2-Star Yelp Review
Synopsis:
Astro and O'shay live elsewhere to circumnavigate potential wrath towards Astro by Tenma.
Where there is a mess, at least in this house, there's a little bot that's surely the culprit. At least that's what O'shay has found after living with Astro for the past few months. Of course, he tries to discipline him, but Astro always seems to disregard his pleas, going off and doing his thing almost every time. Even it meant making quite the mess. He doesn't fully mind it, though, understanding he'd rather be dealing with Astro's messes than dealing with the real threat at hand: Astro's "father".
You see, Dr. Tenma, O'shay's old friend and now presumably arch nemesis, made Astro after the loss of his son, Tobio. But for reasons he has yet to find out, Tenma abandoned Astro and set his whole lab ablaze, fleeing his position as the head of The Ministry of Science. When O'shay replaced him as the head, he assumed possession of Tenma's belonging. Out of all the things he came to own, Astro was certainly one that fascinated him. Again, he had not much of a clue about who he was under Tenma's care, so when the opportunity came for him to possibly bring Astro back to life, he did so with little to no hesitation.
However, it became increasingly clear to him that when Astro was brought back, he had a target on his back, all things considered. So ironically, he took a page out of Tenma's book, and fled The Ministry too. But not just The Ministry, Metro City, too. He knew he had a responsibility to protect Astro as much as he could, and if that meant leaving his high-paying and prestigious job to essentially go into his makeshift witness protection, then he supposes that he must.
As O'shay looks over the damage done to the living room, he sighs and thinks about what he would do to be able to hire a robot maid again. But alas, he makes his way to the kitchen searching for a magic eraser to clean the marker off the walls himself. As he's looking for it under the cabinets, he thinks about how badly he hopes Astro will behave himself while they go out today. He hasn't told him yet, but the local bowling alley emailed him regarding a promotion they're doing, and he figured it'd be a great way to get themselves out of the house. It's risky business, hoping neither is identifiable, but he figures it's now or never, and he can't let fear get the best of him. He may be undercover, but not forbidden from at least trying to have fun.
Once he finds the eraser, he heads back to the living room and begins to scrub at the walls. It doesn't come off easily, but with enough elbow grease, he makes do. After a while, it doesn't look spotless, but it's decent enough that he decides to call it quits and moves on to his next task: announcing the endeavor to Astro.
Even though O'shay knew virtually nothing about Astro when the two first met, he tried his best to get to know him. Sure, he has a lot more to learn, but he at least knows enough now to have taken the time and effort to paint Astro's room blue with hand drawn space memorabilia. Astro's always talking to him about how he can't wait to go to space one day. Hopefully, he'll be able to make that happen, but for now, he walks into Astro's room and sees him reading a book.
"Professor!" He immediately spots O'shay and puts his book down, "you saw my art downstairs? I turned the wall into a landscape!"
O'shay sighs, "Yes, and I also cleaned it up too," he walks over and sits by the edge of his bed, "Astro… I've told you this plenty of times already, but the walls are not your canvas, you have pencil and paper for that."
"Aw, come on, but drawing on the walls is so much more fun, you gotta admit that."
"Well, maybe we'll get you a bigger paper to do art on, how does that sound?"
Astro folds his arms with a huff and a pout, "still not the same…"
O'shay shakes his head, deciding it's not worth it to keep pestering him. Instead, he switches gears to what he remembered he came into his room for. "We'll come back to that later. Now, I have a surprise for you, you want to hear it?"
"Surprise?! Really? Tell me! Tell me!"
O'shay chuckles, "Okay… I know you told me how much you wanted to go bowling last week…"
"Yeah, like in that cartoon! Hmm… what was it called…" Astro thinks to himself.
"Well, it doesn't matter because you and I are going to go, later today."
"Lorem Ipsum! That's the one! And… you mean it, professor?!"
"Yes, yes, I mean it. But now, you know the rules."
"Don't talk to strangers, don't touch things that aren't yours, blah blah blah, can we go now?" At this point, he's jumping around the bed out of sheer excitement, and O'shay has to restrain himself from panicking over him falling.
"We'll go in a little bit, okay?"
