[Indigo]

Ah, Lamenolai. Various pedestrians crowded the streets, passing interesting buildings and people on their way to more important places. There were probably some real weirdos around here, but most of the people weren't paying attention. They weren't expecting to notice anything out of the ordinary, and so they didn't. This is essential to the nature of most sentient beings, and is the reason the whole world hasn't gone mad yet.

For this reason, hardly anyone noticed the fairly quiet chain of small explosions coming from an alley. A few people paused near it when they heard the ensuing argument, but they moved on soon enough, and no one bothered to go investigate. Had they looked, they would have found a long-haired man wearing goggles that made his eyes appear purple, and very rumpled and stained clothes, which thus were rather old. He was fiddling with some sort of robot, which looked like a combination of a Turkezilla and a flower. It was also fist-sized, yellow, and actually kind of cute in a demented sort of way. The man was holding it down on a small table with one hand and keeping its flailing claws away from his face with the other. Scattered gears, springs and bits of metal indicated the fate of the other prototypes.

"I told you not to make it sentient," said an irritated female voice. That voice was made for complaining. An Invert Myu Reaper jumped up on the table and whacked the robot's head with one paw, causing it to stop moving. She glared at the man. "See, now it thinks it's unconscious. Honestly, Sprocket, can you do anything properly?"

"Well, now it has a shutoff mechanism, anyway," Sprocket replied, letting go of his robot and looking around. "Where's my first aid kit? I put some nasty claws on that thing."

"Under the table." The Myu, whose name was Muffins, rolled her eyes. "And I told you not to give it weapons until you were sure it would do what it was told, but did you listen? No, Sprock knows everything, doesn't he? And who has to clean up the mess when he's wrong?"

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad. I clean up after myself sometimes, surely?" Sprocket laughed even as he wrapped bandages around his fingers. Muffins just sighed.

{1-1}

[amapup]

The Albie woke up, stretching. Apparently another oblivient graffitti artist had come in the night, and now her fur was colored mostly with greens in blues. She'd long stopped caring, though: it wouldn't help her survival.

Anna looked around, checking for other strays before she headed down the alley to a full-looking garbage can. She didn't feel like fighting with competiton today. And maybe there was something worth eating in the can.

As she got closer, she thought she heard clanking, mechanical noises. Surely those couldn't be coming from the trash can, right? She pressed her ear to the metal. Nope, wasn't that. But then what WAS making the noises?!

The Graffitti Albi popped her head around the corner, to see a guy that looked like some weird version of a mad scientist, an Invert Myu Reaper, and a yellow jumble of metal that Anna couldn't make out. "Hi?" she said, cocking her head curiously.

(hope you don't mind me joining)

[Indigo]

Sprocket jumped. "Hello? What? Who--?" He stared suspiciously at his robot. "Did I put any kind of speech mechanism in that thing? I don't think I did...Muffins?"

Muffins rolled her eyes. "No, genius. Presumably there's someone else here, probably because of your stupid explosions. Oh, don't give me that look. Not everyone is as oblivious as you expect them to be. All that 'nature of humanity' stuff must be messing with your head. We never should have moved in with Indigo." She turned to find the speaker. Upon noticing the Albie's presence, she jumped down from the table, whacked it with her tail in case that would make Sprocket's robot explode, and approached the newcomer. "Hi there. Would you like the pleasant explanation of what we're doing or the exasperated one? Don't think about it too long or I'll decide for you, and believe me, you don't want that."

"Will you stop doing that?" Sprocket abandoned his robot for a moment to intervene, scooping up his grumbling cat. He grinned at the Albie. "Hi. Sorry about her. She doesn't like people much, especially when they interrupt her griping." He held out a hand, and Muffins clawed her way up to his shoulder so he didn't accidentally drop her. "I'm Sprocket, and this is my irritable cat, Muffins. Who are you?" He pushed his goggles back up to his forehead, revealing that his eyes were, indeed, purple.

Behind him, unnoticed even by Muffins's watchful eyes, the robot started up again. It rolled itself onto its feet and jumped off the table, fluttering its tiny petal-shaped wings pathetically. Its size meant that it had a long way to fall, and it exploded on impact, although not very loudly. An ambitious plume of smoke decided to drift up from the mark dramatically.

