Syaoran
Retired Staff
YSS Kaiyō II
VR ROOM
9日 8月 YE 39
1130 Hours
Ume was seated at a console, smiling happily as she watched the display. Her joy stemmed from the little bar on screen as it slowly filled up, indicating that the installation for a new program had gotten one step closer to completion. However, there was one concern that the playful neko had. This was best done with at least one friend. She needed to find someone to play with.
It only took a simple search through the computer system to find someone that seemed to enjoy using the VR room as well. The most likely candidate was Kokoro-Hei, she even was a bunk mate to Ume.
So without delay, the purple neko stood up and rushed off.
YSS Kaiyō II
Cabin 6
Ume opened the door to the room with a large smile on her face, much too excited for her own good. "Yoshida are you here?" She nearly shouted, her eyes darting around the room to find her.
Yoshida looked up from her position on the ground, having been doing some stretches just before the other silly neko arrived. "Huh? Yeah what's happening? Are they giving out icecream in the cafeteria?" she said with a grin, even as she hopped up to her feet. Any one with as much entheusiasm as Ume demanded attention.
Ume paused at the mention of ice cream, she did seem rather interested in such a notion. "Oh, what flavor?" However she came with a purpose, and though it took a few seconds she remembered and shook the thought of ice cream out of her head. "I saw you like to use the VR room...well I'm downloading a new game, but it's best with friends so I was hoping you could come play with me."
The tailed neko blinked and reflexively nodded at the invitation even before she had the chance to think about it. The prospect of using the VR room more for entertainment purposes than training sounded like it would be a blast cerrtainly! "Thaaat sounds pretty okay! Maybe after we can get you that icecream you were practically drooling over."
With that she stepped forward and brushed herself off, just incase any unsightly particles floating through the air happened to land on her while she was stretching. "What kind of game is it?"
The plum Neko's smile grew wider at Yoshida's response, she now had a buddy to play with, and they would get ice cream after. "What kind of game? Well, it's 'Yamatai Party VR: Big Box Edition.' It's like a board game, but with a bunch of other games you play while you play."
"A board game in VR... Hmm..." Yoshida nodded along as she thought about the prospect. "Allright, sounds weird but im game! Never heard of that game before but, I guess I haven't been looking hard enough." The infantry neko quickly stepped out of the room as she talked, and grabbed Ume to lightly tug her along for the ride. She was interested now, and felt there could be no delays!
YSS Kaiyō II
VR Room
Seeing Yoshida's eagerness, Ume quickly led her back to the VR room where the new game installation had just finished, causing a soft pinging sound from the terminal.
"Oh, it just finished." She practically skipped over to the terminal and typed away at it for a moment. "We're gonna have a lot of fun. I'll set it to super hard mode so it'll be exciting." The board game enthusiast pushed the difficulty slider all the way to the top.
Yoshida nodded and hummed to herself as Ume started pushing the difficulty slider nearly off the screen. "Hehe, and here I thought this would be a lot more relaxing than my normal trips into VR..." She shrugged and stepped up to check any other odd settings quietly as Ume tapped away. "So whaaat should I be expecting? Looks like you're really working there." Yoshida's tail nearly curled in on itself in anticipation.
There were plenty of settings for the simulation, like the level of pain and gravity, there was even a setting for chibi mode, they really took care of everything.
"Well since we're on the hardest difficulty, a lot of the minigames will involve athleticism as well as thinking. So we might have to do something like chase down bad guys or fight a giant alligator. We also get to roll the dice ourselves which is really fun." Ume smiled happily as she hit the button to initiate the simulation.
The room changed to a vast starscape, with the two neko floating there idly. Then out of nowhere a large board game map fell from the sky there were over one hundred spaces, and each one was a good 10 feet by 10 feet.
This sight did not phase the purple neko and she quickly ran over to the start, ready to go.
"Ah I see" Said the blind man. This all seemed like so much for a game, very interesting but she wasn't sure she'd figure it out anytime soon! Everything about this simply radiated care and entheusiasm for games, whoever made this. Even the startup was interesting!
The not-so-purple neko ran up beside her partner- or maybe competition, she wasn't sure on that bit, and lined up right alongside her. "So, you'll probably have an easier time of it then me since you're so used to games like this, but I'll do my best!"
She took a look at the array of suqares before her for a moment before she glanced over to Ume. "Sooo... How do I roll?" She flashed a grin and looked around, half expecting some apropriately sized dice for this massive board.
Ume chuckled at Yoshida's words. "Well, I've never played before either. This will be fun"
With the two Neko on the start panel, a large roulette wheel appeared and began to spin. After several seconds it slowed down, and Yoshida's face was shown on the wheel. A moment later, a large dice fell in front of Yoshida, it was about 3 feet tall but was as light as if it were made of plush.
"Looks like you go first," Ume said happily.
"Huh... That's one gargantuan cube!" Yoshida looked it up and down for a moment before she finally shrugged and gripped the sides. With a jump assisted throw, she tossed the cube into the air, and left the ground a few feet herself. "You know that was lighter than I thought it would be!" There was a moment of silence before she continued. "You think I threw it into orbit?" Of course, she herself could clearly see the cube begining to plummet to the virtual surface of the board once more.
As it dropped and landed, she of course moved up the apropriate number of steps before stooping down to flip the square over and reveal the now glowing 'event card'. "Wow... really?" She muttered, at first rather confused as to how she was to manage that, but as she thought... Well, it couldn't possibly be THAT difficult.
"So uh, test of balance and agility I guess? Never hoolahhooped before so this will be 'fun' I'm sure!" As she spoke, the board seemed to stretch and contort. A balance beam now seperated her from the remainder of the board, and as she mentioned, a hoolah hoop dropped from the heavens above right over the neko- who only barley stopped it from falling to the ground with her tail.
"I wonder if its considered cheating to have a tail and do hoolah hooping, what do you think Ume?" She giggled as she tested out the ring with a wiggle of her hips. It was pretty simple physics really, just keep momentum and it'd all be fine! It might be hard to do that and walk the balance beam though... "Hey what happens if I fail the challenge?" She said even as she walked with her arms straight out to her sides, continually wiggling her hips as she walked that narrow path above an infinite void. Or maybe it was just the floor a few feet down.
