lirillith: (goblin)
[personal profile] lirillith
Title: Last Straw
Fandom: World of Warcraft
Characters: Hobart/Greely
Length: 453 words
Rating: PG
Notes:  Somehow, I got from "hey, Hobart's running around doing Molten Front dailies" to this.  Go figure. 

****

    When the Top-Secret Lab caught fire, he did it again, shouting "I love you, Greely!" as the azsharite chunks around them burst into flames and interns screamed.  It could have been pretty epic, really, if she'd had time to appreciate it, but she was the only person in the room with the sense to look for a fire extinguisher, so she couldn't. 

    Once they were all out, and she'd done a headcount of her singed and shell-shocked interns, she sent some adventurer - a kind of stoned-looking troll lady who turned into a greenish cat and ran off - to try to retrieve the rest of the survivors and get the reactor core out.  Eventually, she hoped, the troll would change back into a troll to work the fireliminator, but she'd had all the interns sign extremely detailed release forms, so it should work out either way. And then she stomped into the room where Hobart had gone to recover. 

    "Hobart..."  To his credit, he didn't whimper or anything, though he kind of looked like he wanted to.  "Do you remember this time?"

    "Well, I, you see..."

    "TWICE."

    "I can't afford a ring!  At least not a very large or elaborate one!  Let alone alimony!"

    "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?  Besides, I'm a scientist, Hobart, if you get me a ring I want it made out of azsharite."  Once she knew what azsharite was made out of, she hoped he forgot that.  "I'd settle for a nice dinner out once in a while."

    "But we live near Orgrimmar."

    "What, you don't like giant slabs of medium-rare kodo?"

    "Weren't you a vegetarian?"

    "I was taking a page from your book, making stuff up when we're looking death in the face."  It had been a pretty inspired rant, all in all, working in Hobart's near-death perfidy, Gallywix's many betrayals, the way no one ever asked her how she was doing or said gesundheit when she sneezed, and her grievances with orc cooking.  She'd managed to improvise some outright fiction, like her vegetarianism and a beloved kodo named Pearl that had belonged to her grandma.  And she'd managed to deliver it all while fending off several angry, hyper-intelligent raptor hatchlings, which were a lot less cute when you looked at the parts with all the fangs. 

    "I don't make things up," he said, sounding wounded.  She ignored that. 

    "Troll food's pretty good.  Spicy.  I need time to wash the smoke out of my hair, so let's head out about seven.  I'll meet you on the rocketway platform." 

    To her mild amazement, he was actually waiting at the top of the lift at 6:55, cleaning his glasses uncertainly.  He'd even left his goggles behind. 

****

January 2020

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