Relieved that the comment about the town hadn’t been anything alarming, Techie smiles to himself. It’s a tiny but sincere upward twitch of his lips. “That s-sounds really nice! I’d k-kill for Seth to keep me s-safe, too. Oh! N-Not literally, of course…”
He thinks briefly of his own crime-infested city and shudders. Techie would love to have a Seth of his own indeed. That might even keep him alive past 35! “Does he really h-have, um, superp-p-powers?” Techie asked, sounding young and awestruck. He hoped he did!
Techie politely waved off her concern. He’d been doing this for years now, paid or not. “I can sh-show you in a minute! As for help… um… m-maybe bring me a wet cl-cloth for the dust? P-Please?”
Techie willed the blush off the tips of his ears and took a shaky breath. Okay, so he’s not in trouble. The relief he feels is obvious from the way his drawn up shoulders lower. He nods vigorously and says, “Y-yeah, happens all the time. It’s ‘specially bad when it’s a, um, laptop v-versus a desktop, since you can’t switch out the parts.”Techie glances at the computer in question and cracks a timid smile.
“Desktop! Sh-should be a cinch to f-fix, then. I’ll need to buy some upgraded bits and pieces to r-rep-place the old ones. Probably your video c-card is fried from trying to run h-high rez programs.” Kneeling down to check that the desktop is powered on, Techie disconnects it from the power and affixes an anti-static bracelet to his thin wrist.
While he opens the tower’s case and scatters dust particles everywhere with a single hard blow, he asks the detective, “S-so, uh. What is th-this town known for? Your Chief said someth-thing like that before he left.”
Five magic words from his boss and Techie’s spirits rise: “Huxley! A job for you.” Finally! A chance to prove himself. He fastens his toolbelt tight around his waist (but he’s so thin it slides down no matter what) and takes a deep breath.
Okay. Alright. Do great on this job and maybe you’ll be promoted from unpaid-intern to paid intern, and that’ll make all the difference. No more long nights in a seedy apartment complex with his gun (shaking, unloaded) pointed at the lock-less front door.
He takes the assignment files gratefully and scans over them. Police HQ need some repairs. Easy stuff! Perfect. He’ll be living in a safer place soon, no problem!
That being done, William “Techie” Huxley ties his hair up in a loose ponytail and makes his way to the local police station.
For a small county, it was rare for anything to happen. Rather, rare for anything bad to happen in this town. As far as anyone knows..
Except, of course, the constant breakdown of old tech in the police department. Systems older than the few deputies that loung around in the office waiting for calls to come in. Most of the older deputies knew how to knock it around to make it work, but with some computers with a new system on it, needless to say when things break down, or someone doesn’t know how to use it, they don’t hesitate to make a desperate call to the company.
The ‘newbie’ deputy was a stranger in this town. Just appearing out of nowhere in search for a job, living at the farthest side of town at the edge. The woman kept to herself, having her own talents when it called for it, but hardly really interacted with the other officers besides small timed jokes and picking up the work no one wanted. Unfortunately for her, that work was hindered by the computer malfunction. And now she had to wait for the tech guy to come on from the nearby city.
Rosie passes the time in her chair, rocking, tapping her feet, doing the paperwork manually while waiting to he able to put it in system. The dingy dull shades of the worn down office did little to keep her awake, and by the time the new tech arrived, her eyes were quick to hone in on them with that piercing gaze. From across the room, her Sheriff was making his way in with the young lad, explaining their issues one by one, to the best of his abilities, until finally making his way to the cat’s small cubicle. Rosie, as the typical soldier, was quick to rise to her feet to greet the strange young man.. curious if it was really the right person, given he seemed young, but she nonetheless gave him the smallest smile as she stood aside,
“So you’re our tech guy, huh? About time you made it..”
“Uh huh. That’s m-me,” Techie said, mirroring her tiny smile. His hand shook, ironically, as he offered it to Rosie for a hand shake. It seemed to take great effort to keep himself steady. “Bill H-Huxley. The techie.”
Looking around the cubicle discretely, he tried to get a sense of what sort of person she was, but he came up blank. It was difficult to tell; it didn’t look like she’d been here long.
About time? Anxiety rose into his throat and clogged it up tight. Techie’s eyes darted around for a clock, and once he saw the time, all color drained from his face until he was a sickly white. Fifteen minutes late. He was done for and hadn’t even started! He swallowed thickly and said, “S-sorry! I didn’t realize the, um, t-time…”
Five magic words from his boss and Techie’s spirits rise: “Huxley! A job for you.” Finally! A chance to prove himself. He fastens his toolbelt tight around his waist (but he’s so thin it slides down no matter what) and takes a deep breath.
Okay. Alright. Do great on this job and maybe you’ll be promoted from unpaid-intern to paid intern, and that’ll make all the difference. No more long nights in a seedy apartment complex with his gun (shaking, unloaded) pointed at the lock-less front door.
He takes the assignment files gratefully and scans over them. Police HQ need some repairs. Easy stuff! Perfect. He’ll be living in a safer place soon, no problem!
