27 Days of Preparation 30 – Unlikely Cuddle-fellows [Gnome POV] (Patreon)

“Fuck!” Scarlett cursed.

The single word encapsulated the feelings that were on the faces of all the girls around Gnome. Scarlett, Delicia and Lee wore it openly, Hailey chewed the inside of her cheek, and Lorelei expressed it only through a short-lived scowl. All of their attention was directed towards the spear that had just ricocheted off the stone wall it had been launched at.

Lying in the grass, the brass weapon invoked the image of a snapped toothpick. “S-sorry, did I make it too hard?” Gnome asked, while Scarlett stomped forwards, Hailey directly behind her.

“Whatever you make, the weapon should at worst bend, not fucking snap,” Scarlett stated. “This is someone else’s fault.”

“On impact, it first bent and then snapped entirely,” Lee shouted over, reviewing footage they had taken with a high-speed camera. Eyes were reliable, even for a spear launched from a specialized mechanism meant to accelerate it to the projected top speed of a fully enchanted Possession weapon. The problem was that eyes did not have a fully functional replay button. “Weird point to snap, though…”

Scarlett was kneeling at this point. “Yeah, this is clearly Hailey’s fault,” the redhead announced.

“I’m s-sure it’s not that bad…” Gnome tried to put a bit of softness into the situation.

“No, it’s way worse.” Scarlett tore the barely connected halves of the shaft apart and then showed the tearing site to Hailey.

The country gal immediately clicked her tongue. “An air bubble? That do be sloppy,” she surrendered immediately and took the ruined spear, either for further inspection or to turn it back into raw materials.

“Make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Scarlett spoke with all the certainty of a long-time company owner. “That sets us back by about two hours. Lorelei, Lee, you better have good news for me.”

Technical jargon flew around from there, of which Gnome understood roughly half. As workshop maintainer and test-site provider, she was around the working crew a lot and was absorbing a great many details through proximity. The five of them were separated into three sub-groups. Lee and Lorelei did the enchanting stuff, Hailey and Delicia took care of making and shaping the materials, and Scarlett was coordination and assembly. They had a good workflow going and they were all tremendously talented, but none of them had ever worked on a project like this before. Neither individually nor as a group had they the experience.

‘I mean, it’s super impressive that they even manage to get this much done,’ the season elemental thought, looking at the five girls, cramping around the screen they had placed on a stone pedestal. They reviewed the footage repeatedly, then moved onto a flowchart of their working process so far. ‘How do you even coordinate that well without a mental connection?’

That was a constant question she had not only for them but herself. Coordinating with the other elementals was easy, despite her personal shortcomings. Coordinating with the Artificial Spirits was a bit more difficult. With John as the mental nexus, it worked well enough. For everyone else… Gnome always wondered if she was doing well enough? No one stumbled over her, so that was a plus?

‘Oy, boss rock, I can sense your imposter syndrome from here!’ Salamander’s voice echoed in her mind. ‘Stop it!’

‘B-but I-.’

‘No, stop it!’

Gnome looked at Scarlett, who was currently wagging her finger at Delicia. The bra… loudly opinionated maid laughed at the comments at first, but got serious when the long-haired redhead continued to growl. They had a short exchange, something about taking things a little more seriously, that ended with the alchemist walking away halfway annoyed and halfway contemplating. Scarlett looked after her, arms crossed and shaking her head.

‘If I’m the boss rock, shouldn’t I be capable of leading like that?’ the season elemental thought. Nothing about the backtalk seemed to have even fazed the technomancer. Scarlett just turned to the next girl in order and gave them their orders. One after another, she sent the crafting crew back to their stations. Each of them left with an either neutral or annoyed expression.

Finally, Scarlett herself walked away. She gestured for Gnome to follow her. “I’m not done with you today,” she stated.

“Okay…?” Gnome responded hesitantly, following the confident strides of the androgynous beauty with timid strides of her own. The workshop was already filled with clinging, clanging, clicking, and the constant quivers of carefully crafted circuity embedding into the ‘souls’ of the materials. Gnome felt much of it, the metals and gems bordering her primary domain over the earth.

Scarlett had long since gotten herself a small office, situated in a walled-off corner of the smithing area of the conjoined workshops. It didn’t contain much, just an artificial lamp, a desk, a fridge, a couple of chairs, a computer… actually, it contained a whole lot, now that Gnome looked at it. It was a fully realized office, worthy of a CEO.

