HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[Beans]

[Front Entrance]

The winged woman turns and smiles, especially at the presence of a wee one. "Oh, hey---you too, I'm actually an old member. Former member, really, came to turn in my ID and all." She holds up her four-years-outdated HALO ID. "I'm Caroline. Fel's still in charge, right?"

[Recaiden]

Ginger Spice's tails wave slowly and uncertainly.
It sounds like the catgirl is pretty conflicted about this. But she did say yes. And a moment later she seems pretty happy about it.
And for the moment, she isn't petted anywhere but the ears. Nothing to worry about.

"Should. Brings us to the next part of the tour. Down from the power plant are the dormitories for members."
"These days, just about everyone lives elsewhere, comes in by shuttle or teleport."
The foxgirl taps on a particular door and it slides open, revealing a relatively plain (if 'underwater high-tech decor') room. There's a bed, a bench, and a table full of weird gadgets.
"Including me. Still have a room, though. Go on, sit."

[5a Violista]

Lucky Charm is, at this point, pretty glad that she agreed to it. After all, it feels really good.

Keeping a close distance, she goes along with the tour. "Oh, I see," she says, looking around at the dorm hallway. "It does look nice here, but I can see why lots of people would prefer their own place."
Especially if you get claustrophobic easily.

As Ginger Spice's plain room is opened, the catgirl quickly looks around the room, trying to get a better picture of what the foxgirl is like. It's sparse, yes. But! Gadgets on the table! She wants to look at them more...but, later.

Instead of going straight to the table, Lucky Charm considers the good places to sit. Floor, bed, bench...and that's it.

She picks the bench, and moves there to sit. And when Ginger Spice gets next to her, she practically will lean on her.



[Front Entrance]

The baby, of course, reaches towards the winged woman (but is too far away to reach her).

Carlie looks at the ID. Wow.
"Yeah, she's in charge," she says. "Felandria and Reinholdt are the two leaders right now." She says the full 'Felandria' in case they're talking about a different Fel.

"So, former member?" she asks, as if trying to tease out the story behind that.

[Beans]

[Front Entrance]

The baby, of course, reaches towards the winged woman (but is too far away to reach her).

Carlie looks at the ID. Wow.
"Yeah, she's in charge," she says. "Felandria and Reinholdt are the two leaders right now." She says the full 'Felandria' in case they're talking about a different Fel.

"So, former member?" she asks, as if trying to tease out the story behind that.

Caroline waves to the baby with a gloved hand. The gloves seem to go past the wrists, up under her hoodie's sleeves. "Oh, Rein too? Cool. I didn't interact with either of them all that much while I was here, more a friend-of-a-friend kinda thing, but still." She notes the question and smiles wryly.

"No juicy story to be had there, I'm afraid---just had to be away for a few years, and HALO-ing isn't all that much in the cards for me any more. More 'growing apart' than 'messy breakup'."

[5a Violista]

"Oh," Carlie says. "I see." That's a decent explanation.

She thinks a bit, then says, "Sorry, I'm pretty new here, so I wouldn't know if there's anyone around that you know. But...if you'd like to look around, I'm sure nobody would mind."

[Beans]

[Front Entrance]

"No prob, I'm mostly gonna drop my ID at the main office and... probably look around a little." She smiles and starts heading for about where she remembers the main office being. She's not in a hurry, amber eyes taking in the familiar-but-unfamiliar space.

[5a Violista]

[Front Entrance]

"Yeah, bye," Carlie says. She waves 'bye' and then makes the baby wave too.

"Have fun looking around."

She heads in the other direction, continuing where she was going:towards the library.

[Beans]

Caroline drops off her ID at the office and proceeds to just... wander a little through memory cobwebs, eventually finding herself looking out at her old favorite ocean view. It's much the same, even if what's on her side of the glass is different.

[Purple Eagle]

[Front Entrance]

A girl arrives in HALO! She's a German-looking teenaged girl with blond hair, blue eyes, elf ears and vampire fangs. She's also dressed in a schoolgirl outfit, and is here to see Carlie.

Turns out Carlie's here, right at the front entrance but heading away. So, she briskly walks in order to intercept her target. "Citizen!" That high-pitched, German-accented voice should be quickly recognizable.

