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Kaelin chewed the last of the noodles, the warmth a welcome counterpoint to the city's perpetual chill. They pushed the empty bowl a few inches forward. "Obsolete to them," Kaelin said. "Useful to us. Half the 'dead tech' they scrap still runs better than the new stuff, just needs some coaxing. Or, yeah, a firmware update that doesn't ping corporate servers every five minutes about 'unauthorized modifications'." They picked at a loose thread on their sleeve. "Good thing there are plenty of sources for those 'modifications' when you know where to look."

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Glitch-Witch gave a short, dry nod, their gaze flicking from Kaelin’s retreating bowl to the precarious stack of components on their workbench. "Kill switches," they echoed, the words tasting like old code. "Corporate ghosts in the machine. Always trying to box you in." They tapped a finger against the grimy counter. "But there’s always a backdoor. Always a loose wire if you know where to look. Or a motherboard that screams loud enough when you try to bypass its little alarms." Glitch-Witch leaned forward slightly, a flicker of something that might have been amusement in their eyes. "Keeps things interesting, right?"