Colin Tries His Hand At Humor

Summary: In which Director Piggot tells Armsmaster that he needs to be more approachable, sociable and basically not himself in public, and Dragon suggests he use humor to bridge the gap of his social awkwardness.

Vista looked at the toaster. It was Tinkertech. In fact, the Toaster in the Wards' common room was an actually infamous piece of Tinkertech, as it had been stripped for parts and then rebuilt at least once by every Tinker that had ever visited Brockton Bay, and it bore the marks of each and every one of them. Some said that it had originally been Deputy Director Renick's toaster, and that the tradition of stripping it for parts and then rebuilding it anew had started with Hero himself. Apparently the hero had gifted it to a then young Officer Renick when he was done with it.

More importantly, however, it had bread in it.

And right next to it was Armsmaster. Waiting.

"Sir," Vista began, "with all due respect, can I ask what you're doing here?"

They had their own toaster. Why use the Wards'?

"Making toast," he said, matter of factly.

"I am going to assume the Protectorate no longer has a toaster," Vista said.

Armsmaster nodded. That one wasn't the legacy Toaster, it was a simple toaster, so it would likely not be rebuilt.

It was very weird - usually, people had to remind Armsmaster to eat, and he usually had one or two devices he was fidgeting with.

After about thirty more seconds, the bread jumped out of the toaster - because of course it did - and Armsmaster quickly pulled a plate out of his armor, turning it concave side up so that the toast landed and all the crumbs remained on it instead of dispersing. He inspected the toast, then showed it to Vista. "Does this look good to you?"

It did, Vista mused - it looked perfect. "It looks perfect, sir," she said, somewhat weirded out.

"Excellent," he said. "Today I am Toastmaster," he said, solemnly.

Vista couldn't help it. She giggled. It hadn't even been that funny, but his face was just priceless.