Snippet #2529592

If one were stupid enough be outside strolling in the shadiest parts of the slums of the Artemis colony, they might have had to avoid a rather loud, rather poorly kept man hobbling through the streets with what you would assume to be a bottle of alcohol in one hand and what looked like a knife in the other, which on further inspection you would be able to tell that it was in fact attached to his middle finger. This wasn't the first time he was here, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, if this man ever had a home it would be in dirt and squalor.

Seth Aviur was bored, and frustrated. Right now the Artemis colony police station was being blown up, and he wasn't even allowed to be near it. Sure, he was allowed some creative input on the explosive itself; but if you aren't there to witness your handiwork, you might as well not have made it at all.

'Damn Hernandez, gets to have all the fun.' he spat some built up bile and attempted to lean on a fence, underestimating its distance slightly and instead slumping down on the floor just in front of it, 'Bah, subtlety my ass.' He lifted his bottle to take a swig of the cheap liquor, but missed his mouth and instead it trickled into his patchy and singed beard.

'Oh, but Seth…' He continued in a rather insulting impersonation of the second in command, 'This mission requires someone a little more tactful than you!' He was paraphrasing, or even making up what was said to him, but Seth was too angry or possibly too intoxicated to care. Still, he knew better than to do this while Carmen Hernandez herself was present. Her way with words and the subtle power she possessed meant that if there was one person that could make Seth hold his tongue, it would be her. He shuddered slightly at the thought of her voice, but the moment passed and he went back to cursing the hated individual.

Now completely sitting on the unpaved floor with his back on the iron fence, Seth clicked his fingers and sparked a flame. He studied it intently, before putting it out and restarting in the same way that a smoker might use their lighter in order to pass the time. The flame seemed to have a calming effect. The warm light from the fire reflected off of Seth's face in such a way that he almost seemed friendly, before it contorted into a face of rage as Seth got up and launched a crude fireball into what he hoped was an occupied shack, reducing it to a pile of scrap and pushing Seth back onto the ground on his back.

For a moment, Seth could see the sky. It was a beautiful day, he hated it. The next moment, he was reminded of two things. One, that he had spilled a large proportion of his drink on himself and around him in his tirade. Secondly, alcohol and fire don't mix.

'Shitshitshitshit!' Seth cursed as he pat down his body to get rid of the newly sprouted flames, luckily his clothes were fire retardant. His hair, however, was quite the opposite. Cursing even further, he almost didn't hear the small beeping noise coming from the communicator in his right pocket. Upon noticing the sound, Seth froze from his temper tantrum. He didn't have to answer it, if he was being called it meant he was being summoned and if he was being summoned it meant that Hernandez had successfully completed her mission. After a moment’s hesitation, Seth sprinted off in the direction he had come in, stumbling a little in his slightly drunken state as he did so.

In half the time it took him to get there, Seth arrived at headquarters from the slums to see the second in command herself coolly making her way towards the entrance. Seth, with all the patience of a child who's been promised a treat and all grudges forgotten, spoke so quickly you could have sworn more than one person was speaking, 'Is it done? Was it good? Did they scream? I bet they screamed! They did, didn't they? Ha! I knew it! So what's next?'

He grinned, childlike, with a glint in his eye that he hadn't had in a while. Things were finally going to move at a faster pace. Seth Aviur was no longer bored.