Ask Pendulum Depot

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.

-Kuffley rammed his police blimp against the rear of the Blimo-

-Barb looked back at Kuffley who seemed to be right on their tail. Barb tried to think of how she could shake Kuffley off, so Barb decided she was going to fly and submerg the Blimo into some thick nearby clouds. They can't get caught if nobody could see. Sure, Kuffley's lights could light the way, but they could only do so much in the thickness of the clouds-

" @askpendulumdepot ! I need you to stay quiet, okay? I know that's a tall order because you're starting to green out, but we need to keep our voices down-"

-Barb helped Pen and laid him back down in his seat so he could rest his head and try to wind down a little, and also so that they could remain hidden as Kuffley's police blimp strolls by; his lights boldly reflecting off the water particles in the clouds. It would actually look pretty if the threat of police hadn't been chasing them down.-

-on top of that, now Pen thought they were at the blinking lights factory-

"That's- not Gart. And this isn't the blinking lights factory either."

-Barb waited a little longer, until it was completely quiet, which probably meant that Kuffley had passed by them through the clouds, which made Barb fall back into her seat in relief-

"Oh, thank fuck. I mean- sorry, Pen. I know you don't like to hear cursing, but this situation demanded a little cursing. Now- maybe we can get you home without.... Wait a minute... is that the gas gage?"

-Barb squinted at the gas meter to see that it was riding on E. Following up with that, the engine starts sputtering, and the Blimo starts going down-

"Wait- WAIT! NO! NO-!!"

-Barb looks for any button on the Blimo that could help them from crashing to their deaths, and luckily, there was an auto-pilot button. Barb pressed it multiple times, and the auto-pilot would use backup fuel, which was just barely enough to get Pendulum back home. It also had its own routing system that automatically leads back to Pendulum's house-

".... I could have used auto-pilot this whole time!? HHHHHH!!!"

-Barb face palmed and could only be angry at herself, which makes the headlights to the Blimo flicker a little from her sudden angry shift in energy.-

-This was all in all just a really bad day to say the least. For Barb anyways. Pendulum seemed to be having the time of his life though. At least now they both could relax while the Blimo drove itself home-

"..... Pen, can you hear me? ... Your eyes are really really red. God, how many brownies did you eat? Can you even comprehend where we're at? ... Well, that's a silly question, the answer is obviously no. We're on our way home now though. Okay?"

-Barb let Pendulum rest his head in her lap, doing whatever she can to help get him through this, and was mostly just talking to keep him somewhat conscious until she got him home safely. The sun was down and the stars were up too, which were just more pretty lights for Pen to look at.-

-Barb probably didn't understand the abilities that she had just yet, but if @askpendulumdepot picked up on it so easily, why hadn't he tried talking to Barb about it?-

-She sat there, trying to think about what Pen meant by "blowing up"... but wasn't it obvious?-

-Barb looked up at the stars, feeling a mix of emotions. Maybe deep down, she knew there was something up with her. It's been a prominent issue since the moment Barb crossed over Robot's dimensional portal and its power generator 'suddenly' exploded. She was just suppressing it because she didn't want to admit something was wrong and it scared her, so she focused more on Pen.-

"I mean... I'm not thrilled you were going to set me up to cause that kind of chaos... but I can at least be happy you changed your mind in the end. You didn't go through with it because you chose our friendship over revenge. I know that was a big decision for you. So... Thanks for telling me this."

"And- Gart is no more complicated than you or me. Even if he does try to hide behind his success, I think we both know being alone as much as Gart has really hurts him based on his anxiety notes we saw. I know being away from him hurts you too. That's why I wish you two would just try and be there for each other outside your rivalry. I don't think you need to enact 'revenge' on anyone if you two just talked. Really talked. No banter, no pettiness."

-Of course someone as naive as Barb thought it could be that simple for Pen to have just one conversation with Gart to fix everything between them. It also depended on how well Gart was willing to listen without putting up his cold front because he was a harder egg to crack than Pen was when it came to vulnerability-

-nobody feared vulnerability, more than Gart Default-

"... I think you two care about each other more than you're both willing to admit."

-At this point, the blimo lands itself at Pendulum's house, right before it ran out of the back up fuel-

-once they made it off the blimo, Barb let Pen lean on her for support if he needed it because she wasn't gonna risk him falling and hurting himself. She also looked to see the giant scratch along the side of Pen's blimo from ramming it into Uncle Kuffley's police blimp earlier and it made her cringe a little-

"Maybe I can get Robot to touch that up a little. Let's just get you inside."

-Barb sighs, feeling emotionally exhausted from the topic already.-

"Let's not think about it anymore. We're coming up to your house anyways, so we can finally put this weird 'dream' to an end."

