With Hrogge's input. Because Catgirls are funny.
Thoughts?
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Quote:The car settled to the ground beside Shinji, it’s suspension crouching down as it took the full weight. Inside, he could see six catgirls. Living, breathing catgirls.
He was beyond quailing inside. His mind was stuck somewhere struggling to grasp the concept of handwavium and biomodding when the doors opened. One flopped out, followed by another, then two carrying the same sort of small, hovering robots that seemed omnipresent on Frigga.
Only these painted in lurid, eye-scorching colours.
Another pair followed, clambering nimbly out over the back seats. All six stretched, displaying figures that would make Asuka jealous, and made Shinji start to feel very warm inside.
It didn’t help that they dressed very lightly.
A tabby walked around the trailer, opened it and stuck her head inside. “Come out you little scoundrels, we’re there!”
Shinji thought he could hear yawning or hissing from the inside, and worried what those ‘scoundrels’ might be.
A moment later, a swarm of more flying robots rushed out to meet her,flitting and circling around, hissing and beeping. One of them was being carried by two others, apparently inert.
A catgirl grabbed the ‘sleeping’ robot and began to stroke it lovingly, like a favourite puppy. Shinji recognised her immediately as the one from the comm-link. She glared back at him and grinned like a hungry tiger. Her fangs gleamed white and sharp.
“So you’re the rude one are you?”
“Yes ma’am. I’m Shinji,”
She was a living, breathing catgirl. Her ears twitched, scanning the bay. Her eyes lasered in on him. Her tail seemed to drift in a non-existant breeze, swaying in a way a costume would never be able to emulate.
“I’m Arelia, nice to meet you Shinji.” she smirked. Her teeth were so sharp. Somehow she managed not to speak with a lisp, despite the fangs. “It’s unusual to meet someone who’s never seen a catgirl before. Especially on Frigga.”
Catgirls are common?
“I’m new,” he managed to say.
“Hey, don’t worry...” she smiled lazily, her tail drooping “I don’t bite unless someone steps on my tail. It’s always good to see a new face.”
Shinji made a mental note to avoid walking behind them if at all possible.
A second catgirl was approaching from behind, followed by another one of the luridly painted robots.
“Arelia, your racer doesn’t want to wake up... little bit lazy today?”
Racing? Shinji pondered.
Arelia looked a bit annoyed and continued to pet the machine in her arms.
“Come on my little friend, time to wake up” she cooed over it. “Unless you want that the others get a head start!”
The robot began to purr. Shinji stared opened mouth as it light up, beeping and chirping before zipping off to join it’s friends circling above.
“Racing?” he managed to ask.
Arelia nodded with a big smile, Shinji could see that he had hit an area of interest of the catgirl.
“Yes, Exocomp racing. We mount a small saddle on our little friends here and race through some prepared shafts in the mines. Its really fun, you should try it yourself one day!”
One of the ‘normal colored’ robot of the catgirls raced towards both of them and began jumping up and down.
“Maybe another time,” Shinji answered carefully.
In other words, no chance in hell!
The movement of the new robot froze in mid air, Shinji had the feeling he was stared at by the small machine. It began to whine at him. He scanned around, searching for Mackie. Daryl was striding towards him.
“Hey!” she called out. “You weren’t due for another two days!”
The catgirls winced. “We were hoping to get to work on the race track,” Arelia answered her. “So we came early. We brought the new Exocomps for you too in the trailer.”
Daryl was visibly mulling it over. “Alright.... but we’re kind of busy so stay out of our way,”
The catgirls shared a communal giggle. “Yes ma’am,”
“Shinji!” she called out. “Mackie’s busy. Go fetch the Warthog.... please.”
The please was an afterthought. He stood there, staring back at her. “Me?”
“You’re the only Shinji I know,” she answered him. “If you’re going to live here, you’re going to have to pull your weight,”
“But I don’t know how to drive,”
“Well,. you’ve plenty of space here to figure it out,” she assured him with a sinister smile. “It’s an automatic. Right pedal makes it go faster. Left pedal slows it down. Try not to mix them up, okay?”
The catgirls giggled at him.
