A Peculiar Encounter (Morning - Moonie)

And, Hikaru can't quite remain rested after a full hours worth of napping. Well, it seemed like hours, yet only a couple of minutes passed by. Even though it was still the morning, she felt kinda tired, especially after meeting that energetic child at the garden. Tatum wasn't bad, but after meeting them Hikaru was struck with a sudden need to rest for awhile. It didn't really help that much besides upset her nerves. This restless feeling stirring her emotions constantly even when the girl slept. Almost all the time. Oddly, the teen assumed she'd get use to it after a certain amount of time. After all, it had been a few years since then, but -

'I guess things don't really change. Not for the best anyway.' But, there wasn't a moment for introspective babble right now. What did people say again? The day is still young. Deciding to take a walk, the girl threw on some plain looking clothes and headed outside. Fresh air and solitude always comforted the teen's mind no matter how jumbled it was.  Strolling out of her bare home, the street were nearly slient aside the little chirps coming from the trees.

Fortunately for Selenus's plans, the market located nearest to the Allaway Residence didn't open up until later in the day, which meant that Selenus had an opportunity to get what he needed for the meeting with Nola, Tatsui and Gabe without being sighted, since the market was nigh-barren when closed. Selenus liked to think of himself above petty theft, however, so instead of taking the opportunity that presented itself of simply taking what he needed without paying, Selenus opted to leave the VC for the cost of all that he'd taken from the shops on their respective counters. He doesn't have to be seen, and the shop owners don't lose profit. It was a win-win situation.

What wasn't a win-win situation was the fact that the shortest route to the Allaway Residence had been plagued by a group of teenagers that had decided to hang out in the middle of the pathway. Deciding it would be too danerous to try to sneak past them in broad daylight, Selenus instead chose to take the long route home and cross through the uphill residential area. Nearly nobody would be awake this early in the morning, so if the robotic wolf ran into somebody, he could always go into hiding in one of the many alleyways or folliage clusters without a problem.

The walk started out normal enough. Hikaru passed the quaint houses and listened to the soft noises of the morning. As she strolled on the street, the teen notes the various changes in her surrounding the street. Someone got a new car 'Very shiny', a newly married couple is going to have a party 'Their driveway is packed in their driveway', so and so . . . The girl liked to take into account of many things no matter how mundane and kept her thoughts occupied. Aside from that, she hadn't determined her destination yet. 'Maybe, I'll get some food first I've hardly ate this morning.'

Then, her feet halted at the sight of someone or something. They didn't look like a regular thing Hikaru saw everyday or even in a lifetime. Was she still sleeping or maybe ate a weird -- no wait, she hadn't eaten yet. The girl rubbed her eyes in a nonchalant manner as if she didn't just seeing a scientific discovery. As far as anyone can see, the teen wasn't outwardly freaking out at witnessing this. No words came out from her and her eyes locked onto it or them? She just stared at a walking. robotic. dog.

...of course, hiding wouldn't be of much use once he'd already been spotted. How did this keep happening every single time?! Literally every time he attempted to be extra sneaky to avoid being spotted, he ran into someone! It made Selenus want to consider actually trying to stand out more, maybe that way he wouldn't be seen.

Regardless of whether or not his efforts turned out to be counter-productive, Selenus had more pressing issues to worry about at the moment. He briefly considered addressing the tomboyish girl before him, but her reaction to his presence was... different than others', to say the least. While the other people he'd met were certainly surprised of his robotic and canine nature (Or, in the case of a certain recessivey-gened explorer child), the look on this girl's face spelled "shock" more than anything else. This meant that if he did anything sudden or unexpected, she could potentially freak out and eventually tattle him off, so in light of this recent development, Selenus just stood there, imitating a deer in headlights. If he was lucky enough she'd think he was an ornament like Tatum originally thought, or maybe she'd shrug it off and move on. He doubted he would have such luck though; He rarely ever did.

It was definitely moving moments ago, though they stopped and stared at Hikaru. She noticed how stiff it stood and rigid like stone. Were they surprised to see a person as well? Was it scared? The teen crossed that possibility out as quick as it came. There was no way something made out metal could be afraid of someone so organic and fleshy. Although, it was shorter than her albeit more menacing looking. The awkward silence continued and nothing happened. No barking, no sniffing around, or wagging their tail. Normally, the dogs Hikaru met were stereotypically energetic and ditzy, so was there a person in them? It seemed unlikely for this to be a human in a costume. The guy would have to be pretty small to fit in there.