-Once Barb got @askpendulumdepot settled, she went to go crash on the couch, immediately going out like a light as well. The real challenge would be dealing with the aftermath in the morning-

-Which is why Barb gave Pendulum extra special treatment because she knew he'd still be recovering, and she had to soften the blow over the fact that she drugged her boss and the entirety of the solid lights factory workers, went on a joy ride with him in his Blimo and got chased down by the police in said Blimo.-

"Heeeey, Pen! Good morning! You're probably wondering why I'm in your house. Before we get into that, I made you breakfast because I know you're hungry, and it's also important you get some of your strength back. Okay? You need help getting up? How are you feeling?"

-Barb didn't mean to use the overly gentle voice that you direct toward a senile elderly person, but she was being extra cautious because she was worried about Pen.-

-Barb couldn't lie about anything anymore, so she just had to face the music of her consequences-

"I made another batch at home that was... special brownies..... Like as in THC? .... There was weed in it. And uh... heheh. You're gonna laugh. I accidentally switched my regular brownies with my special ones. And I brought them to work. .... And you ate enough to knock out a small bear."

"I know what you're thinking! Does it get any funnier than that? ..... I had to take you home after sending everyone else home early because nobody was gonna be able to work under those conditions. Especially not you. And we may have taken a joy ride in your blimo. I also may have gotten into a chase with the police, so there was a little damage done, but we made it out alive! .... The funniest part is after all that I finally figured out how to activate the auto pilot and the blimo took us on your route home. I stayed because I didn't want to leave you alone."

-Barb stood there, bracing herself for Pen to absolutely lose his mind on her for everything. The silence only made her feel worse.-

".... I'm really sorry, Pen- I didn't mean for any of this to happen. It got out of hand and I just didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just leave you at the factory by yourself."

-At this rate, Barb expected @askpendulumdepot to fire her on the spot, and that she would be lucky if Pen didn't press charges for her DRUGGING HIM AND HIS WORKERS, hijacking his Blimo, and any other laws she broke that involved him yesterday.-

"Uh... Y-Yeah! Yeah! This will never happen again! I promise! ... You're being really weirdly cool about this- are you still high?"

-Barb waved her hand in front of Pen's eyes, just making sure he wasn't still under the influence.-

"No- okay. Just being sure. Also, I understand. I figured that was coming. You weren't kidding when you said that Blimo wasn't easy to drive. I really thought I had it all under control."

-Barb thought back to the things Pen said yesterday, but she specifically remembers what Pen had said about him trying to make her explode the lights at the blinking lights factory-

-she also remembers all the things Pen said about Gart, and how he missed him outside their rivalry, but did Barb really want to put Pen on the spot and embarrass him over things that were meant to be kept private?-

-He did Barb the kindess to let her off with a warning, so she would do him a kindness and pretend that those conversations didn't happen-

"Oh- No! No, you barely said anything at all! You were pretty relaxed! I've never seen you so laid back. After all the brownies you ate yesterday, ya might honestly need to take a T-break.... T break as in tolerance because your THC tolerance levels are absolutely fried all to hell. Pen, I'm not gonna lie. I'm surprised you were even able to speak to me at all yesterday."

-Crystal then came out with an attempt at making a lab coat out of a white shirt and a few toy capsules painted to resemble the card.-

Yes, I am! Well, actually my name is Crystal, but you probably already know that from what @rnmbarb told you… I only made the alias because, well, every Pokemon professor is named after a tree, but I didn’t think Professor Maple vibed with me, and I’m rambling again, aren’t I?

-Crystal placed a handmade cardboard Pokédex in front of @askpendulumdepot. There was a slot for a card to fit in the screen area. The card in the screen slot was for Volcarona.-

-Barb was sensitive to abandonment herself, so it angered her that her own kind would do something like that to Crystal. Humanity is still just as selfish and cruel as Barb last left it-

"Let's focus on the Pokémon stuff. I'm not really that much of an expert either, but I know Pikachu. That's the Pokémon I'm choosing! In fact..."

-Barb rushed to her room, changed into her Pikachu onesie and came back out again-

"You ready for your first Pokémon battle, @askpendulumdepot ? Crystal can explain the rest."

So, in Pokemon, there’s little tournaments where they do little battles, and there’s an entire league that leads up to the Elite Four, and then the champion! But for now, you probably have to learn the basics…

-Crystal quickly looked for a guide for moves for Volcarona, and found a good starting guide!-

Okay! So, battles are turn based, and each Pokemon has moves for the battles. Each move- and Pokemon- has a type! The types give each one strengths and weaknesses! For instance, Pikachu- that would be what @rnmbarb is at the moment- is an Electric type! Your Volcarona has two types- Bug AND Fire!

-All of a sudden, the bulb of the lamp exploded beside Barb, and she startled herself.-

**Why does this keep happening??**

-Barb looked to @askpendulumdepot and @crystalofbunkerbeta feeling awkward every time a faulty wiring issue occurred that couldn't be explained, so she focused back on the game they were playing-

"Volcorona seems pretty fitting for Pen since he's basically a sentient oven, right? Wouldn't it be cool if we could bake a pizza in his hatch?"

