A Machine's Maddening Machinations [Frog] [Afternoon]

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

"Grins' Hole in The Wall... Grins' Hole in The Wall... Grins' Hole- Oh! There it... nope, that's a... not sure what that is, but it's definitely not a bar. Or any manner of legal establishment, for that matter."

For the nearly the past hour, Selenus had been scurrying along the BackLight district in search of the nest where the elusive creature known as "8D (AKA Grins)" lived. If Selenus could feel physical pain, his legs would've given out by now.

After a few further minutes of searching, Selenus passed by a red and white dirty-looking claw machine in an alleyway beside Arcadia, where the locale's accumulated garbage most likely ended up sooner or later. Out of curioisty, he backtracked until he could inspect the claw machine properly. The first thing he noticed was the "Out of order" sign was plastered in front of it, with small subtext below the main words reading "Will not start up.". The second thing he noticed was that there were still a few untouched plush toys still sitting inside of it.

"Who throws away perfectly good toys?" Selenus thought. At first he considered ignoring it and moving along with his business, but then he considered what a nice surprise it would be for Nola if he were to bring her home new toys. Sure, she was a rich kid, but she definitely seemed like the type of child who greatly valued effort-brought gifts over store-bought ones.

After about half a minute of deliveration, he decided to give it a try. First he looked around to make sure no-one was looking, then he grabbed the machine's cord with his tail and connected it into a small outlet hidden below his barrel; Afterwards he plunged his tail into the machine's exposed machinery and force-booted it using his own systems. Finally, he changed the machine's "credits" variable to 99.

With that out of the way, he grabbed the joystick with his tail and began to play. It should've been easy for him, considering the fact that he could solve billions of complex calculations each second being a living computer and whatnot, yet something was off. No matter how precisely he calcuated the trajectory, force and speed of both the claw and the plush toy he was going for, the toy would always fall off of the claw just before it reached the drop point.

After exhausting multiple tries, Selenus belowed in rage:

"FOR THE LOVE OF JIM BELLUCCI'S NIPPLES! JUST FUCKING GIVE ME THE TOY!"

As soon as he said that he regretted it, as he heard footsteps approaching him from the entrance of the alleyway. Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit...

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

A Machine's Maddening Machinations [Frog] [Afternoon] O56non

*whistling sounds~whistling sounds~whistling sounds*

No wait, Frog didn't know how to whistle.

Scratch that and imagine him walking in silence. Walking in silence through the city, taking the long way home because shiiiit, he'd need to take care of the dog when he came back. Uuuuuuuuugh as banana biscuits. Seriously crap. And he had to process all the stuff that's happened and have some alone time to spend imagining himself being a super awesome Terrorist with super awesome superpowers, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Super awesome! Anyways, his legs took him through the BackLight that day. Stupid mall was quite cool, actually. It had everything. Now... if only he had to courage to enter all the awesome clothing stores and get himself some decent rags HE WOULD ACTUALLY LIKE WEARING, but he certainly didn't have enough courage, so he never did. And so he just walked. That Phantom guy was gonna pay, ha-ha! He was gonna pummel him so hard he would even hurt himself with the force! Because he was so awesome now!

Wait however... What was that voice? Familiar voice... Shouting something about nipples? Uuuugh, must've been some hobo, shiiiit. He'd need to avoid contact. Maybe the hobo wouldn't be in his way or maybe it'd be gone by the time he'd reach the spot.

Warily, Frog turned the corner... And peeked... Buuut, it was no hobo there. It was... a robot dog!!! A familiar robot dog! Sheesh, what was up with fate bringing him together with all these people two days in a row. Stupid fate. Well, okay, he didn't really mind this dog. It was a cool dog. Selenus? Or something. No-wait-a-friggin-second!!! "Hey, Selena Gomez! What a coincidence! Shake it up! That usually works with machines! Or so the movies say! You wouldn't be singing about shaking it up if it weren't something awesome and worked every time, now would you!? Haha!" He'd playfully scoot over to the robot and lean against the machine, then give it a slight twank. "What'cha doooooin' anyways with this thing?"

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

It was... Frog? Huh. "Hey Frogerio." He greeted simply. "...What? Sele- look, just don't, alright? I've been having a shite time trying to get something to come out of this god-forsaken claw machine legitimately, and if things get any worse I'm going to short circuit!"

