TRP - Chapter 19

Feeling stressed about his oncoming project, Nedak heads out to the student gardens for some much needed rest and relaxation, where he meets new friends, with new foods to sample~ 

As always, this story was written by RabidBadger and illustrated by me! We thank you for your continued support, you've helped make this series what it is <3 

This episode includes: Milkshakes, cute drakes, tubes of delicious frosting and mishaps with friends!

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Nathan fidgeted where he sat. Quiet days weren’t exactly rare at the Rendering Pit, but they didn’t often offer the comfort one would expect, at least not to him. They seemed not to indicate that all was well, but (at least to his mind) that the next disaster was still patiently waiting. It had been patiently waiting for a couple of days now, leaving the blue scaled drake with a growing list of worries about what that meant. It also left him with plenty of time to work on his projects however, which would’ve been a welcome thing if he had any good ideas for one. Instead, he was busily dipping fries in a chocolate milkshake, resting under a tree in the station’s arboretum / oxygen purification center.

The drake smiled as he watched little bird and insect species he didn’t’ begin to recognize flit about in trees that didn’t seem to conform to the rules either. Twisting things with wispy trunks and colossal canopies of leaves. The snack and the view were necessary things in Nathan’s day, unmitigated points of something that carried no stress with it and made him happy. 

Well, the snack was almost stress free. Nathan had the whole array resting atop his middle, and there was ample enough middle to do that with. He’d been in and out of the cafeteria every day for a week it felt like, and his clothes were getting alarmingly snug. It barely measured up to his other problems, though. The assignment was the big one, of course. He had to come up with some meaningful idea regarding data security and that meant needing inspiration.

Then there was Monica. The rabbit hadn’t come by and menaced him recently, but he could swear she was still stalking him through the halls whenever she got a chance. It was, like the quiet, almost more unnerving in that it didn’t tell him anything and seemed to hint at worse to come. Nathan suffered a shiver that had nothing to do with the chilled treat nestled against his chest.

“Ugh, this is not helping. Maybe I’ll see how Rigel and Genevieve are doing…”

Nathan set the snack aside, fumbling about beside him for his tablet and contacts list. While he was at it, he watched as a lone drone – some rose colored thing that looked like it had been avian beforehand, ambled around picking up litter from the area. It provided something to watch while the program loaded, and displayed Rigel as busy, while Genevieve was the more ambiguous ‘idle’. 

Unexplored Blue: Hey there Genevieve. Are you busy? Sorry about the lunch lady thing, seriously. ;_;

There were a few uncomfortable seconds that passed there, with nothing coming back by way of response. Enough to make Nathan consider deleting the sent message, but only for a moment before the answer arrived.

Signal Queen: Sluggish bit at the cafeteria actually. Don’t worry about that – only reason it made me twitch was being a little truer than I was ready for. 

Tilting his head at the answer, Nathan tried to weigh if that ought to reassure him or not. It wasn’t something he had an easy time parsing, though. 

Unexplored Blue: I’m trying to figure out a project for this class of mine, need to think of a concept for wireless access security. Can’t seem to get anything useful to come out of my head for it. I just keep staring at the drone bending over picking up trash instead.

The drone was indeed bending over a lot. Its face had no visible eyes, like all the others, but he could swear the thing looked at him a couple times and then started deliberately pointing its bottom at him on all further opportunities.

Signal Queen: Heh. Nothing like making a butt shinier to make it even more distracting. You know your predecessor in the dorm ended up one of em? Kinda. His head’s still normal, Rigel and I go talk to him sometimes.

Nathan blinked slowly there. Talking, to a drone? 

Unexplored Blue: I didn’t honestly think you could talk to them. I mean they understand us, that’s clear, but they don’t talk back. What kind of things does he talk about?

Staring on at the screen, transfixed, Nathan lost track of the drone on hand and instead bent all his mind on that little flashing ‘is typing’ notification.

Signal Queen: These days? Not a ton. He doesn’t do much, as fat as he got. Plus, it sometimes gets tricky to get him started anymore since apparently drones talk to each other by touch or something, so he doesn’t think in words unless he stops and tries to on purpose.

The idea left Nathan squirming a little, feeling something tickling him uncomfortably in the back of his head. Also, something bunching up in the back of his ass, achieving much the same result. Shifting about, Nathan made to heave himself up and get his too-tight clothing adjusted only to feel his hand slip out and collide violently with his shake. The instant attempt to save it just ended in his feet sliding out too, but disaster didn’t seem quite so ready to seize him as it could have. 

