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GUARD BARRACKS - MID-MORNING
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Brunilda is sitting at the 'designated paperwork table', going over guard reports for the past few days. She looks absolutely disinterested in the process, just doing it as she can, making sense of the various scribbles that can perhaps generously called 'reports'.
Louma drags herself in through the barracks, wearing a displeased expression that is strongly accented by slightly ruffled feathers, those under her eyes slightly matted and oily. Her uniform is crisp as ever, but would do nothing to hide any other clear signs of exhaustion. She glares at the clock outside her office, hauling the door open with perhaps a little too much force, and hesitating when she sees Brun inside the room.
Brunilda starts a bit at the sudden opening of the door. She looks up in surprise, then forces her expression to be neutral upon seeing who it (predictably) is. "Morning, Cap'n."
Louma tries to find a neutral expression as well as she gives a curt nod to Brun, entering the room and closing the door with a dull thud. "Good morning, Brunilda. My apologies for my late arrival." She slithers past Brun to nest up behind her desk, noticing that it's already clear of the paper's that Brun's taken. "Ah, how far have you gotten? Is there something you haven't started with yet?"
Brunilda looks at Louma curiously, following her movement: "I'm... fine. Got most of these done for today, actually." Her eyes don't quite leave Louma, some part of her definitely curious for an explanation of something.
Louma stares at Brun for a long moment, dropping her hands to the top of her desk. "Well. Excellent work, as usual, Brunilda." She settles down onto her coils, though clearly anxious about Brun's continued look.
Brunilda clears her throat, then nods. She picks up the stack of papers, piling it neatly on the table, staring at it for a moment. As the silence gets to her, she speaks quietly without looking up: "...are you going to begin, or should I?"
Louma sighs, shaking her head. "I didn't really want to bring it up, honestly. That royal guard, his mission... At least what we knew of it at the time, I was very unsure myself about what to make of it." She looks at Brun, pausing for a moment. "It was an intense situation, and I understand how you feel. I'm not angry with you, though I am a little disappointed that you just left me there like that."
Brunilda looks up to Louma, considering: "I've never seen you so angry. So... hostile. I wanted nothing to do with it."
Louma blinks, something clicking in her mind. "Ah... Yes, that as well... I didn't consider that, honestly. You did say something about it looking personal, hm?"
Brunilda nods, managing to avoid frowning: "It did. I do not understand what it was about, but something got under your skin there."
Louma sighs, nodding in turn. "You're absolutely right. I... Well no, I don't feel ashamed of how I reacted at the time, though I certainly feel it now."
Brunilda leans on her table a bit, looking at her boss curiously: "If I may ask... what was all that about?"
Louma rests back on her coils, though clearly still uncomfortable and more than a little tired. She takes a minute to categorize her thoughts before presenting them to Brun. "I know you're not a gossip, but this requires some discretion. I'm willing to tell you because, well, you're already halfway to knowing, but half knowledge can lead to bad rumors."
Brunilda nods slowly: "...I will not talk." She lifts a hand to her bandaged chest: "I promise."
Louma can only manage a weak smile. "I had a feeling. I have no care for the worship of the coatl's back home. Of course, they were long before my time, but we were taught of the war as a cautionary tale. Many student's parents or grandparents still idolized them somewhat, but well, you already know why mine didn't care one way or the other."
Brunilda nods, considering: "I know very little of the conflict. It's related to the... Aktzin or whatever his name?"
Louma: "Yes, he's supposedly a royal guard. There was an... encounter with him yesterday, and some things were made more clear to me. But the night at the bar, seeing someone so devout to them after eight years... Everything in the history books pointed at the coatl's and the lizard leaders failures being the cause of the war. I... It just triggered something in me." She shakes her head slowly. "I'm sorry you had to witness that, Brunilda."
Brunilda sighs a bit, looking aside: "It was weird to see. But truth be told, understandable." She turns back to Louma, looking at her with a pensive expression: "...is there anything else I should know?"
Louma hums, shaking her head. "Nothing that's important, I don't think so. Nesseth's aware of the Aktzin situation, which has been dealt with for the time being." She sighs, the secrecy still getting on her nerves.
Brunilda looks at Louma curiously, but drops the issue. She looks at the papers. "...I think I'm going to go find lunch at the Minnow."
