A
Amaryllis
Before the Mishhu battle at Akemi's after a bunch of people met Lycosidae at her warehouse.
While Akemi took Lycosidae to his tavern he had a large couch put out in a private room along with an immense selection of cushions and blankets. Among them was a deep red handwoven Tempri-sama blanket which the Neko made sure to offer the little tank Spacer quickly. While his pal made herself comfortable he informed her all she had to do was think an order and his waitresses would be sure to bring her whatever she wanted. To start her off he had a big tray of chunks of Psomi that had many different flavours and colours laid out in front of her on a nearby table. A large monitor had also been added to the room so the space kitten and his companion could share whatever they wanted without needing to do so directly.
"So little buddy," Akemi asked with a pleasant smile and a sparkle in his eyes while sitting as close to his new friend without interfering with the construction and maintenance of her comforter fortress, "you alright in there?"
Lyco had rolled into the place slowly, once again bearing their deep brown battle components with the box-like track unit. It was probably safe to say they were more than a little defensive about this scenario. The gun arm might have been standard to this frame, but it's not like she had to choose that arm.
The pile of pillows was gathered lazily, Lyco simply mounted on top of them this time, as they leaned with their head back against the sofa. They had no energy at all. Eyes and nose looked a bit redder than usual.
"What kind of place even is this?" A piece of Psomi was picked up, then put back down again. They chose to swallow more anti-bacterial pills instead. "Waitress? Is that some kind of... Seat? You wait and rest?"
"No you big silly," Akemi answered casually, clearly enjoying getting to call her a goof, "a waitress is someone who waits on you and takes your orders. Someone who serves you things like a maid or butler. As for what this place is you could call it a lot of things. Ultimately it's just a place to relax in one way or another."
Seeing the reddening of Lyco's face Akemi felt he had to say something to address it. "Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? You seem pretty out of it."
"Truffleclub said they would work on it. Fortunately for me it doesn't seem like anyone else trusts their medical skills, so they leaped at the chance." Lyco responded with a sigh. "I... I wish I could make an automata like that..."
"Don't worry, though, it's not like you can catch this." Looking back at him, they just leaned sideways and coiled their arms together. Headgear rollcage interfered with the couch's seat, which they solved by wrapping their braided pigtails around to soften. "...As for this 'waitress' thing, well... Seems just like you capitalists to hire somebody to do what anyone could do for themselves..."
"Sorry, don't mean to be demeaning. Just don't see the point."
"Well if I was busy getting you food and drinks I wouldn't be able to give you my full, undivided attention," Akemi replied dryly. He leaned over slightly and kept his playful, glimmering eyes glued to the Spacer for emphasis. "I'd hate to have take my peepers off you and I don't think I'd be able to adequately focus on any tasks while I was mentally still stuck sitting beside you. As for making automata, you can always learn from Arccos or I can find someone else to teach you or I'm sure you could learn to all by yourself. Maybe Vier could help."
Lyco just looked away again and grunted. They probably had tried in the past.
"It's the focus... I'm no good for it. I don't understand other people enough."
Tracks wound up a little as they pulled themselves a little bit tighter against the couch. Hard to shake that self-conscious feeling. One hand seemed to emerge from the pile of pillows on its own, and lightly grasp at Akemi's raven-black hair.
"What... What does it f-feel like to be.. an android?" Softly spoken. She knew it was a weird question. "Are.. are you afraid of people getting into your memory? Hacking you?..."
"Sure it can worry me," Akemi freely admitted. "Arccos said she hacked my stuff after all. That's spooky, but then again nothing scares me in a way because I think everything is meaningless. I'm not scared of dying as I don't think I have any special reason to live. Anyway, I'm a people. You can start with understanding me. Of course it could be eons before you even begin to grasp my vast intellect."
To make himself seem more refined the Neko had one of his waitresses float in with a tray of tea and some small Algaeia cakes. He daintily picked up one treat and gave it a little nibble, then took a measured sip of tea with the other hand.
"I'm not people. I come from a genebank and a big glass test tube just the same. By the maker, I'd like to be an android." The girl looked away from the waitress, too. "Machines run my society, you have to understand. So I didn't mean it in a bad way."
"If... If you don't know what you live for, though... What keeps you moving forwards?"
"Boredom I guess," Akemi answered easily, "I just try to have fun and not think about how everything is ultimately pointless to me. I don't wanna be depressing but I do pride myself on being honest and upfront." As he spoke he put down his drink and leaned over sideways to tickle Lyco with one of his ears, flapping it for maximum effect. He took his cake and turned it around so his guest could take a bite from the other end.
Lyco opened her mouth slowly like she might actually go for the food, but instead scrunched her face up in preperation for a full blown sneeze. Given that she had tiny lungs, it was really quite a high pitched 'SHNEE!'.
Groggy eyes just gave him an apologetic look after that, followed by the action of her bundling herself closer onto the warmth of his chest.
"Honest-ty... Honesty is why I trust you..." Were... her eyes still open? Yes. Armored shoulders arced inwards, headgear keeping a somewhat appreciable distance, with only the top of the forehead touching. Aggressive snuggling. "The first thing I felt like doing when I got here was, like, building trains or something... But... B-but then I just wake up in the middle of the night, and I feel like they are in my head. In my genes. People like Arccos."
"Arccos is a train in your head?" Akemi asked with a gleeful smile. "If only I was a train in her station. I'd take a crack at her caboose any day." To compensate for his shameless obligatory remarks and to return the sudden show of affection the Neko bent forward and started tenderly stroking the back of the Spacer's head. To make things really intimate he decided to do like in their Yamataian anime and ate his sneeze contaminated pastry in plain view.
"I mean... I mean I can only focus when I'm building things..." It was awkward leaning from left to right so that her non-gun arm could reach a cake. After placing it in her mouth, she just let it hang there to munch on hands-free. "The big picture is always a mess, is what I'm trying to say."
"You built, like, this big company, but... You were like, made to be a soldier, and stuff... I was wondering how all that happened." Loosing a bit of strain in her back, it seemed the head rubs were working. "Was it... Was it, like, hard for you to change?..."
"Nah, not really in a sense," Akemi said. "I started out a shy little mewmew but I always wanted to be outgoing and fool around and show off my silliness. I started singing early on for fun while a soldier and I shared my music and I was exposed to a lot of people and got to do my own thing and that allowed me develop myself a lot. You just gotta find carefree people or people like yourself and find your own thing you want to do and do it. Now that you're here and you've got us you can do what you want and be your own boss. I gotta say it's impressive you can eat and talk like that."
