Shinko giggled sheepishly. “Well, that’s the thing. I was out in the backyard trying to practice by shooting at some soda cans. I was doing good, but then on the third can one of them went pew!“ To go with the sound effect, she moved her hand straight forward as if it were the bullet before curving up above her head to motion that it had ricocheted. “And it went above my head and I didn’t see where it landed, but I thought I heard a crack somewhere. So I just sorta… ran inside and put my rifle away.”
“That’s not a huge surprise. It seems like you have to have a shooting catastrophe every once in a while,” said Crystal as she sat down at the table, across from Shinko and the two blobs of ink.
Falcon slowly approached the table, placing the platters of sandwiches and fries down for a moment before heading back into the kitchen to grab some napkins and plates.
“Oooh, fancy fries! I love those!” Shinko exclaimed standing up on her chair to attempt to grab a handful before quickly retracting with an ‘ow!’.
“Careful, they’re still hot!” Crystal admonished the Toon girl as Falcon returned with plates and napkins, setting them in their proper places in front of everyone.
“Thanks Falcon. As always, your food is the best,” Crystal told him with a smile.
“Yes, thank you~!” Shinko chimed in, settling for grabbing a turkey and cheese sandwich instead and taking a big bite out of it.
Falcon simply sat down, nodding in response to their compliments. Just because he was shy doesn’t mean he was going to be rude to the two people he did know at the table.

The Repairman chuckled, then paused for thought.

“…Yeah, that’ll do it,” he said, before shaking his head. “Still, nothing that can’t be fixed.”

He knew that the lightest tap against the Wall was often enough to cause issues, so he didn’t really blame Shinko for such an accident. It happens.

Marie simply looked at her brother in astonishment. The Wall just got hit by a bullet and he was saying it was no big deal? How would…?

Their trains of thought were both distracted, however, as the smell reminded them how hungry they were.

“It looks good, Falcon!” the Repairman smiled, taking a sandwich gratefully. Marie followed suit, thanking Falcon as she took one, but not before looking to Shinko with concern. Since she seemed fine, Marie shifted her focus back to eating.

And what sandwiches they were! The Repairman’s pulled pork sandwich melted in his mouth, so to speak, and Marie’s chicken teriyaki caused her bow to sag in satisfaction. Both blobs beamed at Falcon as they “chewed”.

Shinko giggled, “Well come on in! The dining table’s just over this
way. You two can grab a seat and Falcon’ll have food for us in no time!”

“Settle
down, Shinko,” Crystal warned the Toon girl, watching as Shinko ran
over to grab herself a seat. The dark haired woman let out a small sigh,
looking back down at the ink blobs. “Just to let you two know, Falcon’s
not much of a talker around strangers. So if it seems like he’s
ignoring you…try not to take it personally?”

From the dining
table, Shinko kicked her feet idly as she glanced over towards the
kitchen area, where Falcon was putting together a variety of sandwiches
and a platter of parmesan truffle fries. While the dark eyes of Falcon’s
mask focused on the task at hand, the blank white eyes that formed on
the hair-like portion of his head managed to catch a glimpse of the
arriving ink blobs. Though he showed no signs of it outwardly, knowing
that unexpected guests had arrived, and complete strangers at that, made
him feel a little more nervous.

The Repairman and Marie cheerfully followed Shinko into the house, nodding as Crystal explained.

When they clambered onto their seats, however, the Repairman spotted Falcon, and his eyes widened in surprised recognition. He decided against reminding him (if he was awkward around strangers, that would make it worse), but he remembered one Halloween where he was dressed as a tombstone…

Instead, he smiled alongside Marie, who was idly looking around.

“So…” she said, turning to Shinko, “…um…you mentioned blasting the Wall…with a rifle…?”

“More common than you’d think,” the Repairman said, absently. “Besides, don’t even know if she did that…”

The paint spatter seemed to ignore that comment, as she was too busy trying to take this all in. A human(oid), a demon, and their Chibi/Toony child, who knew her way around firearms? This was a really neat family!

The chibi let out a small nervous giggle as she shook Marie’s blob of a hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Marie! Sorry about that. You two do look very similar though.

“Hey, Shinko! Who’s at the door?” came a female voice from inside.

Shinko let go of Marie’s hand to look back inside. “It’s Mr. Repairman and his sister Marie! They came to visit!”

Crystal
walked in view of the door, wearing a purple crop top and some dark
blue yoga pants. She was using a small towel to wipe off some
sweat. “Hey there! Weren’t really expecting company but… if you’d like
to stay for lunch, I’m sure Falcon made enough food for everyone,” she
noted with a small smile.

“Heh, no worries,” Marie giggled in return. “I guess we kinda do…”

Both blobs looked up to greet Crystal.

“Heh, sorry Crystal,” the Repairman said, rubbing the back of his head, “I wasn’t really expecting this either…“

“…But thank you so much!” Marie butted in, smiling. “I, for one, would love to stay for lunch! But, um, who’s Falcon?”

“A shadow demon,” the Repairman shrugged, after the initial startle.

Stars appeared in Marie’s eyes. First a diverse ensemble from a void, then ghosts, then a magical anonymous person, and now shadow demons?

“…This is the coolest job…”

From the other side of the door came Shinko’s voice as she was running up.

“I got it, I got it!” Shinko told her guardians as she opened the door with a small gasp.

“Mr.
Repairman! You came b- uh oh…” She noticed the blinking light and
giggled nervously. “Um… did I… break the wall again somehow? Did my Toon
rifle break it somehow?”

