esseresse
R'lyth Power Make-up
- Location
- divorceville, state of depression
- Pronouns
- They/Her
Jokes on you checkered paint is a real thing, just ask Corporeal Hate.
All Wo-rk and No Play: An Abyssal's Trials in the Job Market (KC)
- Thread starter PyrrhicSteel
- Start date
Hell on Strikers
Tank Cat
- Location
- The Commonwealth
Its next to the Checkered paint, the ID10-T forms and the Keys for the Motor pool.
There might be a Snipe there too.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
Every motor pool I ever dealt with had a locking gate, so the keys to it were a real thing.
Otherwise yes, all snipe hunts
Otherwise yes, all snipe hunts
- Location
- California
Honestly, since Trin is essentially just an extra-spooky shipgirl, there might be a chance that some Magical Sparkly Abyssal Bullshit will allow her to actually find a pallet of Breaker Coolant...
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
IIRC when its Abyssal Bullshit it is Magical Smokey Abyssal Bullshit; Magical (Ship)Girls get shiny sparkle magic, Abyssals get evil smoke magic.
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- Location
- Somewhere
In one of the other threads it was MSSB (Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit) vs BAEB (Blasphemous Abyssal Eldritch Bullshit)
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
That also works, though I would still call for a 'smokey' in there somewhere, due to the fact that Abyssals are almost always depicted as being surrounded by a kind of black smoke aura. Visually; magical girls get sparkles and shinies, evil monsters get choking black smoke.
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So Lee's a complete fuckup all around.
Watch them ask Trit to make a circuit and she does it better and with less material wasted.
Magical Spooky Abyssal Bullshit is the one I know.
Watch them ask Trit to make a circuit and she does it better and with less material wasted.
Magical Spooky Abyssal Bullshit is the one I know.
Otherwise yes, all snipe hunts
When I was in the boy scouts I got the boys who tried to send me on a snipe hunt sent on a snipe hunt themselves.
You see, I went off a little ways, went around to the opposite side of the fire. In the dark. I stayed quiet as the adults asked where I was, and then sent the responsible boys out to get me as I 'hadn't come back'.
So they got to spend an hour in the woods trying to find me.
Yep, worst case you send her along to the next training group, she's great at bending pipe, less so for pulling wire. Oh well.
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27: Circuit Breaker Coolant
PyrrhicSteel
Look natural.
- Location
- Idaho
Wandering about the construction site felt like a completely different experience. With the majority of people focused on their own work, the Abyssal felt almost invisible as she searched. In a way, it reminded her of activity at the Supply Depot Princess's base, although if she'd tried walking around there she'd almost immediately be confronted by one of the Princess's fleet.
Maybe that was a sign of acceptance here, but it certainly didn't feel like one. It was… strange. She'd only seen so many people in one place during her failed attempt to recon Seattle, but there everyone was simply walking from one place to another. Here, a million different tasks were being performed, hundreds of humans focused on completing one goal, and she was just… walking. She'd take this over the attention she'd been getting in the morning any day, but this was unnerving in its own way.
The Wo-class's rangefinders flitted over each human she passed, looking for the telltale sign of a blue helmet. She'd spotted a few from building two, but now that she'd returned to the ground she'd lost track of him. If she couldn't find a loose electrician soon, she'd skip to Lee's suggestion of checking Building One, but if the option was available…
There, just to starboard!
The man had been kneeling down, inspecting some device connected to the base of a metal box. When Trinitite had last looked at him, his helmet had been concealed as he hunched over, so she'd given him no attention until she'd almost completely walked by him.
Attempting to come to a full stop, Trintite jammed her boots into the mud. Of course, the tread slid in the sandy mud, and some desperate flailing was the only thing that saved her from a sudden meeting with the ground and critical damage to her dignity.
Once she'd recovered, she focused on the Electrician.
He looked… really busy, actually. She couldn't get a good view of his face, but the paper he'd propped next to the machine looked twice as intricate as the employment applications that had confounded her, while the human made constant updates from the meter he'd wired into the conduit. If she interrupted him, he probably wouldn't be particularly inclined to help her, so…
So she waited, her thoughts wandering as the human concluded his important business.
Trinitite had never stowed her rigging for this long. She was no stranger to it, stowing for repairs or relaxing in general, but incidents like this one made her really miss being able to rely on her lookouts. Of course, strolling around the construction site with an extra pair of eyes and two additional pairs of limbs was perhaps the worst idea she could think of, but it was starting to dawn on her that her rigging and fairies weren't going to see much use anymore. It was… a bit sad, really. She'd always taken that rigging for granted.
"Can I help you?"
The electrician was looking up now, a questioning look on his face. Either he was done, or Trinitite's hovering had interrupted him anyways.
"Uh, yes!" The Abyssal nodded. "Would you know what circuit breaker coolant would look like?"
The human clearly didn't have any on him, so the Carrier figured a question to clarify exactly what he was looking for would work better. She could always ask a followup if the man looked like he knew what he was doing.
