There was no stopping him, that was for sure. The Shotgun had done its job.
She still had plenty of time to stop the tower, though!
Angie
let out a yelp as it wobbled to the left. She took the chance and
rushed the tower, pressing her body against the side. It wouldn’t do
much, since the tower began to wobble in the complete opposite
direction.
“Ohh no.”
“Eek!”
The Repairman turned, satisfied that the glass was supported, to see that the wooden tower was about ready to topple! No, he couldn’t have this happen! He had to help out somehow!
He dashed over to the other side, and pulled out a trampoline. That should soften the impact, right?
He kept beaming about this stroke of genius, apparently oblivious to the fact that the wooden frames simply bounced up into the air…
Landing right on top of the Repairman, making a huge cacophony of clatters and slams, and kicking dust up everywhere.
When it all settled, the Repairman burst out of the top part of the newly formed pile, and not only was his vision still shaky and pulsating with colors, but now he was seeing double as his eyes spun around.
Suddenly, he whipped out an ordinary wooden pop gun and pointed it a few feet to the right of Aggie.
“IKNOWTHEREWASONLYONEAGGIE,” he shouted, hands shaking as he glared at what his caffeine-and-concussion-addled mind thought was two of the coyote. “WHICHONEISTHEREALREALREALONE?!”
As Bowyetta lost composure, the hand returned and pushed the window
open. This time, however, it seemed to be attempting to forcefuly push
something in. Something colorful and plastic. Eventually, the object
flopped onto the wooden floor with a sudden thump. An inflatable kiddie
pool? The pale, long, disembodied arm returned once more, this time with
a plastic drinking hose. It snaked to the bottom of the makeshift pool,
coming to a stop once secured. There was a faint creaking sound
followed by clean flowing water that filled the bottom. The hand
beckoned to Bowyetta, though it didn’t seem like she could see anything.
Maybe she was panicking. It tapped a violet painted nail in thought
before eventually snapping in realization. It swiped the blackboard from
the counter, faint scribbles heard on the other side. When it came
back, there was a message written in big letters for the robot girl.
Unlike the others this was adorned with hearts and sparkles, maybe even a
crude puppy doodle of some kind.
//Bowyetta you’re doing great! Don’t worry about everyone else and cook. I love omurice!//
The hand began banging loudly on the counter before sinking back to where it came from.
“Hang on. If this is a contest why are you helping her?”
//Don’t take your eyes off the bowl you’re gonna scramble the eggs! Keep whisking!//
“At least let me catch my brea–”
“WAH!”
As
Link continued to cause a scene and cry out in distress, progress was
being made much against the boy’s will. Step by step, leeks were being
chopped, mushrooms diced, bacon fried, cheeses grated, and herbs minced.
Eventually, the little hero was looking at board of that, despite the
chaos of it all, was neatly wiped clean of any stray bits of food and
had been organized into neat piles. Not too far off was a gold colored
liquid that had been thickened enough to stick lightly onto even the
metal bowl. His hands moved on his own as he took a pinch of herbs, a
generous amount of cheese, salt, and a splash of cream. Link wasn’t used
to the vigorous movement, and he felt like his arms were going to pop
off at the joints as he whisked like never before. Eventually he raised
up the whisk, watching as the sauce came down a thick, steady ribbon.
Setting down the bowl, Link hurried to the drawers and began digging
around for something to cool this off in. There was an underused cake
pan. Perfect.
The little hero skid to a stop in front of the table
and slammed the pan down in front of him. There was a pause, and a
rather long one as the boy felt he had gained control of his body once
more.
“Oh goddesses have mercy on me… What– What happened why did you stop?”
//I forgot you don’t have a fridge.//
“I–What?”
//Nothing just… We have to get this cold and solid. And asap.//
“Cold huh? Will an ice rod work.”
//If you ruin this I swear I’ll make your life hell//
“Geez take it easy! I’m not gonna drop this!”
The
little hero swung his ice rod in an arc, sending a chilling blast to
the pan. Though he was careful with his movements and force this time.
Judging by how his body was being forced and pushed to move this fast he
was terrified of what others were in store if something went wrong. The
sauce solidified as the temperature rapidly dropped, eventually
becoming dense enough to cut.
