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Does not incldue side stories.", "count": "65", "submission_left_submission_id": "1298997", "submission_left_file_name": "1835453_TerraMGP_by_design_precipice.doc", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/1835/1835453_TerraMGP_by_design_precipice.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/1835/1835453_TerraMGP_by_design_precipice.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/1835/1835453_TerraMGP_by_design_precipice.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "1291468", "submission_right_file_name": "1835479_TerraMGP_by_right_subsystem.doc", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/1835/1835479_TerraMGP_by_right_subsystem.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/1835/1835479_TerraMGP_by_right_subsystem.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/1835/1835479_TerraMGP_by_right_subsystem.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "warning: This one is largely pretty clean. I put it in as strongly suggestive mainly because the series as a whole is, but... well... you will see I'm sure.\n\nHad a blast writing this actually and it really was alot of fun getting this much character growth and world building out of the way.\n\nDon't worry to those of you seeking sex, more is to come. But what fun is sex without plot?", "description_bbcode_parsed": "warning: This one is largely pretty clean. I put it in as strongly suggestive mainly because the series as a whole is, but... well... you will see I'm sure.

Had a blast writing this actually and it really was alot of fun getting this much character growth and world building out of the way.

Don't worry to those of you seeking sex, more is to come. But what fun is sex without plot?", "writing": "By Design: Vector\n\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\t“Raven, Sweetie. Dinner’s Ready”\n\n\tThe lithe young bunny perked his ear up and twitched a bit. “Just a minute, mom.” He called out though clenched teeth. He held stood on the edge of his seat, one hand placed firmly on his work desk and the other clenching a tiny little shred of smart last in a pair of tweezers. He lowered the little strip onto the tiny spalder of an armor-wrapped arm, slipping it carefully between two other strips to layer it just in place.\n\n\tHis hand hurt, his wrist ached and trembled. He could almost see the proper and perfect mosaic finally coming into place as the contact glue neared its intended place slathered in B compound.\n\n\tThe parts came down slowly in line, almost perfectly in synch, and then the tweezers slipped. The little bundle of shaped and sculpted compound flying off and bouncing around the room with a disheartening little plasticy ping.\n\n\tRaven sighed and collapsed into his desk chair with a loud leathery thunk. He tossed the tweezers onto the table and leaned back rubbing the strain from his eyes.\n\n\t“Raven. I said dinner. Right now, young man!”\n\n\tRolling his eyes and spitting the marker out onto the table, Raven pushed himself up and made his way down stairs to the small kitchen area where his mother and father sat at the table. \n\n\t“You know it’s getting you down here really shouldn’t be a chore at your age young man.” His father grumbled as he slid the small printed plates of mixed greens an faux shellfish on to the table. Dr. Himora was still a young man. His eyes were still bright and he walked with a spring in his step. Much like Raven he was scrawny though his work ensured he had a bit more muscle and tone to him. Though much of that boiled down to bad luck with simple gardening drones and the desire to do most of his greenhouse work manually.\n\n\t“Yeah Dad I’m sorry. I just had something I had to get done. I actually figured out that I can use a mix of Hoplite and Stonekin set parts to make some decent low point mooks for Commander format. That way I don’t have to change up Starduster’s load out and I still technically keep my point values under the cap.”\n\n\t“I see…” His mother said as she looked up from the small holo projector that was displaying her evening reports. “And exactly how much of this has helped you get your assignments done tonight, hmm?”\n\n\tRaven winced and slowly reached for his fork. “Not much, I guess” he muttered. Lowering his head and bringing a shallow forkfull of the salad to his lips. Munching long and slow to avoid any further elaboration.\n\n\tUnlike his dad Susan Himora was a bit on the older side of things. Not by much, but she’d defiantly gone though one Rejuv treatment already and rested a bit closer to his paternal grandparents’ generation than most of the other couples in the colony. \n\n\tThat age seemed to make her scorn a bit sharper, and Raven wanted to dodge that as much as he could.\n\n\t“Raven. Son. I thought we discussed this. Didn’t we?”\n\n\t“Yeah mom” he muttered\n\n\t“And what did we decide?”\n\n\t“That I gotta do my homework.” he muttered\n\n\t“No. We decided that you can’t pass up on your rich, fulfilling future simply to focus on your Battle strategy.” The brown-furred woman ran her stylus between freshly green-dyded hair and one heavily pierced ear as she leaned back in her seat and sipped on her tea. A rather minty white tea blend based on her husbands prized research.\n\n\tRaven sighed and shook his head as he glanced over to his father a moment. “Dad, can I have an Aether?” he asked as he held his paw up, half begging.\n\n\tThe black furred rabbit sighed and reached into the small refrigeration unit built into their wall. He pulled out a the telltale black can with streaks of white highlights. The cans were printed up with some of the composite clear to show off the glowing clear-blue sheen of the drink, a novelty that seemed to have worn off on the two parents.\n\n\tRaven caught the can and slid open the tab as he took a small sip. He then set it down and waited for his father to sit before looking to his mother again and offering an awkward half smile. “Look, mom. I know what we talked about. But I just had the idea yesterday. I didn’t want to forget it. I had almost all the spare parts I need from old boosters and dug out both my spare frames to test it. Then I just kinda figured the Hoplite arms looked a little plain, sooo…”\n\n\tSusan sighed and set her tea down carefully onto the table. “Exactly. Raven your father and I both know you are passionate about your game. You have some considerable talent. But that is just a byproduct of other talents. You have so much potential.”\n\n\t“It’s our job to keep you on track for your future, Kiddo.” Aki muttered as he looked to his wife and smiled “We’re your parents after all. It’s what we do.”\n\n\t“You guys both played Warriors of Elysian when you were younger” he muttered defensively.\n\n\t“Yes we did.” His mother nodded “An we still have our Battlers too. But we’ve had this discussion more than once. You can’t base your life around this game. It’s one thing to enjoy it. But when you get a bit older and realize there are other things you want to do with your life… well what then? Do you really want to be playing catchup?”\n\n\t“I already told you I want to get in to the Academy.” Raven protested softly.\n\n\tAki smiled softly “And if you get in we will naturally support you, son. We supported you when you got in to regionals after all. But do you know how many kids play this game? How many adults? Even if it’s not as big as it was when we were younger, or when your grandparents were younger, it’s still a pretty big pond.”\n\n\tSusan nodded her agreement. “We really don’t want to ground you Raven. You aren’t a bad boy. But you understand that it’s important to us you have career goals to fall back on.”