#vekkis

“Hey! You in a rush?”

“Yeah man, gotta get down to the bazaar quick.”

“What for?”

“Vekkis has new goods for sale!”

“Vekkis? That Eliksni weaponsmith?”

“The one and only—and she doesn’t take preorders or put things on hold, you gotta show up and buy in person, so I gotta go!”

“Oh, uh... OK. Hey, if I come along, you think I might be able to snag one of her pieces?”

“Sure dude. Like I said, no reservations, first come, first armed. Just gotta show up on time with glimmer in hand.”

“OK then. Let’s go!”

“Have I got a tale to tell you.”

“Is it about wreaking havoc with a shotgun in the Crucible again? ‘Cause we’ve heard that one.”

“It’s about wreaking havoc in the Crucible with an Eliksni-made shotgun. Heard that one yet?”

“What difference does it make? Shotgun’s a shotgun when somebody’s sliding at you with it.”

“Oh, on the contrary, there are so many varieties of shotgun experience! You know that very well.”

“Don’t I just?”

“Well, so do our new Eliksni neighbors. I met one who’s an absolute fiend for the Crucible feeds. Can’t stop watching matches. Hell, she’s even digging up old recordings of her favorite contenders’ past highlights. Needless to say, she’s quickly come to recognize the central importance of shotguns to the meta.”

“I can’t believe one of the Eliksni has been corrupted by caring about the meta.”

“She certainly has, and wouldn’t you know it, she’s also one of their weapon makers. Practically couldn’t wait to get me to take her creation into a match to try it out for her.”

“Huh. When’s your match scheduled.”

“This afternoon. Couple hours from now.”

“...Don’t tell me you’re signed up for control.”

“Of course it’s control. That’s Vekkis’ favorite.”

“Gods dammit. I’m in that match.”

“Ah! Fantastic! You’ll get to participate in this little test.”

“I swear on the Traveler’s shattered shell, if you come sliding at me with that thing, I am not gonna hold back just ‘cause it’s you.”

“Excellent! That’s the enthusiasm I need to put Vekkis’ shotgun through its paces! This is going to be splendid!”

“You know you’re running a big risk carrying something like this into the City.”

“I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Very funny. How’d you get something with volatile arc conductors through the cordon detectors anyway?”

“That’s for me to know and you to wish you could find out. Anyway, they’re disengaged. Harmless.”

“Sure they are. Anyway, what’s so important you had to sneak them into town?”

“Vekkis wants to see them.”

“Vekkis? That scrawny little tinkerer?”

“She’s a first-rate weaponsmith. Barely a teenager by Eliksni standards, but she’s as good with their guns as anyone I’ve ever managed to talk to about Eliksni shooters, and better than most at figuring out how to work their tech in with ours. When she heard about this piece here, she couldn’t stop asking about the arc conductors.”

“And what does she want with them?”

“Hell if I know. Maybe she’ll just study them, or adapt new designs from them, or even figure out how to reproduce them better than we can.”

“You’re not worried she’ll tear them off your gun and start messing around with them.”

“If that’s what she wants to do, she’s welcome to go for it. It’s a privilege just to see her work.”

"So I was thinking: I've only ever seen anything like an Eliksni machine gun as a turret weapon—like, mounted on something. So did this come off a vehicle or a big shank or one of their giant robots?"

"Dunno. Where'd you get it?"

"That House Light weaponsmith with the stall in the bazaar. The one who always has Crucible coverage playing in the background."

"You mean Vekkis? Yeah, I know her."

"Well, that's where this came from. I was passing by and she ran out from under her awning and started jumping up and down and, like... chirping or something... going on about how a big Titan needs a big gun or some shit."

"Uh-huh. She has some... aggressive marketing techniques."

"I guess. Anyway, I was interested, so I bought it."

"Why don't you just go back and ask her whether it came off a giant robot or whatever?"

"Well, I would, but..."

"But what?"

"I'm afraid I won't be able to get away without getting subscribed to her newsletter."

"She has a newsletter?"

"By now she does. When I was there she was talking about getting it ready, building a mailing list. I managed to avoid signing up then, but I don't think I can escape twice. Hey, where are you going?"

"Down to the market. Gonna sign up for Vekkis' newsletter!"