MEETING THE TINY MAN [NOMO]

Dana smiled at Pinochio's pondering; finally, some who got it! Well, he maybe didn't understand fully what he was unintentionally hinting at, but he was getting close. Whether she truly was the result of some Fae machinations was unknown to the young Senju, but the more she thought about it the more she decided she liked that theory. It would be just like them to leave her with several random clues - flashes of intuition, her accent, the boat - to lead her on the wrong path entirely. Oh, those cheeky little guys. Maybe Dana really was just a chakra construct like Pinochio said he was, who knew.

"Guess we're basically, loike, the same person then," Dana said, with a slightly cheeky smile. What did she mean by that? No one would ever find out. She definitly totally wasn't being intentionally obtuse for the sake of upholding her weird mysterious asthetics. What? Who said that? "But, anyway, yer pretty cool Pinochio!" She said happily, dropping the cheeky tone. Her right hand went up to pat his head, as was second nature for her at this point, but her left quickly reached over and grabbed her wrist to prevent her from moving any closer to making a grave error. She didn't really mind Pinochio getting angry at her - it was quite hilarious, actually - but she was more worried about him bajillion punching her again and ruining this totally cool outfit she got from Saya's house.

"Oh, that doesn't sound too good," She hummed. Maybe this whole horrible sleeping schedule thing Pinochio was talking about wasn't as fun as it seemed? As a medical expert she really should do some research into the effects of long term sleep deprivation, but Dana was totally lazy and probably wouldn't ever do that. "Oi couild probably whip ye up some sleeping pills if ye'd like?" She offered. Really, ever since she'd discovered the ability to craft weird and wacky food items she hadn't done a lot of that. Dreams of opening up a bakery were a thing of the past, unfortunately. But perhaps they would resurface when the ability to craft - app - more things resurfaced.

Back in the tattoo shop, and Dana was having the absolute time of her life decorating it with Tara. A vine shaped like a love heart there, and a cross-section tree sign that hung outside. She was pleased with her work, tremendously so. So pleased, in fact, that she completely accidentally ignored Pinochio's entire apology. Truth be told she wasn't all that bothered about it, but winding him up was kind of fun. But for now she'd genuinely forgotten about him, and her short attention span meant she wasn't able to pay attention to the two things at once. Tara, however, heard Pinochio speak up and she felt a little bad for him so she went to speak to Dana once all the decorations had been put up.

"Your friend seems to be sorry, I think you should talk to him,"

Dana blinked, brain gearing to a halt for a second. Who was Tara talking about, again? Oh yeah. Weird how her brain missed things like that occasionally. She skipped over to Pinochio and checked over where he was getting the tattoo for any inflamed areas. She'd made her mind to not help him, but she felt a little bad for ignoring his apology earlier.

"Apology accepted! Now, is there anything ye need me to heal? Oi can get rid of all the painful bits easily!"

WC: 587
TWC: 9854

He took the smile as a positive. Apparently he was at least close enough to decyphering the meaning of her coloquialism th--hold on. These big words are a bit much for Pinochio's narration. While it is true that he has all the brain power of the tiny terror herself, with the self aplication to actually make use of it, I feel like we're getting a little carried away with this particular vernacular. Also I just used vernacular in a sentence. Go me. 

"I. Uh. Sure?" How she decided that his time spent over the months creating a binder with color coded information on all of Saya's friends so that he could understand them and either figure out how to interact with them on at least a neutral level, or become such good friends with them that he one ups saya, they like him more, and he finally proves that he's been right about everything and is the strongest in the team, meant that they were the same person, he wasn't sure. Boy that was a mouth full. Try to follow along. He took the compliment to heart and at face value. Then his confidence wavered. What if she was just saying that to mess with him? Was it like all the guys he'd arm wrestled at the proud and prawns bar who say he's impressively strong and then the whole bar just laughs like its all a joke? NO. Probably not right?

"I know. I try to be the coolest cat in the club. We uh. We aren't in a club at current so its not quite so relevant, but yanno. Always gotta keep it up and what not. " Then it happened. He saw the hand moving like a shark through chummed waters, threatening everything he held dear. Threatening his dear precious masculinity with that deadly deadly head pat. How would he ever recover? Everyone at the gym would look at him differently if he allowed this, but he was stuck in place. Closing his eyes he resigned to his fate only to find it never came. An angel wisked the threat away for now. The angel was, of course Dana's other hand. 

"It has been tough, but its mostly a Saya being obnoxiously loud at all hours of the night problem. You know that girl only sleeps four hours max a night?! Every night since she was a kid she drops off four a short spell and then is up and about rushing around the room doing anything and everything. She never gets tired. Its terrifying." THe idea of a sleeping pill seemed great in theory, until one remembered that this was Dana. While she was fairly powerful with ninjutsu, she wasn't what people would call... Focused. She also had a horible habit of playing pranks that could end badly for him. 

The pain started to slip into his realization as the last of his damage resistance finally dropped off. He didn't like this part as much, but still, it was part of the process. Time moved quickly as Dana refused to talk to the tiny boy, and then the tatoo was done and by some act of kindness one of the tatooists convinced her to accept his appology. 

