[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

IT'S CUTE ALL THE WAY DOWN

[birdlady]

She found them.

She heard them first. Little chirps that sounded like a baby talking. At first she was worried there was an actual child out here, alone, but her fears were abated when she came across the little blue creatures with their tiny little wings and stubby little feet and oh my gosh they really do have pompoms above their heads.

They were too cute. Melia didn't know what to do with herself. Aside from stand there and make a low squeeeeeeeee noise.

fifty bundles of chao on the wall, fifty bundles of chao...

[alouest]

SCENE A: 9th-15th, any time. Generally, Clear kept to his duty of groundskeeping, the lake just within perimeters of his work area. He had a job to uphold, that of keeping the vicinity clean and safe for inhabitants human and animal alike. What he couldn't fathom was the littering remains of— of something all over the ground. What was all of this, and why was it here? Was this just a normal occurrence? Boy, this place sure was strange. He worked tirelessly to remove parts big and small, even lifting carrier components over his shoulder that seemed way too huge for a man his size to manage hauling. Was he some kind of super human?

SCENE B: 9th-15th, night time. Dutiful as he was, however, he couldn't resist the frankly adorable creatures bobbing around the lake, prancing with fruits and play-things in hand, from little sticks to soda cans from litterers. ( Not that he was going to let them play with those, of course... ) They were absolutely precious! Didn't that one post on the network say that they were something called 'Chao'? Clear took a well-deserved break and sat among the darlings, watching as just one or two began to approach curiously. As he showed them love and cooed sweet nothings their way, however, more and more thought it best to join them, and soon enough, the android was amassed in many of them. He was in heaven, buried in a pile of cute Chao, petting them, loving them, and most of all, gushing over how precious they were.

SCENE C: 15th, night time. The effort seemed to be paying off. Between his own work and the teamwork of all others, the lake area was becoming pristine once again. The Chao were in peace, as was he. While on break in the wee hours of the night, he found tranquility in his newfound solitude here, the tender whisk of water and rustling of trees welcoming him into nature's sweet embrace. This, Clear believed, was paradise. And so, he sang. He sang his little heart out like the songbirds in their perches. Hands to his chest and eyes fluttered shut, he gave the Chao and wildlife a bit of a show, scaring some, captivating others. Of note was one of the little blue Chao laying in his lap, sleeping as his melody swelled through the moonlit expanse.

[( please list which scene you're responding to in your post title! thank you! )]

All of the days

[mohawk_tomahawk]

Connor remembered these creatures, he had seen them when he was newer in this town. Now that he was here for now more than two, Connor had actually wondered where these had been. On the Egg Carrier, no doubt, or so he figured.

This was his favorite spot, where he could be alone with his thoughts. Where he felt like he was most in his own habitat. Now it was littered with the dirty pieces of Eggman's filthy machine. Since he had responsibility for this, and because it was his job naturally, he was here cleaning up the lake of parts.

Come to think, he was surprised there were other people here. Some merely took care of the Chao, others cleaned. Most did both things. Even Connor himself was seen with the Chao sometimes. In all of the days, he was either very meticulous about the cleaning, rescuing or reassuring Chao, or even cleaning with one or more Chao hanging out on his broad shoulders; and he was perfectly okay with that.

You decide what you saw.

[alouest]

What Clear saw was something related, but quite a bit... different. Among cleaning efforts and teamwork from facility and students alike across the board did something stand out, marked aqua against tender browns. With a jolt from his spot — attempting to carry off a buried hunk of aluminum, natch — he'd stopped the figure with urgency.

"Ah, sir, watch out!" He pointed right for his back, where one little creature, its mood sphere shaped into a pleased heart, clung to his clothing. There was no telling if it was going to let go, like... ever.

"On your back! The Chao-san is on your back!" It was drooling all over his top. Gross.

