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Sexy Space Babes - Mechs, Maidens and Macaroons: Chapter Nine
🕑 Added 2025-05-25 14:34:29 +0000 UTCMark generally tried to not think of himself as a cliché, but he’d admit that standing outside the massive arena gates, the air thrumming with the palpable roar of the crowd within, it was the smell of sizzling vraka skewers and charred xilli root that most stood out to him.
Not the gigantic holographic mech that loomed over the entrance gates, nor the crowd flowing between its legs into the massive maw that was the arena entrance.
It was the food.
Idly, he pondered whether or not he wanted to wander over to the nearest foodtruck to peruse their wares, before deciding against it.
Reluctantly.
Because his embossed ticket chit stated that it entitled him the right to sit in a box seat, which, in addition to providing a ‘superior view of the spectacle’ also entitled him to a number of ‘small menu options’.
Which was fortunate for his bank account, because he shuddered to think what a place like this would upcharge for a few nibbles. Hell, he was trying hard not to think about how much the ticket in his hands would normally cost.
Still, he’d not deny which of the two dining venues he would have preferred if given a choice. Unfortunately, his inner chef refused to let him let ‘free’ food go to waste because he was hankering for something more ‘authentic’.
Sighing, he turned away from the nearest truck.
On the bright side, as he stared out, he’d realized he’d be able to avoid the tight press of the main entrance. His ticket entitled him access to the VIP entrance. Which he now realized he could see from here, the small passageway guarded by a fairly intimidating looking Nighkru woman in full body armor. More noticeable though was the rather vicious looking machine gun slung across her chest.
Which seemed a little like overkill for a venue like this to his mind, before a casual glance at the people around him told him otherwise.
More of them than not were armed with some manner of side-arm. And, as far as he could tell, none were being stopped at the entrance for being so.
The scanners were for tickets – not weapons, apparently.
I guess that’s just another Krenheim thing, he thought with a shake of his head.
His own pistol was still at home, sitting on the kitchen table. He’d have to remember to bring it in future. Not because he particularly wanted to, but because there was no chance he was going to be the only one without a gun the next time he went somewhere!
…It was a shame he’d not been able to bring Jelara with him. Alas, he’d only been given the one ticket, and by the time he’d gotten back from the estate, she’d left for… whatever her day job was.
Just as he was getting ready to make for the arena’s private entrance, he paused as a voice called out to him over the throng of the crowd around him.
“Ah, Mark. I’m glad you made it.”
He turned, surprised to see Tenir walking towards him through the crowd, her voice cutting through the din with practiced ease. And as surprising as it was to see Kalia’s manager here, what was even more so was her attire.
She wasn’t in her usual sleek business clothes. Instead, the Nighkru was decked out in a short sleeved crop top with some manner of foreign lettering emblazoned across the front in big bold lettering. Underneath, sat a screaming Nighkru skull covered in flames.
Was that… a band shirt of some kind?
That was… he didn’t know what to say. It was the last thing he could ever imagine the very businesslike woman wearing the last time he’d met her.
Hell, now that she was closer, he could actually see she had an honest to god belly-button piercing. A simple gold stud that stood out against the surprisingly flat curve of her silver stomach.
That, combined with her tight fitting jeans and the fact that she’d let her dark hair down left her looking… surprisingly normal.
Approachable.
Casual.
All words he’d never before thought to describe the Nighkru.
“Tenir?” Mark said, managing to stop just short of staring. “I, uh, didn’t expect to see you here.”
Again, he was surprised when rather than respond right away, the Nighkru shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other. “Well, this being your first live viewing of a mech fight, Kalia thought you might appreciate some… accompaniment for the evening.”
She gestured at the thronging crowds around them. “Not that I disagree. I know that to a newcomer all of this can be a little overwhelming.” She hesitated, before adding. “Assuming you’re fine with me accompanying you, of course?”
“No, that’s great. I’m glad for the company.”
Mark’s lips twitched into a smile. He was surprised, sure, but not unpleasantly so. He’d just been thinking that he wouldn’t mind having a ‘friend’ with him for his first viewing experience. And while Tenir definitely hadn’t been the first person to leap to mind for such a role, with the way she looked now…
Tenir caught his lingering gaze, her head tilting slightly. “Is something wrong? Do I have something on me?”
Mark chuckled, shaking his head. “No, nothing like that. I’m just a little surprised by your clothes.” One would almost think he’d struck her by the way she all-but flinched, so he quickly specified. “It looks good. Not that you don’t look good normally, but this is, well, it’s nice seeing another side of you.”
