the pleasure part, the afterthought, the missing stone in the graveyard

[attitude]

They had been real eager to help out with Faye's ship in the beginning, but as soon as it was proven for the most part that Red Tail was reliable and running smoothly, the real inquiries began.

Mostly around whether or not Faye Valentine could help bring Darrow to this level of technology.

There were a couple of options where informing the rest of the population was concerned. Faye could have easily relinquished access to her ship, giving the city engineers a chance to dig through and figure out how all of the systems and design came together to make a vehicle as sturdy as her own. Minimal work, and she'd get them off of her back in a hurry, probably with plenty of money in return.

But it wasn't an option. Like hell she was going to give them full access to her one ticket out of the place. She'd turned down the offer right then and there in the room.

Which left having Faye pull her weight as one of their team, drawing up schematics and figuring out how much it would cost to build another such ship for the city, most likely to be used either in space exploration or for the military. (Faye couldn't help but wonder if someone like herself, from outside of Darrow, would have access to the space exploration program. She couldn't see it happening.)

God, in some ways, it felt like being blackmailed all over again.

Fortunately, she didn't mind spending time blueprinting and figuring out what made her girl tick. Wearing little more than a crop top and shorts, Faye's skin was smeared with grease as she tinkered around in her ship, taking notes now and again as she worked her way from front to back. At least, she thought, they weren't pushing her beyond her limits yet.

Comments

[sayshazam]

Billy had to admit, he'd make a pretty awesome firefighter as Shazam. But that would almost be too much like being a superhero full time, especially once people found out what he could do. That seemed more than he really wanted to take on at the moment.

Plus, really, he'd just been trying to find something part time that worked around a school schedule, which a lot of places weren't understanding of when you looked like a grown ass man.

"Mostly just something part time in the evenings," he admitted. "I'd like to go to college here since I never was able to back home."

[attitude]

"That doesn't tell me much," Faye pointed out with a small grin, tilting her head. By the sound of it, this man wasn't really searching after a passion point so much as probably something easy, that paid decently, with hours that most suited him.

Which was fine. Not everyone could pursue the loftiest of their dreams. Still, Faye had no idea what sort of background he had, or what he wanted to head back into school for.

"You're still exploring, I guess? I've thought about heading back to college, myself. Astroengineering, if I get my way."

[sayshazam]

Well, even if she was kind of calling him out on being vague, at least he hadn't revealed too much or been caught in a lie. If he was going to wander around as an adult he really needed to come up with some sort of consistent story.

"I'm just not in any rush to be stuck doing something that I don't like," he said, which sounded pretty mature to him. Maybe he was getting the hang of being an adult. "What's astroengineering?"

[attitude]

Astroengineering had become one of the most popular fields of study by the time Faye was from. When most of humanity was stretched out across three different planets, it was necessary to be more and more creative with what machines and vehicles were put in use in outer space. Faye had to remember that this wasn't the case around Darrow.

Darrow was about as tiny as it got.

"Engineering for outer space, basically. Building structures, machines, devices, systems... everything that makes it possible for you to make your way through that big black void," she said, waving a hand up vaguely towards the sky. "Since I did a lot of space travel back home, it feels natural to try and bring some of that here."