AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 412
ARES III SOL 405
“It’d be easier if Starlight was helping us.”
“Yeah,” Dragonfly replied absently in Equestrian, focusing her attention on turning her ratchet while Fireball turned his. She hoped the dragon didn’t follow that thought any further. Yes, having the unicorn present would speed up the process of stripping down Amicitas’s habitat deck to bare walls, but she was more useful helping Mark cut the insulation out of Rover 1’s dismounted cabin. This job could be done with muscle, but that job required a more careful and delicate touch- and magic.
So she was there and they were here, and complaining wouldn’t change that.
“Where the heck are we going to put these anyway?” Fireball asked, pausing to point to the cabinet he was dismounting. “The bridge is crammed full already so we can barely get out the airlock. I’m not even sure these would fit in the airlock with either of us.”
“We don’t need to take them out of here,” Dragonfly said. “We can work around them. We just need to get the walls clear for insulation.”
“Oh. Okay. Where do you want the bolts?”
“Caddy in the top of the tool box. The one with the lid.”
“Okay.” More ratcheting. “Why don’t you use your magic? Make this go faster.”
“First, you know exactly why I want to use magic as little as possible,” Dragonfly said, a little testily. “Second, I will be using my magic later. So I can’t afford to use it right now doing something we can do by hoof.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Fireball grumbled. “This just takes forever, is all.” Giving the lie to his statement, he dropped the last bolt from the current cabinet into the tool box, slid it up and off the bracket that held it in place, and looked for a place to put it. “You sure you can work around this?”
“Just a moment.” Dragonfly pulled the last bolt out of her own cabinet, the one which had been beneath Fireball’s, and slid the cabinet out of its groove in the deck. “The cabinets interlock. Take a couple bolts and thread them through the bottom mounting holes. You can link these two cabinets together that way, and they can just sit together in the middle of the deck.” She forced herself not to look at the rather small deck area available for things to sit in.
“Right,” Fireball muttered. “Two down, ten to go, then.”
“Eh, we’re almost done,” Dragonfly said. “The hard part was clearing everything else out first.”
“No,” Fireball insisted, “the hard part will be putting everything back in the right order.”
Dragonfly, unable to deny the point, crawled into another lower cabinet and began loosening another bolt.
After lunch, Dragonfly returned to the ship, this time with Mark. With Starlight’s and Fireball’s help, one airlock load at a time, they got the carefully cut slices of rover insulation foam into the ship. Of course, this left practically no room for human or changeling to get through the jumble of meal packs, hay bales, medicine, and other things that absolutely had to travel in the Whinnybago’s trailer.
Dragonfly felt more grateful than usual when she set up the mana battery for field projection and switched the power on. Inside the mostly bare metal walls of the hab deck, the rainbow sparks that rose from the aerials occasionally lashed out to strike the unpainted portions of metal.
“Okay,” Mark said. “Rover foam for the ceiling, especially to cover up the docking port. We’re not going to use that any time soon. What’s left of the ship insulation in the spots where the cabinets go. When we run out of ship insulation, Hab canvas. Use the ship insulation on the outer bulkheads, the canvas for the wall between habitat and bridge. You up for a lot of spot-gluing? I noticed you had a huge lunch.”
“Just a moment.” Dragonfly grinned a fang-filled grin, and then she shifted.
Mark’s expression was everything Dragonfly had hoped it would be. “Um,” he said carefully, “can’t you pick another form? That one makes me really uncomfortable.”
“I’m used to this shape,” Dragonfly said, doing her best imitation of Beth Johanssen’s voice to match the blue-jumpsuited body she was imitating. “And it’s easier for me to work around the cabinets as a biped. Besides,” she added, “I could change into you, but it takes a lot more energy to change mass.”
Mark did his best to not look at her. “Really, really uncomfortable.”
