piper90 | strange things

[It's taken some time for him to sit down and actually try this because every instinct he has is screaming at him that it's not allowed. The rules toys follow aren't just something they choose to follow, they're instinct. Instinct they can fight, certainly - like when he and Sid's toys had scared Sid - but instinct nevertheless.]

[But this is a special circumstance and maybe Buzz has the right idea. One of the big people had been nice to him, sabotaging his back switch so it didn't actually change anything when switched to demo mode.]

[This situation is so much bigger than them, bigger than any other chaotic situation they've ever faced, bigger even than their little prison break at Sunnyside. What's an escape from a daycare compared to an otherdimensional...whatever? A place where magical shock devices have been put inside them and now they're being expected to, what, go on missions? His only job is being huggable and good for playing pretend. How that's supposed to translate to "missions" is beyond him.]

[In any case, it's so big that maybe he and Buzz need a little help from the big people. Or at least for them to know the two toys hanging around are actually alive.]

[But that doesn't mean it's easy to talk to them. He decides to do it first over text. And decides to maybe test the waters a little instead of launching right into "Hi I'm woody, I'm a talking rag doll."]

[The comm is almost as big as he is, so he has to rely on the voice-to-text to type anything because it's so much work hitting all the buttons.]

Hi. Hello. So.

How nonhuman would someone have to be for you all to think they were too weird for you to want to deal with? Asking for a friend.

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[He's... actually kind of adorable. He's tiny, polite, and he fits in her palm. She did not expect to be so charmed.

Vanya stands up carefully, keeping an eye on him so that she doesn't knock him over by accident.]

Don't mention it. I was hoping to find someone to explore with me anyway. [She furrows her brow.] Do you want to stay on my hand, or is the shoulder easier or...

[She doesn't know the etiquette of carrying sentient toys, okay?]

Whichever's most comfortable for you. I can balance either way.

[Whatever will freak her out the least.]

[She considers briefly before carefully raising her hand to her shoulder, giving him a chance to walk to it on his own. Her hair is soft and loose, so that's also available for him to grip if he needs to maintain his balance.]

I don't want to trip and hurt you by accident.

[...Wait. She frowns.]

...Can I hurt you? Like, do you feel pain when someone holds you too tight or shakes you or something? [While Vanya was not exactly swimming in toys when she was a kid (it was literally just Mr. Snuggles), she knows that children aren't always very gentle with their things. He seemed very excited about the idea of being owned and loved by a child, though.]

Edited 2020-06-28 02:08 (UTC)

[He climbs up to her shoulder and sits there. Instead of holding onto her hair, he winds his little hand slightly into the collar of her coveralls. He'd rather fall off than pull her hair and hurt her.]

It's not the same as humans, I think. You hit your knee and there's a bruise and swelling, but we don't have skin or blood vessels and any pain doesn't really last.

[That's one of the up sides to being a toy. Any pain isn't as severe as it might be for people and usually doesn't last so long as they haven't lost a limb or something serious.]

I've been stepped on before and I wouldn't say it's pleasant but it has to be close to busting my stitching for something to hurt. And even then, I don't think it's as bad for us. I don't think humans can lose an arm and still be on their feet like I have.

Alright. That's good to know. [So if she trips over and Woody goes flying, she has not murdered him. Yes, good, this will make her more comfortable walking around.

Even so, as she starts walking and looking around, she pays careful attention to the weight of Woody on her shoulder. It's not much weight at all, but she wants to make sure he doesn't slip and fall. Even if he doesn't hurt as much as she does, she'd still like to spare him from it.]

So, if your stitching pops, someone can fix you, right? [She has a feeling that that's going to be an issue in the future, if her understanding of their situation is right. She might want to brush off her sewing skills.] With a needle and thread or something?

Yes'm. Seam rips are the easiest. I had that fixed by my old owner once and he was just a kid.

[He rotates that arm a little.]

Solid stitching, it's held up all these years.

I've never had a cloth rip, but I've known other toys who had that fixed up with patching if the edges were too rough to sew back together.

We can survive an awful lot, though I can't the extreme end of that is pretty.

[He thinks back to Sid's poor toys and shudders. He hopes when Sid outgrew them that they ran off on their own, because there's no way they could be donated to a new owner. They would've been headed for the garbage. Unless Sid worried about mistreating them and kept them safe himself as an adult.]

Buzz and I might need you big people to help us at some point. I don't know that Jorgmund will think we're worth repairing, and it's hard for us to super glue or stitch up ourselves.

[Needles and glue bottles are a little unwieldy in hands that small.]

Yeah, I figured. My mother taught me how to repair clothes, so the principle should be the same. [And she'll practice in the meantime. She'd hate for this charming little person to be stuck wandering around without an arm because others don't see the value in someone not made of flesh and blood.]

You said your friend is an action figure, right? Is he the kind with screws? [Because plastic is harder to fix than cloth. If he's kept together with screws, maybe there are ways to repair him if he's hurt, but if he's not, then... can toys do transplants? Could someone make a leg out of clay or something and would that work? Woody said something about a spork coming to life, so...]

Yes. Plastic and screws. Luckily when he gets damaged, it's usually just an arm or leg popping out of the socket and they're not hard to pop back in. But if something breaks it might need to be glued.

[He frowns at that, already worrying. Cloth is easier to patch than hard plastic.]

[She senses the worry radiating from him. It takes a neurotic worrier to know a neurotic worrier.]

It's okay. We'll figure it out if he ever gets hurt.

[Glue, clay, tape, whatever. They'll figure it out if necessary.]

Is there anything else you think I should know? Or, well, you need a 'big person' to know?

strange things | text

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