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[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is doing ... well, it's not exactly work. More of a side project.

He's got a few papers spread across a booth, with some crude but very detailed drawings of a pair of gloves and boots, surrounded by scribbled notes. Resting atop them is a small box of expensive red wood, presently shut tight; a bundle of something wrapped in plastic; and a laptop, on which there are several windows of densely packed data and graphs.

Only about eighty percent of his attention is occupied by the project. The remaining twenty percent seems to be taken up watching an episode of Tentacles Of Our Waves playing on the holographic display of his wrist computer. This episode would appear to involve a fiercely fought love triangle between a red and a blue squid, and the blue squid's true love, a helicoprion.

Still, between the project and the terrible soap opera, he seems to be barely paying attention to what's happening around him.

Comments

[childofrebellion]

Cassian's stretching his hands as he's finished a good round outside with a punching bag before the rain pushed him in. He walks by Yamato's booth then stops to notice all the various projects, "What are you working on?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Chasing down a ... wait a second," Yamato says, because holding a conversation and watching thrilling undersea drama unfold is a little too much. He quickly pauses the episode, then shuts the window, freeing up that percentage of his attention to focus on Cassian instead. "I was chasing up something that seemed weird, and then it got ... out of control, and I, er ..."

He pauses, eyes flicking over to the plastic-wrapped bundle.

"... Borrowed supplies from here to buy a pelt," he says, a touch guiltily. "Because I wanted to test out a theory. And then it got even more out of control from there."

[childofrebellion]

"What were you originally looking into?" He knows how research can lead to more research.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's ..." Yamato furrows his brow, thinking of how to explain it. "So, Lord Goemon, he had eight swords, and one of them got broken, or -- I broke it, actually. Anyway, he gave me the pieces as a gift, but ... ah, fuck, how do I put this."

He thinks for a second, then: "Lots of Digimon have weapons, right? But their weapons are actually part of them, and if you break them, they vanish, the same way a limb would vanish if you ripped it off. It's been weeks, and Goemon's sword hasn't vanished yet. It's just sticking around, like an actual sword would."

He taps a few keys, bringing up a window of data. "So it turns out, it's actually made from repurposed Garurumon data, like Gabumon's pelt, and it has a tiny fragment of power in it -- it actually has a fragment of my power in it, or not -- not mine, but ..." He gestures vaguely around his chest. "It's effectively an artificial Digimon with no mind or soul, like the Mystery Man's zombie Digimon."

[childofrebellion]

"That's unexpected and seems like it could be useful. What do you think you'll be able to do with it?"

Everything seems to be connected in some way.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's pretty useless the way it currently is, and there's no way to repair it to how it used to be," Yamato says. "But if I had better equipment, as in -- more advanced than the equipment that exists in my world, then, er. Let's see."

He pauses for a moment, then picks up one of the notebooks. "So -- you can't read the notes, I guess, but assuming that you reprogrammed the remains of the sword to have different properties, like you made it malleable, you could then ..." he flips a few pages to a crude diagram. "You could weave it together with this Garurumon pelt I bought and strands of black digizoit, and then all you'd need is a power source and a way to stimulate the individual components and they'd merge together. You'd get a new weapon out of it, and you'd have the grab-bag of Garurumon-family abilities imbued into it."

Beat.

"I don't have a power source. Or a way to stimulate the components."

[childofrebellion]

"What kind of power source would you need? Maybe there's something that you could use here."

Cassian sits down and glances over the notes to try and make sense of them.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The notes are, by and large, in kanji and katakana, which is perhaps in this instance a barrier to understanding.

"I don't exactly know. Given that it was powered by a spark of Crest energy before, I don't know for sure what would actually make a good substitute," Yamato says, glancing at his screen. "Maybe some kind of photon battery? Those are theoretical in my world, though, and I'm really just guessing when I say it might work."

[childofrebellion]

"You might try something from one of the ships downstairs as there are a number of options there."

Crest energy seems to be highly specific and hard to replicate.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That's not a half bad idea. It'd have to be something small, though. Tiny enough to fit into a glove, since ..."

He flicks a few pages again, back to some diagrams of gloves and boots. There's one of what seems to be a pair of glasses there, too.

"Reforging it into a sword would be pretty pointless for me, I don't have the first clue how to use a sword. But I figured I'm not ... terrible ... at punching stuff."

There's an edge of self-derision there.

[childofrebellion]

"Hm, something from my galaxy could work if it was compatible with it." Cassian nods his head at that, "Your punches are effective."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Maybe. Your world has blasters, after all, and those seem to be just intense weaponised light. Something like that but with a much higher energy output might work."

[childofrebellion]

"True, I'd need to compare some options but might have some things to work with."

[makes_the_toys]

Wandering past with an oversized mug of coffee and a porg toddling along behind him, Cisco spots the booth and looks over the evidence of a heavy project in action.

He hesitates a little when he notices Yamato, but GP keeps right on strolling and Cisco ends up following him to the table.