It's only then that she spots the baby. "Aww, ze baby is out! Cute baby!" She says, trying to poke the baby's nose. "I came to see you und ze baby!"

[5a Violista]

[Front Entrance]

Carlie is intercepted! By the German vampire elf.

Hearing the voice, she turns.
"Oh! Hi. Yeah, the baby's healthy," she says.


The baby Manja, realizing that she's under attack by yet another finger, already knows what to do. She's had so many fingers come after her that she's basically already a pro at handling them.
With all the grace and agility that a baby can muster, she reaches out and tries to grab the finger before it can reach her.

[Felandria]

[Great Kitten Escape]

Hopefully it's the right kind of milk, because kittens should really only be fed cat milk. Then again, there's probably some of that somewhat available.

She tries to bite the finger that's stroking her head, but can't quite reach it just by bending her head up. Frustrated that the finger is too hard to bite, she meows a complaint.

[One of the Kitchens]

Fel and the babkitty enter the kitchen, Felandria opens the milk fridge (Yes, a whole fridge just for milks, not just for Rein, because Fel loves cereal and cookies) and finds a bottle of cat milk next to the goat milk.

She pours some onto a saucer and sets the tiny fuzzy next to it.

- - - Updated - - -

Caroline drops off her ID at the office and proceeds to just... wander a little through memory cobwebs, eventually finding herself looking out at her old favorite ocean view. It's much the same, even if what's on her side of the glass is different.

Felandria is walking by, writing on a clipboard, when she spots a familiar figure.

Oh, Carrie!

Is that you?

[5a Violista]

[One of the Kitchens]

The kitten Manja last ate three hours ago.

Her mother's been trying to put her on the schedule of eating every four hours, and she's only sort-of hungry right now, but...
...she can smell it and sort-of wants it.

Unfortunately, it's cold and she's not quite sure how to drink it out of a saucer. Never done it before.

She first tries putting a paw on it, and almost tips it over.
Then, she tries sucking on the edge. That doesn't work, either.
So, she sticks her face in the milk...but it goes too far in and it goes up her nose. She starts sneezing as a result.

[Beans]

[At the Window]

Caroline turns and looks up, and up, and up at the redhead. "Hey, I just missed you on the way to your office---sorry I didn't exactly give two weeks' notice, but I figure four years away means about the same thing." She smiles, wings shifting behind her back. "Not that I don't like what you've done with the place."

[Purple Eagle]

[Front Entrance]

The finger arrives at its destination and boops Manja's nose, undeterred by the tiny hand's attempt to grab it! "You are cute baby, are you not? Ja, you are!"

Then she looks up at the bunnygirl. "Und how are you, Miss Hopps? Is there somewhere private ve can talk while I play vith baby?" She asks, looking around.

[5a Violista]

[Front Entrance]

Manja makes a noise at her failure to stop the hand, but doesn't stop trying to grab it.


"I was actually headed to the library," Carlie says. "It should be pretty quiet there, so there's probably no problem with that."

She starts walking again, and adds, "It's this way."

[Recaiden]

Lucky Charm is, at this point, pretty glad that she agreed to it. After all, it feels really good.

Keeping a close distance, she goes along with the tour. "Oh, I see," she says, looking around at the dorm hallway. "It does look nice here, but I can see why lots of people would prefer their own place."
Especially if you get claustrophobic easily.

As Ginger Spice's plain room is opened, the catgirl quickly looks around the room, trying to get a better picture of what the foxgirl is like. It's sparse, yes. But! Gadgets on the table! She wants to look at them more...but, later.

Instead of going straight to the table, Lucky Charm considers the good places to sit. Floor, bed, bench...and that's it.

She picks the bench, and moves there to sit. And when Ginger Spice gets next to her, she practically will lean on her.

Well, the foxgirl is like someone who doesn't live here. This is a place to rest and store stuff and tinker with gadgets without interruptions.
There is a tremendous amount of blankets and duvets on the bed that surely aren't normal. There's a mysterious orb hovering near the bedstand, crackling with lightning. There are spare gadget parts all around the table. That's just about it.