Immediately, Scarlett took off the black suit jacket and put it on a coat hanger. The red tie was loosened next, the upper buttons of her red shirt opened, the red gloves were pulled off her hands and landed on the table. Scarlett inspected her nails, their colour visibly tilted towards a black shade. Flickers of technicolour travelled through them, taking the same jagged paths that the lights in her eyes did, the same circuitry pattern etched into Salamander’s being.

Just one of the many subtle changes those that had been suddenly dragged to the combatant’s levels were going through. Power changed people and magical power certainly was no exception. As an embodiment of magic that had changed John in no small part, she would know.

“Th-they look good,” Gnome suddenly stated.

Scarlett’s eyes flicked up, then back down again. “Do they?” she asked, inspecting the nails from different angles. An apparatus in the corner began working, assembling various plates and threading them together with an alloy of Schattengarn and Poseidury. The replacement of John’s Mandala Sphere, getting the final touches made on.

The connection established, the circuitry in Scarlett’s eyes and nails dimmed away, leaving behind red eyes and blackened nails. “I think so,” Gnome assured. “They’ll look really nice when they’re all black.”

“At least spares me the question whether I want to bother with nail colours,” Scarlett stated and reached for a crystal decanter on a side desk. She weighed the full container in her hand. “Ever reliable.” Those two words were to the credit of the maids, doubtlessly. Refilling Scarlett’s whiskey cabinet was just one of the many duties they took upon themselves.

Gnome gulped quietly when the redhead placed two glasses on the table. Both were soon filled a quarter with the amber liquid. Without a single word, the redhead gave the glass a gentle tap. It glided over the smooth tabletop, creating the pleasant sound of smoothly moving parts. Effortlessly, the season elemental caught it.

‘Should I?’ she asked herself. A question answered by Scarlett when she toasted across the table. Practically no other choice at that point. Gnome took a deep breath and sipped on the whiskey.

Having taste buds was still strange. Intoxicating, literally in this case, but strange. Every time she returned to her plane of origins, she was reminded that it wasn’t the norm for her. Even though she had spent the majority of her existence on Earth, the accumulated memories of the earth spirits dictated her common sense with an intensity that would never be fully overruled.

Also, whiskey had an intense taste. A really, really intense taste. Gnome felt like she was chewing the smell of oak sap, despite the liquid already being down her throat.

‘Come on, ask what this is about!’ she encouraged herself. “Umu!” she said out loud, a sound that made a little bit of red rise into her cheeks and, combined with the little fist pump, gave her the courage to speak up. “What do you need me for?”

Scarlett tested the season elemental’s confidence, just by being silent. Turning her glass between her heads, the redhead took a second sip, before finally voicing what was on her mind, “How do you do it?” The question made no sense and Scarlett knew that. Swiftly, she continued. “Lead despite being such a wimp, I mean? Seriously, it feels like I could push you over and the ground would part for you just to keep you from having a hard fall, that’s how fragile you look.”

“Uwu…uwuwuwu…” Gnome shifted where she stood, the sound escaping her involuntarily. “I don’t… uhm… are you asking me…” she pointed at her face, “…you’re asking me for leadership advice?”

“Obviously.” Scarlett downed the rest of her first glass and immediately poured herself a new one. “I’m leading with an iron fist. That works well enough for employees, but I’m working with equals here. You’re superior in that. You’re leading with love, however the fuck you do that. As Napoleon said: ‘Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for him.'” Scarlett put the stopper back on the decanter. “I don’t need the other four to die for me, but I may not be as good a coordinator for this as I could be… is something funny?”

Gnome didn’t even realize she had started giggling. After falling into the seat on the other side of the table, she took another sip of the whiskey. It sent a pulse of warmth out that lingered in her stomach. “You can’t learn anything from me, y-you’re the way better leader!” The season elemental slammed her glass on the table, almost causing the amber liquid to spill over. “Everyone respects you!”

“Respect may not give me results here – Am I not being too harsh?”

“Nhhhnooooo!” Gnome stated. Then hesitated for a moment. “Mhhhmmmaaaaybe?” She downed the rest of the whiskey. Why did alcohol become so tasty after a few sips? “You shouldn’t talk to me about thaaat, that’sh what you have them for. You’ve got to ashk them if they mind your tone and then you… you…” Gnome sniffed. “You gotta realize that you’ll never, ever have the confidence to always speak up.”

“…Wow, you do get drunk easily,” Scarlett observed coldly.

“Yesh.” Gnome gave a thumbs-up. “And you’ve got nothing… nothing to worry about. Umu! They… Umu! They like the criticism, okay?”