He blinked.
"Um…" He replied, looking back towards the box he'd been working on. "You don't mean transformer oil, do you?"
"No." Trinitite confirmed. "Lee was pretty specific on 'Breaker Coolant.'"
"Huh." The man scratched his cheek. "Why would you need that?"
Trinitite shrugged. She'd asked some of her crew while she'd been looking for an electrician, and they'd emphasized that air cooling worked just fine for her breakers.
"I know if you're dealing with really high voltage stuff," The man continued, lost in thought, "you'd need some pretty serious circuit breakers to survive the kind of arcing you'd get. Those things could be actively cooled, if you want to save on weight and space."
Ah, that made sense. With how small everything was in human society, they probably cared a lot about that kind of thing, didn't they? Her electricians didn't seem particularly impressed with that explanation, but Trinitite was inclined to go with the opinion of those more familiar with human technology.
"Do we have any?" She asked, hopefully.
"I don't know." He replied, shrugging himself. "I'm new here."
Oh.
- - -
Now that several minutes had been successfully wasted, Trinitite charted a least-time course for Building One. Given how the skeletal structure and the cranes attending to it dominated the worksite, that wasn't particularly difficult.
The Abyssal didn't pay as much attention to the workers around her, this time around. She still watched her surroundings, and her curiosity was consistently peaked as she saw a human doing this or that, but if she wanted to salvage Lee's impression of her, she needed to get some coolant back to him as soon as possible. Attempting to decipher everyone's job could come later.
"Hey, there!"
The Wo-Class's gaze snapped to the source of the noise. The human who'd shouted was looking at her, unfortunately. Trinitite briefly considered blowing the random worker off to continue on her task, but she wasn't looking to make any enemies in her new fleet, so…
"Yeah?"
Hopefully, the man only wanted to give her a short warning or something, then he'd let Trinitite continue. However, The Carrier tempered her expectations when the man abandoned his work and approached Trinitite without any sense of urgency or seriousness.
"Haven't seen you around before." He commented, nodding.
Deep, she didn't have time for this.
"A lot of people work here." Trinitite pointed out. There was a chance he knew everyone on the worksite, but given the sheer number of humans she'd seen here, Trinitite doubted that.
"I wouldn't forget a pretty face like yours, Miss." He replied, a smirk on his face.
"Pretty?" Trinitite echoed, unsure of the man's meaning. You could perform a pretty good torpedo run or be given a pretty bad time by enemy jets, but Trinitite couldn't really wrap her mind around how that word fit into the human's sentence. Had she misheard?
That must not have been the response he was expecting, surprise overtaking the human's expression as he processed the question. The human had about the same height as Dan, but for some reason Trinitite felt much less intimidated by his stature. Finally, he chuckled, his confidence returning.
"Come on," He started, emphasizing his doubt. "Don't tell me nobody's told you that before?"
"They haven't." She deadpanned. "Is-" She started, second guessing herself. If she hadn't sunk several minutes into asking a random person a question they couldn't answer, she might have humored the man, but with her current situation?
"Is this important?"
She had a reputation to salvage. Preserving her standing in the fleet wouldn't mean anything if she wasn't allowed to work here.
It was like she'd hit him. The smile disappeared, and he took a step back.
"Hey, no need to get snappy." The man's eyes widened, his palms out.
Had she been snappy?
"Sorry." She apologized, before taking a step back and pointing towards building one. "I just have a time-sensitive mission at the moment."
"Whatever it is," the man replied, placing his hand on Trinitite's shoulder. "It can wait."
Okay, now he was just interfering with her objectives.
The Abyssal turned, leaving. The man's grip on Trinitite tightened, and for a moment it looked like she was going to lose traction on the sandy mud below, but the other human's boots gave out first and he ended up tumbling sideways. The man's grip on Trinitite's safety vest tightened for a moment, before disappearing altogether as he focused on his new home in the mud.
Trinitite wished she could have been more polite to him, but she had no patience for someone trying to impede her mission, especially one as important as this one.
Judging by the laughter that drifted from aft of her, it hadn't gone that poorly anyways. Her reputation with that human might have been damaged, but it seems his comrades had enjoyed the encounter.
Come to think of it, the human had been awfully cheery when talking to Trinitite. Nobody acted that friendly with people they knew, and although many humans she'd talked to had been cordial, the way this one had spoken didn't sit right with her.
A thought struck the abyssal, and she froze. That hadn't been harassment, had it?
Even after watching the training video, Trinitite wasn't certain what sexual harassment actually was. Maybe he really did just want to know everyone on the worksite.
Deep, how did they manage to make things so complicated?
- - -
"What floor?" The man queried, pinning Trinitite with a lifeless stare.
"Uh…" She stalled. Wondering why she hadn't asked Lee this question. "Where are the electricians working?"
