The rest of the ride passes quickly enough. Their route takes them into central Kowloon, where buildings rise tall all around them. The streets are packed with cars, and the airlanes above with skycars. The sidewalks are swarming with people despite the rain and the late hour, and every building is plastered in holographic advertisements. Drones of various kinds flit around in the open air outside of the skycar lanes - making deliveries,
#HongKong – September 7, 2025
monitoring, or advertising. The sheer level of clutter is beyond anything on Aite, a true assault on the senses. The polar opposite of the snowy wilderness of their last journey. There's no moons and no stars to be seen here, the night sky, where visible, a murky yellow, although in many places it cannot be seen at all, a second, elevated level of roadway the only thing visible above. The taxi finally comes to a stop in a parking garage, a
great concrete cavern of the sort less developed worlds, worlds where space is abundant, simply never need to bother with.
Yan Sun leads the way from the taxi to an elevator, pushing her duffel bag to the side to key in a floor number in the double digits.
Jessica gathers her things from the trunk of the taxi and falls into step behind Yan Sun, crate in tow. "This is the place where we are staying...?" she asks as she takes a position against the wall. The floor number punched in gives a hint to the size of the structure she's in. Not much like this in Adrasteia. Actually, only one building comes to mind that even comes close to comparing, and it's doesn't get to occupy a spot in her
Yan Sun nods. "Uh-huh. A lot of the units in this building are available short-term. It's tiny, and ate up most of the remaining travel money, but... now that we're in the city, I'll figure out a way to make us some credits," she assures as the elevator starts moving.
Jessica gives a shrug. "I still have money." she reminds. Her savings from Redrock weren't insignificant. It was more money than she's ever seen, truth be told. But, after pitching in her part for the trip, what remains probably won't last nearly as long as she thinks it will. The cost of living in a place like this is undoubtedly exponentially higher than anything back on Aite...
Yan Sun flashes a small grin. "Sure, but I'm not gonna make you pay for everything. And unlike Aite, I actually know how to put my skills to use here." The elevator interface indicates their continued ascent. A ways to go yet. The fastest of machines it is not.
Jessica gives a roll of her eyes. "Mmm. Your skills." she mocks. She leans back a bit heavier against the wall, releasing her grip on the handle of her crate as she watches the interface. After a few moments a smug grin crosses her face and her gaze lowers, studying Yan Sun. "This elevator is reminding me of what you are really skilled at, kitty cat." she teases.
Yan Sun looks over to Jessica. It takes a second for her words to register, but when they do she looks away with a sudden flush, but a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. "Not the skills I meant..." she mumbles, but she's unable to keep the big, embarrassed grin off her face at the memory, bringing up a hand to scratch her cheek in an attempt to obscure it.
Jessica snickers as she gets the desired reaction. She reaches out lazily, hooking her index finger into the waistline of Yan Sun's pants to tug her closer. "What?" she asks, bringing her hands to her partner's hips, cocky smirk plastered across her face. "This does not remind you of the Saint Lucia?" she asks, brown eye flicking up towards the elevator's interface. "Mmm? Where you ambush me?" she continues, as if Yan Sun may have
Yan Sun lets out a slightly startled noise as she's reeled in, blush intensifying, but she quickly recovers enough to meets Jessica's gaze and give her a shove with the hand that's not holding her duffel bag in place. "I did not ambush you! I was just helping!" she exclaims, trying with limited success to force her grin into a scowl.
Jessica gives a lift of her brow, offering an unconvinced nod of faux agreement. "Mm. You were verrrry helpful." she agrees, her hands slipping a bit further around Yan Sun to the small of her back to lock her in place. Her eyes- one brown and one milky white- scan Yan Sun's face, smirk remaining.
