[i just found out there's no such thing as the real world]
"Sky, weren't you playing with R.I.C. a couple of hours ago?" Bridge was sure he saw the two here when he had stopped by to see if anyone wanted lunch, and that had to be around noon. He always ate lunch at noon. It didn't taste like lunch if it wasn't noon, and then you had to call it something else. 'Brunch' didn't work, because that was before lunch, and 'snack' didn't work because 'snack' wasn't a meal. Maybe you were supposed to call it 'supper'. Or 'dinner'. Which one was the largest meal of the day? But what if he didn't feel like eating that much...
"Yep," Sky confirmed as he bent down to grab the ball and throw it again for the mechanical dog to chase. "And I'm still playing with R.I.C. I promised him I would play until he got tired. After all, if it wasn't for him… I'd be toast right now."
Mm, toast. Bridge cocked his head to the side, considering toast, the selection of jams in the SPD mess, the graphical trajectory of the rubber ball and Sky's situation. "Uh, Sky… he's not gonna get tired. He's a robot. He can play forever which is probably a lot longer than you can play."
"You're probably right," Sky agreed, nonplussed by the information. "But there's always tomorrow." He leaned closer to Bridge, presumably so R.I.C. wouldn't hear, even though Bridge himself had upgraded his surveillance capabilities to detect and to interpret sound waves miles away. "I'll just throw one more."
Sky threw one more, and R.I.C. chased after it. There was a resounding crash as R.I.C. chased the ball straight through the wall of the SPD rec room. And kept going with single-minded ... er.... doggedness.
Bridge and Sky exchanged guilty glances, and then sprinted for the door. It wasn't that they were trying to place the blame somewhere else. There were security cameras everywhere, and they knew they'd end up apologizing for playing catch indoors with a robotic dog, probably fix the wall themselves, and more than likely have a few privileges revoked or have a few extra duties added on. Really, they just wanted to avoid the wrath of Commander Cruger when he saw the mess. Which he would. Nothing got passed that dog.
"Uh... this way!" Bridge called, cutting to the left once out the door. Maybe if they ran to their room, they could feign ignorance. No, that would be the first place Cruger would look for them. Well, maybe not the first place, but definitely in the top five, and that wouldn't give the dog enough time to cool down. Or would it just rile him up more to have to search for them? Maybe they could run to the Command Center and look busy? But Cruger wasn't afraid of dressing them down in front of others. Oooh, the roof!
Bridge cut right, the sound of Sky's shoes hitting concrete following behind him, and crashed right into another person. Reaching out to grab his (her? its?) shoulders, Bridge kept both of their balances, and then returned the other's to him (her? it?). "Sorry, sorry!" he apologized before continuing his mad dash down the hall.
He stopped suddenly and turned, frowning.
"Who are you?"
Not anyone Bridge had met before, that was certain. He had a memory for faces. Well, for auras, but he linked auras and faces together in his mind, which caused some problems when, say, he was trying to remember what Martha, his elementary school lunch lady, looked like, only he added purple to the picture so she looked more like a Sorean than a worm lady.
Also, this wasn't a cadet, which made sense because Bridge wasn't in the SPD academy anymore. He was somewhere else entirely. Finding out where would involve a lot of questions though, and it was rude to just launch into an interrogation without at least knowing the name of the person you were talking to.
So he waited for an answer.
"Yep," Sky confirmed as he bent down to grab the ball and throw it again for the mechanical dog to chase. "And I'm still playing with R.I.C. I promised him I would play until he got tired. After all, if it wasn't for him… I'd be toast right now."
Mm, toast. Bridge cocked his head to the side, considering toast, the selection of jams in the SPD mess, the graphical trajectory of the rubber ball and Sky's situation. "Uh, Sky… he's not gonna get tired. He's a robot. He can play forever which is probably a lot longer than you can play."
"You're probably right," Sky agreed, nonplussed by the information. "But there's always tomorrow." He leaned closer to Bridge, presumably so R.I.C. wouldn't hear, even though Bridge himself had upgraded his surveillance capabilities to detect and to interpret sound waves miles away. "I'll just throw one more."
Sky threw one more, and R.I.C. chased after it. There was a resounding crash as R.I.C. chased the ball straight through the wall of the SPD rec room. And kept going with single-minded ... er.... doggedness.
Bridge and Sky exchanged guilty glances, and then sprinted for the door. It wasn't that they were trying to place the blame somewhere else. There were security cameras everywhere, and they knew they'd end up apologizing for playing catch indoors with a robotic dog, probably fix the wall themselves, and more than likely have a few privileges revoked or have a few extra duties added on. Really, they just wanted to avoid the wrath of Commander Cruger when he saw the mess. Which he would. Nothing got passed that dog.
"Uh... this way!" Bridge called, cutting to the left once out the door. Maybe if they ran to their room, they could feign ignorance. No, that would be the first place Cruger would look for them. Well, maybe not the first place, but definitely in the top five, and that wouldn't give the dog enough time to cool down. Or would it just rile him up more to have to search for them? Maybe they could run to the Command Center and look busy? But Cruger wasn't afraid of dressing them down in front of others. Oooh, the roof!
Bridge cut right, the sound of Sky's shoes hitting concrete following behind him, and crashed right into another person. Reaching out to grab his (her? its?) shoulders, Bridge kept both of their balances, and then returned the other's to him (her? it?). "Sorry, sorry!" he apologized before continuing his mad dash down the hall.
He stopped suddenly and turned, frowning.
"Who are you?"
Not anyone Bridge had met before, that was certain. He had a memory for faces. Well, for auras, but he linked auras and faces together in his mind, which caused some problems when, say, he was trying to remember what Martha, his elementary school lunch lady, looked like, only he added purple to the picture so she looked more like a Sorean than a worm lady.
Also, this wasn't a cadet, which made sense because Bridge wasn't in the SPD academy anymore. He was somewhere else entirely. Finding out where would involve a lot of questions though, and it was rude to just launch into an interrogation without at least knowing the name of the person you were talking to.
So he waited for an answer.