Mimic's not entirely sure what to do for her project. She doesn't know what animal to study, doesn't have much of a plan, and even if she did have either of those things, she doesn't have much opportunity to go and find an animal to study in the first place.
If she was allowed to wander around on her own, she'd probably be able to do this easily. For a moment she feels intensely annoyed at the restrictive nature of her orders, and then has to tell herself that potentially failing her summer project is a small price to pay in exchange for staying safe and out of Nebula's hands. She can't really help being annoyed, though. Is there any way she can find and catch an animal to study while still obeying her orders? Or will she have to beg Dr. Hikari to take her to the local zoo so she can at least get something for the project?
She'd honestly rather catch an animal. The zoo would be an extremely loud place, with all the people and the animals and everything.
Maybe she should just do what Lan's doing, and study a bug? There should be plenty of bugs in the garden - she might even find one crawling around the house. Ms. Mari can't really protest, because Mimic will still be catching it, even if she doesn't go that far to find one like the rest of the class is doing.
"I'm thinking a beetle of some kind," Lan says. He's lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Those are pretty cool. And there's loads in the city, I've seen them everywhere!"
"They're also very difficult to catch," MegaMan points out. "Maybe you could try for a butterfly instead . . . ?"
"No way!" Lan exclaims, bouncing up to give him an offended look. His PET's in the charger, so MegaMan's unenthusiastic expression is plain to see. "Butterfly's are boring. But beetles? Those are cool!"
"So you've said," MegaMan mutters.
Mimic's sitting on the end of Lan's bed with Ragdoll stretched out beside her. She barely moves as Lan flops back down again, still too focused on wondering what she's going to do for her own project.
Butterflies should come into the garden, right? There are flowers in the garden, and she's pretty sure butterflies like flowers. Or is that bees? Wait, do both bees and butterflies like flowers? Fuck, Mimic has no idea.
If only she could just do Ragdoll for her project. Her problems would be solved immediately - she knows a lot about cats, considering the fact that she's practically a cat herself, and Ragdoll would be ridiculously easy to study. Habitat? Her home. Diet? Cat food. Predator or prey? Predator, definitely.
But, no. Lan told her pets aren't allowed, and the project has to be about an animal that she's not familiar with. Even if she didn't have Ragdoll, she'd still be far too familiar with cats, so she still wouldn't be allowed to do that.
She jumps when Lan suddenly lets out a shriek. He shoots off his bed and is on the other side of his bedroom in the blink of an eye, far faster than she's ever seen him move while he's human, and he huddles in the corner, looking absolutely terrified.
His eyes are fixed on a specific spot on his bed, so she follows his gaze. At first she can't see what he's looking at, but then she notices the faintest bit of movement, and sees a small house spider just chilling on his pillow. Ragdoll lifts his head and stares at it for a moment before flicking his tail disinterestedly and lowering his head again.
Mimic glances over at Lan, still huddled in the corner. He hasn't moved an inch and is staring at the spider the same way most people would stare at a live bomb.
"Just a spider," Mimic tells him.
Lan doesn't take his eyes off it as he replies. "I don't like spiders," he says tightly.
Mimic looks back at the spider, which is now rubbing its front legs together. It's not doing much else, and yet Lan is still terrified.
She leans forward and reaches out, carefully picking the spider up. It just sits in her hands, apparently not bothered by her, and Lan makes a high-pitched noise not unlike steam escaping from a kettle.
"Get rid of it," Lan begs. "Please."
Mimic shoots him a quick glance before turning her attention back to the spider. A few moments pass by, and Lan lets out a desperate noise that's probably another plea for her to get rid of the spider, but he's apparently too terrified to actually put words to his plea. She hesitates for another moment, unsure of what to do.
Then she decides, fuck it, and puts the spider in her mouth.
Lan goes absolutely still. He stares at her in total silence as she chews. After a few more moments, she swallows, and then opens her mouth to show Lan that the spider is gone.
" . . . Why," Lan squeaks.
Mimic blinks at him. "You wanted it gone," she points out.
"I meant take it outside or something!" Lan exclaims, bursting into movement as he grips his hair and stares at her in horror. "I didn't mean eat the damn thing!"
"What did it taste like?" MegaMan asks curiously.
Lan whips his head around to gape at him. MegaMan just shrugs.
"What? It's a valid question," he says.
"Kinda chewy," Mimic replies, and Lan gags. "But also crunchy?"
"Oh my god," Lan gasps, looking sickened, "you're not human."
"Lan, that's mean!" MegaMan protests.
"He just ate a live spider!" Lan retorts in a high voice. "That's- that's just . . . Why!?"
"You wanted it gone," Mimic says, again.
Lan buries his face in his hands and yells into them.
Later on, Mimic kind of regrets eating the spider. She could've used it for her project - it would count as being caught, even if all she did was pick it up and let it chill on her hands until she ate it. But she's pretty Lan would never go anywhere near her bedroom until she got rid of the spider, and she'd honestly rather not have Lan avoiding her bedroom like that.
She's also not entirely sure why he's so freaked out about her eating a spider in the first place. He wanted it gone, right? And if he wanted her to take it outside, she'd have to take it downstairs, because the balcony outside his bedroom wouldn't guarantee that the spider would be gone - but Lan was near the door, effectively blocking it, and he probably would've fainted if she'd taken the spider anywhere near him. So what else was she supposed to do?
While she's still trying to figure out what to do about her project, Lan gets a call from Famous. They're in her bedroom at the moment, because Lan practically begged Haruka to check his room for any more spiders and refused to go back in until she was done.
"Chaud ate a spider," Lan says, without any prompting whatsoever.
Famous stares at him from the screen of Lan's PET. "What," he says.
"There was a spider on my bed, and Chaud picked it up and ate it!" Lan shudders and makes a face, sticking out his tongue like he's trying to get rid of a bad taste in his mouth.
"Well . . . he is basically a cat," Famous points out, though he looks mildly unsettled. "And I'm pretty sure cats eat spiders."
"Chaud's human and it was disgusting!" Lan insists.
"I'm right here," Mimic reminds him, frowning.
"I know!" Lan retorts. "And it was disgusting!"
Mimic rolls her eyes and turns back to Famous. "What's up?" she prompts, hoping to drag Lan's attention away from her eating a spider for more than three seconds.
"Uh . . ." Famous stares blankly for a moment before he remembers. "Oh, right. This isn't really a mission, per se. The DenTech Silver Centre is running a NetBattling program for some of its residents, and the Net Police have been asked to help teach them. And, naturally, that job fell to the Net Savers. Because we do all the weird jobs."
"What's the Silver Centre?" Lan asks.
"It's a home for the elderly," Famous explains. "Apparently some of them wanted to learn about NetBattling, hence why the Centre set up that program."
"And . . . you're telling us this because . . . ?"
