ringing true - a mini ii story

chapter 1

After a solid week of testing, I think I finally finished my gift for Painty! It's a little mood ring, but instead of the ring being affected by your mood, your mood is affected by the ring. I'd heard Painty was having troubles controlling their emotions so it's a fitting gift for their birthday, I think!

I shut down my lab for the day, flicking off all the various gadgets and gizmos I'd been working on. They'll have to be finished another day, I suppose. Doing one last sweep of the room, I turned off the lights, and took the path out of my lab.

At the top, I patted the Dr. Fizz machine, thanking it for keeping my secret, before ordering one Dr. Fizz can. With the ring in one hand, and Dr. Fizz in the other, I made my way to the hotel. Since the ring was supposed to be a gift, it would be a shame not to wrap it! So, I'll need to stop by Lightbulb and Fan to get their help with the packaging.

Hotel OJ stood out proudly amongst the nearby trees, mountains, and pillars. It was a safe haven, a comfortable secure place for all of us objects to stay. It may be a pain in the butt to deal with the sheer number of people there, especially for me, but OJ certainly made sure to make up for it by giving everyone incredibly luxurious rooms.

I looked through all the rooms, counting each to try to find Fan's. After 3 floors and 5 more doors, I managed to find it, and luckily found Fan by himself on his bed, watching something on his phone. Seems Painty was busy with something at the moment, giving me a good opportunity to talk to Fan in private.

"Hey, Fan!"
Fan jolted and quickly shut off his phone, apparently not having seen me come in. "Oh- hey, Test Tube! What'cha in here for?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean like, you're usually doing things in your lab at this time, there's gotta be something special that you went out of your way to come here for!"
"Well yeah, don't you remember? Paintbrush's birthday is tomorrow!"
"Wait, SERIOUSLY!?"
"Did you somehow forget?"
"Yeah, yeah I did! Gee, I don't think I'll be able to order anything from Walmart that'll come here soon enough..."
I tapped my chin for a few seconds, pondering possible quick gifts that Fan could get. "Maaaybe... you could draw them something?"
"OH! A brilliant idea as usual, Test Tube! But uh, what should I draw though-"
"I think you'll figure something out soon enough, besides, I need you for something else right now!"
Fan looked at me with an inquisitive look.
"So I made this... mood ring... and I need something to wrap it in, I was thinking either you or Lightbulb would have something?"
"Umm..." Fan got off his bed, and searched both under his bed and in his drawers.After shutting the drawers, he turned towards me. "So I don't think I have any wrapping paper or anything, but I think Paintbrush's art class room should have it."

I nodded, and began to walk away, being stopped right as I was about to close the door. "UM HEY, Test Tube! Don't go yet, I uh- I found like a little ribbon you could use! I think it should be the right size..." Fan tugged at my arm, showing me a frilly little green ribbon. I took it, and Fan bounced a little, saying, "Also-! I wanted to come along with you maybe? -Uh, to the art class room... It's a little boring here, to be honest."

I nodded, more energetically this time, and we walked side by side down a floor and over 3 rooms to the art class room. OJ had reserved an entire room for Painty to host their art classes, and usually half the residents would come whenever classes were on. And for good reason too, Painty was an incredibly good artist, and somehow an even better teacher. I believe by now they'd drawn portraits for every object that had visited their classes, as a little 'thank you' for taking the time to be there. Everyone but me, strangely enough, though I only did ever catch one or two classes...

Walking inside, I spotted Knife and Pickle in one corner competitively... sewing sweaters for each other? I didn't even realize this room had sewing equipment until now! In the middle of the room, Trophy was decorating his massive jar of cacao nibs with little strings and custom stickers, each sticker decorated with images of... Cheesy? Geez, seems I sure missed a lot of things while I was in my lab.

Fan sprung towards a certain box on the shelves, rustling through the supplies inside, muttering to himself, "C'mon, c'mon, I swear it was here..."

"Oh heyo, you two!" Fan stopped in his place, and we both turned to face who was addressing us. It was Lightbulb, who sat in the one corner of the room that somehow neither of us saw. "What do you two need?"
"Well I need-"
Fan interrupted me, shouting, "TEST TUBE NEEDS WRAPPING PAPER FOR A GIFT!"
Trophy, Knife, and Pickle looked at us for a few seconds, before getting back to their little projects.
"Fan, could you at least TRY to keep it down? I don't just want everyone here knowing!"
Fan looked at me with a saddened expression, and both I and Lightbulb patted him on his shoulders, which seemed to calm him down.
"...Well, 'Tubester? What kinda wrapping paper do you need?"
"Um, well I was thinking actually maybe a little box would work better...?"
"What actually is the gift, 'Tubester?"
I took out the mood ring, and presented it to Lightbulb. "I don't have a creative name for it, so I'm just calling it the 'mood ring'!"
"Oooooh, oh! I think I know where you could find a little box AND a little bit of wrapping paper for that, though don't you need a ribbon too? I think I could find you one of those too-"
"Don't worry about the ribbon, haha, Fan just gave me one!"
"Oh, perfect! Alright this shouldn't take long, though I still kinda wanna finish my gift for Painty-brush as well, so it might take a little longer."
"That's fine with me! I mean, we do still plenty of time to finish it..."

Lightbulb went back to her desk, scrabbling for art supplies, and I gave the can of Dr. Fizz to Fan. It'd been warmed up from me holding it for so long, but Fan drank it anyways.
"So that's why you were holding that can the whole time..." Fan said between sips.