“…Oh…” the Repairman said, putting the extinguisher down. “Well, I’m sure she’d like that…”
He looked at Marie, who turned her helmet back into a bow and shrugged.
“Well, you said we were gonna be around this world for a bit,” she said to the Repairman. Turning to Frisk, she asked “So, you think we could come along? It would be a nice time to catch up.”
“Um, if we do that,” the Repairman interjected, “We’re gonna have to break away sometimes, just to work on the Wall. Sorry ‘bout that…”
“Oh, well, that’s alright,” Konade replied, putting the phone down. “Well, the phone’s over here when you’re ready to order.”
Susumu
stopped to think for a moment. “Well, let’s see…’ she said. “She’s made
of blue paint, so something in a warmer color would look nice on her.
Purple or blue would blend together too much.” She flipped through a few
more pages, before looking back up. “Hey! How about a red one? I think
you’re right, she might like something in a new color, and I think she’d
look good in red…”
She looked at Mr. Sir and Konade, to see what the answer would be.
“Red, you say…?”
The Repairman looked at the page Susumu had open. Slowly, he began to place the photograph of Marie over the red bow.
“…Hey, I think she’d like that, too!”
He stroked where his chin would be.
“So…a few spare green bows…a red Wooly bow, a couple of Debutantes…”
He looked back up at Susumu, and then at Konade. He wondered if they had further thoughts on this.
“Anything else you think I should get her…? I’m gonna get a few basic bows somewhere else, too…”
Welp, it appears our little pioneer of knowledge has once again gone a little too far with his shenanigans….
While all the kooky toons of Inkwell were just masters at breaking things, Junior was one of the few who would (frequently) break a certain metaphorical phenomenon for clever and comedic effects.
Of course, he never considered that actual damage was done, but now
that he paid a little closer attention, that crevice was a little hard
to miss…
“ …was dat always dere? ” The chick asks the blob…toon…person (?) … uncertainly, while pointing at the crack in the rift.
The Repairman blinked. It wasn’t often that someone who broke the Wall asked that. Most were either completely oblivious to the whole thing or knew perfectly well what they were doing, for better or for worse.
Marie was the first to speak up. “Um, no, it’s just that the Wall’s broken, but we’re here to fix it.”
“Um, yeah,” the Repairman spoke up, trying to avoid things getting worse (the things brainy half-pints did with a bit of knowledge…), “Just hang on, this’ll be gone in just a sec. Marie, could you get a few bricks and some mortar?”
Frisk was in the kitchen, cooking a meal for Chara, “Oh dear lor-” He saw the blob out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look at him, “My GOD it’s been a while!”
He quickly hugged the repairman, and kissed
Marie
on the cheek, “You two, you never phone when you’re coming over, or let anyone kno-“ He sniffed the air several times, and his eyes got wide as the oven started smoking. He turned around frantically to get out his pie before it burned.
4/5
“Oh, hi Fri–” the Repairman started to wave, before being grabbed by Frisk. “Sorry, it has been a while…”
Marie smiled a little, glad to see this version of Frisk again. “How ya been?”
Both watched, concerned, as they realized the oven was smoking. The Repairman pulled out a fire extinguisher while Marie twisted her bow until it turned into a firefighter’s helmet. Just in case.
“You okay there..?”
“Eeeeee! Marie you’re adorable!!!” Sparky squealed, scooping
her up and cuddling her for all he was worth. Was he going to get
covered in blue paint? Probably, but it was so worth it. “Wind!
Wind take pictures for us too, please!!! Oh I missed having a munchkin
to play with!” Sparky planted an exuberant smooch on Marie’s forehead,
unable to contain his utter glee.
Wind shook his head at his successor, although he did whip out the
pictobox to snap a few pictures of the pair. This was going on the wall
back home, for sure.
“Huh? You ok there Cat Slime?” Wind asked when Inky’s pet squeaked at
him. “Uh… hey Twilight, think you can understand Slime in wolf form?”
“Aww, I don’t need ta change to figure that out. He just wants to
know she’s ok and come play too.” Twilight replied, having finished
repairing the cracks in the immediate vicinity. He knelt down and petted
the cat… slime… cat shaped slime… whatever he was on the head, and
gestured for him to come and play with Marie and Sparky, who had pulled a
ribbon out of his pocket and was waving it in the air around his
friend, entertaining her with the way it gracefully fluttered in the
air.
Wind stared at the older hero for a second, then lit up, bouncing on his toes with stars in his eyes.
“Wow, really? I didn’t know you could understand animals out of wolf form!”
Twilight chuckled, ruffling the younger’s hair.
“Aww shucks, I ain’t as cool as all that. I can’t actually understand
what he’s saying, I just caught his meaning, if ya know what I mean.”
