87. [Text/Action for Ecruteak in the evening]

[foolishwren]

_{[The following is sent out network-wide.]}

[Text]

gonna be gone today

won't be back till late

if it's important leave a message and I'll get it later


[Note left on the bedside table in hotel room, for Harry Mason and Henry Townshend]

Gotta take care of something

Won't be at work.

See you guys later in time for dinner probably

-Heather


[ACTION]

<sub>[There's a little rec center towards the south end of Ecruteak City. Given that the town's full of old people, it doesn't see a whole lot of activity.]

[But today, someone passing by might notice a small group of Pokemon hanging out JUST inside the door-- normally Pokemon waiting for their trainer would be playing or gamboling outside in the snow, but they look unusually subdued. Butch the Quagsire and Alessa the Absol, probably recognizable to anyone who's spent a significant amount of time around Heather, are sitting in the chairs by the entrance, although they're accompanied by two new faces...]

[A babbling Wooper is cuddled up to Butch's side, and a small, purple ball of fur is nestled deep into the Absol's bristly mane, not moving aside from the occasional little shiver or reflexive squirm as Alessa lifts her head to give it a gentle nudge every so often.]

[They're Heather's Pokemon, all right-- plus two of Kaito Kuroba's, Flapper the Wooper and Biz the Aipom, and they're clearly hunkered down morosely in the front lobby of the rec center, probably waiting for Heather.]

[But... where WAS Heather?]


[Smiling.]

[At the end of the letter, he'd told her to keep smiling.]

[Well, she couldn't do that. Maybe later. Maybe in a few hours, or tomorrow. But not today. Sorry, buddy...]

[If anyone actually went into the recreation center's lobby to see why the hell Heather's Pokemon were just sitting there, waiting around, they would likely hear it-- the repeated thwak THWAK THUD of someone viciously venting their spleen on a punching bag.]

[Which is exactly what she was doing, and HAD been doing for the past god knows how many hours. She hadn't even looked outside since she'd gotten there in the morning-- for all she knew it was past dark. She didn't know and she didn't really care, either-- which actually surprised her. She'd left that note for her father and Henry specifically with the intention of guilting herself into returning when she'd told them, because hey. They'd worry.]

[That wasn't good, she knew. Getting so sucked into hitting something that she didn't even care about getting 'home' on time. That sure was a throwback to the old high school years, wasn't it.]

[But hey... she wasn't punching a wall or a tree this time.]

[That was an improvement, right...?]</sub>




[OOC: PokeGear responses will be replied to around 10:00 at night, when Heather returns home from beating the shit out of gym equipment. 8I]

Comments

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

[This is, perhaps, the smartest move the inebriated teenager has made all night.]

[His response is delayed, though, while he tries to sort out the meaning of her reaction, before just giving up.]

Uh. Sure thing.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[Yes. Yes it is.]}

anyway point is

don't underestimate me


i am an unstobbable killing machine




*unstoppable

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

You are drunk. That is what you are.

[text]

[foolishwren]

that too!!!

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

... Uh huh.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[Just be glad she's not in an actual bar right now, Ironhide. Just be glad.]}

yea its awesome

_{[Not really, but she'd rather lose herself in playing the idiot for awhile than think about everything else that's happened that day.]}

hey do you guys have anything like that

like space robot beer or somthign

wait i guess you guys dont have livers it probly wouldn work



actually i have no idea how even non-space robots work

never mind

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

We have our fuel.

Get too much in you, you get overcharged... start acting kind of like you.

[He pauses.]

Used to do that a lot, when I was younger.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[Heather's immediate response will probably make him facepalm.]}

you were younger once?!?!?



haha just kidding but man seriously?

what kinds of stuff did you do?

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

[... is that a serious question?]

[Is she being serious?]

... Normal stuff.

Normal. Young 'bot stuff.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[yes Ironhide please tell her about your teenage robot adventures]}

well jeez ironhide i am not a bot

i dont know about these things!!!

what's normal bot stuff

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

[A big chunk of Ironhide's Teenage Robot Adventures include things We Do Not Talk About.]

[Hence the long... long hesitation on his part.]

Drinking.

That kind of thing.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[There's gotta be SOME stuff that isn't Memories That Must Not be Name, though, right? As horrible as Heather's own first childhood was, she can't fathom a life without some happy memories... even Alessa had her moments.]}

didn't you have any adventures?

i mean come on space robots have got to have adventures!!

esp. if they have childhoods like humans do

or teenagerhoods

idk if theres a word for that

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

Kid, I was with the defense forces since I came online. Adventures... mostly just leaves of absence.

...

And that just meant getting overcharged drunk.

[text]

[foolishwren]

... whoa


that sounds really depressing actualy

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

Depressing?

How?

[text]

[foolishwren]

you guys dont have childhoods?

you just work from the moment you're made??

<sub>[Sorry Ironhide, Heather's big on the idea of getting to be a kid before the world starts shitting on you. :(]

[And she's all emotional tonight so this whole concept sounds sadder to her than it probably should.]</sub>

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

Eh. Not like humans. You get leeway, get instruction... time to screw around until you get taught better.

... At least you used to.

[Then the war broke out.]

[And not even that much was possible.]

[text]

[foolishwren]

that's so sad

_{[She'd been joking around a few minutes before, but apparently the next stop on tonight's Heartbroken Slightly-Inebriated Emotional Rollercoaster is 'Sad and Nostalgic']}

but i guess you can't get hurt as bad that way...

_{[Not that she thought they couldn't get hurt... but at least if you came into the world more or less built to handle bad shit, instead of having to spend awhile being utterly at the mercy of more or less EVERYTHING...]}

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

How is it sad, if it is all we know?

[Personally, his own training days are remembered fairly fondly, if not for Certain Things. He doesn't get how this is sad.]

[Her next comment though, that has him staring at the 'gear for a long minute before figuring out his response.]

... yeah. We can.

[text]

[foolishwren]

I dunno

just sad

_{[It's okay Ironhide, she's just... being weird tonight.]}


i know you can but

you can fight back right?

if someone tries

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

Is not.

[And Ironhide is just... being Ironhide.]

Sure.

But we can still be hurt. Body is not the issue. Younger you are... your processor, your spark... does not always know how best to deal with it.

How to recover.

[text]

[foolishwren]

_{[There's a long pause.]}


.... i guess that part's not so different then

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

...

No.

Optimus was right. We are not so different.

[text]

[foolishwren]

does it get easier for the spark to figure out how to deal later

_{[For the longest time she sort of figured she'd have aaaaaall this stuff worked out by the time she was this age, but HAHA NOPE.]}

[text]

[show_my_cannons]

...





Still trying to figure that out, kid.