fandomtownies | Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Friday

Pass her that wrench, please?

"Rikku! Hi!" Momoko shook the sugar from her hair as she bounced into the Arms. "It's snowing sugar! SUGAR! From the sky! I tasted it to make sure. First tinsel, now sugar! It's like it's raining Christmas!" She came closer.

"Oooh! Is that the same droid that was in your room the other day?"

"It's sugar!?" Rikku stared. "I figured it was snow! I didn't even taste it! Are you serious?! That's so cool! And it is, and it's almost done, for the science fair, and OH! Your date! I want details!"

"It is! I thought it was snow, too, but then it didn't make good snowballs, and it wasn't very cold to touch, so I tried to catch some on my tongue and it was sugar! I checked again and again on my way through town and it was sugar each time." Momoko gave Rikku a wink and a thumbs up. "I'm hoping tomorrow it's candy canes growing in the park instead of trees! Or maybe gingerbread men will invade and we have to eat them to defeat them!" She had high hopes, high sugar-from-the-sky hopes.

She leaned in and examined the droid. "A science fair with robots and droids? That sounds much cooler than paper mache volcanos and potato-clocks." She grinned. "And the date was good, I think! He said 'wow'... That's good, right?"

"You can make clocks out of potatoes?" Rikku bounced. "That's so cool. I didn't know that! I don't know who else is gonna be in the science fair, but I'm working on a patrol-droid defense system, kinda thing. I don't know if it's gonna work, wish me luck?"

She grinned. "Wow is awesome. Was that at seeing your way-awesome dress, or was it a smooching-induced 'wow'?"

Zero shame. None.

Edited 2008-12-13 06:01 (UTC)

"Apparently potatos are like weak vegetable-y batteries, yep! The clocks usually look really weird? But they work and can tell time pretty accurately." She grinned. "What exactly does it do, again? A defense patrol... Like a policeman?"

She coloured a bit, then, but grinned. "And yep, he said 'wow' about the dress! At least I think it was the dress. It could have been the fact that I showed up after he was already at a table, but he said that was because he'd gotten there early."

"It patrols and tracks disturbances," she said, setting her wrench down so she could brush her hands off. "There's a GPS tracker, and a streaming feed of video, and it's supposed to react to violence and pinpoint it, and then trip an alarm. A little one. Someone can give it a once-over and hit the button for 'it's fine, that's nothing,' or if we're under attack, they'd know what we're up against, and where."

She grinned, bouncing at the rest. "Showing up late isn't a 'wow' kinda thing. Besides, he was totally impressed by the hotness. Why wouldn't he be? Did you guys have a nice time?"

Momoko was really impressed and her face showed it. "Whoa. That's a good deal! You got it to do all that and still only be this size?" She hovered her hand over the top of the droid - or as close as she could get, then pulled back and nudged the wrench a bit closer. "The police are going to love it, really! Or are you making it for back home? I can't believe you built it using only normal tools like this, too! Or do you have special ones for when you do your real droid work?"

Not at all was Momoko still trying to decide what to get her big sis for Christmas, nope. "Okay. He did say it looked good and he kind of paused when he said it. And it was great!" She laughed happily. "And did you know he speaks Chinese? Well, not all the time, but he did with the staff at the restaurant. And he wore a tie!" The important things, you know.

Edited 2008-12-13 06:58 (UTC)

"It's a modification of one we had back home," Rikku explained, flushing. "Just a patrol droid. I added the GPS in the spring, it's just a little thing, and the camera goes up top. Not a whole lot of wiring to add. I feel like I'm cheating, really, 'cause I'm just slapping lots of neat things together and hoping it works, you know?"

She shrugged, staring at the wrench. "I sort of ... use whatever. We Al Bhed, we scavenge, you know? I tweak, and if I don't have the right tool, I kinda ... make the wrong one work. It's close enough, yeah?"

"Ooooh, you got the 'whoa' face," she giggled. "I love that. I had no idea he spoke Chinese, no! He should do a column-thing with me some week. In the paper, I mean. And of course he wore a tie, he had to impress you, right?"