"Natural skills. I ain't built to relax." They were built for making a mess, though, apparently. "It's nice that you got to make music. You... You should show me some of it some time."
"Sorry, I guess all that other stuff is a bit heavy handed. Just impressed you're still listening I guess."
Heavy breathing, still. She was getting a little bit too combfertable integrating Akemi's body into her comfort fortress.
"Nah, it's all good," Akemi assured the woman with a few light rubs of her neck. "I wanna know all about my pal, not just whatever is pleasing to hear. So when you said you've got trains and people like Arccos in your head and genes what did you mean? Mind explaining it? Just a lot of lousy memories?"
"It's because I'm a type two. It's programmed in, subtly, you see. It's how spacers survive without everything falling apart from lack of luxury." It took a minute to soften up, but they opened the collar to their padded vest so that Akemi's hands were less awkward around her neckline. Shirt underneath was a noxious green tank top. The trade off was that her metal hand placed itself against his stomach, evidently feeling for any musculature. This whole neko thing was still pretty alien to her. "Not that I don't enjoy building things, but, like... I was designed to. Thought that running off and doing things my own way would be... Well, more my own thing, but... I still... I still feel like that programming is in there. I feel like it sorta is me."
Akemi's super chiseled abs gave Lyco plenty to feel and not feel. "Well I bet there's always a way we could give that programming some pruning. Alternatively you can just fool around like me and make sure you're always doing something and you'll be distracted from it and eventually build up so many experiences and other impulses you'll drown it out. Or at least maybe you can. I'm not a Spacer after all." While he chatted he reached for a blanket and draped it over them before reclining into his seat.
"Brain surgery doesn't sound like fun." They actually groaned and embraced their head as they said it, underneath the blanket. "If I get upgraded to a Type Four somehow, then... Then maybe. I don't know. This would have been so much simplier if I could have kept the stratops and just stayed hidden."
"But... But I guess it's not like I'm the only alien tourist here, I guess. Didn't even know a place like this existed." They rolled around to face the other direction so they could clasp some tea without immediately spilling it everywhere, staying smooshed up to the cat boy the entire time. Fortunately for Akemi, from the feel of her squishy-soft torso, there didn't seem to be one of those RTG nuclear rods anywhere. "That Aashi lass, I don't even know how that happened. But they are already super adjusted by the looks of it. Some people are just good at this stuff."
A sudden sour look. They liked the taste of the tea, but had burnt their tongue.
"Your mouth okay pal?" Akemi mentally ordered a cold treat for his little baby buddy. He didn't show the slightest sign of minding being sprawled on. "You might not have your stratops or whatever but we can build you all sorts of neato stuff. You've got a whole planet to experience too. Things'll work out. You just gotta chillax."
When the waiter came with an ice cream sandwich, Lyco held onto the end of the tray to avoid them promptly running off again. A chromed metal cog was produced and placed onto the surface before even thinking of taking it. She just didn't feel right giving nothing in return.
Didn't so much eat it as just cool their mouth with it for a moment. Then it sort of just dissapeared instantaneously. Three years without new forms of junk food. That was a long time.
"I don't 'chillax'. Never could." Simple clear tones. She went back to feeling Akemi's chest, despite her metal hand having now picked up the cold. Intentional? "Working machine. Can't help it."
"I gotta say you really know how to eat. It's pretty cute. You're like a little anime character." Akemi telepathically requested a large bag of Cloudstinger Puffs and a small bowl of Khuyunii Sweetstones as well as a Guoramelon Caalian Springs Soda. All the items were to be neatly deposited beside him or handed directly to him. "Maybe you just relax through work. Nothing bad about that. It can obviously be really helpful." Once his order had arrived he intended to diligently hold and serve Lyco whatever she wanted. While he waited for the next waitress to arrive the one with them quickly thanked the Spacer for her gift and gave her a friendly smile before hurrying off.
"Don't get any strange ideas, this is payment for you making me ill." Lyco gave him an obnoxious smile, not entirely serious. Despite how impenetrable that guard was, the fact she was okay toying with him must have meant something at least. "As for being an anime character... Well, you're the bishie from bishie land. Like, you must know that. That hair must have taken forever."
Tracks spun a little again, dislodging a couple of cushions. It would be too easy to just fall asleep with all this pampering. She wanted to stay focused and actually make this about something still.
"Trains. The deathcrawlers have magnetic tracks, I lived in a subway for three years, this planet doesn't have any public transport, and... Well, it's obvious really..." Playing it coy and avoiding his gaze wasn't really working, so she occupied her attentions by nabbing some of the chips instead. "Everybody is talking about building and mining stuff, but apparently they aren't used to looking at the smaller picture like I am. Guess that is good, at least. You could make money from just lugging their stuff about."
"Well I think starting a transportation network is a good idea," Akemi replied. "I'd definitely build one with you. To start though I'm just interested in finding out what's inside the planet and trying to sell that. Then I want to make a cool building to attract people from far and wide. All the native stuff is super tiny so it should be easy to impress them. Also I gotta look at what's in the ground because maybe we'll find cool ancient artifacts or a magic mystery metal like in our anime."
"As for my hair," Akemi answered Lyco's smile with a smug one of his own, "it doesn't take long to take care of. It's genetically engineered perfection. I let the lovely ladies that work here comb and maintain it for me. It's one of the advantages of being a filthy capitalist."
"Doesn't that metal turn out to be evil in a whole bunch of them?" The short spacer was showing that penchant for eating at the same time as talking again. Back facing him, though. "Still could be fun just to dig up some stuff, through. Even through this planet is a dirt ball. I don't know what the original colonists were thinking... Then again, I don't understand planets either. Not being able to control the weather is way messier than an air leak on some old ship ever was."
The smugness regarding his hair didn't go unnoticed. Once she was finished eating, she was testing that theory of it staying clean by putting her face into the glossy mass, breathing in the unexpectedly (to her) fresh smell.
"I had to teach my auto-tanks to do my hair. They still do a pretty bad job. You're lucky."
In response to the sudden assault on his hair Akemi simply once more wrapped it around Lyco like a scarf. "Now you can live here and get your hair braided by cute chicks everyday. As for this planet being a dirt ball, the unassuming dirt ball often ends up being the burial place of something really cool like super tech made by ancient aliens. Plus if the metal is evil we can just be villains together since they're usually cooler than the heroes. You liking that chocolate peppermint smell?"
