Work Text:
Kadonkechi began his latest job interview by dropping a mesh cage for keeping insects on a clinically neat desk.
In fact, it was the only desk in the room with anyone there. It seemed that the other scientists at Humbert Labs had either taken an extended lunch break or hadn't bothered to come in on a Sunday.
Well, Kadonkechi only needed to get one person's attention. The seasonal work offered for farmhands had ended last week and it was practically impossible to find work in the city without any connections.
So, Humbert Labs it was.
The man in front of him, a Doctor Nox if the neat sign on his desk was correct, looked incredibly unimpressed.
"Is that meant to mean something?" The scientist asked, hardly turning his attention away from the data he was logging into his computer.
"This is the pesticide department isn't it?" Kadonkechi asked. It may as well have been a rhetorical question, he'd followed each sign to a point. "You need bugs for test subjects don't you?"
The scientist continued to type but turned his head slightly toward his direction to assess the teenager who had walked into his office.
After a moment, his fingers stopped typing and he asked, "who let you in here?"
"There wasn't anyone at reception," he explained, "so I followed the signs."
The scientist squinted at him, "you didn't consider waiting at the reception?"
He asked it in a way that told Kadonkechi, then you should consider it.
"I didn't want to waste any time when I was carrying something so important," he told Doctor Nox. It wasn't impatience, for him, there was simply no point in waiting for something that could take hours.
To emphasise his point, he leaned forward to shift the cage on an angle that would best show off the oversized scorpion inside.
It shouldn't have been difficult to see but Kadonkechi had stuffed the cage full of leaf litter, soil and leaves which had gotten stuck to sides. He might have felt bad for the cramped space if not for the fact that his hands were still burning from where he had grabbed the scorpion.
That seemed to evoke something from the scientist since he finally turned his chair to focus on the cage and the scorpion inside.
Placing a set of glasses on and leaning forward he murmured, "ignis mollibus scorpionemon."
"They call them hot tails where I'm from," he couldn't help but say before he snapped his jaw shut. He was used to flexing the angle of the relatable neighbour kid when picking up smaller contract work. Always hoping that he could make his potential employer like his personality enough that they wouldn't turn him down.
"And where is that?" The scientist asked him and it wasn't a tone that could be recognised as a friendly inquiry. It sounded more like he trying to figure out if he had a guardian he could unload him off onto.
"Nearby."
Doctor Nox didn't inquire further on that subject but continued, "who did you acquire this from?"
"I didn't need to buy it," he said in a bland tone that hid any of his frustration, "I caught it myself."
He looked at him sceptically, "without any protective gear?"
Kadonkechi almost winced at the reminder of the still-burning feeling on his hands. They weren't known as hot tails and lava scorpions locally without a reason. He'd heard growing up that smaller scorpions were often more dangerous than the larger ones, this species seemed to be the exception.
"I had gloves," he told him, he'd been smart enough to realise they were necessary. He just hadn't realised that they weren't as durable as he'd hoped against a scorpion that spat like a cobra. "Then the bug burned them off."
"Arachnid."
He blinked, unsure what to say, "excuse me?"
"It's an arachnid, not a 'bug,'" the scientist corrected him dryly.
He was slowly realising that he should've come in at a more active time. At least then he would've been able to size up which scientist would be the most endeared by a scrawny kid in clothes two sizes too large with a giant scorpion.
This scientist, Doctor Nox, seemed to want to treat the scorpion with more decorum than Kadonkechi.
Still, he hadn't wrangled a scorpion as large as his face to be turned away now.
"In that case," he continued, "would your lab be willing to take this arachnid off of my hands?"
"We don't accept...Community donations," the scientist decided, although his eyes remained on the scorpion.
Kadonkechi nudged the cage closer across his desk, "this would be more of a purchase than a donation."
It only took a second for Doctor Nox to size him up once more before he turned his chair back towards his computer and away from him.
"Uh, hello?" Kadonkechi tried again. "What are you doing?"
"Something more worth my time than entertaining a child searching for an allowance."
Maybe he was only looking at earning pocket change from something as ridiculous as bug catching but he was going to earn that money regardless. The doctor just didn't see the opportunity yet.
This wasn't just a possibility that he could walk away from. In Gaea, money was the highest priority for almost anyone, it controlled every movement and action one could make.
"I know that the farmers around here have difficulty with these bu-arachnids," he said slowly, recalling the bitter frustration and burnt and scared hands that he'd seen during his share of seasonal farm work. "Wouldn't it be easier to create a pesticide if you had more test subjects?"
Doctor Nox still seemed equally unfazed, "Humbert Labs has its own acquisition methods."
"But they're still not easy to find," he said and then took a moment to consider the risks before he said slightly quieter, "especially when I'm sure the catchers don't have the authority to enter private property."
