@steel-fixes-all -- ιη му тιмє σƒ ηєє∂
Ajuna had been standing across the street for nearly an hour now, brown eyes staring up at the looming mansion with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips. His left hand rested on the steel of his other arm, one of the parts that had been since replaced by steel and technologies well beyond his understanding. Recently, the hand had been broken by a shopkeeper far too protective of a few apples Ajuna tried to lift. He was rusty, sloppy. Caught and so suddenly punished that he hadn’t a chance to escape the diamond butt of the dagger that crunched through the metal and wire.
He didn’t know how it worked. He couldn’t dare as Ekko to fix it. The fingers were immobile and there were waves of unusually dull pain leading up his arm to make sure he knew that it was most definitely in need of repair -- and there was only one man in Zaun Ajuna could name with the skill and intelligence to fix it: Viktor.
He was told not to worry about Viktor. Ekko didn’t think he was a threat and Ajuna trusted his word, but the stories on the streets made Ajuna unnerved. Stories about brass heads and replaced organs. Some stressed the aspects of a monster while others dreamed of obtaining such power.
The Lost Children were told to distrust augmentations and distrust them Ajuna did. But things had changed and this distrust, he feared, would kill him twice.
He was scared of the man made of machine, but he was scared of the machine inside of him more. Balling metallic fingers into a tight fist, he decided to bite the bullet. If the Machine Herald didn’t kill him, certainly these augmentations would.
He stepped across the cobblestone road and approached the great iron gate, gently pushing the bars to open the garden before him. Slowly, he followed the stone path up to the front door, quietly stepping up the porch until he stood now before the front door.
There was hesitation in his breath, biting his lower lip. Then, he lifted his hand and rapped his metallic knuckles against the wooden door, softly at first until he realised that the house was big and he needed to be heard, then knocked again, louder this time.
＂Hello...?＂