"Is that what that is? What's a purperment?" No polysentience VR equivilent. She showed her braces again at the concept of evil metal being real. It would make the world a lot easier to understand. "It's kind of funny considering you guys are off fighting evil aliens and probably trying to steal their junk already. Uso doesn't play her cards close to her chest. I like her."
"So, what now? You want to see some Solid Soldier Orgomos? I like the jazz music. Or you can show me some new stuff, I guess. Poly takes a while to hack and pack good visual media files. I think they take too much pride in making VR rooms to go with it."
"Peppermint patties are like this." Akemi picked up a white chunk of Psomi dotted with numerous black spots and handed it to his buddy. "I'll watch whatever you'd like to show me or anything you'd like to see that you haven't watched yet."
"Will... Will you stop being so nice to me?" It was a sputtering outburst, but Lyco's agitation was clear. She took one of his hands into her own and then placed it on the afixed rollbar gaurding her jawline. "Grab this. Use it to kiss my hair and my head and stuff. Come on."
Didn't stop her from taking the food out of his hands afterwards. Maybe it was just the pleasantries she wasn't used to. Or perhaps the subtext. Industrial strength everything, that was how you were supposed to do things.
Television screen seemingly turned on by itself. There was a show about cars and drifting. The CG was bad. The music was intense pop-techno.
"Well okay. Sure," Akemi replied not really knowing what to do but decided to follow the orders in case doing so would get an amusing response out of the Spacer. He could simply watch the show and take what she said as a joke but he figured that'd be boring. As the show began he cautiously clasped the bar in front of Lyco's mouth and leaned down to plant some kisses on the hair just above her forehead."
Lyco blushed and let out a high pitched giggle in response. "See? I'm a tank. I'm supposed to be like, tough and stuff. You gotta let loose if you want me to be frank with y'all too..."
Hydraullic arms grasped around beneath Akemi's arms as she moved in for an actual hug, suddely feeling a lot more at home. From there it was a case of angling her head sideways to get a veiw of the television again.
"I think you'll like this. I dunno what your band is actually like, but the music is so corny in this, it can't help but be awesome."
"Sounds good. I love corny," Akemi said smoothly as he likewise hugged and turned to watch the screen. "The cheesier the better. I'm just glad you actually enjoyed the kisses. Were you saying your programming makes it so other people are preferred to make the first move when it comes to getting intimate?"
The Neko was a little surprised by the tone of the laugh but it wasn't something beyond what he could imagine coming from Lyco. The sound was really nice to hear after she explained how rough things were for her. It was quite pleasing to know a bit of cuddling could go a long way.
"No. No, it's not like that." Paced words flowed as she considered what did and didn't feel exactly right to her. It's not like she could know for sure if he was actually right. "Just... You treat me like a... one of this planet's princesses or something, and... It makes me feel funny. Only useless people want to get treated like that most of the time."
More tiny reverberations in the tracks. Her arms were tensed around his feminine waist.
"I wasn't in an accident when I was young, or anything. These legs have always been my legs. These arms have always been my arms." She played with his hair a little more between those grippy steel fingers. "Treating me like that is like... I'm broken or something. Fragile. No good... I've messed up a lot in my life, but the one thing I never was is soft. I always got back up. It's important. It's what tough and useful people do."
"...So, l-like... When I want you to make a move, it's like..." Her raspy voice stumbled. "It means I'm good, you know?... You can... You want to use me."
"And... and, that makes me happy..."
"Whoa, using you is a pretty lewd choice of words. You gotta be careful with that kinda phraseology." Akemi paused briefly. "Unless you really wanna get used." His lips formed a big goofy grin as he chuckled softly. "I'd expect a customer to be paying for that kinda talk out of one of my employees."
"We all use each other." A flustered remark, hiding her embarrassment by arcing her head more deeply inward, until it was more resting across his chest rather than simply against it. "The alternative is that the person is use-less."
The pulse-pounding techo track from the anime on screen continued. Felt strange watching it with another person, but Lyco bided her time so Akemi could give an actual response. Probably could have picked a better option for the whole 'yuletide' season thing, but it was a yammie occasion anyways.
One of the baroque arms moved to grasp one the neko's hands, examining their strange characteristics up close. The cat boy had typically amazing nails. Only three fingers, through. She couldn't help but put a bit of pressure on the palm and knuckles with her thumb, wondering how exactly the whole organic thing functioned. How it felt.
Akemi's soft, smooth palm and long slender fingers were as pliant as they could be. The little space kitten had no problem with being felt up one way or another. If he could entertain just by sitting still he was happy to oblige. While Lyco examined him he raised his free arm to rest it across her neck.
"If only more people thought like that. I could sure get a lot of use out of Arccos." Akemi worried about repeatedly mentioning her but that quip was the first to come to mind. "Maybe you could get Vier to cuddle you too. There are a bunch of her and she seems like she could be susceptible to that line of reasoning."
Still grasping that lithe hand, Lycosidae moved it up to her cheek in order to better sense the softness of his skin. Bought them time to think about Arccos, too.
"Part of me still hates that codebreaker for trying to manipulate me and invading my base and everything, but... Well, I can't say for certain I'm not jealous of her position too." Her eyebrows did furrow with the mention of that name, but there was a lot more to it than simple revenge. They could see what Arccos was planning better than most non-spacers probably could... and it could go a lot of ways, right or wrong. "Is that what you like in a person? All of that power? Maybe those pearly white legs?... Anybody can craft those if they own an entire mothership to themselves, you know."
Akemi was somewhat surprised by how physical Lyco was getting but then he figured it was just how some Freespacers were and she obviously really wanted some simple, spontaneous, non-committal companionship. As a result he decided to go along with everything and lightly caressed the Spacer's face with his fingers. "I just really like tall, fit people that act disgusted with me. I've got a thing for people significantly smaller than me too. You're pretty short and you've got your cute braids."
“R-Really, though?” A brief glance up to him, before breaking eye contact again. She just couldn’t quite build up the confidence to keep it constant. “You really should be disgusting to me being a Nekovalkyrja and all, but… b-but… I don’t know, this definitely isn’t something I would be programmed for. So that is a good feeling.”
Hand again met his abs lightly before shying away. The short tank spacer liked everything about that lean, dark-haired, pale-skinned form, but part of her subconsciously felt like it was all a little too good still. Couldn’t shake it, no matter how much she tried.