\n\n\tRaven’s ear slumped a bit as he nodded “ I guess so mom…”\n\n\t“It’s not like we haven’t discussed this before.” his father chimed in “Besides, we all know that you won’t be able to pry your attention away once the new set hits.”\n\n\t“Which means if you want to get anything from that new set you need to show us you can keep on top of homework. A few chores wouldn’t hurt either Mister. You’re getting a bit too old to just coast on your allowance.” His mother smirked slightly and stuck her fork into one of the fake prawns along with a forkfull of the freshly grown greens. I remember someone begging us for advances hoping to get that one special sword drop…”\n\n\t“Yeah but I got it!” he said happily “Mountain breaker is mine. Nobody else on the colony even has it. Maybe not even anyone on-world. That makes Starduster.”\n\n\t“And I’m sure you will come across some other part that will ‘make’ him in the new set. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how this works.” his mother said sternly.\n\n\tRaven sighed a bit and slumped. “ok so what’s the damage.”\n\n\tBoth rabbits grinned and nodded at each other, then looked at him. “Five ration points per hour of work assisting your father. Twenty for every drone you help me fix in the drone bay.” they both smirked knowingly at him. The proud parents quite content in their ability to coerce life skills from their progeny.\n\n\t“So, all that and I have to keep up on homework too?” The black furred bunny boy muttered a bit as he brushed the hair from his face a moment.\n\n\t“No homework, no boosters. Or battles.” Susan said firmly “We will be checking and if your grades start to slip we put Starduster on lockdown. Even if you get in to regionals this year. You will still get your allowance. But do you really want to risk missing another build-breaking drop?” Susans smirk turning almost sadistic as she eyed the boys nervous excitement. Almost purring at her own parental contentment.\n\n\t“Fine. It’s a deal” Raven sighed.\n\n\t“You say that as if this was a negotiation.” Aki chuckled \n\n\t“Can I at least go out and get a few battles in before homework tonight? I already promised Riff I would.” Raven whined a bit and looked between the two, hopeful for some kind of approval.\n\n\tSusan shrugged and picked up her cup once more taking a small sip of tea. “Now now, Raven. You’re getting a bit too old for us to micromanage. It’s totally up to you how you choose to spend your time. Just be aware that how you spend it could well result in a loss of privileges, or ending up behind the curve with everyone else.”\n\n\tRaven nodded and quickly started to shovel his food quickly into his mouth. He barely stopped to chew as he took a hard swig of his cola and pushed back from the table.\n\n\t“uh uh. Aren’t we forgetting something young man?” Susan chimed in.\n\n\t“Oh, yeah. Can I be excused?” he asked sheepishly.\n\n\t“You may.” his father nodded “But put your can in the recycler when you are done with it. It’s hard enough keeping unwanted bugs out of my test area. We don’t need them in your bedroom.”\n\n\t“Got it” Raven nodded as he stood slowly, moving his dinner plate to the recycler and then quickly bounding up the stairs.\n\n\tRaven sat back down in his seat as he pushed his current project off to one side. He reached over and grabbed a small circular disc that currently sat on one corner of the table, dragging it and its passenger up to the fore.\n\n\tA quick mental command and the figure snapped to life. 0.2 meters tall, lithe and slender. The tawny, almost cream colored kangaroo rat doll was draped in a blue ring mail jacket and finely stitched leather pants that looked more like something off of a nightclub patron in a Holovid. Especially with the fine silver stitching details. One arm bare save for a simple gold wristlet and the other with a rather steampunkish wrist brace, lined with bottles and pouches of various sorts molded carefully on to it\n\n\tThe figure blinked his bright blue eyes open and looked up over that tuft of hair sticking out over his face. Even though they weren’t articulated enough for it the bobbing tuft always made Raven image that his Battler wiggled his nose every time he woke and that curling tip touched it.\n\n\t“Gahh, Raven. Is it time to get up already?” The figure asked with a yawn as he started to stand.\n\n\tStarduster pulled his lithe frame up and reached back to grip the hilt of his sword, Mountain Breaker. A massive blade at least half as thick as the toy wielding it and at least as tall overall. The hilt alone measured just a bit longer than the width of Stardusters shoulders and the narrow bronze cross guard seemed almost more decoration when set against the huge blue-white blade.\n\n\tThe figure used the sword to help push himself to standing on those bare digitigrades footpaws and looked up at his owner with a small smile “Let me guess. Your mom and dad got on you again, huh?\n\n\t“Yeah…” Raven nodded “They said that if I wanna get new parts and battle then I need to do chores and keep up with homework.”\n\n\t“You should be doing chores and keeping up with your homework.” Starduster said insistently.\n\n\t“Oh you’re just saying that because you’re programmed to.” Raven groaned.\n\n\t“Does that make it less true?” Star laughed softly. “c’mon Raven you know they just want you to be happy. Besides I could use the recharge time. This little side format project of yours is the most rest I’ve gotten in ages.”\n\n\tThe black furred bunny nodded and pulled a small, carefully decorated blue box off of his belt pouch. He set the box down and pushed his thumb against the latch as it opened, revealing a space in roughly the shape of his battler complete with a small charge contact. “Yeah well you can rest later. Riff and Hye want to get in a few rounds. Plus I think Riffs uncle heard something about the new set. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see some of the marketing stuff go up soon. All this buzz has me real stoked.”\n\n\tThe small figure let out an exasperated sigh and slowly dragged himself over to the box. He pushed himself in with a practiced motion and grumbled softly. “you know I may have to check again but normally people don’t get this excited over an ad campaign.” he muttered.\n\n\t“Yeah yeah people don’t get excited about a lot of things. Get in the box, rat-boy.” Raven giggled as he slammed it shut and slipped the package on to his belt.\n\n\tIt was a quick job down the stairs and out into the cool evening dusk. The air on K-137 always hit this wonderful point of cool, moist humidity at just this time and Raven took a moment to let that air break on his fur and fill his lungs.\n\n\tHis friends were already on their way, strolling along the simple prefab path of mosaiced plastic rhombi along scruffy but well loved yards\n\n\t“Told you he wouldn’t keep us waiting.” Hye-Jin giggled. The Tanuki wrinkled her muzzle a bit and grinned wide at Riff who was naturally standing stone still and stoic.\n\n\tShe gazed at the tiger boy for a long moment in annoyance before turning her attention over to Raven. “So how long do you have before your folks make you go in and finish your homework?” She giggled.\n\n\t“Hey now. Who says I didn’t do my work?” Raven pouted\n\n\t“Logic.” Hye chimed in\n\n\tRaven sighed softly and shook his head in frustration. One ear lopping softly as he looked up at Riff. “So mister big connected know-it-all. Your uncle come though for us? I know you said he would keep an eye out. I really want to see what the new set has in store.”\n\n\t“I told you, I’ll forward anything. Besides it probably isn’t the best idea to get your hopes up.” Riff shrugged.\n\n\t“Wha?” Raven blinked “Why not?”