But that's all secondary. The important thing it the two on the bench.
"Some of the rooms really crazy. But my actual home much nicer, you know?"
Ginger Spice puts an arm around Lucky Charm, since she's practically leaning on her shoulder already, and resumes petting the cat.
"Not in a hurry to see the rest of the base, are you?"

[5a Violista]

There are lots of neat things in here that Lucky Charm probably wants to ask about.

Instead, she starts purring.
Which is a little embarrassing - partially because it's involuntary, but it's just the two of them here so it's not that bad.
"If I need to, could always come back another day to finish the tour," she says.

In order to keep a conversation going where they learn about each other (and make sure that it's not just purring ringing out in the silence), she asks, "So what's your actual place like, then? Here looks nice already."

[Recaiden]

I'm afraid she won't get any answers until she actually asks about them.

"Nice hearing you purr." Ginger Spice admits. And she moves a hand lower, but just to gently pet the cat tails. She figures those are the same as the ears.

"Well, above water." A very important fact about houses.
"Rent part of a house, and 's got another smaller house in the yard that a 3rd tenant lives in. See, the place can resize. Usually just everything is exciting big, but one time, got home with groceries and living room was 20 miles across." It was fine eventually, they had airships to get to the kitchen.
"My side's got ton a windows - and curtains, of course, since useless to me. And everything is soft."
"What's your place like?"

[5a Violista]

Cats frequently feel overstimulated when you touch their tails too much so...
...
It's probably the same for catgirls.

"Oh, wow," Lucky Charm says about hearing about the house. "That sounds like it could get pretty weird." Where did they even get the airships from? Or do they just have airships sitting around just in case?

"Soft things are really nice," she says, as a soft tail of hers is being petted.



edit
And, "I live in the break room of the store I work at," she says, hoping that's a good enough description. "All my coworkers are robots so they don't use it. Got a couch, a fridge, a sink, a window but it's in Westside so the light feels weird."

[Purple Eagle]

[Front Entrance]

Annaliese turns it into a game and lets Manja succeed one or two times. Even if the baby's not already at the age to start smiling, here's hoping she at least enjoys herself! "Ja, let's go to ze library. Can I carry baby?" She asks, aiming to play with the baby for the rest of their trip.

"What is baby's name? When did you give birth to baby?" She starts rapid-firing assorted baby-related questions.

[5a Violista]

[Library]

Carlie thinks about it.
...
She thinks about it some more.
...
"Sure," she says. She carefully hands the baby to Annaliese. And goes towards the library.
The baby, now in melee range of Annaliese and in a grapple with her, tries to grab at her mouth and nose.

"Manja was born just over two months ago," she says, answering both questions at once.

[Recaiden]

"Yeah. Should have nice things waiting at home, right?"
Though then Lucky Charm describes her residence. Does not sound terribly soft.
"...sounds efficient." Obviously not a good place to live, but it wouldn't be nice to bring that up, right?
"So how come you're only non-robot working there?"

[5a Violista]

It's a long story.

So, Lucky Charm summarizes "Long story short:"

She takes a deep breath. "A friend of mine" - the kind of friends you curtain with - "saved me and asked the boss-guy to hire me and let me stay there even though all the people working there were robots. Things happened, I..." The catgirl purses her lips, pauses, and builds up courage to continue, and then quickly plows through the next part: "...got enslaved again, I killed the guy who bought me and then escaped. Went back; turns out the old boss freed all the robots to do what they want, so one took over the company. That one rehired me because all the robots were interested in exploring their artistic side or personable side and I was the only one interested in cleaning and repairs and learning how to fix broken machines and robots."

There.
Long story, short.

She laughs: "Don't get paid very well, though. At least I get to work on machines whenever I want. Every so often, I overhear some of them talking about giving me an 'honorary robot' certificate. It's pretty hard to change jobs, though, so that's why I haven't found another one."

[Recaiden]

"Could listen to a long story, from you." Ginger Spice comments at the beginning.

"Quite a story." By the end of it, even though Lucky Charm is laughing, Ginger Spice has stopped petting anything soft, and straightened up, and it sitting rather tensely on the bench. She should say something, that must have taken some bravery to bring up at all. But...she really doesn't want to think about it.
"Honorary robot." she muses vaguely.