-the explosion definitely caught Crystal off guard… did @rnmbarb cause it? No, she couldn’t have… could she? Humans aren’t supposed to have that kind of power! That’d be as crazy as Crystal having acute mind reading abilities… that had to be either the hearing aid Robot made her going nuts or her own anxiety causing her to assume what people think of her… oh! Right! The battle!-

Alright! Ember it is! Aaaaaand the hit lands! Okay, look at type advantages, so Ember is a fire-type move, and on an electric type, that deals the normal amount of damage! Decent amount of hit points taken!

*LE GASP* snacks? Oh heck yeah! I could, uh, talk a little more if you want… there’s a bit more info about Volcarona if you want to hear…

-Crystal then came out with an attempt at making a lab coat out of a white shirt and a few toy capsules painted to resemble the card.-

Yes, I am! Well, actually my name is Crystal, but you probably already know that from what @rnmbarb told you… I only made the alias because, well, every Pokemon professor is named after a tree, but I didn’t think Professor Maple vibed with me, and I’m rambling again, aren’t I?

-Crystal placed a handmade cardboard Pokédex in front of @askpendulumdepot. There was a slot for a card to fit in the screen area. The card in the screen slot was for Volcarona.-

-Barb was sensitive to abandonment herself, so it angered her that her own kind would do something like that to Crystal. Humanity is still just as selfish and cruel as Barb last left it-

"Let's focus on the Pokémon stuff. I'm not really that much of an expert either, but I know Pikachu. That's the Pokémon I'm choosing! In fact..."

-Barb rushed to her room, changed into her Pikachu onesie and came back out again-

"You ready for your first Pokémon battle, @askpendulumdepot ? Crystal can explain the rest."

So, in Pokemon, there’s little tournaments where they do little battles, and there’s an entire league that leads up to the Elite Four, and then the champion! But for now, you probably have to learn the basics…

-Crystal quickly looked for a guide for moves for Volcarona, and found a good starting guide!-

Okay! So, battles are turn based, and each Pokemon has moves for the battles. Each move- and Pokemon- has a type! The types give each one strengths and weaknesses! For instance, Pikachu- that would be what @rnmbarb is at the moment- is an Electric type! Your Volcarona has two types- Bug AND Fire!

-All of a sudden, the bulb of the lamp exploded beside Barb, and she startled herself.-

**Why does this keep happening??**

-Barb looked to @askpendulumdepot and @crystalofbunkerbeta feeling awkward every time a faulty wiring issue occurred that couldn't be explained, so she focused back on the game they were playing-

"Volcorona seems pretty fitting for Pen since he's basically a sentient oven, right? Wouldn't it be cool if we could bake a pizza in his hatch?"

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.

-Kuffley rammed his police blimp against the rear of the Blimo-

-Barb looked back at Kuffley who seemed to be right on their tail. Barb tried to think of how she could shake Kuffley off, so Barb decided she was going to fly and submerg the Blimo into some thick nearby clouds. They can't get caught if nobody could see. Sure, Kuffley's lights could light the way, but they could only do so much in the thickness of the clouds-

" @askpendulumdepot ! I need you to stay quiet, okay? I know that's a tall order because you're starting to green out, but we need to keep our voices down-"

-Barb helped Pen and laid him back down in his seat so he could rest his head and try to wind down a little, and also so that they could remain hidden as Kuffley's police blimp strolls by; his lights boldly reflecting off the water particles in the clouds. It would actually look pretty if the threat of police hadn't been chasing them down.-

-on top of that, now Pen thought they were at the blinking lights factory-

"That's- not Gart. And this isn't the blinking lights factory either."

-Barb waited a little longer, until it was completely quiet, which probably meant that Kuffley had passed by them through the clouds, which made Barb fall back into her seat in relief-

"Oh, thank fuck. I mean- sorry, Pen. I know you don't like to hear cursing, but this situation demanded a little cursing. Now- maybe we can get you home without.... Wait a minute... is that the gas gage?"

-Barb squinted at the gas meter to see that it was riding on E. Following up with that, the engine starts sputtering, and the Blimo starts going down-

"Wait- WAIT! NO! NO-!!"

-Barb looks for any button on the Blimo that could help them from crashing to their deaths, and luckily, there was an auto-pilot button. Barb pressed it multiple times, and the auto-pilot would use backup fuel, which was just barely enough to get Pendulum back home. It also had its own routing system that automatically leads back to Pendulum's house-

".... I could have used auto-pilot this whole time!? HHHHHH!!!"

-Barb face palmed and could only be angry at herself, which makes the headlights to the Blimo flicker a little from her sudden angry shift in energy.-

-This was all in all just a really bad day to say the least. For Barb anyways. Pendulum seemed to be having the time of his life though. At least now they both could relax while the Blimo drove itself home-

"..... Pen, can you hear me? ... Your eyes are really really red. God, how many brownies did you eat? Can you even comprehend where we're at? ... Well, that's a silly question, the answer is obviously no. We're on our way home now though. Okay?"