\n\n\t“Because word is that Global Mirage got bought out. That means it was probably some corp. If the guys who have been doing this for ages can’t make money off of it how do you think investors are going to deal with it? Hell it’ll probably cost real credits from some Corp just to unlock abilities. You know our folks wouldn’t even consider forking over something like that for a game even if they had any to begin with.”\n\n\t“My parents have a few” Hye noted “They do some freelance writing work for off-world publications sometimes. Not enough to waste it on WoE though. Especially not if it isn’t the same Corp who bought the company. Though I thought I heard the new set was just going to be a cheap reprint of popular classic stets that are hard to get ahold of now.”\n\n\t“Who the hell did you hear that from?” Riff muttered as he quirked his brow.\n\n\t“Alisha” Hye nodded\n\n\t“Then you know it’s probably not true.” The tiger muttered back softly.\n\n\t“Guys guys come on. You’re getting worried over nothing. It’s a new set. We didn’t even know if they would have a new set. Whatever it has in it will totally be awesome and totally be worth it! You just gotta have faith! Life is always gonna turn out awesome if you try hard enough.” Raven grinned ear to ear and chuckled. His tail waggling behind him happily as he pulled the small blue sticker-clad box from his belt. “Now then. Assuming you two aren’t scared. Who wants to go first?”\n\n\tBoth reached back for their respective boxes, Riff pulling the bright orange case out just a bit faster and grinning almost teasingly at Hye. \n\n\t“Ok fine you two boys. But I play winner.” Hye said as she popped open her own periwinkle box and let her Battler jump free. A slightly plumpish panda girl in brilliant white robes over which rested a small bit of cyberpunk-like armor. The figures head had a little display monocle not unlike those seen on many mercs in the news. The robe armor had shades of grey and gold, looking very square and modern. The figure looked up at Hye, leaned on her silver cross staff, and with her other arm held up the finely painted Taoistic charm she carried. The small trinket projected a Simple imagine in their hud. A translucent wall denoting each players starting ‘side’ on the walkway.\n\n\tRiff and Raven grinned at each other as they took their positions. Both boys falling back with one leg and gazing at each other in the closest approximation the boys had to a fighting stance. \n\n\t“Allright then. Three, Two, One, For Elysian!” \n\n\tBoth boys quickly took a step forward and swung the boxes out from behind them, fingers swiping over the latches to open them. Starduster flew out and landed on his side of the wall with a hard thud, looking up. His minor facial animation allowing a small smirk to cross his muzzle.\n\n\tRiffs battler landed on the plastic pathway with a simple thud. No overt displays of grace, no frivolity. Ghost R looked up slowly after landing. A wide brimmed hat, poncho and flowing scarf wrapped around his neck and most of his face giving off a very ‘Neo-western’ vibe clearly inspired by the ancient Range wars in Terra’s Ancient past.\n\n\tGhost’s bandage-wrapped left hand reached to his side and the moment that barrier vanished the pistol leapt from his hip in a deft quick-draw. Bolts of energy larger than either battlers head streaked out in rapid succession towards the other figure.\n\n\tStarduster dashed aside quickly. His massive sword trailed behind him in one hand and tail whipping about freely as he streaked away from the attack. The missed shots hit the ground with a thud leaving hard burns and scorch marks with their heavy impacts.\n\n\tThe Poncho-clad figure quickly returned the heavy, bottom-chambered revolver to it’s holster and instantly drew again. This time launching a heavy peppered assault of rounds. \n\n\tThe first few managed to catch the still running Star before he was able to react. As he did, he twisted his body to the side and threw up Mountain Breaker in the line of fire. The blade sparking as the rounds bounced off of it \n\n\tRaven winced and watched closely. He could see the guard gauge getting lower, and even that small initial assault had done far more damage than he would like. One of the dangers of this build.\n\n\tStill the bunny boy watched intently. Waited, counted. Finally the attack ended and that revolver slipped back in it’s holster. No doubt to emerge a moment later and resume the attack. “Now!” Raven yelled as the weapon went away, Triggering an ability. ‘orbit leap’.\n\n\tStarduster instantly leapt high into the air in a high, staggering arc. Blade held over his head in both hands, body almost seeming to hang there a moment before hurtling down towards his foe.\n\n\tThe revolver popped back out and started shooting. This time the rounds seeming to miss or ping off of the admittedly light armor as the opposing Battler hurtled though with it’s invulnerability window. The shots kept ringing out even as the massive blade nearly bit into that hat.\n\n\tThen it stopped. A loud clang ringing out and a flash of light the instant before the blade would find home. Ghost stood strong. Left arm raised and body shifted slightly in stance. That now-revealed arm was covered from shoulder to fingertips in surprisingly thick and rigid scale armor plates. The arm now raised with a stout and broad-bladed Jian reverse-gripped in hand. The smaller blade having managed to stop Stardusters assault.\n\n\t“Huh. You’ve been planning this one out haven’t you?” Raven growled.\n\n\t“Every move.” Riff murred. “Sorry to say but you won’t worm your way out of this one.\n\n\tEven as the tiger boy said it his battler drew that revolver again. Raven going wide eyed as he watched the thing fire and Star fly backwards. Raven quickly winced and prepared to pop one of his heals when he caught sight of the revolver slipping back in its holster. “Star, Move!” he yelped. The bunny dumped another large chunk of TP into his battlers speed buff and watched the tense exchange as the thing darted off away from the renewed hail of stray rounds peppering the ground behind him. \n\n\t“I have you pegged now, Raven. We both know how you play. All it took was tweaking Ghost out and figuring out how to keep you on lockdown. If you can’t heal, ya can’t fight.”\n\n\tRaven watched the TP numbers climbing slowly. Stars health was already dangerously low. Another one of those Deathshots would end it. He had to heal. But he couldn’t sit still long enough to recover quickly. Each time he started to build up any sort of reserve Riff would trigger another flurry and force him to boost away.\n\n\tJust one mistake could end up finishing the fight, one little slip and it would be all over. Worse still Riff had apparently grown confident enough that he could simply stand in place. He was still attacking, he wasn’t getting his TP back at the same rate he normally would. But it was faster than Raven.\n\n\t“This is what happens when you keep one strategy too long, Raven.” Riff almost purred. “Sooner or later you’re going to slip up. You’ll run out just a bit to soon. You’ll make a misstep. Like, say…”\n\n\tGhost slipped the gun back in the holster. Raven watched it almost in slow motion. His mind racing, his fists clenching. Filling with fear, with worry…\n\n\t… With raw excitement.\n\n\t“Starduster!” Raven called out. No words were exchanged. None had to be. The kangaroo rat fell back into stance and smirked that wry little smirk as he stared down Ghost, just as the gun hit the holster once more.\n\n\tThe draw was lightning-fast. Less than half a second for Ghost to have the weapon drawn and launch that powerful deathshot.