UNLICENSED TIME PATROLLIN'
Tale One: "Spopovich, the Substitute Teacher!"
By nykomajin
Unlicensed Time Patroller.
Between "Time Patroller" and "Time Breaker", it's said that there can sometimes be a middle ground. Typically, the Unlicensed Time Patroller can be described as an individual with a strong sense of their own personal justice or code, one that doesn't inherently aim to endanger others, but also one that doesn't align with the law, either. There are simply certain problems that the law cannot solve or even tend to, so vigilantes are bound to rise and take matters into their own hands. They'll perform tasks similar to the Time Patrol using methods that the Time Patrol's edict doesn't exactly allow for, much less authorize or recognize. So, those at the top bestowed these kinds of people with the title of "Unlicensed Time Patroller", as despite their usual good intentions, they are still deemed as criminals due to their typically "irresponsible" and unlawful methods as well as merely performing these actions without permission or guidance.
However, there have never been many to even bestow the title upon anyway, as most of them tend to generally be footnotes, commoners that rise to the occasion and eventually get too in over their own heads, wiping themselves out or finding themselves imprisoned for their crimes against time. Throughout history, there has only been one truly notable, more-than-street-tier Unlicensed Time Patroller, a mysterious man with a notably long nose and scraggly beard who contained as much knowledge on combat as he did on history itself. What the rogue lacked in innate power was far made up for by his mind as he seemingly had a plethora of methods and contingencies thought-out for any situation, becoming known as "history's greatest detective" when he'd lurch from shadow like a nocturnal owl and enact upon his precise and perfectly executed, esoteric righteousness, solving the time-space continuum's most unsolvable problems with his purportedly infinite amount of resources and knowledge, all while expertly fending off any so-called "Patroller" that may stand in his way with savant-level karate and kung-fu. The tengu-looking vigilante's motives unknown, and today, his whereabouts as well. Last seen in a confrontation where he one-upped the Time Patrol's ace-in-the-hole before disappearing without a trace, once said whereabouts became unclear and the long-nosed time-surfer seemingly vanished, the very idea of an "Unlicensed Time Patroller" seemed to die out... Until very recently.
One year ago, almost to the day, the barrier to the Demon Realm burst open and sparked a mass uproar in ghoulish meddling across the multiverse. The debacle ultimately culminated in the at-the-time current monarch of all demons passing on in tragically bittersweet circumstance, the descendant-of-Demigra called "Demilia" containing a vast amount of the Distorted Energy of Time within her that expelled itself from her vessel upon her inevitable demise. Such an intense and sudden release of distortion ripped quite the hole in the time-space continuum, a seemingly unrepairable void left in the fabric of reality itself. The first real effect of this was visible when Time Rifts began to appear in overwhelming mass, bringing powerful enemies from the past-and-future to terrorize worlds distant from their own eras. The Time Patrol was, and still is, stretched thin in dealing with the unsolvable problem, so they were unable to tend to a in-their-eyes low-scale event on the modern day's Earth that saw Age 762's Nappa and Vegeta, with Saibamen in tow, annihilate a small town in its entirety once it spawned a Time Rift, like an innumerable number of locations across time and space did and continue to do.
The Time Patrol would deal with the minor problem when they had the resources to do so, since as to them it was just another needle in the elephant-filled pile, but to one of the town's only survivors... Well, their whole world was torn apart by just one needle, simply put. The Nappa and Vegeta problem eventually seemed to solve itself, in its wake, birthing a brand new Unlicensed Time Patroller. With what they lacked in relevance, power, and even maturity, they made up for... With heart, the light of willpower, kindness and a compassionate-yet-vengeful mission to provide the justice and perspective that super warriors couldn't bring to the fledgling Unlicensed Time Patroller and their fellow common person, whether it breaks time or not. Anyone who's someone would of course not know them, but that doesn't matter, as this individual was known as...
"...Orange... Marmalade..."
Set in a buzzing classroom, all the place's kids ogled upon the veiny, bald, bulking mess that stood at the room's brink in place of their usual math teacher.
"...Orange... Marmalade..." In a gravely and grumbled tone, the apparent substitute teacher repeats themselves, skimming over a piece of paper with their cold gaze before scanning the classroom itself. When they do, a schoolboy pipes up and says, "Uhm, Mr. Spopopvich, I don't think she's here! She said she had to go to the bathroom, or something..."
