MEETING THE TINY MAN [NOMO]

Dana was having a bit of a miserable day today, to be completely honest. She'd gotten caught by her landlord trying to steal food again, and had been severely chastised. She'd accidentally put the wrong setting on the washing machine and now her favourite signature cloak was all tiny. Uh, it was just like, totally the worst! Dana was in such a foul mood that she actually stomped through the village and went to buy a new cloak from a shop somewhere down the road! She even left a generous tip! The shock! The horror!

Anyway, since Dana was so incredibly starving she'd decided to hunt for that Tofu place that Saya had once talked about. She'd been craving another bowl of that mappo tofu ever since she'd first sunk her teeth into it, but had always been too lazy to go looking for it. That changed today! Since Dana was in such an edgy mood she'd decided to wear some totally edgy clothes because no one understood her right now! Somewhere, somehow, Dana had managed to get her hands on a black victorian dress and one of those really large hats. She'd also totally put some really dark eye makeup on to show how angry she was.

Anyway, as Dana turned a corner her eyes lit up. Was that the place that sold mappo tofu?

WC: 228

It was NOT the place that sold the mappo tofu. It was two three and a half foot tall men, one of which was made of wood. To her credit, there did happen to be a tofu shop directly in front of the two pinochios, and with their short stature it would be very easy to see the shop, but that just doesn't make this a fun joke now does it?! As Dana approached, Pinochio Pinochio, Genin extraordinaire of the village hidden in the mist was handing Pupnochio a large parcel of food. He'd made the horible decision to be heading out to lunch right when Ai sent pupnochio out to get tofu for the team, and she'd convinced him to walk the tiny tike out to the shop. WHen he went out alone he got there eventually, but like. There was a LOT of bumping into walls, doors, stairs, a cat one time, and people so it wasn't very eficient. One of these days Saya would really need to find a way to be able to see through her puppets eyes.

With Actual pinochio helping out it was extremely quick to get the food and send him hobbling back to the house. Pinochio would absolutely not be having mappo tofu, but thankfully he'd slipped a few ryo to the old lady who owned the shop, convincing her to pick up some other meal options. In his hands he held a large styrofoam container with steaming hot okonomiyaki and a fresh pair of chop sticks.

He glanced around to make sure nothing unfortunate was about to happen before finally digging in. He'd been obnoxiously accident prone lately. Like there was the time he knocked himself out on a root while fighting the wolfkage, Then there was the blood incidents. Plural. Then there was the time he fell down a long hole into a bucket that was meant to be filled with vipers and broke his neck. FInally, the icing on the cake: He stubbed his toe getting out of bed this morning and it kind of hurt.

As he glanced about, he noticed.....Well. He wasn't really sure what he'd just noticed. It LOOKED like dana? But like. Also a bit my chemical romance? My danacal romance? No that doesn't work. As he got more used to his new body, and the frusteration of being a d rank puppet ceased, he looked back on his previous interactions. He absolutely HATED that Dana kept trying to pet him like a dog, but he was probably a bit mean to her. Maybe he could treat her to lunch?

"Hey Dana? Is... Is that you? Trying to get some food? They have all kinds of stuff! the bibimbap is to die for! Plus okonomiyaki, Some great soups, and mapo tofu if you like. hate everything. I got SO tired of mappo tofu every day and I wasn't even the one eating it. Now though.... Everything is coming up Pinochio." Everything was not in fact coming up pinochio.

(TWC 503)

Pinochio! It was the tiny little man that deserved the world in Dana's eyes, only he looked... Different somehow. Wait, he wasn't made of wood anymore! Was that a good thing or not? Dana remembered the little fella being rather proud of his wooden-person heritage, to the point where he got really angry at Saya for calling him a puppet. Hold on, there was another Pinochio next to him. What was going on? All these confusing events piled onto her lap in quick succession had complete wiped out Dana's previous EDGY mood and now she was just back to her normal self.

She approached the two Pinochios with a big grin and a skip that totally ruined the vibe her outfit had created for her. "Hey Pinochio! Heya Pinochio two! What's the craic?" She kneeled down in front of them both and held her fists out in a signature fist-bump gesture. The Pinochio with human skin looked like he was trying to be cool so Dana would respect that and not try to give him a big hug or a headpat... For now. She hoped her style of dress wasn't cramping his own style or anything. Speaking of, what was he even doing out here this morning?