That being done, William “Techie” Huxley ties his hair up in a loose ponytail and makes his way to the local police station.
“There w-were other Clan Techies before me. We all had the same name, but we gave each other n-n-nicknames. MaMa didn’t like keeping them, uh, around for long, s-said they were a liability. Towards the end, I was th-the… The only one left.”
Techie gave a shudder and furrowed his brows in thought. Who else did he know of? “MaMa’s right hand, Caleb, would h-have a lot of info to, uh, give but some J-Judges killed him.” He picked mercilessly at the skin around his fingers and rolled the leather interrogation room chair back and forth.
“ That’s bad for you to do, you know.”
though She wrote down what he mentioned, the names, some which rang a bell, upon catching the nervous habit, she dropped the pen and peered up to the nervous techie with a casual smile. In her attempt to comfort him.
“ Picking at the skin like that.. what are you worried about? Is this woman, ‘MaMa’, after you?”
Techie jumped at the observation and gave her a lopsided smile, slipping his hands under the desk and sitting on them. Embarrassed by his own stupid, destructive habits, he flushed bright red. “I know it is.” He swallowed hard and shook his head slowly. “I…I don’t even know if sh-she’s still alive,” he admits. “I ran out b-before I could know for sure.”
He watched the detective from under his orange eyelashes. She didn’t seem to be threatening. But working with MaMa had made him distrust people, women especially. His skin broke out in goosebumps just thinking about them. It was worse with her in the room.
“You might f-find it helpful to go check out Peach Trees, even though it’s und-der Judge control now. There could b-be some, um, evidence or something still th-there.” He twitches like he wants to get up and pace, or curl up into the chair.
At the forefront of his mind is a single thought: If he isn’t useful, they’ll throw him back out on the street, no matter what the detective says. So useful he’ll be, even if it kills him.
“There w-were other Clan Techies before me. We all had the same name, but we gave each other n-n-nicknames. MaMa didn’t like keeping them, uh, around for long, s-said they were a liability. Towards the end, I was th-the… The only one left.”
Techie gave a shudder and furrowed his brows in thought. Who else did he know of? “MaMa’s right hand, Caleb, would h-have a lot of info to, uh, give but some J-Judges killed him.” He picked mercilessly at the skin around his fingers and rolled the leather interrogation room chair back and forth.
“ No one is here to use you. I just need some answers, alright?”
This man was a shaky nervous mess before her.
Across from him, she sits in the interrogation room. File in hand, skimming over what little detail she’s gathered on his character. Apart of some organized crime it seemed..
When he came in here, Rosie anticipated on having to rough someone up. She was hoping on it, with the long day she was having. She needed a good fight. But to see this man- no..this boy be the one to show up led to the Angel having to calm down . In fact, looking at him made her feel sorry for the poor kid, and she had to be gentle. Her voice is soft, cautious, and easy as she eyes him and continues.
“..it says here your name is ‘Techie’, that right? Is that your real name?”
He lets out a relieved sigh. This is safe, secure territory. He knows this subject like the back of his hand. Techie stares resolutely at his short, shorn nails and spits out his job description like a machine gun. Better get it over with.
“S-surveil-llance, h-hacking, and systems s-specialist. Maintenance t-too. I’m the eyes a-and ears of Peach Trees. All the tech s-st-stuff you come to me f-for.”
After a pause, “Er, I, uh, I *was* all th-this stuff. Sometimes I w-worked directly w-with MaMa. Most often when all the o-other techs were-” Techie clamps his mouth shut. He doesn’t want to tell her about what happened to his friends. It would feel too much like a betrayal of their final moments.
With startling clarity, it dawns on Techie that he could be disposed of if he doesn’t give the cops anything good to work with. They’ll drop him off on the streets again and some other gang will snap him up.
His eyes shoot up to meet Rosie’s and they’re wide and pleading, message loud and clear: Don’t throw me away.
“ No one is here to use you. I just need some answers, alright?”
This man was a shaky nervous mess before her.
Across from him, she sits in the interrogation room. File in hand, skimming over what little detail she’s gathered on his character. Apart of some organized crime it seemed..
When he came in here, Rosie anticipated on having to rough someone up. She was hoping on it, with the long day she was having. She needed a good fight. But to see this man- no..this boy be the one to show up led to the Angel having to calm down . In fact, looking at him made her feel sorry for the poor kid, and she had to be gentle. Her voice is soft, cautious, and easy as she eyes him and continues.
“..it says here your name is ‘Techie’, that right? Is that your real name?”
He scrunches up his nose, in deep thought, before visibly deflating. “I d-don’t, um, I don’t *th-think* so.”
Techie watches the detective with sad, exhausted eyes, curled up on himself protectively. He thinks back to every time he hadn’t known the answer that MaMa wanted to hear and the minutes-hours-DAYS of suffering that followed.
This woman doesn’t look nearly as scary as MaMa, but Techie knows appearances are never as they seem. He shakes harder.
Finally, he adds, “I can’t r-remember what my real n-name is. Or w-was.”
TechieHux 