"Of course your tail would be cheating silly. You gotta use your booty." Ume giggled some at her own words and then pulled out a rule book, well more like made one appear out of thin air. "Umm...if you fail...it says you get a penalty like losing a turn. It says if you almost completed it you can try a penalty game to avoid the normal penalty."
"Penalty game? Spooky! Wonder what that'd be-" she started, rather distracted as she turned back to look as she was almost there! The fool! With a confused eep and a wave of her arms, she slipped off the bar for an instant before trying to wrap her feet around it once more, but it was not to be, she managed to wrap her feet around it to avoid falling off but the hoop was no longer being hullahed. "... Dang."
There was a sound of a loud buzzer just a beat after Yoshida had caught the balance beam with her feet. A moment later everything returned to 'normal' and Yoshida was seated on her platform. Before she could move, a giant white glove appeared above her and picked her up by her collar and moved her back a space then let her go. Then a volumetric board appeared that said "Penalty: Move back one space."
The dice then appeared in front of Ume. "Well it's just the first game, don't worry, you'll get in the grove." At those words, she picked up the large dice and did a spin before throwing it forward.
The result let Ume run past Yoshida but the moment she landed on her space everything went black, or rather a blindfold was tied around her eyes. The world around her then shifted to that of a cell with a guard in front of it. The words "Escape the cell, defeat the guard within five minutes" were said by a disembodied voice and then the challenge began, a large clock ticking down
There were a few moments of fiddling around before the orange haired neko realized that she needed a key so she put her hands on the ground and felt around the whole cell. After three and a half minutes she had found the key, and then it took almost a minute more to unlock the cell, but she was out. She did not have any time to spare though so she rushed out the cell at full speed and dove at the guard for a flying punch to try and knock him out in one go.
The only problem was that the guard was not positioned directly in front of the door so the neko flew across the small hallway and her fist slammed into the wall like it had made fun of the cat's mother. Even though her face was largely covered, the scrunched up expression as she tried to hold back the pain was obvious. The game was not holding punches though and while she shook in pain, the guard came up behind her with a nightstick and gave her a solid whack on the back of the head that rendered her faint for a few seconds, and over the timmer.
The infantry neko watching that whole situation unfold could only wince as she watched. "Wow that... Looked mighty uncomftorable. You allright ume?" She spoke up somewhat louder than before with the second half- calling from her own square to the plum colored neko. She wondered breifly if this whole board game was going to be full of ridiculous tasks that they would fail just before completing every time.
Ume rubbed her hand tenderly as the blindfold was taken off her and the room changed back to normal. due to the comedic nature of the game, her hand could be seen glowing red and was swollen to a ridiculous degree. "Oww...that's no fair...I never took lessons in blind fighting."
Ume, rather than being moved back a space found a ball and chain firmly attatched to her left ankle. This would surely be a disadvantage in future physical challenges to some extent. It was quite comically oversized, but at least it wasn't as heav as it looked, perhaps about ten pounds. "Hey if you were a SAINT you'd have no problem there, I hear they see through their skin!"
With that, Yoshida picked up the plush dice and drop-kicked it. A poor roll meant she only barely caught back up to Ume, and the challenge that particular tile brought her... A Rapier, and an aerna appeared around her! No rails, only lines on the floor. Surely if one were to step outside of that they'd lose. There was a good fifteen meter radius at least.
"Uh- so what Am i-" Before she could even finish the question, complete with its own theme music came a Alligator walking on its hind legs. Walking in the loosest possible sense of the word. It was waddling at best, and clearly using its tail to stay upright for the moment. At its hip, it had a scabbard and rapier of its own. Oh of course it couldn't be one of the normal straight edge stabby ones either, it was the one that could be bent like it was rubber.
"You... You're serious?" She looked around to make sure this wasn't some joke, even at Ume, before she gave in and dplucked her own blade from the air, quickly taking a stance against the aproaching aligater. His arms were so short! How could it possibly- and with the siftness of a strikign snake, it quite suddenly contorted its body to grab its own sword before connecting with Yoshida's own sword she had raised to block the sudden strike, primarily on instinct.
"Oh" She muttered quietly. Those stubby little arms sure could move she discovered, as she poked and jabbed at its defences while doing her best to stay out of reach. It didn't seem to have any gaps in the front certainly! So the dance continued for many tense moments, both of their swords being batted aside from eachother, having almost always maintained some form of contact. She certainly was no expert but her undeniable physical abilities as a neko allowed her to keep up.
But this was obviously going nowhere! So she took a moment to step back and examine the situation. The gater wasn't fast on its feet, infact its footwork, unlike the tailed infantry neko, was absolutely terrible. Beyond repair really. She quickly came up with a solution, and with a charging feint, she got it to flinch and block before she suddenly rolled to the side nearly entirely around the creature. There she planted her hand against the ground and threw herself upwards to avoid a blind retaliatory strike before striking the aligator in its armored back. Point Yoshida!
"Heh... Woo... Wow that is tiring sword play is hard..." the arena dissapeared, as did the aligator and the rapier. So she took to grabbing her own tail to stop it from lashing around as she took in deep, cleansing breaths.
After witnessing Yoshida's victory, Ume clapped and smiled brightly. "That looked like a lot of fun. BUt you should've finished it with a 'Wa-Pow!' That would be really cool." She made some gestures that loosely resembled sword fighting, giving Yoshida what she thought as tips. It was obvious she was just having fun with the whole situation and did not think too heavily on the matter, after all, she was earnestly giving advice on how to fence with an alligator. "But it only makes you tired if you're not used to it. If you just keep moving all the time you build up stamina." She flexed her arms while swaying her hips side to side with a confident smile. It was true that the purple neko couldn't sit still for two minutes, but it wasn't likely that it was some sort of constant training, she was just excitable.
After her confident pose, the dice appeared in front of her once more and she once again gave it a good toss. However this time it landed on a one and she moved just one space ahead. Once she stepped on the space, before she could even express her disappointment, a table appeared before her and she was soon inside a dimly lit room with several other players, it was like that famous dogs playing poker picture.
