[OPEN] "These shallow waters never met what I needed. I'm letting go; a deeper dive."

[mviw]

Who: Ford (mviw) & YOU! | Closed prompts for Fiddleford, Wendy & the kids, tiny!Rick and Frisk, and Bill Cipher
Where: Around Neverland
When: Through the Neverland event + the Aftermath
Rating: PG-13/R for violence, swearing, limb amputation
Summary: Ford tries to protect his best friend, his nephew and niece, his friend's daughter, and his brother. It goes horribly awry. (You could say the casualties are about half his armies.)

(This log is corresponding to the events in THIS log.)

The Story:
[ooc: Prompts are written! Have at it.]

Comments

finger guns

[sciencelizard]

[She jumps a bit when he knocks, because pretty much any noise at this point is a little jump-worthy, considering she's still reconciling fake memories with the real and simultaneously trying to not feel bad that, in the time she was gallivanting around an island, one of her best friends got his arm ripped off.

But right. Fiddleford. Invited.

She also remembers, perhaps too belatedly, that Ford told her he might take a while to be okay with her being a lizard. Right. Well, it's a little late for that one.

So she shuffles over to the door and opens it, trying to smile her most genuine smile.]

Hey! Yeah, c-come on in. I figured, uhm, there's a big lab in the basement but, uh, there's a lot of other people who usually, uhm, use that space, and this one's mine, so it might be easier? And uh, oh gosh, I haven't introduced myself.

[She turns again once he's inside, formally holding out a hand.]

I'm Alphys, er, D-Dr. Alphys. It's uh, n-nice to formally meet you, even though, uh, you already know my name, and, everything.

winks

[mcgucket]

[It was startling when noticing her appearance on the phone, and it's still kind of startling to have the door and be greeted by what looks like a talking lizard monster, even with her personality here.

He almost hesitates at the offered hand, before he reminds himself that it should be okay, this is Ford's friend, he trusts her to be someone that can be counted on here.

Granted, apparently Ford has trusted the wrong people before if Bill is any indication, but even with that in mind, he reaches out to shake her hand, offers a smile in return.]

Fiddleford McGucket, and it's a pleasure to meet you, as well as havin' the pleasure to work with you now too.

perfect

[sciencelizard]

[She tries to shake it confidently, look as normal as possible. Ford was never really worried about her not... human-ness, even though she was plenty wary at their first meeting that he wouldn't want to talk to her for it. She's gotten lax as the months have gone on in Eway, but it's easy to pick up the self-deprecation again. Easy to be worried. So when the handshake has obviously gone on long enough, she breaks it, still trying to smile.]

Yeah! I'm sorry about, uh...

[She tries first putting her fingertips on her chest, motioning to her tail, and then just sort of... gesturing to all of her.]

All this. Ford mentioned your world, uhm, d-doesn't usually have nonhuman things. Or, uhm, wasn't supposed to. You were studying it. He, uh, I mean, I read his journal last month. I never saw anything like, uh, l-like that in my world.

[She almost, almost said 'after our date', and had to stop herself, because oh god that's too much information ANYWAY. She's blushing a bit, still self-conscious, and takes the opportunity to quickly point out some cleared workspaces.]

So, uhm, my m-main work is in uh, robotics, and uhm, I went over to s-see Ford earlier and took some measurements to build, uhm, s-something new. Thankfully, uh, the closets will give you anything you want, so f-finding material isn't an issue! Which is nice, because we can work with, uh, whatever we can think of, for the m-most part.

[mcgucket]

[There's a slight eyebrow raise at the mention of the journal--Fidds has never actually read it that much by comparison, as Ford always seemed reluctant to let him do so. Then again, considering what's written in there about Fiddleford and some things like the Gremloblin, the Shapeshifter, the Memory Gun, that conversation the two of them had in the diner... maybe that's for the best that he hasn't read it, unless we want reasons for him to be annoyed with Ford again for a while.

But at the apology, Fiddleford brings his hands up in front of himself in what he hopes comes across as a placating manner.]

Oh, no no, you shouldn't have'ta apologize for somethin' like that! Honestly, if anythin', you're probably the nicest ah, non-human, that I've met in comparison to some of the ones back in Gravity Falls.

[Save for maybe the plaidypus or the geodites maybe, but they couldn't talk so there's really no way to tell with them. Alphys by comparison is intelligent and an engineer like ourselves, so that puts her pretty high up the ladder of best non-humans we've met so far, if we ever had to put together a list of such a thing.]

Yeah? I dabble with robotics myself, in particular workin' on buildin' computers and other devices lately. [Like the portal, for example. Speaking of which, he holds up the papers he had brought with him.] I wrote down some ideas that I thought could be mighty handy to implement for Stanford's... um, new arm, if you wanna take a look at my notes here?