[mohawk_tomahawk]

This was probably the twentieth Chao who decided to latch on to him as he worked today. His ears perked when he realized someone was yelling at him. It was the strange man over yonder, one who was kind enough to help. Hello, there, and yeah he noticed the Chao hanging out on his back. To which Connor calmly responded by holding his hand up.

"It is fine," Connor said. "It is not doing anything wrong."

He was so chill about them hanging around.

[alouest]

"Eh? Really?" He was okay with that? Granted, he agreed — he's had Chao hanging off of him day in and day out — but he hadn't the idea that everyone else took so kindly to them. In a way, it had all worked out, even in the midst of Clear's brief moment of panic.

"Well, then! That is very good! Yes, very good!" An enthusiastic clap of his hands later, he added, "Though, I don't know if it will be easy to clean with him on your back or not. We must be careful not to hurt the Chao-san!"

Insistently, Clear began to peer over in front of him, seeking any scattered debris. "Please don't worry, sir. I will help you!"

All days...

[mach_n_roll]

Clean up duty was a decidedly uncool job, and Sonic never took part in it. It was the principle of the thing, y'see.

He WAS, however, working to give a hand in taking care of the Chao.

He developed a soft spot for the little water-drop dudes years ago, even raising a couple of his own. He was happy to bring in since extra nuts and fruit for them, and every day of the week he can be found by the lake at one time or another, with one of the pale fluttery things in his arms, just toting it around, even though the Chao was almost half his size.

[voltecpower]

Pulse really didn't see any reason in bothering Sonic about helping to clean up; after all, look at those tiny little arms. Pulse figured he wouldn't be very much help himself if he had such itty bitty skinny little noodle arms like that.

However, it appeared that Sonic was fairly familiar with those strange blue things that were walking about everywhere and occasionally flying through the air and making weird mumbling noises.

When Pulse found time to take a short break from working on his scrap pile, he sought out the blue hedgehog, gesturing inquisitively toward the creature he was carrying around.

"What is that?"

[mach_n_roll]

"Oh hey, Pulse!" Sonic replies, turning about with the critter in his arms. "What, this? This is a Chao!"

He hefts the gelid toddler in his arms. It waves.

"Cute little guy, huh? I only saw them in my world until now, but it turns out there's a whole community of 'em here by the lake!"

[punchtheflute]

Scenario 1!

Sonny, as a Snorlax, was quite a hefty creature. He was able to wade in deep and carry heavy items. Picking the stuff up on shore might be a good thing for Humans and other less stout creatures, but Sonny felt that he could contribute a lot by sloshing in deep and picking up girders and steel plates and un-exploded artillery shells and carrying them to be disposed of.

Want to slosh around in the water with him? Be his guest!

Scenario 2!

Chao were pretty adorable, yes. He'd spent some time with them before - he loved napping by the lakseside in summer time. But he was happy to give the rattled creatures a little extra attention right now. You could find him as either a man or a Pokémon, playing with, feeding and petting the little buggers.

[voltecpower]

He could have been inside, he could have been spending this nice warm day in moderately-cool cyberspace checking for any new malware or hack attempts on the network that might have occurred that one night he didn't have his eye on it. But Riche would have kicked his butt if she had known he wasn't helping to clean up the huge mess he helped make. After all, he did help salvage a good bit of the technology from when his main adversary's base went up in flames... even if his only reason was to make sure some other cyberterrorist organization didn't get it first. It was probably a good idea to try to accomplish the same with Eggman's tech, what all he could discern from the rest of the wreckage.

Whyyy did it have to go down in a big watery lake of all places?

Pulse stayed near the edge of the lake, grabbing whatever pieces of the former Carrier he was able to lift or drag, and giving each one a good look-over before depositing it in a pile he was steadily building several feet from the shore, all the while doing his very best to keep from getting wet. It appeared that anything resembling motherboards or chipsets were already decimated beyond repair, but it didn't hurt to check.

Eventually he would notice the small blue creatures floating around on their tiny wings, watching him as he worked. Pulse was used to being stared at, but every now and then he couldn't help but stare right back... what were those things?