"Eleven." He replied, and Trinitite nodded. The human grunted, shifting his focus to the next man who'd entered the elevator. Once it didn't look like anyone else wanted aboard the elevator, he secured the door, before his thumb pressed one of the three buttons it had been hovering over. With an uncomfortable lurch, the elevator started upwards, and with no sound but the elevator's laboring motor, Trinitite was left with her own thoughts.
Well, it hadn't taken long to find a job worse than bending rebar. Trinitite considered herself a patient ship, but spending hours in a moving metal cage, with nothing to do but push three different buttons and operate a door, sounded like a miserable time. You'd think, with so many humans passing through this elevator, that the operator could spend the time learning something about everyone passing through, but the human was dead silent.
Maybe it was the sheer size of Dan's fleet, but there was an uncanny lack of comradery here. It reminded her more of the loose coalitions that Princesses threw together to protect convoys than any proper fleet.
She couldn't really complain about that, though. The less questions she was forced to answer, the better her half-formed cover story would hold.
The elevator lurched to a stop, and the operator gave Trinitite a pointed look. Guess she was at her floor, then. The Wo-class left, the steel cage closing wordlessly behind her. As the elevator ascended again, Trinitite had her first unobstructed view of human territory from this altitude.
Maybe that wasn't entirely accurate. She'd seen plenty of former human territory from much higher, through the view of her aircraft, but given she probably wasn't going to use those for a while, this was the closest image she was going to get to compare with.
The area designated as 'Redmond' on her stolen charts wasn't underwhelming, as far as human towns went, although it didn't hold a candle to the ruins of Singapore and Hong Kong. She couldn't get a good read on its width, as the forest mingled with, swallowed, and blurred its edges, but while several central buildings were large, they didn't really compare in height to those she'd seen in her brief venture into Seattle. The abyssal had hoped to get a better view of the major city, but it seemed the light rain was enough to reduce the distant structures to a uniform blur.
Come to think of it, this building wouldn't have been particularly out of place in Seattle or other large cities she'd seen, but out here it would be about as inconspicuous as a Re-class. There were probably thousands more humans who were already using the structure as a landmark to help them navigate Washington.
She… wasn't sure how to think about that.
There was a closer town, and judging by the size of it's buildings an equally well-established one, but with the lights in her chartroom out, her crew couldn't quite make out the designation the map had given it. She'd need to find somewhere she could safely restore power to her tower's lighting before she could get an answer from her crew.
Or she could ask for the 'road map' itself and read it, but this wasn't the time or place for that.
Or, her crew could bring a battle lantern into the chartroom. That couldn't be that hard, could it?
Okay, with all the hatches in her island open and every mirror aboard strategically placed to allow in natural light, maybe there was a chance the illumination from battle lanterns could escape, spoiling her disguise. She needed to find time to test that out. Still, it seemed like a fairly obvious idea that could have saved her infirmaries a lot of work. She'd long gotten used to hearing her crew accidentally tumbling down ladders, banging their shins on equipment, and tripping in hatchways, but she was sure it had gotten old with them fast.
Besides its number, floor eleven in building one wasn't much different from floor two in building two. It didn't take much effort to spot the small squadron of blue-helmeted humans. Most were threading wire through conduits like she'd been, although they were threading wire from a large spool instead of using a predetermined length like Lee had been doing.
...Why hadn't Lee been doing it this way? Trinitite wouldn't have had half as many problems if she'd had more wire to work with.
A group of electricians were clustered around one of those portable instrument consoles humans made. Given how intently they were focused on the slab-like machine, it must have been displaying something of import. An inventory sheet, maybe? Operation plans?
"I don't like leaving all of this to one breaker." The man holding the slab shook his head, pointing at something. "I know you've been doing this for ten floors already, but this looks like a fire hazard."
Fire? Trinitite was far too acquainted with that. The Abyssal paused, giving the group their space. Asking for breaker coolant could wait until they had the incendiary problem under control.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration." A second man replied, pointing below him. "This is still solidly within code."
The first man shook his head, sighing.
"I don't know, I feel we're cutting it a bit close-"
"Welcome to the real world, kid." The second man clapped the first on the back. "They want this cheap, and fast. The breakers will wear a bit faster than we'd like, but King County will be knocking this whole thing down in ten years, anyways."
He broke off the conversation, glancing towards Trinitite.
What- what was that?
"What do you want?"
She should have answered, but the abyssal's focus was momentarily interrupted by the tuft of hair poking out between the man's mouth and nose. Why hadn't she seen anyone else with hair like that? Sure, a lot of humans had had some hair on their face, but this was just so… localized. That couldn't be natural, could it?
"Hey. Hello?"
"Oh!" Trinitite jumped, forcing herself to look away from that thing. What was she here for? "Uh, Lee sent me, from building two."
