Peso
The small group made their way down the final ladder to the launch bay.
The majority of the launch bay was taken up by a giant pool of water. Three docks extended out in the pool, one on each side and one in the center. On the ground on either side of each dock were painted letters. To the left of the ladder was an open space that contained a bedroom, beyond the bedroom were two more doors than a large windowed tank full of water filled the rest of the left side of the launch bay.
On the right, the entire engineering team was grouped around a large built-in console, Tweak and Barret were seated in the two chairs in front of it with Pike and Grover standing behind them. Above the console was a monitor that took up the entire wall behind it, a video of a shoreline playing on it. The console itself looked like a smaller version of the one that Peso had seen in the HQ.
Behind the engineering team, Peso could just make out another open space that had a desk, some shelving, and exposed pipes running along the wall.
The two groups looked at each other for a moment, Peso noticed Pike staring at Kwazii when the man suddenly blurted out, "It's work-related!" The rest of the engineering team turned to stare Pike.
Tweak shook her head, swiveling her chair to face the newcomers, "Sandy sent me a video of some leatherback turtles laying eggs, she was excited because she got them on film. It's not the greatest because no one was actually there it's just like trail cam footage but it's still kind of cool. We were just watching it; I was going to send it to the rest of the crew after it was finished. It can wait though." She closed the paused video on the monitor. "What can we help you with?"
"Sorry we didn't mean to interrupt, and obviously we're not here to get anyone in trouble, Pike. Kwazii just joined us for the tour." Halie explained.
"Yes," Peso chimed in, "I've learned the only fun place is the recreation pod, not to accidentally walk into Mr. Campbell's room, not to touch Ms. Daughtry's laundry, shower four will hurt you, and shower three will freeze you. The launch bay is our last stop."
"Sounds like Halie's covered all the important parts," Grover said chuckling.
"I did my best," she smiled up at him, "Did any of you want to explain the launch bay?"
"Why would we need to? It's not like he'll be down here." Barret said leaning in his chair.
"Okay, well he'll at least need to know where the Gup-E is and our suits," Halie quickly countered.
Peso's brow furrowed, "Guppy? Do we also have fish on board along with the chickens and bees?"
"It's not a fish," Tweak said, turning back to the console she started typing away at the keyboard, pulling files up on the monitor. "It's a mini-sub. The Gup dash E," A picture of the small green sub was now on screen with its name above it and a list of features besides it, "is our emergency sub. It got its own mini stock of medical supplies, normally it gets used when it's faster to take those supplies to someone then bring them back to the Octopod first."
"It's an underwater ambulance?" Peso summarized, "That's very cool."
Tweak perked up at his comment, "Thank you. I mean it's not as great as a real ambulance, but it's the closest I could make it."
"You designed the mini-subs too?" Peso asked.
"You really think anyone else would make things look like this? Barret scoffed, pointing his hand up at the screen.
Tweak ignored him, "I designed nearly all of the IORCE's vehicles. And, yeah," she rubbed the back of her head, "Barret's not wrong about a lot of my designs."
"You can definitely tell that you designed the Shark Sub last," Barret added, "It's the most normal."
"Every single one of my subs functions despite their unusual designs. They do their jobs and serve their purposes," Tweak said defensively, then after a pause, "But yeah, many of my designs have shifted towards efficiency over aesthetic."
Barret gave her a hard look.
"Don't act like your any better, Barret." Grover said sternly, setting both hands on either of Barret's shoulders, "Every crazy design she shows you, you say ok let's build it. We all know you live for this just as much as she does."
"Do you want to see all the subs? I can bring them up," Tweak spun her chair around to face the launch bay pool.
"Bring them up?" Peso questioned, he realized he didn't know where they were stored or how many of them there were.
He must have made some sort of face when he asked because Tweak started laughing, "They're all underneath us." She stood up from her seat and walked over to the pool, "What we're standing on isn't solid, it's actually more like a platform supported by pillars. Each of the five Gups that stay with the Octopod has their own little housing down below," she pointed to the painted letters on the ground, "Those mark where each Gup is stored. Over on the console, you put in which one you want, and the system brings it out and up. Barret, bring up the Gup-B. We'll need it anyway."