Plump little face turned away, soon rotating her compact torso along with it, until she was facing the other direction. Akemi’s hands were now occupied by her love handles, but her stomach wasn’t in the mood. Anti-bacterial meds had defeated her drowsiness nicely by now, but the resulting cramps were taking their toll as a side effect.
“It’s okay. You can tell me the truth. I’m a mess. I can’t blame you for stalling.”
"Well who cares what you look like buddy? You said it yourself you guys can look like whatever you want. Besides, I like messes. They're what I want to make chicks I like into." Akemi quietly chuckled hard at how upfront he was being. While he spoke he wrapped his arms around Lyco's midsection. "I just don't know how I'd do extremely unhygienic things with you given your lower half."
“Oh it’s not that hard. You can use any old electric screwdriver to remove the facia, then displace the cooling fan by taking out the terminals on the right hand side. Be sure to earth yourself.” Pursing her lips, intense blushing. This counted as dirty talk to a cyborg. “Power cell is back mounted, but if you want more room it’s probably going to require a quarter inch socket wrench to remove the transaxel, and- Okay, it might be a little complicated.”
A sigh. Should have brought a pneumatic drill with her.
Compromise. Still facing in the opposite direction, Lyco took his limber hands into hers one by one, running them under her day-glow green shirt and onto her ample, rounded breasts. No bra. He could feel her heart thudding along inside of her chest.
“Whole planet is unhygienic you know.” Soft spoken, arcing her head back a little over his shoulder. “Can’t be helped.”
Akemi gave Lyco's chest a gentle, experimental squeeze. "Well, if you wanna do icky stuff later, we always can, but I'm kinda content to just watch our show and chat first. I mean don't take it the wrong way but like do you have some legs you can slap on or something? That's what I'm familiar with. Not that I'm not willing to try new things. Are you really attached to your current setup?"
“I once tried out a six-legged setup for a while, d-does that count?” Biting her lip as the soft sensations spread through her. “To be honest, I…. I never learned to walk… Always seemed a bit of a pointless hassle to me, you know?... I can pull and drag more with these.”
The show had reached a point where two yobs with massive pompadour haircuts were having a standoff. Gave her mind a much needed distraction to go with the hands on her body. Maybe it was messed up, but that was all Lycosidae was really after. Something to forget all those days alone, to no avail.
“…Don’t know… I don’t know about anything, just… you holding me is nice.” Hand pulled the fancy blanket around them tighter, and then returned to grasp his outer thigh lightly. “I like you, Cat Boy.”
Akemi slowly withdrew his hands and placed them on her sides. "Awwww. I really like you too buddy. I feel the same way. I'm happy just holding you. It's nice to have a fleshy Spacer like me instead of hate on me." With that said he turned the woman over and rested her against his chest again. Then he let his chin hover at her shoulder. "You can cuddle with me as much as you want. Maybe I can help you learn how to walk some time if you want."
"You would do that? I mean, I already said I was designing a new body to get along with other humans better. But it's kind of just a pile of bits right now." A small contented smile, coiling against the warmth of his body once more. She was a little surprised he could move her so easily. Those metal bits were pretty armored. "I don't know what I would do with bipedal legs, or how to make them work like bipedal legs are supposed to. It's not really the kind of thing people choose to explain, even on the poly."
"What do you want in return? I won't let you do it for free."
"I dunno man," Akemi said a little forcefully yet in a subdued manner, refusing to think hard according to Lyco's reasoning. "I just want to hang out with you. Just think if you help me build anything that you're paying me back that way. Like if you make some robo workers for mining or to help construct a building you can chalk that up as payment for a million little things I do. I'm not going to price spending time with a friend."
"Not like it would be hard to slap a crane or a drill on a deathcrawler. Guess you could call it a lifecrawler." They nabbed another peppermint snack as they spoke, eating it briskly before twisting her braids back around the rollbar once more. It made nuzzling back up to that neko shoulder easier. "Real problem is the AI through, they need supervision."
Why was she so hungry still? Something smelt differant. The peppermint taste in the air was overwhelming by now, so it couldn't have just been the food.
Carefully grabbing that Akemi's hand again, using both the gun barrels as well as her vice-fingers to clasp it close to her mouth and nose. It was the neko. The cat boy tasted of caramel.
Now she was twice as confused...
"Wanna taste? Don't be shy." Akemi always wanted to try to get more chicks to taste him one way or another. It was a fun way to surprise and entertain people. "Well I'm sure you can gradually get better at programming. Plus we can hire locals or space people like ourselves to monitor them or we could remote control them with our minds. We've got plenty of options. I bet there are plenty of people out here that would love to try using our technology and those who just want steady pay doing something safe."
"Well if we had the choice, it would be nice to put the locals in control of the automata, within reason. I mean, mining in high gravity is a pretty specialized set of skills." Lyco shrugged. Using humanoids by remote control probably should have irked her, but nobody ever complained when it happened to innocent kids like Truffleclub. "I don't know, their brains are the bit we need, you see what I'm saying? Cyborging them would be better, but I don't think they would go for it."
Ended up being an afterthought sticking the tip of two fingers in her mouth, but her expression immediately changed to surprise when she did.
"It's... It's dewi-chous!" Had to resist the urge to chew, now. Harder to talk when you couldn't do that. "Huw and whye are you eddy-ble?!"
Akemi smiled yet again. Despite the imminent threat of potentially being eaten he continued to keep his cool. "Well us Neko can customize ourselves just like you guys can. If I wanted I could slap on a tail or claws but I prefer to look more like an elf than a cat even though I think of myself as an itty bitty kitty. If you knew you could easily change how you innately tasted and smelled wouldn't you do the same? I think cybering some people is a good idea. I bet some totally would go for it. It's like asking an ordinary person if they want superpowers."
"Maybe offer free cyborgizations to employees?" It might have been Akemi calling themselves a cat, but Lyco was the one holding his hand still so she could keep tasting it as her leisure. "There are bound to be people who were already injured in mining accidents and can't work anymore. Could be a good way to introduce the concept to the general populace."
"That's smart. Good thinkin'. I'll totally look for people like that." Akemi really did think that was a good suggestion. Retired and crippled miners might not be found in the same places as the currently active or only recently out of work ones. They might not immediately come forward to sign up either as they might not fully grasp or believe how much and how casually they could be healed and enhanced. "So, I don't wanna rush you but now that you know you can hang with me whenever you want do you think you're up to talking to Uso's people now?"
"I guess." Hand was still held flavour hostage, with her face gaining a small amused 'v' of a smile. "Depends on just how much they like my ideas, though."
