Tom woke up at 6:59 precisely. Not many people knew it was 6:59, but Tom did. He always knew exactly what time it was, and never understood how other people couldn't. It was the same with sleep - surely you just picked two times and slept between them? That was how it worked for him, anyway. And the time he habitually chose to wake up at was 6:59. It provided him one minute to gather his thoughts before what he considered the official start of the day, 7:00.

Sixty seconds ticked past, and he rose smoothly out of bed, rubbing his eyes as he walked over to his second-favourite Ancient Device, something he had dubbed the "spray-clean". It consisted of a pumping mechanism connected by a pipe to a plate with numerous small holes in it that sprayed water over the person inside the Device. The tank which held the pump also held a heater that made the water wonderfully hot. As such, he was one of the cleanest people in the Ruins. He made a good living just from people paying to use it.

Of course, like all the Ancient Devices, it required an Ancient Core to work. These were among the most highly prized of items, small golden cubes lit up blue from within. When plugged into a Core Socket, they could produce seemingly limitless energy. Some devices came with a Core built in, but most needed connecting to a Socket. He was fortunate enough to have three Cores and their corresponding sockets. One was entirely taken up in powering his defensive mechanisms - when one had as many Ancient Devices as Tom, it was necessary to have such things, as many would find it worth the risk of attacking you to get them. The second was linked to his lab equipment - rare and prized Devices that were capable of cutting and moulding Ancient Alloys. The third powered his miscellaneous gizmos and gadgets such as the spray-clean and the lights, and was slightly faulty. Sometimes he'd have to spend hours fiddling with it to get it to work.

Once he was clean and dressed, he ambled down to the market. This was a neutral zone by common consent of all the gangs - after all, even the hardest thugs need a place to buy food, clothes and weaponry. As usual, he swapped a chunk of Ancient Alloy for an apple before checking the List. This was a large board in the middle of the Market where people made requests or answered them. While he examined it, three men sauntered up behind him

"Well, well... look at the rich man's nice clothes. I think someone like you should be more than capable of helping those in need, eh?"

To punctuate this remark, the lead thug slowly drew his spear. The haft was nothing more than a long pole of wood, but the head was dangerous. A sharp and jagged bit of Ancient Alloy, it would be more than capable of going through flesh, bone and out the other side. The crowd around them was rapidly backing away. Swallowing nervously, Tom turned to the man.

"If it's money you want, I could probably accommodate you. But I have a better suggestion."

Now shouting to the crowd, he spread his arms wide.

"Free Ancient tech to the person who gets rid of my assailants! Take your pick of two items from my lab!"

Ren found the idea of waking up in the morning was the most daunting task of her day. She imagined it was the same for everyone. Life wasn't easy, it was brutal and there was little to go on for. However, she did like to compete and if there was going to be one person left standing, she would bet it would be her. Ren liked to win.

It was for that reason, she got up that morning, as she somehow managed to do eventually every morning. She had virtually no routine in the morning. She didn't how a means of cleaning herself and her hair was cut as short as it would go (although it had begun to grow out to be a bit shaggier), so she threw on a change of clothes, which weren't necessarily even clean, grabbed her trusty knife, and headed out for the day.

She didn't have many feminine qualities about her, especially with her hair being as it was, although if she had the opportunity to clean up every now and again, she figured people would not mistake her for a boy, as they often did. It didn't quite bother her, in fact, people seemed to take her more seriously when they thought she was a boy so it typically made things a lot easier on her part when it came to doing business. Her business being odd jobs. However, business was slow as of late. Slow enough for her to have to swipe a loaf of bread on her way to the List. Being as quiet and light on her toes as she was, her thievery went unnoticed and she munch quite happily at the bread.

That was when she heard it. Trouble. Ren didn't find herself the least bit surprised when she saw some well-dressed guy in trouble with a few thugs. The man had that look on him that ticked Ren off a bit, though she wouldn't attack someone unprovoked like the three men were doing to this particular man. She considered helping him, but wondered if it would be worth it. After all, her work was unappreciated more often than not so why would a good deed be appreciated?