"Guppie?" Peso said quietly under his breath. He might have to go over all the information Rogers had given him and actually read it.
"What are you doing to my Gup?" Kwazii asked, joining the conversation.
"You wanted the Gup-B to go faster," Tweak looked over her shoulder at them, "So, I'll see what I can do. It's not entirely unreasonable to see if we can increase its speed."
"Oh, please," Barret said from the console typing in commands quickly, "you're just spoiling him. Fair warning all the women on this sub spoil him."
"We do not!" Halie argued, "and even if we did Tweak literally just said that it wasn't a big deal, so you don't have a point."
Peso heard a sudden clanking and grinding of metal. Tweak looked back towards him, "Don't worry those noises are normal. The rigging pulls it out first then brings it up next to its dock. The Gup-A and Gup-B share a dock, same for the Gup-C and Gup-D. Gup-E tends to get a dock to itself unless we have another one on board, which we currently do, the Gup-S. It can go above and below the surface, so it makes traveling around in the Artic or Antarctic much easier."
"Guppa, guppie, guppy…" Peso mumbled to himself, "gupcee, gupdee" nope it didn't work with those two. He was going to have to be careful not to laugh at their names when anyone else was around, in private though…
The water in the pool started rippling. Peso leaned over towards the water just enough to get a clearer view of what was happening below. A large pale orange mini-sub was being pulled out from under where they stood just like Tweak had said.
"How much weight can this," he pointed at the floor, "actually support?" He asked continuing to watch the mini-sub.
Barret started laughing from over at the console, "Don't worry doctor, your weight isn't enough to push us over the limits."
Halie leaned into Peso, "Don't worry it's safe, we've piled tons of stuff down here before."
"The platform is also close to ten inches thick and being supported by twenty support pillars but yeah feel safe just because we've put a lot of stuff down here before," Tweak muttered as the Gup-B was breaking the surface of the water.
Tweak raised her voice, continuing her explanation from earlier, "The system is programmed to stop at an enterable height," she waited for the Gup to come to a full stop at the side of the dock, holding up a hand towards Barret to signal him to wait at the console, "When we have to work on them, we have to raise them manually from here."
She motioned for Peso to follow her as she walked out farther onto the dock. He stepped out cautiously and got a better look at the mini-sub now that it was partially out of the water. The pale orange of the mini-sub reminded him of a faded Octopod Orange, and he could see now that there was a face painted onto the front of it, an eye on either side of the hatch and sharp, smiling teeth could be seen just above the water line. He was surprised by the size of it, it seemed close to the same length as a car but thinner as it only seemed to fit one person.
"I always thought mini-subs were like tiny," he moved his hands in a scrunching motion.
"No," Tweak commented, "a mini-sub can be anything under one hundred and fifty tons, so it all depends. The Gup-B is actually the smallest one we have and it's just under sixteen feet long."
Peso nodded his head, not knowing how to respond while also trying to comprehend that the other subs below them were all larger than this one, while all being stored inside a submarine. "The Octopod is apparently much bigger than I think is."
"A lot of new people say that" Grover answered with a light chuckle, "It still doesn't feel big enough at times though. Just wait for that moment."
"What are those marks for?" Peso asked, pointing to what looked like tally marks on the other side of the glass domed hatch closer to the tail of the sub.
Tweak turned her head to look at Kwazii, "Yeah Kwazii what are those marks?"
Her question was quickly followed by one of Barret's own, "Could they possibly represent hours of our time wasted?" he gestured to the engineering crew near him.
"There's a learning curve to piloting a Gup," Kwazii said crossing his arms over his chest.
"A learning curve…meaning?" Peso asked.
"Meaning he crashed that poor thing a lot," Pike supplied.
