“…Can I have my bow back, please?”
“Huh? OH! Here! Now, let’s go get cleaned up! I hear Scrub-Niggurath is giving a discount to bloblike creatures this week!”
[[And so the belated and not-well-done conclusion to the Blended arc is here. Keep in mind, if we had threads or ask chains going prior, we can continue those if you like!]]
Well Alison’s head certainly felt like it was spinning as the two
started talking to her though she thinks she got most of it. They had to
do something to the wall? That part was a little hard to understand
because there were a lot of broken walls in the studio. She also
certainly knows now that these two had broken into the studio. Most
people were trying to get out, not get in, so that seemed a bit weird.“M-Me? I’m..I’m….”
That
question was hard to answer, who was she? Alice? A mistake? A new toon
entirely? Well it was probably best to use the new name she had given
herself and go from there.“I’m A-Allison … A-Allison An-Angel, Ally for short. W-Who are you?”
“Well, I’m the Fourth Wall Repairman,” the male voice replied.
“I’m Marie!” the female voice chimed in.
“Sorry you had to meet us like…this,” the Repairman said, as they gestured towards their body. “Normally we’re separate, but…”
“Blenders do funny things to inkblots and paint spatters,” Marie finished.
The blob shuddered.
“Did you have to be so blunt?”
“Sorry, couldn’t think of anything else to say.”
They shook their head.
“W-well, anyway,” Marie finally said, “nice to meet you, Ally!”
They extended a long, drippy hand.
“…You want us to what?”
“Just pull ourselves separate.“
The Repairman pinched between his eyes.
“Look, we tried moving separately with Kit…”
“Exactly! We just need to be a bit more forceful!”
“…No…”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“…Well, how about using a knife to painstakingly get your paint and my ink separate, or maybe evaporate ourselves, or…?”
He sighed.
“Getting pulled apart it is.”
* * *
“Now, then, you’re clear on what we’re doing?”
The blended duo looked at the large tree that stood before them, and the absurdly huge wind-up elephant that the Repairman set up.
“Right…” Marie mused, “So one of us holds onto the tree, and the other one holds on to the elephant, until we’re finally split?”
“More or less. Now…” the Repairman began. It was still a challenge to admit his sister would be better in some respects, but he was trying. “…Y-you’re the stronger of us, so keep your grip firmly on that tree, okay?”
Marie nodded, and the blob got into position, with one arm wrapped several times around one of the massive roots, and the other winding the elephant up.
“Uh, Repairman?”
“Yeah?”
“Where…did you get a life-sized elephant toy?”
“Oh, that’s a funny story. It all started when–”
Too late. The elephant was moving, and the Repairman threw all of his energy into hanging on to its leg. Both blot and spatter felt themselves stretching. One half of the blob was becoming blacker. The other half was becoming bluer. Slowly but surely, it looked like the plan was working.
Then the Repairman’s grip began to slip. The two were seconds away from snapping back together.
“NO!” he grunted, pulling a huge horseshoe magnet from his hammerspace. This was not going to be his fault!
The stronger pull towards the metal toy, however, had other ideas. Marie’s grip never loosened, but the tree began to. As the Repairman focused on stretching them apart, Marie looked up in dread as the tree began to topple.
“TIMBER!” she screamed.
“Wha…?” the Repairman began, as the tree was about to land on them.
WHAM!
Ally had to be careful when wandering around the studio, there were a
lot of hazards she had to avoid. The ink, the ones who didn’t realize
she wasn’t Alice and tried to hurt her, and the studio was falling apart
rather badly. If you weren’t careful where you stepped you might fall
through the floor or get surprised by a broken pipe. This part of the
studio was always silent so hearing voices was a startling surprise for
her, and Ally did her best to follow the voice.It wasn’t long before she caught up to the strange intruder. They defiantly weren’t a toon from this studio.
“Hello?”
“OH!” the Repairman exclaimed. “Yes, hi, we’re just…doing…things…around here…”
“Oh, give up,” Marie sighed irritably, turning to the other Toon. “Sorry, you can probably guess we’re not from around here. Is it all right if we quickly fix the Wall here…?”
“You didn’t have to mention–”
“She probably already knows. Most Toons seem to…”
“…Fair enough…”
“Well, anyway, sorry you have to meet us like this.”
Marie gestured to the blended form she shared with her brother.