"ARAWWW!" GP greets Yamato, awkwardly taking flight to land on a clear spot on the tabletop. He's wearing an outdoorsy flannel vest today looking very LL Bean.

"Hey, Yamato," Cisco greets, trying to tamp down any awkward. "What're you-- OHHHH, did she/he/they choose yet?"

Forgetting any weirdness, Cisco hones in on the show playing.

"Please say they went with true love and not what society wants."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato figures he still needs to apologise, but Cisco forgetting any weirdness is definitely a boon. He'll remember this squid-shaped anti-awkward bullet in future.

"They, er ..."

"Helicoprion, I love you, but I can't trust you! I can never trust anyone ever again!
"Mrlghfnlghfngh!"

"I've only been half paying attention," Yamato admits, starting to gather up his notes. "I'm rooting for Helicoprion, though."

[makes_the_toys]

"Oh man, me too. If she can look past that thing's weird ass face, then their love can survive anything."

Cisco helps himself to a seat, watching the drama unfold.

GP watches Yamato's paper gathering, then finds a loose page and stands on it.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"GP, what do we say about trying to take stuff that isn't you -- ..." Yamato trails off, narrowing his eyes at GP as he finally notices that the bird is dressed in flannel.

Okay, he's just going to table that for later, maybe. He needs time. To process. The lumberbird.

Instead, it's time to undo all of the sea creature soap's good work.

"I, er," he pauses for a second, rubbing his throat, before focusing his attention on trying to gather up his notes. "I owe you an apology. I -- some old issues of mine got dragged to the surface during the whole Barry thing. I didn't mean to ... snap at you or anything. Sorry."

[makes_the_toys]

"RAWWW!" Is GP's response and he flaps his wings, puffing up his flannel covered chest.

"Off," Cisco says, still tuned to the show.

GP squawks again and then backs up, leaving one little toe on the paper.

Cisco's gaze breaks from the action to look up at Yamato when he starts apologizing.

Shaking his head, Cisco returns to the awkward he came over with.

"Oh. What? No, dude, it's... yeah, it's fine. No, just-- yeah, we're cool," he says, looking everywhere now but at Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"No, I -- ..."

He stops himself on that count, because he can't say 'it's not fine,' that would just be shoving Cisco's forgiveness back in his face. Instead, he moves to try to gently nudge GP's toe off the paper.

"I wasn't thinking clearly, and everything was getting filtered through my own insecurities, so it -- felt like you were sneering at me, and confirming what I thought, and I lashed out at you, and you didn't deserve it at all," he says. With a short laugh: "Actually, I'm still lashing out at people, but I'm trying not to."

He opens his mouth to say more, then settles for just knocking a foot against Cisco's shin under the table.

[makes_the_toys]

GP tries to keep that toehold, but looses out and squawks at Yamato when he takes the paper away.

Cisco fidgets and shakes his head, "Hey, it's alright. It was probably my fault, too. I really suck at saying the right things, or not saying the wrong things. It's practically a guarantee that I made things worse."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato shakes his head. "Nah. You tried your best, y'know? I really do appreciate that."

He pauses awkwardly for a moment, scuffing his foot against the floor, before he reaches out one fist to gently press the tip of Cisco's nose.

"Boop."

Stealing another glance at GP, he remarks, conversationally: "I see you've dressed your bird as a lumberjack, like a crazy person would. How's that going for you."

He gathers some of his notes in an orderly pile, then hesitates, and decides not to put them away yet, instead returning to tapping away at his laptop.

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco's eyes cross as Yamato's fist comes at him, and he gives a self-depreciating chuckle.

"My best is basically the worst," Cisco says, shaking his head again. "Between you, Wilford and Barry I've really botched things lately."

Looking at GP lifts Cisco's smile back up.

"What? How is it crazy to want to see my guy styling and comfortable?" he counters. "In case you didn't know, the Midwest is cold in the winter and plaid is back in so... "

GP is obviously outfitted just as he should be.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I can't say what'll happen with the other two, but at the very least -- I'll be fine, kiddo. This isn't the first time these issues have been dredged up. It won't be the last time, either. Just how things go," Yamato says, nudging his foot against Cisco's shin.

He flashes a grin, tilting his head.

"Oh, well, if plaid is back in, I guess that changes everything and I just have to yield to your superior fashion sense," he teases.

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco's greatly relieved to hear that, and he nods.

"Okay. As long as we're cool."

Reaching out, Cisco pets GP who trills and flaps his wings.

"In like it was the 90's," Cisco confirms. "You should get yourself some, you'd look pretty hip grunge."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Of course we're cool," Yamato smiles. He gives Cisco's shin another knock with his foot for good measure, offering him a smile.

"I'll keep that in mind when my world catches up to yours," he adds, tapping a few keys. The laptop gives a short whir as it starts loading up a string of metadata, written in a blocky, almost circuitry-like language. As it loads that, he takes the opportunity to reach out and scritch GP under the chin with one finger. "But we're, what, nine years behind you guys?"