Welcome to Gaia! ::

Botein was tired from a full week of work. She was worn down and just wanted to rest but it was also the first night in a while she had the next day off so she decided to patrol. She was a senshi after all. She was not only helping the city during the day but also at night. She also felt like she had to work even harder to make up for her… transgressions. It ate at her. The knowledge that she had made that deal made her stomach twist even now. And it didn’t help that she was chatting with ‘M’ even now. But that was ok because they were friends, and it wasn’t like she planned to continue with the deal, that was over. Even if the money had helped… and would still be helpful. Being a civil servant wasn’t exactly making her rich monetarily. But still, she was surviving so that was something. She was keeping her head above water. It didn’t matter that it was only barely.

She needed to get out of her own head. She had too!

With a huff the small woman did a few jumping jacks before stretching. Maybe some exercise would help keep her mind on patrolling and not on her own situation. At least the weather was cooperating, the night cooling as the season changed but still plenty warm for summer. It was hard to believe school would be starting soon. Time really did pass pretty fast!

“Who’s there,” Botein chirped before she turned and saw the negaverser and dimmed a bit. “Oh, you weren’t setting up a joke. Shame. I haven’t heard a good Knock Knock joke in a while.” And they could always be useful when talking to little kids. “Hmmmmm, personally I would say talker but…. Is that an Otter Pop?” Whatever she was going to finish with went right out the window when she spotted the little blue tube of liquid the officer held. “Why?”

She had actually sensed him coming but hadn’t done more then continue to stretch. She had found that most were rather polite, if cold. There were always outliers who just attacked but so far the only ones she had met that were like that were far and in between. So she hedged her bet and when the officer lowered his arms she grinned. Maybe her luck wasn’t as bad as it sometimes seemed. “Do you go home often with broken noses?” The strawberry blonde asked.

“Noooooo? really?” Botein exclaimed sadly, “That stinks. I was going to ask if it was Blue flavored or one of the yucky cotton candy ones. They really did that one a disservice.” She remembered trying all the flavors when she was younger and the blue ones were still her favorite, followed closely by the green. There was something about the blue that was just right. And no matter what some people said, blue was always ‘Blue’. Not Blue Razzberry or Blueberry or Blue Punch. Blue was just its own flavor. Like some weird thing. “There is this one Gatorade flavor that is just Blue too. Frozen its not half bad but it's still not the Blue Otter Pop.”

She perked up after wilting a bit at the thought of the forbidden treat. “Hey, thats something at least. Broken noses hurt real bad and they are like fingers and toes… not much anyone can do about it once they break outside of resetting them and hope they heal properly. I mean you can at least buddy tape fingers and toes but a nose? Not much one can do.” She’s had to buddy tape a finger once when it was sprained pretty badly. That was a pretty strange few weeks. Not something she would want to do again if she could avoid it.

“Been there, done that… It's no fun. Ever had a spear try to Shish Kabob you? Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend it.” She grinned at him before setting up a joke since he didn’t seem like the kind of officer who would just attack. Not like that one guy with the spear. She was still salty over that one. “Knock, Knock.”

Botein just laughed, “Yeah. Those were always a bit sadder. I liked to think it was because it had less flavor and more sugar. That way they could keep the kids hooked.” But her smile stayed on her face as she hopped over to a backpack that was tucked into the shadows. After a moment of rummaging she extracted two of those small ‘baby’ sports drinks. It wasn’t Gatorade but it still worked. “Red or blue?” She asked as she held them both up. She didn’t mind sharing her supplies and as much as she preferred blue, red wasn’t bad either. That one was fruit punch. The best kind of red drink. Still didn’t beat blue though.

“Botein! Nice to meet you too… and if it's all the same to you I would prefer not to fight either. It is just so, well, violent.” She sighed and got close enough to pass him his preferred drink, but still kept enough distance for safety at least. She had learned that too close just invited danger. Sometimes even a significant distance wasn’t enough. But her aim wasn’t good enough to underhand toss the bottle so she was kind of stuck. “Really? I’ve only ever had instant attacks directed at me. Normally weapons but there was this one where the Nothing, you know the Nothing from the Never Ending Story, was chasing me. That one was by far the most disturbing one.” She sighed and cracked open her drink. “Sometimes I just wish we could all get along.” If they did then maybe she wouldn’t feel so conflicted, or guilty.