"Oh, okay..." Mr. Spopopvich marks her name off the list. After that, he skims over it again before calling for, "Pensil...?"
"Oh, yes, here, sir!"
"Come up... To the front of the class, would you...?"
"Sure thing!"
The enthusiastic student approaches the grumbling roll-caller, squinting as they watch Spopopvich pick up an oddly-shaped foreign object.
"Uhm, Mr. Spopopvich, what did you.."
"Shush, child..."
The student seemed to give the device an inquisitive look, but most of the other kids were just busy talking amongst themselves and bullying nerds. However, Spopopvich was the one giving the object the most in depth scan, his already tapered gaze thinning as he watches a meter on the device's backend move up by only a tad as he waves it in front of the kid. "...Ghn... No good... Lord Babidi... Wouldn't be pleased with this kind of Ki..."
"Who's Lord Babidi?"
"You can sit back down now..."
The student shrugs, before doing as they were told. "...Paypah... Penanpaypah...?" Spopopvich calls roll again after that, the new student responding in the same way as the other one did. However, when told to come up to the front of the class, that result was the same, too. Spopopvich got barely any reading on his M-branded energy scanner, making him groan. It was the same process for practically every student, rinse and repeat. "...Agh, Mr. Spopopvich...!" At this point, it was growing tiresome for all involved. "Aren't we supposed to be going over the Pythagorean theorem today...?" An almost impossible sight, at this point, the children were actually begging to be taught math.
"I'm not done callin' roll yet... Shuddup..."
"Awh...!"
But there was still a ways to go before any of them would get their wish. Continuing on, Spopopvich thins his gaze as he gets closer to the bottom of the class' roll paper, muttering, "Gyah... Yaya...?"
"Gyah... Yaya..." That almost sounded normal coming from his grunted and grumbled manner of speech, but he looked around the classroom after saying it, like with all the other names. Most students seem confused, before one says, "Oh, wait! Isn't that that weird, surname-having girl Marmalade's friend?"
"Oh, yeah!" Shooting their head back, a pig-looking student turns to the back of the class to observe the greenest student in the room. "...Gyaaah..." With its veiny head rested on its desk's top, they'd fallen asleep, like some other kids had done. "Gyah!" That was until a pencil got thrown at them by the pig-student, anyway. "Hey, dork! The substitute teacher wants to see you! Hurry up so we can get this boring crud over with!"
"...Mmn... Gyah... Geh..."
Groaning and moaning, the Saibaman stretches and yawns before getting out of their seat and walking to the front of the class like all the other students had done. Spopopvich observes the vein-headed shortie, before then observing his device's meter. "!" And to his surprise, the reading he got was off the charts! At least in comparison to all the other kids, anyway. "Geh..."
"...Mm... This'll do well... For Majin Buu..." A grin warping itself onto the substitute teacher's face, his grip around the object's handle grows tighter as he raises it to strike the sleepy Saibaman with the thing's needle. "W-woah!" A couple of students squeal when the see the sight. "W-what the heck?!" But it wasn't because the green student got struck. It's because when Spopopvich tried, the Saibaman dodged by quickly digging it's way into the floor. "Gyah!"
"Hey...! Get back here...!"
Spopopvich jumps down into the new hole and follows the Saibaman underground, energy suction device in-hand.
"..."
"..."
The class just goes silent for a second.
"Gyah! Geh, gyeh gyeh!"
"Hey!"
But what wasn't so silent was substitute teacher's rapid-and-grunting pursuit of the digging-and-snickering Saibaman, Spopopvich's expression growing frustrated as he flares up his red aura to try and keep up with the green one's speed. "Gyah!" However, just as he was about to catch up, the Saibaman digs upward instead.
"Hm!" The brute groans and follows him up in haste. "It's me!" Ending up in what looked like an empty bathroom, Spopopvich shoots his head around while looking for the Saibamen.
"Agh, r-right as I actually had to pee!..."
But the restroom might not have been as empty as it seemed at first glance.
"O-okay, Mr. Saiba, now take him to the stall!"
"Huuuh?!"
"Gyah!"
