Avenger Assembled

"Good for you!" Ashley called. "The only extracurriculars I had were boxing, wrestling, and tutoring with Summers!" If that's what you want to call it, anyway. "High school and college are the last time you can just sneak off to draw something, or run track, or be in a play just because you want it!" She was taking them out of the city, weaving through cars on the interstate as they picked up speed, getting the occasional blast of a horn from someone who recognized the Patriot - or just didn't recognize their speed. "You deserve some time to actually grow up." That was one thing Ashley certainly hadn't had in high school - or so it had felt, anyway. "You ever get out to the state forest!? That's where we're headed!"

Neko had been in situations like this before; and she'd been warned about the nature of possibly superpowered strangers in Freedom City in particular. A private place turned out to be just inside the community center, right next to a transparent glass window that showed the elders outside watching a small troupe of young people perform a traditional dance. Once inside, Neko folded her hands before her and eyed Betsy again, her gaze yellow and ears folded back on top of her head. "I am a stranger here," she said, tail twitching behind her. "but I am not alone." As she spoke, Betsy became conscious of the fact that they weren't alone inside the mostly deserted room. There were cats; cats on the empty chairs inside, cats lurking behind the television, cats of various shapes and sizes and all watching her with gleaming eyes.

"See if you can get out to the Fens!" the Patriot called as they sped up, zipping their way through the streets. "There's enough space there you can get around without a lot of cameras; and the locals don't turn up their nose at metas!" That much she'd had a chance to confirm herself, back in her Watchdog days; and she knew enough about Nighthawk to know the cyborg girl would welcome the assistance. She considered what to say next, then said, "Listen, Puma - what do you like to do for fun?! When Summers isn't breathing down your neck?!" It was the perfect day for motorcycle riding; traffic was light today on a weekday that was too early in the summer for the public high school and college kids to be out on break, late enough that the morning rush was long since gone. Ashley gunned it, enjoying the wind on the lower half of her face as she went.

"Oh!" Neko stared at Set's transformation with big yellow eyes, hands folded before her and tail twitching. Then she cocked her head, listening to her invisible interlocutor again, then shook her head. "You are most polite," she said diplomatically. "But it is not stealing." She shot a look around the room, eyes flicking to catgirls and boys, wearing the clothes and the ears, in the flesh and on the walls. Though nobody seemed to exactly have her look, nobody else for the moment seemed to have any sort of power. It was her and the gods; and a very large room full of people. "You are just - wearing it. Everyone wears it." When Red's cameras came back on, Neko lit up like a paper lantern - not in so many words, but with a bubbly, cheery demeanor that was not false necessarily but was not much like the girl who'd been talking seriously to Set at all. "Hiii! And Konichiwa. Welcome back to Catgirl Reacts, where I have just met two amazing individuals!" She turned to Sekhmet first and declared, "Look at this! Sekhmet, the amazing lion kami!" She punched the air for emphasis at that. "Just like a Japanese Komainu!" She turned to Set and said, "And here is Set, the amazing kami of the desert! But he is not sandy at all, he is very kind." She beamed and said, "Oh and I understand we have many new subscribers coming in now! Domo arigato!" She turned to Set and Sekhmet and said, "You both have many fans on the Internet. How did you get them?"

Sea Devil Spectacle They'd met with Aquaria before the ball and told her something of the plan. There was no way this invitation was an innocent one, not with everyone's knowledge of Hades, and so a group of heroes was going to be investigating the truth of this place. But they would need distractions; big, bold, loud distractions that could keep the attention even of the gods. Did Aquaria think she could do such a thing? They hadn't needed to ask. Aquaria knew perfectly well that the gods of the Surface were false, lying things that wore the masks of divinity as a mere cover for their true nature. She knew perfectly well that a god worshipped by the sons and daughters of Atlantis was a particularly wicked creature. Hades had invaded this realm, many times? Well that sort of murderous weakness was what one expected from such a creature. She was only too happy to crash the party, especially if it meant a chance to show the might of the true gods before these false ones. And so she had dressed accordingly. Aquaria studied herself in the mirror, snuffling deeply to inhale her own scent, and liked what she saw. She was nude save for the harness that held her trophies and her cellphone, her muscular body showing off the tattoos that were her ancient birthright - the eldritch signs and seals that were marks of her adulthood, of her femaleness, of her first hunt and first kill, of her tribe below and her tribe above, and all the other signs that were hers. The elder sign, burnt deep across her back, the golden sign, gleaming on her belly. And didn't her skin gleam! She'd rubbed herself down with ample amounts of fat, using the pig and cow fat that was easy to buy on the surface, and if her smell was rather alien to her own nostrils it was certainly striking. Her trident gleamed too, the dark, rough metal of Lemuria polished to shiny brightness, enough that she could see her eyes and the eldritch doom of man when she peered closely into it. She struck the trident against the ground and boomed the speech she'd been practicing: "Behold! I am Aquaria Innsmouth of Those Below! I have come among you Above to eat fish and make strong friends! Where are the fish?" It was a bold speech, suitable for a female alone against false gods, making a great show of herself and scarpering before any of the real battles could take place. (It was a shame she hadn't been able to talk Jessie into coming, but Jessie needed time to work on her thesis and do her hair.) But when what was Aquaria herself but boldness incarnate? Raising her trident, she called upon the might of the gods, and stepped through a gateway to Greece.

