By Jen Joyce
On the last chapter of: "Roses and Ferns", and the third chapter of the "Old Wounds, New Friends" Arc
Carol, K.O., and Fern managed to get to Rosa-Tracheophyta Manor without anyone noticing, while also making small talk on the way over there. Fern was initially worried about how Carol and K.O. would react to how she's living in an old -- said to be just a myth -- manor and the chance that she might have to be taken away from the only thing that's closest to a home that she has. Once they arrive, Carol and K.O. are surprised at first, but say that they aren't disappointed for Fern living there. Raymond then comes in, and that's where we left off at. What's the plan Fern has? Will it work? Will we get never-before-seen character interaction that we haven't seen on the show? Well, just keep reading, and you'll find out!
"Since Rosa-Tracheophyta Manor is approximately one thousand and two hundred arcs big, Darrell, Shannon, Jethro, and Mikayla are most likely not going to come through the front door, we'll have to set up traps at every possible entranceway."
These were the words that Fern said about half an hour ago. After going inside and reaching the living room, Fern explained her plan to everyone, contributed as to how to trap each of Raymond's siblings -- and Raymond spilling a few secrets about each of them -- all of them began setting the plan into action.
First, all of the broken windows in the manor are being replaced with kinetic energy absorbent glass; Fern meant to do it a month or so back and had a lot of planes of the absorbent glass lying in her closet, but didn't get to it, since Raymond broke in the night she was going to start. It was surprisingly easy to do, so they managed to do it within fifteen minutes.
Currently, all four of them were split up into teams of two, Carol with Raymond, and Fern with K.O. As much as Raymond didn't want to be paired up with someone other than his beloved, he decided not to complain about it and just went along with it. Fern and K.O. were setting up some laser net launchers for when one or all of them got through the windows. Raymond and Carol were on the second floor, setting up snares near the windows of the hallway and temporal laser blasters just above the spot where the snares' field of reach ends.
The atmosphere between Carol and Raymond was...awkward, to say the least. Carol was feeling uneasy about being within punching range of Raymond, and vice versa. Both would take quick glances at each other before returning back to what they were doing, which only made things even more awkward. Raymond had his elbow and shoulder spikes tucked away in his robotic body, so he didn't accidentally cut the rope holding the blasters up.
"So..." Carol began, catching Raymond's attention.
"Hm?" Raymond looked down to Carol, who was only a few feet underneath where he was about to finish setting up the cage.
"How...uh, have you been, lately?" Carol finally asked after a moment of hesitation.
"Oh, uh, alright? I suppose?" "O-Okay! That's great!" Carol spoke-yelled a little too loudly. Raymond blinked a few times, having been caught off-guard by the sheer volume of Carol's voice; Carol only looked down to the floor, worried that she messed up.
Once again, the silence settled in, only the sounds of them working filling in for what would be their mouths moving, making words and sounds to the bodies belonging to said mouths; the sounds and words being directed towards the other. (Small A/N: In case you couldn't tell, that's a description of what talking is.)
"Hey," Carol looked up, seeing Raymond looking down at her, literally. "You're K.O.'s parent, correct?" Carol nodded.
"I-I'm his mother." Carol clarified. "Why...do you ask?" Raymond shrugged, tightening the rope holding up the laser blaster.
"Well, my Rose told me that you and your son are trustworthy enough to keep us a secret." Raymond flashed a small smile at Carol, one belonging in the "sincere" category. "I can see that she was right." Carol smiled back, watching as Raymond finally finished tying his signature rose knot. Once done, Raymond to descend to the floor, turning off his rocket boosters in time so that he didn't set the creaky, wooden floor on fire.
"So," Raymond began leaning against the wall. "How exactly do these "temporal blasters" work? Do they work like regular blasters but with time being a factor in how it works?"
Carol shrugged, finishing setting up the last of the snares. "Somethin' like that." Carol stood up, walking up to lean next to Raymond on his right. "I don't really understand the science behind it, but it creates some type of energy that slows down whoever gets hit by the blast. Takes about an hour just for the effects to stop affectin' someone."
