Welcome to the Mansion

On the peaceful planet of Popstar, to the east of Whispy Woods, there is a gigantic mansion. In that mansion resides a not-so-gigantic lizard with a fiery temper. Should you find yourself mysteriously happening upon this mansion, don’t worry. Just knock at the door, wait a minute or ten for someone to answer, and introduce yourself. Should you get on the owner’s good side, you may find yourself a place to stay until you get home. Should you get on her bad side, however… well, let’s just say you don’t want to do that. [Open RP blog! Read a bit of the info in the links below (particularly the OOC info) and shoot me an ask, and we can get this thing started!]

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

Wheatley waited several beats after the departure of the sassy robot before winging his whole core into an enthusiastic rotation of his optic. “Absolute wanker, I think is what you meant— can you believe him!” As he rocked back forward, his shutters squinted as his voice picked up a mocking falsetto that wasn’t even remotely close to Twopoint’s voice. “Do you manufacture mold here— bastard wouldn’t know science if it jumped up and bit him!”

He did, however, know swords and that was the important bit. So, heaving a sigh as though a great sacrifice must be made, Wheatley swiveled his attention back down to his stuttering side-kick. “Mm? Mop- Oh, yes! Brilliant. Well done. Right on top of that. Of course that’ll work, clues in the name: mop handle. Look at this, we’re practically half done already!”

A small, high-pitched buzz escorted the core along the rail until his studious optic was downcast onto the mop abandoned from earlier. He wasn’t too familiar with sword handles but a handle was a handle, at the end of the day, in his book. “Well. Go on. Break it. You can do that, can you? I mean, heh, only one with arms here! Might pop a spring or- or whatever makes you… work, really can’t tell from here. Just make sure you break the handle before you break yourself. Be really stuck if you did that in reverse. He’d make fun of youfor ages. I’d imagine.”

Not the most rousing pep-talk, admittedly.

[stupidlittlelizard]

Sentry flinched at Wheatley's ranting. "Y-yeah, sorry... He's... n-never very nice t-to other robots. B-but at least h-he's helping us?"

Looking over at the mop, he drew back a little at Wheatley's command to break it, and looked down at his plastic arms uncertainly. Wheatley was right in that Twopoint would likely mock Sentry if he was unable to break the thing. Maybe they could wait until Twopoint got back so the cocky robot could break it, but he had said that BC would be back soon. Come to think of it, he was amazed she wasn't back yet.

Still, he had to try, right?

"O-okay..." Looking down at the mop, Sentry scooted over to it,  reaching down and struggling to lift it. Once he managed to get it off the ground, he tried dropping it first--which did nothing, given his height. He then tried gripping it with both of his claws and trying to snap it, but, again, it proved stronger than his plastic arms. "Um... j-just wondering--do we have a plan B?"

Just as he finished talking, a boxing-glove hand reached up through the portal, setting down a short length of rope and a curved, flat blade that was roughly a foot long. "Might wanna hurry up and tie that to the handle, if you found one," Twopoint called hastily. "She's coming!"

((hey look it's Wheatley with the real Sentry))

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

Dib shrugged. “I dunno. Irken, I guess.” He started heading back toward the stairs. What might Zim have been doing all this time? Hopefully time passed the same speed here as it did back home, or Dib could be in real trouble.

[stupidlittlelizard]

"I take it he really irks you then? Heheh!" Flora snickered before skittering off after BabyCharmander, who led the two down the stairs.

BC said little, only talking briefly with a Waddle Dee that scurried up to her to announce that the kitchen had been cleaned. Upon approaching the basement door, she turned to face Dib. "There's a lot of junk down here too. Just don't go messing around with too much--some of it's dangerous. Someone accidentally ate a magical fruit they found down here once."

"Tch, not that that's a rarity," Flora said with a shrug.