Her silver eyes widened, and a faint flush darkened her cheeks, as she glanced to the side. “Well, it wasn’t like I was born into a business suit. I do have a life outside of work.”
It was almost comical how quickly the poised manager unraveled under a simple compliment. Alien women, he’d learned, were just as weak to flattery as human men back on Earth were to a well-timed smile.
Maybe more so, given their cultural wiring.
“So I’m seeing,” he said, enjoying the way she seemed to flush deeper as he continued to stare. “If nothing else, it’ll be interesting to get to know you outside of a work context.” He paused, as if in thought. “Unless of course this is work for you? Making sure the estate’s newest employee stays out of trouble?”
She cleared her throat, regaining some composure. “Not at all. I hope this will be enjoyable for both of us.”
He grinned. “Well, then, shall we go in?”
Tenir’s shoulders relaxed, a relieved nod following as she fell into step beside him. “Yes, let’s.”
Mark had a feeling the next hour or two were going to be a lot of fun.
And not just because he was about to get to watch some giant robots smash each other to pieces.
Though that certainly helped.
----------------
These were very good seats, Mark could admit that much.
From up here, he had a perfect view of the spectacle down below, as two massive machines dueled it out over a soccer field sized ruined cityscape.
As he watched, sparks flew from one of the machines – the red one - as a blue laser lanced out from its opponent to spear it in the shoulder. The metal there turned bright orange, foaming and bubbling as it superheated in moments.
“It’s just the outer armor,” Tenir said dismissively as the machine ducked into cover and out of the beam’s path. “Didn’t scratch the internals.”
Mark barely heard, watching as the laser instead splashed out against the arena’s transparent outer panels instead – and despite himself, Mark flinched.
He needn’t have bothered, as whatever wonderous material the transparent material that surrounded the arena was made of, it was clearly laser resistant. More to the point, it also seemed capable of auto-tinting, as the transparent surface turned dark and opaque where the laser splashed against it.
The crowd packed into the stands below loved it, roaring even louder as the beam cut out and the tinted streak across the glass once more turned transparent.
“Thermo-glass,” Tenir said, visibly amused by his reaction as she nursed something vaguely alcoholic. “Expensive as hell to build and maintain, but nothing short of sustained fire to a single point is going to scratch it. At least, not with laser fire.”
Mark was still watching the match, but that did raise a question for him.
“What about kinetic weapons?” he asked. “Saria said Kalia’s spare mech had a ‘Particle Cannon’.”
He was pretty sure that meant it was kinetic. A particle was a… thing, after all. A thing you threw really fast.
The Nighkru raised a single eyebrow at that, visibly surprised. “There are grav-emitters on the outer ring of the arena. I won’t get into the details, because I don’t really know how it works myself – that’s more Saria’s thing - but I do know that it’s capable of no-selling any kind of particle cannon or beam.”
Mark nodded. That was a good enough explanation for him. It was also nice to see Tenir had relaxed a bit. She’d seemingly gained a bit more confidence as they settled into the private booth, talking about the two competitors – this was apparently a fairly low-tier fight between two relative amateurs – and helping him order from the automated menu system.
“Are other kinds of kinetic weapons allowed? I’m not seeing any guns on those two,” he said, both out of genuine curiosity and to keep her talking. “Just lasers.”
Lasers that had clearly been tuned to a visible wave-length. Because he knew that Shil laser weaponry was invisible to the naked eye.
Usually, the only indicators a person would get that a Shil was shooting at them were the whip-cracks of suddenly ionized air and the sight of whatever said lasers hit. He’d been young enough that he didn’t remember too much of the of the occupation-war, but he remembered that.
“And missile racks,” Tenir added cheerfully, ignorant of his grim internal musings. “They’re just waiting to use those until the other has built up sufficient heat that they can’t reliably use their anti-missile systems. Given those are also laser based.” She paused, considering her words. “And no, conventional kinetics aren’t banned. You just aren’t likely to see many in a match like this.”
“Why’s that?” he asked, shaking off his momentary funk.
He was here to enjoy himself after all.
“Cost, mostly,” Tenir shrugged. “Any kind of kinetic delivery system requires the ability to self-terminate before hitting the thermo-glass. For missiles, they’ve already got a guidance system, so installing a self-termination procedure’s more a matter of software than anything else.”
Mark nodded, seeing the problem. “But installing those sensors on every round of ammunition fired is going to make the cost go up exponentially.”
