By now, the cash register watch was coming naturally to Trinitite. Almost as if she'd become part of a machine, the Wo-class could take orders and deliver them to customers without putting much thought into the process. Normally, that allowed the Wo-class to eavesdrop on her coworker's conversations, gathering passive intelligence on human behavior and culture, but it was Sunday morning, and Trinitite only had Clifton and Stephane to listen to, neither of which seemed to like her… or each other.
Not that she minded much. Yesterday the abyssal had decided to complement her fleet with a pair of Ne-class heavy cruisers, soon to represent Monticello, Alamogordo, or Uravan. Their heavier guns should allow her fleet to survive a slugging match, and Trinitite was sure Ames would have enjoyed the company. The cruisers had always stuck together when they could, breaking up outside Bikini only to gather scuttlebut from ships of other fleets. Trinitite could always count on them for some interesting rumors. If one of them had survived, instead of her…
…well, considering how heartbroken a sole surviving cruiser would have been, Trinitite wasn't sure how they would react. Intense experiences like that changed a ship.
She guessed she was no exception to that. She couldn't really tell what it would be, but she knew her sisters would notice something had changed if they met again. Deep, between the makeup and the loose uniform, would they even recognize her if they saw a picture of her?
"I'll take a Breakfast Jack," the customer stated, "with a coffee, two shots, and black."
"That's one Breakfast Jack, a coffee with… two…" Trinitite's automatic report-back trailed off as a discrepancy in the customer's order pulled her out of her thoughts. "Er, sorry, but we can't do shots, sir."
"What?" The human flushed. "I got an extra shot from you just last week!"
"You had?" Trinitite blurted, caught by surprise. The Wo-class wasn't entirely sure what he meant (clearly the human wasn't asking to be shot, but that was the only definition she could think of), but she did know she'd been manning this exact post last week, and if such a thing had happened she definitely would have remembered being able to do it.
"Yeah." The human replied, adapting a mocking tone Trin had heard from many a princess. "I had."
"I'm… sorry, sir…" She tempered. "...but you must be mistak-"
"Bullshit!" He snapped, and the Wo-class twitched as the man's fist slammed into the countertop. Why did people- humans and abyssal princesses- do that so much? At least Trinitite had the self-control to go somewhere no one was looking to vent. "The coffee machine is right there!"
Trinitite glanced over her shoulder, unsure what point the human was getting at. She knew the machine well: she had a cup of the bitter liquid before clocking in every day, now, and knew it had only two functions: brew coffee and pour coffee. It certainly didn't have any 'shoot' function…
Deep, where does all of this rage come from? Trinitite had plenty of experience with …unpredictable individuals like this, but had never really figured out what made some people so volatile.
"Are you alright, sir?"
That hadn't been the right thing to say. The human's face seemed to ignite as it reddened, his cheeks tightening as he stared at Trinitite. The carrier could feel his malevolent gaze burn into her thin armor. She met his gaze, reminding herself that the human couldn't actually do anything to hurt her. Even if he physically struck her, she could probably feign taking damage and keep her disguise intact.
A moment passed. Trinitite's rangefinders remained focused on his. Direct confrontation like this was against everything in her nature… but the customer blinked first.
"Just give me a damn coffee."
"Aye, sir." Trinitite acknowledged, wondering why she could feel her finger tremble. There was nothing to worry about, damnit! "Breakfast jack and a coffee. That'll be fifteen ninety-seven."
The human offered his card without comment. When Trinitite handed it back, he yanked it out of her fingers with force, leaving a parting shot as he yielded his position to the next human in line.
"Bitch…"
Perhaps, if Trinitite had known what that word meant, the insult might have been more effective. Considering she had avoided a real confrontation, she should feel a sense of accomplishment, but…
…no matter what she told herself, of how low the stakes had been, and of how little threat she had actually been under…
She felt exhausted. After filling a cup with the dark liquid and leaving it on the counter for the mad customer, it took extreme effort to force her lips into something resembling a smile and meet the gaze of the next human in line.
