AvA/M Oneshots

23. Sign Language (crack treated seriously)

Originally posted 8/10/23

The stick (whose name she now knew was Symbol) pointed to his mouth, and then shook his head.

"You can't talk?"

Shook his head no. Mimed talking with one of his hands, gave a thumbs up, then pointed at himself and shook his head once, a decisive no.

"You can talk... you just don't."

A nod. Symbol pointed at himself, mimed talking again, held out a hand palm-up and Second watched as a highway marker sign popped into view- before it vanished, followed by a couple other road signs he seemed to intend as examples.

Road signs...

Signs...

"Sign language. You talk in sign language?"

A nod- and a smile.

"This is like charades- I have to figure out what you're saying!"

A bigger smile- with a tiny glint of mischief behind it. Symbol held out his hand again, both of them watching various (and increasingly obscure) road signs flick in and out of view.

Yield.

"Yield- so... I... wait for you?"

Slow.

"I... Oh! I follow you? You lead me somewhere- you going first."

A nod. Mile marker 73.7.

"Um..."

Symbol grunted, changing the image a couple times, with Second looking more confused each one. He finally settled on next exit 3 miles.

"We're... going to... a... spe-ci-fic.. pl-aaaace?"

He paused thoughtfully, and then shrugged with a nod, like, 'good enough'.

She gave him a wary glance. "...Where are we going?"

He pulled up an easily-identifiable sign.

"We're going to McDonald's?"

He shook his head no.

"But it says-"

Symbol sighed. And then flicked through a dozen other restaurants of varying quality.

"Food."

Thumbs up. And the sign for a place that seemed to sell clocks. He pointed to one. And then back to the last restaurant sign. And then flicked to the clock again.

"Time for food. It's dinnertime?"

A nod. Symbol dispelled the image with a quick wave and turned to unlock the cell.

"...That was a lot of work just to say it's dinnertime."

Well. It is dinner time.

"Wait." She paused, staring at the blinking construction sign in his palm. "You could do that this whole time??!"

"Heh. Ha. haaa. ha. ha. ha-"

Second suddenly realized why Symbol didn't talk- his laugh was as jolting as his animation style, with each entire word separate from the others and synced with his movement. Some he had more or less time to speak, leading to clipped or drawling sounds- and trying to communicate a coherent sentence must have been maddening unless he was standing perfectly still.

And of course, it was hard to stand completely still while laughing. The stick in question slid down the side of the cell door, giggling hysterically. Creators. You noobs are fun to tease. You should've seen your face at Porcupine Crossing.

"It didn't make sense even in context!!"

Her pout only made him laugh harder.

"Hey! What's- oh." Ballista had come back to go find both of them after Symbol had taken an extraordinarily long time to do something as simple as "go get the prisoner and bring her here to get dinner." And now the pixelated stick found his friend in complete hysterics while said prisoner glared at him. "...He did the charades thing, didn't he?"

Second just nodded. Maybe the silence was rubbing off on her.

"See, his problem-" Ballista nudged Symbol with a foot- "is that he likes to think he's funny."

I AM funny.

"Oh just come on, you great big clown. You're both almost late."

A/N: It took me a bit to warm up to them, but STICKS, Rocket Gang is so INCREDIBLY brainrottable?!! I made this in two hours plus concept, on a whim. It's not perfect but I think it's funny. Hope you enjoyed :D

My names for them are Agent, Symbol, Ballista and Primal. I don't think any I came up with on my own (idr if Symbol was me or not) so kudos to the ppl who did! they're awesome names!

Saw a headcanon that Symbol stutters from someone else whose fic & name I can no longer remember, but they were on AO3 somewhere. That was a very cool idea, and I like mine a bit better, but you were definitely the inspiration to this whole line of thought so thank you!!