Spopopvich sees the small, orange-headed girl holding one of the restroom's stalls open, but he doesn't pay it much mind since he sees the Saibamen again soon after. Grunting, the meathead chases the greenling once it bolts for said stall, sneering once the Saibamen crawls its way onto the ceiling when they make it instead. "Come back here!" Shouting, Spopopvich flares his aura up to fly up to the Saibamen, but when he does... "Haaack! Ack!"
"T-take that, weirdo!"
A smoke Capsule gets popped right on him, and he starts coughing up a storm. The orange-headed girl, now wearing a surgical mask so she wouldn't get the same effect, was creeping up from behind him whilst digging in her backpack. "I-I mean, seriously?! What kind of creep up and spawns in the women's bathroom?!-"
"Shuddup!"
"A-ah, s-sorry!"
Spopovich begins to swing his energy absorber around in frustration, Marmalade squealing as she manages to smack it away with her baseball bat. She doesn't waste anymore time after that, using that very same bat to strike Spopovich at the back of his knee, the big man grunting and falling onto one leg for a second. "Ungh...! Wait, this is..." Once he recovers from the smokescreen, he gets a good look at what was below him. A toilet, with a small time rift inside. That must have been where he came out of.
"M-mr. Saiba, now!"
"Gyeh!"
Jumping down from the ceiling once Spopovich starts to get his bearings together, the Saibaman stomps on Spopopvich's head, stuffing it down the toilet. "URNGH!" The brute wails and flails as he gets a mouthful of water and attempts to get unstuck, but Marmalade flushes the toilet before he could. Eventually, he started spinning by his head, hitting just the right sweet spot to get flushed back into the toilet rift. "Nooooo...!"
"Gehgeh!"
"...R-r-rattlesnakes..."
The Saibamen jumped for joy once Spopovich got plunged away, but Marmalade just falls on her back with an exhale. "T-that was..." However, she smiles. "H-hopefully, he didn't end up hurting anybo-"
She's cut off by the school's bell ringing. "Ack!" Then she sits up with a jolt, a few bangs introducing themselves to the bathroom's locked door. "Marmalade! This is the principal! What's going on in there?! You've been locked in the bathroom for the whole period! You're going to miss your next class, young lady!"
"B-but I was...!"
"..."
"...Go back in the hole..."
"Geh."
Marmalade droopily picks up her backpack as the Saibamen jumps back down into the hole it made, the small girl groaning and moaning as she heads out normally. "...I don't even... Want to go to Biology..." Clearly much more important than having potentially saved a bunch of students from a premature demise, though.
"...And when they find the sucker who ran ya' over over and scurried off like a coward and try defending him, you tell them, pfft! 'Dont Sneeze It, Gimme Heezit!'"
"Ohhh... The pain...! The aching pain...!"
"Hey, you heard me, right?-"
"Sir, we're going to need to step away from the scene!..."
Speaking of 'the scene', it looked like the view was settled on a blocked off road now instead of at a school. With an ambulance, fire truck and several dog-officers from West City's Police Department, they hauled off a sad sap onto one of the aforementioned trucks, the civilian whining in agony as they grab at their busted up knee. "Hey, I'm just lookin' out for 'em!" But more importantly than that, everybody was groaning at the sight of the scene's greatest sleazeball, a man dressed in a formal brown suit with beady eyes and an orange pompadour, a cheesy grin laying underneath the attorney's mustache.
In response to that, some grumbles build up before the suddenly-totally-fine injured sits up to shout, "Yeah, yeah, I got it! Now scram!" Then they go back to groveling. "Ohhh, the pain!"
"Sure thing! Was just makin' sure you knew who to call!" The apparent 'Heezit' gives finger guns before whistling as he heads off, everybody at the sight finding a heavy sigh released from their chests. "Get better soon!"
Heading down the road on foot, the attorney sticks his hands in his pockets and whistles to the tune of the sirens behind him. "Ohh, you're a regular superhero, aren't'cha, Heezit? Relieving the city's problems, just one man at a time!" He holds his fist up in the air. "I fight for you, West City!"
"..."
"..."
He keeps looking back to make sure the injured guy heard that. "It's true!- Oh, rattlesnakes..." Then he starts speed-walking once the cops give him a glare.