Once again, Tenir seemed pleasantly surprised. “Exactly! And while that might not be too much of an issue in higher end matches where the pilots are making big money, for these lower tier matches it usually makes more sense just to stick with energy weapons unless you’re going for something with a very slow fire rate. And even then, well, energy weapons are cheaper to upkeep.”
They watched as down below, the red mech fired off a sundering volley of missiles that arced up over the house they’d been hiding behind to fly towards the blue one. The blue mech wasted no time in darting to the side, jets of fire blasting out of the thrusters dotted across its torso as it skated to the side. As it did, the nodules dotted across its shoulders revealed themselves to actually be small laser-pods, looking for all the world like disco-balls as they set about shooting down as many of the incoming threats as they could.
It was a thrilling sight, and Mark held his breath as the air filled with explosions. Beside him, Tenir scoffed.
“Too soon,” she muttered as the blue mech managed to avoid the bulk of the incoming salvo – leaving only one side of its torso slightly scorched. “Morel isn’t even close to her heat threshold yet. And now Larkin’s spent most of her missile reserve.”
Something the now named Larkin seemed to realize as Morel started to advance on her – despite the damage she’d just taken. The two mechs looked like they were skating as their thrusters propelled them across the ruined cityscape on feet that were barely a meter off the ground - all the while exchanging blistering laser and particle fire.
It wasn’t long at all before the formerly pristine machines were raked with deep ragged gouges, their paintwork chipped and blackened where rivulets of molten metal dripped down their bodies before hardening once more.
Larkin’s right arm hung limp, the massive laser there now dull and lifeless. Fortunately, she still had her shoulder mounted particle cannons, but they had a slow cycle time, one that was allowing Morel to edge ever closer as the two darted about.
And Mark doubted that the mace held in the blue mech’s right hand was just for show.
As they watched the match turned game of cat and mouse, he spared a glance at Tenir.
“So, how’d Kalia get into this?” he asked, curiosity tugging at him. “I assume it’s not part of the family business.”
Tenir’s lips curved into a small smile. “She joined the university team.”
“There’s a university for piloting?” Mark raised an eyebrow, half-expecting some elite academy for mech jocks.
She laughed, a soft, melodic sound that cut through the arena’s din. “Ha, no. We aren’t the Imperium. She was at school to get her masters in business management. That was actually where we met.”
She sounded a bit wistful at that last bit, though Mark found himself more preoccupied by the idea that his employer went to school to be a businesswoman of some description and had somehow ended up as a mecha pilot.
“Oh? Bit of a leap from spreadsheets to laser fire.”
He gestured at the arena, where Larkin’s mech dodged a crushing blow, only to take a laser to its flank from Morel’s shoulder mounts.
Tenir leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table between them. “Less than you might think. As you’ve seen, mechs are a big deal on Krenheim. Most universities worthy of the name have at least one team. And most kids at some point want to be a gladiator when they grow up. Kalia was and is no exception.”
Huh, that university bit sounded a little like college football – and likely saw similar investments. Back on Earth, universities poured millions into their teams—stadiums, coaches, recruiting. Big money. Here, the investment had to be even more astronomical to churn out machines like these.
Idly, he wondered if people could get into university here on a ‘gladiator scholarship’? If so, what did it say about Kalia that she ended up being a team pilot?
“If that’s the case, I imagine there’d be stiff competition for a piloting role?” he asked. “Seems a little odd it’d go to a business management student.”
Tenir scoffed. “You’d be right about that. And a lot of people like to claim Kalia’s mother pulled strings to get Kalia her slot.” She eyed him, gaze turning deadly serious. “She didn’t. Kalia aced those sim fights and earned that spot entirely on her own.” She sat back, scowling. “The fact that she’s now piloting professionally should be proof enough of that. No matter who her sponsors are.”
Mark swallowed a bit, but nodded – even as he filed that tidbit away for later. It seemed that accusations of nepotism were a bit of a sore spot for his employer.
Below, the match continued, and he subtly changed the subject. “Well, piloting aside, the whole university mech team thing isn’t so different from what a few universities back home do with robots.”
Tenir’s head tilted, her horns catching the light. “Robots?”
“Not like this,” he said quickly, gesturing at the towering machines and gigantic stadiums. “They’re much smaller things. Pretty sure it’s a hundred-kilo limit. It started as a gameshow. Mostly dads in their garages. But eventually it got popular enough that a lot of big university’s robotics departments got into it as a way to advertise.”
