeves on his school uniform and lit a cigarette.

 

[pistolmouth]

What bothered her most about going to Jade Plaza was not the clientele - she could handle them quite easily. No, what made Trinity the most uneasy about doing anything work related at the Jade Plaza was simply the amount of product that she was usually moving in and out of the place. It wasn't that she expected to get caught, really, she had enough experience under her belt to know how to move throughout the district with as much invisibility was one could manage; it was the ever present fear that someone might catch on to what she was doing and rob her, or worse.


Trinity moved quickly through the crowds, squeezing in between narrow gaps of people as she made her way toward her destination. The message - a note that had been slipped into her copy of that morning's newspaper - had said she would be meeting someone in an alley near the bar. There were few things that ever really made Trin uneasy, but alleys had to be close to the top of the list. Something about how similar stepping into them felt to her job from just a few years ago made her feel as though she might not come out of it as whole as she had been when she'd entered.


Before those thoughts had any time to fester, she dug a tablet of Jump out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth, swallowing it dry. The pill had effects similar to what a person would get were they to mix an amphetamine with the drugs they used to use to treat anxiety, and it certainly served its purpose. Trinity would never allow herself to get hooked on the stuff, but they were certainly helpful for situations where her nerves my blow the entire operation. To further her boost of confidence, she lit up the little bit left on the cigarette she had shorted and breathed in deeply, feet pounding the pavement beneath her.


She spotted him before he probably even heard her coming. The smell of his cigarette curling around the side of the building was really what had tipped her off of his presence, and Trin quickly stamped down the widening of her eyes. Of course, she'd been expecting a boy. It seemed that fewer and fewer girls were getting into, or staying in, with The Iron Flesh. What she hadn't been expecting was to almost immediately recognize the face of the person she was supposed to be meeting.


"Hi," Trin finally called out, and allowed herself two more steps forward. "How would you prefer for us to do this?"

 

[Lux]

Lost in the trail of his cigarette smoke, Inigo didn’t notice the stranger’s presence until she broke the alley silence. He was pleasantly surprised, he hadn’t expected to be meeting up with a girl; he had never met a girl who worked with the Iron flesh before. Most of the companies were dominated by men, although Bloodlust was a mercenary company comprised exclusively of women. Aside from bloodlust, women also dominated the brothels and ‘escorting’ services. Inigo had worked as a guard in one of the Brothel’s in District four for a few months and he could vividly remember the thick whiskey smell that melted into the wallpaper and the permanent cloud of smoke that hung over the stage. Inigo couldn’t imagine working there as an “entertainer”, on more than one occasion he had to beat an inebriated client off of one of the girls.





Inigo paused before speaking, flicking the ash into the wind and smearing his cigarette on the ground. “Well hi, there.” He strolled forward, shoving his hands into his pockets. His ruffled hair and rookie smile contributed to Inigo’s boyish charm; his school uniform messy but relatively clean. He gave the newcomer the once over; she was attractive but something about her brunette hair and blue eyes seemed familiar to him. He racked his brain to see if he could remember her face but he couldn’t.





“Do I know you from somewhere?” He asked nonchalantly, ignoring her question. The girl seemed a little nervous, while Inigo was completely at ease. His confidence often convinced people that he knew what he was doing, which was helpful in his line of work.





Ooc| Sorry it took so long to get up!

 

[pistolmouth]

((it's fine! Things have been crazy for me too ))


The boy looked friendly enough, but that wasn't going to make her completely ditch her wariness of him. Trinity ditched her own cigarette, not looking away from him and stamped it under her feet, blowing a long, stream of smoke between her lips. She noted the way he glanced her over and shifted onto her other foot, clenching her jaw slightly.


She should have been used to this by now.


Did he know her from somewhere? Part of her wanted to make a smartass remark about how horrible that pick-up line was, but since she was suffering from the same recognition, it didn't seem fair to either of them. Trinity cleared her throat, the Jump slowly beginning to take effect. Gradually, her anxiety at being in an alley alone with an unknown boy melted away with the simultaneous rush of adrenaline that dilated her pupils and made her damn near fearless.


There it was, that confidence that she'd been missing. While the scared little girl approach tended to work more with her older customers, it was best to make it clear that she could assert herself around the younger guys, who often got it into their heads that the business they were assigned to do came with some sort of prize. Nodding toward his uniform, her sloppy braid hitting against her back briefly, her lips curling upward briefly, "You go to my school. I've seen you around." Her next smile was a little more genuine, "I'm Trinity."