Facing your confusion! (Morning, for Selenus)

A glorious day to be exploring today! And what did she choose to explore today?

... Sunlake Palms...

Why Sunlake palms again?

After the my previous successes here at Sunlake Palms, I'm bound to find something new here again! Alright Sunlake Palms, this is your chance to impress me! Show me whacha got!

With jacket collar over her face, she started peeking over every fence of every property in sight. A bit more invasive than her usual approach, but considering the fortune she gained during her last visit, this was bound to be worth doing an Invasive investigation.

>Internal battery level: 100%
>Initiating bootup sequence.

Selenus woke up with a jolt (literally) and studied his sorroundings. To his comfort, he found he wasn't, in fact, being judged by the disembodied faces of all his peers as his nightmare had led him to believe, but was instead on the floor of Nola's room, like he was supposed to be.

"I seriously need to deactivate REM functions sometimes." He'd think to himself as he groggily stood up and stretched his jonts out. Checking his internal clock, Selenus would find that it was precisely 9:21 AM, and sure enough, Nola was sleeping cozily in her bed. He decided not to wake her up, as interrupted sleep cycles could lead to serious cerebral underperformance.

Considering that he didn't have any plans for the day (Save for the very obvious), Selenus decided it would be a good idea to visit Paige and ask for her opinion on the matter that had been plaguing his mind since the night prior. There were certainly no Velvet Room doors inside of the Allaway residence, so Selenus would have to step outside and find one. If he remembered correctly (and he did) the closest available door to the Velvet Room was located somewhere in the greenery of Sunlake Palms.

Grabbing a pencil and a sheet of paper from Nola's desk, Selenus wrote a quick note letting Nola know that he'd stepped out for a bit and a witty excuse to give to her parents in case they noticed anything, then peeked out of the window to make sure nobody was around to see him leave the building before finally stepping out of the house.

His plans would be compromised, however, when as soon as he stepped out of the house a small child in a peculiar jacket jumped over the fence of the Allaway residence. This was private territory! Didn't she know what she was doing was a fellony?

"Maybe if I stay completely still, she'll think I'm a lawn ornament." He thought to himself as he completely froze all of his joints and limbs.

Such luck was not to be afforded. If there was one thing that Tatum was, it was curious. Her curiosity was bond to lock onto the strange lawn ornament.

"... that is the coolest puppy I've ever seen, and I want one," said Tatum as she approached the Lawn Ornament. "But I've never seen anything like this! This must have been a custom made one. No Walmart or Junes I know would have something like this."

... I think I wanna... touch it... thought Tatum, reaching out both hands and gently stroking at the Lawn Ornaments ears. Now is not the time to be touching strange ears.

Selenus was very lightly flustered by the child currently playing around with his ears, but it didn't matter. All that mattered at that precise moment was that Selenus needed to remain perfectly still, or else this child would surely go around telling everybody about the "cool robot puppy" she saw earlier that day. So Sele did what he did best: He waited.

"Well, this is fun," she replied simply, "Maybe I'll come visit you again pup pup! You are the neatest thing I've ever seen!"

"W h y t h a n k y o u, h u m a n, y o u a r e m o s t w e l c o m e!" Tatum continued, speaking for the ornament in a robotic voice. "B u t t h i s i s a p r i v a t e p r o p e r t y, s o I w i l l h a v e t o c a l l t h e C a d e t s o n y o u!"

"No, please don't do that! What can I do to persuade you not to?" Tatum continued. Apparently, she has taken to playing with the ornament.

"A h u g w o u l d s u f f i c e, o r a k i s s t o t h e h e a d w o u l d b e n i c e t o o."

"My, aren't you a fast mover," Tatum replied, "Sorry puppy, but you'll have to get to know me better if you want that kiss. I don't put out for just anyone, you know."

"C u r s e s, f o i l e d a g a i n."

"What, are you collecting kisses for an evil plan or something?"

"Y e s."

"You fiend!" she jumped back with mock shock.

...Okay, now this was just ludicrous. Just what had this child been watching on the internet?! Eroge?! Whatever it was, it didn't change the fact that Selenus was starting to get annoyed by the child. But no matter how annoyed he was, he couldn't drop the facade. As ridiculous as it might be to anyone who didn't understand the context behind it, this coul potentially be a life and death situation for Selenus.

"Well, I think I had my fun," she replied, stroking the lawn ornament under the chin. "You be good, okay robo-pup pup? N-o g-u-a-r-a-n-t-e-e-s. Oh, you kidder." With that, she jumped back over the fence and began walking away. Or at least she did before sitting down and leaning next to the fence.

This is all well and good, but I can't keep this up forever. I need a plan, a way to find maximum fun factor without having to continually invade private property...

And thus she saw there, out of sight of anyone on the other side of the fence.

As soon as the child jumped to the other side of the fence, Selenus sighed in relief and dropped his statue-like facade. It was all well and good that he was no longer in danger of being spotted... but if there was a child constantly breaking into private property for fun, then it was in his best interest to investigate. What if she had been doing this for a long time and he was only finding out now? He wasn't worried about what would happen to him or Nola or the nieghbours (not lie the child could do much to them), but about what could potentially happen to the child.

But what could he do? If he tried to investigate alone or tried talking to the girl, he ran the risk of being spotted and sold out. It was too risky, but at the same time he couldn't in good conscience allow the child to keep putting herself in danger.

And then, an idea struck him.