[sciencelizard]

[She does find herself smiling a little when he seems like he's not scared. The last thing she'd want to do is burn this bridge- Ford really, really cares about Fiddleford and she wouldn't want to do anything to mess that up. She'll do what it takes to keep that. For him. For his happiness.

But thankfully, Fiddleford seems receptive to just hanging out, and as soon as he mentions plans, she brightens, having something to talk about that isn't her.]

Oh! Y-Yeah, I was also thinking of that sort of thing, too. I know he requested it also have s-six fingers, but I was thinking of some improvement as well.

[She reaches to one of the tables and pulls out a list herself, which includes things like a pen, a flashlight, and an integration for the Wonderland communicator. She holds it out to him and takes his notes to read over as well.]

[mcgucket]

[Fiddleford will trade his notes with hers here, where she'll be able to see that his list includes one or two similar ideas, but stand outs might be the possibility of installing a feature that can be used as an alarm clock of sorts, and one written as "A built-in shield or weapon of some kind for protection??"]

I gotta say, your notes are very impressive, especially in regards to the communicator detailed here. [Also why hadn't he thought of a pen? Considering how much Ford likes to write... actually--] If we make it so that one of the fingers contains a pen, do you suppose we should add somethin' inside of the other fingers too? Like... a lighter, or a swiss-army knife that could be used in a pinch?

[sciencelizard]

[She can't help but smile at the alarm clock. That's cute. It would be good for him. He pulls her out of her thoughts with his suggestion, and she immediately brightens.]

Oh, a swiss army knife and i-it's components would be incredibly useful! I bet he'd appreciate it, too. He sort of i-implied to me that he was really interested in us running wild with it, so.

[And that he trusts her enough to even be a part of that is incredibly important to her.]

Okay, so... a normal swiss army knife has a bunch of stuff, but not all of it m-might translate well to a finger component. I'm thinking the small knife, screwdriver, and t-tweezers are a must. What do you think?

[mcgucket]

Yes, that sounds right to me! [One sec, he'll add it to his notes here for reference.] Now, I was wonderin'--what d'ya think about a built-in defense system, like a shield or weapon of some kind that can be activated when dealin' with a threat?

[Granted, Ford seems to always carry some kind of weapon on him anyway, but maybe it would be handy if he ever ends up in a situation without one?]

[sciencelizard]

[She thinks about it when he suggests, because dang, she'd love a shield of some kind when the going gets tough.]

Well, he t-tends to carry a gun on him anyway, and I'm not sure anything we can b-build that'll have to fit would be better than anything he likes to, uh, fire. But a shield would be useful! Or anything for blocking. We could do, uhm, an energy generator or just go l-low tech and have extendable plating.

[mcgucket]

... What if we had both, somehow? There could be an energy generator to provide a shield, but if he ever ends up in a dire enough situation where the arm has run out of energy for the more fancier functions, there's extendable platin' to provide some momentary cover until we're able to recharge or replace the battery component.

[Does that sound like something that could be feasibly done?]

[sciencelizard]

[She taps her claws lightly against the scales on her cheek, then slides her hand over the table and pulls over a page of blueprinting paper, beginning to sketch.]

If we can put the shield generator in the wrist and then, m-maybe a spring loaded mechanism out the top to cover the joint? Like... h-here, if the generator can be protected but additionally to reinforce the arm... I think that could work! I used magical generators like this in Mettaton's design.

[Oh. Wait. He doesn't know who Mettaton is. Dial that back.]

Er, uhm, Mettaton is my robot. I built him y-years ago. He's here, actually, uh, he's kind of bright pink and hard to miss? Anyway, uh, h-his power cores have self-generating magical fields, I bet I could do something similar here, or uh... something?

[mcgucket]

Is that right? [He watches Alphys sketch with interest.] "Mettaton" huh... I must admit, I'm curious to see this robot for myself sometime.

[But then he frowns, thinking about something here.]

These ah, "magical generators" of yours that you speak of, though... d'ya mind if I ask what kind of magic you're referrin' to here?

[Or maybe just a better explanation in general. (It's not like... black magic or the sort, right...)]

[sciencelizard]

He lives, uh, on this f-floor too! Right across the hall. Or uh, he's around a lot, and he's really tall. You'll p-probably get to meet him soon.

[He mentions magic, though, and she remembers again. Right. Humans. Many different types of worlds and magic and it's not automatically assumed.]

Oh! Uhm, well, it's monster magic. In my world, uhm, the b-big difference between monsters and humans is that monsters have, uh, magic. We can generate small amounts of it into, uh, bullet patterns, for greetings and conversation, or, uh, s-self defense. I don't, uhm... use it much, though.

[Because she's pretty weak for a monster, but... doesn't wanna talk about that.]

But uhm, I can get the generator started with a little bit of my m-magic, and then it can replenish over time.