Creating the visor was much harder than I had thought it would be. The frame took the longest time, mostly just shaping all the required materials to form it in the first place. Afterwards, the internal components were pretty easy. None of the tech was reality-breaking, so I could repurpose the simple components Toybox provided to form the mechanisms inside.
Leaning back, I shot a glance at Cranial who was scrolling through her phone. "Say. What happens if I wasn't a tinker or a spy?"
She poked her head up. "Hm? Oh you're done?" Leaning to the side, she caught a glimpse of my unfinished goggles. "Well, to answer your question, I would evacuate immediately and seal the dimension you were in. Without any way back out…" She trailed off with a slight smile.
Yikes. What a way to go. Dehydration and starvation, from what I remember, were an extremely painful way to die. And without Dodge's tech, there was no way you could escape. The Entities aren't exactly fond of handing them out willy-nilly.
"How do you even tell if someone was a spy in the first place?" I asked while glancing around the room. "I doubt it's easy to run a background check. Not without breaking the Unwritten Rules." I asked as I started carefully placing the lenses in.
Cranial placed a finger to her lips. "Well, I can't reveal all our secrets can I?" She smirked. "But I'm sure you can figure it out." She said as she vaguely gestured into the air. Pausing for a moment, I shot a look at her.
"Very well then. Challenge accepted." Sliding the final lens into place, I flipped the cover that would hide my eyes and all the internal components and screwed it all down. Leaning back, I felt my spine crack in several places as I unwound myself. I slid the visor over the upper half of my face, covering pretty much the entire top half of my face. Several 'feelers' pressed themselves onto my skin to track my movements, not uncomfortable by any means but definitely something to get used to.
I ran through the full gamete of tests, scrunching up my face, squinting and widening my eyes, and just exercising all of my facial muscles. It worked mostly, though I did need to tweak the sensitivity on some of the feelers. Nothing that wouldn't take a lot of time though so I guess it was good enough for now.
Turning around, I unwrapped my scarf and took a breath of non-stuffy air for the first time. Cranial took a look at my goggles and gave a brief nod. Now time to figure out how she figured out I wasn't a spy…
Clearly it was something within the room itself. Dodge's dimensions were practically impossible to find and I do think it was nearly impossible for signals to travel in and out. So if Toybox's main dimension found out, they would have to do some wonky setup to transfer that data to Cranial. Not only that they would also have to ensure that the signal couldn't be tracked either to its destination or the source. Which sounds like a massive hassle.
And it wasn't some obscure super complex mechanism. Cranial was sure I could figure it out so that was out. I scanned through the room. The lenses were already putting in good work, allowing me to see even specks of dust and metal powder even while standing at the center of the room. Pulling the zoom back, I started looking up.
Because no one really thinks to look there, do they? When was the last time you looked at a ceiling? Just now right? When I asked? Thought so.
The ceiling didn't have too much. A simple paneling, lights and a few black boxes that kinda looked like those wifi extenders you would find in offices or something. But I seriously doubted they were actually extenders. Glancing back at Cranial, I pointed a finger up at them and her smile grew a little wider.
Was I on the right track? Probably. Unfortunately, none of my powers could tell the function of an object through pure observation. At the very least, I needed to see its internal components to even start. But… if I had to guess, it's something to do with Cranial.
Like who were the members of Toybox? Dodge, the Dimension Guy; Glace, Cryogenics; Pyrotechnical, Flames; Big Rig, Building Builder; Bauble, Glassworking; and Toy Soldier, Power Suits. Cranial was the only one who had a specialty that could even start sniffing out spies in the first place with her Neurology specialty. Would it be that big of a stretch to say that she could develop something, maybe in conjunction with another tinker, to detect spies?
"Maybe… something like an intent reader?" I cocked my head. Let's see how much shit I could throw at the wall. "Well, if they weren't a tinker, they would be fucked the moment you asked then to tinker… But then how do you tell if a tinker was a spy? Feeling out how much a person has negative intent towards Toybox?" I stared at her. Cold reading wasn't my specialty but let's give it my best shot.
"Mmm… maybe not entirely. Negative intent is a broad spectrum. You'll need a way to narrow it down and tell the difference between specifically 'I hate Toybox' and 'I wanna punch my neighbour's lights out'. Brainwave scanning? Long-range memory reader? I know you can extract memories from people, and so reading them shouldn't be that hard." I narrowed my eyes and the sound of motors running made me zoom into her face.
