Work Text:
Kel sets down the drive box on the landing pad before walking over to the drone control panel to call the drone for the daily drive and hashcode pickup. Dusting his hands off while giving a little satisfied exhale, he makes his way back into the signal processing room to continue what most of the time was the most mundane part of his job. Taking a seat in the center between the computers, Kel starts to work like a fine tuned clockwork machine with not a moment wasted. Swiveling between computers as he locks in on and pings a signal, processing a previously recorded signal as the loud groan of the array moving into place fills the room. Quickly tuning to the perfect polarity and frequency of the locked in signal, he leans back in the office chair having done all he can do as he has a signal downloading and processing.
“Hmph, that could be a new personal best for cycling signals in and out… I really should keep track of that.” Kel ponders aloud as he tends to do; being the only human up at the base, talking to himself helped break some of the long stints of silence that he faced and kept the crippling loneliness of the Alps at bay. Taking a second to think about what he should do with the rest of the day, he decides continuing on his little project would be the best use of his time.
Exiting to the main hallway, he slips into the utility closet across the hall. Making sure to peek out the door to catch even the slightest sign of those mischievous extraterrestrials lurking nearby. With the hiss of the hydraulics locking into place he takes a couple steps over to the two big crates stacked up against the wall. Pushing them aside just enough so he can reach behind them, he pulls out a ramshackle thrown-together wooden cutout that’s supposed to resemble himself and a small bag of arts supplies.
Unfolding a metal chair and opening the bag to take out the supplies, he settles in for another hour or so of arts and crafts. Kel started on this little project a few days ago after an idea popped into his head as he was dropping off a couple packs of shrimps to his intergalactic neighbor. Those troublemaking aliens had a fondness for pranking him. Sometimes it was playful and it got a good chuckle out of him. However, after having a near heart attack due to a paper-mache alien launched at him at two in the morning, Kel is looking for a bit of appropriate revenge.
He uses the photo on his ID badge, plus a few photos he took with the camera as reference for the cutout. Being inspired by a couple of cutouts they left to scare him on the stairs up to Uniform. Of course those ones aren’t self-portraits of themselves, but Kel believes this would be a proper way to signal that he is behind this prank. “I can’t wait to see the looks…” He trails off, forgetting a very important detail about the Arirals. “Well I won’t see anything given how they usually interact with me. Hmmm… just knowing I got them good despite all the advantages they got over me will more than satisfy the need to get back at them.”
He is no Van Gogh when it comes to the quality of the cutout. Sure, maybe the coloring isn’t exactly in the lines, the detailing on his clothes are a little simple, along with the wooden base of the cutout being uneven due to him using the abundant pieces of wooden scrap scattered around the base, but the cutout isn’t a bad self-representation and it’s been mostly nice time having something to do other than cleaning, copying hashcodes and recording signals.
Kel hears a faint beeping coming from the door to the utility closet signaling that he has work to do. Packing up the supplies and just about to place the cutout back in the hiding spot, he takes a second to take in the nearly finished cutout and remarks, “It’s like looking in a really blurry mirror.” With that, he slides the cutout carefully back into its hiding place and returns to business as usual on the base.
He sits studying the cutout trying to figure out why something seems off about it. “It can’t be the quality of it, it's a miracle that it’s this good in the first place. I even included the bags under my eyes!” He points out to himself. Holding up one of the reference images as his focus switches between the two something clicks and he acts to remedy the error. Taking off his black beanie, causing greasy black hair to block his eyesight briefly. Pushing it back he affixes the beanie to the stop of the cutout, covering the drawn on beanie he drew yesterday.
“Now that's lifelike!” He boasts just before letting out a long yawn. “I really should be getting a little sleep so I’ll be good to put part two of this plan into action….” He trails off as the idea for the cherry on top of the whipped cream of the beanie stares him right in the face. Hastily hiding the cutout in the usual spot, he exits the closet and walks across the hall into the signal processing room. Booting up the computer, he navigates to the company store tab. Kel places a pair of glasses in the cart along with a few more packs of shrimps for the proper execution of his plan tomorrow. “Spending all these points better pay off in the end.” Kel sighs as he clicks the buy button.
Kel is working with an increased pace as the Arirals love to stalk him seemingly at random times. That cloaking tech gives them an advantage when it comes to setting up all their pranks and tricks. He chooses to set up the scare in the doors to the break room. Overriding the hydraulics to keep the door from closing, he lays the trigger to his mischievous plan right in the doors opening. A pack of shrimp with a very thin, but strong, bit of fishing line tied to it. Which is connected to his handmade cutout, now with a taped-on pair of glasses, is attached to the ceiling of the break room with a little more fishing line and a nail or two.