Almost immediately the purple neck broke out into a sweat, she played enough games to know that she was in the middle of a poker game. Her expression made it obvious that she was not good at poker, for the same reason it was easy to tell she wasn't good at it, she wore her expressions on her sleeve. She had to undergo training to keep her expression stoic in combat.
Needless to say, this would be one of the most difficult challenges in the game for her, but after losing a few hands, and contemplating seriously, she had an idea. On the 4th hand, she simply did not look at her cards, and randomly discarded some and made careful bets. Like that she managed to slowly build up money, but it was taking too long, and Ume became impatient. She bet everything, on one hand, to try and finish the game in one fell swoop.
Her confidence was betrayed however and though she had three of a kind, she lost to a full house. The shock was clear to see on her face and she was ready to flip a table, possibly for comic relief, but then a sign appeared that said "Penalty Game". She had a chance to avoid in-game repercussions for her loss if she could suffer through the penalty game. So she hit the confirm button and prepared herself.
She was not ready for what was to come though, after hitting the button she was pounced by a bunch of slobbering dogs that began licking her face playfully. This would normally be okay but they had a comically exaggerated amount of slobber and the poor neko was overwhelmed by it. It took her everything she had to stay in place and not cry or flee. But she stuck it out and after a good three minutes the penalty game ended.
Yoshida stared and did mental commentary over the poker game for a short while, quite itnerested. The commentary in question rapidly picked up in excitement as Ume seemed to be winning, untill sh realized she was cheating and not even watching her cards! The gall of her! At least it had seemed to be working untill the purple silly dumped her earnings onto the table. "Aw, too bad." The penalty game of course, practically left Yoshida in stitches.
"Hehe... Wow... Amazing you could squirm that hard with that ball and chain around your ankle from the last penalty game!" She could only shake her head and grin. "You think that stuff'll stay on you the whole time? Man by the time this is over we'll probably look dreadful." Yoshida did not sound any less excited upon that realization. Boy, this game was certainly something!
YSS Kaiyō II
VR ROOM
9日 8月 YE 39
1230 Hours
The game had lasted for roughly an hour, and the two infantry soldiers were put through one strange set of circumstance after another. The game had toyed with them to the fullest until the very end and in a way, it was a satisfying experience, but form another view, it was borderline torture, it all depended on if you were having fun.
Ume lay on her back, her limbs spread out as she took several heavy breaths, her final challenge was running of the bulls, on crutches, and it had taken its toll on the poor neko. "I...don't even get this tired...from missions." She tried to catch her breath as she turned her head towards Yoshida. "But I had fun...espcially the duel with the old airplanes.."
Yoshida by this stage, had been been progressively teased by the game as it began adding movement encumbering outfits on her one after another. All of them reidiculous, all of them emberassing. "Yeah... I still think this game cheats though. Just like all the training simulations!" She wasn't quite as tired, but she had the luxury of being able to rest from doing a rock climbing challenge while angry mishu clambered up after her from below. She had only barely gotten away. "Um... Icecream?" she asked to the air and herself more than Ume.
"I'm not sure i can handle another dumb outfit." She said as she looked down at herself- a mouse suit nderneath a series of plaid clothing items. Also an oversized drinking hat with nothing in the bottles adorned her head.
"Icecream...sounds good." Ume pulled herself up slowly and let out a soft chuckle, no matter how many times she saw it, Yoshida's current appearance was ridiculous. THough her own was not much better. She still had the ball and chain from the start, but along with that, she was in a little black dress, with crutches in her arms.
"I think we deserve a prize." She then called out to the AI to deactivate the simulation, and all of the silly attire vanished, however, the fatigue was really and it stuck around.
Yoshida finally breathed a sigh of releif as she no longer looked utterly ridiculous. "Okay... phew... A priizzee for the hard fought uh.. survival of endless penalty games yeah?" She quickly hopped over to stoop down and yank Ume up to her feet where she should be! No neko should be so beaten they can't do anything but struggle to their feet afterall. "Man I'm tired... Maybe pick a version next time that doesn't exhaust us huh?" She said with a grin, lightly poking the purple neko with her tail.
She didn't waste much time after that in taking Ume out of the VR room, quite intent on getting some of that near mythical icecream they've been questing for this entire time. "Faavvorite flavor?"
With Yoshida's assistance, Ume stood up and smiled and gave Yoshida a hug. She was excited about many things but she compressed it all into a tight and friendly hug. "Yeah, next time I'll do a less physical game." She then let go of Yoshida and smiled brightly "I like all the flavors...except plum."
"Gah-" Yoshida flinched at the sudden tight hug, before quickly giving in and returning the favor. It wasn't neccesarily that hard, but her lack of preperation allowed her precious oxygen stored within her lungs to slip away for just a moment. "Less... demanding game next time... sure..." She cracked an eye open after being released and tilted her head however, as she began walking towards the cafeteria. "No plum? why's that?"
Ume followed after Yoshida, a skip in her step. "Well Ume is plum, and I'm purple too. So when I was being raised they always gave me plums with my meals. I've had like a billion plums already, I don't want anymore." She spoke a bit strongly as she walked, such a playful Neko turned serious over a fruit.
"Aahhh..." Yoshida nodded a little. "I don't really get how you could get tired of a food though... oh well, 'ruined'." Yoshida couldn't imagine what horrors have befallen the unfortunate plum to the point where the thing they were named after felt terrible to eat. Maybe it was some weird mental block! Yes surely that, and not her getting tired of a food after eating it day after day or anything.
"Well don't you worry, I'll protect you from those nefarious fruits!" she said with a giggle. The way she walked was stil undeniabely odd, constantly rising on the tips of her toes with each step just a little too long for how tall she was. As such she hardly notices ume practically skipping along her way to the cafeteria!
"Do have any food you don't like? I'll protect you from it too." She smiled widely and lightly punched the air, ready to take down any rouge food. "Do you have a favorite too? I don't have a favorite flavor, but I have a favorite food, parfaits."
"Hmmm... No hated foods yet! And I hope i don't meet one! I like steambuns though." Yoshida's smile grew wider as she watched ume start shadowboxing. Surely, this encounter was meant to be. Two of the most exciteable, funloving individuals on the ship going out to get icecream together!
Cafeteria
The two young Neko walked into the cafeteria together, where ty as a few people idling about as they had their own lunch. Today was ice cream day so of course, just about everyone had a cup or a cone as well.