Famous gives him a puzzled look. "Because you love NetBattling. I figured it'd be better to send someone who actually enjoys it, rather than someone who only does it because they have to as part of their job. Most of my other Net Savers are the latter, unfortunately."
"Oh," Lan says, now starting to look slightly eager. At least he seems to have forgotten the spider thing. "Well, when you put it like that . . ."
"One more thing, though," Famous adds, wincing at he glances at Mimic. "I'm not sure it'd be a good idea for you to go, Chaud."
"Why not?" Mimic asks, tilting her head.
"Apparently one of the residents who signed up for the program is . . . difficult," Famous replies, somewhat hesitantly. "Well, I say 'resident', but he doesn't live there like most of the others."
"Difficult how?" Lan breaks in, before Famous can get distracted.
"To put it bluntly," Famous begins, "he's rude. Disrespectful. Loud. And apparently gets frustrated very easily."
Lan winces. "Ah," he says. "Right. I . . . guess that would be a problem."
Yeah, Mimic can see the issue as well. If the guy Famous is talking about gets frustrated easily, he probably wouldn't have the patience to deal with Mimic - most of the people she talks to are used to her and how she speaks (or how little she speaks), but anyone just meeting her for the first time will definitely be confused and probably wouldn't understand her that well. And combined with being rude, disrespectful, and loud, a guy who gets frustrated easily would probably start yelling at her when he inevitably doesn't understand a word she tries to say.
That . . . would not be fun. At all.
"Would it be okay if I take Maylu along, instead?" Lan asks. "I'm probably gonna need someone to help me demonstrate stuff, and if Chaud can't come, Maylu'd be a pretty good replacement."
"Is she any good at NetBattling?"
"Definitely!" Lan exclaims, grinning. "She took part in the N1 last year, and got really far too!"
Famous hums curiously. "Well, if she was able to compete in that tournament . . . Sure, go ahead and bring her along. I'll send directions to your PET, and you can head to the Centre. They want their first NetBattling session today, so the sooner you head out, the better."
"Gotcha, Mr. Famous!" Lan agrees.
"It's just Famous," Famous replies tiredly, before ending the call.
A moment later, Lan's PET beeps, and MegaMan announces there's an email from Famous, including a set of directions to the Silver Centre. Lan pushes himself to his feet, putting his PET away.
"See you later, Chaud," Lan says. He winces distastefully. "Don't eat any more spiders, 'kay?"
Mimic sticks her tongue out at him as he leaves, half-tempted to threaten to find another one and munch on it in front of him.
As soon as Lan's gone, Mimic gets back to trying to figure out what to do for her project. Arcadia tries to help, suggesting a few animals she might be able to find in the garden - most of them bugs - but none of his suggestions include spiders of any kind, since Lan's already established that he won't tolerate them. And Mimic would probably just eat any spiders she finds purely to spite him.
Chaud tries to help, too, but his suggestions aren't any better than Arcadia's, so he ends up helping Mimic plan out the rest of the project. She gets further with that than trying to decide what animal to study, so for the moment, Mimic decides to give up on finding an animal and focuses on getting the project planned out.
Or she would focus on that, but she gets distracted by a faint scratching at her door. She knows it's Ragdoll only because he's the only one whose footsteps (or would that be pawsteps?) she can't hear, since he's just as silent-footed as Mimic. Most of the time he follows her around the house, but sometimes he likes to wander, and if she's in her bedroom when he wants to come back to her, he'll scratch on the door to let her know he's there.
She gets up and opens the door, then steps back. Ragdoll trots in happily as she closes the door behind him, and as she turns around, he sits down in the middle of her bedroom and looks up at her.
He's got something dangling from his mouth. As soon as Mimic notices, Ragdoll places it on the floor and steps back, allowing her to come over and crouch down to inspect whatever it is.
. . . He brought me a mouse, Mimic thinks, after a short pause. I . . . have no idea how to proceed.
Is it dead? Chaud wonders, as Mimic reaches out and gently pokes the mouse.
"No, it's just stunned," Arcadia says.
Mimic glances up at the white PET, sitting in her charger, and stares at Arcadia.
How do you know? Chaud asks, because she's too confused to ask herself.
"I can sense its mind," Arcadia replies.
What the fuck? Mimic continues to stare at him.
Arcadia gives her a flat look. "I can see souls using my Empath Program, yet the fact that I can sense the mind of an animal is surprising to you?"
Okay, fair point, Mimic has to admit. She glances at Ragdoll, then turns back to Arcadia. What's Ragdoll thinking, then?
Arcadia concentrates on Ragdoll for a moment. "Well . . . basically, I hope My Cat-Person likes my gift," he says.
My Cat-Person? Mimic repeats.
"It's what he calls you," Arcadia explains. "It used to be My Person, but he changed it to My Cat-Person after you started becoming more like a cat. As for the mouse . . . he saw you eat the spider and seems to be under the impression that you prefer live prey, so he found that mouse for you."
Your giant cat just went and grabbed some random mouse from who-knows-where because he thinks you're a cat too, Chaud says, awed. That . . . is truly the pinnacle of weird.
Mimic can't really argue with that. She's a little stunned that Ragdoll would just randomly do something like this, but also touched that he thought to do this in the first place - and his name for her is absolutely adorable, too. My Cat-Person. Certainly descriptive, at the very least.
She carefully cups the apparently-stunned mouse in her hands and lifts it up. Now that she knows it's still alive, she can just about see the faint rise-and-fall of its chest, and wonders how long it'll be before it wakes up.
Then she suddenly gets an idea.
Mimic? Chaud asks, sensing her sudden excitement.
"That's it!" Mimic says out loud, grinning. "I can do the mouse!"
"For your project?" Arcadia guesses, and she nods. "Uh . . . would it count?"
Yeah, you didn't exactly catch it yourself, Chaud agrees.
"Ragdoll caught it, gave it t'me," Mimic argues. "That counts." She pauses. "I think."
"Well, if you're gonna do the mouse for your project, you'll need somewhere to keep it," Arcadia says. "Lan should have a few of those plastic boxes with the air holes in them - one of those should do until you find something better."
Think he'll mind if I borrow one? Mimic wonders, as she carefully stands up, making sure not to drop the mouse by accident.
He shouldn't, he's got five of them, Chaud says. Last time I checked, anyway.
Mimic puts the mouse into one of Lan's plastic containers - which she's pretty sure are supposed to be for the bug he's going to catch, but obviously none of them are in use at the moment because he hasn't caught any bugs. Good news for her, because it means she has somewhere to put the mouse Ragdoll gave her.
Then she heads downstairs with the mouse, and after quickly explaining to the adult Hikaris that the mouse isn't dead, just stunned, she asks Haruka if they have any cages for small rodents. They don't, of course, but Haruka offers to go to the pet shop in the department store and find some things for the mouse so Mimic can look after it while she's doing her project.
