Alvin, an avid toy collector

Alvin took the strange contraption home with him, hoping it would fetch him a pretty penny online. He didn't recognize any of the dye cast pieces of the thing's exterior, so it might be super rare, and it's in such pristine condition that it would sell well no matter what it is. He slung the thing over his shoulder, noting the comfortable padding in the straps. "This is practically in-box, mint condition." He marveled at how lightweight the rather bulky backpack was. "And batteries are included??" The surprises never ceased as the green LED screen booted up immediately as he grasped the accordion hose nozzle, like it had sensed his touch. He read the words typing on the screen. "Awaiting inputs." A helpful diagram showed an arrow pointing into the top chute of the backpack. "It must be a toy gun." He surmised that the chute was an ammo bin and the hose was the handheld barrel. "It didn't come with any foam balls or darts or anything, though." If he found anything online about this device, he might be able to track down the original ammo, too. He got a few odd looks from pedestrians as he made his walk back home, but he was used to that. The slightly balding, middle-aged man looked like the cliché basement dweller obsessed with a niche hobby, except the basement he dwelled was his own, not his parent's. He had a successful career that affording him his hobby of rare toy collecting, and this find could potentially make all his efforts worth while.

He reached his home, taking the device to his work station for inspection. He could typically track down an unknown product by the hardware used to build it; certain manufacturers had distinct designs that could be tracked throughout the company's line of products. Alvin ran into his first problem immediately: the rectangular box was seamless, with no sign that this shape was artificially created. He also found no screws to loosen, like it had been welded together perfectly, better than perfect. "This looks more like a toy from a future time, not past." He noted the futuristic design. The only views inside the device were down the twisting hose of the barrel and in the narrow funnel of the chute. Despite the wide mouth, the entrance to the actual machine was about the size of a quarter, implying small projectiles. He rummaged around his collection of soft bullet toys in his collection, grabbing various ammo types to see if they would pass through the device properly. The readout screen lit up as a perfect recreation of the foam balls he tossed in was rendered with a growing tally. He dropped five different balls of various shapes into the chute before he decided to try firing them. At the pull of the trigger, the warm, green glow of the screen flashed to a foreboding red.

"'Multiple inputs required?' This thing required two different ammo types?" Alvin had never heard of any toy like that, but he dropped a few suction cup darts in the chute. On the display screen, the darts were also rendered with an ammo count of their own: five balls and three darts. At the insertion of a second ammo type, new menus appeared on screen: lists of one or few word phrases associated with each bullet type. "Round, Soft, Toy, Playful..." read some tags for the spherical projectiles, while "Long, Flying, Suction, Toy..." were some applied to the darts. "This is high tech stuff." Alvin marveled. It scanned and categorized the items inserted. He suddenly worried that he may have stumbled upon some top secret, government technology, and black suits would be knocking on his door any moment. Until then, he tapped on the high-tech screen, finding he could choose tags from both inputted device. The ones that were shared between both objects were selected automatically. On his own, he highlighted 'Round' from the balls and 'Suction' from the darts. Amused to see what this would do, Alvin pulled the trigger, and a ball popped out of the end of the hose with a pretty strong velocity.

To his surprise, the ball didn't bounce off the wall with a foamy pop, rather it stuck to the wall, hanging about three feet off the ground. He stood and approached, finding the ball was not one of the ones he had put down the chute. Instead of a smooth, porous surface, the sphere's area was completely covered in the suction cups that usually topped the dart projectiles. "I think I understand now." Alvin concluded. The chosen tags plus the mutual tags created a brand new object, and the ammo count was minus one for both ball and dart. He shot off a few other balls, sticking them around his room. This was a toy that would provide countless hours of fun in the right hands.