{2-2}

[amapup]

The Albie twitched her ears as the feline padded over. She blinked, unprepared for the question. "Uhh..."

Her attention was diverted though, as the man came over and scooped up the Reaper. Sprocket seemed a fitting name for him, though she wasn't sure that 'Muffins' had been thought out. Watching him take the goggles off, Ana couldn't help but wonder whether the color match was intended or not.

Looking at the outstetched hand, Anna decided to bow he head instead. She didn't feel like standing on he hind legs and giving him her paw just to please him, though she wasn't trying to be rude either. "I'm A-" she stopped midsentance as the metal heap on the table started moving.

Watching it, the Albie couldn't help but get the impression it was a mechanical baby crossed with a Turkzilla and a Rooksen. The way it flapped it's wings as it fell... she unconciously winced. "Anna." She was startled and slightly disturbedby the whole scene. "Is it, dead?" she asked, her gaze still riveted on the site of the smoke.

[Indigo]

Sprocket looked around. "Dead? What? What's dead?" Muffins, slightly quicker on the uptake, jumped down and trotted behind the table with another exasperated eye roll. After a few moments of investigating the black mark on the ground, she emerged, looking slightly more annoyed than before.

"I suppose you could say it's dead," she allowed grudgingly. "As far as I can figure, it tried to fly away and exploded. Like the other ones. we're still working on making them so they don't explode on impact. Well, I say we..." She glanced up at Sprocket before continuing. "Anyway, if you're wondering what the heck that thing was, it was our latest--and now deceased--attempt at building a guard robot. I still think we should just invest in a Baskerville, myself."

"I think my main problem is that I keep making them look cute," Sprocket muttered, ignoring this last comment. "That aside, we're running out of materials. Did anything survive the explosion?"

"A couple of petals, a few bits of the body, and the claws." Muffins shook her head. "Honestly, I don't think anything could destroy those claws." She looked back at Anna. "So. What brings you here?"

{3-3}
(Incidentally, I have no idea where this is going, so feel free to take it wherever you want.)

[amapup]

The Albie watched curiously as Muffins investigated what seemed to be a mere pile of ash now. The petals explained the yellow look... a cute guard bot didn't sound right. Anna almost asked what they needed a guard for, but quickly decided not to. Probably something they didn't want to talk about. " Did you ever think of buying a pre-made robot and then modifying it?" she asked, looking at Sprocket. His robot building skills seemed like they needed some improvement... she was sure that would help out.

At the Myu Reaper's question Anna merely shrugged. "Prospect of food and the fact I was sleeping nearby." She motioned with her tail towards the garbage can. Being a stray had never struck her as odd. After all, Graffitti Albie's were known as city dwellers. Shouldn't it be natural that some of them were homeless as well?

[Indigo]

"A...premade robot?" Sprocket pretended to swoon. Muffins snickered and prodded him with her foot. "Sprock here is a project man. He doesn't like store-bought things, at least as they apply to his business. If mad science is even really a business."

"It is not mad science," Sprocket protested. "It's just...experimentation. My work is unbridled by the constraints of modern so-called 'science'. I follow no rules but my own--and the laws of physics, of course." He made a harrumph noise.

"In other words, he makes it up as he goes along," Muffins translated. "Wait...what do you mean, you were sleeping nearby?" She had no real grasp of homelessness apart from a vague idea gained from the accounts of the once-vagrants living in Indigo's house. Indigo had a habit of taking in anyone who asked for help, and her house was now ridiculously large.

In any case, Muffins had never really thought about what it would be like to be a stray.

{4-4}

[amapup]

She couldn't help but let out a tiny snort at Sprocket's 'swoon'. He was funny, in the way little kids are when they feel offended. "What exactly are you trying to program the robot to do?" she asked, deciding it might be a good idea to stick to robotsfor the topic. She didn't want Sprocket to get upset.

Anna sat down as Muffins asked the question. "I guess I blend in with the walls too much here, since the local graffitti artists never seem to notice me." She flicked her tail over her back. "That's my my back is green today... It's just around the corner, though I doubt you want to see it." She waved her tail behind the corner, before returning it to its normal position.