Damn, she's glad the adult Hikaris are so chill about this. Anyone else probably would've freaked out about the fact that Ragdoll apparently found a mouse from . . . somewhere (she's still not clear on where he got it from) and then just gave it to her because he thinks she likes eating prey while it's still alive. Considering how Lan reacted to Mimic eating the spider earlier, he probably would've fainted upon hearing Ragdoll's reason for bringing Mimic a live mouse.
Several hours later, Mimic has a small rodent cage, and a temporary pet. Arcadia informs her that Ragdoll is puzzled as to why she put the mouse in a cage rather than eating it like he'd expected her to, but Arcadia also confirms that Ragdoll has no interest in eating the mouse himself, so at least Mimic can do her project without worrying about her cat trying to eat it.
Lan, on the other hand, is completely bewildered. He comes back just as night begins to fall, looking ragged and thoroughly annoyed, but as soon as he catches sight of the mouse, he stops and stares.
"Project," Mimic explains. "Ragdoll got it for me."
" . . . You know what, I'm not even gonna ask," Lan decides. He plops down beside her on the sofa and watches the mouse scurry around the cage. "So I guess you had a better day than I did, at least."
Mimic doesn't need Arcadia's Empath Program to sense that he wants to complain about something, so she sits back and looks at him, silently inviting him to rant. It's better if he gets it out of his system anyway.
"You know that guy Mr. Famous told us about?" Lan begins. "The rude, disrespectful, loud, easily-frustrated old dude?"
Mimic nods.
"I met him," Lan says bluntly. "His name's Tensuke. He wasn't pleasant, I'll tell you that much. The other people in the program were pretty happy to learn about NetBattling, but this guy . . . ugh." He makes a face. "He apparently hates NetBattling, even though he signed up for the program, and he kept calling battle chips crackers. And then he challenged me to a NetBattle, refused to use battle chips for . . . some reason, I don't actually know, and got angry when he lost."
"Don't forget he also made you carry him home," MegaMan calls helpfully.
Lan groans at the reminder. "Yeah," he sighs. "After he lost the NetBattle, he tried to challenge me to a top-spinning battle, and then messed up his back. He blamed it on me, even though I didn't do anything, and even after I carried him all the way back to his house, he was really ungrateful!"
"But we did find out why he wants to learn NetBattling, even though he hates it so much," MegaMan says. "Apparently his grandson loves NetBattling and Tensuke promised to learn so they could play together. It's actually kinda sweet."
"Me and Maylu offered to teach him how to NetBattle," Lan adds. "We're taking him to Mr. Higsby's Chip Shop tomorrow to get some battle chips for him, and Mr. Higsby has a practise machine in his shop, so we can use that to teach Tensuke the basics."
"Considering what you've told us about him so far," Arcadia begins hesitantly, "I'm not sure this'll work out the way you want it to."
"Motivated but unwilling," Mimic agrees, with a nod.
"Hopefully he will be willing, tomorrow," Lan says. He winces. "Though I can't say I'm looking forward to trying to deal with him . . ."
Mimic reaches out and gives him a half-sarcastic consoling pat on the shoulder.
She's pretty sure this won't end well - like with the weird date thing from a few days ago, she knows this was an episode in the anime, and is fairly certain that Tensuke was not a good student. The exact opposite, if anything. Lan's going to have his work cut out for him.
The next day, Lan heads out to meet Maylu and take Tensuke out to Higsby's Chip Shop, and Mimic takes her mouse to SciLab to show Famous. As it turns out, he loves mice, and practically falls over laughing when he hears how she got it.
Famous gives her all kinds of information about mice. Mimic writes it all down, and includes some of her own observations of the mouse in the cage, because she needs personal observations as well as information from other sources. By the time she and Dr. Hikari head home, Mimic's got more than enough notes to finish most of her project, and the rest she can get over the next week or two while she looks after the mouse.
She's in the middle of writing up some of the notes Famous gave her when Lan knocks on her bedroom door. When he comes in, she's surprised to see that he somehow looks even more ragged than he did yesterday, and correctly guesses that his attempts to teach disrespectful old Tensuke the basics of NetBattling did not go well.
Lan flops down on her futon, disturbing Ragdoll, who had been curled up in his bed. Ragdoll stares at Lan for a moment, clearly offended, before pointedly turning his back and going back to sleep.
"Teaching not go well?" Mimic asks.
Lan groans loudly.
"That bad?" Mimic winces. She knows this from the anime, of course, but seeing the aftermath for herself is just painful.
"Tensuke is impossible," Lan says, throwing an arm over his eyes. "We were trying to teach him the basic elements - strengths and weaknesses, you know? But he couldn't wrap his head around it, so he got frustrated and gave up." He sighs and sits up, leaning his back against the wall. "I guess he went back home to finish that mechanical spin top he was making - I don't think I told you about that, actually. He's a top-maker, and he's got so many different tops in his house, you wouldn't believe it. Anyway, he was making this big mechanical one, and he must've finished it, because the next thing I know, this kid's running past me and Maylu with a giant spinning top chasing after him, and Tensuke comes zooming past on his bicycle trying to stop it."
"Uh . . . why was the top trying to attack a kid?" Arcadia asks.
"The kid was his grandson, Kousuke," Lan explains. "And Tensuke told me the top had a sensor in it or something, to make it target its opponent, but he didn't realise there were viruses in it, so the top targeted his grandson. I saved him from getting crushed by the thing, but then it targeted me!"
"Yeah, that . . . wasn't fun," MegaMan admits, with a deep sigh. "It was relentless - Lan literally couldn't get away from it. He even ran into the quarry outside the city, and it still followed him!"
"It drilled a hole into the ground and I fell in," Lan picks up the story again. "I couldn't jack MegaMan in, 'cus it was moving too fast, but somehow Tensuke managed it - and I guess some of those lessons we tried to give him actually stuck, because he deleted some of the viruses inside the top. Not many, but enough that I could finally get MegaMan into the thing."
"We deleted the rest of the viruses," MegaMan says. "Just in time, too, because that top was about to crush Lan and Tensuke."
"At least Tensuke's actually good at NetBattling, now." Lan still seems annoyed at the old guy, but appears to be somewhat satisfied that he succeeded in teaching Tensuke how to NetBattle. "He and his grandson had a NetBattle at the Chip Shop, and Tensuke actually won. 'Course, he made it sound like he always knew about NetBattling, and said he'd let me be his sparring partner." Lan snorts. "He'd let me. Like I haven't been trying to help him this entire time."
"I think he was grateful to Lan for teaching him how to NetBattle, at least," MegaMan puts in. "He just wanted to look cool in front of his grandson."
"At least it worked out," Mimic points out to Lan.
His annoyed expression softens a little. "Yeah, I guess so," he sighs. "Now all I've gotta do is find a bug for my project, and I won't have anything to worry about - aside from, y'know, the usual stuff."
Mimic glances at the cage, and just about makes out the small lump of light brown fur that is her temporary pet mouse in the corner. Lan follows her gaze and makes an odd whining noise.
