voidtreckerexpress | An epic quest

Romeo is a little taken aback when Roland first stands, starts talking to them so importantly. So much so that he stopped snacking to jump to his feet beside Inigo and Tidus.

But Romeo is very used to overly dramatic adults. After all he has lived in a place of gods, miss Hibiki and mister Zetta might be on the more extreme side of such theatrics but they were far from the only ones.

So the fact that this was all just pretend went completely over his head, but the idea that this was an all important mission to get the model built did not phase him at all.

He raised his fist up to his chest. "I'm ready sir!"

Look at their motley crew, lined up and ready for the real work. He knows he sounds silly. He's aware that they're indulging him. But even that in itself is heartwarming to come to terms with. So Roland quietly takes a moment to appreciate the gathering, fond in his gaze as each person is regarded with gratitude. Before he turns back around to the MaDnuG in waiting, the act breaks. He can't let the moment pass just as it was.

"Thank you. This really means a lot."

But the journey to build the void's first robot figurine, old school style, is only just beginning. Roland gestures the three of them to come forward, a chair assigned to each, before he begins to take out the plastic-wrapped pieces from the box in a particular manner, careful and precise. Then, he starts assigning things like they were really on a high-stakes mission.

"All right. We gotta prep the pieces before we do anything else. If I remember correctly, this should come with - aha." There's a small spray bottle of what looks like blue dishsoap diluted with water, and a toothbrush attached to the side. Rummaging through the kit reveals latex gloves, four pairs as if it was made just for them. This is handed out individually and he doesn't hesitate to wear his right away.

"There's a lot of pieces to work through, but with all of us here it should be easy. Take a frame each and spray it with the soapy water, brushing the pieces front and back. We'll rinse it afterwards. Easy enough for now, right?"

He's glad he still remembers what to do. Maybe it's a memory he'll never forget, given how rare it was for him to indulge an expensive hobby as a kid. If there were questions to be fielded, Roland was ready to answer. For now, the multiple frames are passed down so one person had more than a single frame to clean. He's already working on his, simultaneously as he watches the rest of the team huddle up to the task.

If they're going to go as far as to get the model kit, to indulge in all the theatrics that happened along the way (and the first set of them not even put in place by Roland!), then why stop now? But at least for them, their only part in this stage play of Roland's childhood pleasure is to sit down and follow his instructions, which Tidus is fine to do. ... for once. He takes the gloves and one of the frames for himself, eyeing the individual pieces trapped between plastic rods to see if he can make out what they're supposed to be. Look at these things, pals. There's so many pieces!

"Can't we find a bowl to stick them in and wash 'em that way?" Not that Tidus hasn't accepted his gloves, tiny brush and mist of soapy substance over his unwrapped frame. "What's in that bottle? Didn't you say soapy water?"

This is what happens when you give one guy the instructions but don't read them first for yourself: you have no way to prepare for the fussy jobs!

Don't mind Inigo over here. Of course he's participating, even though this whole cleaning thing seems.. a little weird to him. But who is he to question Roland's hobbies? Especially when it makes the man so happy?

(For the record, he thinks Tidus's suggestion is a pretty great one. In fact, Inigo may be shoulder bumping him for that one. Good one, bro! Really put their shared braincell to work!)

But then the main problem arrives. The gloves. Is a guy like Inigo going to be able to put on latex gloves?

Of course not. Romeo can probably do it better than him here, since Inigo is totally struggling, his hand now half-stuck in one of the gloves. It's the simplest of tasks that get him..

But even as he's very focused on that, he can't help but ask, "Do you always have to clean them like that?" Now don't mind him, he's just going to Struggle with this glove. They truly are the most helpful bunch, aren't they.

These gloves are a bit tighter than other ones he has worn before but it's still not too much trouble to get them on. He notices Inigo is struggling and leans over to try and help.

"It's okay mister Inigo, they are pretty tricky!"

He is alright with cleaning them all individually if that's what the instructions say and mister Roland certainly seems to know what he is talking about even if a bowl of water would be quicker!

