A total of two weeks went by, the date was June 19th, 2580, a Monday. The situation with Tomoe, the major shipping company, was dealt with. Solstice had met up with Thatcher, a man that Solstice and his boss Amelia had previously done business with to secure parts when they were in dire need. Usually, it was significantly cheaper for Amelia to send Solstice to the junkyard and have him gather the parts required, weeding throughout the junk, allowing higher for higher profits. However, with the deadline coming due from Tomoe, Amelia and Solstice had to resort to getting parts from Thatcher. This was much more costly, but failing the commission from a major shipping company like Tomoe was non-negotiable.
It would be very bad for business if they had soured a potential relationship with Tomoe, and hurt the reputation for Steele's Workshop, making it much harder to secure a future relationship with other large shipping companies. But, they made the deadline, and the representative from Tomoe was satisfied enough, to the point that they said they would be in contact with them whenever they were doing business around Zephyr Heights.
Solstice had told Amelia that he had been chosen to be a Traverser and that was the reason for his absence. He did trust Amelia enough to tell her that, but he didn't delve into further detail, she understood and all was forgiven. Solstice's skeleton was also fixed by Amelia, fully functioning again, and able to guard his house.
During these two weeks, Solstice had established a new schedule for each day going forward, especially since there was a backlog of other uncompleted small commissions for the workshop that he had to catch up on.
Normally, he did his day job at the workshop with Amelia from 8am to 4pm but that recently extended to 6pm temporarily until the backlog was under control. After his duties at his day job were completed, he had half an hour to eat a meal and rest, then he spent an hour and a half studying books from the library regarding the Wyrd, and any information that the twins provided him. Once his study was completed for the day, he gave himself another hour of rest and a larger meal.
His night job was next on the list in which he worked from 9pm to 2am. Solstice never actually made money from his day job with Amelia, he was solely working there to pay off a major debt that he owed her. His night job is where he actually earned his living. He had his own vendor stall in the safer night market within the outskirts, where he sold items that he refurbished from the junkyard, or at least the ones he knew how to fix up, or were able to be fixed.
From 2am to 3pm he closed up his stall, ate a meal on the way home, then he slept until around 5am. After a very limited amount of sleep, he trained with Daemon in the junkyard, until around 7am, sometimes Daemon wasn't available and he had to train himself, but that was uncommon. With the amount of training he was doing, Solstice himself didn't expect much change at first, but he was growing in physicality and combat prowess fairly quickly. Daemon even told him he was surprised at his growth, Solstice's overall confidence increased as a result, he wondered if he was naturally gifted and he never took advantage of it until now.
After training, he had about another hour to squeeze in a power nap, take a shower and scarf down breakfast.
Solstice, with this new routine, was quite tired all the time, but it was manageable enough. He also had written down his goals to make sure he knew what he needed to improve, and what direction his decisions needed to go towards. His first goal was his personal strength and knowledge, and this current schedule was furthering that forward.
His second goal was figuring out how to establish a consistent income, and of a level that could allow him to buy the things he would need in the future, whether that be artifacts, bribes, establishments, whatever that would be of benefit to him.
His third goal, find people that he could trust, and grow a network of powerful people that he could fall back on. He already had the backing of Ava and Daemon, two people from the powerful and rich Lazarus family, which was an amazing start.
HIs fourth goal was one that he felt conflicted about. It was to understand the Wyrd itself a bit further, and figure out a way to combat it, or stop it completely. As a Traverser, it was pretty much an established duty that their kind were expected to follow, and Solstice understood this, but it was something he wasn't sure he could come to terms with completely. He wanted to live his life the way he wanted to, and this was forced onto him.
Then again, Solstice, despite being young, had seen and experienced his fair share of ugly, a lot of that stemming from the Wyrd itself. He definitely didn't have a hero complex, but he thought that maybe the world needed one, or multiple, he was simply reluctant to fall in line with this way of thinking yet. His main fear for this was that he would have to take up the mantle, he wanted to reject this, but he felt himself accepting it more and more as the days went on, especially since the Wyrd was in control of his fate now.
It was currently midnight, he watched people walk down the street checking out various other stalls. The bright neon lights, the smell of different kinds of foods and alcohol, there were plenty of things polluting the air.
'I kind of hate this now.' Solstice's sensory tolerance grew immensely as he trained, he no longer had killer migraines and nausea in most places, however, the night market was filled with many things that stimulated him. Still, it only grew to the level of a minor headache.
An older gentleman began walking up to his stall, his hair was short and fully white, he had a warm wrinkly smile, he had blue eyes and wore business casual attire.
Solstice's hairs on his body instantly stood up, he was on full alert.
'This person is not human!' The instant that the older gentleman stepped within his 10-meter radius, Solstice felt it immediately. The old man's heart was beating, as if he were alive, but his body temperature was completely cold to his core, way too cold.
"Ah! What do we have here?" The old man looked around at the items that Solstice had for sale.
"Hello Sir! I sell various goods, mainly household goods. Was there anything in particular that you feel is missing within your home?"
"Hmm, I wonder…I don't need anything for my home, but I do work at a daycare, and our projector was broken recently. I was carrying it and I fell! Yes, how clumsy of me, damn this old body. The kids loved watching movies with it, do you perhaps have one available?"
"Well, I hope you didn't injure yourself. You are in luck, I have one in stock, let me get that for you." Solstice reached underneath his stall and pulled the projector out and placed it on top of the table.
"How much do I owe you?" The thing in front of him smiled.
"300 credits will do." Solstice spun his chip reader to face the customer.
The being raised his right wrist over the chip reader, a ding was heard confirming the payment was successful. Solstice grabbed the projector and placed it inside a bag for his customer, then he handed it over.
"Pleasure doing business with you. Sir, may I ask what daycare you work at? I have a younger sibling and it's been hard to look after them. It might be a good idea for me to have them enroll there." Solstice did his best to smile, and maintain a friendly presence.
"Oh great! We're always accepting more children. Our daycare is called "Whispering Winds Daycare", we're located off of Bolton and Malt." The thing pretending to be an old man was beaming. "How old is your sibling? You look quite young yourself, are you their only legal guardian?"
"Our upbringing was a little complicated, but yes I'm her legal guardian. She's 3 years old and turning 4 next month." This was a lie, his little sister was dead, and had been for a long time.
"Well I think that our daycare would be great for her."
'That daycare is extremely close to my house.' Solstice thanked the thing for its business once more, wishing it a goodnight, and waited a few minutes for it to leave his area completely. With no hesitation, Solstice immediately began to clean up his stall early tonight, he wanted to rush back home, and look into Whispering Winds Daycare more.
Solstice returned home, taking quick steps to his computer which was located in the living room. With Ava and Daemon now living in his home, he gave up his room to them, which in reality it was Ava's room now, as Daemon regularly slept out on the couch with Solstice. Daemon himself got a job at the harbor, since he was very able-bodied, it fit him and paid well, but he did have to work a night shift.
He turned on his computer, the holographic interface popping up in front of him as he began typing away.
Ava, who was the only other person in the house at the moment, had been in the kitchen prepping a meal for Solstice and Daemon. She stepped out of the kitchen momentarily as she heard noises coming from the living room.
"You're back early. I haven't finished making food for you and Daemon yet."
Solstice smiled as he smelt a delicious meal being prepared. "Thank you…I'm back home for a different reason though."
"What's going on?" Ava crossed her arms and leaned on the edge of the cased opening.
Solstice's smile quickly went away and he sighed. "There's a bit of a situation, I probably will need your help on this."