"I wasn't a lot! Obviously!" he pointed at the tally marks, "and Shellington still crashes Gups all the time!" Kwazii interjected.
"Oh, my Gods, isn't that expensive though?" Peso asked then shot an apologetic look toward Kwazii.
"Yes, yes, it is. It's why Shellington doesn't get to pilot any of the Gups alone," Barret answered stretching his arms, "So when you're learning just remember that fact and do your best not to ruin anything."
"I have to learn how to drive one of these? I thought I would be mainly staying on the Octopod. It's not like I have any skills that would apply outside the med bay."
"Did you not read over anything given to you?" Barret asked an annoyed expression settling on his face.
"I had a week. I've already said –"
"Don't worry about it," Tweak cut him off, "It's not going to be on the short list of what you need to learn. We can just take Hallie for now when we go ashore. The Captain will probably drag you aside at some point soon and go over everything he wants you to focus on learning right now."
She waved a hand in the air dismissively. "But it never hurts to learn what each Gup is for, you can also just read about their uses in the maintenance and operations files on your computer, but I can give you a quick run down if you would like?" Peso nodded and she happily continued.
"The Gup-A is the one that we use the most often, it does a bit of everything so it great for a lot of different situations, plus it's the Cap's favorite. The Gup-B, like I already said, is our fastest and smallest –"
"And it's my personal favorite!" Kwazii added.
"Right, thank you Kwazii. The Gup-C is our workhorse though. We use it when things go wrong, or a situation gets tough. It can tow other gups, it also has an icebreaker attachment for when we're in icy waters like we're soon to be. It's a great little sub," she had a wide smile on her face, "one of my favorites.
"The Gup-D is another of my favorites, its main purpose is to aid in repairs to the ship. I gave it claws so it can hold onto parts and hold them up while we weld! The best part is that the arms can retract and the claw attachments can be removed because otherwise it just would be horrible underwater for anything else."
"That's her real favorite," Peso heard Barret comment.
"I like all my Gups!" Tweak declared, Barret scoffed at her remark. Tweak continued with her very fast run down, "and then finally the last gup that we always keep onboard, the Gup-E. Can you guess what the 'E' stands for?" She asked Peso.
"Umm…it was the fifth Gup you designed, and the alphabet is easy for keeping track?" He honestly didn't have a clue since none of the other Gup's letters seemed to have relevance to the jobs they could do.
"Well actually it was the second," Tweak clarified, "and the 'E' stands for Emergency. You know cause an ambulance is an emergency vehicle."
"Ok that one makes sense," He had volunteered often to ride along on the ambulances whenever they were short-staffed, and he had the time. It could be terrifying, but it was also very exciting, and he loved the compact hospital feeling the vehicles had.
Peso asked, edging on excitement. "So, the Gup-E is just like an ambulance, it has compartments for medical supplies and oxygen and the basic stuff like that?"
"It does. I tried to make sure it had what it would need to meet the bare requirements of an emergency vehicle. It's also one of the more complicated ones, in like building, not function," she added quickly, "it can open to the outside from both sides so everything had to be completely waterproof or be able to function submerged. It was a really fun challenge. Also, all the draining features for all my Gups since the Gup-E are based on it, and I used all the waterproofing techniques we created building it in the Gups B and D. So, it's kind of my baby and I love it so please don't destroy it."
"I will do my best not to," Peso promised. He now wished that she had brought up the Gup-E to show him, but he reasoned with himself, he would have multiple opportunities to see it later.
"Finally, there is the Gup-S which I talked about earlier. I know I explained that all kind of fast…"
"No that's fine! Also, you said I could look up everything I need to know about them on my work computer, which I definitely do plan on doing." Peso glanced around the rest of the launch bay, "What about the other rooms? I'm guessing not everything is focused on the Gups?" He was staring at what looked like an open bedroom at making this observation.
"Oh, yeah that's my room. It's just easier if something happens for me to be down here." Tweak said noticing where he was looking.
"Hallie did say that your room was open to the launch bay," Peso said carefully, "but I guess I was still expecting it to have…a wall or a door."