"Go on." He replied, his tone impatient. Trinitite couldn't get a good read on his face, because her gaze kept drifting down to that. He didn't have hair anywhere else on his face…
"Well, we don't have any Breaker Coolant, and apparently the Toolshed is fresh out-"
"Breaker Coolant?" The man interrupted, and Trinitite jumped. Had she just accidentally insulted him, or was he noticing her staring? Trinitite wasn't trying to, really!
The human sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and turning away.
"I am not in the mood for his bullshit today… Okay." He looked back up, squaring his shoulders. Trinitite couldn't help but watch as the patch of hair shifted with the man's jaw. "Go bug Cook at the Toolshed about it. You know where that is, right?"
The way he asked implied he was expecting one answer, and while it was a lie, Trinitite felt her showing up was causing him plenty of trouble anyways. Better not give him an excuse to punish her.
"Yeah."
"Alright." He stated, waving his hand dismissively. "Shoo. Tell Lee I said fuck you, alright?"
"Aye… Aye?" By the time Trinitite had finished her salute, the human had already turned and left.
Huh. Seeing how busy everyone else was, Trinitite was starting to get a bit anxious. This whole Breaker Coolant thing was starting to feel like a waste of time.
- - -
The elevator lurched to a halt, and the defeated Carrier shuffled out onto the sandy mud. She could go and visit the toolshed, wherever that was, but she suspected the result would be the same. Given the fact one trained electrician didn't know the stuff existed, and the other was clearly just trying to get Trinitite to leave, this 'breaker coolant' probably wasn't that important. Trinitite had been given this mission because it was going to take a while, and perhaps no other reason.
That meant Lee must hate her. She'd already failed the Electrician's assessment, meaning no matter how well she'd handled the rebar, Dan probably wasn't going to allow her to keep working.
That meant more awkward interviews, more forms, and more time watching her hold slowly empty without any way to refill it.
Maybe… maybe that could wait, for a bit. She'd barely scratched her haul from her raid on the warehouse, meaning she had plenty of time to secure a job. Since this wasn't working out, maybe a bit more intelligence gathering in the Library she'd found would be in order, before she dived back into the ordeal that was finding a job.
"Whadda you doing here?"
Trinitite froze. She'd only been a part of this fleet for a few hours, but it would be impossible to forget Dan's odd accent. She looked up, perhaps more surprised than she should have been to run into her commander.
Dan Pratt had been walking with someone else, but for now both their eyes were locked onto her.
"Ah!" Trinitite stiffened, giving her commander a salute. Remembering the large human didn't look impressed by such a gesture, Trinitite's gloved hand snapped back to her sides almost immediately. "I'm looking for circuit breaker coolant for Lee."
Before saying that, Dan had seemed curious, but after mentioning the coolant, the man's features hardened.
"Circuit breaker coolant?" He asked, incredulous.
"Aye."
Dan sighed, looking back to the human following him.
"Go back to Lee." He commanded, his voice stern. Trinitite knew he was not amused, but something told her his anger wasn't directed at her. "Let him know I said I have some in my office."
That was a relief.
"I will!" Trinitite straightened. Knowing she'd solved Lee's problem with a simple question was a huge weight out of hold. "Thank you!"
"No problem." Dan nodded, turning away to continue talking with his partner. The pair walked away, leaving Trinitite to deliver the good news.
The way he'd said it hadn't made it sound like that, though. Had Dan been trying to hide or save the coolant, just in case?
A theory started to form in Trinitite's mind, honed by over a year of watching political infighting between Abyssal Princesses from a neutral perspective. Lee had said something about the leader of a section of the base termed a 'Toolshed' stealing important supplies to sell to a different fleet. She'd be surprised if such rumors hadn't made their way up to Dan, and while some Princesses would use a rumor as a good enough excuse to punish an underling, if this Cook was skilled enough they'd probably want evidence before cracking down.
Maybe Dan, knowing the value of Circuit Breaker Coolant, had set aside a personal stash. When someone came asking for that spare coolant long before they should have, that meant there must be a second drain on Dan's resources he hadn't known before. By performing Lee's busywork, Trinitite had exposed a traitor in Dan's mist!
No matter what Lee thought, surely she'd be rewarded for this, right? A job here was practically guaranteed!
Feeling much more chipper. Trinitite charted a course back to building two. She couldn't wait to deliver the good news back to Lee!
For some reason, he didn't take it well. Had Trinitite missed something?
Maybe that was a sign of acceptance here, but it certainly didn't feel like one. It was… strange. She'd only seen so many people in one place during her failed attempt to recon Seattle, but there everyone was simply walking from one place to another. Here, a million different tasks were being performed, hundreds of humans focused on completing one goal, and she was just… walking. She'd take this over the attention she'd been getting in the morning any day, but this was unnerving in its own way.
The Wo-class's rangefinders flitted over each human she passed, looking for the telltale sign of a blue helmet. She'd spotted a few from building two, but now that she'd returned to the ground she'd lost track of him. If she couldn't find a loose electrician soon, she'd skip to Lee's suggestion of checking Building One, but if the option was available…
There, just to starboard!
