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Groovy Tunes, Wednesday

Well. It had been a while since Alice had been boy-shaped. She was the same boy as before, though that was hardly surprising. It would have been more remarkable if she were a different boy each time, since she was largely the same girl as before.

(Physically, at least, if not mentally. But then, mentally, she was still Alice, so that particular point was moot.)

Today? Today she was going to open the store. And work on a blurred-gender sort of playlist, just for occasions such as this one. And hang a sign in the window:

GROOVY TUNES IS NOW HIRING
WOULD YOU NOT ENJOY WORKING HERE?
I ASSURE YOU, MOST OF US DO

Somewhere, Chad would approve.

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Well, I guess what they say is true

For the life of him, Jono couldn't remember what day of the week that he'd stopped in before, when he'd managed to scare the pants off of the poor girl that was working here. But he figured he'd at least know her to see her, and be able to take off again, right?

... Even if the girls had serious plumbing issues today? Right?

He needed to get music for to educate the masses with. Which was why he was walking in to the store and keeping a wary eye out for any girl- or boy- who might resemble an Alice.

... Did that boy resemble an Alice? He was doomed.

Alice noticed the hint of sulfur before she caught sight of him, and willed herself very, very strictly not to panic. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

The boy wasn't even on fire, and she could have a social conversation with someone who wasn't on fire. That wasn't hard. She did that every day.

"Welcome," she said, and it was perhaps a touch too bright, but this was definite progress. "I would apologize for my strange outburst, when last we spoke, except that might confuse you, as I temporarily don't look like myself at all."

It happened, now and then.

Well. That certainly answered that, didn't it?

//Afternoon, Alice,// Jono said with a faint nod of his head. //I trust it's treating yer...//

He had to take a moment to check what he was about to say, and then raise an eyebrow. And then say it anyhow.

//... Treating yer well?//

"I'm a boy today," Alice said cheerfully. "One walks differently. It seems to shift the balance, and I'm not just referring to the obvious distinctions that one shouldn't mention in public. Beyond that, I'm quite well, I thank you, and yourself?"

Alice was decidedly less fazed by body-shifting than some of her comrades. It happened to her more frequently, it would seem. At least this time she hadn't grown horns and turned crimson.

... Though if she had, Jono knew a girl back home who could totally commiserate with her over being pointy and red. If she wasn't mute, at least.

//I'm also a boy,// he replied, somewhat amused at how readily she took to the notion, //although that's not exactly a new development.//

There were other, bigger developments that were somewhat new that had managed to shift his centre of balance in a big way, but it wasn't quite the same thing. //Yer know, I had come here for music, obviously. There are more than a few people I know who have gone completely uneducated about the music of our world. But I can't help but notice the sign in the window, there...//

"The one that states we're hiring?" she asked, eagerly. "We are, though there may be other signs in the window. Promotional flyers and whatnot. I'm less knowledgeable about those than I am the hiring sign, since that one, I made myself. Would you like to work here? It's delightful, that part was thoroughly honest."

Say no, Jono. If you work here, you'll never be able to find the floor of your room for all of the records and CDs that will be piling up on it. Just say no.

//Have yer got Tuesday shifts?//

That isn't 'no,' Jonothon.

"We do indeed," Alice said. "We also have discounts, and of course, you can use the shift to listen to as much music as you like. You have to pay for music that you break, but only if it's something anyone would miss."

Playing Frisbee with Creed CDs was, therefore, completely acceptable.

NKOTB were going to die horrible, horrible deaths on Jono's shifts. Oh, yes.

//I'll take it!//

Jono? Where did the thinking and the brain and the using your noggin before making decisions go?

Well. She'd mentioned a discount...

//What... do I have to do?//

And now the thinking starts.

"Do you know how to use a cash register?" Alice asked, already leading him towards the front of the store, quite cheerfully. "It's all right if you don't. I didn't. It's quick to learn, I promise. Beyond that, you have to feed Prince Oscar Pedro -- the resident cat -- and sit here and play music all day. Sometimes people ask you for recommendations, which means you get to be quite snobby and go on about how certain artists are creatively bankrupt and so forth."

That part was her favorite.

//I think I can handle all of that,// Jono replied, in one of his more chipper moods as he followed her about like a shadow.

