The Great Ice-cream Caper

The Great Ice-cream Caper
Date of Scene:	20 September 2013
Location:	Traverse Town - District 2
Synopsis:	There is a celebration in Traverse Town, but the plans of Scrooge's three nephews goes awry.
Cast of Characters:	Skoll Ulfang, Narrator, Tifa Lockhart, Avira, Deelel, Cressida, Arthur Drover

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Narrator has posed:
It's evening in Traverse Town, although you'd never really know it. Day and night look the same here, but at least one part of town has been lit up for the evening's festivities. Shop owners have filled the streets with little carts or stalls filled with a variety of goods from the many worlds nearby. Lights are bright, illuminating the streets.

At the center of it all, though, it Scrooge McDuck's icecream parlor. The duck is standing outside, looking quite pleased with himself, handing out icecream while Launchpad dubiously collects munny, not seeming quite certain of how to make change.

Next to the shop is a display that's drawing quite a bit of attention. The nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are running around between their uncle's shop and what almost looks like a cannon of some sort. "We should test it out before everyone gets here!" The small duck in the red shirt suggests, then flops down into the seat, putting his hands on the controls.

"Who's going to be the target?" Louie asks, to which Dewey grins and points at him. "You are!" "Nuh uh!" "Uh huh!"

"Come on now laddies, behave yerselves." Scrooge says in a pleased voice that suggests he's making quite a killing on the festivities. More money to fill his coffers. Scrooge crouches to hand an icecream to a little girl.

"You heard Unca Scrooge." Huey grins, then aims the cannon towards his brother. Nervously, Louie holds up an ice-cream cone, and covers his face with the bill of his baseball cap. "Okay, here goes!" Huey presses the trigger, and... nothing happens. "Huh?"

There's a bit of ice-cream dripping out of the side of the machine. Hrm. This doesn't look good.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
If there's one thing she remembers, is being here a year before. That's when and where she got the deal with the top-hatted duck for reselling of the Sea Salt Ice cream. Already a year, time sure flies. The barmaid still handles two bars at the moment, still planning on the third one in Manhanatta, but she hasn't gotten around to finish it yet, between other more pressing matters and heartless.

But since there's celebration about the ice cream, why not participate? She's helping with the serving of the ice cream bars, dressed with a short red yukata that suits her well, along with white tights covering most of her legs. She's not competing with Scrooge, but with this many people, having more than one counter will certainly lessen the strain as well.

She offers the bars with a bright smile "Enjoy yourselves~"

As long as there's noone to try to steal the recipe this time. Sigh.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"Yo." Skoll is standing around near Tifa, waiting for his shot at getting a bar of icecream. He's not normally a fan of incredibly sweet things. But there was something that attracted him about this salty treat. Whenever Tifa decides to hand him one, he'll pass over the Munny.

"What's going on over there?" He inquires with Tifa, glancing over towards Huey, Dewey and Louie, and the rather odd contraption they have set up. Clearly, something isn't working. Little bits of icecream just dripping out of the cannon.

Still, gotta wait for his icecream until he can go over there and figure it out.

Arthur Drover has posed:
"It really is a beautiful place." Comes a slightly dolorous voice from the edge of the square. The man is tall, in his mid to late forties. His face is scrupulously smooth, shaved with deft precision. This is in spite of the arm - one of the man's arms is in a cast. Supported by a sling, the whole arm and hand are covered in neat plaster. The plaster itself is smooth and white - the artifice of his wife means it has gold paint in a pattern of roses and thorns added on. This elegant mark is marred by the "GET WELL SOON"s and "TRY TRY AGAIN"s of a friendly camp. Arthur has his smart blue overalls with gold trim, his belt of tools, and a sad smile. He has not utterly forgone weapons, but his bow isn't here - it would be useless. There is a simple dagger in a dull sheath, and a brown leather pouch next to it. And the silver flute, stoppered with cotton to prevent any accidents.

His cloth cap is on his head, both hiding the bald spot and shading his eyes.

He has someone with him -and whether one is holding up the other is anybody's guess. Certainly there is some eerie emotional dependency betwixt the two artisans, and they understand each other in certain respects. For Arthur at least, this outing was prescribed. If he weren't on the tail of the disastrous attempted-launch of the Babd, he'd have gone on his own and brought his grandkids. But Mary's word was law where he was concerned, and his partner's friends had surely given her a similar talking to about moping.

Avira has posed:
Something feels familiar about all of this, but Avira cannot put a finger on it. Maybe it has been exactly one year since the time Mr. McDuck here originally tried to debut his ice cream, only to have things go terribly awry.

In fact, as Avira is reminded of this, she slowly smiles, realizing just how far she's come in that year. Since that time she's grown in so many different ways. It's a nice trip down memory lane. One that she's needed quite a bit, in fact, given their recent spectacular failure in gummi ship engineering.

Their? Yes. Avira arrives with none other than Arthur Drover. This TOTALLY counts as an escort for those watching at home and very concerned about her walking around alone.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is here in Tranverse Town and she's just , the events of the last week or so has left her on edge. She also needed to get back home for other things. However still nothing had happened in town with the MCP and that left her on edge. She wasn't sure why but prehaps the ice cream would be quite the distraction today.