Nathan blinked as he watched the perspiring cup stop just before hitting the ground, cradled in rose hued hands. The drone set the treat down gently, before holding its latex coated arm out to the drake. Swallowing, Nathan hesitantly reached out, but was thoroughly grateful by the time he was upright for the help. His weight had been taking a toll on his balance as well as his wardrobe and endurance. Fidgeting, Nathan reached down to collect his tablet from where it had tumbled before realizing it was now him that was putting on a show.

The idea snapped him upright again so quickly he almost fell right over a second time. The bird’s hand helped prevent that, offering a steadying touch to his hip that left the drake furiously blushing.

“T-thank you.”

If he had to guess, he’d say the thing smiled as it tilted its head at him, before heading off in characteristic silence to tend to some other task it mysteriously knew needed doing. Meanwhile, Nathan glanced down at his chat once more, clutching the tablet to his chest with one hand while digging his pants out of his butt with the other. For just a moment, he found himself contemplating a stretchier wardrobe just so he wouldn’t have to think about this one aspect of his life for a little while.

The drake paused right as he managed to get himself comfortable again and stared off at where the drone had gone. Lips pursed, blinking slowly, Nathan reached down to reply.

Unexplored Blue: Think I just got an idea. Need to pounce on this – if it pans out I’ll tell you about it later. You’re sure the lunch lady thing is okay?

Nathan hit send, then immediately began gathering up his things. There wasn’t much of course, just half a carton of fries and his slightly melty shake – and a half-eaten box of chocolates he was certain hadn’t been there before, which left him with one more reason to stare off at where the drone had gone off to. For having said nothing, Nathan had the strongest impression the little featureless fixture of the school had understood far more than it had any reason to when it saw him.

Signal Queen: If you stop bringing it up it is :P – Otherwise I’ll have my minions carry out vengeance in my name.

Though he was a little shocked by it, Nathan found himself smiling at that. Just the right mix of playful and serious to break through and convince him. Bundling everything haphazardly into his arms, Nathan set off down the halls while clumsily tracing out a few preliminary notes on his tablet’s screen with a claw.

1. Ask about how drones talk.

2. Ask for a sample of drone skin.

3. Ask for some bigger clothes.

4. Maybe one spandex outfit… just in case.

*** 

Nathan was just getting the final requests in as far as his clothing as he finished the next class he had for the day, though he hadn’t managed to pay a substantial amount of attention during what amounted to the University’s idea of physical education (a strange mix of activity and biology with an eye for just how implants and chemicals might improve results).  All he’d really taken away from the class was that it was harder than usual, which might have something to do with him being so hungry – no energy on an empty stomach, and that his translucent, semi-solid teacher was still profoundly creepy to watch moving around a lot.

There were simple answers to the hunger thing, at least. Nathan could either visit the cafeteria, go peruse the markets in the loading dock, or find a vending machine – the last one offered the most instant gratification with the least attached social interaction. Any university anywhere had vending machines, the Rendering Pit had good ones. 

Ten minutes worth of staring at them indecisively while his belly shouted at him left Nathan thinking that they be a trifle too good. He was still doing that staring when a voice behind him left his spine desperately trying to crawl up his body and hide inside his skull.

“You can stare all you want. It’s not going to make a buffet flavored snack bar show up. For that, you’ll have to visit your new friend in the cafeteria.”

Nathan simultaneously wanted to run, and to turn around and slug the bunny in the teeth and had to force himself to remember that neither of those things was a good idea. Either she’d win the fight, or she’d make fun of him for running, or something else stupid and awful would happen. 

“Why are you – just… No, why are you? Let’s go with that question as-is.”

The bunny raised an eyebrow and looked finally like she’d actually been gotten to by something. 

“You figure out what our report’s going to be on yet, Nate?”

Swinging around to face her properly, Nathan tried not to pay attention to how much his belly wiggled and shook in the process.

“How far I can punt a bunny on Professor Thaddeus’ supplements?”

A loud snort came out as answer to that.

“Oh, come on, you aren’t on those! You would’ve just smashed the vending machine by now. Plus, your eyes aren’t bloodshot, and your forehead hasn’t started sloping.”

Nathan felt something akin to a rush of cold water down his back, while his face burned. He’d gone and picked the fight anyway, just without violence. And just like he’d been afraid of, Monica was ready for it.