Anna cocked her head slightly at Muffins, wondering why she asked. It didn't sink in that the feline didn't realize she was a stray... she'd never even realized MOST people weren't used to strays. The life was so natural for her she'd never given it a second thought.

[Indigo]

"Oh, programming. Pfft." Sprocket made a dismissive gesture. "I don't do programming. I just make them sentient and then, er, train them not to jump off the table. And stuff. The sentience comes from this weird jelly I accidentally spilled in the first robot's brain." He scratched his nose absently. "Of course, that one exploded too. They never listen." Sprocket had a way of talking about his work that made it uncertain whether he was mocking himself or not. Often it was both at the same time. "All that aside, we need a robot to guard our room. Someone keeps sneaking in there and stealing things. And occasionally the, er, experiments try to get out." He grinned innocently, or at least as innocent as one can possibly look while one's eyes are darting back and forth in a suspicious manner.

Muffins stared. "Sorry, what? Graffiti artists? Walls? What? What the heck are you talking about?" she demanded. "You stand around long enough to be graffiti'd on?" For someone so cynical, she had a surprisingly innocent worldview in some respects. Still, better to learn sooner than later, if this was "sooner".

{5-5}

[amapup]

A second ago she'd started to like Sprocket; now she didn't know what to think of him. The Albie didn't like the way his eyes were shifting around, and the reaction confused her. Was he experimenting on PETS? Or was he just protective of his robots... she couldn't tell. Also, as far as Anna knew, there was no way to make a robot without some sort of programming. Didn't they have to be taught how to function? But then what did she know? Being a stray, she'd never had a proper education and only knew what she'd picked up from others. The idea that living robots even existed was still knew to her.

"Interesting." she said, though the curiosity was partly hidden. Anna didn't know how else to respond.

The Albie turned her head towards Muffins's stare, flicking her ears from confusion at the Reaper's questions. She didn't register all of her words, but she'd try to answer her. "I'm not exactly up and about during the middle of the night." Unlike all the graffiti artists. She didn't bother adding that; she assumed it was common knowledge. There had been a slight, hard-to-find hint of annoyance in her voice, but it quickly disappeared after the first sentence. "They never see me against the walls - I guess because there's so much graffiti around here - so I often wake up covered in spray paint."

(sorry about the wait)

[Indigo]

Note to self: don't make it sound as if you're experimenting on innocents. Sprocket had a bad habit of talking in creepily nonspecific ways. He knew he'd written it on his hand or something, but he'd probably washed it off since then, and anyway he wouldn't have been able to see it for the bandages. He grinned. "Oh, it's not what you're probably thinking. I've never experimented on any pets or anything; that would be...just wrong. Biology is too complicated anyway. No, my robots tend to try to escape, and people tend to complain when something explodes in their room." He laughed. "Of course, they complain anyway."

Muffins was still horribly confused. "You sleep near the walls out here? Why?" She'd known some roamers, of course, and a lot of people back home preferred to sleep outside, but who slept close enough to a wall to get sprayed by graffiti artists?

Sprocket noticed her confusion, and in an effort to save Anna from carrying on two conversations at once, attempted to explain to his cat. "You know how some of the people at home used to live on the street? They did mention that to you at some point, right?" he added somewhat desperately when Muffins continued to look confused.

"Of course. They're such chatterboxes," she grumbled. "But...then...you're...homeless?" she asked incredulously. "How did that happen?"

{6-6}

[amapup]

Anna nodded at Sprocket's explanation understandingly. That made more sense. She was back to liking him now.

She remembered why'd she'd come down here as her stomach growled slightly. While Sprocket explained things to Muffins, she padded over to the trash can a few feet away. Leaping up from her hind legs, she knocked off the metal lid, sending it clattering to the ground. The trash can wobbled as she balanced on the edge with her stomach. It soon toppled over, though, sending it crashing to the ground and taking the Albie with it.

She rolled over onto her paws, shaking her fur out as the Myu Reaper asked the question. "But...then...you're...homeless?" "Stray, homeless, if that's the terminology you want to use." Her expression showed puzzlement at Muffins incredulousness. Anna couldn't grasp the idea that it was STRANGE to not have an owner. Yeah, she knew a lot of pets had owners, or human forms, but this was the only life she knew for herself and couldn't imagine any other.

(eep! lot of projects I'm working on)