[Laughter] A Sticky Situation

[Syrcaid]

Nightvine had been carving pumpkins since he learned to walk. His father, Tangles, had taught him everything about growing and tending to gardens. So pumpkin carving was becoming a bore. He'd already carved about ten or so this month for friends and family, he wanted to do something different - WITH someone different.

He had invited a new friend from school to come over and make paper flowers and candy skulls for Day of the Dead. It was something he never attempted and it couldn't be any more difficult than pumpkins... right?

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

"Hello~" the light blue filly called out in a soft, considerate volume. She wasn't exactly loud by nature, but she was excited to meet her friend (and cousin, whether she knew it or not) and work on some crafts together. It was so entirely up Kintsugi's alley that she'd all but rushed her father to escort her over so she could get started.

Once let in, she carefully picked her way over the unfamiliar flooring and through the equally unfamiliar rooms, until she found the familiar blue that made her brighten considerably. "Hello, Nightvine!" she greeted him properly, trotting over now that she felt she was secure in where she was supposed to be. "How are you today? Are you excited? I'm excited." She flushed in her honesty, smile attempting to be kept at a polite size, but it was hard -- she was just a babben, after all!

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

"Hiya, Kintsugi," Nightvine said, though somewhat preoccupied as he stood in front of the family play house.

It was a tool shed with windows and a tiny porch, but to the children who lived in the cucumber shaped house it was a playhouse. They had learned to use every tool, device, and container stored in that shed since they could first stand.

Everything in there looked dull and boring to him, but it probably looked like a mad scientist's lab to others. Hooks and racks held rakes, brooms, trimmers, pliers, pitchforks, shovels, and hoses. If there were ever an angry mob, this was probably their armory.

"I've brought a whole box of tissue paper, saved from every birthday and Christmas we've all had here," he said. "It's really heavy!"

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

The filly took a moment to look around since Nightvine seemed distracted, marveling at the sheer amount of...things. She couldn't even pretend to know what half the stuff was used for, but she was an imaginative girl and could come up with her own ideas: fancy back scratchers, fishing hooks for whales, dentistry tools for dragons...

Kintsugi looked back to Nightvine as he spoke up again, her eyes growing large. "Every single one?" What was that, like, almost six years? That was an eternity! "I can help if we need to move it! But I -- I have to follow your lead, I don't usually get to work with crafts like this!" Or rather, she'd never have thought to, but that was half the fun of it!

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

"Dad's real into recycling, he hates throwing away paper and containers," Nightvine replied. "I've got some of it loaded onto Dad's wheelbarrow, that should be enough to start with."

Nightvine pushed it into the tool shed/playhouse. "This is where we keep all of our tools! But if you got stuck out of the house, it's just as good as a real house. It's even got a shower and a toilet, Dad was insistent on that part. He doesn't like us goin' just any old where, he says it might kill his plants."

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

"How...particular!" Kintsugi giggled a little. The idea of such amenities in a tool shed was quaint, to her -- then again, she'd grown up in mixed households of fancy, traditional and wild. Nothing really surprised her so much as impressed her.

Trotting alongside Nightvane, she gave an appreciative look -- but was quick to return her attention to the wheelbarrow. "So what do we do first?"

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

"Well, the sugar skulls will take time, so Dad set up a small range burner for us. I don't know why he's trusting me with cooking all of a sudden, but he said something like 'sink or swim'. He said if I could handle the shears and the wood chopping axe, then the burner would be a 'cakewalk'."

Nightvine showed Kintsugi the tiny bit of cabinet top that represented the kitchenette. It was a single range electric burner and sitting on top was the most homely, battered sauce pan in existence.

"My bachelor pad!" Nightvine swept one forleg out dramatically. "Tah-dah! Anyway, we'll be making the sugar skulls with this. We'll just have to sculpt them by hand because I ran out of time to get molds."

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

The filly hummed thoughtfully. "I never understood that phrase -- cakewalk. Do you walk through cake?" Kintsugi screwed up her nose in a wrinkle, confused, eventually shrugging it off. They had more important things to do!

"Delightful," she remarked gravely to his grandiose gesture before she giggled softly again. "That's okay! We don't need molds, we're going to swim and not sink!" Was that the right expression? Heck if she knew. "So how do we do it? Just..." She sat down and lifted her front hooves, lightly tapping them together in question.

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

"I got paper instructions," Nightvine dug through his stack. "It's meringue powder, sugar, and water. We don't really have to cook anything, Dad said it was for hot chocolate."

