#barnaby's chatting with howdy as usual and howdy does Something endearing

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

hold on ok i belted out a brief laughingstock Scene for possible future use that i Had to write down bc if i didn't, i'd never remember it. and why not share?

~

“Barnaby? Barnaby, old chap, are you with me?” 

Barnaby blinks, registering the green fingers snapping in front of his nose. He huffs a laugh and pushes Howdy’s hand away. “Yeah, yeah, I’m listenin’. You were saying?”

Howdy gives him an exasperated look, a fond look. “Thinking about running off to a farm again, were you?”

“Nah, just the clouds. They’re a lot less work.”

“Well I’d rather you didn’t. Who would I talk to during the long hours if you went and floated off?” Howdy winks before turning to his shelves, already yammering away about something or other.

Something or other that Barnaby is once again not listening to, because what was that? Barnaby quickly presses his cool paw-pads to his burning cheeks, feeling the bristling fur there. 

Has Howdy ever winked at him? Now that he’s noticed it, Barnaby can’t recall. If it’s new, then why? Why a wink of all things? What did that mean? And that look Howdy gave him… 

Barnaby adjusts his abruptly too-tight tie. It’s unusually warm in the store, isn’t it? Howdy must have forgotten to turn on the AC. 

Gosh, what is Howdy even saying? He’s still talking, but Barnaby hasn’t absorbed a word. He can’t even tell if Howdy is still speaking english. It’s all garbled.

There’s something wrong with Barnaby. He must be coming down with something… or he’s just overthinking it. Overworking the ol’ noggin. A good long nap should set him right. 

“Listen,” Barnaby interrupts, patting the counter, “I uh, I don’t know where my head’s at. I better go find it - I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Oh… alright, then,” Howdy says, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. 

Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Barnaby slaps that thought out of the park. He doesn’t want Howdy to be disappointed, that’s absurd. That’s something a bad friend would think. Barnaby may be many things, but a bad friend isn’t one of them.

“I’ll whip up a joke that’ll knock your socks off next time I see ya,” Barnaby promises. He smiles around the discomfort and the entirely new feeling squirming around each other in his chest. 

“Now you’ve gone and brought up my expectations,” Howdy says. He leans on the counter and grins. “Are you sure you can back up such a claim, Mr. Beagle?”

Another hot flush races under Barnaby’s fur, and to his growing mortification, his tail starts wagging at breakneck speed. He lets out an uncharacteristically nervous laugh and backs away from the counter. To both of their horror, his back hits a shelf, making it rattle and tip.

“Oh, sh-” Barnaby lunges to right it before it can topple. He whips around and laughs again. Howdy’s wide-eyed stare burns. “Sorry ‘bout that! Talk about a bulldog in a bugshop, geez.”

“When you find your head, make sure to screw it on nice and tight,” Howdy says, a strange look on his face to match his tone. “And check your temperature while you’re at it - it’s not like you to be off-balance.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m off-balance,” Barnaby says. He inches towards the door, willing his stupid tail to calm down. “I just have ears instead of rearview mirrors.”

“Uh-huh…” Howdy slides to the side, trying to peer around him. 

Barnaby fumbles for the door. The scrape and bang of his search for the handle echoes in the quiet store. One of Howdy’s eyebrows creeps higher the longer Barnaby stands there, making a complete fool of himself. 

Finally, the door clicks, and Barnaby nearly tumbles over backwards in his haste to get out. He stumbles down the steps and briskly walks away, adjusting his hat and tie. As soon as he’s out of sight, he slaps his paws to his face and sags against the bodega.

“Idiot,” he hisses to himself. He presses his back flat against the wall and slams the side of his fist against it. Normally, Barnaby would use a situation like this to his advantage. But Howdy wasn’t laughing, and Barnaby wasn’t being funny. “Bulldog in a - gah, idiot!”

Great. Now Howdy thinks he’s not only a clumsy oaf, but that he’s losing his touch too.

Barnaby growls in frustration, pushing off the wall and stomping away from the plaza on all fours. What does he care what Howdy thinks of him? Others’ opinions of Barnaby have never been anywhere near his list of top priorities - barring Wally’s, of course. If they were, he'd never tell another joke again.