"Hey did someone menion ice cream?!"

Narrator has posed:
Louie, who has been spared being a test subject, lets out an exaggerated sigh and straightens his ball cap, walking over towards the other two. Huey continues to mash the trigger button, while Dewey is squinting at the machine. "Uh, somethin' isn't working right." "Yeah, no kidding, this thing was supposed to shoot ice-cream!" Huey protests, then slumps back away from the controls, crossing his hands over his chest.

"Uh, guys?" Louie tries to get their attention, but his brothers don't seem to notice.

"Well, it was your job to make sure it works." Dewey looks up accusingly at Huey. "Yeah, well it was your job to test it earlier." Huey quips back.

"Uh, guys?!" Louie speaks up.

"Whaaat?" Huey and Dewey say, both of their eyes turning towards their brother, who just points up at the machine, which is now bulging ominously.

"Abandon ship!" Huey shouts, but it's too late. The machine rumbles, then a great splattering of half-melted ice-cream comes out of the cannon, dousing Huey, Dewey, and anyone else too close by. Louie, on the other hand, is far enough away to avoid being doused in desert. He laughs, pointing at his brothers who look like duck-snow-men in various flavors, their eyes blinking.

"Wha' in the world is goin on over here?" Scrooge is finally dragged away from the pleasantries of selling icecream, only to have all three of the boys point at one another as if the other one was to blame. "Och, wha' a mess. Can ye lads get this cleaned up? Otherwise we're likely te loose customers!"

"We're sorry Unca Scrooge." All three boys chime in at the same time. Scrooge is quick to send launchpad to go get some towels, and starts apologizing profusely to anyone who happened to be in the blast radius of the trio's ice-cream explosion.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart waves a hand toward the trio as they have their 'little accident', smiling to Skoll "As you can see, trying to drum up interest with fun things that don't exactly work the way they want to. Not sure what it SHOULD have done, but as long as they have fun, I guess its alright no?" She smirks, handing Skoll his ice cream bar, unwrapping it in a trained manner. She's already distributed many of those after all.

"Its nice to have a chance to just get together and have some fun." She glances around for a moment, and knocks on wood, just in case. "Can only hope it stays that way."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"Thanks Tifa." Skoll answers the girl and takes the icecream after paying. And what happens next is very short and simple. Skoll spots Avira alongside Arthur - a person he doesn't know, but non-the-less presumes to be a friend - and raises his hand. He starts approaching just as the machine goes rumbling. "Hey Avira!" He calls out in his normal somewhat-loud voice. He raises the icecreambar that was offered to him by Tifa to his mouth...

... followed by a sudden explosion. Splattering icecream...

Seconds later, there's this mass of colored icecream standing there, icecream dripping down his long tail. One of his ears twitches, causing a big splatter of icecream to fall down onto his shoe's toe. He looks pitiful, and completely startled. Hair poofed out, and very confused.

Followed by his tongue cartoonishly lapping over his entire face. "Hmmm... icecream." And the seasalt icecream flops down onto the ground off of the stick.

"Awwww..."

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur profers his good arm to Avira as they watch the explosion of a piece of machinery, as a prelude to leading her closer and engaging with the ice cream. This may induce some pretty profound grumblings in their minds, when they think of exploding machines. "I had a nightmare last night, Avira, and it gave me an idea."

The artisan takes in the moving nephews and their explosive fun. He notices Tifa, and gives her a slight nod of recognition. "We should talk to the man in charge, you know. Remember the prototype we had for cold box shipping?"

His eyes rest on the ice cream bars as Tifa serves one up to Skoll. His eyes are not filled precisely with greed, but he is a man in debt to a war with a jungle - a man like that will be very please by any opportunity to make a large and inconvenient number smaller. "I bet it would do a lot for morale if we had something like that in the camp. And we do enough traffic now that the research school is starting up..." He leaves the idea hanging, hopeful, not yet articulating on the nightmare as their footsteps move closer to the sticky event horizon and the sorrow of ice cream lost.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has to wonder about the idea of weaponizing ice cream just what were they doing. Oh dear the thing is about to explode as she's caught in the blast. She covered in ice cream. Okay she knew it was quite good far as food goes. She was not expecting something like this. It takes a moment but soon one can see Deelel is blinking and trying to get some of the ice cream off her body. Okay she eats some flat out there's no sense to waste what is still good.

"Anyone? I could use a bit of help here, still this is the most delicious trouble I have ever been in."

She's taking the food disaster in good spirits. She turns her head to Arthur and Avira for a moment.

"A small bit of help here..."

Deelel's gong to need a dunk over at the beach after this, she really will.

Avira has posed:
Avira accepts the arm, looping hers around Arthur's. She walks forward with the synthesist and, quite indeed, similar bitter thoughts spawn in her mind when she sees the ice cream machine simply explode. "Oh? What idea was that?" She's clearly interested, being someone who has had many strange dreams in her time. Indeed, the inspiration for her largest airship design had come from a dream.