//Okay back to work. Hurry before the espuma melts!//
The
little hero let out a surprised yelp as his body was being flung wildly
around the small kitchen. He began beating the whites rapidly until
they began to get foamy and pale.
“My wrist my wrist my wrist my wrist my wrist– What are we even making you haven’t told me yet!”
//Magic//
Bowyetta took a moment to look over at Red. “B-Bowyetta cannot be calming down!” She stammered. “How you are that much done already?! Bowyetta has not even cooked her rice yet and- EEEK!”
Bowyetta jumped at the sudden noise, very nearly spilling rice everywhere. Her eyes darted around the room, and she was about to fire an arrow in the noise’s direction, when suddenly she caught sight of the blackboard. Her eyes widened, and she put the arrow down on the counter. “T-This is really being for Bowyetta?” She didn’t know where it had come from, but she was happy someone was cheering for her.
Vinny gave a quick tug on Bowyetta’s hair to get her attention. “Look at this, Bowyetta~! Whoever it was, it looks like they brought you some water for your rice~!” The arrows picked up the hose, and siphoned some of the water from the pool into Bowyetta’s pot.
Bowyetta struck an arrow on her body, and carefully place him under the pot. “Please to be staying there while the rice is cooking,” she instructed him, before picking up her knife to chop the onions. As she did so, a couple of arrows had already broken two eggs into a bowl, and took spoon into their mouths to beat them.
Vinny now noticed Link’s screaming, and realized that might have been what caused Bowyetta’s panic before. He reached into Bowyetta’s hair and produced what appeared to be a radio. “Excuse me, Miss Eclair~!” he called upward. “Would you mind if I put on some music~? I think Bowyetta might have though Mr. Link was in danger, and it might help keep her calm…”
The ghost heroes stared at the chaos unfolding in the kitchen with varied expressions. Time’s was deadpan, as if he were watching an average person walking down the road. But, he had seen and experienced nearly everything imaginable by that point, so he was rather hard to surprise. Most of the others had more puzzled or baffled expressions, however.
Meanwhile outside, Twilight was happily roasting the chiles away above the flames. His other vegetables were already diced and ready to cook, and the brisket and cheese were shredded. He hummed happily to himself, making sure to keep himself as quiet as possible so as to not attract attention to Brown’s illusion. Were a person to stand by the road in front of Art’s house, they would see only his front wall and door. Brown had projected a picture of the scene onto a magical three-sided wall that left a good ten feet between it and Art’s actual house. The brunet hero was also standing guard just behind the wall, just in case he needed to use a subtle spell to influence any passerby to continue walking. Or perhaps he was just enjoying the smell of roasted chiles.
Twilight turned the chiles over to roast the other side. He wanted the skin browned and puckering. Luckily for him, as a shade he really couldn’t feel pain or be injured, so he could turn the chiles with his bare hands. Which was great, because Mini hadn’t brought him tongs or something similar. Luckily for whoever was judging, though he looked like a corpse with glowing eyes, he was more accurately a magical construct with a frightening form and therefore had no germs or other nasty things on his hands. He continued this for about another ten minutes, then removed them from the fire and started to clean them.
Once again, he was lucky he couldn’t feel pain. Capsaicin was not pleasant stuff to have all over your hands, but there wasn’t really a better way to remove the skin, stems, and seeds from all the chiles. He quickly cut up the jalapeños and chiles into short strips, then separated about a third of all the vegetables into a separate pile. He looked around his setup, then huffed slightly. If he had had lips, he would have pursed them in annoyance. Getting up from the ground, he went to the door and opened it, sticking his head inside the house. He stared momentarily at the other two shrieking chefs before raising his voice to ask anyone who would listen “Is there any chance Art has some bacon grease in his kitchen? Or cooking oil I guess? I’d even settle for butter.”