"Here you go, sir."
Any other day, Trinitite would have taken her lunch break by now, but the lack of manpower and Clifton's apathy as a manager were colluding to give Trinitite no time off of the till. The Wo-class was starting to feel hunger stalking her, a gnawing feeling that was sinking into her keel and creeping through her lower decks. She was trying to ignore it, but it wasn't helping her mood at all.
"Ah, thank you." The human smiled at her, accepting the bag and turning to leave. Thankfully, they weren't too busy at the moment. No doubt most people chose to go and eat at higher-quality establishments over the weekend. On one hand, it meant she didn't have to deal with as many humans, but the free moments made her hunger that much harder to ignore.
…it wouldn't do any harm to grab a few fries, would it?
The door opened before the abyssal could give in to the temptation, a trio of humans filling the restaurant with conversation as they flowed inside. Trinitite wasn't an expert in clothes, but the dresses the three females were wearing must have been somewhat expensive. There obviously was a good reason humans spent the extra money, but from analyzing the samples she'd stolen from Fred Meyers Trinitite couldn't find one.
The trio didn't immediately approach Trinitite, hanging back and conversing in tones too low for the abyssal to hear. After approximately a minute of the humans speaking, Trinitite trying not to look like she was staring at them, one of the humans split from the miniature fleet and approached.
"Welcome to Jack in the Box!" The Wo-class's greeting fired as soon as she got within two yards of the counter, Trinitite flashing a well-practiced smile. "Can I take your order?"
The human didn't return it.
"Yes, hello. I'll take a Club Chicken Salad, a Number 13, and a Number 16."
"Alright!" Trinitite acknowledged, forcing cheer she didn't feel into her voice. "That's a club chicken salad, some crispy chicken strips, and a chicken teriyaki bowl." She looked up from the register. "Are you making those combos?"
"No."
"That'll be thirty twenty-six."
"It won't." The human countered, drawing a thin booklet and slapping it onto the counter. She jammed a black nail into a box printed on the back page. "I've got a twenty-five percent off discount right here."
The abyssal leaned forwards to get a better look at where the customer was pointing, inspecting the coupon book. It wasn't one she recognized. Were these a new issue, or…
"Those are… expired, ma'am." She reported, reading the date on the bottom of the coupon.
"What?" The human replied, an edge underlining her voice.
"This coupon expired in 2019." She reported, checking the date again to ensure she hadn't read it wrong. "I'm afraid we can't honor it."
"Of course you can, sweetie." She replied, her voice hollow. "You've allowed us to use slightly dated coupons before."
Slightly? This coupon was older than she was! Ignoring her indignation, she knew that Shannon, the princess of this fleet, would never allow such a departure from procedure. It was possible such… flexible treatment of procedures were a part of some inter-fleet deal she wasn't aware of, but if her manager had wanted that deal honored then she should have alerted Trinitite about this beforehand.
Now… How did she tell her this politely?
"I'm sorry," The response was automatic, the abyssal hesitating as she searched for a polite way to deny her, "but I can't do that."
The human's eyes narrowed.
"Why not?"
"It's expired."
"That doesn't matter."
"It does." Trinitite blinked.
"Really?" The human hissed, the edge in her voice sharpening. "How about we get your manager's opinion?"
Trinitite shifted to get a view of said manager. Clifton was 'busy' in the corner of the restaurant, phone in one hand and half-finished burger in the other. He seemed to be doing his best to ignore the interaction, meaning he probably didn't want her to involve him…
"He's not available at the moment, sorry."
The human didn't immediately respond, her face hardening as she met Trinitite's gaze. A second passed.
"I'm sorry." She finally spoke, allowing the words to hang for a moment before continuing. "Did you just say your manager IS NOT AVAILABLE?"