"Food sounds lovely!" Dana said with an exuberant smile and a thumbs up, her empty stomach let out a small rumble of agreement. It was a shame that Pinochio didn't seem interested in Mappo Tofu but Dana understood. Saya wasn't the type of person to do things in moderation, from what Dana gathered. Having only tofu to eat sounded exausting! She stood up so she could look at the food stall over the pair of Pinochios from her towering height of 5'3. Everything just looked, so, amazing!

Dana itched her neck as her green eyes scanned over all the options. She had recently come across a large sum of money from her various business exploits, soo...

"Oi'll have everything please!" Dana beamed and clasped her hands together, eyes shining. Could she eat everything? Most certainly not. Would she try? Of course she would! Plus there was two whole pinochios with her who could have anything she didn't want.

WC: 370
TWC: 598

Pupnochio gave dana a glance, but ultimately continued on his mission. Surprisingly unlike their last meeting he did give a bit of a wave though. that was probably progress?"Don't let her pat your head Pinoch." He wispered the words to pinochio...though it doesn't really make sense how he would have kno--oh I see. While Pinochio didn't actually ahve the ability to use ventrilloquism, their close vicinity made it easy for him to make it seem like he was giving the puppet a voice similarly to Saya. Pinochio Pinochio gave the gester a long look. He'd heard of fist bumping before, but couldn't say for sure he'd ever seen anyone do it. Granted his experience with friendly banter was mostly people who allowed him around because of missions and what he'd seen from saya, so its not like he had a ton of experience.... Giving a nod he'd wrap Dana's closed fist in his own, gripping it like a door knob. Yes. This is definitely the correct decision.

"Hullo Dana. Haven't seen you since I got real. I'm real now. Like living and stuff. The wood grain is just tatoos see?" He'd hold out his arms, pulling the sleeves of his Mist runner's armor XL times 100 infinity X so that she could see the ink he'd gotten a few weeks ago. It had actually healed quite effectively, giving everything from his wrists to his shoulder a wood grained look.

"Ah. excelent. This place is pretty good, but honestly I mostly eat here because I don't have to pay for it and its right outside our door." He would take a seat on the bench. You know the one. The daiko bench. THe bench where Daiko sits specifically so that he can meet up with Saya to do missions or hang out. The bench that somehow always seems to Summon the puppet princess when daiko is around. Yes. That one. Popping the container, he'd use his chopsticks to cut a small chunk, shoving it in his mouth.

"Did she just...." THe old woman gave Dana the same look that Pinochio did. Dana wasn't exactly a large girl. Realistically there was no need for her to consume that much given she doesn't really do weight training or taijutsu in the slightest, but more than that how was she ever expecting to eat the entire menu at this show?! Granted it was a small shop, but they had like twelve things. Plus sides, soups, and apetizers.

"Uh.....Are... Are you bulking up for something? You know that's a whole lot of foo-AH HOT HOT HOT" Immediately he stuck his tongue out, shifting the food around in his mouth as he tried desperately to blow on both it and his tongue. It was a futile attemp. It was already burned past the point where he'd be able to taste a single bite of his delicious lunch. Now he would need to suffer trough consumption solely to keep his calorie and protein count up for weight training later.


(TWC 1005)

Don't pat his head? Dana overheard the more wooden-looking Pinochio whisper to the human-looking one. Dana didn't really understand the warning, since Dana was totally respectful of other people's personal space. Well, maybe she had overstepped the boundaries a couple of times by patting Pinochio's head. That was definitely uncalled for and she couldn't believe that she'd done such a thing! Wait, no, it had been one of her clone's who'd patted him on the head. Or had she done it beforehand? Dana couldn't remember; having artificial memories implanted into you of a being that wasn't you was awfully confusing. She giggled at his reaction to her fist-bump attempt: it was very cute.

"Oi thought ye were... Always real?" Dana asked the small man with a small curious tilt of her head. Had she been hallucinating Pinochio this whole time?!?! Dana hoped not. She rather enjoyed her days with Saya; if Pinochio wasn't real, where did that lead Saya and Ai? Oooh, cool tattoos! Dana's previous angst all but disappeared as Pinochio rolled up his sleeves to show his new tattoos. "That's grand," Dana whispered and then attempted to poke them, only she stopped herself an inch away when she remembered Pinochio's previous comment about his personal space. Yes, Dana was totally good at learning from her previous faux pas!