Tweak laughed, "It was a very last-minute change in the plans. That was originally supposed to be storage," she pointed to her room, "and honestly, it's just so much simpler to not have a wall, like I'm right in all my work. Easy." She put her hands up, "My actual room become Hallie's and she rarely uses it so it's really more of a guest room at this point."
"It makes mornings difficult," Barret said, "No one wants to accidentally walk in on you changing or anything like that."
Tweak shot him a look and he tossed his hands up, "I have those folding screens for…" she looked away from Barret shaking her head. "The other rooms, right…"
"Over there is the engine room," Grover stepped in. He pointed to the door closest to the dock for the Gup-E. "It's full of dangerous machinery so I recommend staying out of it unless we directly ask you to go in there. Then there's a small workspace," the pointed to the open space in front of the engine room and to the side of the console, "Over there, just around the corner is an office space, mostly just Barret and Tweak use it when working on designs so it's a mess in there."
"My side isn't a mess," Barret grumbled.
"Under their office," Grover continued, ignoring Barret, "Is kind of like a basement space. Its not very big but that's were most of the thing have to be stored long term get put. Like after you get done unpacking, we can toss your empty luggage in there. If you want."
Peso nodded, again thinking to himself that the Octopod was much larger than he had expected.
"And next to my room," Tweak said having recovered train of thought, "that is the changing room we use for getting in and out of our wetsuits, there's lockers and everything in there, it also where we keep all the diving equipment at.
"The next door down is where all the water pumps are so that we can easily assess them, and then that entire side of the Octopod after the pump room is water tank storage." She turned to face the end of the dock looking all the way to the opposite wall, "That wall has the launch bay hatch, it's underwater for obvious reasons. Oh, and below the launch bay pool is the Bubble Engine."
"Bubble Engine?"
"You are twenty-five years old! Stop calling it a bubble engine!" Barret snapped suddenly.
"No! I built it I'll call it whatever I want." Tweak argued back.
"You didn't invent Hydro engines."
"I didn't say I invented it, I just said I built it."
"Wow!" Halie cut in interrupting the two, "Everyone on this ship is making it look like we all get along so well. I'm so happy Dr. Guin joined us today." She said with a tight smile.
Tweak huffed, pulling out her phone and typing a quick message, "Whatever. I'm taking a break. I'll be back in ten."
Suddenly Dashi's voice came over their earpieces, "This is Dashi, I'm going on my break. The Captain will be handling the ship until I get back since he does it so much better anyway…no…it's going to be a good twenty minutes at least."
"I'll be back in about twenty minutes I mean," Tweak corrected herself and headed for the ladder.
"It sounds like Cap and Dashi are arguing too," Kwazii said rubbing the back of his head, "guess I should probably get back up there. Thanks for the tour, Hallie," he gave a little wave of his hand then left up the ladder.
As soon as the two were gone Grover didn't hold back snapping at Barret, "What the hell is wrong with you? What was the point of all that?"
Barret glared back at him, "I didn't do shit."
"You've been a bit of a jerk like all week." Pike chimed in, "I mean some things I agree on, but it has been…excessive."
"It hasn't just been all week it's been months now." Grover crossed his arms, "I don't know what is going on with you but maybe fix it."
"I don't have to take this shit from either of you." Barrett stood from his chair and disappeared around the corner into the office Grover had pointed out earlier.
Halie groaned loudly, covering her face with her hands. "It's fine," Peso said quickly, already guessing what Halie was probably thinking, "Like I said earlier so many people living together –"
"But it not!" Hallie cut him off. "The Captain sending Kwazii to spy on us, everyone arguing and picking at each other. It's not fine."
The Captain sent Kwazii to spy on us? He hadn't expected or thought of that.
"We're not normally this bad, not really," Grover said rubbing a shoulder before sitting at the console, "Think I should send the Gup-B back down?" he asked Pike.
Pike shrugged in response.