\n\n\tMountain Breaker shimmered and sparkled as light gathered around it. Starduster heaving his body even as the gun was drawn. The shot matched by a massive scintillating wave of energy that echoed off the massive sword in a wide arc. That wave flew out quickly. It’s form consuming the small line of raw damage that was streaking towards Starduster. It consumed and countered the shot, then kept going, offering only a moment for Ghost to quickly throw up his sword-arm and block a fraction of the damage. \n\n\tNot that he had time. Star, still on the tail end of his speed boost, rushed Ghost and began laying in with a massive flurry of blows. That obscenely large sword raining blow after guard-destroying blow as both Riff and his battler struggled to keep the Jian in the way. \n\n\tRaven could now see thick, heavy, legs, almost like power armor, hiding behind the thick poncho where once Ghost had sported a set bonused pair of chaps and cowboy boots. These new legs were heavier, slower. Clearly added a ton of defense and TP. Yet now under the massive assault the Battler and his controller were struggling just to stay upright. Each flurry of blows pushing them back, step by step.\n\n\tFinally the plastic walkway gave out, and Ghost was barely standing with one foot half-hanging off above the grass.\n\n\t“Allright, Star. Time to finish this!” Raven called. “Celestial Divide!”\n\n\tThe massive sword raised as the kangaroo rat looked up at it. Energy glowing and scintillating around it in thick heavy waves. Slowly swelling and building a bright aura of rainbow light that built and sparked from the cross guard all the way to the tip of the blade. \n\n\tA beam of this rainbow light shot up into the air, several feet, well above the kids’ heads. In one smooth motion that massive energy blade swept though the opponent. Shattering any semblance of a guard gauge and ripping though the largely in tact HP bar in one go.\n\n\tRiff looked on dumbfounded and let out a small groan of frustration. Shaking his head and rushing over to pick his Battler up, checking the dazed Ghost over for any major scuffs or damage. The white-furred Tiger boy narrowed his eyes and grumbled as he stood up slowly, patches of dirt and grass stains on the knees of his jumpsuit. \n\n\t“Why the hell didn’t you try to heal? You always heal.” Riff growled “That’s like half your strategy right there.”\n\n\t“Yeah and you knew it.” Raven nodded “You turned Ghost into a tank with those legs… which really don’t match at all, by the way. Even before I saw them I knew you were going to outdo my healing this time. So I took a chance. Gotta admit though that was one hell of a fight!”\n\n\tRiff rolled his eyes and let out a small sigh. His shoulders slumped a little as he slowly put the dazed Battler on his shoulder and brushed his knees off. “I don’t know how you can always act like some grinning idiot at times like this, Raven. I almost had you. I was this close.”\n\n\t“Yeah you were. It was great. Maybe next time both of us will make it into regionals too! But you gotta go back to the old legs, it’s not like you weren’t tanky before.” Raven smirked as the damage shown in their datajack-assisted augmented reality faded out, leaving everything looking fresh and real as it had been.\n\n\t“Ok you boys calm down. I told you I got winner. Eodom, get ready.” she said as she held her Battler up in one hand and box in the other, watching as Star was scooped up by Raven and put into his own box.\n\n\t“Ok you guys. Let’s get ready.” Riff said “Three, two, one, For Elysian!”\n\n------------------------------\n\n\tThe new set was counting on her. That one simple fact rolled and roiled in Kimis head as she shut her eyes softly and took a small moment to run a paw over her own utterly unattractive tummy fur. Tracing and rubbing the displeasingly not-toned shape with the flat of her hand as she looked on at the twentieth project she had going for the week.\n\n\tEvery day it felt just a little bit better. Some stupid, ugly, gawky little dweeb. Locked away in her safe little cube, doing all the work for everyone else as they looked down on her. Doing all the work for Ms. Thanedotter and likely never to see a shred of credit. \n\n\tHer paw started to slip down slowly at the very notion of that wonderful exploitation. Slowly making its way though her slightly greasy fur and tracing ever so close to that perma-virgin sex.\n\n\tFor a moment Kimi considered taking a break. She thought about letting herself slip down into a wonderful oblivion with her little program to mock her. Nobody was likely to hear after all. It was probably after hours at the office by this point. Even if they did hear… well that just made it better, didn’t it?\n\n\tBut no. She hadn’t earned it. Somehow, deep down, Kimi knew that. She didn’t deserve let herself enjoy that horrible little bliss of Ms. Thanedotters voice telling her what a loser she was. She hadn’t been used, exploited, quite enough yet for such an honor. Hell even the idea of her peers mocking and hitting her seemed like it was more than she deserved with so much left to do.\n\n\tIt hurt though, especially since she wanted to do more. So much more.\n\n\tShe leaned back in her chair, legs spread slightly, her own body scent gagging and choking the possum girl as she looked over the newest weapon.\n\n\tIt was cool enough. A stylized Ninja-to on a chain leading to a thick metal cuff. Kimi had already gotten enough parts done for Ad copy and to have the marketing campaign made. She looked up at her newest poster, a dark stone fantasy dungeon hallway and offset from center a lithe cat woman in a tight leathery outfit wearing a blank, expressionless silver mask over a smoothly domed head. In her hands she held a rose whip and her body stood in a position of power, of authority.\n\n\tThis figure would be one of the faces for the new campaign, and just looking at it gave the nasty little marsupial a rush she so didn’t deserve.\n\n\tShe wanted to deserve it, though. Needed to deserve it. Even with the clearly exploitative pace of progress she’d been put under Kimi just knew she had to do something special. Something more. Something that would make her worthy of Ms. Thanedotters attention, of her contempt… assuming anything ever could.\n\n\tShe stopped, biting her lip and shivering a bit. A wonderful, terrible little idea crossing her mind.\n\n\tKimi sat up straight and waved her hand over, switching to a monitor having Wolf Supremacy audio files lined up in at least ten tabs for a search. Kimi looked at the tabs a moment, then scrolled to open a new one, not wishing to lose any of the precious files she had yet to save.\n\n\tShe opened the Global Mirage statistics site and quickly set up a search. Carefully she narrowed it down. Players with high win records, players who had won at specific tournament levels. Combat potential, style, tactics simulated against the general meta of the game over all customers.\n\n\tIt took a few moments. The computer actually seeming to strain at all of the refined parameters. Slowing and bugging before finally results started to pop up. Names, registration numbers, personal details, combat video.\n\n\tTwelve. From all walks of life. From all corners of the known milky way. Twelve in total.\n\n\tKimi bit her lip in excitement as she watched them. Her eyes drifting from one face to the next. Most of them cubs. Most of them probably having no idea what was in store for them.\n\n\tAs she went to start work Kimis eye caught sight of someone using a massive, powerful blue sword. Mountain Breaker, one of her favorite creations.\n\n\t“Well now, cuties.” Kimi muttered to herself as she took a moment to run her hand up, gripping one of her tits hard though her sweater and shuddering as anticipation welled up in her. “I really hope you all enjoy your surprises…\n\n\tJust three weeks until broadcast, and she had some special parts to create..\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "By Design: Vector

