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[action] sponsored by Gold's wallet

[ There's a little sheep going around campus... okay no, not really. Sort of. There's a Mareep turned human going around, with a basket carried in both hands. It's filled with what looks like tissue paper, tied and wrapped around a thing. ... Like circular balls. Oh, how mysterious! Sometimes, her basket might look nearly empty. But no worries, 'cause she'll soon have more in there.

And she's looking for people. Anyone. Everyone. You. Or maybe you. She's especially looking for faces she recognises, even if those faces don't recognise her.

Or maybe she's never seen you before, but hey, if you're around and don't look terribly busy (or maybe you are), maybe this girl with too much light blonde hair will come over to you. What's up?

And people whose rooms she knows of or of their classrooms, hey, you're getting a visit. Library goers, too. Greenhouses. The stadium. The gym.

Everyone, you are going to meet this girl.

Spoilers, for those with good noses: it smells like chocolate. ]

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[He had to sit down, taking a spot on the couch next to him, while he thought about it.]

A few years ago, my hands looked a little different... They looked like... what human hands look like when they're wearing mittens. My hands didn't have individual digits, but they were still shaped like hands, sort of. Before that, they were... I remember they were just round, no fingers or thumb.

I've had feet for most of my life, but they were always cased in this armor...

[He reached down and tapped one of his "shoes" with his finger.]

...and of course when I was younger, they were smaller. When I first realized I had hands and feet, though, I didn't have arms and legs to go with them. I remember that it took me a while to realize that the objects... floating near my body... were a part of me.

When I was very little, like for a few years after I was born, I didn't have hands or feet at all. Not even legs or arms. I only remember having a body.

...I didn't really look in a mirror often. The one time I did, was after I had... substantiated for the first time... Um.

Yeah, I should probably explain that. I come from inside a computer.

[He reached up and rubbed the back of his head with one hand. He was glad that he could meet another person who was more interested in him than afraid of him, but he still had to get used to being able to explain himself to someone who was so willing to listen.]

[ It wasn't directly after he sat himself down that Maisy did, but eventually, with how much was said by Pulse, she decided herself to do the same. It was on the floor that she did, right where she stood, legs half-crossed in front of her and the basket of chocolates sitting there.

Like a young kid, listening to a story. ]

A compuuuteer? [ Maisy knew about those, kind of. Gold had one that he used. But was it like that? ] With the flickiiing screens that play muusiic?

[Huh. He hadn't had anyone put themselves in a position where they were always looking up at him... He was always the short one looking up, especially around adults. Maybe she was younger than him? She seemed about the same age...]

Yeah, lots of flick... flickering screens... It's an ultracomputer, actually, very big, way bigger than the ones in the computer lab. I think it took up the whole building where I lived. ...I don't remember seeing it play music, though...

[He gestured toward the empty spot on the couch next to him.]

Ma'am, you can sit here if you'd like, I wouldn't mind.

[ She hadn't minded at all sitting on the floor, but at his gesture to the spot beside him, Maisy decided to get up with a- ] Okay!

[ She brought the basket with her, and when she climbed onto the seat, she did so with her legs joining her bottom on the couch at first. It was so normal for her to sit on surfaces with all her legs, but, upon noting how Pulse sat, Maisy brought her own legs to hang down from the edge too. Right, she should sit like people too!

Her basket, still with her, sat on her lap, wrapped firmly and securely by her arms. ]

How did you geet ooout? [ She was still interested in hearing more about his computer-life. Maisy didn't even know things lived inside them! ] Did annnyonnne elsseee live with yoou? Faamiily?

[Always happy to share knowledge, Pulse went right on ahead.]

I get out through the screen. There is a way that I can follow the light in and out of the screen... I'm not totally sure how it works, though, but for me it's just like walking or breathing, I never really think about it.

I had a mom... Well, yeah, I already mentioned her. I had a father, too, but I never got to meet him while he was... before he...

