Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"All right, so that's an interesting ability. I haven't seen anything like that before. But it only works for nature energy?"

"Yeah that's right. It lets me field about twice as many cards that would otherwise but I'm going to be taking the park at level twenty five and again at level fifteen. That will let me have more creatures out in the field."

"At level twenty five you would have what eight total energy you could spend? Yeah that's about right isn't it. That would be sixteen then.. you could summon four gentrifier crabs I guess. And does it stack?"

Todd shrugged. "Unfortunately it doesn't stack. But the gentrifier crab lets you use nature or metal type so I'm good. I just wish that there were more gentrifier crabs."

"Well I guess there was a possum dragon guys are going to be a hit for people that use a nature deck than."

Todd had been gushing about his new deck for a while and Bagel was really wondering why this was such a hot topic. He would have kicked him out, but the man was a paying customer, on his third sandwich. Bagel suspected that he had no where to go after he finished the second one.

"It would have been nice but the card I have to pull is a dragon controller, so like the upgraded version."

The man gasped. "You need to evolve your possum dragon mid battle to use the effect?"

Todd sighed. "Yeah it means that I've got to toss the companion card on with it which it like... so many steps. It only works in some configurations and the companion card only works for an hour."

"Hey! Do you have any of those companion tools?"

---Companion Tool

Attach this to a summoned card to increase its summon time to one hour. This effect does not stack.

---

Bagel flicked his tail. "They go immediately. Plus they're like ten credits each. I can't keep them off the shelf."

"Bah," Todd said. "Anything else close to that you can part with?"

"Not really, unfortunately."

"Well that's ... Let me pull up the deck builder website. This is getting ridiculous. This doesn't drop around here?"

"It has never dropped in this neighborhood," Bagel said. "If you want it you have to go to Westchester. I'll pay you to go up there and kill a bunch of their mobs."

Todd's eyes flashed briefly but then went dim. Bagel was pretty sure that he had responsibilities somewhere else. Almost certainly those responsibilities would lead him to be busy in Staten Island. He was after all the only human with a claim on Staten Island. The city needed him to buy land up. He was going to be limited in his movements.

"I've got my hands full with Staten Island."

"You're like the King of Richmond county, brother," The other man said.

Todd pursed his lips.

"Well you're going to want to link up with the city. They're probably doing a TSA thing there. Have they tried to contact you yet?"

Todd shook his head. They would find him, eventually. Bagel hadn't really talked with anyone from the greater TSA in person. Sure he got emails and he had Janet send reports but all of that was so... Human.

The door opened and in walked Meatball. She looked very regal in her approach and Bagel appreciated that kind of strut. It hadn't been that long since he had that same gait to his walk.

He wasn't charged and he felt in charge and to a great extent, he wanted her to feel the same type of passionate about how good she was.

Meatball in one fell soup jumped from the floor the three feet up to the counter effortlessly.

"Mr. Proprietor. Todd."

"Hello meatball, so good to see you."

"It's good to see that you're still sticking to the old beard on the neck only. I think it's adorable."

Todd scratched absolutely at his neck beard as if it was a personal front but also the most important thing in his life. Perhaps meatball was getting very quickly. He could appreciate that.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in a while," Bagel said. "You understand that you're always welcome here, right?"

In response, big a lot close to him. So close that he began to wonder why she was so warm. She purred a little bit. It felt so good to having her back as if he was missing a part of him. She was so warm and familiar.

"I've been busy. I finally got to level seventy five!"

"Pardon me while I get my jaw off the counter. I know how you managed that but that just seems impossible."

"I didn't see it coming either, but I've been doing so many dungeons. I drop by mostly because I had stuff to sell. I didn't know you were going to be here."

Bagel narrowed his eyes. "So have you been ignoring me? Is that what's going on?"

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Meatballs whiskers pinned back. "I wouldn't say that I was ignoring you. I was just... Was just the humans have this concept about boundaries and giving people space and I thought that if I had the space and boundaries then maybe I might not feel the way that I feel."

Bagel purred. Was it something he said? He certainly hopes not. He wanted to make her feel welcome but at the same time...

"It wasn't you. I've just been thinking about how I became and awakened cat and it could have been anybody. It could have been a better cat or a different cat like I don't even know..."

"You can't be spending your time playing what if."

"I know," she said, closing her eyes.

"You know, but you're not ready to admit that you need to consider this? The humans are just going to take what they want. If you don't make a time for yourself to unwind then they're going to run over you. Heck I might do that. The last thing I want is for you to be down for the count because I asked you to do too much."

"You don't ask me to do too much. I know you wouldn't ask me to do something that you couldn't do."

He didn't really have a wirty retort ready. He just wanted her to feel at home and accepted. And she felt that but she was yearning for something that he couldn't give her.

"I can definitely ask you to do something I would never do without blinking. Have you heard what ridiculous things these humans keep asking me for?"

Meatball nodded, her eyes still closed.

"First ask about mounting the machine gun on the ferry. Then they asked about the zip line thing to the ferry and then they wanted me to build this barricade and then they wanted me to take it down so they could put up a fence and now they're expanding because you're expanding... Do we need to go on?"

