ACE

[ballies]

(pirate noises)

Comments

[selfimmolation]

No idea. Never met a real one.

[ballies]

... You don't have doctors??

[selfimmolation]

Wouldn't that be crazy? [ he says it with a laugh ] It was a joke anyway. There's doctors on pirate ships, but I didn't meet a normal, civilian doctor until I set sail.

[ballies]

At this point you could tell me anything about your home and I'd probably just have to nod and go along with it. [ HIS HOME IS STRANGE. ]

What did you do if you got injured before you were a pirate? Just... wrap your own wounds and hope infection didn't set in? Home remedies?

[selfimmolation]

If I couldn't take care of it myself, I'd let the bandits handle it.

[ that's just the regular child neglect moment ]

[ballies]

[ hhhhhhhhhhhfffffffghgghgggggggg. puts a hand over her eyes. ]

Right... right, okay. Sure.

[ ... ]

Even broken bones and stuff??

[selfimmolation]

You keep asking questions you clearly won't like the answer to...

[ yeah. ]

[ballies]

[ nrrrrrrrrgggghghgg. ]

Next time, you can always just plead the fifth. I mean, I'll know either way but--

[selfimmolation]

Plead the what?

[ballies]

Exercising your right to remain silent and not implicate yourself, legally speaking. Or, in this case... dodging the question when I ask something I'm not gonna like the answer to.

[selfimmolation]

You don't like when I do that, either.

[ballies]

Listen... I'm learning.

[selfimmolation]

Learning what?

[ballies]

That I'm probably not going to like what I hear. [ and then she asks anyway, but at least she's being ✨ self aware ✨ while she does it. ]

[selfimmolation]

But you ask anyway...

[ballies]

I do… it’s a crippling character flaw that comes up around friends I’m worried about.

[selfimmolation]

You know I'm an adult, right. You don't need to worry about the childhood stuff.

[ballies]

Yes, I’m aware. It’s kinda built into me to worry though. [ especially when he goes idek my eye’s gone but i’m fine as an adult ]

[selfimmolation]

... Like, literally...?

[ballies]

[ ....... ]

A little bit. Mental health support was one of my specific functions, but I developed it more than I think they initially assumed I would.

[ lmao lol ]

[selfimmolation]

[ sort of doing that kind of mini head tilt of "idk what mental health means but im gonna accept it", which, listen, there are no therapists in one piece, it's not his fault

anyway ]

So they underestimated you?

[ballies]

[ there are no mental health therapists anywhere and this is why she has stress ulcers. ]

I don’t think anyone fully knows how AI will grow until it does it. They might’ve wanted me to have a focus on that, buuuut how much they thought I’d do that over developing as an investigational partner, I don’t know.

[selfimmolation]

[ barely knows what ai is even after all this. its a person who isnt fully real and then becomes a tamagotchi... ]

So which do you end up doing more?

[ballies]

[ she is way more interesting that a tamagotchi but also lmao yeah this is a tamagotchi. aitsom i love you you weird little series you. ]

Honestly? Both.

[ gestures at ryuki. ] Being a psyncer is a stressful job. It’s practically a requirement to have mental health support for something like that. ABIS takes on much darker cases than regular law enforcement.

[selfimmolation]

Yeah. I kind of noticed.

[ a little. wry. An Adventure ]