He shrunk down into his own boots. “Yes ma’am,”
Arelia looked at him, still smiling warmly. “Take your time to think about the racing. We’ll be here for a whole week. A little bit fun cannot be that bad.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
No, he meant. Arelia smiled anyway.
The little Exocomp in front of him brushed itself against his leg an purred. He started. It raced off to the rest of the group.
“They like you,” Arelia giggled. “You must be special “
Shinji offered nothing but a frown.
Arelia turned to face the other catgirls.. “And now lets get our stuff out of the trailer and moving, the racing track will not build itself magically!”
Shinji traipsed across the floor making a show of being puzzled by the massive off-road vehicle. It towered over him. His body bristled as he slipped into the drivers seat, taking a few moments to figure out how to adjust everything.
Push the button to start.
The engine coughed and roared.
In it’s own way it was far more intimidating that the EVA. There was no centimetres thick wall of armour between him and trouble. It demanded he put his foot on the brake before allowing him to put it into Drive.
It clicked into the gear, the engine note dipped and snarled as it strained to push forward. He released the brake. The hog snorted and began to crawl forwards. Gripping the steering wheel, he smiled in satisfaction
“Hurry up!” Daryl beckoned, waving her arm at him.
He tickled the throttle with his foot. The engine burbled, effortlessly picking up speed to a steady thirty kph. He was driving!
A giddy thrill shot through his body. He was actually driving a big, fat rumbling V8 monster truck. Approaching the parked car, he eased of the throttle. It kept rumbling on, not slowing down. Alarmed, he jammed hard on the brake, lurching to a squealing halt some distance from where he’d planned to stop.
Everyone looked at him.
He hid behind the dashboard.
He crept it forward again, stopping a little more gracefully beside the open trailer. He left it in drive with the handbrake on.... just like he’d seen Misato do hundreds of time.
With the catgirls help, loading the warthog didn’t take too long. Ten more of the little Exocomps. Painted a dull grey and coated in plastic wrap. Inert and apparently dead. They must’ve been brand new.
The racing ones swarmed around, watching on curiously. Some of Frigga’s native ones hid in the corner, watching on covertly. Mackie didn’t reappear until the last one had been loaded into the Warthog.
“Look who finally decided to show up when the work is all done.” Daryl groused.
“I had to tie both choppers down and a strap broke,” Mackie offered.
“Well, Shinji here was far more useful,”
Daryl threw him a savage looking smirk. He gave Mackie a nervous glance. “I was only following orders,”
“That’s no excuse,” she chided him. “As punishment, you have to drive the Warthog all the way back up to the accommodation block.”
A genuine smile crawled across his lips for the first time since he arrived.
“Yes ma’am!”
Mackie didn’t seem to care either way.
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Anika was twirling her hair over in her fingers, waiting for her code to compile. The last job of the day, then she could get ready for Shinji coming over. TITANIC was idling away to itself, directing Exocomps according to the day’s maintenance lists.
Most of the monitors in the control room were online, filling it with a soft green glow. Lights winked and flickered as systems clicked on and off. Behind her, on the big board, Frigga’s power grid and networks read out their status alongside each and every node.
Messages were still coming in for Shinji. A few were routed on towards Jet’s I.P.... others crashed into the filter she’d set up. One or two which matched certain criteria bounced back to sender with an angry form letter. She scanned the list of mail being rejected or bounced for false positives, flagged two for the filter to learn from, then got back to work.
A single, staring eye appeared on the monitor in front of her. Greetings, High Programmer.
“I did it!”
A group of Paranoia LARPers wanted an authentic Alpha Complex experience and oh boy were they going to get it.
She allowed herself some victory cake to celebrate, unaware that she had a viewer. Halfway through a mouthful she turned to see a silhouette in the doorway.
“Hi,” it offered meekly. “I’m Shinji Ikari. I’m supposed to be with you tonight.”
She felt herself blush just a little, embarrassed at being caught.
“I’m Anika,” she offered, forcing herself to smile. “And you’re English is pretty good. Kotono told me you only spoke Japanese,”
The boy blinked, his jaw hanging open.
“I’ve been speaking English?”
Oh crap.
“Maybe you just got caught up?”
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Thoughts?
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?