NOVEL WEB 239. Party
“Oh! Hey you two meet Rebecca, gun gremlin extraordinaire!” Turning around, Tomoka began introducing her two favorite people to her new choom.
“Rebecca, these are my outputs, Hinata and Nozomi.” As soon as Tomoka finished introducing her girls to the gremlin, the people of Maine’s crew in the hearing range raised a brow. Homosexuality in twenty-seventy-seven isn’t rare nor shunned nor are poly relationships. It just so happens that both at the same time, not to mention being as stable as the Tomoka’s looks are indeed rare.
“Hi, hope the eldritch god inhabiting a mortal human coil hasn’t caused too many troubles.” Nozomi’s own comment had just enough jest in it to make people wonder if she was serious or not.
“Hey! I take offense to that. First of all, eldritch gods have nothing on me. Second! I have been behaving myself.” Yeah, no, Hinata just raised an eyebrow pointing towards the clearly visible scorch mark where Tomoka had lobbed a grenade for the boom factor.
“What? Fireworks are needed for any celebration and a controlled explosion is just that.” The more Beca saw them interacting the more she liked all of them. She liked Tomoka the most, being slightly insane in just the right ways to make her fun. Then there is Nozomi, the little demon on Tomoka’s left shoulder and finally Hinata the little angel on her right shoulder.
While this was happening Maine signaled for all the other members of the crew to gather around. They would need to go under for a while after handing the data over. He didn’t want to deal with whatever Biotechnica would send to hunt them down.
“Alright, we got the data but as you can tell by the news things got a bit heated at the end.” Maine tried really hard to not send Sasha a glare. After hearing the reason why she did it he couldn’t blame her. He would have done the same… or worse for that matter.
Sasha for her part felt conflicted. On the one hand, she had gotten revenge for her mother’s death. On the other, she had risked her life and now the crew’s life for her little vendetta. Now, with a clear mind she can tell that she had made a dumb decision then and there. If it weren’t for Tomoka, Hinata, and Nozomi she would be dead.
“Right, that explosion was preem! Though I need to ask, what happened?” Hearing Rebecca’s excited voice made Maine want to sigh. Instead he gave Sasha a look. It was her choice if she wanted to talk about it or not, he would respect that.
Sasha looked around, the curious eyes of Rebecca, the worried expression on Dorio, the interested look in Pilar. She owed them answers, that was the least she could do for landing them in this. They had the right to know why she landed them in this mess.
With that in mind Sasha told them how the gig went from start to finish. How she managed to infiltrate no problem. How she got the data without complications. How she let her emotions take over. How she almost died.
“Actually, clinically speaking you did die. You died for about half to a whole minute before we brought you back.” Hearing Tomoka’s comment made everyone turn towards her. The same question on most of the Maine’s crew mind. How?
After explaining how badly injured Sasha was and how the miracle drug healed her everyone was left speechless. Especially so when both Maine and Sasha confirmed it. Matter of fact was, Sasha had come extremely close to leaving with lady death. With that realization the celebratory mood came to a crashing halt. Everyone now had a gloomy mood.
“Well, no need to act all gloomy, she is alive and that is what matters. Now, who of you has the best alcohol tolerance cause I will drink you under the table!” Silence, that was what met Tomoka’s comment for a few seconds before a few chuckles came from here and there.
“That would be me, let's see you put your money where your mouth is.” Seeing Tomoka’s attempt to lift the mood for what it was, Dorio decided to bite. Call it stereotypical but her being of Russian descent meant she could handle her alcohol really well.
“How about a hundred eddies and whoever loses has to pay the winners tab as well. I, uh, am a bit short right now.” Looking at their shared account Tomoka winced a little seeing about a thousand eddies and some change left.
“Heh, sure.” It didn’t take long for a desk and two chairs to be brought over. Bottles of hard liquor to the side. The game was simple, first they would play rock paper scissors to see who would drink first. The winner would be the one to drink one drink more than the other.
“Looks like I’m first, bottoms up!” Tomoka didn’t hesitate to gulp down the shot glass full of tequila. As the liquid settled on her stomach she came to a realization. She might have bitten more than she could chew. This body didn’t have her adaptability nor the crazy upgrades of her original… But mama raised no quitter!
“Should we stop her?” Hinata asked next to Nozomi, seeing Tomoka ready to pass out from alcohol poisoning after the second bottle of hard liquor. Sure, Dorio had drinked from them as well, so in reality they had only drunk one bottle each. That is still too much alcohol.
“Nah, let her suffer as us mortals do.” Hearing Nozomi’s comment a dark sadistic glean flashed through their eyes. They love the girl but her bullshit constitution had frustrated the two alot. Especially the fact that no matter what they tried they could never tire her out in bed.