"You've already got your project," he says. "And I'm pretty sure everyone else in the class has theirs as well - even Dex and Yai! They sent me pictures yesterday. Dex caught a swordfish or something, and Yai got this cool hawk, or eagle, or whatever it is. I don't even know how either of them managed that. Man, I'm falling behind . . ."
"Go bug-catching, then," Mimic tells him.
Lan perks up. "I guess I have been a little lax in trying to find a bug," he admits. "I still think a beetle would be pretty cool, but at this point, I guess I can't really afford to be picky . . . Still, I want something cool, at least."
"Lan," MegaMan sighs, "you don't have to catch some big fancy bug for your project. Roll told me that Maylu went to the zoo to draw pictures of her animal, and look at what Chaud has - it's literally just a mouse his cat found somewhere. If you insist on catching a bug, don't waste time trying to find something 'cool' just to compete with your friends."
"Nope, I'm finding a cool bug, and there's nothing you can say to stop me," Lan immediately declares.
MegaMan sighs long-sufferingly.
This is gonna end in disaster, Mimic knows. She remembers one episode in the anime where Lan had been trying to catch bugs for whatever reason - at least she has the context for that, now - and he and Maylu somehow ended up in desert, of all things. Is there even a desert in Japan? They found one, anyway. Lan'll probably end up complaining about it after it happens, but at least it'll be an entertaining story.
Lan spends the next several days trying to find the coolest bug for his project. He manages to persuade Maylu to help him, and occasionally Mimic heads out with him as well, because Lan wants to make use of her enhanced senses - and he also bribed her with noodles.
But even when Lan manages to catch a bug, he always lets it go because 'it's not cool enough'. Maylu's starting to get annoyed, though Mimic is of the opposite opinion. Lan goes absolutely over-the-top at every opportunity, running around screaming bug hunting! even when they're in the middle of the city, and is basically being overly enthusiastic about it. Like when she watched him terrorise the stallholders in the food market, Mimic is finding this whole bug-hunting thing hilarious.
She doesn't go with him every day, though. It wouldn't exactly be safe for her to wander after a boy screaming about bugs, especially in public, so she goes with Lan every other day, and spends most of her time at SciLab like usual.
One day, though, Dr. Hikari has a day off - so he doesn't go into SciLab, and neither does Mimic. Lan's off trying to catch bugs again, but Mimic already went out with him yesterday, and while she finds his enthusiasm endlessly entertaining, she could honestly do with a break from his energy.
She's sitting on the floor downstairs, tossing one of Ragdoll's toys for him to chase, when she hears a faint whisper from the white PET. Ragdoll pauses and pricks his ears curiously, but neither of the adult Hikaris react, which tells Mimic that Arcadia's trying to catch her attention without letting them know something's up. And there's only one thing Mimic can think of that Arcadia would want to keep from the adult Hikaris at the moment.
Her guess is confirmed when she takes out the white PET, and sees Bass standing next to Arcadia. He's only a little taller than Arcadia is - the fins on his helmet give him a bit of extra height - and while he looks as hostile as ever, he isn't trying to attack.
[wait a minute] Mimic quickly signs, after glancing around to check Dr. Hikari and Haruka aren't watching her. They'd probably figure out that something's up if they see her signing for no apparent reason.
Arcadia nods, and leans close to Bass to whisper a translation. Bass's scowl gets a little deeper, but he doesn't protest, so Mimic puts away the white PET and stands up, stretching her arms above her head.
"Tired of playing with Ragdoll?" Haruka asks, noticing her movements.
"Mm," Mimic replies, lowering her arms again. "Wanna check on mouse."
"Lunch will be ready in half an hour," Haruka reminds her, as Mimic heads off upstairs.
Mimic waves to show she heard - not that she needs to, because her hearing is sensitive enough that she can hear Haruka's voice from anywhere in the house even if she's just talking at normal volume.
Ragdoll trots after her with his toy in his mouth, and she lets him into her bedroom first. He immediately scampers over to his bed and burrows into the material, purring, while Mimic heads over to her desk and sets the white PET into its charger.
"Computer?" Mimic offers, gesturing to it.
"Why can't we talk from in here?" Bass snaps.
"The network is bigger in his computer," Arcadia explains. He's completely unruffled by Bass's aggression. "And the screen is bigger, too, so Chaud can see us better."
" . . . Fine," Bass mutters.
Mimic waits for them to stream out of the white PET and appear on the screen of her computer. Bass doesn't even let a single heartbeat pass before he speaks again, launching into the reason why he even bothered to show up in the first place.
"So. This alignment thing. What is it," he demands.
Mimic exchanges a glance with Arcadia at his tone. Considering he's in her computer, in her home, he's being strangely aggressive.
[uneasy] Arcadia signs to her, since Bass obviously doesn't know sign language. [doesn't like being this close to humans]
"Are you going to explain that alignment thing or not?" Bass breaks in, before Mimic can respond to Arcadia's signs.
Now that she's not faced with life-threatening danger, Mimic finds it much easier to explain the alignment chart. It also helps that she did some more research on the alignment chart since Bass's previous appearance, just so she'd be prepared and informed enough to give him a good explanation - or at least a satisfactory one.
"There's three main categories," Mimic begins. "Lawful, neutral, and chaotic. The sub-categories are good, neutral, and evil."
"Why is neutral on the chart twice?" Bass demands.
"It balances good and evil, also lawful and chaotic," Mimic explains. He doesn't interrupt her again, so she assumes that answer was good enough. "The main categories mean different things depending on h-how they're matched with the sub-categories." She pauses for a moment to gather her thoughts. "So . . . I said you're chaotic neutral. You serve your own goals or needs above anything else. Doesn't matter if they're good or bad. And you're also unpredictable."
" . . . That does sound like me," Bass admits, almost reluctantly. "Alright, fine, I'm chaotic neutral or whatever. What the hell are you, then?"
"Chaotic good," Mimic replies. Bass raises an eyebrow at her, and she shrugs. "M'definitely a good guy, but I don't always . . . I don't always do what I'm supposed to do."
"He's a little destructive," Arcadia adds. "He also has a habit of disobeying orders so he can help people, but like he said, he's definitely a good guy." He sighs long-sufferingly. "Though sometimes I think he's more chaotic stupid than anything else . . ."
"Hey," Mimic says, frowning at him. Her lips twitch, though, ruining her show of annoyance.
"What about him?" Bass asks, nodding to Arcadia. "What would he be in this alignment thing?"
"Neutral good," Mimic says, without hesitation. Arcadia looks surprised, and she shrugs again. "Might've been lawful good at one point, but you're different now. Not as destructive as me, but you don't follow the rules to the letter."
"And MegaMan?" Bass asks. "His human, too. What about them?"
Now Mimic has to think a little harder. Lan and MegaMan are definitely in the good sub-category, but they often tend to switch their alignments depending on the situation, and what kind of response it calls for.