He kept that walking up until he ended up in a pretty standard neighborhood, as opposed to his chipper suit. It seems he had more to do with the place than just scope the place out, since at one of the houses in particular, he began siphoning through its mailbox, sighing. "...Snagged a new client today... But no new students for the dojo...!" Whining but soon settling himself down, common occurrence strikes again. Repeating a sigh, Heezit shuffles and arranges his mail, before squinting at one of the envelopes' peculiar color. "...Wait..." Wrinkles rising above his brow, he gasps. "I did get a sign up...?!" About to do a little dance, Heezit stops himself. He looked at the name of who exactly sent him that once-in-a-blue-moon dojo training request. The attorney goes silent for just a moment, before sucking his teeth and noticing an extra vehicle that was parked in the driveway. "...She's finally home for once, eh...?" A Capsule-bike.
Rubbing his eyes, Heezit finishes with his mail and makes haste into the home. Once inside, he looks around the place's familiar bearings, that 'familiarity' offset by tattered school clothes and papers. Getting some pep in his step, he follows the trail with a slight tinge of anxiety and excitement, eventually ending up at the opened doorway to the home's kitchen. He thinks, "...Looks like I was right, eh...?" A smile, a true, non-con smile, rises underneath his mustache when he sees who was sat at the dinner table.
"...Rattlesnakes... Ngh... Mr. Saiba, do you mind passing me some glue?"
"Gyah."
But his shoulders slump when he sees who was with them.
"That weirdo? Shouldn't he have his own place to stay?!"
A Saibaman going through a textbook at her left, Marmalade had her own textbook out too, but she had something else on top of it. Her eyes honed in, she kept trying to glue, tape or stick pieces of a shattered green, Time Breakers' gem together, but it just wasn't working. She huffs, working meticulously and fruitlessly as the Saibaman passes her more adhesives. "...Uhm..." Due to how zoned in she was, she couldn't pay any mind to the man leaning against the doorframe, watching her with a smile that faded away into a curious eyebrow raise. "...Mm..." He clears his throat. "..." She doesn't look up. "...Mm!" He clears his throat louder. "...Agh... Huh?-" That time, it does catch her attention, the girl looking up and cutting herself off when she sees the smiling, moustache'd man waving at her. "...Oh, hey, Uncle Heezit..." She looks back down and keeps working.
"Hello to you, too! Finally home for once, eh?"
"..."
Silence.
"...So, what're you workin' on there? Something from school?"
"It's from work..."
"Work, huh...? You sure that's more important than the schoolwork you're covering up? You dropped down a grade in Biology, you know-"
"I'll get to it." Marmalade responds quickly, not even looking up to reply. She just kept trying to put the pieces together, but she couldn't figure out how. "...Gh... Dang it...!" She smacks the table a little. "...Gyeh..." The Saibamen scoots back.
"..." Heezit continues to observe her, eyes thinning a tad. "Work, huh..?" He reiterates, this time in a lower tone. "Are you sure that's what you should be focused on right n-"
"I told you, I'd get to it!-"
"That's not what I mean!" Heezit interjects her interjection, making her look up for a split second. "...I mean... Aren't you always working...? You're a kid, Marmalade... But you're... Barely ever home because of that..." Heezit says. "Don't you... Have any friends from school? How 'bout that long-headed guy with no nose that you had me drive around a few months ago, eh? He seemed... Like someone!"
"..." Marmalade ponders for a second, before looking down and continuing her tinkering. "...He was from work, too..."
Heezit sighs. "Of-friggin-course..." He rubs his face, before observing Marmalade again. A frown befalls him for just one moment as he watches the strained look on Marmalade's face, seeing it get more and more tight each time she couldn't fit a piece together. "...You know, if you don't have any friends to hang out with..You've... Always got me, y'know? Just like old times, when I'd play with you after school when your dad was too busy, or something. Did it for your sister, too. I enjoy your company." He smiles, before slumping his shoulders. "...I, uh, think you've got that dude, too..."
"Gyeh..." The Saibaman plays with glue. "...He just helps me with extra work..." Marmalade mumbles.
"Seriously...? Marma..." He sighs, before shaking his head. But, his gaze furrows, and he steps a bit closer before leaning on a chair instead of a doorframe.
Heezit watches her a little more, smiling, before sucking his teeth and breaking it whilst sighing in acceptance as he shuffles the mail in his hand. "Anyway... How about we talk about something else?" He holds up an orange-colored letter and taps it with his thumb. "Mind telling me what this is about?" A written enrollment request from Marmalade to Heezit's dojo.