Grover continued, "I would love to just say you caught us on a bad day, but Dashi and the Captain argue a lot, they are both very much 'I'm the top dog' kind of people. Min and Tunip fight probably two or three times a month…Tweak and Barret though…I honestly have no clue what's going on there."
"They had been getting along really well just a while ago." Pike claimed the other seat at the console, "It was weird 'cause they've always bickered. Tweak is very much more I do what I taught myself and Barret tends to be a by-the-book type of guy. But they've never been as bad as they are right now."
"Grover thinks they had a fight, and they didn't tell anyone or aren't telling anyone," Hallie said walking out onto the dock where Peso was still standing, not sure what to do with himself. "Tweak hasn't said anything to any of us girls, but I think Dashi might know what's going on and is keeping silent." She leaned against the Gup.
"Dashi ends up knowing everything," Pike commented opening a previously closed screen on the monitor, it looked like it might be a weather report, "so never bet against her because she literally wins everything. It's annoying." He added.
Peso stayed silent. He wasn't bothered by the arguing amongst the crew, he had seen worse at the hospital and in his own family, but he didn't think that Hallie would want to hear him say that again. He leaned against the Gup next to her, "Anything else I should see on our incredible tour?" he asked deciding it might just be best to change the subject.
"It depends on what Hallie has already shown you." Grover answered instead, "Where haven't you taken him yet?"
"Just some of the pods. The residential pods look the same, and the bees are causing problems in the garden pod. Which Kodi is going to be finicky over the garden pod for the next few days anyway so it's probably best to hold off anyway on that one," Grover nodded his head in agreement.
"So, would you say that the tour is essentially over? And we should probably get back to organizing and cleaning the med bay?" Peso asked, straightening himself.
Hallie nodded and the two said their goodbyes to what was left of the engineering team and headed back up to the work floor.
⸶ ⸱ ⸸ ⸱ ⸷
Tweak
She let out a frustrated huff, she was getting tired of this, and pulled out her phone, quickly typing out a message to Dashi,
I need a break wanna meet me in the office?
Tucking her phone back into her pocket, "Whatever, I'm taking a break. I'll be back in ten minutes."
Suddenly Dashi's voice came over their earpieces, "This is Dashi, I'm going on my break. The Captain will be handling the ship until I get back since he does it so much better anyway…no it's going to be a good twenty minutes at least."
"I'll be back in about twenty minutes I mean," Tweak corrected herself and headed for the ladder. Quickly climbing up to the residential floor and heading to the office.
While the office was considered to be the Captain's, or the Professor's depending on who you asked, it wasn't locked, and anyone could enter. Making it the perfect place for private conversations or uninterrupted breaks.
She pushed open the door and slipped inside. The small room was packed tight with metal shelving nearly overflowing with plastic storage totes filled with everything from holiday decorations to old documents that probably were past due to be thrown away.
The desk that took up much of the small space was similarly filled with decorative cardboard boxes, holding who even knew what anymore, and stacks of papers, its small desktop monitor pushed all the way to side against the tiled wall. Even the shelf behind the desk and the filing cabinet beside it had piles of various items stacked haphazardly on them. It was the one room in the sub that they all allowed to get out of control like this, it had just become the place to put stuff.
Tweak made her way carefully through the "organized" mess and took the seat behind the desk, adjusting the chair to fit her height, and waited for Dashi. She knew it would only take her a little bit longer since she was coming from the HQ.
She picked at the mess on the desk, we really should take a day to clean this sometime, it's getting out of hand, she straightened some of the papers and put back some loose pens into their holder clearing a small space on the desk. She had gotten quite a bit cleared when the other door to the office finally opened and Dashi stepped in.
"Wow, are you cleaning? Clearly, something is wrong." Dashi slid easily into the small chair on the other side of the desk, "What happened?"
Tweak sighed, she felt like that was all she did anymore, "Barret's mean," she muttered quietly poking at the peeling mouse pad, Why do we even have a mouse pad? Useless.
