victory_road | THICK AS THIEVULS

He doesn't get to to enjoy the sensation of not hurting for very long, because that scream has him scrambling up and out of the room and yanking her door open.

And nearly off its hinges. It creaks alarmingly, the door frame cracking a little. After almost a month without it, he just about forgot the strength the serum gives him. And the damage inside from that much strength starts to heal almost instantly, so that there's a burn but it almost immediately subsides. Ignorable.

The Soldier gets two steps inside before stopping and staring a little. "Entrapta??" Hey look at that, it's actual clear-as-day tone to his voice, and that tone is alarmed. Jeanie and the as-yet-unnamed Staravia poke their heads in after him and also stare a little, while Grace just walks in and rears up on her hind legs to get at Nancy.

Edited (redundancy) 2020-06-26 18:01 (UTC)

Leslie makes grabby hands at Grace, and the vine of hair holding him lowers and releases him very delicately onto Grace's back, where the poor Impidimp buries his face in her poof.

The rest of her hair, however, launches Entrapta forward at Winter and stops her face only a few inches short of his own, and she is beaming. "Winter look, my hair's back!" She pulls back, laughing almost maniacally as she hugs herself tightly with both arms and spins on the spot, wrapping herself in hair like a braid until she's snug and tight in a cocoon of her own making. Then it all whips outwards again until her ponytails are thick and firm, using them as feet to lift her form and put her head at about Winter's height, if not slightly taller. "Isn't this amazing? OH!!"

And she lunges towards him again, her hands taking his robot hand delicately in her own while tendrils rush around her and start poking and playing with the plates even as she rambles, "And now we can get your arm back in working order! With my hair back and some new tools we'll be able to restore your arm to full functionality and then even improve it so you never have to feel pain from it again!!"

Uh-uh, nope, absolutely not. He steps back, expression flickering with alarm briefly. "Entrapta. It's attached to my skeleton. You'd probably kill me." Well. With his serum back she might not, but she's an engineer, not a-- not a-- look, she doesn't do biology, he's pretty sure.

And he doesn't think he can let anyone cut into him again. Not again. Not even her.

Grace nuzzles at Leslie reassuringly, padding back to the Soldier's side, then looks up at Entrapta with no more alarm than she did before. Apparently not much phases her. "Absol," she says, maybe a hair quellingly.

She doesn't initially react when Winter pulls away from her, apart from her hair retreating and wrap back into itself once more. Instead she folds her legs, and lowers herself down on her hair as it bunches under her to form a seat, and sticks her hands as usual in her lap.

"I wouldn't kill you," she says, with a tilt of her head - and two thick tendrils, vaguely hand-shaped, come out of the thickets and wave in the air in what is probably meant to be a reassuring motion. "With my robotics expertise, the very worst I could do is cause a great deal of pain!"

...it takes a moment for realisation to hit, and her hair-hands lower. "Oh, but that's not ideal either, I don't want to hurt you." That feels like something she should definitely clarify. "Okay. I can understand why you're scared of me right now."

But then she rocks back into a lean and grins brightly again. "That's okay! I have sooooo much other science I can focus on!" One hair-hand folds across her chest, propping the other up on its non-existent elbow as it cradles her chin thoughtfully. "I just need to get some tools first, that's all." And both hairnds bunch into excited fists. "And a recorder, a proper audio ones for my logs!"

(Her real hands stay very comfortably still in her lap. It's easy to see she's getting back into her old hair habits very quickly.)

Jeanie, the shy Espurr, inches further in to poke at the hair-seat, apparently fascinated. Grace keeps an eye out, but doesn't interfere.

The Soldier relaxes a little when she's not grabbing for him and getting distracted from the arm. Maybe someday he'll let her make some upgrades-- the insulated wiring probably is a good idea-- but that day is not today. Not when she's this worked up. He'd much rather she be calm, or her version of calm, if she's going to do any work.

"What other science?" he asks, a little warily. Then, because 1) it might give her a minute to cool down, and 2) he is a mother-hen, he adds, "You should eat breakfast first. Then see about tools and other science."

Two vines of hair come down and very nicely pick Jeanie up, one under each armpit, and deposit her in Entrapta's lap facing Winter. Entrapta's hands make no motion to pat her, but one of the tendrils lingers to rub behind the Espurr's ears.

"I've been wanting to examine one of the warp pads properly for ages!" She even uses two tendrils to make a large demonstrative circle over her head. This isn't news to Winter - she almost got them kicked out of their first Pokemon Center over the warp. "Or a Pokeball, I could crack one of those open" - the same tendrils overhead mimic the motion, like twisting a lid off a jar - "and examine its insides! Oh, or I could make one of Egon's ghost machines with my improvements!!" That one gets several strands flapping outwards in an explosive motion as she laughs gleefully again.

Oh, that's an interesting idea. "If you can work out how the pokeballs work. That would be good," he suggests. He's still kind of uncertain about them, even if occasionally one of the pokemon will actually request to go inside one. After all, he went willingly to the goddamn Chair, in the end.

Jeanie continues to pat at the hair, as if trying to figure out how it works, but doesn't move from her new seat. She's a shy one, in general, but Entrapta is on the Safe list, given they've spent enough time on the road together.

Entrapta looks down at Jeanie and grins, and does bring her hands up then to take Jeanie's little paws in her own, gently wiggling them like a doll with a wide grin.

