By the next day, they had been faced with the same workshop responsibilities as before. Their morning was filled with the same work, and it was moving the same into the afternoon.
Mhyl was thankful that while work was effectively all over the day, it was spaced out with frequent breaks. She herself got more breaks than anyone else, though she was starting to feel like this wasn't fair. It's not like she was slow at recovering stamina, she just had less of it, long breaks were mostly meaningless. She had found herself back in the room she had sparred with Thanrie before. Everyone else had their physical routine, she didn't have anything like that either. But getting to dance like she had, it was actually fun. More acrobatic than otherwise, it was still a form of fitness. For no other reason than that, she did some generic flips, handsprings, and the like through the room.
Lwyn arrived right when Mhyl was taking a break, having totally missed everything. Being a half-elf was getting her half as many extra breaks as Mhyl. She found this extra insulting, she hadn't worked her life to have almost as much stamina as a human, just to be treated like this. Being treated like a half-elf, it was so insulting.. but it was still true. There was nothing she could do about it, she was in truth a half-elf, and she would have to accept all the grief that brought. It was her own curse, it was her own fault for simply being her.
"Oh, are you alright?" Lwyn was shocked to see Mhyl actually exhausted mid break, it was concerning how that might have happened. Mhyl smiled back. "Silly, I couldn't be much better. Getting some exercise really does help, I should have done this stuff so long ago." Mhyl surprised Lwyn with this insight. What in the world was Mhyl doing? "What about you, how have you been doing?" "Oh, I was working on the felt sheet for Qheria's drum, while also tending to the pumps we were working on. I wonder if we can use an air pump to kick the drum, we know how Qheria feels about kicking stuff." Mhyl froze in inspiration. Lwyn had given her such a great idea. Mhyl dragged Lwyn out of the room, still ignorant as to what was going on.
Mhyl searched through some of their felt 'parts' for some of what she needed. Usually something like this needed a bladder, but she also needed a uni-directional air valve. Lwyn was starting to feel ill, watching Mhyl dig through various organs and biological parts. She wandered off to go find the other two. It might not be time for break, but it would be far better to wait there, than here. They got back to Mhyl trying to figure out sewing. Lwyn jumped in, worried Mhyl might hurt herself. Mhyl showed Lwyn what she needed sewed and how. "Make sure it's as round as possible, that's very important." Mhyl then went back to the pump.
Thanrie approached Mhyl, who was acting suspicious. Expecting there to be a secret in play, Thanrie asked Mhyl a question in Japanese. "What are you making?" "A ball." Thanrie got enough of an answer from Mhyl to start putting stuff together. An air pump, rounded felt, a ball. It would be yellow instead of checkered black and white, but it was unmistakable what Mhyl was going for. "Oh, Qheria, we should let these two work, don't want to get in their way. Maybe we should go sparring?" Thanrie rushed Qheria out of the room, not wanting to spoil the surprise.
When they arrived at their destination, while starting to get ready for a bout, Rhyde interrupted. "Oh, perfect timing. I had been getting reports that you two were doing something like this. Qheria had been rather out of it before, leaving me a lot to be concerned about. Qheria, do you mind if I test your own resolve in such a competition. Leader to leader, I want to see what you're capable of." Rhyde's invitation didn't exactly sound like perfect timing. Reports, that Zyuixqs was certainly in on this, and Yuxzn probably had set up enough of a plan. Everyone was setting up things for Qheria.
Still, Thanrie could profit from this as well. She relaxed against the wall and took careful note on the proceedings. She hadn't seen anyone else fight like this before, she was bound to learn a few things doing such. Both of them got ready and started.. with neither of them moving. Defensive vs defensive, neither were inclined to act first. Thanrie sighed, her hopes gone up in smoke right away. However, right in that moment Thanrie herself let her guard down, Rhyde struck. Qheria managed to parry it at the last moment, and went in for a counter. Rhyde himself countered the counter with a counter.. which got countered. After a moment of appreciation, Thanrie went back to giving up. This was going to be a long fight.
After a long while of counters, suddenly Rhyde let something slip through. Qheria was surprise when her counter connected, but Rhyde had also weathered the blow, and in that moment rushed her with a shoulder check. It was more than Qheria could deal with, especially as tired as she was, so she went down. Thanrie was actually surprised how that ended, almost as if Rhyde had planned the whole thing. No, wait, probably Yuxzn..
Rhyde held out his hand to help her stand again. "As I worried, your resolve still has a way to go. You aren't confident in your own success, and its making you hesitate. Your hesitation could easily get your friends hurt. You need to work on that, be certain to take decisive action when it is needed. If you spend too much time worrying that your friends might get hurt, then your friends will get hurt. Have confidence in your own ability, have confidence in your own team, and you will find that everything will work out. You're tough, you can do it." Rhyde patted her on the back. Qheria didn't know what shamed her more, the lesson or the losing. Next time, she would show him, he had better count on it.