Raymond made a small nod, acknowledging the explanation given by Carol. "I wonder how the inventor came to the idea of creating them in the first place?" Raymond wondered out loud.
"Eh, the inventor's a mysterious man," Carol said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The last thing anyone ever spoke about him is that he was testin' a new invention he made before gettin' lost in time. I think his invention was some kinda time travel machine or somethin'. I-I'm not sure i-it was a long time ago."
"Huh, sounds like he was just a tad obsessed with time." Carol nodded in response.
"Definitely. Say," Carol commented, changing the subject. "I've been meaning to ask this, but I wasn't sure if the time was right, but..." Carol paused, trying to think of a way to phrase her question in a way that wouldn't sound offensive.
"...yes?" Raymond asked, the silence becoming a little awkward.
"Well, ever since K.O. told me about the whole "Shannon and Rad" thing that happened a while back, I've been wonderin' somethin'." Carol looked to the ground, before looking towards Raymond. "How...exactly Shannon fall for Rad in the first place?"
Now it was Raymond's turn to look at the floor, not expecting the question to be asked. "Well," Raymond began, trying to explain as best as he could. "To make a long story short, we were all fighting in a thunderstorm that day, and during the battle, Shannon got struck by lightning and that caused her circuits to be fried and it caused her to love -- "Rad", you said his name was? -- until she rebooted."
"Oh..." Carol said, nodding her head. "How...does that work? T-The whole "emotions and fried circuits" thing, I mean?" Raymond shrugged.
"Eh, I'm not entirely sure, only Father knows how our emotions work. But I've caught snippets of some conversations with Coach and Ernesto about him, Darrell, Shannon, and Jethro having a different AI than other robots have."
Carol raised an eyebrow, interested. "Whaddaya mean?" "Well...like I said, I'm not entirely sure, but I have heard a few things about how he, Darrell, Shannon, and Jethro weren't programmed like myself and Mikayla. They were built at young ages, around the age of toddlers, so that Coach could raise them. That way, he could shape them as obedient as they are today, and snuff out any sense of rebellion that may have been in them when they were first created."
Carol nodded, taking in the new information she was given. "Okay, so, Shannon's AI got messed up when she got struck by lightning?" Carol then added. "How?"
Again, Raymond began explaining. "Well, since their AI is different than mine and Mikayla's, that means their emotions work differently than ours. Say Shannon's feeling happy and Mikayla's feeling happy, while they both feel the same emotion, the way they experience it is different. Mikayla's only programmed to feel that way, while Shannon can actually experience it. So, when Shannon got struck by lightning, it didn't just fry her circuits, it also tampered with her AI; so it made her feel like she truly was in love. But since it wasn't something her AI was programmed with, it only took a simple reboot to make those feelings go away."
Raymond turned his gaze to look at Carol. "Does...that make any sense?"
Carol made an unknown noise before responding. "Yeah. I think I get it. But, I still got one question." Carol rubbed the back of her neck before looking up at the tall, green robot. "How did you know you were in love, and it wasn't some kind of malfunction?"
Raymond raised his right hand, mouth opened and ready to explain, but nothing came out. He remained like that for a few seconds before putting his raised hand to just below his mouth. "That is...a very good question." Raymond leaned back against the wall behind him, his right foot planted on the wall itself.
"I...suppose that since I wasn't programmed like my older siblings, I have no childhood memories, no lessons taught by Lord Boxman, and the possibility to fall in love," Raymond explained, struggling to find the right words. "And since my body was destroyed during battle and I wasn't struck by lightning and my battle body was water-proof, the only logical explanation was that I was in love."
Raymond then looked to the ground, a shimmer of shame showing in his eyes. "I'll admit, I couldn't believe it myself. I wanted to deny it, I wanted to believe that I wasn't in love and that it was just some type of malfunction, but...in the end, I accepted the facts, and I'm glad I did."
