M came, the sun shohrough the distorted windows of the Last Drop, casting a brilliant sheen across the surfaces. It ical m for Vi and the gang.

  Mylo, bored, swept the floor zily, colleg dust and trash into a pile while keeping a for any valuables that might've fallen from a drunken er's person. To him, it also felt like the easiest job.

  Cggor, in trast, mopped diligently and without pint, focused solely oing the chore done.

  Meanwhile, the dies occupied themselves in their own ways. Vi sat perched on the ter, her legs dangling as she rested her in an open palm. She slouched forward, idly watg the boys work and occasionally gng at Powder. Her off hand idly held a hard brush for scraping, tapping it lightly on her leg.

  Powder, ever the curious tinkerer, had the menial job of wiping down surfaces and colleg stray bits of trash. Her tendency, however, was to get distracted. This led to her fixing tables with missing gears for height adjustment or tinkering with pos knocked out of chemtech lights, causing them to flicker back to life.

  "Every m we do this," Mylo began to pin. "I could be doing so much more!"

  "You missed a spot," Vi ented dryly, pointing with her brush. He gred at her iurn, before sulkily walking to the spot she pointed out, which was indeed missed.

  "Like, I don't know, practig with my kit! Learning the fi of persuasion oreets, or fixing things!"

  Cggor chuckled up from his mopping, "You couldn't fix anything. Powder's the ohat does that." Faint giggling echoed from around the er of the ter, but Mylo just rolled his eyes and resumed sweeping, "Before or after she breaks it."

  Cggor paused for a moment, then sighed in distent as he resumed mopping. "She fixed your hearing gadget, didn't she?"

  This left Mylo silent, muttering with relut aowledgement, "Yeah..."

  Just as quickly, Mylo became distracted again, raising his broom like a staff, "Who do you think would win with one of these?"

  "With one of wh-" A wooden thud resounded as Cgght the mop handle up just in time. He frowhen smirked as he held the mop up like a sword, leaving a trail of murky grey water on the floor. The two began cirg each other. Even Vi and Powder couldn't help but watch the spectacle with growing amusement.

  Thud.

  The doors to the Last Drop swung wide open. Orion stood there in his usual jacketed outfit, looking equally amused as he took in the spectacle unfolding inside. With a mischievous grin, he added to the drama, "Two bronze on Cggor!"

  A resounding, "Hey!" came from Mylo, before being cut off as Cggor dove into the antics, attag with the mop, flig dirty water everywhere. Orion smirked, a hint of pride flickering across his face at the chaos he stirred up before stepping further inside. His gaze gradually shifted toward the other two.

  Powder's blue hair disappeared in a blur as she raced downstairs. Vi's eyes lit up as she hopped off the ter.

  "Took you long enough!" she called out with a wave, her face alight with excitement and relief. It looked like she wao ask about the job, but refrained as Powder came running past toward Orion.

  k k, k, k k k

  The dramatic battle raged on in the background as Orion found himself face-to-face with a pile of Powder's sketches, "Look at these! Oh-oh! I also made this" Powder excimed, pulling out a small telescope.

  Orion quickly tested it. The magnification was mild, everything appeared a few feet closer but slightly distorted. Regardless, Orion excimed with over-exaggerated enthusiasm, "Wow! This is amazing! I think it might put topsider iions to shame!"

  Pgled, boung in pce as Orion tio ghrough her telescope and praise her sketches, a wide smile glued on her face.

  "Do you- ENOUGH!" Vi shouted through the otion, turning abruptly to the boys who froze with their makeshift ons locked together. Fresh dust and murky grey water sprayed across the nearby surfaces they'd just ed, undoing all their earlier work.

  Vi's teeth ched, and her head snapped back to Orion as she closed the gap, poking him firmly in the chest. "You're helping this," she decred.

  "B-" Orion started to protest but Vi cut him off sharply, her tone daring him to challenge her. "Grab a rag."

  Again he heard Piggle, sighing as he shuffled toward the ter to retrieve ohe two "warriors" exged guilty gnces before meekly returning to the messes they'd recreated.

  What would've been finished in no time took ara hour, with Vi standing behind Orion, gring at him the eime. Eveher ds didn't dare say a word, silently focused on finishing their tasks. O was all done, everyone except Vi, who remained slightly irritated, let out a tired sigh.

  "So where were you?" Mylo asked first, drawing the ire of Vi, who clearly wao ask first. Orion tehe cloth between his hands repeatedly, speaking with a p tone, "W, gardening. I have to make a living too."

  "What? At the Cultivar?" Cggor asked, while Mylo tilted his head with a skeptical, "Really?" expression.

  "Not the Cultivar, but yeah." Orion replied with a shrug. "Not very manly, but it pays for food."

  Mylo wasn't quite vinced, slowly adding in with a suggestive, accusatory tone. "I heard there was trouble topside at a garden." His tone quickly shifted to a mog chuckle, "No way that's you though- especially after letting Vi walk all over you like that."

  A sharp gre from Vi and Cggor cut his chug short, but it didn't stop Orion from feelied. "He's n," he thought dejectedly.

  After a long pause, Vi spoke up again, exging gnces with the rest of the crew, "We're heading down to the Sump to check out the market. Do you wanna e?"

  Orion paused, briefly recalling Vander's request with an internal sigh. "They'll head down even if I say no..." he grimly thought. Even if he offered them to check out his pce, it still wouldn't be as exg as the Sump markets- and hopefully not the Bck Lanes, which he had a bad feeling they were aiming for.

  "Sure! I was thinking of heading down there myself." Orion said with a nod of his head. This earned him a questioning look from Vi, in trast to Powder, who let out aed, "Ooh-hooo! Let me get Fluffers!" before darting toward the back again.

  Softly crossing his arms, Oriohe outline of his loaded gun. His pocket also held a full silver , the other safely stashed back at the house. "Let's get through this without losing everything again." he thought with determination.