PSL for Chicklet

[thoughtbubble]

Atom's friends from school had left the diner a little earlier. He had volunteered to hang onto to supplies for their group project, and took a while longer packing all the papers and supplies into his backpack before leaving.

As he headed out the door, the restaurant staff smiled and said good bye to him, thanking him as they did every customer who stopped in. He looked back to wave to them, not paying attention to who or what was on the sidewalk when he first stepped out from under the awning of the building.

Comments

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Owwwwwww. Ow ow ow ow o... wait, huh?" she looked down and saw she was laying on someone and hastily rolled off of him. "Oh wow, sorry, you okay?" she asked, coming up enough to sit on her knees next to him and offering him gloved - with fingerless gloves - hand up. "Okay, I need to add autobreaking when I rework this thing."

She knew Sentaro said bikes were fun because they could crash, but she didn't get it still.

[upupatomway]

He grabbed her hand and stood, dusting off the small amount of dirt that had ended up on his legs. "It's okay- I should have been looking where I was going. Don't worry about me," he assured her, "I'm a robot."

He moved to kneel and grab her fallen bike by the handles, lifting it up on its wheels again and glancing it over for damage. "It looks okay but you should take a look for yourself." He wheeled the bike towards her to offer her control of the handles.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Her eyes lit up when he said he was a robot in a way that would have made Sentaro very very jealous indeed. "You are?! How wonderful!" If she was thinking, she would realize how badly this could go for her. "Have you met Sigil and Banpei yet?"

[upupatomway]

"I don't think I have. Are those friends of yours?" He had no memory of anyone with those names. His first guess was that they were other robots and that was why they came to her mind. People were always telling him about the robots in their lives.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She nodded. "Banpei is one of the first robots I ever made. Big sister says he came alive because he was loved so much, and he's gotten picky about letting me upgrade him, but he's really wonderful. Then he... um... well he kinda fell in love with Sigil," she said, a bit sheepishly. "But her owner scrapped her, and I had to repair her. She's better than ever now... except that she kind of hates Banpei... So I figured she would have found you before I did, because she wants more robot company, just... not his..."

She sighed. "I do wish they'd take it easy on each other, though. Spare a thought for the poor girl who has to repair them all the time..."

[upupatomway]

"If you want them to have more robot friends, there are a lot of them working as servers in the restaurants in this neighborhood. I come here with my human friends all the time. You could bring them here."

He gestures down the street in the direction she had originally been riding her bike.

"I don't know if they're the types who eat, but I like to get ice cream at the shop at the end of the block."

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"They don't eat ice cream, but I sure do!" There were loads more robots around? She had to make sure that Marou guy never found out!

But first, ICE CREAM.

Priorities.

[upupatomway]

Atom waves to her to follow him and he leads the way down the block. It doesn't take long to reach the ice cream shop, and lucky for Skuld, there's a bike rack sitting between the neatly trimmed bushes lining the side of the shop. The windows reveal the 50s retro style decor inside, in shades of pink and cream, and a silver robot behind the counter serving customers.

"Do you live in one of the nearby neighborhoods?" Atom asks her. "I go to the school in this part of town."

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Oh! This place is awesome! And yeah, we live in the temple up the hill!"

[upupatomway]

"You live in a Buddhist temple? That's so cool! Has your family been in charge of the temple for more than one generation?"

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Oh we arrived a few years ago, My sister agreed to take care of it when the Monk left."

[upupatomway]

"Is it a lot of work? I always see people sweeping at shrines in tv shows. I don't know if that's accurate at all though." He chuckles, but he's seriously curious. It's one thing to find answers in books or the internet. It's different talking directly to someone with experience.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"No, only when Keiichi's craziness makes a mess or something." She gave him a bright smile, fully believing that all the insanity was Keiichi's fault. "Mostly Belldandy takes care of the chores, though Banpei helps."

[upupatomway]

"Is Keiichi your younger brother? I have a little sister."

Skuld makes it sound like he might be a younger child who runs about leaving toys scattered and having clumsy accidents. Out of his own household, it was definitely his younger sister who was more likely to make a mess, though that was due more to her mischievous personality than 'youth'.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Keiichi? My brother?" she laughed, while also looking disgusted. "Ew. No, he's dating my big sister Belldandy.

[upupatomway]

"Oh!" Atom laughs bashfully at the misunderstanding. "He's an adult or older teen then. I thought you were talking about someone younger." Though why is she saying Ew? Is it weird or...?

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"He's an adult. But it isn't like I'm a kid or anything," she said, warningly.

[upupatomway]

"You're not a teenager?" he asks, rechecking his scans. She was registering as a human teenager, not a robot. Did she mean it literally or figuratively?

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"I'm a Goddess," she said, a bit huffily.

[upupatomway]

"Really?" He's surprised by the answer. Not only because he hasn't met a goddess before, but he's not entirely sure if she means it literally when it's easy for him to believe that his sister would make a remark about being a 'goddess' to emphasize her supposed elegance.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She nodded. "I'm going for First Class, so that means I don't lie" much. "Got it?" she asked, hands on her hips.

[upupatomway]

His curiosity is peaked to the point of blazing on to another question, "Are you able to do magic like in the fables and legends?"

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She blinked then beamed, nodding. "Uh huh." Well. Some. A little. She was still learning, okay?

[upupatomway]

"I'll tell you more about life as a robot if you tell me about what it's like to be a goddess," he suggests, giving a little grin. "We should talk over ice cream though."

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"YES!" she said, happily. Ice cream, showing off, and getting to learn more about a really cool robot? Absolutely.

Sentaro would be so jealous if she saw the smile she was offering him now.