Tails: instant gratification ahoy.

[splinterself]

[Dirk had decided to be productive. Ish. (Productiveish? That ain't even something tha-...and that led to a chain of thought he decided to not climb down for the time being. His responder had better not be letting him down, though.)

In a way he had gotten the idea from Faris. If the pirate use could magic from crystals (he wasn't sure he wanted to know) and the game they were in had no problems, then there was no reason why he couldn't use puppetkind or fncysntakind. It wasn't like he had forgotten how to use either of them. No reason at all.

Well, except for not having any puppets or fancy Santas to weaponize.

He had obtained the materials through a long and arduous process which - frankly speaking - didn't really matter. It was pretty boring, as was him finding a quieter part of Mac Anu and starting work, so we'll skip to the interesting part: Dirk had gotten a little bit sidetracked and was putting the finishing touch on a plush which was disconcertedly well done considering what he had to work with. (It was pretty sad, seriously. It felt like he was trying to build a robot and only had a chisel and a rock to work with.) In his defense, the idea was fucking amusing and he was going to roll with it for now, and as he turned it over in his hands to make sure he didn't miss a spot he had to admit...it ain't his best work, but it ain't the worst he's done either.

Enter someone else. You? Why not. If he knows you, assume that if he sees you he'll give you a nod of recognition, a sort of silent broed sup. If he's related to you or you're somebody from back home, he'd give you a hey, a greeting with your name. There may be a slight amused smirk accompanying the above. Your call.]

Comments

[hoperaider]

[Jake: Enter.

Well, alrighty! He has no problem with that, since he's already here, and has been here for a few minutes by now.

Anyway, Jake's kind of milling around, relaxing from his last dungeon run. He...almost died...but he got better and came through in the end! Like a true hero!!! Okay, no, not really, but whatever.

The narration needs to get to the goddamn point. He spies Dirk looking at something in his hands. Not at all thinking about the situation, Jake attempts to SNEAK ATTACK his friend in a fit of unadulterated, friendly, purely sincere affection.

He rolls a natural 20!!

There is suddenly a Jake hugging from Dirk's side. He may or may not have tackled him a little.]

Salutations, Dirk! What's that you got in your hand?

[splinterself]

[Dirk spluttered a little. Not much bro, just a little. A tiny bit. Just...physical affection. It's kind of weird going from nothing to this.

(...'kind of.' Yeah. Right.)]

Want a closer look? Think fast. [And he tosses it at Jake's head.]

[hoperaider]

[At first, Jake is amused by Dirk's reaction. Now? He only barely manages to catch the Tinkerbull. It still hits him in the face.]

That was rude.

[Still he looks it over, and he's really impressed by how good Dirk is with thread and needle.]

This is amazing! Did you give it a name already?

[splinterself]

[...hey look, sudden impulse. (Jake would be happier not knowing his first idea, though it involves faux swarms tormenting Jake. For the record.)]

What? Nah. It doesn't matter, anyway. When pets change owners they get new names. Fact. It's a plush, but the idea's still there.

[hoperaider]

[If it suddenly rains plush Tinkerbulls on him, he will know that it's Dirk.]

You're not keeping him?

[splinterself]

[Yeah, pretty much. Or he'll get one on a string, attach it to a stick, and use it as a tinkerflail. You have to take what you can get when it comes to the simple pleasures in life. Maybe he should see if he could train some random field's encounters to snuggle Jake on command.]

I guess that depends. You don't want him?

[hoperaider]

[Oh Jesus Christ.]

No, I'd love to take him in! I didn't think you made him for me or anyone, really.

[It'll stay in his inventory forever until a guild happens. Or in his arms when in town, whichever.]

[mercuryangel]

[Mia looks at it, realizes it's a plushie, then walks over. Not that she's ever heard the word "plushie" before.]

You're good at that.

[splinterself]

[Details. Anyway, he holds it out to Mia for her to examine closer, if that's her thing. It's a...

Hm. Tinkerbull plush.]

Thanks.

[mercuryangel]

...Is that supposed to be a monster?

[Cute it may be, but that didn't stop the bees.

The bees were not all that threatening.]

[splinterself]

I guess you could call it that. My friend, he had to deal with swarms of them back where he's from. Don't get me wrong, they just wanted to cuddle the shit out of him, nothing too nefarious unless you consider relentless snuggles a bad thing. [Or a sexy thing. Sup uu, wherever you are.]

[mercuryangel]

That's more pleasant than what I was thinking.

[splinterself]

[And THAT gets his attention.] ...what were you thinking?

[reified]

[ what about a floating pretty boy who's... making himself entirely too hard to ignore?

he kind of appears overhead, curious as always about what's going on in the human population. ... it looks like someone is making something again. for some reason, though, he can't say that it's a 'soccer ball', so... it's... not a 'soccer ball'. what is it? ]

[splinterself]

[And all Dirk can think right now is that it was fucking awesome when he could do that. (God, his existence is weird.)]

Hey. [And he's going to toss the smuppet up, should Apollo be inclined to catch it to look at it. His plans for it entail finding his bro Dave later and throwing it at his face, see how Dave reacts. Will Dave enjoy the smuppet? Will he be frustrated? Only one way to find out.

It's science, bro. Research.]

[reified]

[ ... if there's one thing that he's read from that jumble of thoughts, it's that humans are weird. he blinks.

twice.

and doesn't catch the doll so much as he stops its descent in mid-air, then floats it over so that he can peruse it at eye-level. ]

It looks repulsive.

[splinterself]

[...huh. Cool.] Yeah. I thought I'd surprise my bro with it later. [Well, 'bro', it's complicated: they're related through some genetic...it's just complicated.]

[reified]

[ ... turning the doll around to look at the other side--

... yep, still just as hideous. why is it that humans insist on making things like these??? ] Just what would that accomplish?

[splinterself]

[He wasn't sure. A gift? Shits and giggles? Seeing if Dave is actually his brother and not just some paradox imitation of the man he grew up idolizing, the most heroic figure in all of history? It was a loaded question, one which Dirk couldn't exactly answer.]

I thought I'd see what he thought of my design. Not a fan? [Half-truth, a lot of lies.]

[shininghero]

You're pretty good at making plush toys.

[Have a random protag peering over at Dirk's work. There wasn't anything in the town that was built for making plush toys, was there? And as far as Shirou could tell, the plush toy was very well made.]

[splinterself]

Thanks. I had a lot of time on my hands. [The smuppet is sort of held in Shirou's general direction if he wanted to get a closer look.]

[shininghero]

[A closer look only confirms that the plush was indeed well made. The stitches were all neat and even, none were really out of order.]

What is it supposed to be of?

[splinterself]

A smuppet. Just something I came up with in my spare time back home. A man needs to keep busy, and I don't have the materials to make a robot here.

[shininghero]

You can make robots? That's impressive.

[splinterself]

Nah, it's not really. [...this feels familiar. He presses on, regardless of faint feelings of deja vu] I mean, look at it this way: if you talked to somebody a hundred years ago and said you could build a computer, they'd probably ask...what the fuck was a computer. But after that they'd be all, "Holy shit. This man's a fucking genius!" You're following me so far?