Dashi tsked, "I noticed," she said gently. Tweak noticed her friend's hesitation before she continued, "I wish I could say something to make it all better but the whole situation isn't easy," she paused trying to find the right words, "I don't agree with what the Captain did, but I do understand it, which makes it all the harder. Barret is probably just hurting and not handling it well."
"Did he say anything to you?" Tweak asked. She knew that Barret and Dashi had their own twisted version of friendship stemming from their "bad guy" reputations, but she was never actually sure about how much they shared.
Dashi pushed her hands against the desk stretching her back, "All he has said to me was that the Captain made you two end things and to not bring you up when talking with him. So…technically yes but also very much no."
Tweak rested her head on the desk, "I'm hurting too! I hate this too! But I'm not being mean to everyone! I'm being considerate and trying to give him lots of space and he's just…"
"Lashing out?" Dashi suggested.
"Sure, call it that."
Dashi tapped her acrylics against the desk, "Barret and I, as much as loathe as I am to admit it, share similar qualities. I would do my best not to take anything he says to heart right now, or ever really. I mean this is Barret we're talking about."
Tweak knew that Dashi was trying but nothing Dashi has said had been helpful to her, so she decided to switch topics, "You sounded upset earlier, on the radio, what was going on?"
"Oh," Dashi's voice became overly cheerful and her smile tight, "Just the Captain thinking he knows the Octopod better than me." She brought a hand to her chest dramatically, "I mean he was a submarine captain before, in the military even! How brave!"
Dashi dropped her hand down onto the desk harshly, her tone switching back to normal with just a trace of annoyance, "Do I look like I care? Does this look like some run-of-the-mill mass-produced shitty military submarine? Don't even laugh at me right now!"
Tweak was doing her best but she was starting to lose the fight against her giggles.
"I try so hard to let their comments just flow off me. Whatever, you know it's fine. They think this is just another sub, and that's totally fine. You know it's not my job to wake them from their delusions. It's not like they're living inside arguably the most advanced AI ever created. Show me a single thing smarter than the Octopod."
Tweak shook her head, not bothering to control her laughter now. This was a conversation she and Dashi had had many times before.
"They just treat all this," Dashi gestured around them with her hand, "just it's just some fancy boat. The Octopod wants to change our course ok, I'm fine with that, let me just double-check it. But no," she threw her hands up, "No. The Captain doesn't like the new course, he wants the original course. Why? Why does he not like this new course? We'll reach the artic circle half a day later. Why did the Octopod change course?"
"Because it knows better?" Tweak guessed.
"There's a possible storm that could form right over our original course, which would stall us longer than just half a day. But no, what does this man have the audacity to tell me? We'll just sink farther down and be unbothered if the storm does form. It's like he doesn't understand simple energy conservation.
"Because fine, that is an option that would work, it would probably only set us back a few hours, but, and this is the thing I want to scream at him while shaking him the Octopod is smarter than you! It already thought of that! Doing that is going to use ten percent more power than just making a slight course adjustment.
"Oh, but it's fine Dashi, we're a nuclear sub. No! No Constantine it is not fine! The Octopod does not like using energy for no reason. It does not like putting unnecessary stress on its domes, for no reason!"
She let out a long groan and took a deep breath, "I understand that he is the captain, and he wants to do captain things but just let the Octopod do its thing. I was hired for a reason and this Octopod has been," she paused for a moment thinking, "generally, smooth sailing for nearly four years now, I think both the Octopod and I know what we're doing."
"Do you want me to try talking to him? He might listen to more to me," Tweak stated, then quickly tagged on, "sorry." She knew it was one of Dashi's pet peeves when the Captain would ignore her advice but then take the same advice from someone else.
"It's fine, but yes, please. Or don't and we can just let him do whatever he wants. I don't…" Dashi let out another loud groan.
Tweak pulled out her phone, checking the time, "Well, I don't want to go back to the launch bay yet, so let's go convince the Captain that a half day doesn't matter in the grand scheme. I trust the Octopod, and you, over oh we'll just go deeper to avoid the weather. Especially since being in artic water is going to push power consumption up already."