"Neutral good, too," Mimic eventually decides. It's the only alignment that would make sense for both of them, because like Arcadia, they're more willing to follow the rules than she is, but they don't follow them enough to be lawful good.
She thinks maybe Raika and SearchMan would be lawful good, though. They've been known to break their orders in the past, sure, but otherwise they follow the rules to the letter, a result of the harsh Sharo Net Saver training. And like most lawful goods, they don't particularly enjoy disobeying their orders.
"Hm," Bass says, looking her up and down. He seems less hostile than before, and more curious now. "What're the rest of the alignments, then? You've only explained three of them so far."
With a little help from Arcadia - and Chaud, who gives her memory the occasional nudge when it fails her - Mimic explains the rest of the alignment chart to Bass. She ends up talking to Bass for almost half an hour, and is so engrossed in the conversation (and marvelling at the fact that she's talking to Bass and he's somehow not trying to kill Arcadia or her) that she very nearly misses Haruka calling for her.
She has to leave the two Navis in her computer so she can head downstairs for lunch. Arcadia said that Bass is already uneasy enough being this close to humans, so taking him near the adult Hikaris would definitely make him freak out, and they'd probably never see him again. At least until he shows up to do whatever he does in the anime, anyway.
Mimic would honestly rather not scare Bass off. Or whatever the term would be for such an aggressive NetNavi. He's kinda fascinating to talk to, even if his tone is . . . extremely unfriendly. But he wouldn't be Bass if he wasn't like that, and besides, he might just be on edge because he's so close to humans.
When she heads back upstairs, she's surprised to hear the conversation has changed from discussing the alignment chart to . . . discussing Skyrim? That's . . . definitely weird.
But Arcadia explains it when she settles back into her chair - apparently he'd been in the middle of giving Bass a few examples of lawful, neutral, and chaotic evil alignments, and Bass had noticed the Skyrim icon in the corner of her desktop. He'd interrupted to ask - or demand, rather - what the icon was, and Arcadia told him about Skyrim.
Apparently the fact that almost every NPC in the game, aside from essential ones, can be killed is a point of deep interest for Bass. Arcadia says he's also interested in the spells, since they're pretty versatile and a lot of them are highly destructive, literally in the case of the Destruction spells.
And apparently, because of Arcadia's explanation, Bass wants to play Skyrim.
Mimic hesitates at that. She'd been almost amused by how fascinated Bass seems to be with the game, but the absolute second Arcadia tells her that he actually wants to play it, her brain stops working and she barely has enough energy left to remember how to breathe.
"What's wrong with your human?" Bass asks, glancing at Arcadia.
"We . . . we haven't played Skyrim since . . ." Arcadia trails off.
"Since we lost ProtoMan," Mimic finishes, almost mumbling the words.
"ProtoMan?" Bass repeats.
"My big brother," Arcadia tells him, in a subdued tone. "And Chaud's actual NetNavi. He's Dark ProtoMan now. A Darkloid."
Bass narrows his eyes. "That weird cat who tried to make me join Nebula?"
Arcadia nods mutely.
Bass is silent for several moments, looking at both of them in turn. There's no telling what he's thinking - his expression is still mostly hostile and virtually unreadable, and Mimic can't ask Arcadia, because Bass is right there, and even if they use sign language, he'll probably figure out they're talking about him.
Finally, Bass breaks the silence.
"Well, I don't care about that," he says abruptly. Mimic stares at him, and he scoffs. "What, you stopped playing a game because you miss your NetNavi? That's just dumb."
Mimic feels a flash of shock echoed by Chaud, and Arcadia looks extremely offended, but Bass isn't done talking.
"How do you think your stupid cat-Navi will feel if he finds out you stopped playing a game just because he wasn't there?" Bass asks. His words would almost sound like an attempt at comfort, if his tone wasn't so aggressive. "Just load the game so I can play it, already. You don't even need to play it yourself - according to the owl, I can control the character, so you can just sit there and do nothing."
I can't tell if he's being extremely mean or just trying to comfort you in the rudest way possible, Chaud comments.
It's very difficult to tell, Mimic agrees.
Bass insists on playing Skyrim, so Mimic - though extremely reluctant - fishes out the game case and inserts the disc. As the game loads up, she's hit with the bittersweet memories of messing around in Skyrim with ProtoMan and Arcadia, completing questlines or side quests, or even just quicksaving and wiping out entire towns because they wanted to see how fast they could do it.
The memories hit her harder as she sees the name of her character - the only character on there, because Mimic has yet to get bored of it - and can't bring herself to load up the save file.
"It might be a better idea to make a new character," Arcadia suggests to Bass, with a knowing glance at Mimic. "If you wanna play Skyrim for yourself, you'd be better off learning the game right from the start, rather than jumping in where we left off."
" . . . Fine," Bass agrees, nearly spitting the word out. "Make a new character." He scowls, and adds, very reluctantly, "How do I take control of it?"
As Arcadia explains how NetNavis take control of video game characters, Mimic backs out of the Load screen and scrolls up to New. Sure, Skyrim usually makes an autosave of the game right before character creation, but Mimic always feels like it's wrong to start the game from there rather than the very beginning, almost like she's missing something. It's stupid and she's probably the only Skyrim player to feel like this, but at least it means she can give Bass a proper start to the game.
She creates a new game, and the loading screen comes up. As soon as Bass sees Alduin on the loading screen, his eyes widen and he goes silent, gaping at the World-Eater with what she thinks is awe. Mimic can't blame him - Alduin is her favourite dragon in the entire game, and she loves watching the videos ProtoMan made of their encounters with him.
The game starts properly, and Bass takes control of the character the absolute second the world comes into view.
"I can't move," Bass says.
"The character is bound right now," Arcadia explains. He'd streamed himself back into the white PET so he didn't get caught in the game, in case Bass doesn't want a follower. Which is highly likely. "Just listen to the Stormcloak guy, and pay attention to the tutorial when it starts to come up."
"Don't tell me what to-" Bass begins hotly, before breaking off abruptly as Ralof starts talking to him.
It's . . . oddly fascinating, watching Bass go through the opening scene of the game. He makes comments and yells insults to the Imperials when he finds out they're going to execute him for no reason, something about typical humans, and then gets stuck on the character creation.
He's booted out of the character so he can actually make it, and he stares at the different races available for players. Mimic watches his expression slowly turn from angrily puzzled to outright disgusted as he realises most of the options are human.
"That one looks horrifyingly ugly," Bass says, when he looks at the Orc. He sees the High Elf next and actually gags. "Even worse. I take it back, the one with the weird fangs looks better." Then he gets to the Argonian and seems completely stumped. " . . . It's a goddamn lizard." He scowls again. "Better than the stupid human ones, but still ugly." Finally, he looks at the Khajiit, and sighs. "This one doesn't look as bad as the others. Still ugly, though."