Nightvine held up his little paper instructions,"Here! You can be in charge of the instructions and I'll get the supplies in order."

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

Accepting the instructions, she held them in front of her face and peered at them, deciding they were simple enough and they should have no problems with it. How hard could it be?

Kintsugi read off the instructions in her clear, soft voice, watching Nightvine prep and mix and basically do all the hoofwork, doing what she could to help -- lifting the next ingredient or putting the used utensils aside to make as little of a mess as possible.

"And now," she put the instructions down, "we mold our skulls! Shouldn't be hard, just big ball on top and squares on the bottom." There was more detailing to it, of course, but shaping first, agonizing over the small parts later.

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

To save some time, Nightvine had also volunteered to get the colored tissue paper colors they wanted for the flowers sorted from the massive stack he had set in front of him on a work bench. It was so wispy and thin, that the slightest breeze was sending them floating every which way. He stopped chasing after some when Kintsugi said they were ready to mold.

"Oh, okay, just let me - whooops~!"

Nightvine's back legs slipped on some papers he had missed and the ones in his grasp flew forward while the ones on his feet flew back. Papers floated down every which way and some landed in the pot full of water, others in the sugar mix itself.

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

Paper went everywhere. It was a spectacular sight to behold, every colored piece of paper catching the light and sending a kaleidoscope of rainbows over them. Kintsugi paused in the brief set of accidental mess to admire it when she should have been grabbing -- the papers went right by her and into the concoction they'd been making.

"Oh! I'll -- I'll help!" she cried out, abashed, trying to catch some that were falling with her power and instinctively putting her hooves into the mix to try and get the paper out. It worked, but the paper came with globs of sugar mix, the likes of which quickly cooled against her and stuck the paper to her hooves. She tried to shake it off, but that only served to splatter some against her neck and arms, where more falling papers stuck.

Kintsugi squeaked, shaking her entire body but only managing to look like a flailing pinata as the papers fell, stuck, and dragged the stickiness over her further.

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

Nightvine could only look up and behold it, having the air squeezed out of his lungs as he lay with his legs splayed on the floor.

He slowly pushed himself up with an "Uuuuugh~" Nightvine had barely managed to push himself to a sit on his haunches when he noticed Kintsugi was accidentally attaching paper to herself.

"Lemme see if I can help," he managed, pulling papers out from under himself and using them to sop up some of the sticky sugar.

All it managed to do was fall apart as water turned the paper to mush and the sugar made what apparently was an excellent glue. They stuck to his hooves and face as he did his best to help.

He fished the papers out of the cooking pot and tossed them in a sopping heap into the large work sink and attempted to pick up more papers. It was then he noticed the door.

"Look out!"

The door flew open and an autumn gust invited itself inside, creating a perfect cascade of paper.

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

The dye of the paper began to paint streaks of strange colored flowers over her skin, melting against the heat of the sugar and her own body, the remains of the unmelted paper sticking to her fast like slim feathers. "O -- okay. I'm sorry, I thought..." She trailed off and let Nightvine do what he could, ears subtly lowered. She didn't mean to make a bigger mess of things!

But as she watched, it seemed he was having the same problem she was, the blooms of color so bright against his darker pelt. Kintsugi almost fell into the same trap of admiring before his alarm caught her attention, blinking and turning her head just in time --

-- to get a face full of paper and sugar flecks. Paper rustled and flew and trailed over them, some sticking, some taking flight again. Kintsugi was completely stock-still until the breeze died down, golden eyes wide, watching as a few more pieces of paper continued their slow, lazy wafting. One fell neatly onto her horn and impaled itself there. The soft rustling could be heard around as the paper continued to float and settle, awaiting the next breeze. Their sugar mix was utterly covered, and as she looked over to Nightvine, she realized...so were they.

It started soft, low, like a light tinkling of a bell. It grew the more she looked at Nightvine, her smile slowly forming, the sound coming out a little more obviously in a giggle.

Syrcaid

 

[Syrcaid]

Nightvine's ears pricked up, pulling one sticky paper that had pasted itself over one eye with his hoof to see what the sound was and where it was coming from. His eye fell on Kintsugi and he cocked his head.

He felt something burble up inside himself, as well, despite a bruised stomach and chin. Nightvine couldn't help but start up a grin and a laugh, though when the opened his mouth another bit of paper landed on his lower lip.

He tried first to lick it off, but then it stuck to his tongue.

"Aaaaaaah~!" he said, tongue hanging out of his face.

Chrystali