Member
Charon Mauveine
Raelyn Mauveine & Chelle Mauveine
The Mauveine's walked into a barber shop in the heart of the city; they all caught a train and called a taxi to the closest barber shop with the best reviews. During the ride to their destination, Charon indulged very little of how things were going, trying to dodge their questions by asking some of his own: asking his mother how work was going in her robotics career, and asking her sister about how grad school was going. Still, he couldn't avoid their questions about how he was doing, but he decided he would wait for the right time and place for it.
In the meantime, they practically took control of what happened to Charon's monster of hair, telling the female hair stylist how short she should cut his bangs, shaving off his sideburns, and generally cutting his hair much shorter than it was to begin with.
In the end, Charon looked into the mirror and admired his now short, clean, and neat hair.
His sister ran her fingers through his hair before combing a stray strand into place, "There! doesn't that look and feel better? I sure think it does compared to that mop you had before!"
Charon glanced at the hair stylist, who was vacuuming up all the severed hair that laid on the floor below him. His hair was significantly shorter, with the longest hair being only on the top of his head: his bangs were cut short, and the side and back of his head were shaved down.
"I will admit, it does feel better when it's cut this short," he rubbed the back of his head, which was incredibly soft to the touch.
Charon then got up, put most of his gear back on, as well as his hat and walked over to the register to pay. He tried to reach for his wallet, but his sister stopped him, "No no, I'll pay for it,"
Charon glanced at Chelle with a surprised look on his face, "I mean you can if you-"
"Actually, Chelle, I'll pay for it," Raelyn interrupted Charon, who shifted his gaze to her, "No it's fine Mom, I'll-"
"I basically told the hair stylist what to do while Charon just said: clean it up. I should pay for it,"
"Now hold on-"
"Yes dear, but I brought more money with me, you should save yours for later,"
Why does this always happen?
Charon silently swiped his card while his mother and sister bickered over who was going to pay, apologizing to the hair stylist.
"OK, lets go!" Charon marched out the door while both of them processed what he just did. He held the door open while they walked past him, pouting about their loss.
The Mauveines took a cab to the place Charon got most of his parts for his drone: a small hardware workshop on the other side of the city. Charon had told the cab driver to take the long way, despite the increase of the cost. It was worth it though, the cab driver took the scenic route there, on the highway, past the harbor, and far enough away to get a good picture of Beacon Academy.
Charon gave the driver a little extra as they got out of the cab for his extra consideration. The three Mauveines stood on the sidewalk for a moment and Charon retrieved all of his gear from the back of the cab, and once he had everything, he a gave thumbs up to the driver which he then drove off.
Once Charon had everything put on, he looked back to his Mother and Sister, who were looking through their pictures of the city while waiting for Charon.
Charon smiled, and walked over between them, looking at their pictures with them, "Well, what did you think? that was the fastest way I could show you most of the city, so..."
"I thought it was nice, but I didn't realize how big this city was! I guess I'm too use to the cities in Atlas,"
"But it's nice to get out of Atlas though, right Mom? I think Vale is nicer than Atlas in that it's not freezing all the time,"
"It is a nice change, I will admit: I had to buy some lighter clothes when I first got here since it was so mild," Charon turned around to face the store, it had a pretty generic name: "Beacon Supply Store and Workshop", with some parts of the sign having a few sign of rust, wear and tear, and the neon "e" in "Beacon" was burned out.
Oh Scott, how did you let this happen?
"So why are we here again?"
"To find out why my drone's battery keeps leaking acid,"
"You have a drone? What for?"
"For reconnaissance on missions. You remember my little hobby of fixing up and puttin' together robots and drones at home? Well it helped me in the long run," Charon took his drone out of the left gauntlet and showed it to his sister, who inspected it thoroughly before handing it over to Raelyn.
"And you put this thing together all by yourself?"
"Sort of, I took an old Atlas drone and made some adjustments to it, which was mainly it's homing feature, that lets it return home on my command or on low battery."
"So how are you going to fix it?" Raelyn asked whilst giving the drone back to Charon.
"The owner of this place is real nice: name is Scott, and he helped me do a lot of the programming for the drone and my left gauntlet. He'll know what's wrong it." Charon opened the door to the shop, ushering in both of the girls as they entered the small establishment.
There were several aisles that had shelves with many assorted goods for home improvement, vehicle parts, and robotics, as well as another door in the corner opposite of the entrance that lead to a workshop room. A teenager manned the registrar, who was checking stock. The man looked up as the bell rang for the door, adjusting his glasses and sitting up straight on his stool.
"How can I help you three?"
"Looking for Scott?"
The teenager pointed at the workshop door, "In the shop,"
"Thanks," Charon heard what sounded like a buzz-saw coming from the shop, and Charon turned around to his sister and mother, "You guys can wait here, this will just take a second."
Charon walked through the workshop door to find a middle-aged man in old worn-through jeans, a T-shirt with various colors of paint stained on it, and some black work gloves and a brown workshop apron sawing through a piece of metal with a cold saw. The man looked up and noticed Charon walk in and stopped what he was doing, "Charon! How are you doing my boy?" He took his gloves off and shook Charon's hand.
"Doing good Scott, here with family, so I need to make this a short visit." Charon put his drone on a nearby workbench, opening the battery compartment.
"Oh! Is your drone acting up again?" The man gently inspected the drone, peering inside the compartment to take a good look.
"The battery leaked again, making the same mess as last time."
"Oh? and you used my solution I gave you?"
"Of crourse."
Scott rubbed his chin, "Hmmm... does the drone stay on while it's in your gauntlet?"
"Yes actually, that way I can use it again without constantly having to turn it off and on all the time. You recommended me to do that."
"Did I say that? Well how often do you use it?"
Charon rubbed the back of his head, "Erm... not all the much now that I think about it, at least, not recently."
"Aha! that must be it!"
"OK...?"
"Since your drone stays on, it's constantly draining battery, so what's happening is that the battery runs dry and starts to leak the potassium carbonate fluffy stuff."
"So how does that exactly happen?"
"A reason for battery leaks is that as batteries discharge — the chemistry of the battery changes and some hydrogen gas is generated. This out-gassing process increases pressure in the battery. Eventually, the excess pressure either ruptures the insulating seals at the end of the battery, or the outer metal canister, or both."
"So how do we fix it?"
"We turn it off! Or at least program it to do that when it returns to your gauntlet. Here I'll go ahead and reprogram it, and if it does this again, you take this thing straight back to me, free of charge!" The man skittered off with the drone over to his computer in the corner and plugged it into the drone.
