Sachland Snippets, Volume 1

A Few Tweaks Here and There

"Eight of me?" Tweak #1 finished cunningly for her friend. "Yeah, I see it, Kwaz. I figured that since taking care of eight Gup-Bs would be a lot of work, I thought it'd be nice to get... well, maybe a little help here. A few Tweaks here and there, you know?"

"But--but how?" he stammered.

"I still have the original blueprints to that cloning device you have, so putting all the pieces together was no problem. Plus, it's much better that way - designing and building new Gups, growing my carrots - I bet me and my gals can get it done faster than any of you can say..."

"'Buncha munchy crunchy carrots!'" the Tweaks chorused on cue.

Wide-eyed, the Kwaziis became fearful, for that their pirate-y shenanigans may have been compromised by this surprising development. The Tweaks now had them cornered. "Kwazii," the lead Tweak started, "I still like you very much as a friend. But I'm afraid you can't hide from me - or us - now."

"Even if the Kwaziis and I took another spin in our Gups?" he worriedly asked.

"Even that, Kwaz."

Her face then suddenly turned bright again. "That's all," she concluded pleasantly.

"That's it?" Kwazii said. "You're not gonna attack us?"

"Nope. The Tweaks and I will be watching y'all while we work in and around the Octopod."

"Isn't the Captain gonna know about this?"

"Ah, he'll be fine. The more people, the merrier, you know?"

"I... guess," he unwillingly acquiesced. Then the two groups parted ways in order to let the other start the day with their respective duties - the Kwaziis with whatever they wanted to do today, the Tweaks deciding on whether they wanted to maintain the Gups, go to the drawing board to design new vehicles, or go over to the garden pod to grow some carrots for their own consumption first.

"Ya think we can start on those Gups now, Tweak?" Tweak #5 asked Tweak #1.

"Let's check all of the Gups first to see if there's anything we need to work on, alright?" Tweak suggested. All eight of them murmured in agreement, and one by one, the Tweaks began verifying each Gup for any maintenance that needed to be done.

----

"Tweak, can you fix my OctoCompass?" Captain Barnacles requested a few hours later in the Launch Bay. "I think the screen's broken."

"Sure thing, Cap," Tweak replied, handing it over to one of her clones (whom the Captain didn't notice). "I'll have it done faster than you can say--"

"No need to say it, Tweak. 'Buncha munchy crunchy--'"

"Done!" Tweak then handed over the compass, which was now fixed in a few seconds by the Tweaks. The Captain was surprised. "Tweak, how on earth--?!" he started to ask.

"I guess I'm in a bit of a working mood today, Cap. Just getting everything done as fast as I can, that's all."

"Oh. Well, in that case... uh, thanks for fixing it."

"No problem, Cap. See ya later!"

Barnacles then climbed up the ladder to the HQ, waving his paw at his number one engineer - or should that be engineers? - as he resumed his duties on board the Octopod.

Once he was out of view from the rest of the group, Tweak motioned the group to come closer. "That was the Cap," she whispered.