Expectations of Reality [OPEN]

The pale moonlight cast an eerie glow upon the bizarre graveyard landscape that stretched out in front of the small robot. Everything just seemed to have an energy to it that put Quote on edge, almost as if he could be attacked at any moment. Not wanting that to be an eventuality, he started rushing through the necropolis. From one tombstone to another, he kept bouncing, taking cover behind them only long enough to double check the surroundings, before moving on again.

It was only a few minutes before he found himself on the outskirts of a town that seemed to be on the cusp of some sort of event. Or perhaps they had just finished one? There were all sorts of creatures wandering around the town, taking down some sort of decorations, while others put more up. One with a spinning head stood up on a podium, yelling through a megaphone, “Only three hundred and forty six days left until next Halloween!”

Halloween? That was something that Quote knew about, and that would explain why everything looked the way it did. Knowing that there wasn’t any danger to be had, the robot entered the town. It was a long shot, but perhaps there was someone here who could help him find who he was looking for.

TAGS:
NOTES:

♥THANKS TIA!

@quote
Hope it's okay!

Halloween was a great pastime once a year, but this town seemed to put the stuff in a pipe and smoke it. Black had been surprise-leaped by enough skeletons that he stopped really caring about them. This made him worry a little.

He'd been stuck here a little over a month now, having crashed his ship somewhere in the graveyard. The locals were really generous with their hospitality since that time, but unfortunately they didn't know snap about gummi-ships. With no extra parts to buy or salvage, Black figured he was likely staying here for the long haul.

"Um...grr! Welcome to Halloween Town!"

...which lead him dressing up in a wherewolf costume and upholding the spirit of Halloween by scaring anyone who came close enough. It was a pasty part-time job he'd landed a short while ago, but much better than the graveyard shift which was in the graveyard. At least here, Black would be subjected to less zombies and dying in general.

He just hoped he wasn't setting the wanderers up for roughly the same threats.

"Hm...ah! I mean grr! You too, kid with the red hat! I'm-- hey, wait a minute."

...Namely one short-ish kid who came strolling by. The cap he wore reminded Black of his own, if only with some distinct color placement, and that made Black wonder if by some funny whim he was a Unovan, too. He did seem somewhat set apart from Halloween Town's brand of insane, after all.

"Hey, are you from...another world, by any chance?" asked the terrible werewolf, doffing the wolf-head. "You look lost."

It was almost a certainty that Quote would have missed the werewolf when he first entered the town, if there wasn’t a sudden change from the poor attempt at a growl to actually calling out to him. He stopped to look at the creature, who started pulling off his head to reveal the human in a costume. Suddenly this town both made more sense and less sense at the same time.

Regardless of the town itself, Quote was being asked if he was from another world. This place definitely wasn’t anywhere he wasn’t familiar with. The robot nodded, “Yes, I am from another world.” That would be the easiest way to figure out why everything was so different. How he got there, that was a different question all together.

“I guess you could say I’m lost, seeing as I don’t know where I’m going.” He knew where he was now, though even parts of where he had been were fuzzy to him at best. Although even if he did know where he was going, he didn’t have any way to travel, unless… An idea came to him. “Do you happen to have a way to travel to other worlds?” he asked the young man in the wolf costume. Any mode of travel would be better than just walking around, hoping to find something.

TAGS: @black
NOTES: Yours looks better than mine.

♥THANKS TIA!

@quote

When Black entered the outer worlds, he'd done so intentionally. He tended to forget that most people didn't have the luxury of choice on their side though. If this one was asking about a method of travel, then it could only make sense that he was one of such people. Ouch.

"I think the best way to travel through worlds is space travel. We use things called gummi-ships to get around. Or, the ones who can navigate them anyway." Black rubbed his head, knowing very well that he was not a statistic there. It wasn't anything new though. He'd taken lessons and crashed more than a few ships, but apparently his talent for anything not Pokemon training tended to fall flat on its face.

Sheepishly, he admitted, "actually, I'm kinda stuck here too. I crashed my ship, so I can't fly it without repairing it. On top of that, there really isn't anyone here who knows much about gummi ships at all."

Black couldn't say he minded living here for a while, but that didn't always work with everyone. In that respect, Black felt pretty bad. He wondered if there was any way he could help out, even if he did make a terrible part-time werewolf.

"I'm Black, by the way. My name, I mean." well - codename, but you get it. "Are you trying to get back to your own world? I can't guarantee you'll be able to find it, but if I figure out a way to repair my ship, I could take you to places that might!"

(...Quote run.)

Space travel? Was traveling through space possible with just a one man crew? There was really no reason for Quote not to believe the young man, or Black as he introduced himself. Then again, perhaps that is why he had crashed his ship. It was doubtful that Quote could do any better at piloting the thing.

“I’m Quote,” he returned the introduction. “I’m actually not too worried about going back to my home world, I’m just looking for my partner.” That was the only reason he was even wandering around like he was. Even though both he and Black were stuck here, maybe they would be to help each other out.