Ume looked around excitedly, as it seemed they really did have ice cream on the menu now. as she looked around she came to the realization of something, it was indeed lunchtime, this brought up a question. "Should we get ice cream first or food?"
"Oh hmm... Welll on the one hand food is very important! On the other it may sully out tastebuds if we eat something else first..." Yoshida pondered this conundrum quite ferociously, before she she raised her hands up in the air and shook her head. "No idea! I'm in that weirs state where i'm not hungry but wouldn't mind eating something.. hmmm... Allright food first lets be responsible!" It wasn't moments after speaking that did she endevour to retreive the food confined within the depths of the kitchen, equipped with only a tray and Ume, her newly designated trusted friend.
"Well if we get a really fizzy soda, and then a lot of water, we can wash all the taste out." With that 'knowledge' in her mind, Ume began to load up her tray with food, mostly meats, and veggies, almost no fruit, perhaps she was saving all the sweetness for her ice cream later. And of course, she got the fizziest soda that the kitchen had to offer. If she wasn't the biological marvel known as a Nekovalkyrja, this meal would quickly lead to her performance as a soldier dropping.
Yoshida made a 'hmmm' noise at the food before shrugging it off. Of course it barely mattered what they picked to eat really, but she could at least pretend to eat healthy. "Fizzzyy drinks sure, why not." Of course, she followed suit in aquiring a few veggie steam buns. Basically heated bread and veggies really. "So" She said in between bites. "Real fan of lots of food too aren't you?" she said with a grin.
Ume smiled to Yoshida as she ate, she had a measure of composure and decorum to her eating that was unexpected of someone that grabbed so much food. "I eat a lot because I do a lot of sword fighting." She took another bite and swallowed "Like on the last mission. I have to have enough energy to never stop moving till the mission is done."
"Hmm... You sure that it doesn't just make you need to use the bathroom more often?" she said with a teasing grin. Of course it was also a legitamate question for her- while food could provide lots of energy, usually a neko's body quickly processed and got rid of well... extras!
Ume looked somewhat shocked at Yoshida's words. "You're not supposed to say that. 'Nekos don't go to the restroom.'" The air quotes were so heavy they were almost tangible "That's what a bunch of people think." She gave a nod and cotninued eating, it was hard to tell why she had made such a statement, but she was dodging the question that was for sure.
"Oh I'm not supposed to say that? News to me really! What did they not check the patch notes of the current models or something?" She gave Ume another cheeky poke in her side as she talked. Of course she worked to clean her own plate off as well but, this was far more interesting for the time being.
Ume gave a quick nod to Yoshida but then giggled at the poke to the side. "Yeah, if the bad guys think we don't go to the bathroom too, they can never catch us with our pants down right?" Was it so silly that it was smart, or was it just plain silly? With eh wide smile on her face, it was a safe bet that she was just joking around.
"Uhhh hu. Yeah I got nothin' there, sound logic!" Yoshida proceded to devour her meal as she conceded the point, still stifling a giggle. The absoltue sillyness of that one astounded her! She could get used to this. At the very least it was certainly a friend to add to the list.
"Yeah, so we gotta keep it a secret." Ume gave another of her so sure nods as she finished up the food on her plate. "Kazue says that it's just silliness, but she's just grumpy because she gets called old all the time."
"Hmm... Not sure I know a Kazue, But i'm pretty sure most people know anyway. Gee maybe I should ask some strangers later and see their reactions." Yoshida quickly in turn, decided she was done eating as well once Ume had finished. She didn't want to be left behind on the ice cream express.
Noticing that Yoshida finished as well, Ume stood up took her tray and Yoshida's. "Kazue is my teacher. She taught me and the others in my production group. She's really smart."
"Ohh you were friends with her? I honestly didn't even learn mine's first name." Yoshida quickly stood as well with a stretch that certainly wouldn't have been out of place for a stereo typically anime cat girl. She had to have done that on purpose.
Ume watched Yoshida stretch, and part of her just wanted to pounce her and start tickling since she had made herself so vulnerable, but she couldn't do that in public. "Well, it was part of an extended training program, not part of the normal infantry or birth training. We learned something called Gendaijutsu. I think it was part of some kind of test to see if it was useful or not."
"Ah special experimental techniques huh? Well did it turn out useful? I haven't heard of it myself, if that says anything." Yoshida finished her bout of stretching and wandered along side ume as she retreived the trays, ignorant of how close she came to being 'tickled into submssion'.
"Well, it's useful..." The purple neko looked up at the ceiling a moment as she thought. "Well, they said that it was like a condensed version of what they teach the samurai, not as good, but we were able to get specialized melee combat training in a relatively short time. I guess you could say it's good for expanding the skill set."
"Ah I never had the time to learn any of that fancy goodness myself really... I just hit things really hard." She gave a shrug as she walked along, untill she was finally able to snatch up some of that ice-creamy goodness. She certainly felt like they deserved it at anyrate, with what they had been put through. "Yeah like... I guess you could say I fight with more instinct and experience than actual training." And with that, she took her first bite of that oh so sweet reward. It wasn't quite so good as she hoped, but still a treat she didn't get often!
Ume grabbed her own ice cream cone right after Yoshida and smiled wide at the sight. "Well, there is nothing wrong with fighting on instinct and experience. We have practically programmed for it after all. Though I guess for other species it doesn't work out as well." She licked at her ice cream, taking her time to enjoy it. "We should do this again sometime, play games and get ice cream afterward."
Yoshida nodded with great vigor at Ume's suggestion before she spoke. "Absolutely! Games and icecream ate the spice of life! Except its not spicy at all and actually a cruel carrot on a stick, forever dangling just out of reach! Just like the idea of the perfect icecream!" She then attempted to throw on arm around the purple neko's shoulder, but found she had to awkwardly hover up a tad so it wouldn't be unduly uncomftorable for either of them.
"I sense this is the start of a great adventure between us" She said, moving her icecream laden hand before them both in a dramatic fashion. Right before eating it, of course.
Ume put an arm around Yoshida's back and smiled, giving her a one-armed hug. "I think we'll be great friends, maybe even the best friends." She raises her ice cream in 'toast' and smiles "To new friends and great adventures."