"Ah good. Uh... If you can heal the arm without removing the ink that would be..... Bully?" Gosh he hoped he'd gotten that correct. 

(TWC 10953)

"Of course, one always must stroive to be their coolest," Dana agreed with a nod. It was a lesson that Dana wanted to incorporate into her own life at some point - being the coolest person in the room that is. At the moment, she felt her coolness factor was somewhat lacking compared to all her other qualities. Her ability to throw scary techniques out and throw together an outfit was unparalleled, compared to her coolness which was only middling. How did one become cooler, though? Dana's thoughts wandered back to all the cool people she'd encountered throughout her life: Pinochio, Daiko, Murata. What did they have in common, other than the fact that they were all cool? A mental shrug was all that Dana got for her efforts of thinking; she'd get back to it later.

"Have ye maybe troied using ear muffs? Oi've got some really fancy-looking ones that oi think'd suit ye grandly," Dana suggested, wondering if that could help Pinochio with his little sleeping issue. She was, obviously, slightly joking about the ear-muffs she was talking about suiting him. The ones she had were fluffy, pink, and shaped like big floppy labrador ears. The mental image of Pinochio wearing said ear-muffs was enough to put a big happy smile on her face, doubly so when she imagined the angry expression on his face. Though, living with Saya, Dana imagined he'd be used to being put in similar outfits.

Dana's pale eyebrows at Pinochio's strange turn of phrase: why would healing his arm be comparable to someone who harms and intimidates people? Was it another attempt at mocking her? Dana frowned for several more seconds as she slowly went through the handseals for the Mystical Palm technique, debating whether or not she should even heal him if he was mocking her. Well, she was already done with all the handseals, and she had no confirmation that he actually was mocking her and wasn't using some of his own colloquiums.

"Yeah, ye bet, it'd be totally radicool." Dana said, crinkling her nose at the odd expression. Regardless, as her hands began to glow with a light-blue chakra, she gently held them above Pinochio's arm. The effect was instantaneous, and the redness and swelling on his arm would immediately reduce. In no time at all, Pinochio's arm would look really cool and amazing as if it had already been healing for a couple of weeks.

"There ye go!" Dana said cheerfully, letting the Mystical Palm technique deactivate itself without too much hassle. "That'll be one million Ryo, please." She then said afterward, expression edging on whimsical but mainly blank. Was Dana joking, or was she being completely serious? Was she really asking for a million Ryo?

WC: 458
TWC: 10312

"I mean. Coolness kind of comes with being a rough and tough totally masculine dude. You know how it is." He would raise both arms, doing the steriotypical flexing ones muscles pose as he finished the statement. The pose lost effect almost immediately as what he'd just said hit the wall of his own realization. Had he just suggested that Dana totally knew what it was like to be a totally mascul--When he got home, he would seriously need to work on his small talk. That was embaracing even for Pino.

"Not that I think you're a masculine dude. That would be stupid. I guess its just like. A phrase that one says and doesn't think about, which in this case has not worked in the slightest. I'm just so used to hanging with the bros in the gym yanno. We say stuff like that all the time. Guy talk." Smooth. In a couple of sentences he'd totally saved face by creating a relatable and totally realistic scenario that he couldn't imagine anyone would ever realize was him back peddling to try and fix his screw up. The look on Belle's face told him he was oh so incredibly wrong.

"Alright Totally masculine dude.... Pick something else or out of my shop. I've got an empty lobby to gaze longingly at until someone walks in to pretend they're going to get a tat before leaving having only wasted my time." She punched him right in the center of the tatoo. Normally this wouldn't even be a factor. His natural damage resistance was enough to completely ignore the blow, but he'd just been stuck with a needle for a couple hours and the fresh wound burned like literal fire when she conneted with it.

"Yanno. I haven't considered using Ear muffs. I tried to drown her out with the fires of my forge one time but like. Then the whole floor was easily over a hundred degrees and it was the middle of summer so that was less than idea. If you've got a pair i'd love to try em out and see if they work, as long as they aren't like fluffy pink dog ears or something." It was a coincidence. Nothing more. How could he have possibly predicted exactly what kind of ear muffs Dana would own?! In his defense her style wasn't dificult to predict.

He realizes as he tried out a new phrase that he probably failed once more. This is fine. He could fix this right?

"Bully like. Isn't that a word that means good. Yanno like this steak was bully I'll have another? Did i get that one wrong too?" He turned the accent up to eleven when he gave his referential phrase, skipping over any british connotation and directly into a heavy irish accent--or he would have were these things that existed in the ninja world. Given there is not a britain or ireland, one would asusme they do not. At Dana's suggestion of payment he pulled out his checkbook, and began writing. He was half way through the check before the ammount caught his attention.

"Wh. One. .. mi. We aren't THAT rich."

