Week 11, Tuesday: School

Sosie sat at the downstairs table, below the huge holowall. The table was full of a dismembered shield and several more completed ones, tools, and a few scraps of leather fabric. Technically, what was happening was a form of education, or at least AI training, but what it looked like from this end was Sosie sitting at her table, doing her own thing.

Dusty's shell was sitting on the AI Module box, his normally bright green glowing eye turned off and lifeless. Bell was in the child's bed nestled in among the racks and computers, over her blankets, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts. Her eyes were closed, and she was very still. There was a light over her bed, let for the first time, showing that there was some space behind and at the foot of the bed, mostly made up of full cabinets.

The holowall flickered with life. Along the side, purple and green text flashed almost too fast to read. Shapes and movement flashed in the background, text rose and fell. Sometimes the screen would pause, the purple and green pausing before taking turns moving in faster conversation than a human could read.

Every now and then Sosie would look up, smile, and tap a few things on the console next to her before turning back to her work on.. whatever it was.

And hour later--seven hours after beginning "school"--Sosie was finished with her.. Well, it looked like a belt, covered in gadgets, boxes, and dangly things. She fitted it, clicked a few buttons, and smiled. It only looked slightly out of place with her tank top and baggy trousers, giving her a more agenty vibe. "Not bad, not bad."

Sosie clicked a button on her console, and immediately Bell stirred, flopping over on the bed to face her mother. Sosie fiddled with her belt. "Not bad for today. Tomorrow we'll work on some culture exposure and some more puzzles, and.." Sosie looked at her console. "A whole list of things."

Bell flopped back on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. Dusty's eyes glowly began to glow, though his legs remained limp around him. Mom smiled a little bit, walking over and giving him a little pat on the side. "I know it's overwhelming, but you guys seemed to be having fun."

Dusty moved a single leg, and let out a little noise. Sosie pat him a few more times. "I know the transfers hard on you. Poor thing."

Down in the basement, Darya was practicing on the shooting range. Next to her sat her weapons rack from her van, filled with all kinds of rifles and machine guns. Occasionally she'd switch one of the two weapons she was holding for a new one. Her shots were getting more accurate as well, as she trained herself to be able to duel wield the guns.

Finally, the last energy clip in a gun slide out, leaving massive array for destroyed targets in front of her. Looking to reload, she cursed as she found she had left her ammo upstairs, and began to head up to get it, still carrying a plasma machine gun and a laser rifle.

*Pinkie faded in some way behind Sosie and walked quickly but quietly behind her. Standing beside her Pinkie nodded once to Sosie and then asked*

Bell? Do you want to learn the full extent of your new form's physical capabilites and how you can work towards them? You are new to this form, and if what little I understood of what Sosie has said about your form is correct, then you need to know how to stretch and train your muscles without damaging them. If you want, once I am confident in your abilites I can also teach you close comabt, but thats for latter. What do you think?

*Pinkie did not ask what was troubling Dusty, she was sure she wouldn't understand the answer, and waited on Bell's response.*

((OOC: Minor action))

Sosie nodded in response to Pinkie, encouragingly. "Yes! I was going to have her do some basic hemisphere strengthening exercises, but this is an even better idea!" She gave a little giggle, and picked up Dusty, unplugging something massive from the open center of his shell. She closed the front of it with a click.

Bell flopped forward again, taking a dizzy second to gain control of her arms and legs. After an awkward second where her thumb got caught in the pocket of her shorts, she looked at Pinkie and simply nodded. She slowly made her way down the ladder, and jumped down clumsily from the computer.

*Pinkie nodded in return and led the way into the training room. Walking to the middle of the room, Pinkie turned and walked slightly to the right and turning back gestured Bell to stand on the opposite side of the centre.*

I'm going to show you how to stretch your muscles before exercise to maximise your gain from it, a series of motions I want you to practise each morning, which will help with both building your muscles and repairing them and the basics of athletics. I can only demonstrate and then correct you if it is nessecary when you practise.

*Pinkie began to show Bell the correct sequence of stretches for exercise and thenwhen she was finished asked Bell to demonstrate that she could do it too. Most of the strethces concentrated on the joints, but it was easy to see that this also worked the surrounding muscles quite well.*

"Yes, Pinkie." Bell continued watching silently, standing where she was instructed to and watching with her very large, doll-like eyes. Her focus was intense, almost completely unblinking. When asked to repeat, Bell did so to the best of her ability, though it became quickly obvious she was still clumsy with her new limbs, and took several tried to get her elbows or wrists in the right position. Still, she seemed very focused on getting it right, and once corrected, she did not make the same error again.