[Felandria]

[One of the Kitchens]

The kitten Manja last ate three hours ago.

Her mother's been trying to put her on the schedule of eating every four hours, and she's only sort-of hungry right now, but...
...she can smell it and sort-of wants it.

Unfortunately, it's cold and she's not quite sure how to drink it out of a saucer. Never done it before.

She first tries putting a paw on it, and almost tips it over.
Then, she tries sucking on the edge. That doesn't work, either.
So, she sticks her face in the milk...but it goes too far in and it goes up her nose. She starts sneezing as a result.

Fel is simultaneously concerned for the poor smol bab and internally squeeing over the adorable kitty sneezes.

She looks for a better way for kitty to have the milk.

She finds a small squeeze bottle and fills it with the milk, and attempts to bottle feed Manja

- - - Updated - - -

[At the Window]

Caroline turns and looks up, and up, and up at the redhead. "Hey, I just missed you on the way to your office---sorry I didn't exactly give two weeks' notice, but I figure four years away means about the same thing." She smiles, wings shifting behind her back. "Not that I don't like what you've done with the place."

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

You know, you’re welcome to return anytime.

Reginald peeks out from out of Fel’s hair, perched on her shoulder, happily inspecting Carrie.

We’ll be here for you whenever.

[Beans]

[At the Window]

Carrie winks at Reginald. "It's good to hear that. I haven't forgotten how this place gave me a home way back, change in management or no." She takes another long look out the window. "I have a different home now, though, and hell if it isn't waiting for me."

She turns back and gives Fel a hug, wings included. After the embrace ends, she turns to go home.

[5a Violista]

[Off Tour]

Lucky Charm is actually pretty okay with Ginger Spice not saying anything about it.

"I know, right?" she says. "If I become an honorary robot, then imagine how weird that would make customs or ID or even medical care. Someone does a background check on me and tries to accommodate me for all sorts of weird things."

She pauses, and chooses to keep the conversation on this lighthearted topic. "What would you do if I became a an honorary robot?"



A kitten in a Kitchen

Manja actually likes the small squeeze bottle, it feels pretty natural.

She starts drinking from it, a little too fast. Sure, she wasn't quite very hungry yet but she was still hungry. Been three hours since she last ate, after all.

After she's done eating the milk, she contentedly lies down on Fel's hand.

WAIT NO! She can't be content yet! She wants to be touched more. She starts mewing at Fel, trying to convince her to attack Manja with her finger again.

[Purple Eagle]

[Library]

Annaliese happy accepts the baby and continues making cooing noises... then her nose and mouth are grabbed! "Cute baby, cute mmmmphhh!" Unfortunately for Manja, that just means her hands are occupied, leaving her face open to more nose-boops and cheek-prods!

Then they get to the library and Annaliese sits down beside Carlie, bobbing Manja up and down on her lap. "Congrats again! How have you been? Has baby..." ... started shapeshifting, she means.

[Recaiden]

"Gotta have a party. Celebrate your new status." Even honorary robotism is a big step, right? For the sake of lighthearted banter, anyway.
Ginger Spice shifts to give Lucky Charm a hug; it was good of her to be so understanding there.
"Need you a cute robot costume to blend in better."
"But for just an honorary robot, not like can get you upgraded parts, or examine how you work."

[5a Violista]

[Library]

The baby, realizing that she left herself open to counterattack, curses her hubris.
She gives a raspberry and starts kicking.


"I'm doing better," Carlie says, watching carefully to make sure the baby isn't jostled too much. Answering the unstated question, she says, "She's fine as long as I'm around. Does well when her father's around too. How have you been?"


[Off Tour]

"Yeah, a party would be great," she says. Lucky Charm hugs back. "Oh! And maybe I could get some of that shiny makeup. Y'know, the kind that has metal in it." Since she's not really sure if Ginger Spice can appreciate 'shiny' but could probably appreciate 'metallic'. "Replace my whole make-up drawer."

Lucky Charm bites her lip. "To be honest," she confesses, "I've always wanted to try out metallic make-up. Looks really great, but never really had the courage to actually put it on."