Kassix wandered back into the crowded parts of the city, looking less like a tourist admiring the ads and buildings and more like a rat. He still only wore the deteriorated jacket, and had nothing else to his name. Not only that, he was hungry and there's no telling when that would start to affect his strength, so he decided to focus on that first. There was a couple options he had, the first would be the quickest but the most dangerous and that would be to try to steal one. That wasn't completely off the table, but there's no way Kassix had the ability to steal from a store, so unless a golden opportunity placed itself in front of him he would have to go with his other options.
The second option would be to somehow trade something for a food-tube, and the glaring issue with that is the lack of anything worthy to trade. The only thing that would come to mind that is worth anything would be this mysterious box that Allie mentioned. "To sell that would risk my own neck," Kassix thought after a moment of Allie's warning. "There is the chance that the government could bring the axe down on my neck for selling it, but even if that was a lie, Allie herself might make some sort of move." After pondering it for a moment he decided that course of action was too risky.
"I guess I'll just have to find someone who could use a hand for a food-tube or some cash." He decided this and began moving towards the elevators down. The thought of leaving that box there left him with an uneasy feeling though. He had not just woken up, he was found, and if Stennik went back to look for more clues on him, he might lose that box.
After walking through crowds and enduring the looks of disgust and arrogance that people cast in his direction, he arrived at the elevator. He quickly boarded and descended to the pit.
Once the elevator stopped moving, Kassix quickly hopped off and began moving towards the scrap pile where he woke up. Especially around the elevators, there were a lot of people dressed not to dissimilar to him, each one seemed to either be digging through piles of junk, watching each other with distrust in their eyes, or begging others for scraps or hand-outs. "Well, asking for help down here is completely out of the question." He thought just watching everyone completely ignore the beggars.
He continued to move through the spiraling labyrinth, tracing the path back to his sleeping spot. Remembering this path would have been difficult, but perhaps due to how empty his head was currently, he was able to remember details and absorb information like a sponge. It didn't take long for him to return to the scrap heap, and he quickly began digging through it. It did not take long for him to realize that without gloves however, this process would cost him his hands before he was done.
He let out a heavy sigh at that and thought, "Can't dig through junk without spending money on gloves, can't make money for gloves without digging through junk it seems." He was already ripping the bottom of his jacket and wrapping them around his hands a few times. It wasn't the best, but it provided some protection from the sharp and sheared metals.
"Maybe if I'm extra lucky, there will be something that is obviously worth something" He said this out loud, as he held up a random piece of metal. "Because with my knowledge of these things how will I know what is actually worth anything." He let out a heavy sigh with that and kept digging.
Clank. Thud. Screech.
Kassix had lost patience with carefully digging through the pile after an hour of looking and was tossing anything that looked worthless behind him into the alleyway.
"Uh, Hello friend?" A quiet voice rang out behind him fifteen minutes after he started making all that noise.
Kassix froze instantly, so far each person that had spoken to him seemed suspicious and dangerous, so he turned around cautiously and peered towards the voice. What he saw was a young man, who probably couldn't even be over twenty. He was rather short and not very muscular, he probably ended up down here because he couldn't handle many jobs. Kassix thought he looked to weak to even survive down here.
"What do you want?" Kassix just wanted the guy to go away, but if he needed help with something, perhaps he could help Kassix as well.
"I, just, uh, came to check out all the noise. Not many people come out this way, what with the lack of shelter from the rain and all. Are you uh....okay?" His eyes wandered down to Kassix's slightly bloodied hands and pants-less legs. "If your scavenging alone, would you like some help? We could split the profits 50-50 of what we find."
Kassix thought for a moment, and then stood up fully and said, "If you've got spare clothes, and a food-tube I'd be happy to split 40-60 your way." He didn't think that was completely fair, and expected the man to disagree about the split if he was being given free food and clothes, but to Kassix's surprise he immediately agreed.
"That sounds good! Want to come to my hidey-hole and I can give you some spare pants? They will probably be a bit too small for you, but we can probably make it work!" He said with a beaming face.
"That was a little fast... I wonder if hes plotting something too like Sten..." Kassix couldn't help but distrust the meek man. "I'll stay here for the moment, If your... Hidey-hole isn't too far away could you bring me the pants?" Kassix figured it was safer to stay away from whatever the guy meant when he said hidey-hole, not to mention he still had a box to find.
