show_my_cannons | 6 - [Video / Action for Violet]

[What's this? Oh, look, it's Ironhide. And he appears to be training two of his pokemon -- a Teddiursa and an Aron. What's he training them to do, you ask?]

[Well. They appear to be attacking a tree trunk. A tree trunk with a crude stick figure and a spiky logo carved into it. The two pokemon are taking turns practicing their attacks on the tree, while Ironhide paces behind them, barking orders, in true military fashion. His Onix is visible behind the tree, watching curiously as they work. She looks a little scuffed up -- clearly, she hasn't escaped the training regimen either.]

[Eventually, he nods, and steps back.]

Good. Enough.

[That said, Ironhide limps over to his Onix to look her over. While his back is turned, Jaws the Teddiursa looks at Egg the Aron, before growling, and pouncing on it. Egg yips, butting at Jaws, and before you know it, there's a scuffle going on as Jaws bites at Egg, and Egg retaliates in scratches and tackles. It looks as if Egg has the upper hand, with his tough armor and heavier body but... suddenly... there's a bright flash.]

[And instead of a little Teddiursa, Egg is now confronted by a very large, very angry Ursaring. The bear pokemon roars in triumph and takes a menacing step toward Egg. The little Aron squeaks, but holds his ground. And... appears to be tensing up. As if he's concentrating very hard.]

[There's a second flash. By now, Ironhide has turned around, staring in confusion at his pokemon.]

What--

[It would appear that, not to be outdone by his companion, Egg decided to evolve in a fit of pique. Scowling, Ironhide does the only thing he can do, at this point. He recalls the pokemon into their separate pokeballs, and puts a hand to his face.]

... Children. I am dealing with children. Large... animal children.

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If I knew how to, I would.

Worst things I've ever seen done to anybody were done with bare hands.

_{[The cult wasn't exactly great at child safety.]}

Hmn.

... Guess I should not talk. Optimus... always said your race was much like ours.

... Z'at so?

_{[The curiosity in her tone is obvious.]}

Yeah. It is.

... He was fond of you. Of humans.

... S'sorta funny. In most sci-fi stories, the robots are the ones who wanna destroy us.

Was he your leader?

Do not relax. Megatron and his Decepticons do want to see your race destroyed. Needless slaughter is not our way.

[He falls silent, looking down. When he speaks up, his voice is uncharacteristically quiet.]

He was.

_{[... Huh, Decepticon... that sounded familiar for some reason. But she couldn't put her finger on it.]}

Hngh. You'd think what with what we have to deal with on Earth, we'd already have ENOUGH problems without evil robots from spac-- ... Oh.

.... M'sorry.

That is... why we came. To stop them. To protect you. I will continue to do so. Even here.

[He falls silent yet again. This time, he only nods. This is a difficult subject. He... hasn't even told Cliffjumper about it.]

That's rough.

_{[... And she means on both counts. Because it's hard for her to think of a species quite so keen on destroying itself as humanity itself-- sort of a hard race to protect, if the number of times the world had almost ended in a tiny little town that hardly anybody knew about was anything to go by...]}

... But y'know... sometimes people who've... y'know, died back home... sometimes they come here.

Can be. But protection... that is my function. My purpose.

[He blinks -- looking up briefly.]

... how is that possible?

Nobody knows, but... it is.

_{[She pauses for a second, then adds--]}

If it weren't, my dad wouldn't be here.

... Your parent?

Er-- ... yeah. My father. _{[Something about the question makes her metaphorical hackles go up, but then she reminds herself that the guy's a robot, he probably doesn't get the whole mom-and-dad thing.]}

[He's quiet again.]

...

Good. Good for you.

[And he means that.]

... Thanks.

_{[And then, a laugh that borders a little on the sheepish side.]}

I'm one of the lucky ones.

_{[Most of her friends here had lost at least one parent... if not both. And a lot of them were still waiting, perhaps futilely, for theirs to show up.]}

Lucky?

Not common to get someone from home here?

Well, it's... a lot more common than you'd think it would be, but at the same time... there's plenty of people who don't.

... Still, if... Dad could show up here... anybody could.

_{[He'd only been DEAD for a whole year before she came to Johto...]}

[You can probably see the gears turning in his head, listening to this.]

[... And then? He shakes his head. But there is a very slight little smile there.]

Hard to argue with that.

_{[She smiles back-- albeit more crookedly.]}

For the longest I figured nothing like that could happen, but hey.

I've stopped expecting this place to make sense.

[He snorts -- an honest-to-God snort.]

Yeah. Wake up human... weird things should be more expected.

_{[The grin gets toothier.]}

Oh, believe me... I always expect weird things.

_{[As crazy as Johto got sometimes, it had yet to top Heather's hometown in terms of all-out, balls-to-the-wall freakiness.]}

Guess you are well-suited to this place, hmn?

[Is that a joke? Oh my God that is a joke.]

_{[DOES THIS SITUATION CALL FOR A WIDE-EYED LOOK OF WONDER?]}

Guess I must be.

So robots DO have a sense of humor, huh? Who'da thunk.

[YES. IT DOES.]

When the situation calls for it, yeah.

Well, that's good to know.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all that.

_{[... Heather the fact that he has a sense of humor after all does not mean he will understand your dumb references.]}

[Video]

show_my_cannons - 2011-06-14 08:48 (UTC) - Expand

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