Gnasher Task: Operation Scissor Grabbers - Part 2

Like a stranger entering an old western cowboy saloon, she walked in and came up to the counter with a face that meant serious business. "Hey, we're here to take on that task you put up. Just show us the ropes and we'll get started." At first, the Banette looked up from his work over towards Bisharp, before peering down at Tori, distinguishing whom the voice belonged to. The ghost frowned, he wasn't sure about the Bisharp in the scarf, who’s nervousness he could taste, but he could tell the Pawniard appeared to know what she was doing from her serious demeanor. "Fine. In the back, I could use a pair of 'scissors'. Since sewing is too complex a job for amateurs like you" he assumed, "all you have to do is cut the fabric along the lines according to each pattern. I will take care of the sewing." He floated over to the side of the counter before opening the little latch that led to the back where the workshop was. "Remember, time and quality. Don't disappoint me like the LAST few lazy failures!" With that, Tori rushed into the back ahead of Bisharp, before turning around to Gnasher's final words. "Start off with making a pair of Spiky Hoods and cloaks, and later, plenty of them Bloon Bags and Pod Pouches. Those have been selling off fast. The scissors are there, fabrics are here, there's the work table. KEEP your work stations CLEAN. And what's in the garbage STAYS in the garbage, so NO scavenging! now GET TO WORK!" Finally, Gnasher left the two alone to do their work. "....... yeah... let's get to work... I'll cut, you can... 'help' me cut". She said, hoping Bisharp knew what she was implying, though it might be a better idea to work a little first before they started garbage digging. Tori looked down at a pattern that had been laid out but not started on yet and she began to carefully navigate her bladed hand along the lines.

Bisharp quickly looked around the room and found the garbage, located somewhat far from the workstation. But he listened to Tori's suggestion and figured that it might not be too much trouble to at least try working a bit so that if Gnasher were to come back soon, they wouldn't get kicked out. He used his finger to also carefully cut along the dotted line of another pattern fabric. "So what's the plan?" he urgently whispered to Tori.

The little Pawniard girl sighed a little bit. There was a reason she had set up a plan before they had entered this store, did he not remember or did he simply forget? It was dangerous trying to discuss plans on the job with the risk of being overheard or caught, especially since Gnasher had distinctly proven to be strict. In her frustration, she accidently cut a mistake into the pattern, "shoot" she whispered nervously before tossing the ruined pattern into the trashcan and...for a brief moment, rummaging her knifed arm through the garbage and quickly picking something out of it... it was only a Sherriff star which she quickly threw back into the garbage before pulling out a new pattern to restart, hopefully giving Bisharp an idea of what they are doing. She quietly peered back at the door for a long pause before gesturing for Bisharp to come close for her to whisper to him. "...I already told you, so here's the plan. We take turns watching out for you know who while the other sneaks through the garbage. We'll speak in code. When the coast is clear, I'll say 'hand me the scissors please'. And when I see Gnasher coming, I'll say 'you can have the scissors back now'. Got it? Though for now, let's just work for a while and figure out how tight 'security' is in this place, okay?" She then returned to work, focusing her attention on her work while glancing at the door at the corner of her eye now and then.

Bisharp nodded. "Aaah, okay. Got it." He then went back to work, focusing on the Spiky Hoods and Kitty Cloaks in front of him. He recognized the pattern of the Kitty Cloak as that of a Skitty, but the Spiky Hood...now that was an interesting design. Nevertheless, if the instructions were right, all he had to do was cut along the dotted line. He did so with his finger...slowly...very slowly...not wanting to mess anything up on the first try. He was so focused on the 'quality' aspect of it that he apparently had forgotten about the 'time.'

On Tori's side of things, while she was doing her best trying to make clean cuts (though not perfect) while trying to keep a good pace. By 3 minutes, she was already done cutting her first pattern of a Spiky Hood before moving on to the Volcaronicloak, which apparently was a similar pattern than the hood. She was definitely a worker, it best explained why her father often bugged her to do the 'scavenging' and 'distraction' tasks. She was very reliable in those things, she knew how to take orders and work, despite how much she hated doing so; well, at least the 'taking orders' part, particularly from people she didn't like. Though in this case, it was for Bisharp, she owed him a lot and she felt indebted to him; despite how many times he had said "I'm happy when you're happy" which she did not understand, this was one of the rare opportunities she could do something she would deem meaningful for Bisharp. After about a half hour, Gnasher finally came in to inspect the duo's work. He peered over at Tori's work; at this time, she had already finished almost one of everything in the shop. "Hmm... " He frowned, "the corners are too roughly cut here and there, try to make your cuts more precise! Otherwise, not bad. Keep working." Tori returned the frown a little irritated before returning to work. What else was to be expected? If perfection was to be expected on this job, she could only try harder... But now that she thought about it, she worried about the cranky ghost's response to Bisharp's work; she had sparingly glanced over at how Bisharp was doing now and then, and last time she looked, he seemed to have hardly anything done...