"T-h-a-t w-a-s c-l-o-s-e." Selenus said in his best "soulless robot" impression, loud enough so that the child could hear him. "I s-u-r-e a-m g-l-a-d t-h-a-t c-h-i-l-d d-i-d n-o-t f-i-n-d o-u-t a-b-o-u-t m-y s-u-p-e-r s-e-c-r-e-t e-v-i-l p-l-a-n t-o t-a-k-e o-v-e-r t-h-e w-o-r-l-d w-i-t-h k-i-s-s-e-s."

There was a moment of silence as it seemed as though nothing was happening.

However, the truly astute (Or the truly confident in their plan) would be able to count down to the moment that something would happen.

5...
4...
3...
2...
1...

The child jumped right back over the fence and ran right up to the Lawn Ornament.

"You can talk?!" she expressed in justified astonishment.

Gotcha.

Extending his tail to its full length, Selenus formed a cell that would trap him and the child together by quickly forming multiple circles around the two of them at different heights (Similar to a slinky), effectively making her unable to escape. Before the child could start to panic, however, Selenus would speak up, this time in his regular voice.

"Listen, kid." He began "I'm not gonna hurt you, but you have to listen to me if you want me to let you go, ok?"

This caught her completely off guard. Panic was quick to fill her eyes when she saw how enclosed everything got. Her breathing heightened, her eyes widened, and she was certain she could feel herself sweating. She backed away as much as this enclosed area would allow her. Suddenly, all the energy and mischief that was in the child disappeared, replaced with the image of a very terrified and timid child.

Needless to say, he had her full attention.

Dilated pupils, hyperventilation, prespiration... it was clear to Selenus that the child was not very comfortable with enclosed spaces. Not wanting the child to faint in front of him, Selenus widened the enclosed space just enough so that the child could move around a bit and stretch out, but not enough that she'd be able to get through his tail. "I need you to calm down. I don't want to hurt you - in fact, I'm doing this because I don't want you to get hurt."

"You can't keep trespassing private property for fun, it's dangerous. I'm harmless, but if any of the propietors of the other high-cost houses in the area caught you sneaking into their backyards, you'd be in big trouble. They might even call the police, or possibly the cadets."


"You don't want that do you? I don't want that either. The cadets can't know I'm here, or else I'll be in big trouble. Much bigger trouble than what you would be in if they caught you. That's why I need you to stay silent and never tell anyone that you saw me here. If you can promise me that, I'll let you go."

The ironic thing about being in a panicked state and unable to run away was that it allowed for full, one hundred percent comprehension of what was being told. So he was on the run from the Cadets? Is that why he's a lawn ornament? Is it to hide?!

She listened carefully to each and every word that was said, only nodding as soon as he finished speaking. Then she replayed what he said over in her mind to make absolutely certain that she heard everything right. Then her mind was absolutely certain that it jumbled something up!

Something about Cadets? He was gonna call the Cadets?! He's on the run from the Cadets? Wait, they went over that, right? Isn't it why he's a Lawn Ornament? All she knew was that she was willing to make any promises if it meant getting out of here...

Now that she thought of it, there was a little more room. Her breathing did calm down, and her mind began to clear just a little bit. Her eyes were still wide, though, and swallowing that lump in her throat became necessary. What was it that he said?

He was on the run from the cadets? He didn't want her to tell on him? He didn't want her to get into any more yards? That is totally, completely, one hundred percent fair.

She hated when she panicked like this, it made thinking clearly very very difficult.

... okay, so maybe panic didn't help at all in making something completely comprehensible...

Sighing in relief, Selenus retracted his tail, its length going back into his body in a spiral motion, making a sound similar to that of a whip being spun, and finally retreating to its base length with a cracking sound. "I'm sorry I had to close you in like that, but I couldn't afford to have you run out on me." It had been incredibly guilt-trippy, to see her so scared and panicky. "Now, just to make sure that we're on the same page: What are the two things I asked you not to do?" Not taking any chances.

On the other hand... there was nothing that guaranteed that she wouldn't report him to the cadets after she was out of his line of sight. In fact, what he'd just done could've potentially increased the chances of her doing that, what with making her afraid of him and everything. Not wanting to find out by just how much he'd increased that probability, Selenus decided to take a different approach to the problem: If a fair warning still had a chance of not working, then Selenus would use emotional attachment instead to keep her from reporting him, and that meant befriending her.

"...What's your name?" Selenus asked awkwardly, the guilt still having a bit of a hold on him. "Mine's Selenus."

The problem with panic and anxiety was that even when the trigger has been removed, emotions are still running on high. With nerves on fire and breathing as rapid as a humming birds flapping, Tatum wasn't exactly the symbol of calm and tranquility. Thankfully the trigger had been removed, so the gate has been opened to allow her to let go, even if very slowly.

"... No more... traspassing... and no Cadets..." she replied to his first question, vaguely capable of remember what was said. At last she was sure that's what he meant. If this was his way of scaring her into the straight and narrow, then job well done.

What he said next might, ironically, have been the most helpful thing he could do for her in this situation. He introduced himself, and asked her to do the same.

The sheer audacity of trying to make nice after practically terrifying her out of her wits was so extreme that she couldn't help but laugh. So laugh she did, giggling and chuckling for a good five minutes. She even clutched her stomach in response to her laughing. She laughed so much that she was crying at the same time.

Finally, after giving herself a chance to breath, she spoke up.

"Oh gosh, I needed that," she said with a sigh. "Word of advice, you don't make friends by trapping them in a really cool robo-tail cage thing. Oh gosh, that was intense... My name is Tatum Waldie. This is a very unusual and weird way to meet, and please don't ever do that again."