Once again he lined up the claw, waited for it to stop dangling, and let it drop. Once again it grabbed a toy, and once again the toy fell off just before it reached the drop point. Selenus stood there, looking in disbelief as he, state of the art technology, had been repeatedly defeated by a machine with an 8-bit processor. In a fit of rage, Selenus smashed the glass with his tail and retrieved the toy he was aiming for with his own claw.

"So, what brings you here?" Selenus asked like he hadn't just caused severe damage to property.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog nonschalantly stepped aside as Selena had his little outbreak.

"Sheeeez, seems like someone got off on the wrong titanium-reinforced paw thing this morning!" Haha! It was sort of funny, watching this robot lose its temper and wreck the hell out of the stupid claw machine. He'd wave his hand in front of his face and grin. "Right, well, I'm here without a real reason, you know. Haha, just like, I'm here passing by on my way home." And he was. Without a reason. Why would he even come to a mall out of all places? Not like he had any friends to hang out with, shiit. Either way...

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeey, well, since I answered your question, you might as well answer mine, right? So like, why were you trying to get..." He pointed at the thing's claw tail thing holding the toy thing. "...this toy out of this broken down thing anyways, oi?"

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

Selenus looked Frogerio dead in the eyes. "No reason. No reason at all." He claimed; then after roughly six seconds of awkward absolute silence: "It's for a friend." More silence... "Alright, it's for my contractor." And after one final bout of silence... "...A little girl is my contractor." If Frog found his hissyfit at being ~~rekt~~ defeated by a claw machine funny, Selenus dreaded to think what he'd think of the fact that he was basically working for a fourteen year old girl.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

There was really no point in containing his laughter right then. Frog would bend forward as he grinned and burst out in a laughing fit. "Hahahaha! Oh gosh, so the big bad wolf robot like you is working for a little girl? You know what that sounds like? Little Red Riding Hood, but where she's the badass and the wolf is a wuss, hehe." He 'd straighten back up and grin, but then pretend to clear his throat and serious himself up a bit. "No, like, but really. That's good, isn't it? You already found a new person thing, right? Is she repairing you? Is she forcing her underpayed dad to do it for her? Or is she helping you find your purpose? Or like..." He winked. When one could expect him to right there and then imply that maybe Selena's new purpose would be the girl herself, Frog would only chuckle. No way was he gonna show himself off in such a bad light. "Joking, joking! Haha!" He'd wave and end up finishing the sentence.

"So like... when you say 'little', what age-range are you implying with your highly sophisticated robot-dog-brain?"

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

"If I'm a wuss then what does the fact that I could cut you down in a second make you?" Selenus asked with a hin of annoyance in his voice. "Not that I would; Unlike you, I actually have decency." He commented half-teasingly. He didn't dislike Frogerio's presence, but he did dislike his bravado.

"She's giving me a place to stay, and in return in keeping her safe from danger. She scratches my back, I scratch hers." Not entirely untrue... "She's an idol, as a matter of fact. Not sure if her real name is known by the public, so I'm just gonna tell you that she's part of the idol group Trinity. She's... fourteen, if I'm not mistaken."

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

"Yeesh, yeah yeah, sorry! Geez, don't be so picky, or else people won't like you! Especially if you threaten them with that claw tail thing of yours!" The robot dog was snarky, hmpf! Kind of unexpected to see such complex thought logarithms at work, since, you know, this was a robot and robots had computers for brains. Unless this thing was some sick cyborg shaped like a canine, forever suffering because of the new form its being got stuck in because of a some weird government experiment thing! That'd be swell, but probably not true. If he was a government thing, they'd have had him eliminated already. Wait, why refer to the robot as a 'he'?

"Never heard of her." Frog replied immediately. Really though, he wasn't much into music. Sure, he knew to respect a catchy beat when he heard one, but like, these super young teen idols things were definitely not part of his opus. Especially like, fourteen. That girl's gonna screw herself up with taking on a career so young. Like JB. He really couldn't recall the name, though... If anyone knew anything about this young idol girl, it would definitely be his lil' sis. Hah, but who cares. "And you scratch her back? Wow, that sounds like fun. You know, I like to have my back scratched too sometimes, and your claw seems perfect for that, so like, hehehe! Wink, wink!"

Frog would start turning around slowly, gesturing with his hands as if he was about to raise his bag and shirt off of his back and let the thing scratch him. Ehehehehehe~

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

"I'd rather not contaminate my tail with the seventy million different venereal diseases your skin carries, thank you very much." Selenus quipped, his tone merry so Frog would definitely know that he was fully joking this time around. "Shouldn't you be at school? I mean, I know you're gonna end up working at McDonalds for the rest of your life either way, but it'd be nice if you at least tried."

