Half time goes by, suddenly you're wise

[iamnotgod]

Date: October 6th, 2018
Characters: Walter Weekes; anyone who wants to bug the birthday boy!

---

A year before, and he might not have paid attention to the date on the calendar, with how he tried to keep himself busy.

Oh, he never forgot it; he'd just never asked for anything spectacular as a gift. Close friends either found out the date through casual conversation or ferreted the information out somehow on their own, but his family had never thrown lavish parties and he'd never wanted one.

(Haley had gotten one, once, once she'd chosen her degree back in London. Everyone involved had agreed afterwards to Never Speak of it Again.)

But he found the day special for a separate reason - or perhaps the same one, if people considered "discovering who you were" to be a form of rebirth.

What with what he now knew as a Numbered, though - that this day, six years ago, had been the activation of his first Echo/flashback/remnant of another's memory - it was all the more surreal.

[This is a post for Network communications, threadings for birthday shenanigans at the flat, and one (1) bike run in the evening!]

Comments

Sorry for the delay!

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie smiles behind her mug as she watches Ben and Walter and beams when Walter gives Ben a hug. Look at her two boys bonding, and it's clear to her how much it means to both of them.

She waits for the boys to sort themselves out and finish any conversations about the keyboard before she retrieves the bag with her present in and hands the present bag to Walter. Contained inside is a series of wrapped presents, two small, thin cuboids that rattle when shaken, and two larger, squares, one A4 in size and the other A3.

"Happy birthday Walter!"

No worries

[warped_replica]

A rare swell of pride makes Benjiro grin as he sees how pleased Walter is with the gift. He had put in quite a lot of time into the creation of the device, and tested it thoroughly to make it as ready as possible for the flurry of taps his friend would be able to produce. The flat jest is a proposal of a rather extreme scenario, so he snerks softly and nods his head once at the thanks. "You're welcome. Let me know if it needs any fine tuning once you give it try."

Then Walter sets the gift aside and reaches for the hug. Surprised as he is, Benjiro is nevertheless welcoming to the affection and readily wraps his arms around Walter to return the hug with a solid squeeze.

As Sadie moves to retrieve her present for their mutual friend, he takes up his cup from the table to hold and settles back to lean comfortably into the couch and watch.

I am only the slightest bit sorry for this.

[iamnotgod]

"Oh, you'll hear from me when I give this a test run, no worries," Walter assures - and from his tone, that may very well be "today".

Tapping on the packages, mentally shifting through the possibilities of 'what could this be' at about a hundred per second, he opens the A3 package first - a sketchpad.

"Paper!" His grin is juuust a bit teasing, now, though he does still look genuinely pleased.

"We never do have enough of that around."

He is getting an idea of what this is for, though, and opening the A4-sized cube provides a much better explanation.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie laughs, grinning at Walter. "Well you know, I was sitting there thinking 'What is it that Walter uses the most?' and obviously, the answer was paper."

The grin remains unabated as he unwraps the Beginner's Guide to Landscapes and Portraits book and then the two tins of pencils. "I wasn't sure if you'd bought any drawing stuff after our conversation at the RSPCA but I figured that it would help even if you had. Now you can keep yourself busy whilst you wait for the rest of us to catch up."

[warped_replica]

He would be disappointed if he didn’t receive the feedback, and as far as the teen is concerned, the sooner he hears Walter’s evaluation, then the less time he has to spend revisiting the design in his brain to consider if he could have done better in a hypothetical manner.

Benjiro sips his tea as Walter opens the packages, and he chuckles at Sadie’s reasoning for the gift. Lucky for them, their friend is not inclined to leave them behind.

DON'T THINK I DIDN'T SEE. ;D

[iamnotgod]

"Glad to hear we agree, then," Walter snarks back, before returning to his unwrapping; the packaging ends up placed in a neat pile for disposal later.

Or possibly decoration; recycling is increasingly in vogue this year...

"And yes, this will help. Don't expect any masterpieces soon, though, you hear?"

*innocent whistling*

[dragoonrouge]

"From what I know of you Walter, you will be the last person to realise that what you draw have become masterpieces." She teases him gently. "But I hope that it's appropriate, I wasn't sure if the sketchbook was too big for you considering your normal way of getting about the place."

You didn’t see anything /disappears into hole

[warped_replica]

Recycling is both efficient and cost effective.

