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Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk system apocalypse!) - Ongoing
Fluff (A superheroic LitRPG about cute girls doing cute things!) - Ongoing
Love Crafted (Interactive story about an eldritch abomination tentacle-ing things!) - Completed!
Dreamer's Ten-Tea-Cle Café (An insane Crossover about cute people and tentacles) - Hiatus
Cinnamon Bun (A wholesome LitRPG!) - Ongoing
The Agartha Loop (A Magical-Girl drama!) - Volume Two Complete!
Lever Action (A fantasy western with mecha!) - Volume One Complete!
Heart of Dorkness (A wholesome progression fantasy) - Completed!
Dead Tired (A comedy about a Lich in a Wuxia world doing Science!) - Ongoing
Sporemageddon (A fantasy story about a mushroom lover exploding the industrial revolution!) - Ongoing
Past the Redline (A girl goes too fast, then she does it again) - Completed!
Magical Girl Crystal Genocide (Magical Girls accidentally the planet, and then try to fix it) - Completed!
Magical Girl Rending Nightmare (A sequel to Crystal Genocide! Cute girls in a soviet dystopia having a picnic on the roadside) - Volume Two Completed!
Noblebright (A shipcore AI works to avenge humanity) - Completed!
The Complicated Love Life of Ivil Antagonist (The Empress of Mars finds love) - Completed!
Pokebun (Broccoli Bunch in the world of Pokemon) - Hiatus
Queen Violence (An Assassin Reborn as a Kitten) - Completed!
No Strings Attached (An Elden Ring/Bloodborne inspired progression fantasy) - Ongoing
Save Scumming (A time-looping system apocalypse) - Ongoing
Chapter Seventy-Four - Mom's Spaghetti
"A golden statue of the President of the New United State of Georgia went up today in central park, and that has come with a fair bit of controversy. The statue, coming in at an impressive fifteen feet, has an attached 'anti-pisser beam' device designed to target any vandals attempting to deface the art piece.
Unfortunately, two children were melted by the anti-vandal device just hours after its unveiling. The President has yet to comment on this, though the head of the NCIA has gone on record to say 'they were probably immigrant children anyway'
In other news--"
Snippet of a news report, 2039
***
I figured I was pretty much done for the day.
That meant three big things checked off the list that Gomorrah had given me, one after the other. Basically, I'd girlbossed my way out of my girlproblems and it was time for a girlbreak.
I drove back home, parked my bike, then headed up the elevator. The Bastion was in the garage already, so there was a good chance that Lucy was home, and she was.
"I'm home!" I called out when I walked in.
"Shut up, I'm listening to something," Nose said from where he was sitting on the couch, face almost pressed into a tablet which was playing something that looked like a let's play.
I walked over, stole the tablet, tossed it onto the couch across the room, then flipped him over and shoved his head under a cushion.
"I'm home!" I called out again while holding the ungrateful little brat down. He was squealing and kicking, but his aim was weak.
"Hi Cat!" Bargain said as he poked his head into the living room. He saw that I was holding Nose down, then glanced up to me. "What did he do?"
"Talked shit," I said.
"For five credits I'll fold him down for you," Bargain said.
"That's cheap," I said.
"When you love what you do, the money you make from it is just a cherry on top," he said, almost sounding wise.
I shook my head, let Nose go, where he made a big show of being freed, then flung the cushion at Bargain for not helping, and I left the room while the two of them fought. As long as they didn't break anything too expensive I didn't care.
The particular sort of chaos that reined at home was really comforting.
I found Lucy in the kitchen, apron on, eyes glazed over as she stared at something on her augs, and one hand idly spinning a spoon in a large pot of boiling something. She blinked, then brightened as she saw me.
That did it for me.
Fuck all those hypersex ads with the tiddies and the thighs and the nice asses (not to say that I disliked any of the above), seeing Lucy's face go from bored to happy just because she saw me really did it for me. Nothing sexier.
"I don't think I get to choose that," I said.
Why did garlic stink so bad when just around and yet smell so good when it was in fresh food? Lucy didn't even need to call the brats over, they were peeking into the room (never entering, because they knew that if they did they'd be volunteered into helping) and generally lingering nearby.
Lucy drained the noodles, then made up two plates for us. She even did that fancy thing, with a sprig of basil or oregano or whatever little green thing on top.
"Et voila!" she said.
We ate in our room, where we could avoid the chaos of the kittens for a while. "So, how'd things go with your army of fanatically loyal servants?" I asked.
"Eh, not that bad," Lucy said as she twirled her fork around. "I sent some out to scout the casino. Security there didn't let them in until we confirmed everything, which is actually a good sign, I think."
"Better than them being lazy," I said.
She nodded. "Exactly. So, one of my Kittens has experience running conventions. Mostly smaller ones, but it's still good, and another has worked in admin for like... business conventions as well, which is different but also good. I spent a solid hour today talking to the two of them, and we've come up with something."
"Oh?" I asked. Damn, this sauce was good. I was making a mess as I ate it, and I didn't care.
"Mhm! So, we're going to use a badge system. Do you think you can arrange to send something to every gang?"
"Yeah, I guess. Depends on what it is you want to send. Like something digital?"
"I was thinking a literal badge," Lucy said. "With an RFID chip in it and like, the person's name or gang name on it? We can hang them off lanyards. Anyone that shows up without will be refused. It'll make it a ton easier to tell who's who, and keep tabs on people. The casino already has an IFF system to tell where their customers are within the hotel and casino sections, so it'll be easy to piggy-back off that and keep track of everyone."
"Some gangs might not like that," I said.
She shrugged. "Fuck 'em?"
That was a fair and measured point. "Alright. I guess we can also limit the number of people that show up that way. Some bigger gangs might want to send in a whole army, but if they only have... how many badges per group were you thinking?"
"No more than five," Lucy said. "There's only so much room in the halls and whatnot. Like, I don't care if it's standing-room-only in some places, but like... there's a limited number of bathrooms. And the more people there are, the messier it'll be for security."
"Yeah, five per seems good." It would be a large number for like, tiny street gangs, and a hard limit on the bigger ones. "We'll probably only see like, what, fifty gangs?"
Lucy gave me a hard stare. "I think you're underestimating that by a lot," she said.
"Oh... well, shit, that's no good. Anyway, I'm sure I can bully one of the others into shipping out the badges to everyone. Someone's got to have a catalogue with something that can help with that."
"Exactly! Plus it'll be a show of force, getting them stuff even when they're a bit hidden," Lucy said. "And it'll serve as an invitation at the same time."
"Right, right," I said.
I looked down, disappointed to see that the plate was empty.
So I lifted it up and licked the remaining sauce off, only to look up and see Lucy shaking her head, a small smile on her lips. "That's awful, Cat," she said. "Come on, I think I can put that tongue to much better use."
Oh! Yes, this was proving to be a good evening.
***
A note from RavensDagger
:3
Kickstarter's doin' pretty alright! Big thankies!