“Does the Gummi-Ship have a manual I could look at? I’m not a mechanic, but I have done some work before, so I might be able to help.” In reality he had only followed one set of very specific directions, but he didn’t think this ship would be much more complicated.

TAGS: @black
NOTES:Only cowards & smart people run! I'm neither!

♥THANKS TIA!

@quote

"Partner?" Black echoed. Finding a partner wasn't any easier than finding a world. Still; if there weren't any clues leading up to Quote's partner here in Halloween Town, then any other world was just as worth looking into.

Black vaguely recalled a manual lying around, though he never really bothered reading it (who read manuals anyway?). Usually, he just found spare gummi parts lying around and asked someone to stick them on, or just visited stores in gummi-ship competent worlds like Traverse Town. Of course, he'd scoured most of Halloween Town for spare parts, but nothing was yielded.

Black voiced his thoughts. "I think I do have a manual somewhere. Though, I can't guarantee it'll help any, it is worth a try. My ship's somewhere in the Graveyard. I'll take you there!"

The ship itself was buried up to its nose in unearthed soil and wracked with more than a few beatings, but otherwise its body seemed fine. However, one of its wings (and more than likely the issue it was grounded) seemed to have shattered onto the grass. After a time, Black emerged from the cockpit dressed like usual and with a small booklet in hand.

He held it out to Quote. "This should be it. See, a gummi ship is more special than other ships because all you have to do is find pieces and put them on. All the manual really said inside was something about reassembling pieces, which is easy! But the problem is - I don't have any pieces. I looked everywhere."

(Or did he?)

"At least everyone is nice here," Black went on to add. "The atmosphere may be a huge damper, but it's cool to see a place so actively celebrating a holiday, y'know? It's too bad though, that most of the locals don't realize that the Heartless...aren't part of the tradition. You've been walking around for a while, right? Did you come across any Heartless? They're the black things with sometimes yellow eyes."

"Yes, Partner," Quote confirmed as he followed Black through the graveyard, until he saw the wreckage of the ship. For a ship that had a hard relationship with the ground, it didn’t look that bad, aside from the missing wing. While Black was searching inside for the manual, the robot started looking at the damage. The more he looked, the more confused he became. The shattered wing didn’t seem to have any internal parts. His computer brain started whirring faster and faster as he tried to figure out how it worked.

Luckily, as his mind was just about to overheat, he heard Gummi Ship open up and Black came out with the manual in hand and new clothes on. Quote quickly grabbed the book and flipped through it while listening to Black mention how it mostly just mentioned sticking the pieces together. He was right, the book hardly mentioned the internals, and what did had no mention of normal machinery.

Quote briefly looked up from the manual while he was being questioned about the town and the heartless. “I wouldn’t know about the town. You’re the only person I’ve met here, and do they actually celebrate Halloween all year? As for those heartless creatures, I haven’t seen any of them around here, although they could be hiding in the shadows,” he said before looking back at the book. Quote wasn't trying to be rude, but he was focused on trying to get this thing moving. "I wonder if it runs on some sort of magic or strange science," he asked himself out loud.

TAGS: @black
NOTES:

♥THANKS TIA!

@quote
Sorry for the late!

The first question had Black nodding right off the bat. "Yeah, they celebrate Halloween all year long! Actually, the werewolf get-up was a part of the festivities... I guess I enjoyed myself, even if I didn't exactly mesh well with the role...heh."

Since Quote didn't seem to have any recollections of the Heartless, Black felt a little sheepish having brought up the puny terrors. They weren't exactly good news or good company. Black decided he would explain to Quote later on after the gummi ship business was tended to.

The next thing Quote said interested him. "Science? Magic...?" Black pursed his lips and stared back at the shattered pieces of the ship's wing. Was was ship just really advanced or actually magical? And if it was the latter...

Black ponderously reached down to pick a few pieces and press them together like sooo...

*CLICK*

"Eh?"

Another piece was picked up and affixed itself seamlessly to the bigger block in Black's hand. That confirmed a few things, and Black just about stunned himself. "Oh! I...I guess the manual was right!" he stammered. "Find pieces and put them on...those were pieces!" Given all the days he'd stayed here, the trainer had the decency to look sheepish. "W-well...I guess that settles it, Quote! We'll be leaving tonight!"

The gummi-ship was mostly fully intact again by the time Black was done (it literally took 5 minutes). After a brief word with the locals that he'd be back again soon, Black returned to the cockpit - this time with Quote in tow.

"So! Umm..." Black didn't start the ship right away. "Look, Quote? I'm gonna apologize in advance for this, because I'm not sure if you'll find your partner right away. Most folks can't even find their own worlds. So...y'know. What I'm saying is basically don't have too many expectations.

"And don't rely on just looking that you'll be blind to everything else. I think it's best that you just kinda...follow your gut instincts on this, okay?"