-Barb let Pendulum rest his head in her lap, doing whatever she can to help get him through this, and was mostly just talking to keep him somewhat conscious until she got him home safely. The sun was down and the stars were up too, which were just more pretty lights for Pen to look at.-

-Barb probably didn't understand the abilities that she had just yet, but if @askpendulumdepot picked up on it so easily, why hadn't he tried talking to Barb about it?-

-She sat there, trying to think about what Pen meant by "blowing up"... but wasn't it obvious?-

-Barb looked up at the stars, feeling a mix of emotions. Maybe deep down, she knew there was something up with her. It's been a prominent issue since the moment Barb crossed over Robot's dimensional portal and its power generator 'suddenly' exploded. She was just suppressing it because she didn't want to admit something was wrong and it scared her, so she focused more on Pen.-

"I mean... I'm not thrilled you were going to set me up to cause that kind of chaos... but I can at least be happy you changed your mind in the end. You didn't go through with it because you chose our friendship over revenge. I know that was a big decision for you. So... Thanks for telling me this."

"And- Gart is no more complicated than you or me. Even if he does try to hide behind his success, I think we both know being alone as much as Gart has really hurts him based on his anxiety notes we saw. I know being away from him hurts you too. That's why I wish you two would just try and be there for each other outside your rivalry. I don't think you need to enact 'revenge' on anyone if you two just talked. Really talked. No banter, no pettiness."

-Of course someone as naive as Barb thought it could be that simple for Pen to have just one conversation with Gart to fix everything between them. It also depended on how well Gart was willing to listen without putting up his cold front because he was a harder egg to crack than Pen was when it came to vulnerability-

-nobody feared vulnerability, more than Gart Default-

"... I think you two care about each other more than you're both willing to admit."

-At this point, the blimo lands itself at Pendulum's house, right before it ran out of the back up fuel-

-once they made it off the blimo, Barb let Pen lean on her for support if he needed it because she wasn't gonna risk him falling and hurting himself. She also looked to see the giant scratch along the side of Pen's blimo from ramming it into Uncle Kuffley's police blimp earlier and it made her cringe a little-

"Maybe I can get Robot to touch that up a little. Let's just get you inside."

-Barb sighs, feeling emotionally exhausted from the topic already.-

"Let's not think about it anymore. We're coming up to your house anyways, so we can finally put this weird 'dream' to an end."

-Once Barb got @askpendulumdepot settled, she went to go crash on the couch, immediately going out like a light as well. The real challenge would be dealing with the aftermath in the morning-

-Which is why Barb gave Pendulum extra special treatment because she knew he'd still be recovering, and she had to soften the blow over the fact that she drugged her boss and the entirety of the solid lights factory workers, went on a joy ride with him in his Blimo and got chased down by the police in said Blimo.-

"Heeeey, Pen! Good morning! You're probably wondering why I'm in your house. Before we get into that, I made you breakfast because I know you're hungry, and it's also important you get some of your strength back. Okay? You need help getting up? How are you feeling?"

-Barb didn't mean to use the overly gentle voice that you direct toward a senile elderly person, but she was being extra cautious because she was worried about Pen.-

-Barb couldn't lie about anything anymore, so she just had to face the music of her consequences-

"I made another batch at home that was... special brownies..... Like as in THC? .... There was weed in it. And uh... heheh. You're gonna laugh. I accidentally switched my regular brownies with my special ones. And I brought them to work. .... And you ate enough to knock out a small bear."

"I know what you're thinking! Does it get any funnier than that? ..... I had to take you home after sending everyone else home early because nobody was gonna be able to work under those conditions. Especially not you. And we may have taken a joy ride in your blimo. I also may have gotten into a chase with the police, so there was a little damage done, but we made it out alive! .... The funniest part is after all that I finally figured out how to activate the auto pilot and the blimo took us on your route home. I stayed because I didn't want to leave you alone."

-Barb stood there, bracing herself for Pen to absolutely lose his mind on her for everything. The silence only made her feel worse.-

".... I'm really sorry, Pen- I didn't mean for any of this to happen. It got out of hand and I just didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just leave you at the factory by yourself."

-At this rate, Barb expected @askpendulumdepot to fire her on the spot, and that she would be lucky if Pen didn't press charges for her DRUGGING HIM AND HIS WORKERS, hijacking his Blimo, and any other laws she broke that involved him yesterday.-

-Crystal then came out with an attempt at making a lab coat out of a white shirt and a few toy capsules painted to resemble the card.-

Yes, I am! Well, actually my name is Crystal, but you probably already know that from what @rnmbarb told you… I only made the alias because, well, every Pokemon professor is named after a tree, but I didn’t think Professor Maple vibed with me, and I’m rambling again, aren’t I?

