"Rosetta, do people kick and mumble in their sleep?"

The leafeon paused from where she was chewing on her breakfast, swallowed, then blinked at Bei curiously. "Yeah... they do. Some people do, some people don't. You've never noticed this before?"

Bei hadn't, actually. Whenever she slept on the shore it was always before Casten slept, and she woke up after Casten did. That time, Casten had fallen asleep before she had because Bei found the bed extremely uncomfortable (not that she was going to say that in Rosetta's face). She shook her head hesitantly, and Rosetta chewed thoughtfully on another mouthful of her breakfast.

"So Casten was kicking and mumbling in his sleep, wasn't he? Weird. I thought he wasn't the person to do that." She shoved her bowl aside. "Now that that's out of the way, do you want to go out in the village for a while?"

"Oh, sure!" Bei's eyes lit up. "I should go and wake Casten up, shouldn't I?"

"...There's not really a need to. He's been giving me a dirty look since we've met. It's kind of creepy." Rosetta glanced at the room that Casten was sleeping in soundly and closed the door quietly with a hind leg. "If we come back before he wakes up, it'll be okay! Besides, maybe there are stuff he disapproves in the village that you like."

"Are you sure? I think we should bring Casten along. I mean, he's mostly been right about stuff whenever we were still at that forested area..."

"He doesn't have any experiences with the village," Rosetta immediately reassured, "but I do! Why the hesitance, Bei? It's not like he's your only friend. I'm your friend too, aren't I? Plus, do you honestly want to spend another full day with him?"

Well, Casten wasn't her only friend, true, and Kaelyn still had no new information about her feelings—she had none! Oh. Arceus. What the hell was she thinking these days?

So it would be a lot better to hang around with new people—that much was true. She could have loads of friends if she didn't stick around Casten all the time!

"Well, okay." Bei beamed. "Let's go!"

"Shh, Bei. Keep your voice... down..." Rosetta's gaze travelled to Bei's ear. "Oh."

Her brown-tipped paw shot up to her brown ear, eyes worried. "U-Uh, what's on my ear? Is there dirt or something?" After a few seconds of staring, Bei recalled what Casten had said to her when they had first met—

"Looks like some sort of logo... It's a fire rising over mountains, and it's completely red. What's that mean..?"

"Oh, that." Bei snorted. "It's probably some sort of symbol that I'm a robot, or made from that building-thing, or whatever. It doesn't wash off, either. I've tried plucking off the fur there, but it only regrows the same. Stupid scientists. Anyway, is something wrong with it?"

Rosetta pressed her lips together. "That's our village symbol."

...Oh.

"Our village is probably dedicated to that very building you speak about." Slowly, Rosetta smiled. "But it's okay. If you tell them that it's just a tattoo to show your dedication to this village, they probably won't disturb you. Just tell no one that you're a robot made from that very company, or even hint it."

"...Okay."

Sounds dangerous, she mentally added.

'...You want to get out of here.'

Shut up, Kaelyn. And yes, I do. I want to get out of here as fast as possible because this fucking village is related to my fucking past. Let me out of here.

'This was your decision, Mistress Bei.'

God.

So they snuck out without Casten's knowledge, and instantly, when they did, Bei immediately felt sick because what was greeting her was a giant fucking banner with that very stupid fire-rising-over-the-mountains symbol. She choked on her own spit and stared at it, teary-eyed.

Damn. Let me the fuck out of here.

...

"Don't do it!"

"D'you think we're gonna listen to ya?!"

"Mm-hm!"

A sharp cry.

"Failure."

A sneer.

"An evolution of Raichu. This is experiment B59. But—But you can't destroy her—"

"Just shut up, Hummer. You're not going to have a say in this. Dispose the failure!"

Another cry.

"Run, B59!"

...

"Rosetta I hope you don't mind me saying this but I'm leaving."

Rosetta stared back at her with a thoroughly confused expression. "Why? We're not going to hurt you! I promise, I—"

"No. I don't think you're going to hurt me." I don't think you're going to hurt me I think you're going to kill me honestly. Bei shut her mental voice up. "But I don't like this village. It's weird. And it makes me feel really uncomfortable. So can I go?"

"Honestly, Bei, it's not tied to your past that much." Rosetta winced. "Okay, maybe it is. But we're not going to harm you. You're going to remain the way you are, you know!"

"I—"

"Bei!"

Bei whipped round to see a running Casten and she felt very relieved and even more so at his angry expression. "Oh, hi, Casten! We were just gonna walk around this village but I said otherwise and now Rosetta's being a bitch about it."

Casten blanched. "Yeah. Uh... we better leave."

"You're not going anywhere!" Rosetta's shrill voice was most unexpected. She coughed. "Why do you keep thinking that this village is dangerous?"

"Because it is," Casten said stubbornly.

"It's not dangerous. All I'm trying to do is to get Bei to settle down and allow her to live as a permanent villager. How is that dangerous?" Rosetta frowned.

Casten didn't reply and instead tugged on Bei's paw. Automatically, she trundled after him until Casten suddenly let out a yelp—then turned to glare full-on at the leafeon standing behind them who suddenly had a very very very annoyed expression. A razor-sharp leaf stuck out of his arm and he yanked it out and—oh god, Bei's first friend and new friend were fighting. For the love of fuck.

(And here Kaelyn said leafeon were pacifists.)

Obviously, between the options of leaving the village and staying in the village, she'd leave the village, but it felt like abandoning Rosetta—an actual friend apart from boring and plain Casten.

...

So... she really needed to pick, didn't she?

I um

Okay first of all I really don't like thinking about the formatting of author's notes and have questioned many times over of why FFN does not have some specific box for author's note or anything...

Second is that I know I haven't been updating a lot and it's not because someone has been shovelling shit onto my life it's because I'm too lazy.