By TerraMGP

\t“Raven, Sweetie. Dinner’s Ready”

\tThe lithe young bunny perked his ear up and twitched a bit. “Just a minute, mom.” He called out though clenched teeth. He held stood on the edge of his seat, one hand placed firmly on his work desk and the other clenching a tiny little shred of smart last in a pair of tweezers. He lowered the little strip onto the tiny spalder of an armor-wrapped arm, slipping it carefully between two other strips to layer it just in place.

\tHis hand hurt, his wrist ached and trembled. He could almost see the proper and perfect mosaic finally coming into place as the contact glue neared its intended place slathered in B compound.

\tThe parts came down slowly in line, almost perfectly in synch, and then the tweezers slipped. The little bundle of shaped and sculpted compound flying off and bouncing around the room with a disheartening little plasticy ping.

\tRaven sighed and collapsed into his desk chair with a loud leathery thunk. He tossed the tweezers onto the table and leaned back rubbing the strain from his eyes.

\t“Raven. I said dinner. Right now, young man!”

\tRolling his eyes and spitting the marker out onto the table, Raven pushed himself up and made his way down stairs to the small kitchen area where his mother and father sat at the table.

\t“You know it’s getting you down here really shouldn’t be a chore at your age young man.” His father grumbled as he slid the small printed plates of mixed greens an faux shellfish on to the table. Dr. Himora was still a young man. His eyes were still bright and he walked with a spring in his step. Much like Raven he was scrawny though his work ensured he had a bit more muscle and tone to him. Though much of that boiled down to bad luck with simple gardening drones and the desire to do most of his greenhouse work manually.

\t“Yeah Dad I’m sorry. I just had something I had to get done. I actually figured out that I can use a mix of Hoplite and Stonekin set parts to make some decent low point mooks for Commander format. That way I don’t have to change up Starduster’s load out and I still technically keep my point values under the cap.”

\t“I see…” His mother said as she looked up from the small holo projector that was displaying her evening reports. “And exactly how much of this has helped you get your assignments done tonight, hmm?”

\tRaven winced and slowly reached for his fork. “Not much, I guess” he muttered. Lowering his head and bringing a shallow forkfull of the salad to his lips. Munching long and slow to avoid any further elaboration.

\tUnlike his dad Susan Himora was a bit on the older side of things. Not by much, but she’d defiantly gone though one Rejuv treatment already and rested a bit closer to his paternal grandparents’ generation than most of the other couples in the colony.

\tThat age seemed to make her scorn a bit sharper, and Raven wanted to dodge that as much as he could.

\t“Raven. Son. I thought we discussed this. Didn’t we?”

\t“Yeah mom” he muttered

\t“And what did we decide?”

\t“That I gotta do my homework.” he muttered

\t“No. We decided that you can’t pass up on your rich, fulfilling future simply to focus on your Battle strategy.” The brown-furred woman ran her stylus between freshly green-dyded hair and one heavily pierced ear as she leaned back in her seat and sipped on her tea. A rather minty white tea blend based on her husbands prized research.

\tRaven sighed and shook his head as he glanced over to his father a moment. “Dad, can I have an Aether?” he asked as he held his paw up, half begging.

\tThe black furred rabbit sighed and reached into the small refrigeration unit built into their wall. He pulled out a the telltale black can with streaks of white highlights. The cans were printed up with some of the composite clear to show off the glowing clear-blue sheen of the drink, a novelty that seemed to have worn off on the two parents.

\tRaven caught the can and slid open the tab as he took a small sip. He then set it down and waited for his father to sit before looking to his mother again and offering an awkward half smile. “Look, mom. I know what we talked about. But I just had the idea yesterday. I didn’t want to forget it. I had almost all the spare parts I need from old boosters and dug out both my spare frames to test it. Then I just kinda figured the Hoplite arms looked a little plain, sooo…”

\tSusan sighed and set her tea down carefully onto the table. “Exactly. Raven your father and I both know you are passionate about your game. You have some considerable talent. But that is just a byproduct of other talents. You have so much potential.”

\t“It’s our job to keep you on track for your future, Kiddo.” Aki muttered as he looked to his wife and smiled “We’re your parents after all. It’s what we do.”

\t“You guys both played Warriors of Elysian when you were younger” he muttered defensively.

\t“Yes we did.” His mother nodded “An we still have our Battlers too. But we’ve had this discussion more than once. You can’t base your life around this game. It’s one thing to enjoy it. But when you get a bit older and realize there are other things you want to do with your life… well what then? Do you really want to be playing catchup?”

\t“I already told you I want to get in to the Academy.” Raven protested softly.

\tAki smiled softly “And if you get in we will naturally support you, son. We supported you when you got in to regionals after all. But do you know how many kids play this game? How many adults? Even if it’s not as big as it was when we were younger, or when your grandparents were younger, it’s still a pretty big pond.”

\tSusan nodded her agreement. “We really don’t want to ground you Raven. You aren’t a bad boy. But you understand that it’s important to us you have career goals to fall back on.”

\tRaven’s ear slumped a bit as he nodded “ I guess so mom…”

\t“It’s not like we haven’t discussed this before.” his father chimed in “Besides, we all know that you won’t be able to pry your attention away once the new set hits.”