Louma sighs, looking toward the papers as well. "I... I'm sorry, again. I appreciate your help around here and... Well, I hope my slip-up didn't kill me as a friend to you."
Brunilda gets up, turning to glance at Louma again: "It didn't. I don't leave my friends that easily. But I do not appreciate being witheld information."
Louma mutters. "I've been getting that a lot lately, actually." She rubs at her tired eyes. "One bloody promise and things all fell apart. Snakes are bad omens."
Brunilda shrugs as she turns to the door: "Can't say I have a lot of experience." She then pauses and sighs, turning to Louma once more with a small smile: "...but I'll stick around to find for myself."
Louma smiles at Brun, a genuine one full of some relief that she definitely needed. "Thank you Brunilda, that will be all. Enjoy your lunch." She leans back over her desk, picking up the papers to quickly go over Brun's hard work.
Brunilda nods at her boss: "Laters, Cap'n." She heads out, feeling at least a bit better about what happened earlier, if still rather in the dark what actually went on between Louma and Aktzin.
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RESPITE GENERATOR - LATE AFTERNOON
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Maybelline stands off to the side of the large crate-sized piece of machinery she and Brunilda have worked on for the past week and change. With all the small parts she finished ready to be slotted in and put into place, she's been guiding Brun through the final install and connections, watching as the final pieces are fit in.
Maybelline nods as she watches Brun. "Exciter. Fan. All the Terminal lines are in. If the field coil is set in, we just need to thread it into the fan and..." She looks up expectently.
Brunilda is on her knees as she does the the maneuver as best as she knows, effectively finishing the temporary generator. Finishing the last few motions, she lifts the (actually fitting) glasses with her trunk, admiring her slightly-unsteady-but-functional handiwork. "That... that should do it."
Maybelline grins. "Alright. Come out carefully, and I'll give it a final look-over, and then... then we can start it up!"
Brunilda grunts as she makes her way out of generator's side, making sure the access hatch door installed earlier works as well. She backs out, standing on her knees outside the generator proper and nodding at May with a smile.
Maybelline smiles back, giving Brun a thumbs up as she climbs onto her creeper and slips under the generator. "If I designed this right, it'll end up being just another piece of the big one. Kind of one more component." She glances around, making a few checks on Brun's work, pulling out a few tools to make a few minor adjustments in places her hands more easily reach.
Brunilda nods as she watches May do her thing: "Yeah, should be good. You're still working on the exact details of the big one, right?"
Maybelline hums affirmatively, double checking the connections between each component, before she drops back onto the creeper and seals up the hatch. "I'm... debating. Go the safe route, or... experiment. I've a theory that's floating in my head, but don't really know if this is the time or place to test it."
Brunilda raises an eyebrow: "Experiment? What do you have in mind?"
Maybelline pushes herself out from under the generator. "Well... AMP is superior over ICEE in two regards. One... I sort of know how it works. The other I never got to study, and getting documentation on building an AMP generator from scratch would take forever, assuming I could even do it once I saw those papers. But I think I can implement one of the changes into the new ICEE and make a hybrid generator."
Brunilda nods, musing: "Making a hybrid? The best of both... in some way I don't quite get?" She lifts her goggles off her forehead, looking at May curiously.
Maybelline shrugs, "More like... a little bit better then one and not as good as the other." She chuckles. "AMP would be preferable for a lot of reasons. But maybe I can do half-AMP. I can share more once I've thought through the math and sketched out my theories. But in short, it would make the whole thing more efficient, longer-lasting, and hopefully safer too."
Brunilda nods, looking at the finished base generator: "Well... you're the boss here. I can just barely do basic wiring and piping without burning things."
Maybelline chuckles as she slips her tools back into her pockets. "Well, that felt a lot better then just barely to me. You saved me a ton of time and effort, and I don't just mean in the manual labor either..." She sits up from the creeper and looks up at Brun with a grin. "First project. How's it feel?"
Brunilda looks at Maybelline, then back at the generator: "...good. I can't lie, it really feels good to be doing something. Something that matters. I could see doing this kind of thing for a living."
Maybelline chuckles, putting her hands on her hips as she looks over the generator. "It's a pretty contagious feeling. And get ready to ride that high, cause it's only gonna feel better when we get it running. You ready to turn her on?"
Brunilda grins a bit: "Scared, excited, tentative... but let's do it." She leans on her hand as she gets up to standing, still admiring their work.