"Here, put these on." The Patriot pressed a button on the bike's handle, causing a compartment to open in the side of the bike with a faint hiss. What she produced turned out to be a collapsible helmet in Puma's size, and a plain leather jacket to go with it. "The helmet is made to fit your head," she said, "and you should be able to wear that jacket over your costume, no problem. I know you have enhanced stamina and toughness," she said as she climbed on the bike herself and gunned the engine, "but falling off at super-speed is no joke." Her own helmet was obviously bike-worthy, among other things. Once they were on the road, she called out over the noise of the engine, "The best place near Freedom is on the road to the naval base! Straight and level, and there's hardly any traffic if you take the military roads! How often are you able to get off-campus!?"

Ashley studied the girl, feeling more than a twinge of sympathy. Metahumans who wore their identity on their faces could make a fine living as a superhero if they moved out to one of the states that paid salaries; but between the laws against employing meta-soldiers and meta-cops in most places, not to mention peoples fear, superheroing was the only thing they'd be able to do with themselves. So she didn't ask Puma about her future, not wanting to raise a subject she figured was probably a sore one. And she may not want to eat out, either. "Do you like to ride?" she asked as she walked back to her motorcycle. Looks like her hips are shaped the right way for it, anyway. "I can get this thing up to sub-sonic speed on an open road, and she turns like nothing around corners. I can show you some spots they don't usually take the kids..."

Farah proved to be a tough interview subject - at least if it counted as an interview subject at all and not simply a machine repeating canned responses back to Davyd. The two uploads he was sharing the room with both seemed a little cagey on what exactly what was going on here. He was able to work out that Farah was a Socotran, a refugee from the recent political changes in his home country, who had come to Rurland with his family to serve the new state. He had been a 'consultant' for Typhoon's government, and had 'consulted' on several problems for Rurland relating to 'personnel matters' and the like before being mortally wounded in the line of duty. Rurland had taken in quite a few organic refugees of various sorts, Davyd knew, enough that it was entirely possible (depending on exactly how much 'breeding' had taken place) that the country's population actually was majority-organic. He seemed reluctant to speak on his wife and children, only to say that those memories were preserved deeper than his, its, recall allowed. "As you can see," said Kay, "this is not full mass immortality yet - but the data _is_ there, it's just a matter of retrieval. We will have full synthetic consciousness for Farah, and the rest, very soon," she added confidently after the simulation was deactivated. "By the end of the decade, we will be able to upload a population equivalent to today's Ukraine. By the century, perhaps Europe." Eira seemed to be staring off into space, eyes unfocused and fingers folded before her. "But what bodies will you build for them?" she asked suddenly. "Not even Rurland has the resources for so many." "We need not build an army of humanoids," said Kay easily. "There is...precedent for the mass functioning of millions of synthetic minds at once, yes?" "Shut up," said Eira suddenly, on her feet and advancing on her friend. "That was not for you to-" She spat something at her in Swedish, and the two began arguing silently, staring bug-eyed at each other as an inaudible conversation took place.

"Your advice is 'Memento Mori', really?" Eira's smile took any sting out of the words. "We will see about that," she said, reaching down to scrub away a smudge on her reflected face before looking up at Mara. "I have always known that immortality is an illusion. The person who remembers being me in two centuries will have enough accumulated experiences that she will not be the person I am today, yes? But for now, I am happy with what I am. I am the girl that was born to my parents; and I am the machine that you and the others made. That is enough. For now. " She grinned.

