Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Chapter Fifty — Talking them Up

Chapter Fifty — Talking them Up Sharp, unfortunately, spent a solid half hour talking up the blonde before we finally left. It was mostly a litany of excitable babble that had me wanting to cringe to death, Nine Lives perk or no.Doubly unfortunately, the woman took the prattle as complementary and seemed to actually enjoy it. She laughed at Sharp's exuberance and then took some time to show off her equipment.That part, at least, was somewhat interesting. It was hard to keep up with all of the tools available in my trade. There were new solutions popping up all the time, because if people were good at one thing, it was killing others.Her rifle was a rather ugly, spindly little thing. A thin barrel and a tiny aluminum stock with just enough furniture on it to hold a scope in place above and a narrow magazine below. It was pure function over form and reminded me more of the kind of rifle I'd seen Olympic biathlon athletes use.She showed off the gun and its rather advanced optics for a while before bragging about having other, cooler guns. Sharp demurred about the weapons we'd brought ourselves.Eventually, the young woman had to head out, and Sharp got back to practicing when I subtly encouraged her with a bite to the calf.Another couple of hours passed before we were done running through all of the ammo we'd brought. A few guns jammed, which was great. A learning opportunity on how to handle something going wrong with equipment in a safe environment. Better than the same happening in the field, of course.Once we were through with ammo, however, it was time to head out. In all that time, not a single soul showed up at the range.That wasn't altogether surprising. Clemus was the private sort, and while the range was open to anyone, not everyone knew about it to begin with.I suspected that he'd bought a hundred or so acres of land around his little estate, to keep neighbours at bay.Sharp packed her things up, and I hopped into the duffel as well so that just my head was poking out. We paid Clemus via Sharp's smart phone, and the old man waved us goodbye as we headed out in an autocab.We were halfway home when Sharp suddenly groaned and pressed her face into her hands. "No," she moaned."What is it?" I asked. She didn't sound physically pained, just inconvenienced."I didn't ask her her name!" Sharp said."Ah. Yes, you are quite stupid like that.""Don't rub salt into it," Sharp said. "She was so pretty!""She could kill you with one eye closed," I said."I knoooow, you don't have to tell me, I think she's awesome already."Sighing, I rolled my eyes. "Don't let this kind of silliness get in between you and the job. Getting struck by a honeypot isn't the way to go."Then again, I didn't want Sharp to be entirely without any relationships. My own paranoia had prevented me from ever forming anything really long lasting. People always had questions and the moment you allowed them to start digging, they'd start finding inconsistencies.Sharp... could probably find something, if she wasn't stupid about it. "It's not my place to criticise your choice in partners, but I feel like I ought to warn you away from people that can literally kill you with ease. No matter how... interesting you find that kind of thing.""Yeah, I guess," Sharp said. "It's just that... like, everything else in my life feels awesome right now, you know? I've got food, and a nice home, and I guess a cool job, and it feels like I'm slowly reaching the point where all of my wildest dreams are coming true, and I guess part of that is getting the girl, you know?""I suppose," I said. Why was she telling me all of this? I wasn't a therapy cat."Yeah... did you know, I didn't know that I was into girls for a long time.""You don't say. Did someone have to smack you for you to figure it out?""Hmm, I guess I really realized it when the people at the orphanage threw me a coming out party. That was really nice of them."I let myself go boneless so that my face crashed into the plush seat. I couldn't.We arrived home, and a red-faced Sharp escorted me back in where, of course, we were greeted by the usual suspects. Arsenic wanted food-his food bowl was full, so it was mostly just the need to fill it back to the brim and stir it around-and the others wanted hello cuddles, which I was more than ready to accept.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.Once we were settled in I had Sharp grab her phone and place an important call. If we wanted her to work two days a week as a courier, then we needed to let her boss know.The call went well enough. Malcolm wasn't an idiot. He knew a good employee when he saw one, and even if she was down to two days a week, that didn't harm him too much.Courier work wasn't the most popular gig to get to in Boston Two. The pay was too low for the amount of movement it required. Most folk looking for easy, low-pay work would settle for flipping burgers or taxing people around for an app. It was far safer, even if the pay was just a smidge lower. That, and courier work generally required an in."Done!" Sharp said after she hung up. She flopped back onto the couch, then picked Arsenic up and placed him on her chest where she started to run her hands through his fur. "Why is talking on the phone sometimes harder than doing an hour's workout?""Because your brain is wired incorrectly," I said. "Now that that's done, let's see about grabbing you a gig.""Oh?" Sharp asked. "I thought that would be for Thursday?""And what did you