Challenge #01384-C289: Well Why Not?

They've revived this show about MacGyver who could do almost anything with a swiss army knife and a roll of duct tape. -- KnitNan

[AN: The jury's still out on the new show. It's powered by more bullshittium than the original was]

The problem with improvisational souls like Mac was boredom. With nothing to do, nobody to battle, Mac would slowly gravitate towards junkyards and equally gradually fill his warehouse home with so much technological packrattus that Jack and Riley both worried about him living in the middle of it.

And he didn't, precisely, live in it. There was a tiny office space in one high corner that allegedly looked over the labyrinth of shelving and tools below. Mac had installed a cot of a bed, and enough of a kitchen to cook whatever he wanted in there. It was just a space to sleep and eat.

When Mac was bored, he spent most of his time solving problems that nobody knew they had. Today was no different.

Jack caught him hammering at some plate aluminium. There was a gigantic humanoid frame in the corner and a plus-sized guitar.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Just a sec'." CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG. He lifted the piece and turned it about. It looked like a nose and some cheekbones in silver. There was a dimple for an upper lip.

"What the hell. Are you doing?"

"Hm? Oh. Uh... I saw this thing on YouTube and I wanted to know if it was possible."

Jack sighed. "Unpack, Mac."

"There was this silver guy who looked like a robot, and playing guitar? Andum... I did a little bit of a wiki walk about him and there's all this lore about steam-powered robots? And I wanted to see if it was possible." He reached up and pulled down a screen that was showing the silent video on loop.

"Mac. That's a dude in a costume and makeup."

"Doy. Yes. Of course it is. You can tell whenever he opens his mouth real wide. And there's no such thing as blue matter. I looked. It's not scientifically possible. No. The finished automaton's going to be a lot trickier than that." Mac fitted the plate onto an animatronic head, completing a metal face that sort of resembled the man on the screen's makeup. "I just want to see if I can."

Jack took all this in. The over seven-foot tall skeleton. The pistons and servos. The piles upon piles of electronics. Finally, he sighed. "You need to get out more."

(Muse food remaining: 15. Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Or comment below!)