TRP - Day 16 (Patreon)

A new year! A new arc to The Rendering Pit! Nedak won the latest YCH, so this arc he'll be joining our students Genevieve and Rigel on their adventure! What new dangers await in the halls of The Rendering Pit? And what new ways to lose one's mobility! 

As always, this story was written by RabidBadger and illustrated by me! We thank you for your continued support, you've helped make this series what it is <3 

This episode includes: Milkshakes, technicolor bunnies, cute drakes and mishaps with friends! 

- - - 

  

A large, scaled blue bottom in slightly too-tight shorts wiggled in its seat in the Rendering Pit’s cafeteria. Nathan had been drinking the milkshake he’d acquired, right up until the moment his student’s tablet had pinged him with a handful of new messages. Whenever they came up marked urgent like that it meant they’d come straight from a professor, and that tended to raise the stakes. There were two blips, Nathan saw, and as soon as he started to hear the gurgling noise at the bottom of his class he knew he had nothing he could use as an internal excuse to put off opening them.

Both were sent by Professor Victoria, his instructor for advanced software design. The first one seemed largely benign, in so far as it was the kind of thing he expected from these messages.

Congratulations on your mid-terms! You did well above average compared to the rest of the class. Your submission is attached with the grade and some commentary. Also attached is a file you’ll need for your next exam in a couple of weeks – it’s on intrusion security measures. -V

Nathan let out a breath. That was half the problem down, and nothing was ground breakingly awful about it. The other’s subject line was somewhat less indicative of what to expect.

Nathan, I’m sending this to inform you your dorm assignment has changed. We have to shut down a wing of the dorms for some infrastructure repairs and it’s easier if we just relocate everyone, so we don’t have to worry about silly things like pressurization and oxygen fires. You’ll find your new dorm assignment attached – your room mates will be Genevieve and Rigel – the custodial drones have already relocated your belongings. -V

The sigh that escaped Nathan after was a mixed thing, equal parts relief that it wasn’t some disaster he had to contend with and annoyed that it meant he had get used to a new room, and new roommates. 

“Sulking by yourself again, Nate?”

The voice was enough to send a twinge down the grayish blue, scaled student’s spine. It wasn’t exactly a harsh tone, if anything Monica sounded pleasant to the ears, but she wasn’t much pleasant to deal with. The bunny, with her rainbow patched fur, wore a smirk that broadcast loud and clear that she knew she was annoying him.

“I’m not sulking.”

Monica snorted, and swung her hips into Nathan’s. The impact wasn’t all that bad, but it did come just as he tried to stand up and knocked him just off balance enough to send him back to the surface of the seat he’d taken.

“You are totally sulking. You should quit sulking and agree to study with me again.”

Nathan succeeded at his second attempt to get to his feet, tucking his tablet under one arm and eyeballing his empty milkshake. Part of him wanted another, part of him just wanted out of the cafeteria so he could try to lose the multi-hued bunny. In the end, he opted to turn away from the cafeteria and try to leave – though Monica slid herself in right at his side just the same.

“I am not. Interested. Besides, I know in your head that means ‘me doing your homework’ and I’m not falling for it again.”

The bunny finally let the smug smirk collapse into a glare. 

“Nate, come on. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

The drake’s first instinct was to stop and confront the lapine nuisance, but he managed to wrestle it down and keep walking. He didn’t have as much luck keeping himself from talking again, despite knowing it would just prolong matters.

“Then you’re gonna be waiting a while and going to mostly the wrong classes.”

For another two steps or so, Nathan heard Monica keep following. Then, relieved, realized she’d stopped and he was making his way through the halls ‘alone’ despite the other crowds of students. The overlay his internal nanite framework put on his vision was displaying a clear indicator (not unlike a side quest arrow, he thought – which left him wondering briefly if Professor Victoria might just share interests with him for downtime) of where to go to find his new dorm. From the look of things, it wasn’t that far off.

“It won’t be that bad – two new people to get to know. Maybe I’ll end up friends with them, this time?”

*** 

By the time Nathan reached the door he was seeking, the war between anxiety and optimism was taking a gradual but measurable turn for the worse. He fidgeted where he stood, accidentally bumping his broad hips into another student behind him and prompting a hasty apology that trailed off, and left him taking another deep breath. 

Anxious or no, now was the time. Clutching his tablet up to his chest with one arm, the other pushed the dorm’s door open, with Nathan sticking his face in gradually.

“Hello?”

The room was dark, no lights – no glow from screens. For a moment, Nathan thought he might be alone there. Until a patch of the darkness moved.

“Someone there…?”

It wasn’t perfectly matched, Nathan saw. His eyes adjusted bit by bit, and he saw the hints of deep blue amid the glint of scales. Much darker ones than his.