The man had been kneeling down, inspecting some device connected to the base of a metal box. When Trinitite had last looked at him, his helmet had been concealed as he hunched over, so she'd given him no attention until she'd almost completely walked by him.
Attempting to come to a full stop, Trintite jammed her boots into the mud. Of course, the tread slid in the sandy mud, and some desperate flailing was the only thing that saved her from a sudden meeting with the ground and critical damage to her dignity.
Once she'd recovered, she focused on the Electrician.
He looked… really busy, actually. She couldn't get a good view of his face, but the paper he'd propped next to the machine looked twice as intricate as the employment applications that had confounded her, while the human made constant updates from the meter he'd wired into the conduit. If she interrupted him, he probably wouldn't be particularly inclined to help her, so…
So she waited, her thoughts wandering as the human concluded his important business.
Trinitite had never stowed her rigging for this long. She was no stranger to it, stowing for repairs or relaxing in general, but incidents like this one made her really miss being able to rely on her lookouts. Of course, strolling around the construction site with an extra pair of eyes and two additional pairs of limbs was perhaps the worst idea she could think of, but it was starting to dawn on her that her rigging and fairies weren't going to see much use anymore. It was… a bit sad, really. She'd always taken that rigging for granted.
"Can I help you?"
The electrician was looking up now, a questioning look on his face. Either he was done, or Trinitite's hovering had interrupted him anyways.
"Uh, yes!" The Abyssal nodded. "Would you know what circuit breaker coolant would look like?"
The human clearly didn't have any on him, so the Carrier figured a question to clarify exactly what he was looking for would work better. She could always ask a followup if the man looked like he knew what he was doing.
He blinked.
"Um…" He replied, looking back towards the box he'd been working on. "You don't mean transformer oil, do you?"
"No." Trinitite confirmed. "Lee was pretty specific on 'Breaker Coolant.'"
"Huh." The man scratched his cheek. "Why would you need that?"
Trinitite shrugged. She'd asked some of her crew while she'd been looking for an electrician, and they'd emphasized that air cooling worked just fine for her breakers.
"I know if you're dealing with really high voltage stuff," The man continued, lost in thought, "you'd need some pretty serious circuit breakers to survive the kind of arcing you'd get. Those things could be actively cooled, if you want to save on weight and space."
Ah, that made sense. With how small everything was in human society, they probably cared a lot about that kind of thing, didn't they? Her electricians didn't seem particularly impressed with that explanation, but Trinitite was inclined to go with the opinion of those more familiar with human technology.
"Do we have any?" She asked, hopefully.
"I don't know." He replied, shrugging himself. "I'm new here."
Oh.
- - -
Now that several minutes had been successfully wasted, Trinitite charted a least-time course for Building One. Given how the skeletal structure and the cranes attending to it dominated the worksite, that wasn't particularly difficult.
The Abyssal didn't pay as much attention to the workers around her, this time around. She still watched her surroundings, and her curiosity was consistently peaked as she saw a human doing this or that, but if she wanted to salvage Lee's impression of her, she needed to get some coolant back to him as soon as possible. Attempting to decipher everyone's job could come later.
"Hey, there!"
The Wo-Class's gaze snapped to the source of the noise. The human who'd shouted was looking at her, unfortunately. Trinitite briefly considered blowing the random worker off to continue on her task, but she wasn't looking to make any enemies in her new fleet, so…
"Yeah?"
Hopefully, the man only wanted to give her a short warning or something, then he'd let Trinitite continue. However, The Carrier tempered her expectations when the man abandoned his work and approached Trinitite without any sense of urgency or seriousness.
"Haven't seen you around before." He commented, nodding.
Deep, she didn't have time for this.
"A lot of people work here." Trinitite pointed out. There was a chance he knew everyone on the worksite, but given the sheer number of humans she'd seen here, Trinitite doubted that.
"I wouldn't forget a pretty face like yours, Miss." He replied, a smirk on his face.
"Pretty?" Trinitite echoed, unsure of the man's meaning. You could perform a pretty good torpedo run or be given a pretty bad time by enemy jets, but Trinitite couldn't really wrap her mind around how that word fit into the human's sentence. Had she misheard?
That must not have been the response he was expecting, surprise overtaking the human's expression as he processed the question. The human had about the same height as Dan, but for some reason Trinitite felt much less intimidated by his stature. Finally, he chuckled, his confidence returning.
"Come on," He started, emphasizing his doubt. "Don't tell me nobody's told you that before?"
"They haven't." She deadpanned. "Is-" She started, second guessing herself. If she hadn't sunk several minutes into asking a random person a question they couldn't answer, she might have humored the man, but with her current situation?
"Is this important?"
She had a reputation to salvage. Preserving her standing in the fleet wouldn't mean anything if she wasn't allowed to work here.
It was like she'd hit him. The smile disappeared, and he took a step back.