"Though it's also probably not a memory reader. Not perfectly anyway unless you're willingly breaking the Unwritten Rules and if such a thing gets out, your reputation as a tinker's neutral option goes to shit. Maybe a mental modeling software?" I shot a glance at Cranial whose face looked a little shocked. I was guessing that I was on the right track.
"Is it instantaneous? Hard to say. Tinkertech is bullshit but I also doubt it unless you're sandbagging. You would need time to construct a good mental model of the target. That's why you want them to tinker in this room, so those black boxes can take their time to scan them and construct it. If the person was a spy or someone out to screw over Toybox, you could easily slip out while they were concentrating on their work." I now knew why Lisa was such an ass. This was pretty fun actually. "Am I wrong?"
Cranial smiled and nodded. "Not bad. Most people don't get that."
I grimaced slightly. "Really?" I cocked my head.
"Mhm." She shrugged. "Most tinkers aren't actually smart, using their powers to coast along which comes at a certain cost. Like the lack of critical thinking. Though it's more pronounced with Thinkers. Generally, they either say 'don't know' within the minute or after pacing circles around the room."
The Celestial Forge awakened. Tossing the arm to the Clothing Crafting Constellation, it failed and miserably slunk back.
"So who else managed to get it?" I couldn't really say much. It was kinda understandable especially if your power was just handing knowledge to you whenever you asked for it. I would probably be in a similar boat if it weren't for Savant ensuring that I was always integrating new information at a rapid pace.
"Can't say." Cranial said with a smile. "You can figure it out with that brain of yours right?" Letting out a breath, my smile turned a little more brittle. I got the feeling she told this to every person who figured it out. Assuming there were others.
Catching my pained look, Cranial raised a hand and patted on the shoulder. "Ahahahaha. Don't worry if you can't figure it out. It's not a test." I shot a glance at her before sighing. "Anyway, you're part of Toybox now. At least in essence. We'll still need to handle some administrative stuff." She cracked her neck.
"Sounds quite official." I remarked as I wrapped my scarf around my face again and pulled off the goggles. Stowing it into my bag, we stepped out of the room. A moment later, Cranial pulled out a small switch. I wanted to try and figure out how it worked but before I could react, Cranial's thumb stabbed down.
A hole was torn in space. Well, torn wasn't the right word. It looked like someone took a pair of scissors to reality, the edges were a little frayed as reality tried its damdest to close it. However it maintained its shape, pushing back against reality's efforts with relative ease. Cranial looked over at me before nodding.
"Yup. Most people react that way too when they see Dodge's work." Stepping through, she extended a hand. "Need some help? It's a bit scary for most the first time they step through. Though I don't know why… Maybe thinking about what would happen if the portal closed while they were crossing?" She shot a glance at me.
She had to be fucking with me. There was no other reason why she would put that mental image in my head. Holding my tongue, I took a moment to compose myself. "If you wanted to hold my hand, you could just ask." I grabbed her hand and tried to step through the portal. But her grip tightened and Cranial practically dragged me through before closing the portal behind me.
Her goggles stared into my eyes for a moment before she spun on her heel. Walking up to a door, she pressed a button on it. "Y'know. Just to give everyone a moment to mask up." She said as she tapped her fingers against the door. I couldn't help but feel that they riffed it off the Wards' room. Then again Toybox had been around for a while. I guess it was possible that they got this from the PRT. Or that the PRT got it from them.
After a few moments, she unlocked the door and walked in. "Welcome to the Toybox dimension." She spread her arms and gestured to the area around us. Compared to the smaller initiation workshop, this was a full house. The living room was really spacious, with a large television on one wall, a long couch, as well as a sizable dining table. The kitchen was set off to the side with a rather substantial array of cooking appliances. Three hallways led deeper into the dimension, with a few neat labels. One for workshops, one for bedrooms and another for facilities, whatever that meant.
In the kitchen was a girl pouring over a cake in front of her. Her platinum blonde hair was tied into a tight bun with a few wispy locks framing her face. The cake itself was intricately decorated, with several swirls and a cascade of flowers. Poking her head up, her mask was fairly ornately decorated, looking similar to a masquerade mask. Primarily ice blue and white, with lace and swooping lines making it look like a bird's beak.
"Ah, Cranial, you're back." She smiled before glancing over to me. Her voice was a bit on the lower side. "And this must be the new member?"
"Mm." She nodded. "Glace, this is…" She trailed off as she stared at me.
"Erstein." I supplied.