"...H-huh?" Poking her head up when she hears the paper get flicked, she spots what Heezit was holding. Marmalade's cheeks turn a tad rosy. "...Well, y'know, I thought... You don't get that many sign-ups anyway, so... Why not me...?"
"Really...? Marma, you go to school, and are supposedly too busy being a who-knows-what at Capsule Corporation... What could you possibly want to learn my butt-spankin' karate recipe for?"
Thinking fast, "Uhh... To blow off some stress?" Then, she goes back to messing with the gem. "...Just thought it'd be an easy first step..."
"...To 'blow off stress'..." Heezit mumbles, before sighing. "Oh!" Marmalade jumps up a little when she hears Heezit scoot a chair back, sitting across from her now. "...I dunno what you're hiding, but... There's not gonna be another member of this family who starts fighting, especially not for the wrong reasons. 'To blow off some stress'... If ya' needed that, then you'd listen to me! How you 'relieve stress' is just taking that weight off your shoulders for a second, and you just take in what you enjoy, your hobbies... Your friends... Your... Family."
He sighs. Marmalade stays silent, as does the Saibaman.
"How about we dial it back a bit, yeah...? Know how I just said I used to play with you, and your sis, when your dad wasn't around? I've... Been thinking about those times a lot, you know?" The man says.
"Ever since then... I always... Had some kind of specific vision of how you'd be when you grew up, y'know? It's like I could see what you might be, even when you were just a baby..."
"..." Marmalade's prodding at the gem pieces began to slow. "...And what would that be...?" She somewhat looks up from her project to ask.
"...Well, if I told ya', it wouldn't be any fun, would it?" Heezit chuckles as Marmalade sighs and looks back down at what she was working on. "...I didn't exactly envision ya' hangin' around some green kid, I'll tell ya' that much..." Heezit comments, motioning towards the having-fallen-asleep Saibaman. "...Gyaaahzz..."
"...Anyway... The real reason I brought that up is... Because your old man was the same. I bet you know that all too well, eh?" Heezit asks, adjusting his position in his seat as he watches Marmalade aimlessly try and fail to fix the gem, her work slowing.
"Your dad got you that old job, and he was real proud of ya'. Real proud. He probably expressed it to me more than he did to you, hehe..." The uncle says. "He worked a lot of magic to get you that old job of yours at the Red Pants place. Of course, it was that big noggin of yours that was the catalyst for it all, but he had to do a lot of talking to get them folks to notice ya'." Heezit says, watching as Marmalade gives him occasional glances through his speech. He leans back a little, breathing in, before saying, "...But obviously, you already know all that... I'm just bringing it up because... Well... The vision your dad had, well... It's pretty different from mine." He leans forward again. "You two... Sometimes never got the chance to talk much, and that always really ate me inside. I asked him about that one time, and he just told me you guys would get to spend time together when you worked your way to a managerial position and could divide your time between those below you... And, well..." Heezit stops, letting a frown stoop down from his mustache as he mutters, "...But we both know how that turned out, huh...?"
"..."
He sighs, observing the tightening of Marmalade's brow.
"I'm not your pops, but... I still love you like I were. Your actual old man loved you even more, but that might've clouded him a little," Heezit says. "That's where the difference is. I'm stepping in now. He made dang sure that that brain of yours was sharper than any knife, but... He might've got too caught up, only able to see one side of your brain... When everybody's got two. There's two sides to any story."
"..." Marmalade flinches. "There aren't three sides in this game. There are only two." While watching the busted gem she was trying to repair, the vigilante girl recalls a few past, villainous words.
But, Heezit just leans in just a little more. "...I just want to make sure that other side is just as good, y'know? The side that cares how you feel, not how you do." The uncle lets that last sentence linger, seeing the sullen look in Marmalade's eye. But, in contrast to that, the man smiles. "It's really okay to go out and be a kid, Marmalade. Work should be at work, and home should be at home. Take that in, while you've still got the chance." Heezit's gaze travels down, until it ends on his own suit. He sucks his teeth for a moment. "...Because you might not realize when that 'chance' is gone..."
"..."