She nodded, a spark of interest in her eyes. “Dads, huh? That’s definitely a human thing.”
Mark rolled his eyes.
Tenir giggled, before continuing. “That’s not entirely different from how this whole mecha thing started. Krenhiem used to just be a layover fuelling platform. Then some loader mech operators started making their own fun. Their own very dangerous fun. Fun that really should have come to an end when their supervisors found out why there were suddenly so many ‘machine malfunctions’ and ‘workplace accidents’ happening.”
“Instead, they saw an opportunity?” Mark guessed.
The Nighkru nodded smugly. “They saw an opportunity. And now just about every star system worthy of the name has at least one mecha gladiator arena. Of course, they all pale in comparison to the true home of mecha fights.”
Mark nodded absently as the mechs in the arena below clashed again, though this time Larkin’s blue machine landed a surprisingly solid hit – catching her opponent off guard with her suddenly rebooted laser arm.
The sucker punch sent Morel’s mech stumbling.
The crowd went wild at the stunning reversal as Larkin’s claw like foot came up in an incredible show of dexterity to pin Morel’s entire torso against a ruined wall. With her opponents shoulder weapons pinned between her and the wall – and her arm now down and sparking, the blue mech had ample time to bring up her own shoulder weapons and aimed them right at her foe’s torso.
She wouldn’t miss if she fired – and Morel knew it as a moment later the commentator announced the red mech’s surrender.
The crowd erupted once more, and Mark clapped along - but inside he was a little confused.
“She could still have gotten away though? Couldn’t she?” he said over the din – thankfully muffled by the glass of their viewing box. “She’d have taken some bad hits to do so, but she might have been able to recover.”
Tenir nodded slowly. “Maybe. But she’d also have had to eat the repair costs for doing so. And in the lower leagues, it’s sometimes better to lose a match if it means keeping your mech intact. Ignoring the cost, there’s also repair time to consider. From her perspective it must have been better to lose now and be able to attend the next tournament than wreck her mech now and be both unlikely to be able to attend the next match as well as the tournament after.”
Huh, he hadn’t considered that.
“Is that a consideration for Kalia?” he asked as he watched the two mechs disengage from each other, retreating to openings in the arena walls.
Tenir actively laughed, though it sounded a little distracted. “No. Kalia’s sponsors have deep enough pockets that we’ve got a backup mech if her first takes too much damage.”
Huh, he hadn’t fully appreciated what that meant until now. So caught up in his thoughts he was, he actually missed it when Tenir spoke again. Or at least the specifics of what she said.
“Sorry, what was that?” he said, turning his full attention to the Nighkru.
“Oh, I was…” She cleared her throat, her fingers fidgeting with the edge of top. “I was just asking if you would… maybe want to grab something to eat after this? Maybe talk a bit more about… the match?”
Mark blinked, then glanced at the table between them, where a half-eaten spread of various snacks sat. “Didn’t we just eat?”
Tenir’s cheeks darkened, a faint flush spreading across her silver skin. “I mean, maybe a recaf then? Or… something?”
Ah, coffee. Or the alien equivalent.
He grinned.
Well, he supposed he had time. And this new side of Tenir was of great interest to him.
Yeah, she was definitely a very different person ‘off the clock’. And now that she didn’t have the comfort of talking about something she was very familiar with, she seemed to have once more defaulted back to the shy young woman he’d met outside the arena.
The contrast was disarming, and Mark found himself liking it more than he expected.
“Sure,” he said, his grin widening. “A hot drink sounds great. You want to do it at my place or yours?”
He almost felt a little bad for phrasing it that way as the young woman flushed even deeper at the ‘innocent’ turn of phrase.
Again, the key word there was almost.
Not least of all because there was no guarantee at all that anything explicit was going to happen. He still wasn’t entirely decided on the validity of a workplace liaison.
So, he’d enjoy an alien coffee and talk a bit.
That was all.
-----------------
Kalia was in a good mood as she leaned against a workbench in ‘Saria’s’ mech bay.
It was just her, the Pesrin and the faint hum of diagnostic systems as they worked on getting Starkiller back up to form.
The towering frame of her primary mech loomed overhead next to his brother, the pair’s crimson and black armor gleaming under the hangar lights.
He looked all the more intimidating for the gouges across his armor – a memento of her last match that had yet to be fixed.
Mostly because Saria was, for the moment, more concerned with other more pressing issues. Which was why she was currently perched on a gantry, elbow-deep in Starkillers shoulder joint, muttering curses in Pesrin as she wrestled with something or other.
