Pearson sighed and pointed to Chad. “He’s the culprit. Chad really doesn’t care about walls of the fourth variety.” Chad turned to Pearson. “….I didn’t even have time to read the license plate of the bus you just threw me under!” Pearson chuckled. “Well we gave about 2 minutes before something bad happens. Can you make this quick?” Pearson stepped to the side, clearing the path for the Repairman to fix the crack in the hole.
“Could you please try to tone down with that?” he asked Chad. “I don’t really like visiting warzones.”
He shook his head. It didn’t really matter that much. Not like any injuries to a Toon were permanent, right?
“Anyway, uh, yeah, this shouldn’t take that long.”
He pulled out a paint roller, already slathered with plaster, and began to push it against the Wall, until the entire crack was covered.
He was about to leave, but realized that they just got their computer stolen.
“Um, you need any help with that laptop?” he asked.
Beepsumu looked a bit confused. Fourth Wall? Fix things? She had no idea what he was talking about, but she began to explain anyway. “To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how I got here myself. I sort of… Fell through here one day. After a while of walking, I found Bonk passed out on the ground. Pretty soon Bowyetta and Jingletooth joined us, and that was when we found out that we could-”
She was interrupted by Bowyetta, who attempted to get up only to fall forward again, letting out a yelp as she went. Her string was still broken, and Vinny was the first to notice this. “Bowyetta~! Your string- You- Does either of you know how long she’s been like this~?” He was beginning to look distressed.
Bowyetta could only mumble, “Beepsumu? Vinny? Mr. Sir? Everything’s… spinning…”
“Hmm…” the Repairman nodded. He had seen stranger things, he had to admit. Heck, given the many worlds he visited, this story seemed borderline par for the course.
He jumped as Bowyetta suddenly fell.
“String…?” he echoed. “OH! Hang on!”
Grabbing the blue toolbox, he began digging before laying out a pair of jumper cables, a bungee cord, a ball of twine, some rubber bands, and ACME-brand escape-proof Toon rope.
After finding little else under everything he had, he looked up and asked, “Will any of these work…?”
Songbird watched everything get thrown aside, she had no idea what most of it was, but startles at the jack-in-the-box and springs. Their sudden and erratic movement startled her. So was so vested in what the strange blob was doing, she almost didn’t hear the footsteps coming toward the door.
“R-r-r-r-r” She struggled to speak through her stutter, “r-r-run!” she finally managed as the doorknob jiggled.
She sat on the floor of the cage a little ways away from the bars, her head buried in her knees which were tucked to her chest, unwilling to see what would happen to the blob if he was caught.
“Hmm?”
And then he heard her say “run” and the doorknob jiggle. His eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t exactly want to be caged too.
Thinking quickly, he pulled a push broom out from behind his back and swept everything back into his hammerspace.
There was still the issue of himself, though…
Right as the door was opening, he leapt into one of the desk drawers, which closed behind him. He hoped he wouldn’t be spotted, but it was hard to say. Tropes were very fickle things.
“Ack! Hey that’s my face!” Link retorted, feeling someone’s grubby hands smear his cheeks. Geez, what was this guy’s problem!? He then gripped onto both sides of the crack with firm hands and used his strength to push himself upright. The young hero, with all his training as a blacksmith, had no problem sticking his head upright despite the Repairman’s efforts.
“Will you get off of me already!?”
Link huffed in annoyance, glaring down at the other small being before him. He seemed so… harmless. Was the cause of the noise so late at night really just a poe? Well, annoyances aside, it didn’t want to harm him. Otherwise it would have by now. And it was smart enough to talk.
“Ugh just… Listen, buddy. I’ve got a friend who’s been falling asleep in the middle of sermons because something is making noise outside of her room at night and scaring her to death. I don’t suppose you’ve got some kinda explanation for that, do you?”
He peeked inside the crack, or at least attempted to. It was small and could barely fit his head in… He’s traveled through many cracks and wanted to know what was so bad about this one.