"Thank you. Literally one of my other points." Dashi stood up from her seat, "Also with Barret just fuck him, he–"
Tweak shot her a look, then started laughing again, "I think that's what got me here, so, ah, no."
"No," Dashi laughed, "I meant like fuck him as in ignore him and you know it!" She wagged a finger in Tweak's face. It only made Tweak laugh harder.
Tweak followed Dashi out of the office, listening to her rant about the men of the sub. Tweak smiled to herself, she was feeling a little better already.
⸶ ⸱ ⸸ ⸱ ⸷
Peso
By the end of the day, Peso was exhausted, cleaning up and reorganizing the med bay had been more work than he had expected. Hallie had been incredibly helpful though, and they had eventually gotten the room to a point that was workable and understandable for both of them.
Dinner had come and gone quickly and thankfully it seemed as though the crew members who were arguing had made up, or at least called a truce for the moment.
Now Peso found himself standing in his new room and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. It was a fair size taking up half the smaller-sized pod and it had all the furniture in it that he would need, even a small closet, so the room theoretically was in perfect condition. There was nothing to complain about.
Except that from halfway up the outer wall and curving in to half the ceiling was a solid glass pane. It was no different than how the HQ was, or the other pods. While he did know that it was safe, that the glass was thick and specifically designed for this submarine and to support the pressure of the water outside but still, he wasn't sure if he would be able to sleep knowing and seeing that all above him was leagues of water. Even more so since his new bed was literally pushed up against that wall, so it would be the only thing he would be able to see laying down.
He also still needed to unpack and while it wasn't what he would normally call late, the day had just felt so long. He was starting to wonder if every day was going to be like this or if it was just the case of it being the first day in a completely new environment that was so drastically different from what he was used to.
He pulled his phone from his pants pocket, opened up his recent contacts, and pressed Alec's name. It only rang once before it was picked up.
"Wow, calling it quits already? Is camp that bad?" Alec joked before Peso even had a chance to say anything. "Don't worry it's fine. I got a plan. I'm gonna rent a boat."
"…and sail it all the way into the mid-Atlantic by yourself? That doesn't sound like a well-thought-out plan." Peso pointed out.
"Look I'll admit it has its flaws but with a few tweaks it could work."
Peso sighed and sat down on the bed, "What time is it there?" He hadn't even thought to check the time difference before calling.
"Just after six. How many hours are you ahead?"
"Only two currently, but apparently it's light-outs in less than two hours." Peso laid back on the bed, "It's really quiet here. I mean I guess I was expecting it to be somewhat quieter than the city and the hospital but it's like there's no background noise. At all." It had been in the back of his mind all day; he hadn't realized that he had become so accustomed to constant noise.
"The sub doesn't make noise? I thought it would have been loud…but I don't know shit about submarines."
"It does make a noise but it's like a really low, barely audible hum and a bit of vibration. It's weird, but it's easy to drown out the noise of the Octopod, and once you do that it's nothing but silence if someone isn't talking."
"…do you want me to ask my neighbors to start arguing again. You literally just missed it by a few minutes, but I'm sure they're still pissed at each other so I bet they would be fine starting up again." Alec joked, "Plus I'm a little invested now and need to know who wins the argument."
"No," Peso paused, he wasn't sure what else to say. He didn't want to just complain though he knew Alec wouldn't mind if he did. He kept quiet, listening to whatever his friend was doing on his end, he could just make out the sound of running water over the phone, "are you washing dishes or something?"
"No, filling a pot." Alec paused for a moment before asking, "Are you okay? You don't sound okay?"
"I don't know," Peso rubbed his temple, "It just feels like a lot, and I guess I'm second-guessing myself. I also walked into a bit of chaos because apparently a lot of the crew are arguing right now…and I might have to learn how to pilot a mini-sub, which I'm not at all qualified to do, and they're all called guppies but apparently with letters."