plan on doing for the rest of the day?" I asked. "Sit around and watch TV? Scroll on your phone for six hours?""Uh," Sharp said.She definitely planned on doing just that. "We can easily find work now that only needs doing on Thursday. It'll even give us some time to plan things out. What if we pick up a job that would be best started from in the city and we need to grab a hotel? Or if we need some specialized equipment?""Can't I pocket anything like that?" she asked."Maybe. But also, maybe not."I had Sharp fetch my laptop and soon we were both looking at the forums again. I had her skip any job that paid more than a certain amount. Those usually had a level of risk consummate with the price."That one. The glass table," I said. "That's another sabotage mission."Mid-Century Modern Coffee Table — Glass TopCondition: Slightly cracked but still functional.Details: Located in a central hub. Expect glass to shatter during removal. Some sharp edges. Handle with care.Price: $15,000Contact: @[email protected]"Another?" Sharp asked."Why not? That last one went relatively well, and this one pays a little better. Depending on the location it might even be easier."Sharp nodded and opened it in another tab. "What about that one?"Bean Bag Chair — Oversized and ComfyCondition: Sink-in comfort, though bulky.Details: Found in an underground space. You'll need patience and persistence to retrieve it. A bit messy but worth the effort.Price: $80.00"Is the price a typo?" Sharp asked. "That looks like a... retrieval gig?""A search mission, yes," I agreed. "And the price isn't a typo. You can't just have everything written out with exact prices. That'd be too suspicious. Click on it, see if the poster had anything to add."There were a few comments. Some of them were bot-generated, the kind of thing that looked valid at a glance to throw visitors off, but a few seemed to come from real accounts and they asked valid questions. Pickup times and locations, willingness to negotiate.It painted an interesting picture. Someone had lost something in the sewers around the north end of Fenway. They were hiring out anyone who could go and look. Anyone that proved that they had searched got a tiny payout, barely worth the hours, but the reward for finding whatever it was? A cool eight grand.Not a ton, but not bad for a mission that didn't ask for any level of violence."Yes, I suppose that one could work. It would even look good on your Solonet account. There are too many people that look down on someone with good detective skills in favour of someone good with a gun. But the good fixers know better.""Neat!" Sharp said. "So, an easy job, then?"Yeah, an easy job in the sewers. She wasn't ready for this, but she'd learn.

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Chapter Fifty-One — Belladonna

Chapter Fifty-One — Belladonna I was teetering on the edge of a deep slumber, currently in the position informally known as 'loafing' while resting at the foot of my own bed with a thinner blanket draped over my back. It was warm, especially when the kitties came and laid down next to me to share their heat.At the moment, though, they were off gallivanting through the house, doing their own kitty-cat things. Cats were famous nocturnal, but that wasn't quite true. It was more that hunting at night was more pleasant than hunting during the day. If you kept a cat busy all day, they'd sleep through the night, but with me out of the house for extended periods...Well, I'd been awakened by my cats having the zoomies at 4AM plenty of times before.At the moment, however, I had spent the day working with Sharp and was ready for a long bit of rest.Which was why I was annoyed when I was gently pulled out of my rest by the lingering feeling of someone nearby.I twitched my whiskers, then slowly opened my eyes to peek out and scan the area around me.Belladonna was sitting right in front of me. "Good," she said. "The mother-kitten wakes. Do not allow yourself to be unalert at all times. That way is how prey dies. You are not prey, are you?""Belladonna?" I asked. I didn't see this kitty all that often. It was rare, but she had come out of her skulking a few times when I was human to come and sit on my lap. I always had the impression that she loved me just like the other kitties, but in her own way. She didn't like lavish shows of affection and cuddles."Get up, mother-kitten. It is time to hunt."I blinked my eyes open properly and scanned the room. Squinting at the digital clock on my nightstand revealed that it was... 2AM. Sharp was sleeping soundly, her breath rattling away with faint snores every so often."Are you that hungry?" I asked. "There's food in the dispenser, unless Arscenic pigged out.""The lazy one should serve as no example to you, mother-kitten. Come." With that, Belladonna hopped off the side of the bed, landing without so much as a thump.I shook myself out of the covers then padded over to the edge of the bed. My beautiful abyssian baby was waiting for me by the door, the tip of her tail twitching faintly with obvious impatience.Well, whatever. This was a good chance to bond with my most mysterious kitty and I wasn't that tired. I could always catch up on any sleep the next day.I didn't land with nearly as much grace as Belladonna, but I managed all the same. It was hard, still, to wrap my head around long falls and the like. "So, what are we hunting?" I asked.More than once, Belladonna had awakened me in the morning with a gift. Usually that gift was a dead mouse or an injured bird. But I still fondly remembered