Kalia considered herself an excellent pilot, but a poor mechanic. She knew a little, but a ‘little’ didn’t count for much where mechs were concerned.
Still, she did have some insight into what the repair process entailed – and what it didn’t.
“I realize I’m the amateur here, and you’re the pro,” the heiress called up to her friend. “But somehow I doubt Starkiller’s servo issue really requires that much percussive maintenance.”
She saw the Pesrin’s ears flick, before she turned to scowl – or perhaps more accurately, pout down at her. “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I’m feeling a little frustrated because my best friend screwed me out of a good screwing in favour of a certain silver skinned pain in the ass. And not the fun kind.”
Kalia sighed, rubbing her temple where a headache was brewing. She loved her friends – she really did - but their constant bickering could wear on her.
It didn’t help that they often felt like the two competing halves of her own life. Saria, was the gritty, hands-on world of the arena, and Tenir was the calculated sheen of her family’s corporate empire.
Both were vital, but trying to balance them was like piloting a mech with one arm tied behind her back.
Hell, that would probably be easier!
“Ok, a lot of assumptions on your part there, but I thought you had another guy you were already after? That Shil’vati at the recaf place?” Kalia asked. “The one you wouldn’t shut up about last month?”
Saria’s tail lashed, and she yanked a wrench from her toolkit with more force than necessary. “Yeah, he made it abundantly clear he wasn’t interested.”
Vorn winced. “Ah, rough.”
And it was.
Some guys could be downright ruthless about turning down a girl. Not that Kalia didn’t get why. The fact of the matter was that girls had to be pushy to stand out from the crowd.
A woman that wasn’t pushing for a match wasn’t going to find one.
So guys, in turn, had to be blunt - sometimes cruelly so - to make their refusals known and not just… some kind of test of a girl’s dedication.
Fortunately, Kalia herself tended to be insulated from that kind of rejection as a rule of thumb. As both a celebrity pilot and the heiress to a corporate fortune, her issues with men tended to run in the opposite direction.
Still, she’d watched her friends get burned by dismissive guys often enough to know the game.
“You’re telling me,” Saria snorted, tossing the wrench back into her toolkit with a clang. “And then I came back here to find out that not only did you steal my ‘first date’ plan with the new guy – you gave it to Tenir! Tenir!”
Kalia stared dryly up at her friend. “You’re the one always complaining about Tenir being an uptight pain in the ass. I thought you’d be happy about this. Her finally getting laid might actually help her unwind.”
And as much as she loved Tenir, the fact was that she was only slightly exaggerating her motives for setting her manager up for a date with her newest employee.
“Our human might work that ‘human magic’ you’re always going on about on her,” she continued. “Make her relax a little.”
Saria’s ears flattened, and she growled low in her throat. “I’d rather have been irritated by Tenir’s high-strung ass and have the human relieve me with his magic dick.”
Kalia scoffed, though a grin tugged at her lips. “Well, you still have a chance. Human or not, she’s hardly likely to get lucky on the first date. He’s still a guy.”
Personally, Kalia thought her friend was reading far too much into hypernet rumors of human promiscuity.
She’d met ‘Mark’ during their brunch earlier and he’d been… surprisingly normal. Professional, but not stiff. Cute, admittedly, in a boyish way. Not that she was particularly interested – she wasn’t some kind of cheater - but she could see why Saria and Tenir were circling.
Saria huffed, but her tail flicked with reluctant amusement. “Well, I can’t argue that her chances of scoring with him – even if he is a human – are pretty much nil. If that stick up her ass doesn’t scare him off, those animations of hers will. He’ll get one look at her apartment and run.”
Kalia didn’t think that likely.
Mostly because she’d advised her friend to… hide her less respected hobby as best she could.
On the off chance those hypernet rumours turned out to be true and she did manage to lure the chef back to her apartment.
Which in and of itself she considered unlikely. Still, it’d be a shame for the evening to be ruined by her date being… put off by the woman’s giant anime posters.
-------------------
Tenir’s heart sank.
She'd finally managed to get a guy back to her apartment… and her worst fears had been realized.
“Ooh, what’s this?” asked guilelessly as he scooped up a brightly coloured case from her recaf table. “An actual hardcopy of a movie? I didn’t even know people still made hard copies?”
They didn’t – unless they were as a collectible.
Like the one held in his hands, its holographic cover glinting ominously under her apartment’s soft lighting.
