"What do you think?"<br/><br/>"Doesn't look too bad. Kinda impressed you managed to haul that stuff back for yourself."<br/><br/>"I made a deal with the group so we could bring any souvenirs for ourselves so long as we carried it back on our own expense."<br/><br/>"Don't they take everything you bring home though?"<br/><br/>"Not when its not useful to them."<br/><br/>"Mhm..."<br/><br/>"Alright, so maaaybe there were some 'arrangements' made and some sleight of hand involved sometimes."<br/><br/>Felicity leaned back on the metal chair as her feet were hoisted up on a work table. She may have switched from being a Techie, but that didn't mean she broke ties with the friends she had made there. Normally, scavengers weren't allowed to simply lounge about in the techies' workspace unless they were listing down the junk they needed or dropping them off, but so far she had evaded the wrath of whoever was in charge of overseeing operations. To be honest though, she was more of a fixture now on her old friends' station than anything else. When she wasn't licking her wounds or drinking herself to sleep, she was here with three of her closest amigos: Nero, Roy, and Wolfram, however only the latter was currently there.<br/><br/>He was a large guy who would have decimated everyone if he chose to be a soldier, but he didn't like seeing blood at all. It got him all queasy. He had no interest in setting up rules for everyone to follow, nor did he enjoy the thought of handling fragile pieces of paper for the rest of his life, so he was only left with either being a technician or being kicked out the base. Fortunately, he enjoyed working with machines, especially the big heavy boys that needed real muscles.<br/><br/>Felicity on the other hand preferred the finer art of smaller devices which she puts to work when she's out in the field. Sure, soldiers and scavengers were trained how to take care of their weapons, disassemble and reassemble them within a minute, but a technician could do so much more than that. Give them two broken weapons and they can Frankenstein up a new one with the bits and pieces. No doubt a useful skill to have.<br/><br/>"So you planning on using that on something, or just put it up as a trophy on your shelves?" the technician asked, gesturing to the broken, rusted, dirt-filled rifle stashed inside Felicity's bag. She found it on her last mission under a pile of rubble. It was old, and would probably explode if they tried to fire a single bullet, but she thought she could make it work again.<br/><br/>"Thinking I'd clean it up, make it shiny again. Hopefully get it back to working order."<br/><br/>"Oof, that's a tall order. But if that's your plan, it might be better to just leave it here so the others and I can fix it and add that to our armory."<br/><br/>"Do you really think they'd let you guys waste resources on this thing?"<br/><br/>"..."<br/><br/>"Thought so. Don't worry, the four of us can work on this when all of us find the time. Pretty sure my stash of junk and your scraps can turn this into something useful."<br/><br/>"Sounds like a plan."<br/><br/>The signal for food reminded the scavenger of the recent changes in their rationing. What a pain it was to starve for half the day, but admittedly, she got it easy. She was only active when she was assigned a shopping list, unlike Wolfram and the rest of the gang who had to keep working through it all throughout the day.<br/><br/>Patting her friend on the back, she excused herself to grab her share of food. Wolfram had already had his, and relied on the snacks that were distributed around the base to keep his stomach from digesting itself. Waving goodbye, Felicity left the Technicians' department and headed straight for the canteen. She took the most filling item on the menu despite it not being the most savory to her tongue and chose to sit where the other scavengers gathered. After greeting each other, Felicity dug into her meal. It wasn't the tastiest, but at least she'd last longer on it.<br/><br/>As the group ate, they were talking about just about anything that came to mind, whether it was the best resting spot on the outside was, stories of hostile encounters, or even life inside the base. The table was more diverse than Felicity initially thought, so she got some insights on what was happening to people in the different departments. Was it even surprising that the people working in the archives got the most gossip to share?