Yes, but her clothes aren't

The first thing Vinri noticed when she woke up was the smell of partially burnt cloth, closely followed by a dull ache throughout her body. Obviously, something had gone wrong. Her ears were ringing, and opening her eyes seemed like a monumental task. So she simply remained lying on the ground, surrounded by the evidence of her failure.

Izzet philosophy said that an exploding experiment was the next step towards inventing a new bomb, but to Vinri, failure still hurt. As did the piece of glass embedded beneath her butt.

Slowly, she rolled over and placed a hand on her backside. She couldn't feel any wounds, but she could feel the texture of her gloves against her bare skin.

Vinri's eyes shot open. She scrambled to her feet, her pain secondary to her panic. Her lab was destroyed. The water tank had melted and fused with the control desk, while shards of glass from the shattered weird enclosure lay scattered everywhere. But of more immediate concern to Vinri were the small, still burning scraps of cloth scattered throughout the lab, all that remained of her regular clothes.

The only items of clothing that had survived the explosion were Vinri's apron, gloves, boots and mizzium goggles. Of these, only her apron covered a significant portion of her body. The rest of her clothes hadn't been electro-proofed. She should have gone home to get her shock-resistant coveralls.

Vinri groaned. How was she supposed to get home? Her apron covered her front, although it showed far more cleavage and leg than she was comfortable with. Her back, however, was almost completely uncovered. Anyone standing behind her would see her naked body.

Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, someone was watching her. Sitting in a corner of the shattered containment enclosure were the weirds, ogling her. They had lost a lot of mass and were now little more than five heads, each giving off the occasional tiny spark. All five were fixated on Vinri.

"What are you looking at?"

Before she could berate the weirds any further, someone tried to open the door. Vinri spun around just in time to avoid flashing her butt at whoever was pushing it open. This meant, of course, that she was once again showing her ass to the weirds, but they weren't sentient, so they didn't count.

"Your door sticks," grumbled Bilkix before peering inside through his own safety goggles.

Vinri froze. Bilkix was the worst person to find her like this. She didn't want anyone seeing her practically naked, but the insufferable buffoon that was Bilkix would certainly use the opportunity to kick her out of her lab and claim it as his own. There was nothing she could do, however, as Bilkix slowly took in the scene.

"You've made a bit of a mess here, haven't you?" Even Bilkix's voice was grating. "But that happens when you let amateurs have their own lab."

"Didn't your fluctomantic frame burn down last week?"

Vinri silently cursed herself for speaking up. Now Bilkix had fixed his gaze on her. She had to stop herself from grabbing the edge of her apron. Exposing more of her thighs would only make matters worse.

"That's true. Everyone's experiments go wrong once in a while, but not to this extent."

Slowly, Bilkix's eyes travelled up and down Vinri's body. She could see her reflection in the darkened lenses of his safety goggles. Why hadn't he said anything yet? Surely he'd noticed how little she was wearing?

"Why aren't you wearing a hard hat?"

He actually hadn't noticed. Vinri stood before Bilkix, practically naked, and he hadn't noticed. She briefly wondered if he had gone blind before she realised. Bilkix's goggles were darkened to protect his eyes from the bright voltastic currents he worked with, meaning he could barely see her. He didn't know. Now that Vinri's fear of being caught naked had subsided, all that remained was anger.

"Fuck off. You aren't wearing a hard hat either, Bilkix."

Bilkix must not have heard the edge in her voice because he kept on prattling.

"That might well be the case, but as a senior engineer..."

Vinri didn't know exactly when she had grabbed what remained of the conductor rod, but now she was threatening Bilkix with it. She couldn't see his eyes behind his goggles, but she knew that the only thing Bilkix was looking at was the end of the rod, which was an inch from his nose. Vinri squeaked when a spark arced between the rod and a hair sticking out of Bilkix's nostril, but Bilkix didn't hear her because he squealed twice as loudly.

"You are not my supervisor, Bilkix, so fuck off before I electrolize you."

Bilkix tried to stammer out something that was part apology and part threat, but his words were lost as he scurried out of the lab. Vinri only allowed herself to laugh once he had actually closed the doors. She would remember the look on Bilkix's face for a long time.

But her levity ended when she remembered her predicament. Bilkix might have been scared off, but she still needed to get home while practically naked. Standing around here wasn't going to solve her problem, though. Sneaking out of the generatorium would be easy. Only she and Bilkix were here, and she doubted that he would dare show his face again. That just left sneaking through the city. It was already late, so surely no one would see her, right?

On a whim, Vinri decided to take the conductor rod with her, just in case. After one last glare at the minuscule gelectrodes, she left her destroyed lab on her quest for clothes.