"Oi've been thinking of getting some tattoos of moi own, actually," Dana added absent-mindedly. Of course, when Dana talked in the past-tense she really meant about five seconds ago. She hadn't ever thought of getting tattoos before, but after seeing Pinochio's she was very much considering it. What could she get? Something awesome, obviously, but what? Well, Dana was totally forgetting that she was currently in the presence of the tattoo expert himself. Maybe, in her current mood, she should get a "Eat the rich" tattoo somewhere on her arm.

For some reason, everyone seemed to be surprised that Dana ordered so much. What, did they think she was too weak to finish such a large order all by herself? She'd show them wrong! Dana sat down on the bench nearby and crossed her legs underneath her whilst she waited for the old lady behind the counter to prepare her absolutely ginormous order. The poor lady was looking a bit stressed out by the big undertaking so Dana was absolutely gonna give her a big tip by the end of it.

"Bulking? What's that?" Dana asked, looking to open a conversation with the small lad. Dana had hung out with Saya and Ai a lot on their own, but she hadn't really spoken to Pinochio much. She was excited to get to know what he was like!

WC: 451
TWC: 1049

"What?! No I was a puppet... Oh. Wow. Yanno... I know Saya talked about us like we were living entities that existed auton.. autonimbusly? on our own, but really we were just puppets. The trick is that she split her consciousness into several parts to create the personalities. Helped her deal with some stuff in her childhood. Moms wasn't great yanno?" It made sense that Saya wouldn't actually have explained it. Most of the time it's a fact that was kept deep in her subconscous, but Pinochio was genuinely impressed that Dana hadn't realized and understood the situation. He wondered if this was a perception situation or if she was just that trusting. HOnestly, he hoped the latter. It would be worrisome to have someone unable to recognize something so obvious, but on the other hand such trust in someone(whether good friend or aquaintance) was an adimirable trait that she shared with saya. It was probably the latter.

"Theres an awesome shop down in the shopping district. I also got this one. " He'd take the time to remove the chest piece of his armor, pulling it over his head as he turned around to show off rippling back muscles permanently emblazoned with a beautiful symbol of his village pride. All across his back was a large black and white photo realistic tatoo of kiri's favorite ram, with a long white robe draped over it's arms and an oversized triangular kage hat with the symbol of the village hidden in the mist on the top. He'd give her a few moments to really take in the artistry before pulling his armor back over his body.

"It's pretty cool right? Cost a pretty penny but it was SO worth it. Plus yanno. I got that Saya money. Anytime I want something I just send a message and she leaves a stack of ryo in the elevator. " He was actually suprised to hear that she wanted tatoos. It would be interesting to find out how long she'd been planning it out. Taking inventory of all of his plans after becoming real, he realized it had been months since he set out a list of tatoos he wanted personally. Most were done already, but there was one more he was hoping to get with that one guy. Yanno the sharky dude who is like really heckin strong. What was his name....

"What. You know. Like... Bulking. When you're eating a high protein diet with the purpose of putting on muscle? It's like a taijutsu thing basically. You focus your consumption and training on things that will build big muscles instead of like. Make you faster. It's super helpful for when you really need to punch something really hard. The shark guy bulks up I bet. Have you met him? He's really strong. Like. Rediculously strong." WHile the memory was hazy becuase of the whole falling into a pit and basically decapitating himself in a hole filled with snakes so they could get out of the murder house, Pinochio was left with one clear memory: that dude was cool.

(TWC 1519)

"Whot."

Dana blinked owlishly as the ex-wooden boy dropped a bomb on Dana's world and permanently changed the way she had been thinking about everything... Ever. She couldn't have been talking to puppets this whole time, could she? Had the days she'd spent with Ai all been orchestrated by a hidden Saya? That raised the question of whether or not Saya actually understood what was happening with her whole puppet situation. Nonetheless, Dana was incredibly impressed that the younger Senju girl was able to control and give exuberant personalities to multiple puppets all at the same time. Suddenly, things made a lot of sense in regards to her meetings with Saya. Dana had always wondered why, of everyone in the group, only Saya possessed a chakra signature. Had Dana always been aware that Ai, Pinochio, Coach, and Freya were always puppets, but had repressed it alongside her Senju friend? She couldn't say but, like many things in her life, Dana just accepted it and moved on.