The Patriot parked her bike by the side of the road, dropping the kickstand and stepping away after a quick, careful inspection. When that was done, she headed straight for Puma. The second Patriot was of average height for a woman, a little shorter than Puma herself, with a quick, muscular build that wouldn't have been out of place in an MMA ring. She was wearing her familiar blue helmet, hiding her eyes, and a leather bomber jacket adorned with various colorful pins - the Puerto Rican flag the newest among them. "You must be La Puma Negra," she said, giving the girl a firm handshake. "Do you need anything from the house?" she asked, cocking her head towards the door. She gave a little wave to the windows, trying to make eye contact with anyone inside even though of course they couldn't clearly see her face with the helmet on. Ashley had grown up in the church too, even if her raising had been more about regular Sunday attendance at Mary, Queen of Vietnam in the heart of East New Orleans rather than actually growing up in a nunnery. The orphan girl's story reminded her of the kinds of stories she'd heard from Catholics her parents' age, or older; but the superheroic life had a way of attracting all kinds of odd customers with strange stories. Yeah, and you'd know, she thought.

Summer 2022 Southside Paseo Boricua It was summertime, which meant the Patriot was back in Freedom City from her time in space, which meant she was doing her civic duty. Her helmet and jacket on, she rode down the streets of Freedom's Puerto Rican neighborhood, keeping an eye out for the Claremont student she was supposed to meet. Guess she didn't have anywhere to go. Too many damn super-orphans, she thought, thinking of her own childhood commuting back to New Orleans every summer from Claremont boarding school. She caught the usual flash of cameraphones when people recognized America's most famous patriotic hero but there were advantages to Freedom, the locals were hard to impress - one woman riding a motorcycle, even if she was a superhero, wasn't enough to get the big crowds out on the street.

The mighty woman had not challenged her; had even accepted her into her territory. Good! This wasn't home, where a fight over territory between two strangers was nothing unusual - they might have gotten kicked out the con! Neko blinked and tilted her head to one side, one large ear swiveling and producing a pleased exclamation from another passerby, the two of them seeming to pass for an excellent costumed duo. Sekhmet could smell whatever it was she was listening to, some sort of ape, but curiously her interlocuter was invisible to Set. "Ah yes," she said, smiling a girlish smile at Set that seemed taken straight from the faces of the cartoon catgirls around them. "I am Neko Musume, of...the Catgirl Reacts channel. And this is my camera, Red!" she added as a red insect that on closer inspection revealed itself to be a technological marvel swooped by her head. "This is my first anime convention. My fans said I should go." Her accent was heavy still, though more fluent than it had been when she'd first arrived in this century. Conscious of the growing crowd, she nodded her head at Red, who circled around, glowing slightly. "Do you mind if I film you?" she asked courteously, addressing Sekhmet as much as Set. "It will be good for my hits." So these were gods! she mused thoughtfully as she took in Set and Sekhmet both, thinking about Merlin's hastily murmured description to her. She had met gods in her service to the Katana, but not gods like this - and she had been raised on the tale of Yurei-Daki and what it meant when mortals trampled in their affairs. But what can they do to me that hasn't happened already? She was already far from home, in a world that was never hers.

"Miss Americana said the technology was not yet ripe; Uncle Magnus said he'd already tried that and wouldn't go down that road again." Eira looked away for a moment, then seemed to deflate a little, even as Mara knew her computer brain was working in rapid calculations. "But it has worked. It has been proven to work. I am that proof, and so are others like me. If organic life can make the transition to synthetic, why - why should it not be so? Why must you seal yourselves away in bodies that age...and get sick..." She fell silent for a moment, looking down on a polished part of the workbench at the reflection of a young woman that had once been a very sick little girl. "I am sorry, Mara," she said apologetically. "I should not have - brought my personal - my life into your birthday."

