Chapter Seventy-Six - Xenocide Act VI; Tease

"A well-timed tease can turn an ordinary moment into a memory etched in laughter.

A good tease is like a dance, a rhythm of love and jest.

A bad tease leaves a sour note, shatters the dance and corrupts a relationship."

– Excerpt from A Treatise On Social Graces, 2028

 

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Leah's eyes danced with mirth. She'd caught on. Again.

Blushing heavily, I squinted at her. She was going to say something very compromising.

So, I suddenly removed my hands, and just when she was about to speak, sprayed her with water from my tail and left her spluttering.

While she was coughing and trying to recover, I quickly spun a fist-sized ball of loose silk and soaked it in water, until it swelled to the size of my head. Then I waited.

It didn't take very long. Leah pointed her squirt-gun finger at me, trying to track me through cough-induced tears. I dodged easily, and threw the absolutely soggy ball at her face. She blocked it by reflex where it exploded against her hand like a water bomb.

The resulting deluge hit us both, and I finally broke down in laughter with most of the awkward blushing behind me, even if the tingle at the base of my antennae was still echoing.

Then I sighed a little. "Leah?"

She calmed down and wiped the water from her face, before she looked at me.

"Yeah?"

"This time it was all accidental and I get that. But as I've said before, please quit teasing me so much? Not if you don't want the consequences. I don't mind the little stuff, the cuddles, sharing warmth, the soothing and petting. That's all different. But if we go past the limits, then, well, we stay there."

Her expressions shifted for a little while. There was confusion, a realization, a tiny bit of guilt or shame, and an apology.

Then she spoke again. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't quite realize what I was doing. Thanks for, um, making me aware, I guess?"

I tilted my head, Leah-style. The uncertainty of whether we were on the page pushed at me uncomfortably, wanted me to resolve it.

"Aware of what?"

Leah looked down with some embarrassment.

"Well, I was testing you, wasn't I? If you'd keep your word and stay, uh, decent. Even if I poked at it."

I nodded. We were on the same page after all. I breathed a little easier.

"And the thing is, Tinea, I wouldn't even do it if I wasn't attracted to you," she said with a bit of a blush.

I hugged her from the side. My turn to go all "Awww."

Leah giggled at me and squeezed me back. The physical contact warmed me and a smile curled my lips. I just really appreciated being a girl. 

"But yes. I'll tone it down. It isn't really a nice thing to keep testing you, to imply that you aren't trustworthy."

I gave Leah another squeeze and kissed her on the eyebrow. "Thank you. And if you want to tease me, you know, I'm fine with that," I said, with a flushed glance to the side. I didn't mind a little bit of…dominance from her. Then my eyes met hers again, with a challenge. "But expect that I'm going to take it as an invitation, alright? And I'll absolutely return the favor."

A tiny red tinge highlighted her cheekbones, and she replied with just a little of that same heat I'd exposed earlier. "I'll keep that in mind."

The hidden promise in her voice went straight to my core and made me shift hotly. I jumped up with a sudden need to move. Tease! Tease! 

Although this was the fun-future kind, not the kind daring me to have a go right this moment.

But I required revenge, indeed I did!

I looked around myself while bouncing on my toes, until my eyes zeroed in on the cannon's transport ring at the end of its tail.

The tail on which Leah was still sitting, laughing at me.

I hopped to it, and before Leah could react, I'd lifted it hip-high in a single move, and she half-tumbled-half-catapulted off of it.

She didn't go very far, but she sure made a nice splash with her bum.

The mud just slid off of her suit as she climbed to her feet, and even the prosthetics were hydrophobic. 

She arched an eyebrow at me, and I answered with a gentle shower from my spinneret, to wash the specks of dirt from her face. She was sputtering. Again.

Laughing I said, "There. All clean now, Leah."

That was apparently a little too much, and she jumped at me with tickling hands. Giggling, I tried to return the favor, and surprisingly, her suit didn't kill the sensations!

Leah let out some very hiccupy sounds and moved away with big eyes, hands covering her flanks.

"What?" I asked, a little confused at the reaction.

"Uh, seems like the suit made me feel it a lot more…? Like, it's more sensitive than my actual skin? Even though your poking didn't do anything at all earlier?"

Ypsi's voice answered her. Yeah! It's different from just getting poked. That's what, um, 'amplified signal-delta' means! It can feel tiny changes from a touch! 

"Or;" I said with an evil smirk and grasping hands, "it's ticklish."

Leah stared at me for a moment, and when I started moving towards her, she very quickly hopped into the pod behind her. The robot arms removed and stowed her limbs in less than a second, and the egg snapped shut, cutting me and my ticklers off.

Her face popped up on the shell, and she stuck her tongue at me.

Hmm. I wonder if there was a way to hack somebody's body and make them feel like you were tickling them?

Um. Probably yes. Samurai shit. But maybe…better not. That struck me as a little invasive. Yeah.

So, smiling, I returned to something a little more business-oriented.

"Hey Leah, can your egg tow the cannon?"

She nodded at me, letting the fun spill away a little. "Easily, in fact. It's meant to be strong, climb in difficult terrain. It can even walk upside down along ceilings, and stuff. Strength was more important than speed to the designers, apparently. Easier to strap some travel package on, than to give it extra power aftermarket, I think?"