"Maybe they break easy so you go to be really careful."

Like he is being with this glove and Inigo's fingers.

"It's pretty simple, actually." Roland pipes up, still focused on the his own set of plastic parts and frames, glancing around the table from time to time to make sure everyone's settling in their prescribed roles just fine. He lingers on Inigo and Romeo for a good moment, lowering the frames from his periphery so he can jump in if needed, but it seems they've got their own flow going about them. With all of them in protective gear, he resumes his washing and brushing of the pieces. "You use the soapy water, as it were, to clean the parts from the debris since they came straight off of a manufacturer. Doing this makes sure stickers and adhesives will stay there for a long time, because we made the parts all squeaky clean."

As for the bowl suggestion, Roland hums to himself first. "Hm. I've never tried that though. I guess it wouldn't hurt. As long as you still brush the individual parts, of course. You wanna go get that, pro?" He quirks an eyebrow at Tidus, playful to see if he'll actually go to the kitchens just to find a bowl big enough for the whole frame, with four of them doing the work to boot. But of course, it's meant as a joke, so he doesn't really take it so seriously. Though now that he thinks about it...

"We may need to borrow Gibbs. Can he help us rinse these from the soap?" He holds up his first frame, dripping slightly on the table.

(Aw, thanks bro!!!)

Look at those two helping each other out - or, really Romeo helping out Inigo, let's be real. Meanwhile, Roland is Roland about his response, and while Tidus wouldn't mind getting the bowl if it'd be useful...that would be a lot of effort if they've apparently got everything they need already, wouldn't it. Eh, nevermind.

--but oh. Gibbs? Speaking of good ideas. Tidus is instantly eager, a smile spreading on his face.

"Oh yeah! He can make a water bubble and we can clean them that way! Gibbs?"

He looks down as he speaks the name, not waiting for any type of confirmation that he's on the right track. His chest glows, and out pops a figure - blipping from there and onto the floor, the higgledy twirling in all his grand and great (tiny) glory.

"Who needs a bowl when you've got a pal? Show 'em, Gibbs!"

'At your service! Hiiiggg hig!' squeals the little being, and raising tiny limbs, a sphere of wavering water appears floating above its head - even larger than the creature itself.

Ta ddaaaaa.

Look at Romeo. What a good kid. What a true livesaver, helping Inigo here put on these tricky gloves. And since Romeo is being so cute and all careful about it, Inigo is making sure to try and move as little as possible, just so he won't accidentally give the kid an even harder time. They're almost there!

But while Romeo is working on helping him with the gloves, Inigo can't help but get a little distracted by what's happening with the other two. Particularly when he hears that higgledy's name being dropped by Roland. It makes Inigo think of every single other instance of Gibbs's water powers he's got to witness, and..

.. well, let's just say Inigo feels like Roland is messing with powers he doesn't understand.

"Please make sure he doesn't get too excited about that."

Because we all know what happens when Gibbs gets excited. Water gets everywhere. And the last thing they need is a devastated Roland due to the water-induced destruction of his new toy.

Almost there! Just one more finger and.... "There you go sir!"

He's been concentrating so much on helping Inigo put the gloves on that he hadn't been paying attention to what else was going on in the room. When he looked up again there was a tiny creature and it was making water.

"Wow!"

He glanced at Inigo, he looked a bit nervous... Did he not like water>

Did he not like water, more like never let Tidus near water! The menace! The fiend! Let Roland warn all of you what he can do when he has this much power!

But for now, he's not afraid. He cocks an eyebrow up at the sphere of water, before smiling at Inigo with a knowing glint in his eye, but not for anything he's said or done. "He can get excited if that means we clean this faster, but that's all he better be doing with that magic. Heh." If he knows what's good for him!! But the underlying joke is left hanging in silence, with Roland happily offering his finished pieces to Gibbs's magic. The gravity of the pull of water sucks it in, a globule of blue rotating like a makeshift washing machine. Briefly, Roland wonders if Auntie Martha does the same thing with her army of higgledies, who she's adept at commanding to do the most mundane of chores.