"I think there are mods that can make the characters look more appealing, visually," Arcadia offers.
"What in the hell is a mod," Bass demands flatly, as he starts adjusting the look of his Khajiit.
"Uh, well . . ." Arcadia exchanges a glance with Mimic. "Modifications, basically. Humans make them to change parts of the game, or add or remove things. I know there's a lot of mods that change how the game looks, and some that change how certain enemies or NPCs look, and others that change how the player character looks, or just certain races, like the Khajiit."
Bass grunts noncommittally. He doesn't seem that interested in mods, so Mimic thinks it's probably a good thing she hasn't yet downloaded any - she'd talked about it with ProtoMan and Arcadia, sure, but then ProtoMan had been turned into Dark ProtoMan, and they haven't touched Skyrim since then. Until now, at least.
Once Bass has created his character, he makes his way through the rest of the opening and tutorial, complaining about the fact that he can't fight 'the big black dragon trying to roast these pathetic humans alive'. He recognises Alduin from the loading screen and seems almost offended when he starts getting targeted by the black dragon after he decides to stick around and watch the carnage a little longer instead of following Ralof or Hadvar.
He follows Hadvar because he happens to be the closest, and makes it out of Helgen while complaining about almost literally everything. He does seem to be interested in learning the spells, though, and his Khajiit character has an unsettling grin on its face when he realises he can burn his enemies with the Flames spell.
Mimic and Arcadia convince him not to just immediately bail on Hadvar in favour of running off to explore the rest of the world. Somehow, they manage to get him to continue playing until he gets up to the dragon attack on Whiterun, and Bass promptly loses his shit when he absorbs the dragon's soul. He seems extremely pumped about the Shouts thing, and aims his Fus at one of the guards for no reason other than 'I wanted to hit him'. Mimic's done that before as well, so she has zero complaints.
After Bass becomes the Thane of Whiterun, they tell him that he can pretty much ignore the main quest if he wants to. Most players do that anyway - play up until they become the Thane of Whiterun, and then run off to do other things. Bass decides he wants to explore the world a little more before continuing with the main quest, which is fair, and Mimic and Arcadia don't want to annoy him into leaving so they don't try and tell him what to do.
They do encounter an issue when he's trying to leave Whiterun, though. One of the guards says the usual line of 'let me guess - someone stole your sweetroll' in an extremely condescending tone, and Bass gets pissed off and brings out his spells.
"No, don't," Mimic quickly says. "Not strong enough yet."
"The fuck I'm not!" Bass snaps, and he starts blasting the Flames spell at the offending guard.
He's promptly swarmed and murdered by pretty much every single guard in the city, and then booted back into his last save, which is thankfully an autosave from just after he exited Dragonsreach after becoming Thane. Bass seems utterly perplexed by this turn of events.
"Too many of them," Mimic explains, when he turns to her, silently demanding an explanation. "You're not high-levelled enough yet. Be better to wait until you've got better spells, more levels, then slaughter the town guards."
"It's always best to quicksave before you go on a rampage in a town, too," Arcadia adds. "Other NPCs will also fight you, so you'll have an entire town after your head, and some of them might give you quests that you get cool rewards for completing, which you won't get if you kill them."
"How do I level up quickly, then?" Bass scowls, watching one of the guards wander by.
"Go to the inn," Mimic tells him. "Ask the innkeeper if there's any jobs. It'll give you a quest to take out a- a thing of bandits."
Bass gives her a blank look, so Arcadia cuts in.
"He means a bandit camp," he explains. "Bandits are usually among the lowest-levelled enemies in the game, and are good for practise if you need it. You've also got quite a bit of gold, so if you wanna play as a mage, you should get some more spells from the court wizard in Dragonsreach. They'll be more powerful than the Flames or Sparks spells you picked up in the tutorial."
Bass hums, thankfully sounding more curious than hostile, and heads back into Dragonsreach to buy spells from Farengar. Mimic and Arcadia exchange a grin while he's not looking, triumphant in their success at getting him to listen to them - eventually.
After that mess with all the town guards, Bass seems more willing to listen to their advice, and doesn't snap at them as often when they chime in while he's playing. He's even interested when Mimic suggests trying out the Sneak skill while he's building up his Destruction skill on bandits, and although he seems to prefer going in guns blazing, he enjoys himself while sneaking around and raising the level of that particular skill.
Bass ends up playing Skyrim for about four hours. By the time he decides to save and quit for now, he's considerably friendlier toward Mimic and Arcadia - or whatever passes for friendly, at least for Bass.
Before he leaves, he basically forces Mimic to promise to have the game up and running for him tomorrow. She has to explain that she won't be at home until evening, since she'll be at SciLab with Dr. Hikari, and he mutters a string of curses he probably thinks she doesn't hear (but she does, and she's not sure how she should react) before reluctantly agreeing to come back in the evening rather than the afternoon. As long as she has Skyrim up and running, that is.
When Bass is gone, Mimic sits back in her chair and stares at the screen blankly. Arcadia sums up how she's feeling effectively enough when he speaks after a few moments of silence.
"Did . . . did we just spend four hours playing Skyrim with Bass, of all Navis?" he wonders incredulously.
Does this mean we're now friends with him? Chaud asks.
I don't think Bass would see it that way, Mimic replies. He'd probably get offended at the very idea. I think he just tolerates us.
"Perfect," Arcadia mutters. "We've earned the tolerance of a NetNavi who is quite possibly one of the most powerful and hostile beings in the entire cyberworld."
Isn't that a good thing? Mimic points out, though she's not entirely sure herself.
"We'll just have to see what happens," Arcadia decides, with a quiet sigh. He makes a face. "Though I don't think Dr. Hikari - or anyone, for that matter - would approve of this. It might be a good idea to keep quiet about Bass, at least until we figure out where we stand with him."
You two are literally the only people who can hear me, Chaud says, so I can't tell anyone even if I wanted to.
And I'd rather not get another lecture from Dr. Hikari about consorting with the enemy or something, so my lips are sealed, Mimic adds.
"Alright then," Arcadia says, nodding. "It's settled - we say nothing about Bass. For now."
Later that same day, Lan shows up just after sunset, tired but triumphant. He brandishes an odd-looking beetle in one of his plastic containers, cheerfully enduring Haruka's half-hearted lecture about staying out so late (he's done it so often she's pretty much started to give up on trying to get him to do otherwise, though no one's going to let Mimic go out for a night-walk, not while Nebula is still active).
Then Lan tells Mimic how he found the beetle, and somehow, that absurd story is just enough to wash away the shock she still feels from playing Skyrim with Bass.
"Me and Maylu were in the park, and I was trying to find a bug," Lan says. "You know, like usual. And we ended up going a really long way away - like, way out of the city - and I didn't even realise we got lost until we were in the middle of a desert!"
Mimic's confusion about Bass grinds to a halt as she registers those last few words.