“Red isn’t bad, but you can’t go wrong with blue,” Botein explained as she took a swallow of her drink. When he suggested carrying around actual ice pops she just made a face. “I mean, the thawed tubes could be drunk but there isn’t really a way to keep them frozen is there? Maybe an industrial cooler but that doesn’t seem overly feasible. Then again you could always just grab new ones every night and stick them in a normal cooler.” She pointed over at her backpack, “And a bag is always useful for stuff like that.” Also for a first aid kit, a towel, some granola bars… ect. She was prepared, that was for sure.

Botein looked at him before shaking her head slowly. He was being nice but there were just so many things wrong with the idea. “No… There are just so many unanswered questions for me to do that.” Like where the energy they collected went. Or the whole issue behind starseeds. There was no accountability, outside of order, and as such it wasn’t something she would ever join.

Trying to lighten the, now slightly depressing, moment Botein asked in a chipper voice, “Do you know what's a tree's favorite beverage?” She paused for a second before presenting the punch line, “Root-beer.”

“It might work,” Botein contemplated it. Some of the higher end thermos’ were pretty good at keeping things at the preferred temp. “You might have a harder time finding one that will fit Otter Pops.” She paused and shook her head, laughing at his antics. “No, no. That's not what I meant by keeping unfrozen ones on you. They could be good for emergencies like low blood sugar or…” She trailed off as something even better than colored sugar water occurred to her. “Pedialyte. You could carry Pedialyte on you! The big bottles are too big to carry comfortably but they now make ice pops and they would totally work. The flavor will definitely not be the same but for an electrolyte boost they would work just fine.” She saw them at the store and while it had been tempting to try she couldn’t rationalize the cost of them, not when she didn’t need them.

The petite strawberry blonde senshi snickered as the negaverse officer gaped at her horrid joke before laughing heartily. “Of course. Any good person has a handful of horridly punny dad jokes. How about this one… Most of the kids now don’t get it but you probably would. What do you call Batman when he leaves church early?” She paused, raising an eyebrow before grinning like a cat who had gotten into the cream. “Christain Bale.” It really was a horrid joke, one that required the others to know who that actor was. Especially since it had been quite some time since he was the one behind the Batman cowl. But it was also one of her best jokes that just didn’t play off of puns, like the tree one.

“Well no… but could you imagine the mess if it popped? And the waste of food? And money?” She sounded horrified at ‘money’. Just the idea of wasting it was bad enough but wasting the money it cost to buy it. Now that was just rude! “Oh, they make some vitamin C boost type lozenges. They are much better than the Halls. I’ve never been a fan of menthol myself so while the vitamin ones aren’t exactly great they taste much better.” Botein suggested as she finished off her drink. The bottle was tucked away so she could properly dispose of it once she was home.

At his joke she snorted before laughing out loud. “Oh, that's bad! I love it! How about this one, ‘Why couldn't Dorothy tell the bad witch from the good witch?’” She waited for a beat. “‘Because she didn't know which witch was which.’” She still had a few more jokes on hand, but after this one they were just bad puns. This one was at least movie related.

Botein just shrugged, “I mean. Its your money so…” She trailed off. She had already said her peace and just remained quiet only to make a face at his next comment. “You're not half bad yourself, for an officer.” She waved her hand at him, encompassing his entire outfit. She wasn’t a very good senshi but she also strongly believed she was on the right side of history, but also knew that sometimes there was just no convincing people that what they knew to be ‘right’ was in fact wrong. And it was one of the fastest ways for a cordial conversation to rapidly deteriorate.

It took her a second before she stared at him in surprise. “Noooooo. That's bad. So very bad!” She giggled uproariously for a little while. Finally, when she was still a little winded she retried her earlier joke, “Sadly I don’t have any good one liners so ‘Knock, Knock’.” On his response she followed up with, “Nobel”, and then finished the set joke with, “Nobel, so I just Knocked.”

“I know, I know… I need to step up my joke game.” She grinned and shrugged. “At least it's better than a ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ joke.”