"Hold this, please." Selenus said as he extended his tail over himself and deposited the stuffed toy on Frog's hands. It was an adorable yet slightly creepy plush of a purple bunny with a red bow-tie and a guitar. The robo-wolf would disconnect the claw machine from his barrel as soon as he noticed it wasn't going to be working again any time soon, then retrieved the toy from Frog's hands. "To be completely honest, I'm not really sure if this was the best choice of prize. It's... oddly disturbing... think I should get a different one?"

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

"Rude-!" Frog grinned and turned back to facing Selena. He really wasn't expecting the thing to actually end up scratching his back, but he surely and definitely wasn't expecting the thing to be snarky about it on top of all that! Haha, this dog was great! "And like, rude again-! Double hit, man- I mean dog- I mean wolf? Nonono, I mean, wuss, ehehehe!" He grinned again, but ended up waving his hands in defense mere seconds after speaking up. Yeesh, he already managed to upset the thing once with that nickname, so like, he wasn't gonna make himself look bad and do it again! "Nah, I'm joking! You ain't a wuss, you're a super badass spiky robot dog with a grappling tail and a thing for toys, sharing feeling with fourteen-year-olds and breaking stuff. Besides, the school's over for the day. It's afternoon, dogmanwolfthing, OMG, ikr."

When Selena threw him the plushie, though... Frog's first reaction upon looking down at it was to flinch and contort his face into one of horrified disgust. Though... On a second glance he took after removing his eyes off of the thing was that it was actually kinda cute. Well, just kinda. Purple rabbits weren't his thing. Rabbits at all weren't his thing. "Naw, it's a fine piece of art." Frog wouldn't let Selena pick the toy back. Instead, he'd throw it back to it before shrugging as he spoke upagain, but kept his face fairly serious in an attempt to present himself more in that light. "The girl's gonna love whatever you give to her anyways. You're her awesome mandogwolfthing, aren't you?"

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

Wait, school was over? Selenus checked the clock in his main CPU and saw that, indeed, it was well past what time he thought it was. "Crap... I'm behind schedule. There's something I need to do tonight... that I can't talk about, but I need to find repairs before it happens. I've been looking for this one damn bar a roboticist works at for so long that I lost track of time." Indeed, the gigantic shopping mall was like a maze; Traversing it was quite the strange journey.

Catching the toy in his tailclaw, Selenus would give it another look-over as Frog complemented its aesthetic value. "She is the appreciative type, but what I'm trying to do here isn't appreciation: It's about finding another way of saying "Thank you". And I'm not "Hers", I'm just her bodyguard." Selenus would put the toy on his back and grab the velvet-covered key around his neck by the string it was attached to, then would proceed to spin it in little circles in the air. He saw no harm in letting Frog see the key; Not to be rude, but there was no way this guy had had the same dream, considering what one needed to have achieved before having said dream.

[OOC: Get. The. Hint?]

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Hmm... What Selena was saying almost made some sense to Frog. Like, for the first time, the dogthingwolfrobot was actually talking about something relevant! Praised be lord and all that crap, eh? Haha, but what exactly, what... Perhaps it had something to do with the brilliantly blue brilliant key brilliantly brillianting in the brilliant neon lighting as Selena brilliantly waved it around in its tail claw thing. Oh... wait... Velvet...

Frog's eyes widened as he assumed the pose from Munch's 'The Scream' in face of blind revelation... Selena was... "Shiiiiiit-! You're like, are you actually talking about-!?!?" No, wait, gotta keep it down about this confidential business... So he'd lean down, flashing his teeth in a sort of cringing face which eventually changed into a focused expression. Almost like he was taking a dump. He leaned into Selena's head with that face and spoke up, quietly, but couldn't contain himself that much so he actually began exploding words all over the thing. Speaking of things... "Hide that thing, hide it-! Cadets are everywhere!!! Actually, wait, what is that thing? A key? I didn't get a key, or maybe... Ah, banana biscuits, I left it in my bed when I woke up! Moooom!?!? Anyways... You're a Terrorist too..? Like, what are the odds!? Though it would explain you and your... Roboticism. Like, if you too can do this banana, what, Persona? business, then it would make sense for you to be... Well, you. Anyways, are you coming to the Platinum whatever tonight? Oh my god, I'm coming too. Wanna come with if you don't have a plan already..?"

