Having been called upon, Droh's ears rose upward to attention. Marigold, who had unexpectedly appeared from the corner of the darkened room as if she had been simply awaiting their arrival, paced closer towards them. Her eyes continued to follow them, taking in every movement they made. Feeling uncomfortable, Droh tried to start a conversation. "Ma—Marigold, is that you? It's been so long…"

"Shut up monkey boy." She snapped out at him as her head tilted to the side, looking down at Droh in what appeared to be distaste, "Who is this?"

With a quick gesture, she drew attention towards Deus who was stood beside him. "You bring some stranger into my home, and you think I'd just welcome you in?"

"Hah hah, of course not… but, he is a friend, though—"

"Ain't no friend of mine," she spat out, interrupting Droh as he tried to explain.

"Mari, listen to me, it's alright okay? His name is Deus, he's a friend of mine. I'll vouch for him."

She glanced sideways at Droh, drawing a long pause, she finally replied, "Your vouch doesn't mean much, monkey. Ugh, fine. What do you want anyway? You need someone dead or something?"

'What is with this woman?' Deus thought to himself as he began drawing several vague conclusions on the sort of person she was. 'So this world has these types of people too, huh?'

"Deus, explain to her!" Droh shouted out as Marigold stared bullets at him like he was food. "We don't want you to kill anyone Mari, we're here for supplies… I'll owe you if you do me this solid."

Her brow rose, "A favor, is that so? Wait—first tell me what sort of stuff you're looking for. If you could've gotten it off the streets you wouldn't be here, so why don't you start by telling me what sort of trouble you're getting into."

Droh grinned, "We're looking for weapons and heavy equipment," Droh answered, "Seems I'm not quite finished with Mercer yet... he managed to rope me into another job, I think."

"Oh, is that so? What, planning to do turn back to a life of raiding and killing? That never fit you, even I knew that." She claimed, moving toward one side of the room. "I always knew those people weren't good news. Wait, that guy isn't part of Mercer's crew, is he?"

Before Droh could even reply she had already extended out an iron rod, placing it a close few inches away from Deus's chest. "So what do you say, tough guy?"

"Mari!" Droh shouted out in a huff, "I told you he's good, right? He's not with Mercer or any of those people... He's helping me!"

The longest few seconds went by, 'She was about to kill me...'

Marigold finally spoke up, lowering her tool, "Hmph. Tell me, how far are you willing to go for this little favor of yours?"

"Ah hah…" Droh awkwardly laughed out, "Can you do me this favor or not Mari?"

More time passed in silence. Marigold moved toward Droh and stared deeply into his eyes as if reading his intentions. After what felt like an eternity, she finally came back with a reply.

"Fine."

'Oh thank the heavens,' Deus sighed mentally, 'So everything turned out alright, after all.'

Droh stepped forward, a faint smile finally showing on his face as he wiped away a cold sweat from his forehead, "Thanks Mari, I appreciate it. Here… this is what we need." He chimed out as he passed what seemed to be a note to her.

"Hum… let's see it here."

She mumbled occasionally as she read through it, occasionally nodding or frowning. "It looks like I can get you most of this… but not everything, unless of course, you buy it upfront. Ain't no favor worth risking this, not even from you."

"Eh? What item isn't possible right now?"

"This one," she said, pointing at one of the words on the paper. "I can get you it, but not today, and especially not for a favor."

"That's fine, we can go without that for now… as long as we can get the main supplies, we're good."

Marigold nodded in return, turning back around, note in hand.

What had felt like hours slowly passed by as the two of them quietly continued their discussion. They occasionally took breaks to locate a few pieces of scrap that had been buried around the junk that piled the walls of the room.

Deus simply remained to the side as Marigold seemed to pretend that he didn't exist. "Hey monkey, does this work for you?" She asked as she held up an old pump rifle which had been overtaken by rust.

"Yeah, that'll probably do. Hey Deus, come over here for a minute."

Hearing his name, Deus jumped up in excitement as he sauntered over. "What do you need, Droh?"