“Think of it as building up a tolerance,” Dragonfly said, chuckling. “Or would this be better?” Another flash of green flame, and from the neck up she was still Johanssen, but from the neck down she was a certain actress famous for a role where she wore cutoff jeans for seven years. And instead of the blue astronaut jump suit, she wore those cutoff jeans and a string bikini top.
Mark’s efforts not to look increased. “Really not helping,” he said as firmly as he could manage. “Not helping in so many ways.”
“Relax, Mark,” Dragonfly giggled, now throwing a southern accent into her voice. “I’m not like Starlight or Spitfire. I don’t kick. Much.”
“This conduct is contributing to a hostile work environment!”
Dragonfly’s giggle became a full-out laugh, and with another flash of green she went back to plain, jump-suited Johanssen. “All right, all right,” Dragonfly said. “Just messing with you, Mark. And it feels good to be able to shift.” She paused for full effect before continuing, “Although lust is a nice delicious treat… and I could really go for some empty calories right-“
“OH LOOK!” Mark said loudly. “I think that’s a spot that needs some insulation right there!” He pointed up at a random spot near the ladder leading to the dorsal docking port.
“Some joker you are,” Dragonfly muttered. “Okay, let me climb up so you can hand me some of the foam.”
“Like that?” Mark asked. “Are you going to be able to… you know… make glue… in Johanssen’s body?”
Dragonfly felt a blush coming on. Darnit, sometimes the disguise had a mind of its own. “Well, yes,” she said, “but you probably don’t want to watch. Not this soon after your own lunch, anyway.”
MISSION LOG – SOL 405
Quick note for the record: changelings are gross. Really, really gross.
I haven’t missed alcohol so much since the day we lifted off from Canaveral…
Huh, well that is a thing which happened... Sniffing around that "sex" tag again are we?
Freaking buggy succubi man... what are you going to do?
The worst part is I guarantee Johansen-Bug making glue was someone's fetish. Don't care what orifice it came from, what it looked like, sounded like, or even smelled like. Someone got turned on by it.
And of COURSE Chrysalis would insist on impersonating the commander...
The fact Dragonfly called him out on the lust shows that they will be doing something off screen
Daisy Duke?
9094429 To be completely honest, the sex tag on this (for the scenes that have happened so far at least) is probably not needed. There hasn't been any actual intent for the scenes to go further, nor was it written to titillate.
Nice chapter, as always. I don't know why, but I love a heavy dollop of slice of life with my adventure.
9094460
Eh, some people will obsess over the silliest things. Better to have the tag and not need it, than to have someone go screaming to the moderators over a technicality.
9094465 Heh, I've actually run scenes past moderators/approvers before just to be on the safe side. Particularly when it's one or two scenes in a multi-hundred-thousand word story (for example).
Just
Dragonfly, never change. Lovebugs are the best.
9094481
Multi-hundred-thousand word stories? Do tell. Seriously, where? It's so hard sometimes to find something decently long to read.
9094444
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit the Queen over the head with a wrench! At least, not THAT hard!"
9094490
Sort by word count, descending.
Over a year with a hungry changeling, and ~6 months since her ability to shapeshift has been public knowledge...it's a little surprising this didn't happen sooner.
9094460
I've seen you on multiple fics harassing authors about tags, I'm going to be honest and say it's getting annoying to the point where I'm starting to think you're a troll.
Just let the mods do their jobs.
Error 404: Sol not found!
This chapter sounds like it would be fun to record.
Awkward boner is awkwardI'm thinking.9092805 9094451
Thanks! I can't say that I wasn't looking forward to this moment - it certainly took me long enough.
Well, that's not ominous at all.
This is so much better than Spitfire's attempts at... vaguely the same thing with the fish. Dragonfly knows what's up. Good stuff.
And, yeah, insecurity is real.
Oh yikes, it's time for actually evil Dragonfly again. Luckily Mark is immune to all of it but that was awful stuff. A lesser man might see her bullying and sexual harassment as unfunny.