An ear flicked Betsy's way, but otherwise the girl finished with her songs, her talent real but untrained. She rose and bowed smoothly to the gentle applause of the elderly audience, hooking her shamisen up over her shoulder as she did so. Her smile for Betsy was blandly proper as Koshiro said "Oh, ah, yes! This is Neko Musume; a student from Tokushima here for high school. She knows traditional music that some of us have only read about." Koshiro didn't seem to see anything unusual about a girl with cat-ears that were obviously attached to her head; and no sign of human ones underneath brown and white hair that looked more like a Japanese maneki-neko than any normal cat. "I learned from my grandmother," said Neko, ears pointed and tail twitching behind her. Her nose twitched slightly as she looked up at Betsy. "Greetings, Madame Brooks." She knew how to talk to English people. She remembered the way Englishmen died and wondered, not for the first time when meeting strangers, especially ones that carried themselves with true power, if she'd been recognized.

Neko heard Owain's faint yelp and ran, head down and arms extended, her bare feet all but silent on the carpeted floor of the office building. It didn't take her long to find herself behind Bear-Knuckle in the midst of his brawl with Owain-in-okami-form. Without hesitating, she leaned close enough to Bear-Knuckle's ear to whisper "you-will-pay-yankee-dog!"before stepping backwards as she filled his mind with horrors. Legion of screaming, fiery cats filled his vision and drowned out the world with their maddened and maddening shrieks, even as Owain leapt forward and bit him savagely on the leg, biting hard and twisting as a great wolf would when it fought a man.

Neko comes up behind Bear-Knuckle and blinds him with her Obscure effect. Owain bites him! https://orokos.com/roll/940194 Nice! With Improved Crit that's a DC 28 Tou save.

It was the smell that told Neko first; the smell of a fierce feline, a great beast of a bloody-mawed cat close by. Then she spotted the two strange ones. A quick Internet check by Merlin told Neko who Set and Sekhmet were - but also told her very little. She wrinkled her nose, considered her options, then snapped back into action. She had originally intended to speak to Set as she approached, but gradually her attention was increasingly drawn to Sekhmet as she stalked closer and closer to the pair. By the time she reached Set and Sekhmet, her tail was lashing behind her and her ears pointed forward, her yellow eyes unblinking as she stared at Sekhmet. This was not one of her people; but on the other hand, it was, in a way she could hardly explain. She settled for greeting them as she would have one of her own people around strangers: In a low, accented voice she said, all without breaking eyecontact: "Disconnected, the cat outside, how she cries Banked fire went out, t'was cold in retirement" Her voice rose in a question at the last word before she added with a deep, old-fashioned bow that matched the kimono and red umbrella. "Good day, great one. I am Neko."

Nearby, on a bench outside the Japanese-American Cultural Center, a crowd had begun to gather, mostly old people and their caretakers. Betsy might have passed the sight by if not for the young woman sitting cross-legged in front of the crowd. Dressed in a kimono and carrying a shamisen, she spoke to the crowd in Japanese, then said in accented English. "Hello. Mr. Koshiro," she said with a nod towards the older gentleman who must have been with the center, "has brought me here to play for you. Please give him donations in box. My name is Neko. This is a work song, from farmers in fields." And then, strumming the strings of her instrument, the girl began to sing, an old song about how the tycoon was a devil from hell, who took not grain but blood from his workers, her voice full of rich, ancient sadness that sounded much older than her years. The girl was no ordinary girl. Betsy could see what the crowd seemed not to see; the fluffy white brown hair that looked more animal than human, the curling white tail that hung low behind her, twitching occasionally, and the big, yellowish eyes. This was a catgirl all right!

Spring 2022 AnimeCon Riverside Hilton In the relative privacy of the women's bathroom, Neko took a moment to inspect herself and her companions. She was dressed in one of her prize possessions, a brightly-colored red and white kimono that Talya had acquired for her, something that wasn't a Westerner's stage prop or fashion choice but something old enough that it had actually been a working garment. Her hair was behind her back in a neat plait, her ears curled above her head, her tail poking out the kimono's back thanks to some artful modifications to the fabric. (Nobody in the bathroom was looking at her; nobody could see her at all.) On her left shoulder was Merlin, her erstwhile 'manager' having come along for her live debut once it was clear, and on her right was a bright red mechanical insect whose color scheme was a near mirror of her kimono. "Come on, Red," she whispered, and sure enough the small insect-bot buzzed and hummed and began flying around her head. She smiled at the pretty bug and whispered, "You are so pretty! Everyone will be watching you if I am not careful!" With that, she checked Merlin's phone, nodded in satisfaction as it showed the success of the livestream, then checked with her manager one more time before she turned and exited the women's room. As she exited, she let herself be seen for the first time as she was (Merlin staying discreetly hidden), heading out into the crowd. "Hiiii!" she declared to her hovering bug-drone, smiling as she twirled a red umbrella over her head that was a costume prop. "Welcome to Catgirl Reacts to...AnimeCon! Make sure to like and subscribe!" She was by no means the only person in a costume, but so far she was the only person whose unusual appearance was natural. The room was crowded with people, more than could have fit into her whole village, all of them with unusual sounds and smells. She wasn't even the only person doing a livestream in the crowd, but she seemed to be attracting attention. Good, good! "Today I am going to see other catgirls, watch anime, and play video games! Come on!" With a smile for the hovering camera-bot and a girlish wink, she headed into the crowd, her sensitive ears catching the mostly-admiring comments about her appearance. People know Catgirl Reacts! This is actually...working!