If all goes to plan, the second one of the Arirals takes the bait, the cutout will be pulled loose and will swing into the door frame and hopefully get a little jump out of them. To really make sure they are directed in the right direction, he sets up a small trail of shrimp starting just outside the base and leading right to the break room. Only fitting as they employed the same strategy with brownies to lure him to a very nice note and handmade plushie of himself.
Thinking about that nice gift again gets him to stop in his tracks and second guess this course of actions. “This shouldn’t upset them… right? I might be one of the only humans on the planet that has somewhat regular contact with aliens and messing up human-extraterrestrial relations would be one of the worst thing I could do.” He debates aloud. Despite a few heart-rate spiking exceptions they’ve been extremely kind. In the past they left some really good goo-like food that's intoxicatingly delicious and seemingly caffeinated as he was always wired for hours after consuming it. Along with them really helping by giving some form of interaction that isn’t notes delivered by drone or Emails.
“You know what, yeah this is still a good idea. They love pulling pranks and might appreciate being the pranked rather than the prankee.” Looking down at the pack of shrimp he is using to create the breadcrumb trail, he adds, “And if there are hard feelings, I’ll be sure to drop off an extra pack or two of shrimps next time I’m over by Papa.”
Kel finishes the trail and decides to go and catch a few ZZZ’s in hopes of giving the Arirals the perfect chance to poke around the base and fall victim to his creativity. “Oh I really hope this works.” He says wearily as he climbs the stairs towards the barracks.
Kel is stirring in bed before muffled sounds of commotion drift through the windows of the barracks. Giving it a minute before he checks the aftermath, he can’t help but chuckle in hopes that his plan actually played out perfectly.
Slowly, but surely, he makes his way downstairs and finds that the trail of shrimps is gone. Which gets him to rub his hands together and lethargically say, “Hook, line and sin…” Kel trails off, surprised by the lack of a wooden self-portrait dangling in front of the door. Moving to check if it didn’t trigger properly, he pokes his head into the break room and looks up to the ceiling, only to be confused further as the cutout is nowhere to be found. Taking a second to process and piece together what happened, he spouts out, “They took the cutout with them! Of course those shrimp lovers took it. Hmph, at least that hopefully means it still got the intended scare out of them.”
While a little sad to lose the cutout that took him a week to put together, it seems only fair as he did take one of the cutouts from Uniform with him. He enjoys the thought of how they must’ve reacted to it for just a few more minutes, before he heads to the signal processing room to start his daily tasks.
A few hours later, Kel is taking in the fresh mountain air hitting his face as he weaves through the forest on the ATV as he gets the hashcodes for the day. Coincidentally, he needs the code from Victor today which would take him past the treehouse, where he can drop off a couple packs of shrimps as he tends to do to be a good neighbor.
He exits Victor and quickly makes his way down the stairs. Hopping onto and starting the ATV for the barely two-hundred and fifty meter drive to their location. Strangely though as he pulls up he spots just a little movement from inside the treehouse. Kel plans to just leave the packs of shrimps by their parked arrow shaped ship. Given they do seemingly like their privacy and it’s rare he ever catches the Arirals at home while he makes his deliveries. Swinging his backpack around he takes out the shrimp packs but is stopped by a crumpled piece of paper being launched at him from one of the windows which hits him square in the head. Picking up and unfolding it reveals a short message.
KELLIN
WE MAKE SURPRISE YOU
COME NO, NEXT DAYS
OR SPOIL SURPRISE
“Hmph, seems I may have provoked a counter attack. Heh guess I had that coming.” He folds the note and stuffs it into his pocket. Placing both packs just by the ATV, he gives a wave in the direction of treehouse and starts the engine to ride off to his next satellite.
Kel groggily wakes up while it’s still pitch dark outside. Standing up and stretching his arms as he yawns, still wearing his clothes from yesterday. He shambles his way towards the door so he can begin the day's tasks.
As he opens the door to the second floor hall, a wooden cutout drops down in front of him and he jumps back in fear. “AH WHAT THE HELL!?” Taking deep breaths to lower his heart rate back down, he goes to examine the wooden cutout, having a very good idea who might’ve placed it there.
Flipping over the cutout, it takes him a second to realize what it is a cutout of. Noting the cat-like appearance, he takes a pretty educated guess that the Arirals decided to copy his own idea of a self-portrait and use it against him.
Picking it up and leaning it up against the wall, he is a tad jealous at the much cleaner and more detailed appearance compared to his own. Though that’s honestly a good thing as this cutout is his first real good look at what the Arirals look like outside of simplified graffiti and posters they had up at the treehouse. “Those buggers really do have a knack for being creative.”
Kel can’t help but smirk a little before declaring to himself, “Well, guess I gotta come up with a new idea to get them back for this.”