“How are you so fucking sure about that?” Scarlett asked, pouring herself a third glass. Gnome was of half a mind to ask for a second, but there was enough soberness in her mind to tell her that was a bad idea.

“’Cause they keep coming back, yeah?” Gnome stated. “Your tone may annoy them sometimes, but they’re not getting any… uhm… Umu! Yeah, any real criticism from elsewhere? Everyone’s too afraid or inept to criticize them otherwise. You speak your mind and that’s so cool! Nobody likes you because you’re a nice person, Scarlett. Because you’re no--- Uwu… uwuwuwu… That was so mean, I’m sorry!”

“No offense taken,” the technomancer stated, which did nothing to calm the little storm of guilt inside the badly spoken rock’s mind. “Keep going.”

“W-what can you even learn from me?” Gnome mumbled, shifting self-consciously in her seat. “Look at you, being all cool when I’m so mean….”

Scarlett let out a long sigh, visibly struggling with something. “Listen here, cuddle rock, you clearly do have talent as a leader. First off, you immediately identified why everyone puts up with me without a paycheck. Secondly, you’ve obviously got something if all the other elementals look up to you.”

“Uh… uhm…” Gnome squirmed a little more, the guilt slowly subsiding and being replaced with something else. “Umu…?” She slowly rose from her seat and then circled around the table. Scarlett had an eyebrow raised, up until the moment the earth spirit suddenly bowed down and wrapped her arms around the redhead. “You’re doing alright,” she said.

“Wha-?” Scarlett produced that single sound before Gnome squeezed her a little tighter. The empty whiskey glass was put on the table, the redhead pulled up so she could get the full embrace of the only thing Gnome was certain she was good at.

“It’s difficult to work with people when you don’t know what they think,” the brunette whispered, her tongue loosened by the alcohol but her mind as sober as it could be. Gently, her hands brushed up and down the redhead’s back. They stood shoulder against shoulder, their height practically equal, one embracing the other without response. “Normally you don’t have to care, but this is different. I get it.”

“How are you doing that?” Scarlett mumbled. “How do you just… know what I’m thinking when I’m not even entirely sure?”

“Uhm… I don’t know?” Gnome asked.

“…If I hugged you back, would that make you happy?”

“Very happy.”

Slender arms reluctantly wrapped around her. Gnome gave a little pleased hum. Gently, she rubbed her cheek against that of the redhead. “Doing alright isn’t good enough,” Scarlett whispered into the silence. “I’m coordinating this operation. Future operations. I can’t just keep telling them what they’re doing wrong.”

“You’re not just doing that. You’re helping them develop,” Gnome assured her. “Maybe just do this when you feel you’ve been too harsh?” The season elemental squeezed the redhead for a moment, then relaxed again. A good cuddle was never too tight for too long.

“How would I know when I went too far?” Scarlett asked.

“You don’t have to know all the time… they’ll know what it means when it comes from you.” Gnome ran her hand through the lusciously dense, fine strands of the technomancer. “I, uhm, I-I’ll give you advice whenever you want, bad as it might be?”

“Stop doing that,” Scarlett half-ordered, half-begged. Her own arms tightened a bit, the hesitance slowly draining from the hug. “You really are a good leader.”

“Uwuwuwuwuwu…”

“And adorable.”

“…uwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu.” Gnome hid her burning face in the curve of Scarlett’s neck. She only got away with that for a few seconds, before her opposite put a little distance between them.

A hand landed butterfly-light on Gnome’s cheek. Her entire body tingled when Scarlett brushed a strand of wavy brown hair behind her ear. Without a word exchanged or a doubt in their eyes, the two of them got close again. Pink lips met in a gentle kiss. Just another layer to the comforting way they held one another. Tongues playfully rubbed against one another, little smacks and comforting sighs filling the room.

“Alright, enough of this,” Scarlett suddenly decided and peeled out of the hug. Rule number two of hugging was to let people go when they were done, and so Gnome did. The redhead’s cheeks were dusted in a colour between the intensity of her hair and the rosiness of her lips. She grabbed the fully assembled Mark 3.2 Mandala Sphere and shoved it into the season elemental’s arms. “Get that to the man.”

“O-okay,” Gnome stammered. The alcohol had faded, for the most part, as quickly as it came. The advantages of an earthly constitution. Not sure what else to do, the earth spirit headed towards the door.

“…Hey,” Scarlett spoke up, sitting in her chair again. With her hand on the door, Gnome stood there for a few seconds. “We should talk about this more often.”

Gnome felt a smile bloom and showed it happily to the redhead.

“I’d love to.”