Well, it had been a long day for her, after all, with all those different memories from different versions of herself sloshing around in her head...
Including memories from some versions of herself that weren't really anything like what she was now at all. She shook her head, thinking of the timeline that particular version had come from - where the Intelligent Beings were two-legged and walked about with there undersides exposed, and the things that looked like Cars were nothing but metal and plastic, and not Living Things at all. Oh, they might have still had souls, as most things did, but those souls weren't Lifeform-configured, that was for sure...
Oh, well. The Multiverse she lived in was a very strange place, that was for sure, if nothing else was.
Oh, well. She should really take a nap, now - and she knew there should be a rather nice sleeping-room, right near the Time Gate control room. Well, of course she should de-transform and go back to her Mugen Uni dorm room eventually, she did have to keep up appearances, but it wasn't like she was a high school student - nobody was going to think anything was strange if she just stayed out for a night or so.
Oh, she knew her thinking was colored by her weariness and the existence of a bedroom right near by, but whatever, whatever.
And tomorrow was Sunday, anyway, so Uni was out. Cool.
Pluto yawned yet again, and reached for the scanners controls. Hmmm?
- Oh, alright, when this one was over, then.
Aino Kanae sighed, watching her husband Tadanori wheel slowly around the waiting room, talking softly to nothing softly in particular.
Did he really have to use his carphones now? It wasn't like he didn't devote most of the time he was awake to business matters, anyway...
Oh, well. At least he wasn't a good-looking good-for nothing that had nothing going for him then his so-so well-established family, like a certain Car she had had the misfortune to be married to before...
That marriage had turned out to be an utter disaster - the only good thing she could think of that had come out of it was her son Naoto.
She looked at her husband wheeling about fondly, then. There were many worse things then being married to a workholic who took good care of you and your child, that was for sure...
She remembered the first time she'd met Aino Tadanori, then. She'd been just out of Uni while he was in his late twenties, and neither of them had very been keen at all on the idea of a old-fashioned formal omiai, but neither of them had been able to resist various and sundry family members telling them to just meet and see what happens and why not just make aunt so-and-so happy, you know she loves being the go-between, etc, etc...
Tadanori was a aggressive-looking Nissan Elgrand luxury minivan who was even more luxurious on the inside then most Elgrands - he was configured like a small luxurious office with only four large seats and all the works, while most Elgrands had seven. She, on the other hand, was a Toyota Camry with old-fashioned but nice looks if she said so herself, and quite young then, and couldn't imagine herself married to this big, imposing and broody Car, good family and business acumen or no good family and business acumen.
So they had both sent the nakoudo's the 'thanks but no thanks', and that had been the end to it - or so they had both thought at that time, anyway.
It really was odd how things turned out, sometimes...
She sighed, then. And now their child was going to be born, and things were going to be - different, weren't they? Oh, she didn't really think that he'd start treating Naoto badly or anything like that, he wasn't Yu - her ex, but still...
It was worrisome. As was the fact that this child had taken more then a full year to be made. Naoto had taken about 11 months, and she had been worried sick even so...
There was an apolegetic cough at the door of the waiting room, then. "Mr and Mrs Aino?"
Kanae blinked. "Yes, we're here!" Hang up the phone, husband...
Her husband murmured something, cutting of the conversation, and then turned towards the attendant "Yes, we are."
"Your child is ready, sir and madam..." The attendant sounded rather...tentative, for some reason. Kanae frowned. was something wrong?
Or maybe it was just because it looked like her husband had just been talking to thin air. Not everybody had good enough carphones to talk inside a Factory Complex, after all. Kanae reminded herself not to panic before there even was a real reason to.
The showroom was large, with three baby Cars in the big Car-pool. Kanae wondered which one of them was theirs.
...Well, not the one which looked like a crossover between a car, a SUV and a pickup truck, she didn't think, but then, you never really knew...
The Master Mechanics and Techs on site looked at them, and moved into line.