Yes, Howdy is a good friend of Barnaby’s. A close friend, even. But since when has he had such a - such an effect? Barnaby shakes his head, growling again. 

There was no effect. Barnaby is just going insane. Or he’s getting sick, like Howdy implied. That would explain the sudden hot flash, the loss of typically impeccable coordination, and, oh yeah! Barnaby’s brain leaking out of his ears.  

#context from My Brain: #barnaby's chatting with howdy as usual and howdy does Something endearing #or was it like... idk one of his personality quirks pops up #& barnabys like 'aw hes doing The Thing. its one of the things i love about him' #and obviously has a moment of 'whoah wait Love?? haha where the fuck did that come from. whatever *proceeds to panic*' #essentially: the first domino falls #laughingstock #aaaaand not tagging as anything else #if people see it they see it #i havent posted Any of my recent (and rare) writings so this is slightly mortifying! #its been too long since ive posted fic i need to buckle down on my wips #not this one obvs since its not even really a wip #just a tidbit for future me to edit and implement #my dc wips... who i still want to continue & finish so so badly... #the mermay timber one... the timkon cannibalism... cowboy hat rule... and many more... #anyhow i can feel my writing confidence atrophying #i glance at one of my wips and my entire brain recoils like its the worst thing since (insert bad thing here) #shaking myself by the shoulders 'Its Not That Bad You Are A Decent Writer Whose Fics Are More Often Than Not Well Received' #my brain is trying to convince me everything is terrible i need to forcibly shut it the hell up

[chinchillasinunison]

Gonna post something cringe 👍 I was thinking about all day yesterday and I posted it in the group chat but bwaah I'll put it here too

so here's how I think the Ishimondos would interact with the Welcome Home cast

Firstly, Mondo would fucking love Barnaby so much. He is not immune to big fluffy doggi. And I think he'd jive with his chill, friendly attitude. Taka meanwhile would definitely get caught on the other end of Barnaby's punchlines and he would not appreciate it. He's a very easy target.

Mondo would also like Wally but in more of an "holy shit a little guy, must protect" sorta way. He asks Wally how he does his hair and Wally says it's always like that.

Taka and Frank are autism-to-autism communication. Could listen to each other infodump about politics and bugs respectively for hours. Also, both of them relate to the need for things to be "just so" and trying to maintain that order among the colorful personalities around them. They're so similar that Mondo finds it kinda off-putting.

Poppy and Taka get along great. I think he would help her a lot with cooking while maintaining such proper safety procedures that she's downright impressed and her anxiety is kept to a minimum, which is pretty rare. Does that thing with making star-shaped riceballs but with fuckin. bird seed. he would definitely still eat it too.

Neither of them would like Sally Starlet, I'm afraid. she's way too self-important for both of them to handle. She would definitely call Mondo "biker" as a sign of disrespect like how she calls Eddie "mailman." She actually is interested in Kiyotaka because he's clearly a very skilled orator, so she sees potential in him as a thespian.

Julie would steal Mondo's bike and ride it around the neighborhood for one of her games, giving just about everyone else a heart attack but ESPECIALLY Mondo. Her antics are the only ones that get him yelling like he usually does.

I feel like they'd both get along well with Eddie, Eddie's just a very easy guy to get along with. Kiyotaka would respect his work ethic and be very "Thank you for your service! 🫡" about it, and Eddie finds it a bit odd if endearing. Eddie would almost get hit by the above-mentioned bike tho.

If they went to Howdy's Place you'd bet your ass they wouldn't be able to buy shit. When they find out that the currency is jokes Kiyotaka tries to tell one and he gets fucking. banned for life. this is the "it'd be hard to sleep with a corpse in your bathroom" guy after all. he'd probably say the darkest shit ever that would make his jaded cop dad chuckle but would send this caterpillar puppet into an emotional crisis.

Finally, last but not least is Home himself. Kiyotaka would find a sentient house incredibly fascinating, I think. He'd probably ask Wally a lot of questions about it that Wally doesn't really know how to answer (or he keeps getting cut off by everyone else's antics before he can say it). Mondo meanwhile would find it creepy as fuck.

#danganronpa #welcome home #kiyotaka ishimaru #mondo owada