BC ignored this remark, and turned to open the door to the basement. The stairs went down quite a ways--farther than one would expect for basement stairs--and the end of the stairs could not be seen from the light shining down from the main room. No lights were on, and a quick flip of the light switch confirmed that the bulbs were out, too. "Darn it... You guys go on ahead--I'll get someone to fix the lights here and in the attic. And DON'T go causing trouble, Flora!" With that, she scampered off to talk with a couple Waddle Dees again.

"I won't!" Flora called, holding her paws behind her back. She glanced at Dib. "Well, you ready?"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

"Yes, right, I’m sure they can." Wheatley airily agreed with the other machine, an odd-looker by his standards. Still, the bloke could move freely, moreso than either of them, and thus was quite critical to their half-baked scheme. Unfortunately that didn’t make the little core much more adapt at his social skills, particularly when he gave an antsy yet condescending chuckle at the snide commentary.

"Well, I can’t say much about him— practically rolls over when she asks,” He stage-whispered an aside to Twopoint, “But I have an entire bleedin’ facility, you might notice, should you, well, look around. Definitely my own boss. No lizards here, no.” Only Her and they were deep enough that he needn’t even mention that to anyone. 

Now they were getting somewhere. Progress!

"Brilliant! That’ll work. I’m sure it will. Flat sharp metal is all the same, at the end of the day, everything else is just superficial detail anyway." Wheatley declared, satisfied and now a self-declared sword expert. The arrogance of Twopoint, familiar of a certain green-eyed core, did rub him a bit funny. Enough for shutters to narrow into a haughty glare, fluffing his segments a bit as though seeming pitifully larger made up for little matters like fingers. “Yes, we can find a handle, thank you very much. We’ll be back and waiting for you, in fact, so, honestly, take your time. Me and him, we’ll have an exciting game of twenty questions, what with all our free time waiting.”

… what the hell were they even looking for. Blimey, swords were complex. No wonder they never manufactured those here. Clearly it was a messy, time-consuming task. Bullets were so much quicker.

[stupidlittlelizard]

"An entire facility?" Twopoint glanced around the room, a distinctly unimpressed look in his optics. "Do you manufacture mold here or something?" This comment was followed by another smirk.

"I'm sure you will," he said, rolling his optics before glancing back down through the portal. It was pretty steep, but his legs could handle it. "I hope you have something by the time I get up here. BC's probably gonna be back soon." With that, he hopped down through the portal, bracing himself as he hit the ground. He held still for a moment, a little jarred from the impact, but quickly regained his balance and trotted off to one of his father's rooms.

Sentry watched Twopoint leave before looking back up at Wheatley. "I-I told you h-he was a jerk," he said quietly, once the other robot was out of earshot. "...Sorry."

Now to find a handle... The little robot looked around the room helplessly. "Um... I wonder i-if we could b-break off part of the mop handle a-and use that?" he suggested. "U-unless you h-have a better idea?"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

What in the love of science was that machine? Wheatley had been staring blankly from the beginning, slightly skewing his entire chassis as though a view tilted to the left would yield more explanation. It did not.

"Oi— careful now, some of us need that!” A predictable burst of protest huffed from the core, rattling audibly on his connector as the management track shook from the sudden rude weight. If that wasn’t poor enough of an impression, this new bloke, Twopoint, wasted little time on the insults. Shutters narrowed suspiciously back, amounting to an indignant glare. Much to his surprise, Sentry answered before he could burst into his usual spiel egged on by an immense inferiority complex.

Brownie points for Sentry. He was an excellent side-kick.

"Nothing to do with her? That’s funny. What with you living in her precious manor right there. Sounds pretty reliant to me." Already on the defensive, Wheatley puffed his segmented plates against their locks, achieving little more than what a sparrow fluffing his feathers could manage in way of intimidation. "Interesting question. You might want to listen to this one, I think you’ll love it, uh, Twopint." The slip-up was slightly intentional.

