Starving Artist was on the prowl, there was a delightful little idea brewing and bubbling in her head. The only problem was, she needed bits. And not the easy bits you could get from the fun aisle as the hardware store, these were difficult bits.

Which was how she ended up at Bob's Bits and Bobs, the fourth-worst junkyard in the Denver Metro area, looking around completely fucking lost. She takes an angry sip, fucking under yet another rusted out hulk, looking for a catalytic converter that was nowhere to be found.

Finally, after what felt like hours (15 minutes) she stumbles upon gold, a mountain of spare parts, and right at the top, just what she was looking for! Quickly, she scuttles up the pile, her eyes fixated on her prize.......

Today had been going pretty well, having found that "Bob's" was only rated so poorly due to the man's unfriendly nature and not the quality of parts he had on offer. The swearing was fine, and the surly attitude was fixed by a generous application of cash. So Mechakoloss was free to search the yard at her leisure while Bob and his employees were off to lunch.

She'd been digging through an old engine block when she heard the Himalaya, which was supposed to be at rest, come to life and shift to look at the pile of parts she'd already collected.

[Pilot. There is someone pilfering our materials.] Mechakoloss heard the monotone voice in her head and was on her feet, gripping the wrench she'd been using in her off hand. Making her way around the pile she'd call out.

"Hey! Get down from there!"

From the top of Mount Parts, Starving Artist snatches up the catalytic converter, clutching it to her chest like a prized stuffed animal. Her attention is caught by the hollering lady down below, telling her to get down?

With a disdainful sniff and a sip from one of her many drug vials, she begins descending from the mountain, making it approximately six inches before getting distracted by a splendid a/c compressor which she immediately begins digging her ways towards, the angry lady completely forgotten

"Hey, HEY!" Mechakoloss called out again, clearly being ignored.

"Can you believe this girl?" She asked her machine before sending a mental command. The Himalaya would shift and draw to its full height of fifteen feet, and take a step towards its pilot. The woman, in one syncronized step would climb onto the outstretched hand and be lifted up into the cockpit for her to take a seat.

Reaching out, a massive metal hand would pinch around the scavenger's ankle and lift them as if they were made of tissue paper. The woman in the bear mask sitting with her shoulders hunched angrily.

"Put that down, I paid for it already."

There's a pissed off little hiss as Starving Artist finds herself lifted up from the pile by her foot, and the diminutive tinker finds herself glaring at the mecha and the Mecha within.

"I'm very glad for you," she says petulantly, before taking a hearty sip from a vial, that irritation and anger gone in an instant. "But I need these. Without the bits inside the muffler—" it wasn't a muffler "—i can't make my Art. Would you truly deny me that?"

"What you have isn't a muffler, you were also going after a compressor I think. It looked like what you were reaching for when we snagged you. Now if you could drop that before we have to shake you I'd appreciate it."

The machine would let out an angry sounding synthetic growl. Behind her mask Mechakoloss was a little shocked

(Bear, what was that?)

[I am attempting intimidation. Is it working?]

"Perhaps I can offer an alternate arrangement then," she says, still holding on to the cat. "Whatever it is, I need it. How about..." she pulls out a vial of vaguely luminescent green fluid, extending it out in the vague direction of the cockpit. "I can give you this. It will make you less irritable and angry for no reason."

There's a glance at the growling mecha, before she takes a worried sip. "I think your bear sculpture is angry for some reason. I don't think this'll work on it :("

"No thanks. I don't want your mysterious green fluid. And my machine isn't a sculpture. It's an efficient combat suit that is capable of tossing you bodily out of this yard. Which I'd much rather not do. Also!" She added in an annoyed tone. "I'm not irritable or angry! I'm frustrated that some little gremlin is trying to rob me after I spent two grand to salvage whatever I'd like for an hour. You're burning my time."

"Now, drop it." The hand would give a little shake, swaying the tinker back and forth to try and make her drop it.

"Fine!" she hisses, peeved at being shaken like a baby, tossing the cat vaguely towards the bottom of the pile. She takes a sip, this time from the green vial, and the anger fades away.

"Heyyy so I was thinking, are you, like..." she attempts to lean closer, her voice a whisper. "Me? Are you also beholden to the fickle muse?"

The woman was silent for a moment and makes a hand gesture, the machine mimicking her movements. A careful bit of manipulation later and Starving Artist was sat in the palm of the machine with the thumb of the massive hand over her lap like the bar of a roller coaster.

"I don't really get what you mean. Are you asking if I'm a tinker?"

"Because I'm not huffing whatever it is you are."