\t“Which means if you want to get anything from that new set you need to show us you can keep on top of homework. A few chores wouldn’t hurt either Mister. You’re getting a bit too old to just coast on your allowance.” His mother smirked slightly and stuck her fork into one of the fake prawns along with a forkfull of the freshly grown greens. I remember someone begging us for advances hoping to get that one special sword drop…”

\t“Yeah but I got it!” he said happily “Mountain breaker is mine. Nobody else on the colony even has it. Maybe not even anyone on-world. That makes Starduster.”

\t“And I’m sure you will come across some other part that will ‘make’ him in the new set. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how this works.” his mother said sternly.

\tRaven sighed a bit and slumped. “ok so what’s the damage.”

\tBoth rabbits grinned and nodded at each other, then looked at him. “Five ration points per hour of work assisting your father. Twenty for every drone you help me fix in the drone bay.” they both smirked knowingly at him. The proud parents quite content in their ability to coerce life skills from their progeny.

\t“So, all that and I have to keep up on homework too?” The black furred bunny boy muttered a bit as he brushed the hair from his face a moment.

\t“No homework, no boosters. Or battles.” Susan said firmly “We will be checking and if your grades start to slip we put Starduster on lockdown. Even if you get in to regionals this year. You will still get your allowance. But do you really want to risk missing another build-breaking drop?” Susans smirk turning almost sadistic as she eyed the boys nervous excitement. Almost purring at her own parental contentment.

\t“Fine. It’s a deal” Raven sighed.

\t“You say that as if this was a negotiation.” Aki chuckled

\t“Can I at least go out and get a few battles in before homework tonight? I already promised Riff I would.” Raven whined a bit and looked between the two, hopeful for some kind of approval.

\tSusan shrugged and picked up her cup once more taking a small sip of tea. “Now now, Raven. You’re getting a bit too old for us to micromanage. It’s totally up to you how you choose to spend your time. Just be aware that how you spend it could well result in a loss of privileges, or ending up behind the curve with everyone else.”

\tRaven nodded and quickly started to shovel his food quickly into his mouth. He barely stopped to chew as he took a hard swig of his cola and pushed back from the table.

\t“uh uh. Aren’t we forgetting something young man?” Susan chimed in.

\t“Oh, yeah. Can I be excused?” he asked sheepishly.

\t“You may.” his father nodded “But put your can in the recycler when you are done with it. It’s hard enough keeping unwanted bugs out of my test area. We don’t need them in your bedroom.”

\t“Got it” Raven nodded as he stood slowly, moving his dinner plate to the recycler and then quickly bounding up the stairs.

\tRaven sat back down in his seat as he pushed his current project off to one side. He reached over and grabbed a small circular disc that currently sat on one corner of the table, dragging it and its passenger up to the fore.

\tA quick mental command and the figure snapped to life. 0.2 meters tall, lithe and slender. The tawny, almost cream colored kangaroo rat doll was draped in a blue ring mail jacket and finely stitched leather pants that looked more like something off of a nightclub patron in a Holovid. Especially with the fine silver stitching details. One arm bare save for a simple gold wristlet and the other with a rather steampunkish wrist brace, lined with bottles and pouches of various sorts molded carefully on to it

\tThe figure blinked his bright blue eyes open and looked up over that tuft of hair sticking out over his face. Even though they weren’t articulated enough for it the bobbing tuft always made Raven image that his Battler wiggled his nose every time he woke and that curling tip touched it.

\t“Gahh, Raven. Is it time to get up already?” The figure asked with a yawn as he started to stand.

\tStarduster pulled his lithe frame up and reached back to grip the hilt of his sword, Mountain Breaker. A massive blade at least half as thick as the toy wielding it and at least as tall overall. The hilt alone measured just a bit longer than the width of Stardusters shoulders and the narrow bronze cross guard seemed almost more decoration when set against the huge blue-white blade.

\tThe figure used the sword to help push himself to standing on those bare digitigrades footpaws and looked up at his owner with a small smile “Let me guess. Your mom and dad got on you again, huh?

\t“Yeah…” Raven nodded “They said that if I wanna get new parts and battle then I need to do chores and keep up with homework.”

\t“You should be doing chores and keeping up with your homework.” Starduster said insistently.

\t“Oh you’re just saying that because you’re programmed to.” Raven groaned.

\t“Does that make it less true?” Star laughed softly. “c’mon Raven you know they just want you to be happy. Besides I could use the recharge time. This little side format project of yours is the most rest I’ve gotten in ages.”

\tThe black furred bunny nodded and pulled a small, carefully decorated blue box off of his belt pouch. He set the box down and pushed his thumb against the latch as it opened, revealing a space in roughly the shape of his battler complete with a small charge contact. “Yeah well you can rest later. Riff and Hye want to get in a few rounds. Plus I think Riffs uncle heard something about the new set. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see some of the marketing stuff go up soon. All this buzz has me real stoked.”

\tThe small figure let out an exasperated sigh and slowly dragged himself over to the box. He pushed himself in with a practiced motion and grumbled softly. “you know I may have to check again but normally people don’t get this excited over an ad campaign.” he muttered.

\t“Yeah yeah people don’t get excited about a lot of things. Get in the box, rat-boy.” Raven giggled as he slammed it shut and slipped the package on to his belt.

\tIt was a quick job down the stairs and out into the cool evening dusk. The air on K-137 always hit this wonderful point of cool, moist humidity at just this time and Raven took a moment to let that air break on his fur and fill his lungs.

\tHis friends were already on their way, strolling along the simple prefab path of mosaiced plastic rhombi along scruffy but well loved yards

\t“Told you he wouldn’t keep us waiting.” Hye-Jin giggled. The Tanuki wrinkled her muzzle a bit and grinned wide at Riff who was naturally standing stone still and stoic.

\tShe gazed at the tiger boy for a long moment in annoyance before turning her attention over to Raven. “So how long do you have before your folks make you go in and finish your homework?” She giggled.

\t“Hey now. Who says I didn’t do my work?” Raven pouted

\t“Logic.” Hye chimed in

\tRaven sighed softly and shook his head in frustration. One ear lopping softly as he looked up at Riff. “So mister big connected know-it-all. Your uncle come though for us? I know you said he would keep an eye out. I really want to see what the new set has in store.”

\t“I told you, I’ll forward anything. Besides it probably isn’t the best idea to get your hopes up.” Riff shrugged.

\t“Wha?” Raven blinked “Why not?”

\t“Because word is that Global Mirage got bought out. That means it was probably some corp. If the guys who have been doing this for ages can’t make money off of it how do you think investors are going to deal with it? Hell it’ll probably cost real credits from some Corp just to unlock abilities. You know our folks wouldn’t even consider forking over something like that for a game even if they had any to begin with.”

