‘If you have to leave before it’s done, then so be it. But keep at it until I tell you otherwise.’ Garovel left, and Hector returned to his work.
He knew he would need to stay extremely late if he wanted to finish the helm. Thankfully, this was a common occurrence in the club. Members would routinely hang around several hours after other clubs wrapped up, and oddly, Ms. Trent never seemed to mind very much. As long as there were at least a couple of students still around, she would just stay in her office and read a book or some such thing, employing ear plugs for any machining noise.
It was convenient, yes, but Hector knew there were other reasons why some of his peers did not want to go home.
At length, he felt the shapes were as good as he could get them. He lathered an adhesive between the layers of the metal and positioned them into place. He checked out a welding torch, apron, gloves, and mask, and then started melting the edges together. He added lines down the center of the metal as well, both inside and out.
After a while, Ms. Trent came out of her office. “It’s gotten dark out, Hector. I’m closing up shop.”
He released the trigger on the torch and lifted his mask. “I-I just need a few more minutes. I’m almost done.”
“Done?” She approached and assessed his work. “You didn’t even have the drafting started when you came in today, right?”
“Eh, y-yeah...”
“Impressive. A bit rough still, but you work quickly.”
“Ah... th-thank you... I just... I need to get it done.”
“Need?”
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
How embarrassing. I was so caught up in reading the story I posted a typo correction on the wrong page. THe second paragraph, "if he to wanted finish". I think you meant "if he wanted to finish"?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the catch and all the compliment. Fixed.
DeleteLiking the story a lot so far :)
ReplyDeleteSmall typo:
"...Hector knew there were others reasons..." - other
Fixed, thank you. Glad you're enjoying.
DeleteThis brings up an interesting question. Does one treat the emergence of an ability as largely random chance, or a manifestation of personal inclinations? Hector has a gift for construction and metal work, it seems. And he has the ability to spontaneously create metal objects. Figuring out ways to link abilities to characters can get difficult sometimes, but it's another way to probe who they are, and the ways you can go about it can be quite subtle. And it makes for interesting additional dimensions.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking along these lines. Having each Servant manifest a different, unique ability would be quite intriguing to read. If done right...
ReplyDeleteI wonder why his peers would have reasons to not go home hmmm?
ReplyDelete