VR ROOM
9日 8月 YE 39
1130 Hours
Ume was seated at a console, smiling happily as she watched the display. Her joy stemmed from the little bar on screen as it slowly filled up, indicating that the installation for a new program had gotten one step closer to completion. However, there was one concern that the playful neko had. This was best done with at least one friend. She needed to find someone to play with.
It only took a simple search through the computer system to find someone that seemed to enjoy using the VR room as well. The most likely candidate was Kokoro-Hei, she even was a bunk mate to Ume.
So without delay, the purple neko stood up and rushed off.
YSS Kaiyō II
Cabin 6
Ume opened the door to the room with a large smile on her face, much too excited for her own good. "Yoshida are you here?" She nearly shouted, her eyes darting around the room to find her.
Yoshida looked up from her position on the ground, having been doing some stretches just before the other silly neko arrived. "Huh? Yeah what's happening? Are they giving out icecream in the cafeteria?" she said with a grin, even as she hopped up to her feet. Any one with as much entheusiasm as Ume demanded attention.
Ume paused at the mention of ice cream, she did seem rather interested in such a notion. "Oh, what flavor?" However she came with a purpose, and though it took a few seconds she remembered and shook the thought of ice cream out of her head. "I saw you like to use the VR room...well I'm downloading a new game, but it's best with friends so I was hoping you could come play with me."
The tailed neko blinked and reflexively nodded at the invitation even before she had the chance to think about it. The prospect of using the VR room more for entertainment purposes than training sounded like it would be a blast cerrtainly! "Thaaat sounds pretty okay! Maybe after we can get you that icecream you were practically drooling over."
With that she stepped forward and brushed herself off, just incase any unsightly particles floating through the air happened to land on her while she was stretching. "What kind of game is it?"
The plum Neko's smile grew wider at Yoshida's response, she now had a buddy to play with, and they would get ice cream after. "What kind of game? Well, it's 'Yamatai Party VR: Big Box Edition.' It's like a board game, but with a bunch of other games you play while you play."
"A board game in VR... Hmm..." Yoshida nodded along as she thought about the prospect. "Allright, sounds weird but im game! Never heard of that game before but, I guess I haven't been looking hard enough." The infantry neko quickly stepped out of the room as she talked, and grabbed Ume to lightly tug her along for the ride. She was interested now, and felt there could be no delays!
YSS Kaiyō II
VR Room
Seeing Yoshida's eagerness, Ume quickly led her back to the VR room where the new game installation had just finished, causing a soft pinging sound from the terminal.
"Oh, it just finished." She practically skipped over to the terminal and typed away at it for a moment. "We're gonna have a lot of fun. I'll set it to super hard mode so it'll be exciting." The board game enthusiast pushed the difficulty slider all the way to the top.
Yoshida nodded and hummed to herself as Ume started pushing the difficulty slider nearly off the screen. "Hehe, and here I thought this would be a lot more relaxing than my normal trips into VR..." She shrugged and stepped up to check any other odd settings quietly as Ume tapped away. "So whaaat should I be expecting? Looks like you're really working there." Yoshida's tail nearly curled in on itself in anticipation.
There were plenty of settings for the simulation, like the level of pain and gravity, there was even a setting for chibi mode, they really took care of everything.
"Well since we're on the hardest difficulty, a lot of the minigames will involve athleticism as well as thinking. So we might have to do something like chase down bad guys or fight a giant alligator. We also get to roll the dice ourselves which is really fun." Ume smiled happily as she hit the button to initiate the simulation.
The room changed to a vast starscape, with the two neko floating there idly. Then out of nowhere a large board game map fell from the sky there were over one hundred spaces, and each one was a good 10 feet by 10 feet.
This sight did not phase the purple neko and she quickly ran over to the start, ready to go.
"Ah I see" Said the blind man. This all seemed like so much for a game, very interesting but she wasn't sure she'd figure it out anytime soon! Everything about this simply radiated care and entheusiasm for games, whoever made this. Even the startup was interesting!
The not-so-purple neko ran up beside her partner- or maybe competition, she wasn't sure on that bit, and lined up right alongside her. "So, you'll probably have an easier time of it then me since you're so used to games like this, but I'll do my best!"
She took a look at the array of suqares before her for a moment before she glanced over to Ume. "Sooo... How do I roll?" She flashed a grin and looked around, half expecting some apropriately sized dice for this massive board.
Ume chuckled at Yoshida's words. "Well, I've never played before either. This will be fun"
With the two Neko on the start panel, a large roulette wheel appeared and began to spin. After several seconds it slowed down, and Yoshida's face was shown on the wheel. A moment later, a large dice fell in front of Yoshida, it was about 3 feet tall but was as light as if it were made of plush.
"Looks like you go first," Ume said happily.
"Huh... That's one gargantuan cube!" Yoshida looked it up and down for a moment before she finally shrugged and gripped the sides. With a jump assisted throw, she tossed the cube into the air, and left the ground a few feet herself. "You know that was lighter than I thought it would be!" There was a moment of silence before she continued. "You think I threw it into orbit?" Of course, she herself could clearly see the cube begining to plummet to the virtual surface of the board once more.
As it dropped and landed, she of course moved up the apropriate number of steps before stooping down to flip the square over and reveal the now glowing 'event card'. "Wow... really?" She muttered, at first rather confused as to how she was to manage that, but as she thought... Well, it couldn't possibly be THAT difficult.
"So uh, test of balance and agility I guess? Never hoolahhooped before so this will be 'fun' I'm sure!" As she spoke, the board seemed to stretch and contort. A balance beam now seperated her from the remainder of the board, and as she mentioned, a hoolah hoop dropped from the heavens above right over the neko- who only barley stopped it from falling to the ground with her tail.
"I wonder if its considered cheating to have a tail and do hoolah hooping, what do you think Ume?" She giggled as she tested out the ring with a wiggle of her hips. It was pretty simple physics really, just keep momentum and it'd all be fine! It might be hard to do that and walk the balance beam though... "Hey what happens if I fail the challenge?" She said even as she walked with her arms straight out to her sides, continually wiggling her hips as she walked that narrow path above an infinite void. Or maybe it was just the floor a few feet down.
