The time to rest wasn't really a thing though, before as soon as they got back, they all convened in the meeting room half an hour after they got back. There was a rather large and burly… thing that was hidden beneath a massive sheet at the front of the room, with Ryan standing next to it, looking particularly proud. The look on Ryan's face made Bryant a little nervous, but he kept it to himself and sat quietly. Visuveus, stoic and neutral faced as ever, was about to sit at the back, before Ryan called out to him.
"Excuse me Vincent, I think our model should be up here with me when the costume is revealed. There will be a brief tutorial to go with it."
"Understood." Visuveus answered as he made his way to the front.
"Now, to save time, there won't be much posturing and standing on ceremony. Allow me to introduce our mascot and new face of Dawn Logistics!"
Ryan then pulled the sheet right off, exposing the mascot – a giant, bulbous baby. It had a round, lumpy body that was oddly detailed and well crafted, complete with comparatively tiny arms. The baby wore a diaper with the company logo on the butt, Timberland boots and a bib with the logo on it as well. The enormous head had a tiny face with rosy cheeks, large eyes with massive pupils which left barely any white visible. The pupils were facing opposite directions, as if both eyes were lazy, and owing to the eyebrows being so small, the baby looked a little odd. Tufts of black hair forced their way out from beneath the hard hat that the baby was wearing, and its tiny arms hung loose by its side. There were also wings protruding from the baby's back, and Ryan slowly spun the costume around so everybody could get a look at not only the design, but the logos all over the mascot.
After completing one full revolution of the costume, Ryan then looked at everybody with a proud expression and bellowed.
"Meet Builder Baby!" He said, sounding entirely too excited.
Ryan was met with gobsmacked facial expressions and deep silence, as nobody knew what to say. Visuveus only looked at it as he began to walk around the costumne, not making a sound. Bryant, who had quickly recovered enough from the shock to close his mouth, began to shake his head.
"…how does this represent the business?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked in return, looking a little confused.
"This is a logistics company."
"That's why he's wearing a hard hat."
"But… we don't wear hard hats. We move and carry shit."
"Why does it look so… derpy?" Natalie asked.
"You mean cute, right? Because he is."
"What about that stupid smile, and those goofy ass teeth?" Morgannin chimed in.
"He's teething."
"…and those fucking wings?" Sonny asked, joining in as well.
"…okay, those were leftover from BB's previous occupation. But I found a use for them!"
"Previous occupation? What are you—"
"Let us continue!" Ryan said, cutting Bryant off before grabbing the enormous head and yanking it off, revealing the inside of the costume.
Inside, there was a control panel of sorts, with a number of switches and buttons with clamps on them. The clamps had wires connected to them and the switches and buttons all had labels on them.
"So, Mr. Visuveus Vincent, seeing as you will be donning the BB79X-V1, you shall be getting a quick crash course on how to operate it."
"What the fuck is that cool sounding name doing being given to that piece of shit?!" Morgannin boomed, sounding rather irked.
"Shhh! Quiet!" Sonny shushed, suddenly looking invested in what was going on.
"This costume has a number of functions, hence the control panel. We were in a rush to get this beast up and running before tomorrow, so a bunch of the more bombastic features are currently sealed away, but the stuff that works is awesome enough to have the desired effect. We have this switch which activates the speaker system that'll play music, this button panel is exclusively for sound effects and stuff, but there is only one that is stored on the memory, along with one song. Over here, we have the button for the wings. We didn't have time to properly oil them, so they may make a little noise, but they work. This will shoot a banner and confetti out from the suits' shoulders."
"Is there still a script?" Visuveus asked.
"Not really. There is a mic in the head area, and it is connected, but I received some… advice about the script being unnecessary."
"What are all those wires?" Natalie inquired, also appearing interested now.
"Well, accounting for this dude's broad shoulders and back, I figured it might be difficult for him to reach the buttons in there with his arms, which is why the suit has little T-Rex arms. The wires have rings that will attach to his fingers, so he can pull on the appropriate wire to activate the desired feature."