"As, as opposed to what?"
"What?"
"Like what do you mean with letters? What are called guppies?"
Peso chuckled and did his best to explain the Gups and the other things he had learned on his tour of the sub this afternoon. He was starting to feel calmer as he went over everything and answered as many of Alec's questions as he could.
"That sounds exhausting." Alec concluded when Peso had finished, "like, that seriously is a lot to process all in just one day…it actually reminds me of when I first moved to the US. Thought it wasn't entirely overwhelming because I had at least visited with you multiple times before finally moving."
"That's probably what's wrong with me. It is a lot" Peso agreed.
"Also give major once-in-lifetime vibes though."
Peso leaned back against the wall, feeling the shift from the heat from the metal wall to the cold of the glass, and looked up staring out at the water above, "You have no idea. I'll have to send you a pic of what my room is like."
"Please do. Honestly send me pictures of everything. It sounds like a mix between insanity and fantasy. I'm kinda here for it." Alec said with a laugh.
They spoke for a while longer, Alec suggesting listening to tracks of city noise before finally hanging up to eat. It wasn't a bad idea, and he did feel better, more grounded, and less like he was making a mistake.
He rested his head back against the glass of the wall and let out a sigh staring out at his room. There were a few suitcases scattered about, he would need to go through those soon. His plant had been set down under the other side of the glass dome, near the closet. his gig bag with his keyboard rested against the wall next to the door and a large cardboard box that he hadn't originally noticed – too distracted by the wall and ceiling – sat on the other side of the door.
Getting up from the bed he went to investigate the box. It was addressed to him and also had IORCE Issued stamped onto its side. He pushed in one side near the top center and started working on pulling off the tape. Once he had gotten the tape off, he opened the box to reveal an Octopod Orange parka. He was starting to severely question whoever was in charge of their design department. He pulled it out and underneath it was matching snow pants and boots.
He was confused for a moment before vaguely remembering Rogers had said something about custom gear. Was that what this was? He pushed aside the snow pants, digging through the box. There were only a few more items inside, a wetsuit, black with accents in Octopod Orange, matching flippers and a mask, and oddly a tracksuit, also in the orange color he was beginning to hate, with light blue stripes. Then a couple of boxed items, one of which had the image of a laptop on it.
Satisfied that he had seen everything he decided he would take care of it tomorrow and fit as much as he could back inside the box. It was nice that the organization provided so much to their employees. Though he did doubt he would be using much of it other than the laptop.
The checked the time on his watch, it was close to lights out, but he was still feeling restless. He glanced at the gig bag, he hadn't had a chance to actually sit down and play for a while. That was the whole reason he had chosen to bring his keyboard with him. Making up his mind he grabbed the bag and searched the room for an outlet. Finding one near the dresser, he could worry about filling that in the morning, he started setting up his keyboard.
It wasn't a difficult process and he barely had to pay attention to set it up. He had had it for a few years now, it had actually been a gift from Jasmine, his ex turned friend, she had spared no expense on it. It was probably his second favorite instrument he owned and not having time to play it had caused him some guilt. Finishing setting up, he sat down and started playing quickly realizing that he was very out of practice, but still he couldn't stop from smiling. It wouldn't take him long to regain what skill he had lost.
By the time he finally checked his watch it was well past lights out, and his fingers were a little sore. He switched off his keyboard, dug some pajama pants out of one suitcase, and the heavy, embroidered quilt he had received from Yiayia Erez, Alec's grandmother, many years ago from another suitcase, and got ready for bed. Making sure to snap a few quicks pictures of the room to send to Alec.
He decided he would try Alec's advice and searched for nighttime city noises on his phone then left it playing on the nightstand next to the bed and stared out the ceiling at the inky black water above discovering another thing he hadn't noticed earlier.
Rimming the outside of the glass half-dome were small dim lights. They gave off just enough of a glow to notice, less than the glow of Christmas lights. He wasn't quite sure what their function was for, he could ask in the morning though if he remembered.