(TWC 11482)

"Oi... Can't say oi do," Dana blinked at the small flexing man who was in the midst of realizing his mistake of calling Dana a totally masculine dude. Whilst it could be argued that Dana was really strong and totally had the physique that was the envy of many gym-goers and bodybuilders, she'd never been called that before. She wasn't offended, though, and merely enjoyed watching Pinochio try to backpedal and save face. Really, did he think that Dana was the type of person to be bothered about something like that? Dana decided to copy the tattoo artist and attempt to deliver a friendly 5 Strength punch to the exact same place that she just had on Pinochio's arm to show she wasn't bothered, "Don't be worrying about it," She said teasingly.

"Good thing they're really masculine and will suit ye well then!" She said with a thumbs up as her face remained completely straight to not belie the lie, "Oi'll deliver them to ye tomorrow or something!"

As Pinochio continued on to explain the phrase bully to Dana, the Senju's face remained blank as she had absolutely no clue what he was talking about - or maybe she did and was just messing with him. Dana's skills at trolling were so vast that they even extended through the fourth wall. She shrugged when he asked her if he'd gotten the expression wrong, "Oi dunno, probably," She said noncommittally.

At Pinochio's distress over her asking price, Dana giggled and couldn't help but give his shoulder a consolidating pat. Hopefully, he'd find that more agreeable than the head pats she used to give him when they first encountered one another. If not, well, at least he woudln't fire that ten trillion punch technique at her again whilst they were inside his favourite tattoo place. "Oi was just codding ye, silly."

After waving goodbye to the lovely tattoo ladies, Dana walked outside with Pinochio hopefully following her. If he did so, she would then turn to the small guy and crouch down to try and give him a small hug. Regardless of whether or not he accepted, Dana would go on to say, "It was lovely seeing you again, Pinochio! Thank ye for the tattoo and the lovely day, but oi must be off! See ye around!" And with that, Dana skipped off humming a pleasant tune.

[Exit]

WC: 399
TWC: 10711

Will do claims in a bit

Total WC: 10711

Claims

Pinochio's Chakra Signature
7.5k words for Talented (Ninjutsu)
1.5k words for Nature Chakra Proficiency
462 words to finish Great Vortex Technique, other words claimed here
1125 words for B-Rank Minus Field

Stat claims:
2500 words to untrain 25 Speed
2500 words to train 25 Chakra

"RIght. Yea. That makes alot of sense actually. " It would have made sense for him to say something so rediculous if he were a standard dude bro whose existence revolved around spending time with a bunch of muscle heads at the gym, bragging about their dead lift and comparing uh. weight stuff... And in truth, in his head that's mostly how he saw himself. The fact that his circle was currently.... Dana and a training dummy he'd named aarnolde brought a great dissonance between how he saw himself and reality though. It was in this dissonance that the mistake origionated. 

He seemed to be vetting extremely good at insulting her without even thinking about it. These ninjutsu kids. They just can't take a joke. It was probably more so that he was bad at just generally existing with other people. Saya got all of the socialized experience while Pinochio's understanding of the world until this point was raw knowlege. With the mental transfer that happened upon his creation, It was understandable that actually dealing with people wouldn't be a skill that he'd gotten. It also didn't help that in his time as a puppet he'd specifically only gotten the chance to interact with Saya. That does a number on even the most mentally sound ninja. Still, when she punched him, bringing a wide eyed gaze of pain to the tiny man's face, He realized that maybe he hadn't screwed up so badly this time. 

"Ah. Yes! Manly tough ear muffs. That's actually exactly what I need to fill out my look. I was thinking about investing in some like. over sized t-shirts andt hen cutting the sleeves and sides off of them. yanno to wear to the gym and look really cool but honestly I wasn't sure if that would work. " He was excited for these manly earmuffs. Bless his heart. It would be an unfortunate surprise when he finally had the bunny ear muffs in hand. Dana truely was a master trickster. 

It was surprising to Pino that he'd gotten that phrase wrong. Had he not heard her say it herself? maybe it was something he'd seen on the television and then just assumed that it wasn't a horible steriotyping of... Thats about where his undestanding ended. It was almost definitely a steriotype situation, but as the culture didn't really exist in the ninja world he couldn't put his finger on what it was from. 

"Oh. Right. Yea. That's good. Thats what friends do and stuff. They uh. Coddle each other." Pino made a mental note to look that word up when he got home. He could infer some meaning from the conversation, but he wanted to be sure that he could use it correctly in the end. He gave her a wave goodbye, even as he considered the usage in his head he realized that words were much harder than he'd intitially figured. There was like inflection and stuff, and he didn't want to come off as too knowledgeable, so he needed to pick the perfect center point between his understanding of the language and how most speak in casual convorsation so that he could be well undestood and not come off as pretentious. Gym bros are not pretentious. 

(TWC 12023

1132 towards twin rising dragons mastery for power (2063/2063) previous training
1125 towards discovery of an incomplete truth (1125/1125)
1125 towards bull rush (1125/1125)
1125 towards iron wall (1125/1125)
750 towards lightness (750/750)
4k for wind element
2k towards whistle trigger(1500/1500))
891 towards imitation black hole(891/1313)

exit and topic closed! ))

Approved