A very familiar face comes to them! Covered in a nice layer of ice cream, sure, but Avira certainly recognizes him. "Skoll." she smiles warmly. "How are you doing?" She doesn't get close, half expecting any second that he would suddenly shake it all off.

Or lick it off. That works still.

Deelel asks for help and Avira pauses, "....wait do you...want us to lick that off you?" Her cheeks turn a little red at that, "Ummm..."

Narrator has posed:
Soon enough, Launchpad returns with an arm-full of towels, only to end up slipping in ice-cream which sends him sliding across the ground. He spins around in a circle, then looks up at Skoll, "Uh... Towel?" He asks, offering one to the werewolf. One of the trio, it's hard to tell which one underneath all of the ice-cream, tries to help launchpad to his feet, but the bigger duck ends up slipping again, the tottering pile of towels precariously tettering in Deelel's direction.

It's Louie who goes slopping through the muck towards the machine, trying to figure out just what went wrong with their contraption. "Hey! Some of the parts are missing!" He protests, poking around at the side of the ice-cream launcher.

Just at that moment, one of the other two slips, sliding right towards Avira and Arthur, the small, ice-cream covered duck spinning around before looking up at them. "Hey, Mister? Can you and your girlfriend help us find our missing parts?"

Scrooge facepalms, then rubs at the top of his beak before looking at Tifa. "Ye'd best go lend a hand, lass. Otherwise we'll never get back te sellin ice-cream." The line seems to have halted a bit, as much of the crowd is staring at ice-cream-ageddon's aftermath.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart sighs at the slippery-slide "I dunno, maybe we could use the cannon to shoot more ice cream and turn this into a temporary winterland, although I can't imagine the cleaning of this." Well its an idea, but not a good one for visible reasons. She slides out from behind the small counter, careful not to slip "Unless you can shoot it inside of a small area or something."

She crosses her arms, pondering "So what does those piece look like? Any idea where they might be?"

Narrator has posed:
Sidequest: (Find the Missing Parts)
1. Search through the giant ice-cream puddle.
2. Check in the ice-cream cooler.
3. Check the the alleyway next to Scrooge's shop.
4. Search around other vendor's booths.
5. Check the rooftops.
6. Insert other amusing option here.

Cressida has posed:
Cressida had kept mostly to the shadows during the first fateful encounter involving ice cream. Honestly, ice cream isnt really her thing. Nor are flowers, pretty butterflies or cute puppies. Go figure. The ever serious lupine strides down the streets of Traverse in her usual purple hooded robe that successfully hides most of her features.

It doesnt take her long to notice the glittery lights and various carts set up in the center of town, drawing her nearer like a moth to a flame. Would she find..That person here, amongst the crowds? At least it would be a good place to search. As she draws nearer, Cressida does see a familiar face or two, although they are still strangers to her, for the most part.

Might as well eavesdrop a while, gather some information. Heck, it wouldn't hurt to buy an ice cream or two while she's at it, right? With a sigh, she draws towards the back of the - no doubt - increasingly long line, awaiting her turn..

...Then the machine kinda...Explodes? O.o

"Hmph. What went wrong?" She mutters aloud as she watches people scramble around to do..Stuff..

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
How is he doing. "I'm..." He looks at himself. "Ehmmm... I'm... icecream-y? Is that a word?" Only to be met with a towel at his side - being held up by Launchpad. "What a mess." The werewolf mumbles, taking the towel. "You have /no/ idea how hard it is to get icecream out of your hair! It's murder on your fur." He declares with certainty - refusing to snicker at Launchpad's predicament. He's smirking though. That stupid kind of smirk of someone who is /trying/ not to laugh.



Cut to the mysterious Cressida making the scene. Mysterious, because they are wearing a purple hooded robe with the hood up! /Mysterious/!

"I don't know, but they're saying some parts are missing." Skoll looks at the towel. It's /way/ too small to clean himself off with. So instead, he does exactly what Avira expected him to. He starts shaking himself off like a dog, icecream splattering every which way.

Arthur Drover has posed:
The synthesist considers offering Deelel his lens towel, but it is the size of someone's palm. Then he considers.

Arthur smirks and rubs his forehead theatrically. "Avira, you're a mistress of ice magic, methinks you can conjure up a cool wash for the poor sticky lass without needing to resort to drastic measures. You'd lose your head if it weren't attached. Are you a mage, or aren't ye?" He waggles his bushy eyebrows expertly. "I swear, if I told tales of your deeds to my lady wife, she'd faint in shock - or join in." Flexing his long fingers he takes a silver flask from his breast pocket, the synthesist draws a long sip before stowing it.

"Hullo, boys. I'd be happy to assist ye."

He turns an expert's eye over the exploded cannon, and moves closer to the puddle, keeping a weather eye on his partner (consort? Probably not.).

"While we search, Avira. I remembered something from a long time ago - I once made something magical not work. It was disastrous - embarassing - I'm ashamed of it actually. I tried to do it again, but." He gazes down. "Even one-handed, I can't bring myself to muck up something I am creating. If I were unlucky, I might do it by accident again, then I could do it on purpose. So if you know an unlucky person, or a way to make my luck bad but not too bad, keep mind to it."