"You're not cheating, you're creating! Sure all that stuff existed before, but no one else was smart enough to put it together and make it work like this." She waved at the droid. "Science is all about building off of other people's work and making what you have work however you need it! I think. It's sort of like making a cake using a baking mix instead of from scratch - either way you end up with a cake that's all your own!" Somehow that made sense to her.

"And he didn't have to impress me! But it showed that he thought it was a kind of a big deal and not just... dinner." She paused and raised a finger. "He looks really good dressed up, too! Not that he doesn't look good all the time, but you know?"

"I doooo," she giggled, answering the last bit first. "Guys look spiffy when they dress up. Partly because dressing up is hot, and partly because it's nice to know they put the effort in, yeah? Reno, whenever we go out for something fancy, he'll actually do up his tie properly and ... it's such a little change but it seems huge."

She bounced, somewhat mischievously. "Cooking with science! I get bored when I cook, so all my cooking turns out kinda weird. It's creative, though. Maybe that just makes me a good scientist. I'll claim it's an experiment, next time I cook something and it ends up the wrong color entirely."

When you added completely random ingredients, that kinda thing happened.

"Exactly! That's it!" Momoko nodded emphatically, then, "Uhm...the part about guys getting dressed up and looking hotter than normal, not the cooking that goes weird part. Although when I think about it, claiming it's an experiment may work after all. Then no matter what happens, you can simply say you're adjusting the formula!"

"What I usually say," Rikku grinned, "is that if they don't like it, they can cook their own damn selves, and that shuts 'em up. Cooking's too boring when you follow the recipe. Those are just suggestions, anyway. And then it'll say, leave it in for half an hour, and I'll get tired of waiting, so, you know, I'll chop up something else and sprinkle that on it while I'm waiting."

Usually, whatever was closest. Or something that might look pretty, considering the current color scheme.

"Soooo ... a totally good date, then? That's awesome. I didn't even give him the shovel speech or anything. I should, at some point. Standard big-sib procedure. But he's not the type that needs to hear it, you know?"

"I know what you mean about getting bored! But if I don't follow a recipe, I really mess up and it usually gets so bad even I won't eat it. And while I don't like wasting food, it's a problem if you can't eat it. Sometimes even if I do follow the recipe it still goes wrong somehow. Like I'll mix up the salt and the sugar or something? And wow, that can really mess up a cake." So did adding soy sauce if you were out of food colouring. Blech. Momoko stuck out her tongue briefly at the memory, then broke out in smiles again.

"I think it was a good date, yes!" She tilted her head and winked. "Not that I've had many, but he didn't run screaming into the night that I was a crazy weirdo. He's fun to be with and he's a much better person than he thinks he is! We talked and we ate and it was just a really nice evening; I'd like to do it again, so, yes! Good date!"

Edited 2008-12-14 04:20 (UTC)

"It'd be neat to see if you could make a cake without any sugar," Rikku mused. "Just as an experiment. And I never had that problem back home. Usually, my brother would eat whatever it was, just 'cause he'd rather eat it than have to cook himself, you know? He wasn't all that fussy about food, really."

"Good," she said, nodding. "He's ... I worry about him. Don't tell him I said that. Just ... you know. I think he's maybe had it kinda rough, and he doesn't let people in really easy, you know?"

"You were the cook for your family? That's cool! Luckily, I don't have to do the cooking for my family. I think they'd revolt after the first meal. My sister would probably lead them!" Momoko laughed at a mental image of her family in warrior gear, casting her defeated self out of a destroyed kitchen. She wiped her eyes. "And I think you can use honeys and other sweeteners in cakes. But using a cup of salt and a teaspoon of sugar instead of a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of salt makes for a really bad taste."

