RP: 188604 Dead Metal Clubhouse

"Dead queens and errant knights? Man, this planet really was a backwater." Lyco let a smile slip pass their grim expression, forgetting for just a moment that this effeminate space boy was a nekovalkyrja. "But I guess you can't doubt their intentions. I'd want to suck up to the most fetching cat boy too..."

"...Well, you know, if I was from the ass end of nowhere..."

"As for being fat, well, it is efficient... I can't doubt my designers for that. Good insulation in space is mass-expensive." Upright all of a sudden. Tracks made light tink-tink-tink sounds when air was present. Lycosidae was avoiding looking at him again by turning the screens off, and then proceeding towards some of the half completed spider-tank shells. "If I really have a choice, through, I like these junker bodies more. Being two hundred foot tall with ten limbs and a hundred eyes... Now that's pretty!..."

The short thing didn't really suit looking prideful or motivated, with metal hands like demolition equipment resting on her dumpy cheeks. Their teeth had braces, their hair was permanent mess, and an odour of hydraulic fluid seemed to trail behind them at all times. But it was clear that she now wanted to share some kind of weird ambition with Akemi. Something had lit up inside, and she wanted him to be motivated, too.

"Building a miner version would be easy enough, sure, but I do think it's worth asking... Would they be yours or Uso's?" A guarded tone. "Do you think the locals would actually use an underground transport system, or would it be better building some kind of monorail? I'm not sure which would look like a more sinister symbol to them... Either way, the old fashioned city is so densely packed that you'd have to knock down half a dozen houses to build a normal train line... Maybe I should just talk to your friends myself."

"Sure, if you want," Akemi said as he continued to watch Lyco be Lyco. He didn't mind any of what she was one bit. Well besides the fact that if they ever did the deed things could be unusual, but hey, unusual had its merits. There was no need for her to justify her build.

"I'd definitely recommend talking to Vier first. I gotta say you shouldn't expect great discussion and input from Uso. Vier is the super business oriented one. I bet Arccos would work well with you even if she has an attitude about her. This is all really making me think of an idea I've got for you, Vier and Arccos. This place has super death sand storms and we need a way to deal with them. Maybe you three could team up to create a system that uses the Lighthouse stuff to detect them and blast them with something that greatly diminishes or redirects them."

"You mean this place has no way of controlling the environment?" The spacer looked a little shocked, but then internally realised her conceit. "Planets are such messed up places. It's like... Eating a vegetable that grew on its own. How do you even know what's in it? What kind of animals have peed on it?"

Knowing eyes met Akemi's, before she suddenly repressed it again, crossed her arms and huffed.

"Maybe some kind of low-level force field projector. For the winds, I mean. If it only has to deflect air pressure, it can't be that hard to construct a large near-constant bubble."

Shying out of visiting Vier, then. Maybe they just realised that would involve going outside.

"Well I like thinking there's something we could zap a giant hurricane or whatever with to kill it," Akemi said. He wanted to make sure people gave his approach some real thought. "Then we wouldn't need force fields or walls or shelters. If you helped come up with something I bet that could do a lot to make Uso value you. I also need to say I don't think anyone is going to treat you like a slave or something if that's a concern of yours. Uso lets us do whatever we want. So you might not bother asking for permission with a lot of things but you might tell people what you're doing so they can collaborate with you."

"Technically the field could be mounted on a missile. Or we could use some kind of satellite mounted heat ray to adjust the direction of the air currents." The short thing pondered, candy bar hanging from her mouth. "I'm not really an expert on this sort of planet-environment thing, but... One mobile installation, instead of a dozen little ones, would certainly save on upkeep costs."

"Of course, such a system would be really vulnerable to sabotage... Maybe we should start painting death crawlers white and putting little sirens on them, if you want to go down that route..."

A strange look. Fondly remembering something? Lycosidae briskly moved towards a pile of jumbled cables and clothes, pulling out a small tatty data cartridge from one of her back pockets. It went into one of the consoles and began loading onto one of the screens without her saying another word.

"Hey, have you ever seen neko police lawlamia?" Another stupid grin. They took both Akemi's hands into their own, almost as if they intended to propose, or something. "We can watch it whilst I rack up some polysentience time on this subject, maybe!"

"Oh, absolutely. Whatever you wanna do pal," Akemi replied, likewise clasping Lyco's hands firmly but gently while giving her a big, bright smile. "I'm just glad you're happy. We can invite Aashi to work with us on something too if you'd like. She also wanted to build stuff on the planet. Maybe you could learn about Iroma tech from her. I bet Jason could have use of your skills. I only want you to do what you wanna do though. Don't think I wanna pressure you into stuff with strangers."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still not joining this faction of Uso's, or anything!" Perhaps it was the insinuation that Lyco could be pressured, but it made her part their hands and turn away. There was a lot of pride and stubbornness in the short boxy thing. "But... But as long as we are all individuals in this deal, and it's mutually beneficial, then... Well, that's different from those free state hypocrites, or all that imperial yammie crap..."