a teenaged Belladonna, all gangly and long, bringing me a crunchy leaf she had captured overnight.I ran up to her, but as I came close, Belladonna slipped away, her tail the last thing I saw around the door before I had to catch up again.She disappeared.I blinked for only a moment before bouncing upwards and doing my level-best to twist around in mid-air.Belladonna was sitting next to the doorway, a step back and in the deeper shadows, casually licking a forepaw. "Good. Too slow. But good.""Are you trying to scare me?" I asked."No. I want to see if you have the instinct to hunt. The others do not.""They're not so bad," I said.She scoffed, then started walking again. I followed, and this time there weren't any tricks. She led me towards the stairs, then walked right past and to the upstairs bathroom. The door was closed, but Belladonna tensed, then leapt up and struck the handle.The door squeaked open.My baby was so clever! I was quite proud as I followed her into the little bathroom, at least until Belladonna hopped up onto the counter, then the bathtub-shower, and finally up onto the small windowsill above the bath. It was a small window, with thick warped glass that didn't let you actually see out or anyone see in.She leaned a paw down onto the latch, then pressed her weight into it, pushing the window open a smidge.Well... that was a security gap if I ever saw one.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident."Come," Belladonna repeated before she slipped out of the narrow gap left in the window.I jumped up, following her as best I could. When I finally stuck my face out, it was to find that the outside was chilly and cold, and the exterior part of the window sill was only a half-dozen centimetres wide."Belladonna?" I asked."Here," she replied.She was a level below, some half metre down on the top of a small awning. She leapt down from there and onto the top of a fence, then down onto the ground, all done with casual ease, as if she'd made such risky jumps a million times.I didn't want to appear the coward, but it was a long way down.Still...I aimed as best I could, then jumped down. The landing was a bit iffy, but I managed it, then the next leap down was easier. The last was a little far, but other than a bit of a sting when I landed, it wasn't so bad."So, this is why I find you meowing outside so often in the morning," I said.Belladonna shifted to look over the backyard. There was a small community garden here, but it was rather scraggly and not very impressive. "There are small blind rodents making their home here. They invade our space. Find them and hunt them."Blind rodents? Moles? They had been a problem in the past.I scanned the backyard. It was an enclosed space, with relatively tall, thick fences all around, made from locally-sourced brick and covered in a few vines here and there. Moles... weren't a threat, I didn't think. Even to a juvenile cat, hunting a mole caught in the open wouldn't be dangerous.This was, essentially, the best arena a cat could find to teach a younger cat how to hunt. "Thank you, Bella," I said."You cannot eat thanks," she replied.Fair enough.I wasn't sure how to start a hunt for a mole, but for a human? That I knew, and it always involved gathering intel.In this case, that meant figuring out the lay of the land.I started a slow creep around the edge of the backyard. Belladonna was sitting by the entrance gate, where a small gap below would be no obstacle to an escaping mole but her presence would.I couldn't see any molehills as I went around, but there were signs that the grass had been disturbed. I tried out my other senses as well, sniffing at the air for any telltale signs that there was something amiss.I caught it on the far end of the garden, a faint... wet-fur like smell.I sniffed around but continued my circle of the backyard, just in case. Then, when I found no other hints, I returned to where the smell was strongest and drew a large circle around the area, searching outwards for the source.It didn't take too long to find it. A bush by the back, looking rather pitiful, had its base ripped up a little, and it looked like something had been digging around there recently. My culprit, then?I snuck closer to the bush, taking into account the weak breeze and trying to keep out of the bit of moonlight pouring in over the fence until, finally, I saw them.That was not a mole.Moles weren't bigger than a teenaged cat and covered in stubbly brown fur. That was a rat.A sleeping rat. I laid down and just stared at it for a moment until something caught my eye. Its face had several scars, big ugly things that hadn't healed fully yet.Something... or rather, somekitty had clawed this rat's eyes out.I could just jump on the rat, but that wasn't smart. Instead, I moved towards it at a careful, slow pace. Three feet's distance covered in a blistering inch per minute. I carefully lowered each paw, slowing down until the landing was whisper-soft, and making sure that my weight was evenly distributed up until, finally, I was right up next to the rat.Then I pounced.The rat awoke to teeth biting into its neck and my claws raking it across the flank and sides.It squealed, but I just bit down harder and sliced at it all the faster.It went down without much fuss after that, almost anti-climaticly so.Combat Has Levelled Up!Combat 3 4"Well done, mother-kitten," Belladonna said. She'd gotten close at some point."Thanks," I said.Then I had to start figuring out a way to wash my mouth out.

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