Bisharp was STILL struggling with the third Spiky Hood when Gnasher came over to his work and suddenly stopped. "Wait a minute! Waaaaait a minute! What is this!? You only have three done!? Just THREE!" The disgruntled ghost yanked up one of the Spiky Hoods. "Your girlfriend here has done way more than YOU, so—oh." He then inspected the fabric a little more carefully compared to the one Tori made and conceded. "Oh, okay...yeah, yours looks a little neater...which is good...but try and pick up the pace, will ya? Customers are waiting! Chop chop! We're losing daylight!" He then took the three hoods that Bisharp had finished out of the room, surely to the front desk. Bisharp just sat there and sighed as he pulled out more accessories to work on. MAN, this was hard! He was NOT a hard worker at all, as he was way more used to lying around like a bump on a log and only ever did missions that involved him getting to use his awesome battle moves instead of...well...silly stuff like trying to cut precisely! How could Amy have the patience for this? He pretended to be hard at work with the Volcaronicloaks, and as soon Gnasher was truly out of the room this time, he said to Tori, "Pass me the scissors please," while hurriedly digging through the trash can, trying to see if his precious Danger Shades were somewhere in there. Why was it that there was SO MUCH JUNK that was crammed in there, too, of all sorts of different varieties? Man, did Gnasher go to town on those old accessories. He just had to sort through the junk even faster, hoping to find those shades somehow.

Tori flinched at seeing him criticized like that, but was relieved to hear he was being given a second chance... that was too close. She continued working right away, having gone through plenty of patterns already she was getting the hang of cutting. It was better than how she did the first few patterns. She dismissively nodded upon hearing Bisharp ask for scissors, understanding the gesture as she continued working and glancing at the door now and then. It bothered her a little that Bisharp's rummaging was a bit noisy, though hopefully it wasn't enough to be heard passed the door. She nervously continued to work, though trying to keep her composure about it. She was working on cutting a simple string for a simple gem necklace... she couldn't help but stare at the nice gem as it brought back a forgotten memory. Back in the happier naive days, she use to like collecting gems from Giant Chasm Cave, and had an especial liking for Dawn Stones... she remembered finding a pebble-sized one and prizing it as her most precious possession... until one day she lost it and never saw it again. She sighed at the memory, before she noticed Bisharp's rummaging was getting a little too noisy. She quickly looked towards the door and heard grumbling behind it. "Alright, I'd like the scissors back." She almost yelled, rather nervously, hopefully in time before Gnasher would come in.

Bisharp quickly pushed the trash can back in its place before leaping back to his workstation. Nuts, he didn't do a thing to show for it! And he couldn't even find those shades, either...he quickly tried cutting something up right before Gnasher floated in the doorway. "HEY! You barely got ANYTHING done, slowpoke! What were you doing the past... waaaaiit, what is that abomination, anyway?" he said, looking closer at Bisharp's handiwork. "Huh?" Bisharp noticed that he had accidentally cut three of the cloaks at once...but their dotted lines didn't exactly match up. "Oh! I was...trying to get these done faster by doing a whole bunch of them at once! To make up for how slow I am." He grinned nervously, hoping the excuse would work. Gnasher just frowned. "Well, it's all good to try and all, but next time, align them right!! Now get back to work! I'm only giving you one more shot, and you'd better TRIPLE what you have now, pal!" And with that he left Bisharp to actually try that technique out for real as he floated over to Tori.

Tori had finished cutting 3 strings for simple gems and a handful of other patterns, enough to say she had been doing her fair share during the time that had passed since his last inspection, the cuts showed a some improvement too, though of course not perfect in the eyes of a perfectionist. "Here's the pile ready for stitching" she said, casually gesturing to both the pile she recently finished and the pile Gnasher had apparently left behind after his first examination. She didn't pause to hear the ghost's critique as she was still cutting along the lines of a Poncho, doing a well enough job, relieved that Bisharp once again managed to pass the grouchy ghost's inspection...

"Your cutting is improving, though you got to work faster! Try doing that layer trick that lug there is doing, make progress! Alright, keep working you two, rush hour starts around this time and we need STUFFED shelves!" Gnasher then grabbed the finished cut pieces from Tori's work desk and floated on out the tailor shop, slamming the door shut. "Urgh!- Bisharp!" She tried to contain herself from bashing her hands against the counter in front of her and her frustration that was steadily growing. ".... Pass the scissors please." She then gestured for Bisharp to take her seat parallel to the door and started quietly looking through the garbage heap.

