[h2][center][b][color=magenta]Alese Piety[/color][/b][/center][/h2]

“[color=magenta]Oh no, he’s working as intended,[/color]” Alese answered, giving the drone a sternly arched eyebrow. “[color=magenta]He just has his moments.[/color]” She added with a scrutinizing glare, but the basketball-sized sphere only bobbed happily and displayed a jovial smile in heavy bitfont on its view screen. She didn’t mention [i]why[/i] it was currently deep in the old language and Norris simply gave a casual wave back from the other side of the heavily tinted green curtain. Mingfan had this odd way of talking, which felt strangely familiar now for some reason, like she wasn’t necessarily trying to sound condescending and wasn’t aware of it if she was. In that same vein her chosen mode of transportation for the day was a similar reflection.

Cars, bikes, scooters, hoverboards and all other forms of personal transport were as variable as people in MegaCity 01; some modded to the point that they didn’t even look like “cars”, or at least not in the functional sense and handling such personal items, an object they sat in or rode every day, gave a lot of insight into the person. Sometimes they were aware of it, sometimes not. Like her speech, Mingfan’s style seemed to be unintentionally flamboyant. Gyro stabilizers, autopilot and many of the ultra high-end options she preferred were nice to have, but ultimately killed the feel of road in the handlebars, almost like a form of Program Stasis for vehicles. The more that was added, the less “[i]real[/i]” it felt, making the rider or driver more like a voting member in a system rather than in complete control. The modification she was proposing was no different and Alese crossed her arms as she watched the grainy video looking at it as a matter of engineering and function rather than entertainment. “[color=magenta]Are you sure you wanna do this? Those big tires are gonna kill all your top speed just to get this one thing.[/color]” Even though aesthetics weren’t that important to everyone, Alese felt a tinge of guilt that made it feel wrong not to at least try and dissuade her friend. The whole setup would completely kill the look of the bike.


The drone pushed out a small cart of tools from behind the curtain as the stand elevated to a more workable level. Alese spun the wheels freely looking at the treadwear to get an idea how hard Mingfan had been riding as the drone returned again with a shopvac for the dripping rainwater and a stool on rollers. She sat down and examined the chain tension on the rear for a moment and set about removing some of the body panels thinking in the back of her mind of a nice way to talk Mingfan out of this, but at the same time, almost like a shameless Pack member, she was scoping what parts she could use herself if her customer decided not to relent. “[color=magenta]Y’know, I could teach you to do similar moves with what you already have here…[/color]" She said finally, a hint of tempting challenge in her voice as her hands worked. Ironically, she understood she was potentially talking herself out of a large stack of credits, but to make someone a more competent rider was the honest thing to do rather than just taking the girl’s money after she’d apparently consumed too much media.  A multicolored lock of blonde fell in her face and she blew it away with a huff. “[color=magenta]You might have to be willing to turn off some of your aids, but I promise it would be fun.[/color]” She looked back with a smirk at the other girl standing over her. They were about the same height, it would be easy to teach and setup for her and besides, shorties had to stick together.        


“[color=magenta]It’s whatever you wanna do though,[/color]” She said, turning her eyes back to the work, leaving the question hanging like a true salesperson; taking a step back after two forwards. It was obvious money was no object to Mingfan, something for which Alese had made her own assumptions and the girl mentioning that she would need to escape potential pursuers for whatever reason just reinforced those thoughts. She shrugged as the splash guard for the oil reservoir came away and she daintily scooted over to the toolbox while the drone dropped a pan with a catch funnel under the stand and ran out the drain plug.    

[@Kumbaris]