Eira crossed her arms and looked vulnerable for a moment, not quite able to meet Mara's eyes. "But..." She looked down at her hand, obviously visualizing the plastic bones and muscle within, the magnetic fluid moving within that provided power to the body she'd helped design. "superheroic life is so dangerous," she said, moving to the spiked drone nearby. "This could have been you! You could have just - stopped existing. A couple of years ago, I met my own ghost," she confessed, her voice tight as she studied the memory, an incarnation of Mara still active nearby as the drone kept playing her memories. "And perhaps some part of her is still - aware on some plane, but she was not alive. Not something that could grow, or change..." She shook her head and looked at Mara. "Mara, people tell stories about death giving meaning to life, or the curse of immortality, or the...the flaw in a silicon soul. But those are stories people tell because there is nothing better. People do not have to die."

A little verklempt, Eira held onto the hug and whispered in a strained voice "Thank you." She decided at that moment, with the lightning-fast calculation that only a diamond-powered brain could generate, that this was the perfect time to move onto another important topic. "I will improve myself for as long as I live," she said fervently. "And that is...another reason I am here." She considered again, folding her hands in front of her, then said, her voice shaking just a little, "I know that you have been concerned that your powers are difficult to duplicate synthetically, but I have been working on that problem and..." Eira's suggestion involved organic recreations of the parts of Mara's brain that drove her powers, followed by nanotechnological replacement of individual cells to allow full technological transformation. "It would take some time, but I could start on it within twelve months. And within a few years, it could be directly incorporated into a synthetic body. You could have a synthetic upload before the end of the decade, yes?"

