a second chance ?

reflecting

and so, with that, taco was to stay in testtubes lab for the remainder of the past few weeks. they collaborated, though taco wasn't .. exactly upfront with her plotting.

she always found herself drawn to looking at the time machine that testtube kept stored in a safe and secure place. she pondered on it, almost longing to go back in time. she sometimes would wonder if mic and her, their relationship, if it was built on lies? 

she tried to reason with herself, reason with her actions. she was upfront with what she had wanted, with what her goal was, and she didn't ... exactly, manipulate mic into doing anything. they were to both benefit from what they were doing, right? 

after season one, with pickle, she felt regret. she lashed out in anger at the finale, even if what she had said was true. she was using pickle throughout season one, and at the time, she had never considered their bond .. real. that was probably because she wasn't herself, she was putting on a façade. so, nothing could have been real with that, but with mic? things were different ..

with mic she could be herself. she could rant to her, even outside of the challenges they had pleasant conversation. taco would go on into her ramblings about her hobbies, like how she had always dreamt of being a journalist, or her favorite brews of tea, simple conversation. that's probably what she missed the most.

mic would sometimes also talk about her interests. in fact, now that taco thought about it, taco had been the one who was listening more often than not, but .. she took comfort in that. she took comfort in mic finally being able to open up to her, being able to help mic through her frustrations almost made her feel better about herself. it was sad, maybe, but not everyone can find peace in the same things.

taco stood up, it was getting near time for her to go out into the lab anyway, she had been thinking plenty enough for the day, it was time to actually do things about it. everyone had left her in a state of frustration, and she was determined to do something about it.

she walked out of the secluded closet-like room in which she had been sleeping, and testtube was already outside. she gave a polite wave, and at closer inspection, it had seemed as if testtube hadn't slept since last night. taco shook it off, that wasn't her concern right now.

"hey taco, uh.. so, i've been inspecting this teleportation gun of yours, and-- i was wondering, how did you even. . manage this? like. it's surely based off of another power source, but i .. i just can't tell what!" testtube pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

taco smiled, "well, if you really must know," taco went over to where testtube was standing, and pointed at a small chip. "this is what's holding the power, and well, i went through some .. measures to acquire it. one of those measures being temporarily ridding mepad of his teleportation powers." taco gave a pause,

"and before you say, 'taco!! you murderer!' that is not the case, i assure you. mepad is currently in fact alive, he's just been . . in a comatose-like state. he's been rebooting this past time, and well, i left him somewhere i'm somebody will find him. the cloud, that is. i've heard they're quite the technology specialists up there! and well, if it's a teleportation chip he needs, i'm sure they have spares." she said, finishing her short monologue promptly.

testtube groaned, but then sighed. "i suppose science does require sacrifices. .." she muttered, almost frustrated she couldn't come up with something that might leave taco in the morally wrong.

"indeed!" taco grinned, accomplished and smug. "and so, i have to ask, how are things at the hotel? i'm not .. exactly allowed inside, as you likely know."

testtube paused, and then looked at taco. 

"if you're asking about pickle, he's fine. him and fan chat quite frequently actually, they both are such nerds for video games and watching them ramble about the subject to eachother is nice, i guess."

taco blinked, she hadn't really been asking about pickle, but guilt prickled in her chest at the mention of him. she didn't really have the heart to ask about microphone, as most people were unaware of the two being close in the first place. she nodded, and hesitantly responded, "well, i'm glad he's been alright."

"yeah, yeah. what's got you so interested in it, anyway? i've heard you and pickle didn't end on the best of terms." testtube said, now inspecting the teleportation chip.

"oh, i suppose just .. curiosity." taco responded.

testtube seemed to pause only slightly for half of a second, clearly drawing suspicion to tacos answer. "yeah. okay. anyway, i should be able to replicate something like this, but it might take some time. and so after that, you can get a copy of something, or borrow some equipment if you need it."

tacos eyes drifted to the time machine that had emitted the green and yellow swirling portal before,

"i'd like that, thank you."