Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Seventy-Two - Forms, Fans, and Functionaries

"At some point, reality becomes this... thing, that's not as real as you'd think. Sure, you may have witnessed something, but that's memory, and its failable. Sure, you might have video and pictures of a thing, but those are fakable. Sure, there might be records, but records can be corrupted and falsified.

So, if there's a valid reason to disbelieve all things, then what can you believe in?

You can believe in the nice, cold taste of Montana Mountain Fresh. The sweetest thing to touch your tongue since the cold truth."

--Montana Mountain Fresh ad, 2029

***

The media was handled... for a certain very poor definition of handled, I decided to focus on the next thing on the list. Only the next thing was taking care of Lucy's little army of volunteers, and I didn't have the energy to do that. So I skipped right past to the last thing on the list.

Letting the Family know about the event.

They probably knew already. They had to.

If not, I could always text... shit, I kept forgetting his name. That reedy little guy that worked for the Family. Eric? Was that it?

Anyway, I was sure he was in my contacts. I could send him a polite little text. 'Yo, it's Cat. Gonna invite a bunch of gangs for a chat this weekend, don't be worried about it. K thx bye.'

Yeah, that'd work, but it would also sour things a bit. The Family, like any other corp, liked things done in a certain way. A text to a mid-level manager sort wasn't it.

Sighing, I got on my bike and looked over the city, feeling and hearing the tapping of rain on my helmet as I scanned over the skyline. Ah, there it was. The Family HQ building was only a few blocks over. One of the only positives of having so much of downtown squeezed in tight.

I took off, rising into the sky below the hovercraft traffic, then dove down and past a few brilliantly bright billboards. I tried to focus on the skies ahead instead of on the buff ladies, hentai, and ultra-violence on high-def display. Whatever they were selling, I didn't need it.

Coming in for a landing, I took up one of the Samurai-only spots on the roof. My bike was the only one there, the rest of the VIP spaces were filled, with sleek little hovercars squeezed in tight. It made the Samurai parking spot stand out as strangely empty.

Well, if there was ever a place where our sort would stand out as treated better, this was it. I tried not to let it get to my head as I climbed off the bike and shut it off with my augs. I removed my helmet as I stepped in.

I was greeted by a young woman by the entrance. She bowed slightly and smiled. "Hello, Samurai Stray Cat," she said.

It felt... earnest? I don't know why, but I immediately flagged her as a fan. Not of me, in particular, but of like Samurai in general. Which made sense. If someone was enamoured with the idea of the vanguard, then there probably wasn't a better place to find work than for the Family. At least here they'd be working for and maybe with them.

"Hey," I said. "I'm looking for Eric. He sometimes acts as my liaison?"

"Ah, one moment?" she asked. Her eyes twitched wildly for a moment, both irises glowing faintly. "I've found him and sent an emergency schedule clear his way. Would you allow me to escort you to his office."

"Sure," I said. "But only if you let me ask you a few questions on the way."

"Of course!" she said, obviously happy to help.

Creepy. I mean, it didn't feel dishonest, so at least there was that, but it still felt a little weird to me. I don't think I could get used to it, and I was pretty sure I didn't want to get used to it to begin with.

"Have you been paying attention to the situation overall? I've been busy these last couple of days, so I'm not sure what the news is saying."

"About you?" she asked. At my nod, she continued. "Your ratings at the moment have been on a steady increase, though it's not much compared to the jump you made earlier."

"No, I don't care about ratings," I said. "I mean more... like, what's the Family think about what's going on. Other corps?"

"Oh! I see. Forgive me for not understanding." She reached to the side and touched a panel next to the elevator, then gestured me in when the door opened. "I can't speak for other organizations directly. We have a team that specializes in that, but I'm not part of it. Ah, as for the Family. I think it's overall very positive? There have been a lot of positive-leaning memes shared recently about your girl trip."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"My what?" I asked.

She blanched. "Ah, you hadn't seen those?"

"No," I said.

She worried at her lips for a moment, then pulled out a smartphone and tapped at the screen. Obviously, watching someone paw at their phone wasn't my idea of a good time, but she was at least pretty quick about it.

When she handed it over, I took it and stared, then I started swiping through photos and memes. There were a lot. Mostly they centred around myself and the others who'd headed out to hit up some hives over the weekend. The captions mostly called it the Girl Trip.

"Having a Girl time at the Girl trip with my Girlmurais doing Girlsplosions," I read.

My little guide flushed at that, and I had to wonder at the quality of memes. They were so much better when I was younger.

"There are others, regarding the, ah, previous events you and your Samurai companions took part in. The Phobos incident of course, was international news, but the letters sent out more recently and burning of Rama Corp was the topic of a large number of memes and social media posts all weekend."

That was a long time for memes to live. "Local?" I asked.

She nodded. "Mostly concentrated in and around New Montreal's mesh. Some passing interesting in Japan as well, thanks to Samurai Nya. She's quite popular in her own right."

Yeah, that made sense. What we did might be a blip on international news. Learning that Nya was popular wasn't much of a surprise at all. "Bet that rose all of our rankings a bit," I muttered.

She nodded. "Samurai Shy's most of all. She'd only accrued a very small, quiet fanbase, but seeing her next to more popular... ah."

"More popular what?" I asked. She'd clearly cut herself off there.

"Forgive me. But B-rated samurai? That being those that aren't immediate celebrities with international appeal and fanbases. Tier three and below, in military parlance."

"Oh, yeah. Don't worry about that," I said. I knew I wasn't a top dog. There were a lot of those around. Well, a lot was a little inaccurate. The top dogs was like... what, the top 10% of normal Samurai? Emoscythe and Grasshopper might count. Then there was the real top. The one-percenters. I think Longbow and Deus Ex were the only two that I knew.

Grasshopper and Emoscythe had international fans. They had fashion lines and teaching tools and whatever else going on. It made them popular. Laserjack, Jolly Monarch, a few others that I'd met who lived around here were probably in the same space. I wasn't sure how the 'tiers' thing worked, but they were probably tier four or whatever.

Longbow and Deus Ex had the ability to disappear cities. It was different.

It'd probably take a damned long time before I was there, and I was okay with that. Hell, I was okay with never reaching that level too. Too much shit pushed people towards wanting to be all ambitious and stuff. I didn't need to be at the top of the world. I was happy keeping me and mine safe and fed and roofed.

Lucy had ambition enough for the both of us, but that was okay too, because she was hot.

"And the corps?" I asked. "I imagine they're not as meme-y about it."

She nodded. The elevator opened and she led me out. Eric had gotten promoted, it seemed, because he was in a nicer corner of the building than I remembered. "The corporate reaction was mixed. Lots of them denounced Rama Corp and publicly decried the company's actions as foolish and bad, but behind closed doors, I think some of them were a little worried that you and your companions may have... overstepped a little. I think most understood that it was a warning shot, however."

"Good enough, I guess," I said. "If we have to do it twice it stops being so much of a warning."

She nodded along, then came to a stop before a door. There was a plaque on it with Eric's name. "Here we are. Thank you for allowing me to escort you."

"Thanks for the escort," I said. "Have a good one."

I didn't knock before stepping in.

Eric looked... overworked. Dude had bags under his eyes and two mugs of coffee on his desk, but he smiled as he saw me. "Miss Stray Cat!"

"Yo," I said before pulling out a seat. "So, I'm here to tell you that I'm doing shit and that I don't need the Family getting in the way. Is there like, a form or something to fill out for that?"

***