While Akemi took Lycosidae to his tavern he had a large couch put out in a private room along with an immense selection of cushions and blankets. Among them was a deep red handwoven Tempri-sama blanket which the Neko made sure to offer the little tank Spacer quickly. While his pal made herself comfortable he informed her all she had to do was think an order and his waitresses would be sure to bring her whatever she wanted. To start her off he had a big tray of chunks of Psomi that had many different flavours and colours laid out in front of her on a nearby table. A large monitor had also been added to the room so the space kitten and his companion could share whatever they wanted without needing to do so directly.
"So little buddy," Akemi asked with a pleasant smile and a sparkle in his eyes while sitting as close to his new friend without interfering with the construction and maintenance of her comforter fortress, "you alright in there?"
Lyco had rolled into the place slowly, once again bearing their deep brown battle components with the box-like track unit. It was probably safe to say they were more than a little defensive about this scenario. The gun arm might have been standard to this frame, but it's not like she had to choose that arm.
The pile of pillows was gathered lazily, Lyco simply mounted on top of them this time, as they leaned with their head back against the sofa. They had no energy at all. Eyes and nose looked a bit redder than usual.
"What kind of place even is this?" A piece of Psomi was picked up, then put back down again. They chose to swallow more anti-bacterial pills instead. "Waitress? Is that some kind of... Seat? You wait and rest?"
"No you big silly," Akemi answered casually, clearly enjoying getting to call her a goof, "a waitress is someone who waits on you and takes your orders. Someone who serves you things like a maid or butler. As for what this place is you could call it a lot of things. Ultimately it's just a place to relax in one way or another."
Seeing the reddening of Lyco's face Akemi felt he had to say something to address it. "Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? You seem pretty out of it."
"Truffleclub said they would work on it. Fortunately for me it doesn't seem like anyone else trusts their medical skills, so they leaped at the chance." Lyco responded with a sigh. "I... I wish I could make an automata like that..."
"Don't worry, though, it's not like you can catch this." Looking back at him, they just leaned sideways and coiled their arms together. Headgear rollcage interfered with the couch's seat, which they solved by wrapping their braided pigtails around to soften. "...As for this 'waitress' thing, well... Seems just like you capitalists to hire somebody to do what anyone could do for themselves..."
"Sorry, don't mean to be demeaning. Just don't see the point."
"Well if I was busy getting you food and drinks I wouldn't be able to give you my full, undivided attention," Akemi replied dryly. He leaned over slightly and kept his playful, glimmering eyes glued to the Spacer for emphasis. "I'd hate to have take my peepers off you and I don't think I'd be able to adequately focus on any tasks while I was mentally still stuck sitting beside you. As for making automata, you can always learn from Arccos or I can find someone else to teach you or I'm sure you could learn to all by yourself. Maybe Vier could help."
Lyco just looked away again and grunted. They probably had tried in the past.
"It's the focus... I'm no good for it. I don't understand other people enough."
Tracks wound up a little as they pulled themselves a little bit tighter against the couch. Hard to shake that self-conscious feeling. One hand seemed to emerge from the pile of pillows on its own, and lightly grasp at Akemi's raven-black hair.
"What... What does it f-feel like to be.. an android?" Softly spoken. She knew it was a weird question. "Are.. are you afraid of people getting into your memory? Hacking you?..."
"Sure it can worry me," Akemi freely admitted. "Arccos said she hacked my stuff after all. That's spooky, but then again nothing scares me in a way because I think everything is meaningless. I'm not scared of dying as I don't think I have any special reason to live. Anyway, I'm a people. You can start with understanding me. Of course it could be eons before you even begin to grasp my vast intellect."
To make himself seem more refined the Neko had one of his waitresses float in with a tray of tea and some small Algaeia cakes. He daintily picked up one treat and gave it a little nibble, then took a measured sip of tea with the other hand.
"I'm not people. I come from a genebank and a big glass test tube just the same. By the maker, I'd like to be an android." The girl looked away from the waitress, too. "Machines run my society, you have to understand. So I didn't mean it in a bad way."
"If... If you don't know what you live for, though... What keeps you moving forwards?"
"Boredom I guess," Akemi answered easily, "I just try to have fun and not think about how everything is ultimately pointless to me. I don't wanna be depressing but I do pride myself on being honest and upfront." As he spoke he put down his drink and leaned over sideways to tickle Lyco with one of his ears, flapping it for maximum effect. He took his cake and turned it around so his guest could take a bite from the other end.
Lyco opened her mouth slowly like she might actually go for the food, but instead scrunched her face up in preperation for a full blown sneeze. Given that she had tiny lungs, it was really quite a high pitched 'SHNEE!'.
Groggy eyes just gave him an apologetic look after that, followed by the action of her bundling herself closer onto the warmth of his chest.
"Honest-ty... Honesty is why I trust you..." Were... her eyes still open? Yes. Armored shoulders arced inwards, headgear keeping a somewhat appreciable distance, with only the top of the forehead touching. Aggressive snuggling. "The first thing I felt like doing when I got here was, like, building trains or something... But... B-but then I just wake up in the middle of the night, and I feel like they are in my head. In my genes. People like Arccos."
"Arccos is a train in your head?" Akemi asked with a gleeful smile. "If only I was a train in her station. I'd take a crack at her caboose any day." To compensate for his shameless obligatory remarks and to return the sudden show of affection the Neko bent forward and started tenderly stroking the back of the Spacer's head. To make things really intimate he decided to do like in their Yamataian anime and ate his sneeze contaminated pastry in plain view.
"I mean... I mean I can only focus when I'm building things..." It was awkward leaning from left to right so that her non-gun arm could reach a cake. After placing it in her mouth, she just let it hang there to munch on hands-free. "The big picture is always a mess, is what I'm trying to say."
"You built, like, this big company, but... You were like, made to be a soldier, and stuff... I was wondering how all that happened." Loosing a bit of strain in her back, it seemed the head rubs were working. "Was it... Was it, like, hard for you to change?..."
"Nah, not really in a sense," Akemi said. "I started out a shy little mewmew but I always wanted to be outgoing and fool around and show off my silliness. I started singing early on for fun while a soldier and I shared my music and I was exposed to a lot of people and got to do my own thing and that allowed me develop myself a lot. You just gotta find carefree people or people like yourself and find your own thing you want to do and do it. Now that you're here and you've got us you can do what you want and be your own boss. I gotta say it's impressive you can eat and talk like that."
