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“Have you seen Wrench?” Nikki asked Rodricka and Arthur as she stepped into the living room space. They were on Nikki’s island, which sat in its own pocket dimension. All the other travelers/lost souls/other worlders could come and go to her island as they pleased, but she was the only one who could build on it. So far she had built a bedroom for herself and Momo, Arthur, Lumine, Rodricka, and Leo. She was still waiting on the crafting bench to make more walls for Wrench's room. He had just arrived yesterday, appearing out of nowhere on the beach. After calming him down as best as she could, she invited him back to the home island, and that was the last she saw him. She would have looked for him earlier today, but Lumine dragged her along for exploration.
“I think he might be on the roof again,” Rodricka said, not looking up from the book she was reading. Despite having her own room, she rarely spent time in it except to sleep. In fact, no one spent much time in their room, but Nikki still spent the time to decorate them.
“I think he was upset about his weird mask,” Arthur added. He was in the kitchen, cooking something that smelled delicious on the stove top.
“What are you cooking now? Can I help?” Momo asked.
“Sure,”
Momo stayed in the kitchen as Nikki walked up the stairs. She passed by the second, third, and half finished fourth floor to reach the roof. There, leaning against the chimney, was Wrench. He had his mask on, though his right “eye” was glitching out, and was a mix of all the different symbols.
“Are you okay?” She asked as she walked across the roof. It was flat thankfully, she had been trying to make a castle before everyone else arrived, now it was looking more like a weird apartment building.
“Oh hey Nikki! Yeah, I’m fantastic!” His robotic voice sounded as cheerful as ever, but there was a tinge of something else in it.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” Nikki said as she sat down across of him “It’s okay to be upset about being randomly transported to a different world,”
“I know,” Wrench said.
They sat in silence for a while as the sun began to set. The realm island and Miraland’s times were the same, so dinner would be ready soon.
“What’s wrong with your mask?” Nikki asked.
“Oh, I probably broke it when I banged my head against the wall this morning. I thought this was all a dream and that I was still asleep. . .”
“Only to find out it isn’t a dream,”
“Yeah, and I don’t have any of the tools to fix it,”
“Maybe I can help,”
“Huh?” His good “eye” turned into a question mark. “Can you find me the tools?”
“No, but maybe I can use my whim to fix it. Your mask should have some whim in it, so maybe my electrician outfit can fix it,”
“Or it could short circuit everything and ruin it,” he said.
“It could, but maybe it’s worth the shot,”
“Fine.” He moved closer to her. “Do the thing,”
“Alright,” Twirls of light covered her body for a breath second as she selected her electrician ability outfit, which she hasn’t had to use for a while. Making sure her own goggles were secure, she placed her hand against the right side of Wrench’s goggles. Her fingers brushed against the tips of his hair as she felt the whim move underneath her hands as small pink sparkles connected like constellations. The lines around the “eye” were broken, so she traced new ones to reconnect them. Once she was done, the “eye” stopped glitching, and became a heart that matched the one on the left side.
“Is it working now?” Wrench asked. He put his hand over her own to touch the goggles.
“I think so,” She said. They continued to stare at each other for a second, and she felt her cheeks heat up. Maybe he wouldn’t notice and think her face was pink because of the sunset.
“Nikki! Arthur said the soup’s done!” Momo yelled.
“Coming!” Nikki removed her hand from Wrench’s face and got up. With another whirl of pink light, she changed out her electrician ability outfit into Unseen Entity. It was one of the only outfits that came with a mask.
“You look good,” Wrench said as he stood up.
“Oh, thank you,”
“Could you teach me how to do that? The whole whim thing,”
“You want to be a stylist?”
“Well, if it can fix my tech like that, yeah,”
“I’d love to teach you,”