"A desert," she repeats, squinting at him. This had happened in the anime, sure, but . . . "Is there even a desert in Japan?"
"There is, actually!" Arcadia chimes in. "The Tottori Sand Dunes. They're about thirty-two square kilometres, and stretch along the Sea of Japan - so if you go up on certain dunes, you can see the ocean!"
Mimic blinks, letting that sink in. She . . . honestly did not know that. That's actually pretty cool - but how in the hell had Lan managed to get all the way into a desert in the first place? That's one thing she never understood when watching that particular episode, because shouldn't Lan and Maylu have just turned around when they ended up at a desert?
Or maybe Lan was too focused on trying to catch a bug to realise where he was, and Maylu failed to stop him from running around like a total fucking maniac.
"Well, wherever we were," Lan continues with his story, "we ended up getting caught in a massive sandstorm, and we had to take shelter in some ruins. We got caught in all these different traps, but it turns out the place had electricity and a network - so the ruins weren't as ancient as they looked, I guess."
"We also found SwordMan and ColdMan running around in there," MegaMan speaks up. "They were being chased by viruses. Apparently they were there to recruit the Navi who guarded the place - his name was MistMan, some kind of genie-Navi."
"He was really powerful," Lan says eagerly, bouncing on Mimic's futon. "And he could materialise himself like Arcadia - though he kept switching sides every other second." Lan scowls at the memory of it.
"He switched sides?" Arcadia repeats. "Why?"
"We first met him in the network, and we asked him how to get home," MegaMan begins to explain. "He said he'd only help us if we found his 'real body. Lan and Maylu found this room full of treasure, and Maylu picked up an old lamp - and it turns out, that was MistMan's 'real body', because he obeyed Maylu's commands when he materialised himself after the dimensional area appeared. He fought with us against SwordMan and ColdMan, and then switched sides when Ms. Yuri took the lamp from Maylu."
"Apparently he obeys whoever has his lamp," Lan sighs. "So Maylu and Ms. Yuri were fighting over it, and MistMan kept switching sides. One second he was helping me, then he was attacking me, and then he was helping me again!"
"But Maylu managed to throw Ms. Yuri into one of the traps, so she got control over MistMan, and we deleted SwordMan and ColdMan together," MegaMan says. "Then the ruins started to collapse, because we'd freed MistMan . . . somehow . . . and he told us how to get home." MegaMan's voice takes on an exasperated tone as he continues. "And then Lan got sidetracked trying to catch another beetle."
"I did catch it, though!" Lan exclaims, cheerfully holding up the plastic container. The beetle is huddled on one side, apparently apathetic to being shoved into a box. "So now I can do my project!"
"You've got about two weeks left," MegaMan informs him. "That's more than enough time to make notes for research and observations of your beetle, and you can compile it all into a proper report as you go."
Lan freezes, suddenly looking daunted at the realisation that catching the animal he's studying will probably turn out to be the easiest part of the summer project. He turns to Mimic with a sheepish smile, and she sighs heavily, already anticipating his next words.
"Chaud?" Lan begins, as sweet as can be. "Can you help me with the research? Please? I'll get you more of those soba noodles you like . . ."
Mimic gives him a flat look. Lan continues looking at her pleadingly, and eventually, she sighs again and has to give in.
"Paprika chicken noodles," she tells him. "Cook them yourself, for me. Also soba noodles."
"Yes!" Lan cheers, placing the plastic container on the floor and launching himself at her, wrapping her into a grateful hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
I'm mostly done with my own project, so this shouldn't be too bad, Mimic thinks, patting Lan's side somewhat awkwardly since he's squishing her arms against her sides.
You're too easy to bribe, Chaud mutters. Some Trickster you are.
Hush, I'm getting noodles out of this. I see absolutely no downsides.
She helps Lan with his project when they're both at home - most of the day he spends wandering the city, occasionally dealing with an outbreak of viruses when Famous calls him, and Mimic still spends most of her time at SciLab. She's practically memorised the entire layout of the building by now and could probably walk through it blindfolded, she's hung around the place so much.
But, as she just stated, when both she and Lan are at home, she helps him with his project. She doesn't have to do that much - Lan's better at homework than he was in the anime, so he's able to research stuff and make notes and observations on his beetle more or less on his own - but she does help him with some of the more difficult parts of the assignments.
Mimic's at least eighty percent sure that Ms. Mari's going to take one look at both her and Lan's projects and wonder if they were somehow on drugs or something. Part of the project includes explaining how they caught or found the animal they're researching - and Mimic and Lan definitely didn't find their animals the same way most of their other classmates did. Ragdoll literally just gave the mouse to her, and Lan somehow ended up in a desert to find his beetle.
"Did you know Maylu got a cat?" Lan asks, out of the blue one day.
Mimic blinks at him from his bed, startled at the sudden change in subject. Three seconds ago they'd been discussing the habitats of beetles in Japan, and now suddenly Lan wants to talk about Maylu getting a cat?
"It's actually really cute," Lan goes on, turning in his seat to grin at her. "It's tiny - nowhere near as big as Ragdoll." He glances at Ragdoll, who's chewing on one of the catnip sticks and steadily zoning out. "Then again, I don't think I've ever seen any cats as big as Ragdoll . . . Well, not house cats, anyway."
"Why does Maylu have a cat?" Mimic asks, before Lan can get sidetracked.
"Apparently she's looking after it for a week," Lan replies. He shrugs. "I don't know the exact circumstances, 'cus she didn't really explain, and I was kinda focused on the cat, so I didn't ask." He scoffs, suddenly looking annoyed. "But apparently Rush doesn't like the cat at all. Maylu said he's been behaving really badly ever since she got the cat."
Mimic blinks at him. Rush behaving badly . . . Maylu getting a cat . . . ah. Now she understands.
This was another episode, Mimic thinks. That one with the sheep-virus and Rush running away because Lan and Maylu-
"But what you said about Rush was really mean, Lan," MegaMan speaks up. "Even if he's been bad lately, you had no excuse to suggest replacing him with the cat. And you called him useless, too!"
"Oh, come on." Lan laughs dismissively. "Rush is tough - he can take a few insults. Besides, we didn't mean it!"
Mimic gives him a flat look.
"What?" Lan asks, looking uncomfortable.
"You're an idiot," she tells him bluntly. Lan jerks back, eyes widening, but she's nowhere near finished. "Words hurt. I know that better than anyone. You know that too." She narrows her eyes. "Besides, what proof is there that Rush was causing all that trouble?"
"Maylu said-" Lan begins, but Mimic cuts him off.
"How many sponges have I destroyed?" she demands.
Lan stares at her blankly, as if he's not sure whether or not she's being serious. Mimic stares right back, waiting for him to answer.
"Uh . . . loads?" Lan replies hesitantly.
"And why did I destroy them?" Mimic presses.
"Well . . . because you're a ca-" Lan breaks off abruptly. " . . . Oh."