"Me and stutter-box there, we’re looking for a sword. Might’ve heard the rumor; apparently she hates those things. I don’t know how you lot dealt with it, her, that is, but now you’ve got me around. And me? I think it’s time we robots stick together. Get a bit of defense going. Show we aren’t bossed around by slightly terrifying, fire-breathing lizards.” Inspirational speech that was not. “What do you say? Bet you want to knock one to the old lady.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

"RELIANT?!" Twopoint cried, rearing up on his back legs for a moment and swinging his front legs in anger. "I don't rely on that hotheaded lizard at all! I just stay with my fathers! They live here, but they can move out if they want!" Oh, goodness help that little sphere if he decides to insult his creators.

But he managed to calm down enough to listen to Wheatley, aside from muttering "Twopoint" angrily at the mispronunciation of his name. Hearing about the plan to teach BC a lesson though, he stood a bit straighter, interest piqued. "Yeah, she's scared of swords. I used to help fight people off if they came to her with those." His optics lit in a cocky smile as he tilted his head. "I don't get bossed around by her anymore, though I'm sure wimpy little robots like you two can't stay the same."

Sentry twiddled his claws.

"So you need some help with this, huh? Finding a sword?" He hummed in thought, mentally going through some of the things his fathers owned. Cutter had that blade, and while it was an effective weapon when he wasn't too scared to use it, he wondered if they couldn't find anything better to use. Brachs didn't own any weapons he could remember, unfortunately. Then there were the other people he lived with--Dagger, who owned no weapons, and Sling, who just had that yo-yo... Nope. Well, that ruled out anyone he could easily borrow a sword from. Other people in the mansion owned swords, but would probably question him if he came trotting into their rooms to snag a weapon that was one of the most well-known fears of the owner of the mansion.

So...

"Well, one of my fathers owns a cutter-blade," he said with a nod. "It's not a sword, but it's a good-sized sharp weapon, and if we could attach it to a handle, it might seem enough like a sword to scare her!"

"Th-that could work?" Sentry stammered unsurely. He was getting to feel uneasy about this again, but maybe if everything went wrong, they could blame this on Twopoint? That--that wouldn't be wrong, would it? He was pretty willing to help them, anyway...

"If you have something we could use for the handle," Twopoint went on, "I could get the blade and maybe some rope to tie it together." He tilted his head, giving Wheatley another cocky smirk. "Think a limbless little robot like you can handle finding something like that?"

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

Dib narrowed his eyes. ‘Queen of the universe,’ huh? Right. For some reason she kind of reminded him of a tiny, female, mischievous Zim.

It took a lot of effort but he finally sawed off a small enough piece of the jawbone that he could pick up and carry with little difficulty. Unsure of what to do with the bone saw now, he almost handed it to Flora, then abruptly changed his mind and sat it down on the floor.

"Well… I could still take a look at it," Dib said, in response to BC’s remark about the boat. "And then I should probably try to get back home. Zim could have done any number of horrible things while I’ve been here!"

[stupidlittlelizard]

BabyCharmander relaxed visibly when Dib set the saw down, making a mental note to have Cadmus come and get it later. She then made another mental note to have someone else get it for Cadmus instead since the doctor was incapable of mounting stairs. "Right! We can head to the basement and take a look, but Iunno what we'll find down there, mur," BC said with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Flora cast a side-glance at Dib at the mention of the other person. "Zim? What kinda' name is that?"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

"No, we can’t." Wheatley agreed dubiously, refusing to take the rail directly over the floor-bound portal if only due to the intimidating height. He set his brakes near the edge and leaned himself against the connector, peering below much like Sentry did, before flicking his iris at the littler machine at it’s joshing.

"… oh. OH. Shouting. Right. Ha. Clever. Bit of morale-boosting wit there. See what you did. Alright, so." The core waited as Sentry approached the rim, geared up and… "What was that? That was nothing! C’mon now, give a shout! I’m sure you have a higher volume setting than that.”