"Like, you turned your back on the star army too, didn't you, Akemi?" Crossed arms. Rather than looking at the campy police anime playing on one screen, she was looking at a security feed of that hobo from before, lurking around outside. "By the sounds of it, a lot of you folks did... I don't know. Something about that fact alone just makes me trust you a little more, maybe..."

"Aashi is of course welcome. There isn't much on the poly about the Iromakuanhe, but that could be an advantage for us just the same."

"Jason... Jason confuses me. He's that mecha pilot with the mindware, right? I thought he was just a spacer Viridian Array chump at first, until I seen just how young yet cookie-cutter nepleslian he was..." Gazing into the floor now. Remembering something disturbing. "When the Locksmiths pilfered all of the collaborator's tech from Null and Void, we got a look-in on just what the neps were planning to do with spacer tech... Let's just say I'm seeing some similarities here, and I'm not certain what a creature like that would turn out like as an adult..."

"I hope I'm wrong, but seriously, you should keep an eye on that kid."

"Well sure," Akemi said easily, his own arms crossed. "I will. Believe it or not I kinda keep an eye on everyone and everything. I know I seem all silly and stuff but I can be pretty observant and perceptive. Acting ditzy is fun though and hey, I'm more likely to be underestimated and to get people to drop their guard and open up to me. Of course I shouldn't say that to you but then again that could just be me being ditzy again. I'm a real master of psychological warfare. As for wanting to make it clear you haven't joined Uso's organization, yeah, I get you. I'm not part of it either in a sense. I make sure to tell people I work with, not for Uso. She may call the shots but I'm my own person. I haven't sworn some oath or something. I don't have some rank in her organization. I help out with things like the heist of your Lighthouse because I wanna earn some good boy points by doing more than I need to."

"Well, you're either ditzy or a hammy villain." Lyco snickered. "If you had a real heart of gold, you'd be more rebuffed by Arccos' death threads, so I knew something was up."

A sly glance along the floor, then upwards into his eyes. Her arms raised above her, but it was still barely chest level compared to the more upright and slender neko boy. Did she want him to lean downwards?

"Can I just check something? I mean, if you really want me to trust you..."

"Sure, check anything you want," Akemi enthusiastically answered, his eyes shining with anticipation. Always one to want to try to be a good sport he quickly dropped to his knees to put himself right at eye level with Lycosidae. He was prepared to go even lower still if she requested. As he waited for the small Spacer to do whatever it was she desired he rested his dainty hands on his firm thighs.

He thought about telling her not to blow his brains out but he figured it might ruin the moment.

Lyco leant in close, petite rounded face within breathing distance. Running one metal hand carefully through his raven black hair, she... Pinched his cheek roughly, then grabbed an ear with the other hand, rubber-glad digits putting pressure to the cartilage.

"Well, nobody would make a remote android this good just for fooling some spacer." A humourless glare, fingers apparently still not convinced. "You feel like real flesh and blood alright..."

"Sorry, but that answer about being manipulative would have just been the perfect double bluff." A new, heartfelt smile. "Almost reminded me of something Arccos might say."

...

Still playing with his ears. Okay, now she was just enjoying it.

"Like my ears?" Akemi began to flap his ears up and down and side to side. "It's close to winter holiday time. You can use me like a scarf." As he spoke he grabbed his super soft, shiny hair and threw it over Lyco's shoulders and around her neck. "I wanna feel you too though." The little space kitten cautiously reached out and tried to lightly touch her cheeks with his fingertips. He'd give them a very gentle squeeze if he was allowed. He also attempted to stroke her hair. If he got that far he was going all in for a surprise hug.

Distracted by unusually mobile ears and catching the sudden wave of soft hair, Lyco seemed to like looking at it, but was robbed of any fine-scale texture sensation by her cumbersome industrial hands. This meant she was diverted enough not to be watching Akemi, through, and simply froze up on contact with the actual skin upon her face. Increasing redness was a sign of repressed agitation, but... Well, not moving at all was probably better than her immediately running over his toes. Thickset eyebrows moved inward.

"Lycosidae is a kind of hunting spider, you know... Sure you wanna get close to this little pariah, cat-boy?"

Despite being randomly placed, the braids in her hair were perfectly strung. Surprisingly clean, too. Given those heavy duty manipulators, well... Who was doing it all of this time?