Then the nice rich man made a juicy offer. Now, it would be nearly criminal to ignore such a situation.

When no one took up his offer, Ren lunged out from the crowd and plunged her knife into the lead thug's neck, toppling him to the ground. She pulled the knife out of his neck, allowed him to gurgle and flail about on the ground, then stuffed what was left of the bread she'd stolen into her mouth. "Alright, then, you two," Ren swallowed her food and gestured for them to come at her, "I'll give you the next hit, come on, make it count."

Fortunately for Ren, they did not make it count. Part of her wished they did, she wanted a challenge, but she was fine with an easy win so long as it was a win. The two ran at her without any sort of strategy. The first she dodged and the second, she dug her knife into. The knife was buried into the thug's stomach, though that wasn't quite enough to kill him so she pulled the knife up his torso as much as she could before allowing him to drop onto the ground and spill his inside. "Messy." Ren looked down at the dead man and crinkled her nose, soon feeling a spear nick her side,

She turned to face the final thug, ignoring the pain in her side and grabbing the wooden pole of the spear, she lifted it up and dug it into the thug's wrist. He went down to one knee and attempted to pull the spear back, but Ren pulled the spear from his grip, flipped it around so that he was now on the less desirable side of the spear, and drove it through his heart.

"Done." She dropped the spear and grabbed her knife, wiping the blood off on her clothes. "You alright, then?"

"Perfectly. One moment; I need to check the List."

He looks at it over his shoulder for a couple of seconds. Despite this being nowhere near enough time for anyone to take in the sheer volume of text, he seems to be satisfied.

"Nothing outstanding. Follow me, please."

He leads her through the Market and then dives into a twisting warren of passages excavated through the ruins and rubble of Ancient structures. This in itself is his first defense; many would-be thieves simply got lost in the labyrinth. Tom knew every passage by heart, and could walk it blindfold. After five minutes or so, he began stopping at seemingly random intervals to gabble out strange phrases or tap complex patterns on apparently innocuous rocks.

"Deactivating the security systems." he says by way of explanation. "If I didn't, we'd be ash by now."

After another five minutes or so, the labyrinth opens out into a clear area about a hundred meters on a side. In the center is a ten-story Ancient building, mostly intact. The front door is elaborately engraved with Ancient designs, and projects a ray of blue light at Tom as he walks towards it. It runs him from head to foot, flashes once, then turns on Ren. It scans her, but this time it turns red and two double-barreled turrets pop up out of concealed alcoves and target her. Tom raises his hands quickly.

"Guest permitted on authorization Tom. Deactivate lightspears."

There's a tense moment of silence, and then the turrets retract.

"Damn, that was close. I'd forgotten about those."

He strides in through the doors. In the central hall, taking pride of place, are three Core Sockets, each with an Ancient Core inside, glowing blue. Countless wires and cables run from them in all directions. As the pair approach, the one on the right, flickers, buzzes and then goes out. The lights follow quickly.

"Damn! Why can't the stupid thing just work?! I've tried everything I know..."

He irritably pulls a pair of strange tools from a pocket inside his coat. One is long and thin, the other short with two prongs and a button on the handle. He moves over to the dead core and pokes the long tool into one of the gaps the blue light shines from, prodding it around. After a few moments, he grunts in satisfaction and applies the pronged tool. He presses the button and a flash of blue is visible for a second, then the Core buzzes and switches on again. The lights return to functionality.

"That should hold for a few hours. Lab's this way."

Approaching a square door set into one wall, he pushes a button next to it. There's a whirring, grinding noise from inside, and then the doors slide open to reveal a small room, maybe two meters on a side.

"This is a Cable Box. It's an Ancient Device that carries you up and down inside a building. Only functional one in the whole of the Ruins, as far as I know."

Something seems to occur to him.

"I forgot to ask your name, didn't I? I'm Tom, if you hadn't guessed from when I shut the lightspears down."

People weren't usually so particularly hard to get for Ren. However, following this particular man was strange, especially the few moments he spoke. It was no wonder he dressed so nice and seemed so clean, he was as strange as he looked. The devices themselves were interesting, yes, but they didn't seem as off as Tom did. Off wasn't a bad thing, it was just a confusing thing. "Hm?"