“Err, yes sir. I’ll be your new roommate, it seems. My name’s Nathan.”

The other scaled student grinned a little, twisting over on his bed and sitting up. As Nathan opened the door further, the room lit more completely. The other scaled student (who seemed very round, at least around the middle) had little in the way of personal belongings near his bed. Just a small pile of clothes (one orange jumpsuit standing out amidst them) and a potted plant with some berries on it.

“Hey! Come on in. Call me Rigel.”

Nathan exhaled. It always struck him as silly, moments after just saying hello the worst of it just collapsed, but he always dreaded having to be the first to speak. Sidling in, brushing his hips on the door frame, Nathan saw his clothing and personal effects laid out on the middle bed.

“Been expecting you – though they didn’t say I’d get to room with a fellow reptile. And another blue one to boot! Though uh, I didn’t start blue I guess – not sure why that suddenly seemed like an important distinction.”

It took four or five seconds for Nathan to realize he was still standing in the doorway, which did get him moving into the room at least. For an instant, he was worried some of the games for his handheld might not have made the trip from his old dorm – but as soon as he got to the bed he saw them all laid out, and accounted for. One more batch of tension about the situation faded at that.

“I – yeah. I mean, I suppose so.”

Fighting off the urge to correct the other student about being a drake, not just a reptile, Nathan just nodded and sat on the edge of the bed. He was fairly sure the thing was more comfortable than the one in his previous dorm. Or maybe the former owner had just broken it in more completely. It at least let him take a load off while he set about putting things into the night stand by his bed.

“So, Genevieve’s out for the moment. Probably eating. I could – hey, are you alright?”

Nathan was tense still, on some levels. Apparently enough so for the other scaled student to pick up on. The fact that the talking was part of the problem didn’t make things easier. 

“I’m fine, I just – I had someone bothering me in the halls on the way here is all.”

He was facing the wrong way to see it, but Nathan could swear he heard Rigel’s head tilt. 

“What’d they do?”

The raw tension crawled over the drake’s nerves again, half of him wanted to tell the other student to please give him some space for a few minutes. It didn’t end up being the half that won the debate.

“Monica – this rabbit girl with weird fur that looks like rainbow ice cream – she asked to ‘partner’ with me for studying for a project before mid-terms and basically left me to do everything! So, I told her no, I won’t work with her again, and she got… she was kinda…”

There was a pause in the air, before Rigel finished the thought. One word, but it dripped with empathy.

“Pushy.”

Nathan exhaled heavily. That one word did sum it up nicely – and somehow, he didn’t doubt the other scaly one understood rather well. The orange jumpsuit amid Rigel’s clothes suggested plenty about that.

“Yeah, exactly that.”

The fact that he didn’t flinch when a hand ended up on his shoulder surprised Nathan as much as anything.

“Well, if she gives you more crap let me know eh? Genevieve will probably step up too if it comes to that.”

Turning his head, Nathan relaxed a little more with each breath now it seemed. He was beginning to entertain the idea that he’d lucked out with this dorm assignment. 

“I… thanks.”

The hand at his shoulder squeezed once, stronger than he was ready for.

“Not a problem. What was she riding you to do for her anyway?”

Nathan felt the grump from earlier rise up anew as he bent over to tuck his clothing away, wincing a little as he felt his gut tighten while he leaned over it. 

“Advanced software design – we were working, rather I was working on some nanite infrastructure software drivers. Nothing too glamorous, first year and first major project you know? Data compression, mostly. Now our Professor gave us the next project’s outline.”

The drake could hear the surprise in Rigel’s voice before he turned and saw it on his face.

“This soon after mid-terms and she’s already feeding you the assignment guidelines for the next final? I’m kinda jealous – definitely not getting that lucky with Professor Tenebrae.”

Nodding, Nathan began tucking his game collection into the next drawer down, after wrapping it in a spare robe just to silence some irrational shred of paranoia that remained.

“Yeah, I do like our Professor quite a bit. Anyway, this time around it’s firewalls. Bit of a serious shift, if you ask me? But it’s doable. Only Monica doesn’t want to bother. Again.”

There was just a hint of a sneer on Rigel’s features over that, and a little trickle of dark blue on his teeth. 

“Screw her, then. Whatever she’s thinking she isn’t taking this seriously enough, and she shouldn’t be here if that’s the case.”

“I know! I mean… err, sorry. Didn’t mean to shout.”

Rigel’s sneer twisted to a grin. 

