
Hikaru's Full Metal Panic
"Don't get much better than this, choomba."
Trace
Log Entry: June 12, 203X
Sometimes I'm too busy for my own good. Case in point: yesterday,
I was on an all-night op that was about as exciting as krill cakes
topped with SCOP. Bland, man, real bland. They tell you, "This
is it, this is when it gets really hairy, so keep your senses
wired and your ass covered." So you do, and when the hammer falls,
it's just some ganger in a back alley mugging a bum who's drowning
in a puddle of his own puke. You move in to clean up, and it's
more like babysitting than perimeter security. You don't even
pop the weapons on your strider for that caca?you just step on
the opposition. Claws out, of course.
After that, it'd be time for most folks to clock out and head
home for a hot meal, a couple of winks, and maybe a piece of tail.
Not me. I was amped out on Cheshire Cat, so I rolled out to Dimitri's
to help him figure out why his dactyl has a limp. The left leg
servos were seriously out of whack, and I can only assume that
Dimitri ate it big time in one of those mechatitions he's so fond
of running in. We got it working, without so much as a "please"
or "thank you" from my fine Latvian amigo. Yeh. Wait till he finds
out what I did to the right leg servos...
By then, I'm feeling itchy on the insides of my wrists, which
is a sure sign the Cat is wearing off, and I'm gonna need some
serious stimulation if I'm going to keep my date with Tami at
the Totentanz. Wierd, though?there must've been something else
cut in with the Cat, 'cause I had some strange aural hallucinations.
Down by Dimitri's, near the drainage pool leading out of his block,
I could've sworn I heard frogs. Yeah, like. Hasn't been a frog
in thirty years, neh. I'm gonna need to talk to Gatsby and find
out why in St. Gibson's Name he's adulterating my shit.
It doesn't matter so much, though: I got on the road and I didn't
hear so much as a croak from my imaginary frog friends all the
way to the Totentanz. Hooked up with my new choomba, this bigass
Reefer I met last week. Yeh. And Tami was there, looking hot enough
to get the blood flowing again. A couple cans of Smash later,
I'm ready to get down and show her my trick. She might think she's
special, but when you get right down to it, Tami, she's just like
any other input: paper doll pretty, cardboard cut-outs looking
for a real man to bring them to life. And I give 'em what they
want. Sure enough. Yeh. Sure enough that.