The process definitely hastens compared to manually dipping and scrubbing in clean water. The pieces connected by the wire are spurted out from the top of the globe as Gibbs begins to dance. Roland grins as he catches each one, nodding at all three of them to do the same.

"Well? What are you waiting for? This is only step one, you know."

"Don't worrrrry," is the drawl Inigo receives, while Romeo's correct reaction to Gibbers's powers receives a more enthused, "Yeah! Right! Try poking it!"

please romeo look at this cool little guy and his oversized sphere of water, it's as big as a beach ball by now. if you poke it will ripple but not burst.

But in all his time of having Gibbers, Tidus never thought about using the creature to help him do any of the chores. He may be getting a different idea now, watching as the pieces of the frames are sucked in, and then right back out -- who knows if actually with a good job done to them? But, they sure are wet now.

And Tidus is absolutely here to have his frame be sucked up and washed, just to be spat out again.

"Hmm... I wonder what chores would be fun for a higgledy? We've gotta try some stuff out." Not to speak conspiratorially with the higgledy in front of everyone. Don't mind them, they've got research to do -- in the future! But he hasn't forgotten about what they're actually meant to be doing, with Tidus flapping his wet frame dry.

"So now what? Do we pull out the pieces now?"

At least, even in the middle of his worry, Inigo can spare a moment to look at Romeo and give the cute kid a smile, and then a now-gloved hair ruffle. "Thank you. It's all thanks to you." Otherwise Inigo still would have been struggling with his glove right about now!

But as Roland tells them to get a move on, Inigo offers the frame with pieces he was holding to Gibbs too, giving the higgledy a half-pleading look as he inserts it into the water. Please don't screw this up for them, pal. He's trusting you. That 'don't worry' coming from Tidus of all people may only have made him more nervous.

But thankfully it comes out just fine, and Inigo quickly makes way so Romeo has some chance to explore The Wonders Of Water Magic without knowing of its downsides.

Inigo looks back down at the frame he's holding in his hands. ".. Should we put them down somewhere? It'd be a big problem if we lost even one piece, right?"

He pokes the sphere, grinning to watch the water rippling. This was so cool. They were going to get these frames all clean in no time at all!

"Maybe we got to spread out a big towel and we can put them all on there to dry so we don't lose any!"

Because if they lost them they wouldn't be able to put the model together and that would be a disaster.

"I can go run and get one!"

"Higgledies are great for chores, actually. Bambosh helps me with laundry. Rannygazoo already helped me dry plates." But that's only because Roland's seen in action just how many higgledy helpers it takes to get a multitude of tasks finished, plus his relationship with them has been quite stellar thus far. Anger one higgledy and they can give you attitude too.

As they continue to wash the pieces in their giant floating sphere of water, Roland smiles and stops Romeo from even standing from his chair. He shakes his head and starts handling the pieces that come out of the blob.

"It's okay, Romeo. I got it."

Remember when he took a quick trip to his cabin earlier? Well, guess who got a towel in advance, predicting this would be necessary? This isn't his first MaDnuG rodeo, cowboys. Said towel appears in a flash of light from his Arms Band, spread out across his lap horizontally.

"Let's make a factory line. You guys handle the scrubbing - " He looks to Tidus and Inigo. "- then Romeo rinses it in Gibbs's water bubble. Hand it to me to dry. Anyway, this is the only prep step before we actually get to the exciting part. Cutting and assembling."

Exciting, like most words, is relative of course. But his enthusiasm more than makes up for whatever lack of flair the hobby might not inherently provide. Roland is already wide-eyed, wiping the connected parts with such care and concern that you could easily mistake him for patting down dry a newborn infant.

"So no one has any experience with this kind of thing before, right?" He asks, curiously.

"Oh, sure. You get to sit there and dry, but we have to scrub up?"

