Well, after much more delay than I needed, here's something I've written. This ties in with my fan game, Elemedals.

~~~~~

"Almost everything is in order, Mr. ..."

"Thread," said the gremlin.

"Yes, that’s what’s missing," said the pudgy, blue devilite. He straightened his black suit before continuing. "You forgot to fill out your last name."

"But," Thread stammered, as his fear lumped up in his throat. What if something this minor could keep him from the job? "But," he said again, more quietly, "I don’t have two names, like most of you. I just have one."

"Only one name, you say? Hmm, that’s no good," Enegue said, half to himself and half to Thread. He took a sip of coffee before opening one of his desk’s drawers.

Thread waited and worried. He fiddled with his coat as he looked around the large office. His eyes eventually came back to Enegue. The devilite’s two, pale blue ears looked almost exactly like a pair of horns. Thread had to remind himself that the name ‘devilite’ was just a misnomer.

Enegue finally pulled a sheet of paper out of the drawer. Sitting up again, he looked at it for a moment before looking back at Thread. "Under normal circumstances, I would not hire you, but we’ve just lost some of our best mechanics." The blue creature gazed out the window, lost in thought. "Alright, the job’s yours."

Thread felt like a huge weight was taken off of him. "Thank you, sir! You don’t-"

"However!" cut in Enegue, "You’d better know that I don’t like working with a gremlin like you. If you cause even an inch of trouble, I’ll fire you without a second thought."

This, however, didn’t discourage Thread. "I’ll follow all the rules you’ll give me. I won’t make any trouble."

Enegue eyed him. "Very well." Thread’s new boss stood up, out of his chair. "You start tomorrow, at 6:15 AM. Not a minute later. Dismissed." Thread nodded, got up, and left without another word.

A few minutes later, Thread was standing in the street outside of the office building. Since most of the city’s residents were at their jobs, only chill breezes flowed down the roads. The whispers of downtown’s car horns were carried by the wind, but they were partly drowned out by the Clockwork’s constant rumbling.

Walking briskly, Thread felt hope’s warm glow. His eye was caught by a group of four purple devilites sitting on the other side of the street. One of them was holding up a sign that read, "Mr. Pear is unfair!", and another one had a sign reading, "Down with favoritism!"

Not letting himself get downbeat, Thread ignored the strikers. He walked a few more blocks before reaching his apartment. He could already imagine having enough money to get a real meal.

~~~~~

Over the next few weeks, Thread worked diligently at his job. He was an electrical mechanic working for a coffee provider called Underwhirld Drip. Since devilites almost never slept, coffee was always in high demand. This meant the coffee bean processing machines were always being overworked. It was a rare day when only five of the machines broke down, and Thread was expected to get them working again in a stressfully short amount of time.

But he did get them fixed. And with any extra time Thread had, he was always doing extra maintenance here and there. He did so well, in fact, that his co-workers were noticing him. The three other mechanics (who were devilites) began leaving little surprises for Thread, like removing this part or swapping those gears. Although this slowed Thread down a bit, he still was able to make the repairs on time.

Despite all of his stress, sweat, and overtime, Thread’s wages were lower than his co-workers’. At first, Thread didn’t worry about it, but as weeks turned into months, he began to wonder...

Wham! Thread fell on his rear from the impact. He was lost in thought and hadstopped paying attention. Thread looked up to see a crate of coffee beans on wheels.

"Outta the way!" boomed a big voice, "Don’t wanna run you over!" A big purple eye peeked over the box.

Thread yelped and jumped to his feet.

"Calm down!" the voice said. The thing moved to the side of the crate, so that Thread could see that it was ...a thing. While the bipedal creature was only about as tall as Thread, its burly, hulking build made it seem like a giant. The hunched creature’s head almost came out of its chest. Its sand-colored skin covered its bulging muscles.

The thing looked at Thread for a moment with its lone, purple eye. "What the heck are you?" it asked at last.

"I’m wondering the same thing," Thread replied. "Are you...a cyclops or something?"

"Ye, err, no. Maybe," the thing said. "But no time for that! I’m on th’clock!" With that, the thing began pushing the crate. When he was a few yards away, he shouted back, "We’ll talk at lunch!"

