The Katissa Chronicles Part 6: Pls no more food [Closed]

Melissa looked through the files on the scroll with a look of awe on her face, her jaw unintentionally dropping. She had never thought to do any tests or anything, definitely nothing even remotely close to what Katy had here. Her strategy for weapon design had been to simply do what seemed right, and luckily it had worked out for her so far. But she definitely saw the appeal and benefit in running all those tests to make sure it would work as expected, instead of blowing up in her face or something.

Looking at the design of the girl's current weapon, she was further amazed. It was just so well planned, everything was carefully measured out and all the weights were balanced with precision. Just looking at the design inspired her - how much better could her own designs and creations get if she applied the same level of planning?

Realizing she had just frozen in place and was staring, she looked back up at Katy, "This... Is amazing! You really put a lot of work into it didn't you?" She said, finding it difficult to find better words to express what she thought of the amazing files she had just seen, "The way I did things before I just threw together parts in ways that looked like they would work well in, I never thought of doing all those tests or planning everything out so well. I guess I'm just lucky nothin' has blown up in my face yet!" She said in embarrassment.

Katy shrugged self-consciously, looking embarrassed. "When I first started out I wasn't nearly as thorough as I am now," she said simply. "Every time I rebuild my rifle I try and use as much of the same material and parts as I can, so even though the one I have now is the 6th iteration, there were a few before it that I couldn't salvage."

She winced slightly at the memory. "I had built a collapsible rifle when I was younger, and the functionality weakened the rifle. After about a month something inside bent the wrong way, and the rifling didn't set properly. I fired an explosive round, it caught the rifling and exploded still in the barrel. Almost killed me. So I haven't tried again, though I've run plenty of simulations. The accident made me, um.. far more cautious."

Melissa nodded, understanding how an event like that could cause one to be a lot more careful during the weapon design process in order to stop something like that happening again, "I know what you mean, on a school trip a few weeks or so back a vulnerability in the dust chamber in the center of my weapon here had some sort of opening or something.,, and then I was caught in an explosion. Dust chamber exploded and the whole thing snapped in half and I had to go through the whole field trip with a broken weapon! It's fixed with a triple redundant systems to make sure it never happens again!

Thinking about the differences in making a rifle fold compared to making a naginata fold, she realized it would probably be a lot more difficult, "Ah... I can see how it be harder to make something that actually needs to function! Maybe you could just start with a way to make it more streamlined, folding up the parts that stick out, first? Start simple, y'know?"

Katy pulled her rifle from off her back and held it out. "I've sorta already done that, I think," she said. Flipping the rifle over, she showed off how the tripod could be folded in and slid all the way up the length of the rifle, and how the stock split for the tripod.

"It's all I could think of at the time, and I've never really tried to make it any more compact. The tripod and the stock are what turn into that bulky grabby claw thing. It's good in a pinch when I need to get up in a tree quickly or something, but it's sort of useless otherwise. And the core components of the rifle stay the same length, so it's still just as big," she said with a small frown. "I was toying with the idea of same kind of safely feature. Make it lock the trigger out if the rifling doesn't set properly or something," she said thoughtfully.

"What about you? Gonna add anything else to yours? Maybe some sort of tazer for when you've got someone hooked?"

Melissa considered the question, "Hmm, not really I guess! I prefer simple, just attaching a chain to my blade, a method to shoot and retract it and deployable claws to hold on once it hits and I'm good! You should definitely put some sort of safety feature on, otherwise the next malfunction might happen right as you need to shoot a shot and a teammate might die!"

"If my teammates turn out to be jerks it might not be an accident," she muttered, casually slinging her rifle across her back once more. "Your idea seems really useful though. I can think of loads of things you could do with that. If the chain was strong enough you could even use it to, say, loop around tree branches while falling to launch yourself back into the air, for example," she said, scratching her head.

Melissa giggled, just barely catching the gist of what she had muttered to herself. She wasn't sure why someone being left to die was funny, but it just was. Maybe it was the way Katy had said it.

She shook her head the suggestion though, "The chain is actually pretty thin, otherwise it won't fit inside the spare space in my weapon, so it's kinda weak! And I don't think it'll be too long, just long enough to hit targets at a medium range trying to stay back! I'd still rather use my regular tactic of an all in jump I think!"

"Oh," Katy responded. "Well, it would certainly be troublesome for anyone trying to keep away. Those are the kind of people who get flustered if they get engaged in combat before they're ready to initiate it themselves, after all." Mentioning the tazer idea had given Katy an idea for perhaps designing some kind of non-lethal tazer bullets, though she was far less experienced at making functional ammunition than she was at making functioning weapons.