Sosie dropped Dusty on the floor was a fair amount more gentleness than she had ever previously displayed. "Now, I have some work for you, but you and you sister put in so much time today, you may as well have fun. I am going to go check on my blood scans." It had been a nice morning, and the new belt, while heavier, was way more functional. She walked nonchalantly, drinking her smork as she went downstairs.

Sosie thumped down in her chair, and opened up the desktop CPSMOS when a small pop-up appeared in her innerGUI. She read aloud, "Ida wants to share her u-view with you! Do you accept?" She accepted, gasped, and stood bolt upright so fast her chair fell over. "Oh what the fucking HELL! On my way!" She began swearing instantly, grabbing her combat mule-tech and breaking into a full run. In Korean, she cursed her sister and tried to suppress her overwhleming worry. The Harmony of the Big Fat Hand was tough.. She bolted through the training room into the garage, shouting in Korean to her daughter.

The Mungo started, and Sosie began driving with almost reckless abandon.

Hearing the cry on smeaker, Darya broke in to a run, grabbing some ammo clips and reloading as she burst into the ground floor, armed with a laser rifle, a plasma machine gun, and her EMP and knock out rifles strapped to her hip.

"Sosie! What's wrong?" she asked over smeaker, ignoring the other resident's looks at her.

Sosie was too busy leaving the compound to answer, swearing violently to cover any smeaker noises. However, Bell took this time to answer as she rolled her shoulder back and began to stretch, touching her toes. "Mom says Violet 'that stupid brat' showed up at 'sisterfucking' Keng's, injured 'like a foolish asshole'." The voice didn't sound any less calm than normal as it delivered an accurate translation of Sosie's goodbye message.

*Pinkie probably would have found Bell intense observation unnerving if it didn't make her such a good student. She adapted very quickly and didn't need to be corrected more than once, something Pinkie remembered she had needed many times. Then Sosie's voice reverberated in her head.*

What's happening?

*Pinkie's head snapped up and to the side, impatient to hear what was happening and to know whether or not her response was required. Then Sosie blazed through the room heading for the gargage. Pinkie hadn't thought she'd need her internal translator today and for Sosie to shout at Bell in Korean it meant she didn't want Pinkie to know. Pinkie settled for observing what Bell did next. Not for the first time she regretted not having yet bought a vehicle. Listening to Bell's calm, complete and concise summary of events, and the fact that she did not seem to change what she was doing Pinkie said*

Darya, would you make sure Sosie and Violet are alright?

*Once Bell finished her stretches, all but perfectly, Pinkie demonstrated a very mutated form of Tai chi to Bell, probably with the intent of building off of it later into a full comabt style. All told the motions took ten minutes to perform, but Pinkie suspected Bell would pick these up quicker as she had almost certainly already seen Pinkie go through them. At this rate it wouldn't be long before Bell had the basics mastered.*

Darya nodded, and ran into the medical room. "Medi, we're needed, we're going." she said, the round droid following behind her as she flung herself into her own mungo and set off in pursuit of Sosie.

Bell followed Pinkie's instructions, and as predicted, was able to mimic the faux-tai chi with minimal errors. She still seemed to have trouble moving her body like she knew it must be moved. Pinkie was forced to correct her twice during one of the more complicated moves, which resulted in a single moment of frustrated furrowed brow.

"Shall I practice these every day as well, Pinkie?" Bell's face was blank as before, but there was a slight raise in her voice that betrayed a tiny edge of ..emotion.

Only if you want to master them Bell. Knowing the other exercises ensures you won't damage your muscles by accident, these simply aid in keeping muscle tone and overall performance. I won't say that you ever have to do them again, unless you want to learn how to fight in close combat from me. They would only be nessecary then because they are the basis I learnt from, if you wanted I am certain that Darya and Ida would show you different forms that you might find more to your liking. Still you are picking this up quickly, far quicker than I ever did. I do not know if Sosie knows any.

Should you choose to do them every morning, they would be second nature to you by the end of the week, and it would take no more than ten minutes each morning. Perhaps that is longer for you than it is for me.

*Pinkie regarded Bell closely and thought about how frustrating it must be to go from a form that obeyed your every instruction precisely and without error to being in a new body. She did this by picturing herself in Bell's place, even knwoing the movents off by heart as she did, Pinkie knew she would struggle to perform them in a different or maybe just in a new body*

I won't ask you to do anything you do not want to, I'm showing them to you because they helped me survive and I have asked you to repeat them because your msucles need to learn the movements as well. And as far as I know muscles only learn through practise.

*This was a slight lie, but only in regard to the styles of fighting that Pinkie practised and could switch between. Since they were based off of that form, someone would have to know the mutated form and be able to predict Pinkie's reactions before they would know what she do in combat and Pinkie had selected her style for its changeability. Her personality wasn't all that changeable and she knew she was predictable, but not in free form combat.*

If you are satisfied with them for now we can move on to forward rolls and the like. We will be finished half an hour after that.