"Oooh!" Dana intoned as the small boy in front of her showed her the cool tattoo on his back. Dana had no idea what the imagery was meant to represent, but she recognized the Kage hat and the animal as a ram. She didn't know if the specific species of animal was important to the overall message of the piece, but Dana imagined it to be something about humans in power being no better than animals or something. "Very deep," Dana said sagely with a nod. Now Dana was wondering what kind of tattoo she should get, should it ever happen. A calf on her calf? Bees on her knees? A llama on her arm..ah? The ideas were already flowing, Dana couldn't wait!

"Oi know that guy!" Dana said excitedly, suddenly sitting straighter, "He was real noice! He let me have a shoulder monkey." She giggled at the memory and then her eyes suddenly took on an appraising look as she looked at Pinochio. It was a long shot, but... Pinochio was totally the perfect height to hang about on her shoulder. She'd broach the subject with him later, when he was less hostile about her invading his physical space.

Dana spared a look back at the old lady, and saw that she hadn't gotten much further towards preparing Dana's large order. She caught Dana staring at shot the white-haired girl an angry look that promised death and returned to cooking. Dana smiled widely and returned to look back at Pinochio. "Bulking sounds intersting! Oi'm already plenty strong though," Dana said excitedly, then proceeded to raise a hand a activate, what was quickly becoming, her signature technique. As her hand finished its arc to point straight upward, a dark ball of condensed chakra fired straight from her hand up into the sky. Once it was adequately high, above the buildings, Dana performed the Ram seal and detonated the ball to create a massive explosion high up in the sky.

The wind generated from the explosion blew back Dana's hair and she smiled happily. That had been what Pinochio had been talking about, right? Being strong by eating?

WC: 527
TWC: 1576

"Oh. Yea. we were puppets the whole time. Saya can control and fully split her mind to personify two puppets at a time. Anything past that and theres wierd mental glitches. Imagine like. a brown out during a thunder storm. When a third tries to work in tandem she just kind of twitches and one of them turns off. Still haven't been able to figure out why. Thats why Coach uses signs to talk. " The explaination was second nature to Pinochio. while he hadn't actually had to be the one to talk about it before, He'd prepared himself long ago for the moment when he would. Thinking about it, it was actually incredibly remarkable that Most in their group had realized and understood the situation upon meeting the small puppet master. He was thankful for that, of course, given that bringing it up to saya would either end in a detailed explaination, Total denial of the situation, or another glitch. Two of the three options were.... Less than ideal for the whole 'saya being able to be a ninja and not get comitted to an institution' situation.

"she kind of understands what's going on, but that understanding is passed to one of the puppets to protect the split. Most of the time Saya will look at you like you're crazy and Ai will explain while Saya tunes her out. Its a quite unique interaction." PInochio was not a mind reader, but just as Dana wondered the question, he began his further explaination in a way that would almost make it seem like he could read her mind.

"He's so cool. We were in a wierd dream mission right, and He punched a whole pillar into rubble with a single fist!!! Of course I splintered it a little bit ahead of time. I was all like FIRST GATE OF OPENING OPEN! and then i punched it and it totally got cracks and stuff and then Gonk punched it and it just disintegrated. That's gonna be me one day. " He was a bit too exicted as he explained the memory of his time in the splatter puzzle. So excited, in fact, that he actually activated the first of the eight inner gates. His muscles flexed as they grew and thickened from the power of the opening gate. "don't think he had a monkey in our mission though. Maybe he did? I didn't exactly stick around very long before I fell in a hole and died. Got better though."

The interaction between Dana and the old chef was.... Something. It absolutely checked out that someone on Saya's team would be just as impatient as she was, but there was no way she expected an order of everything on the menu to be finished so quickly right? Right?!

"Well. This is uh. A different kind of strength. I'm talking physical strength not like. Silly ninjutsu stuff. Gotta fight with your fists and your blade and rush head first into battle. You and saya are more of the stay in the back and throw stuff type."

