Apriltober 2022 08 Scale (Alexa, Lacey OC)
a/n: Alexa tries to bond with a new co-worker. A beautiful friendship it is not.
Funnier if you've played all the DLC.
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but that does not prevent me from ranting about gear.
Alexa strode over to a mostly empty work table, lugging a sample crate in her arms. "Heads up," she briefly warned her coworker, before spilling the contents across the surface.
"Hey, my coffee," yelped her fellow Outfitter, scrambling to rescue her latte.
"You should know better not to have food in the hangar. Sip at your own risk, Lacey." Alexa started sorting through the assortment of indigen parts, not looking at the other woman. She piled them neatly: shells, strands, plates, scales. This batch was from a collect-a-thon on East Beach, delivered fresh this morning to the Outfitters. Some were still damp, mercifully from ocean water and not indigen guts. Her supervisor, Tika, had handed the box to Alexa with two instructions: come up with something and get the newest hire involved.
Alexa was finished sorting and was starting to measure offensive versus defensive stats on various materials by the time Lacey had lobbed her empty cup inexpertly at the trash can and shuffled over to her side. Alexa paused to count to ten, or at least to three. Lacey wasn't her best buddy. The new Outfitter had come in late most days of her short assignment, coffee in hand but never offering to do a drinks run. She'd skipped out of anything but the shortest test missions. She was terrible about putting away tools, or she would be if she bothered to do much more than refold armor. Worst of all, at least for Alexa, she showed absolutely zero interest in skells and even less patience when Alexa tried to bond with her over the wonder of those magnificent, beautiful, exhilarating works of ...
"So what's all this dreck?" Lacey poked something green and squishy. It oozed a little sea water at her with a tiny farting noise. Alexa moved it protectively to one side, making a mental note to get it to the Curators so they could rig it up a cozy little aquarium.
"Ocean-themed gear," explained Alexa. "We're planning to make something using area specific resources. Eventually they'll want to start exploring underwater, and we might as well match the environment."
"Great," sniffed Lacey, reaching for a pearly scale. "Mermaid gear." She grabbed a matching piece, plastered them against her chest, and gave a push upwards. "Look at me, I'm sexy."
Alexa considered. "Nah, that won't fly. They're moving away from male-female specific gear. "
"Hey, some of the more meaty guys could benefit from this kind of ... support."
"True, true," agreed Alexa. "We'd want some kind of netting to hold things in place, a few straps to allow the necessary power transfer..."
"I was joking," Lacey said, flipping the scales back onto the table.
Alexa put them in the correct pile absentmindedly. "Netting would be good, helps spread the defense. The base materials are a little brittle but the stats are tasty. The Wrothians have some good mesh that might do the trick. I wonder if we could..."
Lacey stared at her. "I thought you only obsessed about skells."
"I can obsess about all sorts of things," Alexa said cheerfully. Maybe Lacey liked armor? Maybe they could work together to make something really neat, and then Alexa could ease her into the wonders of skell frames and the importance of detailing their paint and ...
"Whatever," Lacey said dismissively. "You can find someone else to try it on. Unless...," her eyes flickered slyly, "you said that guy, Barrett, he owed you a favor, right?"
"Yeah," Alexa said slowly.
"Well, if he comes in for a fitting, let me be part of it. Because I want to mermaid his merman, if you get my drift."
"Uh huh," said Alexa. "I can get the Harriers onto the project, I guess. They like some good defense."
Two days later, Lacey had the fabulous opportunity to fit a clamshell bikini on that premier and distinguished Harrier, Bozé Lowes.
a/n: As much as I enjoyed dressing my team cute or tough with the blessing of fashion gear, I am still salty that bunny suits are gender locked. Nagi. Bunny suit. A missed opportunity.
Next up: Prompts? Ideas? Otherwise: Uber.