An amused yet relaxed smile on his face, Benjiro adds in after Sadie, “I give it three, maybe four months if Walter gets distracted with some other skill.” He leans to set back down his cup of tea and settles back against the couch to let it cool a little further.

Re: You didn’t see anything /disappears into hole

[iamnotgod]

Walter does not really know what to do with that praise - not in the least because he hasn't started anything yet!

"It wouldn't be too much work to adjust, I promise you," he answers Sadie first.

The book, sketchpad and writing utensils get all neatly arranged on top of the discarded packaging - he might re-purpose an old box for them, really - and before turning back to his tea he answers Ben's remark with a smothered laugh.

"You're not going to make a bet out of that, are you? That's a challenge, that is."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie laughs and places her mug down on the coffee table. "That definitely sounds like a challenge to me. I put a fiver on it only taking you three months. I can see it now. Walter's future as a world-renowned speed artist."

[warped_replica]

When Walter takes the estimation as a challenge, Benjiro laughs along with Sadie. Clarifying first, he’ll ante up, “As long as we’re strictly referring to life study drawings. I’ll match that for the three and a half month mark from today.” The boy has a feeling that’s too much time, but he’ll bank on delays and leave Walter a shorter mark to take up as a goal.

[iamnotgod]

"'Life study,' he says," Walter playfully adds, getting more into the mood.

"What else would I study? Stocks?"

It's not a statement of confidence, though - but, given his memory, he can't forget that potential deadline anyway.

[dragoonrouge]

"What about still life? There's a dearth of drawings of fruit and you could fill such a vital niche in the market Walter."

She giggles, "All joking aside, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do Walter."

[warped_replica]

"If you studied stocks I would fear for the stock market," he jokes. "But no, I meant drawing from references as opposed to creative illustration." There's a vast difference in skill of capturing the image in front of one as seen with eyes than in capturing the image out of one's mind.

With Sadie offering their friend encouragement, he nods, "As am I. Whatever you draw, you should enjoy it."

[iamnotgod]

Walter's outright chuckling now - these two.

"Understandable, that. And- I appreciate it, both of you."

He gently taps the sketchpad again.

"Now, I'll confess I didn't have any big plans for the day, but while you're both here..."

And one last joke:

"Hangman?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie descends into full-on laughter as Walter suggests a game of Hangman, having to place her mug down to stop herself from jostling the hot tea too much.

"Sure, let's use the high-grade sketch paper for a rigorous round of Hangman. Walter, you can choose the word first, it's your birthday after all.!

[warped_replica]

Benjiro holds back his laugh into a hard snerk deep in his throat, lips parting into a wide smile after. He shakes his head once, "Well it is your paper...but Hangman is much more challenging if you have to play the game in your head."

Maybe when it's his turn to select something he can really give Walter a test with a word in Japanese.

... I am so tempted for the word to end up triggering an Echo where he remembers his name, now.

[iamnotgod]

"I'm certainly not going to write in the book, that's for sure!"

Instead, he flips the sketchpad over, and starts writing on the cardboard back.

"Right, then. Seven letters... and no clues for you two!"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie has to smother down her laughter as it does indeed turn into a serious game of hangman. And there was one key strategy for hangman.

"Okay then. A?" Vowels first!

Since this *is* Hangman, tag order is W->S->W->B->W until game finishes!

[iamnotgod]

There's a patient, amused hum before he responds.

"Mmmm, nope!"

And he draws a line - for the base of the platform. It looks like he's expecting this game to be a long one~

Sounds good!

[warped_replica]

Taking back up his cup of tea with the drink cooled enough to enjoy without the risk of a burn, he sips on it as Sadie makes the first guess. The generously slow start to the hanging of their person is begging for a quick solution.

Benjiro sticks to the strategy and moves to eliminate the next candidate, “An ‘e’ then?”

[iamnotgod]

As reply, Walter makes a show of hovering his utensil just above the sketchpad...

And filling in the second blank.

"Only one of those this round. Next?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie leans forward, "Well it would have to be 'i' next. We shall save this man from an unjust hanging Walter!"

[iamnotgod]

This time, outright laughter.

May as well give them something to chew on, he thinks, and puts one 'i' down in the fifth blank.

"Anyone else want to wager a vowel?"

[warped_replica]

With ‘a’ out of the running and two spaces after the ‘i’, his inclination is to follow with the next vowel in line. His only hesitation comes from that baiting line Walter speaks, but better to eliminate it than be left wondering.

“Hm. You’re too eager for this but let’s confirm. Is there an ‘o’?”