The Curious Cat

Lyn skulked out of Suitachi's shop with a frustrated look. All she wanted now was to get back to her shack and spend an uneventful day figuring out how all of these upgrades worked...

She heard a voice behind her telling her to wait up, but Lyn didn't recognize it was for her until the footsteps sounded like they were catching up. Her head still lowered, the operator took swift glances to the left and right, sighing when she confirmed that she was the most likely candidate.

Lyn scratched the back of her hair while beginning to turn. She didn't have to turn to tell the one who'd called for her was the sun-shiney cat-hat girl that had been shopping beside her. Lyn figured she would just do what she normally did: greet any would-be conversation starter with a great big scowl. It seemed to work on humans of any gender and animals of any species, so she didn't see any reason it shouldn't work here.

Her hands still shoved in her pockets, Lyn glared back at the stranger, a heavy shadow cast on her eyes by the sun beating down on her cap's visor. "Haaaah?" she responded, cocking an eyebrow and tilting her head back.

As the high-on-life Mira bounded down the road, she almost stumbled as she came to an abrupt halt midway through calling out to her soon to be acquaintance. Catching her balance once more she let out a cheerful grin as she looked at Lyn.

"Huh? did you not hear me then? Well i guess i didn't really say much so it makes sense for you to huh I suppose! I was just saying wait up, so there really wasn't much to miss don't worry!" She led of as hyper as possibly with a flurry or words as she completely misunderstood Lyn's reaction as a drawn out "huh?". Of course she gave very little break to respond before she started off once more in a dizzying spam of vocabulary.

"You're clothes are so interesting! Where did you get them? Is that style popular somewhere or is that just your own thing? Wait you aren't a cosplayer are you?! That'd be so cool! Well either way it looks good on you, I could never pull off something like that, heeheehee." Mira was in complete curiosity mode at this point as every minor detail and question came out as it hit her brain, with no regard for anything else.

"Is your navi like that too? I bet they must be strong! Can I see them, pretty please? Oh, let's go busting! It'll be a ton of fun!" Mira didn't skip a beat as she continued to bombard Lyn with question after question until reality finally set in and she made a realization that brought a laugh of embarrassment and a slight blush at her own actions.

"Oh my god, sorry that was so rude of me! I forgot to introduce myself! Hi Hi, I'm Mira! Nice to meet ya." Immediately following up by extending her hand as a show of good faith and friendliness. Mira couldn't help but let out a slight giggle of joy as she happily waited for any response at all.

Lyn frowned deeply as her strategy didn't have the desired effect at all. She realized that the pose she'd adopted wasn't at all comfortable when conversing with a person at that range, so she turned to face her properly. She seemed to be going through a range of different uncomfortable and aggravated expressions as the newcomer bombarded her with questions. Before Lyn could even consider the whether or not to answer or what the answer would be, it seemed like another one came up. "These clothes are-" she began, followed by "Well, she's-" and finally just a frustrated growl.

Mira might have been about to stop, but failing to foresee that, Lyn made the determination that she had to just find some way to make Mira stop talking. Her hand shot forward, but not to grab Mira's own extended one. Instead, her hand clasped around the face, her thumb on one side and finger on the other, squishing Mira's mouth into a funny shape. "Mira, was it? I'm Lyn. If you want to talk to me, the next words that leave your mouth need to be twice as slow, or my fist will be the next thing enterin' it. Got it?" The operator flexed the fingers of her free hand to emphasize the point, and kept her other on Mira's face until she demonstrated some sort of compliance.

Lyn thought she had heard something about busting, although she didn't know why she should throw down what she was doing and surrender her day to that proposition immediately. She suddenly had a great idea, though... Removing her hand from Mira, she quickly drew out her PET and turned the display on. "This is my Navi, Ship. How about you just talk to her, arright?" She wasn't eager to show her Navi to just anybody, but she had to do anything she could to get out of conversing further with Mira.

Ship blipped onto the viewscreen, expecting to see Lyn. "Good news, I already got the new signatures fixed up... Oh! Who is this?"

"Uh, Mira. Why don't you introduce yourself and just, uh, talk to her for a sec?" Lyn suggested, moving her pipe into her teeth. "Or however long she decides to stick around before she goes the hell away." she added under her breath.

"Oh! Nice to meet you, I'm Ship," the Navi said, smiling widely. It had been a while since her operator had introduced her to anybody. Now that she thought about it... "Um, excuse me, Ms. Mira, but how do you know Lyn?"

