Once Mikah has ensured that the desk drawer is securely shut, he wheels his chair back a short distance, getting ready to stand up. However, rather than getting up, he stays in place, visibly lost in thought for a few moments before finally speaking up.
“You know… Isn’t it rather, hmm, fortunate, I suppose? That the bots decided to test out the climate system in advance, with enough time to report the results to us accordingly? That we were caught just in time to put in a request for the masks and everything, mere moments before heading up there ourselves? Sure, coincidences happen all the time, but if you don’t mind my asking, do you have any plans that involve Alley Cat anytime soon?” Once Mikah puts his thoughts in
After Miss Masher’s latest round of grumblings, Jonathan looks down at himself, then over at Lucas.“Um, w-what about just doing the, um, f-fitted version of what we’re w-wearing now..? Is there a, uh, tag with a style number we can check..?” While Jonathan is making this proposal, he unbuttons his suit jacket and goes to look at the lower part of the inner side seam starting with his left, but has no success.“Ah, all the enhanced suits are tagless, even when they’re the standard-sized ready-to-wear versions. The different patterns on the inner lining are what show which material enhancements it has, otherwise, the bots all just have the different cuts memorized to know which product it is that they’re selling. No need to worry ab
After making a few assumptions based on Miss Masher’s hesitant tone, but not having the normal additional info from hearing her thoughts directly, for once, Mikah seems particularly amused while guesstimating her train of thought.“Ha! No, no, not at all. Short of it being an insultingly poor design, we are intentionally fairly lax on those kinds of requirements for in-house designs. This is in order to encourage them to be a bit more creative, instead of always sticking to what they’re confident will meet with general approval. I don’t think we have any sort of clothing competition going on right now, so they shouldn’t be too busy.” With Mikah’s clarification, Miss Masher makes another relieved sigh. After a slight pause, Mikah continues speaking whilst wearing a thoughtful expression.
After a bit more time spent calming back down, Lucas is looking down at his currently shut-off phone in his hands. His thoughtful expression makes it all too apparent that he’s attempting to reach a decision about something, but his thoughts are deep enough that Mikah can’t hear them.“Twenty dollars say Marsha will call you again if you go to try calling Alley Cat right now.” Mikah has a huge grin while making this bet, and Lucas angrily shoves his phone into one of his suit jacket’s inner pockets.“Absolutely not! I’ll wait until later! If their luck really is such a big deal then something will happen to let me know when to call!” The huff Lucas makes after declaring his newfound intent can be rather effortlessly translate
For the remainder of their admittedly short trip to the 8th floor, Lucas incessantly provides 427 with a seminar on how totally awesome Vikings, and therefore also their beards, are. Thanks to it being a mental lecture, he doesn’t even have to pause to breathe.Poor 427 can’t even get a word in edgewise. The entire time 427 is wishing he didn’t say anything, it was better when Lucas was just being wistful about winsome whiskers.Lucas’s mental monologue is finally interrupted when, after they’ve already exited the elevator to step out onto the 8th floor; Jonathan seems to suddenly teleport from being a few steps in front of him, to then suddenly being a foot to the left of his initial position instead, now facing a slightly different direction
By the time Lucas has finished fussing with his collar enough to make it stay popped upright for easier tie access, the recently arrived elevator’s doors have finished sliding open. The first to walk out of the elevator is Mark, followed by Miss Calculated, and then 23. Whereas both Mark and Miss Calculated are empty-handed, 23 is carrying an armload of boomerangs, two cloth masks, and, unsurprisingly, Mark’s phone.Upon noticing them, Lucas raises up his left arm to wave enthusiastically at them. While doing so, he shouts out “Hey guys, over here!” to bring their attention to the little lounge area off to the side that he and Jonathan are occupying. He’s fast enough that he cuts off the leaving service bot before it could even begin to react to their presence. Lucas slaps his hands against each other a few times to knock any residual dusty bits off of them, then goes to finally start following the patiently waiting bot.“Heh, anywho, catch ya guys in a bit.” Lucas drops this as he goes to leave, taking one step before Jonathan glances up at him, then the chair he’s leaving behind.“Um, y-your jacket..?” When Jonathan asks this, Lucas stops and spins in place, bending over to reach out and grab his suit jacket off the back of the chair, then casually draping it over his left arm.“Right, I should keep the suit together. Totally didn’t just forget about it.” Lucas totally forgot about it, and heI'd Like to Change My Reincarnation Subscription, Please Ch173 - Unspoken Rivalry
Mikah nods a few times in agreement with Mark’s latest speculations, then continues the conversation.“Oh, absolutely. We should probably start thinking up a few guidelines for how we want the chew toys. Once those are set, we can have everyone on the designers’ team that isn’t already busy with something else start figuring out how to fashion the dolls, as well as, well, their fashion. We’ll just need to have them hold off on using other people’s likenesses until we get their approval first, since, obviously, we don’t want to stoop to the level of the current manufacturer.” While Mikah is speaking, the receptionist service bot has returned from the backroom it wandered off to at 23’s behest.
Going back a bit, narratively speaking, to right around when Miss Calculated cant-cursed Miss Chievous, then took a seat on the padded armchair Lucas had previously occupied.Now that Miss Chievous is the last of the loiterers left vertically aligned, she looks at her lounging possibilities. They are, unfortunately, relatively lacking, as all of the possible places are settled by her colleagues. Left with limited alternatives, she selects the most undeniably logical solution; beleaguering pitiful little ill-fated Jonathan.Since she at least bears a modicum of respect for the fact that he’s in the middle of playing a game, she sits on the arm of his chair and l