“What is this anyways? This doesn’t look like Lorule… At least not a part I’ve seen. What kind of poe talks and travels to weird places like this?”
The Repairman noticed this Link grabbing at the break. His eyes widened.
“Nonononono–”
But it was too late. The hero righted himself right on the Wall, and the inkblot could do nothing but slide off.
“Now–” he began, but apparently Link had other things on his mind.
“Hey,” he said, putting his hands up defensively, “Sorry if I woke your friend up, but I was only here tonight. I don’t know what’s been scaring her!”
He winced as Link poked his head into the fault, but realized there was little point in pulling him out.
“Please…get out of there,” he begged. “It’s…it’s not Low Rule…the crack’s not supposed to be there…”
He could see that the crack was rapidly worsening as the hero kept his head in there.
Even if there was no point, he had to try to pull him out. Who knew what would happen if he was left unchecked? Who knew what horrors Link was seeing right now…?
Ace took the yardstick then watched the repairman’s various demonstrations. The last one made him chuckle. He smirked. “I don’t think I’d be ABLE to do the last one. Let’s try…” Ace put the yardstick behind his head so it was hidden behind his back and after a few seconds he pulled it back out with a shrug. “Nothing…”
He then went to prop it on a rock which happened to hide it from the repairman’s view nor was Ace looking; but he jumped when he felt it disappear from his hand. “Ummmm…” He pulled his empty hand from behind the rock then looked to see if he had dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found. Even the shifting sands wouldn’t have been THAT quick! “How did you do that,” Ace queried, clearly mystified.
“Oh…” the Repairman said, clearly disappointed. “Maybe not…”
He was about to say something else, but he noticed Ace’s confusion over…something.
He clambered over the rock to see that…Ace had succeeded! He had found his hammerspace! He couldn’t help but smile.
“Oh, that was all you!” he exclaimed. “You found your…your hammerspace, your inventory!”
He took a second to calm down.
“…Now, just reach behind your back, or to the side…”
Bowyetta began to look a bit sad. “Bowyetta could not have left them anyway. Most Bowyers would find their arrows to be disposable, but not of Bowyetta. They are much her friends.”
Beepsumu looked up. “Well, if you know how to do it… The trick is to heat them up, then hammer out the dents. Don’t know how I’m gonna replace Bowyetta’s string though…” She then shook her head. “Can’t say that ya did. So if you weren’t here for Bonk… What were you here for?”
“Oh,” he said, pulling a blowtorch from his toolbox, “I’m the Fourth Wall Repairman.”
He began to heat up the unconscious arrow.
“I just came here to fix up a few things…”
He looked around.
“How…did you get between worlds? I’ve never had someone break the Wall in a place like this…”
Coughing, Chad looked around. Seeing a small blot of ink, he nudged Pearson. “What do you wa–” Pearson noticed the Repairman. Pretending like he DIDN’T, he continued to shoot zombies. Then he saw Foot Soldier run off with…. THE COMPUTER!? “YOU SICK CRAPHAT!” Pearson yelled. “I swear if he messes with the blog ill re-kill him.” Turning his attention back to the inkblot he saw… A siren? No. No no no no no. Sirens were bad news. Sirens normally meant Engineers. He unknowingly stepped in between the crack and the Repairman, waiting for him to get closer. Maybe he could talk to the thing? It looked oddly adorable, and while Pearson questioned his own caution, he stayed unmoving. “Hey!” He called out to the approaching blot. “What’s your business here?” …A low rumbling was heard in the distance.
No such luck, apparently. The plants saw him, and the pea-pod thing was in his way. What’s more, it looked like there was some sort of undead chaos happening around them.
He noted the pea’s wariness. Maybe it’d be best not to be vague…
“I fix the Fourth Wall,” he replied, as calmly as he could with a plant muzzle pointed at him. He tapped his siren light. “I just need to fix a fault here.”
