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RP [Open RP] Welcome To The Kikyo Sector

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Stomping through the street was a mecha, old and battered, twenty feet tall still bearing the scars of whatever terrible conflicts it had endured yet still standing strong even as it's pilot grew old and withered. It's pilot taking the utmost care not to knock down any of the neon. It's barbute styled head panning back and forth, taking in the sights.

Ternifac was a busy place, Steiner noted as he stomped along sending puffs of sand into the air as his massive form compacted it. Most pedestrians were giving him a wide berth in order not to be trampled underfoot. It reminded him of some of the settled worlds he had visited when he was a young man. He suspected that if he could still smell, it would smell of alcohol, cooking food, and the occasional unwashed body. Though it was highly unlikely.

He'd found himself by pure chance, deciding to take the time to try and travel some of the planet while he was still able to-and had found himself outside of a bar; perhaps it would be prudent to see if he could speak with one of the patrons and figure out where exactly was good spot in this town for a little sight seeing.
 
"That's a ship with a famous name!" Kinie nodded to Delmira. "You're lucky!"

"Yeah!" Cassie nodded. "It helps if you can join a crew with some people you already know, but if you need to make new friends, being in close quarters and working together is a great way to bond and form new relationships."

"Crew bonding is very important to the Star Army. That's why traditionally Nekovalkyrja share nests. It's part of the culture and I think it's important to keep those traditions. Also I just like the cuddling."

Meanwhile the mecha quickly attracted the attention of the local police and in short order there was a cop car following it with flashing lights, with the driver saying things on speakphone like "THIS IS THE IMPERIAL POLICE. STOP IMMEDIATELY AND TURN OFF YOUR ENGINE."

"What the fuck is going on out there?" Irchaet hissed, looking over at the red flashing lights coming through the bar's small, bunker-like exterior windows, where several patrons had gathered to peer at the commotion outside. She was more than annoyed.

The gangster from earlier popped his head out from behind the curtain. "Cops??"
 
'Wonderful.' Turning slowly, to say that he was surprised to see the Imperial Police would be lying to himself. Deciding to play it safe, he slowly powered down the fusion plant to safe levels so he wouldn't accidently kill himself by cutting power completely to his life support. The speaker on the head crackled to life, a horrible squealing sound, and voice, heavily distorted by age and the system replied.

"May I help you officer?" He asked, his tone polite.
 
Rotating her upper torso to watch Irchaet rush to the windows, but keeping her hips fixed against the counter caused each side of Thia's chest to be pulled in different directions under the whisper thin fabric of her outfit. Pulling her eyes away from the green-skinned spirit slinger, she watched the flashing lights with a mask of disinterest.

"I think you might have a scoop," she said before taking a long sip from her drink. "Little giraffe."
 
"Step out of the vehicle," the police officer ordered, parking their car and opening their car door. The officer was a Nekovalkyrja with blue hair that was short on one side and long on the other. She grabbed an electronic data pad with a miniaturized printer attached to the back of it and while she wasn't visibly typing, she was connected to it and was already writing a ticket. "What are you doing bringing this giant robot in the middle of a crowded street without a ground guide? This is really unsafe," the neko chided.
 
"I am afraid that circumstances beyond my control prevent such an action." Steiner replied to her order, carefully kneeling as to bring himself closer to her level, "But perhaps this may be close enough." There was the sound of hydraulic mechanisms whining as the head moved back, with the torso pieces slowly sliding up, jamming for a minute as the mechanism strained against the weight of the machine's torso, resuming as the mechanism let out a squeal in protest, revealing the fusion plant. Towards the back of the machine was a silvery pillar, around four and half feet in height. The outer casing slid down, revealing what was left of the man inside; a horrific, shriveled thing that was once human, with wires and tubes running through its battered, scarred flesh held within a semi-translucent fluid.

"As for why I was here," the thing inclined its head, "I was merely traveling the planet at the moment-I was not aware that a ground guide was required. My apologies."
 
The unimpressed cat-eared police officer printed out a ticket for 'reckless vehicle operation' and handed it to the man. "I was going to have your mecha towed but if you can't leave it I'm just going to escort you out of the city. I suggest contacting some consciousness doctors and transferring your ghost into a regular-sized body or getting a robot body you can remote-control if you want to visit the city in the future, which you will have to when your court date comes. Follow my car and I'll take you back to the desert."
 