Marie could do little more than laugh loudly as Sparky appropriately babied her. Well, she could try and grab the end of his hat, but that quickly became a fool’s errand.
Cat Slime, meanwhile, hopped over as Marie tried to reach for the ribbon, trying to reach it himself. He leaped back and forth, being careful not to hit the baby, but he wanted to show off a little, too.
He briefly stopped to get a closer look at the blue blob.
“Mi?”
“Meh! Meh meh!” Marie said, reaching out to grab one of Cat Slime’s ears.
Cat Slime squirmed under her grip. It was lucky he was a Slime, and could therefore stretch, or the surprisingly strong baby would have seriously hurt. Still,he gently squeaked, asking her to stop. It was going to take forever to get himself back into his perfectly cute look again if he was stretched any more…
“Oh,
uh… I’m Mecchan.” Mecchan explained. “Yeah, I know how magic works. And
it’s a long story for how I ended up getting here and I have no idea
how I’m gonna get back, but basically a friend of mine, who had
inherited his grandfather’s science labs decided to make an
extradimensional portal. It’s… got some bugs.”
Mecchan sighed. “Sorry if this is too much for you guys. If you can’t help me, I understand.”
“Oh, one of those?” the Repairman sighed. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
Marie saw Mecchan’s confusion, and her own eyes turned to those of worry.
“No, no,” the inkblot said, reassuringly, “I can help you home, I think. Can you tell me your world?”
Marie sighed, as the two of them came back to Inkwell Isle. Still, her brother was content enough here, and this place wasn’t the worst offender for Fourth Wall breaks. She just preferred worlds that made a little more sense.
The Repairman, for his part, was about to ask Marie for the bucket of liquid cement when he saw the large bird just….sitting there, gawking at the crack the blobs were set to fix.
“Um..you okay there…?”
Aggie told Cat Slime all about how Kit had “melted” in the blob and how it had taken her a while to get herself together enough for her to even get here. He was clearly upset, but managed to calm down somewhat by the end between talking to Cat Slime and seeing Kitterah managing.
“I hope you can Marie, that’s why I came to the experts!” She laughed a little which made her whole body jiggle and roll like jello.
“What are you looking for?” Kit asked. Once recovered enough from her laugh to stand still again, she then slowly shuffled over to peek into the tool box.
Cat Slime kept close to Aggie, smiling as he seemed to calm down a little.
The Repairman frantically moved to try and keep Kitterah stable as she laughed.
“Careful now…”
Meanwhile, Marie had pulled a ducky tube, an old laptop, and three different hand mirrors out of the toolbox until…
“AH! Here we are!”
She pulled out a box of plastic wrap, a lawn chair designed to have a bowl for a seat, a decently-sized blanket, a tarp, and a walker.
She handed the walker and one blanket to Kit, while placing the tarp on the ground.
“Now, as for the wrap…”
The Repariman, with alarming speed, dashed over and whispered to his sister, explaining how uncomfortable that was. Her cheerful face fell a little, but she gently placed the box back.
“Well, this should be plenty anyway.”
The Repairman looked around. Other than her suggestion of plastic wrap, Marie had set up a decent place to get used to things.
Susumu nodded. “Something with more of a simple pattern then?” she
asked. “I don’t think any of them really have any flat colors…”
After a few minutes of thinking and flipping through pages, Susumu
spoke up once more. “Well, let’s see… I don’t know about bow shapes,
but… The Wooly Bow is the most simple design, but I think she’d look
good in the Debutante Bow too. Is green her favorite color? They both
come in green…”
Konade, meanwhile, had prepared to pick up the phone. “We can order
it for you when you decide,” she said. “We’ve got the money to cover it,
so don’t worry about it.”
“…Yeah, I think you’re right,” the Repairman said, nodding. “Those two should work…”
He blinked as Susumu asked about Marie’s favorite color.
“…Um…I think so. She usually goes for orange and green…”
He looked at the catalog again.
“Oh, but what if she wants more colors to branch out? What then…?”
He looked up suddenly, and turned to Konade.
“Thank you,” he said, “but…”
He pulled a large sack of coins from assorted worlds from his hammerspace.
The Repairman looked and saw…a Mii, of all people. He wondered why whatever transport she was using brought her here of all places.
“Um,” he started, “you’re in the Soft Marketable Baby district of Toontown.”
He gestured vaguely around at the softly-colored suburban neighborhood. Various tricycles, strollers, balloons, and blocks could be seen scattered everywhere.
“I’m the Fourth Wall Repairman, and I’m a Toon!” he replied. He lifted up a baby Marie, who reached out to the Mii.
“The paint spatter is Marie, my sister and assistant. She’s not always a baby, mind you, but you know how magic works, right…?”
He shook his head as Marie gurgled cheerfully.
“…Anyway, who might you be? Where do you need to go?”
Siblings-a-Fixin' 