Heezit looks up after that, observing Marmalade's eyes once more. If there was a change in her expression, it wasn't entirely visible. "...Hey, you even listenin' to me? I know I'm shooting a speech at ya', but I'm an attorney... That's what I do for a living." He chuckles, as Marmalade sighs. "...Yeah, Uncle Heezit, I am listening..." She quietly responds, ceasing her work for a moment as Heezit sits up in his seat.
"...I... Enjoy what I do... At work." Marmalade says, the last two words sounding a bit tacked on. However, with more of an authenticity, she says, "...Sometimes, I even get to help people... And, in turn, that helps me... There's nothing like what I do." Then, she pauses. "...But I can't lie and say there aren't some challenges..." Briefly, her gaze travels back to the shattered gem. She keeps her eyes on in it, and inhales. "...But, I just have to keep going and be responsible enough to realize those things'll be there no matter what."
"Yeah, but you have to the 'responsibility' to responsibly step back when those things start eating away at you." Heezit quickly retorts, watching Marmalade with slight silence. "...First it's school, now work... You say you enjoy it, and maybe you really do, I don't even know what you do, but..." He sighs. "...When it gets to be too much, you can always-"
Knock, knock knock. Knock knock knock.
"Eh...?" Heezit turns his head back to the front door, groaning in realization. "Oh, that must be one of my clients who I-"
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The bangs get considerably more aggressive.
"What the HFIL?! Who in the rattlin' world thinks they can come to my door like that?!" Heezit stands up, "Hold on a sec, Marmie! We'll continue our talk in a second."
The lawyer adjusts his suit as he grumbles and goes to the front door, opening it and shouting, "Hey, do you know who I am?! Disturbing the peace is a very real charge that I-"
He stops himself and squints when he sees the absolutely jacked bald dude at his doorstep.
"...The one who took out my partner... They're residing here..." The glaring man says. "...I'll ask nicely, only once, for you to bring them, and our Kili absorber, back to me..."
"..."
"...Pal, did you not hear me? You must not know I am!" Heezit proclaims. "I don't care how many veins you've got on your biceps, what you're talking to is more than a muscle-freak! I own a very popular, very famous, nationally sponsored karate dungeon! I'll chop the bricks outta ya', if you don't get off my property!" A good 99% of those adjectives did not apply to the cheapskate. "Also, I'm a practicing lawyer. Each breath you take near my home is another 100k Zeni I'll sue your big bald butt for."
"...I said I would only ask once..." The one most call Yamu tries to step into the home. "...I know they're he-"
"Woah, woah, woah! Watch it!"
"...Out of my way...!"
Heezit tries to block Yamu's entry, but he just gets shoved to the ground. "GUH!"
"...?"
Attempting to get back to what she was doing, Marmalade couldn't help but hear the scuffle. When she takes a look up, she instantly gasps. "Rattlesnakes...!" The way the guy looked makes some bells ring immediately. "I-I thought I got rid of the distortion! Who's that guy?!"
"U-Uncle Heezit!"
Quickly, she scoots out of her seat and scurries to the scene. "A-agh! Run away, Marmalade! I-I'll try and hold him off, grab your phone and call the co-"
"N-no!" Marmalade swiftly interjects, making even Yamu squint. She gulps. "T-this guy, uhh... He's a, uhh... Friend! F-from... From work!" Her teeth chatter. "H-he told me he was coming over, a-and uhm, he j-just likes to play dumb pranks like these! Ohh, he's just a silly little guy!"
"..."
"..."
They both stare at her. "...Marm, is the real reason why you're gone so much because you do drugs?"
"H-huh?"
"Because all your friends look like junkies!" Shooting a glance over to the Saibaman, Heezit stands up and groans. "I'm sorry, but it's true!"
"U-uh, no, I, I don't do that! Look, let's just...-"
"...This is nonsense..." Yamu grumbles. "...I am no 'friend'... But Lord Dabura and I do occasionally partake in the blunt rota-"
"H-hey! I think this prank's gone far enough!" Marmalade clears her throat loudly as she scoots past the assailant, tugging at his wrist. "C'mon, I know where who you're looking for is...! Just don't cause any trouble, okay...?"
"..." The M-headed man gives her a glance. "...Do not underestimate me, child..."
"OH DEAR GODS"
Like Spopovich, Yamu was now being flushed down the toilet rift.
"S-stay back, stay back!"