There's no complaining about Romeo's designated role here, only Roland's, though it isn't stopping Tidus from picking up his brush and a waiting frame. A small silent exchange with Gibbs's about if he wants to join in, but a far more visible display of the higgledy trying to take a hold of the frame that Tidus passes over results in a rather stubby hand swinging it up and down, like a disagreeable flap, unable to get a balance.

Okay, maybe not. "You focus on the water."

Guess there's no shoving jobs onto people for him. Siigh. He'll just have to continue to one-sidedly bicker at Roland, even with an innocuous question.

"Pretty sure you're the only guy here who has. Romeo said! And Inigo doesn't have stuff like this." He can speak for Inigo -- after all, they both know well how medieval he is. But there's a delightful look in his eye as he glances at Romeo to Roland, raising his little scrubbing brush.

"You should tell Romeo all about when you were a kid with these! Don't know if you know it, Rome, but this guy's older than he looks. He's got some pictures to show us too later."

Hehhhh.

".. Wow, Roland is making his higgledies work?"

Look what happens when you shove a scrubbing task onto two teens, Roland. This happens. They both start finding things to whine about, almost as if they're trying to get back for having to scrub all these frames and the tiny parts on them. Not to mention how careful they have to be, since Inigo can only imagine Roland's panic and misery if even one tiny piece of this entire thing would break or end up missing...

But at least he is working! He's grabbed a brush too, and Inigo is already starting to scrub one of the frames. So he's not even looking up as he speaks, just blabbing on as he's hard at work.

"You should tell Romeo more about these things though, Tidus is right! I'm sure he'll like it." Considering Roland did make it seem like enjoying these.. robots.. or whatever they are.. and their adventures was very much a kid thing back home for him.

Romeo, in direct contrast to the two teens, takes to his task with enthusiasm, plunging the frames into the bubble water and then out again, before handing them over to be dried.

He likes this! This is really good teamwork with each of them having a small task that builds up to get the big task of cleaning everything done!

"You are sir? Are you a god? Or an elf? Or someone else who lives for lots of years?"

He grinned, "I would like to hear about these though!"

He always likes learning and it is clear that mister Roland is an expert!

Romeo truly is the best boy.

But then again, there's no accounting for how used to Roland is to the griping he receives from that end of the table. He only chuckles in response, his smile ever-present as more parts come his way, laying on his lap for a quick towel dry before they're placed in front of him at the assembly.

The small talk is appreciated for what it is, and it doesn't ask for much. He's already happily shared some of these details with the teens anyway, and Romeo is a good kid. His enthusiasm is something Roland gravitates towards, and hopes to protect as best he can. The train always had a way of testing innocence.

Though he does snigger lightly at the claims of being a 'god', or an 'elf.' "Check these ears, Romeo. I think they're a little too short to count as elf ears, heh." As for living lots for years -

- he's probably the opposite of that. Dead by forty-eight if he wasn't so lucky to be someone's other half, linked to another world by luck of fantasy. So he won't focus there.

"I'm just a regular guy, really. Don't let these two talk you into thinking otherwise," He gestures to Inigo and Tidus each with a playful wag of a finger, one to the other, before he sets aside another dried part. They were almost finished. "But I am older than I look. You believe in magic, right? Well, magic is what aged me down. This is how I looked like when I was twenty. But inside, here - " Roland lifts another finger of his and taps his temple twice.

"I've got the mind of someone in their late forties. This robot we're building is what I used to want as a kid." The fond look he throws Tidus and Inigo is not something he hides. "They decided it might be nice for me to finally build a MaDnuG special model at long last. When they're not teasing me at every turn, they can be pretty sweet. What do you think?"

The act of speaking as if the twin teens weren't there is just as deliberate in its affection, with a gentle nudge of his elbow towards Romeo like they're sharing a secret. But he feels what he feels and for once, he isn't inclined to be dishonest about it. Not with this crowd.

"What do you think you're saying about us?" cuts in Tidus, a narrow squint on Roland, the face of suspicion; that next turns to Romeo, the hint of a smile underneath the cool bravado he's got to put on (for fun). "Don't listen to him. He's trying to distract you from what I'm really saying! He's got pictures of the old him on him! He promised to share 'em when we got back. You think I forgot?"