"Erstein. Glace." Cranial finished.
Glace nodded. "I would shake your hand but…" She raised a frosting-covered palm and wiggled it. "You're here to finish up his registration?" Cranial nodded. "I'll leave you to it." She turned her attention back to me. "It's pretty simple. It's just a bunch of yes/no questions to figure out what you need and what you're comfortable with. It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes."
Tapping my shoulder, Cranial gestured for me to follow. Entering the 'facilities' hallway, we stopped in front of a door labeled 'Cranial's Office'. Sitting down, she set down a small stack of papers. Lifting one of them, I scanned through the questionnaire. Glace really wasn't kidding when she said it was just yes/no questions.
Sighing, I shot a look at Cranial. Shrugging her shoulders, she took a seat on a chair next to the wall. "Take your time. I only woke up a few hours ago." She stretched and pulled out a book from a nearby shelf. Checking my phone, it was almost ten in Brockton. I didn't exactly have school but I could start to feel my head getting heavy.
"Alright. Let's get this over with." I muttered as I started running through each question.
I threw my head back as I finished filling out the final question. "Done!" I pinched the bridge of my nose. These questions basically hit all the possibilities while working for Toybox. Who were you willing to work with? What groups do you not want to work with? Were you willing to work with other tinkers? What specialties could you work with?
A pain but it was more time-consuming than anything else. Cranial lifted her head up. Bookmarking the page, she slid it back into the shelf. Grabbing the stack of papers, she tossed it into a… machine that started to flick through it at a rapid pace. The computer screen flickered and threw all my answers up on the screen.
Did they repurpose a MCQ marking machine for this?
Tapping away, Cranial did something before stepping back and closing it. "Done. You're now officially part of Toybox now."
I squinted slightly at her before nodding. "That easy?"
"That easy." She confirmed. "Well… that's all for now really. You can either stay here for a bit longer or for the night if you want and get to know the others. Oh and you'll need a Toybox phone." She hopped over to a drawer and pressed her finger against the lock. The latch slid out with a click and she pulled out a normal looking phone and tossed it over.
"It has everything you need in a phone. Untraceable, capable of bypassing most forms of signal disruptions, and if you hold your phone over it, it will copy the data over if you need it. It also has my number, along with the other members' as well." She explained briefly.
Picking up the phone, I stared at it for a moment. "Won't the tinkertech inside break fairly easily?" I quirked an eyebrow.
Cranial made a 'so-so' motion. "Kinda. You'll need to bring it in for maintenance every month or so. But it shouldn't break too easily otherwise."
Slipping into my bag, I let Cranial finish up. "Or you can head back to Brockton Bay."
And risk getting murked in the middle of the streets? God no. I would have to travel through so many gang territories in the middle of the night, it wasn't even funny. "I think I'd rather stay here if you would have me?"
Nodding, her mouth curled to a thoughtful look. "If that's the case… are you willing to reveal your identity?" I paused for a moment. That's… Hm.
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I weighed the pros and cons in my head. And the cons were basically 'what if they betrayed me?' Which wasn't much of a con so much as it was paranoia. Although I was using Toybox for their resources for now, I don't think it would hurt to reveal my identity? The prior members of Toybox had their identities still hidden and I doubt any of them parted on bad terms. And it would build trust with them…
"It's totally fine if you don't–" Cranial started but I raised a hand to cut her off.
"It's fine. Actually." I slowly removed my scarf from my face. And realized how stuffy and humid the air I was breathing was. "I'm Nathan Leong."
Pausing for a moment, she took off her goggles. "Claire Matthews." She extended a hand out. I blinked for a moment before grabbing her hand. She was really cute. My surprise must have been written on my face because Claire smirked and turned on her heel. "Let's go. I'll show you around."
Maybe it was just my imagination. But I could have sworn that her hips were swaying a little bit more. I narrowed my eyes and tried to use Savant's to compare but perfect recall didn't give perfect measurements so I couldn't give any definitive answers. Putting it out of my mind, I followed behind her.
The house was far bigger than I thought it would be. Dodge had made it semi-modular and somehow stitched different dimensions together with the help of a signal tinker. Each doorway was somehow connected to a different dimension that held the room, which also allowed him to disconnect and reconnect dimensions as he saw fit. Which led to some pretty annoying pranks.
"I can't tell you how many times someone walked into another person's room due to him." Claire sighed. "He doesn't do it too often though. But don't be surprised if you walk out of your room and end up directly in the toilet." Well, a bit concerning but it was an incredible security measure as well. Any assault could quickly grind to a halt as the area is isolated. Or by turning an area into looping space to trap them.