\t“My parents have a few” Hye noted “They do some freelance writing work for off-world publications sometimes. Not enough to waste it on WoE though. Especially not if it isn’t the same Corp who bought the company. Though I thought I heard the new set was just going to be a cheap reprint of popular classic stets that are hard to get ahold of now.”

\t“Who the hell did you hear that from?” Riff muttered as he quirked his brow.

\t“Alisha” Hye nodded

\t“Then you know it’s probably not true.” The tiger muttered back softly.

\t“Guys guys come on. You’re getting worried over nothing. It’s a new set. We didn’t even know if they would have a new set. Whatever it has in it will totally be awesome and totally be worth it! You just gotta have faith! Life is always gonna turn out awesome if you try hard enough.” Raven grinned ear to ear and chuckled. His tail waggling behind him happily as he pulled the small blue sticker-clad box from his belt. “Now then. Assuming you two aren’t scared. Who wants to go first?”

\tBoth reached back for their respective boxes, Riff pulling the bright orange case out just a bit faster and grinning almost teasingly at Hye.

\t“Ok fine you two boys. But I play winner.” Hye said as she popped open her own periwinkle box and let her Battler jump free. A slightly plumpish panda girl in brilliant white robes over which rested a small bit of cyberpunk-like armor. The figures head had a little display monocle not unlike those seen on many mercs in the news. The robe armor had shades of grey and gold, looking very square and modern. The figure looked up at Hye, leaned on her silver cross staff, and with her other arm held up the finely painted Taoistic charm she carried. The small trinket projected a Simple imagine in their hud. A translucent wall denoting each players starting ‘side’ on the walkway.

\tRiff and Raven grinned at each other as they took their positions. Both boys falling back with one leg and gazing at each other in the closest approximation the boys had to a fighting stance.

\t“Allright then. Three, Two, One, For Elysian!”

\tBoth boys quickly took a step forward and swung the boxes out from behind them, fingers swiping over the latches to open them. Starduster flew out and landed on his side of the wall with a hard thud, looking up. His minor facial animation allowing a small smirk to cross his muzzle.

\tRiffs battler landed on the plastic pathway with a simple thud. No overt displays of grace, no frivolity. Ghost R looked up slowly after landing. A wide brimmed hat, poncho and flowing scarf wrapped around his neck and most of his face giving off a very ‘Neo-western’ vibe clearly inspired by the ancient Range wars in Terra’s Ancient past.

\tGhost’s bandage-wrapped left hand reached to his side and the moment that barrier vanished the pistol leapt from his hip in a deft quick-draw. Bolts of energy larger than either battlers head streaked out in rapid succession towards the other figure.

\tStarduster dashed aside quickly. His massive sword trailed behind him in one hand and tail whipping about freely as he streaked away from the attack. The missed shots hit the ground with a thud leaving hard burns and scorch marks with their heavy impacts.

\tThe Poncho-clad figure quickly returned the heavy, bottom-chambered revolver to it’s holster and instantly drew again. This time launching a heavy peppered assault of rounds.

\tThe first few managed to catch the still running Star before he was able to react. As he did, he twisted his body to the side and threw up Mountain Breaker in the line of fire. The blade sparking as the rounds bounced off of it

\tRaven winced and watched closely. He could see the guard gauge getting lower, and even that small initial assault had done far more damage than he would like. One of the dangers of this build.

\tStill the bunny boy watched intently. Waited, counted. Finally the attack ended and that revolver slipped back in it’s holster. No doubt to emerge a moment later and resume the attack. “Now!” Raven yelled as the weapon went away, Triggering an ability. ‘orbit leap’.

\tStarduster instantly leapt high into the air in a high, staggering arc. Blade held over his head in both hands, body almost seeming to hang there a moment before hurtling down towards his foe.

\tThe revolver popped back out and started shooting. This time the rounds seeming to miss or ping off of the admittedly light armor as the opposing Battler hurtled though with it’s invulnerability window. The shots kept ringing out even as the massive blade nearly bit into that hat.

\tThen it stopped. A loud clang ringing out and a flash of light the instant before the blade would find home. Ghost stood strong. Left arm raised and body shifted slightly in stance. That now-revealed arm was covered from shoulder to fingertips in surprisingly thick and rigid scale armor plates. The arm now raised with a stout and broad-bladed Jian reverse-gripped in hand. The smaller blade having managed to stop Stardusters assault.

\t“Huh. You’ve been planning this one out haven’t you?” Raven growled.

\t“Every move.” Riff murred. “Sorry to say but you won’t worm your way out of this one.

\tEven as the tiger boy said it his battler drew that revolver again. Raven going wide eyed as he watched the thing fire and Star fly backwards. Raven quickly winced and prepared to pop one of his heals when he caught sight of the revolver slipping back in its holster. “Star, Move!” he yelped. The bunny dumped another large chunk of TP into his battlers speed buff and watched the tense exchange as the thing darted off away from the renewed hail of stray rounds peppering the ground behind him.

\t“I have you pegged now, Raven. We both know how you play. All it took was tweaking Ghost out and figuring out how to keep you on lockdown. If you can’t heal, ya can’t fight.”

\tRaven watched the TP numbers climbing slowly. Stars health was already dangerously low. Another one of those Deathshots would end it. He had to heal. But he couldn’t sit still long enough to recover quickly. Each time he started to build up any sort of reserve Riff would trigger another flurry and force him to boost away.

\tJust one mistake could end up finishing the fight, one little slip and it would be all over. Worse still Riff had apparently grown confident enough that he could simply stand in place. He was still attacking, he wasn’t getting his TP back at the same rate he normally would. But it was faster than Raven.

\t“This is what happens when you keep one strategy too long, Raven.” Riff almost purred. “Sooner or later you’re going to slip up. You’ll run out just a bit to soon. You’ll make a misstep. Like, say…”

\tGhost slipped the gun back in the holster. Raven watched it almost in slow motion. His mind racing, his fists clenching. Filling with fear, with worry…

\t… With raw excitement.

\t“Starduster!” Raven called out. No words were exchanged. None had to be. The kangaroo rat fell back into stance and smirked that wry little smirk as he stared down Ghost, just as the gun hit the holster once more.

\tThe draw was lightning-fast. Less than half a second for Ghost to have the weapon drawn and launch that powerful deathshot.

\tMountain Breaker shimmered and sparkled as light gathered around it. Starduster heaving his body even as the gun was drawn. The shot matched by a massive scintillating wave of energy that echoed off the massive sword in a wide arc. That wave flew out quickly. It’s form consuming the small line of raw damage that was streaking towards Starduster. It consumed and countered the shot, then kept going, offering only a moment for Ghost to quickly throw up his sword-arm and block a fraction of the damage.