"Aww, but I wanna go nowww, Professorrrrrrrr…"
At this point, O'shay's gotten up from the bed and made his way to the door, the last thing he tells him is, "just give me some time, don't worry," before closing the door. Leaving Astro to sulk alone and impatiently wait until he was ready.
The wait felt like forever in Astro's eyes. He spent the entire time pacing his room and confiding in every inanimate object he owned, expressing his dismay to them in hopes that they would console him in response. O'shay, on the other hand, was busy trying to get the coupon onto his phone. He never turned down a great deal, but he curses the fact that maybe buying a computer that's incompatible with his phone was a bad idea. Eventually, Astro calms down, and O'shay gets his coupon, and the two meet downstairs in the dining room. Again, he goes over all the rules, which Astro rolls his eyes at the entire time, all things considered, and the two head out the door.
When they get to the bowling alley, it's a lot more crowded than O'shay had anticipated. He assumed it might've been a school day, so at least no children would be around, but perhaps it was a day off for many of them. The place was booming with blaring music and kids running about. Loud crashes of bowling balls hitting pins, and the sound of nearby arcade games also filled the room. Perhaps this wasn't the best time to go, especially when he sees Astro practically glued to his side like his life depends on it. But, he went through all the effort of getting the discount, he might as well use it. So onward they trekked to the counter to pay for games.
Immediately, they're greeted by a young twenty-something with androgynous hair and a lanky figure, xe says to them, "Hey, welcome to Gardenia Bowling, can I get you anything?" O'shay pauses to think, and then remembers to pull out his phone, he shows xem the coupon, and xe gets to work putting everything together.
Once everything got sorted, they made their way to a bowling lane. Astro sat on one of the chairs, swinging his legs back and forth in excitement– he was finally going bowling! Like in the cartoon! To give him a fair shot, O'shay decided to put the bumpers up for him. And now, it was off to the races.
Astro goes first, and he picks up the bowling ball without any hesitation. O'shay suspects nothing of it, until he sees him go to swing. The ball leaves his hand immediately and shoots down the aisle, almost setting it ablaze. The pins fly everywhere, each landing in other aisles. Astro looks back at O'shay ecstatically, only to be met with his look of shock and fearfulness. Did they do something wrong? For a moment, he tries to think to himself about what O'shay's face means. His eyes are wide open, maybe he's just really awake? But his mouth is agape, and he's getting up from his seat and walking away. Perhaps this wasn't as great of a moment as he thought it was.
Begrudgingly, the employee from earlier meets O'shay at his lane as he explains to xem what happened. He can see the look in xyr face, and feels embarrassed that he has to ask the (presumably) minimum-wage worker to go out onto each lane to collect the pins and possibly shut his lane down, so it can get re-waxed. Again, Astro is still left in the dark, but at least he was sitting by the chairs again, so he was out of everyone's way, so he thought.
"Well…" O'shay sat down next to him after finishing his conversation, "looks like there's been a change of plans," he tries to laugh off the tension, but it's hard to not feel upset. He knows though that Astro probably meant well, he just didn't know his limits, is all.
"D–Did I break it?" Astro replies with sorrow.
"Technically, yes… yes you did, but don't worry. I offered to pay for the damages. You just have to be careful next time."
He looks away in shame, which prompts O'shay to sigh and place a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, Astro, accidents happen. I'm sure you didn't mean to break anything."
"But… I… I really wanted to bowl…"
"I know, and you still can. Just maybe… after you get better control of…" He looks to see if anyone was around, then whispers "Your… powers…"
Astro repeats his words, but much louder, "my pow–"
"Ssshhh! Yes, you know what I mean."
He sighs, "I guess… but what a bummer…"
…
The ride back home was silent at best, but mostly felt a bit solemn. O'shay still felt bad, and Astro was disappointed in himself for ruining the one chance he had to go out and do something. Of course, he tried to console him as best he could, but it seemed to be a little too late for the stubborn bot. He'd already made up his mind that what he did was bad, and that he was bad because of it. Perhaps this didn't have to be the end, though.