I frowned slightly. If this was the case, then how did the Slaughterhouse Nine kill off Toybox? Then I remembered all parahumans turned into idiots when Jack was involved. I guess that was good enough of an explanation. It wasn't like Jack explicitly explained how he managed to do it in the first place. The prick.
Claire showed where most of the important rooms were, which were usually toilets, offices, where the snacks were kept. Plus, she handed me a bag of toiletries that they kept on hand. A spare toothbrush, toothpaste and some hygiene products like mouthwash and facial cleanser.
Heading back to the living room, Glace had removed her mask as well. She very much had that 'princess' sort of face to her which was juxtaposed by the flecks of frosting on her face and hands. Catching my look, she waved her hand at me. "My name is Grace." She smiled happily as she moved her cake to the fridge.
A weird look crossed my face. "Glace?"
"Guh-rrrr-ace." She rolled the 'r' as she washed her hands. "Yes, it's similar to my cape name." She nodded. I turned to look at Cranial who shrugged her shoulders.
Grace and Claire. Glace and Cranial. I narrowed my eyes. Okay then. "I'm Nathan." I bowed slightly.
"What's your specialty?" She wiped her hands down the front of her apron. Claire also perked her head up. "I don't think you've told us yet."
I stopped in my tracks. Specialty… I tried to find some sort of underlying principle or subject that my tech used. And came up woefully short. It felt like each of my perks actively disliked being mislabeled. Or being stuck with something that misrepresented it. Laughing nervously, I quickly threw up an excuse.
The Celestial Forge spat an arm to the Magical Facilities Constellation. And my heart rate jumped for a moment before all my expectations came crashing down a moment later as it missed.
"I… uh… don't know my specialty?" Claire immediately curled into a slight frown. "I just got my powers pretty recently so… I haven't experimented enough to learn what it should be." Claire didn't seem like she believed me, but they accepted my excuse for now.
After a bit of conversation, mostly about inane topics or some inside jokes, I excused myself and hurried to my room. Tossing my bag to the side, I pulled off most of my clothes. Unfortunately, they didn't include some clean clothes so I was stuck with what I was wearing. Which wasn't exactly comfortable for sleepwear.
Pulling off most of my clothes, I used Painted On to thin them out. Collapsing on the bed, I barely had enough time to register that I was lying down before a wave of fatigue slammed into my head and forced me to sleep.
The next morning, I was introduced to some of the other members of Toybox. Dodge, or Maverick, waved at me from his position on the couch. Displayed on the TV screen was some variation of Smash Bros. with the kid absolutely beating his opponent. The other man, Liam, was apparently Toy Soldier, a well-built guy who looked like he could pummel someone to the ground.
"Heya!" Maverick waved at me while executing an absolutely disrespectful Final Smash that sent Liam's character flying and ending the round. Liam leaned back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How's Toybox so far?" He set the controller aside as his victory screen played out.
"It's pretty good. The bed's pretty comfortable." I remarked.
He nodded. "Should be! We got it specially-made by a fabric tinker in Colorado." He glanced over to Liam. "What was their name again…?"
"Seamstress." Liam grunted. A fabric tinker. In Worm? I mean… I didn't see why not? But it was really hard to reconcile fabrics of all things as a tinker power. How does that generate any form of conflict whatsoever? What type of trigger would produce such a power?
"Right! They gave us a few bolts of fabric and we made them into bed sheets." Maverick started rambling as he started talking about the logistics of fitting a full bed through their comparatively smaller doors. Liam gave me a look before giving a 'what can you do?' shrug. Laughing nervously, I slowly stepped past the couch to grab some breakfast.
Due to the fact that Toybox's dimensions sat outside of the usual time zones, meals weren't exactly standardized. Which meant, I was pouring cereal for myself while Grace was having a slice of her cake that I saw her working on before I left. From the look of the plates and the smell lingering in the kitchen, someone else also just had steak.
"You wanna have a slice?" Grace offered as I sat down. Grimacing, I shook my head. I could still feel yesterday's dinner sitting in my stomach. Shrugging her shoulders, she continued working on her slice. "Oh we're also planning to give you a proper debut."
A… debut? I cocked my head and stared at her in confusion.