Marmalade wacking him with a plunger, down he goes. Thankfully, the rift disappears after that. She slouches and deflates onto her back. She immediately groans. "...Awwwhh... IDIOT! How did I not notice?! My Distortion Detector ran out of battery, but I didn't even check to see if the rift ever went away...!" Shouting at herself, Marmalade quickly gasps and covers her mouth. "Rattlesnakes, don't make too much noise...!" Giving the little window at the top of the school's restroom an anxious glance, the sky clearly showed nighttime. It must've been a slog to sneak in at this hour, but the hole in the floor next to the now-patched-up one from earlier with a Saibaman picking his teeth next to it might've given some answers. "...Gyeh..." He groans as Marmalade whines.
"...S-sorry..." She sighs, sitting back up. Going silent and momentarily lingering on that last word, the girl digs her Penenko-phone from her pocket and scrambles to her texting app.
[[OMG! Dr. Jean, im so sorry!]]
Through her contacts, Marmalade tapped on quite the icon.
Quickly, she begins typing up a storm towards someone whose profile picture was seemingly one of a scraggly bearded owl, the top part of their face covered up by a pair of denim jeans. [[you probably saw, but I TOTALLY forgot to close that last distortion i found! i was hiding out in the bathroom waiting for someone so my detector ran out of battery, I'm sorry, Im still so amateur and-]] "Agh..." However, what wasn't so 'covered up' was her face of panic as she kept writing and rewriting what she had to say.
[[i dont think anybody got hurt, the rift itself was pretty small and inside of a toilet-]]
[[😣 i screwed up im sorry im sorry-]]
[[i couldn't check if the rift had disappeared the first time since a teacher was telling at me! But it's still no excuse, I know-]]
"H-huh?"
Through her constant rewrites and non-sends, Marmalade only stops when her phone buzzes.
[[I see you typing. The bubbles keep popping up.]]
"H-huh?!"
[[It'd buzzed because she got a text from the very person she was trying to message, Marmalade freezing as she watches more 'typing bubbles' show up after.]]
[[My device buzzed the moment you began typing, and has been doing so for a little under 30 minutes now, despite you not having said a single thing... I can only assume why that is. Grab a lollipop and calm down, like I do.]]
[[I thought we had this clear already, but I'm not your boss or something like that. I'm just an occasional advisor, and an admirer of the work you do entirely on your own. You don't have to apologize to me for your own mistakes. Apologize to yourself instead. You made the mistake on the task that was entirely your own choice to undergo.]]
"..."
Marmalade just sighs and slumps, silent as Dr. Jean, the reclusive CEO of the modern day's Capsule Corporation, keeps messaging. Her shoulders released some tension after reading a few of his words, though.
[[Now, because of that... I normally wouldn't feel the desire to do this, but I did happen to notice that a new Distortion formed since one of the people who came out of your rift was walking around for so long. Do not expect this to be a regular thing, but since I assume your Distortion Detector died or was broken due to me not getting any signal from it, I'll send you the coordinates of that Distortion myself. Consider it a favor.]]
[[Ciao. 👖]]
Marmalade sits up a little when she sees the aforementioned coordinates appear on her screen, the girl briefly smiling and typing to respond, [[thanks! I owe u one-]] But she's interrupted since her phone buzzed again. "...?" The girl raises an inquisitive brow, but she frowns a tad when she finds the source.
[[Hey, Marmalade! You've been gone a while, so I got to thinking. I'm sorry if I was too harsh on you earlier. To make up for it, I'm making you dinner myself! You can even bring your weird green friend by to join in, if you want. Just let me know, honey!]]
"..."
In her notifications bar, a heartfelt text from her Uncle. But right underneath it, coordinates.
"..."
She pauses, and hesitates for a moment. Her thumb flinches, before committing and tapping the phone.
[[sorry, uncle Heezit. I ended up getting caught up with work. I wont be able to make it. Ill try to have some leftovers in the morning, though.]]
A weary sigh. With all the hesitant texting, this was the first one she actually sent.
"C'mon, Mr. Saiba, let's go..."
Despite her puffy cheeks and bitten lip of uncertainty, a taste of determination dropped into the girl's gaze as she got up and gathered herself, pulling up those coordinates once again.
"Gyah!"
The Saibaman hops up, too.
End