The Repairman found that a lot of issues were happening in a familiar universe. As he hauled his cart over there, humming “Turkey in the Straw”, he was shocked to find that familiar people were involved, too. Including a couple of real people… Oh, no. No. Not again. No. He was not going to be part of someone’s sick little game this time. But he did have a job to do, and it looked like he was going to have a crisis on his hands if he didn’t take care of it soon… He just hoped he could skirt by all these apparently confused, frantic and scared friends of his without being noticed. He’d see if he could help with recovery. As he slowly moved past them, he failed to notice one of the wheels of his cart squeaking…
Shinko gasped a bit when she saw the Cat Slime. “Oh my gosh, it’s adorable! I didn’t know you had a kitty, Mr. Repairman!”
Crystal placed a hand on her hip with a small smile. “A cat slime, huh…?”
Shinko slowly stepped over to grab the scraper before handing it to the Repairman.
“Yeah, got him a few months ago,” he said, happily. “Oh, thanks.”
He pried himself off the wall with a pop! and went over to his toolbox to check on his oddly-behaving pet.
“Don’t know why he’s acting like this. He’s usually more willing to meet new-”
He was cut off when Cat Slime burst out of the box, frantically squeaking and dashing towards Shinko.
He squeaked excitedly, and now that he stopped moving they could all see that he was carrying a pen and notepad on his head.
As Cat Slime continued “speaking” excitedly, the Repairman suddenly understood.
“Heh,” he said, sheepishly. “I…may have mentioned you once or twice.”
“Wow! You can travel to other universes effortlessly? That’s so cool!” Penny wanted to learn more about Repy.
After a while, she noticed his body language and realised she was probably being creepy.
“Uh, so, anyway, I’m gonna get another cup of coffee so I’ll be right
ba-” she started to say in an attempt to change the subject but didn’t
notice she was walking right into the coffee she spilt and slipped on
the spill.
She landed on the floor on her back. She didn’t know which pain felt
worse, physical or emotional. How could she forget about the spilt
coffee right as she said she was going to get another one?
The Repairman realized there wasn’t much of her that screamed “mad scientist,” but then, a lot of Toons were subversive these days. Her expression was looking pretty close to that a crazed doctor might have…
“I-it is?” he stammered. He never really thought about it, but he guessed it was novel for many.
He sighed in relief as she seemed to calm down a bit. Of course, this relief was short-lived, as he saw Penny slip and fall. He winced a bit.
“You okay?” he asked, rushing over to her prone body. He seemed to forget all about his minor neuroses as he rushed to lift the kid up.
Maybe he remembered that a lot of eccentric scientists weren’t evil. Maybe he recalled that this was just a child. In any case, he noticed her mortified expression. He smiled sympathetically.
“…Happens to the best of us,” he softly said, recalling incidents with oil slicks, banana peels, soap bars, and more. It was embarrassing the first few times for him, too.
Before Bowyetta even answered, she swept Mr. Sir up into a hug. She
couldn’t hide how worried she was, and her tears began to spill all over
his clothes. “He had been here with me the whole time, Mr. Sir. He is
having told Bowyetta everything. What having happened? Are you wanting
to stay with Bowyetta for a while?”
“Urk!”
The inkblot squirmed for a moment, but finally relented into hugging Bowyetta back. He sniffed his tears back, but broke into a sweat.
“H-he did?” he asked, nervously. His eyes darted towards his pet, who was squeaking all kinds of questions to him.
He sighed in relief.
“N-no,” he finally said, “I’ll be fine, it’s just…I dunno magic or something took my tool cart.”
He hoped telling half the truth would assuage Bowyetta, but he failed to notice that when he was grabbed, a pink piece of paper fell from his coat to the ground.
Max’s mouth opened, but instead of words, he slurred something incomprehensible (it was probably gibberish anyway). He then proceeded to topple over backwards.
“ Let’s ride it again, Danny!…”
He raised a hand as he said this, then it fell limply to the ground. Someone’s clearly out of it.
The Repairman, more often than not, arrived after the fact, so he often lacked context for things. For instance, the fact that a rabbit-thing (last he checked, bunnies didn’t have teeth like that) was clearly very dazed in front of him was something that raised quite a few questions.
Dumbfounded, he watched the other dramatically collapse. Shaking himself out of his stupor, the Repairman moved closer to take a look, and see if there was something he could do to help. If all else failed, he had a stretcher somewhere…
He started by waving a blobby hand in front of the bunny’s face.