"Natural skills. I ain't built to relax." They were built for making a mess, though, apparently. "It's nice that you got to make music. You... You should show me some of it some time."
"Sorry, I guess all that other stuff is a bit heavy handed. Just impressed you're still listening I guess."
Heavy breathing, still. She was getting a little bit too combfertable integrating Akemi's body into her comfort fortress.
"Nah, it's all good," Akemi assured the woman with a few light rubs of her neck. "I wanna know all about my pal, not just whatever is pleasing to hear. So when you said you've got trains and people like Arccos in your head and genes what did you mean? Mind explaining it? Just a lot of lousy memories?"
"It's because I'm a type two. It's programmed in, subtly, you see. It's how spacers survive without everything falling apart from lack of luxury." It took a minute to soften up, but they opened the collar to their padded vest so that Akemi's hands were less awkward around her neckline. Shirt underneath was a noxious green tank top. The trade off was that her metal hand placed itself against his stomach, evidently feeling for any musculature. This whole neko thing was still pretty alien to her. "Not that I don't enjoy building things, but, like... I was designed to. Thought that running off and doing things my own way would be... Well, more my own thing, but... I still... I still feel like that programming is in there. I feel like it sorta is me."
Akemi's super chiseled abs gave Lyco plenty to feel and not feel. "Well I bet there's always a way we could give that programming some pruning. Alternatively you can just fool around like me and make sure you're always doing something and you'll be distracted from it and eventually build up so many experiences and other impulses you'll drown it out. Or at least maybe you can. I'm not a Spacer after all." While he chatted he reached for a blanket and draped it over them before reclining into his seat.
"Brain surgery doesn't sound like fun." They actually groaned and embraced their head as they said it, underneath the blanket. "If I get upgraded to a Type Four somehow, then... Then maybe. I don't know. This would have been so much simplier if I could have kept the stratops and just stayed hidden."
"But... But I guess it's not like I'm the only alien tourist here, I guess. Didn't even know a place like this existed." They rolled around to face the other direction so they could clasp some tea without immediately spilling it everywhere, staying smooshed up to the cat boy the entire time. Fortunately for Akemi, from the feel of her squishy-soft torso, there didn't seem to be one of those RTG nuclear rods anywhere. "That Aashi lass, I don't even know how that happened. But they are already super adjusted by the looks of it. Some people are just good at this stuff."
A sudden sour look. They liked the taste of the tea, but had burnt their tongue.
"Your mouth okay pal?" Akemi mentally ordered a cold treat for his little baby buddy. He didn't show the slightest sign of minding being sprawled on. "You might not have your stratops or whatever but we can build you all sorts of neato stuff. You've got a whole planet to experience too. Things'll work out. You just gotta chillax."
When the waiter came with an ice cream sandwich, Lyco held onto the end of the tray to avoid them promptly running off again. A chromed metal cog was produced and placed onto the surface before even thinking of taking it. She just didn't feel right giving nothing in return.
Didn't so much eat it as just cool their mouth with it for a moment. Then it sort of just dissapeared instantaneously. Three years without new forms of junk food. That was a long time.
"I don't 'chillax'. Never could." Simple clear tones. She went back to feeling Akemi's chest, despite her metal hand having now picked up the cold. Intentional? "Working machine. Can't help it."
"I gotta say you really know how to eat. It's pretty cute. You're like a little anime character." Akemi telepathically requested a large bag of Cloudstinger Puffs and a small bowl of Khuyunii Sweetstones as well as a Guoramelon Caalian Springs Soda. All the items were to be neatly deposited beside him or handed directly to him. "Maybe you just relax through work. Nothing bad about that. It can obviously be really helpful." Once his order had arrived he intended to diligently hold and serve Lyco whatever she wanted. While he waited for the next waitress to arrive the one with them quickly thanked the Spacer for her gift and gave her a friendly smile before hurrying off.
"Don't get any strange ideas, this is payment for you making me ill." Lyco gave him an obnoxious smile, not entirely serious. Despite how impenetrable that guard was, the fact she was okay toying with him must have meant something at least. "As for being an anime character... Well, you're the bishie from bishie land. Like, you must know that. That hair must have taken forever."
Tracks spun a little again, dislodging a couple of cushions. It would be too easy to just fall asleep with all this pampering. She wanted to stay focused and actually make this about something still.
"Trains. The deathcrawlers have magnetic tracks, I lived in a subway for three years, this planet doesn't have any public transport, and... Well, it's obvious really..." Playing it coy and avoiding his gaze wasn't really working, so she occupied her attentions by nabbing some of the chips instead. "Everybody is talking about building and mining stuff, but apparently they aren't used to looking at the smaller picture like I am. Guess that is good, at least. You could make money from just lugging their stuff about."
"Well I think starting a transportation network is a good idea," Akemi replied. "I'd definitely build one with you. To start though I'm just interested in finding out what's inside the planet and trying to sell that. Then I want to make a cool building to attract people from far and wide. All the native stuff is super tiny so it should be easy to impress them. Also I gotta look at what's in the ground because maybe we'll find cool ancient artifacts or a magic mystery metal like in our anime."
"As for my hair," Akemi answered Lyco's smile with a smug one of his own, "it doesn't take long to take care of. It's genetically engineered perfection. I let the lovely ladies that work here comb and maintain it for me. It's one of the advantages of being a filthy capitalist."
"Doesn't that metal turn out to be evil in a whole bunch of them?" The short spacer was showing that penchant for eating at the same time as talking again. Back facing him, though. "Still could be fun just to dig up some stuff, through. Even through this planet is a dirt ball. I don't know what the original colonists were thinking... Then again, I don't understand planets either. Not being able to control the weather is way messier than an air leak on some old ship ever was."
The smugness regarding his hair didn't go unnoticed. Once she was finished eating, she was testing that theory of it staying clean by putting her face into the glossy mass, breathing in the unexpectedly (to her) fresh smell.
"I had to teach my auto-tanks to do my hair. They still do a pretty bad job. You're lucky."
In response to the sudden assault on his hair Akemi simply once more wrapped it around Lyco like a scarf. "Now you can live here and get your hair braided by cute chicks everyday. As for this planet being a dirt ball, the unassuming dirt ball often ends up being the burial place of something really cool like super tech made by ancient aliens. Plus if the metal is evil we can just be villains together since they're usually cooler than the heroes. You liking that chocolate peppermint smell?"
