“Okay,” the Repairman finally said, looking at the mind-swapped duo. “I do think I have some things we can try…”
He began wringing his hands. If he had feet, they’d be shuffling awkwardly. He’d never tried anything like this before, but it was a common enough trope that he would at least be able to do something, he hoped.
“…Ready?” he finally asked, his uneasy gaze shifting between the two.
“Is this really gonna work or am I going to have a bruise on my head…seems kinda absurd but at this point I’m willing to try anything.”
“We’ve got no other options, Ravio. I’m desperate to make this end all this.”
“So what, do you have some kinda magic spellor something? Lay it on us.”
“…Uh…yes,” the Repairman replied, carefully. “I do have things that I think are magical, but…let’s see if more mundane, common solutions work, first.”
He took a deep breath. This was all for curing this. Don’t worry…
And with that, he leaped up, grabbed their heads and banged them together. A sound like a cymbal clashing was heard. Quickly, he jumped back. Understandably, they would probably be a little miffed at that.
After a moment to let their pain ease a little bit, he looked at the two.
“…Sorry about that,” he said, truthfully. “It apparently works a lot for this kind of thing. Any luck?”
“What the– OW?? Lorin Almighty I’m gonna have a headache for a week! You could have been a bit gentler blobby chuchu guy!”
He paused, before looking down, seeing the robe and his own flimsy arms.
“I’m me again!! I don’t have to be blond anymore! Sweet gods above it I may have a concussion but it worked!!!”
“ACK–!”
“What is your problem!? This isn’t some kinda… Ah?”
Link looked between his friends before staring at his own hands. He held onto Ravio and began hopping in sheer joy.
“Oh thank the goddesses golden we’re back to normal! I was afraid we were gonna be stuck forever!”
The Repairman smiled, satisfied with a job well done. Still, something in the back of his mind felt…off. Too easy, a voice from there was saying, too easy.
He mentally hushed that voice and turned back to the joyous duo.
“Yeah, I’m glad it worked too…honestly didn’t expect that…”
“Okay,” the Repairman finally said, looking at the mind-swapped duo. “I do think I have some things we can try…”
He began wringing his hands. If he had feet, they’d be shuffling awkwardly. He’d never tried anything like this before, but it was a common enough trope that he would at least be able to do something, he hoped.
“…Ready?” he finally asked, his uneasy gaze shifting between the two.
“Is this really gonna work or am I going to have a bruise on my head…seems kinda absurd but at this point I’m willing to try anything.”
“We’ve got no other options, Ravio. I’m desperate to make this end all this.”
“So what, do you have some kinda magic spellor something? Lay it on us.”
“…Uh…yes,” the Repairman replied, carefully. “I do have things that I think are magical, but…let’s see if more mundane, common solutions work, first.”
He took a deep breath. This was all for curing this. Don’t worry…
And with that, he leaped up, grabbed their heads and banged them together. A sound like a cymbal clashing was heard. Quickly, he jumped back. Understandably, they would probably be a little miffed at that.
After a moment to let their pain ease a little bit, he looked at the two.
“…Sorry about that,” he said, truthfully. “It apparently works a lot for this kind of thing. Any luck?”
“Okay,” the Repairman finally said, looking at the mind-swapped duo. “I do think I have some things we can try…”
He began wringing his hands. If he had feet, they’d be shuffling awkwardly. He’d never tried anything like this before, but it was a common enough trope that he would at least be able to do something, he hoped.
“…Ready?” he finally asked, his uneasy gaze shifting between the two.
“What the…” Ravio mumbled from the counter, hearing the blaring loud
sound of something he couldn’t even explain. That little blob guy was
really freaking strange. That was for sure. The merchant moved from
around the counter, peering out the door. All he could see was some
plant matter going askew this was and that. Was he doing a lot of sword
spinning? Even Link couldn’t go that fast. And if he did, he’d probably
vomit.
After about three minutes, the whirring outside stopped, to be quickly replaced with a couple of clatters. And then the Repairman stumbled into the shop.
He was cradling a huge pile of rupees of all sorts of colors, and it was obvious from the way he moved that he wasn’t exactly prepared to carry so many. He swayed from side to side, occasionally dropping one as he went. Finally, he set the pile on the counter.
Now it could be seen that the Repairman was absolutely covered with grass clippings and stains, and he smelled like a freshly cut lawn and…smoke? Small droplets of ink formed sweat on him, and he had to take a breath before speaking again.
“Sorry…” he panted. “…I hope this is enough. I lost count around six hundred seventy-eight, and I don’t know how much the colors are worth. Is it any different?”
He turned his back to the counter and leaned against it, just to rest for a moment.
The Repairman, confused, looked at the cash for a moment. Then it clicked.
“Oh,” he chuckled, sheepishly, “sorry. I go to so many places, y’know…?”
He reached into his hammerspace (which the shopkeep would see him digging into a pocket on his form in this case), and started pulling out currencies from a variety of worlds. A wide variety of coins (most of which were golden), other kinds of bills, candies, diamonds, and a few physical numbers came out. He even pulled out several pieces of scrap metal and what looked like glowing orbs.
He gave an embarrassed smile to Ravio.
“Sorry, could you excuse me a moment?”
He then began sorting through what he had, occasionally looking around as if he was trying to gauge a time period and genre. After about half a minute, he finally held out a couple of large blue diamonds and a bag of the most generic gold coins he could find.
“…Will these work?”
“…” Ravio watched him as he pulled out various types of currencies. They were definitely a bunch of junk in Ravio’s opinion. He’d see other kingdoms use coins but definitely nothing like these. What even was half this stuff crowding his counter? Regardless, none of it was anything he could really take. The exchange rate with rupees was pretty dismal. After a moment of watching, and feeling kind of bad for the…uh, guy?…as he struggled to find the proper way to pay, Ravio moved to the chest where he kept his till. He pulled out a red rupee, walking back to the counter and holding the elongated hexagonal crystal up for the other to see.