This revelation at hand, the Artisan moves forward and fishes among the ice cream. He's not afraid of a hard bit of work, or getting messy where kids are concerned.

He couldn't refuse a child's request anyway. That the child was covered in ice cream and a mechanic to boot, would only double the obligation. He's on his knees in the ice cream pool - on a towel he took from Launchpad which is not in the best shape - using his leverage to fish with his good hand for missing parts or any clues.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over at Avira for a moment and she's got this totally oh really grin on her face a she tilts her head at Avira.

"Are you offering?"

She tilts her head one more time, she's totally got a bit of at roll face for a second, she's just messing with Avira as she stats to laugh a little bit.

"The look on your face, Avira."

Deelel may not get the entire context of it but? She does get it's got her friend flailing and she seems very amused about it. Then Skoll sends ice cream everywhere.

"I'll see what I can do to help find the parts." She'll just deal with the ice cream or perhaps Avira will do so and get her revenge for the teasing, who knows what is going to happen now!

Avira has posed:
Avira starts to flail, waving her arms at Deelel, "I-uh!!!" She is completely flustered and it only gets worse between the come-hither look and the laughing.

"W-well Arthur, it's ice cream. You lick ice cream." Avira blusters, clearly trying to cover up the rather bizzare conclusion she jumped to with something sounding semi-logical. "A-and I'd need melted ice to wash something! That's straight water, I don't really know /water/...it's, well, different." It's clear by the look on her face that this kind of teasing was the last she needed! Naturally it's probably going to continue.

The duck slides up in front of her, politely requesting for help with finding the missing parts to the machine. "Well...sure. We can help, can't we?" She doesn't clarify the whole girlfriend thing this time.

As Arthur talks of extremely bad luck making him screw u2. Check in the ice-cream cooler.</span> for parts. "Unluckiness, eh? I might know a thing or two. Or a person I can ask, in fact. I know a guy...he can manipulate luck."

Narrator has posed:
"Uh..." Louie and his ice-cream covered sibling look at once another, then shrug. "Like parts?" The duck who is probably Dewey tries to mime out what the pieces look like with his hands, but mostly he just drips ice-cream all over the place. "About this big, with a thinggy in the middle, and a..." He trails off, so Louie picks up afterwards, looking at Tifa, "Whatchamjiggit. It fits with the whozewhatsus..." Clearly, they believe they're actually using real names for things, even if it's nonsense. The two seem to forget the part about 'where' they could be, though.

"Thanks, mister!" The only remaining duckling must be Huey, who takes off his ballcap and tries to shake ice-cream from it, but it leaves him looking odd with just the feathered top of his head actually clean.

Scrooge, of course, is trying to pass this all off as something amusing. The duck, complete with top hat and spats tries to encourage people into the shop, "Dinnae mind the boys antics too much. Ahh, heh, wha' it was like te be young. We've still got plenty of ice-cream inside."

This leaves a dejected looking Launchpad outside with a mop and bucket.

As Louie starts trying to clear out the machine, Dewey heads to try and recruit more help, which happens to be in the form of a robed figure. A grubby, ice-cream covered hand tugs at her, "Hey, lady, have you seen any metal parts lying around?" He asks, looking up with expectant eyes.

For the intrepid ice-cream searcher (aka. Arthur), at first it seems like there is only the city streets beneath the brightly colored swirls of melting ice-cream. Then, his hand brushes something. It takes a minute to get a hold of, since it keeps wanting to slide away, but eventually he manages to pull out a gear - a very sticky gear.

Acquired: Ice-cream Cannon Part x 1 (3/4 remaining)

Avira, on the other hand, investigates the cooler, which seems to be filled with various flavors of icecream. But wait, there's something else in there, too. Could it be one of the missing parts? Yes? No. What the? Underneath the neatly wrapped ice-cream bars is... clearly a gummi part. What in the world was Scrooge doing refrigerating Gummi-blocks? It's a bit cold to the touch. It might require some investigating to figure out what it does. (Read as: Current +job Fodder.)

Acquired: Mysterious Gummi Block.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart considers her options as well. While sifting throught he puddle might sound fun, she'd probably come out very sticky. In the worse way. But there's probably better places for them to be anyway. She hmms as she looks around.

Sadly, the tri3. Check the the alleyway next to Scrooge's shop.</span>). At least it hasn't been ran over by projectile ice cream.

"Alright, I'll go look over there then. You boys... maybe could try to look under all oce that ice cream, they might be around the cannon after all." She offers up "... somewhere, can't see much with all of it though."

Cressida has posed:
Cressida flinches as the other wolf begins to shake off all the ice cream, splattering herself in the process. She snorts, getting some in her face. Fortunately, that hood managed to cover most of her from the mess, although she's gonna have to clean it now. "Watch it, wolf." She snaps a bit coldly as she pulls off her hood, readjusting her head band so that it better hides her own lupine ears.