"Hey, no need to get snappy." The man's eyes widened, his palms out.
Had she been snappy?
"Sorry." She apologized, before taking a step back and pointing towards building one. "I just have a time-sensitive mission at the moment."
"Whatever it is," the man replied, placing his hand on Trinitite's shoulder. "It can wait."
Okay, now he was just interfering with her objectives.
The Abyssal turned, leaving. The man's grip on Trinitite tightened, and for a moment it looked like she was going to lose traction on the sandy mud below, but the other human's boots gave out first and he ended up tumbling sideways. The man's grip on Trinitite's safety vest tightened for a moment, before disappearing altogether as he focused on his new home in the mud.
Trinitite wished she could have been more polite to him, but she had no patience for someone trying to impede her mission, especially one as important as this one.
Judging by the laughter that drifted from aft of her, it hadn't gone that poorly anyways. Her reputation with that human might have been damaged, but it seems his comrades had enjoyed the encounter.
Come to think of it, the human had been awfully cheery when talking to Trinitite. Nobody acted that friendly with people they knew, and although many humans she'd talked to had been cordial, the way this one had spoken didn't sit right with her.
A thought struck the abyssal, and she froze. That hadn't been harassment, had it?
Even after watching the training video, Trinitite wasn't certain what sexual harassment actually was. Maybe he really did just want to know everyone on the worksite.
Deep, how did they manage to make things so complicated?
- - -
"What floor?" The man queried, pinning Trinitite with a lifeless stare.
"Uh…" She stalled. Wondering why she hadn't asked Lee this question. "Where are the electricians working?"
"Eleven." He replied, and Trinitite nodded. The human grunted, shifting his focus to the next man who'd entered the elevator. Once it didn't look like anyone else wanted aboard the elevator, he secured the door, before his thumb pressed one of the three buttons it had been hovering over. With an uncomfortable lurch, the elevator started upwards, and with no sound but the elevator's laboring motor, Trinitite was left with her own thoughts.
Well, it hadn't taken long to find a job worse than bending rebar. Trinitite considered herself a patient ship, but spending hours in a moving metal cage, with nothing to do but push three different buttons and operate a door, sounded like a miserable time. You'd think, with so many humans passing through this elevator, that the operator could spend the time learning something about everyone passing through, but the human was dead silent.
Maybe it was the sheer size of Dan's fleet, but there was an uncanny lack of comradery here. It reminded her more of the loose coalitions that Princesses threw together to protect convoys than any proper fleet.
She couldn't really complain about that, though. The less questions she was forced to answer, the better her half-formed cover story would hold.
The elevator lurched to a stop, and the operator gave Trinitite a pointed look. Guess she was at her floor, then. The Wo-class left, the steel cage closing wordlessly behind her. As the elevator ascended again, Trinitite had her first unobstructed view of human territory from this altitude.
Maybe that wasn't entirely accurate. She'd seen plenty of former human territory from much higher, through the view of her aircraft, but given she probably wasn't going to use those for a while, this was the closest image she was going to get to compare with.
The area designated as 'Redmond' on her stolen charts wasn't underwhelming, as far as human towns went, although it didn't hold a candle to the ruins of Singapore and Hong Kong. She couldn't get a good read on its width, as the forest mingled with, swallowed, and blurred its edges, but while several central buildings were large, they didn't really compare in height to those she'd seen in her brief venture into Seattle. The abyssal had hoped to get a better view of the major city, but it seemed the light rain was enough to reduce the distant structures to a uniform blur.
Come to think of it, this building wouldn't have been particularly out of place in Seattle or other large cities she'd seen, but out here it would be about as inconspicuous as a Re-class. There were probably thousands more humans who were already using the structure as a landmark to help them navigate Washington.
She… wasn't sure how to think about that.
There was a closer town, and judging by the size of it's buildings an equally well-established one, but with the lights in her chartroom out, her crew couldn't quite make out the designation the map had given it. She'd need to find somewhere she could safely restore power to her tower's lighting before she could get an answer from her crew.
Or she could ask for the 'road map' itself and read it, but this wasn't the time or place for that.
Or, her crew could bring a battle lantern into the chartroom. That couldn't be that hard, could it?
Okay, with all the hatches in her island open and every mirror aboard strategically placed to allow in natural light, maybe there was a chance the illumination from battle lanterns could escape, spoiling her disguise. She needed to find time to test that out. Still, it seemed like a fairly obvious idea that could have saved her infirmaries a lot of work. She'd long gotten used to hearing her crew accidentally tumbling down ladders, banging their shins on equipment, and tripping in hatchways, but she was sure it had gotten old with them fast.
Besides its number, floor eleven in building one wasn't much different from floor two in building two. It didn't take much effort to spot the small squadron of blue-helmeted humans. Most were threading wire through conduits like she'd been, although they were threading wire from a large spool instead of using a predetermined length like Lee had been doing.
