Writing on the Wall, Chapter 3

First Chapter Here

Previous Chapter Here

My other story, Going Native Here

I'm not quite as confident with this series as I am with GN, so let me know what you think of it! I will, much like Faye, have to find my own way in this story.

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Faye was sleeping soundly when the goddamn drumroll woke her up. She shut off her alarm and swung up so that she was sitting, legs hanging over the slightly too-high bedframe, toes touching the floor. Long experience had taught her that if she didn't get vertical, she'd fall back asleep, then get a chewing out when she got to work late. Her father had never thought to call her if she wasn't at work when the bell rang; he would simply wait for her to arrive, then dock her pay. Who knew what Lady Jamia would do.

It was amazing how much her attitude had changed. Yesterday she was a bundle of poorly tuned nerves; now that it was over, Faye could admit that she had been terrified. Terrified the whole damn day. Today, though, she had a little bit of stability under her feet. She had an idea of what to expect.

A quick trip to the bathroom and a trip to the closet, and Faye was ready to start her day. She went with a skirt, leggings, and a not-too frilly blouse. Her new flats were superbly comfortable and she tossed her ID and omnipad into her purse (she had a purse!) before heading out the door.

The first real hiccup to her day was when she got to the bus. Again, there were a few snickers and odd comments under whispered breath as she hopped up the step and found a place to stand. For just a moment, she locked eyes with a young Rakiri woman. The same one that had sniffed her the day before. Faye gave the girl a blank expression and the Rakiri's fur puffed up before her eyes turned downcast. Time to tune out the world for the next half hour or so.

Giving one last glare at the Rakiri woman, Faye hopped off at her stop and made the short walk to the library. Her new shoes felt amazing, and she felt a moment of guilt. They wouldn't be HER new shoes until she paid back Ibby, which would probably take weeks. She got so caught up in budgeting that it took her a moment to realize that she had no idea what she was supposed to do for her second day. Probably help Ibby again, but she really should check the schedule.

--

Mahnti was in the process of putting his lunch in his locker when the door behind him popped open. Out of habit, he pulled his tail into a tight coil; too many people had tripped over him over the years, and it was less about being considerate and more about not wanting to get stepped on. A couple footsteps sounded, then stopped. Probably the new girl. Probably staring. He sighed to himself.

When Mahnti turned, he felt validated for a moment to realize his hypothesis was correct. Yes, it was the new girl, but she wasn't at all what he expected. For one thing, she wasn't staring at him. She was, rather politely, doing her best NOT to stare. Her skin was pale and a sort of cream color, face slightly reddened. She was dressed in a very Shil'vati masculine fashion that some (very casual) research had told him was common with Human women. The part of Mahnti's brain that was analytical at all times noted that her hair, just barely shoulder length, seemed to be a bit shaggy. She was probably in the process of growing it out.

With a start of surprise, Mahnti realized that HE was the one being the asshole. She had walked in and he was just staring at her. He shifted his tail, sliding up closer to her and raising up so he matched her height. He let out a polite cough and raised a hand to bump fists.

"You must be the new girl."

She turned towards him then, grinning broadly. Her fist connected with his as she replied. "That's me. Faye."

"Mahnti."

Of all the reactions he could have expected, a guffaw of laughter was not one of them.

--

He stood, if that's what you called it, right in front of her. At least three, maybe four meters long. His scales were a bright brown, the color of cheap milk chocolate, with lighter khaki patches along his arms, on his cheeks, and running down the length of his tail. He had some seriously nice punk rock hair, what looked like thick black mohawk folded over to one side. His eyes were blue.

He had the normal bodily arrangement, for the most part. Head at the top, neck and arms. A vest of some kind covered in pockets, but from the hips down there were no legs. A tail extended down to the floor, extra length tracing a path behind him. He was a Senthe.

Named Monty.

Faye couldn't stop laughing. She knew it was disrespectful, but she just couldn't help it. She finally had to slide her right hand over to her left elbow, pinching the soft inner skin as hard as she could. The pain helped, and eventually she had to stop, if only to catch her breath. She wiped tears from her eyes with the back of one hand.

"I am so sorry for that." She looked up at the Senthe's face to find that, thankfully, he had a small smile. "It's... you know, I don't think I could explain it in any way that wouldn't make me sound stupid. That was really rude of me."