“…Bit of a story. Anyway, who are you? Surprised we haven’t met a whole lot of others here…”
It had been a week since the blending incident, and the Repairman and Marie were still feeling the effects. The Repairman was finally letting Marie help him out, partially because he had to, but also because she was right. She wouldn’t have tried to save him if she wanted to take his job.
“Hey, um, Repairman?” Marie asked. This felt awkward, given they were still fused together, but she had to know.
“…Yeah?”
“…What did make you think I was going to replace you? I mean, the letter clearly said…”
“You were gonna assist me, I know.”
The Repairman sighed.
“…You gotta keep in mind, I’ve been doing this alone for over eighty years now…”
“Yeah?”
“When you showed up, I thought I might be doing….doing something wrong. I mean, why else would they make an assistant out of the blue?”
He remembered that not only was Marie a blob of blue paint, but they were also both blue now.
“I mean, out of nowhere? I figured you were made as a way of saying ‘You idiot, we’ll show you how it’s done…’“
“…My creators didn’t animate me to say that, you know. They told me that you’ve been working alone for so many years, so I was gonna make your job a little easier. They said you deserved that.”
“…”
“…Repairman?”
“…”
And then the amalgamation hugged itself.
“Urk! Okay, remember our strength… and you don’t have to cry! Just…it’s okay…”
“I’M SORRY!”
Marie patted their shared shoulder, and after a moment, the two got back to work.
Once the two of them moved back to the crack in the Wall, the Repairman and Marie carefully opened the red toolbox. It still flipped open far faster than he would have expected. Even the cart was lighter when they pulled it over; it barely resisted at all, and they actually had to stop it before it plowed into them.
“Eugh, what happened here?!” the Marie half exclaimed, looking in. “It’s a mess!”
“Well, it works,” the Repairman half said defensively. “As long as I get my tools out, it’s fine.”
Marie grumbled, but watched as they somehow dug a hammer, several boards, and plenty of nails out of the incomprehensible pile inside the box. She could have sworn they put their hand way further into the toolbox than was possible…
No matter. They still had a Wall to fix. They moved to the crack, held one of the boards up, and…
“Hey! I got this!”
“W-what?” Marie asked, dropping the board. It landed softly in the sand.
“I got this! Just go and…keep…”
He stopped, feeling his sister’s quiet anger. He sighed, realizing how stupid what he said was.
“…Just…I got this, okay?”
Marie rolled her eyes. Fine, fine. Not allowed to do her job even when stuck to her brother? It was fine. No, really.
The Repairman tried to lift the board back up, but his arms felt heavy all of a sudden. He could barely get a grip on the board, much less pick it up.
“H-hey, you don’t have to hamper me!”
“I’m doing nothing,” Marie said, bringing the amalgamation’s hands up defensively. “You told me you got this, so…”
“Ha ha. Yeah, don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing…”
“For the last time, I’m not replacing you!”
“Why else would they send someone to compete with me?”
“…If I wanted to replace you, why would I try to get you out of the blender? Why would I even risk…this…happening?”
The blended blob shook, and the Repairman could feel tears on them. He was silent for a while, staring at the board.
“…You know,” he finally sighed, “if we’re stuck together like this, I guess…I could use the extra hand…”
He looked at their right arm, and how it had two “hands” at the end.
“…Th-thank you for trying to save me from that…”
The board could not have been held back into place faster if it was given ten energy drinks.
The Repairman and Marie moved (quite literally) as one through the bowels of the sepia studio. Things sure have changed since they were last there, and Marie was beginning to suspect that they were lost.
It was slow going, as well; the Repairman refused to let the ink here touch their blended body.
“…Are you sure this is okay, Repairman?” Marie asked, hints of her brothers’s voice echoing as she spoke.
“Look, we should be able to get through here fine,” the Repairman replied, his sister’s voice echoing as HE spoke. The fact that they were now a blob monster was left unsaid, but the Repairman was sure it would help them fit in okay. Of course, he didn’t take into account that they were a navy blue thing in a world of black and white.
“Shouldn’t we–?”
“Look, maybe we’ll find something while I work on the Wall…”
“…WE work on the Wall…”
[[And now that we see the amalgamation, feel free to send asks or do threads! I’ll hopefully get them fixed before Halloween is over!]]
…
[[Thank goodness they’re Toons, am I right? Stay tuned, and soon YOU’LL be able to participate…]]
Siblings-a-Fixin' 