iStones, april 6

[catpiper]

[You know those pressing, intense questions that keep you up in the middle of the night? Well, this is one such moment and anyone unfortunate enough to be awake, or awakened, during these early morning hours will be hit with an extremely important q from a confused girl.]

What's a joke?

[And, a few seconds later-]

How do you 'prank' someone? Is that a treasure? 

Comments

[postictal]

I'm really not the best person to ask.

[Very little can make Tim genuinely laugh, and most of that falls in the realm of gallows humor. Which, hey, probably not ideal for Ren.]

What makes you laugh?

[catpiper]

[This q is pretty hard to answer. It's no wonder Tim didn't have a good response either. There's dead silence on her end, the sound of a little mrrroow as she pets her cats and-

Well, she can remember a couple occasions.]

Watching Goli play tag and popping bubbles.

[postictal]

...all right, that's more of a thing than a word. Any word out there that makes you laugh? Just...sounds funny, or it means multiple things?

[Why is he trying to explain this. This is pointless, and he can already tell.]

[catpiper]

[The pauses are growing longer because words aren't funny?? They're words. You say them and they get heard sometimes. There's a little sigh on her end, sounding more tired than frustrated, because she's just not gonna get this. It's harder than reading music.]

No.

[But her family does sometimes??? She'll just start taking notes on what makes them laugh. Hell yeah tends to be one. Maybe that's a joke. ]

Sometimes Uncle Taako laughs when I talk to him-I'll remember and laugh at those words too.

[postictal]

That...might work, yeah. A joke can sometimes be like...a play on words. A word that means multiple things.

[He's not even going to try to explain puns.]

[catpiper]

[The hell Tim??? She barely knows about the words that mean one thing, let alone multiple. Although-]

Is 'cool' that kind of word? And pumpkin?

[postictal]

Uh. It can. I don't know any jokes about pumpkins.

[Fuck, okay. What's a basic, dumb, simple joke he can...]

Okay, here. I think I got one.

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?

[catpiper]

Because it was scared?

[Roads are spooky, Tim.]

[postictal]

Sort of. Because it didn't have any guts.

[Should he explain it, or...]

When someone "has guts" it means that they're brave. But a skeleton also, literally, doesn't have any guts. It's a play on words.

[catpiper]

[It makes sense when he lays it all out like that-figuring that out is an entirely different story. She's going to need Tim to proofhear any joke that comes her way.

But that gives her something to work with, at least, and her tone is getting increasingly louder, excited by the sudden joke idea.]

Why did-[wait]-who does-[heck]-why does-

[Nevermind, she doesn't have this at all, especially when she mumbles they all have guts under her breath, like that's the only way to tell it.]

What's another 'play on words?'

[postictal]

It's like...a word with multiple meanings. Like, uh -

[He's having trouble thinking of concepts that she would realistically know that he won't have to explain overmuch and therefore lose the entire thread of the joke.]

What did the camera say when it had to go change?

[catpiper]

[Ren has no freaking idea!!! But she's gonna guess anyway because they're in this now.]

It said 'Prestidigitate me a pretty outfit.'

[Deffo what it said.]

[postictal]

It said "be back in a flash." 'Cause a camera flashes when it goes off. And when you're back in a flash, you're gonna be back real quick.

[Explaining the joke seems like an unfortunate necessity. And, yes, he is purposefully omitting the additional meaning of the word "flash."]

"Prestidigitate," huh? That's a pretty big word.

[catpiper]

[It's clicking, in a sense, and the soft hmmm is quickly followed by a series of claps. Good job, Tim. She gets it kind of. She's seen cameras before and they do flash-dope. What other things flash??]

It's a very big word. Uncle Taako knows a lot of them.

[But she's got bigger fish to fry right now. Prepare yourself, Tim.]

What did the firework say when it had to change?

[postictal]

[This is going to go great or it's going to go terribly. Tim waits an appropriately dramatic amount of time before answering.]

You got me. What'd it say?

[catpiper]

I'll be back in a boom.

[THAT's what all the hip young kids are saying nowadays right. GOSH. Boom it up. ]

[postictal]

...yeah, that's not really something people...say.

[She tried though. He can give her credit for that.]

Wordplay's hard. You kinda gotta learn how other people say stuff and...you know, double meanings and stuff.

[catpiper]

[What DO people even say?? Why can't she tell jokes with her heart?? What are words that are said to her?? She's suddenly drawing a horrible blank-wordplay is hard.]

I'll learn a lot of double meanings and then I'll tell all those jokes to you until you laugh.

[And until The Traveler is summoned from the freaking abyss.]

[postictal]

Better not try to make me laugh, kiddo. Better to tell jokes to people like Taako, or Lup.

[He doesn't laugh even when he is happy, which is a vague and difficult to define thing - a nebulous thing that's better off not really being anyone's actual goal.]

[catpiper]

[She's going to tell jokes to everyone, Tim. That's the problem. That's the terrible cursed problem at hand and his comment doesn't stick-she simply hears Taako and Lup and that's just more names to add under Tim to her list.]

Do you know any 'pranks?'

[postictal]

A few.

[Mostly by osmosis - though back when he knew Sans, he was aware of more pranks by...association.]

They usually can escalate pretty quickly. But sometimes they're harmless. You know what a whoopee cushion is?

[catpiper]

[It kind of sounds familiar, but it's been far too long and she doesn't recall anything outside of the words themself.]

What is that thing? Is it soft?

[postictal]

Kind of. It's an inflatable little...thing. When you squeeze it, it makes a noise. Like, uh -

[With no other way to demonstrate, he hesitates - before blowing a raspberry over the Stones.]

[catpiper]

[Oh, that noise.

She blows a raspberry right back at him, not even making an attempt to be quiet as she does so, and helpfully points out-]

Our mouths are already whoopie cushions. We can prank like this.

[postictal]

The idea is that it's supposed to surprise them. I knew a guy who liked to keep one in his hand, see. So when you reached out to shake hands with him, you'd just hear...that.

[His tone is neutral. He's careful about that. He doesn't mention Sans by name - why should he? The guy ditched all of them when he disappeared, whether that was his intention or not. It wouldn't shock him if it was.]