With that, Rhyde left, his job done. Qheria went to sit down, buried deep into her own thoughts. Thanrie sighed, feeling deprived of her own opportunity. Relaxation day it was.
While the two girls stayed there relaxing, Mhyl showed up, proud and excited. "Okay you two lazy layabouts, get up. We've got stuff to do." "What, but nothing was supposed to start for a while more, there shouldn't be any work to do now." "Of course not work, we've got a match to worry about." Mhyl held up her completed ball, spinning in her hand. Qheria looked up at it, realization dawning on her face. Had Mhyl really gone and made a...
"Football, lets go." "Wait, football? But we don't have the padding and.." "Lwyn, soccer..." "Oh right.. that again." Mhyl had to correct Lwyn once more, who was mixing up the two sports again. Qheria's eyes glimmered with hope, bringing an even greater smile to Mhyl's face. She was already really proud of this idea, fitness they could all enjoy. She was already in the process of clearing the room so that it could act as an indoor court.
"But wait, how are we going to split teams? We need to worry about elves here and.." Qheria's concern made Mhyl sigh in exasperation. Stupid elven stuff, she didn't want to be dragged down by her elven nature, she refused to let it happen. Lwyn hadn't, and Mhyl wouldn't either. "Elves vs Humans. Lwyn, you're in net. I'm up." Mhyl left everyone stunned. Qheria moved to take the net, knowing Thanrie would be a much better offense. That put Thanrie up directly against Mhyl. Mhyl was grinning like a demon, and Thanrie went pale. Thanrie remembered the last time she had to face Mhyl, something no one else had yet seen.
The match begun, with Mhyl whipping out at the ball with a leg, drawing it back, and twirling it around. Thanrie went out for it, only to have Mhyl recede backwards, twirl to the side, and through the same motion dash past. The ball smacked against the wall just behind Qheria before she could blink, bouncing off her own back. She hadn't expected anything of Mhyl, and was feeling bad for what Mhyl was putting herself through.. until this happened. Rhyde might have a point, Qheria wasn't having enough confidence in her friends.
Thanrie was given first access to the ball this time. She went straight for a fast, high power offense, a high kick that passed over Mhyl and landed against the wall above short Lwyn's head. "Hey! That's not fair!" "I'm not much taller than you, deal with it." Lwyn's complaints fell on unswayed ears, Thanrie was still almost as short. Mhyl shot a glare at that power kick designed to just avoid her, even her being the tallest one there. It was a really good kick.
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Mhyl had the ball again. Thanrie tried a feint on her, looking to advance but waiting to cut her off. Mhyl danced off to the side as predicted, so Thanrie lunged for the ball. Mhyl skipped the ball over Thanrie's lunge and dodged passed. Mhyl shot for the net again, slamming against Qheria's outreached arm, bouncing back instead. Thanrie intercepted the ball, with Mhyl already out of the way, and made another high kick. Lwyn lept off the wall, and did an overhead dropkick on the ball from above. The ball rebounded loosely, giving Mhyl the chance to recover it. She quickly spun the ball back to her target net with a low shot, which Qheria blocked successfully with her feet. She tried to pass it back, but Mhyl was already on intercept for that, took the ball instead, and rapid returned it faster than Qheria could react. It was another intense goal.
"Lwyn, that's not fair, you can't just go scaling up the wall?" "Why not, you told me to 'just deal with it', didn't you?" Thanrie this time was complaining about how that worked out, but Lwyn was pretty satisfied. Qheria was initially proud too, she got scored on again, but she had kicked the ball better than she ever could have in her memories. It just... didn't work out in her favour. Those thoughts started to take her down for a moment, considering it was her own kick that had lost them that round. Does she actually still suck in this world too?
"I think I'm done for now, everyone. Uh, thanks for the match and everything." Qheria packed up, having become lost in her own doubts again. She threw the ball towards Mhyl, who caught it with the foot movements expected of the sport, instead of with her hands. Lwyn and Thanrie stopped their dispute at this, realizing they had lost one. The three of them peeked their eyes out of the room and saw Qheria sitting not far away, deep in thought.
"Should Mhyl go start singing again? Actually, wait, how many tricks does Mhyl actually have now, that was some REALLY fancy footwork." "I did tell you, she had dance moves like you would not believe. You really didn't believe me, did you." "Well, cause you think running up a wall is fancy, it doesn't say much. This was totally something else." "Good point, elves are insane, clearly." Lwyn glared at Thanrie for that remark, who clearly didn't realize how the two humans in their little group of four looked like fanatical demons when using their weapons in combat.
Mhyl left the two of them to dispute the details, and moved forward to comfort Qheria. "Everything okay out here?" "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm really thankful that you worked so hard to come up with a ball like that, something quick and simple that no one has seen before. How did you make it anyway?" "Lwyn and I were talking about the pumps around here. They seem pretty good at pumping air too, as long as there is a half decent seal for the air. It's probably not anything amazing, but we could always re-inflate it after it wears down, or remake it if we have to. It's rather primitive, sorry to admit." Mhyl was a little ashamed that her idea was actually not the most novel in construction, so the ball probably wouldn't last very long.
