[open] Salvage and squeeing on the shore

[birdlady]

Who: EVERYBODY IT'S A LAKE PARTY
What: Clean-up! Chao rescue service! Other stuff! Open log!
Where: The lake
When: March 9-15
Warnings: Let's hope the lake Gyarados isn't pissed off about the spaceship that landed in its house...

Just as she said, Melia was at the shore of the lake in the early afternoon, already directing her bodyguards around the scattered, remaining pieces of the Egg Carrier littering the ground. What she really wanted to do, though, was find those Chao. It was a bit selfish of her, she thought, to be more concerned about finding the cute critters than cleaning up the lake, but she did have a good reason. She had to make sure they were all right in the aftermath.

And she wanted to pet one. Or all of them.

((This is a catch-all 'do stuff at the lake' log! Go nuts!))

Comments

[powersuit_aran]

Samus was (un)conveniently on a sudden space mission to account for her absence on a mission what she would have otherwise been more than eager to join in on. Not many people liked Eggman and she was one of them. Still, riffling through the wreckage and helping to clean up the Chao's sanctuary was the best consolation she could offer in spite of that. Much like the shattered ship she was still parsing through details of what happened exactly, and it was all anyone could do other than to move forward.

That, and, just maybe there may have been something useful in all this crap. Hajime was notably not the only "robot" on the scene, if Samus could count for that much. Her suit was bio-mechanical, something akin to a second skin. Electronics and hardware thrummed with the beat of her heart as one entity. With it she was able to easily venture deep deep into the lake and drag out entire pieces of hull, covered in pondweed and sediment. Visibility was sort of limited and frankly, she didn't think she'd be in anyone's way enough to turn on any of her thermal visors. Her mistake, probably. His for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When she breached the shoreline right in front of Hajime she at least had enough sense to stop the second her big metal boot touched something that wasn't dry land.

"..."

[inspirethewires]

You'd think, with all this fancy new tech, they could aid in reflex response time. They probably could, even, if Hajime had been really paying proper attention to his surroundings, but alas, it was not to be.

The robotic figure emerging from the lake was familiar in that We've-Both-Been-Here-Long-Enough-To-Have-Seen-Each-Other way, but Hajime realized in that moment, with some bewilderment and mostly distress, that he had not a name, action, or even basic acknowledgement to associate with it. Given his track record with the inorganic students and staff around here, it was an anomaly. With a better look from close up, there was definitely something off that he couldn't quite place.

At that point, he pulled himself out of his gormless staring, belatedly staggering out of its way.

"Sorry--didn't mean to--you've got a lot on your hands, obvi... uh, do you need help, you, you look like you've got it but I thought I'd... I'll, I'll just get out of your way."

[powersuit_aran]

Definitely at least We've-Both-Been-Here-Long-Enough-To-Have-Seen-Each-Other way, say nothing for the very old news reports from 2011 before his time and/or perhaps begrudged student accounts of one mysterious entity Justin Bailey that persisted in spite of that.

She didn't quite know it was Hajime yet.

"It's fine." She waited patiently until he was well and safe out of her and this giant scrap piece's way before trudging on.

"If you see anything of use, take it." She would be a good sport about her findings. This robot kid probably would put more use of it than she would. Living with Falcon and his financial luxuries admittedly made her slightly more picky about the quality of mech and tech she chose to work with now in her personal projects and hobbies.

Not that she still didn't like to procure it herself.

[inspirethewires]

"Oh--oh. No, I'd... rather not see any of this stuff again."

The thought startled him, actually, that people could make use of the remains. He really ought to have thought of it as the only logical solution, but a bitter part of him wished it would all rust away where he could never see it again.

"I... I guess any use you've got for it would be better than what it was before." In spite of himself, he couldn't keep the apprehension out of his voice. "There's too many resources here to let go to waste." So long as he kept reminding himself of the logical, mature option, he could probably keep from getting too distraught.

[powersuit_aran]

Again.

Unfortunately for him, her attention is duly interested elsewhere now. Even though her eyes are hidden under the opaque green of her visor, her stare is hard and focused.

"You were on the carrier..."

[inspirethewires]

"Y-yes... I sort of... set it off, as it were..."

Even if he couldn't detect any expression under the helmet or see any eyes, the vagueness of the undetectable face might have unnerved him just as much. Was he under close scrutiny? Was he only being humored? He was poor enough figuring these things out as it was.

[powersuit_aran]

She broke 'eye contact' mercifully, if only to consider humoring her own curiosity. Maybe he was one of Eggman's robotic peons. Sure as hell wasn't acting like it, however, especially not with a statement like that. Maybe this was was literally Eggman's Worst Peon Ever and accidentally destroyed his precious carrier.

"Congratulations." She finally said and finished hauling some of the scrap on shore. She hefted it over her big round shoulder and let it hit the ground with a heavy thud. "You made one hell of a mess." She didn't sound terribly offended despite that, despite the natural dry curtness in her tone.

[inspirethewires]

A low, suppressed groan creaked out of his speakers. "I know... I never meant to, but... Here it is. What a legacy. I can graduate Most Likely To Drag People Into His Messes."

This wasn't a robot, he put together. Not fully. He could catch glimmers of will, but nothing enough to identify. Underneath, someone was surely rolling their eyes at him. "Sorry--I hope you find something good, at least."

[powersuit_aran]

That inferred he was a student, but he was certainly no student she recognized, even though We've-Both-Been-Here-Long-Enough-To-Have-Seen-Each-Other glimpses. She started thinking of that inference along with the other implications and wondered if this wasn't quite one of Eggman's peons. Given what Eggman was capable of... a small sense of dread crept into her thoughts.

She swung her leg over an open part of the scrap metal and takes a seat, legs splayed, one arm resting on her thigh and the other akimbo on her hip. It was a fairly masculine pose to go alone with a fairly muffled, vaguely feminine voice.

"I don't really recognize you but your words carry more weight than they should." The weight of someone guilty, the weight of someone once human, the weight of something that had a consciousness. She'll just come right out and ask it, "...Were you roboticized?"

[inspirethewires]

"Oh..."

He fell silent a moment. Maybe he'd forgotten exactly how different he looked, or maybe his ego had made him think everyone already knew what happened. Some half-recognized figure shouldn't be expected to identify him so easily, anyway. It was nothing to be surprised or upset over. It was fine. To be expected.

"Yes, that's right." He bowed, feeling awfully awkward and stiff before such a intent and splayed out pose. "My apologies. I ought to have introduced myself before. My name is Hajime Tanaka."