Techno Children, plus the woods

It was a bright cloudless day in the upper hills of Ethaia, The latest technological advances being clear with buildings having holographic projections for advertisements, state of the art cars driving up and down the streets, and the place had a very chrome feel to it. A small cafe was hidden in the mess large buildings and sky scrapers, it was a humble little family owned cafe where kids loved to visit. Inside there was a young girl sipping on some hot chocolate staring out the window into the advanced city. The interior was quiet warm, wooden floor boards, some books along the edges as it doubled as a book shop, and a cafe sitting area.

The little girl wore a dark red sleeveless hoodie with the hood down her shoulders, she had medium length black hair that brushed over her lime green eyes. She set her cup down, metallic green wristbands clacking against the counter quietly. She had black pants with a dark red band around mid leg between the knee and feet, and rather stylish metallic boots. Next to her cup was a tablet with hard to read coding placed in it, a series of brackets and letters that to most would be just techno garble.

Despite the current sale the cafe was having, it was quiet empty for a tuesday afternoon. Most kids being in school at this time, but the man at the counter didn't bother to ask this young child. She was sitting in a higher seat but looking from above the table it didn't really give this 1nch shy 4foot girl the illusion of being taller. Looking like a 5 year old to any passerby.

Walking around the new city, the awestruck ten year old Milan wandered around without any supervision, due to it being his assignment before returning home. The tall skyscrapers interested Milan the most, having spent most of his life in facilities close to the ground, or underground, as his home city liked being lowkey. Wandering around the city of glass and steel, the boy weaved through the crowd, trying to find a small area so he could take out his city map without the wind blowing all over it, that was when he spied a smaller cafe between the towering buildings. Walking in with a ring of the door as it opened. Milan entered slowly to see if it was actually open, the place being rather sparse. His robotic eyes zoomed around in his skull as they examined everything for him. Spotting a shorter girl than him, even appearing a tad younger as well, Milan then noticed a man near the counter of the cafe as well.

From what Milan was told about the world in general, not having much experience outside his own home, he should buy something before sitting down and doing any work, or it might be rude. Milan walked up to the counter, which was nearly the exact same height as Milan, four feet, his spiked dirty blonde hair with an orange tint to it rose above the metal counter. The kid's clothes were almost strange compared to the average person, composed of many brown hues and leathery textures. Milan wore a fingerless glove on his right human hand made of leather for working on his tiny experiments, and Milan also had a pair of goggles in his spiky thick hair. The goggles were big and thick looking, the lenses being made of glass, and the outer coverings being plastic and black rubber. At the same time Milan wore simple cargo pants of a dark tan color, with many pockets, and a matching black tank top with small leather patches around it, the straps of his tan backpack going across one shoulder in a diagonal motion to his waist.

"Excuse me!" Milan exclaimed as he waved his hand in the air, going tiptoed so his head rested above the counter top, "I'd like one of those berry smoothies you have on the menu up there." Milan pointed behind the counter as he reached into one of his pockets, sticking out his tongue slightly in the process. "Here's the money." He continued as he plopped down the money with the most interesting aspect of his body, his robotic arm. A tightly compacted machine the same size and shape of his normal right arm, even following the same contours of his muscles, or lack there of in some places. The left arm moved fluently as if it were flesh and bone, though it's appearance said otherwise with it's trademarked brown and tan metal and insulation, protecting it from electricity and rain, and the like. Hearing the man say it'll be sent over to him in a few minutes, Milan left the counter as decided he'd look at the city map while he had a chance.

Sitting at a table right next to the younger looking girl, Milan ignored her for now as he threw his backpack on the table and started scrounging around in it for the map. Why he had a paper map and not using his phone for a digital copy was unknown, but Milan himself liked the feeling of something between his fingers. "Oh there it is..." He muttered to himself as he took out the map and laid it over the whole table like a road map. As he began searching for a bus station. His berry smoothie arriving at that point.

Aluna walked through the woods with Pumpkin following behind them. They were just exploring the woods looking for berries and getting acquainted with the area as best the could during the day since this would more than likely be where they were staying for the night. After they explored they would head for the town and explore there for a bit as well. Aluna had on her normal attire, Blue shirt and shorts with her long hair tied in blue matchign pearls. She popped a berry in her mouth and smiled knowing she had chosen a delicious bush to pick from, maybe she could sell these later. She heard Pumpkin begin to meow and cry out. "Alright Pumpkin we'll head for town for some actual food," Aluna said and they began to wonder out of the woods.

As they emerged from the woods Aluna brushed off her clothes and Pumpkin cleaned herself, Aluna looked onto the city in awe, she had never seen a town so technologically advanced in her life. She had a craving for some hot chocolate and soon headed for the nearby cafe', where she skipped to and started to look at all the candy and sighed in awe of it all. The sales clerk asked what she wanted and Aluna could hardly decide. "They all just look so delicious!" she said excitedly, "But, I think I'll just have some hot chocolate for now, and some milk, please!"

It wasn't until Aluna turned around after slurping her whipped cream on top of the hot chocolate did she see the other two children. "Hello!" she said excitedly to them with a cream moustache upon her face.

Out of the corner of the young girl's emerald eyes she noticed the boy walk in, on normal occasion she would just go back into her work however that robotic arm peaked her interest. The visual circuitry wasn't to complex for her but it was an abnormal style then what she has seen, and it seemed to be put together by a professional. The young technophile wasn't familiar with its make and model, in fact cybernetic replacements are a rarity of themselves, being huge in genetic and biological study she had studied many bio-mechanical substitutes but not many people can afford them these days.

However her daze was snapped out by the new bubbly young girl's entrance who just shouted hello, not even recognizing her entrance. She gave a rather blank stair at this childish young female, the cream mustache making it even more face palm worthy, was this girl an imbecile of some kind. The emerald eyed child however decided to be atleast polite enough to respond to the greeting. “h..hello?” she said rather confusingly. Either this girl was about as smart as her aged showed, or perhaps it was a person she once met any forgot about.

Looking at the strange girl yelling greetings at him while she wore a cream mustache, Milan smiled visibly as he brought out his right hand to give the girl a handshake. His leather gloved hand hiding an electric buzzer. Hoping that the random girl would take the bait, as Milan just loved his pranks, he also had a backup prank in mind if the first one failed. With his eyes appearing happy and with his smirk on his face Milan spoke like any other child. "Hi! What's your name sir? You gotta be like 20 years old right? You a Tom? A Dick? A Harry?" Milan laughed as he hoped the girl took the bait with his handshake so she would receive a small shock. If she did take the bait Milan would burst out laughing.

After the past amusement Milan turned to the other shorter girl and smirked again, "You like what you see shorty?" He laughed again as he flexed his robotic arm, the gears and circuitry mimicing the shape of a real arm if it were flexed. "Its shiny see!" Milan tilted his arm back and forth creating a small ray of light on the wall, the ten year old moving it across the room until he tried bringing the small flash of light in her face, though he did not try very hard. Turning back to the map on his table, Milan took a drink of his smoothie while plotting his course through the city with a small marker that was in his pocket.

Licking the cream from her mouth Aluna smiled at the girl and turned her attention to the young boy. Aluna had no reason not to trust this boy so she hands with him giving herself a shock in which she quickly pulled back her hand and watched the boy burst into laughter. Aluna could take a joke so she began to laugh with him. "That was good!" She said still laughing. "No my name's Aluna and I'm 11. What's your name?" She asked as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. She waited for a response and when he answered she became intrigued in what he was doing. "What's the map for?" She asked curiously picking up Pumpkin who had been acting pretty hostile since Aluna had been shocked and then put her down letting her scamper about the store.

Pumpkin then ran over to where teh girl was sitting and began to meow for attention. After talking with the boy Aluna excitedly ran over to the girl. "And what're yoooooou doing?!" she asked excitedly and super curiously.

The young girl shook her head a bit about the randomness of this child. However she now knew to be a bit weary of the future pranks, however it was hard to keep her mind off the mechanics about his arm, again her thoughts were interrupted at the young girls interrogation. “Just wasting time having a drink...” looking down at her drink. “How about the two of you, your obviously not from around here. What brings you to the technological neighborhood?” she half smiled trying to make conversation without making it feel like a 20 questions game, only 12 more until that game is realized.

She waited for the answers between them, before they answered however she guessed in her mind that the young girl, Aluna, was from somewhere a lot more rural, and by the arm of the boy he was probably from some advanced technology city, similar to this one possibly. Only reason she knew he wasn't from town was due to the maps spread out.

She took a sip of her drink and put her tablet into her pocket, and the clock nearby struck one ring signaling 1:00pm.

"Wasting time?" Milan frowned, "Aw ya gotta have fun if your not gonna do anything though!" he spoke like a true kid as he folded up the paper map and placed it in his backpack. Turning to Aluna Milan laughed randomly as he explained his plan. "You're a curious one that's fun, I like fun; but I'm just looking at the city layout so I can go find a museum or two, or any science places here, I'm from a different city, and part of our citizenship training is to travel around and learn." With a pause that lasted nearly two seconds Milan started talking again, being a chatter box, "But it never hurts to stop for food!" He exclaimed as he picked up his smoothie and chugged it down in one long gulp, ending with a burp. "Ta-Dah!"

Turning to the short girl, the mechanical kid quickly responded, leaving almost no time in between her question and his own response. "I'm looking for something super particular too, from what I said earlier, I heard this place was cool and fancy with tech stuff, so I decided... well... 'Why not?' It's always good to learn about cool stuff like science and robots and flying robots and flying robots with lasers!" Milan laughed as he joked with both of his hands in a shape of a gun, pointing his index fingers at a poster hanging in the cafe he pretended to shoot at it, making laser sounds for added effect. Even despite his energetic personality it did not stop Milan from asking his own questions. "Hey shortstop! You look nerdy, or something like that, what's a good place around here to visit for fun! I wanna see sciencey things while I'm in the city, you got any suggestions?" Milan questions as he leaned same table with the shorter girl, as he emphasized his robotic arm. "Stuff like this ha!"

"Oh yeah Aluna-Tallgirl person, if you gots ideas of fun places I wanna know, cause I'm bored walking around and looking at maps!"