"He does seem to have had a rather... interesting life, yeah." Momoko agreed wholeheartedly with Rikku. "I don't really understand why he lets me in, either. You'd think he would steer clear of me except I'm really pushy and I pretty much decided we were going to be friends no matter what he said. And he doesn't scare me, which he seems to expect to happen when people meet him, so maybe that makes a difference to him?"

"It got boring," Rikku laughed. "Every day, you have to think of something to make, and none of it is interesting, you know? So you start making up new concoctions just to see if your brother will eat them. And if they get bad enough, the heck with it, he'll cook. Right?"

"I think ..." She hesitated. "I think he wants people to be scared of him. So they push him away before he has to. I dunno. That's why I give him hugs. I figure he needs them, even if he'd never admit it."

"Ah! You turned it into a torture game? Aren't siblings great for that! Until they start to fight back, of course."

Momoko pressed the tips of her index fingers together and stared at them. How to express this? "We've talked about hugs, yeah. It was kind of a jokey conversation, because we do that, but I think maybe he doesn't get enough of them. I mean, really doesn't."
I'm no good at them, anyhow, he'd said. How could anyone believe they were bad at hugs?

"My brother's bigger than me," she sighed. "But I punch harder, and he's not as smart. I usually won."

She chewed her lower lip, carefully. "I ... think you're right," she said. "That he doesn't. From ... anywhere, yeah? I don't know ... what the deal is, like, with his family, but ... I worry."

Okay, she kinda knew some of it, but she wasn't sure how much of that was okay to tell. And she only knew vague shapes, and not ... details.

Momoko shook her head. "Kuriko's smarter and sneakier than me, even though she's younger. But my friend has brothers and she says the same about them that you do. Maybe it's a brother thing?"

She clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her feet, staring at the droid while she wondered how much Rikku did know about Warren's family. "I'm not really worried - I don't know how to explain it. I don't think he's going to go evil or crazy or anything because he's basically a really nice guy just... I think if enough people care about him, he'll realize he's worth them caring about, because he is. But not everyone looks past his grrr face and so he's... lonely? And he thinks he deserves it."

"Maybe brothers are all stupid," she giggled. "And never underestimate the power of little sisters. We're the ones you'd never see coming. I mean, we don't have these big innocent eyes for nothing, here."

She hesitated, setting her wrench down and mulling over her choice of words. "I'm not worry about him like ... like that I think anything's gonna ... I don't worry that he's gonna do stuff. I worry that he's sad. And ... lonely, like you said. I worry that he needs people more than he lets on, and I worry that he's not okay." She smiled, a little wryly. "Which is why I thought it was adorable that he wrote that column about you, and cookies, and all of it. I had to beg him to tell me who it was, and if it had been some mean, bitchy girl who didn't give a crap about him, I was gonna beat her up."

"I definitely do not underestimate her, and I'm completely on to the big eyes game." She tried a lesser version of her own. "I use them all the time."

"And I can be bitchy and mean, if I try, but I'm not normally, so you don't have to beat me up. Okay? I promise!" She didn't even want to think about trying to fight Rikku. Flight and a yo-yo could only take you so far...

Rikku bounced, and reached out for a ~~duckable!~~ squeezy hug. "I didn't mean you!" she giggled. "Oh! I meant, you know, some evil girl that was gonna be horrible to him. You're not mean. You're adorable."

"Good! Because you'd totally win and it would hurt!" Momoko squeezed back. "And I'm not 'adorable,' I'm awesome! I have a note that says so and everything! Or 'wow' apparently. I think I can live with being called 'wow', even without a note."

"You can be all three," Rikku grinned. "Adorable, awesome, and wow. And I don't know, I bet you punch harder than you look. It's always us bouncy ones that kick more ass than we're supposed to, you know."

"Well, I am stronger than I look, yeah, but I've only been actually fighting for a few years. Before that, before the chemical Z, I was normal!" She paused. "Well, as normal as I ever am. And your world sounds like you've been fighting for way longer! And more serious monsters than mine."

Moddable Zen.

Pew! Pew!

The snow is pretty. Can it go away now?

Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Friday

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