Wheatley could’ve done it himself. His voice was practically built to be obnoxiously loud. At least it seemed that way when things were always so silent around him. However it was a bit more amusing trying to prod and force Sentry to do it. A bit of a science experiment over whether or not the antique robot could even shout without busting an old voice box.

[stupidlittlelizard]

Sentry wasn't really used to yelling, and when he did, it usually warped his voice. But then, he wasn't really used to most of the things he'd been doing today, so he supposed today might as well be the day he try pushing his vocal processor. "A-all right, I'll give it a shot..." he stammered before attempting to mimic a person's clearing their throat.

Here goes.

"Twopoint?" he called, slightly louder, but he knew that wouldn't do it. C'mon, just a bit louder... Shutting his optics, he focused everything into pushing his vocal processor to go as loud as it could: "T--TWOpointAAAAarE YyYYOOoOoUUu THhhHEEEERe?"

And immediately the old bot scooted back, wrapping his arms around his middle. "O-ow...!" he whimpered around the crackle of static.

"Ugh, what kind of noise was that?" came a voice from below. There was a sound of loud, squishy footfalls against the soggy floor before a rather bizarre robot appeared below the portal. He stood about three feet tall, balancing quite well on his four hooves in spite of his incredibly awkward, top-heavy frame. The words "AWESOME" and "TWOPOINTOH" were emblazoned on the top and bottom of either side of his head respectively, signifying where the name "Twopoint" came from. "How did this hole get here?"

Before Sentry or Wheatley could properly answer, the hammer-headed robot ducked down, opening his back spike. A boxing glove on a jointed arm--similar to the ones might see on old cartoons--shot out and up through the portal, grabbing onto Wheatley's rail. Keeping a firm grip on that, the robot easily pulled himself up through the shimmering portal until he could plant his hooves firmly on the ground on the other side. Once that was accomplished, he let go of the rail, retracting the boxing glove and shutting his back spike.

Now that Twopoint was closer, he turned his head to one side, then the other to get a good look at Wheatley and Sentry with both of his optics. "Tch! Did you make a new inferior robot friend, Sentry?"

"H-h-he's not inferior," Sentry said, voice still tinged with static. He looked up at the core in question. "Wheatley, th-this is Twopoint... H-he, uh, u-used to belong to BC..."

"Not anymore!" Twopoint spat, narrowing his optics and stomping one of his hooves. "I've got nothing to do with her!"

"S-so maybe y-you could, um, h-help us...?"

Twopoint blinked in surprise. "Help you? With what?"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

Wheatley made a low, disappointed noise as his paper idea was shot down. That was a shame. He definitely felt like he was onto something with that one. Oh well, onto the next idea. Which, curiously enough, was suggested by Sentry himself.

"That’s the spirit! You know, I was honestly starting to worry. Didn’t think you were as dedicated to this as I was. Won’t lie, been sensing some feet dragging in your direction. Uh, wheel.. dragging. Generalized dragging in the enthusiasm department." The content of his prattle dialogue contrasted their cheery delivery as much as it conflicted with his shutter grin that swiveled downcast toward the stuttering robot.

"Bit of a jerk, eh? That’s alright. I’ve dealt with their kind before. Sure he’ll sign on to this plan and, well, leadership role has already been decided- me- so it’s a take it or leave it sort of discussion." He rotated on his connector to about-face down the corridor. "Right, so, new order of business: locate this other robot. Funny she has more than one, y’know, with all the bias going on. Practically BEGGING for an uprising to happen. Just needed the right catalyst.”

With the decision made in Wheatley’s mind, the rail-bound core was busily humming back toward the alley and the shimmering portal. He wasn’t sure how precisely they’ll locate this possible new member of their minuscule rebellion but was convinced it’d iron itself out when it came to it. If all else failed, he was excellent at shouting.

[stupidlittlelizard]

"W-well, you'd b-be a bit nervous a-about it, too, i-if you s-saw the s-stuff she was c-capable of," Sentry mumbled. He was glad Wheatley was willing to ask for Twopoint's help, at least, though he wasn't sure Twopoint would be so willing to follow Wheatley...