As the conversation was ongoing, Visuveus began to disrobe, causing the talking to stop and everybody to look at him.
"What are ya doin there, Vincent?" Sonny asked.
"Climbing inside this thing. There's no point in doing all of this if I can't get in and operate this thing." He answered as he hopped out of his overalls and climbed onto the desk, quickly figuring out how to enter. With some squirming and effort, Visuveus slid in and began moving about, testing his mobility.
"It's something of a tight fit, but not terrible." He said.
"Hold, let's get the wires connected to your fingers and then close the suit." Ryan said as he stood on a chair and did just that.
Visuveus was standing with his arms bent and hands by his head, and once Ryan was done, moved them down by his sides.
"So once we close the costume up by popping the head onto the body, it will automatically send power to the panel, switching everything on. The eye holes are by the teeth, so you should be able to see nicely."
Ryan said this as he hopped down from the chair and a few moments later, threw the head right on, closing the costume up once again. The sight of Visuveus Vincent in that ridiculous looking costume was enough to set the crew off, but they did their best holding it all in as they didn't want to set Vincent off. The ex-con then started to move about, taking a few steps and twisting his torso around. The buttons and switches were all colour coded, and were pulsing softly with light as Vincent moved about.
"How's everything in there? Can you see?"
"The eye holes are a bit small, but I can more or less see perfectly."
As Visuveus spoke, his voice played through the speakers atop the costume's head, inside the hard had. The most surprising thing however, was that his voice sounded like a baby's, crackling and popping through the poor quality speakers which only seemed to make it… worse.
"What the fuck?" He asked, again in the baby voice.
"Oh shit, I forgot to mention – there is a voice box in there, to make your voice Builder Baby's! For when you speak for promotion purposes." Ryan answered gleefully.
"…makes sense." Vincent said after a prolonged, tense silence.
"Okay, now I need you to pull the wires for the buttons labeled 'music' and 'waah' if you don't mind." Ryan requested.
Visuveus did just that, and all of a sudden, loud, bombastic classical music started blaring out the speakers – sounding more akin to battle music in an animated show that anything else. Immediately afterwards, the shrill sound sample of a baby crying accompanied the music and filled the music room. The crew's eyes all grew wide and they quickly covered their mouths, trying not to burst into hysterics.
"…what is this?" Bryant asked, being able to maintain the most composure of them all.
"We need things to be loud and attention grabbing. Also, this is a baby. It needs to make baby sounds." Ryan explained casually, as if none of what was going on was ridiculous. "Oh, also, you can't be walking with that strong, powerful gait of yours Visuveus."
"Huh?"
"You've gotta walk like a baby – like a toddler. You know, like a toddler."
"I don't know how toddlers walk."
"What? How can you not know that?" Sonny asked, interrupting.
"I dunno, was too busy being evil, I guess." Vincent answered with a shrug.
"Okay, fine, just do what I do." Ryan said before turning around and walking around the table, with Visuveus following suit.
They laboured around the room, with neither of them really mimicking a baby walk. Visuveus was walking with a strange lean and dip, and that combined with the bobbing of the comically large head had everybody on the verge of having a brain aneurysm trying not to laugh. It wasn't long before the ex-con stopped dead in tracks, and announced that he had to leave to make curfew, so everybody assisted in getting him out of the suit and within a matter of minutes, he was gone, leaving everybody else behind. So much had happened in such a short space of time, nobody knew what to comment on first.
"…now, I know a bunch of crazy shit just happened, but I'm pretty sure we almost died, right?" Morgannin said, breaking the silence. "Like, was that 'too busy being evil' line a joke or not? Because it was hilarious."
"I know right?" Natalie replied. "I'm still scared to laugh at it…"
Bryant meanwhile had followed Ryan into the change room where he was storing the costume, and just stared at him silently.
"What is it this time, B?"
"If you make it out of tomorrow alive, I'll buy you a beer."
Bryant left it at that, and walked out, leaving Ryan in there alone.