Amelia

“You seem to know the way to the ramen place just fine,” I remarked with more than a little amusement as the small fox girl wove her way through the cramped city streets of the floor level. Her big fluffy ears were perked up and forward, swivelling every now and then if there was a suspicious sound nearby. Suspicious by her standards anyway.

“I like ramen,” she said without looking back, as though that explained everything. “Good ramen, not shitty packaged crap.”

Despite her small size, I was actually having trouble keeping up with her. Those little legs had some serious horsepower to them. I wonder if she could hold on to me with them while I… nevermind, she just told me she wasn’t keen to get intimate.

“Can you like, smell it or something?” I asked curiously, power walking again to close the gap between us. “Do uh… fairy fox people have good noses?”

“Tod Sifv,” she told me, turning to give me another of those cute little grumpy looks of hers. “My race is called a Tod Sifv. Currently, at least. My other main form is human.”

And what a fine example of a human it was. God damn, I was salivating just thinking back on it. Guess I had a thing for being pursued.

“Yeah, yeah, but do you have a good nose?” I asked, just a little quickly. Didn’t want to give my mouth gremlins a chance to voice those thoughts after all. Couldn’t trust the little buggers.

“A little,” she shrugged, her brows scrunching up in thought. “I don’t think about it too much. The most problematic difference is my hearing. These enormous radar dishes on my head are so sensitive to noise, it’s awful. I’ve actually formed some of my smoke into earplugs, believe it or not. Brings the decibel levels down to something bearable.”

“That’s, really smart,” I smiled, wishing I could touch the fluffy radar dishes in question. They were so cute, the way they subconsciously twitched and swivelled around. A light, almost painful feeling came over me as I watched her walking. She really was smart, intensely so, but also incredibly vulnerable and broken. I felt a protectiveness that I’d never in my life experienced rise up to engulf me. I was going to look out for her, I was going to help her in any way I could.

She turned slightly, giving me a cocky little wink, “Simple problem solving.”

Oh. Oh. Deep breaths Amelia, yes that was hot, no you can’t press her against the nearest wall with your lips as the first point of contact. Busy as I was dealing with that wink, I forgot to reply until the conversation had lapsed, so I followed on behind her in silence.

The ramen place she had in mind turned out to be across the floor of the Taeru, hidden in a dinky little side street. This proved that yeah, Rosa totally had a good nose when she was in that body. She sure as hell hadn’t asked someone where a good ramen shop was. That girl would rather die without ever tasting ramen than actually interact with another person.

True to the stereotype mashup that was Artifisuki culture, the place was a weird mix of irish pub and Japanese noodle house. I mean, the only knowledge I had of japanese anything was through media, so I had no idea if it was an accurate depiction. Oh well, the game was made in North America, and if there was anything more North American than appropriating and mangling other region’s cultures, then I hadn’t heard of it.

“Oh, that’s…” I blurted as we got within normal person smelling range. That smelled hella good.

She turned from the entrance to look back at me with a slight smile. “Yeah. Good huh? You coming?”

“Definitely,” I agreed, hurrying up to the threshold behind her and taking an eager look over her shoulder.

The atmosphere within the shop was warm, but quiet. The back of the room was one long bar, the only thing separating the patrons from the kitchen. Even so, the kitchen noise was muted, and I spotted some curious little magitech devices partially hidden in the walls on either side of that long opening.

Sound dampeners perhaps? I remembered having the tech version in my shoes when I was serving on the border. It had felt like cheating, the way it just ate any noise I’d made. The crunching of snow, the electric hiss of a railgun recharging after a shot had been fired. My own screams of pain when I took a hit. Sound killed just as much as any dart out there in the cold, where sound was almost eager to rat you out.

I shuddered, the sounds of perpetual winter mixed with the dull, distant sounds of long ranged combat. The isolation, the fear that at any one time, someone could be watching you down the length of a scope. Our enemies had still used gunpowder based weapons, although very sophisticated, and the crack of their guns still echoed and reverberated through my skull to this day.

A hand on my cheek snapped me out of my involuntary reverie, and I found myself blinking into smoke filled eyes. “You okay?” she asked gently, head tilted slightly and a worried expression clouding her features.

I opened by mouth to speak, but found my throat blocked my air as hard as steel. Clearing my throat roughly, I nodded, “Yeah. Sorry. Memory snuck up on me.”

She winced. “Relatable. Come inside? It’s warm and quiet.”

“Warm is good, quiet isn’t,” I said before I could think too much on it.

She frowned, her ears twitching as she gazed into my eyes with her own vastly intelligent ones. “Why is quiet bad?”