"Of course your tail would be cheating silly. You gotta use your booty." Ume giggled some at her own words and then pulled out a rule book, well more like made one appear out of thin air. "Umm...if you fail...it says you get a penalty like losing a turn. It says if you almost completed it you can try a penalty game to avoid the normal penalty."
"Penalty game? Spooky! Wonder what that'd be-" she started, rather distracted as she turned back to look as she was almost there! The fool! With a confused eep and a wave of her arms, she slipped off the bar for an instant before trying to wrap her feet around it once more, but it was not to be, she managed to wrap her feet around it to avoid falling off but the hoop was no longer being hullahed. "... Dang."
There was a sound of a loud buzzer just a beat after Yoshida had caught the balance beam with her feet. A moment later everything returned to 'normal' and Yoshida was seated on her platform. Before she could move, a giant white glove appeared above her and picked her up by her collar and moved her back a space then let her go. Then a volumetric board appeared that said "Penalty: Move back one space."
The dice then appeared in front of Ume. "Well it's just the first game, don't worry, you'll get in the grove." At those words, she picked up the large dice and did a spin before throwing it forward.
The result let Ume run past Yoshida but the moment she landed on her space everything went black, or rather a blindfold was tied around her eyes. The world around her then shifted to that of a cell with a guard in front of it. The words "Escape the cell, defeat the guard within five minutes" were said by a disembodied voice and then the challenge began, a large clock ticking down
There were a few moments of fiddling around before the orange haired neko realized that she needed a key so she put her hands on the ground and felt around the whole cell. After three and a half minutes she had found the key, and then it took almost a minute more to unlock the cell, but she was out. She did not have any time to spare though so she rushed out the cell at full speed and dove at the guard for a flying punch to try and knock him out in one go.
The only problem was that the guard was not positioned directly in front of the door so the neko flew across the small hallway and her fist slammed into the wall like it had made fun of the cat's mother. Even though her face was largely covered, the scrunched up expression as she tried to hold back the pain was obvious. The game was not holding punches though and while she shook in pain, the guard came up behind her with a nightstick and gave her a solid whack on the back of the head that rendered her faint for a few seconds, and over the timmer.
The infantry neko watching that whole situation unfold could only wince as she watched. "Wow that... Looked mighty uncomftorable. You allright ume?" She spoke up somewhat louder than before with the second half- calling from her own square to the plum colored neko. She wondered breifly if this whole board game was going to be full of ridiculous tasks that they would fail just before completing every time.
Ume rubbed her hand tenderly as the blindfold was taken off her and the room changed back to normal. due to the comedic nature of the game, her hand could be seen glowing red and was swollen to a ridiculous degree. "Oww...that's no fair...I never took lessons in blind fighting."
Ume, rather than being moved back a space found a ball and chain firmly attatched to her left ankle. This would surely be a disadvantage in future physical challenges to some extent. It was quite comically oversized, but at least it wasn't as heav as it looked, perhaps about ten pounds. "Hey if you were a SAINT you'd have no problem there, I hear they see through their skin!"
With that, Yoshida picked up the plush dice and drop-kicked it. A poor roll meant she only barely caught back up to Ume, and the challenge that particular tile brought her... A Rapier, and an aerna appeared around her! No rails, only lines on the floor. Surely if one were to step outside of that they'd lose. There was a good fifteen meter radius at least.
"Uh- so what Am i-" Before she could even finish the question, complete with its own theme music came a Alligator walking on its hind legs. Walking in the loosest possible sense of the word. It was waddling at best, and clearly using its tail to stay upright for the moment. At its hip, it had a scabbard and rapier of its own. Oh of course it couldn't be one of the normal straight edge stabby ones either, it was the one that could be bent like it was rubber.
"You... You're serious?" She looked around to make sure this wasn't some joke, even at Ume, before she gave in and dplucked her own blade from the air, quickly taking a stance against the aproaching aligater. His arms were so short! How could it possibly- and with the siftness of a strikign snake, it quite suddenly contorted its body to grab its own sword before connecting with Yoshida's own sword she had raised to block the sudden strike, primarily on instinct.
"Oh" She muttered quietly. Those stubby little arms sure could move she discovered, as she poked and jabbed at its defences while doing her best to stay out of reach. It didn't seem to have any gaps in the front certainly! So the dance continued for many tense moments, both of their swords being batted aside from eachother, having almost always maintained some form of contact. She certainly was no expert but her undeniable physical abilities as a neko allowed her to keep up.
But this was obviously going nowhere! So she took a moment to step back and examine the situation. The gater wasn't fast on its feet, infact its footwork, unlike the tailed infantry neko, was absolutely terrible. Beyond repair really. She quickly came up with a solution, and with a charging feint, she got it to flinch and block before she suddenly rolled to the side nearly entirely around the creature. There she planted her hand against the ground and threw herself upwards to avoid a blind retaliatory strike before striking the aligator in its armored back. Point Yoshida!
"Heh... Woo... Wow that is tiring sword play is hard..." the arena dissapeared, as did the aligator and the rapier. So she took to grabbing her own tail to stop it from lashing around as she took in deep, cleansing breaths.
After witnessing Yoshida's victory, Ume clapped and smiled brightly. "That looked like a lot of fun. BUt you should've finished it with a 'Wa-Pow!' That would be really cool." She made some gestures that loosely resembled sword fighting, giving Yoshida what she thought as tips. It was obvious she was just having fun with the whole situation and did not think too heavily on the matter, after all, she was earnestly giving advice on how to fence with an alligator. "But it only makes you tired if you're not used to it. If you just keep moving all the time you build up stamina." She flexed her arms while swaying her hips side to side with a confident smile. It was true that the purple neko couldn't sit still for two minutes, but it wasn't likely that it was some sort of constant training, she was just excitable.
After her confident pose, the dice appeared in front of her once more and she once again gave it a good toss. However this time it landed on a one and she moved just one space ahead. Once she stepped on the space, before she could even express her disappointment, a table appeared before her and she was soon inside a dimly lit room with several other players, it was like that famous dogs playing poker picture.
Almost immediately the purple neck broke out into a sweat, she played enough games to know that she was in the middle of a poker game. Her expression made it obvious that she was not good at poker, for the same reason it was easy to tell she wasn't good at it, she wore her expressions on her sleeve. She had to undergo training to keep her expression stoic in combat.
