Feelin' Squirrely

Unfortunately for Harke, his waiting proved to be unfounded, as Sabrina already had a fork in her mouth by the time he started to ask his question. No way was she waiting even a second longer than she had to get wonderful, wonderful food in her. "I'm sorry...did you say something, Harke?" And on top of it, she hadn't even paid attention...

Fortunately for her, her Navi had. "Hey, Sabrina! Take a good look at the table!"

"Huh?" Without even bothering to stop eating, she looked down...to see a jack-in port. Didn't see that one coming. "Oh hey, a jack-in port!"

"Yep! Eternalis already headed in, though, so it looks like we can't bust together...but on the plus side, we can give the Rogue Net another shot!"

"Hmm...nah, let's just stick to the regular Net, this time." How Sabrina was getting all of this out without choking or stopping was a small miracle. "We need a little break after that last bit..."

"Okay! ...Oh, what about Blub? Should he come along?"

"Yeah, he'll make it in ACDC's Net! Now let's go!" Still not missing a beat, she grabbed her PET, and aimed it towards the port. "Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!"

This girl... Hah, interesting, as expected. Not afraid to break a few.. wait, now that I think about it, they're not much rules as invisible guidelines. What. Oh well, so much for courtesy. Harke picked up the spoon and began to dig in. As expected, again, it is delicious. No surprise there.

Oh wait, you said you wanted to team up? Hold on, I'll tell Et. He picked up his PET with his left hand, his other still occupied with feeding. Et. Find SplashMan. He jacked into ACDC, normal. The Navi answered from the PET, No problem! Now to resume stuffing his face. He looked at Sabrina and marvelled at her pace of eating. That's something you don't see everyday.

Hey, Sabrina. You might want to slow down, chew your food, and generally stop bullet-train eating before you choke.

Hmm...he had a point. Not to mention it was pretty rude. Sabrina set her fork down for a moment, in order to properly process the deliciousness before talking. "Sorry, I don't usually do that. But like I said before, I never had breakfast today, so...yeah. The fact it's so good doesn't hurt, either!" Was it her mom's cooking? Nope. But Yumland sure knew how to make some good stuff in its own right. "Oh, and busting together's just a suggestion. But considering we're at the same table, it'd be nice if we did..." Of course, just being able to bust with another Aqua Navi was pretty cool, too.

"Oh, by the way, how's your soup? It looks pretty tasty!"

My soup? It's treating my palate very well. What, you want some? Here, I don't mind. Yours looks tasty, too. Harke pushed the bowl towards the other end of the table.

Oh, hey, look, bread in a basket. Mmm, bread. He picked up the smallest little bun and started chewing on it. So soft, so chewy. Melts in the mouth. Om nom nom nom. He liked bread. Even better would be sliced bread, but this place didn't have any, so this would have to suffice.

"Er...sure!" Sabrina grabbed her spoon, and took a little bit of soup from the offered bowl and ate it. ...Though if he was sick with something and she caught it from him, she'd beat him down with that very spoon. "Hmm, not bad! Though to be honest, I like mine better! But then again, I'm not much for seafood, so I bet that's why." She moved her plate over towards Harke, with the part she hadn't touched yet facing him. "Here, you can try a little of mine too, if you want!" Displaying another rare moment of self-restraint in the face of hunger, she refrained from taking another bite until he'd had a chance to grab some curry.

You are interrupting my bread. But okay, I'll have a taste. Putting down the half-eaten bread on a plate (must conform to hygienic expectations!) and grabbing his spoon, he scooped up a bit of curry and had a little smackerel. Ummm. Tangy. He pushed the plate back to its rightful owner for some much deserved food consumption, once again.

Then, remembering his earlier bread, he picked it up, threw it in the air, and swallowed it in one shot. After which he retrieved his spoon and resumed eating his rice and soup with much gusto.

Interrupting his bread? What, was he the king of bread or something? Didn't really seem very happy about the curry, either...he did realize that he could just say no, right? Ah well, nothing bad enough to bring up, at least. Plus, she hadn't noticed the bread before. Sabrina grabbed a decent sized roll and took a big bite out of it. ...Wow, it was really good. Now she understood why he wasn't happy about stopping. However, she elected to set the bread down instead of continuing, as she had a plan: eat curry between battles, eat bread during battles. That way she wouldn't risk getting curry on her PET if she got sloppy.

"So, uh..." Well, she had to try to make conversation...well, there was always the obvious route. "I have to admit, I'm kinda excited about our Navis busting together, what with me never meeting another Aqua Navi user before. But don't worry, I'll make sure SplashMan doesn't hog all the action!"

Shortly after Sabrina finished talking, Harke, having eaten much of his food, let out a large burp. Oh. Excuse me. Netbattling? Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to it myself. I'm going to get a speed upgrade once I get something in excess of 5000 zenny. Then, it's off to chip-hunting. Or both, even. I don't really mind if SplashMan gets more action than I do, he deserves it. It would be interesting to see another stronger Navi in combat. Stopping himself, he went back to his soup, which was nearly finished. Oh, one more thing. Mind if I call your Navi Splash? The long name kind of makes it awkward, for me, anyway.

Ah, the dreaded Speed Upgrade. "Yeah, I'm trying to save up for another Speed Upgrade, myself. But I keep getting distracted by other stuff..." Stupid buster NCPs, and stupid TrainArrow chip for making her want them. "Sure, go ahead. You'd think I'd call him that after a while, but nope, I just always call him SplashMan..." That was actually a lie as of recently, but she wasn't about to open that can of worms...

Speaking of which, her Navi had suddenly stopped. That could only mean one thing..."Uh-oh, looks like they've found something. Stay sharp, Harke!" Of course, Sabrina made sure to take a second to appreciate the irony of her telling someone else to be alert before she started issuing orders...