-Crystal placed a handmade cardboard Pokédex in front of @askpendulumdepot. There was a slot for a card to fit in the screen area. The card in the screen slot was for Volcarona.-

-Barb was sensitive to abandonment herself, so it angered her that her own kind would do something like that to Crystal. Humanity is still just as selfish and cruel as Barb last left it-

"Let's focus on the Pokémon stuff. I'm not really that much of an expert either, but I know Pikachu. That's the Pokémon I'm choosing! In fact..."

-Barb rushed to her room, changed into her Pikachu onesie and came back out again-

"You ready for your first Pokémon battle, @askpendulumdepot ? Crystal can explain the rest."

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.

-Kuffley rammed his police blimp against the rear of the Blimo-

-Barb looked back at Kuffley who seemed to be right on their tail. Barb tried to think of how she could shake Kuffley off, so Barb decided she was going to fly and submerg the Blimo into some thick nearby clouds. They can't get caught if nobody could see. Sure, Kuffley's lights could light the way, but they could only do so much in the thickness of the clouds-

" @askpendulumdepot ! I need you to stay quiet, okay? I know that's a tall order because you're starting to green out, but we need to keep our voices down-"

-Barb helped Pen and laid him back down in his seat so he could rest his head and try to wind down a little, and also so that they could remain hidden as Kuffley's police blimp strolls by; his lights boldly reflecting off the water particles in the clouds. It would actually look pretty if the threat of police hadn't been chasing them down.-

-on top of that, now Pen thought they were at the blinking lights factory-

"That's- not Gart. And this isn't the blinking lights factory either."

-Barb waited a little longer, until it was completely quiet, which probably meant that Kuffley had passed by them through the clouds, which made Barb fall back into her seat in relief-

"Oh, thank fuck. I mean- sorry, Pen. I know you don't like to hear cursing, but this situation demanded a little cursing. Now- maybe we can get you home without.... Wait a minute... is that the gas gage?"

-Barb squinted at the gas meter to see that it was riding on E. Following up with that, the engine starts sputtering, and the Blimo starts going down-

"Wait- WAIT! NO! NO-!!"

-Barb looks for any button on the Blimo that could help them from crashing to their deaths, and luckily, there was an auto-pilot button. Barb pressed it multiple times, and the auto-pilot would use backup fuel, which was just barely enough to get Pendulum back home. It also had its own routing system that automatically leads back to Pendulum's house-

".... I could have used auto-pilot this whole time!? HHHHHH!!!"

-Barb face palmed and could only be angry at herself, which makes the headlights to the Blimo flicker a little from her sudden angry shift in energy.-

-This was all in all just a really bad day to say the least. For Barb anyways. Pendulum seemed to be having the time of his life though. At least now they both could relax while the Blimo drove itself home-

"..... Pen, can you hear me? ... Your eyes are really really red. God, how many brownies did you eat? Can you even comprehend where we're at? ... Well, that's a silly question, the answer is obviously no. We're on our way home now though. Okay?"

-Barb let Pendulum rest his head in her lap, doing whatever she can to help get him through this, and was mostly just talking to keep him somewhat conscious until she got him home safely. The sun was down and the stars were up too, which were just more pretty lights for Pen to look at.-

-Barb probably didn't understand the abilities that she had just yet, but if @askpendulumdepot picked up on it so easily, why hadn't he tried talking to Barb about it?-

-She sat there, trying to think about what Pen meant by "blowing up"... but wasn't it obvious?-

-Barb looked up at the stars, feeling a mix of emotions. Maybe deep down, she knew there was something up with her. It's been a prominent issue since the moment Barb crossed over Robot's dimensional portal and its power generator 'suddenly' exploded. She was just suppressing it because she didn't want to admit something was wrong and it scared her, so she focused more on Pen.-

"I mean... I'm not thrilled you were going to set me up to cause that kind of chaos... but I can at least be happy you changed your mind in the end. You didn't go through with it because you chose our friendship over revenge. I know that was a big decision for you. So... Thanks for telling me this."

"And- Gart is no more complicated than you or me. Even if he does try to hide behind his success, I think we both know being alone as much as Gart has really hurts him based on his anxiety notes we saw. I know being away from him hurts you too. That's why I wish you two would just try and be there for each other outside your rivalry. I don't think you need to enact 'revenge' on anyone if you two just talked. Really talked. No banter, no pettiness."

-Of course someone as naive as Barb thought it could be that simple for Pen to have just one conversation with Gart to fix everything between them. It also depended on how well Gart was willing to listen without putting up his cold front because he was a harder egg to crack than Pen was when it came to vulnerability-

-nobody feared vulnerability, more than Gart Default-

"... I think you two care about each other more than you're both willing to admit."

-At this point, the blimo lands itself at Pendulum's house, right before it ran out of the back up fuel-

-once they made it off the blimo, Barb let Pen lean on her for support if he needed it because she wasn't gonna risk him falling and hurting himself. She also looked to see the giant scratch along the side of Pen's blimo from ramming it into Uncle Kuffley's police blimp earlier and it made her cringe a little-

"Maybe I can get Robot to touch that up a little. Let's just get you inside."