She glanced over to see Marie, looking innocently confused. “Um… are you Mrs. Repairman?”

“Eh…” the Repairman shrugged. “No clue. I just know it’s here. No worries, it’s another chance to visit.”

When Shinko asked Marie if she was “Mrs. Repairman,” both blobs shifted a small distance from each other. Marie’s bow seemed to stand up on end, while the Repairman shuddered.

“Eugh, NO!” they exclaimed, in unison.

“If anything, it’s be ‘Miss’ Repairman,” Marie piped up. The light semantics joke seemed to be enough to dissolve the issue immediately, and both relaxed.

“Shinko, this is Marie, my repla– my assist– my sister,” the Repairman finally managed. Marie’s bow visibly drooped, but she still smiled as she extended a hand to Shinko.

“Nice to meet ya!”

@shinkothetoongirl

“…Where’s this?” Marie asked, eyes looking all over.

“A friend’s place,” the Repairman replied, absently looking at each house they passed. His siren light was blinking, and he occasionally stole a glance at it before advancing further down the street.

She eyed his light as they moved. How did he know where the next break was…?

Finally, the Repairman turned towards a blue house, knocking on the door. He beckoned for his sister to come next to him as they waited.

Combo!

With the Repairman:
Implausible Ricochet – Shinko fires a bullet at a metal plate the Repairman holds up. The force of the shot causes him to spin, smacking any nearby enemies. The bullet itself bounces around until it hits something.

With Marie:
Trenchcoat Special – Marie lifts Shinko onto her shoulders (for want of a better term) and shields them both in a trenchcoat, which hides a variety of tools and weapons. They are practically one stronger character for the purposes of the battle (combat prowess of Shinko with evasiveness and defense of Marie), and when this “one” is defeated, they resume combat as normal separate characters.

With Cat Slime:
Cheer – These two adorable characters pose, dance, sing, and otherwise motivate their friends, while distracting and momentarily stunning enemies.

“You’ll see! He’s- oh!” Shinko was interrupted when she saw Cat Slame coming over with their newly developed pictures.

“Those all look great! Do you want to pick which ones you want to keep first?” she asked.

Crystal smiled at them both as she led them out of the Akuma Cafe and down a few blocks where they could easily spot the bakery.

Cat Slime gave a quick nod, before taking a couple of the pictures with just him and Shinko, the one smudged by the Repairman dashing in, and the very last picture.

The Repairman looked at them appreciatively, then pulled a safe out of his toolbox and gently placed them inside. A Disneyland Mickey hat, a busted-up security camera, instructions on taking care of a slime, several other photos, and an unlabeled CD could be seen before he closed the safe again.

Both inkblot and slime were smiling as they followed Crystal to the bakery, looking around curiously. It wasn’t long before Cat Slime sniffed the air, and then kept sniffing. He sighed, happily. This was going to be great!

[[~~Yes, I know I have a doctor’s handwriting, and it’s only worsened by a tablet.~~

Thank you for helping indirectly introduce me to the world of RPing (as well as your help there), the game Raft, and Villainous, among other things.

Speaking of Villainous…

Poor Shinko. Y’know, I wanted a way for her to interact with Black Hat himself, but an idea with 505 turned out a lot funnier in my head. It’s probably safer for her this way…

(In case anyone’s curious, this was made with ink on paper, then scanned with CamScanner and cleaned/colored in Photoshop.)

So, yeah. Happy early birthday, @hikariyuushi, and I hope ya like it!]]

Shinko giggled as she hugged the Repairman. “Don’t be sorry! I’m glad
we could all take pictures together!” She glanced over at Crystal with a
grin. “I heard something about going to Cakeman’s?”

Crystal chuckled, “Yes, we’re going to Cakeman’s. Be sure to pack up your mess, okay Repairman?”

Shinko
let go of the inkblot to skip over to Crystal’s side, taking a towel
out of her hammerspace to wipe off any ink on her. “Come on! He’s got
the best baked goods!”

The Repairman beamed, returning the hug. Cat Slime squeezed between them and came out with an audible pop! Clearly pleased, he rubbed his face up against the two of them.

When they were let go, the slime hopped on over and grabbed the pictures off the rack with his mouth, carrying them over to Shinko. Meanwhile, the Repairman pulled out a vacuum and began to suck up the excess tools and supplies. Those could be sorted later.

“Heh,” the inkblot laughed, “with a name like Cakeman, I bet he makes great stuff!”

As Shinko got to work on doing various poses with Cat Slime, Belial, glanced down at the ink blot.

“I
don’t usually hold baked goods here. If you’re done working in my cafe,
your best bet would be to head to the new bakery a block down,” the
demon woman replied.

“I’m not busy, so I can take you and
Shinko over there if you’d like. I need to head over there anyways.
Shinko’s been craving cookies for a while. I dunno if it’s a Toon thing,
but she absolutely loves the bakery,” Crystal added.

“Heh, well, I don’t know if it’s just a Toon thing,” the Repairman chuckled, “but yeah, after they’re done taking pictures, I’d like that, thanks!”

He noticed that five of the ten pictures were out.

“Speaking of pictures…”

Click. Picture #6 had an indecipherable ink smudge in front of it. 7 and 8 had the Repairman trying to get his bearings with Shinko and Cat Slime, and he finally got a decent cohesive pose in the final two pictures.

“Heh, sorry,” he said, after it was all done. “I just had to…”