His words broke her concentration from the cable box, which she had been trying to figure out as it moved them up. "Ren," She took his hand in her own, hoping he didn't mind the dirt and blood crusted on it, and gave it a firm shake. From her past experiences, shaking hands was the only greeting she could find appropriate for Tom, who seemed to be much better off than herself. "You're nuts, you know that?" Her brow crinkled and she returned her hand to her side.

She didn't offer an explanation for her observation right away and allowed her eyes to wander again. "The way you dress," Ren jumped slightly when the cable box came to a halt, a bit startled. "Of course you'd get attacked, it can't be the first time." The doors opened and Ren allowed him to walk ahead so she could follow. "Then there's this place and all this...stuff. These gizmos." Once they'd left the cable box, Ren lingered behind and watched the doors close, a slight glimmer of amazement flickered in her eyes before she scurried after Tom.

"You're nuts but this stuff is, uh..." Her voice trailed off since she couldn't think of the right word for it all. She couldn't quite focus on one thing for long, which bothered her quite a bit. She liked simple things, this place was far from simple but she liked it in one way or another. "You fixed all this up?" While she had heard of ancient technology, she hadn't been around so much of it ever before. Ren wasn't sure what she'd do with whatever she decided to take, or even if she would end up accepting anything what with how beyond her it seemed. Either way, the experience was interesting enough as it was.

He shakes her hand. His grip is surprisingly strong, given his slender frame.

"I suppose I must be insane. I certainly don't function in the same manner as other people. And yes, I've been attacked before, but..."

Undoing the buttons on his long coat, he lets it fall open to reveal a chestplate of Ancient Alloy. It's blocky and functional, but not badly made.

"As you can see, I have means of defending myself. You seem to like knives, so I'll throw in this for free. I don't use it much."

Drawing a beautifully crafted Ancient knife from his belt, he passes it over to her. The rear half of the blade is viciously serrated, and despite its age remains razor-sharp.

He opens a door to reveal a large workshop. It's a complete mess, although not quite as cluttered as his room. There's aisle after aisle of shelving, all completely stuffed with bits of Ancient technology. Some of the larger pieces are leant up against the walls. The only space not filled with shelving is the far wall, made entirely of glass with a breathtaking view over the Ruins. Set against it is a desk covered in various tools, and in the corner is a display case.

"Welcome to my lab. Take your pick, but the tools are off-limits and so's that."

At "that", he indicates the display case. Inside it is a full suit of original Ancient Armour, perfectly preserved. It's obviously been painstakingly maintained and restored. Next to it is a Personal Lightspear, something little more than a legend among the general population of the Ruins.

"Took me years to gather, but it's been more than worth it. I managed to reverse-engineer the Lightspear technology, so I can actually make some rudimentary ones, although they're nowhere near as good as original Ancient weapons. The secret of the Cores still eludes me, though. In answer to your other question, yes I fixed all of this. I find it easy enough; I don't know why other people can't do it, really. It's all a matter of mechanics and rules."

He picks up something from the clutter on the floor and carries it over to the bench, picking up some tools and starting to work on it.

"Take a look around. Feel free to come over and ask me what anything is."

Ren took the knife from him, she was unusually gentle with the weapon. Her eyes glistened with wonder as she held the knife carefully with both hands, one curling around each end. Tom was obviously not very good with people, that much was for sure. But in that moment, many things happened to Ren all out once. She, for one, decided she did not want to take any of his amazing technology because she knew she would not appreciate it nearly as much as he did. Now, Tom most likely was unaware of this, but he'd won her over just from such a small gesture. She never planned on voicing this because it was quite a weakness to have, to be won over by someone. Winners had few weaknesses and she knew that Tom would not appreciate this weakness of her's, anyway. At least not now. He was not "friend" material, which was something Ren was thankful for considering friends were another weakness.

She grumbled a barely audible thanks to him and allowed a smile to form upon her face before she tucked the blade away.

