Stray Cat Strut Chapter Seventy-Two – Forms, Fans, and Functionaries

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Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk system apocalypse!) - Ongoing

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Love Crafted (Interactive story about an eldritch abomination tentacle-ing things!) - Completed!

Drear's Ten-Tea-Cle Café (An insane Crossover about cute people and tentacles) - Hiatus

Cinnamon Bun (A wholeso LitRPG!) - Ongoing

The Agartha Loop (A Magical-Girl drama!) - Volu Two Complete!

Lever Action (A fantasy western with cha!) - Volu One Complete!

Heart of Dorkness (A wholeso progression fantasy) - Completed!

Dead Tired (A cody about a Lich in a Wuxia world doing Science!) - Ongoing

Sporemageddon (A fantasy story about a mushroom lover exploding the industrial revolution!) - Ongoing

Past the Redline (A girl goes too fast, then she does it again) - Completed!

Magical Girl Crystal Genocide (Magical Girls accidentally the planet, and then try to fix it) - Completed!

Magical Girl Rending Nightmare (A sequel to Crystal Genocide! Cute girls in a soviet dystopia having a picnic on the roadside) - Volu Two Completed!

Noblebright (A shipcore AI works to avenge humanity) - Completed!

The Complicated Love Life of Ivil Antagonist (The Empress of Mars finds love) - Completed!

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No Strings Attached (An Elden Ring/Bloodborne inspired progression fantasy) - Ongoing

Save Scumming (A ti-looping system apocalypse) - Ongoing

Chapter Seventy-Two - Forms, Fans, and Functionaries

"At sound point, reality becos this... thing, that's not as real as you'd think. Sure, you may have witnessed sothing, but that's mory, 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 dia 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 na. 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 helt 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 helt 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 imdiately flagged her as a fan. Not of , in particular, but of like Samurai in general. Which made sense. If soone 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 sotis acts as my liaison?"

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

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

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

Creepy. I an, it didn't feel dishonest, so at least there was that, but it still felt a little weird to . 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 mont 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 an more... like, what's the Family think about what's going on. Other corps?"

"Oh! I see. Forgive for not understanding." She reached to the side and touched a panel next to the elevator, then gestured 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 s shared recently about your girl trip."

"My what?" I asked.

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

"No," I said.

She worried at her lips for a mont, then pulled out a smartphone and tapped at the screen. Obviously, watching soone paw at their phone wasn't my idea of a good ti, 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 s. There were a lot. Mostly they centred around myself and the others who'd headed out to hit up so hives over the weekend. The captions mostly called it the Girl Trip.

"Having a Girl ti 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 s. 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 s and social dia posts all weekend."

That was a long ti for s to live. "Local?" I asked.

She nodded. "Mostly concentrated in and around New Montreal's sh. So 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 . But B-rated samurai? That being those that aren't imdiate 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 t who lived around here were probably in the sa 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 ti 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 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 -y about it."

She nodded. The elevator opened and she led out. Eric had gotten promoted, it seed, because he was in a nicer corner of the building than I rembered. "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 so 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 ca to a stop before a door. There was a plaque on it with Eric's na. "Here we are. Thank you for allowing 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 . "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 sothing to fill out for that?"

***

A note from RavensDagger

Finally got Hope//Punk onto DriveThruRPG. Holy heck. That site's backend is nasty. They need to update that thing because it is hella buggy.

Anyway, other than the Kickstarter, you can now get your hands on Hope//Punk on yet another site, for freeee!

Links:

Kickstarter: skickstarter/projects/ravensdagger/hope-punk-a-stray-cat-strut-tabletop-roleplaying-ga

Itch.io: sravensdagger.itch.io/hopepunk

DriveThruRPG: sdrivethrurpg/en/product/536904/Hope--Punk

And of course, it's on my Patreon as well: /posts/139004556