“When I get blindsided by a mood like this, it is anyway…” I clarified, wondering about how much I wanted to say. I settled for a shrug. “I have bad memories of quiet places, nothing but the cold howl of the wind.”

“What about the muted sounds of ramen being prepared for you?” she asked with a tentative smile.

“I think I can manage that,” I said, finding my natural smile back on my lips. “Lead the way, little fox.”

“You’re not calling me that.”

“We’ll see.”

The shop was indeed warm, that perfect temperature that had you removing your coat and finding that you weren’t removing any comfort along with it.

Rosa turned back to me, pointing at a table in the corner. “I’ll go and order, you secure the table.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I grinned, snapping a crisp salute. She’d ordered me to secure the table after all.

Her eyebrows rose at the salute, but she didn’t comment, instead making shooing motions with her hands before turning to the counter. Bossy little brat.

I moved over and sat down at the table, stretching out my legs and relaxing with a sigh. Wish I could take my boots off. Boots were so restrictive, women’s ones especially so. They were almost as bad as workman’s boots I swear, all they were missing was the steel toe.

The atmosphere here was nice, I decided as I surveyed the room. A few small groups sat at tables, quietly conversing over their food. As far as I could tell, we were the only players in the shop, but you could never be too sure. Roleplayers definitely knew how to blend in when they wanted to. Like the girl who was bouncing her way over to me right now. Rosa the fake world boss. They should give her a health bar anyway, I hadn’t been joking when I said she was a force of nature.

“Two Ghaelki Ramens coming up,” she grinned happily, plopping down in the seat opposite me. “That’s Artifisuki for tonkatsu ramen, I think. They don’t put the egg in, but everything else is pretty much the same.”

“I understood the ramen part,” I told her honestly and rather sheepishly.

The return smile I got was warm and genuine, and thus had a rather pronounced effect on my already buoyant heart. “You’ll see. It’s really nice, trust me.”

I was formulating a reply in my slowly buffering brain when the door opened again and a pair of women walked in wearing large, concealing cloaks. They caught both Rosa and my own attention as they pulled their hoods back and stopped to survey the room.

“Thank fuck,” one of them sighed, running a hand through her soft dark grey hair. “God I’m sick of being famous in a town like this.”

“It’s a lot to deal with,” the second woman replied, stretching out her back with a shake, her blond hair swaying gently down her back. “You love it though.”

“To an extent, Kimmy, to an extent,” the first one shot back with a cocky grin. “Getting mobbed by fans while I’m trying to get a bite to eat is a pain in my ass though.”

“I couldn’t tell,” the blond laughed. “I thought you were just being friendly when you decked that guy for getting too close and personal.”

“Dudes like that don’t respect words, especially not from a lesbian,” the dark haired one grinned. “Gotta get all streetside dentist on them, it’s the only way they know to communicate.”

Her companion laughed, shooting back, “There’s removing teeth and then there’s sending them to Ruin’s pool via your probably pissed off little sister.” 

“The world runs on nepotism,” the first girl shrugged, moving forward towards the bar. “Come on, let’s order something. I want to see what they offer.”

As she stepped forward, better light fell on her face and I had to stifle a gasp. Holy shit, the lightning twin! What was her name? Crap… I’d forgotten it. I used to watch her sister’s stream a month or two ago when they were making that crown run, but I’d sorta phased out when they split off to do different things.

For some reason, I felt like being friendly, or maybe I just wanted to talk to a cool, gorgeous lesbian. I don’t know. I spoke up, calling out across the small room to them, “My friend here swears by the uh… what was it?”

“Ghaelki,” Rosa murmured, too quiet for anyone but me to hear her.

“Right, yeah… the Ghaelki ramen,” I supplied, relaying the information.

The pair turned to stare for a moment, then the twin nodded a smile. “Ghaelki ramen it is,” she said, turning to the elderly artifisuki woman behind the counter. “Two Ghaelki ramen, please.”

With their orders taken, then wandered over to the table text to us. “All good if we sit here?” the twin asked with an easy smile.

“Yeah sure,” I agreed after getting a slight nod from Rosa. “I’m Amelia, this is Rosa. Just so you know though, I recognise you. You’re that lightning twin who recently turned up to the front right? Forgotten your name but… yeah. Figured since you were complaining about fans, I should let you know.”

She shrugged and sat down with a groan and a sigh. “Ah, that’s fine. I’m Tami, this is my friend Civette.”

“Sweet, nice to meet you both,” I replied with a nod. “How’re you finding the front?”

Tami grinned, wide and feral. “Target rich,” she told us with literal sparks flying in her eyes. Oh dear, I was now in a room with not one, but two forces of nature. Hopefully they didn’t clash, or the whole Taeru might go up in flames, lightning and the reanimated bodies of the dead.