...Why hadn't Lee been doing it this way? Trinitite wouldn't have had half as many problems if she'd had more wire to work with.
A group of electricians were clustered around one of those portable instrument consoles humans made. Given how intently they were focused on the slab-like machine, it must have been displaying something of import. An inventory sheet, maybe? Operation plans?
"I don't like leaving all of this to one breaker." The man holding the slab shook his head, pointing at something. "I know you've been doing this for ten floors already, but this looks like a fire hazard."
Fire? Trinitite was far too acquainted with that. The Abyssal paused, giving the group their space. Asking for breaker coolant could wait until they had the incendiary problem under control.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration." A second man replied, pointing below him. "This is still solidly within code."
The first man shook his head, sighing.
"I don't know, I feel we're cutting it a bit close-"
"Welcome to the real world, kid." The second man clapped the first on the back. "They want this cheap, and fast. The breakers will wear a bit faster than we'd like, but King County will be knocking this whole thing down in ten years, anyways."
He broke off the conversation, glancing towards Trinitite.
What- what was that?
"What do you want?"
She should have answered, but the abyssal's focus was momentarily interrupted by the tuft of hair poking out between the man's mouth and nose. Why hadn't she seen anyone else with hair like that? Sure, a lot of humans had had some hair on their face, but this was just so… localized. That couldn't be natural, could it?
"Hey. Hello?"
"Oh!" Trinitite jumped, forcing herself to look away from that thing. What was she here for? "Uh, Lee sent me, from building two."
"Go on." He replied, his tone impatient. Trinitite couldn't get a good read on his face, because her gaze kept drifting down to that. He didn't have hair anywhere else on his face…
"Well, we don't have any Breaker Coolant, and apparently the Toolshed is fresh out-"
"Breaker Coolant?" The man interrupted, and Trinitite jumped. Had she just accidentally insulted him, or was he noticing her staring? Trinitite wasn't trying to, really!
The human sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and turning away.
"I am not in the mood for his bullshit today… Okay." He looked back up, squaring his shoulders. Trinitite couldn't help but watch as the patch of hair shifted with the man's jaw. "Go bug Cook at the Toolshed about it. You know where that is, right?"
The way he asked implied he was expecting one answer, and while it was a lie, Trinitite felt her showing up was causing him plenty of trouble anyways. Better not give him an excuse to punish her.
"Yeah."
"Alright." He stated, waving his hand dismissively. "Shoo. Tell Lee I said fuck you, alright?"
"Aye… Aye?" By the time Trinitite had finished her salute, the human had already turned and left.
Huh. Seeing how busy everyone else was, Trinitite was starting to get a bit anxious. This whole Breaker Coolant thing was starting to feel like a waste of time.
- - -
The elevator lurched to a halt, and the defeated Carrier shuffled out onto the sandy mud. She could go and visit the toolshed, wherever that was, but she suspected the result would be the same. Given the fact one trained electrician didn't know the stuff existed, and the other was clearly just trying to get Trinitite to leave, this 'breaker coolant' probably wasn't that important. Trinitite had been given this mission because it was going to take a while, and perhaps no other reason.
That meant Lee must hate her. She'd already failed the Electrician's assessment, meaning no matter how well she'd handled the rebar, Dan probably wasn't going to allow her to keep working.
That meant more awkward interviews, more forms, and more time watching her hold slowly empty without any way to refill it.
Maybe… maybe that could wait, for a bit. She'd barely scratched her haul from her raid on the warehouse, meaning she had plenty of time to secure a job. Since this wasn't working out, maybe a bit more intelligence gathering in the Library she'd found would be in order, before she dived back into the ordeal that was finding a job.
"Whadda you doing here?"
Trinitite froze. She'd only been a part of this fleet for a few hours, but it would be impossible to forget Dan's odd accent. She looked up, perhaps more surprised than she should have been to run into her commander.
Dan Pratt had been walking with someone else, but for now both their eyes were locked onto her.
"Ah!" Trinitite stiffened, giving her commander a salute. Remembering the large human didn't look impressed by such a gesture, Trinitite's gloved hand snapped back to her sides almost immediately. "I'm looking for circuit breaker coolant for Lee."
Before saying that, Dan had seemed curious, but after mentioning the coolant, the man's features hardened.
"Circuit breaker coolant?" He asked, incredulous.
"Aye."
Dan sighed, looking back to the human following him.
"Go back to Lee." He commanded, his voice stern. Trinitite knew he was not amused, but something told her his anger wasn't directed at her. "Let him know I said I have some in my office."
That was a relief.
"I will!" Trinitite straightened. Knowing she'd solved Lee's problem with a simple question was a huge weight out of hold. "Thank you!"
"No problem." Dan nodded, turning away to continue talking with his partner. The pair walked away, leaving Trinitite to deliver the good news.
The way he'd said it hadn't made it sound like that, though. Had Dan been trying to hide or save the coolant, just in case?