The sad part is, Dragonfly doesn't really comprehend why it makes him intellectually uncomfortable. Different social norms for the win!
Magical discharge from battery inside the hull is trying to dump into the low magic surrounding enviroment and is mainly related to electricity so has to use raw hull to get there? Looks like someone better make a dedicated discharge location and grounding, bypass shunt that people dont keep getting spiked on.
If Dragonfly is being like that with just a pair of human females, how bad would she be if they had internet access and could look up their fan forums and galleries.
9094881
OH BOIIII! That'll be FUN.
9094592
Id think the fear of being sucked dry by this emotional vampire is in there somewhere.
This was a lot of fun! I think the form change to Daisy Duke probably took quite a bit of magic when reserves are low, but probably worth it to tease Mark.
9094823
This is decisively unfunny to be on receiving end of, and I think Mark should give Dragonfly a cold shoulder for a couple of days just to make a point. Especially since he doesn't even have to say or do anything - little emotivore will feel it nonetheless.
Definitely a healthier way to vent agitation than being a grumpy bug, even if Mark might not agree.
9095069
Yeah I don't know how Mark bounces back from her stuff. And for someone who eats emotions she seemed fine with whatever "profoundly uncomfortable" tastes/feels like. At this point I don't think a cold shoulder would discourage her, if that was something Mark could even pull off.
9094995 That's why there's a field projector active. (Well, no. The field projector is active to give Dragonfly magic to make changeling glue in large quantities. But she's using it to have a bit of fun and tease Mark.)
9095115 Totally, yeah, but does she not get more out of that just from absorbing it?
9095163 I don't understand your question here.
9095212 Sorry, I was thinking that if changing form uses magic, then that's wasting magic which would otherwise help Dragonfly recover and stuff? Just like an electrical device will take longer to charge if you continue to use it while it's on charge (or take more overall power to do so)?
9094481
The problem with that is the moderator who approves it might be more lax than the moderator who sees the eventual report. I remember seeing an author get hit by that many years ago. One moderator approved what he posted, and another said it broke the rules and deleted it.
9095226 True, but the point is that while the projector is on Dragonfly doesn't have to burn her reserves for shapeshifting magic, which means that while she's recharging less, she's not actually losing ground. And she really misses being able to shapeshift.
(No, she didn't actually do it much at all in the CSP story. But there's a difference in being able to do a thing and choosing not to, and being deprived of the option entirely.)
9094977
What a way go though.
Heh, gotta keep that morale up. And yeah, Mark, ya gotta admit shes right about the hands!
The day he had surplus of potatos, he should make some alcohol.
He can only blame himself now.
9095598
We've been over this twenty times. They don't have the right microbes, nor the margin of error to experiment with different microbes.
9092444 If alternate dimension pathogens were a concern, the ponies would not be allowed on Earth AT ALL.
Also, the odds of their genetics being that similar SHOULD BE virtually nil. Unless... God did it all.
9096492
But they were going to spend more than seven sols on Mars, originally, right?
9095650
Pedestria* exists. Canonically, in this story. Just putting it out there.
*I will continue to refer to the Equestria Girls verse this way and noone can stop me. Blame Bookish.
Wonderful chapter, in spite of your travel strains. 8P
Chryssie would take one look at all the porn on the net and grin maliciously.
Never change, Dragonfly.
9096665
Mods can stop anyone :}
9095467
I imagine that shape-shifting for them is being innate ability and they may enjoy it just like their namesakes from Startrek universe, like humans may enjoy a relaxing stroll.
9096665
Pedestria is a wonderful thing and i love you for sharing that concept with me
Woman, he has been stranded on Mars for over a year with 0 female interaction besides you three! This is cruel and unusual!
Changeling shenanigans are the best ones
Not gonna say a damn thing here. Oh wait...
Very entertaining chapter
Sadly mark is not your typical anon. And this is not a clop fic.