"Hmm," she said, mostly to herself. "Tazer buckshot could be neat. I wonder if I could even make that work though," she mused.

"Yup! Exactly, if they're trying to stay away from me to the point where I need to use a chain to pull them in, they probably won't appreciate it! Although I hope I don't have to use it on any humans..." Melissa responded with a giggle and a nod.

She stopped abruptly, looking around with confusion. Where were they? Had they gotten so caught up in their conversation that they had completely zoned out and just kept walking instead of going to her dorm, as originally planned? It seemed like that was the case, "Umm... Do you know where we are...?" She asked.

"I, um. What?" Katy looked around, slightly bewildered. It had been a pretty straight line from where they had been back to the dorm. "I was sorta following you," she admitted, turning in a circle to try and figure out where they were in relation to where they wanted to be. "We can't be lost, right? I mean, we're still on the school grounds. I still don't really know how to find my way around, though, so, uh.."

"Oops! Sorry, I guess I got too caught up in our comversation, I didn't even think about where I was walkin'! I guess we did get pretty engrossed in it if neither of us noticed we might be had gotten a bit off course..." Melissa said, looking very embarrassed. She dropped to her knees, begging to Katy, "Please forgive me for my betrayal of your trust! I'll repay you in any way possible!" She said.

Katy blinked at the girl. "Repay me, huh?" A small grin slowly appeared on the girl's face. "It's quite an offer! I could demand all your candy. Or, or! I could make you study for an entire day," she said, drumming her fingers together. The possibilities were endless! Though one specific thing did come to mind. Katy thought back to something Melissa had said before, and she decided to find out more.

"I think I've got it," she said, looking at the other girl curiously. "You said before that you've got some kind of super secret massage technique. I wanna know about it!"

Just the thought of losing all her candy terrified Melissa, and she prayed that that wouldn't be her punishment for getting the two lost! Anything but that!

Blinking, Melissa tilted her head. Did Katy know about that? Was that why she wanted to try it out because of what she would have to do to get the super secret massage technique Melissa had down years perfecting (Not really, she had found it online, and spent a few days practicing it)," Okay. But you have to take you shirt off first, it won't work if your back has clothes covering it!

Katy blinked again, before quickly shaking her head and turning away from Melissa, suddenly finding something very interesting to study. That wall, for example! It looked very well constructed. "I didn't realize! You just happened to mention it the other day when we were studying, but then we fell asleep and I didn't get to ask you about it," she explained hurriedly. "You said it'd probably be good for, um, ear scratches and you're already really good at those so I was curious about it because I can't really imagine how they could be better," she continued, rushing to try and explain how it was an entirely innocent request.

"Maybe we can do the studying thing instead? That seems like the better option. No need to take clothes off to study!"

"Oh! You meant like that! Sure, I'm sure I could apply the same technique to ear scratches, no stripping required!" Melissa said with a giggle, finding Katy's reaction extremely amusing (and adorable, but she didn't think that aloud!).

Hearing her mention studying again though, she decided she needed to quickly take action without waiting for a response - no more studying! Preparing herself, she reached out and began to apply techniques gleamed from a massage handbook written high in the mountains by a monastery of monks that spent their entire life on pursuit of ultimate bliss to Katy's ears, beginning with the lowest level of intensity she could manage.

"Right! I didn't even know about the shirt th-ohhh," she said, about to launch back into another explanation before suddenly being stopped by ear scratches. Katy wobbled slightly on the spot, considering trying to elaborate on her explanation some more. "I," she said, before taking a small half-step backwards and very slowly sitting down, her train of thought obliterated. At this point the only thing nagging at Katy was that they were out in public, but it was a small worry, hardly worth considering.

"Right choice," she said somewhat coherently, starting to slowly list to the side.

Also realising that they were in public, although in a more secluded area, Melissa made sure to look around for anyone that might be in the area while coninue the scratch-massage. Satisfied that the area was clear of people, she turned back to the girl and joined her in sitting down, using her knees to keep the girl from falling over.

"One day your fondness for ear scratches is going to get you into a situation you'll regret!" Melissa said, giggling.

"Already did," Katy responded, no longer in danger of falling over. "Mistake," she added for clarification. Katy had been getting better at maintaining a proper conversation through ear scratches recently, but these were an entirely new beast. She was finding it exceedingly difficult to focus on anything, let alone proper conversation. Sitting up was also proving to be a monumental task, and mostly she just wanted to lie down now and continue feeling like a warm ball of contentment.