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

Of course Frog would be a Persona User. Why wouldn't he be? Fate seemed to lock Selenus up with the weirdest of teammates all the time anyway. A slight mixture of annoyance and stupor in his voice, he whispered back."I'd love to, but I need to get a few things done before I can actually head down there. For all we know The Phantom's gonna test us again with more demons, and I seriously don't wanna have another face-off in this miserable state of repair. You saw earlier how bad it is."

Wait... if Frog was going to be taking action as well, then that would mean that he'd most likely be around him a lot more, which in turn would make it highly likely that he'd pry into his business. He hadn't even decided if he wanted to keep up with the vigilante shit after awakening! How was he supposed to work with this?!

Seeing an opportunity to throw him off until he straightened things out, Selenus took it. "I suppose there's no point in keeping the "government robot on secret mission" act up any longer, eh? I was hoping it'd seem phony enough to deter you, but it appears fate just won't have it. Just make sure not to blame me if demons end up treating your nether regions like a state fair."

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Pfft, so the robotdogmanwolfthing was worried about getting beaten up. Heh, though yes, honestly, he was in pretty bad shape if he got broken up after just colliding with Titus, no matter Titus's weight, it'd probably be nothing compared to some demons. Like that metallic guy from 5 years ago. That guy was big. Either way, Frog's cringing face would swap into a grin as he chuckled and straightened back up, hands on waist. "I'll just have to keep you safe then, hhaha!" He said, all confident and all. Really though, because he was confident as all hell. Confident he'd beat the crap out of the Phantom and anything he throws at them if he throws anything at all. If they were going to the Platinum whatever, then they were practically walking into a Terrorist den, which sent goosebumps running down Frog's spine, and not good goosebumps. Goosebumps that made him want to reevaluate his newest life choices. But he wasn't gonna do that, because he had Brit and Liam and now Selena with him, probably. And they could take anything down with how strong they were, hahahaha! "You don't know how strong I am, ehehe! I'd surprise you, definitely." Unless the robo-wolf was some super strong Persona thing. Which would be unfair. "Or you could just like, go hurry up and find someone to repair you or something. You have your fourteen year old master now to help you do that anyways!"

"What're you talking about, Selena?" Frog tilted his head jokingly at the robot's newest remark, because frankly, he had no idea what he just said. "You, phony? Hah, I don't really have a clue what made you think you could put on an act or anything. I haven't even noticed you've put up an act. You only talked about being in that bush since you were like spying on info about some murder. And nether regions... Hmmm, you mean we're neutral or something or just like..? Whatever. Any demons that come at me will just be destroyed anyways. Not like any of them could stand up to me."

Posts : 1157 Join date : 2015-11-07 Age : 23 Location : Yes

If Selenus had fascial muscles, his eye would twitch. "For the last time, she's not my master! She's a contractor! I'd charge her money, but what I need the most right now is shelter, and without accepting it as a form of payment there's no way I'll be getting a decent one. Not while I have this physical appearance, anyway." Not entirely false either, but not entirely true: Selenus wouldn't have the nerve to charge a friend money for a simple service. Not like he needed money for much to begin with.

Well... that wasn't exactly what Selenus was expecting, but it achieved what he was going for anyway. Mission accomplished...? Audible question mark?

And just when he thought Frog couldn't get any cockier, he made a comment about no demon being able to stand up to him. "Listen, Frog. I'm gonna say this only for your own good: Do not underestimate the demons. I was there when the Eternal Divide took place; I've seen what they can do and how ruthlessly they can do it. I saw a single demon eat away at a mass of people like an ice-cream sandwich, with no semblance of regard for age, race, gender, or anything. I've seen innocent people pay the consequences for the carelessnes of a Psyche Terrorist, even if his intentions were far from twisted, and I know first-hand how horribly the government's going to treat you if they get their hands on you. As a matter of fact, I've also seen a Persona trying to kill its own god damned user, so you can't even rely too much on your own power!"

Looking Frog straight in the eyes, Selenus finished his thought with a tone of seriousness that he'd never before mustered.

"This isn't a videogame, Frog. You don't get to try again."

» The Frog and the Princess and the Puppeteerette [Afternoon - Frog & Brit & Touko]
» The Frog and the dawg and the tux [Afternoon - Frog & Selenus & Gabe]
» Who? Takeroo! [Afternoon - Frog x Takeru]
» Shift [Afternoon - Frog x Telly]
» Ceceiling [Afternoon - Frog x Cecil]