-Barb sighs, feeling emotionally exhausted from the topic already.-

"Let's not think about it anymore. We're coming up to your house anyways, so we can finally put this weird 'dream' to an end."

-Once Barb got @askpendulumdepot settled, she went to go crash on the couch, immediately going out like a light as well. The real challenge would be dealing with the aftermath in the morning-

-Which is why Barb gave Pendulum extra special treatment because she knew he'd still be recovering, and she had to soften the blow over the fact that she drugged her boss and the entirety of the solid lights factory workers, went on a joy ride with him in his Blimo and got chased down by the police in said Blimo.-

"Heeeey, Pen! Good morning! You're probably wondering why I'm in your house. Before we get into that, I made you breakfast because I know you're hungry, and it's also important you get some of your strength back. Okay? You need help getting up? How are you feeling?"

-Barb didn't mean to use the overly gentle voice that you direct toward a senile elderly person, but she was being extra cautious because she was worried about Pen.-

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.

-Kuffley rammed his police blimp against the rear of the Blimo-

-Barb looked back at Kuffley who seemed to be right on their tail. Barb tried to think of how she could shake Kuffley off, so Barb decided she was going to fly and submerg the Blimo into some thick nearby clouds. They can't get caught if nobody could see. Sure, Kuffley's lights could light the way, but they could only do so much in the thickness of the clouds-

" @askpendulumdepot ! I need you to stay quiet, okay? I know that's a tall order because you're starting to green out, but we need to keep our voices down-"

-Barb helped Pen and laid him back down in his seat so he could rest his head and try to wind down a little, and also so that they could remain hidden as Kuffley's police blimp strolls by; his lights boldly reflecting off the water particles in the clouds. It would actually look pretty if the threat of police hadn't been chasing them down.-

-on top of that, now Pen thought they were at the blinking lights factory-

"That's- not Gart. And this isn't the blinking lights factory either."

-Barb waited a little longer, until it was completely quiet, which probably meant that Kuffley had passed by them through the clouds, which made Barb fall back into her seat in relief-

"Oh, thank fuck. I mean- sorry, Pen. I know you don't like to hear cursing, but this situation demanded a little cursing. Now- maybe we can get you home without.... Wait a minute... is that the gas gage?"

-Barb squinted at the gas meter to see that it was riding on E. Following up with that, the engine starts sputtering, and the Blimo starts going down-

"Wait- WAIT! NO! NO-!!"

-Barb looks for any button on the Blimo that could help them from crashing to their deaths, and luckily, there was an auto-pilot button. Barb pressed it multiple times, and the auto-pilot would use backup fuel, which was just barely enough to get Pendulum back home. It also had its own routing system that automatically leads back to Pendulum's house-

".... I could have used auto-pilot this whole time!? HHHHHH!!!"

-Barb face palmed and could only be angry at herself, which makes the headlights to the Blimo flicker a little from her sudden angry shift in energy.-

-This was all in all just a really bad day to say the least. For Barb anyways. Pendulum seemed to be having the time of his life though. At least now they both could relax while the Blimo drove itself home-

"..... Pen, can you hear me? ... Your eyes are really really red. God, how many brownies did you eat? Can you even comprehend where we're at? ... Well, that's a silly question, the answer is obviously no. We're on our way home now though. Okay?"

-Barb let Pendulum rest his head in her lap, doing whatever she can to help get him through this, and was mostly just talking to keep him somewhat conscious until she got him home safely. The sun was down and the stars were up too, which were just more pretty lights for Pen to look at.-

-Barb probably didn't understand the abilities that she had just yet, but if @askpendulumdepot picked up on it so easily, why hadn't he tried talking to Barb about it?-

-She sat there, trying to think about what Pen meant by "blowing up"... but wasn't it obvious?-

-Barb looked up at the stars, feeling a mix of emotions. Maybe deep down, she knew there was something up with her. It's been a prominent issue since the moment Barb crossed over Robot's dimensional portal and its power generator 'suddenly' exploded. She was just suppressing it because she didn't want to admit something was wrong and it scared her, so she focused more on Pen.-

"I mean... I'm not thrilled you were going to set me up to cause that kind of chaos... but I can at least be happy you changed your mind in the end. You didn't go through with it because you chose our friendship over revenge. I know that was a big decision for you. So... Thanks for telling me this."

"And- Gart is no more complicated than you or me. Even if he does try to hide behind his success, I think we both know being alone as much as Gart has really hurts him based on his anxiety notes we saw. I know being away from him hurts you too. That's why I wish you two would just try and be there for each other outside your rivalry. I don't think you need to enact 'revenge' on anyone if you two just talked. Really talked. No banter, no pettiness."