"Ehrm… It won't be like right now, right now. Like once we get a lab and workshop set up for you, and you have all your stuff ready. Maybe have a product we could market or a specific type of request you would like to take…" She trailed off as she gestured in the air. "Then we can announce that a new tinker joined Toybox. Once that's done, we'll usually have an uptick in requests from potential clients and you can start earning your keep." Grace explained.
"Ah." I understood now. "Marketing and PR."
Grace tilted her head to the side while pressing the tips of the fork against her lip. "Pretty much." She agreed. "The same thing happened when most of us joined actually. Well, those who had something to show off. For others like Big Rig, we usually don't market them too hard, instead we recommend them for extremely specific contracts from clients, like construction or demolition."
"And charge them through the nose for their help?" I deadpanned as I crunched on my breakfast.
Grace nodded. "Pretty much!"
That made some amount of sense. They didn't exactly have what one would call a varied power set. "What about Toy Soldier? Isn't his power suit like massive as well?" I glanced over at the man who was in another round of Smash Bros. And doing just as well as the first time around. Turning back to Grace, she shook her head.
"He can create smaller power suits if the client wants one?" She said with a confused look. Ah. That made a lot more sense.
Nodding, the door opened for Cranial and another person to walk in. This one was wearing something between a blacksmith's clothes and a biker's flame-decaled suit. A holster on his side held a revolver with a similar fiery appearance. From the looks of things, I guess this was Pyrotechnical?
"So you're the new recruit?" He walked over and pulled off his mask. "I'm Pyrotechnical or Jamie out of costume."
"Nathan. Or Erstein." I introduced myself. "Nice to meet you."
Jamie nodded. "From Brockton Bay right?" I nodded with a pained smile. "Can't say I fault you for staying here. Never been there personally, but some of the former members of Toybox did during the Marquis and Allfather era of things. 'Absolute shitshow," they called it." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Sounds about right." I agreed.
Sitting down, he rested his arms against the table. "Right, I think Claire also said that you didn't know your specialty as well?" He furrowed his brows. Nodding, I waited for the other shoe to drop. "Good… That's really good." My building panic suddenly turned to confusion. Cocking my head, I stared at him for a moment before he started explaining.
"Most tinker powers have some form of specialty. I think all of us here can agree to that. As such, most items that your power provides follow that current. For example, everything Claire makes has some form of relation to the brain and memories. Scanning, manipulating, extracting, etcetera. We can branch out from that but it must all relate to our specialty." Jamie first set up.
"As such, it's not everyday that a tinker doesn't know their specialty. And most of the time that they don't, it's because it's not a form of technology, like neurology," He pointed at Claire. "Pyrotechnics," He pointed to himself, "or Dimension Tech." He jabbed a finger at Maverick. "It's a style of making technology."
Claire scoffed. "You stole that explanation from Automata." Jamie shrugged his shoulders in acknowledgement.
"Automata? I don't think I've heard of that name before." I frowned. Scanning through my memories, I couldn't recall any tinker called that.
"You shouldn't have. His specialization was automation, making machines that made more machines." Jamie explained. "His crowning jewel is– was," he corrected himself. "Automating an entire city's infrastructure to let residents have more time with recreation and their loved ones." He sounded like he was quoting from the man himself. "Too bad it got out of control."
Wait what. There was only one rampant technological disaster in Worm. The–
"The Machine Army, yes." Jamie confirmed after he saw the look on my face. "It was... his personal project. We, Toybox, had nothing to do with it except he was under our banner. The Toybox has some archives you could check if you want to learn more." He pointed down the Facilities hallway. "Anyway, if we could get back on track?" He quirked an eyebrow. On one hand, you can't just drop the bomb that 'Oh yea, a former Toybox tinker made one of the S-class threats and simply move on. On the other hand, they didn't look like they were going to volunteer more information about it.
"Fine." I threw my hands up. "Drop a bomb like that and move on. Sure." I nodded while making a small note to do a bit more research on Automata. "So a style of construction?"
Jamie seemed to relax slightly when I didn't push for more. "Yeah. Automata took a while to figure out his specialty, and so did Junkyard, another tinker who had the specialty of 'robust systems' to the point where over 80% of his machines could break and it will still function at full capacity. You might know him as Failsafe as part of the NY Elite." Failsafe? New York Elite? Fuck, I barely knew anything about the Elite's membership. Outside of some important members like Bastard Son and Uppercrust, most of their capes were complete unknowns to me.
Guess I better start researching capes in earnest. My reliance on my metaknowledge was going to get me killed sooner or later if this kept up.