“I’m not. Doing this.”

Growling under his breath, and in his middle, Nathan shoved himself past Monica in the halls and managed to stop himself from looking back. 

If he had, he might’ve spotted her pulling out her tablet and ‘aiming’ it at him, while fiddling at controls for something on its surface.

*** 

The fury was still knotted tight in his stomach along with a rotten core of anxiety when Nathan got back to his dorm, stopping himself halfway through throwing the door open which ended up resulting in bumping it hard, then trying frantically to grab it and slow it down, and half stumbling into the thing. The only saving grace about the display was that Rigel had his back to it and didn’t seem to notice the noise. The other scaled student was staring intently at a floating screen being projected by a small bluish-green bar resting on the bed and displaying a dizzying mess of data that Rigel was expertly tracing his fingers around.

“…Whoah.”

Rigel’s head tilted just a little, but he didn’t look away.

“Hrm?”

Thoroughly distracted, Nathan ambled up to his own bed first to shed his excess affects and then lean over the lizard’s shoulder. There were dense packings of letters in strange, staccato strings along with a few sub classifications.

“What uh – what is this?”

Rigel blinked slowly, clearly lost in the depths of whatever he was doing, at least for the first few seconds.

“Oh! It’s me!”

The pair of blue scaled youths both exchanged blinks that time.

“Err, it’s my DNA that is – I had it sequenced by the nurse and then stopped by the library for a few other basic templates and I’m… I have ideas.”

Nathan nodded there, sitting on the edge of the bed and immediately realizing he should’ve asked, but not wanting to look weird by getting right back up. To his relief, Rigel didn’t seem to care.

“You – ideas? To mess with your own genetics?”

“Yeah! Err, uhm – yeah. I had a little bit of a revelation I guess.”

Staring at the screen again, Nathan wondered just how that jumble of data could possibly be revelatory – but if Rigel knew what he was doing that was what mattered.

“I suppose I kinda did too – or at least, I had a really good idea. How do you tell the difference?”

The lizard, who Nathan noted was a good deal less swollen than usual, shrugged there.

“Good question? Might just be a matter of degrees, like how big a problem you solve. How big is yours?”

Nathan smirked a little, not quite able to help himself with the first impulse that came to mind.

“You show me yours…?”

It did get an eye roll from Rigel, but not a big one.

“Come on, my problem’s obvious – and gets bigger the longer you leave it be. I’m trying to work out a way to make it less debilitating as it does so, and I think it might involve localizing where the stuff gathers so it isn’t such a pain in the butt – literally.”

The point was worth, at least, a bit of a chuckle.

“Fair. Mine… yeah, not quite that groundbreaking. I don’t think. I had to come up with a new idea for wireless security for an assignment and I got one, or I’m pretty sure I do – and I have to keep Monica out of it, which you know – that’s another thing. Actually, I wanted to ask you something, if I could? It’s for my project.”

Shrugging, Rigel maneuvered a couple of sequences he’d brought up into the window he was working with, attaching them to the main one and looking at some compilations that appeared after.

“Shoot.”
 For a moment, Nathan hesitated. More out of pragmatism than anything else – he wanted to be sure he phrased this well, got his point across clearly, didn’t get flat out turned down if at all possible.

“Could you talk to your friend, the guy who was here before me, and see if the drones would be willing to give me a sample of the stuff they’re covered in? I need something active, and don’t really want to risk contact with someone at random, and you already know him, and-”

Speeding up a little bit at each point, Nathan had begun fidgeting by the time Rigel’s hand touched his shoulder and left him jolting in place violently before calming down, slumping even.

“Sounds more like a favor than a question.”

Nathan’s gaze drifted further away from the spot at his feet it had begun with.

“But I’ll help ya out. “

It then promptly snapped back upward, to find Rigel grinning at him knowingly.

“Man, you have got to unclench now and then. I’m gonna be at this for a bit, but I’ll go have a chat with Sam later – tell you what’s what as soon as I know. Why don’t you go unwind until then? Not like you can do anything about it for now.”
 A heavy breath later, Nathan nodded. His fellow scaled one was right about that, at least, and he did realize at that moment he couldn’t remember the last time he wasn’t doing homework or thinking about homework.

“Yeah sorry about that, ran into Monica again. Probably wound me tighter than I realized. I uhm – I’m gonna go and… well, I’ll be back later.”