The fact that he could defend himself, though, that poked at her. She shook her thoughts away from the knife and followed after him. Her eyes set on the armor, which she figured he was not going to give up, before she watched him go work on whatever it was crazy men like him worked on.

"If you could defend yourself, why didn't you?"

Ren wasn't dumb enough to think he wanted to talk, obviously he was plenty occupied with what he was doing. She, however, liked to talk to people and was determined to get him to talk a little before she inevitably told him she was good on the technology part. Ren wasn't quite sure why this was as it was, but Ren wasn't sure why most things were as they were. They just were.

"I mean, it's easier to just defend yourself instead of getting me to do it for payment," As she spoke, she walked among the aisles, carelessly checking each bit of technology in case any of it was interesting enough for her to change her mind. Being stubborn as she was, none of it was, "It just seems smarter to do things on your own, if you can, don't you think?"

Tom's mouth curled into a thin smile as she gazed at the knife. He nodded at her thanks, then returned to working at his desk, hands moving almost too fast to follow.

"Why didn't I? Because I am mostly unknown, and I want to keep it that way. If everyone in the Ruins knew about the sort of stuff I have, I'd be fending off attacks all day. Even something like the spray-clean would be enough to draw hundreds. Most people know me as "the guy with Ancient stuff", so it's not too bad to offer tech from my lab, but if they knew exactly how much I have and how rare some of it is..."

He shakes his head.

"I prefer to keep it quiet. Only a few people know that I don't live in a shack like most everyone else, even fewer know what I have inside it beyond the main hall. Nobody but me knows the way through the labyrinth or where all the exits are. I get some fairly steady traffic through here, since I offer use of the spray-clean to people who can find me an interesting bit of Ancient tech, but they're all blindfolded so they really don't have a clue about any of this.

Besides, some of the things I've got are really not suited for use in an area with lots of innocent people. The Ancients either had fights on a scale we've never seen or they just didn't care about the innocents, because there are some things in the Vault which you could hold in one hand yet have the power to kill tens or hundreds of people at once."

Suddenly standing up, he moves through the aisles of shelving until he reaches a particular spot. He jumps and grabs one of the many bars set into the ceiling, then pulls himself up another foot one-handed and holds himself there effortlessly as he looks through the things on the top of the shelf.

"Broken... broken... hairdryer... bingo!"

He drops back down holding a long cylinder which he takes over to the desk. Picking up whatever he's been working on, he slots it in with a clunk and it lights up, humming gently.

"Huh, makes sense," Ren stopped and looked up at him as he continued to speak. She was familiar with the spray-clean, of course, she'd never had the opportunity to use one and tended to find other ways to wash off once in a while, but she definitely understood the appeal. Though the idea of going through all the trouble of making it through with Tom, blindfolded nonetheless, just to use the spray-clean seemed a bit much to her. It was at that time, the thought that she hadn't been blindfolded at any point of their journey-and, yes, journey was definitely the right word for such an exhausting effort just to make it to the lab-occurred to Ren. "Few people?"

"I guess I should feel pretty special or something, then." She smirked and went back to slowly walking alongside the aisles of technology. She wondered why she was one of the few, seeing as he had no real reason to trust she wouldn't go and run her mouth off as soon as she left. Aside from saving his life, which didn't really mean she could be trusted. Ren had no intent of ever speaking of what she'd seen but Tom didn't know that. Despite realizing, as usual, she had the habit of questioning everything and she figured that probably annoyed most people, she settled on continuing to ask.

"Do I give off a good, er...vibe or what? For all you know I could go home and tell all zero of my close friends and family about what I've seen. I won't, but you didn't know that bringing me in here. You're smart and taking risks isn't so smart." She stopped her pacing among the aisles again, approaching the display case of armor. She wasn't the armor type of person, as most of it felt too heavy for her liking, but she'd never seen Ancient Armor before and it sure was amazing to look at. A quiet huff escaped from her and she rocked lightly on her feet as she awaited his answer. Ren had seen enough and was sure she was ready to leave soon enough, there was work to be done and more food to be eaten out there, yet so little time.