"In any case, the reason why I'm telling you this is so that you don't lose heart. Unknown specialties often means that you would have an incredibly versatile skill set once you figure it out. And most of the time, would be able to work with practically any other tinker." Jamie laughed. "At that point, you'd be a very desirable cape in many circles."
Wow. I… really didn't need that speech. But I would definitely steal that for Chris if I ever got to meet him. I was pretty sure he needed it more than me.
"Um… thanks." I said with a nervous smile. An awkward silence settled over the table. "Wait, isn't automation also a type of technology and not a style?" I cocked my head.
Jamie had a pained look on his face so Grace spoke up instead. "Automata's tinkertech was structured differently due to his specialty. A lot of his creations were made for mass-production using his specialty so they were much simpler and easier to construct. By combining this style with other tinkers, he could make them ready for mass-production with only a dip in performance and slightly higher maintenance cost." She explained.
And suddenly the Machine Army made a lot more sense. I had the very odd feeling that the Machine Army was a Simmy plot. A few additional lines of code, a bit of push and pull on the operators and Oops! An S-class threat broke out. Who could have ever seen this coming??
"I see." I finished off the rest of my breakfast. "I think I should be heading back to Brockton. I still have some things left to do." I stood up and threw my bag over my shoulder. There was a smattering of movement before Claire pulled her mask back on and led me out to the entrance hall.
Shooting a glance at me, she asked. "So how is Toybox? Up to your expectations?"
I tilted my head from side to side. "Perhaps." I shot a glance at her. "I still need some experience before I can make any decision. Could you please teach me more, senior?" Huffing, Claire looked annoyed but broke into a slight smile a few seconds later.
"Sure, sure." She said in a sing-song tone. "Just be sure you can keep up with me." I had a wry grin on my face. I was pretty certain I could keep up with anyone with Savant's Understanding literally boosting my learning and comprehension rate. In fact, I could probably understand enough knowledge to get a Master-degree in the span of a day or so if I tried.
"Challenge accepted." I leaned forward slightly. "I'll be your care then, senior." Claire made a slightly disgusted face at the word. Jabbing her thumb on the portal device, a hole in spacetime was torn yet again. Immediately, a blast of icy wind smacked the two of us in the face. Maybe I should produce some sort of environmental protection as well.
Stepping through, Claire spoke up. "Stay safe." Before I could respond, the portal shut behind me. Taking a deep breath, I glanced around the area. After ensuring that I was alone, I walked out of the alleyway and threw my scarf around my face and made my way back home.
As I made my way down the street, the Celestial Forge spun up. It latched onto the literal lowest Star on the Magical Item Crafting Constellation. And I buried my face into my hands.
The perk was called 'Cult of the Gun'. And it allowed me to turn any item I wanted into a gun. A banana that fires its flesh? Deal. A mailbox that fires letters like buzzsaws? Sure, why not? Anything you could possibly even think of, that thing could be made into a gun. It also provided some amount of 'help' to make things look slightly more like a gun as well. Or at least capable of being handled like one.
I doubt I could turn a guzheng into a 'gun'.
Best part was that I was considering a gunslinger-type identity yesterday. And today, I get a guncraft power, but it doesn't even improve my skills with making actual fucking guns. It just turned other things INTO A FUCKING GUNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
CELESTIAL FORGE!!! ARE YOU FUCKING WITH MEEE?!!?!??!!?!?!
A/N: Does anyone have canon information about Toybox (like number of active years and/or canon appearances) or were they just to facilitate the Slaughterhouse 9000 arc?
-Cult of the Gun (Enter the Gungeon) (100CP)
What makes The Gungeon work? Magic. Duh. But, it's a specific type of magic: Gun magic, magic that makes objects more gun-like, or that accentuates the gun-like traits of non-gun objects. Unrestrained, it can turn a gun-like non-gun object, like a mailbox, into a gun, granting it a projectile and a firing method. The Gungeon does this passively, but you know how to direct this ability and use it to your advantage, taking any kind of object, and making it into a "gun," complete with the same perks that any gun-like object might gain. It's still fairly uncontrolled, with little if any say on your part as to what kind of weapon you get. How else do you explain, "guns," like a mailbox that fires letters and packages; a banana that fires explosive bananas; a bee hive that fires bees(duh); a camera that deals room-wide damage, knockback, and slowing; a guzheng that fires arrows when played; a pillow that fires zippers and stuns nearby enemies when reloaded; a crate that fires anvils; or a compressed air tank that fires homing sharks?