"Ye- Yes, ma'am." The Wo-class stuttered, flinching as the human's whisper abruptly rose to a shout. Maybe it was because the female's voice sounded so much more like an abyssal Princess's, but the sudden shout felt more… cutting then that of the human earlier in the day.
These weren't abyssals. The worst thing she could lose is a customer.
"What does that mean?" The Human continued. "What, is he on lunch?"
"Yes." She reported. Now that she'd said it, she knew it sounded terrible, but it was honest…
"Go get him, then!" The human demanded, but Trinitite refused to move.
"I'm sorry…" she apologized uselessly, looking over at Clifton again. "...but I can't."
It was a weak, unsatisfying answer, but the only one the Wo-class could think of. If she pointed Clifton out to the rampaging customer, then she would no doubt turn around and yell at him instead, but Trinitite was the one manning this post, and not Clifton. Sure, her shift manager hadn't allowed her to get a lunch break yet, and sure, at the rate he was eating the human didn't look like he was going to finish in the half-hour, but he was on break. Clifton didn't have any duties right now, especially since this wasn't the emergency the customer was making things out to be. She'd let him eat in peace, so she could do the same when he was done.
"I'm sure you can't." The human mocked, stepping towards the end of the counter. "Let me get him, instead."
Was she- was she trying to enter? Trinitite scrambled to block her path into the kitchen. Noticing her burst, the customer quickened her pace, but the abyssal was faster.
"You can't come in here, ma'am!" She pleaded, placing one hand on the counter and another on the wall.
"Well, I clearly can't deal with you…" The human complained, her eyes flicking to Trinitite's nametag. "...Sarah, so I need to find someone more reasonable!"
Trinitite wasn't sure how to respond to that, remaining silent as the human shifted to try and get around her. Her own hull shifted in turn, and the human stopped. She didn't seem willing to try and force herself through the abyssal… a part of her, the warship who'd survived attacks from more navies than she would ever know and was still together today, wanted to see the human try, but Trinitite quickly suppressed that.
"Hello?" Instead of pushing, the human shouted, leaning to yell around Trinitite. "Is the Manager there? Sarah isn't honoring our deal!"
She'd lost track of the rest of the little fleet, but one of them cut in at this point.
"Look, it's only a few dollars." The second human tempered, her cheeks had flushed that pink that Trinitite was starting to recognize as a human blush. "I can cover the cost of the coupon if you want."
"It's not about-" The belligerent human continued, before looking over to her fleetmates. One met Trinitite's eyes, an apologetic smile playing across her weathered features, while the other seemed to be incredibly interested in the floor tiling. They weren't the only ones, either, a scattering of other potential customers had entered, one watching the confrontation with thinly-veiled annoyance while the other seemed to be bolted to his phone's screen.
"...Fine." Realizing she didn't have any support, the aggressive customer seemed to lose steam, backing away from Trinitite. "We'll be getting lunch elsewhere, then."
With that, she turned, following her embarrassed friends out of the restaurant.
"It's probably better if we get salad from a real restaurant, anyways."
"Have a good day, ma'am!" Trinitite called, darting back to the register and canceling the order. Thank the deep for the woman's fleetmates/friends. Now she'll be a different restaurant's problem.
Trinitite tried not to look tired as she greeted the next customer. She checked the time on the register screen. She had just over an hour of work left. Hopefully, that wasn't enough time for another… memorable encounter.
It took extreme restraint to take the extra time to actually unwrap the hamburger before biting into it, instead of tearing into the food, wrapper and all, in a very inhuman fashion. The rest of her shift had gone without incident, perhaps because this hunger had forced her to end it so early- she was technically on her lunch break, although her shift would be over before her thirty-minute lunch would be. That was fine by her, though. This lunch break was a part of her job, and she wasn't clocking out until her job was done, damnit! If Shannon asked about her going over time, she'd just explain the situation anyways.