Hugging her was not resisted, through they didn't make eye contact. Still smelt like engine oil at close range, maybe with... Something like one of those pine tree air fresheners? Was Lyco a car now?

"Yeah, of course I do," Akemi replied instantly as his head withdrew so his eyes could see the Spacer's face and catch her likely adorable expressions. His arms rested on her shoulders. "I already got pretty close to a giant tarantula aspected Lorath L'manel chick named Aran'ya Lycosa. She even went by the moniker Widow. She was far more arachnid than you. You're just a cute little cuddle bug."

Alex is not the same as Jason.

Alex was going on one of his many joyrides in his mecha, enjoying soaring above the city and doing loops and twirls jus because he could.

Then he noticed some familiar chatter... It sounded like junker drones, but not the kind that Arccos or Vier used. These drones were quieter, as if whoever was operating them wanted to be left alone.

Drawing the conclusion that it must have been the spacer that he saved, Alex decided to go introduce himself.

Pulling the mecha into a dive, he plummeted towards the streets near the building the chatter was coming from.
Pulling up at the last minute and coming to a graceful hover before landing, Alex stepped out of the cockpit and onto the hand of his mecha, which lowered him to the ground.

He then sent a message into the building, "Excuse me, may I come in? I would like to introduce myself. I was the one in the mecha that stopped the fighting on the freehold."

"Got close to one of those weirdo Lorath, huh?" Lyco's head arced slightly to one side, before she bundled her arms back up and met Akemi's libertine red-eyed gaze once more. Pouting might as well have been the stubborn dwarf's natural born talent. "... A cuddle bug?... Come on, didn't I t-tell you I was a subterranean killing machine?..."

Before her emotional defences were allowed to further erode, there was a loud reverberating thud that practically shook all of the primitive windows to breaking point. This put Lyco's mind straight back in the present. She immediately set to accessing her computer consoles again, both to abort the anime disk and get her deathcrawler's location data.

A large mecha was standing right outside. The same model as the one that attacked Freehold?... The same pilot, too, apparently.

Two tanks gathered on their location before she responded, pointing their guns at the large metallic form. One of them was so black and scorched it could well have been made from the parts of the one he punched to bits, back on that lifeless planet.

-"You also destroyed half of my underground forces."- A voice contacted Alex directly through mindware. -"What do you want, Nepleslian?"-

Alex answered cautiously. "I don't think we've met. And also, I wouldn't have destroyed your forces if they weren't attacking me and my friends first."

He sighed. "Besides. I was the one who risked my life by getting out, and doing that stopped the fighting before you were killed. I wanted to meet you in person and get to know the person I've saved."

Alex ruffled his spiky hair before instructing his mecha to lift off and spiral away, flying back to the spaceport. "See, I don't mean any harm."

Akemi crossed his arms, tilted his head slightly backwards and to the side and rolled his eyes after he rose to stand. "More like my immense charm stopped the fighting. I didn't even show my face and I got my pal here to come out of hiding. Anyway, who says subterranean killing machines can't be cuddly?"

"Get a load of this guy," Akemi sent Lyco privately. "Typical Nepleslian. Trying to say he saved your life all by himself and you owe him."

-"I fired a warning shot and your 'freinds' flattened half the surface of the planet. Then barged in and took me prisoner."- Lyco was probably the worst person to suggest was surviving on charity, and not just because it wasn't strictly true. They were going red in the face again, and were seeking out their gun arm from the junk pile, despite their cold, raspy tone of voice. -"I'm not going to kill you, but let's get our facts straight about this..."-

An odd look was given to Akemi whilst she uncoupled her hand and replaced it with a four-barrelled laser repeater. Perhaps she didn't expect to agree with a Nekovalkyrja so thoroughly. Perhaps she was regretting trusting him, for even more heartfelt reasons than that. Does anybody really speak that sweetly, unless they want something in return?

The large junk-crab moved over to the doors and unlocked them, finally allowing Alex to see the tank girl face to face... A scowling one, but it was a face.

"You're just lucky I can tell the difference between a Nepleslian with mindware and a proper Freespacer. Did you ever think of that?" More raspy tones. "If I didn't, or if I was some Type V with no emotional program, then you'd be dead."

"You're right. But you could, so I'm not." Alex said calmly. "Do you mind putting that down?"

Alex was puzzled. He had heard of Nepelesia before, but wasn't sure what or where it was.

"Now, as you said, lets get our facts strait. Fact one, I don't think I'm from Nepelesia, I grew up with my parents on the run. Fact two, you shot first and that makes you the aggressor in this situation. Fact three, I stopped shooting first, and got out of my mecha at personal risk, and after that there was no more fighting. And fact four, we've never met before, why do you act like I've done something to you personally?"