He turned around as quickly as his antique body was able in order to follow the core back to where they'd come from. As soon as the shimmering portal was in sight their new problem was immediately evident--how were they going to find Twopoint if neither of them could get down through the portal? Sentry's old plastic would break right open as soon as he hit the floor. Wheatley could very well be permanently stuck to that rail, for all Sentry knew, and even if he weren't, a limbless robot wouldn't do much good dropping himself however many feet it was to the soggy floor below.

"W-we can't just throw ourselves d-down," Sentry said, squeaking as close to the portal as he dared, "b-but... w-we could throw o-our voices!" Though it was a rather poor attempt at a pun, he grinned up at Wheatley anyway. Only for a moment though--with a nervous laugh, he looked back down. "Um... I-I'll try calling for him."

The old robot scooted a little closer, tipping his head downward to look through the portal. "T-Twopoint? Are you there?" he called at a volume just slightly above normal. Well, it was worth a shot...

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

At being suddenly pulled from behind, Dib tumbled backwards and landed hard with a yelp. He picked himself back up and shot a glare at Flora. Whatever, at least he had the saw out. Now he just had to find a likely piece to cut off.

The jawbone was already detached so he settled for that, crouching down and sawing away at one end of it. As for BC’s last question, he definitely had an answer. “Yeah, the green thing said something about a haunted boat in your basement.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

The jawbone didn't yield easily; it seemed as though the skull and jaw were incredibly thick and strong. However, the hinge of the jaw had been weakened earlier, which was why it had fallen off in the first place, so that was likely the best part to try to saw off.

"Green thing?!" Flora spat. "The name's Flora! Though 'Queen of the Universe' is also acceptable." She batted her eyes, giving a sweet look.

BabyCharmander, meanwhile stayed on the other side of the attic, still keeping her distance. "Th-there is a boat in the basement, but it's not... haunted, I-I don't think, mur? No-one died on it, anyway."

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

It had never been so apparent that a quest was over before it started than it was right now. Of course Wheatley remained gleefully oblivious to this fact, fully set on the idea that him and this stuttering, antique companion could turn the tides on a bossy fire-breathing lizard.

"Oh." The core slowed a bit on the rail, scoping the flora thicket considered a corridor that stretched on ahead, musing through their obvious problems. "Well. We could ask around manufacturing? Sure there’s a couple of systems, a few computers, still knocking around online there. Might point us in the right direction to any ‘metal sharpening’ machinery. There has to be one, right? Entire bleedin’ science laboratory, surely sharpening metal is an important study."

What in the world were they doing. Honestly.

"Could do. Be easier, wouldn’t it, just finding something— oh! What’s that! That is… a broom stick. Hm. Does it have to be metal? The sword? Any chance she gets a bit iffy around a wooden one too? Oh! Oh what about a paper sword? Could draw one. ‘Sword references’, that could work! There’s an idiom, y’know, applies beautifully here: The pen is mightier than the sword. So if we draw a sword with a pen? It’s double deadly.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

If Sentry had had doubts about their plan earlier, he felt them quadruply now. "I... I r-really think we should look for s-something metal. I d-don't know if wooden w-would work, o-or paper..." He rubbed his head with one of his claws. "A-and I don't even th-think that's what that idiom means..." Granted he wasn't fully sure what it meant either, but it was probably not what the core was thinking.

BC was going to be back soon, and if they had a half-finished plan when she arrived, things were not going to go well for either of them.

The robot paused as an idea came to him, but it wasn't exactly one he liked, and he wasn't sure how well Wheatley would like it, either. "H-hey, um, th-there's another r-robot in the mansion who m-might be w-willing to help us... H-he doesn't like BC much. B-but... h-he's kind-of a j-jerk."