"Of course officer." Steiner took the ticket between between his massive fingers, sealing the mecha and standing, but then a thought crossed his mind. 'Why was she saying to place a dead man's spirit inside of a body?' No time like the present. "Forgive my ignorance-but what exactly do you mean by transferring my 'ghost'?"
 
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Depositing the glass upon the counter, Thia pulled herself upright and stretched her neck one way and then the other. The sharp clicking sound of her heels resonated off the various surfaces of the bar as she glided through the space and out the door. Once onto the street, she put on a show of being a gawking onlooker while her amber-irised cybernetic eye explored a path through a multidimensional space of different focal points, depths of field, aperture, and exposure to find the ideal shot. She tried to fill the frame in a way that included the officers on the scene and the towering mech, but she was sure the police wouldn't let her get too close.
 
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"Your consciousness, your mind, your soul if you want to call it that," the Nekovalkyrja cop explained. "Almost all of us Nekovalkyrja have done it at some point, transferring from the NH-29 model body to the NH-33. You could find a new body that suits you, or even try something new. Something that can fit into a bar or a on a hoverbike, right? Oh, and you can get free transfers in Kyoto if you're a citizen. Don't settle for one of the cheap body chop-shops that this town is full of...that's not an order just my opinion. And if you need citizenship, join the Star Army like everyone else who needs it does. Anyway, let's get you out of traffic and into the open..."
 
That technology definitely sounded intriguing...and had a potential for abuse. "I see...you have my thanks." He indicated the street. "Lead the way."
 
Outskirts of Ternifac

The police officer led the mechanoid man to the edge of town where there wasn't anything or anyone to step on. He could see the fast dunes of the Jhuniata desert in the distance, lit by Yamatai's two moons - one large and white, and the other small and green and marble-like. The sky was filled with the twinkle of starships above. As the police car departed, the lights on top of it went out, only to be replaced by blinking from pink neon signs of a body replacement shop, which happened to be next to an actual mech bay where cyborg men and women were working on giant battle robots. One by one, they stopped and turned to look at Steiner.

"Got a load of this," one of the men said.

"You new around here?" a female asked.

- - -

Bar Interior

There more Margarita Kinie drank, the faster she drank it down. "This is so interesting!" she grinned. She grabbed a small paper menu off the counter and picked a different variation of one and ordered that, causing the bar to fill with blender noise for a moment as Irchaet fixed it up.
 
Steiner turned to look he turned, and looked at the individuals staring at him. The mechs they were working on were in various states of refit and repair. "Yes." Was his only reply, a healthy mix of caution and curiosity was the main reason for him keeping his distance.
 
When the mech left her sight, Thia turned and proceeded back into the bar, pleased that the keepers of the peace hadn't prevented her ogling the scene. She knew the clock was ticking and that when it ran out, the footage or stills of the police interacting with the mech would be worthless. Cursing her lack of foresight, she regretted not bringing a datapad with her tonight. If she had, then she could have used it to put it up for auction immediately.

As she wove between tables and patrons, she caught a glimpse of the disinterested journalist between the other Star Army service members and her pace slowed somewhat before she reached the section of the bar where her glass still sat. She lay her fingers at its base. The liquid line sat at roughly the midway point between the top of the glass and the bottom, and she wondered if it was half-empty or half-full. Thia pushed the drink away until it was close enough to the back edge of the counter that it would be clear to Irchaet that she wasn't interested in finishing it. Then she turned to face the rest of the bar and spent a moment with her thoughts that was quiet only in her mind.
 
Delmira will smile at Kinie. "I wrote a line of code so you can have your kidney stop filtering out alcohol so you can get drunk. She had watched te robot man and sipped her drink her cheeks getting flushed a bit as the drink was starting to get to her. Her tail would seek out Kinie's to curl around. "Back to what we where talking about before we got distracted, you have not lived until you fall asleep in a neko nest full of purring and snuggles and tail curling."
 