“This is what I take. Rupees. Do you have any of these?”
Upon seeing the rupee, the Repairman facepalmed. He realized how stupid it was to think those were just another weird fruit like those heart things.
“Gah!” he groaned, dragging his hand down. “Give me a minute.”
He gently put the bird on the counter and walked out. Within seconds, a loud roaring kind of noise could be heard just outside. There was the occasional sound of something scraping the side of a rock or building along with it, followed by some loud exclaim by the Repairman.
If this were a more modern world, Ravio would have recognized the noise as that of a weedeater.
Sheerow didn’t seem to mind oddly bobbing on the repairman’s head, letting out a few happy beeps.
Ravio
watched as the customer took one of the hammers and came up to the
counter. The stupid happy smile that was on his face from making a sale
was wiped clean when what he was given was a pile of pieces of paper…or
no it was sort of papery fabric? Whatever it was, it was flimsy and
definitely not rupees. Whatever it was, Ravio had never seen it before.
It wasn’t anything like the currencies in the neighboring countries
either.
“Uh…” he started awkwardly, “You can’t pay with this…?”
“Huh…?”
The Repairman, confused, looked at the cash for a moment. Then it clicked.
“Oh,” he chuckled, sheepishly, “sorry. I go to so many places, y’know…?”
He reached into his hammerspace (which the shopkeep would see him digging into a pocket on his form in this case), and started pulling out currencies from a variety of worlds. A wide variety of coins (most of which were golden), other kinds of bills, candies, diamonds, and a few physical numbers came out. He even pulled out several pieces of scrap metal and what looked like glowing orbs.
He gave an embarrassed smile to Ravio.
“Sorry, could you excuse me a moment?”
He then began sorting through what he had, occasionally looking around as if he was trying to gauge a time period and genre. After about half a minute, he finally held out a couple of large blue diamonds and a bag of the most generic gold coins he could find.
“…Will these work?”
Sheerow, astute as ever, hopped from the counter and flew to his head, sitting on it to show Ravio that this was not a chuchu and also not someone bad. he always had to be the rational one. His Lorian friend sometimes just didn’t see the reasonable side.
When Ravio saw the white bird sit on the customers head, he stood up a bit awkwardly from behind the counter. Well, it did make sense. He said he wasn’t a chuchu and chuchu couldn’t talk. What really caught Ravio’s attention was the when the little visitor seemed interested in a purchase.
“Okay…so…you’re not….alright.” he mumbled to himself. Get a grip Ravio, he thought. It wasn’t like he ever cared much about a customer’s appearance so long as they were interested in buying something. “A hammer? Yeah I’ve got some hammers!”
It was obvious he was still fighting through the initial nerves and trying to regain his composure. Ravio gestured towards a wall where three different hammers were leaning for display. All three were about the same size, two were made of wood and one made of metal.
“The wood ones are around 800 each, the metal one is 2000. It’s an import so, I can’t really go much lower than that.”
“Hey, what–!”
He could feel the bird’s feet sinking into his blobby form a little. Luckily, be it buoyancy or Toon Physics, the bird did not sink into his head.
He nodded carefully as the shopkeep came to his senses. Didn’t want to jostle the bird too badly, after all.
He looked at the hammers. While he could get more mileage out of a metal hammer, to be sure, he wasn’t sure he could afford the 2000 for it. Ah well, the wooden one seemed like it’d do the job. Even 800 seemed kind of steep, but he didn’t really want to travel all the way back to Toontown just so he could come back here for a single job.
“Could I take one of the wooden ones?” he asked, reaching into his hammerspace. He pulled out a large wad of dollar bills and placed it on the desk expectantly.
Ravio heard the bell on the door chime and some passing words as someone entered into the shop. Glancing up from the counter he put on his best face for the new customer.
“Welcome! What can I help you….with…?” he started full of energy, only to lead into confusion as he stared at no one. Well, no one in his eye line of course. No one people sized. Sheerow hopped to the end of the wood counter he’d been resting on and peered downwards to the little blot making its way inside. This also cued Ravio to look down. He stared perhaps for a bit too long. Yeah, he definitely heard someone speak when the door opened, but this looked like a chuchu. A talking chuchu? Or was he just hearing things?
“H-Hey little guy, people only, no chuchus. Go on, shoo! Shoo…?” It was a bit hard to try to scare off the perceived chuchu from defensively ducking halfway behind the counter and waving his hand in a dismissing manner. He’d pick it up and drop it out the door but one time he touched a chuchu and he was pretty sure the electric shock caused him to pass out for twenty minutes.
Sheerow, however, was staring more curiously at him, tilting his body slightly as he observed.
“Yeah, I’m wondering if you sell any hammers. The one I used broke–”
He noticed the shopkeep trying to shoo him. He only blinked in surprise.
“Um…” he started, pulling out a mirror and looking carefully into it. “I…don’t even…look like a train…”
He then realized “chuchu” might mean something else.
He turned to the nearby bird, who he saw staring.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered, "I finally get here, and now I can’t even buy something.“
The door opened, and a small inkblot peered into what he hoped was a shop.
“Um…hello…?” the Repairman called, being careful not to intrude. “Is…this the local store…?”
He took a cursory look around, and risked a step in. For some reason, no one was willing to give directions to a small, featureless, non-fitting inkblot around here. He just hoped that his lack of literacy in Ancient Hylian wasn’t failing him now…
Siblings-a-Fixin' 