"Kind-of" being an understatement--Twopoint seemed to think he was the greatest robot ever constructed and endlessly mocked every other robot in existence. But he did bitterly hate the lizard, and might not be all that opposed to doing something to scare her.

Not sure if Wheatley might get offended over the suggestion of additional help, Sentry quickly added, "I-if you d-don't think we should ask h-him for help, th-that's fine...! I-I just hope we c-can find something t-to use before BC gets back."

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

In the few minutes that both of them were gone Dib hung around awkwardly by the skeleton. He couldn’t help wondering how something like that might have gotten in here and just… died.

He looked up when he heard Flora’s voice from below. At the sound of her throwing something at him, and knowing that she had left to get a bone saw, he screamed and scrambled out of the way, toppling over backwards.

When the saw stuck in the bone, quivering, he sat and stared at it wide-eyed, his heart pounding. After a second he exhaled and looked over at BC. “Thanks,” he said, standing up and spending several minutes trying to yank the saw out of the skull.

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Hehe! No problem!" Flora snickered.

"I... don't do well with things like that," BabyCharmander said, looking at the saw warily.

"Tch! 'Cuz you're a wuss." Flora made a face at the lizard before hopping down by Dib again. She could have helped him pull the saw out, but she settled for watching in amusement as he tried to pull the thing out with his scrawny arms. While he was focused on that, she walked away, pretending to go elsewhere, but sneaked behind his back. As he gave a forceful tug, she suddenly whipped her vines over to him, grabbed his collar, and yanked on him just as he pulled the saw out, thus causing him to go flying backward. Quickly she let go, retracting her vines and wrapping them around each other again. "Oops."

"Quit messin' around, Flora!" BC shouted, lashing her tail a couple times before turning to Dib. "I-I guess you can use that thing to cut off a piece of one of the bones... I-is there anything else you wanted to investigate?"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

"No, no, I don’t think I can do that." Wheatley agreed, motor chewing the antique rail loudly as it clawed for traction after being stationary so long. It made for a jerky start, jolting the core before he could hum along the track overhead the whining belts and gears below. "Never tried, actually. So I guess we can’t discount the idea entirely. You might be surprised to know this, probably have an awful angle down there, but me? Not just brains. Brawn. Have brawn too. Tougher than I look. Probably could pull down a wall, part of one, part of a wall, if necessary.”

The core bobbled off a wholly confident nod, looking not at Sentry but ahead as they swung the first curve that turn the ratty back alley into another sprawling labyrinth of hallway. “Still. Just to be on the safe side, don’t need to be breaking stuff already, we can just save that idea for last. A Plan-B.”

The entire plan was easier said than done. With the thicket of plant-life and fractured foundation awaiting them, it made the idiom ‘needle in a hay stack' almost literal. “Assuming we find some metal bits, which we will, we will, but when we DO, any idea how you… sharpen them? You've seen a sword before, right?”

[stupidlittlelizard]

"B-brawn?" Sentry repeated, giving Wheatley a skeptical look. He certainly didn't look all that strong. While looks could be deceiving, the other robots that he knew were strong definitely weren't all that deceiving in their looks. Twopoint was a literal walking weapon, and Pitch was a gigantic robot. Wheatley, meanwhile, was a little metal ball. Could he really be all that strong?

Not that it really mattered at the moment, if they weren't going to go that route anyway. "Well, okay, th-that's true. Uh..."

And then there was their main problem. Sentry flinched at the questions. "I-I have seen a sword b-before, but..." He twiddled his claws uneasily. "I-I'd thought you might have s-something we could use to sharpen... th-the metal..."

Well, this made things a bit more difficult.

"I-if we can't d-do that, w-we could t-try looking for a p-piece of metal th-that's... already sh-sharp?"

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

"No, just… don’t call me anything that has to do with my head!" Dib said. At Flora’s last comment, he looked at her with one eyebrow raised. "What? A pirate? Seriously?"