“Don’t worry about it. Nothing wrong with a little passion. Though I’m gonna have to leave you here for a bit, got a class starting in ten minutes. Also, just a word of warning? Don’t eat the fruit off the little banzai tree. That’s not me being a dick – the stuff’s a bit uhm… well, it has side effects.”

Nathan blinked once over that notion, then glanced at the small plant. It did look like a tiny tree, but seemed to have large blueberries for fruit or something of the sort. If he squinted just right, they seemed to match the color of Rigel’s scales – especially around the other scaled one’s belly, which might be a bit rounder than it was a few minutes ago. Or he was imagining things. Probably imagining things.

“Oh, err – no worries. Thanks for the warm welcome, really. Good luck in class.”

Rigel paused at the door to wave back after that, but was gone quickly. The boy moved fast for having such a ripe middle. Nathan was almost sorry to see him go, though he couldn’t say he didn’t like the idea of a little quiet time to acclimate to the new room – even if it did mostly look the same as the old one, apart from his roommates’ things. 

Packing the rest of his things into the night stand didn’t take long, and soon enough Nathan found himself sprawled out on that definitely more broken in bed and reaching for his student’s tablet again. It was almost a nervous habit, that. If he couldn’t think of anything else to do, he reached for the tablet and checked his messages. Of which he had one, unread, and anonymous.

Heads I win, tails you lose.

Finger still poised on the screen, Nathan blinked slowly at the six words he was sent, which for some reason warranted hiding behind a large mess of source redirections and masks. 

“Well that’s unsettling…” 

Nathan sat still, at least until his finger started to tingle and cramp, and his stomach lodged a protest about how long it had been left neglected in the day’s proceedings. Something Nathan tried to remind himself amounted to ‘since dealing with Monica, as in half an hour ago’, but to no avail. To be fair, he reassured himself, this had been stressful. Stress was as good a reason as any to go get more milkshakes, and by now Monica was probably gone from the cafeteria.

Exhaling, the drake lurched off the side of his bed and tucked his tablet up against his side again.

“Right. Nothing wrong with a little passion, especially for milkshakes.”

*** 

As luck would have it, Nathan did not encounter his multi-colored nemesis en route to the very cafeteria he’d begun this odd day in. The trip there was largely uneventful, apart from his stomach’s incessant gnawing. That bit of annoyance refused to leave, but its solution was looming – unlike Monica, who he had yet to think of a full answer for (unless Rigel and the other roommate proved to be what he needed). 

The only thing that disturbed his newfound equilibrium and momentum in any way was not seeing the familiar cow in the central kiosk of the cafeteria, but rather a very annoyed looking vixen. A damn plump one, too. Nathan hesitated, just a little, approaching her.

“Uh, where’s the lunch lady? Err, please. Ma’am. If that’s okay.”

The vixen adopted a worn-out glare from behind her blue locks, and for a moment Nathan thought he heard a buzzing nearby.

“She’s at lunch, oddly enough.”

Nathan swallowed hard, feeling distinctly like he was standing in front of a mine field of dangerous conversation choices in an rpg. The neutral, business-only option seemed like his best bet not to turn this into a problem. The last thing he needed was to be denied service with his belly in this state.

“Just, uhm.”

Throat dry, Nathan coughed once, and then made himself speak anyway when he suspected he saw a glint of impatience in the vixen.

“M-milkshake, please! Err, actually make it two. Chocolate and vanilla. …and maybe some cheese fries. If… if that’s not too much.”

The drake had no real idea what it was that next crossed the vixen’s face, there was too much in there at once. A battle of emotions he wasn’t privy to the inner workings of.

“It’s fine. It – yeah. I’ll get that ready for you.”

Nathan still felt a little guilty, though he couldn’t begin to say why. For a moment, eh considered offering a random compliment – the shade of the vixen’s hair came to mind – but the amount of courage that was going to take to say unprompted didn’t seem to be in him. Or if it was, it would’ve taken longer to dredge up than he turned out to have. The vixen clearly knew her way around the food fabricators. Though maybe not with quite as much finesse as the regular lunch lady did – the portions she handed him seemed a bit large.

“Ah, that – err. Thank you! I – I’ll just… thank you.”

Taking the tray, which was horribly lopsided weight-wise toward the twin shakes, Nathan turned and was relieved to still not see Monica anywhere to speak of. Though he did briefly think he saw a bug on the far wall, which struck him as odd. 

“Huh… biology project escapee, maybe. Well, enough delays… stomach’s gonna punish me as it is.”

That, more than anything, contributed to Nathan not sitting out by the outskirts as he usually would. There were open seats closer to the middle, and being nearer the middle meant less distance to travel for seconds. That final thought seemed ludicrous as soon as he had it, but by then the drake’s butt was already in his chosen seat. 