He stopped. He realized that maybe someone here had something to do with it…
As the sound of a THWACK was occurred, Rosalina was startled and turned her attention to the poor blob on the floor, looking as if he was melting like a candy radiated from a hot sun.
On the other thought, her understanding that the fourth wall repairer was exhausted from his duty, and she believed he deserved some rest. Already, the cosmic woman thought about it, so she called her Lumas to carry the fourth wall repairer, and she leaded them to the library dome.
Once inside, Rosalina grabbed a cozy yarn blanket from her favorite rocking chair and placed it on the nearest circular stool as the Lumas carefully placed the fourth wall repairer onto it. As the blob was on the blanket, she pulled it and placed it over his blobby body. Now the fourth wall repairer was coated in a warm blanket, Rosalina had one more thing she had in mind to aid this fellow: a soothing tea.
And so, the lady floated away to the kitchen as her Lumas began to follow her.
When the Repairman’s eyes finally stopped swirling, he was shocked to find himself wrapped in a very comfortable blanket, in what looked like a den or small library.
Apparently, he was still in space, as he still felt a little ill, but the more earthly look certainly helped to ease that. And it felt like there was some gravity here, which he was certainly happy about.
The fireplace was nice and warm, and he was certainly feeling more relaxed, but his siren light was still blinking, He had to figure out where he was, so he could fix the crack.
Just thinking of where the crack was made him feel queasy again. He decided he’d be more careful.
With that, he went through the doorway to see where he was.
Bowyetta gave a bit of a nod, as much as she could at least, and smiled slightly. She had never thought of Smithy that way before.
Her eye widened as she saw the smashed-up arrow. “Oh, Mr. Sir. You have not only saved Bowyetta, but also her arrows as well?”
“Let me take a look,” Beepsumu responded, reaching with her free hand to get a closer look at the arrow. “Heck, shouldn’t be too much harder than fixing up Bowyetta here. They’re a lot smaller, but the process should be the same.”
“Well, yeah,” the Repairman replied, matter-of-factly. “I didn’t think they could have just come back here on their own.” Quickly, he added, “I mean because of the teleportation. No offense.”
As Beep inspected the arrow, the Repairman asked,“Hey, um, need help with the other damaged arrows? I mean, since I’m gonna be here for a bit anyway…”
His eyes widened after a moment, and he chuckled, “Wait, I never got to say why I was here, did I?”
Looking up into the sky, Pearson chuckled. He had a feeling that this morning had some adventure with it. “Ah. Cant wait.”
“What for?” Chad walked out of the garage, yawning loudly. His jaw looked like a snake’s; completely unhinged.
“For today.” Pearson looked at Chad. I have a feeling today’s gonna have some adventure in store.“
“Can I run the blog for the day?~” Chad got excited.
Shaking his head, Pearson tilted his head towards Stuart, who was typing away at the computer. “Stuart’s got first dibs.”
Chad grumbled. “Not like his AI likes us or anything.”
Pearson glanced at Chad, raising a leafy eyebrow. “His what?”
“Nothing!” Chad smiled, his pearly whites glinting in the morning light. @askthefwrp
The Repairman was just checking up on that Peg-ish place. He wondered why no one had really been doing anything there, and thought he might make sure there was still nothing happening.
As he was just checking in with that one hamster, his siren light suddenly alerted him to a break in a neighboring world.
This one, he knew had had some activity for a while now.
He quickly packed up his things, said his goodbyes, and hurried over there, not expecting to see a cone-hatted zombie sitting at a computer, while a bunch of plants shot the breeze nearby. Did they sort out that feud or something?
Whatever the case, the inkblot saw a small crack near what appeared to be some kind of Venus Mantrap. Ah, this should be quick.
He lifted his toolbox off of his cart and began to head towards where the plants were. With any luck, he could just get by with a ”‘scuse me" and be done.
Siblings-a-Fixin' 