Yan Sun lets out a half-hearted scoff in an attempt at offense, but the bright blush and the grin she can't quite seem to keep away undercuts it entirely. She seems to realize this, leaning closer in surrender and letting her hand come to rest on Jessica's neck, thumb brushing over coarse, scarred skin. "Yeah? Well, m-"
The elevator comes to a stop with a 'bloop', doors sliding open to an old woman who looks half-asleep.
Yan Sun practically springs away from Jessica, focusing intently on the wall as her blush intensifies.
The stranger barely seems to notice the two of them, not acknowledging their presence in the slightest as she steps into the elevator and presses the button for the ground floor, apparently also unbothered by the fact that the elevator is currently headed further up.
Jessica unsurprisingly, doesn't look too bothered by the new arrival, seeming more amused by Yan Sun's reaction. She uses her boot to shift her duffelbag closer to herself, lest this old lady get any ideas about grabbing it and running, and settles back against the wall. She glances Yan Sun's way, an amused snicker spilling out of her.
Yan Sun shoots Jessica what was meant to be an unamused look, but even now the corner of her mouth tugs upward. Still, the last leg of the elevator ride is spent in silence, and the doors soon open on their destination floor. The corridor they exit into looks old. Not as old as the dilapidated buildings near the docks district, but clearly many decades. Older than anything on Aite. They pass by many doors before finally coming to a stop.
Apartment 4112 according to the door. Yan Sun unlocks it remotely, and the door slides open to what is, as promised, a rather cramped apartment. The bathroom door is immediately to the left, and to the right a tiny table with a single flimsy chair fills the corner. A compact kitchenette takes up the rest of the right wall, and the bed the rest of the left. Opposite the entrance is a window, set deep enough into the wall that there's
Jessica collects her things once the elevator comes to a stop and follows Yan Sun out. Once inside the apartment, Jessica quickly sheds her belongings, slinging her duffelbag onto the tiny table and leaving her crate beside it, and begins to assess the apartment with a wandering gaze. "We have a kitchen!" she says, that seeming to grab her attention far more than the size of the apartment. Gone are the days of the Respite minifridge and
shared dining kitchen area! She steps over to the fridge and yanks it open, as if expecting... something?
Yan Sun sheds her own bags on the bed, rolling her shoulders once free of the weight and then taking a seat herself as her gaze wanders the small apartment. Jessica's actions garner a bemused look. "Yeah. We don't exactly live right above a restaurant anymore..."
The fridge is, naturally, quite empty. Barren shelves and fluorescent light is all that greets Jessica.
Jessica frowns at the emptiness but doesn't speak on whatever outlandish expectations of hers weren't met. "There is places to get food nearby, yes?" she asks, shooting a brief glance Yan Sun's way as she closes the door and steps over to the window to examine the view.
Yan Sun nods. "Of course. Should be a supermarket on one of the lower floors, and a bunch of food places nearby. But... I mean, we don't really need to, we can just order," she says with a nod towards a short, boxy chute or receptacle of some kind fixed to a hatch to the right of the window, just next to the kitchenette. She activates her omni-tool and starts to type, navigating to an online grocery ordering site.
There's no panoramic views of the city to be seen out the window, but the view is remarkable in its own way. While clearly high up, it doesn't quite feel like the 41st floor due to the elevated roadways below obscuring ground level. Buildings of equal or greater height than the one they're in tower on both sides, with a few shorter ones beneath, creating an impression of a valley of sorts, lined with countless windows and, for some of the
buildings, balconies. The air is almost as busy as the ground below, lines of skycars in neat formation flying by at a distance, and drones flitting around like bugs. Up ahead, a gap in the buildings reveals a distant glimpse of the central business district across the water, the skyscrapers there markedly taller and shinier than anything on this side of the water, wreathed in holography that proclaims the corporate affiliation of each spire.
Only a few are visible through the gap, but right there in the center of them, as if in some cosmic jest, stands a tall, sleek tower of glass and steel, the side of it emblazoned with a series of circles of white light, within which SUN TOWER is written in holographic letters many stories tall.