"Congradulations, sir and ma'am - it's a girl."
A baby Car, very prettily colored in sky blue and gold, rolled out of the Car-pool if on cue, and ambled around for a moment before focusing on them.
"Ohh, she's a...sedan?" She was a bit smaller then Kanae herself, with neo-retro looks that were very, very nice-looking, Kane felt. Well, she was biased, she knew, but what the hell, she was a mother, she had a right to be biased.
"You're so pretty, baby! And you have such interesting back windows - what do you call those, huh?"
"A cliff-cut." Her husband murmured, staring at the baby. Kanae blinked, then looked back at the baby.
"She's like - well, I'm not sure, but - like one of the old Takarazuka stars..."
"Sonoda Kaoru?" One of the techs added, tentatively.
"Oh, that's it, I think - thank you!"
"Well, she was - still is, I suppose - a Mazda Carol 360 or a 600, a 4-door, I think - that's the real little and pretty ones, the other Carols don't look much like 'em, except for the round lines. Hmmm, she does look a bit like her, now that I think about it, except it's obvious she isn't kei-class, of course." The tech smiled. "Congrats, ma'am, she's really pretty..."
"Thank you." Oh, she was! Kanae went up to her and gave her a nudgie, which made the baby bleek. Then she blinked.
"Husband...?..."
Why was her husband just standing there, anyway? Was he getting cold wheels now? Oh, how silly, husband mine...
One of the elder Master Mechanics blinked, and rolled over to the presumably proud father, who was standing as still as a stone.
"Ahh...Mr Aino? Your daughter is healthy and intelligent, and despite her looks, is not in the least flimsy. Actually, she's more like a Toyota Crown Sedan who just happens to look like a Mazda Carol 360 or 600..."
"...A Crown Sedan?"
Aino Tadanori's voice was distant and emotionless. The Master Mechanic was becoming somewhat alarmed.
"Not exactly, sir - her sub-type markings don't show up in any of the lists, so no. She's like a Crown Sedan in some ways as she's hardy and is quite comfortably fitted out on the luxury scale, too - "
The Master Mechanic was beginning to think he really shouldn't have mentioned the Crown Sedan thing at all, even if that was what the baby Car most resembled, except for her looks. Crown Sedans were most famous as 'the upper-grade taxi car' or 'the chauffeur car' or 'the butler car', and when it came to some rich parents -
Or maybe it was the fact that his daughter didn't seem have any identifiable sub-type markings that was bothering him? He was of the social strata that tended to put weight on those things, as far as the Master Mechanic could tell, but -
No, he had been quiet and still before he'd been told that...
"So she's healthy, then."
"Yes, quite. She seems to have many more interface ports then usual, and her wheels and body seem to be rather on the - flexible side too, but yes, she is healthy."
"So she's some kind of maybe circus car as well?" Aino Tadanori murmured, much too quietly. "She'd want to act, or sing. Sing, probably..."
Tadanori shook himself all over, then.
"Well, she's healthy, anyway. Good, then."
The Master Mechanic watched with some trepidation when the big minivan went rolling towards his daughter, who looked up at him.
"...Pretty. She's more like a Crown Sedan underneath, according to the Doctor..."
Kanae goggled a little. " ...She's going to be a luxury taxi when she grows up?"
"...Crowns Sedan aren't all taxis, you know that, Kanae. - She'd probably look good as a ad-car, though."
"I know that, and stop that already, husband. She'll probably look good in anything, but I don't want her wearing the company logo all the time, either!"
Tadanori chuckled, at that.
"Just sometimes. At the company picnic, or something like that..."
He sighed, then.
"I suppose you still want to name her Minako?"
"Yes, husband, I do."
"Well alright, alright, Minako it is, then. Minako-Minako-Minako-Minako..."
The baby Car chortled, clapping her doors.
Pluto blinked. OK, there was something off about the baby Minako's father's reactions, but...
Oh, well, she was too tired to check up on it now, that was for sure...
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(Posted Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:24)
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