Ah, that did actually make sense. I could see jumpjet upgrades and that kinda stuff. But you wouldn't need it if the pod could just walk anywhere you had to go, no matter what. It'd only take longer, but you could do without flight if the resources were low. 

Yeah, probably smart design decisions.

"And I was thinking we could probably attach the cannon with your silk? Except now we have a lot more points, so actually I think I should get that robot gantry."

"What can it do?"

"Well, it basically replaces the crew. It's a robot that can load, aim, and fire the cannon, and it can pack it up and use itself like an attachment point at the rear of my pod."

That did sound useful. Especially if Leah was going to get that under-belly cannon.

"How much does it cost?"

Six hundred points! But almost half of that is a catalog for robots.

"Seems fine to me, Leah?" I questioned.

She nodded again. "Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to need it no matter what, right? Well, if I want to use the cannon again. It'd be stupid to leave this pod in battle."

At least without additional armor, yeah. "Wanna buy it, then? Along with your other cannon?"

Leah nodded and climbed back out of her pod. She knelt in front of it as it lifted itself higher, so she could get a look at its bottom.

I turned back to the cannon and grabbed it by the ring again. This time, pushing or pulling it was easy—the spikes in my soles really made a huge difference. Even more, I could feel each single one individually as it sank past the mud and dug into the earth.

When only a few snagged something, they pulled uncomfortably. Not enough to cause pain, let alone injury. 

Hmm. I couldn't ignore it, though. If I really dashed, I would absolutely rip my skin open if I tried to sprint around a corner.

I lifted a foot and looked at the sole. I had slightly stubby spines growing from it. They were about half a centimeter long and quite thick for bristles. But they weren't really proper spikes like those in running shoes—I'd need an upgrade to manage structures as large as these, wouldn't I?

"Tynea, is there a way to support these saeta? Anchor them somehow?"

You could buy a genome library for claws and the like. Those will have the sheaths and anchors you are looking for.

"Ah. I guess the battle skin has nothing?"

No. It was meant to be a device to continuously dispense and regenerate material. It's already a little special in the sense that it can reabsorb grown chitin structures. But that feature was added to improve its capacity to serve in a multitude of missions. Even minimal stealth is difficult when you have to shed every time you wish to reconfigure your appearance.

Appearance, huh? I let my hair run through my fingers. The thought of freely playing around with my style made me smile. 

Later.

"Alright. What does that genetic upgrade cost? And that armor thing where I combine grown scales above my skin?"

I'll tabulate it for you:

 

Cost	Tkn	Unlock
150		Class I Viral Genetics
200		Class I Bacterial Genetics
350		Total

 

Cost	x	Item
120	1	Genome Library: Moonsinger Chitin and Keratin Claws
250	1	Upgrade: Moonsinger Chitin Fusion, subdermal fusion
200	1	Genome Library: Moonsinger Chitin Epidermal Armor
1000	1	Upgrade: Moonsinger Chitin Fusion, epidermal fusion
1570		Total
		AND
10	2	Programmed Virus Injection
		OR
300	1	Class II 'Iterator' Moonsinger Mark CI Virus/Bacteria Fastbake Gland, optimized for memorization and mutation
250		Genome Library: Bacterial Enzyme Factories
100		Genome Library: Viral Editors
		AND
10	1	Programmed Virus Injection
		OR
300	1	Class I Combat Graft Adapter

 

"Fastbake gland? What's that?"

An organ that allows you to build viruses and bacteria from any library you own. This one is particularly good at manufacturing large quantities of models saved to memory cells within the gland itself. Having this organ will allow you to save on the virus injections for future upgrades, and it allows you to craft microscopic weapons—such as sterile phages that can attack and kill specific Antithesis cells. Or bacteria that can serve as enzyme factories.

That was…interesting. Enzyme-crafting bacteria.

Oh, shit! I could inject those into stuff I want converted into toxic enzymes! Like Antithesis corpses. Or, uh, just straight up introduce venom-producing ones into live enemy bodies.

And though additional genomic libraries are expensive, this organ can iterate on those you already have, designing new versions through targeted mutation. A little slow and a little unreliable, but some of the best-selling blueprints were created like this.

But I'd use up more than two thousand points…

That'd be fair, though. It would help both now and save points in the long run, and Leah was also getting expensive upgrades. Yeah.

I looked over the table again. Hmm. I could choose between the injections and the natural growth, or I could combat graft the Iterator and have it print the viral editors I needed for the upgrades.

"How long would the organ take to grow naturally?"

Roughly six hours, and you'd need dense nutrition, of course.

Which would also cost a few points. And six hours… We wanted to be gone much earlier than that. 

"And the upgrades? How long will they take?"

Not long at all. A few seconds for the viruses to reach every cell. I'll use your bionites for faster distribution. Then a few minutes for the edits, and your skin will have the ability to create growths above, in, and below your skin.

"Alright. I'll take the Iterator, and with the combat graft." I sighed at the waste. Meh. "Can I leave the design of the bacteria for the enzymes and such to you?"

There's not enough time to iterate for the correct ones before you need them. May I also purchase the blueprint for the pulvinophages I mentioned before? Possessing this blueprint would allow me to use it to iterate more broadly useful phages from it as a small bonus, without additional point investments.

"... Alright. Go for it."

 

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