"I need some help moving this, you mind helping out a bit?"

"Not a problem!" Deus had been feeling quite ashamed lately at how little he could help out, so any little problems he could solve he'd jump right on.

"Oh and hey…" Droh whispered, "Sorry about Mari… She's a lot to handle, but she means well. She and I go way back. She used to work with my Papa, or so I was told."

"No worries, I'm just glad you stopped her before she... Went any further."

Droh laughed as he went to wipe away dirt from his nose, "I never would've lived that down if I had brought you here just to get stabbed. But hey, the hard part is done though, so don't worry about it."

"What about this favor of yours, now? I don't know how I feel about having you take on debt so that we can get some extra equipment." Deus asked concerned.

"Don't worry about it, it'll probably be something dumb like moving a loudspeaker or something. I'll just say I have a lot more hope for this favor than I do for the one with Mercer."

Mercer—the name alone made Deus angry. A man who'd abuse his friend for personal benefit, while not even being strong enough to stand on his own two legs himself. 'If I get the opportunity, I wouldn't mind having Mercer help experiment with this power of mine.'

"Deus?" Droh called out as he watched Deus frown, "What is it?"

"Oh. Nothing, don't worry about it." Even Deus knew how dark that joke of his was—if one could even call that a joke.

"Alright. Oh hey, it's that! We found it, good." He cheered aloud as an old leather pack revealed itself from beneath the pile of rubble and junk. "It's a mess here."

"It is, yeah." Deus agreed, slowly tugging the pack out from under everything.

"Oh, you found it," Marigold spoke from behind them, drawing their attention to her with a slight jump. "What? Stop staring at me."

Droh turned away, returning his attention toward the pack. "Sorry, just surprised me is all. Didn't know you were right behind me…"

"Do I need permission to stand somewhere here?"

'Oh great…' Deus sighed.

Droh shook his head. "No, of course not… why would you need permission? Heh heh, just my mistake."

She stared at him as her arms crossed, teasing him. "Just hurry up and find everything and leave… I'll have you do me that favor later monkey boy—when I've got something fun for you to do."

"Yeah, we got it, Mari—" Droh turned his attention back around toward Deus and the pack that he held. "Put it down over there, we'll check it out later. Now time to find…"

Their day continued like that for a while, searching for each item on the list one after the other. As they finally finished gathering everything they needed, Droh went off alone to speak with Marigold, leaving Deus alone in the junk room.

Against the walls of the room were several tall piles of scrap metal, mixed without reason or order. A dark brown tint had been spreading across each pile for a while now, the decay setting in.

"How long have these been stacked here, anyway?" Deus wondered, only silence replied.

From beneath the pile of scrap metal, a faint electronic sound could be heard. Deus glanced around in shock. His eyes finally landed on a dim light buried beneath. As he approached it, the beeping sound became even louder than before.

'What is this? Some sort of functional electronic for a change?'

Unburying the item, he was shocked to discover it seemed to be similar to the kind used within his Transfer capsule, if not older and thicker. There was practically no rust on the device that sat in his palm as a faint blue light occasionally beeped and flashed to his touch.

'Where did this come from, did she even know it was here?'

The sound of voices began to echo into the room, the source of which originated from beyond one of the doorways. Before Droh and Marigold returned, he had decidedly stashed the electronic device in the old leather pack, burying it beneath everything else as the leather from the bag muffled its beeps.

'Sorry, but this might be useful... I'll repay you later Marigold.' He reasoned, feeling slightly guilty.

Droh appeared through the doorway as Marigold stood beside him. The two of them seemingly still in the middle of chatting. "...Yeah, so we'll be out of your way Mari. Oh, and thanks again."

"Make sure you come back soon monkey boy, don't forget about your favor you owe me. Oh, and you…" She glanced at Deus, "Don't mistreat this stupid monkey, and don't forget only I get to call him stupid."

"Right..." Deus coughed out, not sure if he should praise her for being protective of Droh, or discipline her for being rude to him.

"Ready to go Droh?"

"Mhm—we're good now, I think."