To appease her quartermaster, the abyssal ordered an additional hamburger to go with her meal. It might look suspicious, but she had just gone an entire shift without her lunchbreak. That was good enough reason to tide her over until she got back to The Martin-Campos Fleet's house.
Both hands guided the first bacon ultimate cheeseburger into her jaws. As fangs tore off a chunk of flavorless bread and greasy meat, her hunger transformed the meal into a much more passable imitation of the real hamburger she'd had so many weeks ago. Half of the burger disappeared before The Abyssal was able to slow down and her thoughts were free to wonder.
She certainly didn't want to think about her day, so she took her phone out and restarted her search for Mother. Navigating the forum's maze of subforums and threads was confusing, but less confusing than the tangle of numbers, unreferenced acronyms, and dense jargon that was 4chan. Thus, she'd search Open Source Sailor first, once she actually figured out the formatting.
The idea behind it was genius. Last night she'd done some research on open source intelligence, and was nothing but impressed. Hundreds of decentralized fleets or lone humans, driven by curiosity, pooling their individual observations into spectacular intelligence on military actions, movements, capabilities… The vast versatility of the internet was something Trinitite suspected she'd never fully comprehend, but this had been well outside of her imagination. There was no way The Navy didn't know of this, but what could they really do about it? Perhaps, if they knew that an abyssal was taking advantage of it, they would try something to curb its effectiveness, but such an operation would have to be a tremendous undertaking. Deep, they'd probably have to pull resources away from fighting the abyssals!
As she shoved the last bite from the burger into her mouth and started opening the next one, the thought triggered an odd mixture of feelings. The Navy wanted her dead, and had killed The Crossroads Fleet. She couldn't forgive them for that. They'd done so supposedly to do… whatever they did to mother, but a second reason had become harder to ignore for the abyssal: Her family had been aiding other abyssal fleets in killing humans like Tirto, Sern, and Alton, and who were going to be threatening Alex if they kept making gains. The idea of The Navy losing a battle wasn't particularly unpleasant to the abyssal, but the consequences could-
"Two hamburgers, huh?"
The Wo-class jumped at the abrupt interruption, looking up at the human who'd disturbed her.
Clifton.
"It's a late lunch." She justified. Her manager had already taken his lunch break, so what was he doing over here?
Furthering her confusion, the large human eased himself closer, leaning on the table and giving The Wo-class an oddly nonchalant look.
"Hmm, you're clocking out after this, right?"
"...yes." Trinitite allowed. There was something in his tone…
"How about, once you get out, you come over to my place?"
"Er…" Trinitite tried not to recoil. Up until this point, Clifton had done nothing but make her life harder: From refusing to train her properly, to starving her today. That he was suddenly acting friendly had all kinds of alarms sounding in Trinitite's hull. "I'm busy today, sorry."
"Yeah." He agreed, his tone noticeably darker. "With Alex, right?"
"Right."
"Listen." He started, the metal chair across from the Wo-Class creaking as the massive human eased himself into it. "You're wasted on that twink. I can guarantee that I could show you a much better time than he could."
A better time? Trinitite didn't know Clifton's hobbies, interests, or much else about him, but frankly she didn't care to. The human was unreliable, failing to even come in for his shift fifty percent of the time, and always put in the bare minimum amount of effort. Even now, he should still be in the kitchen, pitching in with preparing meals or cleaning the it to ensure it was ready for the next shift. Instead, he was here, Trying to pressure Trinitite into… something.
"I doubt that." She finally answered, gaze drifting down to her phone.
"Just one night, Sarah, and I could put those doubts to rest."
Eurgh. What was this feeling? This… revulsion? It was clear that her shift manager had plans that the Wo-class didn't understand, and Trinitite wasn't planning on finding out.
"Shouldn't you be working right now?" She asked, keeping her gaze on her phone and hoping she didn't have to push too hard to get him out of here. Was it too much to have her lunch to herself?
"Shouldn't you have called me when that customer was asking for a manager?"