-Of course someone as naive as Barb thought it could be that simple for Pen to have just one conversation with Gart to fix everything between them. It also depended on how well Gart was willing to listen without putting up his cold front because he was a harder egg to crack than Pen was when it came to vulnerability-

-nobody feared vulnerability, more than Gart Default-

"... I think you two care about each other more than you're both willing to admit."

-At this point, the blimo lands itself at Pendulum's house, right before it ran out of the back up fuel-

-once they made it off the blimo, Barb let Pen lean on her for support if he needed it because she wasn't gonna risk him falling and hurting himself. She also looked to see the giant scratch along the side of Pen's blimo from ramming it into Uncle Kuffley's police blimp earlier and it made her cringe a little-

"Maybe I can get Robot to touch that up a little. Let's just get you inside."

-Crystal then came out with an attempt at making a lab coat out of a white shirt and a few toy capsules painted to resemble the card.-

Yes, I am! Well, actually my name is Crystal, but you probably already know that from what @rnmbarb told you… I only made the alias because, well, every Pokemon professor is named after a tree, but I didn’t think Professor Maple vibed with me, and I’m rambling again, aren’t I?

-Crystal placed a handmade cardboard Pokédex in front of @askpendulumdepot. There was a slot for a card to fit in the screen area. The card in the screen slot was for Volcarona.-

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.

-Kuffley rammed his police blimp against the rear of the Blimo-

-Barb looked back at Kuffley who seemed to be right on their tail. Barb tried to think of how she could shake Kuffley off, so Barb decided she was going to fly and submerg the Blimo into some thick nearby clouds. They can't get caught if nobody could see. Sure, Kuffley's lights could light the way, but they could only do so much in the thickness of the clouds-

" @askpendulumdepot ! I need you to stay quiet, okay? I know that's a tall order because you're starting to green out, but we need to keep our voices down-"

-Barb helped Pen and laid him back down in his seat so he could rest his head and try to wind down a little, and also so that they could remain hidden as Kuffley's police blimp strolls by; his lights boldly reflecting off the water particles in the clouds. It would actually look pretty if the threat of police hadn't been chasing them down.-

-on top of that, now Pen thought they were at the blinking lights factory-

"That's- not Gart. And this isn't the blinking lights factory either."

-Barb waited a little longer, until it was completely quiet, which probably meant that Kuffley had passed by them through the clouds, which made Barb fall back into her seat in relief-

"Oh, thank fuck. I mean- sorry, Pen. I know you don't like to hear cursing, but this situation demanded a little cursing. Now- maybe we can get you home without.... Wait a minute... is that the gas gage?"

-Barb squinted at the gas meter to see that it was riding on E. Following up with that, the engine starts sputtering, and the Blimo starts going down-

"Wait- WAIT! NO! NO-!!"

-Barb looks for any button on the Blimo that could help them from crashing to their deaths, and luckily, there was an auto-pilot button. Barb pressed it multiple times, and the auto-pilot would use backup fuel, which was just barely enough to get Pendulum back home. It also had its own routing system that automatically leads back to Pendulum's house-

".... I could have used auto-pilot this whole time!? HHHHHH!!!"

-Barb face palmed and could only be angry at herself, which makes the headlights to the Blimo flicker a little from her sudden angry shift in energy.-

-This was all in all just a really bad day to say the least. For Barb anyways. Pendulum seemed to be having the time of his life though. At least now they both could relax while the Blimo drove itself home-

"..... Pen, can you hear me? ... Your eyes are really really red. God, how many brownies did you eat? Can you even comprehend where we're at? ... Well, that's a silly question, the answer is obviously no. We're on our way home now though. Okay?"

-Barb let Pendulum rest his head in her lap, doing whatever she can to help get him through this, and was mostly just talking to keep him somewhat conscious until she got him home safely. The sun was down and the stars were up too, which were just more pretty lights for Pen to look at.-

-However... Barb also made her own personal batch of brownies at home.... that she may or may not have mixed up..... So she may or may not have been passing around her special personal brownies to everyone. The kind that taste a bit funny at first, but make you feel like you want more in less than an hour-

-So half hour later, que Barb bursting into Pen's office if it wasn't already too late by the time she stumbled over there bananas high herself; running past some other workers who also couldn't feel their faces after consuming the brownies-

Barb: PEN! Don't eat that brownie! And if you did! Clear your schedule because your day is going into a whole other direction. But it's okay! We're gonna get through this together!

Barb: Oh. My. God. That amount. With your body weight?? ..... It's fineee you're gonna be fine. Seriously though you need to send everyone home early!

**He is so going to fire me**

-Barb looked back at Pen and all of a sudden she sees him as this-

Oh god, and I only had one. @askpendulumdepot you are so going to green out, I'm so sorryyyyyyyyy

-Barb goes to the sounding system, so all the solid lights workers could tune in-

Barb: Hey guys! @askpendulumdepot said it's okay to go home early! Go home, settle down, rest, and probably go over to the Mak'n'Bacon because you're all going to get really hungry soon! Okay have a great rest of your day! Goodbye! See ya tomorrow!

