Care Bears Evolution
Chapter 3
Friend Request
( Care A Lot, Bright Hearts Home)
Bright heart, who was a dark purple raccoon cousin, with lighter lavender stripes instead of the typical black stripes on a raccoon. His tummy symbol is a heart shaped like a light bulb, it's a bright yellow with a glassy look. In the center is a smaller white heart to complete the look.
At the moment, Bright Heart was typing away on his laptop, he treasured the device, and was so grateful to get to know everything about human technology.
If he wasn't on a caring mission, you would usually see him typing away.
He would do all the research he could about the human world, from news articles, to the next big technological advancements. He was the most knowledgeable when it came to the happenings of Earth. Recently, the co-founders wanted him to teach Tender Heart the ins and outs of human technology. It was easier said than done however, although Tender Heart was eager to learn, he couldn't quite grasp everything and would need the assistance of Bright Heart most of the time to get anything done. Thankfully the raccoon was very patient and understanding, remembering when Don and John were teaching him the basics of the internet. They also told Bright Heart how dangerous it can be as well. Things like hackers, cyber bullies, scams and more could be lurking around, and that he should always be careful about what he searches for. They recommended that he keeps safe search on at all times, and for the time being not to share the fact that he was a Care Bear cousin. Bright Heart understood, and thanked them for all the advice and warnings. Tender Heart decided to tell his friend about his latest mission, also mentioning the part where someone took a picture of him. This of course surprised Bright Heart, knowing something like that would go viral. He decided to do a quick search to see if Tender Hearts picture was trending. He decided to search with something vague like a mystical bear creature. The search brought up a bunch of well drawn art of various fantastical bears. Bright heart was impressed about all the talented art he was seeing, until he found what he was looking for. There it was! The picture of Tenderheart, someone would have to scroll pretty far down the search list to find it, but it was there. Clicking on it to see the image detail, and to see where it was uploaded from, Bright heart was taken to a forum board. It was linked to a place called the Facility of Evolution. He also found the person who originally uploaded the photo, and no doubt the person that Tender Heart ran into. This was huge! Not only did he find the person that took the picture, but there are whole discussions about the CBF. Bright heart was intrigued, he wanted to find out more, but unfortunately he would have to make an account if he wanted to talk to anyone there.
Luckily for the whole family, Bright Heart came up with a very brilliant device. It was indeed Bright Heart, who went down to earth to see if he could acquire some of the human technology. He of course went to Dawn and John, who at first told him it would not be as easy as acquiring stuff from Earth and bringing it back. They would need the internet, a way to charge their devices, and if they wanted to order anything online they would need an address and a mailing address. This however didn't stop the raccoon from using that brilliant brain of his. He had John explain the ins and outs of internet connection and Wi-Fi. Dawn told him about cell phones and cell phone providers and plans. They even let him use their computer to do his own research.
He researched everything about this for 3 months, after that bright heart was locked up in his house for about another two, only really coming out to eat or go on a mandatory caring mission. For a while everyone was getting worried about him, thinking that he might be depressed about something. Every time someone would go check on him he would always assure them that he was fine. He would always say he was just working on a big project for everyone, and it was taking up most of his time. Soon enough, he was finished on his big project. Bright heart was so excited, after months of work, he finally finished his project. It was a Care Bear crafted hotspot for all electrical devices that came to Care A Lot. Now, if they had their own electrical devices, they could use it up here. Charging things wouldn't be a problem since they did have outlets and electricity. His device also came with cable, internet, and phone services, so they didn't have to worry about any of that while they were up here. John and Dawn also offered to hold any packages the Bears or cousins might order. As long as they didn't all order things at once. After all that, Care A Lot was practically a different place. John offered to give Bright Heart his old laptop to use, while Don gave him her old smartphone. Bright heart was grateful, he then got to work on setting everything up. To his delight, everything worked perfectly. The internet was running, and he was able to call the twins without a problem. Pretty soon more of the members of the CBF got wind of this and we're interested. They were asking if they could get phones and laptops too. Bright heart had to think, the twins have given him these as gifts, and he knew how expensive these devices were. To account for every member of the family it would be more than any of them can afford, considering that they don't have any money and never needed it. This made bright heart have to consult his friend Grumpy, and ask if he could help and use his tools. The Grumpy Bear agreed, and the two got to work reverse engineering a laptop and phone.
This brings us back to the current day, Bright heart and Grumpy succeeding in reverse engineering and manufacturing their own versions of cell phones and laptops.
So now, Bright heart decided to make an account for the forums, he went by the name Clever_raccoon. Soon he was in, and decided to do some research on the facility, and to see exactly what these forms were about. He found some interesting things that involved them. Some were extreme exaggerations, or outright lies about them. Someone had said that they could shoot lasers out of their eyes, another one said that they're actually aliens coming to take their brains. Bright heart couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of some of these claims but decided to keep going. Some claims were actually true, he figured these must be the kids that they helped in the past that were a bit grown up now. This put a smile on his face, seeing how happy they were now and how their lives are better. This all led up to a post which practically broke the chat, it was the picture of Tender Heart.
Once this was posted the chat was in an uproar, but Bright Heart didn't pay attention to the aftermath. He was only interested in the person that posted it. They went by the username Reserved_Otaku.