Maybelline nods, clapping her hands together. "Right! I'm gonna call this the trial run, but if there's no issues, we'll let it run. It might take a day for it to get enough charge for the city to see any power output." She points towards the flow controls on the far wall. "I'm going to prime it. You get ready over there and I'll call when I'm ready, alright?"
Brunilda nods, shifting to move to the controls: "Guess there's indeed only one way to find out! Let's do this."
Maybelline grins. "Goggles on!" She lowers her eye protection and moves up to the generator, popping open a small panel to begin priming it.
Brunilda lowers her own goggles, unable to stop her own excited grin either.
Maybelline winds through a series of controls, then pumps a heave switch up and down several times, a slow buzzing noise beginning to fill the room, "Ahhh, music to my ears. Just a bit more..." There is a loud audible pop as something within the generator suddenly thrums into life. She steps back and points towards the elephant. "Ah! There! Pull the Lever, Brunilda!"
Brunilda grins widely as she pulls the lever in question, not even trying to contain her excitement and just barely containing her power so she doesn't pull too hard. A small giggle escapes her as she listens the generator hum to life.
Maybelline waits a moment to watch a few gauges on the side, then closes the panel and gives Brun a thumbs up. "...and with that... Respite Falls has power once again." She slowly shrugs to the side, "Well, about one tenth power, and it'll only last a few months. Enough for essentials, though! And enough to give us time for the long term solution."
Brunilda leans on the wall, admiring the humming creation in front of them: "I'd say we've done pretty good here, though."
Maybelline walks towards her, her limp noticably diminished. "In under two weeks? We just made a miracle! Though, a ton of credit has to go to Cavro too, of course, but without him, without you, this would have taken me months to get online."
Brunilda nods, looking at the shape of the parts they've put together: "Yep. If I don't know much about this, I know even less about forging. He did a great job so quickly it almost scares me."
Maybelline comes alongside Brun, stepping onto a nearby step ladder to check the settings on the flow controls. "Fortunetly none of the substructure got hit in explosion." She points to a steadily, if slowly, rising needle. "This is power heading into the city reserves. Seems I owe you and Cavro a cake in celebration!"
Brunilda smiles: "Well, I said before I'm not opposed to cake."
Maybelline giggles, definitely feeling the giddiness of the moment. "Me either." She sits down atop the step ladder, about chest high with Brun. "So, I'm going to take a week to really hammer down some solid blueprints. Prioritize those in the order we can install them, then start getting them to Cavro so we can begin component builds. I'll make sure he knows he can take his time with these parts. Reckon it'll take about two weeks before we open up shop again."
Brunilda nods, musing on this as she lifts a hand to her chin: "Well, while you might not officially need me here in that time, I'll still be around. Maintenance is part of the job, after all, and I need to learn that too."
Maybelline chuckles, "Well, I definitely appreciate that. Hopefully won't be much, but I'll teach you how to take all the readings so you can tell if something is going wrong."
Brunilda chuckles wryly: "Certainly better than only noticing too late."
Maybelline nods. "Definitely gonna build in a failsafe on the magic containment. Something we can see beforehand, before it's too late."
Brunilda nods, looking at the flow controls: "Sounds like a plan to me. Obviously any such overflow is bad, but at least it's much better if we have a warning." She runs her hand over her back, frowning slightly.
Maybelline frowns at Brun's motion, refraining from making a similar move along her side. "Definitely. You know, I'm sorry I'm not very good as a teacher, Brunilda. The University in Glaushire has both better and brighter then I. But I think they'd be hard pressed to find a better student then you. Thanks for throwing yourself into the fire here, both uh, literally and metaphorically."
Brunilda looks at Maybelline, shrugging slightly: "I figure if I'm doing this, I'm putting my everything into it. And you've been an excellently patient teacher with me." She smiles: "I look forward to learning more."
Maybelline glances away, a bit of a blush beneath her fur, but a grin on her face. "Then I'll do my best to keep teaching, best I can at least. I'd say I owe it to you, but honestly it's been a pleasure to have you here to talk to and work alongside."
Brunilda nods, smiling: "It does get a bit lonely here otherwise." She chuckles: "Sort of the same as guarding, actually."
Maybelline chuckles, "Is that so? Heh. I mean, I'm used to loneliness. Spent pretty much my whole time at the university alone. Doesn't mean I liked it." She falls silent for a moment in thought.