Spring 2022 "Hiii!" The camera turned to reveal a bright-eyed girl with fluffy white hair and two pointed ears atop her head, wearing a bright, flowered kimono belted over monpe. "I am Neko Musume and welcome to my channel! As always, make sure to like and subscribe!" She winked one big yellow eye and pointed right at the camera, before leaning backwards to show the dizzying heights beneath her on the roof. Freedom City's buildings were certainly very tall and their roofs guarded, but things like that weren't a problem for her. In the actual video, this was the point where Merlin would edit in parts from previous videos over the theme music he'd helped her pick out, but of course she had to imagine that. She carefully set the phone down where it could see her face, then smiled at it. She knew that was what the fans liked, big wide smiles and big eyes, like a baby's. Boys are very easy. In any country "We will start today with questions." She pointed to where the words would appear on the screen below her face. "Number 1: 'Are you a real catgirl?" She smiled again and ran her fingers through her ears, then stood up and carefully aimed the camera to show off her tail. "Yes, I am a real catgirl." The other questions were about whether or not she had a boyfriend "no, I'm not seeing anyone like that" and if she liked pocky "yes, it is pretty sweet and crunchy", and then she laughed and said "These are old questions! Send me new questions!" She knew that many of the questions she was sent were about her body, even though Merlin had been very cagey about that. He hadn't need to keep the secret. Neko had spent part of her girlhood marching with an army that was almost all men and boys. She understood what they wanted, and that a great many of them were pigs. This was nothing new. "Now, for the show!" With a noisy crinkle of paper, she opened the bag she'd snuck up onto the roof under her arm. "Today, Catgirl Reacts To...Double Cheeseburger!" She unwrapped the gigantic greasy sandwich - and burst out laughing. "Look at this! This is crazy!" She held it up for the camera and said "This is food for three people!" She looked down at the burger and studied it carefully, exaggerating her difficulties for the benefit of the audience, while saying, "How do you even bite it?" Experimentally she nibbled on it, then tried the fries and onion rings that came with it. "There is just so much food, that is crazy!" she said, shaking her head. "When I was a girl, we would take this and put it with noodles, and we could eat it all week!" Remembering that it wouldn't do to slander the business where she'd bought it, she added exuberantly, "If you want to get a crazy burger, go to Habib Grill, where they have many crazy burgers like this." She chewed carefully, then carefully started wrapping it up. "I will put the rest away - if I keep eating this, I will get fat!" That seemed unlikely, especially when she stretched backwards to balance on her hands, the phone camera just catching her legs as she kicked them up into the air. With an acrobat's casual ease, she spoke as she walked on her hands, "I am still working on the video for Catgirl Reacts to Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai. Remember to vote for what anime you want me to watch next in the comments!" She smiled brightly and said "I like it! It is not boring." It reminded her a little of the comics she'd read when she was supposed to be studying back in the old days, albeit with a little more freedom to show what the world was really like. "Um, let's see," she said, picking up the phone and flipping over to land on her feet, then leaning so far back her ears nearly touched her tail. "People like it when I sing. Here is a song I used to sing in, um, my home. I am not very good at singing but here it is." That was evidently a lie but it was what she'd been told when compared to the great singers in her home village. Neko's voice was soft and low as it carried out to the phone's microphone: "Odoma iya iya, Naku ko no mori nya. Naku to iwarete uramareru, Naku to iwarete uramareru. Nenne shita ko no Kawaii sa, muzo sa. Okite naku ko no tsura niku sa. Okite naku ko no tsura niku sa." "That is a song about babies. There are many babies in Freedom City!" she said, "And all of them so healthy! It is amazing but they can be loud!" She talked a little more about babies, skating around which one she knew and which she didn't, opining that cloth nappies were much better than disposable ones, while she bent and stretched on the rooftop. She had been around a great many of them, and was around even more of them now. When she'd recorded enough patter, she did a little flip back upright and said, "This is Catgirl saying Sayōnara!" After that, she gathered up her bag and began the process of hopping down the side of the building to the upper-story balcony where she'd started her climb. Being a 'social media star' was already making her money, and Merlin was delighted by his share of the proceeds. Maybe things weren't so hard in the future after all...

Eira lit up, smiling like the child she'd once been. "Oh...thank you!" She folded her hands behind her back, unconsciously mimicking Miss Americana. "It is from the heart," she said, putting her hand on her chest where a powerful chemical battery drove her internal workings. "A heart your hands helped make, yes? You are one of my synth-mothers. You mean a great deal to me." She looked uncertainly at Mara for a moment, then took a few steps closer and pulled her mentor in for a firm hug.

"I wanted to live," said Farah, with a trace of remembered emotion in its voice. "Organic life is fragile; synthetic life is more robust. Neural mapping offered me the most viable path to immortality." Eira hmmed and pulled back her wrist, datacable snapping back into place. She glared at Kay, who glared back, and there was once again the distinct feeling that a whole conversation was taking place away from organic ears. Farah continued - "I understand that Rurland does not yet have the resources for mass uploading and synthetic embodiment, but that day draws sooner every day. I am looking forward to being reunited with my wife and son, who have not yet chosen uploading."

"He should not have attacked you," Eira said firmly. The contents of the box turned out to be a metal sphere with a holographic projection lens; the sphere, rising under its own internal magnetic power, hovered briefly in the air and projected an image of - Dragonfly. Mara recognized the older version of her armor, over a decade old now and long-since surpassed by the latest model. This version of her was speaking reassuringly at the camera about the quality of the visual feedback before offering a friendly, slightly hesitant, greeting to Eira. From the quality of the projected image, this had been recorded by the first audiovisual feeds Eira herself had had. Over a decade ago. "Sharl helped me access some of the core memories he has stored," said Eira with a hesitant smile as the image moved forward in time, this time something Mara remembered recording for Eira's own twelfth birthday. "With all the, ah, boring or embarrassing bits cut out, so that it is only the good things, yes?" The projected Mara was a bit taller than her actual height, after all, these were the memories of a child. "It's all the ways I've seen you, from when you first met me to now. Well...all the memories I could access, anyway. The organic memories don't display this way."