"Sure! It's not that far, so I shouldn't be long!" He turned and started to run off with a small wave as he said that.
"I almost feel bad for not trusting him, he seems like the type that gets taken advantage of." Kassix thought as he turned back to his work with a hurried effort now.
Now that he was throwing all of the unnecessary junk out of the way, he was able to make a lot more progress and eventually saw a shiny corner. It seemed different from the almost corroded metal as it still seemed polished, even though it had been buried for who knows how long.
"This thing was under all of this junk, come to think of it, I was too wasn't I? How long was I under there?" Just another question echoed in his head as he fished the box out and looked at it. The chimera that Allie described was indeed on the box, but it didn't seem like there was anything else special about it. Turning it around and upside down it didn't seem like it opened in any way, but it also wasn't heavy enough to be solid.
"Curious little thing." He examined it further, but heard footsteps approaching and quickly stashed in in the jacket pocket.
"Sorry-" *Huff* "It...Took me so long" He held out a pair of pants while apologizing towards Kassix.
"Why are you out of breath?" Kassix took the pants and slipped them on, finding them far too small, but with a little bit of cloth from the jacket, he was able to tie the front and leave it unbuttoned so it fit him.
"I-" *Huff* "Ran into...a group of thugs." He said between breaths, "They- Usually beat me up, and- take anything they can sell off of me."
"Ah." Kassix realized what exactly he agreed to at that moment. He was either going to be a fall guy that this guy abandoned to these bullies, or he was a deterrent. But he wasn't that big himself, sure he was taller, and had a larger frame but that's where the differences stopped. Kassix looked starved, and without much muscle. The best threat he could pose is if he had a concealed weapon since he wasn't even modified. "So, then the help you wanted was with these thugs then, sorry to break it to you but I don't know how to fight, nor do I have any weapons." Kassix spread his arms as he said this as if to show off his weakness.
"Oh I didn't want you to fight them! That would just make them angry, but more people makes them hesitant, and you aren't from this section of the pit so no one knows what you may have up your sleeve. They would be a lot more hesitant to mess with us!" The young man said that seemingly full of pride that he thought this through completely.
"Or, they will test us, find out that I'm also not strong and beat us both badly. Also, how did you know I'm not from this section?" Kassix responded with a chilly tone, but also took note of the fact that this guy he had not seen before somehow knew he hadn't been around here before.
"Er, this may come as a surprise, but I'm not very strong. Because of that, I tend to watch people more and figure out who's bad side to not get on, and where most people scavenge. I'm good at remembering faces and I've never seen yours before." He had a blank face while saying this, he was very excitable but didn't seem very happy about admitting his own weakness.
Kassix thought about that for a second and realized that it's extremely lucky this guy decided to talk to him. If he could help him learn the ropes down here and stay off of people's bad sides that would be a big boon to himself.
"Oh, Right what about the food-tube?" Kassix remembered as his stomach growled loudly.
"Uh--I don't just have one of those laying around..." He put his hands together sheepishly while saying this, hoping that this wouldn't mean Kassix would nullify their deal. "BUT, once we find some stuff, I'll buy you a food-tube out of my cut!"
Kassix let out a heavy sigh, "That should be alright, as long as we can buy one soon." He rest a hand on his stomach while saying that as it was starting to gnaw at him painfully after all of the physical excursion he had been doing.
"Mhm! If we work really hard we should be able to afford one in a week!" He seemed really happy about this prospect.
Kassix on the other hand just turned to him with a horrified look on his face, "A WEEK?! I don't even know if I'll last a few days!" Kassix just looked depressed with the news he just received. "Is there anyway we could, not have our luck be that bad?"
"I suppose if we get lucky and find something that still works, we'd have plenty of money for a couple food-tubes." He tapped his chin while saying this as if he was trying to come up with another method.
"That's it. We'll just find something that still works." Kassix stated this as a matter of fact, and a declaration of his desire.
"Its, not that easy!" The meek guy looked flabbergasted at Kassix's sudden declaration, and could not even think of what more to say to him.
Kassix just turned and looked at him in the eye and shut him up with one sentence, "Its either that, or I starve to death."