"So... why did you make it?" "Because a few things. If we're all making instruments to compliment my singing, of course we should figure out more things for everyone else. I already tried sparring with Thanrie, that might be something I'll need to do more often too. Lwyn, I haven't figured out yet, she's probably next. But, I mean, I can't be part of your weapon training stuff, because I'm not exactly a fighter in nature. It was something that still worked, cause I really should be doing fitness stuff too." Qheria was kinda surprised to hear Mhyl's answer, not realizing how much she had been excluded so far. She didn't miss that also, instead of dwelling in her own exclusion, Mhyl had been fully pro-active in resolving it. Overall much better than Qheria had been doing so far.
"Well, I don't think I'm against it, but I think I should practice a bit more before we have another match. I don't really feel like I'm in my game so far, and I would hate to bring everything down on everyone again like this. Keep that ball handy, I'll need it for practice. I hope you will accept my rematch, when the time comes." "Oh, obviously. I'll be ready, you do what you need to take care of you." Qheria nodded, still otherwise in her thoughts, as Mhyl backed off and returned to the others.
"Mhyl, did you give up? Qheria still looks sad." "She just needs time, she'll be fine. So, Lwyn, is climbing your only physical pursuit? I'm hoping you have something else that you do for your own fitness, something that the rest of us can experience too." Lwyn was caught doubly off guard by the tandem of retorts Mhyl returned. Qheria was still bothering her, but she also had no idea what Mhyl was talking about. She just went full flustered, as she tried to look for a reply.
"Ah, don't worry about it, take your time, let me know when you've figured something out. Thanrie, do you want to spar some more?" This side of Mhyl was almost scary in it's warmth and understanding. It was like she was fully in control of everything, totally in the zone, and was capable of doing anything. Lwyn watched in admiration as Mhyl dropped Thanrie to the floor, once again. Where had this side of Mhyl been hiding, all of this time? What had caused it to come out, like it had?
Come to think of it, even Thanrie had been doing really well of late. Instead of her usual uncontrolled rage or cold, the dark and light sides, she had been a lot more.. controlled. And even facing off against Mhyl, it was clear that was only getting better and better. The Thanrie she knew would be a relentless burst of force, but here she saw Thanrie instead carefully considering actions, cautiously making moves, being fully aware of her circumstances. Mhyl was hard to keep up with, not fast but like, a flurry of complex movements. Thanrie was clearly however keeping up, even with human eyes. Lwyn was having problems wrapping her head around everything, herself.
Qheria at least was still the same as she had so far always been. Right now that seemed to hurt her, but it was a pain Lwyn herself could empathize with. She also worried about how much she would still be able to offer, especially for these two who were suddenly blowing past her. She really would need to consider what she should do one day, when it would be better if they moved on without her. The way things were going, something like this was bound to happen, sooner or later.
Mhyl finally found herself the one in the dust this time. Thanrie didn't accept it though, again she had won simply because Mhyl had worn herself out, and this time she had lasted longer than previous, despite the game they had just played. Winning by exhausting Mhyl didn't feel like a victory at all. They both took a break to actually feel refreshed, as work would be resuming soon.
Beyond the instrument work they were doing, they also had a few tasks to worry about for some of their larger projects, including their four part really big mobile defense base project. The weapons were going okay, Ehryinae had personally taken a lot of excitement and entertainment watching that project move forwards. The mobile portion was becoming more of a concern. There was originally the idea of using a hot air balloon, but Qheria had insisted that it really wasn't a smart idea, according to her own memories. There was the idea however of a thrust motion system, similar to Qheria's belt, that pushed a powerful burst to keep them floating. A series of downward air bursts in circulation, with a heating conduit that Ehryinae could provide her gift through to keep the air exceptionally warm as it was forced downwards in a jet stream. It was the best idea they have had yet, even if it was working better as a weapon than an engine.
While working on the pressure pumps for the jets, they also needed to figure out how to setup an engine that actually received generic heat like that. Ehryinae's fire had the potential intensity to cause most metals to simply meltdown. She could hold back, but holding back too much decreased their potential output. They were designing something that instead more worked like a heat-sink, to fully transfer as much heat as possible from the one end, and keep that heat for where the air is released. Any excess heat would then help keep the steam pipes going too, and supply even more power to the whole thing.
They had to worry about other things to pump as well beyond just the hot air jets, such as water for the steam pipes. This would keep power going for everything. There was a lot of work also being done on the neon filament lights as well, which had its own pumps. They had discovered that the faster the filaments moved, the more light was provided, so they had a small project for trying to see if they could accelerate the neon filaments and produce more light. They probably didn't even have enough time to complete this today, much of this process would continue into tomorrow.
The four girls had rested enough to resume work, and continued as planned. For all that they had fought against doing simple tasks like this in the past, this feeling of security was now making them feel much better in their daily activities.