PittStop Auto Repair
and Tinkerbelle's Contraptions
The name of the place is PittStop Auto Repair.
It falls in that strange niche of both being a new fixture and having been there forever. The old-timers just call it that garage up on 4th. There's been a garage there as long as anyone can remember. Sometimes the name changes, sometimes parts of the building get torn down and rebuilt, sometimes the parking lot gets redone, sometimes there's new machines or new windows or new doors. It's the Shop of Theseus at this point, but in some capacity, it's always been there.
It's been the PittStop since October of '23. New sign, new ownership. Good to have someone in the place again, the old-timers said, after the last place got foreclosed on and it was empty for a few months. Some of them also say things like "aren't they going to get some more mechanics who are, um, qualified?"
By this they mean guys, because the PittStop's lead mechanic suffers from the unfortunate condition of being female, and is thus unable to tell a hex wrench from a spark plug - not that they would ever say that, but they do mean it, when they ask for someone more, um, qualified.
Said mechanic is Auraliese Mayhew Koch, who is, in fact, quite qualified, as anyone who actually gets their cars repaired there can tell you. She's also the co-owner, with the other co-owner being her father, but he doesn't live in the area. Also, he isn't a mechanic, but this does not stop some people from asking him car-related questions when he visits, because the answers to such things are stored in the testicles. Auraliese has many things to say about this, if she gets started, which is often. Fortunately, she usually expounds upon it to the transmission, while up to her elbows in a vehicle, thus saving people from having to reconsider their opinions.
Business isn't extremely fast - it's a new place, after all, or at least an old place under new ownership, but it does all right for itself - enough to limp along like an old VW beetle. Not fast, not pretty, but it'll get you where you're going. The mechanic doesn't mind. It's all about the journey, not about the destination, and sometimes along the journey you get to fix the cars.
For most people, that's enough - that's all the PittStop needs to be, and that's all it is. For a few people, though, there's just a little bit more to the place than there first appears to be.
It's the back room where the interesting things get put together. The mechanic has a little bit of a side gig going on, because she has a little bit of an ability that lets her do some interesting things with machinery, when it comes to other people with those little abilities. She can't make something out of nothing - when it comes to straight up technical design, you're probably better off hiring an engineer. What she can do, though, is see straight to the core of whatever little ability someone has, and come up with some sort of technology to work with it.
People usually ask her for weapons. It's not her business what they do with them - she doesn't pick sides, and it's generally suggested that people not try to pick one for her. Sometimes she wishes people would come up with something more interesting to work on, though. A super-powered electric wok would be fun, if she knew someone with the right powerset to make it work. But she'll do what she's asked for, or at least give it a shot, as long as they're paying.
How much they're paying depends a lot on who they are. If they can afford it, it'll cost - but interesting things for interesting people, well, she might make an exception if they're broke. More than the money, she just wants to know how it worked out - give her a chance to fiddle with it again, see if she can make it better - see what she can do with it. Because again, it's all about the journey, not about the destination - at least for her.
For the others, maybe not. So if you're someone like that - and you've got a destination in mind - and you want someone to help you out with the journey... well, just come in some time when it's not too busy. Appointments are preferred, but not required.
Just ask for Tinkerbelle.