Absurdly, her first thought was to throw a little rock or a pebble at them. Well, not at them, but near their side to see if they responded. She still wanted to maintain her distance while testing their movement. However, there's no telling how aggressive they might act. Plus, it wasn't the brightest idea. So, Hikaru decided to break the quietness with a simple sentence.

"What's wrong? Ever seen a human before, little guy?" The voice carried a bit of levity, however the concentrated look on her face suggested that the girl wasn't trying to be too funny. After all, Hikaru was slightly lacking in the humor department. She was expecting an action akin to canine like barking all about or maybe somebody would jump out from an alleyway or bush and point out how much of a fool she was for falling for this. Either way, the girl will find out her answer in a couple moments.

Selenus wasn't exactly a connosseur of human relationships (or just relationships in general, for that matter) but he was pretty certain that no regular encounter began with one of the two parties involved throwing a god damn rock at the other. Thankfully, either the girl's aim was terrible or she wasn't really aiming at Selenus to begin with. Either way, Selenus would quickly sidestep to avoid it. It wouldn't've done much to hurt it, but just standing still and taking damage, no matter how little, is never under any circumstance a good idea.


"Have you never seen a robot, woman?" Nice bluff, Selenus. Totally not conspcuous at all. "What was the rock for? And what's with going from throwing stuff at me to calling me "little guy"?" This woman was, for lack of better words, probably about as clueless about relationships as Selenus was, if her behaviour was any indication.

Well, those next moments had fulfill some of her expectations. Hikaru heard an annoyed voice. A voice which did not come from any of the bushes or alleyways, but from the robotic canine itself. Her eyebrow twitched slightly at display of a literal talking dog. It's possible somebody was projecting themselves from it, yet who would waste their time scaring people off with a talking animal. It's too strange for the teenager. Then again, this was probably her 'rural' perspective overreacting to the situation. I mean who knows, city folks might actually not be surprised by a robot waltzing around the area. But, she has certainly never seen something even similar to this.

Her voice came out steady with a questioning tone, "So, you can talk? Really talk? That is so- " Crazy? Interesting? Weird? Stupid? She wasn't sure which one to describe the little 'feature', so the sentence faded away abruptly as Hikaru looked at the unsubtle thrown rock beside the dog, "Oh. I wanted to see if you could move again. You looked kinda . . . frozen," Hikaru stood where she was and tilted her head, crossing the teen's face is a somewhat doubtful look. "People don't normally see this everyday, you know. It's sorta surprising."

Hmm... it seemed to Selenus that this girl wasn't very familiar with the Endymion scneario. Sure, he was an unusual sight to anyone now that K9s had been revoked, but talking robots in general weren't exactly the most unusual sight in the universe nowadays. In fact, Selenus could name two right off of the top his head, and if Professor J's fleet counted, he could name well beyond a hundred. This indicated that this girl, whoever she was, was either new to Endymion as a whole, or at the very least the city side of Endymion. Mabe he could use this to his advantage... "I get that the basis of my body is unusual for a robot, but you've really never seen a 'talking robot' before?" Since the only tool Selenus had when trying to weasel himself out of being talked about was bluffing, talking to someone seemingly unfamiliar with the commons of the city placed him in a lucky spot. "Come on, you must've met at least one of uur kind before, mybe you just... never found out they were robots?"

So, seeing robots were a common occurrence in other places. Apparently, the city of Endymion didn't have too much of a complications with the sentient robots roaming around. Were they that common? The robotic canine's response suggested they were indeed commonplace. Unfortunately, Hikaru can't exactly pinpoint a particular moment she thought someone was a robot or even revealed themselves to be one.

"As far as I can remember, I don't think I've ever met your 'kind' before. Not that I know of and they probably weren't as obvious as you if I didn't recognize them." The girl was a bit surprised that this robot didn't seem offended by they referred to their as 'our kind'. It's possible that they didn't care about being separate from mankind. The movies usually say otherwise about robots. At first, they seem nice and afterwards humanity taken over by them. That was only entertainment though and hardly had any basis in reality whatsoever. The dog wasn't really that aggressive, even after she almost hit them with a rock. Bad impressions aside, Hikaru asks "You act a little human-like for a bot,  uh, no offense there. Are you guys all like that or are you just special?" Hikaru's shoulder shifted downward a bit as if it was relieving some tension residing in herself. She felt like asking for their name, so the teen could stop thinking the robot as it or them. That could be too forward. These types of situations weren't her forte to begin with anyway.