Somehow!
Because she thought she’d hidden her anime collection! She’d tucked away the figurines, the posters, the paraphernalia - all to make her sleek, modern apartment look suave, and sophisticated.
Not nerdy.
Like Kalia said! Suave. Like she was at work.
And now, her carefully curated image was crumbling.
Not least of all because the disk he’d picked was ‘Star Hunks: Galactic Heat’.
It was one of her more… fanservice heavy titles - skimpy outfits, suggestive scenes, a bunch of guys fighting over one girl, threadbare plot.
He turned to her and said the one thing she didn’t want to hear.
“Could we watch it?”
There were a thousand things she could have said. Excuses. Deflections. Outright lies.
Instead, what slipped out of her mouth was…
“S-sure?”
Comments
Blue Fishcake
Oh, forgot to say, beta readers have had it for an hour or so :P
Trevayne
Thanks for keeping us informed. I would almost suggest just making Sunday the release day, but I think that would be tempting fate. As soon as you said Sunday is the new release day, stuff would happen forcing the release to Tuesday or Wednesday.
Blue Fishcake
Sunday again :D
Harrison F
Frieren is pretty good
Medical-Cyanide
I want to say she is probably maried or prearranged. At least that is my bet that she If probably maried already as a business deal or something.
Medical-Cyanide
HA, I don’t remember if Mark likes anime or not but I feel like at the very least, personally, it would be funny to see anime troupes turned on their head from a human perspective. Personally I don’t like much anime, a few have caught my attention but the only ones I’ve watched all the way through are often argued to not be anime, just inspired by it. With that said I don’t know anything about it but I wonder how the galaxy would respond to Jojo’s bizarr adventure. At least if the jokes are anything to go by.
Blue Fishcake
Shil is the lingua franca of much of the galaxy - with the exception of Consortium space proper. Krenheim being an independent world with strong Consortium leanings mostly speaks Shil but also speaks Nighkru.
Moonlightwind
You know a thought occurred to me last chapter and I forgot to ask: what language are they all speaking? I think before it just defaulted to Shil, but what language does the alliance mainly speak? Also I love the gap Tenir has it’s amazing lol, I’m sure Mark immediately recognized what that was and decided to torture her with it. And is Kali married? She said something about cheating.
Zeoncobra
Pesrin are a fan-race that was canonized by Blue. Unlike the Rakiri they are part of the Alliance and look like humanoid domestic cats while Rakiri look like a humanoid cross between a feline and wolf.
Trevayne
Why wouldn't it have a mecha subgenre? After all, in their world mechs are real, even if restricted to sports use.
Rex Regun
Tenir is probably gonna do the walk of shame at work the next day, dressed all business-like but barely able to stand, occasionally wobbling as she tries to stay still
Rex Regun
I know this might be a little early but are we gonna get any “official” art for this new storyline anytime soon? Also, what’s a Pesrin and how is it different from a Rakiri?
TeFiLeDo
Did I just mix them up or did the mechs swap colours?
Trevayne
Tenir, buttoned up professional by day, nerdish fan of trashy anime by night. Another great character by Blue.
Vlad Cold
My money is arguing that something is unrealistic or "no woman like this" then testing it on her 😁.
zmessing11
I wonder how big Tenir's pile of shame is.
Ryan Streeter
Noooo! I need more! Tenir is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
aj0413
YESSS! Fuck the nerd! Nerdy girls are best girls!
Allen Mainville
I’m smitten already!
Vlad Cold
I'm not sure word "anime" quite fits... unless it was specifically imported from Earth. "Animation nerd" or some such, perhaps? Also "Ooh, what’s this?” asked guilelessly as he scooped... " something feels grammatically missing. And from Tenir's POV I suspect it has similar energy to "OwO what's this?" 😂😁🤣. Additionally, does alien anime analog really has 'mecha' subgenre 🤔?
Zeoncobra
So Tenir is an otaku as Karl put it? If I was Mark, that would just make me like her more cause I’m into anime also.
Hardy Carroll
“She wasn’t some kind of cheater” like in the sense of using her position of authority to make him a lover or maybe something we don’t know yet?
karl grimm
I think an otaku Dark Elf is just what this universe needs.
Baron Von Mott
Alien animé! And of course, the cultural differences mean all the tropes are reversed! Brilliant stuff! 😂👏
just_some_guy.
Well, this explains a couple things and sounds like it will lead to a couple more! Is Mark going to roast the plot, or to get the party started? Both?
