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

[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.

[upupatomway]

He leads the way around the side of the building where the bike rack is to the entrance and politely opens the door for her to enter before him. The robot working behind the counter greets them and offers to let them try samples if they want to taste test any flavors before deciding. Atom approaches the display case and looks over the flavor labels.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She beamed him a bright smile as she went past, and all but ran to the ice cream counter. "I'll take two scoops of each flavor please in the largest bowl you have. If there is any extra room, please fill it with the yummiest flavor you have!"

[upupatomway]

Atom was contemplating a sample request when she places her order. He turns to her, eyes wide in surprise. "You can eat that much in one sitting? I've never seen a sundae that big before!"

The robot behind the counter seems surprised too and asks just to be sure if she definitely wants two scoops of every single flavor.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Uh huh. I'll order more once I see which flavors I like best!"

[upupatomway]

"Is this part of being a goddess? Do you eat a lot of ice cream every day?" Atom asks. He was trying to hold back his questions until they were seated but this is too hard to ignore. It will take a few minutes for the robot server to finish scooping her order too.