Needless to say, this would be one of the most difficult challenges in the game for her, but after losing a few hands, and contemplating seriously, she had an idea. On the 4th hand, she simply did not look at her cards, and randomly discarded some and made careful bets. Like that she managed to slowly build up money, but it was taking too long, and Ume became impatient. She bet everything, on one hand, to try and finish the game in one fell swoop.
Her confidence was betrayed however and though she had three of a kind, she lost to a full house. The shock was clear to see on her face and she was ready to flip a table, possibly for comic relief, but then a sign appeared that said "Penalty Game". She had a chance to avoid in-game repercussions for her loss if she could suffer through the penalty game. So she hit the confirm button and prepared herself.
She was not ready for what was to come though, after hitting the button she was pounced by a bunch of slobbering dogs that began licking her face playfully. This would normally be okay but they had a comically exaggerated amount of slobber and the poor neko was overwhelmed by it. It took her everything she had to stay in place and not cry or flee. But she stuck it out and after a good three minutes the penalty game ended.
Yoshida stared and did mental commentary over the poker game for a short while, quite itnerested. The commentary in question rapidly picked up in excitement as Ume seemed to be winning, untill sh realized she was cheating and not even watching her cards! The gall of her! At least it had seemed to be working untill the purple silly dumped her earnings onto the table. "Aw, too bad." The penalty game of course, practically left Yoshida in stitches.
"Hehe... Wow... Amazing you could squirm that hard with that ball and chain around your ankle from the last penalty game!" She could only shake her head and grin. "You think that stuff'll stay on you the whole time? Man by the time this is over we'll probably look dreadful." Yoshida did not sound any less excited upon that realization. Boy, this game was certainly something!
YSS Kaiyō II
VR ROOM
9日 8月 YE 39
1230 Hours
The game had lasted for roughly an hour, and the two infantry soldiers were put through one strange set of circumstance after another. The game had toyed with them to the fullest until the very end and in a way, it was a satisfying experience, but form another view, it was borderline torture, it all depended on if you were having fun.
Ume lay on her back, her limbs spread out as she took several heavy breaths, her final challenge was running of the bulls, on crutches, and it had taken its toll on the poor neko. "I...don't even get this tired...from missions." She tried to catch her breath as she turned her head towards Yoshida. "But I had fun...espcially the duel with the old airplanes.."
Yoshida by this stage, had been been progressively teased by the game as it began adding movement encumbering outfits on her one after another. All of them reidiculous, all of them emberassing. "Yeah... I still think this game cheats though. Just like all the training simulations!" She wasn't quite as tired, but she had the luxury of being able to rest from doing a rock climbing challenge while angry mishu clambered up after her from below. She had only barely gotten away. "Um... Icecream?" she asked to the air and herself more than Ume.
"I'm not sure i can handle another dumb outfit." She said as she looked down at herself- a mouse suit nderneath a series of plaid clothing items. Also an oversized drinking hat with nothing in the bottles adorned her head.
"Icecream...sounds good." Ume pulled herself up slowly and let out a soft chuckle, no matter how many times she saw it, Yoshida's current appearance was ridiculous. THough her own was not much better. She still had the ball and chain from the start, but along with that, she was in a little black dress, with crutches in her arms.
"I think we deserve a prize." She then called out to the AI to deactivate the simulation, and all of the silly attire vanished, however, the fatigue was really and it stuck around.
Yoshida finally breathed a sigh of releif as she no longer looked utterly ridiculous. "Okay... phew... A priizzee for the hard fought uh.. survival of endless penalty games yeah?" She quickly hopped over to stoop down and yank Ume up to her feet where she should be! No neko should be so beaten they can't do anything but struggle to their feet afterall. "Man I'm tired... Maybe pick a version next time that doesn't exhaust us huh?" She said with a grin, lightly poking the purple neko with her tail.
She didn't waste much time after that in taking Ume out of the VR room, quite intent on getting some of that near mythical icecream they've been questing for this entire time. "Faavvorite flavor?"
With Yoshida's assistance, Ume stood up and smiled and gave Yoshida a hug. She was excited about many things but she compressed it all into a tight and friendly hug. "Yeah, next time I'll do a less physical game." She then let go of Yoshida and smiled brightly "I like all the flavors...except plum."
"Gah-" Yoshida flinched at the sudden tight hug, before quickly giving in and returning the favor. It wasn't neccesarily that hard, but her lack of preperation allowed her precious oxygen stored within her lungs to slip away for just a moment. "Less... demanding game next time... sure..." She cracked an eye open after being released and tilted her head however, as she began walking towards the cafeteria. "No plum? why's that?"
Ume followed after Yoshida, a skip in her step. "Well Ume is plum, and I'm purple too. So when I was being raised they always gave me plums with my meals. I've had like a billion plums already, I don't want anymore." She spoke a bit strongly as she walked, such a playful Neko turned serious over a fruit.
"Aahhh..." Yoshida nodded a little. "I don't really get how you could get tired of a food though... oh well, 'ruined'." Yoshida couldn't imagine what horrors have befallen the unfortunate plum to the point where the thing they were named after felt terrible to eat. Maybe it was some weird mental block! Yes surely that, and not her getting tired of a food after eating it day after day or anything.
"Well don't you worry, I'll protect you from those nefarious fruits!" she said with a giggle. The way she walked was stil undeniabely odd, constantly rising on the tips of her toes with each step just a little too long for how tall she was. As such she hardly notices ume practically skipping along her way to the cafeteria!
"Do have any food you don't like? I'll protect you from it too." She smiled widely and lightly punched the air, ready to take down any rouge food. "Do you have a favorite too? I don't have a favorite flavor, but I have a favorite food, parfaits."
"Hmmm... No hated foods yet! And I hope i don't meet one! I like steambuns though." Yoshida's smile grew wider as she watched ume start shadowboxing. Surely, this encounter was meant to be. Two of the most exciteable, funloving individuals on the ship going out to get icecream together!
Cafeteria
The two young Neko walked into the cafeteria together, where ty as a few people idling about as they had their own lunch. Today was ice cream day so of course, just about everyone had a cup or a cone as well.