This is a call out, a put on the spot! Because come on, this guy is going to talk about how old he really is, and not show the proof? It's time for an old man to be bold - especially when Tidus knows Inigo is right there and will absolutely want to see Roland in his old man suit.

Let's show Romeo some magic, too.

Tidus is playing these cards beautifully. Because there's no way Roland isn't going to buckle under the combined pressure of these three. Especially not since Inigo instantly looks up from the frame he was scrubbing the moment he hears his fellow teen's words, his eyes growing wide as he glances from Tidus to Roland.

"Wait, he's going to share--"

Pictures?! Of the old him?! Guess who is totally forgetting about the work they're supposed to be doing here. Inigo has to see these pictures, exactly like Tidus was assuming.

"Roland, you have to show us! Do it-- Do it for Romeo!" As if Inigo isn't the biggest kid over here, nearly bouncing even while sitting at the thought of getting to see this.

"Of course I believe in magic!" Did anyone not believe in magic? Was there places without magic? But Roland had been bigger once and now he was younger again?

"I think mister Tidus and mister Inigo are really kind!" He declared with a smile, "They always are trying to make people smile!"

And it was clear they liked Roland a lot! Even when they were teasing him!

He doesn't join with the pleading. But he is interested. What would Roland look like when he was older. When he had been older?

"Hey, careful there. Scrub gently." There's not much force to such a reprimand, the smile on his face dropping a shade or two if only because the reminder comes at a time when he least expects it. But among such a select few, his apprehension lightens and he isn't opposed to showing them pictures of another life, in another world far, far away...Granted he can throw the remark right back.

"And sure. I'll show you guys my pictures...If Tidus can do the same and show us his when he was still playing blitzball." He shifts his eyes from the twin teens before leaning back towards Romeo, another playful nudge in his direction. "You know that guy's a pro-athlete, right? And Inigo is an actual prince. Crazy what kind of cool company we're keeping, eh?"

Master of deflection, can't do him dirty, oh no. He's mostly done with his current batch of drying pieces, and is reaching for some of the other pieces that came with the set. Hopefully they'll have it, since it'll be impossible without cutters...

"Heyyyy." That's the sound of mock offence, and a hand comes down on Romeo's head, ruffling up that hair. "You're gonna give people ideas about us. We want everyone to think we're cool, you know!"

Which apparently, being kind doesn't equal cool in this joking reality Tidus is setting up. It's certainly not a way to cover up his being bashful at such earnest compliments. Come on pal, what do you think you're doing to him!

Roland, however. Roland he can deal with, even as he tries his usual ~~dirty~~ tricks. There's a nice drying pile of the pieces gathering now however, even if Tidus is getting distracted in his scrubbing. (Thank goodness Inigo is there.)

"Ohhh no. I'll show my pictures after you do. The crowds want to see the President of another world first!"

Wow.

Inigo is totally distracted over here. Both from the half-argument Tidus and Roland are having - though that may be partially on purpose, since Inigo knows very well just how dangerous it can be to come between those two once they start getting at it - and even from the way Roland is just casually telling people Inigo is a prince when it's something he hardly ever admits to other people.

No, none of that matters when Romeo, this kid he doesn't even know well yet but seems so sweet, is calling him really kind.

Tidus who? Roland who? Inigo only has eyes for Romeo, smiling with a slight blush on his cheeks.

".. Thanks, Romeo. You're really nice too, you know!"

Aside from that? He'll just keep being at work over here. Someone's got to pick up the slack induced by the way Tidus's hands still more and more.

He grins at Tidus for the hair ruffle and half listens to them bickering. It's good bickering though, it means they like each other. He wants to see all the pictures. Roland as a president, Tidus as a pro-athlete and Inigo as a Prince!

Romeo doesn't stop working but he smiles brightly at Inigo.

"Thank you sir! Um or are we s'posed to call you your majesty?"

All sorts of people are on this train it seems!

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