Glimpses 13 + 14

Astel- 13

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The last-moment decision to return to the Hazeldown Coodly Manor rather than taking up residence in one of the few acceptable hotels in Hazeldown had turned into Astel’s personal nightmare. The moment they’d left, pests had moved in. Gnomes in the garden, hand spiders in the attic, flies in the kitchen, this was all with having lost their best pest removers. Between Ambrosia’s birds and Hyacinth, it hadn’t been an issue before.

Lady Coodly’s oracles and prophets had convinced her Lord Tyler was going to make it to the final rounds of the Ascendant Games, so why melt through coinage at a hotel? Correction, Lord of the Rising Dawn, the old woman had ordered the staff to use his new profession when mentioning the young man. It was best to correct one's thoughts before one's words. One could argue the woman’s seers nailed that one, except they’d used a mechanical fortune teller to pick out of the ten options and went with “Signs point to yes” rather than “outlook good”

“Headmistress Astel, the man from the extermination company is here.” Fel announced, popping her head into her room.

“About bloody time.”

She’d put in the request as quickly as she could once it was clear that all the current staff could do was run around and put out minor infestations and patch small catastrophes before any of the Coodly family or their guests arrived, but it had taken over a week for this man to show up.

The servants' entrance did not mean the messy entrance. Dirt-covered footprints led up to the man who was still pacing about and spreading them on the carpet. Dust radiated off of him as he did so.  He took off his hat, which only dumped more dust on the ground.  “Oh, hi, miss, I’m James Evans, but everyone calls me Pen. I’m from the Brown extermination company.”

Astel swallowed an outburst at the mess he was bringing in. A couple of the maids had dust, but once they hired Harmony, no one felt the need to develop or choose the skill after that. If she were here, a wave of her hand would solve the man and the mess in the room.  Surreal to wish they still had the woman.

“Yes, we put a request in days ago for a company.”

“We got the work contract, but it's going to be over a week. With the Games bringing in tourists, every hotel, rental, and hovel has exercised the priority clause on their long-term contracts. White Property Group is also having a sweep of their lots, and no one turns down Manfred. Just spent the morning at one with Luce and the crew wrestling gnomes.”

Astel used [Assassin's Resolve]  to calm exasperation.  “If you can't work here for another week, then why are you here?”

“As a courtesy to tell you of the situation.  Because of the high need, the bounties on pests have increased.  A lot of seekers are instead buying work contracts from the reformation auction, rather than paying a silver per gnome or five copper per spider.”

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At those prices, the front garden alone would blow the yearly budget to get cleared out.  Bates had left her with a balanced budget. She wouldn't be the first to blow it. Cursed comforts, criminal contracts were distasteful.

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“I see. Thank you for informing me. I'll let you know by messenger what Coodly Manor decides. “

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The man left, tracking more dirt. The three maids with [Dust] would be spending all day cleaning it. Astel added one more problem to the list and braced herself for hard choices.

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Tess Again -14

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Serving drinks on autopilot was easy mode. Just relax and let the suit switch between different serving programs. She’d set up seven different ones and added on the cycling option. To perfect it, she’d practiced among the staff during manor lunches. This allowed Tess to watch the party and listen to conversations.

“Outrageous or diabolical, I don’t know why Kelly is playing these side characters. I wouldn’t say she’s overshadowing the stars of the show, but she’s certainly elevating who she is playing.”

A Kelly fan, not worth watching.

“Are they really making a play for the counsel? It’s less that they’re unkind to new members, and more that  new members don’t last long after being unable to maintain the requirements for a position. High standards are what we need running this city, don’t get me wrong, but I still question the value of the attempt.”

Charles Morris of the Tine corporation. Considered an expert at deals. Tess took notes with twitches of her fingers on what he said.

The people at this party were a mix of those curious about the new House White, fans of the beggar queen, and those invited for Ambrosia and Bates to evaluate possible working relationships with.

Serving was only part of the job here. Gathering information was the primary one, and one she intended to take seriously.  Notes piled up, drinks loosened lips, and deals got done. Two hours in, and everything was as smooth as a well-plotted equation.

“I’m here, everyone!”  Kelly white announced with a late splashy entrance.

Her fans cheered.

“Response ecstatic,”  Tess murmured.  

The verbal cue projected even more fanfare from both the Peters and her suit, giving good coverage of the room. You could stroke Kelly’s ego, then shame her about it being piped in noise later.

Dusty looked half dead as she trailed the woman a few steps behind. There was a good chance Bates might notice and swap her with someone else soon. Poor girl. What if Bates picked her? What programs would be needed?

“Wee! Beep! Wee! Bee!” PeterTwo’s alarm set Tess’s head ringing and ripped her out of her introspection.

At least it was contained to her hearing devices.

Tess tried to move to ask, “What!”

While her head was free to move. Tensing her body to switch away from the current program had her arm fighting the engineered suit. Against her will, it kept moving.  Exosuit ThreeD wasn’t serving drinks anymore.

The suit lunged forward through the crowd. Plugging into a visual display showed the target. Not hag White, but Charles Morris was almost as bad.

“Abort!  Freeze Function! Malfunction Junction!” Tess yelled, the programs fizzling against whatever slipped into the programmed settings for the party.

Outside of her control, the suit yanked the businessman up, lifting him up into the air. Only one option now. “Mom was right!”

Using the phrase she knew she’d never utter except in extreme circumstances did the worst.  Every invention she had with her froze and started to deconstruct. A tear started to form as she silently said goodbye to PeterOne and PeterTwo. They had backups, but it wouldn’t be the same.

Exosuit ThreeD exploded off her as an extra safety precaution, ripping her uniform from her body. It shredded her underclothes in the process, leaving her nearly naked. With the suit, she had the strength to lift Charles. Without it, the sudden addition of weight had her crashing down, and the man landing on top of her.

“This is certainly a party,” one of the guests commented to her shame.