Resource-hunting always sucked a little, just a little. Willy tugged the bag of dead fish over his shoulder as he trudged out of the river. With a deep breath, he tossed the bag directly into the open door of his piss-poor house. Right now, since he got out, at least, Willy's been doing his best to gather wood and food. He's hardly made it past stone tools, not wanting to ask for help.
He tugs his uniform back on, forgoing the buttons, when his ear twitches to his right. He stops, hands frozen on the placket of his uniform. His ear twitches again and he turns his head slightly, picking up a child's laughter in the distance.
Giving one final look to the fish, he decides to head to the direction of the sound.
Over the small hill, Willy finds a a small child sitting in the grass alone. They seemed to be picking grass and other things out of the ground until they turn to the house. The door opens and an adult comes out.
Willy doesn't hide, instead comes out a little more to not look like an absolute creep. He watches the adult, a tall reaper-looking person, come out with some toys.
He catches himself smiling as they set the basket of toys down and help the child pick theirs out.
It's just Bad and Dapper today. The way it all began, he thinks fondly. They're excited to spend time with just her - he loves all of his kids equally, of course, but that doesn't mean he always has to be with all of them. One-on-one time is good, important even. And this is going to be FUN. He's got everything they could possibly need for outdoor play: leads, lassos, crates, potions, every possible material to build with, enchanted armor and weapons, some bombs, and Dapper's box of stim toys.
His son has her neck craned back to face Bad as he emerges from the house. Waiting for him, they note warmly. "Hi, Dapper!" he calls. He closes the distance, crouches into a squat, and offers the fidget kit like a butler offering a tray of hors d'oeuvres. "Did you find any cool bugs while I was gone?"
It was bugs! Willy mentally pumps his fists and keeps watching the scene before him. Maybe he should've brought something, or should say something, but it's like his mind is blanking on anything.
He's caught between looking in his inventory for any sort of gift or saying something, which doesn't bode well for him trying to not look like a creep.
Dapper’s pointing out her findings as she fiddles with their plastic slug and Bad watches, rapt, hands on his knees as he squats. Halfway through their monologue, though, something prickles over the back of his neck.
He looks up, tail swishing, alert. White eyes turn and immediately lock onto the intruder.
He can feel the way the adult's eyes lock onto him. It feels piercing, like they had thrown a trident directly into his chest. His breathing got a little harder under their gaze, face warm as white eyes stared back at him.
Any attempts to clear his throat only seemed to make it harder, like he was literally frozen in place. His tail didn't even move. Willy was, quite literally, struck by their gaze.
And his mouth was dry, his mouth was open, and he couldn't even close it.
Bad glances down at Dapper, who’s followed his gaze. She looks up at him, unsure of how to react.
Bad smiles at him. He reaches out and ruffles their hair, knocking her top hat playfully off-kilter.
When he stands up, his scythe is in his hotbar and he’s ever so slightly taller than he was when he’d crouched down. “Hello there!” he calls. His eyes are stars in a moonless sky. “Can we…help you?”
He finally manages to close his mouth and swallows nervously. He opens his mouth again and hurriedly says, "Willy. Name."
Then closes his eyes with a deep, tired sigh through his nose. His tail finally drops and droops between his legs, ears pinned down in embarrassment. "I am Willy."
He opens his eyes back up and tries to put on a confident smile. "I heard something and came to check it out."
Before he processes any verbal information, Bad’s immediately disarmed by the canine body language. Something deep in his brain clicks. This is no wolf, it’s just a big dog. Possibly a pet.
“Ohhh!” he exclaims, snapping his fingers as he returns to his normal height. “You’re one of the new residents, that’s right. Nice to meet you, Willy! I’m BadBoyHalo, and this is my son, Dapper.”
Dapper waves hi.
“So, Willy, why are you all wet?” he asks, tilting his head.
He nods and waves hi back. "Hola Dapper. Uh-" He blinks and jabs his thumb over his shoulder. "I was fishing, I live by the river just over the hill." He laughs a bit, "I had to fight off a fish from my catch, it was this whole... yeah."
He nods again. "I have fish, and I punch really good if- if you need any help."
“I have wood.” He thinks over a little more. “And more wood. And some stone tools. Not a great house.” He laughs a bit again and his body seems to relax. “So it’s going great.”
Dapper looks at the outstretched fist, then back up at this "Willy" guy, unimpressed. She leans down to pick up one of the sticks she was using to poke around in the dirt. The stick is waggled in front of Willy's face, maybe an inch or two from his nose.
"If I throw this, will you fetch?" Dapper asks with narrowed eyes. To an outsider, it could come across as a child's curiosity. It's a good thing Dapper can use that as defense when he wants to mess with people.
"That's not an answer," Dapper states matter-of-factly.
Deciding to test her hypothesis, Dapper throws the stick behind the man. It's not a bad throw, landing off in the grass not too far away. She watches the dog guy. Dapper wants to see what he'll do, how he'll react.
Mostly, Dapper wants to get back to building his armies. Unless Willy has a good sense of smell, maybe then he could sniff out everything Dapper is looking for...
Bad heads back outside, humming as he checks over the stuff in the backpack again. He glances up just in time to see the new guy hand Dapper the stick, upon which Dapper immediately throws it again.
Oh, he fetches. That's adorable. Bad wonders if it's some kind of canine compulsion. Cellbit does this thing, for example, where if something is close enough to the edge of a table he knocks it off. Bad's had a lot of fun with that one. This looks even more promising. They lift a hand to their mouth to stifle their giggle.
The new resident trots dutifully up to their son, still dripping, stick in hand. His ear twitches and he looks up. Bad watches him notice them.
Not addressing it, he walks off the porch to give him the bag."Here we are! This should help you get started." He starts to count off on his fingers. "There's food, tools, building materials, potions, enchantments..."
Willy clears his throat, smile subdued at the realization Bad had seen him. He lightly taps Dapper's forehead with the stick and stares blankly at the blank stare he received.
He looks back as Bad approaches, smile back. "Ah, gracias! You didn't have to, though!" He peeks in the bag and can't fight the astonished sound he makes. "Oh wow." He mutters.
"So...yeah!" Bad finishes. He clasps his hands behind his back and rocks on his heels, tail swishing playfully. "Welcome to the island. Let me know if you need somebody to show you around."
Willy jumps a bit at the sound and looks up, face still a little pink. "Sí, sí, I will take you up on that." Lamely, he reaches out and lightly punches Bad's shoulder.
He waves back with a nervous laugh. Once the two are gone, he droops again.
"Ay, I need to leave or else- hm." He shakes his head and moves to toss the stick, but takes another look at it. After a moment, he shoves it into his inventory and starts making his way back over the hill.
We did taste it, and it tasted good so we figured it was fine, and no one else we gave the soup to had any complaints either so we didn’t think anything was wrong