Um.

[He paused for a moment.]

He sort of... left... before I was born. I was raised by my mom.

I did have a brother, at some point, I guess... it's complicated.

Maaa... [ It sounded complicated, but not in the same way that Pulse meant it. Maisy knew nothing about computers as it were, but that people could go in and out, could even be born inside? This was such a new discovery for her!

But she was interested in what happened to this brother- since he didn't just leave like the dad, did he? She tilted her head a little as she looked at Pulse. ]

What haapppeenned to hiiim? Did he go tooooo?

He, um...

[He scratched at the back of his head, trying to figure out how best to explain it.]

Technically, he was more like a step-brother. My dad created him to fight me.

Well...

He wasn't really my dad. He used to be, but something happened to him, and he turned into somethi-- someone else. I'd rather remember my dad as he was before it happened, but all I know about him was what my mom told me about him. He was a great man.

After he changed, though... because of an accident... He went insane. He wasn't anything like what my mother told me about him, so... He had turned into a completely different person, but biologically, he was still my father. He began threatening others, and... I had to try to stop him. I didn't learn until much later that he actually was my father, though, but at that point, I really couldn't turn back, I had to keep fighting him.

My brother... he was simply created by my dad. He was a type of computer program, a really advanced kind of artificial intelligence from where I come from, called a C-Life. He was built to be better than me, because my father intended for him to... defeat me. I guess, needless to say, he wasn't really the kind of brother I would have wanted. I had to fight him... and...

...well, I hope, maybe someday, I'll be able to find out where his base code is. That's the root of his programming, locked in a computer somewhere. I'd like to bring him back, if I can... I don't think he was very happy, being made to be a weapon. If I could find his code and bring him back, maybe we could actually be like... real brothers. Especially since his da-- since he doesn't have to be a weapon for anyone, anymore.

[He blinked, and blushed slightly.]

...I'm sorry if I'm... overburdening you with any of this.

[ Maisy listened to it all, without interruption. There was no point that she could, or no need to, though the world that Pulse spoke about was one entirely different to the Mareep's. Her life was one of frolicking in the fields, playing games, and then following a boy to find more fun in the world.

It wasn't a world of computers or fighting- Maisy knew that fighting existed in some form, that trouble surrounded people and had to be watched out for. But though she knew that, Maisy's life had been simple enough. She didn't even know anything of 'war', and still didn't really.

Pulse's story was certainly a sad one to the little Mareep. She shook her head, the curls on her face fluttering around when she did. And when she looked at him, it was with a sad expression, eyebrows lowered and her lips frowning. ]

Why did your daaad wanna hurt yooou, Pulllsee? Why did he do thaaat?

[She was such a bright, pleasant person, probably what Pulse understood to mean "sunny" for a disposition, he hated to bring her down... But she seemed eager to listen, and Pulse needed someone to talk to.]

What happened, from what I understand... A little over a year before I was born, my father found a way to enter cyberspace for the first time. He was a human, and he did it so that he could be with my mother. But then there was an accident that put them both in danger. My dad saved my mom by putting her in a system restore memory backup, but when he tried to get out himself, when he left the computer he had been inside, something about being in there affected him. He turned into a... he... he kind of lost his mind.

[He paused for a moment, looking down.]

He thought he was a different person... he forgot who he used to be. Then he decided that he was going to try to take over the world, and he gathered a gang of... of cyberterrorists, people like hackers, virus programmers. They were going to try to use technology to control humans. My dad... at the time... he saw himself as something greater than humans. He believed he was like a god. And he was very intelligent, and very powerful... I didn't see him again until just a few years ago, when he and his organization launched their attack on the world.

I'm certain that if this hadn't have happened, if he didn't end up going corrupt by whatever it was that changed him, he would have still been the man that my mother knew and loved. He probably would still be alive today... I wouldn't have had to fight him...

[He swallowed hard, and fell silent.]