That was where most of the scorpions would be after all. They were drawn to the small species of mice that liked to dig through garbage bins outsides houses. You'd be likelier to find a unicorn than those scorpions outside of public property.
For a moment, he was certain that the scientist was going to knock the scorpion off of the desk and have him removed all while calling him a delinquent.
And then he asked, "what is your name?"
He could have just been looking for a name to hand over to security.
Still, knowing that he answered, "Kadonkechi Ribeiro."
His body always seemed to echo that answer, straightening his posture and giving a closed-mouth smile. He was used to choosing the best aspects of himself to display when looking for work. He'd failed enough times to figure that out.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-two," he said and then when the scientist narrowed his eyes in doubt he corrected himself, "seventeen."
Doctor Nox nodded, "and you think you can find more of these Ribeiro?"
"I know that I can find more of them," he replied, "I also know where the cave spiders-"
"They are known as 'cave' spiders for a reason," the scientist interrupted to remind him, "they're of no concern for farming pesticides to combat."
Kadonkechi knew he was getting ahead of himself but he asked, "and for payment-"
"You'll receive a cheque each time I receive another test subject," Doctor Nox told him.
He would have preferred a credit transfer or something equally modern but he was just lucky enough that this longshot had even worked. A moment later, a small cheque, a flimsy piece of paper, was set down in front of him.
"What are you still doing here?" Doctor Nox asked him while he was still slipping the cheque into his pocket.
"Nothing I suppose," he said starting to turn away. If he wanted him gone and he was paying him than he was gone. "Thanks until next time Mr Nox."
"Doctor Nox."
He nodded hastily, "right, of course."
Bug - or apparently arachnid catching was something he could do and for far more money than he had expected. He'd expected a smaller job that would help him and his family until he found something better. However, this job might have been enough in itself.
Kadonkechi was just above to duck out the door when the scientist called out to him once more.
"And Ribeiro," Doctor Nox said, "make sure the next specimen is also delivered alive."
-
Rebuilding a northstar-class titan wouldn't have been an easy job for anyone who was wide awake. If they were missing a few days of sleep it would be even harder. Missing a decade of sleep? That was where it started to fall into the realm of impossibility.
Still, for Kadonkechi sleep was a decade-old friend that came to his mind less and less with each passing year. Tonight, however, it was impossible not to want sleep when the migraine in his head was equally as loud as the soreness coursing through his muscles.
He and his team had ranked highly in their last match, however, his knees had felt the impact of his final fight before he'd been taken out. He was still finding his pacing in the games, trying to pull his teammates together when they clearly each had their own priorities had been an issue recently that he wasn't sure he could fix.
Sleeping off that soreness wasn't an option for him anymore. Now, he spent those midnight hours trying to get some kind of reaction from the pile of salvage that could barely be considered a titan.
"How were you able to deliver something like this on board?" A question cut through the claustrophobic night air.
Great. Another migraine to deal with.
Caustic, Doctor Nox, whatever he was calling himself nowadays, had been an issue that Kadonkechi hadn't touched since he'd arrived at the Apex Games.
"There's plenty of underpaid Syndicate interns around the place," he told Caustic conversationally, "they're good at keeping quiet."
He never would have imagined that a dropship would be the perfect place to hide salvage for a titan, yet here he was.
"And what are your plans?" Caustic asked him, it was almost the same voice even after all those years.
Back then he'd been tongue-tied a bit easier, more eager to prove and please and explain why every one of his ideas would work out. Now, he could afford to be a bit difficult.
Kadonkechi set down the wrench he was holding, "well, even though it makes for great décor it might be slightly more useful if I could repair it."
The titan had bought him nothing but frustration so far. He could excuse some of his failings, there wasn't exactly door-to-door salesman for titan engineering manuals. Still, people had done more with less before him.
"Being facetious will not do you any favours."
He doubted that Caustic's stunning personality did him any favours. He had plenty to say about what had happened to Humbert Labs and the time after. But tonight wasn't for that.
Tonight he only wanted to mindlessly work away the hours until dawn.
"If you came here to find out if I'm going to turn you in," he murmured, "you don't have to worry about that."
The room was dark and he could only see Caustic through the light that filtered in from the hallway.
He informed him, "it would be unwise of you to do attempt to."
"I already said that it's not my concern," Kadonkechi reiterated.
"Where do your abilities come from?" He asked. Always clipped, rapid questions, every bit of his tone conveying how much he deplored not knowing.
He turned his attention back to the titan, "normally, people gather blackmail from other sources than the person they're thinking of blackmailing."
"I don't need to blackmail you," Caustic said firmly.
No, the doctor had never seemed like he cared about people enough that he would try to control them with blackmail. People might be more useful as compost instead.