"I just washed this cloak..." With a sigh, she scratches her arm, where an ugly scar runs the length of it, a reminder of her recent run-in with a certain mercenary.

When Arthur mentions messing with magical object to no avail, she rolls her eyes. "You really should not mess with things you know nothing about. Magic is not something to be toyed with." it comes out more like a lecture than anything else, although there is an all-too serious look in her eye as if she might have experienced something a little more..Unpleasant with magic, first hand.

People quickly move to offer aid in fixing the machine. Cressida however, keeps her distance, not terribly over eager to get dirty if she can help it. Too many cooks far as she is concerned..

But this look like a whole lot of mess, and she didnt come here for hijinx..With a sigh, she turns to leave, pausing only briefly as Avira mentions someone who can ..Manipulate luck? That sounds..Potentially promising?

"Hmm...? Someone who can manipulate luck, you say? Who might that be? What a very...Convenient ability, that would be." Convenient, certainly for herself, at least. But enough silliness. She's feeling tired already as she watches the ducks mutter amongst themselves..Then one of them tugs on her sleeves and tries to recruit her for help too?

Cressida arches a quizzical brow as he talks about metal..Parts. She's not particularly apt with technology herself and she just helplessly shrugs..Until the glint of something shining silver catches her eye. The lupine woman frowns, kneeling on the ground and picks it up. "Might this be what you are looking for?"

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll finishes throwing icecream off of himself and... looks as if he just walked out of the ocean in some movie. With other words, he looks completely dry and refreshed. He does blink a little in confusion at Cressida's remark however. "My appologies." He answers her in a gentleman-like tone, laying a hand to his chest and bowing to her, before coming upright again, glancing at the girl as she adjusts her headband. It doesn't look like he's noticed that particular feature it means to hide.

The werewolf then too goes searching for parts. But he does so within the broken machine itself. After all, it was broken before, so maybe something had come off before it even exploded!

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur com(1. Search through the giant ice-cream puddle.)</span> and rises to place the part carefully on top of a box near the cannon - first swishing aside the ice cream with a dryish towel.

Then Cressida notes that he should not mess with things he knows nothing about. "Lass, ye'd do best not to chime in on half-heard conversations with your haughty how-ye-dos, but nice to meet you too. I run the Heart's Desire magical synthesis shop in Alexandria." He raises his voice then, with a genteel though ice cream coated bow toward Cressida on his way past. "Avira-girl! I know nothing about magic! Best jot that on m' tombstone." but it is said with a good natured smile. and he prances merrily, though sticky, toward nearby vendor's booths to search for more parts that may have exploded away during the detonation.

A bit of ice cream is nothing compared to the grease and soot of the artisan's forge, and he sees that others are helpfully joining in.

"That's the spirit. Come on, boys, search away. I'll help you fix it up when we're done! I wanna see how your cannon works. Setbacks help you leap forward, come on."

He couldn't explain it if he tried, though maybe people who've been at the camp lately would get it. There's something nice in a simple scavenger hunt, even if there's - no, especially if there is ice cream down your britches.

Avira has posed:
Mmmm. Ice cream. During her search, Avira swipes one for herself and leaves a bit of money in her wake. Unwrapping the bar, she sticks it in her mouth to eat as she continues searching, eventually pulling out a...gummi block?

Avira knows what a gummi block is. Her life has practically been gummi blocks lately. "What's THIS doing in here...?" she asks, closing the cooler and turning to face the others.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does consider Avira a good friend or she'd not be doing this to her, she have the sense to stop however. She shakes off a bit at this point and she also has stopped now. She'll just have to /deal/ with it right? She's got enough off herself that she can get about and she pauses for a moment. She's going to lend a hand with the parts. That should be easy enough, user machine stand out to her quite a bit. They just are so clunky looking compared to what her people use. Not to discount them it's they are alien enough she can pick them out fairly quickly.

"It could be worse , it could br lot worse. As for the parts I?m going to start looking. So away she goes though the puddles as well looking for parts.

Narrator has posed:
For Tifa and those who had been here a year ago, this alleyway might be a bit familiar. It's the place where they first fought the Heartless and ran into Magica De Spell. Luckily, there's no such monsters lurking in the darkness, this time. The alley is pretty empty, other than a few garbage cans filled with discarded popsicle sticks and an opened treasure chest. Alas, someone got to that one first. It almost seems like there's nothing at all of interest, until... Ahah! Sitting on top of one of the garbage cans looks to be another gear.

Acquired: Ice-cream Cannon Part x 1 (2/4 remaining)

The little silver object that Cressida had plucked up is peered at by the duckling, who shakes his head, "Nuh uh. That belongs to that white-haired Elf guy." He looks around, as if trying to hunt down the owner, "Wonder where he went."

Cressida starts the sidequest: Return the trinket.

Louie peers up at Skoll as he goes sniffing around the machine. "Be careful, mister." Wait, it looks like there might be a part just underneath the end of the cannon! If only Skoll could reach it. Of course, the moment he bends down... *splat* A big glob of gooey ice-cream drops right onto his head. Nope, it wasn't a part afterall. Launchpad walks by, ducks down, and picks up what looks to be a silver pen, "Gee, thanks. I'd thought I lost this." He tucks the pen into his pocket.