[ Pulse was good at explaining things. Even though Maisy still didn't entirely understand why his father had created a brother to harm his son specifically (beyond becoming a horrible person), she was hooked into paying attention to nothing else but his story. Things that she couldn't understand- memory backups, virus programmers, cyberterrorists. But though she didn't entirely comprehend these words, she gathered their meaning, that they were bad. That a lot of bad things had happened to this person, Pulse, and his family.

And she knew sadness. She could see it there as he spoke, and as he fell silent from the weight of the history connected to his words. Maisy didn't know what to say when he had finished, and at first all she could do was deepen her frown. But her heart felt heavy, and she couldn't just sit there and stare and look sad.

The basket that had been kept safely in her arms was put to the side, and Maisy moved closer to him, shifting closer by his side. When others were sad, Maisy would comfort them, just as she would be comforted. To give that comfort to Pulse now, she put her hands onto the side of his arm for support, and leaned over to rub her cheek against his.

As a human, she didn't have to worry so much about electrifying people. If she concentrated enough, she could bring out the currents that were still with her; otherwise, there didn't seem to be any worry of her shocking others accidentally. But her face had always been a safe place to touch people, and rubbing cheeks was an ordinary sign of comfort and affection for the Mareep. ]

[Pulse wasn't used to others empathizing with him. He tensed up a little when he felt Maisy draw close, feeling a little confused. But, somehow, it felt really familiar. Perhaps if he were the size of a softball, and she were holding him in both hands... It would probably be weird to tell her that she also felt like his mother, so he didn't. Instead, he reached up and scratched at the side of his helmet where his temple would be, if he could reach it.]

Er... th-thank you, Miss Maisy.

[ She moved her head away after a little while, but she kept her hands upon her. Still on her face was a serious expression, but it wasn't negativity that Maisy wanted to share. ]

Maaa... I think your dad was a reeeaally reeeally good person, too. He saved your maaamaa, so he couldn't be a baad maaan. [ A thought comes to her, and her expression brightens with some hope- ] There's lots of reeeally smart people heere, they can help you find your brooother's coode! Then you can be a famiily, riight? A haaapppy faamiily.

[He pauses to give Maisy's words some thought, his gaze resting on the stacks of books on the table in front of him. He finally nodded, turning his head slightly to look at her.]

...You're right. I don't think much about asking for help, I'm so used to doing everything on my own... But I always have support from my friends. I don't know very many people here yet, though. Maybe I could find someone who's good with computers.

[He brightened up a little at the thought of that.]

It would still take some work... I don't really know if Veil would remember what all had happened before, after he's been restored. He was designed to be more powerful than me... I would have to be prepared to take full responsibility for anything that happens, in case it's part of his base programming to fulfill his father's wishes.

If you both taaaalked, you could tell him about your faatheer, couldn't yoou? Tell him he was siiick.

[ Yet Maisy understood that it could be a bit more difficult than she made it sound... but if they persevered! ]

I know someone really smaaart, he could heeelp yoou. He knows sciieeyyannce, and saayaance is knnoowrredge, and... techk..nooohrogggy. [ She looked up briefly saying that, trying to remember how to speak the words. ]

His name is Mister Goordaaan Freemaaan. He buuilds thiiings... you should meet hiim!

But Veil really loved... his father... at least, it looked that way. He would do anything for him. I would have to be careful, if he still had those feelings after being restored...

[He was listening to Maisy speak. He wondered a bit about some of the words, but he thought he could understand some of them.]

...Gordon... Freeman? I think I remember seeing that name somewhere... Does he teach here?

[ She nods her head. ]

He doooes. He taught me how to reeead, but he teaches eveerrryone tooo. I can show you his classroooom!

[Pulse smiled. Though he didn't know if this person would be able to help him in any way, he didn't mind being introduced to him, at least. He held men of science in high regard.]

Oh... That would be great.

Though...

[He happened to glance back at the stacks of books resting on the coffee table in front of him.]

