Dock Avenue Tower, #27

The Dock Avenue Revitalization Board of Megamisama welcomes you to our newest and most state of the art building. Number twenty-seven to residents and their neighbours, Dock Avenue Tower to the wider world, features a four-level aircar and groundcar underground parking garage, ground-level concierge desk, laundry facilities, as well as a recycling and composting centre. The ultimate level of the building hosts a premium suite, communal gymnasium, as well as an observatory with distance-enhanced viewers capable of seeing as far as Valkyrie Point down Valkyrie Bay

— Automated greeting ad for visitors to #27 that triggers inside the lobby when unidentified persons are detected.

  "I take it you're new?"   "Second visit, I'm moving in today."   "Oh, why'd the lobby didn't flag you as a resident then?"   "My first visit was remote, it is the actual first time I'm setting foot in the place. I'm Mako, by the way, Mako Tsumon."   "Oh, then you missed the obvious detriment of the building on your first pass..."   "Oh, there's one? I knew this was a little too good to be true. Evil, mustache-twirling landlord that drinks money from tenants like a vampire does blood? Leaky faucets? Fire Alarms that go out every month or more?"   "No, nothing like that. Just the neighbourhood, we're smack dab on top of Megamisama Drydock Complex Number Four, where the ships actually get built or overhauled, so there's all this burning smell, the wash of the sea, the lubricants, the smokers who work there..."   "Oh, so don't open your window unless you're really high up?"   "The gym windows don't normally open..."   "Oh? That's pretty extreme..."   "I was joking, they don't open, but that's because they're afraid of a risk of things or people falling or throwing down items, so the windows just were built without openings."   "Does the penthouse suite windows open?"   "I'm sure they do."   They entered the lift, Mako punched his floor first.   "What floor are you on?"   "Twenty-eight."   "Fancy that, same as me, are we neighbours?"   "Probably, only four units on the twenty-eight, one per direction."   "I'm 2811"   "I'm 2813, so we're seperated by the elevator."   "I didn't catch your name?"   "I'm Dentrag, I'm a Sun'ga."   "I could tell, you're so reserved, but so friendly..."   Was she flirting with him? He already had a miptun, and she was getting dangerously jealous to boot. "Thanks, well here's our floor." After a whole day of waiting on people, Dentrag just wanted to be left alone for an hour or two.   "Thanks Dentrag, hope to see you soon!"  

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  "What's this?"   "Just found out the landlord is going to be redoing the bathroom's tiles."   "But this is a new building!"   "Yeah, but the tiles had a defect, it's a manufacturer recall... Which is why it's done at the building's expense. And they called me three times to apologize, already."   "What? That's almost Amarat-levels of apology."   "Yeah, they were very obsequious too..."   "I knew when I moved in that you had a nice, posh place, but this is next level."   "I dunno, I did take a piece of advice from Amarat that I think is still pretty relevant. Don't move into a building where the owners live at someone else's building."   "Oh, they live in their own building?"   "One of the board member lives next to us, maybe they were apologizing to him, I dunno."   "Or they thought you'd complain to him..."   "Oh, yeah, I didn't think about that."  

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  BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP   Oh, great the fire alarms. Dentrag thought to himself. Throwing on some shorts and a windbreaker, the nights could be surprisingly chilly in Megamisama for such a tropical place. Coming out of his appartment, and proceeding down the twenty-eight flights of stairs, but thankfully, not in the dark, the cool white lights didn't flicker, didn't emit any heat either, in a process Dentrag never really understood.   "Hey, Mako!" He saw the brunette on his way down, she was a half flight ahead of him, having taken no time to dress, apparently, but his huge stride meant he would have caught up to her before she reached the ground floor unless she jumped down at least a full flight of stairs.   "Oh, hi Dent..entrag?"   "That's me. You ok?" As "Yeah, just not tall, like you, drat, and I forgot to bring warm clothes, I'll freeze."   "I'll be a gallant, you can borrow my coat for a bit." Even as he said that, he felt he had crossed a line, perhaps she'd think he was flirting back?   "Aw, you're a regular doll." She dimpled at him, as he overtook her, slowing his pace so they walked down together, the alarms went on unabated, but there was no reek of smoke, no glow of fire, so far, perhaps it was a false alarm.  

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  Hours later, at the designated safe spot.   "You ok Dennie?"   "Yeah, thanks Pierce." They hugged.   "That's your Miptun? She's really pretty."   "Oh, Mako, meat Piersa Ouranos of the Imperial Flying Forces of Great Kagome, and Shibué Dandelion of Meihomei's own lifeguards. Piers, Boo, meet Mako, my opposite-side neighbour."   "Pleased to meet you. I am Piersa Ouranos, Flag officer of Meihomei's very own Kagomine Sixth Fleet."   "I am, as he said, Shibué Dandelion, commanding officer of Meihomei's detail."   "An honour. I am Mako Tsumon, niece of Cat Princess Laraken Tsunamon."   "I've welcomed your Aunt onto Kagomine soil, well one of my principals did."   "What's a principal?"   "When you're a lifeguard, dedicated to someone's physical protection, the person or animal, protected, is a principal."   "You protect animals?"   "We do not appreciate attempted rabbit kidnappings and slayings, no matter what individual lifeguards may think on the matter."   "Oh, a bunny? What about cats?"   "The Nameita Robyn is always under our eye, although she is harder to keep in sight than her adopted sister Shadowgrace was."   "Shadowgrace?"   "Meihomei's first pet rabbit, a huge black Giant Blegian rabbit."   "How do you know she was huge?"   "They tried to mate her with a male her size... They couldn't find one, they found one slightly smaller, and he was so intimidated, he... couldn't perform."   "So it's not just humans that have hangups about size, huh?"   "Ours are worse, since we could reason past them, most animals can't."   "Ever have that problem? You're pretty tall..."   "At 1m72, I'm a little taller than usual, but not so tall I get the freak hunters. You, you're so petite you probably get the doll-hunters, don't you?"   "I try not to think about it too much, and pray to the elements a lot for protection, so far, it's working. Although, if I meet someone with the fetish without being a danger to others, I don't know that I wouldn't like it a little."   "Yeah, I imagine it's a classified part of the catalog, since the rules for Frivolity states it can't be about body parts, or anything permanently a part of a person."   "You're a priestess?"   "Yes, like most lifeguard officers above flag rank."   "You have a flag?" Mako missed the point of it being about the height/elevation of the rank, as was her wont.   "Hmm, yeah, well I don't carry it, the durned thing's too big for it, but sometimes it's on the staff aircar, and I don't mind that... Here's a picture." As she showed her flag, Shibué realized maybe the problem was that Dentrag had too obvious a type... He towered over Piersa and Mako, enough that they kept looking at his armpits, or imagining themselves being snuggled there, more likely, Shibué thought.   "Oh, nice, which one is yours?"   "Oh, I forgot, you're new here. , it's the crossed-daggers covered over by a merit, over a green-white crescent."   "Not using heraldic language?"   "What do you mean?"   "I thought it'd be proper to say def..."   "Stop, never say a merit defaces anything. You'd run afoul of title 118 of kagomine law, you might end up in jail. There's a edict of Meihomei that alters how heraldry works in Kagomine, so anyone else can say it defaces other heraldic devices, while we only ever say it covers them or hovers over them. And the only way I'm not in breach of the law is that I have a merit myself, and I'm explaining the edict to you, otherwise I'd be in hot water..."   "..." Was what she got in reply.