Of course, what Skoll wouldn't be able to see is that, stuck to the back of his head by ice-cream, is one of the missing parts! Someone has to notice this, right?

One of the ice-cream covered ducklings peers at what Avira has found, and then shrugs, "Never seen it before. You can probably have it. Unca Scrooge won't mind. Really!" It's the least the trio can do as thanks for the help, anyways.

As for Deelel, well, it's easy enough to find the last of the parts lying around. In fact, it's actually sitting right out in the open on a vendor's sale plate, right next to some jewelry. Maybe it got shot off when the machine malfunctioned and just neatly landed there? Or maybe the vendor mistook it for some otherworldly broach or pendant or something. Hard to tell, but it seems like the missing item is now... for sale.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart didn't need to search too carefully, but she still needed a bit of time to look aroud. But the lonely gear sitting there does get her attention before long. She doesn't know if that's what they need, considering the nebulous description, but she thinks it might be one of it at least. Considering it looks like a discarded part of a machine. well, its worth showing them at least.

She remembers the chest there too, but its been there forever, of course its been looted. Although she wonders why noone picked up the chest itself...

So a moment later, the barmaid walks out of the alley with the gear in one hand... and the lonely chest under her arm. Hey, could use it as decoration or storage, it'd fit well at the Cloud Nine.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"You're... welcome." Ewww, there is icecream is his hair agaaaain! Damnit. Skoll has this rather peeved look on his face for a moment, reaching back and touching some of the gooey icecream, and then retreats his hand. "Aviiiiraaa... there's icecream in my hair again!" He complains. Followed by the werewolf wandering over towards her direction. Maybe she can help him get some of this gunk out with a fresh towel or something.

Cressida has posed:
"......" Cressida just eyes Skoll warily, trying to place his face. Surely that face belonged to one of the more esteemed clans back in her world..?" She runs a hand through her long, violet hair, as if trying to clear her mind and simply nods, quite surprised at his politeness.

Turning away, Cressida continues to search for that metal piece, not sure why she's helping out with silly random sidequests. But perhaps there is a worthy reward at the end..? Arthur is given a slight frown when he admonishes her. "Haughty? That was merely helpful advice." She counters coolly before going back to searching for that metal piece. She cant help but smirk as he mentions working at some magical synthesis shop. He probably blows up a lot of stuff there if he's so clumsy with magical items.

Still, Cressida's a little curious. "Really..So you synthesize magical items then?" She arches a quizzical brow at him, not sure what to make of this. However...Some magical items, if used properly, can be...Useful. Unfortunately, she gets no response from Avira..

Deelel has posed:
Deelel gets lucky in her search as she finds one of the missing parts, there however is a whee little snag. That snag? It's being sold by someone now. Or did it just land there? It's hard to tell, honestly. She isn't about to run off with it she's going to pick it up and head to the vendor, to try and work this out.

"Hello? I'd like to talk to you about this machine part...if you got a moment?"

Maybe she can get out of this without paying money. Seriously what was up with users, then again they were not born with functions, so perhaps it was added motivation to do stuff? She wasn't sure.

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur pauses in his progress, as someone finds a metal piece on one of the stalls. "Yes, m'girl, I'm an artificer by trade. I do the arms, armor, tailoring, bespoke minework and forgewrighting - and I partnered with a ship designer recently. My wife handles potionery, fletchery, medicine, herblore, and the decanting of magical energies into their Ideal Forms, often inside gems." Arthur brushes one hand on his thigh, getting the ice cream off and considering his explanation. "We need to inert some dangerous magical items for transit. When I was an apprentice, I once had an accident. We're trying to recreate it."

He pulls a small piece of cardstock out of his breast pocket, in an ice cream free zone next to the flask. This is offered to Cressida. "Arthur Drover, if we can't make it, we know someone who can." He points across the square at the avidly searching Avira. "The lady with the lucky find over there is my partner in crime. Come meet her if you like."

His easygoing nature has the earlier remarks quickly forgotten, and Drover moves closer to the shop to see if they can find more pieces after his search of the stalls proved fruitless, though Deelel's has borne fruit.

Avira has posed:
Avira was actually considering carefully before answering Cressida's question. She doesn't know this person, after all, and to have her take such sudden interest in Will's special ability was a little on the suspicious side. Only now does she realize what a bad idea to talk openly about such an ability was!

Then again, Will could handle any of this annoyance on his own, right?

"Hey, thanks!" Avira beams at the duckling and tucks the gummi block under an armpit. The other hand continues to hold her ice cream sandwich so she doesn't have to talk around it.

She moseys over to Arthur, stopping to look at Skoll. "...you don't expect /me/ to lick you clean, do you?" She doesn't sound nearly as embarassed about it now. "...doing that to hair-fur would be kind of..." she waves her fingers a little.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll Ulfang just looks at Avira... considering this for a moment... and then just leans in a little, looking at her a little expectantly.

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur Drover gazes at Skoll over his spectacles. "The lady's tongue is a registered subsidiary of Heart's Desire. We'd have to charge you!"