An hour later and a few more bottles of liquor Tomoka looked… strange. Her eyes half lidded not in a way that would show tiredness or sleepiness but instead a representation of calm. Like a placid pool of crystal clear water. Not only that but the way she moved, the way she sat, all of it felt fluid and calm. All of which you would expect from a zen master, not a piss drunk teenage girl.
“Uh, are you alright choom?” Dorio who was also feeling the effects of alcohol although in a far more normal way asked.
“Peechy, I feel great actually.” Tomoka’s answer came accompanied with a relaxed smile. All of her chaotic energy is gone. How could she not for all of her life she had felt like a compressed spring, a high strung rubber band. Holding all that energy at bay the best she could. Her thoughts going a mile an hour, hardly being able to keep them on track. Now, she felt calm, relaxed, all that energy gone. Hell, the only times she had felt like this before was after rather intense sessions of intimacy with her girls. Post nut clarity some people called it.
“I think we should stop” Although she didn’t know the girl well, seeing her like this weireded Dorio out a bit. She had been so full of the same chaotic energy Beca had. Seeing her like this was just plain weird, and a bit creepy.
“It's my win then.” Saying that Tomoka downed the shot of vodka that had been placed in front of her. With this, she was one drink over Dorio meaning that should they stop now it would be her win.
“You know what, sure.” Not to mention how weird seeing Tomoka in her current state was, Dorio was also reaching her limit. She much preferred to stop now and save herself from a nasty hangover.
“Well, that was fun.” Stretching a bit, Tomoka got up from her seat.” One would expect her to wobble a bit or something. No, instead her steps were sure, confident, like she had been possessed by the spirit of a regal empress.
Looking around Tomoka found her girls talking with rebecca. To the side Pilar was trying to woo Sasha with absolutely no progress in sight. Behind her Maine was helping Dorio who unlike Tomoka was feeling the effects of the drink.
“Heyo! Hope you two have been enjoying yourselves.” Turning around Hinata and Nozomi were met with the sight of Tomoka. Her regal aura in full display, with only her flushed cheeks to show how drunk she really was.
“Tomoka?” Nozomi had to ask. It was really hard to reconcile what she was seeing to what she expected.
“That is my name, yes. Now that that has been reestablished, I was wondering what you three have been talking about?” It took a while for the trio to center themselves after the whiplash from seeing Tomoka acting like she was.
“Not much, just hobbies and stuff. Becca here really likes her guns.” To the side Rebecca was nodding enthusiastically.
“Is that so? In that case have either of you shown your own to her? I bet she would like those.” To tell the truth neither girl had thought about it. Sure, they knew Becca likes guns, but they hadn’t thought of showing off on their own.
“Here.” With speed no drunk person should ever be able to pull, Tomoka took crescent rose from Nozomi’s back. With a fluid motion she transformed the thing from its storage form to its rifle form.
“This here, is crescent rose. A mechashift weapon of my own design.” Tomoka took a pose to show the thing on her hands. Unsurprisingly Becca’s eyes began to shine with interest as she looked the thing over.
“What is a mechashift weapon anyway?” To answer the gremlin’s question, Tomoka triggered the shifting mechanism with a fluid motion. In a moment of motion the rifle transformed in a scythe as Tomoka gave it a swing around herself for the theatrics.
“This is what a mechashift weapon is. A weapon that can shift between different forms. This one in particular can shift from a rifle to a scythe. It is worth noting that it can still shoot while in scythe form.” With another fluid motion Tomoka twirled the thing as it shifted back to its storage form before handing it back to Nozomi.
“That is, SO, AWESOME!” Rebbeca wanted one, no, she needed one! A shotty that could turn into a bat or a hammer! How about a LMG that could turn into a pair of giant mecha fists! So many options, so many ideas!
“I see you liked it, How about we meet at a later date to talk shop?” At that Rebbeca nodded so fast and so hard, Tomoka and the other two worried she would break her neck. Joke’s on them, Becca’s neck was slightly reinforced so it would break from something like that.
The rest of the night went by without anything of note happening. Drinks and snacks were had, stories shared and small talk. At some point someone came by to pick up the data Sasha had retrieved. Most surprisingly of all, Tomoka behaved herself and acted like a normal person for once. Something that truthfully amazed Hinata and Nozomi.
“You know, I thought a drunk Tomoka would cause the end of the world or something like that, not… this.” Nozomi commented as she looked at the peacefully sleeping Tomoka in her lap.
“Yeah, same, I thought we would have to hunt her down to save the city from getting nuked or something.” Hinata for her part had Tomoka’s legs on her own lap. No one realized she was cupping a feel from time to time.
“It's unfortunate we won’t be able to get her drunk like this once we go back.” Hinata just nodded at that. They love the crazy girl but sometimes she can be a bit much. Not like they would change her for anything in the world.
