Ruby almost gets up to go walk her over, but... probably she should save her outside-the-shop hours for when she's got something fun to do.

"Good luck, ma'am."

And she goes back to working on her designs.

She's really picky about how good her optics have to be before she'll replace her eyes. They're the last thing she has from her mother. It needs to be one heck of an upgrade, and it needs to match the color exactly.

Her legs are easier. Those'll be fully-designed soon. She's including boosted muscles for dashes and leaps, reinforced tendons to handle high drops, and of course she's replacing her bones as well.

There are more things she wants to do with them, like a double-jump and an air-dash, but those will take a lot of research first.

There's no one here still. It's been an hour.

She sighs, bonks her head against the desk.

She wants to do something more active, but she really needs to stay by the front in case she gets a customer.

Can't go to the workshop.

She shakes her head vigorously, then blows out a slow breath.

Right. Work on her fold-out multi-tool hand cyberware designs.

She's not sure if she's going to get a set of these herself. She wants them to be subtle and easily concealed, if so. 

A big part of the trick is getting the arrangement of the substructure right to allow things to fold in between inside the fingers.

She probably won't, honestly. Micromanipulators in her hands don't provide much benefit over just having hands that can pick up data from handheld tools.

That's the biggest thing, really. She needs to be able to pick up data from handheld tools and weapons.

Okay, she works on data transfer systems.

Data transfer systems cover another half hour. Then she works on padded palms to absorb recoil better. And then moves on to pop-out grenade launchers to hide in an arm.

Eventually it's been three hours.

Eventually, someone else comes in, having seen and grown curious about the door art. "Hello?"

A person!!!

"Hi! Welcome to Rose Cybernetics and Weaponsmithing, I'm Ruby Rose! How can I help you today?"

".....Huh. I've never heard of you? I was mostly curious about the cool door art."

"I'm new! Just opened the door for the first time today! You've heard of most cyberware and weapons shops in this city?"

She doesn't actually know what city this is please either don't ask her a question that needs it in the answer or be cool with her being an outworlder, one of the two.

"And thanks, about the art! I have my theme and I'm sticking to it, I guess?"

"Yeah, I have! Though, there aren't really a lot of cybernetics shops? Weapons shops, yes, I know all the ones in this area."

"Huh, lucky me! Wound up with an underserved market! So I can make just about anything technical, but my specialty is stuff that goes in or attaches to the body, and weapons of all types. And I absolutely take commissions. Do you have a favorite kind?"

"You hear about people with cybernetics sometimes, but I don't really know much about what they can do? I've heard of adrenal regulators and muscle grafts and someone who can control drones with their brain. As for weapons, revolvers are the coolest but rifles and shotguns are more reliable in incursions."

"Cybernetics can do lots! Hormone and biochemistry regulation, sure, but also reinforced replacement bones or muscles, concealed weapons inside arms, enhanced optics with a heads-up display, synced data from compatible guns, and so much more."

Then she leans closer, grinning confidently. "And yeah, normally you'd have tradeoffs between style and utility like that, but you don't sound like the kind of girl who wants her weapon choices restricted to what's normal."

"Ooh, that all sounds really cool. Real sci-fi hero stuff instead of basically just grunts with guns and little magic tricks. Like... Those gyro bullets that can twist in midair? Plasma guns? Stuff like that?"

"Are you talking about gyrojets, which are like little bitty rockets and spin to stabilize themselves, or using onboard gyros in a bullet to do crazy bullet-bending tricks? And plasma's doable, for sure, in a couple different ways even, but it'll take me a bit since I'm still building the tools to build the tools with some of that stuff. Sold a coilgun to a trucker this morning, even!"

"I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to really techy stuff. Never been my thing. Plasma was... mostly a joke..."

"That's okay! You don't have to know techie stuff! That's my job! Simple explanation is you can turn your bullets into rockets to make 'em pick up speed as they fly rather than lose it, and this is good for armor-piercing and longer ranges. Theoretically if you put a remotely-controlled gyroscope into a bullet you could curve the shot, but practically you're not gonna be able to control it in real-time even if I make really good reflex boosters. And it makes bullets really expensive. Almost never worth it." She shakes her head with a smile. "So, you a Huntress?"

"Yep! North Chicago Women's Hunter Guild. Sort of a co-op thing, help the newbies out, joint bids on portal spaces, alert systems, that kind of thing. It's a nice system, I can focus on the monsters and other people deal with admin stuff."

"That's definitely the way to go. Specialization helps a bunch. So talk to me about calibers and ammo types that perform the best, and what you like best about revolvers."

"Hmm... They're... Wieldy. There's a certain old west style to them, but they're sturdy, they're reliable, and if there's a misfire - which happens a lot more in portals than outside them, physics can get a little bratty in the bad ones - I can just keep pulling the trigger. They're lighter than long guns, they stay close to the body, it's a comfortable pose to draw and aim and fire. Long range isn't usually a problem in portal dives. There are people with DMRs and I'm not one of them. I'm used to using them- I'm ambidextrous about it now, mostly. For all that I got made fun of a lot when I was starting. Oh, my power seems to be charged ammo, that I can touch a round and impart charge on it, they're also very convenient for that, opening the chamber and thumbing it, then snapping it closed. I tend to prefer small calibers with light loads, again for the wieldyness. If it doesn't work I can usually just shoot again and there's not a lot that's just completely indifferent to small arms."

"Ooh. Those are a lot of very very fun reasons to like revolvers. Now tell me why everyone else doesn't use them, and what the general needs are inside a portal?"

"The most usual reason is magazine size and the time it takes to reload. 'Just six shots, are you asking to get overrun?' They're seen as outdated and a choice of... Style over performance. People like SMGs, people like carbines, and shotguns. Portals can have really inconvenient environments. Sometimes you have to clamber over things, sometimes you have to deal with the dark, or clear cramped tunnels and fake indoor spaces or suddenly appearing entities. Sometimes you deal with annoying ranged attacks, or gimmicky things like poison or intangible enemies. They're frankly really weird. Like a caricature of a bad video game. Usually what you do is send a little drone in to take photos, or just peek in if you're lazy, and pick who goes in and what they carry based on that. I do mazes and bad weather portals a lot because people hate them so I can pick 'em up easier. So, clearing and close range wieldyness... If anything I'm lacking it's guaranteed one-hit KO power, but I still have wieldiness reasons to want small rounds instead of fat ones. If you can do better armor that might be nicer than a better gun."

"Yeah I can help you out here," she replies with a grin. "So the first obvious thing is moon clips, which let you pop a whole cylinder's worth in at once. Second thing is I'll be machining every piece of this girl custom, which means we can figure out exactly what your comfort zone is for weight and size, and fit as many chambers into the cylinder as possible. Should be able to get at least eight in there. Third trick is we can reinforce your hand and wrist to expand that comfort zone, if you're comfy with invasive options like that. Fourth trick is yes, I can do armor. In particular I can fit you with subdermal armor-weave — armor under your skin that you can't leave behind. And the fifth thing is that we can figure out where your sweet spot is for caliber and chamber her for that ammo specifically."