The Repairman appeared to be distressed by something outside of the Narrator’s field of view. Was it the fourth wall? It was possible, the Narrator reasoned, his gaze fixed on the tape recorder. It was possible.

“Well,” said the Narrator. “Well. Yes. I think that would help. Where did you get that?”

“Ever hear of ‘hammerspace’?” the Repairman asked as he took a staple gun out from behind his back.

There were several ka-CHUNKs as he hastily fixed what he had caused, making sure none of the staples were hitting anything other than the Wall.

“Please,” he implored, “Continue. Don’t worry, this’ll pick it up.”

Still stapling, he turned the recorder to reveal three switches. These switches were labeled “Music,” “Sound,” and "Voice.“ The "Voice” switch was the only one that was up.

“I can only assume after things like Kingdom Hearts and Smash… Or…”

He shuddered. Did he want to even say this? Did he want to bring it up? No. He wasn’t going to tread into the territory of noncanonical authorizations. They scared him, really. He’d been on the internet before.

“…Nevermind. Anyway, massive crossovers like those probably made travel between universes not as exciting as it could be. Anyway, uh, where’s your favorite place you’ve been? It’s not easy for me to get out much, considering…”

He gestured at himself. Yeah. A 20-foot-tall tanklike business robot probably wouldn’t fare too well on the streets,

“Yeah…” the Repairman nodded. But what was that shudder? There wasn’t an iss– oh. The inkblot agreed; it wasn’t a good idea to bring those up. A lot of it made him glad he usually showed up after a scene.

The Repairman shook himself at the VP’s “anyway.” He was grateful for the shift in gears.

“…Favorite…hmm…”

One would think this would be easy, considering how often the Toon had to travel. The problem was, for most of the Repairman’s life, he had been incredibly focused on his job, more so than nowadays, so he hadn’t paid too much attention. Still, there were a few places he did rather like…

“Well, there’s a world also known as Toontown, where folks from every universe can meet. You’re never out of place there, regardless of shape, size or style.”

He coughed. He was aware of his inky form often clashing with the looks of the world he was in, and he didn’t like to dwell on that.

“So long as you can look past the constant crashes, explosions, and pratfalls, it’s actually pretty nice.”

Eight have entered the waters…

“Ah…” Bruce replied. “So, one ‘f those other…Toon worlds, eh?” The shark gave a nod, trying to still wrap his head around just a existential turn of events. “’ow many worlds do ye reckon there are out there? In regards to Toon worlds?” the great white asked after a moment of thought.

The Repairman moved as if he was going to speak, then stopped.

“…You know,” he said, after a brief pause, “I never counted.”

Thinking for a moment, he finally replied, “Over ninety years’ worth, I can tell you that much.”

He hoped that was a good answer. It was the only one he could come up with.

“Well,” the inkblot sighed, "it’s been nice to meet you, but…“

He tapped his siren light, which made a ‘tink’ sound. ”…I should probably get going. You sure you’ll be all right?“

She giggled a bit. Any other day, she would’ve been fine to go along with his white lies if it didn’t hurt anyone. But seeing as he was the one in pain, she couldn’t really let herself ignore that.

“That might be for the best.”

She took out her old Mickey Mouse watch, Oddly enough, it still worked, even after that reboot.

“I’ve got some time to kill before I head to work myself. So… if you’d like, I could stick around, help out with anything you might need to help you feel better,” she offered, keeping her voice quiet so as not to make his headache worse.

The inkblot couldn’t help but nod slightly as Shinko encouraged him to at least rest, despite his protests.

He pulled a plastic lawn chair in from the left. It was green, it had no holes or fancy designs, and the seat was bowl-shaped. The Repairman was relieved to be sitting down in a chair he had no chance of seeping through.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he replied, still trying to reassure her, “but it would be nice to catch up a bit…”

“Sounds like a tough job… Let’s hope things stay in tact for a bit.”

Maybe he should talk about something other than the fourth wall. That should help, right? Well, he didn’t. VP. VP. Please.

“You know… I just remembered, there are a whole rank of cogs who actually break the fourth wall on purpose as part of an attack.”

He’d dealt with those birds before, odd cogs they were.

“Hey— since you can fix the Wall and interact with it, does that technically mean you can be on either side? So basically you could go literally wherever you wanted to?”

“Yes, let’s,” the Repairman replied, almost solemnly.

He perked up when the VP mentioned Cogs who deliberately broke the Wall. Still, if the VP didn’t deliberately do it, why would these?

“Oh, good to know.”

He would ask more about them later. For now, there was more the VP wanted to know.

“No,” the Repairman replied, “I can’t go to…”

He cringed. He really didn’t like discussing the other side. He was only concerned about the side he was on, and talking about the other was dangerous territory.

“…‘the real world,’ as they call it. I can visit other Toony worlds, but that’s not too special these days.”

She gave him a sad smile. It really did hurt to see him aching like this. She knew she couldn’t help him fix the Wall, otherwise she would offer that in a heartbeat. Still, she figured there had to be something.

“I see that… but you know what I think? I think the ice pack would be even more helpful….”

She gently took it from his blobby grasp and placed it against his head. Hopefully, she could keep it there for him while he insisted on continuing to work.