Letting out a muffled meep of surprise, Mira's lips were bound by her new acquaintance suddenly despite the fact she was just about to finish. She probably would have been insulted, discouraged, or annoyed if this wasn't a common occurrence for her. She was starting to wonder if it was her that was the problem. Of course she shed that thought without a second guess as she nodded in response to Lyn's request immediately. Wether it be pure ignorance or something else entirely the threat seemed not to phase the energetic girl in the least. She just continued to grin happily.

Mira's eyes lit up however as she saw Lyn reach for her PET, and a gasp escaped her lips as Ship was revealed to her. "Oh my god, she's so adorable!" Was the only response Mira could utter at first, looking the navi over until Ship began to address her.

"Nice to meet you Ship! I'm Mira, hehehe" She responded happily as usual, already forgotten what had just happened. "How do i know her? Well... I don't! We just met! I guess she couldn't help but show you off though, which means you must be incredible!" This was the only conclusion Mira could come to anyways, ever the optimist.

Pausing for a moment, Mira had a great idea and reached for her own PET. Wasting little time she did the same, bringing her own lovely Navi into the discussion. "Oh, This is Katran! She's a military navi. You wouldn't happen to be military too, would you Ship?"

"Mira I doubt just because they have ships in the military, that means she must also be in the military..." Katran let out a sigh at her operators actions, as usual she was getting out of hand and full of crazy notions.

"First off, I would like to apologize for my Operator, and any inconvenience she may have cause. She's easily excitable and somehow never seems to run out of energy. That Aside, pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Katran.EXE."

The operator's scowling and Navi's beaming seemed to increase proportionally in response to Mira's praise. "Quite pleased to make your acquaintance," Ship said with a smile. She was disappointed to learn Lyn wasn't randomly making surprise friends, but tickled to hear she was being shown off to random strangers. "But, ah... Military?" She tilted her head curiously, forcing herself to catch her cap as it began to slide to one side of her curls. "Oh! It must be this sailor cap I have. I really need to put on something with a more personal touch one of these days..."

Lyn just continued scowling as Mira began to introduce her Navi. She wanted to be optimistic, hearing she was military, but she just couldn't believe Mira would produce. Sure enough, as Katran was rolled out, Lyn found herself looking past kevlar armor and deadly-cool demeanor and directly at cat ears. "Of course she'd have f*ckin' cat ears," the operator muttered.

Ship clapped her hands together in excitement at the prospect of being introduced to both a new pretty female acquaintance and a cute kitty in the same instance. "I'm Ship!" she shouted again, in case Katran hadn't heard it before. "Lyn, are we going to be hanging out with these two today?" the Navi asked, her voice practically begging.

The operator let a low growl out in response and paused far longer to answer the question than would probably be considered civil. Realizing that any time she didn't fill the space with her own voice as noise canceller was a chance for Mira to pipe back up, however, she came to a crack decision. "Arright, arright, but let me get this straight. How is Katran military? You clearly ain't any kind of officer, so why have you got a military Navi? And more importantly, does she kick *ss like a real soldier? If so," she finished, glaring away moodily, "then maybe it'd be worth having the two of them hang out. See if she can't knock some sense into Princess here. You have time for a mission?"

Mira's eyes lit up as Lyn began to ask questions about Katran, thinking that she finally sparked some interest in the tough looking girl she was attempting to befriend. She swiftly opened her mouth to try and speak, but her ever vigilant and observant navi was quick to jump in.

"Hold it Mira! I'll handle this, we don't want to be here for hours." She said sternly, before clearing her throat and turning her attention to Lyn. "It's never wise to ask her about any topic she can get excited about, just a heads up." As her words rang out, Mira began to pout as her fun was ruined.

"Awwww. you're no fun, Katran..."

"Now then, in regards to your question. I am the product of a military sanctioned experiment, attempting to combine the traits of animals into a human form. As you can see, I am... part cat much to my dismay. None the less, I am a fully capable Military navi trained in covert ops thanks to my agility, stealth and close quarters combat." She explained with confidence, as is she was partaking in an interview. "As for why Mira and I are together, let's just say those involved in my creation also deemed their experiments expendable, and due to certain problematic circumstances I'm here." She added sternly, though she didn't seemed to show any distaste for her current state of affairs.

"So lto cut a long story short, Yes we are free, and yes I kick *ss. Satisfied?"

Lyn made a mental note of Katran's advice. In her mind, that basically amounted to "don't ask Mira anything ever," which was pretty much the page she was already on. She kept her arms crossed and her mouth locked in a grimace around her pipe as Katran elaborated, but she wasn't actually disapproving. First off, she was very pleased to hear that Katran placed value on her useful combat abilities and held distaste for her less useful traits. More interestingly, it sounded like Katran and Mira were in a similar position to her and Ship... only in their case, it was the Navi who seemed to have the operator thrust upon her.

