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RESPITE GENERATOR - AFTERNOON
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Maybelline has just finished her lunch, cleaning up the 'break room' that was once her house. Now she is going through the checklist for the day, everything running nominally.
Brunilda opens the door and walks back in, having finished her lunch (with Fiora) as well. She smiles upon seeing Maybelline: "Everything today as should be, I hope? I at least think we're more or less back to normal after all that happened."
Maybelline glances towards Brun from the scaffolding she's set up to put her at eye level with the instruments. She gives the Elephant a thumbs up. "Ah! Brun, welcome! All systems are normal! I've even gotten the report back from the Bouquet Manor that their generator ran exactly as expected during the brown-out. All the repeater nodes have been replaced, and... yeah. We are back to 'normal' here, at least! How's about you and your girlfriend?"
Brunilda slightly cracks her neck and grins: "She's fine, and getting better every day. Almost as stubborn as me, just have to make sure she follows Plume's orders." She then drops her shoulderbag to a bench and walks to the generator setup: "Nothing out of the ordinary here, that's good to hear. I mean, that must have been one heck of a spike when that dragon flew by."
Maybelline sighs dramatically, "That was the reason the town lost the repeaters. I had to divert everything into the shield... but she held! I'm both proud and terrified of the whole thing... it's a testiment to our work on the generator that it was able to push that much power out into the Lightning Thrower."
Brunilda laughs softly as she leans to the side of the generator: "Testament to your ingenuity, mostly. I just carry stuff for you." Not true, she knows it's not true, but if underselling was a sport Brunilda would be a gold medalist candidate... which she'd deny she'd be able to reach.
Maybelline smirks. "Uh huh, mostly." She climbs down the scaffolding quickly, picking up her notes and walking towards Brun with them. She hands them up towards Brun. "Take a look at that report. Tell me if anything looks weird to you."
Brunilda takes the note, musing them over: "Mmm... mmm. Hmm, seems everything is about as they were before all this? Although unless I remember wrong, we seem to be outputting slightly more now. Huh."
Maybelline hums, "I've been continuing to adjust things, here and there, yeah, so that's about right. Glad to see your skill at carrying can read through the data."
Brunilda blushes slightly and grins: "Well, you know. I've maybe picked something up."
Maybelline takes back the notes and sets them aside. "You have an incredibly talented Sarn Certified Specialist to teach you, so that probably accounts for some of it. You also read through the manuals like they were a plate of free cupcakes." She pauses, "Err, not that I would know anything about the latter."
Brunilda blinks: "...how do you read a plate of free cupcakes?" She shakes her head: "Nevermind. Point made."
Maybelline giggles, "Sorry. Metaphor got away from me? But I had to butter you up a little bit if I'm gonna ask you to help me more, right?"
Brunilda tilts her head: "Of course I will help you. What's on your mind?"
Maybelline chuckles, blushing just a bit, "Oh uh, how'd you like to do a bunch of paperwork, and get in some practice with your basic engineering knowledge, hm? You know, the day-to-day, simple stuff, rather than a full project build from scratch?
Brunilda blinks, shifting her weight a bit as she looks at Maybelline: "Hmm? You mean more than what we already do here?"
Maybelline shakes her head, "Err, well, no. Actually, pretty much exactly what we do here. Um. Exactly."
Brunilda blinks again, then the thought finally connects: "...you mean, me alone? Are you leaving?" She doesn't sound worried. Much.
Maybelline lifts her hands, "Oh! No no, no! No... not like, 'leaving', leaving. More of just a bit of a vacation. So um, yeah, just leaving for a little while."
Brunilda hums, nodding at this: "Well, if anyone's deserving of a vacation who can actually leave... it's probably you."
Maybelline blinks, then glances aside a bit embarrassed, "W-well, maybe? Been over a year and... want to go home... introduce Louma to my family..."
Brunilda leans on the wall, crossing her arms and sighing slightly: "Nothing wrong with that, I guess. I haven't even thought about introducing Fiora to mine... not that I really would want to, even if I could up and leave a Guard post like that."
Maybelline frowns, "Well, I don't mean for this to be a hassle for you... I'm going to ask Strix to keep an open eye as well if something comes up that you can't handle. He might not have the most orthodox methods, but at least his solutions work. ...usually."
Brunilda nods slowly: "He's... well, he's Strix. I do trust him, and I can't promise I can keep this up and running if another dragon or something comes by. But I promise I will try."
Maybelline breathes out a sigh of relief. "You're amazing, Brun. You'll do great. And I'm not going anywhere just yet, so we'll have some time to go through the motions togethes to make sure we cover as much as we can."
Brunilda gives a soft laugh: "I would appreciate that. I might know a thing or three about this all, but you have still done so much that I only know in theory." Fact of life: stoat is a lot faster than an elephant. This applies to magi-electrical engineering too.
Maybelline chuckles, "Yeah, but elephants are a lot bigger than stoats..." She pauses, "I don't know what that proves... but speed isn't everything."
Brunilda lifts her trunk to show her tongue: "That I can reach higher than you and don't need scaffolding?"
Maybelline giggles, "There is that. I've built in a lot of... little features into the generator just to help me get around and get readings. So, that'll be way easier for you to deal with."