//I don't suppose there would be any problems with me bringing in my guitar now and again? I'm not terrible, so I can't see me driving away customers with it. If it's a problem, I understand. I'll leave it away from the shop.//

"No problem at all," she assured him. "Chad probably did, from time to time. He used to be the manager here, and he always played at the new-student picnics, so I can't imagine he never held impromptu concerts here."

She shrugged. "To be perfectly honest, I bring my cat, so she can play with His Royal Highness. No one ever objected to that."

This job? This job was awesome.

This job was the most awesome job ever.

Jono had to refrain from doing a little dance on the spot, actually.

//Well, if that's the case, then I think I shall enjoy it here.//

Okay. Maybe he was doing a little dance on the spot. A very teeny one. Barely noticeable. It involved a slight sway, and that was about it.

A slight sway and a triumphant nod of his head. Don't judge.

"You will," Alice beamed. "I promise. Everyone does. If, for some dastardly unforeseen reason, you realize that you don't, you can always come here on a wednesday and say, 'Excuse me, strange girl that keeps thinking there's a fire? I no longer wish to work for you.' Then I'll correct you that you weren't exactly working for me, precisely, but other than that, I'll accept your resignation quite calmly."

//I can't fer th'life of me come up with any scenario that would see me actually choosing to resign, mate... Gel... Alice.//

This alternate gender stuff was bloody confusing.

He leaned his head back, thinking over the whole thing some more.

//I don't suppose anybody would have any problems with, say, some sort of workshop in here, then? An informal introduction to the various different genres that this day and age has to offer? I've met more people in the past week who were in dire need of such an education than ought ter be allowed.//

"I certainly would have," Alice agreed. "I skipped an entire century and change, myself. It's slow going, catching up on so much music. Would you offer spots to other individuals, to share their favorite genres?"

Jono was managing a smile, right in the corners of his eyes, at that.

//Well, I can't possibly cover everything myself, can I?//

... Actually, given time and sheer force of will, he probably could. Sssh.

"You could try," Alice laughed. "But I agree that it's better to have assistance. Weekly Workshops on Genre, that sounds delightful. Might I bring my cat?"

... non sequitors never seemed like non sequitors, to Alice.

Jono had spent time around Jubilee and Skin before coming here. He was used to it. Really.

His options were either to get used to it, or go insane and start lighting them on fire once they started talking.

//Cats are more than welcome, sunshine.//

Sunshine seemed safe. It wasn't really gender-specific, like gel and mate and luv. He had no idea how to refer to people when not referring to them by name, in situations like this.

No lighting Alice on fire. She would object strenuously if he were to try.

"Good," she said brightly. "We'll see what sort of music Dinah likes. By the way, I don't know that I've told you, but it's quite clever how you're talking in my head. You are doing that, aren't you? I should hate to think I'm having a long conversation with a figment of my imagination."

... One of these days, Jonothon would run into somebody who actually had serious issues when the way he spoke, around here.

Really. Eventually. Someday. Maybe.

He'd just take the fact that people seemed to think it was neat at face-value, maybe. And then, if it blew up on him later, he'd just... stop! Yes. That would do nicely.

//It is me, and I'm quite real, I assure yer.// He lifted his... Uh. His absence of chin a little, in a friendly sort of challenge. //I could pinch yer, to prove it.//

"Quite all right," she said. "That wasn't meant as anything against you. It's only that I have had long conversations with what probably are figments of my imagination, and I much prefer to know that sort of thing right up front, before I go hiring them to work with me."

Alice's world was not the same as reality.

//Well, if it ever does turn out that I'm the figment of anybody's imagination, you'll be the first one I let know, then.//

He said that in complete seriousness.

Heaven help him, he was getting used to nothing in the world ever making any sense.

"I suspect you'd know," Alice said, quite solemnly. "You'd be in a world entirely my own creation, and regard me as some sort of long-lost queen. Although I fought for that crown, don't think for a moment that I didn't. I'm quite certain you're you, it's only that I had to ask."

//I really don't have any long-lost queens, I'll admit. Queen Elizabeth II is alive and well, overseeing her commonwealth, and any White Queens that I might have known are... Well, probably somewhere in Ireland, at the moment, fourteen years ago. Or else in class here. It's well and truly complicated, that.//

Mini-Emma made his brains twitch.