Staying sharp. Got it, making sure to keep an eye out. He went to his PET, checking up on his Navi and slotting in those good old chips. This brings back memories. Of, maybe, like, 10 minutes ago. Yeah, those were good times, good times. That Boomerang-Shotgun thing? Yeah. That was good. Starting to get old, though. He'd have to come up with something better. Combining them, perhaps? Hm. He'll save that for the next battle.

As her two sentinent programs returned to her PET, Sabrina took one final bite of curry. Mainly because there was only one bite left on it. With that, she started to stand up, but thought better of it, and didn't. Recalling her Navi was fine, but being really rude like that wasn't. "Sorry about cutting our busting run short, but, well...when my dad recommends that I do something, it's usually a good idea if I do it right away. Especially if it's NetBattling related." He was almost annoyingly good when it came to that, really...

"Oh, and don't worry about the check!" The Netopian girl placed a fair amount of zenny on the table. "Before I came here, Dad set up a separate account for me, so I could save my own cash for SplashMan upgrades. I mean, I can't just use it for anything, but I think he'd be fine with me using it on eating out!" And with that, she put her elbows on the table, as she waited for Harke to finish his own food.

Oh. Seems they're leaving. Oh well, he nearly had enough for the upgrade, plus he wanted to have a go at SciLab Net again anyhow. He put down his spoon and bread, having eaten his fill. Alright! I don't really mind. It was a nice experience, nevertheless. Thanks for sticking up with me all the time. He looked down at his PET to prompt his Navi of the situation. Eternalis, we're leaving. I'd like to experience SciLab again.

And, wait, what? SHE was paying? What. You're paying? No offense, but I do refuse to be one-upped by a girl. Waiter! After the waiter came to take their check, he immediately whipped out a zenny card and put it on the table. He quickly said in a prompt tone to the waiter, See to it that... looking at his companion, oops, she looked like she would not be interfered with, ...my friend and I pay for the food equally in proportion to what we ate. "Of course, sir."

He turned back to his companion and flashed a smirk, one that exuded victory. He remembered something important. Oh! Yes, right. Proper etiquette, I almost forgot, he said as he rummaged around in his pocket once more. Candy, cash, that weird doll he'd been meaning to throw out... aha. He slid over the card in his hand over the table. Here, how about we trade e-mails cards? I'd like to keep in touch with you, especially about this Christopher Jetto. Seems an interesting character, like my dad. They should meet sometime. He had to stifle a snicker on the last remark. And with that all done, he mimicked Sabrina by slamming his elbows into the table, almost, but not quite, moving it.

Harke S. Ezarith
Navi/PET Researcher
120-12-1, 1st H'rai Building, Jann 85400, Sharo.
Email: OmegaSol@ACDCMail.net

Ah, he insisted on splitting the check. Oh well, paying that much in one sitting might've raised a red flag or two, anyway. "Well, if you really want to pay, go right ahead." Didn't look like she could stop him, anyway.

"E-mail cards?" Uh, she didn't have one of those...ah, she had an idea, though. Pulling out a pen and an unused (albeit rather crumpled) sticky note, she started to write her own info down, in the same fashion as Harke's card for extra fanciness. And...done! "Okay, here's my, er, card!"

Sabrina C. Jetto
Student NetBattler
359 East 8th Street, Current Town, Netopia
E-mail: SabrinaJetto@NetMail.net

After pocketing the card she had received, Sabrina stood up and stretched. "Well, I guess we should both get going, huh?" But despite this remark, she didn't take a single step. Again, it'd be rude of her to just leave on her own...

He looked at the crumpled sticky note. Hahahah. Improvised with flashiness, despite what you had. I like it. She was standing up... why wasn't she going? Oh wait. She was waiting for him. Dumbass, his navi muttered under his breath. Swiftly, he took the sticky note, gave it a once-over to commit it to memory and left his seat. Almost managing a trip on the way, he ran over to the door to hold it open. Shall we go now, m'lady?

Of course, he felt like mentally banging his head on the wall for the poor 'gentlemanly' display.

"Yep!" And thus did the pair exit the restaurant, and back into a more Electopian atmosphere. "Well, I guess this is where we split up..." A moment passed as Sabrina checked her PET for the time. "Looks like the next train to Yoka leaves in a few minutes...guess I'm off!" She started to run off towards the station...before suddenly turning around and racing back to Harke. "Can't believe I forgot...thanks for showing me that Yumland place, I'll remember it! And I had a great time, so we should definitely do it again! ...Okay, this time I'm really gone. Bye!" And again, she stood there for a moment, not doing anything...before quickly leaning in and giving her busting partner a quick peck on cheek, giggling a little bit at herself at the impromptu act. And that would be the true note she would part on, as she did a 180 and started to dash off towards the MetroLine to make sure she didn't miss her ride.

(off to Yoka for me!)

Alright, sure, I-

Then his busting partner raced off, leaving Harke red as a beetroot. His Navi, just appearing on the hologram display, commented on his encounter. Heyhey, looks like someone got a peck! Still stunned by the act, Harke walked mindlessly for a bit, landing in front of the squirrel statue. Hey.. you okay? Eternalis actually sounded a bit concerned for a moment. Yeah... sure. Just... gimme a minute to get my bearings.

Great... he never wanted a relationship like that. Or maybe that was just a tease. Yeah, a tease. It never happened at all. And he would shut down his PET the moment his Navi chortled about it. All right... to SciLab it is, then. He looked at the PET for the Metro schedule. Huh. Won't be here in 10 minutes. Ah well. He could use a little doze at the waiting area.

So, was it good?

That's it. Shutdown time.

(( Off to SciLab! ))

[[SplashMan and Eternalis GET: 17 FXP]]