A bit curious, Bright Heart wanted to find out more about the mysterious girl that took the picture of his friend. He decided to send her a friend request, and invite her to a private chat.
(Facility of Evolution, Kim's room)
It has been two weeks now since Kim joined the facility. She was starting to get used to things around here. During the mornings till the late afternoon, Kim would focus on her studies and online classes. After which, she would go down to Roy's lab and help him with various things, from helping him take notes, going with him on field expeditions, or coming up with new theories. Leaving Kim to only be free during the evenings. Currently she is just relaxing. After just getting out of the shower, she decided to check her laptop.
She had noticed that she got a new friend request, and also a private message invitation. It was from a user who called themselves Clever_raccoon.
Kim noticed that their account was just recently made, giving her an uneasy feeling about this. They just made this account, and the first person they want to be friends with and talk to is her.
Kim was skeptical, but also curious, and in the end her curiosity won over, as she accepted the friend request and the private chat.
User: Reserved_Otaku: "Hi."
Kim decided to keep things simple. Not having any idea what this person's personality was like or what they wanted.
Kim didn't have to wait long for a response as she saw the typing prompt signaling that they were typing back.
User: Clever_raccoon: "Hello there. It's nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends."
Kim concluded that they were friendly enough, but didn't change her skepticism. No one really bothered to be her friend or talk to her, and she didn't give anyone any reason to. Even when she posted that picture, the only one that decided to contact her was Roy, the creator of the forums. At the time she thought she was in trouble or broke some sort of rule, but in the end it was just Roy offering her a job, and letting her in on a top secret project that could change the world. Now this person, who just created their account, was looking to get to know her.
User: Reserved_Otaku: "Sorry to be abrupt, but why exactly did you want to have a private chat?"
They took a moment to come up with an answer. Kim waited, wondering what they would come up with.
User: Clever_raccoon: "Ah I see. Yes I suppose that is pretty weird. I'm sorry. You see I'm actually relatively new when it comes to chatting with other people online."
Kim didn't know what to think. It was obvious that this person found something interesting about her, most likely having to do with the picture she uploaded. But what was confusing her was the fact that they just made the account about an hour ago, and out of all the people on the forums the first person they talk to is her. She isn't active enough to be on anyone's radar, and these forms have an active and popularity based system. If you weren't active or getting any types of upvotes, the only way people would ever find you is if they typed in your name and actively searched for you. The picture she posted did get a lot of upvotes, and was top trending for a day. However, it quickly fell out of popularity. So this led to Kim figuring that this person must have been browsing and saw the picture and was interested.
User: Reserved_Otaku: Okay, so be honest, is the only reason why you're talking to me is because I posted that picture?
Kim waited for a response, ready to tell this person that she wasn't really active and that they should find someone else to be friends with.
User: Clever_raccoon: Oh no no no! I'm sorry if it seems like that. I really do want to be your friend and make a lot of friends here as well. You're right I should be honest with you. No good comes from hiding things from your friends."
Kim raised an eyebrow at that, he already considered her a friend? But it seemed he was about to tell her something interesting so she waited for him to continue.
User: Clever_raccoon: You see, the picture you posted is a picture of my friend Tenderheart."
Kim's eyes widened! Did this person actually know who this bear was? Kim immediately started typing, having a bunch of questions.
User: Reserved_Otaku: Wait! Do you actually know who this is? You're not just messing with me are you?"
Kim still had to be careful, although he claims to know who this was and even gave a name. It didn't mean it was true. They could have easily just gotten some random names in the chat that others have given out.
(Care A Lot Bright Hearts Home)
Bright Heart felt bad, he didn't want her thinking that he was lying to her, but he also didn't know if it would be okay to actually tell her the whole truth. He didn't know how she would react if she did know the truth. In times like these, the raccoon would always rely on his brains. This time however his gut spoke louder. Telling him to give it a chance, to be honest and make a genuine friend with no secrets. With his mind made up, Bright Heart began typing.
(Facility of Evolution Kim's room)
User: Clever_raccoon: "I can assure you, I'm not lying to you. I really do know him, he's a good friend of mine. He was just startled when you two met, but I can assure you that he wouldn't harm you in any way. I think he was just worried he would get in a lot of trouble. Don't worry though he didn't get in trouble."
Kim was still on the fence about this, but the more she heard him talk about the bear like they were best friends, the more she started to believe them.
User: Reserved_Otaku: "I would like to believe you…but it's just really hard to think that you actually know them. I mean what even is he? How did you two meet? I can't really believe any of it without hard proof."
Kim wanted to see how he would respond to this. It would take some serious convincing and evidence to get her to actually believe him. In her mind this could still be an elaborate ruse just to mess with her. Kim waited for about 5 minutes before she got a notification she wasn't expecting. It was a video call. Kim held her breath not expecting this at all. On the one hand this would give Kim an idea about the personality of this person, seeing their face and hearing their voice could be a big factor, not to mention they could actually show proof in some way of their claims. On the other hand, Kim would have to reveal her face, when she wasn't quite comfortable with it. Because of her curiosity however, she decided to quickly open up her closet and grab her Spirit Fox mask she made from clay, she made it for a cosplaying kitsune outfit she thought was cute. Taking a deep breath, she put the mask on and accepted the video call.