He'd known? Well, there was no way he couldn't have known, with all of that commotion, but he'd cared?
"You know," He continued, a foreboding smile slipping into his features. "Miss Chiba probably won't like to hear about that."
"You were eating lunch, though!" The Wo-class protested. "I didn't want to disturb you!"
"I'm sure she'll love to hear that." Clifton mocked, before the smile turned… what was that expression? "Of course, she doesn't have to…"
Oh. This was just an attempt at gaining leverage, and a poor one, at that. Clifton was attempting to blow a minor mistake out of proportion, attempting to use the fear and worry in Trinitite to get some kind of concession, but he didn't have the supplies for that kind of attack.
So what if Shannon knew? The princess of this Jack in the Box had seen her make much worse mistakes in the past. Trinitite would be lectured, maybe even shouted at, but the incident would be forgotten after that.
"I'll tell her, don't worry." She reported, her voice remaining flat as she allowed her gaze to drift back to her phone. Clifton's eyes slightly widened, before his face hardened.
"Don't. Bother." The human grunted, emphasizing each word as he laboriously rose from his chair. "Offer will always be open, Sarah."
With that, he finally left. That he'd responded so strongly was confusing, but the abyssal refused to speculate. What was important was that he was gone, thank The Deep.
Trinitite checked her phone. She still had roughly ten minutes before she could leave. Hopefully, she could forget about all of that before then. It would cut her lunch break short, but just getting out of here seemed more important right now.
The front door was unlocked, swinging open with Trinitite's weight as she stumbled into her safe harbor, the house of The Martin-Campos Fleet. The quality of her journey here had been consistent with that of the rest of her day, life delivering a final insult when the strap on her bra abruptly broke.
As far as the abyssal could tell, it hadn't been for any obvious reason, either. The terrible human craftsmanship had just… reached the maximum number of steps it wanted to provide support in, and had just given out. Now that she thought about it, Ru-class battleships were probably wearing these things under their suits. They probably didn't have to worry about them randomly breaking…
What was worse was that Trinitite had worn that bra about the same amount as all her others, meaning every one of them was probably reaching the end of their service lives. How much was it going to cost to replace them all?
Alex must have been waiting for her, the human resting on the living room's couch. As soon as Trinitite entered, he'd pocketed his phone, a nervous smile meeting the abyssal as he greeted her.
"How was work?"
The abyssal sighed, falling into the couch next to her friend. That he had been waiting for her, and didn't seem comfortable with the topic he wanted to bring to her attention probably meant more bad news, but whatever. At this point Trinitite was just willing to roll with the waves until she could sleep.
"Terrible." She admitted, focusing on the feeling of her hull settling into the cushions.
"Oof." Alex grunted sympathetically. "Want to talk about it?"
"Sure." Trinitite sighed, gathering the scattered fullisade of events that had happened into an informal report.
"Ugh, that's tough." The human groaned. "That first guy probably had a pretty bad day too, and was lashing out, but I think the second just wanted to see you suffer."
"I know the type." She groused. The Abyssal continued, her report shifting onto her last encounter.
"Ew." Alex recoiled. "Clifton? Eugh."
"That was roughly my response."
"That counts as sexual harassment, doesn't it?" He asked, the disgusted expression on his face remaining.
"Does it?" She asked, surprised. Why was she so bad at recognizing this, even with all the training she'd received? Trinitite didn't see a way Clfton could actually succeed, but… "He wanted sex?"
Trinitite's revelation seemed to catch the human by surprise, confusion playing across his face.
"Well… Yeah." He finally responded, looking away from Trinitite to rub the back of his head. "Well- probably. Jesus, this makes what I was going to ask so awkward."
"What was that?"
Alex froze. His eyes wandered around the room as his jaw visibly worked, the human transparently mustering words for something.