Alice seemed taken aback, at that.

"You know the White Queen?" she asked. "What of the Red? Is she still as forgetful as ever? She's here?"

Too many questions all at once, swirling in her brain and making her dizzy.

Now it was Jono's turn to be a little taken aback.

//Forgetful? I... Wot?// Okay. Time for the 616 Purity test. Not that Jono knew what 616 was. //Have yer ever heard of the X-men, gel? Or the Hulk, or Black Panther?//

He'd asked other people, 'how normal are Deadpool's clothes,' but he had a sneaking suspicion that that particular question wouldn't work so well on Alice.

"No, sort of, and no," she said. "Not a the Hulk. More of a She-Hulk. Same person? She's quite nice, we had tea yesterday."

Jono nodded and lifted a finger, pointing at Alice at that.

//I've met her in class already, yes. She's from my world. Just... a fair ways in the past compared to me, I think. 'White Queen' is almost certainly a coincidence, I think. Two people in positions of power who just so happened to like the colour white.//

Or something like that.

"It is a delightful color," Alice noted. "And if she's not diametrically opposed to the Red Queen, on a chessboard-land, then it's probably not the same White Queen at all. Or perhaps a different version of her. Fandom does enjoy its alternate realities."

//Always difficult to say, really. Did yer White Queen have a tendency to Run about in her underthings?//

... Ms. Frost made the corsets and such look good, yes. But they were still underthings.

"She isn't that forgetful," Alice said, shaking her head. "Hair mussed and clothes bedraggled, at the most."

//Ms. Frost wouldn't dare be seen in public with mussed hair,// Jono mused. The same seemed to be the case for the younger, more appropriately-clothed Emma, as well. So he was going to just go with that. //Certainly not the same, I don't think.//

Leto had walked into town mostly to stop by Groovy Tunes and attempt to distract Alice at her job. However he had stopped for breakfast at the diner and run into his stepmother in male form ~~although that is yet to be played out~~ so he was prepared, he thought, for the possibility of something similar having occurred to other women on the island. For this reason he entered the shop with a mix of curiosity and something akin to worry.

"Leto," Alice said, warmly. She ran to greet him with an embrace, wondering if perhaps a kiss should wait until he knew why there was a strange boy being overly affectionate. "I have no brother, so I'm only a strangely-shaped me. Though I must say, this goatee is delightful."

Leto returned the hug, although not completely comfortable at first. Oddly enough he found it more difficult to accept this change in others than he had when it had happened to him.

But this was clearly Alice, and perhaps the uneasiness would fade. He reached up to run his fingers along her - no, his - chin. "It suits you," was all he could think of saying.

"Thank you," she said, primly, nodding once before letting go of him with a warm squeeze. He seemed hesitant, so it seemed better to give him a touch of space. It was odd seeing others as themselves-but-not. Kissing could wait, either until he was more sure of himself or until she was once more properly Alice-shaped. "If that's a compliment? It's quite hard to say for certain, today. I imagine facial hair would be quite amusing to play with, if one could keep it, but I will probably lose mine tomorrow. I should try shaving it into little stripes, while I can."

It wasn't that Alice was a boy, of course, but that she wasn't herself. But Leto did make an effort and leaned close to press a kiss on his cheek.

"Stripes? I've never thought of that, but please, try to avoid cutting yourself." The uncertainty was still there, but the words were so clearly Alice that he had to smile.

"I'll be careful," she promised, nuzzling back gently. "I should be happy that I haven't suddenly gained several inches. Most of my clothing still seems to fit. I suppose it's for the best I never favored frilly, lacy things, as that would look patently ridiculous."

"That must be an advantage," he said. "I would have offered you to borrow clothes, but you have clearly managed without my help."

Alice had been rather helpful with that when he had woken up looking like Ghani, after all.

[night!]

"I have, but I do so very appreciate your offer," she said with a laugh. "Also, I required less ... structural support, in the chested realm."

(Night!)

"Ah, yes." He had to laugh too. Fandom really did offer quite strange experiences. Still almost awkwardly, he let his fingers touch Alice's.

I could never be the right kind of girl for you

I could never be your woman

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