“Then that means you’ll-” the boy hopefully cheers as he goes to grab her again, but meets only air where he saw her just a moment ago. Then, the collar of his jacket is pulled up, and his body follows.
“One thing at a time,” Peppa chastises the dangling cyborg. “Come along nicely now, don’t wanna drop you!”
He fusses a bit, but is cut off by a swerve in Peppa’s airpath that just barely pulls him out of the way of a branch, the kind that would give him reason to double up on the robot eyes.
She leans down and tells him, “But that could change, you know?”
The boy gulps, and nods.
===
The Inspecter whistles at the scene. “You toyed with a kid to show off how outclassed he was in every way.” She crosses her arms, then tilts her head. “The rude but kind approach, huh?”
Peppa shrugs. “Better to made a fool for a day than dying a fool the next.”
The Inspecter brings up their own mechanical hand and uses it to ruffle Peppa’s hair. “Nice, super quotable!”
Peppa smacks their hand away. “Hands to yourself, I’m over it!”
“Ah, my bad! Eheh…” The Inspecter, who is secretly three of Peppa’s Mom in a trenchcoat, considers what they’ve just seen in that little flashback, displayed up on a silver screen in Peppa’s lounge, the “Ruban Rouge.”
The Inquiring Aspect of Maple Son-Mahogany takes the helm of the totem, and asks, “So that encounter you had with the cyborg boy on the way home from school,” she begins, thinking on how to continue… then just goes ahead and says it, “Does it have anything to do with… Anything?”
Peppa regards her, then smiles and nods. “Good question!”
The Scolding Aspect pipes up from the Inspecter’s torso, “Don’t waste our time, young lady! Show us stuff that will explain how Gohan got maimed!”
Peppa narrows her eyes. “One, I don’t know how it happened. And again, so much stuff has happened the past month and I don’t know how it all fits together or what I overlooked and who knows, maybe he’s the key to all of this!” She gestures to the screen, which features a slow-motion replay of that sweet flip from the river.
The Doting Aspect of Maple leap-frogs from the bottom to the top of their totem, an act which is not noticed by Peppa due to the trenchcoat and their hat and a hefty amount of suspended disbelief. Now forming the head of the Inspecter, she twirls her fake moustache and nods assuringly. “That makes sense, so sorry for lashing out! I’ll be sure to keep an eye out. Won’t I?”
Her torso and legs sway in deference.
Peppa also nods gratefully, in large part to having seen much stranger things recently.
The Inquiring Aspect asks from the shirt, “So what else happened with the cyborg boy? Did he go fight Basilea?”
“...” A knowing smirk gets on Peppa’s face. “You’ll see.” She presses a play button on a remote, which anachronistically enables the movie projector to start up again.
===
https://youtu.be/q8YpZ_O-RdY 