Kozakura just sighed as she heard a commotion outside followed by the sirens of a police officer. She just wanted a drink, was that so bad? She didn't even have Maru on her at the moment anyway. The damn drone was safe in it's carrying bag and locked with her other luggage in a storage locker. While Thia was outside checking things out and the others seemed to be distracted, she finally got her drink from Irchaet. Looking around she decided against getting a booth and just took up a seat upon a stool at the bar. Finally she went to take a sip and it was everything she had ever wanted or at least everything she'd ever wanted for the past five minutes or so. At any rate the delicious fruity drink was smooth and slipped down her throat easily enough. With a contented smile she just sat there looking around to see if the bar had a vid screen she could watch or something.
 
Bar Interior

Kozakura would find several view screens around the walls of the bar. The one closest to her was showing an Aerial Football match between the YSS Battle of Yamatai Patriots and the Nataria Forest, at Fensalir Kelrina Memorial Stadium in Fort Minori, Nataria, where Nekovalkyrja and Minkan were literally flying around the field kicking a ball (and occasionally each other) in midair trying to get it in a circular goal at each end. Another showed a Yamataian game show where contestants had to answer pop culture trivia questions while being spun around on a rotating platform, and the more it spun, the more yarn was pulled away from their dress so the loser ended up naked on TV. Lastly there was a news channel showing a weather story about a hurricane that was hitting the Jiyuu Fleet Depot on Jiyuu III.

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Kinie nodded, "Hopefully it will be with Pidole and Euikoshi here! She told Delmira. Let's be best friends forever! WOOO!! I love you guys. You really are the best." The more Kinie drank, the more love and compliments began to flow from her mouth and the more hugs she kept giving people. She give Delmira a hug too.

Pidole just smiled and stared into the distance at nothing particular and Euikoshi was looking around.

"We should try some more experiments," Euikoshi suggested with a mischievous smirk.

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Cassie finished his drink and looked around. "Where's all the men around here?" he chuckled, seeing that the Star Army troops stopping in the bar had tipped the scales of gender balance firmly in the feminine direction. He checked his handheld communicator to make sure everyone still had some time to get back to the train. It wouldn't do to have their luggage roll down the track without them!

- - -
Outskirts of Ternifac

Commissar Farzi said:
Steiner turned to look he turned, and looked at the individuals staring at him. The mechs they were working on were in various states of refit and repair. "Yes." Was his only reply, a healthy mix of caution and curiosity was the main reason for him keeping his distance.
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"You here to try out for the League?" the woman asked. "We didn't expect anyone to show up out the blue like this."
 
"I am afraid my arrival here was more by pure chance than anything." Steiner decided it was safe enough to approach; stomping slowly towards the woman and trying to avoid stepping on anyone. "I assume this...league is possibly a gladiatorial competition of sorts?" He made a note of the body transfer shop, and recalled the officer's warning not to get one here. He was honestly considering investing in a drone at this point and have using it to attend his court hearing, least till he mount sufficient funds-though he suspected would likely be fined for what had happened.
 
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Back at the bar

Even the mention of a purring, snuggling, tail curling nest of cat girls wasn't enough to rouse Thia's attention. Her eyes wandered to the space where she thought she had seen Tatsugami, but realized they had disappeared. Had they left while she was outside filming the mecha kerfuffle? Or had they simply found somewhere to hide from her? Thia narrowed her eyes and blew at a lock of her hair which had fallen out of place and was now partially obscuring her organic eye.

A scale balanced before her weighing the time-sensitive value of the footage against the possibility of extracting more information about troop deployment from the soldiers. The scale teetered back and forth as she considered her options and she continued to ruminate.
 
"Men?" Thia repeated Cassie's query with surprise. The dark-skinned nepleslian stole a glance at the pompadour-crowned man who had just loudly expressed his shock and dismay in response to the law enforcement activity outside the bar. "Cutie pie, you're in the wrong place for that."

"Sweet pea," Thia beckoned. "Give me something with some buzz. I suddenly find myself a wilting flower and that simply won't do."

"I need something to cock my tail," she announced with a laugh. "So to speak."

Without waiting for the drink, Thia practically floated over to insert herself between Cassie and the red haired minkan technician.

"What's the matter, ginger bug?" Thia asked. "You've been the quietest berry in the bushel. Cats got your tongue?"
 
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