The Mech Touch

Weeks passed by. Every day, hundreds of applicants acquired a compound name. Each of them found a Larkinson to endorse their entry in the Larkinson Clan. After passing the review and successfully swearing the oath while touching the foot of a Bright Warrior mech, they became a new addition to the clan roster!

Ves didn't have to call up the list from his terminal to keep track of the clan's explosive growth. His bond with the Golden Cat allowed him to inspect the spiritual network as it changed before his spiritual senses!

A steady amount of new connections expanded the size and scope of the Larkinson Network as he began to call it. More and more, the Golden Cat became occupied with forming all of the new bonds.

He worried that the ancestral spirit would quickly exhaust herself, but his fears turned out to be unfounded.

Though Goldie always had to expend a bit of energy to form a bond, she received an increasing amount of spiritual feedback as the network grew larger! She was able to continuously invest her new-gained spiritual energy into forming more bonds, which soon paid back her initial investment in the form of spiritual feedback!

Of course, this cycle wasn't completely profitable. She slowly had to dip into more and more of her reserves, especially when the new applicant wasn't as aligned to the Larkinson Clan as the most dedicated newcomers such as Joshua Larkinson!

The addition of so many new people not only increased Goldie's strength, but also affected her character!

Every adopted Larkinson brought something different to the table. Their diverse origins directly exposed the Golden Cat to different values, principles and perspectives on life.

Ves noted that Goldie had become a little more introspective in the days to come. He checked on her every day in order to monitor her evolution. If she ever developed into a direction that caused her to shed her Larkinson identity, then he would immediately put a stop to the adoption rituals!

Fortunately, the Golden Cat managed to endure remarkably well. With Qilanxo's guidance, she found a way to accept the new influences without allowing them to overpower her core Larkinson traits.

As an experienced sacred god who enjoyed the worship of humans for centuries, Qilanxo was a veritable authority when it came to managing spiritual feedback!

Fortunately for Ves, his suggestion to utilize the Bright Warriors as the totems for the adoption ritual worked out for the clan. As long as the new applicants touched the surface of one of the mechs, the Golden Cat gained enough proximity to form her connections!

In fact, this newly-discovered purpose of his Bright Warriors also led to an unanticipated side effect.

The True Believers started to worship the Bright Warriors! They treated the mechs just like their altars and started to prostrate and pray to the mechs!

To many Brighters, this newly-developed custom from their more religious-minded clansmen was highly disturbing!

Ves received a hail of complaints from his trueblood relatives. He sympathised with their views, but it wasn't as if he could order the True Believers to stop their current practice!

"What do you think those fanatics will do if I ban the worship of our mechs?" He responded to Gavin. "They'll just worship the mechs in secret or come up with something worse! The former Ylvainans aren't harming anyone by kneeling in front of the mechs in prayer. As long as they don't get in the way of the mech technicians servicing the machines, just let them do whatever makes them happy."

"Your trueblood relatives won't like that, boss. Of all of the new groups joining the clan, the Ylvainan-born members are the most problematic of the lot! This strange ritual is just one of the sources of tension between them and the rest of the clan."

"If our clan can't even handle this problem, then how is it supposed to navigate a diverse and varied galaxy?" Ves shook his head. "If you ask me, then I prefer to keep my clan secular, but we can't always get what we want. People are going to believe in something regardless of what we want. Right now, the followers of the Living Prophet have become an inseparable part of our fleet. Accommodating their needs to an extent is not that bad as long as we make sure they are reciprocating towards us. There's no point in joining our clan if they aren't willing to adopt our ways!"

With the Golden Cat watching over them, Ves wasn't too worried about this problem. The True Believers were already fanatical towards him in his guise as the Bright Martyr to begin with, and James was astute enough to instruct his followers to integrate smoothly into the clan.

In fact.. His recent instructions to switch their worship seemed oddly prescient!

"Goddamn charlatan." Ves cursed under his breath.

There was another reason why he did not bother to rein in the True Believers. When Ves observed their actions, he noticed that the Golden Cat actually benefited from their practice!

Worship didn't do anything to a mech designer such as Ves, but it was different to a spiritual entity like the Golden Cat!

While Ves wasn't entirely sure why the Golden Cat preferred active worship, he didn't want to interrupt a beneficial process.

What Ves worried the most about the True Believers was that their loyalties would remain with the Living Prophet instead of the Larkinson Clan. Turning their worship to him and the Golden Cat was a lot more reassuring, especially if it persisted for decades! By then, no one would remember their old practice of worshipping the Living Prophet!

Of course, Ves wasn't naive enough to believe that James would fade into obscurity. The clone had seemingly struck a partnership with Calabast. The successful enactment of their proposal was probably just the first of many successes!

A lot of other changes ensued during the mass adoption events. The Larkinson Assembly passed a range of proposals to meet the emerging needs of a clan that was ballooning in size!