As O'shay pulls into the driveway, he gets an idea that'll sure cheer Astro up. The only stipulation was how he was going to be able to pull it off without him seeing. The two walk into the house, and Astro immediately sulks upstairs to his bedroom. Usually, the Professor would say something, but he figures now is his chance to whip up what he needs to downstairs.
Though he may not be the head of The Ministry anymore, he wasn't just going to up and abandon his love for robotics. And besides, he had a robot kid to take care of, who obviously was going to need repairs at some point. So, when he moved into this 2-story house in the middle of Gardenia, he turned what would've been just an average basement, into the lab of every robotic engineer's dreams.
His idea is simple: recreate the bowling alley experience, but with materials that perhaps won't set his house on fire. At least… that's what he assumed, and why wouldn't he? He's made plenty of robots in the past! This should be a cakewalk!
But alas, when it's almost late into the night, he's still frantically trying to finish up on his "project on a whim." He doubts he'll be able to finish it in time, but somehow he finds at no later than 8 PM he's putting the finishing touches. All he has to do now is set everything up outside and hope that Astro's willing to give bowling another try.
O'shay goes up to Astro's room, and is saddened to see he's still sulking in bed. With a sigh, he closes the door behind himself and sits on the edge of his bed.
"Astro…" he begins, "what's wrong?"
He turns to his side, "Nothing."
The Professor shakes his head, "No, I know something's up, do you not want to tell me?"
He sighs, and decides to sit up, "I just… feel like I'm horrible."
"Astro, you're not horrible. I understand why you might feel that way, but you need to understand that accidents happen. Look at me, I've had plenty of accidents in my time, haha."
"Really? And what did you do?"
"Well, I learned from them. Because that's what they're designed to do."
"Designed? Like… a poster?"
"No, no, no," O'shay laughs, "that's graphic design, something that people who can't draw do, but anyway. The point is, Astro, accidents and mistakes are part of the living experience, and they're meant to teach us a lesson. It doesn't mean we're a bad person if we keep making those mistakes… or accidents, but what it does do is make us smarter."
"I see… guess I'm a lot smarter now, huh?" His demeanor finally changed from sadness to ease, now able to look at O'shay unashamedly.
He chuckles in response, "Yes, yes, you sure are."
They talk for a little longer, until he remembers what he came in here for– bowling, again!
"Now… I know you didn't get to bowl all that much today…"
"Almost set the place on fire…" Astro mumbles.
"But! I have a solution, do you want to see it?"
Immediately, his eyes light up, "Really? What is it? What is it? I wanna see it now!" He gets up from his bed and races out the door. Clearly, O'shay is too old to keep up because Astro's already by the foot of the stairs when he finally makes it out of his room.
He tells him to follow him outside, and when Astro opens the sliding glass door, he's greeted to bright arcade style lights, and a makeshift bowling lane. Excitement runs high for him, until he remembers what happened at the real bowling alley, and suddenly, he's not so thrilled.
O'shay sits down in a nearby chair, and notices he's not making his way towards the set-up. Inquisitively, he asks, "What's wrong, Astro? You do want to go bowling, right?"
He sighs, turning to him, "I dunno, Professor, what if I make the same mistake again?"
"Well, then you'll have learned more about how to control yourself, no?"
He looks at the aisle, then back at O'shay, then back at the aisle. He realizes it's now or never to conquer his fear and get it right. With a stern nod, he turns around and makes his way to the lane. Picking up a ball, he tries his best to focus on his control. The pins are all lined up as they should, and he makes note of where he needs to throw to get a strike. When he does all the calculations in his head, all he has to do, is throw the ball.
It's nerve wracking at first, even O'shay has to remember where his emergency tools are in case something goes wrong. But, when Astro expresses restrain, he's able to let the ball go gently enough that it still barrels down the lane, but doesn't cause any ruptures or fires. It hits the pins just enough that they all fall to the ground, a strike!
At first, he doesn't believe it, but when it finally computes, they turn around to face the Professor with sheer joy. "I did it! I got a strike!" He jumps around in excitement.
O'shay cheers him on with a clap, "You did! Great job!"
"And I didn't ruin anything, wahoo!" He runs around the backyard until he and a neon sign make head first contact, sending him to the ground.
All the Professor can do is sigh, and at least be thankful his injury is all he has to worry about.
xx