Narrator has posed:
The shop vendor pops his head out, getting uncomfortably close to Deelel in the process. He's one of those gnarled looking old men with far too few teeth and breath that smells like something crawled up there and died. "300 Munny." He barks, a boney looking hand reaching out as if he were going to snatch back the machine part if she didn't pay up.

The conversation between adults draws the attention of the two ice-cream covered ducklings, though. "Wow, you own her /tongue/?" "Do you have to pay him whenever you talk?" "Why does the dog-man want you to lick him?" The chatter of three identical duck voices start to blend together.

Launchpad just whistles as he continues to clean up after the nephew's mess.

Avira has posed:
"S..skoll..." Avira leans back just slightly when the werewolf leans in with that expectant look on his face. Then Arthur makes it worse! ...inadvertantly. He makes it sound like her tongue can be /rented/ and that's just bad all over!

"No, he's just kidding!" Avira sputters when the trio of duck children suddenly start barraging her with awkward questions. She only gets the answer to one of those questions off before she seems to seize up in pure embarassment.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
There's this little smirk that appears on Skoll's face, and he moves to stand upright. "Just use a towel." He comments then. "It's just hard for me to see and reach." The werewolf sticks his hands into his pockets and lowers himself a little. "Sorry, I forget sometimes that you humans don't do these kind of things." He seems to be oblivious to any eyeing from Cressida.

He does however glance over at Arthur. "You own her tongue? What do you do with her tongue? I mean... surely you don't make her randomly lick things and pay for it. That'd just be weird."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is lucky she didn't have to barter with anyone. But she's still concerned as she gets closer to Deelel "300 munny? For something you just found on the ground nearby?" She lifts an eyebrow, shaking her head "That sounds fishy. Maybe we could make an exchange of some kind instead?" Its worth asking as least. She stands next to Deelel, with the empty chest under her arm and the other gear part in her hand. She still has to deliver it after all.

Cressida has posed:
Cressida nods silently to Arthur, seeming to take renewed interest in him. "Hmm..I see.." She takes the card with a murmured thanks, slipping it carefully into a hidden pocket. "Interesting. I may investigate it, some day. As for your friend.." She peers over towards Avira thoughtfully, remembering her vaguely from a run-in at a certain temple.

Was she not allied with the Heretics, particularly Ramza at the time? Or were they merely fighting on the same side? It was difficult to remember, and of course, it was a rather..Complex situation. However, it would do no good to scare her away now. Best to gain her trust, perhaps warn her against the Heretics before she gets too drawn into their evil web of lies.

Cressida does nod to Avira however, cold eyes taking her in for a moment, sweeping back towards Arthur to include them both. "I see. A pleasure to meet you both. I am Cressida Merune. I too, once had an unfortunate...'Accident' with magic." However, she does not go any further in that direction. Best to pique their interest enough to let her see their wares, but not enough to let them know what she is, exactly.
"Hmm, I wonder if, perhaps this is the missing piece?" Cressida ducks under one of the tables, searching under the cloth for the shining thing she saw a moment ago, and pulls out a longish metal, rod-shaped object. She holds it up for the duckies to see.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel recoils a little bit at the old man she doesn?t know why but she feels a bit creeped out about him. She has to wonders about him as she brings up the money. Deelel isn't moving to make any hostile moves. However? She intends to haggle. Oh yes she intends to haggle.

"300? Maybe you could cut me a deal kind sir? What do you say about 150 for it?"

Start low and move up, she'll hopefully be able to get refunded by the boys and lucky for the old man she's not wanting to get in trouble with DPS, or she just may try to snatch it and run. She's also putting on her best cute and innocent face.

Arthur Drover has posed:
A variety of powerful emotions pass through Arthur Drover when this happens. All of them are "THERE IS AN ICE CREAM COATED, APPARENTLY VERY AGILE DOG, ON MY HEAD". If a poet were present, he or she would be capable of learning a lot about that emotion from Arthur's response.

The following happens on synthesist.OS:

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

MASK LEVEL:

1) Scream and flail.
2. Stare and whimper brokenly like a shell of a human being subjected to a wet dog that is also sticky and its butt on your head. Your dignity is dead anyway.
3. Fall over comically, inducing some kind of ice cream ball to roll around the plaza in a mess of dog and man, resulting in a tangled mess unclaimable by any god you'd care to name.

UNMASK LEVEL (Warning: Avira, ducks, present)

1. Belt knife, matchless knowledge of anatomy.
2.THE FLUTE

MASK OVERRIDE?

N.

Select?

>1.Scream and flail

Arthur falls to the ground and things rapidly become very busy.

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur smiles at Avira and says: "I apologize, girl, I was just trying to save you from having to lick him, imagine the hairballs. And for all you know, you sign contracts in your sleep. Now, we should see what that gummi is later! And help the boys fix things up!" The smith shares a glance at Skoll, frowning. "That must be so uncomfortable." He'd spend his time helping the ducks, if able, but otherwise the mission is now -obtain unmelted ice cream.