"Is that what that is? What's a purperment?" No polysentience VR equivilent. She showed her braces again at the concept of evil metal being real. It would make the world a lot easier to understand. "It's kind of funny considering you guys are off fighting evil aliens and probably trying to steal their junk already. Uso doesn't play her cards close to her chest. I like her."
"So, what now? You want to see some Solid Soldier Orgomos? I like the jazz music. Or you can show me some new stuff, I guess. Poly takes a while to hack and pack good visual media files. I think they take too much pride in making VR rooms to go with it."
"Peppermint patties are like this." Akemi picked up a white chunk of Psomi dotted with numerous black spots and handed it to his buddy. "I'll watch whatever you'd like to show me or anything you'd like to see that you haven't watched yet."
"Will... Will you stop being so nice to me?" It was a sputtering outburst, but Lyco's agitation was clear. She took one of his hands into her own and then placed it on the afixed rollbar gaurding her jawline. "Grab this. Use it to kiss my hair and my head and stuff. Come on."
Didn't stop her from taking the food out of his hands afterwards. Maybe it was just the pleasantries she wasn't used to. Or perhaps the subtext. Industrial strength everything, that was how you were supposed to do things.
Television screen seemingly turned on by itself. There was a show about cars and drifting. The CG was bad. The music was intense pop-techno.
"Well okay. Sure," Akemi replied not really knowing what to do but decided to follow the orders in case doing so would get an amusing response out of the Spacer. He could simply watch the show and take what she said as a joke but he figured that'd be boring. As the show began he cautiously clasped the bar in front of Lyco's mouth and leaned down to plant some kisses on the hair just above her forehead."
Lyco blushed and let out a high pitched giggle in response. "See? I'm a tank. I'm supposed to be like, tough and stuff. You gotta let loose if you want me to be frank with y'all too..."
Hydraullic arms grasped around beneath Akemi's arms as she moved in for an actual hug, suddely feeling a lot more at home. From there it was a case of angling her head sideways to get a veiw of the television again.
"I think you'll like this. I dunno what your band is actually like, but the music is so corny in this, it can't help but be awesome."
"Sounds good. I love corny," Akemi said smoothly as he likewise hugged and turned to watch the screen. "The cheesier the better. I'm just glad you actually enjoyed the kisses. Were you saying your programming makes it so other people are preferred to make the first move when it comes to getting intimate?"
The Neko was a little surprised by the tone of the laugh but it wasn't something beyond what he could imagine coming from Lyco. The sound was really nice to hear after she explained how rough things were for her. It was quite pleasing to know a bit of cuddling could go a long way.
"No. No, it's not like that." Paced words flowed as she considered what did and didn't feel exactly right to her. It's not like she could know for sure if he was actually right. "Just... You treat me like a... one of this planet's princesses or something, and... It makes me feel funny. Only useless people want to get treated like that most of the time."
More tiny reverberations in the tracks. Her arms were tensed around his feminine waist.
"I wasn't in an accident when I was young, or anything. These legs have always been my legs. These arms have always been my arms." She played with his hair a little more between those grippy steel fingers. "Treating me like that is like... I'm broken or something. Fragile. No good... I've messed up a lot in my life, but the one thing I never was is soft. I always got back up. It's important. It's what tough and useful people do."
"...So, l-like... When I want you to make a move, it's like..." Her raspy voice stumbled. "It means I'm good, you know?... You can... You want to use me."
"And... and, that makes me happy..."
"Whoa, using you is a pretty lewd choice of words. You gotta be careful with that kinda phraseology." Akemi paused briefly. "Unless you really wanna get used." His lips formed a big goofy grin as he chuckled softly. "I'd expect a customer to be paying for that kinda talk out of one of my employees."
"We all use each other." A flustered remark, hiding her embarrassment by arcing her head more deeply inward, until it was more resting across his chest rather than simply against it. "The alternative is that the person is use-less."
The pulse-pounding techo track from the anime on screen continued. Felt strange watching it with another person, but Lyco bided her time so Akemi could give an actual response. Probably could have picked a better option for the whole 'yuletide' season thing, but it was a yammie occasion anyways.
One of the baroque arms moved to grasp one the neko's hands, examining their strange characteristics up close. The cat boy had typically amazing nails. Only three fingers, through. She couldn't help but put a bit of pressure on the palm and knuckles with her thumb, wondering how exactly the whole organic thing functioned. How it felt.
Akemi's soft, smooth palm and long slender fingers were as pliant as they could be. The little space kitten had no problem with being felt up one way or another. If he could entertain just by sitting still he was happy to oblige. While Lyco examined him he raised his free arm to rest it across her neck.
"If only more people thought like that. I could sure get a lot of use out of Arccos." Akemi worried about repeatedly mentioning her but that quip was the first to come to mind. "Maybe you could get Vier to cuddle you too. There are a bunch of her and she seems like she could be susceptible to that line of reasoning."
Still grasping that lithe hand, Lycosidae moved it up to her cheek in order to better sense the softness of his skin. Bought them time to think about Arccos, too.
"Part of me still hates that codebreaker for trying to manipulate me and invading my base and everything, but... Well, I can't say for certain I'm not jealous of her position too." Her eyebrows did furrow with the mention of that name, but there was a lot more to it than simple revenge. They could see what Arccos was planning better than most non-spacers probably could... and it could go a lot of ways, right or wrong. "Is that what you like in a person? All of that power? Maybe those pearly white legs?... Anybody can craft those if they own an entire mothership to themselves, you know."
Akemi was somewhat surprised by how physical Lyco was getting but then he figured it was just how some Freespacers were and she obviously really wanted some simple, spontaneous, non-committal companionship. As a result he decided to go along with everything and lightly caressed the Spacer's face with his fingers. "I just really like tall, fit people that act disgusted with me. I've got a thing for people significantly smaller than me too. You're pretty short and you've got your cute braids."
“R-Really, though?” A brief glance up to him, before breaking eye contact again. She just couldn’t quite build up the confidence to keep it constant. “You really should be disgusting to me being a Nekovalkyrja and all, but… b-but… I don’t know, this definitely isn’t something I would be programmed for. So that is a good feeling.”
Hand again met his abs lightly before shying away. The short tank spacer liked everything about that lean, dark-haired, pale-skinned form, but part of her subconsciously felt like it was all a little too good still. Couldn’t shake it, no matter how much she tried.