An underground dock and an old boat with disembodied voices was intriguing, he had to admit. “All right, I’ll ask if I can look around the basement once I’ve tried cutting off a bone from this skeleton.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Yeah, a pirate! She got bonked on the head and thought she was a pirate for a few years," Flora said with a snicker. "Not sure how that happened... Not that she'd tell you!"

At his other statement, Flora looked toward the entrance to the attic. "All right. She sure is taking a while, though... I'll go see if I can find her!" With that, she hopped off of the skeleton and scurried off and out of the attic.

Shortly after, Dib would be able to hear the puffball's voice shouting up from the floor below: "WHAT?! THAT'S what's taking you so long?!" A few moments later, the puffball was hopping up the stairs again, but before Dib could get a good look at her, she hopped onto some nearby boxes and chucked something in his direction. "CATCH!"

And since we would really rather not end this thread in a gruesome way, the bonesaw rammed into the skull of the strange creature, the saw's teeth stuck into the top corner of its head.

BC shakily emerged from the doorway, looking a few shades paler. "I... I-I forgot what those th-things looked like," she stammered, making no attempt to get any closer to the skeleton or the saw sticking out of it.

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

"Yeah… don’t call me bighead," Dib said.

He knelt down, examining the bones again and trying to find one that he could cut off, should BC manage to find a bone saw. “So… what do you mean, haunted boat? Why would she have a boat in the basement? Is there water around here? And is it really haunted?”

He didn’t quite buy into Flora’s claim. She was kind of getting on his nerves.

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Should I call ya 'fathead' then?" Flora asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, it's a haunted boat!" she exclaimed, finally hopping off of Dib's head to hop onto the creature's skull. "I hear voices comin' from it sometimes, though I know nothing lives in it. There's an... underwater dock in the basement. BC was a pirate once, but she doesn't like talkin' about it, heheh."

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

"Sure you have." Wheatley hummed, dismissing Sentry’s claim with callous indifference. He didn’t fancy being corrected, even on matters that Sentry had vast more understanding of than himself. It felt nicer in his little nook of assumptions, where a robot-hating lizard was anything but friend material for the rest of society.

At least things were back on track after that. If back on track meant two machines humoring an absolutely horrendous idea that was never going to hold water. If it meant that then things were going swimmingly. “Got it. Finally paying attention now, eh? Not your fault, I imagine, being so easily distracted. Old model. I can tell. Very squeaky.” Wheatley at least bestowed a sympathetic squint of his shutters to go with the judgement. “Also correct. Scaring her with a sword. Pretty much our only option, honestly, given the second choice being water. Think we’ve already tried that one. Accidentally, sure, it was an accident but, well, results were fairly poor in that field.”

So. Where do two robots find a sword.

“Right, well, we could start… that way!” Cheerily picking a direction, the core rotated himself entirely toward the opposing corridor than the cupboard shenanigans. “Bound to find something, right? Look at this place. Literally made of metal! Except… except the part we’re currently in right now. This is stone. So, um. So, actually, don’t look at this place.. it’s entirely the wrong place to look. Look in that direction. That is definitely the metal direction. I’m one hundred percent positive.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

Sentry glanced at his arms, moving them around at Wheatley's claims of his being "squeaky." Sure enough, the joints squeaked as they moved. "Y-yeah... a-and the water could hurt us, t-too," he mused. Not like any metal they tried to work with couldn't potentially hurt them, but still.

He looked in the direction Wheatley indicated, staring down the corridor and moving a little closer to it. "M-made of metal, y-yeah... b-but won't we n-need something loose? U-unless, um, y-you can p-pull off a part of the w-wall or something... B-but I guess we should go look?" With that, he began to make his way down the corridor, his old motors yet again whining with the effort--he didn't move from his usual spot in the mansion often, and was getting quite a bit more of a workout than usual.