\tNot that he had time. Star, still on the tail end of his speed boost, rushed Ghost and began laying in with a massive flurry of blows. That obscenely large sword raining blow after guard-destroying blow as both Riff and his battler struggled to keep the Jian in the way.

\tRaven could now see thick, heavy, legs, almost like power armor, hiding behind the thick poncho where once Ghost had sported a set bonused pair of chaps and cowboy boots. These new legs were heavier, slower. Clearly added a ton of defense and TP. Yet now under the massive assault the Battler and his controller were struggling just to stay upright. Each flurry of blows pushing them back, step by step.

\tFinally the plastic walkway gave out, and Ghost was barely standing with one foot half-hanging off above the grass.

\t“Allright, Star. Time to finish this!” Raven called. “Celestial Divide!”

\tThe massive sword raised as the kangaroo rat looked up at it. Energy glowing and scintillating around it in thick heavy waves. Slowly swelling and building a bright aura of rainbow light that built and sparked from the cross guard all the way to the tip of the blade.

\tA beam of this rainbow light shot up into the air, several feet, well above the kids’ heads. In one smooth motion that massive energy blade swept though the opponent. Shattering any semblance of a guard gauge and ripping though the largely in tact HP bar in one go.

\tRiff looked on dumbfounded and let out a small groan of frustration. Shaking his head and rushing over to pick his Battler up, checking the dazed Ghost over for any major scuffs or damage. The white-furred Tiger boy narrowed his eyes and grumbled as he stood up slowly, patches of dirt and grass stains on the knees of his jumpsuit.

\t“Why the hell didn’t you try to heal? You always heal.” Riff growled “That’s like half your strategy right there.”

\t“Yeah and you knew it.” Raven nodded “You turned Ghost into a tank with those legs… which really don’t match at all, by the way. Even before I saw them I knew you were going to outdo my healing this time. So I took a chance. Gotta admit though that was one hell of a fight!”

\tRiff rolled his eyes and let out a small sigh. His shoulders slumped a little as he slowly put the dazed Battler on his shoulder and brushed his knees off. “I don’t know how you can always act like some grinning idiot at times like this, Raven. I almost had you. I was this close.”

\t“Yeah you were. It was great. Maybe next time both of us will make it into regionals too! But you gotta go back to the old legs, it’s not like you weren’t tanky before.” Raven smirked as the damage shown in their datajack-assisted augmented reality faded out, leaving everything looking fresh and real as it had been.

\t“Ok you boys calm down. I told you I got winner. Eodom, get ready.” she said as she held her Battler up in one hand and box in the other, watching as Star was scooped up by Raven and put into his own box.

\t“Ok you guys. Let’s get ready.” Riff said “Three, two, one, For Elysian!”

------------------------------

\tThe new set was counting on her. That one simple fact rolled and roiled in Kimis head as she shut her eyes softly and took a small moment to run a paw over her own utterly unattractive tummy fur. Tracing and rubbing the displeasingly not-toned shape with the flat of her hand as she looked on at the twentieth project she had going for the week.

\tEvery day it felt just a little bit better. Some stupid, ugly, gawky little dweeb. Locked away in her safe little cube, doing all the work for everyone else as they looked down on her. Doing all the work for Ms. Thanedotter and likely never to see a shred of credit.

\tHer paw started to slip down slowly at the very notion of that wonderful exploitation. Slowly making its way though her slightly greasy fur and tracing ever so close to that perma-virgin sex.

\tFor a moment Kimi considered taking a break. She thought about letting herself slip down into a wonderful oblivion with her little program to mock her. Nobody was likely to hear after all. It was probably after hours at the office by this point. Even if they did hear… well that just made it better, didn’t it?

\tBut no. She hadn’t earned it. Somehow, deep down, Kimi knew that. She didn’t deserve let herself enjoy that horrible little bliss of Ms. Thanedotters voice telling her what a loser she was. She hadn’t been used, exploited, quite enough yet for such an honor. Hell even the idea of her peers mocking and hitting her seemed like it was more than she deserved with so much left to do.

\tIt hurt though, especially since she wanted to do more. So much more.

\tShe leaned back in her chair, legs spread slightly, her own body scent gagging and choking the possum girl as she looked over the newest weapon.

\tIt was cool enough. A stylized Ninja-to on a chain leading to a thick metal cuff. Kimi had already gotten enough parts done for Ad copy and to have the marketing campaign made. She looked up at her newest poster, a dark stone fantasy dungeon hallway and offset from center a lithe cat woman in a tight leathery outfit wearing a blank, expressionless silver mask over a smoothly domed head. In her hands she held a rose whip and her body stood in a position of power, of authority.

\tThis figure would be one of the faces for the new campaign, and just looking at it gave the nasty little marsupial a rush she so didn’t deserve.

\tShe wanted to deserve it, though. Needed to deserve it. Even with the clearly exploitative pace of progress she’d been put under Kimi just knew she had to do something special. Something more. Something that would make her worthy of Ms. Thanedotters attention, of her contempt… assuming anything ever could.

\tShe stopped, biting her lip and shivering a bit. A wonderful, terrible little idea crossing her mind.

\tKimi sat up straight and waved her hand over, switching to a monitor having Wolf Supremacy audio files lined up in at least ten tabs for a search. Kimi looked at the tabs a moment, then scrolled to open a new one, not wishing to lose any of the precious files she had yet to save.

\tShe opened the Global Mirage statistics site and quickly set up a search. Carefully she narrowed it down. Players with high win records, players who had won at specific tournament levels. Combat potential, style, tactics simulated against the general meta of the game over all customers.

\tIt took a few moments. The computer actually seeming to strain at all of the refined parameters. Slowing and bugging before finally results started to pop up. Names, registration numbers, personal details, combat video.

\tTwelve. From all walks of life. From all corners of the known milky way. Twelve in total.

\tKimi bit her lip in excitement as she watched them. Her eyes drifting from one face to the next. Most of them cubs. Most of them probably having no idea what was in store for them.

\tAs she went to start work Kimis eye caught sight of someone using a massive, powerful blue sword. Mountain Breaker, one of her favorite creations.

\t“Well now, cuties.” Kimi muttered to herself as she took a moment to run her hand up, gripping one of her tits hard though her sweater and shuddering as anticipation welled up in her. “I really hope you all enjoy your surprises…

\tJust three weeks until broadcast, and she had some special parts to create..

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