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Needful Things, Sunday

Having had (most of) a day off yesterday, Leland was quite looking forward to getting back to work today. Perhaps he'd be able to sell more quality merchandise. Perhaps somebody would pleasantly surprise him by coming in with more goodies to call his own.

NEEDFUL THINGS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORE

You Won't Believe Your Eyes

And if nothing else, he could always fantasize about that nitwit Pam's eventual demise. However you looked at it, he had a pleasant day plotted out for himself, really.

[OOC: Open!]

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Come and browse, buy any of his quality merchandise, strike up a conversation!

But if you ask him for cocaine today, he'll probably make certain you regret it.

Kathy's appearance might improve Leland's mood today as she crept in after dark. Not because she looked good, oh no. Quite the opposite. Her hair was lank and oily, in need of a good wash. She had lost weight, her dull skin stretched over sharp bones. Her clothes hung on her, overlarge, and wrinkled, like they'd been slept in.

Had Kathy been doing any sleeping, that would even be the truth. Dark circles under her eyes belied that possibility, however.

"Mr. Gaunt?" she asked, voice rough. She licked dry, chapped lips with a tongue that felt like sandpaper. She'd thought about stopping for food on the way to Needful Things, but the urge to get there and get her mirror working again was far too powerful. "Mr. Gaunt, please. My mirror--it's stopped."

Yeah, he'd warned her that would happen if she didn't arrive promptly for her second assignment. She'd just forgotten. It was hard to think about anything that wasn't her mirror.

Edited 2015-03-23 01:31 (UTC)

"Imagine that." Leland glanced up from a book he'd been idly leafing through as Kathy came into the shop. He looked... fairly unimpressed. "You didn't happen to miss a certain deadline I'd mentioned the last time we spoke, did you? Magic mirrors and all."

He had said, Kathy. He was hardly going to be sympathetic now.

"A...deadline?" Kathy looked confused. Funny how almost a hundred hours of little food and less sleep could do that to a girl. "Oh! A deadline!"

Technically, it was still Sunday? Not that Kathy was going to argue with him about it. She was just glad that he had an answer. "My second assignment. Right!"

Maybe...maybe he could give that to her? Now? So the mirror will work again?

"Your second assignment," Leland agreed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Should be a simple one, as a matter of fact. I have it on good authority that you might in fact already know how to find this second item."

He was quite pleased with how this was developing. 'Assignment' suggested that she was starting to accept that this was going to be the way of things. That she had no choice, that it was her duty to do his dirty work. It was a marked improvement from her little outburst when he had first informed her that she was going to have to steal Death's letter.

"I--I do?" Kathy asked, trying to figure out what he wanted. He'd be happier with her if she guessed, wouldn't he? Her father was always happier when she knew what he expected of her, rather than having to be told. "Umm, is it another letter?"

She didn't know of any other letters. Maybe Flick had some hidden away from his brother?

"No, it is not another letter," Leland replied, in that patronizing, slow tone that one might generally reserve for small children. "It's far more useful to me than a mere letter."

He inclined his chin slightly, so that he was looking down on Kathy even more than he had been a moment before.

"I believe you might be aware of the presence of one... Sailor Senshi, currently calling the island her home."

In fact, Kathy did. In double fact, Kathy had only just learned the civilian identity of that very same Sailor Senshi, barely a month ago.

"Y-You want me to steal from...from Sailor V?" she asked, too tired to gasp, too dehydrated to cry. "She's...she's my friend."

That last was barely a whisper. More reminder than protest.

"Well, then that will make it all the more easy for you to collect your next payment from her," Leland drawled, as though that ought to be obvious. "You see, I require her transformation pen."

Required it, Kathy. Not that he had aspirations of donning an orange seifuku and fighting evil by moonlight, of course, but his job here would be made much simpler if the senshi was rendered incapable of doing the same.

And how delicious your pathetic human mewling about it was, in the meantime.

"But--but without that--"

Without that, Minako wouldn't be able to turn into Sailor V. Not only would she be stealing from her dearest friend, but she'd literally be stealing a piece of her identity. If someone had the ability to make it so Kathy could never become Banzai...

Except, taking away Kathy's mirror was just like taking away her ability to become Banzai. She needed to watch to mirror to know what to do, to figure out how to be the best superheroine she could be! In the mirror, she'd seen a Banzai that had been respected, listened to, wanted. Kathy needed that. Just for a little while longer!

Once she was done, as soon as she saw exactly what she had to do to become that successful Kathy the mirror was showing her, then she could return it for Minako's pen. That would be a great deal for Mr. Gaunt, too! After all, the mirror was worth a letter and the pen, so she'd be giving him a bargain.

And in the end, didn't Kathy need Banzai more than Minako did? Minako was gorgeous and funny and had a bunch of friends. Kathy hadn't had a friend until she came to the island. Being Banzai was a way of becoming the bright and colorful and exciting girl that Katherine Hana Li had never been.

Didn't Minako owe Kathy that chance?

"...I'll do it."

"Of course you will," Leland replied, his lips parting slightly in a condescending smile. "Now, be a good girl, run along, and get me that pen, and your mirror will be in perfect working order again once you deliver it."

For whatever definition of 'perfect' Kathy needed it to be.

Kathy nodded, turned, and walked out of the shop.

She had a pen to get, a friend to betray, and a future to watch unfold.

For any browsing that doesn't involve horrible curses and dealing with the shop owner.

In today's 'adventures in Halifax winter' news: Rooftops caving in and other buildings being evacuated until further notice as a precaution.

SERIOUSLY, HALIFAX. WHAT.

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Needful Things, Sunday

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