"You're a survivor. That much is obvious. And would it be a good survival tactic to go around blabbing? I know I can trust you to keep your mouth shut, because you're smart enough to know what could happen if you didn't. I probably wouldn't do anything... but you don't know that for sure, and that's why you'll tell nobody. If you're wondering about the ridiculously long journey, that was to make sure you weren't going to try and jump me yourself. There are shorter routes, but I always take first-timers through the labyrinth to make sure they're not going to kill me at the drop of a hat."

He glances at her over his shoulder.

"I have to admit, I'm intrigued by you, though. There's something about you that I can't quite get a handle on. Normally I run through the best way to disable or kill a person as a matter of course, in case they're dangerous, but with you..."

He shakes his head.

"I don't know. There's probably a word for it, but my brain just doesn't seem to want me to do that. I suppose that must be the good vibe you're talking about. It's new to me, anyway."

Looking over at her again, he sees her admiring the Ancient Armour.

"Beautiful workmanship, isn't it? I've tried for weeks, but I can't even get close."

He blinks.

"Did I offer you a meal? I think I'm supposed to do that. I'm sure I read it somewhere in one of the Ancient treatises I have."

"Well, I like to think I'm a pretty good person, better than most people, anyway. If I ever do anything bad, it's only what needs to be done to survive. There aren't many good people out there, maybe that's it?" She stopped rocking on her feet and turned to face him. A smile spread across her face. "Or maybe it's just my girlish charm, who knows."

At the mention of food, she looked ecstatic. Girlish charm was fairly far off, she knew being ladylike had been long lost but whatever it had once been she was most likely far from. It took her a moment to sink in his offer for a meal and she was reminded, once again, how socially deprived he was. Ren tried to hold back laughter, seeing as he'd just offered her a meal and it probably was rude to laugh, but she couldn't quite help it. She didn't get close to people herself, but it was a part of her job to talk to even the most annoying people, so she knew how to handle them, but Tom...he was definitely something else. An oddball. "You should go out more, talk to people."

"But yes, if you have food, that's the polite thing to do," She took a deep breath to calm herself before gesturing to the Ancient Tech in front of her. "I'll have to pass on the fancy gizmos, I don't think I'd make as good use of them as you would, but I couldn't say no to a free meal!"

"Perhaps I should talk to people more, but I don't know how to talk to people. To learn how to talk to people, I have to go and talk to people. You see the problem there?"

He sighs. He appears to have completely ignored the comment about girlish charm, although if Ren's paying attention she might notice that his mouth twitched ever so slightly when she said it.

"If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you to the food."

He leads her through a door and up a flight of stairs. It comes out in a middle-sized room with another spectacular view out over the ruins. A table is set near the window. On the other side of the room is yet another Ancient Device and a large number of cupboards. Tom rummages through said cupboards with an efficiency that indicates he knows exactly where everything is, preparing a meal in very short order and then sliding it into the Ancient Device. He shuts the door and rapidly hits a few buttons.

"That should be ready in half an hour. I think I've exhausted my repertoire of small talk, so it's up to you to keep the conversation going, I'm afraid."

Ren took a seat at the table, resting her chin on the palm of her hand and staring out the window. "You know, for a smart guy, you're not so smart."

"When you don't know how to do something, you just do it until you start to do it right. You don't just know how to do everything as soon as you're born, you learn. I didn't just pick up a knife one day and find that I was good at defending myself with it, I learned how to get good with what I had already. On one hand, I'm small and a lot of people are bigger and stronger than me, on the other hand, I'm small, quick on my feet, and very quiet. See how that works?" She let her hand drop to the table before she looked away from the window and back to him.

"On one hand, you have no clue how to talk to people normally, without using big words and that smart tone of yours and that could annoy a lot of people, on the other hand, it's a little goofy, I'm sure you know a lot about a lot of things so you could talk to a bunch of people about whatever, and you could even teach people a thing or two. You see? Easy." Ren shrugged, returning to looking out the window. "Talking to anyone is just the same as talking to me, just do whatever you've been doing. And if you run out of things to say, ask them about themselves. Most people like to talk about themselves the most."