Raymond looked up from the ground, a hint of a smile on his face. "Look at me now. I'm happier than I was before, I have more energy, and best of all, I have the most beautiful girl as my girlfriend." Raymond sighed dreamily, leaning against the wall as his cooling fans began whirring faster; his face had a hint of a blush spreading across his face.
Carol simply smiled and lightly slapped Raymond on his back. Raymond didn't expect the gesture, so he almost fell to the floor, but managed to catch himself in time before he did. "Well, I'm glad you're feelin' better than ya did before. Even though we only really met today, I'm proud of ya."
Raymond looked at Carol, slightly surprised, but having a smile across his face. "Thank you, Carol," Raymond said, rubbing the back of his head. "I-I honestly don't know what to say."
"How about we get back to work, we still have a few more traps to set up, right?" Carol asked, pointing over her shoulder to the few remaining temporal snares.
"Oh! Right!" Raymond slapped himself in the face, thinking about how silly he was for forgetting the task at hand. "Uh, I'm actually done with setting up the laser cages projectors, so do you...need any help setting them up?" Raymond asked, tapping the tips of his fingers together.
Carol simply smiled, before responding. "Sure."
Carol walked over to the pile, carefully grabbing two temporal snares, handing one over to the green robot. "I'll teach ya how to handle one of them, and not get yourself affected by the snare." Carol then lead Raymond over the snareless part of the hall, showing him just what to do, and what not to do.
For Carol, it felt like she was looking at a bigger -- and metallic -- version of K.O.; for Raymond, however, it felt like, for the first time in his short life, he had a mother.
*Meanwhile: In the Chat*
OPERATION: TAKE-DOWN
✨Queen Shannon✨: And then we'll tie that girl to the Plaza's roof for the next few days
✨Queen Shannon✨: So, is every1 clear on the plan?
Cowboy Darrell: Yup!
LIFE'S A MIRACLE: I CONCUR.
Jane Smith: Yes, even though I disagree about YOU going after her, I'll go along with the plan.
✨Queen Shannon✨: I'm only going after her because asides from Darrell I know my way around better than you & Jethro do
Jane Smith: ...
Jane Smith: Okay, I can see the logic behind your decision.
Jane Smith: But I still want to have at it with Blondie.
✨Queen Shannon✨: Don't worry, Mikayla
✨Queen Shannon✨: Once we capture that Lakewood punk in that old shack
✨Queen Shannon✨: We'll make sure she doesn't mess with our brother any more!!! 😈
After the message was sent, each of the siblings -- including Shannon -- began laughing hysterically, thinking about what the girl with look like after their plan is put into action.
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A/N: Well, this is definitely a step up from my last chapter, but not quite as long as I'd prefer it to be, but hey, there's always next chapter, depending on what the theme of the next chapter is about that is.
So, I don't really know why, but every time I see fanart or moments of K.O. and Raymond getting along slightly better when they're fighting or not, I just can't help but feel happy whenever I see them being happy or just being together -- and not for the whole "hero/villain" dynamic we see in the show -- and well, I'm not sure if this was clear before when I made this book, but I absolutely LOVE Raymond!
I also really enjoyed writing the character interaction between Carol and Raymond because, well, we've NEVER seen any type of interaction between any of the box-bots and Carol -- and no, that one moment of Carol kicking Shannon's head back to Boxmore doesn't count, I mean literal, talking interaction.
As for the explanation on the Box-bots' AIs, I got the inspiration from "There's A Lot Of Ways To Love" by Puregold, "Product Demonstration" by 3wisellamas, and partially inspired by "Blorpers Gonna Blorp" by JustAndrea. I suggest you go check out their works, they really worked on them and I think they deserve some appreciation for their fantastically amazing works.
I also added in a few easter eggs in this chapter, let's see if you can spot them all! Please share this story with others, comment on any part/chapter if you like something or want to point it out. So, that's all for now, until next time, Pi and pie aren't the same things, trust me.
- Jen Joyce 7-10-19
Words = 2,410