Rigel nodded, while Nathan stood up and turned back to his personal chunk of their living space. He reached into the drawers and bypassed everything in there save for a simple pad of paper, and some pencils – he suspected they might be the lowest tech things on the entire station, or at least were in the top ten for it. Those he grabbed – his tablet he very deliberately left behind. Pacing toward the door, he stopped as a fresh twang of tension briefly flared into being for him.

“Oh! Uh, thank you! And good luck with your thing there.”

The chuckling he heard behind him set Nathan right back at ease, mercifully.

“No, problem man.”

Finally letting himself smile again, feeling considerably lighter for how much his clothing was still digging into him, Nathan set off to retrace his steps to the vending machines, and then back to the gardens.

*** 

Nathan roused some time later, nestled against a comfortable little niche in the roots of a tree where he’d stopped to begin sketching the arboretum’s contents while nibbling on snacks. He’d managed to get there largely unmolested and had the place to himself for the majority of the time he’d been at it, but clearly, he’d dozed off at some point or another. Possibly for a while. As he reached for his tablet he didn’t find the thing, only belated remembering leaving it behind on purpose – which made knowing how long it had been a bit of a trick, at least without getting up and heading somewhere else with less plants and more machines. 

He didn’t do that right off. Rather, Nathan took a moment to appreciate the noises around him – the gentle rustling of leaves, the little snaps and chirps the bugs made as they went about their business in the immense jungle the room was to them. He felt rested and peaceful, and in no hurry at all to change that. Dropping his arms, one landing on his soft belly, the other at his side, Nathan felt the latter of the two brush into something rough. Something that a glance over showed to be a basket, woven of wiring and insulation to look rather like an easter egg basket – and it did indeed contain an egg. A single, rose hued, shiny latex egg – along with a couple of pieces of unidentifiable fruit, and two tubes of something that looked like frosting, or whipped cream, and a loaf of bread. 

His tablet was also sticking up from behind the bread, which left Nathan just a trifle suspicious. A tab at its surface did explain things, however. A handful of messages awaited.

Blueberry Leather: Hey! I talked to Sam, went pretty well I think. He said he’d get something around to you soonish? Dunno what that translates into for him these days but I didn’t want to press any further at the time. 

That one, he had to figure, was Rigel. Which might just explain the following one as well.

The Overbutt: Ophelia says hi! She also says, enjoy! :3

Nathan turned his head again, surveying the contents of the basket. Ophelia was a total blank to him, but the egg certainly looked like the right kind of material – and the hue was familiar. The notion was still on his mind as he willed his lazy limbs into getting him off the ground, almost forgetting to reach for the basket – almost.

It wasn’t until he was halfway back that he recalled the avian drone with the rose-pink bottom that had been sharing the gardens with him earlier. A revelation which struck Nathan at precisely the same time he realized he’d been sucking on the end of one of the things that resembled a frosting plunger since… Well, he didn’t exactly remember when he started.

Stopping briefly just left his belly churning ominously, and Nathan feeling hot and light-headed. And ravenous. Wincing, he took a step and swore he felt threads popping in his undergarments and around his waistline.

By the time he tried to say to nobody in particular that he may need to ask Rigel where the nurse is, the words came out muffled as Nathan found he had already put the tip of the nozzle back into his lips. With a frigid chill running across his scales, he pulled it loose again, and couldn’t seem to make himself actually put it in the basket and get it out of his hands. Nathan did manage to hurry up a bit though. Taking a deep breath, mustering up some hustle, heading for the halls to either find Rigel or a location kiosk or some signage he could use.

It was the kiosk he found first. Nathan bent down to see the screen better, and heard a loud tearing sound, complete with a nice breeze moving across his rump to go with it. One that froze him in place rather well, a thing helped along nicely by the information he gleaned about the nurse’s station being about three times the distance his room was, and in opposite directions. 

Standing, and swallowing hard, Nathan glanced at the next hallway where it ended in a T junction. Waddling up to it with his butt nestled up against the wall, he wrestled with the wisdom of his choices. With the proportions of risk and indignity. After a few long moments, he turned to the right.

“…Maybe my new clothes are ready…”

Nathan hoped so. He’d gone through so many ups and downs in one day now, a little bit more going right felt like it wasn’t too much to ask. In the meantime, the fluffy chocolate hazelnut stuff in that tube was doing its level best to keep him on an even keel while he strode, sideways, through the halls.