"What you were involved with the mount and the machine gun? I thought that was mostly Khaleesi."

"We have some overlap with our summons. I started to specialize."

"I am all ears. Except my tail. Don't mind that."

For a brief moment, their tails intertwined. It was a friendly handshake between family member; nothing less, nothing more. Bagel missed her more than he had thought he would.

"I started getting more into heavy mobs that are electric or metal. I still have a lot of points for energy that I haven't put into any particular one yet because I was going to talk to you about this."

"I basically haven't changed my deck since we started because it all revolves around the Bodega. If I try to change something I feel like it would break a part really silly and I don't want that to happen."

Meatball made as if to pull away but gently placed one paw onto her shoulder and she stopped. He didn't want to tell her what to do but if she left he was going to feel some sort of way about it and he didn't want to feel some sort of way. Right now. He just wanted to sit with this feeling.

"I think I need you to show up more often. Everybody else in my life isn't a cat."

"You got Copernicus now right? He's around?" She seemed unsure about whether he was or not. Bagel was not going to correct her. He might technically be around but he wasn't doing his own plots.

In fact, Megan was pretty sure that he was at that ridiculous coffee stand and if not he was watching it from above. Why the other kind of fixated on that he didn't understand but he had. To the judgment of basically everything else going on, Copernicus had really been trying to get his one special idea to work.

Bagel gave it even odds that that would be done by the next week when it turned out to not make a profit. And long-term, if the cats did make a profit and then they weren't going to make much of everything.

They do not have to make a profit here but seeing another cat fail... it was hard. It had to be especially disheartening for Copernicus since he had basically been handed credits hand over paw for weeks. Humans trusted him to invest their credits and so did cats. He took himself seriously, but perhaps didn't understand how business actually worked in the real world.

" He is around but I don't think he's doing that. Good of a job with his little side hustle. Honestly, I'm..." Bagel looked around as him was trying to spy on him actively that moment.

Clearly he wasn't actually happening but it would have been good to know if Copernicus himself was there watching or listening in.

Meatball looked at him like every word that came out of his mouth was going to mean something.

"I'm just trying to muddle through this. I think we all are. Too. Many of the humans are just trying to wing it though. And Copernicus? I don't think he knows how to do anything but wing it."

Meatball looked up. Bagel followed her gaze.

Todd was back. "Bagel were you serious about Westchester being the place for those tool drops?"

"The companion tools? Yeah they don't go anywhere else."

Meatball moved. It was settled at first and then she was up in the air. She was standing over him.

"The ones that let you extend the time you have a a summon out?"

"The numbers got cracked. They said that it's about one in 100. West Chester really isn't that far."

"I'm going to have to kill about 100 mobs to get that drop?" Todd said. "Unless I can get somebody else to do it for me."

"Why are you all of a sudden looking at me. I don't have anything to do with you. I have no business with you Todd. I'm just trying to talk to Mr. Proprietor here."

Todd grumbled on his way out. "I'm going to put up a quest so if you want to take that feel free."

"I will consider it, yes," Meatball said. She waited for him to fully leave and then tapped her tail against the counter several times. "In his dreams."

"You did tell him no so that's really on him then."

"Bagel do you feel like doing a dungeon for old times sake?"

Bagel visibly tensed up. "I wonder what would possess you to say anything like that. There's no way I would ever do that. I'm going to kill some mobs when I go outside and there are mobs to kill but otherwise I am absolutely done."

"You can't give up diamonds for good. What if we need you?"

"I very might well be the only cat that can save this neighborhood. So if you think that I'm going to waste my time in a dungeon when I could be out here getting other people to complete dungeons you're absolutely wrong. I don't care if they're a higher level of me. I'm the one with the money and if it's one thing that humans respect it's other people with money."

"That never really made any sense to me."

"Well if you're sure then I understand it and I'm not going to press. But if you want to go to Westchester with me, if these cards are really that great? I'm sure that we can find a spot where we can just take it afternoon and and kill as many laps as spawn around us as possible. I haven't heard anything about the county except for what you've told me so I would be going blind."

Meatball moved around. "Allow me to tell you everything I know. Then we can work on me getting over there and figuring out how to get as many cards as possible."

"It sounds like you've challenged me to get as many as these as I can. I too can issue a quest and you know what I can do. Also? I can go Gladys up and I can have her just tell her guys to go up there and sit there for a few days and harvest some cards. I'm pretty sure that Westchester county is going to enjoy having my boys there."

"That's a great idea. In fact it'll be a great idea when they take me with them so I can get some of the cards myself."

Bagel had considered how they were going to get there, but it made sense for them to be able to bring her with them. After all, it wasn't that much more difficult to travel with a cat than without. Especially a high-level cat with a specialized skill set related to taking down lots of monsters at the same time.

"You don't really need help to do this to you? Why don't you take a party with you?" Bagel gave her the glare that could cut through her bullshit. It looked like it bounced off of her.

"And have to split everything six ways?"

That was another thing that Bagel hadn't considered it. Having a party meant that they were going to have to split their loot and...

"After some careful thought, I have a decision. I'm going to be sending you with an armed guard. Now I just need to break the news to Gladys."