"Oh, the Pokeballs are just a portable holograph-based storage system, where the occupants retain consciousness during the transition process from physical to data-based formats. It's entirely harmless to the occupants, and I'm lead to believe that it holds the body in relative statis - the Pokemon is aware of its external settings, but unless it received discomfort from an outside source, such as a status condition, then it shouldn't be harmed in any way by being contained." Her thick hairnds shrug expansively. "But I'd like to study the technology for myself, and see if I can find a way to apply it to non-organic, non-living specimens. Just imagine how convenient it would be to be able to put entire shipping crates, full of weapons, into something as small and easily portable as a Pokeball!"

Jeanie retaliates by reaching for the hair again, and a scolding little, "Espurr," at the attempt at derailing her curiosity.

The Soldier just frowns at her, giving a little shiver all over at the word "stasis", but suppressing the worst of it. "How did you work all that out?" Because nobody's been able to tell him how they work, and that's... pretty comprehensive. He's not sure whether they bother him more or less, now. "And why didn't you tell me you knew, before?"

"Observation and minor experimentation, mostly," she answers cheerfully. "It's the primary reason why I take so long using the computers at Pokemon Centers!"

At least it's better than her dismantling them?

She tilts her head sideways. "And I didn't know before. This is the result of weeks of data collection and daily observation, as well as interviews with my Pokemon for their opinions on the matter." They're the ones inside the Pokeballs, after all, their experiences were the most invaluable. "Surely you've noticed how our Pokemon don't level up unless we take them out of their balls."

She picks up Jeanie and her hair shifts, so now Entrapta is lying down on a thick bed of her hair with Jeanie placed into a little hammock in front of her, talking all the while. "I have a history with studying holographic projectors, as well as portal technology and while I can't quite seem to work out exactly how this universe does it there are definitely elements of both involved!"

Frankly, he hasn't been paying a whole lot of attention to... leveling up. He brings those pokemon who actually ask for time to sleep in their pokeballs (or those who he has to "put to bed" because he's too exhausted to deal with their energy, himself) out for some play and food and petting each day mostly to make sure they get some nurturing and affection in, and hasn't even checked their levels most of the time. He blinks at the mention of it, in fact, glancing over at Staravia as if in surprise.

"Okay. Thank you for telling me now. I guess that won't be. A thing you're that interested in looking into now. Since you already know." Which is too bad. That would be something safe to take apart, probably, that wouldn't explode on her or potentially get her into trouble.

Jeanie seems a little more content now that she's not being stopped from examining the hair up close, running her paws through it and trying to curl a strand of it into a new shape, if Entrapta will let her.

Edited (I always forget one of the pets) 2020-07-02 05:42 (UTC)

The hammock responds to Jeanie's touching it, but mostly it just makes the curled strands immediately braid themselves back into the fold once released.

"Oh, no, this is all just surface-level observation. I still wanna break one open and see how it functions for myself so I can modify it for my personal study!" Her eyes are shining again. "But the portal technology this world is capable of is way more interesting! Imagine if we could increase the power and range on it to be able to use it as a portal to other dimensions!"

Maybe more interesting, but also more likely to get her into trouble. And hurt, probably. But at the same time....

"Like to get you home," he says slowly. He knows what "other dimensions" means in this case. And he's got mixed feelings about it, pretty clearly.

Jeanie looks up from her examination of the hair hammock to chirp at him. "Espurr?"

Edited 2020-07-04 21:10 (UTC)

"Oh, I don't want to go home yet!" She grins at him. "And I assume that you don't want to either, based on what you've told me about your world so far. But having the option for people who'd like to would be good, don't you think?"

That doesn't entirely make the uncertainty go away, but at least it helps him put it aside for now. "Going back would be stupid. For me. There's people there who'd love to put me back to work." He doesn't quite say he doesn't want to, but it's probably pretty clear that he doesn't want to. He also doesn't say he doesn't want her to go, because even if he was comfortable with stating things he wants, that's not his decision.

Her point stands, though. "But if other people want to. Yes. They probably won't like you messing with their portals, though."

"Hordak didn't like me messing with his portals, either, until he realised I was able to help him with his research and provide him with the tools and experience necessary to expedite his progress." She tilts her head and grins. "So maybe they'll appreciate it here too, once they see my results!"

The Soldier isn't going to hold his breath for that, but her optimism remains, as always, pretty cute. "Maybe breakfast first," he suggests, as Jeanie climbs carefully down from the hair-hammock, onto Entrapta's stomach first, then the bed, then the floor to toddle back to her person. "And then you have to find tools. Then we'll see about the portal."

She gives a huge gasp. "Ohhh, tools! Right! I'll grab some right now, be right back!!"

Her hair lowers her to the floor - and then all of it whips backwards towards the window; some of the strands are already pushing it up as she yanks herself backwards and out the window, immediately dropping out of sight.

And then reappearing a moment later. "Let's go, Leslie!" And another tendril whips back inside, wrapping firmly around the Impidimp's waist - it has enough time to give a surprised squeak before he's quickly yanked outside as well.

"Absol," Grace says to Leslie, sounding both apologetic and a little bit wryly amused. Good luck with her, friend.

"Don't forget about breakfast!" the Soldier calls after them both, wrestling a moment with the urge to just follow her, make sure she remembers to pay for the tools, make sure she doesn't just run off without eating or without backup, make sure there's someone to bail her out of the Jennies decide to lock her up.

"Espurr," Jeanie suggests, reaching up to take his metal finger in one tiny paw.

"You're right," he says after a moment. "We'll give her a little bit. She's a grown person. Surely she'll remember." But then he'll go after her, if (when) she doesn't turn up for food.

THICK AS THIEVULS

Good morning!

Getting names wrong is my punishment for 2am toplevels

I have no such excuse, I didn't even catch it :P

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject