fandomtownies | The warehouse district, Friday evening

"I've known you for months!" Cecil protested. "Oh, wait! You must be a different Kenzi. The island's being weird. Do you know about the island's weirdness yet?" He grinned at Mia and tickled her hand with the tip of his tentacle.

"The island's what?" Kenzi kind of felt like she was having an out-of-body experience here, and it wasn't helped by the pounding headache that had just started. She didn't want to panic Mia, but seriously? Strange guy in the close-to-night in a warehouse district? Wasn't this how she ended up a statistic?

Mia giggled, waving her hands energetically.

"Is this something about why your tattoos are looking at me?" See, she could do calm. Until she saw a good chance to run away.

"Nope; they're just curious," Cecil answered cheerfully. "But the island's sort of swapping people in and out and..." He shrugged. "I was going to go put the heat on in the shop," he waved at the antique store, "and we've got chairs and coffee and I think maybe some popcorn if you want? It might take a while to tell you."

"Popcorn!" Mia squealed, and Kenzi rolled her eyes, biting her lip. She was about to say no, thanks but no thanks, when Mia loudly whispered, "Mommy, need potty."

Well, crap. Literally. "Okay. But not for long. And I warn you, buster, I can mess you up if you try anything."

"Definitely!" Cecil answered with a nod. "I'm not really much of a fighter." He led the way to the shop and opened it. "I'm more sneaky and shoot from a safe distance, you know? But I promise I won't try anything harmful!" he hurried to add.

His tattoos all made "scout's honor" signs.

"Magic," Kenzi muttered, while Mia did her gotta-go-gotta-go dance before they got inside. "That guy, at the library, he said..."

She'd been sure he'd been shining her on, but, what if he hadn't been? "Is it safe? The island? And which way, she's not quite trailed yet."

"Not really; I mean, we're still alive, right? That's never safe!" He pointed to the back. "Over there. I'll make some popcorn. And coffee?"

"Wait 'til I get out to make it." 'Cause yeah, gotta be careful. "Thanks!"

After a little wrestling, and some gratuitous tickling to get Mia to behave, Kenzi and her mini-me returned, smiling a little. She wasn't getting a bad vibe from Cecil, except... "Dude, what is the deal with the tentacles? I gotta ask."

Cecil rummaged around and found the can of coffee grounds and the little sealed tubs of cream and sugar packets, plus a bag of microwaved popcorn, and set it all out for Kenzi to look at.

"Huh?" He turned when she came out, then glanced at his tentacles. "What about them?" He checked to make sure he hadn't gotten anything on them, but they looked pretty clean.

"You're the first guy I've ever seen with tentacles." Kenzi paused, blinking in the better light. "And a third eye."

"Pretttty," Mia cooed, reaching for him again.

"...and normal people aren't this nice," Kenzi added, sounding a little bewildered. "You haven't made one comment about Mia or asked where her dad is or where my parents are yet."

Cecil shrugged. "People have all sorts of extra body parts where I'm from. And all kinds of kids, too." He grinned at Mia and reached back, looking at Kenzi for permission to pick her up. "I thought maybe you adopted her? The Kenzi I know doesn't have any kids. And you haven't asked about my parents, either," he pointed out.

Well, he wasn't 19 and a single mom. People usually took that as license to ask all *sorts* of questions.

She let Mia go, since she seemed eager to give Cecil a hug. "She's a little clingy..."

Kenzi finally grinned, and shrugged, as Mia stared into Cecil's third eye. "No, she's mine. She's two and a half... and where are you from? Are there other people on the Island like you?"

Cecil hugged Mia and wrapped her up in his tentacles to keep from dropping her. "I can cling, too!" He ruffled her hair. "I'm from a little town called Night Vale. I...pretty much always thought we were normal, but a few folks here seem to think we're not, so...who knows?"

He shrugged. "I'm the only one here from Night Vale that I know of." He thought about it. "I...don't think I've seen anyone else with tentacles? There's a few folks with tattoos, though. Oh, and a bunch of friends of...well, the other Kenzi." He started making the coffee with a couple tentacles while he talked.

"See, the island's been acting sort of...capricious?...lately. People keep getting replaced with other versions of themselves, or people's memory of them is changed, or...something. A few folks remember me being younger, I guess. And I remember you, but not Mia. Do you know Sparkle and Bo?"

"No," Kenzi said cautiously. The idea of no-Mia was enough to make her heart seize up. "So, wait, shouldn't we evacuate? Save ourselves or something?"

How soon was that next bus off the island?

"Save ourselves from what?" Cecil asked, shrugging again. "Nobody's really sure what's going on, as far as I know. And I do the news on the radio once a week." Coffee started, he tossed the popcorn in the microwave and started it. "Bo's your best friend, and your roommate. She has awesome taste in boots. I think you knew her back home, before you came here. Sparkle's another friend. He's Canadian, too, and likes graffiti and nifty clothes." Those were the important things, right?

"Okay, so, Bo, girl, Sparkle, boy, boots and good taste, both." Kenzi grinned a little, then said, "But if we're not here, whatever it is can't get us... maybe?" She paused and added, "So how do you know this other Kenzi?"

"Maybe?" Cecil shrugged (which was pretty impressive with all the limbs). "Sometimes it gets people anyway, from what I hear."

He grinned. "We met when we were little! There was a weekend the island turned everybody into little kids. We had a lot of fun on a bunch of giant slides. And then there was a time these awful people tried to tell us what to do, and they put up posters, and me and Kenzi and Sparkle painted and burnt and exploded them! And then a few weeks ago, we got married just for the presents, and we were going to go to Vegas to get divorced, but Raven wasn't a real priest or rabbi, so we didn't have to. But we went to Vegas anyway and bought some amazing clothes."

And ended up in jail, but maybe he wouldn't say that in front of Mia.

"Presents!" Mia's eyes lit up and she bounced, then squealed as the microwave dinged. "Presents!"

"No, today is not present day," Kenzi told her, then grinned at Cecil. "You realize this all sounds crazy. Awesome! But crazy." But if he were really up to something, he'd definitely be coming up with a better story, she was convinced.

"Do little kids ever get turned into grown-ups?" she asked, tickling Mia until she giggled.

"I don't know; there aren't a lot of little kids around." Cecil used a tentacle to get the popcorn and shook it a bit. "I don't know about crazy, but it's an awful lot of fun!" He offered Mia the popcorn. "What about you? How did you get here? If you don't mind me asking," he added. "I don't want to be nosy."

"Nah, it's okay." Mia took two handfuls of popcorn, and Kenzi held one of her hands to slow her down from stuffing both in her mouth at once. "We were in D.C. I was looking for work. Well, a way to make money." Ahem. No reason to get too detailed.

"We hopped onto a commuter bus when the rent-a-cops started glaring at us for hanging out in the station too long, and here we are. The place was too cute to just bail on, and then we found a place to stay, so." She shrugged, then took some popcorn for herself. "D.C. can get kinda scary, especially if you have a little kid to look out for."

"It's never a good idea to have a kid around that many politicians," Cecil agreed. The coffee finished and he found a couple mugs for them.

"You could probably still stay with Bo, if you want the address. Or here; my boss hardly ever comes by." There weren't a lot of places to "find" to stay on the island, and it was still pretty cold out.

"That's-- nice. I dunno." Kenzi watched Cecil, then Mia as she put more popcorn in her face, and held some out to Kenzi with an encouraging noise. "Thank you, yes, you're very good... Maybe. Maybe after I get a job. And figure out if there's a place to let Mia hang out. First problems first, right? The warehouse is in pretty good shape. We can stand it for a little while longer." Right, like she'd go up to some woman and say 'can I move in with my terrible two-year-old?'

Staying with Cecil might work, after she got the hang of this place.

"Whatever you think is best," Cecil agreed. "The last Kenzi - I don't think she was the usual one, but the one before you - just got a soloist part in the Baltimore ballet, if you do that. Otherwise, pretty much every place is hiring. I say go wherever you get the best free stuff, right?"

"Really? She was that good?" Kenzi felt a stab of envy. She'd given up ballet before she was twelve. "Wow... yeah, definitely." She took the mug of coffee and toasted Cecil with it. "Thanks. For all this. I appreciate it, really, it's just. An adjustment."

Also, he was being so nice, how would she ever manage to steal from him? He was ruining her schtick, here.

"More!" Mia demanded, reaching for the popcorn again. "Peeeeez."

"She was awesome!" Cecil held the popcorn up to Mia. "I don't think regular Kenzi wanted to be a ballerina; she said something about a jewel thief, I think. I don't know if she had a job doing that, though," he said apologetically.

"She works at one of the bars, so I bet if you just showed up and started working, nobody would say anything. And they don't card, so just tell them Mia's a friend who got de-aged. Oh, and Sparkle's looking after a little girl now, too! Amelia's a little older, but she's really cute. So he might know more about the whole 'kid' thing."

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