"The Executive Council wants a new uniform." Gavin passed on during another daily briefing. "There are so many new Larkinsons that it's more important than ever to foster greater cohesion. If everyone wears the same outfits, it becomes a lot easier to create a sense of unity."

The Larkinson Family never adopted a uniform. It never needed it, but the needs of the clan were very different. Ves immediately recognized the benefits of this proposal.

"What are they suggesting?"

"For ordinary clan functions, they want to adopt a clean and simple look that is similar to the uniforms of the Mech Corps. Those uniforms are something that most trueblood Larkinsons are familiar with. They think it would be nice to pay homage to their heritage as loyal defenders of the Bright Republic."

Ves frowned. His opinion towards his former home state wasn't very good these days! It disappointed him that his fellow Larkinsons still clung to their sentiment to a state that was as good as doomed in the hands of the Friday Coalition!

"Have they come up with a design?"

"Here." Gavin projected a couple of outfits worn by generic human models. "The standard color scheme is red-and-white. The lines are inspired by the designs of some of the uniforms of the mech regiments the Larkinsons used to serve with. The uniform designers added a bit of their own touches as well. The extra stripes adds a bit of sophistication while the clan emblem placed in the back reinforces our common identity."

Ves inspected the design. His assistant wasn't kidding when he said the uniform looked clean! It lacked the flourishes he expected and its overall color distribution was very geometric.

However, it was exactly these kinds of uniforms that always withstood the test of time. Chasing after current trends or trying to implement anything too specific would only look gauche or outdated after a few generations.

Overall, Ves felt he could live with the uniform. "It looks fine. What about the other uniforms?"

"They are the modified uniforms for the Avatars, Sentinels and other organizations that fall under our umbrella. They retain the same layout, the clan emblem on the rear and the white accents. Instead, the principal color shifts according to the specific organization."

For example, the uniform of the Avatar of Myth adopted a bright yellow shade as its primary color while the Living Sentinels adopted a less ostentatious light grey shade.

Though the shift in principal colors resulted in different impressions, the common layouts made it clear that they all shared a common origin!

While the Avatars and Sentinels still wore the emblems of the Vitruvian Mech and Silver Caduceus on their chests, they all wore the emblem of the Golden Cat on their backs!

Ves liked this detail! His inner cat person rocked with glee when he imagined this emblem on every clan member's back!

Of course, the dog persons in his clan probably thought differently, but Ves didn't care.

Every organization generated their own variation of the standard Larkinson Clan uniform. So far, only the Black Cats veered from the standard by sticking to their muted black-and-grey color scheme. While Calabast's pet organization did adopt the new layout, even there they deviated a bit by darkening the emblem on the back!

Though Ves understood the intent behind this deviation, he felt a bit offended at the affront to the Golden Cat. It was as if Calabast was sending a message that her Black Cats operated according to her own whims!

Still, aside from this exception, the other uniforms looked fine to him. He knew that once everyone started wearing these uniforms, the Larkinsons would feel more united than ever!

To Ves, this was a good way to counteract some of the friction between the old guard and the new guard!

He waved aside the projections. "Please tell the Executive Council that I approve of their choices. Let's complete the transition to the new uniforms before we reach the Sentinel Kingdom. I want our Larkinson Clan presents the strongest unified front when we meet with the Larkinson Family."

"Got it. There is plenty of time to complete the transition. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah. Make sure to add the uniforms to my wardrobe as well."

"I'll prioritize it right away."

As the clan started synthesizing the new uniforms before issuing them to everyone, the expansion of the clan continued.

While the applicants on other ships made their oaths through the use of the Bright Warriors, the people on the Scarlet Rose were different.

Ves personally administered the oaths with the Larkinson Mandate. A lot of Kinners and Brighters joined the spiritual network, much to his delight. He was a lot more assured of their loyalties now that they came under the supervision of the Golden Cat!

Surprisingly, when it was time for Gavin to swear his loyalty, the Golden Cat instantly accepted his pledge and formed a connection!

Ves blinked as he withdrew the Larkinson Mandate. "I didn't expect that to work. Are you sure you're a qualified Benny?"

"Boss! I already told you! My name is Gavin, not Benny!" The latest Larkinson protested! "I know I made a mistake, but that was in the past! I'm better now! You can trust me now that I am family!"

"I'm not so sure about that."

Privately, Ves believed the Golden Cat was still fallible! Even she could overlook some issues! Trusting Gavin just because he successfully passed this test was not the end of the story!

As the Larkinson Clan soon reached 10,000 members, an increasing sense of optimism settled over the fleet!

Though plenty of integration issues popped up left and right, the overwhelming sense that the Larkinson Clan was on the rise made everything more manageable!

The ubiquity of the Larkinson Clan emblem on everyone's backs began to foster a new custom.

The Larkinson Clan gradually became known as the Clan of the Golden Cat.