the will of one

The lady laughs in earnest, then.  ❝ I do try, but I’m too fond of stories to stay completely grounded. ❞ Unrealistic ones were the best, anyway.

Orianna tilts her head in confusion, before she understands - Rock thinks she was born a construct. ❝ Ah. I was unclear. No, I do mean my father; my body used to be human, believe it or not. ❞ It was a reasonable assumption, one she doesn’t blame him for. Without knowing her, there is nothing to indicate the contrary.

❝ I was still an inventor and a surgeon before… this. ❞ Orianna gestures to herself.  ❝ I fell very ill some years ago. ❞

Rock (for once) remained silent while Orianna explained her predicament. So she... used to be human? That was weird. She very much did not look it.

“Ohh, okay, I got you -- this is for the crocodile incident a few minutes ago, yeah? You got me, Orianna! Almost believed you there.” There was another few moments of silence from them when it dawned on them; she was very much not joking.

(It was mostly because it took her a little bit to realize they were lying about the weird... lizard crocodile alligator on the roof.)

“So --  you were sick, and then... did they -- did you just start replacing things as they stopped working? That’s still pretty impressive, but also kind’ve,” Rock looked up as they tried to remember what the feeling was.

“Sad. You couldn’t look like yourself?”

“The poison mods are not standard. Not usually legal, either, like your arm gun there. Though they might make an exception if it only shot snowballs, I wouldn’t take the chances. The tongue scanning, admittedly, I’ve only really seen on certain kinds of bots…”

It would be rather weird to explain that the kind of bot in question was sex bots. For starters, that sort of thing just didn’t seem like it’d fit in here, even if it was relatively normal in Hive City. But she also didn’t want them to think she had personal experience with said tongue scanners.

Better to just let sleeping dogs lie, or something to that effect. She cleared her throat and let them continue speaking instead.

“Why do all of the machines and mods from your place sound like they’re straight out of an old cartoon? Either way, must be lucky to have a father who can work that sorta stuff. I’m unmodded, though.” She paused, and rolled her eyes, before adding,

“Well, mostly. I got a liver mod for work, not really my choice but it means I can drink more so I’m not complaining. And I guess you can count my eyes and hair too, but that’s more my parents choice, not mine.”

“Certain kinds? Okay, okay lady, you can’t just trail off ominously and not tell me,” Rock said, clearly not willing to let that one go. There was obviously a story there and Rock wanted the stone cold facts.

Effectively banging pots and pans -- no dogs sleeping over here, no siree.

“Man, I dunno, it’d be kind of neat if we had a robot named General Earth. Would be missing the entire point of General Earth considering how much smog and pollution comes outta factory-made machines, but still.” In regards to his father -- Rock shrugged. “Yeah, he, uh, does a lot of stuff like that.”

“Okay, I think I know what this is -- and I feel like it’s a bit too sweet of a deal, yeah? People paying me for the pleasure of me smashing my face into their face as roughly as possible.”

“Where’s the catch, there’s gotta be a catch. That’s too good, I usually have to have a reason to get into a fight, and people will just pay me? Someone fill me in here.”

Battle Theme: culture shock

Battle intro: “Hey, ma’am? You’re not looking great, are you feeling ... oh, shit.”

Victory: “Whatever happened to you made you stronger -- but not strong enough. Now to fix.. whatever the hell this was.”

Defeat: “Damn it! Someone will stop you, even if I couldn’t -- seriously, didn’t you smell I’m made of metal? Give me my arm back!”

Assist: “Not normally the sidekick type, but all things considered those guys look a little meaner than you do right now -- that’s saying something.”

Taunt: “Needles? What the hell are you, a porcupine? You really should have kept the sword.”

Reacting to Taunt: “That’s not even a taunt! That’s just outright threatening -- what the hell, I don’t even have flesh. Gah!”

Tie: “Don’t get confused, Priscilla -- I just don’t want to hurt you.”

It was a memory, yes -- a compilation of memories, of nights that were so similar they blurred together. But it wasn’t what he specifically remembered before being taken to Hive City. He wasn’t in the apartment, not truly especially judging by the way his vision flickered like a tape in a vcr player, but he ignored that knowledge for now.

“I made coffee,” Rock said, pulling up a chair from across the doctor, his father’s work desk.

“I smelled it. It smells like --”

“Oil. Yeah, yeah!” Rock laughed like a recording. “I didn’t put any in -- I know you’re going to ask me.” There was a ghost of a smile on the doctor’s face, familiar.

“Fool me once, kid. Fool me once.” There was a pause, and the doctor spoke again.

“This isn’t your memory,” he said, standing up from his seat. “Someone’s stuck you in some kind of dream simulation. You see how your vision flickers, like you’re watching TV?”

He nodded.

“Whether you want to or not, kid, you gotta wake up. I’m not there to fix your systems if it fries. This one is all yours.”

Megaman… didn’t sigh, but hung his head and shook it. It figured, didn’t it? The coffee was still brewing, long after it should be finished. And it figured, too, that he dreamt of a memory -- he wasn’t known for his imagination, he supposed. (Anything he imagined was just something else he remembered.) Regardless, he recalled the doctor saying as such before.

“So… how do I get up, then?”

“I can’t tell you that. Finish dreaming is probably the only way.” And with that, he blinked and was out on the apartment building’s roof, sitting alone. Finish dreaming… but he couldn’t dream.

Well.

MEGAMAN’S MEGA* POKEMON TEAM!

*none of these pokemon are in mega forms and i dont... know if any of them do, maybe magnemite.