That had been all he showed to Kadonkechi after all, if he was more than that, the new legend hadn't seen it.
"What use would you have with a titan?" Another clipped question.
"I think anyone could find a titan useful," he answered simply enough.
Behind those goggles, the scientist's eyes narrowed, "it's a northstar-class model which-"
Whatever he was going to say was abruptly broken off by a rough coughing sound.
It was a harsh sound that Kadonkechi had heard too many times to not be discomforted by it. His mother had been the one whose throat had cracked with that sound over and over until her body could no longer make that sound.
It wasn't a noise he wanted to refamiliarise himself with.
"Have you spoken to a doctor about that?" He couldn't help but ask.
Doctor Nox cleared his throat, "your concern is unwarranted."
Fine then.
"And yours is too," he told him and waved him away, "your secret isn't my problem doctor, have a nice sleep."
At least someone would tonight.
After a moment of silence, he heard a scuff of shoes against the floor and the sound of the scientist leaving the room. Kadonkechi didn't watch him leave, he didn't want to either, his concentration remained entirely on the titan before him.
-
Kadonkechi's day of resignation at Humbert Labs had been as unexpected as it was inevitable.
"Another scorpion," Kadonkechi said as a greeting to the scientist, "fresh from a garbage dump this time."
He'd been delivering various insects and arachnids to the labs for weeks now, it wasn't always an easy job and he often returned home to his legs littered in cuts and bruises from the afternoon of making his way through Gaea's dense forests.
"Set the cage on the desk," he said, not even glancing up from his tablet, "you've finished your work."
Even though he had been delivering subjects for weeks, he had rarely ever heard a shift in the tone of Doctor Nox's voice. He'd met other scientists who worked there and it hadn't escaped his notice that they seemed to prefer to stay out of Doctor Nox's way.
He nodded, "I'll be back tomorrow with another one."
"No," Doctor Nox said, making him pause, "this is the end of your work. No more specimens are required."
He blinked, unsure of what he was hearing, "Dr Lorn told me last week that you'd hardly made any progress on the newest pesticide, surely you'd need more-"
"Your work is no longer required at Humbert Labs," the scientist informed him once more. When his eyes flicked up from his tablet, he paused before asking, "what happened to your arms?"
It would have been impossible not to notice the cheap and barely functioning prosthetics that he had been fitted with.
"Motorcycle accident, so no arms or boyfriend now," he tried to joke but the scientist was unfazed. "So, I need to keep this job to get a set of properly working prosthetics, my arms can't even get stung anymore so that'll help."
A beat of silence, then, "you'll have to find other work then."
No, he needed this work. Money had always been an issue in his family and had always been near to his first priority. Now he also had prosthetics to pay for, the ones on his arms were barely functioning, he needed something better and soon.
Doctor Nox had never joked with him before but surely he couldn't be serious. There was no sense to it, no reason that would justify this.
"I'll come back tomorrow to talk to Doctor Lorn then," he decided, "if you won't buy then he might-"
The scientist cut in to interrupt him, "your 'work' is no longer needed at Humbert Labs, returning tomorrow would be a waste of my time."
"I need to work-" he tried fruitlessly once more.
"Then find another place of work," the scientist said it simply and firmly as if it was something easy. As if Gaea wasn't a landmine of connections that made finding work an uphill battle.
There wasn't any more to it and so Kadonkechi left.
He didn't have a chance to hear what would happen to Humbert Labs the next day. That afternoon, he found the closest Hammond Robotics outpost and applied for the program with the highest payout he could find.
-
The dropship was an open place for most that rarely allowed for any privacy. Although a lack of privacy was generally expected with something as televised as the Apex Games were.
Kadonkechi had been able to hold on to some sense of privacy so far. The swirling journalists knew little of where his abilities had come from aside from the inferences they could put together about ARES tech.
He'd only come past Caustic's small lab that he had set up in the dropship because it was on the way to the kitchen. At times like this late at night, he preferred to avoid anyone if he could. Loneliness was easier to deal with than questions after all.
Kadonkechi was far enough on the other side of the wide room and the scientist was engrossed enough in his work that Caustic didn't notice him. They'd had their conversation about the titan a few hours ago closer to midnight, yet the scientist was still awake.
He found himself paused in the dropship for a moment, just staring at the scientist as he worked in the way that reminded Kadonkechi of those days in a lab from a decade ago.
He silently made a decision, looking within, tugging at the kernel of power he'd developed from those years with Hammond Robotics - the same power that had cursed him with a sleepless existence.
It felt like he was giving an order, sleep. And a moment later, he watched the tension leave Doctor Nox's body as his body leaned into his desk quietly.
At least someone else would have the chance to sleep tonight.