Narrator has posed:
Adults are no fun. Soon enough, the trio share a look, then shrug simultaneously. Apparently they don't quite understand what's going on. Amazingly, though, the ice-cream seems to be all but cleaned up behind them. Launchpad is pretty quick, it seems.

The creepy old man does one of those squinty-eyed suspicious looks from Deelel, to Tifa, and then back again. "I'll trade you for that!" He points at the treasure chest underneath Tifa's arm. The old man drums his fingers together as if he's somehow getting a good deal... the part for an empty treasure chest. Maybe he just collects the things, who knows.

As Cressida comes up with another part, the ducks look at it oddly, almost uncertain. It doesn't /look/ like a part from their machine, but maybe that's the reason that it didn't work in the first place? "Hey, Mister Wolf, you've got something in your hair." The last piece of the puzzle has been found!

"Hey Mister, I think we've got all the parts now. Can you help us?" "Yeah, please?" Three sets if huge little-kid duck eyes look up at Arthur. Luckily, it's relatively easy to fix the machine.

Avira has posed:
That temple run-in-yes, Avira does remember it, though at the time she had been much more concerned about the undead attack than she did her proximity to the Heretics! In fact, such a thing wouldn't even occur to her upon reflecting on that event if she had to. Perhaps fortunately for Cressida, Avira doesn't remember the woman's presence there.

"It's nice to meet you, Cressida." Avira says once she has reined in her embarassment. "...unfortunate accident? What kind, if you don't mind me asking."

She gives Arthur a look. The kind of look that says 'you won't get away with this, mister'! because she knows that was on purpose. She knows that Arthur does enjoy teasing her every now and then. "It seems you have some fans now, Arthur." Avira notes with a grin.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart has a moment where she seems confused. What is he pointing at exactly? Oh, THAT. Okay. Empty chest, that's fine with her. She can find another of those around. It was just a boon "Uhm, this?" She holds the chest on top of her open hand, and then looks at Deelel "... I don't mind at all."

Of course, she doesn't know that he thinks its not empty. Circular thought process or something. Either way, she pust the chest on the counter "Deal."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"Huh, I do?" The werewolf blinks profusely. and leans over so that the last piece can be retrieved. After which he finally raises a hand towards Avira. "I think I've... had enough icecream for a few days. And I'm not that good with heavy machinery." On his way out, he places a hand on Avira's shoulder for a moment, while glancing over her towards Cressida. There's something about her that he can't quite put a finger on.

But in the end, he can't figure it out - and he really does want to get the icecream out of his hair before it starts clumping together. He'll probably drop by the hotel for that. He's sure that the Valkyrie HQ already has enough trouble with hair clogging the shower-drain from tail-floof from a certain other werewolf.

Arthur Drover has posed:
The smith is powerless before the glare of anyone under the age of majority for their species and world equivalent. "Hey don't foist this on me, you're drafted, girl." After spending some time lining up on the cannon and making sure no ice cream is in the actual material inside, the man takes a spanner and some clamps from his belt, on general principles. "Bring all the parts over here, and I'll slot them in! Watch close, boys, I might need your help to see how it all connects. IF anything I'm doing seems wrong, just say and we'll change it around." Fostering budding artisans is important, even if they are some kind of horrifying duck hivemind. It takes all sorts.

As much as he can figure out the machine, or see where things fit, he begins a repair. Why they want to launch ice cream out of cannons, he doesn't know, but it should be some serious kind of show when it does go off.

Cressida has posed:
Cressida sweatdrops as more weirdness ensues. Avira is given just a brief frown as she asks for more details. "Sorry, but, I may have said too much, as it is. Perhaps at some point you can tell me more about this..Luck Manipulating friend of yours, however..."

She shrugs, handing the missing piece to the duckie regardless, before peering over at Skoll. Indeed, he is vaguely familiar. "Hmmm, you must be...Son of Odin.." She murmurs quietly. "What irony.." There's an almost..Sad look in her eyes before she bows slightly to the others. "A pity, it seems my desire for ice cream has waned. Perhaps another time..Farewell.."

One last glance towards the others before her cold gaze rests upon Avira once more. "Perhaps, we shall meet again.." and then, with a sweep of her cloak, she turns and disappears into the crowds.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over to Tifa as she agrees to make the trade.

"Thank you Tifa, I owe you a favour for that."

She'll take the part and will head off to return it to the kids. This was an odd day but how did /users/ fall apart like that? It was an alien concept to her, still it was yet one more thing to be curious about in this world. She gives Arthur and Avira a quick glance and seems amused.

"My you are sure getting popular, Oh Tifa and I got the last part. We should be good now."

Narrator has posed:
As the final parts are set into place, the machine seems to power back up, chugging along a little bit. "It's working!" Huey calls out, hopping up into the seat. This time, it's Dewey who takes a place on the other side of the little target arena, holding up... an ice-cream cone.

All this work, for a mini-game that involves shooting ice-cream onto ice-cream cones being held up by juvenile ducks. Well, at least there are prizes if you get a high score.

You have unlocked: Ice Cream Beat
http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Ice_Cream_Beat