(TWC 2030)

As Pinochio continued his explanation about the enigma that was Saya, Dana nodded along as she became more and more acquainted with the news. She wasn't blue-screening every second she thought about most of her friends in Kiri all being controlled by the same person. Hold on, wait. If Saya split her mind to do all the puppet stuff, did that mean that Dana's friend count hadn't changed at all? In fact, had it gone up now that Pinociho was real? Or was the old Pinochio not a person anymore. Dana cleared her thoughts before they ground to a halt again. She was a pretty adaptable person, but even she had her limits it seemed.

"He does sound very cool." Dana nodded, grateful that Pinochio had shifted the topic of conversation. Whatever these 'Gates' were sure did sound interesting, though! Dana briefly wondered if she would be able to ever open these Gates, but she probably didn't need to anyway. Dana was already really strong and wouldn't need any boosters like that. When Pinochio bulked up in excitement at describing the gates. That was pretty cool. Though Dana could probably do the same thing and just become really buff with a little use of the Transformation Technique so she wasn't all that impressed. She nodded appreciatively when Pinochio told her that he had apparently gotten better from death. That made perfect sense and was an avenue that Dana was interested in taking some time in the future. Though, recently, Dana had been considering taking a different path. Whoever said Dana was good at sticking to goals and that, was clearly a liar.

"Am not!" Dana retorted, faux-offended at Pinochio suggesting that she just stay in the back and throw stuff. Well, he maybe had a little bit of a point considering that's what she did in her most combat encounter. But he was wrong! Dana totally knew how to box and, like, karate kick people and stuff. "Oi can totally take ye in a fist fight! Come on, up ye get!"

So offended by the small man's comment, Dana stood up from the bench and back pedaled out across into the road. She'd show him! Dana could totally take and throw a punch. She immediately proved the opposite by getting into a... It wasn't a boxing stance. Whatever stance Dana had gotten into had somehow managed to completely block Dana's view of everything in front of her... Okay, her close quaters combat may be a bit of a work in progress. But she'd still show Pinochio!

WC: 429
TWC: 2005

"He's hecka cool!!!!! And then theres the Mizukage. She's like. Awesome from what I hear. She reminds me of this wierd dream I  had where I was in a mission with a bunch of people and this super dope ninja was fighting with me wielding a freaking shark sword!!!! Like. It was a sword but it was also definitely made out of shark. I'm not doing it justice but like. It was really hecking cool." As he spoke, he swung his arms wildly around in a motion that probably was meant to emphasize wielding a giant sword, but with the okonomiyaki in his hand, it was more like a very short idiot flailing his lunch about as most of it fell onto the floor. 

"Shit. I.. Didn't think this through." He motioned to the old woman. For the first time since they'd gotten to the village, she seemed less than thrilled to take their order. That seemed so silly to pinochio. Like it was only one more order, nevermind the probably thirty different dishes that Dana had asked for that she was frantically trying to cook up at the same time. Her stall had four burners to an old firewood stove, each now holding a scalding hot wok that she worked at the speed of light to shift and  mix for various bits of food. It took him a moment, but eventually he realized the reason why she'd given him the look. She was definitely a bit overwhelmed by the volume she was asked to make in such a short time. 

Thankfully as Dana retorted, obviously really upset by his suggestion due to the magic of pinochio having not been the empathetic one of the bunch when he was a puppet, Pinochio noticed a quickly growing stack of to go containers filling up the window of the stall. For an old woman she sure did move quickly. 

"Listen. I'm sorry if I genuinely upset you but come on. You think you, with your fancy earthquakes and tree jutsus can actually handle me in a fight of just fists. No ninja magic allowed?! I'm one of the few illustrious wielders of the eight gates! AND I know like four of them already!!" If he were being honest, he couldn't do that much in a fist fight either. Due to the disparity of good taijutsu teachers and techniques, he'd taken the time to actually work on it himself, but he'd only actually learned a couple tai moves. Most of his techniques ended up using his weapons or armor over his fists. Still he kind of counted that. 

Entertaining her wild idea, He'd set his now empty food container on the ground. Taking a deep breath he slid his back foot behind him, widening his stance as he dropped his hands completely to his side. It wasn't really an effective stance, given it didn't seem to protect his body in the slightest, but it was one of his favorites. THe arrogance stance was meant to give the illusion of unpreparedness, emphasizing the ability of the user to fight from what seemed to be a point of relaxation, throwing their enemy off and countering their attempt to attack a presumed weak point with speed and precision. 

(TWC 2572)