[awakeningwill]

For all the activity around the lake, Zero had added it to his patrols, just in case anyone dragged out something dangerous. He couldn't help but notice, however, that Pulse was doing his best to collect the remnants of Eggman's machines while staying completely out of the water at all times. This was the kid with the impressive electric attacks, wasn't it? It was a little surprising that someone with that much power could also have such a large vulnerability, if that was the case.

Zero watched him for a while, studying him from afar. But eventually, his curiosity pushed him to approach the student. "Need some help?"

[voltecpower]

Pulse's hand immediately snapped up in salute when he spotted Zero. "Sir!"

His other hand was clutching what he figured was probably part of the casing for one of the Carrier's engines, though he didn't have enough experience with engines in general to be able to tell for sure. Either way, he didn't remember seeing anything like it when he was in the lab. He held the large metal plate at one end, standing it up.

"Ah, help, sir?"

He glanced over at his scrap pile. He had thought he was processing it all at a fairly reasonable pace, as efficiently as he could.

"...I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean."

[thishereismonapizza]

Mona appeared her particularly cheerful self despite being covered from head to toe in mud, dirt, and whatever muck came off the airship debris. Getting down and dirty in the cleanup efforts beat sitting around bored out of her skull inside the academy all day. Call it a sense of adventure and a nostalgia trip to the days when rooting around in musty temples were her ideas of fun. Which still were to a degree. Man, those were good times!

Mona kept to the shoreline of the lake and focused her energies on the smaller debris she physically could handle, yet after some time it proved quite a taxing labor. Being an ordinary human had it's drawbacks with average strength, but with the right set of tools to hand, Mona turned the negativity into a positive solution. Using her Mona Cycle and a couple of long, sturdy ropes Mona created an efficient way to move the pieces of smaller wreckage without resorting to injury or strain on her body. Tying pieces on one end of the ropes and dragging them along the ground to designated piles would produce clean up production by tend fold.

...Or so the plan had made sense at the time to Mona when she thought of it.

Mona had not accounted on Chao to be hindering her work ethic. The blue critters were on her like a pile of flies at a picnic. Scratch that, the Chao were more like annoying blue ants by climbing up onto her lap for a snuggle to hitching a ride on the bundle of junk being pulled behind her vehicle. How was she suppose to get any work done when these things were constantly begging for her attention and generally getting in the way! What was she, a babysitter?

Those who happened to be in the vicinity could find Mona picking bothersome Chao off her vespa every now and then, with more climbing right back on the moment she removed them. Somebody come take these things off Mona's hands so she can get work done!

[inspirethewires]

Only one thing could undo all the effort Hajime had put into hiding away from people, avoiding contact in any and all forms, and generally neglecting any sort of social activity whatsoever, and that was cleaning up the mess he'd made. Also, sitting in the dark got really dull and did not help to clear up depression, so maybe this would help take his mind off of things.

Naturally, it did not, as it was still looking and interacting directly with the wreckage resulted from his efforts, but it was still something to do. He may as well try dragging whatever he can out of the shallows; it was neither clear to him yet how much strength he had, nor if water would kill him yet.

Despite his best efforts to avoid being noticed, the new robot was still made of very shiny metals, not to mention getting used to unfamiliar, weirdly strong limbs. Hopefully he won't drop any debris on anyone trying to avoid Chao.

[voltecpower]

This would be the first time Pulse actually got a good look at Hajime since he last spotted him among the others fighting up on the deck. He hadn't really been made clear on his fate since then, though he had heard some rumors. He didn't put much thought into it, seeing as how he had only known roboticization to involve putting a living thing inside a robot shell against their will, but then... well, this explains the strange energy signature he had been occasionally picking up in the hallways lately.

There was an audible CLANG from afar as Pulse quickly tossed the metal chunk he had been inspecting into his pile of scrap. RoboHajime would find Pulse standing next to him maybe a second later, staring at him.