"I've never understood the fascination with oneself that seems so common among the populace. Surely disclosing personal information merely facilitates your opponent's superiority?"

He pauses and frowns.

"Sorry, I'm being verbose, aren't I..? Er, using big words. Sorry, I do that when I'm nervous."

He clears his throat awkwardly and his fingers flicker in a complicated pattern.

"The main problem I have is that there's no way in for me. I'm rich, comfortable and I have so much Ancient tech that I can give it away freely without a care. I'm so far apart from the average life of a Ruins dweller that I have almost nothing in common with them. A lot of people hate me just for that superiority. Then there's those who get to know me and decide that they hate me for other reasons - I can only assume that it's something to do with my manner that they find disagreeable. I haven't had a friend for a decade and a half, and I have no idea how to go about it."

Sighing, he moves over to the tale and sits down next to Ren.

"I honestly have very little experience of not being good at something. Mathematics was self-evident. Sport was just a matter of angles and forces and so forth. All the Ancient treatises I've found make perfect sense to me. I suppose that's part of the reason I'm floundering so much about it."

"I'll be honest with you, the reason people don't like you is because you can't relate to them, look at how you're living. Have you ever tried to live outside of your safe little home? I'm not saying I wouldn't choose to live here over down in that shit hole-s'cuze the language, but that's what it is-I'm just saying that you don't even try to hide it. The way you look....let's just say I wouldn't have helped you back there if you hadn't offered something in return, seeing you wearing such nice clothes while I have to steal food every now and again just to get by, well that's enough to tick me off. And, if you're wondering, if I was put in the same situation again after now, I would help you without personal gain in mind, but that's not quite how everyone else works." Her tone was slightly aggressive, but she wasn't really angry at him. She didn't really have a reason to be, she was more angry at the situation most people, including herself, found themselves in.

Ren was quiet for a while, trying to give herself a moment to cool down and think. She looked at him once again, for once actually frowning at him. "Have you ever tried to help people? Maybe not with your gizmos, though you could do that too, just going out, not dressed all nice, and, I dunno...just share a little bit of the luxury you've got here. Money, food, whatever. It's sort of part of my job to try and help people, so I see a lot of good people struggling, I think you could do a lot of good if you just stopped hiding up here and playing with all this stuff. And anyway, if people won't accept your help, you could always live among them for a while, show you aren't a bad guy, that you can handle yourself, people like people who are willing to do stuff like that."

"And, hey, I don't know you well enough to be your friend, but if you ever wanna come down and see me I'm sure that's always something you could do. It'd be pretty fun to work towards even having one friend, don't you think? Fifteen years is a pretty long time to have no friends, it's probably why you're so nuts." She smirked and added, her tone returning to it's usual joking manner, "I charge by the hour, though. That includes now, by my count you'll probably owe me at least a handful of meals by the time I get out of here. I'll hold you to that."

"Have I ever lived outside here?"

He goes quiet and looks out of the window for a minute or two. When he next speaks, it's in a cold, detached tone, almost as if he's forcing himself not to feel what he's talking about.

"Yes, once. Up until I was five, I lived with my mother, down there in the Ruins. One day I came home from scavenging and found that a gang of thugs had come to our house. They'd stolen everything, and my mother had been beaten and violated. She died three days later. After that, I was alone, except for Sam, my brother. He was killed a year later by the same gang of thugs."

Ren was silent, her brows furrowed as she looked at him. She wasn't all too good at comforting people and how detached he seemed from what he was saying made it all the more difficult. "Those are your battle scars, then? You know, not the physical type, the kind in your head. Just about everyone has them but only the strong learn how to live with them."

For a moment, she looked like she had more to say. However, she caught herself and pursed her lips together to keep herself from continuing. Her gaze on him softened and she let out a sigh. For a smart guy who didn't seem to know much about being human, he was really starting to bum her out-not like that made Ren angry or anything, it was just unexpected.

"Anyway, how'd you make it here? Chances are pretty slim for kids like that."