“…Hello?”
“Umm…” Bowyetta really wasn’t prepared to answer any questions.
“Bowyetta knows not how it have happened. She is not having of a name
yet. Bowyetta is not certain if she should be answering of any more
questions now.”
She hoped her tone didn’t sound too harsh on the
last bit, especially since she felt as though the slightest thing would
set her off. “Is just… Bowyetta is not much wanting to be going home
right now. Do not be taking her there.”
The Repairman shook his head. This was going to be an issue, wasn’t it…? Poor kid.
“…I’m sorry,” he said, “but I have to go to the Void.”
After a moment’s thought, he added, “…but I’ll only take tools from the red toolbox, okay? You should be fine.”
And with that, he closed the lid and began carting towards the Misfits’ home. Maybe she’d come to her senses and emerge when they got there.
[[Gah, I’m sorry this is so late, and I understand if it’s too late.]]
The Repairman was going through yet another forest, just trying to figure out where he was in relation to a break in the Wall. He didn’t normally have this kind of trouble, but the forest seemed endless and every tree the same.
Eventually, the inkblot came across…Elmer Fudd?
Yeah. It was him. Go figure.
Apparently he was lost too, looking at a map. Maybe the Repairman could use that…Maybe they could both get out of this…
“Um, excuse me,” he waved. “You need any help there?”
“Uh…Yeah, thank you…Uh.. wasn’t thewe a hunting shop awound hewe? I mean, wast time I’ve been hewe thewe was one.” Elmer asked.
“I wouldn’t know,” the Repairman admitted. “This my first time around here…”
He looked at the map. It…wasn’t exactly a big help when all the forest looked the same.
Still, he knew the general direction the break in the Wall was. And if the Law of Contrived Coincidences taught him one thing, it was that there was a pretty good chance Elmer needed to get to the same place he did.
“I have a feeling it might be this way,” he said, beckoning Elmer to follow as he moved in the proper direction.
“Uh, no? How can I get a haircut Inky I’m a ghost!” Quarters replied, tilting his head slightly. He leaned sideways to peer at the Wall behind Inky, and suddenly lit up and started dashing over, bouncing a bit on his toes as he got close.
“That looks fun! Hey can I help? I can hand you tools or something! I’m really bored over here and the guys don’t wanna play with me. Well maybe Mini would but I can’t find him. Ooooh what does that doohickey do?” he rambled excitedly, pointing to some contraption that defied definition.
“True…” the Repairman nodded, uncertainly. “I swear, there’s something different about you, though.”
He shrugged it off, and took a look at his workload.
“N-no, I’m fi– Oh, you could do that, I gue– Huh?”
The inkblot turned his eyes to see what Quarters was talking about. His gaze fell on what looked like a rounded metal “Y”.
“Oh, that’s a tuning fork,” he shrugged. “You can have it if you want.”
He picked it up and struck it against a nearby table. It resonated very satisfyingly.
“…It’s one of the few tools I haven’t found a use for…” he muttered, before handing it to the ghost.
Shinko giggled a bit at the scenario as Crystal quirked an eyebrow.
“Umm… need any help there, Repairman?” Crystal asked, frowning a bit.
“No, no,” the Repairman waved her off. “I think I got something here!”
He took the glue-and-newspaper-covered mop and jammed it into the crack.The accidental papier-mache fit quite well, and after sawing off the handle, the inkblot looked at his handiwork, satisfied.
He turned to put the wooden pole and saw back into his toolbox, but found he couldn’t move very far without being yanked back by his arm.
“What…? Oh.”
He found that his arm was stuck to the Wall. Of course.
He sighed and gave a weak smile to Crystal and Shinko, before snapping his fingers in realization.
“Hey, Cat Slime!” he called out. “I’ll buy you some meringue if you get me that scraper!”
A few squeaks and a rustling sound later, and a small grey slime emerged from the blue toolbox, with a metal scraper in his mouth. He had green eyes, black stripes, and had two appendages shaped like cat ears.
He was halfway done bounding over to the Repairman when he saw Shinko and dropped the scraper. His eyes widened as he shook with excitement before hurriedly dashing back into the toolbox.
Siblings-a-Fixin' 