Brunilda hums a bit: "Being used to loneliness doesn't mean it's preferable."
Maybelline nods, with a sigh, "That's definitely the truth. And then I come here, to the middle of nowhere, bitter about a damn career, when I'm suddenly surrounded by some of the best folks I've ever met... I don't deserve you lot. You and Doc and Cavro and Vix and... damn near everyone I've met. And whatever ends up happening between Louma and I..."
Brunilda smiles warmly: "I think we all..." She hesitates, pondering her words: "...perhaps deserve what we've found here. A... respite, if you will."
Maybelline laughs loudly, "Eh, sounds a bit corny to me. But eh, whatever. I'll take it."
Brunilda leans on the wall, laughing as well: "Corny is just fine with me."
Maybelline shakes her head, "I have to go to the Mayor, or uh, whatever they call the head of the town here, and submit the invoice for Cavro's parts. I plan to request some kind of recompense for you too, but no guarantees."
Brunilda nods, cracking her neck: "I appreciate it. But no pressure, I'm technically still a Guard even if I only do paperwork now."
Maybelline hums, still watching the generator hum along peacefully. "They've got to factor in the budget Doc's allocating to this too, and the cut that I volunteered to let them take. But I'll leave that to the town accountant."
Brunilda shakes her head: "Yeah, not my department certainly." She smiles at May: "We'll do what we can with what we have."
Maybelline gives Brun another thumbs up as she stands, descending the ladder. "We will, yeah. I'm sure we can make things work." She points to the generator, a relatively small box in this larger room. "This is just the beginning."
Brunilda smiles as she leans to pick up some of the tools from the floor and hanging them up on the impromptu toolrack they've made during this process: "The beginning of something hopefully pretty great." She smiles at her friend: "Shall we head for a bit of celebratory dinner, or did you intend to meet with Louma?"
Maybelline shakes her head. "N-no. Not uh, tonight at least. She's been busy with something, and I've been working here, but I think now that we can wrap up on phase one... maybe I can surprise her with date two."
Brunilda has the briefest of sour expressions on her face before she smiles again: "Maybe you can. In the little time I've known Louma, she's pretty easygoing. Off-duty, anyway."
Maybelline nods, "Yeah... I just worry when am I gonna blow it?" She sighs, shaking her head. "Eh, but I've blown up enough in this town."
Brunilda gives a soft smile to her friend: "I'm sure it will all go well." She steps to the door, pausing at the doorframe: "Although... Louma has a bit of a temper to her, I've noticed. A Guard thing I reckon."
Maybelline frowns, thinking a moment, "I'll... keep that in mind. She's been nothing but kind to me... a bit flirty perhaps, which is something I'm just unused to, but no temper that I've seen."
Brunilda nods, lowering her voice without intending to: "She's... well, I just wanted you to know."
Maybelline nods, "I uh, guess we'll see. Dad didn't raise me to take crap from anyone. For now though... I just want to spend time getting to know her."
Brunilda smiles: "You're both my friends. Perhaps even my best friends in this town. I want everything to go well... I'll try to keep from meddling too much, though."
Maybelline nods, "I appreciate it, Brun. I can say the same about you, really. Best friend in this town... or even this world, really. So, I'm not gonna wave away what you said. I'm still just... figuring it out for myself, that's all."
Brunilda shrugs as she steps outside into the waning sunlight: "It's not like I have any experience with relationships."
Maybelline follows, then stops. "Oh... running generator. We can't just leave the doors open anymore. Guess the ham smell's all gone anyways." She glances at Brun and frowns. "Heh, well, everyone kept telling me 'you'll find someone eventually', which... honestly, sucks to keep hearing. All I can say is, be persistant."
Brunilda looks a bit down for a second, but then shrugs again: "Maybe one day. Right now I really just want to focus on this-" she gestures at the generator: "-and leave the romance stuff for later."
Maybelline nods slowly. "Fair enough. She's going to have plenty of work ahead for both of us, romance or no."
Brunilda nods with a smile: "Yeah." She idly scratches her neck, pausing for a second. "...food?"
Maybelline nods, "Yeah. Let's lock up and get food."
Brunilda smiles. The two lock up the generator building first time in a while, heading for food and discussing somewhat lighter topics than relationships.