232 Vol. 4 pt. 35 Patch 6.0: Hard Labor (1/2)
Another couple of hours pass by. Fenrir has not been able to stop himself from taking peeks over at Cassiel with her new hairstyle, and she has been playing with her hair on and off the whole time. It turns out that twintails not only look nice but are fun to play with. Her hands swing and twirl her twintails whenever she has nothing better to be doing.
Fenrir has been wanting to comment on how cute she looks when she does that, but he knows she'll probably get embarrassed and self-conscious about it if he does, so he has been resisting the temptation.
There is something else, though. He has been feeling… suspicious. Whenever he checks on the other girls, Tabitha excluded, he sees them looking at him and whispering to one another.
Aiko may have been a borderline stalker, but she was good at being sneaky. Serra, Nell, and Azalabulia are anything but sneaky. Nell has her tail and horns that give her away, Azalabulia has her bulias, and then there is Serra. Serra just doesn't care about trying to be sneaky, so she stands out in the open while Nell and Azalabulia try to hide themselves.
Fortunately, the group has managed to get some work done. Tabitha and Rao set up the temporary docks for The Shoebill. The docks are as short as possible, only reaching out just barely far enough for The Shoebill to not run aground, but that is all they need. This makes transporting materials to and from The Shoebill far easier, and it gives them a more environmentally-friendly place to dock it rather than letting the anchor drag along the river's bottom.
”That feels like it was a lot of work for just a little dock,” Fenrir says as he ties The Shoebill to the homemade cleats that Tabitha installed on the dock.
”Oi, keep in mind somethin' like this probably would've taken way more work in real life, and it might not be workin' as well,” Tabitha answers. ”Be grateful, dog boy.”
”I am, I am. I mean, a city is supposed to take years and years to get built up, but I doubt it'll take that long here.”
”If it's just us it will. We're going to need some new faces showin' up and wantin' land. The more workers me and Red here get to boss around, the faster this'll all go.”
”Can't we just have our own city without inviting anybody else?”
”Oi. Wasn't part of you wantin' to do this because ya want some goody-two-shoes home for AI or somethin' like that?”
”You're not wrong. Alright, alright. We'll need to let others move here instead of finding a way to just clone ourselves.”
”I want to do some crazy stuff, but I don't think clones are goin' to help at all.”
”Is that even possible here?”
”With magic, but they're only temporary.”
”So, if I get my girlfriends to learn how to use magic to make clones of themselves…”
”Do I need to send ya to go stand in the water some more?”
”No, please. I only just finished fully drying. Don't make my fluff go away.”
”Bro,” Rao says, ”what's up with you wanting to be fluffy?”
”What's up with you wanting to have spiky hair?” Fenrir asks back.
”Fair.”
”Exactly.”
”I'm done with both of you,” Tabitha says. ”Oi, Red. Come on. Let's get some plannin' done. Can't just build whatever we want wherever we want.”
”Alright. I already checked out some of the area on my own, and there shouldn't be any problems building here,” Rao says, going more in-depth as he walks off with Tabitha.
”Guess I finally get a break,” Fenrir says.
He looks around.
Oleander is standing in front of Cassiel and holding her twintails, surrounding his face with them as the back of his head rests against her chest.
Fenrir is jealous. He wants to try that. If it was anybody other than Oleander, and potentially Corwin, then he'd probably be jealous jealous.
Alright, he knows what to do.
Find out what that suspicious trio is up to.
Azalabulia looks panicked as soon as Fenrir starts heading over in their direction.
”Wh-what about the plan?” Azalabulia asks Nell.
”Shh! Do not worry about it. We must wait for the perfect moment to initiate it,” Nell whispers.
Meanwhile, Serra just waves at Fenrir.
Upon reaching the group, Fenrir asks, ”So… what have you three been talking about? I kept on seeing you looking at me, and if Nell is whispering things, it can't be good.”
Nell actually looks surprised that she was caught watching him, as does Azalabulia.
Neither of them takes into consideration the size of some of their body parts.
”We were not talking about anything, my hero!” Nell answers.