“…if it was right here,” she finished, smiling down at him. She decided to stay seated on her knees so as not to hurt her own back trying to keep the ice pack on the Repairman’s head.

He didn’t resist when she took the pack away from him. Clearly, she wasn’t fooled by those assurances, so why bother? Besides, the ice pack was now back on his head, where it could ease his aching and his nerves.

“I guess you’re right,” he sighed, half in defeat and half in gratitude. “It is better there.”

He did his best to hurry so Shinko didn’t have to hold the ice pack for him for very long. He could dig the roller out of his toolbox without too much issue (though the sounds of the tools shifting grated on him somewhat), and while it was a bit painful for him to get a bucket of plaster out, he could at least drop it quicker than he picked it up.

After a quick and messy coating, he turned back to Shinko.

“That’s done,” he said, relieved. Noticing her worry, he continued, “I…guess I could sit down until another break happens.”

“The simulation thing was just an argument we had. Cogs do ‘respawn’, but they’re not. They’re not really the same? It’s weird to explain because mass production and personality scrambling software to create personalities for each chassis and the difficulty of getting compatible hardware to back yourself up, and—well, you get what I’m catching at.”

He looked over at the wall that supposedly had cracks on it. Cracks he couldn’t see, maybe he could now, but they weren’t registering for the robot yet. He kept looking between the different walls around him, a bit of an embarrassed expression on one of his two faces.

“Wait. Since you’re the Repairman, what’s the worst broken wall you’ve ever actually seen? What happens if a wall gets COMPLETELY broken, or has that never happened?”

“Ohhh…” the Repairman nodded. That made sense. Even if it was a game, this was still a coherent world.

He furrowed his brow at the VP’s questions.

“The worst wall? Well, I only really fix the Fourth Wall, but where was it worst…?”

The Repairman adjusted his stance to be closer to a “sitting” position, pondering this question. He muttered things like “that one office with that narrator,” “Townsville,” and “wherever the heck that moose was.”

After a while of musing, he looked back up and said “…Let’s just say it’s been pretty rough.

"As for what happens if it gets completely broken,” he continued, standing upright again, “I…honestly don’t know.”

If he had feet, he would be shuffling them right now.

Eight have entered the waters…

“In ten minutes?” Bruce asked, perplexed. “Mate, at this rate, ye’ll be lucky if ye get there in ten months-” He stopped shortly upon the other insisted that they weren’t traveling to the United States by the transportation beneath them. Curiously, the great white titled his head. “And just ‘ow’re ye gonna be gettin’ there?”

The Repairman was somewhat taken aback by the shark’s stipulation. Ten MONTHS? Why would it–

Ah. Bruce didn’t know about other Toon universes.

“I don’t mean the USA in this world,” he began, “I mean the town of Free Country, USA. Part of an entirely different Toon world.”

The Repairman was aware of a “Toontown” hub for Toons of all franchises, but he spent most of his time in individual worlds, so he preferred to explain it that way.

“You see, different stories need different worlds, so Toons have different universes depending on their needs. As for how I’ll get there…”

He looked at his oar uncertainly.

“…Honestly, I’m not sure, myself. I just go in a certain direction for a bit and I’m there. It’s convenient, really.”

askshinko:

@askthefwrp

The young woman Toon quickly rummaged through her hammerspace before taking out a fairly cold ice pack.

“Here you go…” she responded quietly, kneeling down to hand it to him.

“…maybe you should take a break. I mean… this is the only crack you’ve got to work on right?”

[[Continued from: http://askthefwrp.tumblr.com/post/142411581301/askshinko-askthefwrp-askshinko-i]]

The Repairman took the pack with a “thank you" and set it on his head. It seemed to ease the aching enough for him to wrap up the work.

He looked at his siren for a moment, then turned back to Shinko.

"I…think this is the only one right now,” he admitted. “But more will be coming soon, and I have to be ready for them, too. I already slept once this year; I can’t afford to slip behind.”

After setting the boards in place and screwing them in, he remembered his fib and set the ice near the screws. Immediately, the aching came back, but he forced a smile as he showed Shinko the boards.

“See? It helps the screws get tighter!”

He hoped she bought it. He really had to stay vigilant at all times. After all, what kind of repairman would he be otherwise? He was the only Fourth Wall Repairman. He didn’t know what would happen if he left it unattended.

This kind of worry made his aches worsen. He hoped that cleared up soon.

“Wait. Really? HAH. THE CJ OWES ME $50.”

The award for ‘Under-Reaction Of The Year’ goes to…

“Okay, but that’s really hilariously meta, because if someone tried to change my code, someone else on another plane would have to code them to re-code me, and I’m written in an actual programming language entirely, not just mentally. That’s hilarious, but also kind of terrifying, but still hilarious.”

The Repairman jumped in surprise at the VP’s laugh. He had anticipated a lot of reactions to the news, but that was not one of them.

“So not only do your cogs likely respawn, but you profited off this, too!”

What he did expect was more fourth-wall-breaking, but not anything like this bot was making it out to be. The Repairman couldn’t even bring himself to explain the Wall to the VP until he was finished. He found himself half-heartedly laughing along, instead.

“Heh, well,” the Repairman started after it was done, “I’m glad you’re taking this as well as you are, but I probably should have introduced myself first. I am the Fourth Wall Repairman, and I would appreciate it if you tried to be less…meta.”