Jessica leans over the nightstand to get a better look out the window, gaze scanning across the view. "Amd they will just deliver it to us...?" she asks, Yan Sun's implications lost as her attention is firmly fixed on the view outside. But before Yan Sun can respond, her browns furrow and she points into the distance, her body blocking whatever she's trying to point out to Yan Sun. "Sun Tower?" she says, turning to her side to give Yan
Yan Sun seems a little amused by Jessica's question, opening her mouth to respond before she's cut off, the question that follows clearly catching her off-guard. She bites her lip and leans forward to look out the window, eyes locking onto the distant building as soon as she spots it. She forces out a scoff. "No. It's my father's," she says sharply, sitting back on the bed again and returning her attention to her omni-tool interface
Jessica gives a roll of her eyes as Yan Sun plays the semantics game and turns her attention back out the window. For a few moments, she studies the view before giving a small shake of her head. "Is fucking huge..." she says without looking away.
Yan Sun looks up from the screen - at Jessica, not the window. "Yeah..." she acknowledges with a nod. "It's the HQ for SunTech. Houses a bunch of offices. Labs. Prototype workshop. And..." Her gaze briefly shifts to the window, catching a brief glimpse of the top of the distant tower before her gaze falls away. "...it's where I used to live," she adds, quieter. "At the top."
Jessica leans in closer to the window to better look at the top, her silence perhaps giving away her attempts at envisioning what that must be like. After a few moments she speaks. "When I am a child? Me and Martin and our friends would go up on top of the roof of our home." she says, something she's shared before. "We would sit on the edge and look down on the street and the people. I remember I am feeling like I am waaay up high and
looking down on the street." She snickers, shaking her head at her younger self. A carefree child who thought she was near the tippy top of the world on the ledge of a three story building. "The sight felt so-..." she trails off for a second, her English failing her before she settles on, "...big. Like we were on top of the city." She lingers on the building for a few more moments before finally turning away from the window.
Yan Sun listens silently, staring past her omni-tool screen. As the focus is turned to her again she shifts uncomfortably, hands gripping the edge of the bed and the holographics fizzling and fading away as she looks off towards the apartment door. She doesn't say anything, but her tension is obvious, shoulders hunched defensively.
Jessica seems to pick up on Yan Sun's discomfort, her own smile dissipating. She draws in a breath, meandering the couple of steps it takes for her to reach the bed and drop down beside Yan Sun. She leans back, reaching behind her to prop herself up by placing her palms on the bed as she studies Yan Sun in silence.
Yan Sun 's attention leaves the door as the silence stretches, wandering the apartment, but avoiding Jessica, eventually looking past her out the window. "It's... so weird to be back here," she admits with an uncomfortable, brief laugh. "And that...?" She nods in the direction of the window. Of the tower. "It's... like a whole other life, you know? Even before I left Earth, that hadn't been my home in a long time..."
Jessica's gaze follows Yan Sun's back towards the window as she listens. It's not hard to find common ground. It was weird going back to Adrasteia. Seeing how it changed during her time away. Experiencing a place that was so central to her being from the as essentially a stranger. And Adrasteia was just a drive away. Yan Sun went clear across the galaxy to get away from this place. She takes another heavy breath, watching the window in
silence for a few moments, unsure of what to say. "Want me to blow it up?" she finally offers. In jest. Probably.
Yan Sun lets out a surprised snort, finally looking to Jessica. A hint of a smile tugs at one corner of her mouth. "What I want," she says, clearly attemtping to change the subject away from her past. "Is for you to help me decide what we're gonna fill our fridge with." She scoots back in the bed, leaning her back against the wall and turning the palm of her left hand up, re-activating the shopping interface to show it to Jessica. "Have
Jessica snickers, not bothering to take her boots off as she joins Yan Sun. "We need booze!" she demands while scooting up beside Yan Sun. "So we can celebrate, yes?" Once in place she turns her focus to the omni-tool.