Taking Care of Business

[shiptoride]

Characters: Gippal, OPEN
Content: Gippal's out working on the guns, checking for storm damage and generally tweaking them. Feel free to annoy.
Setting: Winding Way Main Guns
Time: Morning
Warnings: Depends on who shows up, Innuendo (lots of it)

Comments

[fire_water_wood]

Once more, a certain little puppet was making his way around the ship, exploring new areas - he always found at least one on each trip. This time he was properly bundled for the cold, thanks to Miss Sophie.

This time, he came into a room with big...things... Long poles - or maybe tubes - of metal that jutted out through holes in the hull from masses of complicated-looking...machinery of some kind, he could only guess. Goodness, what in the world could they be?! Harlequin wracked his little wooden brain for anything and everything he knew about ships (which was, frankly speaking, next to nothing).

Guns? Is that what these were? 'Guns'? Wow... he thought and crept further into the room. He wandered among the huge constructions of metal and wood. He wanted badly to climb up on things here and there for a better look, but if he was right - if these were guns - he didn't know what made them shoot, and he didn't want to risk firing one by accident because he'd put weight (however slight that might be) on the wrong hand- or foothold and activated something he shouldn't have, especially with them being grounded in the middle of a town right now. That would just be all kinds of "bad"! And it'd be his fault. He shuddered - no, no...no call getting himself in trouble like that if he could help it. He'd just have to content himself with his perspective from the ground.

So intent was he on studying the massive structures around and above him that he didn't see the floor-level obstacle before hitting it across the shins. Tripping, he flipped over top of it, head and shoulders smacking the planking on the other side with an audible clatter of wood-on-wood. "Oww!! Ooooh . . . " Shaking his head clear, he shifted and pushed to a sitting position and looked to see what had tripped him.

A boot. With a leg attached! He'd tripped over someone's ankle! Springing to his feet, he backed up, apologizing profusely. "Oh, goodness! I'm so sorry! I-I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm so sorry to bother you!"

[shiptoride]

Now if he could just get that piece to go in th--whoa! what was that?! Gippal felt something across the side of his ankle followed almost immediately by an ouch. He sat back and looked around, to see a rather surprising visitor sprawled on the ground. Man, did I trip him?

"Hey, don't sweat it. You alright?" After that, he figured he better find out why the guy was here. Maybe he was a new gunner he hadn't met yet.

BRB - LOLing at the idea of Quin as a gunner...

[fire_water_wood]

Harlequin nodded, straightening his clothing. "Yes, sir. I'm fine. You?" He felt silly now - how in the firmament had he managed to miss that someone else was here?! Enough to not miss tripping over them?!

He thought about the irony of that, actually. People had tripped over him aplenty, but this had to be first time it was the other way around.

[shiptoride]

It took a minute, but then Gippal realized that who, or what, he was looking at was anything but expected. Maybe I hit my head and don't remember. He might be up for outrageous teasing, but cracking on someone that looked like... a puppet went beyond what he was comfortable with.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, still looking mighty perplexed at his guest. "Can I get you somethin'?"

[fire_water_wood]

"Oh, ah . . . n-no, sir. I was . . . just e-exploring." It occurred to him suddenly that maybe he shouldn't be in here at all, and he swallowed, hoping he wasn't in trouble. "Is . . . this room i-isn't off-limits or anything, is it? I'm . . . really sorry if I'm not supposed to be in here..."

[shiptoride]

Gippal waved a hand in the air. If there were protocols for who could and couldn't be in here, he wasn't aware of them. "You're fine. Just don't fire the guns by accident and we're all good."

After taking a step away from the gun, he leaned on it casually, and stated, "Name's Gippal, none of that sir business. Makes me feel old."

[fire_water_wood]

Harlequin nodded sheepishly. Would he ever break himself of that habit? "Pleased to meet you, si-!! . . . a-ah, p-pleased to meet you." Apparently not. He'd just have to get better at catching himself. He sighed and pushed that way, sweeping his hat off with his usual bow. "My name is Harlequin, at your service. A-and, ah . . . " He looked up at the huge structures around him. "I'll certainly try not to. But . . . guns? So these really are guns?" He'd been right about that - he actually felt a little proud of himself.

[shiptoride]

"Nice to meet you Harlequin." Gippal gave the gun an affectionate pat. "Sure are. Bigger than your standard hand gun or rifle, but a gun all the same." He smirked, as he looked down at the sleek metal. "Beautiful ain't she?"

[fire_water_wood]

Harlequin nodded, duly impressed . . . by their size if nothing else, as he really didn't know how a gun worked. Well, heck, on that note...

He looked up at the man. "Speaking of firing them or not by accident, I actually don't really know how they work. I've...I've never seen a gun before myself, let alone ones these big. Are you a gun mechanic of some kind? You were working on this one, right? Doing something to it?" Far from accusatory in tone, he asked because he was genuinely interested in learning about it.