Plump little face turned away, soon rotating her compact torso along with it, until she was facing the other direction. Akemi’s hands were now occupied by her love handles, but her stomach wasn’t in the mood. Anti-bacterial meds had defeated her drowsiness nicely by now, but the resulting cramps were taking their toll as a side effect.
“It’s okay. You can tell me the truth. I’m a mess. I can’t blame you for stalling.”
"Well who cares what you look like buddy? You said it yourself you guys can look like whatever you want. Besides, I like messes. They're what I want to make chicks I like into." Akemi quietly chuckled hard at how upfront he was being. While he spoke he wrapped his arms around Lyco's midsection. "I just don't know how I'd do extremely unhygienic things with you given your lower half."
“Oh it’s not that hard. You can use any old electric screwdriver to remove the facia, then displace the cooling fan by taking out the terminals on the right hand side. Be sure to earth yourself.” Pursing her lips, intense blushing. This counted as dirty talk to a cyborg. “Power cell is back mounted, but if you want more room it’s probably going to require a quarter inch socket wrench to remove the transaxel, and- Okay, it might be a little complicated.”
A sigh. Should have brought a pneumatic drill with her.
Compromise. Still facing in the opposite direction, Lyco took his limber hands into hers one by one, running them under her day-glow green shirt and onto her ample, rounded breasts. No bra. He could feel her heart thudding along inside of her chest.
“Whole planet is unhygienic you know.” Soft spoken, arcing her head back a little over his shoulder. “Can’t be helped.”
Akemi gave Lyco's chest a gentle, experimental squeeze. "Well, if you wanna do icky stuff later, we always can, but I'm kinda content to just watch our show and chat first. I mean don't take it the wrong way but like do you have some legs you can slap on or something? That's what I'm familiar with. Not that I'm not willing to try new things. Are you really attached to your current setup?"
“I once tried out a six-legged setup for a while, d-does that count?” Biting her lip as the soft sensations spread through her. “To be honest, I…. I never learned to walk… Always seemed a bit of a pointless hassle to me, you know?... I can pull and drag more with these.”
The show had reached a point where two yobs with massive pompadour haircuts were having a standoff. Gave her mind a much needed distraction to go with the hands on her body. Maybe it was messed up, but that was all Lycosidae was really after. Something to forget all those days alone, to no avail.
“…Don’t know… I don’t know about anything, just… you holding me is nice.” Hand pulled the fancy blanket around them tighter, and then returned to grasp his outer thigh lightly. “I like you, Cat Boy.”
Akemi slowly withdrew his hands and placed them on her sides. "Awwww. I really like you too buddy. I feel the same way. I'm happy just holding you. It's nice to have a fleshy Spacer like me instead of hate on me." With that said he turned the woman over and rested her against his chest again. Then he let his chin hover at her shoulder. "You can cuddle with me as much as you want. Maybe I can help you learn how to walk some time if you want."
"You would do that? I mean, I already said I was designing a new body to get along with other humans better. But it's kind of just a pile of bits right now." A small contented smile, coiling against the warmth of his body once more. She was a little surprised he could move her so easily. Those metal bits were pretty armored. "I don't know what I would do with bipedal legs, or how to make them work like bipedal legs are supposed to. It's not really the kind of thing people choose to explain, even on the poly."
"What do you want in return? I won't let you do it for free."
"I dunno man," Akemi said a little forcefully yet in a subdued manner, refusing to think hard according to Lyco's reasoning. "I just want to hang out with you. Just think if you help me build anything that you're paying me back that way. Like if you make some robo workers for mining or to help construct a building you can chalk that up as payment for a million little things I do. I'm not going to price spending time with a friend."
"Not like it would be hard to slap a crane or a drill on a deathcrawler. Guess you could call it a lifecrawler." They nabbed another peppermint snack as they spoke, eating it briskly before twisting her braids back around the rollbar once more. It made nuzzling back up to that neko shoulder easier. "Real problem is the AI through, they need supervision."
Why was she so hungry still? Something smelt differant. The peppermint taste in the air was overwhelming by now, so it couldn't have just been the food.
Carefully grabbing that Akemi's hand again, using both the gun barrels as well as her vice-fingers to clasp it close to her mouth and nose. It was the neko. The cat boy tasted of caramel.
Now she was twice as confused...
"Wanna taste? Don't be shy." Akemi always wanted to try to get more chicks to taste him one way or another. It was a fun way to surprise and entertain people. "Well I'm sure you can gradually get better at programming. Plus we can hire locals or space people like ourselves to monitor them or we could remote control them with our minds. We've got plenty of options. I bet there are plenty of people out here that would love to try using our technology and those who just want steady pay doing something safe."
"Well if we had the choice, it would be nice to put the locals in control of the automata, within reason. I mean, mining in high gravity is a pretty specialized set of skills." Lyco shrugged. Using humanoids by remote control probably should have irked her, but nobody ever complained when it happened to innocent kids like Truffleclub. "I don't know, their brains are the bit we need, you see what I'm saying? Cyborging them would be better, but I don't think they would go for it."
Ended up being an afterthought sticking the tip of two fingers in her mouth, but her expression immediately changed to surprise when she did.
"It's... It's dewi-chous!" Had to resist the urge to chew, now. Harder to talk when you couldn't do that. "Huw and whye are you eddy-ble?!"
Akemi smiled yet again. Despite the imminent threat of potentially being eaten he continued to keep his cool. "Well us Neko can customize ourselves just like you guys can. If I wanted I could slap on a tail or claws but I prefer to look more like an elf than a cat even though I think of myself as an itty bitty kitty. If you knew you could easily change how you innately tasted and smelled wouldn't you do the same? I think cybering some people is a good idea. I bet some totally would go for it. It's like asking an ordinary person if they want superpowers."
"Maybe offer free cyborgizations to employees?" It might have been Akemi calling themselves a cat, but Lyco was the one holding his hand still so she could keep tasting it as her leisure. "There are bound to be people who were already injured in mining accidents and can't work anymore. Could be a good way to introduce the concept to the general populace."
"That's smart. Good thinkin'. I'll totally look for people like that." Akemi really did think that was a good suggestion. Retired and crippled miners might not be found in the same places as the currently active or only recently out of work ones. They might not immediately come forward to sign up either as they might not fully grasp or believe how much and how casually they could be healed and enhanced. "So, I don't wanna rush you but now that you know you can hang with me whenever you want do you think you're up to talking to Uso's people now?"
"I guess." Hand was still held flavour hostage, with her face gaining a small amused 'v' of a smile. "Depends on just how much they like my ideas, though."