I should probably... I'm going to have to finish my studying. I'm sorry.

[He suddenly brightened up, turning back to face Maisy.]

Is there any way I could meet up with you again, when I'm done?

I live with Gooold. We live in BEEE-Thirteeeen. You can visit us annnytiiime, we like having frieends round.

[ Which was good, with the way Maisy invited anyone to visit them at their room. At the subject of studies though... ]

If you like studdyyying, you should join Mister Gorrdaaan's class! I'm in it too, then we can study togeeetheer, and with 'lorah!

Oh... okay.

[Pulse wasn't yet used to being invited places.]

I guess, when I'm not busy, I might be able to visit.

[Though he usually likes to stay busy as long as he can, so there's likely little chance of that happening... he felt it was still important to have alternatives, just in case.]

I'll see if it's possible that I can come to Mister Gordon's class, if it doesn't conflict with my schedule... or anything.

[He didn't mean to sound so blunt; he was just being honest.]

...I mean, I would like to come. Thank you for... thanks for inviting me... and for chatting with me.

[ It didn't sound at all blunt to Maisy, who nodded as he spoke. ]

It's okaaay, I like talking to peeeople. I like making friends.

[ Maybe she could have helped him with his work- but though she would have liked to stick around, Maisy also knew there were more people she had to find to hand out chocolates to! Her feet had slipped off the couch, and she remembered then what had made her approach Pulse at all (other than a nosy curiosity). ]

Maa, Pulse! Can you eat chockollaate? [ Her basket was now back with her, and Maisy looked at Pulse as she asked the question. ]

Choc... Chocolate? Oh...

[Since it was a normal everyday thing for people to be expected to be able to eat, he had a somewhat scripted response ready.]

...I'm afraid I can't. My body doesn't agree with it. I'm sorry.

[He glanced down at the basket.]

Is that what that is, there?

Yeaah, 'cause it's Varentiime's Dayy tomorrow. [ She tilted the basket slightly on her lap, to show a bundle of small ball-shaped pieces inside, wrapped up in colourful tissue paper. ] People give friends chockolates, so I'm giving them to everyone I knooow.

[ Even though she wasn't particular on anything but its smell. She loved sweet foods, and would eat anything at all generally, but if had to be picky... ]

[Oh, right... Valentine's Day. Even with his limited experiences with the real world, he recognized the day when males were often surprised with gifts from females, usually of chocolate. In places outside of his home country of Japan, males and females often exchanged gifts on the same day, instead of waiting a month for the males to give back to the females who gifted them...

There had been a few times, especially after he had become a world-famous celebrity, that he had been approached by girls his age offering gifts of chocolate. He hated to disappoint them by having to turn them down, but at the same time, he didn't see the point in just letting their gifts go to waste... It was a conundrum.]

That's very kind of you. And I can see that you put a lot of work into that... The packaging, it looks very nice. I'm sorry that I can't accept any, but I'm sure that... anyone else, I think, anyone who can, they would really appreciate it.

[ Maisy leaned back the basket normally, and gave Pulse a smile. ]

Yeah, one of my friends reeallly liikes chockolates. I'm going to make him mooore later!

[ A shame she couldn't give him any- but when she had originally thought of just leaving Pulse a piece as he slept, it was for the best that Maisy knew. She'd much rather give him something else he would like. But, maybe Pulse didn't eat normal food, being a computer person? The Mareep, for now, didn't really know anything about that at all...

She got up from the seat, basket in her hands, and she turned to face Pulse. ]

Merryy Vareentiime's tomorrow, Puuulse. Good luck with your classes and getting your broother back! I'll tell Mister Gordooon about him if I see hiiim, too!

[Pulse, always courteous, also stood up. Facing Maisy, he put his fingers to his helmet and bowed his head with a smile.]

Merry Valentine's Day to you too, ma'am. Thank you. And, thanks for sitting and chatting with me, too.

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