"...Mr. Tanaka?"

[inspirethewires]

Jerking in surprise at Pulse's sudden proximity, Hajime lost his grip, and the large, twisted beam he'd been trying to lift thudded to the ground. So far, lifting absurdly heavy things didn't prove so hard as balancing them.

"Oh--ah. You're... Pulse, hello."

In a valiant effort to make up for his past disregard, Hajime tried to lock eyes, with unflinching eye contact. It lasted about two seconds before he felt altogether too awkward, and sheepishly focused on the dropped beam again. There was no need to make a thing of this, anyway. Keep it short and simple.

"Thank you for your help, before."

[mohawk_tomahawk]

Connor knew what happened to Hajime, he was there. He also knew what he looked like now, he was there.

Seeing Hajime was surprising because he really did kind of oft and hide away, Connor hadn't seen him since the raid. That was maybe good and bad. Bad because he had hoped the one who initiated the raid to begin with would be out and taking charge of clean up, as what leaders should do. Good because, well, it didn't come out as glorious as Hajime probably hoped.

Connor had to remember that he was a kid, but that was still no excuse really.

He caught the reflection of the light and decided it was time to confront, mono to mono. He had to know how he was handling it, for everyone affected.

He was walking to him.

[inspirethewires]

There had been a number of reasons Hajime had been avoiding people, especially those who had aided in the raid. By this point, his continued evasion was largely based on his own behavior: he should have come out to show some sort of thankfulness for their help, but he'd been too selfish and wrapped up in himself. The people who had put so much on the line deserved better than that, and he'd made a fool of himself ignoring them. He'd caught himself in a spiral of bad opinions.

Hajime saw Connor's approach, but didn't turn to him to greet him. It was possible that the janitor would walk right by, and there was no point in distracting him. More likely, Hajime was about to get chewed out, so it was better to simply let it happen and not pretend at cordiality.

Connor looked mad, probably. Maybe. It was a lot harder to tell these kinds of things without souls to read.

[testgasm]

Perhaps Wheatley had some kind of robo-radar. Perhaps he sensed the arrival of a new robot on campus.

Being human did have its advantages, and if he was going to spend any amount of time near water, he was going to be in a form that wouldn't die if he fell in it. Also, sometimes it was nice to have two legs.

Whatever the reason, a freshly be-gingered Wheatley was sort of bumming around near the lake when he spotted him. One of his own kind.

"Ah!"

Having found one of his own kind, Wheatley was quick to rush over to Hajime, positively brimming with excitement. "Hello there! Are you--are you new? Have you just arrived?"

[inspirethewires]

For how little the two of them had interacted, it made sense that Wheatley would fail to recognize Hajime in such a different form. That didn't stop the sting shooting through him at Wheatley's eager, clueless questioning.

Instead of giving a proper answer, the little LED lights that make up Hajime's eyes scanned up and down Wheatley's falsely flesh body. The sight of it had made him sick, one time. he just couldn't stand to look at all that ginger.

Slowly, dutifully, he turned back to work on the debris. "No. I've been here a while."

[megabuster]

Rock hadn't seen Hajime ever since... well, the incident. He worried about the guy though. This had to be hard for him, for more reasons than one. But seeing him outside again, he decided to check up on the cheerleader.

"Hey... How are you doing...?" Rock asked cautiously, hoping he wouldn't simply be rebuffed out of hand.

[inspirethewires]

"I'm trapped in an unending state of existential dread and self-loathing over realizing the enormity of my past wrongdoings and careless disregard for those around me, as well as my physical recalibration to a body separated entirely from the biology I know and understand."

It spilled out, deadpan and clinical, while Hajime continued trying to find a good grip on a massive, thick metal plating that had jammed itself into the ground. The little metal plates making up his brow ground together in an imitation of furrowing.

"But, I'm doing it outside, now. So. Better, I guess."

[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."