Bisharp got the hint and sat in Tori's seat, pulling out a few pieces where he could try out the stacking technique for real. He stacked the Volcanicloaks, Kitty Cloaks, Spiky Hoods, Bloon Bags, and Twirling Shawls in piles with many of the same kind and began to cut through them, carefully, one at a time. But because he had to be on the constant lookout for Gnasher, he couldn't focus as much as he wanted to, and he really hoped that Tori could find the shades for him. Unfortunately, right as he finished cutting the final pile, he could hear the Banette coming and urgently muttered, "You can have the scissors back now."

"You know what? SCREW the SCISSORS!!" and unexpectedly (and not so unexpectedly), Tori KICKED the trashcan over, letting ALL the thrown away accessories including the fabric bits spread ALL over the floor. And there they were, the Danger Shades in the corner, in plain sight! "ACK!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" Gnasher shrieked upon seeing the huge mess of junk on his floor. "The BOTH of you are FIRED!! GET OUT, NOW!!" his eyes glowed red in rage before he then tried to grab Tori, which she managed to barely dodge. "BISHARP! Get it, NOW and LET'S GO!!" She called out, trying to avoid the angry ghost's assaults.

Though Bisharp was shocked at the fact that Tori just ruined her own plans and kicked the trashcan over, he saw the Danger Shades in the corner and LEAPT for them. As soon as he grabbed them, he saw that Gnasher was attacking Tori. Something seemed frightfully familiar about the way he was doing so, a way he hadn't seen since Mission 2, when he had to go get Devonshire's stamp back from a Weavile by the name of Slasher...a Weavile who had held poor Ralts hostage during the heated battle back then. Wait...Slasher...Gnasher...even their names sounded identical! And with the news that Slasher had recently died... He slapped the Danger Shades on his face and shouted, "Hey you! Rag doll whom I KNOW is Slasher! Leave her alone!" Upon hearing the familiar name, Gnasher froze in shock, even more intimidated by the impact that Bisharp's Danger Shades gave. Bisharp used the opportunity to leap for Tori, grab her, and run out the door, slamming it on his way out. He ran and ran and ran, hoping to not have to deal with Gnasher any more than was necessary, but at the same time, more than ready in case the ghost tried to chase after them.

She was just left in shock, she didn't expect Bisharp to actually come and grab her out of danger and carry her to safety... well, at least during the moment. When she thought about it now, of course Bisharp would do so! Once again, Giant Chasm had left her with many subconscious expectations, she was so used to not being helped like that, let alone, without asking anyone to do so first. She hug Bisharp closer in his arms in gratitude for his kindness. She then looked back, wondering if the Gnasher... or Slasher... was tailing after them, she saw no one. Then again, Gnasher was a ghost; if Bandit being with had taught her anything, it was that ghosts could disappear from sight at will. She could only hope that Gnasher wasn't following at all, invisible or not. When they came to a stop, somewhere in the woods far away from Tao Village, she then turned her attention back to Bisharp to finally get her first look at him with his new shades on. "..... heheh, you look cuter than I thought you would~!" she said, unable to help but giggle at how adorable they appeared on Bisharp to her; it was a rather flashy design.

Bisharp laughed. "You think?" he asked (as a bit of a rhetorical question) as he pulled off a flashy pose that, though he couldn't see himself, what with the lack of reflective surfaces around, he was pretty sure made him look awesome. He quickly looked around one more time just to make sure Gnasher really wasn't chasing them. Either way, he sure wasn't stepping foot in that place again. He sat down to the ground and sighed, hugging Tori close and lovingly petting the back of her head. "But still...remember what I said? You'd never know just how awesome something would look until you try it! So, um...what I'm trying to say is...thanks, Tori." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and added, "Yeah, so I know I suck at asking for favors and stuff...but I suppose this could count. Right?"

"You kidding?" she smiled playfully, "of course it counts! I would sure hope it counts! After all, I still have a big debt of gratitude to pay off with you, whether you like it or not~ If you're going to go through lengths just to make me happy, I might as well do the same for you, and that's what we did at that store, okay?..." she sighed, letting herself relax against Bisharp's chest. "You're welcome, you really did look awesome back there. In fact, why don’t we head home and show your family your new shades? I'm sure Gimi will be impressed!" she smiled, eager to head home after a trial’s work.

"Of course! Let's go show them," he replied, carrying her back to his parents' place. He sighed as he stared ahead. Yes... getting the Danger Shades truly was the way to go.

The End!