Right out of the gate, the drake seized a handful of the fries – which he was happy to see were covered in proper, melted cheese – not a sauce. That, and a long drink of frigid, sweet milkshake. The first bits of it to hit his stomach didn’t really make a dent in the hunger, but they did at least relieve the urgency of the matter. He was actively eating; the problem was being solved. 

When the plate was empty, and Nathan’s belly was no longer screaming at him, he turned around to more calmly and collectedly get it filled anew. With his head on a trifle straighter, he had the foresight to order three servings this time instead of two – something the cow that had re-taken her place in the lunch kiosk while he wasn’t looking gladly accommodated. 

Nathan wasn’t even entirely aware he’d done that by the time he left the cafeteria. He just knew he felt strange, if content. There was a dull tingling clinging to the edges of his nerves that felt like the last moment after striking one’s funny bone; the last instant where it’s just a little pleasant. It helped take his mind off how fatigued and heavy everything seemed to be after that. 

“Bah… I mean, the morning was kinda tense – and that was a ton of carbs. I could use a nap, maybe? Yeah.”

Stumbling into the dorm room door, Nathan found the room empty still. Just as well, he thought – easier to nod off for a bit. The drake didn’t bother with prying the covers up from his bed even, he felt a bit abnormally warm as it was. Dark took him almost the instant his head found the pillow.

*** 

Consciousness did not come back to Nathan all at once, but a few corners of reality at a time. Like the slightly clingy texture his scales got when he was too warm and shedding moisture (hard to sweat with scales) sticking to the bedding. That was an annoying one to start with, but it was prevalent. It reminded him that he was awake, or getting there, and that in turn let other things trickle in.

Like the fact that he was hungry again – stomach twisting and grumbling hungry. The vague after images of anxious dreams seemed to cling to that fact, which Nathan really wanted to get rid of as soon as feasibly possible. According to the instinctive urges he was feeling, the answer to that was a snack. 

The bit that jump started all of Nathan’s remaining, dormant awareness was the sound of voices. Two of them. Rigel’s was easy enough to recognize, the confidence made it memorable. The second voice had to be his other roommate, and her being familiar wasn’t even close to expected. Nathan’s eyes blinked away the fuzzy bits left over from sleep, and he turned his head to the side – and saw Rigel waving his fingers at him. 

The drake pushed himself up and sucked in a breath, which slid back out in a yawn, before returning the wave and then twisting over onto his butt, and looking the other way. He saw russet fur and blue hair waiting, around a plump body that was busy nibbling on a bag of chips.

“…Junior lunch lady?”

The vixen’s hands clenched tight and crushed the bag in her hands as she twitched, then slowly turned her head to stare at Nathan while the drake visibly withered under her gaze, and Rigel began laughing uncontrollably. The vixen smiled – but it was far too toothy.

“Yes, roomie?”

All thinking in Nathan had ceased. Luckily, some emergency lever or another had clearly been pulled.

“OhgodI’msorry! I did not think before I said that! You, you’re – uhm – no, Rigel said this. Jen- Jean- Genevieve! I am really sorry, I didn’t-“

A dull thump behind Nathan interrupted the stream of pseudo-conscious apologies, and left Genevieve’s grin looking a little more genuinely amused. As Nathan glanced back, he saw the still chuckling reptile climbing back onto his bed after having apparently fallen off it.

“Oh man – oh god… that one’s sticking around Genevieve. Sorry.”

The vixen squinted hard across the room.

“Rigel, I know your juicing schedule. As for you – Nathan, right?”

Nathan took a slow, deep breath – and went through a small coughing fit at the end of it while nodding furiously.

“…yes ma’am. Sorry, again. I wasn’t-“

The room was filled with a loud twisting snarl, in stereo. Genevieve’s belly and Nathan’s seemed to be calling out to each other, for precisely the same thing. Something that left the vixen sighing, and then led to Nathan joining Rigel on the floor when he tumbled backward in reaction to the forearm length bee that darted into the airspace between him and the vixen.

When the drake got himself up enough to peek over the edge of the bed, he saw the bee thing standing on the surface of Genevieve’s mattress and dancing. It did this for a few seconds, before buzzing off out of the room.

“Heh, I promise he’s friendly Nathan. In fact, to prove it, he’s bringing us both something to snack on. Call it a welcome to the dorm gift, eh?”

Genevieve leaned his way after that, staring very pointedly.

“I’ll be happy to continue sharing the snack runs my friend makes, provided the junior lunch lady thing never comes up again.”

Gradually, after saying that, the vixen extended her arm out toward Nathan. Gradually, Nathan slid his arm up over the mattress’ edge and took Genevieve’s hand.

“Sounds good!”