Ume looked around excitedly, as it seemed they really did have ice cream on the menu now. as she looked around she came to the realization of something, it was indeed lunchtime, this brought up a question. "Should we get ice cream first or food?"
"Oh hmm... Welll on the one hand food is very important! On the other it may sully out tastebuds if we eat something else first..." Yoshida pondered this conundrum quite ferociously, before she she raised her hands up in the air and shook her head. "No idea! I'm in that weirs state where i'm not hungry but wouldn't mind eating something.. hmmm... Allright food first lets be responsible!" It wasn't moments after speaking that did she endevour to retreive the food confined within the depths of the kitchen, equipped with only a tray and Ume, her newly designated trusted friend.
"Well if we get a really fizzy soda, and then a lot of water, we can wash all the taste out." With that 'knowledge' in her mind, Ume began to load up her tray with food, mostly meats, and veggies, almost no fruit, perhaps she was saving all the sweetness for her ice cream later. And of course, she got the fizziest soda that the kitchen had to offer. If she wasn't the biological marvel known as a Nekovalkyrja, this meal would quickly lead to her performance as a soldier dropping.
Yoshida made a 'hmmm' noise at the food before shrugging it off. Of course it barely mattered what they picked to eat really, but she could at least pretend to eat healthy. "Fizzzyy drinks sure, why not." Of course, she followed suit in aquiring a few veggie steam buns. Basically heated bread and veggies really. "So" She said in between bites. "Real fan of lots of food too aren't you?" she said with a grin.
Ume smiled to Yoshida as she ate, she had a measure of composure and decorum to her eating that was unexpected of someone that grabbed so much food. "I eat a lot because I do a lot of sword fighting." She took another bite and swallowed "Like on the last mission. I have to have enough energy to never stop moving till the mission is done."
"Hmm... You sure that it doesn't just make you need to use the bathroom more often?" she said with a teasing grin. Of course it was also a legitamate question for her- while food could provide lots of energy, usually a neko's body quickly processed and got rid of well... extras!
Ume looked somewhat shocked at Yoshida's words. "You're not supposed to say that. 'Nekos don't go to the restroom.'" The air quotes were so heavy they were almost tangible "That's what a bunch of people think." She gave a nod and cotninued eating, it was hard to tell why she had made such a statement, but she was dodging the question that was for sure.
"Oh I'm not supposed to say that? News to me really! What did they not check the patch notes of the current models or something?" She gave Ume another cheeky poke in her side as she talked. Of course she worked to clean her own plate off as well but, this was far more interesting for the time being.
Ume gave a quick nod to Yoshida but then giggled at the poke to the side. "Yeah, if the bad guys think we don't go to the bathroom too, they can never catch us with our pants down right?" Was it so silly that it was smart, or was it just plain silly? With eh wide smile on her face, it was a safe bet that she was just joking around.
"Uhhh hu. Yeah I got nothin' there, sound logic!" Yoshida proceded to devour her meal as she conceded the point, still stifling a giggle. The absoltue sillyness of that one astounded her! She could get used to this. At the very least it was certainly a friend to add to the list.
"Yeah, so we gotta keep it a secret." Ume gave another of her so sure nods as she finished up the food on her plate. "Kazue says that it's just silliness, but she's just grumpy because she gets called old all the time."
"Hmm... Not sure I know a Kazue, But i'm pretty sure most people know anyway. Gee maybe I should ask some strangers later and see their reactions." Yoshida quickly in turn, decided she was done eating as well once Ume had finished. She didn't want to be left behind on the ice cream express.
Noticing that Yoshida finished as well, Ume stood up took her tray and Yoshida's. "Kazue is my teacher. She taught me and the others in my production group. She's really smart."
"Ohh you were friends with her? I honestly didn't even learn mine's first name." Yoshida quickly stood as well with a stretch that certainly wouldn't have been out of place for a stereo typically anime cat girl. She had to have done that on purpose.
Ume watched Yoshida stretch, and part of her just wanted to pounce her and start tickling since she had made herself so vulnerable, but she couldn't do that in public. "Well, it was part of an extended training program, not part of the normal infantry or birth training. We learned something called Gendaijutsu. I think it was part of some kind of test to see if it was useful or not."
"Ah special experimental techniques huh? Well did it turn out useful? I haven't heard of it myself, if that says anything." Yoshida finished her bout of stretching and wandered along side ume as she retreived the trays, ignorant of how close she came to being 'tickled into submssion'.
"Well, it's useful..." The purple neko looked up at the ceiling a moment as she thought. "Well, they said that it was like a condensed version of what they teach the samurai, not as good, but we were able to get specialized melee combat training in a relatively short time. I guess you could say it's good for expanding the skill set."
"Ah I never had the time to learn any of that fancy goodness myself really... I just hit things really hard." She gave a shrug as she walked along, untill she was finally able to snatch up some of that ice-creamy goodness. She certainly felt like they deserved it at anyrate, with what they had been put through. "Yeah like... I guess you could say I fight with more instinct and experience than actual training." And with that, she took her first bite of that oh so sweet reward. It wasn't quite so good as she hoped, but still a treat she didn't get often!
Ume grabbed her own ice cream cone right after Yoshida and smiled wide at the sight. "Well, there is nothing wrong with fighting on instinct and experience. We have practically programmed for it after all. Though I guess for other species it doesn't work out as well." She licked at her ice cream, taking her time to enjoy it. "We should do this again sometime, play games and get ice cream afterward."
Yoshida nodded with great vigor at Ume's suggestion before she spoke. "Absolutely! Games and icecream ate the spice of life! Except its not spicy at all and actually a cruel carrot on a stick, forever dangling just out of reach! Just like the idea of the perfect icecream!" She then attempted to throw on arm around the purple neko's shoulder, but found she had to awkwardly hover up a tad so it wouldn't be unduly uncomftorable for either of them.
"I sense this is the start of a great adventure between us" She said, moving her icecream laden hand before them both in a dramatic fashion. Right before eating it, of course.
Ume put an arm around Yoshida's back and smiled, giving her a one-armed hug. "I think we'll be great friends, maybe even the best friends." She raises her ice cream in 'toast' and smiles "To new friends and great adventures."
