Some days, it's just not easy, being a guard. Alright, true, there are many hours of inactivity, standing around, but think about it this way... There are many long hours, just standing around, with absolutely nothing to divert you or keep you focused. That's the failing of guardship. When you do a good job, you get left alone and you have nothing to do. Gateway guards have it a little easier. They get to meet people and hassle them. Sometimes, though, it's not for the best because people can be a headache. And sometimes, it can get a little weird.
This is one of those times.
We'll start with the setting. This is the main gate of Reajh, capital of Connlaoth. It is the largest city, the Grand Duke's city. Anyone who seems suspicious or magical in nature must be questioned. They had relief guards to keep watch for them while this happened, in some cases. In comes a person, a young lady. She can't be older than twenty, if that old at all. She is brown-haired and in work clothes, which was unusual. Now, there were plenty of people in Connlaoth who had dark hair, despite ancestry. It happened. However, the work clothing threw 'em. She was in pants and a shirt, not a blouse and a skirt, or a full-on dress. It's most common for the latter to occur in society, not the former.
It gets better.
So, boy clothes and brown hair, and also a leather belt with things on it. They recognized some of it as a pistol setup, as in the powder and wadding on one side, with the gun on the other. This was still relatively normal, in that ownership of a pistol was not a crime. You just don't see many ladies doing that. You also don't see them backpacking across Connlaoth alone either, but she was doing it. Still, the gun she had was different, though. It seemed to have some kind of hook attachement, which in the guard's mind meant that it was time for a hassling. He and his fellow guard lowered their halberds to bar her progress.
"Halt. What is that?"
"You'll have to be more specific."
"The gun."
"It's a gun."
"Yes, thank you, I gathered as much. Why is it like that?"
"It's a Grappler Gun. It's used for climbing."
"...what?"
"It shoots the hook up on a line, secures it, and helps you climb up using the spool-reel."
The device was...a rather weird ensemble. It was a reinforced grape-shot pistol with wheel-flint-lock on one side and - indeed - some kind of spool thing on the other. It was the weirdest non-magical thing the guard had ever seen. The other guard mused that someone could make money off of something like that. The young lady smiled at this, and said...
"I own the patent. I'm coming in to talk with the black powder people about something."
"You mean the cannon makers? Let her pass. She can't possibly harm them more than that can harm themselves."
The name on the patent sheet for the Grappler Gun - in the Reajh Guild of Official Records - was Bellows, Katherine Bellows, or Kate. They also had her name on some kind of specialized weapon called a Tri-Claw, which was in her pack. People looking at her would see just a smiling young lady. People who caused her trouble saw the smile disappear...and then they were in trouble. But Reajh was relatively civil. It was the Grand Duke's city, after all. You could find all kinds here, and there wasn't always trouble...usually.