A theory started to form in Trinitite's mind, honed by over a year of watching political infighting between Abyssal Princesses from a neutral perspective. Lee had said something about the leader of a section of the base termed a 'Toolshed' stealing important supplies to sell to a different fleet. She'd be surprised if such rumors hadn't made their way up to Dan, and while some Princesses would use a rumor as a good enough excuse to punish an underling, if this Cook was skilled enough they'd probably want evidence before cracking down.
Maybe Dan, knowing the value of Circuit Breaker Coolant, had set aside a personal stash. When someone came asking for that spare coolant long before they should have, that meant there must be a second drain on Dan's resources he hadn't known before. By performing Lee's busywork, Trinitite had exposed a traitor in Dan's mist!
No matter what Lee thought, surely she'd be rewarded for this, right? A job here was practically guaranteed!
Feeling much more chipper. Trinitite charted a course back to building two. She couldn't wait to deliver the good news back to Lee!
For some reason, he didn't take it well. Had Trinitite missed something?
I think this is the fic's first 'fluff' chapter. It feels a bit weird to write something without any intention of furthering the plot or creating lasting consequences, but I had a good amount of fun writing this chapter, and hopefully you had the same reading it.
As always, criticism is welcome, especially since I left a lot of my research into how electricians work in the construction with the feeling I still didn't know anything.
Next chapter will be another interlude, although I'm split on which topic I'll cover. I don't want to commit to a 'two mainline chapters, one interlude' structure, but it seems to work well for this part of the story.
As always, criticism is welcome, especially since I left a lot of my research into how electricians work in the construction with the feeling I still didn't know anything.
Next chapter will be another interlude, although I'm split on which topic I'll cover. I don't want to commit to a 'two mainline chapters, one interlude' structure, but it seems to work well for this part of the story.
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SimpsonFly
Posty Person
- Location
- Earth, Sol, Orion Arm
No lasting consequences? I believe that Lee and Lewdboi are going to remember those interations with her for a loooong time.
Edit: Hey, has Trinny ever intereacted with a dog? What do they think of her?
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Victor-Z
The Grinning One
- Location
- Endo Nesa
Mr. Harrasment tries to get back at Trin, only to be rewarded with a face-full of abyssal fist. Nobody blames her.
SimpsonFly
Posty Person
- Location
- Earth, Sol, Orion Arm
Especially not him, since he would no longer have a face. Or a head.
Twei
I have a face!
- Location
- the land where they write things
- Pronouns
- They/Them
As fluff chapters go, it feels alright. We already know that Trinite has no idea what she's doing, but it's funny enough watching her bumble around that I don't mind too much?
It's when you get into ten chapters of the same stuff that it becomes a problem, imo.
It's when you get into ten chapters of the same stuff that it becomes a problem, imo.
- Location
- Elsewhere
I don't believe you.
I think you're trying to throw us off from the critical mission about Breaker Coolant.
I think it will be a critical mission objective throughout the story, she will end up crossing the country tracking down the breaker coolant black market, driving all the intelligence agencies up the wall.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A lovely read. I wonder if Lee will assume Trin tattled about his task as revenge? Given her issues with working with wiring I don't suppose he really matters in the long run, unless it makes him more inclined to listen to that guy ranting about Abyssals Among Us!...
He really should know better than to try again after he's already been dragged through the mud.
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
I have no idea what you're talking about with this being a filler chapter: isn't the point of this story seeing an abyssal fail upwards at pretending to be a human? This is the main plot! That nonsense about the military is just required setup to keep the story going, right?
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Hmm, you know, I hadn't considered it before, but transformer oil could arguably be said to fit the description of 'breaker coolant'.
At the very least, it's the closest thing to breaker coolant that actually exists, and if circuit breakers did need coolant, they would probably use transformer oil for that. (Plus heat exchangers.)
At the very least, it's the closest thing to breaker coolant that actually exists, and if circuit breakers did need coolant, they would probably use transformer oil for that. (Plus heat exchangers.)
'An abyssal fails upwards at pretending to be human.' Is the perfect blurb for this story, I love it.
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- Location
- Pacific NW
Thing is any transformers would be kept outside of the building for a very important reason. Transformer oil as far as I remember used to contain tons of PCBs. Which have lots of nasty cancer causing effects when they get in contact with humans. Any project putting a transformer or anything contain PCBs inside a building intended to house anybody, let alone refugees, would get shutdown for environmental reasons fast and hard.
Plus, when a transformer lets go, it's never a small event as they tend to blow in rather impressive fashion as they explode with enough light to emulate a bolt of lightning. Another thing you really don't want parked in a residential building.
Plus, when a transformer lets go, it's never a small event as they tend to blow in rather impressive fashion as they explode with enough light to emulate a bolt of lightning. Another thing you really don't want parked in a residential building.
Of course Lee wasn't happy. The Circuit Breaker Coolant leak was coming from inside his department!