"Sarah," he started, eyes flicking over to Trinitite to gauge her reaction. "I've known you for a few weeks now. From what I have seen, I know you're- immensely kind, really smart, and b-" Alex stuttered, eyes flickering over Trinitite's hull. The abyssal noticed the red marring his plywood-tan cheeks. How long had he been blushing? "-beautiful…"
He sighed, visibly regrouping before he continued.
"...and I would like to know more."
Alex drew his phone, pulling up a screen and handing it to Trinitite.
"There's a really good restaurant downtown. They serve steak, Italian, actual hamburgers, not the plastic we give people, and I think they've got some seafood if you want."
'Seafood?' Considering the price of anything the humans had fished out of the water, the abyssal hadn't considered the familiar flavors of home within her budget, but if Alex knew how to procure some…
"I figure, on next saturday we could have lunch here, go to the theater for a movie, then have dinner over there."
Hold on, a movie, and then dinner? Hadn't she read about something like that before?
"It's a date." Trinitite observed.
"Yeah." Alex confirmed. "But just a first date. I'm not asking for what Clifton was demanding, or-" he seemed to struggle on how to end his statement, eventually giving up and waving his hands meaningfully. "We'll just watch a movie and eat, then we can decide if we want to be a couple or just… friends." He seemed to cringe at the last statement, but recovered quickly. "So," he finished, giving Trinitite a small smile, "how does that sound?"
The Wo-class took a deep breath, considering the proposal. It really shouldn't have been a difficult choice. Trinitite was already way too familiar with the human. Her fabricated story was only designed for casual conversations, after all, and a human who got too familiar could probably shatter it entirely by accident. Her story certainly wouldn't last long in the impossibly complex environment dating presented.
Still, even without the overwhelming pressure the fleet had brought upon her the last time they'd given her a serious proposal, The Abyssal couldn't bring herself to say no. Clearly, Alex had already put a lot of work into planning this operation: from reconnaissance of the restaurant to carefully setting the rules of engagement to give Trinitite room to maneuver. Sinking such carefully-laid plans of a friend was only really fun on the tabletop. Besides, it had piqued her curiosity. This sounded a lot less terrifying then those dates she'd read about on wikipedia. No matter how interesting or enlightening it could be, however, it wasn't good for her mission…
"Er- if you want to think about it for a bit, that's fine." Alex added, doubt clouding his features as the abyssal dithered.
"Don't worry, Alex." The Wo-class reassured, the decision suddenly resolving in her mind as if by a shut breaker. "I accept."
Maybe it was because this was the first time today somebody had been nice to her. Maybe it was the thought of finally eating seafood again, or Trinitite just didn't want to disappoint Alex. She still wasn't sure why she agreed, but as she watched the human's face light up and Alex started thanking her, she realized that doing so just felt right.
Besides, he'd given her an option to escape! If things got dangerous, she should be able to escape without causing too much damage…
I think I've mentioned before that I've never attempted to write a romance subplot before, and that romances/shipping aren't normally my thing when it comes to literature. Because of that, it's kind of hard to measure how good of a job I'm doing. The largest balance I've had to try to strike, I think, is trying to ensure it moves at a believable pace and with a solid character foundation, without taking up too much of the plot or stretching it out too much. A final verdict is probably going to have to wait until I've actually finished this arc, but I'm very open to advice and feedback anyone can give.
This is doubly true for negative/constructive feedback. I can't always take it to heart or utilize it, but I can say I can admire the spirit of someone who's cared enough about the story to read this far, and is willing to put themselves out there to help the author course correct. I won't always take those under advisement, but rest assured I haven't really dismissed anyone posting here as a mere 'hater' yet. Those kinds of people definitely exist, but I won't flatter myself by thinking I've done well enough to earn some
Anyways, I think some of that rambling came from my worrying about this story potentially starting to drag for readers. Rest assured, I'm doing everything I can to make sure it retains momentum, and I'm having a blast actually writing the thing, but the slumping longfic is a very common problem, and one I want to make sure I'm aware of as I start wrapping up the fast food arc.