After getting a grip of himself, Thread continued with his duties. "And I thought I’d seen it all...," he mumbled to himself.

~~~~~

Thread sat at his regular table in the cafeteria, staying out of the devilites’ sea of noise. After his few months of working at Underwhirld Drip, he had no friends, but Thread didn’t mind.

Before long, the cyclops-like-creature entered the cafeteria. Everyone in the room went silent when they saw him. As the thing got its somewhat large portion of food, murmurs passed around, and a few devilites left. After the creature took its seat at Thread’s table, the devilites’ chatter gradually built up again, but a few still glanced at the cyclops from time to time.

"I suppose I’ll go first," the creature said after the two ate in silence for a little while. "My name is V."

"V? Uh, that’s...," Thread stopped himself from saying something potentially rude. "I’m Thread. A gremlin, if you’ve never seen my kind before."

"No, I’ve not. All I’ve seen in my life is ‘ilites and us brutes."

Over the next 15 minutes, Thread learned that V had been working at Underwhirld Drip for 3 years. V was what the devilites called a ‘pit brute’, and that he used to have a brother. However, not long after both V and his brother had begun working at the company, V’s brother had vanished without a trace. On V’s first day of work, he had broken some expensive equipment, and had been working ever since to pay off the debt.

"There’s one thing that bothers me," said Thread. "Why do they call you a pit brute?"

V shrugged. "Just what they’ve always called us..."

"But it seems completely inaccurate!" Thread burst out. "’Brute’ implies that you’re some beast of burden. But you can talk, and that requires a high level of intelligence."

"Don’t gimme me that much credit. I’m not very smart, and I don’t know that much, so-"

"But knowing isn’t intelligence," Thread interrupted. "That’s knowledge. My kind believes that intelligence is the ability to...solve a puzzle, for example. Or create sentences."

"What should I be called, then?"

"Uhh...," Thread paused, trying to think of a good name. "I dunno...a cyclops? It’s a mythical one-eyed creature." Then he added, "But you’re real, of course."

V thought for a moment. "But what use would that be if-"

Their conversation was cut off by the end-of-lunch whistle, signaling that the employees had to return to work.

"Think it over," Thread said. "I can’t be late." With that, he dashed back to the factory floor.

~~~~~

The next day, Thread sat in Enegue’s office. At first, Thread had been hoping for a raise, but something on Enegue’s face made Thread worry.

"Mr. Thread, I wish to discuss your performance. I have been receiving reports of missing parts, usually coming off of the machines you work on."

"Wh-What? I didn’t take anything!" Thread flushed with anger. Those guys who he worked with...who were sabotaging him. They were the thieves!

Enegue shook his head. "That’s what you all say."

"But I...," Thread trailed off, unsure how he could prove his innocence.

"In our records," Enegue paused to take a sip of coffee, "We have two other cases of gremlins who acted dishonestly."

Taken aback, Thread’s thoughts drowned out his boss’s speech. Why should a pair of previous workers--who had nothing in common with him--affect Thread? That...that wasn’t even fair!

Somewhere, Thread heard the words "You’re fired," snapping him back to reality. "You...you’re firing me?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, that is the fact."

Thread, stunned and angry, said nothing. At last, he stood up. "Then...I’ll just leave. I guess."

At this, Enegue laughed. "You will leave indeed!" From behind various pieces of office furniture, a dozen purple devilites jumped out. Enegue laughed
again when he saw Thread’s face, and explained, "You see, this is our policy." The suited devilite took another sip of coffee before continuing, "Eight years ago, we had a welfare plan, but that’s been canceled. We can’t have your expertise fall into our competitors’ hands, after all."

Thread’s mind raced as the air seemed to get clammy. He felt as if he was being treated as a tool that-

Crash! Dust and splinters filled the room, and something big landed in front of Thread. The gremlin tottered, barely keeping his balance. When the dust settled, Thread gasped to see V standing on top of Enegue’s shattered desk. Bits of wood fell through the gaping hole in the ceiling above V.

A rather red-faced Enegue looked V in the eye. "What is the meaning of this!? You’ll know that this desk is special to me. You’ll be working for me...for...for the rest of your life!"

But V looked Enegue back sharply. "Now I kno’ what’s happened to my bro, you...fiend!"

"Get back to carrying my coffee beans around, and out of my office! Before I make you regret it!"

V towered above Enegue. With an earthquake of a voice, he answered, "You're not the boss of me no more."

Enegue turned many new shades of red, and began hopping with anger, shouting that anyone who didn’t attack the two ‘monsters’ would also be fired. All of the small devilites in the room, however, were either too brave or too cowardly to lift a finger.

"Com’on, Mr. Gremlin. We’ve got better places to be." Before Thread could object, V picked Thread up and jumped out the window.

~~~~~

Notes: First off, Underworld Drip is the name of the cafe that Nick has posted once, somewhere. Underwhirld Drip is a giant corporation intended branded with a similar name to be confusing, but it's far more of a...dark place? It also runs a giant chain of coffee shops, each with a drive-thru.

There are a few more references to Nick's original idea.

Thread believes that devilites aren't exactly from the underworld, but he could be wrong! He's only going off of his own knowledge.

Also, two of the to-be bosses of Elemedals appear in this story. Can you name them?