"Whatryou wearinfer the ball," she asked, swaying slightly on the spot. She figured she should find out to make sure she didn't under-dress or over-dress.

Grinning as she realised this was the perfect time to execute one of her many plans, Melissa pretended to think for a few moments before responding, "Weeellll... A dress of some kind I guess?" She said dismissively - it wasn't important what she wore, after all. At least it didn't matter for her plan.

"What about you?" She asked.

Katy very carefully and slowly shook her head. "Dunno," she responded. Katy had a number of options, but each had presented a serious issue. She had a cute little black dress, but it was far too small to hide her tail, and a full length jade dress, but she didn't know if it was too formal for the ball or not. "Got a bowfer my ears," she said.

She had decided to take Aoife's advice and had settled on a nice bow to hide her ears. So long as nobody tried to yank it off her head she was fairly sure it would conceal her ears flawlessly. "Jus wanna make sure it'somethin' you like," she said, raising a hand lazily to do.. something, before letting it drop back down.

Melissa held back a giggle at how distracted Katy seemed, and increased the intensity of the massage, "Oooh, I know the perfect thing for you to wear! It'd look great on you and it'd hide your ears and tail fine!" She suggested.

Of course it would 'hide' her ears and tail. In plain sight. Heh. But the most important part was that it would look very pretty.

The somehow even better ear scratches caused Katy to suddenly stretch her arms out and arch her back, getting a good long stretch in before squirming down to sprawl out on the ground. Partially because it was far too difficult to keep sitting up, and partially because she could feel her tail trying to frantically wag itself, and lying down was pinning it between her and the ground. "Sounds good," she murmured. A red flag or two normally would have gone off at the suggestion, like 'I don't even know what it is' and 'what if it doesn't suit me', but they were not forthcoming.

"Should try it on," she said, lazily looking up at Melissa with a blissful smile. "Make sure it fits?"

"Maybe later?" Melissa suggested, returning the smile, "Unless you want to stop now and go back to my dorm to try it on now...?" She said, although she knew with almost absolute certainty that the answer would be to stay here a bit longer. Looking up at the sky, she relaxed, her hands mostly moving on autopilot as she just took in the fresh air and nice blue sky. Having times like this where she could just lie back with a friend and still enjoy herself was nice. It had certainly never happened for her in the past.

Katy did her best to weigh the options that had been suddenly and unjustly presented to her. Going back to Melissa's dorm later to try on whatever Melissa had mentioned seemed to be the obvious choice, but if they went now they could get that pesky business out of the way and get back to what was important: ear scratches. "Mmmm," she complained, having absolutely zero interest in moving this spot.

Hazily realizing it may have sounded like she had agreed to the second option, she lethargically shuffled herself up to half sprawl across Melissa's lap. There, now Melissa couldn't mistakenly think Katy wanted to go now, and even if she did Katy was confident she had the other girl trapped. "Don't think I'm," she said with another big stretch of her arms, "ever moving again," she continued, letting her arms fall back down by her sides. "Have you pinned," she pointed out, possibly as a warning. With dawning satisfaction Katy realized if she stopped moving she could probably stay here for days thanks to her Semblance.

Melissa giggled again at Katy's lazy attempts at keeping the massage going, "I guess you do have me trapped! Oh no, what ever shall I do?" She said, pausing the massage to hold her arms in a pondering manner, purposely stopping just as the massage was about to go up an intensity level. She stayed in this posture, trying to look serious but unable to stop giggles escaping from her mouth.

"I guess I could take a nap here?" She said teasingly.

"What? Nooooo," Katy pouted, reaching up to try and slowly, sloooowly move Melissa's hands back toward her ears. "If you take a nap here we might forget we need to go try that thing on and that wouldn't be good, right? It's probably best to stay here and since we're staying here," she said, trying her absolute best not to pout, "I guess you should probably keep doing what you were doing. I mean, if you want to."

'Please please please please more ear scratches' she thought to herself. They were just.. beyond any ear scratches she had ever gotten before.

"Don't worry! I can set a reminder on my scroll! I won't forget, so I guess we can just lay down and take a nap!" Melissa said, continuing to giggle as she pulled out her scroll and set a reminder.Or at least pretended to, she had never used the 'reminder' feature before, and so had no idea whatsoever as to how to use it.

She closed her eyes and lay down, pretending to take a nap on the ground, barely managing to stifle her giggles.