The operator nodded, an earnest expression of approval coming from her. "It's one thing to say you kick *ss and another thing to get your feet dirty," she responded, not bothering to elaborate any further on the crude expression. "But it'll do. I didn't hear you give an okay, Motormouth, but you're still standin' there, so I figure you're good for a mission?"

Lyn felt she had been controlling the conversation but had now talked herself into a corner. She was willing to give this teamup a shot, but she really had no idea where to move. "Uh... I'll go dig us up a mission on the BBS. In the meantime, why don't you drag me to wherever the hell it is you people go for a quick jack-in?" Lyn blushed a bit at her lack of experience, but if she was going to do something this degrading in the first place she might as well throw away her pride. That was better than ending up jacked into some random light pole for the entire duration of a mission again.

Mira giggled to herself lightly as Lyn slowly began to come around to the idea more, even asking her to lead the way to a place of her own choosing. She pondered for a moment, tilting her head back and forth as she tried to decide a good place in the area. It was almost as if she was playing a quiz show theme in her head as she tried to answer a question. Suddenly, a brainstorm as she looked up at the nearest street sign.

"Oh, I know the perfect place! There's a nice little cafe down the street, that has ports and internet access. We can relax, have a snack and get on with the mission. Sound good?"

It was the best place she could think of off hand that was close, and would fill the hole in her stomach after realizing she forgot to eat breakfast again today. Not only that but the idea of celebrating a new friend with a cup of tea was the best idea she'd had all day. She instinctively began to walk towards the shop without really waiting for an OK from Lyn.

"This way!" She said cheerfully, waving to Lyn and signalling to follow her.

"Ugh, a cafe?" Lyn groaned, gritting her teeth in a grimace. "What the f*ck, are you expecting me to order an early grey and a freakin' scone?" she asked rhetorically, as though the thought should seem instantly ridiculous.

Mira's cafe didn't betray Lyn's expectations much: any sensible person would see it as a pleasantly shaded street corner cafe, albeit a slightly upscale one considering its busy location. There were even outdoor tables where you could place orders and jack in from a convenient console. Of course, to Lyn, the most striking feature was all the sweater-clad douchebags and purse-toting girly-girls (in other words, ordinary college students enjoying a quiet lunch and going about their own business). She figured that the outdoor option would at least keep her from being stuffed in a small space with all of them. Lyn took a seat at one that was unfortunately out of reach of the shade, meaning it was also conveniently free of neighbors at its adjacent tables.

The furniture was all light-gage metal and pastel-colored cushions or plastic. Somehow even this seemed to offend Lyn as she pulled her coattail up to take a seat. She immediately propped her elbows up on the table and rested her chin in her hands. She wanted to take a drag of her pipe more than anything, but she realized that with Mira directly across, she'd be puffing smoke right into her face... she'd save that for later in case she wanted to try and cut this engagement short.

"Beach Net, eh? Let's go ahead and get those two to work..." Lyn yanked her cord from the PET and slotted it into the PET. The wireless option was really much better for a cafe table, as Lyn's wire was now laying exactly where an average waiter would want to place an average patron's dish.

The operator pored over the electronic menu, continuing to grimace in a defiant display of distaste. "What's a dude even supposed to order here? Freakin' flowery muffler-stuffers all over this place," she muttered unintelligibly, raising an eyebrow. "Oi, Mira! Croissant is Whazzapian for biscuit, right? And what the hell is a 'cordon bleu...'" Lyn was clearly going to be a long time ordering.

Lyn's face was still a bit red from giving what was, for her, an unusual bit of praise and acknowledgement. Tugging her cap over her face, the operator kicked back from the table, shooting to her feet and leaving her chair clattering on its back. "I'm going to the Navi store!" Lyn shouted at Mira, making it nice and loud for anyone who might feel like reporting her movements to the police.

Lyn turned around and began slouch-stomping in that direction. Perhaps Mira would realize that Lyn hadn't said anything precluding being accompanied to the Navi shop, but whether Mira did or didn't follow, Lyn was going. She took off her cap and fanned herself with it while on the move.

The girl giggled lightly to herself, noticing Lyn's embarassment from the whole situation. She had honestly forgotten all about the fact she had just moment ago been moping or the reason entirely. Mira was much too in the moment as a person, which while making her hard to deal with, was just something that would probably never change about her.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Chiming in as she lept up from her seat. Grabbing her things, and paying the bill, she cheerfully made her way to the next destination.

((5 Ship/Katran FXP awarded))