So You've Had A Bad Day

[symbolofstrength]

Who: Samuel Oak + OPEN
What: Samuel got cursed by Viridi, and bad luck catches up to him.
Where: Various
When: After the Overgrowth event
Content Warnings: Various injuries, blood and gore in one prompt

Comments

1. Some Assembly Required (Merlaut)

[symbolofstrength]

Strolling along Takoba Beach, Samuel stumbled (perhaps literally) upon some boxed parts of a rocking chair. Happily, he hauled it out of the sand and brought it back to the Merlaut, where he begins to assemble it. The instructions are gibberish, as expected, but at least the pictures are clear. And while... engineering? carpentry? isn't his specialty, he's an intelligent man, he can figure it out.

Eventually, the chair seems complete, and he stands back to look at his handiwork. There are a few extra screws, but he can't find anywhere to put them, so surely they're just that -- extra, in case some get lost? Either way, he turns around to cautiously take a seat. Just as he fully rests his weight on the chair, though, trusting it to hold him up... the whole thing collapses.

Samuel gives a small yelp of surprise as he falls into the pile of wood pieces -- thankfully unharmed, only momentarily stunned -- but once he's able to catch his breath and realize what happened... he laughs.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

Hearing the commotion, Kaiba swiftly went to investigate thinking that perhaps some of the local fauna was to blame however he wasn't expecting the sight he was met with. The old man was sprawled on the ground sitting on the remnants of what must have been a chair gauging from the miscellaneous pieces strewn about.

Spotting the spare parts that had been carefully placed aside he snorted," I could go for the obvious pun.. about having a few screws loose or I could spare you."

[symbolofstrength]

"Well, you've already gone and made it, haven't you?" Sam makes it to his knees, turning his head to look over his shoulder as he dusts off the back of his labcoat, making sure he hasn't gotten any splinters or anything like that. "I didn't see you as the punny type."

He turns around, and begins to sort the wooden pieces from the collapsed chair. Let's see -- is there enough left to try again, or have some of them actually broken?

[blue_eyed_obsession]

"Essentially." Said with a noncommittal shrug. Kaiba debated holding a hand out to help the other up, but it was unnecessary. The professor seemed intent on continuing to work on his little project. "I blame being trapped here, I haven't had a chance to get any new material."

"... Wait. You had instructions and it still ended up like this?" Noticing the diagrams as he moved closer. It hadn't yet dawned on him that the text was pointless yet. He'd know soon enough since he picked up the pages to examine them.

[symbolofstrength]

He'll let Kaiba take a look at the instructions while he continues to sort out the pieces. Maybe there really is something he missed.

"I'm sure I built it correctly, so I'm not sure why it just fell apart like that." Perhaps it's some kind of prank chair, meant to collapse when you sit on it. "Do you want to give it a try?"

[blue_eyed_obsession]

Honestly it's hard to tell from the way the chair is now, and the way the instructions always were. Narrowing his eyes at the nonsensical text, he also is forced to give the images more of his focus.

"Even with only the images it should have been fairly straightforward," Kaiba agreed, in his own way without making it clear that he was. "If any of this.." Motioning to the wasted words. ".. made sense, I'm sure it would reveal whether it was intended to be a prank or not."

Not really, is what the brunette thought initially but rather than voicing it, he shrugged. "Sure. It's not like I have anywhere I have to be...". Genuinely meaning that and with words devoid of sarcasm. Besides, it was just a chair- how long could this take?

[symbolofstrength]

"If we communicated with writing more, do you think this place would start understanding it?" It's an idle thought. Maybe they should start writing each other letters. But back to the matter at hand:

With the pieces all sorted -- and luckily enough, it seems, none of them actually broken -- Sam hands Kaiba the small screwdriver that came with the set, before sitting back. Oh, he'll help if he's asked, but right now he wants to see if Kaiba can do better. Besides, knowing his... prickly personality, he has the feeling that he doesn't really want help.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

"Theoretically. If you want to spend your time teaching this place the alphabet, be my guest," Kaiba would rather teach it networking and to have a steady supply of energy. There hadn't been much reason to write here, so he was likely on the right track towards improvement.

Accepting the screwdriver, he starts by inspecting the pieces. It's a lot less complex than what he's used to constructing so he's confident that this will be a snap. That was also an accurate assessment on the professor's part, Kaiba wasn't in the habit of either giving nor accepting help so this was a rare occasion in one capacity. "You should hold on to this after this chair is finished, tools like it don't seem to wash ashore nearly often enough."

Deeming the few glances he'd had of the diagrams enough, he set to work once he situated himself on the ground by the pieces.

[symbolofstrength]

"I've already had some luck with the Smeargles, so the world itself shouldn't be much harder." Granted, the Void wouldn't be able to provide feedback confirming that it understood, at least not for a while, so there's that complication to deal with... but still, he's pretty confident he can do it. And maybe once it understands writing, teaching it other things will be easier, too.

"Wouldn't it be more useful for you?" Kaiba is some kind of engineer, right? "I've already got one, anyway." He pulls a small pocket knife from his labcoat, unfolding it to show the handful of tools on it. "If you don't have one already, you can have that one." How generous.

((BTW, up to you if you want Kaiba to succeed in rebuilding the chair or not! It might be an unhealthy boost to his ego if he succeeds, but then again, it would also be pretty funny....))