*Pinkie very carefully did not mention that the more effort a student put into mastery at this stage, the easier they would find progressing along the athletics and martial art styles.*

Bell repeated the exercises as need be, Following. She seemed to agree to want to do rolls, but paused at the end of Pinkie's speech. Her eyes glowed a brilliant green, pupils disappearing. "Mom is critically injured." Her voice was still relaxed, calm as it ever was... but she did not continue stretching, and looked at her trainer, eyes glowing.

*A moment after Bell's declaration Ida's voice came over smeaker, and Pinkie flicked through her GUI functions as she headed to the door, bringing Biostatus up and sending a request to Ida to use her eyes. She turned back to Bell as she reached the door.*

We'll pick this up later, keep the house and your brother safe. I'll come back Bell.

*Opening the garage door to permit her to leave the facility Pinkie whistled, the exact pitch she had taught Cat, and only Cat, to obey and she was soon at Pinkie's heels, fading out by default and following her master. Pinkie closed the door and left the compound. Reaching the street Pinkie hailed for a taxi without looking up, placing her combat helm on her head with her other hand (Pinkie leaves it in the garage). She then reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved her phone ready to hit the taxi on speed dial if one hadn't already seen her*

((OOC: Pinkie wasn't expecting anything today, besides from the admitably large amount of misc equipment she keeps in her jacket, her three shields and her helmet Pinkie has none of her equipment that can be left behind))

Seoul Waste Away was in a quiet area, so no taxis were on the roads going by at the time.

*jogging to get a few streets from the compound Pinkie hit the button and askes to be picked up from (uses telemetric vison to see the name of the street 2 minutes away, if such is a thing is possible) as soon as possible.

She mentions a bonus for anyone who can make it to the street in question before she gets there. Then realises she doesn't know where she is going, says thank you and hangs up*

Ida where are you?

A taxi pulled up at the street sign Pinkie had indicated moments before the agent arrived. The man behind the wheel looked to be of Indian ancestry and a small figurine of a multi-armed elephant dangled from his rear-view mirror.

"Taxi?"

Thanks.

*Pinkie opened the rear door for Cat to leap up into. She then walked around the car and got into the passangers seat.*

I'll pay extra for the Cat, for your discretion and for getting the hell out of where we go as soon as we're out of the car. Alright? Head to *here Pinkie gave the location that Ida did* I assume a bonus for getting there quickly is taken as read at this point?

*Pinkie felt that the Comabt helm probably diminished her usual look, but thought that that might be for the best right now.*

Without a word from the driver the old taxi accelerated towards its destination. It was not moving as fast as the vehicles Pinkie was used to driving, but for a car of this age and condition it moved at a remarkable pace.

(( It will take about 5 minutes to get there ))

*Parking up in the garage, Pinkie headed back through the training room and ran up the stairs to her room, two at a time, saying as she went.*

Bell? Ace airlifted your mom to hospital, she's getting treatment. Myself, Ace and Ida are going to try and find the E.I. agents behind this. If we're lucky we can finish this now and if not we can figure out what happened and think of something for them later. Ida saw one of them and recognised him form the club.

*Holstering Ignus & Charmeleon and slinging the anti grav mule tech containing her Rail gun and all its ammo over her right shoulder, Pinkie paused looked around for Bell, fond her and with a very odd look on her face said.

You gonna be okay?

Bell was still in the training room, and had watched Pinkie come in with all of her sets of eyes. As Pinkie ran past her again, she nodded mutely. It was obvious she had been practising what her godmother had taught her, for lack of anything more productive to do. Her brow furrowed again, only for a tiny moment, as Pinkie stopped in front of her, and then her face became as impassive as it ever was. The news didn't seem to bother her in the least. "I am monitoring Mom with my Biostatus Upgrade. She is doing better now. I do not anticipate having any problems while you are gone, Pinkie. Mom would want you to stay safe."

Thank you. I'll be safer when those agents are gone. Oracle will.

*Pinkie very carefully did not mention that she felt Bell would be too. She whistled sharply callling Gren and Evee to heel and within moments they were at her heels. She nodded to Bell as she walked hurridely from the training room and instructed Gren and Evee into the back of the van. She had anticipated she friction betwen them and Cat, but she saw that Cat had already leaped up into the front and was sitting in the passangers seat. Catching sight of Sosie's back, Pinkie checked the pocket as instructed, thinking Sosie had left something for Bell inside. Pinkie knew what it meant to keep hold of things. Looking inside she found....*

Her butterfly knife.