Chapter Six - Kitty Cat Palace
Chapter Six - Kitty Cat Palace
Theres value in memes, you know?
Its a bitch to quantify it, but its there. Anything thats instantly recognizable by a large number of people has value. Maybe not value that can be instantly transformed into capital, but cultural and social value, and sometimes that can be worth a lot more than just money.
--So Youre a Meme, Now What? Pamphlet, 2024
***
I hovered over the museum, some hundred metres over the top of it, my arms crossed so that my elbows were leaning against the handlebars of my bike. Below me, the last of the contractors were moving away, large hovering dumpster trucks flying with all the skill and precision of whales while smaller hovercraft darted away.
Renovating the museum would take people weeks.
Destroying it had taken hours.
The one was much easier than the other, and I bet if I was a more poetic sort of soul Id find something meaningful to say about that.
Is everything ready? I asked.
Its unlikely. While the contractors are professionals, they were in a hurry to execute your orders.
Then well start with the construction drones, I said. Two of them should be enough, right?
A single construction drone could, given materials and the infrastructure with which to recharge itself, rebuild this city from scratch. The issue is less the number of drones, and more the amount of time youre willing to give them to work. And to pre-empt your question, since the work is mostly done I suspect it would take one drone approximately an hour to check and finalise the work. It would take two less than half that time.
Less than half the time? I asked.
The work-time to workers ratio isnt linear.
Alright, I said. I didnt quite get it, but I also didnt care enough to ask for a full-on explanation. Im going to need to unlock a new catalogue or two, wont I?
In this case, it would actually be somewhat cheaper to just purchase one catalogue with a wider range, than two more specific catalogues. The three things youre looking for; construction drones, turret emplacements, and specification-precise pre-built structures, are all available in the Defensive Structures catalogue. The catalogue costs 400 points to purchase.
Steep, I muttered. Alright, lets do it.
New Purchase: Defensive Structures
Points Reduced to: 10,094
I winced. My next purchase would drop me below ten-thousand points. That sucked, but I could live with it. Alright, the drones next, I said as I shifted on my seat. It was a decently comfortable seat. Some sort of gel padding, if I had to guess. And my armour was decently comfortable too. Still didnt stop me from getting a bit sore from staying in the same position for so long.
My eyesight flickered over the museum, and then the building was complete. The addition was slightly opaque, and I could see vehicles moving through it. So just a projection, but a damned realistic one.
The top floor was now a sharp-edged box. The roof tapered in at the edges. There were added landing pads on the sides, as well as a few pillars that stuck out at an angle. Are those turret emplacements? I asked.
Indeed. They are there to give any turret placed within them a wide downwards firing arc.
It looked pretty modern. Sleek and sharp. It contrasted a bit with the rest of the building, but not so much so that it looked wrong.
I couldnt see much of Lucys touch in the design. Then I squinted and it was as if the outer walls melted away. The interior was spacious, with lots of rooms and a few corridors connecting everything together. Other than the bedrooms, most areas were open enough that there wouldnt be any places to hide. Lots of upper-floor balconies and half-walls separating areas apart.
It was much bigger than the museum was. Not so much in width and length but in height. There was a dip on one end around Longbows turret installation, but the rest was much taller. That would wreck his line of sight, I figured.
Alright, I said. It looks perfectly acceptable. And yeah, a bit boring. Whats the other one?
The projection disappeared, and I found myself looking down at the torn open top floor of the museum again for just a moment before a new projection flickered into place.
I closed my eyes and sighed. Dammit Lucy.
The building now looked like a giant cat.
It wasnt a furry, cartoony sort of cat. More like a sphynx. It was a bit blocky, and the shape was strange, but there was no denying that the entire floor was cat-like. The front had a head looking out towards the edge of the city, with a landing space between two paws.
The worst thing was that it looked mostly functional. There were windows hidden along the sides where the walls jutted out as a series of angled panels that looked tough and also imitated fur a bit. The face had windows behind the eyes and what looked like study rooms once I looked past the walls, and the main body of the cat left plenty of room on the inside for living space. Not as much as the previous design, but still plenty.
If anything, I liked the interior of this design more. It was a bit less impersonal.
While the design is amusing, I want to note that I ensured that air circulation, living space arrangement, and defensive installations were optimised before it was finalised. I dont want to compromise too much for aesthetics.
It looks a bit... damnit. I wanted to say childish, but Lucy had been too clever by half for that. The building didnt look cartoonish at all. It could have been the top floor of a fancy casino, or maybe a themed hotel. Does it have room for defences? Like, offensive defences?
Panels opened along the cats back, revealing hidden gun emplacements that were left empty.
Longbows gun emplacement would have more room too, being right at the base of the cats neck. It would block one angle of attack, but not the rest.
And the building would be iconic enough that people would know where to find me. Which wasnt a bad thing.
How much is this thing?
Seven thousand six-hundred points.
I cant believe Im going to spend so much on a fucking meme.
***