Brunilda lowers her trunk and chuckles, glancing at one set of meters: "Mmm, that's probably true. You climbing around is such a second nature thing that I had not even thought about how much effort you've put into making it ever faster."
Maybelline shrugs, "I've been like this my whole life. When you're a small stoat in a big folks world... you learn to adapt. And I learned to build shortcuts where I can."
Brunilda shrugs, giving a lopsided smile: "Where I was brought up, I am the shortcut. Or die trying."
Maybelline giggles, "So, I should just climb you to get to the upper levels of the generator? I could do that, but I usually only climb Louma."
Brunilda smiles, offering her hand: "I wouldn't mind, as long as I know you're on me so I don't make any sudden moves."
Maybelline chuckles, "So no surprise leaps. Gotcha. I will save those for Louma~."
Brunilda smirks: "Well, more because we're dealing with a lot of heavy and fragile equipment. You don't want to surprise me in here."
Maybelline coughs, "Well, yes, obviously, um, that too. My point is... you'll do fine. You are already so prepared for this, and we'll take the time to make sure you're confident in handling any of the busy work folks around town might have. I mean, we both know the Generator will be fine in the meantime. We built it to be."
Brunilda leans back with a smile: "Yeah... sounds about right. So, where are you off to, then?"
Maybelline walks over to one of the tables, hopping up onto the chair, "Already done the Generator readout. It's honestly a pretty easy day, minus a check-up on Plume's water pump, no surprise it's been undergoing a lot of stress lately, and there I'm doing a bit of a hypothetical plan to extend the powergrid west... town expansion for the uh, new neighbors. But you won't need to worry much about that, but I'd appreciate being able to toss ideas back and forth with you today."
Brunilda nods, humming at the thoughts then lowers her hand onto the table: "Sounds good. So where are you off to while I take care of all this?" She gives a bit of a grin.
Maybelline grins, "Nowhere yet. Figured I'd come help. You take the lead, and I'll be there if you've got questions. Sound good?"
Brunilda smirks, glances at the papers then looks at Maybelline: "Possibly. But besides 'parents', what are your vacation goals? Come on, I'm curious."
Maybelline blinks. "Oh! OH! You meant where am I going... oh, yeah. Back to Sarn. Glauschire... back to my parents. Beyond that... we're thinking two weeks there. For it being my home, there's still a lot I haven't seen outside of the cities. I guess I really should make up some kind of itinerary..."
Brunilda chuckles softly: "I suppose you and Louma both enjoy having a schedule, so there's that."
Maybelline: "Yeah, there's that... I did promise Louma no paperwork, so that's a given."
Brunilda nods, leaning back up from the table: "Sounds right to me. As long as you have fun and don't get... anything untoward happening out there, I guess. I don't really know anything about Sarn."
Maybelline chuckles, "Well, it's a lot of big cities, forests, and rivers. Big Magitech Generators, but I don't know if Louma would really care about that. I suppose money might be an issue... we'll have to see what we've got, but honestly, I just want to spend time with her and get her destressed. Now that things are settling down, she's finally relaxing."
Brunilda nods: "Destressing is good. It's pretty much what I've been doing - and will be doing - with Fiora." She idly flexes her arm, recalling the couple's earlier handwrestling match. 'Relaxing' is a relative term, after all.
Maybelline watches Brun flex and chuckles, "I'm glad you found her. And I'm glad you both made it back safe and sound. Err... more or less sound, anyways."
Brunilda shrugs: "We're both alive, at least. I do wish she had not agreed to that duel, but what's done is done."
Maybelline nods, reaching out to pat the side of Brun's leg. "Yeah... it all sucked. When Louma was gone... taken... n-not my proudest hours, I'll say that."
Brunilda lets out a sigh before looking down at Maybelline with a smile: "They're both safe, our loved ones. That's what matters now."
Maybelline smiles up at Brun. "Exactly. I uh... guess I need the vacation too, honestly."
Brunilda smiles warmly: "You do."
Maybelline: "Maybe Louma and I will just find a beach or somewhere secluded and watch the sun. I was never much for the uh... 'high culture' of Sarn, you know?"
Brunilda shrugs with a soft smile: "I used to like theatre in Ondonga, when I was guarding that... not much of that here, though."
Maybelline chuckles, "Yeah, lots of it in Sarn too, but the few times we went as a family, I got bored. Just a bunch of folks dancing in circles? I didn't get it. But I was pretty small back then."
Brunilda winks: "Maybe you should go have another look-see if you get the chance."
Maybelline leans back against the leg of the table, "Well, I have become a little more open to trying new things since moving to Respite... could be worth a try."
Brunilda shrugs: "At worst, you and Louma get to go that beach and lambast your experience for fun."
Maybelline nods, smirking. "So... fun either way, eh? A good point."
Brunilda leans back: "Could be, at least. One way to find out."
Maybelline: "Heh, maybe. I'll add it to the list at least, and Louma and I will talk it out."
Brunilda: "You do that. So, what's on our list for today, getting back to that?"
Maybelline chuckles, "Right. Work. Plume's place first, if you're ready to head out?"
Brunilda nods with a smile as she shifts her standing position: "As ready as I'll ever be. Let's go."
Maybelline packs up her papers and leads on to the daily routine, a few minor repairs here and there as the two talk over hypothetical vacation plans for May's coming trip.