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

Dib made another half-hearted attempt to wave Flora off his head, not expecting it to do any good. She was pulling at his hair. It hurt…

Okay, he’d also been hoping that there might be some smaller bones that he could take, but apparently not. Man this day was going downhill fast. “Um, do you have anything I could cut it with?” he asked BC lamely. “Maybe I could just take a piece of it.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Um..." BabyCharmander scratched the back of her head, cocking an eyebrow. "Cadmus might have a bonesaw?" she suggested lamely. "I think he's amputated limbs before, so he should have something to cut through one of these." She tilted her head. "I'll go get him. Be right back!" With that, she scampered out of the attic, tripping over things and yelping a few times before exiting.

"Good riddance!" Flora said, sticking out her tongue before looking down at Dib. "Now listen here, bighead. There's somethin' in this mansion that that lizard won't tell you about... You're lookin' for paranormal stuff, right? Well, there's something in the basement you'll want to investigate..." She rubbed her paws together, grinning. "A haunted boat!"

[bluewheatfields]

[ Flash Flood. ]

[bluewheatfields]

"Oh. Just me then." With Sentry not providing the justification that Wheatley sought, the core quickly resorted to nonchalance. He dithered his attention in another direction, making a point to avoid looking at Sentry straight while the littler machine ate itself alive with worry.

"Ha!" A short laugh barked from the machine, vibrating with a short burst of amusement over the idea— or the threat, to be more precise. "Her? Have friends? Does she just tell you that, maybe, trying to make you feel bad? Hardly friendship material with all her judging looks and.. and the fire thing. Generally a snag in wanting to spend time together, swing by a diner, when you’re keeping company with somebody that might turn a lovely afternoon into a barbeque.”

Still the thought had been planted and it was unsettling. He had enough trouble in his facility without needing hunters from an alternate dimension tracking him and meaning to do him harm. A small sigh, unnecessary and purely for show, blew from the core while he went lax on his connector. The expression he provided was, at best, dry and exasperated when he finally swiveled down toward the ancient machine.

“Yes. Yes I will be careful to NOT kill her. I said that already, didn’t I? I said it. Literally five seconds ago. Nobody is planning to kill anybody; except her planning to kill us. Which neatly brings us back to the original problem: we need to PROTECT ourselves. It’s a good idea, okay? Entirely safe. In fact it’s an idea built entirely on safety! Our safety.”

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Sh... she does h-have friends," Sentry stammered quietly. "I-I've seen th-them before."

He felt bad when he saw Wheatley's expression though--he hadn't meant to annoy the other robot. "R-right, sorry," he said, ducking a little as though expecting a verbal attack. "K-keeping safe sounds good... s-so... we're just going to s-scare her. W-with... um... w-with a s-sword, right? O-or something like a sword. Y-you were saying something about h-having metal l-lying around?"

[theboyinthetrenchcoat]

"Well… what kind of creature was that?" Dib asked. He walked toward it, not particularly caring that Flora might fall off his head. "If it’s a paranormal creature I could try taking a DNA sample from it, or… something. I didn’t really bring anything to do that with, though. Could I just take a bone?"

[stupidlittlelizard]

"Dunno! Just something I found up here," Flora said with a shrug, pulling at Dib's hair scythe to stay on his head.

"It might've been something that came here from another world," BabyCharmander suggested. "That happens from time to time, though usually folks just show up on our doorstep, like you did. But go ahead and take one of the bones--that thing won't be missing them, anyway."

The bones in question were... quite bulky. The skull was incredibly thick, with several sockets in it that the bones would fit into--and even in places where there hadn't been any bones attached. The limbs, back, and flaps around the head were all the exact same kind of bone--a crossbone, like the one seen on a pirate ship flag, only... an actual bone--like two bones fused together in the shape of an X. The limbs were still stuck into the head, but they look like they could be pulled out with some force. The lower jawbone was still disconnected, however. All the bones were three feet across and three feet high--roughly as tall as Dib himself.

"R'you gonna be able to carry one of those things?" BC asked, putting her hands on her hips.