Time Stand Still: Molly and Shogo

[xp_bruiser]

Shogo meets Molly in the kitchen and they try to figure out what's wrong with a toaster.

The toaster sat on the counter, unplugged, as Molly made her way back into the kitchen with something rolled up in cloth. Unfurling the cloth across the counter revealed a variety of tools. She knew people didn't like scientific experiments in the kitchen but this wasn't an experiment. It was just maintenance.

"Okay bud, let's see what's up, shall we?"

Shogo was drawn to the kitchen by the sound and feel of electronics in distress.  Distressed electronics weren't exactly uncommon, of course.  No phone liked being stuck in the bottom of a purse getting scratched at by coins and lipstick and... whatever else women put in their purses. Don't ask him okay that was definitely not his area and the last time he'd asked his Mom, the prank in response had involved a live duck, two blunt hatchets and far more neon paint than should have been needed.  Where was he going with this again?

Oh, right, distressed electronics.  

So when he popped up over the shoulder of the lady with the tool roll who seemed to be examining... an over-engineered football with a heating coil? What on earth did people do in this timeline? ...there was really only one thing to say.

"Hi!  What'cha doin'?"

Molly jumped. "Gah!" she said, then looked over at the guy curiously with a laugh, pointing her screwdriver at him.

"Dude, I totally almost threw this at you."

She squinted. "You don't look familiar. Are you one of the time travelers?"

Her eyes widened and she quickly added with a hushed whisper. "Do you have a TARDIS?"

"Tar-diss?" Shogo asked.  That was the fourth or fifth time he'd heard that particular assortment of random letters.  He was beginning to suspect it had special meaning in this time.  "We have a Goose.  Is that the same thing?"

Molly tilted her head. "Like a real goose?" she said with a confused grin, momentarily distracted for a moment by that before she shook her head.

"A TARDIS is like a....time machine. It like....looks small but it's bigger on the inside. People travel through time in it. It's from a TV show."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Is your goose like....a magic bird? Do you travel through time with it?" she said, trying to figure out how that would work but totally not ruling it out.

"Nah, Goose is a six year old who likes to run around yelling 'Honk' as loudly as he can.  You'll probably see him later."  The tech on the table caught his attention.  "He does the time travel thing though, so I guess?  I don't think he's bigger on the inside though..." he trailed off, trying to figure out how such a thing would work and how you'd even go about checking for it.

"Wow," he said, turning his attention to the football. "That's... certainly a thing," he said politely.  "What is it?"  

Molly quirked an eyebrow, looking down to the toast. "What? This?" she said curiously, then laughed.

"It's a toaster. It uh....makes bread crunchy. This one's not wanting to work so I was gonna try to figure out what the problem was."

"Neat!" Ancient tech was super fun to work with, because people came up with the most completely insane ways of doing the most basic things.  Need to get rid of a food/water slurry? Run it through a series of disks and blades rotating at such high speed that the generated noise, registering in the thousands of decibels, literally vibrated it apart on a molecular level.

"So how's it supposed to work? I'm pretty good with tech. Maybe I can lend a hand."

Molly eyed him, pulling the toaster closer to herself. All the guys at school tended to want to take her ideas and make it their own. After a moment she realized she was being rude and let go of the toaster.

"It has heating coils on both sides of each slot that make the bread crunchy, but it also has a feature where it's supposed to tell you the time and weather but it isn't showing anything."

"That's strange. Got any leads as to what exactly is wrong, then?"

Molly squinted thoughtfully. "I'm thinking maybe a loose wire. I mean, we could take it back but I wanna give the little dude a chance, y'know?"

"I get it."  Shogo didn't get it, but figured admitting as much might be a poor idea.  "Mind if I take a look? I'm pretty good with tech myself."  

Shrugging, Molly slid the toaster over. She was kinda curious to see what he'd do. "Knock yourself out," she said with a smile.

"Sweet!"  Shogo grinned, pulling the toaster closer.  A quick check over the internals that Molly had done him the favor of exposing didn't exactly reveal anything too out of place, but given that he'd never seen one of these before anything he'd have found, Molly would have found easier.  No, he had a different way of approaching it.

"What's your issue, little buddy?" he asked quietly, more to himself than anyone else.  Reaching out, he touched it with his power.

"...oh.  Okay.  So I found your problem," he said, putting the machine down and pulling his power back.

"Toaster's evil."  

Molly blinked rapidly before arching an eyebrow. She then slapped the counter, pointing at the toaster.

"I knew it!" she said. "That thing always burns my toast."

"Doesn't surprise me," Shogo said, absently as he studied the toaster more thoroughly.  He didn't seem to be kidding. "Apparently it's step one of its plans for Global Domination."

He did, in fact, say it with capitals.  

Molly grunted. "Hmph. Okay, so what do we do with a megalomaniacal toaster?" she said. She sighed.

"Did it say why it wants to dominate the world?"

"I think there was something about... mangoes?" Shogo squinted at the toasterball.  "...I'm not sure I'm getting that right, though."

What would a toaster do with a mango anyway? Silly toaster. Mangos were for kids.

Pausing, Molly tilting her head thoughtfully, "Maybe it wants to use it as a weapon? If you throw it hard enough I bet you could really bean someone in the head. Plus mango juice in your eye? Ouch."  

"I will be honest, you're taking this much better than I expected you to," Shogo said with a disproportionate seriousness.  "Last time I ran into an evil appliance I was told to stop getting poetic with my powers."

There was a pause.  

"...at least until the vacuum tried to strangle Mom, at any rate."  That had been a weird day.

Molly shrugged. "Oh dude. This is like....at the bottom of weird stuff that's happened to me. Evil toaster kinda makes sense," she said with a giggle, then quickly squinted.

"So what do you do with an evil appliance anyway? Cause I design tech stuff all the time and if it goes evil I gotta have a game plan, y'know?"

"Oh, the asteroid base has a lava pit.  It's mostly worked so far.  There's only been two lava monsters that I can remember, anyway."  

Falling silent a moment, if Molly had something in her hand she would have dropped it. "Dude, stop, rewind, play it back. You guys have an ASTEROID BASE? That is so freaking cool! So you normally live in space?"

Shogo leaned back in the chair, bringing up one of his legs to show off the leg brace he was wearing.  "Yep!  It helps mom with her whole fang-y thing. The leg braces are because gravity is... weird."

Molly tilted her head. "Is...your mom a snake?" she said curiously.

"Nah."  A pause.  "Well, I mean.... not like you're thinking at least.  No, vampire."

If Molly had something in her hand she would have dropped it. "Shut the front door. Seriously? That's AWESOME. Is she evil? Wait....are you a vampire?" she squinted at him, leaning in a little closer.

"But the sun's out."

Shogo waved his hands in that sort of 'no, no, what you just said is silly and wrong' sort of way.  

"Hah.  No, no, not me.  And mom's being stingy with it. But nah, it's just mom."

Eying him skeptically, Molly paused. "I have so many questions," she said, then shook her head. "But I guess we better take care of the evil toaster first."

Shogo let out a disappointed little sigh. "Yeah, probably."  Then perked up.  "After that I can tell you all the stories.  They're each some kind of awesome."

There was a pause.

"...so, where's your lava pit?"