"Yep. Really fucking rude." His smile faded. "Maybe you'd better explain anyway. I'd rather think you were stupid than an asshole."

Faye took a moment to think, to plan out exactly what she wanted to say. There wasn't a clear path. She was just going to have to do her best. She had never felt so mortified in her entire life.

"Okay... so, bit of background. On Earth, there is a class of animals called snakes. They have scales and are long... basically just a long tail with a head."

Monty nodded, then made a 'continue' gesture with his hand.

"There's a type of snake called a python."

"And I resemble one of these, maybe?"

"A snake? Yeah. A python specifically, I don't know. I honestly don't know much about snakes." Faye sighed. "Listen, this whole thing is stupid. I shouldn't have been laughing, but I've been stressed and it just kind of popped my relief valve."

"Understood. Continue."

Faye bit her lip. Looked like she wasn't going to be able to get out of this. "About fif-, call it thirty Shil standard years ago, there was a very influential and very, very funny group of performers. Their comedy group is one of my favorites and I grew up playing and replaying an old VHS set of their work to the point that the tape wore out." Monty started to open his mouth, so Faye interrupted. "An old analog video format. I the video was on plastic tape or something. If you used it too much, the quality deteriorated."

"....and?"

"The comedy group was called Monty Python."

Faye could feel her face getting hotter as Monty stared at her, stone faced. The moment stretched on and on, with her feeling more and more awkward. She shifted her feet slightly while his blue eyes stared her down.

Then he laughed.

It was the best Faye could have hoped for, and when he smiled back at her it was surprisingly pleasant. "I can see the humor. It would be like if you were called -" the last word was an odd hiss and click that Faye would never come close to being able to pronounce. "I would probably have chuckled too."

"So am I an idiot or an asshole?"

"Let's go with 'coworker' for now." After that was another awkward pause. It seemed like neither one of them knew where to take the conversation, and oh shit Faye was supposed to be working.

"You... you wouldn't happen to have a copy of the work schedule, would you?" Faye had been hoping for a corkboard or something, but the walls were rather bare. Just a few posters, a rather large screen on one wall, and a row of lockers.

"You don't?" Monty's head tilted to one side in confusion.

"No, my pad isn't on the staff network yet. Lady Jamia said I would need to meet with the administrator to get it set up."

"Well, you're in luck. That's me." He held out a hand expectantly and Faye reached for her omnipad, then had a moment of panic. Her pockets were empty!

Wait, no, they were nonexistent. Faye dug through her purse, thankfully almost completely empty, and handed over the device.

--

If Mahnti had made a list of every omnipad model on the market and ranked them from most likely to least likely to be found in this cute, stylish woman's purse, the pad she handed to him would have been dead last. It was one of those rugged industrial models you saw advertised for military contractors and construction crews, and it was in really bad shape. Every surface was scuffed and scarred, and in a couple spots it actually looked like it was partially melted. Still, it worked and he was able to get it set up on the network relatively quickly.

Using his own pad in one hand and Faye's in the other, he was quickly able to get her an intranet messaging address, put the weekly schedule onto her calendar, and change her alarm tone to a loud belching noise he always found funny. After a moment of introspection, Mahnti opened up her contacts.

"I added myself," he said as he handed the device back. "If you run into any problems, just send me a message. Don't call, because I hate voice link and won't answer. And don't assume you can use it to dial for some dicks."

Faye looked legitimately offended at the suggestion. "I... of course not." She flipped one long finger on the scratched surface of her pad. The work schedule came up, and if anything she looked MORE offended. Or possibly concussed.

"Something wrong?"

"I didn't know I was going to be on probationary hours."

He looked over the schedule, then compared it to his own. Six hours a day, five days a week. Just like always. Their breaks were on different days, but that was normal. Mahnti always planned his schedule around server maintenance and what not.

"Seems fine to me." After a moment, Mahnti understood. He tapped on his pad and tried to remember the name of the Human planet. Eart or something. It wasn't too hard to find the relevant data. "Oh, I get ya. The hours probably look off because Karnif has a twenty six and change hour day. You end up with a couple hours of extra leisure time compared to Eerf."

Faye's head shook from side to side, hair bouncing. When she next spoke, there was a sort of pleading in her tone. He could swear her eyes were wetter. "Do we really only work thirty hours a week?"