-Barb shut the sounding system off and looked back at Pendulum who was now hiding behind his chair from Barb, assuming he didn't recognize her-

Barb: Pen, you're not in your house! Agh- I should get you home though. You obviously can't drive. I also can't drive, I don't have my drivers license, and I don't know how to operate a blimp, but I guess today I can learn. Out of the two of us I'm probably the most sober anyways. How hard could it be?

-Barb felt that if she got Pendulum home safely, then he would go to sleep, wake up and probably forget this whole situation even happened. Right now, she just had to make sure Pen wouldn't green out on her.-

-Barb helped @askpendulumdepot up and made sure that he was standing steady so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. All she could do was help Pendulum keep balance and guide him outside to his Blimo-

Barb: Hold onto me, Pen, and watch your step. Also, maybe this might help with the brightness?

-She takes Pen's scarf and wraps it around his head to block out the "light" and also so that he wouldn't have to watch Barb struggle finding the keyhole to start the Blimos ignition-

-Eventually, Barb starts the Blimo and they were up for lift off! The controls actually seemed simple enough. They sure were going slow though. A few more notches wouldn't hurt, right? The wind also felt really nice, and the sooner Pen got home the better.-

-Barb kept her hands on the wheel as they kept going higher in the clouds now, perhaps getting a little nervous but she had to keep it together for @askpendulumdepot sake.-

Barb: **Yeah, I bet you feel like you're on cloud 9 after eating enough edibles to make a small bear numb in the face.** (but she kept that to herself) You're definitely really laid back right now. You probably haven't felt this relaxed in a while with how much you work everyday. I wish you'd learn to give yourself a break.

-Then Barb listened as Pendulum spilled his guts over his emotional ties to Gart, and how much he genuinely worried about him, especially likely after their recent business meeting with @gart-the-golden-child anxiety written notes. It was sweet, and even though these were personal things Barb probably shouldn't be hearing, she acknowledged Pen's concerns-

Barb: .... Would it really be such a bad idea if you went to Gart and told him these things, Pen? I mean... Gart can be cold and standoffish, but hearing those things from you could actually really mean a lot to him. It might also make you feel better too. Maybe there wouldn't even need to be a rivalry between you two. You know? You could learn how to be closer together without the need to one up each other all the time-

-of course, while Barb had been trying to have a deep conversation, Pen was more focused on the pretty colors of the sunset beaming through his scarf, and everything was like being inside a giant collidescope. It was so beautiful, that Pen generously ninja attacked and blinded Barb with the other end of his scarf so she could see the pretty colors too-

Barb: What the-!? P-Pen! What are you doing?? Let go; I can't see! Stop! Stop it- I'm serious! I'm not playing around! Stop-!

-While Barb struggled with Pen, there was an audibly loud crash, followed along with Barb hitting her head on the wheel as the abrupt halt of the Blimo threw her and Pen forward on the dashboard. Barb got a bleeding cut on her forehead, but the crash alone made Barb's heart sink to her stomach because she was automatically thinking about any damages done to Pen's Blimo on her watch. .... But her problems would be much heavier once she lifted Pen's scarf from her eyes to see that she had crashed right into @uncle-kuffley 's police blimp.-

Barb: ..... You gotta be shitting me right now.

-needless to say, Kuffley locked angry eyes with Barb, but also felt a sense of triumph knowing he had her in his territory.-

Barb: ...... Heheh... Uh.... Pen, we gotta go! How do you reverse this thing?? -Barb ended up pushing more forward, making an awful sounding metal on metal scratching sound- Shit Shit Shit sorry! I'm sorry! First time driving a Blimo! Sorry! It's fine! Okay bye! See ya!

-so now Barb had to evade Kuffley, and try to get Pen home in his Blimo in one piece.-

-Hopefully Pen won't notice the small(ish) scratches on his Blimo in the morning-

-for now though, Kuffley blares his police sirens, and starts chasing after them. This would be so stress inducing if it weren't a dream... and it's not.-

Barb: Pen! We're gonna probably take a detour, alright? Hang on!

"HEY! YOU IDIOT! Watch where you're going!"

-He looked at the idiot that crashed into him, and to his disbelief, it was the menace! @rnmbarb that pale freak! But not only that. From Kuffley's perspective, Barb had somehow managed to kidnap the locally known @askpendulumdepot owner of Solid Lights Factory, and hijacked his Blimo.-

"I knew you'd slip up, ya little hairless rat! Pull this blimp over or-"

-Kuffley watched in shock as Barb continues to scratch against his police blimp just to squeeze by because she didn't know how to reverse. It's a blimp. There's no reverse!-

"Get back here! I don't know what you're doing with Mr. Depot, but you're not getting away with it on MY watch, ya crazy broad! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do! I hope that hit to the head put some sense into you, too!"

Kuffley was locked in, and refused to back down.