That was odd... Selenus had already figured out that she'd never seen a sapient robot before, but for her to be completely unfamiliar with the nature of robots as a whole? Sapient robots might've been a rarity for her, but regular robots were all over Endymion! Granted, not that all-over-the-place as of late when compared to how many robots were around a few years back, but... it was still slightly bizzarre. Selenus simply concluded that this girl was relatively new to Endymion. "I'm... not special, no." Blatant lie alert. Many sapient robots there might be, but Selenus was the only remaining entity of his production line. Well, unless you counted J's clones. Selenus spoke up again as he tightened his grip on the plastic bag hanging from the end of his tail. "I don't think I caught your name." Welp, nothing left to do but silence her now; and of course, by "silence" Selenus meant "emotionally attach so as to remove potential desire to report".

"You don't think your special? Hmmm . . . ," Hikaru hummed about reiterated the robotic dog's response in a question. Its voice hesitant and a little deliberate. Apparently, they were lying and they were quite bad at it too. The girl found the way it spoke was so strange. Their tone of voice hadn't sound emotionless or unreadable like how she thought a creature made out of pure metal and logic should sound. And, if that meant it decided to lie just like that then maybe it had some human characteristics built into them? Tilting her head a bit to the side, the teen's focus aimed more intensely toward the canine and her eyes fixated on its face. What a weird bot. "You're the most unique thing I've ever seen. Well, from my view anyway."

"You want to know my name? Usually most humans wouldn't want to know a guy who tried to hit them in their face with a rock, but I guess you're more forgiving than us, huh?" She honestly was surprised by the mere fact that the robot wasn't walking away from the sheer fact that this girl seemed to attack them with a concrete object moments ago. They had more important things to handle or whatever little bots did with a grocery bag. Seriously, where were they going? "You can call me Hikaru then," she said while shrugging lightly and asked, "I'm assuming you have a birth name too?" Maybe this be a good way of getting this one's name or not. Depending on how exclusive they were and since the canine was walking alone on a quiet street just like the girl. It probably wouldn't be a stretch to assume it didn't want to be bothered, but she was still curious.

"Normally I'd agree, but you just sad that you were trying to get me to react. Unless... you weren't lying, were you?" She didn't seem like a liar, but then again aya didn't seem like a psycho when they first met, so as far as he was aware, looks could be decieving. As a matter of fact, Selenus was very prone to holding grudges and seeing the world in black and white, even if he didn't want to admi it, so he'd refrain from commenting on the subject of being more/less forgiving.

"Hikaru it is, then." Only now had it struck Selenus how many Japanese people and people of Japanese lineage lived in Endymion. He could understand that North American locations like Endymion were popular with tourists, but Endymion in particular was infamous for... well, the world's highest Psyche Terrorism rate and the place where the Eternal Divide began. Either way, he'd look up some answers on the internet later.

Birth name? Well, he was technically never born... not in the traditional sense of the word, but... "...It's... Selenus."

"Nah, I wasn't lying. Just a bit surprised that's all. I thought you would run away from me or attack me. You know, like how dogs are," The girl paused for a second and placed a finger under her chin. Her brow arched and she continued, "But, you don't really act like one though. That's . . . cool." Hikaru face still remained in thought as she contemplated 'the canine's' rather unique appearance. What would be the purpose of making a robot shaped like a dog? It acts more human than a dog really, so it's not like it would be suitable pet. They seem more like a human's human companion if that even made any sense to her understanding. Or maybe they were meant for other things? It's hard to say with certainty and it racked the teen's brain, so she creased those thoughts.

"Selenus, huh?" Hmm, definitely a name belonging to a being like this. Not very human to the ear, "I see, Hey yourself, Selenus," She said with a slightly friendlier yet awkward tone to the once called 'little guy'. She thought that this odd little greeting would make up for her not-so-normal introduction to the dog.

Then, something that she should have forgotten began making itself known through verbal means. Her stomach voiced its concerns as a low and audible grumbles. Hikaru placed a hand over her abdomen, "Well, I guess I ate up both of our time with this thing here. You probably have some stuff you gotta do too, so I'll be on my way. I hope to see you some other time, little guy." She hadn't realized she spoke her rather stupid nickname for the bot, however it was a bit late to take that back. Hopefully, they don't care too much about it. And, the possibility of them meeting each again. Probably not. The girl doubted she'd actually see this creature again. And, mostly likely not on a seemingly normal day like this one. But, it was an interesting encounter to say the least.

The tomboyish teen walked past the robot in a brisk pace, giving a slight wave to Selenus as she did. Sure, she was curious, but her hunger overpowered that. Anything to fill up her stomach was good enough. Maybe there's something good in Little Tokyo.

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