What a stupid question.

"Yeah. Why, what did you expect?"

"Well, standard full time where I grew up was forty hours. Once I got out of school and started saving to move here and for... well, other things, I was doing more."

Forty wasn't awful. It would be rough to get used to, but Mahnti had done forty and even forty five hour weeks a few times when they needed to do major infrastructure upgrades. To do it every week, though... he had to suppress a shudder.

"How many?"

"What?" Faye still seemed a little out of it.

"How many hours were you working before? And for how long?" Curiosity had always been a problem for Mahnti.

"For the last year I had been averaging about seventy hours."

"A week?!"

"Yeah. Ten or eleven hours a day for six days, then a half day. Rinse and repeat."

Mahnti shook his head. That was insane. "I would die. I need my breaks from the library as it is."

"Yeah. By the time I got back to my apartment from the worksite I'd be a wreck. I think my callouses have callouses." Faye looked at her hands, examining them critically. Mahnti decided to do the same and he could see what she meant. Despite the pale skin and pretty blue nail polish, there was a plethora of scars and rough patches. The sight of them seemed to really bother the Human.

Mahnti slid his way over to his locker, then glanced over at Faye. She was still standing there, looking at her pad like it was going to jump out and bite her. With a few taps on his pad, he assigned her a locker. 'Faye Green' appeared on the nameplate and, with a smooth motion he hoped wouldn't draw attention, Mahnti transferred what he decided would be a little welcoming gift into her locker.

"This locker's yours, feel free to settle in before you meet up with Ibby. He's plenty lazy so as long as you find him sometime before next Shel there won't be any trouble." He gave the Human a quick wave and slithered his way out the door.

--

Lady Dailea Jamia looked across her desk at Faye. This was the end of her first real day of work and she wanted to see how the young Human was getting on.

"Well, what do you think of our little family so far?" She wasn't expecting Faye to flinch and zeroed in on it. "Did something go wrong?"

"No, it's just..." Faye smiled sheepishly. "In my experience, when a business tells you they're a family it just means they're going to work you extra hard for no extra money."

Dailea croaked out a quick laugh. "Believe me, that's not what I meant. It will get a lot more stressful in a couple of weeks once students start showing up, but hopefully you will be a bit more settled by then.

"Once you're done with study area setup, I want you to talk to Qw'all over in archives. She'll set you up with the certification tests you'll need for delicate material handling. Part of your job is going to be assisting students in accessing those materials without the students actually being allowed to touch them. Digital scans are one thing, but you can't beat the real thing."

Faye nodded. "Can do."

"And just a warning, when classes start up again, you're going to have a lot of whiney students demanding that they have to have a specific employee help them. Don't listen."

The human seemed to grasp the situation instantly. "Students getting handsy?"

Dailea frowned, but nodded. "I hate to have to do this, but as a woman you really are going to have to serve as a buffer and take over for one on ones sometimes. Especially when the Noble kids decide not to take no for an answer."

"I can do that." Faye did seem oddly confident about it. Dailea had worried about hiring a Human. They were so small and Faye did seem more delicate than she expected, but if she was sure she could handle the situation, Dailea would consider it taken care of.

"One last thing before you go home, then." Dailea flicked a finger on her pad and watched Faye's eyebrows rise in confusion as the new item was added to her schedule.

"Movie night?"

"It's a staff tradition. You don't have to attend, of course, but I do recommend it. You'll get to meet the rest of your coworkers in a friendly environment." Dailea smiled. "You will, of course, have to bring a movie for your first time."

--

This wasn't going to work.

Faye paced her apartment, then glanced at her pad again. Two minutes since the last time she checked it. The day before, she was too exhausted to notice. Today, though, she found the extra time intolerable. What was she supposed to do with twelve extra hours a day? She didn't have any hobbies except sewing and reading, and right now Faye had too much pent up energy for either of those.

Nope, it was time to do some exploring.

Faye loaded up a map on her pad, slipped into her flats, and threw the apartment door open. University City called to her, and she had nothing but time.

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This is a fanfic that takes place in the “Between Worlds” universe (aka Sexy Space Babes), created and owned by u/BlueFishcake. No ownership of the settings or core concepts is expressed or implied by myself.

This is for fun. Can’t you just have fun?