"Oh, he says." Mimic almost hisses the words out. She sighs and slides off his bed. "Lan, I love you, but sometimes you're a fucking idiot."
She heads for the door, Ragdoll trotting at her feet as always. At that exact moment, the lights flicker and the power goes out. Mimic feels an instinctive spark of fear, because usually when lights flicker, that means Dark ProtoMan's around. But when Lan lets out a wordless yell of shock, she remembers what this is, and gives him a deadpan glare over her shoulder.
"That's called karma," Mimic informs him.
She leaves Lan to moan about the loss of the progress he made on his project. He'll probably try and beg her to help him again, but she'll refuse this time - no matter how many noodles he tries to bribe her with, she'll leave him to suffer on his own, because honestly, he kinda deserves it.
He should know better than to say something like that. Sure, Rush is a little bit annoying, but calling him useless and then suggesting to replace him with some troublesome cat? That's harsh, even if Lan and Maylu didn't actually mean it. It doesn't matter how thick-skinned someone is, there's always going to be something that breaks them.
At least she knows Rush will eventually come back, and Maylu will find out that it's the cat making all this trouble, not Rush. Mimic has to wonder how Lan and Maylu didn't realise it in the first place - her cat abilities make her act like a cat more often than not, and they know her and what she's like, so they should have been able to figure out what was going on without Mimic having to spell it out.
Lan tries to beg her to help him, like she knew he would, but she ignores him throughout the rest of the evening and the next day. It's easier to ignore him during the day, because he's at home trying to get his progress back, and Mimic is at SciLab with Dr. Hikari. But when she heads home, Lan immediately tries to beg for help, and she ignores him once again.
He should probably realise by now that she won't to talk to him when she's annoyed with him. She's done it before, and it's not like she's going to suddenly start being buddy-buddy with him again just because he's offering to buy her one pot of soba noodles every week for the rest of their lives or something. Though she does get seriously tempted by that offer.
The lights flicker halfway through the evening, like they did yesterday. Mimic hears a yell from Lan and guesses he's just lost whatever progress he made on his project again, and her guess is confirmed a few moments later when he comes downstairs, slipping his shoes on and grumbling.
"Lan?" Haruka calls, before he can wander off. "Where are you heading off to?"
"The power company!" Lan replies, hopping around on one foot. "I'm getting sick of these stupid power cuts, so I'm gonna see what's up."
"I don't think you'll be allowed in," Dr. Hikari says.
"I'm a Net Saver, that should give me access!" Lan reasons. "Besides, I'm not actually going into the building itself - just checking the network. I'll be back later, okay? Bye!"
And with that, he runs out of the house. Mimic twists around on the sofa just in time to see him through the window, skating down the street with a determined and mildly-annoyed look on his face.
By the time Lan comes back home, the power cuts have stopped. The lights had started flickering like crazy at one point, and then abruptly stopped flickering and stayed on like they're supposed to, so Mimic knows he succeeded in fixing the problem.
He stumbles back into the house and heads upstairs after pulling off his shoes, and Mimic follows him. He looks hopeful for all of three seconds before she reveals that she was actually heading to her own room, and feels a petty sense of satisfaction upon seeing his disappointed expression before she closes her door.
She waits patiently, playing with Ragdoll, until she hears Maylu calling Lan. Mimic only half-listens to their conversation, too busy listening out for something else, and when she hears the bathroom taps going, she immediately gets up. Ragdoll doesn't like water any more than she does, so Mimic makes him stay in her bedroom while she goes into the bathroom.
When she opens the door, Rush looks up from the side of the bath, and freezes.
"Hi," Mimic says, stepping in and closing the bathroom door behind her. "You're back, then?"
Rush yaps cautiously.
"M'not gonna be mean," Mimic tells him. She glances at the water, which is clear and still, and suppresses a shudder of revulsion. "Havin' a bath?"
After a brief moment of hesitation, Rush nods. Mimic shrugs and gestures for him to go ahead, and he slowly adds in some bubble bath, as if he thinks she's going to change her mind at any moment and start yelling at him.
Mimic's only ever yelled once, and that was when she was blinded by anger. She's not angry now, and doesn't like talking that loudly anyway, but Rush probably doesn't know that.
"Lan's nice," she says, as Rush gets into the bath. Rush gives her a questioning look, and she shrugs. "But he's also kinda stupid. He should've known better. So should Maylu. They know me, they know how I act. So they should've figured out it was the cat. Not you."
Rush blinks at her. After a few moments of staring, he grins, and gestures to invite Mimic to join him.
Mimic shakes her head. "Don't like water," she reminds him. She slides down the wall until she's sitting down, and shifts so she's comfortable. "I'll stick around, though. If you want."
Rush yaps eagerly.
Several minutes pass by, and Rush spends the time messing with the bubbles, showing Mimic how many different shapes he can make. His art skills are actually quite impressive, and she tells him so, much to his pleasure. He even makes the shape of his sheep-virus friend and seems ecstatic when she guesses what it is, and with Arcadia translating for him, he tells her about his adventure.
Lan hears the commotion in the bathroom, of course. It'd be impossible not to - you don't need Mimic's sensitive hearing to notice Rush yapping away and splashing in the bath. He comes in, sees Rush, and is about to get angry when he notices Mimic sitting on the floor nearby.
Mimic looks at him, silently daring him to say a word, and Lan swallows.
"Uh . . . so I guess you didn't run away, then?" Lan asks, glancing at Rush.
"He did," Arcadia answers for the dog-virus. "But he came back."
"Oh," Lan says. He sounds like he doesn't know how to react to this. "Uh . . ." He glances at Mimic, and seems unsettled when he notices that she's still watching him. "Right. Okay. You guys seem busy, so . . . I guess I'll go?"
He makes to back out, but Mimic growls and he freezes.
"Isn't there something you want to say to Rush?" Arcadia asks him.
Lan hesitates for a brief moment, as if he's trying to work out what they're trying to tell him. It doesn't take long for him to figure it out.
"Okay," Lan sighs, turning to Rush. "I'm . . . I'm really sorry about yesterday. About what I said. I didn't mean it, but it was still hurtful, and I shouldn't have said it in the first place."
"And?" Arcadia prompts.
"And . . ." Lan hesitates again, trying to think, and then he works it out. "And I'm sorry we blamed everything on you. We should've known it was the cat, not you. Or we could've at least tried to get your side of the story. So . . . I'm really sorry, Rush. You can take a bath for as long as you like."
Rush yaps happily, and Arcadia translates that as thank you, apology accepted.
With that now out of the way, Mimic has no reason to be angry at Lan anymore, so she grins at him. Lan seems intensely relieved that she's actually acknowledging him beyond angry staring and growling. He gives her a slightly-awkward smile in return, glances at Rush one last time, and then heads back to his bedroom to try and do his project again.
Mimic exchanges a grin with Rush, and he gets back to telling her about his adventure.